Hot Rocks - Chopper - Extended Edit

When Sebestian Tellier's incredible La Ritournelle was released a few years ago there was a rush of people seeking out alternatives to its undeniable charms and this cheeky edit that surfaced was hailed by one of Manchester's premier tastemakers, Jeff Plant, as being even better and over the years that I've been pulling this out I have to say that I couldn't agree more because as far as end of the night records go (and that is my favourite part of any night) this is exceptional, proper soaring, and dare I say it, emotional piece of work. Beautiful.

Hot Rocks - Chopper - Extended Edit

Matmos - Steam & Sequins for Larry Levan

This is a bit of a mystery to me, I know who Matmos is but I'm not sure where this record is from but I'm assuming it is coming out on a new album at some point in the very near future. Matmos are of course American cut and paste producers whose work is as clever as it it bonkers, the majority of which would part a dancefloor like Moses but play their records at an afterparty and everyone and their dog wants to know what has just tickled their ears. I actually prefer Drew Daniels' The Soft Pink Truth stuff but this is a perfect example of what made Matthew Herbert to sign them to his Accidental label a few years ago. To be honest, I haven't quite made my mind up about this one - what do you think?

Matmos - Steam & Sequins for Larry Levan

Tony Allen Live!

Now as many of you know I am a tad obsessed with former Fela Kuti drummer Tony Allen, and recently he played a gig in London at Karen P's Broadcasting night that included an incredible array of guest artists including the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, who are made up of eight of erstwhile Sun Ra Arkestra member Phil Cohran's sons, Ty, Natty and Senegal's legendary Baba Maal all of which was captured recently for RBMA radio and you can listen to it here. Truly inspirational stuff, and a great interview with the man himself through the broadcast.

Fake Male Voice - OMG!!!FMV!!!

This is a venture into solo work from TV on The Radio's Tunde Adebimpe and is from the superbly packaged 7" that comes accompanied by a DVD and is released on a Japanese label with a Brooklyn mailing address, hmmmmm. This does sound like a TV on The Radio record but without the heavy guitar and horn work that characterized their last must have album, and it has most certainly grown on me in recent days. Definitely something I would've played on the, erm, radio.

Fake Male Voice - OMG!!!FMV!!!

The Selby

Todd Selby is a New York-based photographer who has been shooting movie directors, fashion models, designers, painters, writers and indie magazine editors in their homes in New York, London, Paris, Mexico City and Los Angeles and he posts the results on his brilliant website theselby.com which I have become fairly obsessed with in recent weeks since I was introduced to it via Tyler Askew's excellent blog. The one thing that I have learned is that if a house has a KAWS companion then generally I end up liking the person after a few hours of Google gymnastics. This is one of those little gems that makes the Interweb so great.

James Yancey RIP

Born James Yancey, Detroit-bred J Dilla excelled as a hip-hop producer with a penchant for collaborating with the most versatile and underground of hip-hop performers. In the mid- to late '90s he conceived beats for hip-hop's most eclectic visionaries: De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Tha Pharcyde, the Roots. His producing style was never flashy, often exerting the right low-range mix of street funk and boho jazziness perfect for many of the aforementioned artists. The 32-year-old Dilla passed away from lupus complications on Fri., Feb. 10 2006. He will always be seen as a godsend to both hip-hop artists and listeners.

Gone but not forgotten.