The Musik Lounge

If you haven't gotten onto Bandcamp and just perused the mass amounts of FREE music readily available on their network you really should. Routinely finding multiple new artists or projects throughout the week on Bandcamp, it's been in my head for awhile to feature some of these finds here. Perhaps this will become a new Sunday trend. Bodega Man is someone I plan to feature more on the site in the future but I couldn't sit on his album any longer, The Jazz Album: Recession Thinking , it must be heard. I'll let him break it down: The concept of this album was the reflection of the average 9-5er American worker who struggled daily thru this recession. It was also for the people at the bottom of Americas pyramid. I wanted to put the peoples pain in each song from the ghettos of America, middle class America, and I myself who struggles every single day. Needless to say he is tackling some topics very few are addressing with their music these days and it's refreshing. The...

The March Heatrocks have been broken into two volumes, get the first here ! Download March Heatrocks: Vol. 2 here Kicking off this volume of the March Heatrocks is Starlito, formerly known as All Star, which I previously blogged about here . Renaissance Gangster is fresh and "Weed Smoker Music" is as good a description of his genre as anything else. The song is pretty self explainatory, he captures a mood well. "Straight A student might focus to it/Just don't defocus to it" Changing it up but keeping it on track I was struck by this Don Cherry and Brent Roesenberg tune "In A Geodetic Dome." The song is basically a four minute long trumpet solo. There are repetitive hits on a gong very quietly in the background, an perhaps a few other equally quiet sounds. The point here is the trumpet, and a beautiful piece of playing it is. Slow and melancholy it's also reflective. Boom Bap Project haven't been active in some time but five years ago they dro...

In 24 hours I've been inundated with some amazing tunes. First it was the previously blogged about Dibiase mix, find it here . Today I was cleaning my car out with the iTunes on shuffle and after hearing "South Bronx" a song came on called "Weed Smoker Music" and captured the mood well. The dude responsible for the track was named Starlito, upon further research I found out he used to go by All Star and was at one point signed to Cash Money. No more from the looks of things. If his Renaissance Gangster tape with DJ Burn One is any indication of what his extensive back catolog might offer I'm very excited. Hailing from Nashville and demonstrating excellent story telling capabilities along with an honest side, we see him expounding on harsh truthes many fail to properly grasp. With guys like Freddie Gibbs and Pill making a name for the righteous gangster and Wiz Khalifa and Currensy getting highed up on the daily and writing raps about their adventures, Sta...

I saw someone promoting a Dilla night in Philly rechristian the town Dilladelphia . I liked that. Bullshitting with Swervewon one evening we came up with Dillauary, definetly not as cool but the point remains the same. Anything we can do to keep James Dewitt Yancey's name alive and in the mouths of the public the better everything will be. This mans beats have been praised by far sharper tongues than I but his beats truely can be anything. He flips styles no one fucks with in ways people never would of found imagineable before him. With his passing we all lost. Music lost. Heveans band just got a little bit stronger. Just think about what he and Marvin are cooking up? People hold Dilla in high regard for this very reason, he was supremely dope. This has led to posturing from people wishing they had been part of the band wagon and it inevitably leads to a person being asked what their relationship is with Jay Dee's music. It doesn't matter. People are listening and that'...

If you missed part 1, check it here . Picking up where we left off, Otis just revealed that he is a chef, this took the conversation in a whole new direction. TML: How'd you learn to cook? Just having to work. I use to just work, I didn't graduate from high school I always worked food service jobs and I think I got conditioned to be a food service person cause I can not be a server. Or even a buser is difficult for me. I hate when people, if someone is like an asshole to me, I don't give a shit, I'm not fucking with you. I can't be a server who has to deal with assholes, naw it's not gonna happen. I can't help it. TML: The kitchen is a good place for that. Otis: Plus cooking is hella fun. it's fucking dope. TML: I love cooking. What is the Otis signature meal, signature recipe ? I don't really have a signature meal, I like to make pasta. It's quick, it's easy and it's fun. You can just do little shit just to change it up and give it a who...

