2011 June | Brainfeeder

SAMIYAM – SAM BAKER’S ALBUM

By Natvralism, on June 28th, 2011, at 9:26 am

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SAMIYAM
SAM BAKER’S ALBUM
BF022

1. Escape
2. Bedtime
3. Pressure
4. Bricks
5. Already
6. Frosting Packets
7. Kitties
8. Where Am I
9. Cushion
10. Turtles
11. My Buddy
12. No Dinner
13. Understanding
14. Wonton Special
15. Taco Delay
16. Lifesized Stuffed Animal
17. Sometimes

Blazing back onto the radar with one of the most anticipated and long-awaited albums yet on Brainfeeder is SAMIYAM. Sam Baker’s Album is 40 minutes of deviant listening pleasure, a series of woozy, off-center hip hop instrumentals drawing heavily on Baker’s love of electronic funk but never obligated to it.

Intensely detailed and carrying considerable emotional weight, this is not Rap Beats Vol. 2, but rather an album of fully realized tracks that stand on their own, knee-deep in the groove and bent to the side. Sludgy, chunky beats mesh with organic sounds and fractured stops and starts, all coming together like the pieces of a demented dream.

SAMIYAM moved to Los Angeles from Ann Arbor, Michigan in 2006; in his short time on the West Coast he has become one of the city’s most progressive and recognized producers, a man who has helped spearhead the revival of interest in instrumental hip hop music. His album Rap Beats Vol. 1 was the first release on the Brainfeeder label, and SAMIYAM’s raw hip hop sound with a psychedelic edge and off-kilter beats could be called quintessential Brainfeeder style.

We Love George Duke !

By Flying Lotus, on June 25th, 2011, at 8:32 pm

Ever since we started working on the Thundercat record we’ve all been listening to the living legend, George Duke so much!
Our friend B+ (Mochilla) put together a mix dedicated to his amazing catalog circa 1969-1981.

Feel. â€¨George Duke 1971-1980

ThunderCatâ€™s recent cover of For Love I Come inspired me to have a listen again to the amazing music of George Duke. When most of the records on this mix were made it was an extraordinarily creative time in LA. A family of musicians were bringing new rhythms, new instruments, new humor, new international influences to jazz. CannonBall was an important figure and his partner David Axelrod – but the new arrivals Airto Moreira and Flora Plurim were also instrumental and then George Duke from the Bay Area who had collaborated with Frank Zappa.

George Duke has been an inspiration to hiphop for many many yearsâ€¦â€¦ Back in 1991 an album came out called Low End Theory by A Tribe Called Quest. You may know the name for another reason but anyways on a song called The Infamous Date Rape Tribe sampled Steam Drill by Cannonball Adderley featuring George Duke and we were off to the races. Ice Cube sampled Duke for True to the Game from Death Certificate that same year. Since then many more beat heads have been attracted to Mr. Dukes amazing keyboard playing, sense of rhythm and unique lyrical stylings. Dilla has definitely listened as has Madlib, Pete Rock, Kanye, Karriem Riggins and now well ThunderCat.
ThunderCat for all his youth has actually played with George Duke.
Anyways this mix is in tribute to George Duke as it is in celebration of ThunderCat.
I think we are in a similarly creative moment now in LA as existed in the mid seventies and it seems fitting to make the link.
Good musicians will make you listen again and
ThunderCats For Love I Come surely made me do that.
Enjoy.
B+
(for Mochilla.com)