The Musik Lounge

Artists, rappers especially, like to talk about collaborations and this in turn makes us fans excited to hear the music from those sessions. Often they don't ever come to fruition. When Nas & Damien Marley started talking about doing an album together I greeted it with great suspicion. Yeah right. But in did happen. Distant Relatives is in stores now and Nasir Jones is touring with Damien Marley. Last night the show stopped in Seattle. I haven't listened to Nneka yet but with all the good things I've heard and the bit of the set I did catch last night I think her album is about to be searched out. She seemed to mix a lot of different styles into her set, demonstating quite a powerful and unique voice. I'm curious what the music sounds like on her album, as she was backed by a few live instruments but not a full band. Once she was done the show got boring with no DJ rocking tunes between sets. I found myself outside ignoring the sold out crowd and trying to catch a...

If you were lucky enough to attend Rotture last Friday you caught an amazing show! If you missed it, too bad for you. The 10,000 LB Hamburger Tour made its stop in Portland, introducing Theophilus London to our fair city. With a strikingly original style that only shows the ever changing face of Hip Hop and music in general you will be hard pressed to find many legends who will come with more energy than this man did on stage. For those of you who are still waiting for the tour to hit your town: Don't miss it! And yeah, did I mention some guy named A Trak is headlining? He's up to his usual antics and rocks the house like only he can. A multi-genre set that is guaranteed to have you dancing all night long. Like I said, don't miss the 10K LB Hamburger tour!!! Before the night kicked off I was lucky enough to sit down with Theophilus for a little chat. Big shouts out to him and Watts for making it happen! Enjoy the convo y'all. Q: Introduce yourself, who you are and wha...

I listen to a lot of music and am always searching for something new. This search has recently led me to electronic music. Cobblestone Jazz, a trio of electronic musicians with traditional music education, improvises their music from machines both in the studio and live. With the release of their album 23 Seconds they have been in constant demand overseas, but recently found time to do a series of dates in the states. Late Saturday night they took the stage at Nectar. Slowly building their sound up they tweaked at mixing boards, stared at computer screens, banged on drum machines and one member plays the fender Rhodes while adding vocals processed through a vocorder. For me I enjoy the build up in their style of electronic music. It doesn’t just start out fast and up tempo, it climbs up the BPM ladder slowly, all the while they are quick to let the song breath introducing new elements and bringing in the spacey house feel. As the music grows you can see the guys in Cobblestone Jazz get...