It’s funny how musical taste can change. I bought this record in a $1 stack many years ago, but didn’t fully appreciate it until I played it again recently. “I Can Understand It” is an incredible cover of a Bobby Womack song, sung by The New Birth. The group was formed by Motown song writers Harvey Fuqua and Vernon Bullock and was comprised of several groups from the Michigan and Kentucky area. In 1970 The Nite Liters, The Mint Juleps, The New Sound, and later Love, Peace & Happiness all became The New Birth. Originally a touring group who could perform together or separately, the group became an awesome 15 piece band that made beautiful music influenced by Jazz, Funk, Soul, Gospel, and Afro Cuban sounds. With all of their efforts combined, the group has recorded over 24 albums. And although some of the members have passed on to the spirit world, they are still performing today.

This song starts off with a short rap and immediately sets off on a roller coaster of what sounds like hours of dedication, practice, fine-tuning, and craft honing.  I mean, you hear the sound of tightly played bass, funky drumming, in key guitar strumming,  very strong vocals, horns sprinkled on top like icing, and background vocals that seem to just hold it all together. I love Bobby Womack’s original, but this is the version that makes me want to dance. Hearing all of these minds work at once on a tune shows true skill! I dig it, from the song’s intro to the breakdown.

Check out the live video footage below and listen to the actual recorded version of the track.

“I Can Understand It” by The New Birth

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Got to give DJ Underdog a pound for kicking this mix off with Peter Tosh‘s radical call to arms about the state of senseless music! With Africa Africa Africa pt. 1, DJ Underdog took us on a journey to the continent, and with pt. 2 he takes us into the future, giving those of us who aren’t in the DMV vicinity, a direct taste of what is experienced at the Afro-Beat for Ya Soul party, hosted by Lunchbox Theory at Bossa in Washington, DC. The next Afro-Beat for Ya Soul party is this Thursday, August 26th, with music by DJ Underdog and live performance from Funk Ark Band. For event information, click here. But in the meantime, wrap your ears around the track below, then head over to the Lunchbox Theory Bandcamp page to download Africa Africa Africa pt. 2.

Andreya Triana has one of those musical stories that follows the basic principal — with talent, coupled with hard work and determination, bring results. From attending the Red Bull Academy in 2006 (if you know anything about the vigorous application process and program, you’d know only people with exemplary talent are accepted into the program!) to being the dreamy vocalist on Flying Lotus‘s “Tea Leaf Dancers,” in 2007, which became a global underground sensation, Triana is one of those artists who I expect to be around for a very long time.

Her debut, Lost Where I Belong, which was released yesterday, is an honest journey through music with Triana, bringing in an amalgamation of sounds that come together into what is Andreya Triana. Produced by her collaborative partner, Bonobo, known primarily for his downtempo beats, Bonobo created sounds that complimented Triana‘s voice, knowing exactly when to filter the music in ways which allowed Triana‘s warm, soulful, yet jazzy vocals to come forward in her beautiful sound.

Our friends over at Put Me On it attended the Soundwave Festival in Croatia this summer, and filmed the video below of Triana performing “Lost Where I Belong.” It’s outdoor, it’s intimate, and it’s quite lovely. We get to see Triana perform with such warmth and intimacy. Enjoy!

Triana‘s “Draw the Stars” is featured in this week’s iTunes’s “Single Of The Week“ for free download. You can also purchase the album in its full entirety at Ninja Tunes. Check out a couple of tunes below taken from the Lost Where I Belong.

“Far Closer”

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“A Town Called Obsolete”

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The build up to the release of Bilal‘s official third album, Airtight’s Revenge has been non-stop for the artist. Currently on a hectic schedule, doing a slew of lives shows both in the States and Europe, with press interviews, Muphoric Sounds was able to get some face time with Bilal. Meeting at L.A. Burdick in the Flatiron District of Manhattan, in a cool environment furnished with delicious chocolate coffee, we spoke at great length about his career, overcoming misfortunes, his clear passion in music, and his forth-coming release, Airtight’s Revenge. His integrity as an artist is unmistakeable and so refreshing. Check out the interview below. [Note: this was supposed to be a video interview, but due to technical difficulties, we had to run it as a Q&A. Big thanks to CochraneImage, for taking such great shots!]

Also, after reading the Q&A below, there’s a lovely download from Miguel Atwood-Ferguson Ensemble, where they do a rendition of Donny Hathaway‘s “Someday We’ll All Be Free” featuring Bilal on vocals.

