news & such

Alf of HipHop Slam - This Way Or That Way is Alf's contribution to scratch music. His commentary on music, politics & life is mixed in with the beats and cuts. The album features a few 'well known' scratch artists dj 2p, dj Sniper, Jimmy The Hideous Penguin and Skizo. Check the track listing and preview video below. You can snag this on iTunes & from Alf's website. Check the links below.

Track Listing:
1. This Way, Feat. Billy Jam
2. Funk 141 Controller
3. You Know
4. Here They Come
5. Put The Needle On The Record
6. Lab Insomnia
7. Sculpted Music, Feat. Skizo & Dj 2P
8. Judging The Maker, Feat. Skahlah
9. Streptomisen
10. TVT
11. 2015 Or 1960
12. The Deployment II
13. One More Drink, Feat. Dunn-D
14. Let's See Now
15. Hedspace Meditation, Feat. Dawgisht
16. Nebula, Feat. Dj Sniper
17. Say Yeah, Feat. Dust One
18. What If, Feat. Nations
19. That Way
20. The Galway Formula, Feat. Jimmy The Hideous Penguin

I'd bet The Return Of The DJ is the longest running dj/scratch compilation out there. Volume 6 is coming your way towards the end of the year. Here is the upcoming track listing:

01. Business As Usual - Dr. Jones
02. Transmittin' - DJ JS-1
03. The Dude - Patch Lunch
04. Cheese Cuttin' - DJ Itchy Ron
05. HOTSIVO - 3FX Crew
06. Half Cut - Blendoffendaz
07. Hypnosis - DJ Wicked
08. Damn, The Beat - DJ T-Rock
09. The Ultimate - DJ Agent 86
10. Knuckelhead DJ's - DJ Irie

Be sure to swing by BombHipHop.com and see what else they've got cooking.

DJ vajra has released a free digital break / battle record for use with Serato & other digital dj setups. It consists of two sides, one is drums the other is cuts, hence the name. I've always been a fan of calling it what it is. I haven't been spending much time if any at the turntables lately; but after listening to this & some other things I've got to find some time. It also includes two video files apparently for use with Video Serato. So if your doing the digi thing get your download on & go to vajra's website and give him a big up. If your not doing the digi thing then head over there anyway & check out his mixes & albums. Here is a lower quality stream of the record.

Audio Graffiti is the 1st slovak turntablism compilation. Its available for free download & has a Creative Commons License. Big up to Trick for sending it over. There are links below to download & also to check out where it came from. I've given it a quick once over & it sounds fresh. Check it out & spread the word.
(Right Click to Download)

I can say with some level of confidence that the last time I listened to a cassette was about 2 1/2 years ago when I bought my car.  It had a cassette player & a broken cd changer.  I quickly changed up the hi-fi to a cd player & iPod.  Fast forward a couple years & now I halfway wish I had the tape player back.  I probably came close to electricution rigging up the tape player in the picture above, so I could listen to some tapes.  I've discovered, with help, that there are a some new tapes with some real dope music just waiting to be discovered.  Check out SassBologna Records. They have released several short run tapes, including one of my favorites Odetta's Cut & Paste.  I also got Dredi's Escape From Lo-Fly City, unfortunately this tape was eaten with a quickness.  On the bright side I discovered it's available from several digital music stores. 

Jimi Handtrickz new album, Boss Matsumotos Trip Through the Underground, is all scratched musical goodness. The twelve tracks serve as a soundtrack of sorts for the comic strip cover art. In addition to producing, composing & preforming the entire album Jimi Handtrickz also drew the comic strip on the cover. The album seems to have at the very least a little something in there for anyone that listens to instrumental hip hop and a lot for fans of scratch music. Its currently available on iTunes & for pre-order at hhv.de. Check the Snippets below, there are more on Jimi's myspace page.

Available on iTunes, Rhapsody & napster.

Track Listing:
01. the headquarters
02. kill your man
03. cutting beats
04. in the recordstore
05. shinjuku prince
06. speed on the highway
07. meditation
08. hong kong streets
09. nightclub
10. the showdown
11. ave maria
12. credits

Its here, ProF's (InsideAMind) new Ep, Superorganism. Its available for free download between now and August 1st. It is also available as a special edition cd packaged in a 5&1/4 inch floppy sleeve. Check the related links & video below.

I got an invite to mixcloud this morning and got to uploading. They featured one, Saturday Scratch Tracks, on the main page. They also hooked me up with invite codes to the site for me to spread around. Mixcloud is a hosting service for mixes, dj sets, podcasts... It is currently in a beta testing phase. So if your tired of shitty file hosting services with wait times & tons of ads, you should check this out. The code is: tablistnetcloud

I don't know if there is a limit on how many times this can be used so don't delay.  It looks like a really promising site.  Its easy to use, fast and well thought out.  Even if you don't sign up go have a look around and see what its all about. 

Nick Nack has launched a fresh redesign of the Crowd Control Records website. There are a bunch of free mixes, his releases for sale (vinyl & cd), oh and one more thing. Name your price for 320kbps mp3 downloads of his releases. There is also a forum, videos, photos, show dates, etc. Go check it out, I'm sure you'll find something you dig. If your buying digital, don't be a cheapskate, break him off.

Record Store Day is this Saturday, April 18th. See whats cracking at your local record shops & go buy some records.