Who is Nneka?

Toast is the resident logistician for LxNxM and according to the stats y’all are showing us more love – I just want to say we appreciate each one of you. This creative endeavor has brought our crew closer, and our ideas have only start to take root…

Keeping the love going, I have been mesmerized by the next level soulstress Nneka. We mentioned Nneka a few months back vis-à-vis a collaborative mixtape she dropped with tastemaker J.Period titled The Madness (Onye-Ala).

Nneka has experienced a much deserved rise to global status since then.  The Nigerian-German/Nigeria- raised singer has landed a song “Viva Africa” on LISTEN UP! the official FIFA 2010 World Cup soundtrack, she also just joined Nas and Damian Marley on the Distant Relatives tour – making me regret missing their Seattle stop even more.

There is something higher about Nneka’s music. An anthropologist by training, she resonates her human experience to the listener with poetic clarity – in my humble opinion she is definitely channeling something the world needs in her music. Check out Nneka’s official site to cop her first U.S. release, Concrete Jungle and learn more about this visionary artist.

Laws: 4:57 the mixtape

So I first heard about Laws from my former partner-in-rhyme  Taybot. Me and my dude have been known to have divergent angles on hip-hop, but as I sat back and listened to the Laws’s mixtape 4:57 – Laws got it in with ample quotable punchlines and witty-as-hell wordplay over beats undulating between the glitzy and the grimy .

The Brazilian born Florida-based Laws has the emphatic co-sign and beat-patronage of heavyweights like the street-oriented Don Cannon, J.U.S.T.U.S. league, Dj Khalil and even collabs on the brit-electro-tip with Calvin Harris. At best, 4:57 bridges the lyricism of the Rawkus era with contemporary auto-tune sensibilities (yeah I put those two words next to eachother) which is exciting from a bigger picture perch.

Man I’m backin Laws -  in hopes that he rides the buzz out to and finds his spot – do your thing emcee.

Click here to Download 4:57

LMNO – produce from the fonk garden

I have been a long time appreciator of unabashed positive poetics of west coast rhymester LMNO (LeaveMyNameOut). A member of the much loved Visionaries, and no rookie emcee – LMNO’s list of collaborations is vast.  Having met this west coast vet on more than one occasion – it’s clear that there’s a real spiritual alignment with the hip hop he puts out to the world.  Determined to stay prolific in 2010, LMNO has committed to release 10 ep’s before years end.

Judging from his second ep thus far – Fonk Garden, produced entirely by the extraterrestrial Georgia Anne Muldrow – this imposing timeline might bring out some of his best work. Check the video below – on some daisy age effects but certified west coast cosmic bump – nonetheless. Click here to sample and cop Fonk Garden.

Palms Out Remix Sundays – not the whack

Hola! What a beautiful Sunday ’twas in the 206! You know what puts the sugar in my Sunday coffee? Palms Out Sounds dope blog – that’s what.  Honestly I love visiting this site. It feels like these folks keep a finely tuned ear to all that’s good and forward-thinking in the intermingling worlds of house, techno, dubstep, dancehall, electro-hop etc. etc.

Each Sunday Palms Out also posts up a new “Remix Sunday” compilation/mix that’s guaranteed get it percolating. Tasteful selectahs transform cuts from artists as diverse as Busy Signal, Cherish, Prodigy, Massive Attack to Bill Withers, Blaqstarr, Debruit, Band of Horses, Udachi and yes -Jefferson Airplane.

Step your electronic game up with some grown folks techno – download these mixes and hit up the site – Peace.

Download Remix Sunday-Feb 21,2010 #143

image: Jelle Martens

Download Djuna – “Hippie not Hippie_3 – the heroin edition” Tracklisting after the jump

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Bullion: psychadelicious

Hailing from West London, and the One Handed Music squad along with Paul White, Nathan “Bullion” Jenkins sneaks mushrooms into your hip hop dance party and shames you off the decks. Apparently this beat savant piqued many an ear with a mix called Pet Sounds: in the Key of Dee, a remix project that remixed The Beach Boys in the style of the late and beloved Dilla. This was followed by the well received Young Heartache EP.

Now Bullion packs more flava for ya ear with the new single “Say Goodbye to What” along with a free mix composed in cahoots with the freshcheckers at FACT magazine. The single and mix are a gumbo of Krautrock, afro-funk, avant-garde electronics and dreamy 70s rock. For god’s sakes have the friends over for a potluck and dance already… Download the Bullion FACT magazine mix

BLK JKS: propelling afro futurism

Santa came through today fresh from South Africa. Over some milk and cookies, he put me on this dope band he has on repeat in the sleigh: the originally Johannesburg based BLK JKS . Snooping around the Secretly Canadian website- the label that also signed the currently hot Yeasayer, I came across this cut Molalatladi (meaning, Rainbow). The song elucidates what BLK JKS band bio describes as an “entangling of  township blues, fringe jazz and renegade dub — into the DNA of prog”. I get excited thinking about the kind of live show these guys must throw down (hint hint Seattle promoters) . Cop their album After Robots at Secretly Canadian, and be easy with that egg-nog….

Here is the recently released video for Molalatladi

EGADZ!

I was blessed enough to catch bay area beat bully egadz about a month back, as he hit up Seattle via the always solid STOP BITING night @ Lo-Fi Lounge. Dude mashed through his set on the mpd with surgical dexterity despite being admittedly sloshed, this video gives you at taste of what homie can do.

His latest and last album is called egadz is dead, and at aforementioned show he said it would be the last night he was performing under said moniker, citing a desire to move on to a new project. So treat your ears,  sample and support egadz music here or here.

dÉbruit

French beat maker dÉbruit is about to drop a new EP, Spatio Temporel, on December 7th.  I must admit, this guy is new to me – apparently, he’s been killin it for a minute now in Europe.  But if what I continue to hear sounds like these gems here, especially “Nigeria What?,” you can put me in the “big fan” category.

Spatio Temporel is a diverse and engaging journey through dÉbruit’s incredible array of rhythms and influences. Armed with his synths he’s takes his beats to Africa via LA, France, Persia and the future. Combining African Yoruba, Nigerian Highlife, Persian Funk, Congolese Electronics, Vocoded Ouest Coast vocals and international Thoroughbred Synths with dÉbruit’s jack-knifing riddims, booby trapped syncopation and bass heavy collisions.

More dÉbruit after dÉ jump. 

Idle Warship x Mick Boogie – Party Robot Mixtape

Download

Some words and a couple of videos after the jump.