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#The Roots

bigfakeinhell
@bigfakeinhell

Wow!!!!!

Incredible!! I listened to the first season of Open Mike Eagle's rap history podcast What Had Happened Was featuring Prince Paul and loved it, I fell off the second season with El-P and never listened to the third with Dante Ross, but having the fourth be Questlove is gonna bring me back in lol. I hope they get to talk about more than just Roots albums, I wanna hear about his work with D'Angelo

mcc
@mcc

What I listened to last week: Side projects

  1. "Steal My Soul", Rahzel

Rahzel is a legendary beatboxer, known for his work in the Roots and various collaborations (he did most of the "drums" on Björk's Medulla). He released 1 solo album, "Make The Music 2000" (it's a Biz Markie reference), an odd album which features very little beatboxing until its second half. Once it gets going tho it does have an infamous live Missy Elliot cover, and "Steal My Soul", an absolutely lovely, spooky, nearly-all-voice jazz track. I recommend listening twice, once just to experience it as a song and once to listen carefully and try to pick out which instruments are actually voice. It's nearly all of them. Even that one you didn't notice at first. Yes, and that other one. And technically saxophones, if you think about it.

  1. "Mea Culpa", David Bryne and Brian Eno

In 1981, between "Once in a Lifetime" and "Burning Down the House", Talking Heads frontman David Bryne made an instrumental album with ambient music creator-deity Bran Eno, built around samples from AM radio & West African music. "Mea Culpa" is a dreamy wash that feels decades ahead of its time.

The proto-music-video "short film" above is by Bruce Conner (apparently a big deal in experimental film circles), and IMO is inseparable from the song. * Warning, flashing.

  1. "2 Miles", 12 Rounds

You know that Atticus Ross guy co-credited on all Trent Reznor's film scores? In the 90s he and his wife were a band called "12 Rounds" which I'd describe as Portishead crossed with Vampire: The Masquerade. Almost nobody listened to this album except me and Trent Reznor (who liked it enough to hire the guy to produce, like, all his albums from 2005 on). Every song on it has something special happening, but this understated track is my favorite. Slide guitar and Atmosphere.

  1. "Phantom Limb", Hovercraft

Hovercraft was an experimental noise-rock band from the 90s with an almost total disinterest in "notes". This album's release was dogged by confusing, inaccurate rumors Eddie Vedder secretly performed on it (he was married to the bassist at the time and may or may not have played drums in some of their live shows).

This song has a lovely dark mood and stuck with me hard; the bassline has been my go-to synthesizer test melody for years.

  1. "Mr. Mistake (Boards of Canada remix)", Nevermen

Okay so try to follow, this is:

  • Tunde Adebimpe (previously vocalist of TV on the Radio)

  • Mike Patton (aka Mr. Bungle, previously vocalist of Faith No More)

  • Adam Drucker (previously vocalist in cLOUDDEAD)

  • Boards of Canada (production)

…all together on one single track. And it's incredible. BoC at their best dispensing Feelings and the words have been circling in my head for years.

⬇️ Two more