Airtight’s Revenge hits stores September 14th and can be pre-ordered here. Get one for yourself and a friend!

*****

Muphoric Sounds: Who is Bilal?
Bilal: I’m a musician. I make music from the day that I experience and see and use my music as a platform.

MS: When your career started it was rumored that Erykah Badu was responsible for discovering you. Who were the people that helped start of your career?
Bilal: I kind of met Amir [Questlove] first. But I was also supposed to do a tune with Q-Tip. I met everyone around the same time when I moved here [New York] from Philadelphia. And I also started to work with one of the Mtume brothers, James Mtume.

MS: If you were to look back at your career as a musician, what are the most significant lessons learned?
Bilal: I’ve learned a lot of things. The main lesson, I would say, is being true to myself to making music from an honest place.

MS: The Soul Aquarium Movement. What happened to them?
Bilal: Oh, big question man! Initially, it started off as photo that took showed musicians that always worked together and it appeared in Vibe Magazine. Somebody told me that we were supposed to do an album together but it never happened. We’re all still in contact today. I did a show with Erykah the other day. I talk to Amir all the time. We just did a show at Highline Ballroom recently. Q-Tip, I just did a show with him two days ago. Common, we talk all the time.

MS: You’ve collaborated with a lot of great artists in the past – both mainstream and independent. Who would you like to work with next, who you haven’t worked with before?
Bilal: There’s a lot of cats I want to work with. I would love to do something with Thom York.

(more…)

The legend of J Dilla continues with Donut Shop. Previously released as a purchase-only vinyl EP, the track “Safety Dance,” which is a refashioning of Men Without Hats 80s classic, leaked online a couple of months ago. Now Stonesthrow is giving it away to avid J Dilla fans! Featuring three unreleased Dilla beats, including “Safety Dance,” “Bars & Twists,” an instrumental of Mos Def‘s “History,” and Q-Tip‘s “Move.” I don’t know about you, but I never grow tired of hearing a Dilla beat or production; so enjoy this free DOWNLOAD! Check out “Bars & Twists” below.

“Bars & Twists”

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I quite like these fun and unlikely musical collaborations with apparel brands. Last year, we saw Nike team with De La Soul for Are You In?: Nike + Original Run -– a 44-minute musical piece tailored to maintain your correct heart-rate while running. If you missed it, click here for details. Two years ago, Converse started their “Three Artists, One Song” centennial celebration campaign of the Chuck Taylor shoe, starting with Santigold, Julian Casablancas and Pharrell on “My Drive Thru.” The campaign was not only a great success visually, but the three artists produced a great track! Now with their next installment entitled “All Summer,” featuring Kid Cudi, Rostam Batmanglij, and Best Coast, each artist brings their unique styles on the track, synonymously fitting together perfectly, with each artist in their lane — Cudi raps, Rostam on production, and Best Coast on chorus; definitely a breezy cross-over summer anthem.

Here’s the video for “All Summer,” which compliments the song perfectly — mascot heads included! You can also get a free download of the song on Converse’s website here.

If you missed it, Kid Cudi was also featured as one of Converse‘s “You’re It” short videos, where he returns home to Cleveland and reminisces on how his career started.

How often do you come across music that’s good and is actually for a good cause? Rarely. Well, here’s one for you, an album that’s main goal is to raise awareness through what is called Green Hip Hop in an effort to save Mother Earth! All lyrics on Earth Amplified touch on themes of  the environment and socio-political issues of today, covering topics from food and water security, climate change, poverty and prisons, to the potential for social transformation. It’s been a while since an album proactively tackles such subjects against a backdrop of afrobeat, dancehall, funk and old school soul with the jazz vibes of Golden Era Hip Hop.

Earth Amplified is lead by Oakland-based rapper, Seasunz and produced by Brooklyn-based J.Bless, they’ve put together a seminal project that features a host of emcees and singers such as stic.man (dead prez), Killah Priest (Wu-Tang), Zumbi (Zion I), Wes Restless (The Gents, Dynamic Vibrations), Rocker T (Jah-Warrior Shelter) and Jahiti (Brownfish), to name a few.

Ten percent of the proceeds from Earth Amplified will go to the Green Job Training Fund at the Oakland Green Youth Arts and Media Center. Earth Amplified “is the conscious rap of 2010 – edgy, unrelenting, textured and melodically complex, unwilling to shy away from a real look at the world we’re living in.”

