Whether you love it, like it, are indifferent to it, or hate it, there’s one thing about this Blogarhythms column I hold factual; it just wouldn’t exist if I’d never met Jonn Nubian.
I cut my teeth at this internets stuff — writing HTML, putting together graphics, and repairing computers– under his tutelage. He told me I didn’t need the SP1200’s and EPS16’s I was familiar with to make beats, and that the computer I used to build websites could also record & mix music. While other musician and producer friends urged me to try rhyming seriously Jonn was the one who actually made me a beat, handed me a microphone and told me we were recording a song right then and there. After years of collecting and playing music it was in his office that I sat down and wrote my first batch of record reviews. Hell, it was even a project we worked on that never came to fruition which provided the impetus for my founding the Imageyenation weblog!
Sadly, his impeccable sense of style and personal fashion never rubbed off on me. But it’s clearly been influential on his musical project vicelounge, a collective of creative individuals gathered by he and co-founder Tai (GrFX), long described as representative of a “stylish and dangerous lifestyle.” Since learning of vicelounge my conduit for developments relating to the music has been Tai, a former Mike Ladd collaborator who participated in his Majesticons and now provides songwriting, vocals, keys, programming and assorted background assistance (like sending me countless demo MP3s) for vicelounge. I’ve never met him face-to-face, but I assume he’s just as stylish as Jnu, and his buttery crooning & seductive lyricism on various VL cuts would seem to betray him as a smooth motherfucker in his own right.
Having heard so many tunes from these guys over the years, and supported them on my radio show, I’ve long anticipated a day when more of their work would be made available to the public. So I was psyched when Tai told me that day was here.
Teaming up with Philadelphia’s Recordbreakin’ Music they’ve dropped a six-track EP, appropriately titled Recordbreakin’ Presents…, collecting a handful of tracks I’ve loved for a while but few others have had the privilege of hearing. The compositions run the gamut from soulful Broken-House (the instrumental “Cause of Love”) to stripped-down Jazz balladry (the Bossa-influenced “Don’t Worry” featuring Craig Knight). But the cream of the crop are joints like “Deep Inside,” a bass-heavy Alt-R&B cut which makes atheistic nihilism sound sexy, the Dee Ferguson-led “Supa Baby,” which turns a BDP chop into a swirling slice of dancefloor soul, and “Never Fall,” a heartbroken slow-jam with speaker-killing bass, watery keys and double-time hi-hats that sounds like R. Kelly appropriating Dubstep beats and giving them to a suicidal Steve Spacek.
Vicelounge “Never Fall”
The Recordbreakin’ Presents Vicelounge EP became available digitally via Mobile Underground yesterday and will hit other digital retailers across the internet shortly. A whole slew of releases for Mr. Len’s Smacks Records, Criminal Recordz and other imprints are forthcoming.
- El Keter