OC Notes is a man that those who know about swear by and those who don't shrug their shoulders and stare at you blankly. He doesn't seem to mind though, as he maintains a laid back demeanor pretty much always and is happy to make his music and have a good time. Towards the end of '09 his name started popping up more thanks to a huge collaboration with THEESatisfation, " Icing ." I caught up with him at Jet Set and exchanged numbers. One Sunday morning I rolled through to his lab in downtown Seattle to see what he has cooking right now. TML: Introduce yourself, what you do, how long you been doing it, where you're from? I'm Otis, i've been making music my whole life. That's it man. I've been making music since I don't know. TML: What instruments do you play? Guitar, bass, keys, drums, and shit. That's pretty much it. Whatever, I'll try to play anything. Just figure it out. But I'm really good at that other shit though. I guess ...

Discovering new music is one of the few reasons I spend hours on end online every day and it's because of cats like Annu that I keep going back and digging deeper, searching the deepest and darkest nooks and crannies I can find. If you haven't heard the name or the tunes get over to his bandcamp page and familiarize yourself with the man who makes ghostly hip electro jams perfect for a late night drive home from the club, or as background music to the session. His debut album Def Vibrations caught my attention with it's cohesiveness which left me with an urge to keep pressing play upon it's completion. He builds songs up, chops things left and right, utilizes a wide range of drum knocks for different effect and emphasis on the selected spaced sounds vibrating in your ear. Basically, if I were an A & R at Brainfeeder I'd be knocking down the door to get at whatever he has on tap. Over the last month and a half or so I've corresponded with the man behind o...

So after much delay it is my pleasure to reintroduce you to TML Radio. As you may remember this was a tradition begun towards the end of last year. Gone are the "hot" new tracks from 2db, instead it is myself and partner in crime B.A. Baracus coming together again like we used to do in college. We are dropping whatever we feel like and talking that shit. If you like what you hear drop us a line and let us know what you think! TML Radio Vol. 2 Issue 1

For a crew with the rep Sandpeople have amassed over the years on their grind it seems crazy to think they are giving music away for free. Shouldn’t they be on some major indy by now? Truth is told in this day and age you can probably do just as good on your own – if you are willing to put in the work. Apparently they have been going so hard that they have too much music and decided to give away three albums for free over the next three months. The first was given away on the first of this month (as the next two will be in the following two months) and is Sapient’s Make Morphine . Filled with a different producer for each track tackling an original from Sapient’s self produced Make More , it is a somewhat scattershot collection with a to be expected wide variety of styles. Some work well with Sapient’s own steez and some leave you craving the original. While not completely in a new order, some songs are in new places but “Here” is still the opener and I would say DJ FlipFlop did his t...

Two of Hip Hop’s best kept secrets found each other, seemingly through a thick haze of weed smoke – stoners do tend to unite. While Curren$y did enjoy a brief moment of semi fame rolling with Lil' Wayne, he left for potentially greener pastures (addressed splendidly on “S.D.L”) and has been steadily on his grind with the Fly Society behind him. Wiz Khalifa on the other hand has been making a name for himself on both the blog scene and the tour circuit, although he hasn’t made it out to the North West yet. His hustle never did seem appreciated by Warner Brothers who saw a star years ago when they signed him, but sit on the shelf he did until finally gaining his freedom just over 2 weeks ago. Independent is the way to roll and these two obviously share more in common than a fetish for the greenery, fresh kicks, and designer labels. The album gives you much of what you would expect and some of what you might not have. The beats are rocking almost all the way through, some however le...

As much of a vinyl fiend as I may be, I'm still a notorious downloader of music. It's not that I don't like to buy new music... I just enjoy too many things to be dropping money left and right. Not to mention how the whole laid off thing kinda changes your spending habits. With downloading comes a constant shifting of albums and tracks to and from hard drives and for me I often get lost in a few things and eventually have to shove them into the dark recesses of said drive so as to move on to whatever else I might have found. The last couple days have been especially grueling as my laptop is steadily telling me I'm running out of space (as are the externals) and I realized I have the same 10 things extracted that I did a month ago. Obviously I've been listening to more than just those albums, but anything that has stayed in the rotation that long deserves at least a quick look. So here are my thoughts on a few things that have piqued my interest (not so) recently. Te...