Check out a couple of tracks below and then head over the Bandcamp and download a copy! “Lady Justice” is also for free download.

If you’re in the New York area, Earth Amplified’s album release party is on Thursday, July 15 at 9:30pm at Rose Live Music located at 345 Grand Street (btw Havemeyer and Marcy), Brooklyn, New York. Live performances from Mobius Collective NYC and DJ set by Chazo.

If you’re looking for an album you can just let play, LISTEN!!! is it! Hitting us with his third release, DiViNe SeVeN, hails from Pittsburgh, PA, a town that is often forgotten. But know that big things are happening in the city of Pittsburgh.

On LISTEN!!!, DiViNe SeVeN teamed up with Shade Cobain (Shade Cobain was featured Muphoric Sounds last month – check it out here) for the production and collaborated with a few friends from Pittsburgh, such as A.P.E.X, Tabu Mahogany, Jon Quest, Beedie, Living Proofe, Vaig, and L. King who all sprinkle their distinct flavours on the album. What you get are gritty tunes, with hard slapping beats, dirty basslines, which are funky and delve through many genres to create interesting sounds. With DiViNe SeVeN‘s lyrical flow laid on top, the music is reminiscent of a DJ Premiere tune. What’s also interesting, while DiViNe SeVeN does not sound like the late Guru, there’s something in his flow that would put one in the mind of him, or his protege’s Group Home.

His previous recordings are The Native Son and Seven Wonders…The EP, which were both released in 2008 to critical acclaim, and he quickly became the staple to underground hip hop in Pittsburgh. DiViNe SeVeN is the recipient of Hip Hop Buffet’s 2008 Best Male and 2009 Best Group Performance awards, and has been nominated for 2009 and 2010 Pittsburgh Hip Hop Awards Underground Artist of The Year. Definitely an artist to watch out for. He is currently working on his next album, The Life and Times of Dat Turner, and a mixtape entitled De Talk About: Vol. 1, which are both scheduled to release towards the end of the year, early 2011.

Check out a couple of cuts below and get yourself a copy of LISTEN!!!, a solid album which can be downloaded for FREE here! Let me know what you think.

If you’re a product of the 60s and 70s, you’ll know all about the cassette tape, the Walkman, and making your own personal homegrown mixtape. If you were as fortunate as me with a mother who liked to blare her music on a banging sound system, which made me feel like a producer who could manipulate sound levels on a tape deck, I knew Shade Cobain‘s Cassette Theory: The Beat EP was going to bring it all back!

Hailing from the unlikely state of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, home to many of Jazz’s great musicians, Shade Cobain is a member of a growing collective in hip hop producers rising from Pittsburgh, which includes BusCrates and Grand Ear.

Cassette Theory: The Beat EP is an ode to the cassette tape. As Shade says, “Audio cassettes take us back to a time of mixtapes, home dubbing and low fidelity.” Cassette Theory is a celebration of hip hop’s Golden Era, where music was inventive and original, bringing in sounds of jazz, classic hip hop, and soul, incorporating electronic elements to make it Shade Cobain. Each instrumental is dedicated to a tape brand, which perfectly hones in on the factor of low fidelity married with the hiss of vinyl. It’s pure beauty to listen to. Check out “Private Enemies (Scotch)” below and then head over to Shade’s Bandcamp page for the free download of this incredible beat tape! You can also hear more of this outstanding producer on Soundcloud.

Morcheeba proved themselves to be one of the premier architects of the trip hop movement with their 1996 debut album Who Can You Trust? They went on to multimillion copy sales with their CDs Big Calm (1998) and Charango (2002), which spawned the hits “Undress Me Now,” “Otherwise,” and “Why Beyond,” 2003 saw the departure of lead vocalist Skye Edwards, and brothers Paul Godfrey and Ross Godfrey used various singers on later projects to fill the void left by Skye’s departure. Now, back with their latest CD, “Blood Like Lemonade”, the Godfrey brothers have brought Skye Edwards back to give us the Morcheeba we know and love.

Blood Like Lemonade is smooth and smoky with tinges of dark drama, and complicated love blooming and falling to pieces. “Straight Ahead” is Skye leaving her man after giving him fair warning about what is waiting in the wings for him, and “I Am Spring” is new love emerging and has a little Kate Bush feel to it. You will be transported to a 1960’s subterranean after hours spot with “Easier Said Than Done.” Listening to Blood Like Lemonade several times, each song gives something different with each listen. We highly recommend this one to first time listeners of Morcheeba or long time fans. See the video for their first single “Even Though” below and get a free download of Belgium’s Surfing Leons the bassmud remix.

