Pitchfork reviews the new Stones Throw compilation today, and while I haven’t heard it, you should probably get it. Been getting into a lot of West Coast indie-leaning hip-hop lately, and Peanut Butter Wolf is one of the genre’s masters. (Along with the rest of the label: Madlib, Madvillain, Jaylib, Yesterdays New Quintet, etc.) Check out Wolf’s My Vinyl Weighs a Ton on eMusic if you’re a subscriber.
Speaking of West Coast instrumental hip-hop, I finally picked up a copy of Keepintime, a DVD document of a good idea brought to fruition. A bunch of L.A. turntablists (Cut Chemist, Shortkut, Numark, Madlib) track down the old L.A. funk session drummers of the ’60s and ’70s whose records they love to sample (Paul Humphrey, Earl Palmer, James Gadson). Then they perform live, with the drummers backing the effects wizards. The music never quite lifts off into greatness, but it’s a very entertaining journey along the way. I’m really looking forward to Brasilintime: Batucada com Discos, a similar project the same DJs did with classic Brazilian percussionists, which should be out on DVD shortly.
Finally, if you like this sort of music as much as I do, you really can’t be without In Tune and On Time, the newish DVD/CD set from the king of the scene, DJ Shadow. While a live video recording of a DJ performing sounds boring, the music is stellar, and the visuals are intermittantly hypnotic.
If you want to see what Shadow’s listening to these days, he wrote about the subject a few months ago in the NYT.