The Turntable Remixed

The ever cool design team at IDEO have created a new way to enjoy music with a nod to the past. The c60 redux is built to look like a vinyl turntable, but works like a sonar-- picking up on RFID tags that are stored in paper cards. Each card, or tag, corresponds to a song. Throw them on the player and boom, your song plays. Depending on how you stack and arrange the cards, the c60 plays your songs in order allowing you to create a mixtape instantly, no tape deck or time machine required!

IDEO is not planning on selling the device to the masses, but at least they're thinking of ways to keep the human touch in music. Got to love it.

Check out the video, they do a much better job of explaining than I do!

c60 Redux from IDEO on Vimeo.

All IDEO needs now is some music consultation. C'mon guys, we should be playing something with a little more soul! 

Fela Kuti

So MUSKit has been doin' a lot of hip-hop lately, and while there's nothing wrong with that in the least, I wanted to get a little more funk up in this thang. I was listening to WFUV today (I still love radio) and they were doing a little feature on Hugh Masekela -- an afro-beat and jazz legend from South Africa. It got me inspired to do a little post on my favorite afro-beat performer of all time -- Fela Kuti.

Fela, like Masakela, blended key forms of American pop music-- electric guitars, big band horns, smoky organs -- with African rhythm and percussion and rode that funked out sound in deliverance of a message of social import. What Fela did better than anyone else was deliver that message in the midst of a euphoric dance party. Shit, the message was part of the dance party - a celebration of the beauty of African culture.

Fela had presence, style, and incredible musical ability. We live in a day where you dont need to play an instrument in order to be on top of the music world, and I have all the respect in the world for Kanye, but for a singer to be able to pick up a saxophone and deliver a mind boggling solo after belting verse after verse of protest song, then go over to the keyboard and drop a ridiculously funky diddy all while dancing the entire time. That's just some next level shit.

While it has its flaws check out "Fela!" on Broadway to get a glimpse of the spectacle that was Fela Kuti, and enjoy a musical feast by the house band Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra. Or just check out the YouTube below of the real Fela.

B4 the Night is Thru

The first time I saw Jesse Boykins III, he was playing wingman to Theophilus London on stage at SOBs. Over the past few years Boykins has been developing into a soul force of his own with some big help from the always mind trippin' Machine Drum. (I know I've been on that Theophilus / Machine Drum tip for a little bit now, but they're just putting out a whole lotta good music right now.) Anyway, this new drop "B4 the Night is Thru" by Mr. Boykins and Machine Drum is sexy as shit.

"Before the night is through, I will walk to you; you will be the one and I will be your drum." 

Boykins soft but cool voice plays the perfect bard to Machine Drum's complex, relaxed alien electro. The music is not poppy and doesn't hook you like your cookie cutter R&B, but rather it entices, surprises, sometimes pushes a little too hard, but all in all keeps it interesting... This is one of them late night wine drunk type songs.

Besides the fact that the song is hot, I wanted to post this cause Mel D Cole shot a beautiful album cover for the single that you guys can all enjoy above. 

Buy Jesse Boykins III's vinyl @ http://jbiiimusic.com/jb3/

And check out Mel D Cole @ Village Slum

download:

Jesse Boykins III - "B4 the Night Is Thru" (Produced by Machine Drum)

Happy Birthday to the Poet, Shawn Carter

"Shawn Carter was born December 4th... " 

I picked up Jay's Decoded for the first time today and it got me a little amped. The book itself is beautiful-- hardcover with a golden Rorschach test looking cover, lots of great images placed within the pages, well-stylized highlighted lyrics... so basically, just like Muskit blog over here... But beyond just the look and feel, the text speaks with all of Jay-Z's signature flow and authority. The book opens with Jay talking about the emergence and development of rap in the early '80s and how it coincided with a young Shawn Carter, pen and paper in hand, also trying to find his voice on the concrete of Marcy Projects. The most striking impression the book has made on me so far is re-imagining the persona of Hova as a poet. Behind the legend, mogul, hustler, pimp, player, etc etc, is an artist, in the truest sense of the word, and a poet. And I think that can be easily forgotten when listening to hip-hop -- that while the rappers can wear many guises, many based in truth, beneath it all is the soul of a poet. An ability to incite with insight and capture a relatable reality in just a few bars.

Decoded ain't a memoir and anyone looking for a real introspective revealing narrative about Mr. Carter are going to have to wait a few years when he really does hang it all up, and has time to go back through it all. Decoded is a mix of lyrics explained, liner notes, and snippets of the life of the most interesting man on the planet. It's an ode to the poet inside.

Ask Santa to put it in your stocking or kvelt a little to Yentel, definitely a great addition for all.

"It just once in a blue moon when there's nothin to do and

The tension's too thick for my sober mind to cut through / I get to zonin'"

Enjoy the free Jay-Z classics.

Jay-Z - Cashmere Thoughts
Jay-Z - Feelin' It
Jay-Z - December 4th