While the roster on England's much-hyped trip-hop label Mo'Wax is packed to the gills with bedroom boffins turned recording artists, Attica Blues is the closest it comes to having an actual band.
The pancultural collective began life in 1994 when producers D'Afro (born Charlie Williams) and Tony Nwachukwu first met up. D'Afro had previously founded London's Urban Poets Society collective, but the duo later became Attica Blues for their continuing studio experiments.
While trying to sell some Japanese hip-hop records, D'Afro met up with Mo'Wax founder James Lavelle and was offered a spot on the label. The duo began recording their first single alone but when a local student, the Egyptian-born Roba El-Essawy, visited the studio during the recording for their debut single, D'Afro and Nwachukwu decided to add her to the group.
Attica Blues released their first two EPs Vibes, Scribes 'N Dusty 45s and Blueprint in 1995, and followed with two more during 1996-97. Mo'Wax issued their self-titled debut album in September 1997. D'Afro and Nwachukwu have also worked as remixers for Flora Purim and Sneaker Pimps as well as label-mates U.N.K.L.E., DJ Krush and Adriana Evans (Bush, 2010).
You can listen to Attica Blues' music at:
http://www.last.fm/music/Attica+Blues
Released Albums:
Attica Blues - Vibes, Scribes, 'N' Dusty 45's EP
Attica Blues - Attica Blues
Attica Blues - Test. Don't Test
Reference:
Bush, J. (2010). Attica Blues. All Music. Retrieved from
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:0vfwxqugldde~T1
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Tommy Guerrero may be better known in the world of skateboarding than in music. Born in San Francisco, Guerrero joined the skateboard company Powell Peralta in 1985 and became one of the original members of the legendary "Bones Brigade" team. Always interested in music, Guerrero was a fan of the high-energy punk music that surrounded the early-'80s skate scene. Since, Guerrero has become an accomplished bassist and guitarist with influences as diverse as John Coltrane, Latin Playboys, and Tortoise. Guerrero released his debut album, Loose Grooves & Bastard Blues, in 1998 on the Galaxia label. To support the record, Guerrero turned to his friends -- skateboarder and bassist Monte Vallier, DJ Gadget, and former Threeo drummer Tim DeGaugh -- to form the band Jet Black Crayon, who toured with Isotope 217 in 1999. With help from Gadget, he released Hoy Yen Ass'n in 2000, as well as the solo record A Little Bit of Somethin' on Mo' Wax. His warm, soulful music continued on 2004's Soul Food Taqueria, and after a five-song EP Year of the Monkey, Guerrero moved to Quannum, issuing From the Soil to the Soul in 2006. Another record on the Galaxia imprint, Return of the Bastard, followed in 2007 (Collar, 2010).
Tommy Guerrero is known by many people from various walks of life, but that’s probably because Tommy is man of many facets. He first entered the public eye as a pro skateboarder for Powell Peralta, where he was a member of the legendary Bones Brigade. He came into prominence as an entrepreneur, when he started REAL with fellow pro Jim Thiebaud, but Tommy really surprised the world with his musical prowess. Guerrero’s previous albums - Loose Grooves and Bastard Blues, and A Little Bit of Somethin’, have both become must-have releases. Upon its release in 2000, the latter was described as “a super-horizontal, wiped-out slab of lo-fidelity instrumental rock” by The Face, with Jockey Slut claiming, “Tommy excels with his soulfully melodic, acoustic lo-fi folk fables.” More recently, Tommy’s Another Late Night mix (on the Azuli label) has raised awareness, and subsequently won over more fans, with Esquire Magazine pointing out “don‚t worry if you haven’t got a clue who Tommy Guerrero is...simply accept that he has excellent taste. This is simmering.”
Which brings us to his newest creation. Inspired by the streets of his hometown San Francisco, Soul Food Taqueria is a progression in many ways. Not only is it more sonically advanced than his previous releases (although he admits that he’s “still down with the fucked up 4 trk action”), but it also shows real maturity in his guitar playing and song writing. Vocals are much more prevalent than in previous recordings, with vocal tracks from Lyrics Born of Blackalicious / Quannum / Latyrx fame, and long time friend and collaborator, Gresham Taylor. Encapsulating Latin rhythms, stripped down folk, hip-hop, jazz, guitar-blues, minimal funk, soul and so much more, Guerrero’s delicate jams are as spine tingling as ever, with Guerrero retaining the knack of sounding simple yet inventive (Beggars Group).
