dj omni – quickMix™: Progression
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tracklist:
“Legions (Reverie)” by Zoe Keating
“Wait Up” by Q-Tip
“1000 Deaths” by D’Angelo

quickMix™: 3-7 songs. download in seconds.

I am a firm believer that music blends make songs sound better.
And sometimes I just want to get to the blend in a mix.

This quickMix™ contains a song and a blend that I have had in my head for a while now. Starting from the unreleased D’Angelo. I heard a connection to something that had come before in this song. After listening to the stories of how the Voodoo album came to be, it is nice to see Questlove and company reaching back to a recent album for inspiration. The underrated Amplified album is filled with gems from the production duo Q-tip and a soon-to-be J Dilla. Working backwards from there, the electronica-accompanied Zoe Keating builds a mood with her layers of cello melodies that seemed a perfect place to start.

o:{I originally planned to start with the sample source for “Wait Up”, seeing as it also inspired “1000 Deaths”. I couldn’t find any information about the original online. If anyone has the Amplified liner notes and can share the sample source, I would greatly appreciate it.}

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dj omni \”In The Spirit…Finally\”

Continuing the challenge to make a mix a month, I just pushed play and recorded myself playing around. This “quick-one-before-I-go” mix, is called “In the Spirit (finally!)”. And the spirit in question is the Christmas Spirit.

Listening to Benji B and J Rocc goof around and enjoy the cheesiest of x-mas music on Deviation really started this joyous season for me (as well as getting out of the office for the rest of the year!).

I was also inspired by the magic of DJ Questlove at his newly annual Holiday party at S.O.B.’s. The man was sampling, pitch-shifting, and recreating classics on the fly for the people. Amazing show!

Now back to this mix. We start with a little DIY Dwele magic. An ode to a cheap microphone and the support of friends moves into the first Dwele track I ever heard, “Jimmy stay down” an obvious ode to Stevie Wonder who also closes this mix. There are some Christmas songs mixed in. That chipmunk funk is a pseudo auto-tuned Lou Rawls, who has made some of the funkiest holiday sounds ever in this “Christmas Will Really Be Christmas”. Followed close behind by a rare Christmas cover of “Little Baby” called “Purple Snowflakes” (for some reason) by the always-amazing Marvin Gaye. Other highlights include “Do 4 U” by super-group Hawthorne Headhunters featuring PPP favorite Coultrain. Admittedly, I should’ve let this song go longer. Also included is some J Dilla and James Brown business followed by a project that I am REALLY looking forward to from Mochilla: Miguel Atwood-Ferguson’s orchestral concert for the Dilla-gentleman, “Suite for Ma Dukes”. Mos Def makes a couple appearances in this mix mainly because my song of the moment is his “24-Hour Karate School”! Which I imagine he came up with while walking in SOHO flipping through the Village Voice, seeing an ad and imagining a whole story behind it. Add an erratic beat created by Ski Beatz and the Apple Juice Kid (according to okayplayer) and this song is a bit of mad genius. There’s a Roots song before this that I pray will be on the next album, and a remix of Biggie’s first single by two white boys from Brooklyn that don’t get the credit they deserve for the infectious music they make. And finally we close with a master, not too far from where we began. I hope you enjoy. Happy Holidaze.

This is a must have! It’s like a documentary of Q-Tip/Tribe/Native Tongues. J.Period has so many little interviews mixed into this mixtape as music that I can’t wait until Volume 2! I was wondering how they were able to give this away as a free download, but maybe it’s the Scion connection.

But back to the mix. Worth the download time alone for the De La version of “Excursions” and the Kweli, Randy Watson Experience version of “Youthful (Expressions)”, but then you get back stories like Q-Tip explaining the meaning of the name, Dave of De La telling the story of the meeting of the Native Tongues, and Bob Power explaining the spontaneity of the “Bob Power, you there?” line. Classic.

As reported on Gilles Peterson‘s Worldwide show this week,
Questlove will be producing the new Smokey Robinson album!!!
{…long pause full of amazement and wonder…}

And if this upcoming album is anywhere as good as the recently ?uestlove and James Poyser produced Al Green album "Lay It Down" as well as the tribute tracks for Isaac Hayes that are credited to The Randy Watson Experience {?uest and James’ cover band} then this is going to be a project worth watching for and hearing more of. Now if they can only get an official release on the Pharrell remix project,
"Out of my mind"!

o:{and some more Bilal madness. this Time with The Randy Watson Experience. "I wanna run with ya!"}

This song is ridiculous. At a mere minute and forty seconds, it’s obviously one of the more abbreviated entries in the Prince canon. While the bulk of Parade swings back and forth between the minimal and the baroque, this track sits somewhere in the middle. Abstract and basic, the Clare Fischer embellishments tie the track to the somewhat European feel of the album (his original take is a little intense).

Anyway, if I’m correct, it’s also Questlove’s favorite Prince track. Check the drum pattern interpolation (common Questo stuff – don’t front) on “Africa.”

Elsewhere in celebrity Prince fandom…I dig this, too.

“…I think it’s fear” – ?uestlove
besides the loss of life and liberty, i think this is the worst effect of war.

Gilles Peterson and Questlove talk music and politics.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/gillespeterson/questlovevideo.shtml