Blogarhythms

For those not “in the know,” it will be Rosh Hashanah, or “Jewish New Year” as it’s known to the Gentiles, until sundown tomorrow.

Since I don’t currently have the cash to serve the usual meal of BBQ beef brisket, roasted red potatoes, carrot tzimmes and challah that my family has historically partaken in to celebrate I decided I’d use the occasion to do something a little different here at Blogarhythms.

So, instead of the usual one or two features I normally give you every day, today’s post will be a compilation of a number of random items that I’ve newly acquired, have been enjoying but just never got around to covering, or have been utterly neglecting ’round here.

First off, Atlanta-based Hip-Hop outfit Supreeme — a trio comprised of emcee King Self, emcee/producer Tom Cruz and emcee Negashi Armada, who were signed to former Warner “indie” sub-label Record Collection by yesterday’s cover-boy MURS — are giving away their bling! They have a totally free digital-only album (no, not a mixtape) titled Silver Medallion, a pre-cursor to their next official album Gold Medallion, which you can download from their website. I can’t praise “Live On,” which features what just might be the most imaginative sampling of Babe Ruth’s b-boy classic “The Mexican” I’ve ever heard, enough. Supreeme-Supreeme! What now hoe?

Supreeme Silver Medallion (download)

Then there’s this Chairlift album , Does You Inspire You, which comes out today on Kanine Records. The debut full-length from the Brooklyn-based trio features the song “Bruises,” which you should recognize from that “chromatic” commercial for the back-to-vertically-oriented 4th generation iPod Nano. I’ve had an advance of the album for months and have enjoyed listening to it countless times without ever realizing that “Bruises” was the song all my friends had been asking me if I had since the commercial debuted. The rest of the album is cute and poppy with a subversive edge too. It’s on some orchestral Indie-Pop-tronica, like The Bird and The Bee meets Feist meets Karen O.

It’s been out for a while, and they’ve actually just released another vinyl EP, but I only obtained a copy of Basement Jaxx’s Planet 1 EP yesterday. I always love those dudes and their eclectic club thumpers. But this EP is notable for including a song called “My Turn” featuring Blogarhythms dandy Devonte Hynes, formerly of Test Icicles and currently the man behind the Lightspeed Champion alias. Longtime readers should know how much I love this kid’s beautifully orchestrated, emotionally scouring Folk and Country-influenced Pop songs. But paired with thunderous kick drums, bone-rattling bass and skittering synths Dev’s guitar-plucking and crooning sounds even more tailor-made for my ears. B-side track “Twerk,” with Florida-bred potty-mouthed sapphic Booty-Rap trio Yo Majesty providing vocals, bangs as well.

Speaking of bangers, I haven’t dropped the bass with a Dubstep post in a long while, even though I’ve had a handful of Dubstep platters on deck over the Summer. Probably the biggest mover for me, so much so that it’s hands down one of my favorite tunes of the year (which is saying a lot since it’s basically an instrumental) was a joint called “Forever” by a DJ/producer named Calenda from London. Built around an icy two-note piano figure, the track bursts into flames with it’s enormous bassline dubby snare-rolls, shuddering kick-drums and machine-gun chatter percussion. But what really catches the ear are the symphonic string and horn samples, which sound as though they were ripped straight from the most uplifting portion of John Williams‘ Star Wars score, and a repetitious but sparingly-used vocal sample which coos the title. There’s another mix — which toughens the track up even more, though I prefer the original — and a more shuffly Garage/2Step style track with Jazz and spacey electronic influences called “Exploration” — which also comes in a grimy, half-time sub-bass-infused mix — on the 12” as well.

Another thing regular readers might have noticed is that I only infrequently cover the releases of popular R&B artists. This is mainly due to the fact that popular R&B is… well.. popular. It’s mainstream Pop, you hear it on your radio and see it on your TV, so it really doesn’t need the boost from me when I could be giving a band with only the smallest of promotional budgets a break. That said, I’m sort of loving both Solange Knowles‘ Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dream and Jazmine Sullivan’s Fearless. I can cop to digging Beyoncé’s music. Even though her posterior was what drew me in (seriously, I used to have a Beyoncé calendar) she does make songs I like. But her sister put together an album that’s retro, contemporary and futuristic all at once — thanks in no small part to contributors like The Neptunes, Mark Ronson, Bilal, Cee-Lo, Jack Splash of Plantlife, Thievery Corporation, Boards of Canada, the Dap-Kings and Lamont Dozier — on some Diana Ross Mahogany 08′ shit which I can listen to front to back.

It’s sort of the same schtick Jazmine Sullivan sticks to on her Fearless LP, although she adds an (un?)healthy dose of the all-too-realistic bad-girlism that made Amy Winehouse’s debut Frank so outstanding. The Island-flavored first single “Need U Bad” gave me vivid flashbacks of Lauryn Hill, something which happened again and again while listening to Fearless, even on the cuts that don’t freak Reggae riddims. And it’s really Lauryn’s legacy that both these girls are helping contemporary R&B live up to, mixing Hip-Hop, R&B, classic Soul and Pop, and writing personally reflective, sometimes painful lyics while never losing sight of the fun and rebellion that should be intrinsic to popular music.

Finally, if you haven’t already, you really need to download Edible Phat a “mixtalbum” from Atlanta, Georgia’s Hollyweerd crew. I know it’s been out forever in “blog time.” It was one of my most-bumped releases of the Summer season. But the homie DJ Wreckineyez, a mutual friend of both the Hollyweerd crew and my crew who cut his teeth DJing in my neck of the woods, made a return visit to his former stomping grounds the other week and delivered a physical copy of their The Colorblind Cognac EP into my hand which inspired me to pay them some compliments here on Blogarhythms. I’ve been following the crew, who sound sort of like the Dungeon Fam spliced with Sa-Ra and The Cool Kids, since I stumbled upon group-member Dreamer’s MySpace page and downloaded his Perishable Fame Presents… mixtape. But the group’s “mixtalbum” is something else entirely! Edible Phat, which features beats jacked from and/or courtesy of 9th Wonder, Madlib, the James Poyser/?uestlove team (or is that just Prince?), Janelle Monáe and Trackademicks, in addition to in-house productions, is another “mixtape” which wound up being one of my favorite albums of the year.

Hollyweerd Edible Phat (download)

Okay, so I was trying to keep it short and sweet, but like the days in a new year the words just kept on coming!

Whether Jew or Gentile I hope we all have a safe and prosperous New Year.

In the immortal words of Sean Carter, “L’Chaim!”