MF Doom - Doomsday

Simultaneously hailed as an underground classic and cast aside as poorly produced backpack rap, Operation: Doomsday inaugurated the reign of MF Doom in underground rap from the early to mid-2000s. The pretext for the album is very similar to that of Marvel Comics supervillain Dr. Doom. Carrying the weight of the past on his shoulders, Doom opens and closes Operation: Doomsday with frank and sincere lyrics. In between, however, many of the villain's rhymes are rather hard and piercing. On his subsequent material, he developed a more steady and refined delivery, but on this debut, Doom was at his rawest and, lyrically, most dexterous. The out-of-left-field edge of Doom's production — which features '80s soul and smooth jazz mixed with classic drum breaks — is indeed abstract at times, but his off-kilter rhymes are palatable and absent of any pretentiousness.

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The career of MF Doom: newyorker.com

Drift

As the West Coast’s so-called “lazer bass” scene has blown up in the past year or so, Nosaj Thing (a.k.a. L.A. producer Jason Chung) has been one of those artists you often hear about without actually hearing any music. With the release of his debut album, Drift, it’s a safe bet that you’ll be hearing a whole lot of Nosaj Thing’s tunes from here on out. Settling somewhere between Flying Lotus’ otherworldly jazz and The Glitch Mob’s crunked-up floor-fillers, Drift is an impeccably produced record that sounds amazing in headphones but also has enough bump to hit the dancefloor every now and then. With its sliced-up vocals and buzzing synths, the haunting “Coat of Arms” is a clear standout, but “Light #1” and “Light #2” have enough funk to get your head nodding, and album closer “Lords” doubles as a cathartic religious experience.

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Darondo - Didn't I

Say what you will about the obsessive record collector set, as long as they continue to dust off treasures on the order of "Let My People Go" they remain essential to our collective wellbeing. William Darondo Pulliam was a Bay Area "Gentleman of Leisure" who, when not preoccupied with his recreational activities, found the time to records three sublime singles for miniscule local labels in the early 70s. Were it not for the perserverance of records collector Gilles Peterson, whose "Gilles Peterson Digs America" brought Darondo's work back into public eye, these remarkable recordings would have remained largely unheard. "Let My People Go" is a body of work which, though small, compares favorably with the best soul and funk of the era. Darondo sings with an assured but frog throated tenor reminiscent of Sly Stone at his most restrained and a delivery that recalls Al Green at his most intimate.

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Junkie XL - Made For Each Other (feat. Jan Hammer)

The Fairlight EP will be released digitally on March 23rd. The Fairlight EP contains 2 tracks "Made For Each Other", a collaboration with the legendary Jan Hammer. The B-side features a track called "Heart Of Darkness" which is Junkie XL on his own, picking up where Cosmic Rave left off.

Junkie XL - Made For Each Other (feat. Jan Hammer)

Guru - When You're Near

Though it can reasonably be argued that rap grew almost directly out of funk and its particular beat, there are a lot of overlaps with jazz, particularly the bop and post-bop eras: the uninhibited expression, the depiction of urban life, just to name two. Jazz samples have also had a large role in hip-hop, but the idea of rapping over actual live jazz wasn't truly fully realized until Gang Starr MC Guru created and released the first in his Jazzmatazz series in 1993. Guru delves into a variety of subject matters, from the problems of inner-city life to his own verbal prowess to self-improvement without ever sounding too repetitive, and his well-practiced flow fits well with the overall smooth, sultry, and intelligent feel of the album. Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1 is a rap album for jazz fans and a jazz album for rap fans, skillful and smart, clean when it needs to be and gritty when that's more effective, helping to legitimize hip-hop to those who doubted it, and making for an altogether important release.

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Gorillaz - Stylo

March 09, 2010 Gorillaz released "Plastic Beach", the animated experimentalists anticipated third LP. Guests galore on the album (Lou Reed, De La Soul, Snoop Dogg, Mark E. Smith, Gruff Rhys, Mick Jones & Paul Simonen, etc.), which Damon says is “the most post record he’s ever made.” “Stylo” features Bobby Womack and Mos Def. An instrumental demo of the track leaked mid last year, but here it is with Mos and Womack, and Damon offering up the hook in demented disco stylo.

Watch the official "Stylo" video here.

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Jogger - Gorilla Meat

Jogger's sound is very experimental, often building completely new songs from “sonic scraps” to make something you have never heard before. The duo's first full-length album, This Great Pressure, is the product of those sonic scraps. Initially, Jogger had almost no idea what type of music they wanted to create, but they had a room full of instruments, hardware, software, and seven years to figure it out. With ambient textures, sound effects, weird synths, warped/mutilated guitar parts and sporadic vocals in the mix, Jogger may have found their calling. This masterpiece is called "Gorilla Meat".

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