MIXTAPE EPISODE 49 – SOULTRONICA

This week – no hip-hop. Yeah, glaucoma you heard me.

I’d like to officially present to the internets – each and every one of them – a nascent genre of new Black music. I don’t know what to call it – I’ve heard Space Funk (or maybe I made that up? I can’t remember), dosage Neo Funk, and TK seems to have settled on Soultronica, which I think is fairly accurate. You’ll see what I mean when you listen to the episode. So, for now, soultronica it is. Check the playlist.

DJ Spinna – Intergalactic Soul feat Phonte of Little Brother. This is sort of a weird record. Spinna starts off with two or three solid space-hop joints – this being the hottest – and then just when he’s got a good momentum going, he turns around and runs straight for motherfucking Chicago. House all the way through. Weird, but good. djspinna.com

J Davey – No More (Donwill Piracy Remix). At long last, after nearly 8 months of talking about it, I’ve finally gotten some J Davey material. I actually have enough for a whole episode, or two – peace to them for getting all that to me. I’d already heard the original joint, but this unofficial remix puts it over the fucking top. If you’re not already on the J*Davey bandwagon, you need to be. jdaveybaby.com.

Steve Spacek – Dollar. A J Dilla production [1]. Jon of SIC passed this to me damn near a year ago, or maybe it was a year ago, shit. Still, the beat is ridiculous. If you’ve already heard it, listen again.

Jneiro Jarel – Breathin’ feat Rocque Wun. In true space-age fashion, both of these artists have names that I can’t pronounce. For some reason I slept on Jarel’s last album for the longest – something about the cover art, I don’t know. Finally someone told me to listen to the goddamn thing, and it’s nice. Nice. jneirojarel.com

Sa-Ra – Second Time Around. Black pretenison personified. This is material done before the G.O.O.D. music thing – I think – some more material from the batch of exclusives Jon for SIC gave me a while back. If it hasn’t hit you quite yet that this whole Soultronica thing is a throwback to Parliament, maybe you’ll get it here – or find their sampler and listen to that.sa-ra.net

Opening beat – Kenny Keys – Starr Step (unreleased) – myspace.com/kennykeys
Outro – Sa-Ra – We Gonna Do It Again sa-ra.net

[1] Be on the lookout for the big Episode 51 – trust me, it’s going to be hot. Shaman Work has a lot to do with it, if that is any clue. Check back with your favorite hip-hop podcast next week for the full joint.