Blood Like Lemonade can be purchased on iTunes. (Download is in courtesy of RCRDLBL.com and photo by Steve Gullick.)

“Even Though” by Morcheeba (Surfing Leons Afternoon Remix- Download Here)

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At the beginning of the year, Muphoric Sounds shared with you a video of Bilal and Hezekiah in the studio making finishing touches to Bilal‘s third studio album, to be released on Plug Research Music — home to Om’Mas, Shafiq Husayn, Flying Lotus, Quadron, and Exile. It was announced a few days ago that Airtight’s Revenge now has a set release date — September 14th!

Airtight’s Revenge is co-produced by Steve McKie (Jill Scott, Estelle, Kindred, Vivian Green) with Bilal, and also features production by Nottz (Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, Drake), 88 Keys (Mos Def, Macy Gray, Musiq Soulchild), Shafiq Husayn, and Tone Whitefield.

To get us excited and in the mood for the smooth sounds of Bilal, his label has made available for free download a track called “Free,” which is a cover of The Supreme‘s “Automatically Sunshine,” where Bilal brings his vocal prowess to the Motown classic, giving the musical arrangement a grittiness the originally did not possess. This song will not be on Airtight’s Revenge; so it’s suggested you get this download! Check it out below and ENJOY!

“Free” by Bilal (Download provided by InnaTV.com)

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Late last month, we brought to you Mark Ronson‘s “Bang Bang Bang“, which featured singer MNDR, aka Amanda Warner. I hadn’t heard much about her but I can safely say, after hearing “I Go Away,” MNDR is someone to watch out for. Her vocal style is very much like Santigold, with that electro-pop. She released her EP, entitled E.P.E., which consists of 4 songs, with “I Go Away” being the standout due to its slow tempo, a kind of Cyndi Lauper “Time After Time” groove. I’m looking forward to hearing her full feature album when it drops. Will keep you posted.

“I Go Away” by MNDR (Download provided by Pitchfork)

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Music maestro, Mark Ronson will be releasing his third studio album Record Collection, in September—another 2010 album of anticipation. The prolific producer has a slew of people cued up for this album, including Santigold, Rose Eleanor Dougall, Spank Rock, Miike Snow, Boy George, Jonathan Pearce (The Drums), Nick Hodgson (Kaiser Chiefs), and Dave McCabe (The Zutons).

“Bang Bang Bang” is such a fun tune featuring Amanda Warner aka MNDR and hip hop icon Q-Tip. Like 80s synthesized new wave, MNDR wailing vocals, will have you thinking Santigold, tinged with some Björk. Her vocals start off with a lazy tonality (and not in a bad sense) and then grows into something truly melodic and beautiful.

Below is the video for the “Circuit Breaker” which will also be on the album. “Bang Bang Bang“ is the first single from Record Collection, and received its debut play on Zane Lowe’s Radio 1 show on Tuesday. (Thanks to The Fader for finding the  download link!) The video for “Bang Bang Bang” is soon to come as it was recently recorded in LA. Looking forward to that! Enjoy the tunes below.

“Bang Bang Bang” feat. MNDR and Q-Tip (Download)

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Amir ”Oddisee” Mohamed, is a familiar name in rap music, part of the Diamond District trio with yU and X.O., and founder of the label Mello Music Group. Odd is part of a music series which conveys the feeling of each season with each EP aptly titled Odd Summer, Odd Autumn, Odd Winter, and the latest, Odd Spring are a collection of tunes which do exactly that. The samples and influences are clear, with instrumentals that build in a progressive nature, as a metaphor to renewal, the season which spring represents. Check out the tunes below, then head over to Oddisee‘s bandcamp page to download these seasonal gems.

And big thanks to Put Me On It for putting us on this!

The story of ArinMaya is one of strength and unparalleled determination. The girl is bad to the bone. Hailing from Chicago, this Howard University and Standford alumni, now residing in the borough of Brooklyn, is a colourful mixture of styles in art and sound. Her poetry contains a realism that forces you into a “Yes girl, speak to me!” and her delivery comes from the soul.

Her debut EP, The Sound of ArinMaya, is a mellow collection of songs about life, love, self-expression, and being at peace with oneself with textured layered soul vocals, against jazzy afrobeat music, making her delivery nothing short of heartfelt. Check out my favourite below then scoot over to Bandcamp to hear the full EP.