Released Albums:
Tommy Guerrero - From The Soil To The Soil
Tommy Guerrero - Soul Food Taqueria
Tommy Guerrero - Return Of The Bastard
Tommy Guerrero - A Little Bit Of Somethin'
Tommy Guerrero - Loose Grooves and Bastard Blues
Tommy Guerrero - Year Of The Monkey Ep
Tommy Guerrero - Junk Collector Ep
Tommy Guerrero - Hoy Yen Ass'n
Tommy Guerrero - Another Late Night
Tommy Guerrero - Backintheday Ep
Reference:
Tommy Guerrero. Beggars Group. Retrieved from http://beggarsgroupusa.com/tommyguerrero/biography/
Collar, M. (2010). Tommy Guerrero. All Music. Retrieved from
DJ Shadow's Josh Davis is widely credited as a key figure in developing the experimental instrumental hip-hop style associated with the London-based Mo' Wax label. His early singles for the label, including "In/Flux" and "Lost and Found (S.F.L.)," were all-over-the-map mini-masterpieces combining elements of funk, rock, hip-hop, ambient, jazz, soul, and used-bin incidentalia. Although he'd already done a scattering of original and production work (during 1991-1992 for Hollywood Records) by the time Mo' Wax's James Lavelle contacted him about releasing "In/Flux" on the fledgling imprint, it wasn't until his association with Mo' Wax that his sound began to mature and cohere. Mo' Wax released a longer work in 1995 -- the 40-minute single in four movements "What Does Your Soul Look Like," which topped the British indie charts -- and Davis went on to co-write, remix, and produce tracks for labelmates DJ Krush and Dr. Octagon plus the Mo' trip-hop supergroup UNKLE.
Davis grew up in Hayward, CA, a predominantly lower-middle-class suburb of San Francisco. The odd white suburban hip-hop fan in the hard rock-dominated early '80s, Davis gravitated toward the turntable/mixer setup of the hip-hop DJ over the guitars, bass, and drums of his peers. He worked his way through hip-hop's early years into the heyday of crews like Eric B. & Rakim, Ultramagnetic MC's, and Public Enemy, groups that prominently featured DJs in their ranks. Davis had already been fiddling around with making beats and breaks on a four-track while he was in high school, but it was his move to the NorCal town of Davis to attend university that led to the establishment of his own Solesides label as an outlet for his original tracks. Hooking up with Davis' few b-boys (including eventual Solesides artists Blackalicious and Lyrics Born) through the college radio station, Shadow began releasing the Reconstructed from the Ground Up mixtapes in 1991 and pressed his 17-minute hip-hop symphony "Entropy" in 1993. His tracks spread widely through the DJ-strong hip-hop underground, eventually catching the attention of Mo' Wax. Shadow's first full-length, Endtroducing..., was released in late 1996 to immense critical acclaim in Britain and America. Preemptive Strike, a compilation of early singles, followed in early 1998.
Later that year, Shadow produced tracks for the debut album by UNKLE, a longtime Mo' Wax production team that gained superstar guests including Thom Yorke (of Radiohead), Richard Ashcroft (of the Verve), Mike D (of the Beastie Boys), and others. His next project came in 1999, with the transformation of Solesides into a new label, Quannum Projects. Nearly six years after his debut production album, the proper follow-up, The Private Press, was released in June 2002. The following year Shadow released a mix album, Diminishing Returns, and in 2004 he released a live album and DVD, Live! In Tune and on Time. In 2006 his long-awaited third solo album, The Outsider, came out, but instead of following the blueprint he used on his past two records, Shadow enlisted help from Bay Area rappers like Keak da Sneak, E-40, and Lateef, as well as David Banner and Q-Tip (Cooper, 2010).
Released Albums:
Dj Shadow - Endtroducing...
Dj Shadow - The Private Press
Dj Shadow - The Outsider
Dj Shadow - Preemptive Strike
Too many too list...................
Reference:
Cooper, S. (2010). Dj Shadow. All Music. Retrieved from
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:wnfwxqqgld0e~T1
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Hailing from Southern California, Dayeve Xienze, real name Dayeve Masangcay is a skilled underground hip hop and trip hop disc jockey, who loves to make sample-based music with a touch of acoustic guitar and keyboard, ever since 1998. His music can be considered abstract, experimental, distinctive, eccentric, weird and wonderful. It can be categorize as trip hop, underground hip hop, turntablism, breakbeats, electronica, cinematic, avant garde, film score, and space age.
This blog is dedicated to my Trip-Hop, Downtempo, Electronica, Dubstep, and Underground Hip-Hop Instrumental Addicts.In this blog, I will be spotlighting a beat innovator from around the world each day. I will also provide the artist's bio, album releases, music videos and more.
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