Fresh-Out-the-Box!

Bobby Byrd RIP September 21, 2007

Bobby Byrd, 73, a singer, pianist and songwriter credited with discovering James Brown and who was one of his most important collaborators for two decades, died Sept. 12 at his home in Loganville, Ga. He had lung cancer.

Without Mr. Byrd, it has been asserted by some music scholars, Brown might not have become famous beyond the walls of a Georgia youth detention facility, much less become the “godfather of soul.” Mr. Byrd was dubbed by some “the godfather’s godfather.”

Washington Post Article

WEFUNK Radio tribute with MP3 player

Soulwalking page

DJ Kitty September 20, 2007

AskOxford: Other Men’s Flowers June 13, 2007

“It could be said of me” wrote the French moralist and essayist Montaigne, “that in this book I have only made up a bunch of other men’s flowers, providing of my own only the string that ties them together.”
Montaigne was writing at the end of the 16th century, but views on the balance between originality and plagiarism can be heard through the centuries.

But if those flowers happen to be audio samples from another man’s record then it’s wrong. Isn’t what the current music producers are doing: just using technology to do what humans have been doing since people were capable of doing it?

AskOxford: Other Men’s Flowers

MyspaceMP3.org - Download Music from MySpace June 9, 2007

There’s some music on MySpace that isn’t available anywhere else. For songs I deem worthy I’ve been recording them in Wavelab. I don’t have to bother any more as you can use MyspaceMP3.org to Download Music from MySpace.

Reggae: Keith Rowe Interview April 26, 2007

A great article with the Reggae singer Keith Rowe who sang on some top early reggae songs, then moved to America where he was in the army for 20 years. This piece about Lee Scratch Perry’s Black Ark studios gives a good insight into the way things worked there and why the sounds that came out of it have such a uniquely human vibe:

What was your impressions of the scene at the Ark? That milieu compared to the military strictness and discipline of your new life and here’s a totally loose attitude to things, heavy ganja smoke everywhere, and…

Yeah! (Laughs) It’s different but it’s not like I wasn’t around ganja. I mean, there was a guy who…a rastaman who lived in front of me. Basically (he) had a little ganja farm. I mean, I tried it too! (laughs) But the studio itself and what Scratch gave me as an artist was this roots sound, man. The floor of the studio was dirt, y’know (laughs).

From most accounts it didn’t exactly look like what you should expect a studio to look like?

It wasn’t anything a studio would look like! It was the “anti-establishment studio”! Unusual, because I certainly wasn’t accustomed to that kind of studio. I mean, coming from Federal - and the studios up in the States. I remember I recorded at a place called… Gosh! Been a long time… But anyway, a nice studio in Brooklyn. So, I went from Federal to the studio I recorded at…this other American studio…and then go back to Scratch, y’know what I mean? (Laughs) So, it’s totally nothing like I’ve ever experienced. But, man! The vibe coming out of that place, it’s just… You went in and if you the person were inhibited by crap, you would leave the crap at the door. It wouldn’t matter any more, because nobody cared! It’s just the vibe. It’s that kinda attitude, y’know? And I really felt…probably one of my best sessions, ever!

Upsetter Station - Keith Rowe: Living His Life

Street Use: Jazz on Bones: X-Ray Sound Recordings April 13, 2007

Owing to the lack of recordings of Western music available in the USSR, people had to rely on records coming through Eastern Europe, where controls on records were less strict, or on the tiny influx of records from beyond the iron curtain. Such restrictions meant the number of recordings would remain small and precious. But enterprising young people with technical skills learned to duplicate records with a converted phonograph that would “press” a record using a very unusual material for the purpose; discarded x-ray plates.

Street Use: Jazz on Bones: X-Ray Sound Recordings

Highway hi-fi - A turntable in your car

Undaunted by the failure of its original Highway Hi-Fi, its promoter cooperated with one of America’s leading electronics firms in a project involving the application of a more conventional phonograph to automobiles. The new phonograph is a 45-rpm automatic record changer of special design (Fig. 911) to enable it to be used in the family car.

Read more on ook - highway hi-fi

Cymande Vs The Fugees March 15, 2007

A federal judge recently issued a ruling in favor of 1970’s British soul group Cymande, in a sampling lawsuit against the Fugees and Sony Music.

The lawsuit, which was filed by group members Steve Scipio and Patrick Patterson in March, claims the Fugees illegally sampled the song “Dove” on their 1996 album The Score .

In 1998, the two parties attempted to negotiate a settlement agreement.

Cymande accepted a royalty payment of $400,000 and Sony Entertainment attempted to settle. However, according to the lawsuit, members of Cymande denied that the $400,000 payment was for settlement.

Sony Entertainment claimed that in 1998 the parties “entered into a settlement” and that members of Cymande “ratified the 1998 settlement by accepting several hundred thousand dollars of Defendants’ payments and by seeking money under the terms of the 1998 settlement from Defendants’ foreign representatives.”

Judges from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the payments do not amount to “ratification of an unsigned agreement to settle an infringement dispute.”

“We determine that the Proposed Agreement was never ratified and that Plaintiffs should not be equitably stopped from pursuing their infringement claims,” the ruling stated.

The $400,000 payment must be repaid or subtracted from Cymande’s damages if they prevail on the copyright infringement claims.

From AllHipHop.com : Daily Hip-Hop News:

DJ’s Dream March 14, 2007

Imagine DJing with this setup:

A 2 Vu Dual Screen Laptop, all your virtual instruments and Ableton Live on the screens, a couple of MIDI controllers, say a Trigger Finger and an X-Session Pro.

You’d be rockin’ the spot.

4hero’s Marc Mac Podcasts February 25, 2007

A great ongoing collection of full length mixes from Marc Mac of 4hero.

The Mizell Brothers show is exceptionally good and I now know things I never knew about them (like Mizell is pronounced My-zel and not Mi-zel as I’ve always thought & only ever heard other people say).

They’re here: Marc Mac podcast on Podomatic (click the Download links)