Tune of the Week: Changes
The Screaming Eagle of Soul meets the Prince of Fucking Darkness. RIP Charles Bradley. RIP Ozzy Osbourne.
Tune of the Week: RIP Mark Snow
It’s hard to think of many more TV show themes as instantly memorable as “The X-Fiies” theme. I know people who have never seen the show recognize it. RIP Mark Snow. Here’s a clip of him talking about the origin of the tune:
Tune of the Week: Deadbeat
Deadbeat is a Berlin-based Canadian musician who makes multiple types of dub-derived music. Here he mixes hiphop, reggae and ambient to great effect. Perfect for those hot summer days that call for moments of being as still as possible.
Tune of the Week: 7FO
7FO is an Osaka-based electronic musician. He keeps his identity private, so there is very little information to be found regarding the artist. His sound is based in ambient and dub and sounds decidedly Japanese. Sit still and vibe out!
Tune of the Week: Gary Clark Jr.
Hailing from Austin, Gary Clark Jr. is the heir-apparent of Texas Blues. His studio recordings find him mixing up his blues stylings with R’n’B and HipHop, but in a live setting he is the most electrifying blues guitarist since Stevie Ray Vaughn. Just when you think the first solo is mean, the second solo he takes rips your whole face off!
Tune of the Week: Loving the Alien
It is arguable that David Bowie had a creatively tough time in the 1980s. After making big waves in the rock scene throughout the 70s, the turn of the decade saw him leaning less towards innovating and more towards entertaining. His first album of the decade, “Let’s Dance” saw him relying heavily on producer Nile Rodgers. While it produced monster hits, the deep cuts were lacking much of the creativity that made his previous albums so great. The follow-up release to this massive success was “Tonight”, a massive flop. One of the highlights of this venture was the lead-off track, “Loving the Alien”, a rare glimpse into Bowie’s anti-religious beliefs. The video is perhaps one of the most creative things to come out of the period. Band members and sets were modeled off of surrealist painter Giorgio de Chirico’s works.
Tune of the Week: RIP Douglas McCarthy
The music world has suffered many losses in the last week. Brian Wilson and Sly Stone were both pillars of modern popular America music. Lesser known is Douglas McCarthy, singer and songwriter of the EBM group Nitzer Ebb. Alongside New Order, Depeche Mode and Front 242, Nitzer Ebb’s songs were a major thread of the dance music fabric of the late 80s and early 90s. If you went to a club and did NOT hear one of their songs it was notable! I believe that McCarthy had to have had a healthy sense of humor, so let’s also revisit the time when Beavis and Butthead commented on a Nitzer Ebb music video:
Rest in Power.
Tune of the Week: Radio Thailand
Sublime Frequencies is “a collective of explorers dedicated to exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers via film and video, field recordings, radio and short wave transmissions, international folk and pop music, sound anomalies, other forms of human and natural natural expression not documented sufficiently enough by various communication channels.” They have multiple releases that are edits from radio recordings around the world. These not only act as ethnomusicological studies, but also fascinating examples of audio collage.
Tune of the Week: Confrontational Lou Reed
Apparently Lou Reed was really going through it in 1978 when this live recording was made. His feisty, aggressive and blabbermouth tone sounds like a mix of alcohol, drugs and the strain of being considered a “living legend”. All the while his very good live band tries to hold down the proceedings by keeping up with very different arrangements of some of his classics. While most (if not all) acts overdub their live records to make them sound as good as possible, Reed clearly was taking a “warts and all” stance with this release. I’m not sure who was more brave in putting this out: Reed or his record company?
Tune of the Week: Teebs
As we hit late-Spring 2025, it’s appropriate to pull out LA producer Teebs’ classic first full length, “Ardour”. Deep beats, lush melodies and chirpy synths make this a must-listen for this time of year as well as one of the best releases from Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder label.
Tune of the Week: RIP Junior Byles
Junior Byles, who created some of the biggest roots-era anthems in Jamaica, died a few days ago. Rest in power, King Chubby!
Tune of the Week: Electro Soul from Detroit
Here’s a roboto rare groove record from 80s Detroit. Jerry Green had sung for the Motown act The Contours back in the 60s. It’s a commendable bedroom production calls to mind this 1999 remix by Hell Interface aka Boards of Canada:
Tune of the Week: RIP Cocoa Tea
The music world keeps getting hit with losses! Cocoa Tea came to prominence during the classic rub-a-dub dancehall era, recording for the likes of Henry “Juno” Lawes. He transitioned into the digital era of the mid-80s and had some of his biggest hits. In the 90s he set up his own label, Roaring Lion. In 2008 he utilized this platform to boost the political platform of Barak Obama. Rest in Power to a true reggae legend!
Tune of the Week: Roy Ayers and Fela Kuti
Jazz and Soul legend Roy Ayers passed away recently. A sometimes neglected page in his storied career is the six weeks in the late 70s he spent in Nigeria playing with afrobeat legend Fela Kuti. Surely, the spirit of the Funk was further fortified by this meeting of the minds! Rest in Power Roy Ayers!
Tune of the Week: RIP Roberta Flack
The music world lost one of its best song stylists last week. Roberta Flack could take just about anyone’s song and make it her own. The kicker was that she had impeccable taste, as well as chops at the keys and on the vocals! RIP to a true master!
Tune of the Week: Max Romeo Then & Now
Max Romeo is a certified roots reggae legend. He has spoken of times spent under a tree writing tunes with Lee Perry and Niney Holmes. This track is from his 1975 album “Revelation Time” which featured a hammer and sickle on its cover. This kind of revolutionary roots seems to be making a comeback. In January the French label Irie Ites re-recorded the song with Romeo and modern singer Chezidek. Now more than ever, Babylon must fall!
Tune of the Week: Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy
Back in the late 80s and early 90s HipHop could be political. After eight years of Reaganomics, it made a lot of sense. It seems like conditions are even worse in the 20s, and yet not many artists are willing to make verbal statements as truthful and bold as Michael Franti did back in 1992.
Tune of the Week: RIP Terror Danjah
Legendary grime producer Terror Danjah passed away last week after falling into a post-stroke coma. Rest in Power to one of the best to ever do it!
Tune of the Week: Fire Is Coming
For his sixth album, “Flamagra”, Flying Lotus enlisted a great number of collaborators, including the late, great David Lynch. The track and its video are super Lynchian in tone. It’s doubly ominous these days with the deadly LA area fires still resonating in the news. RIP David Lynch, a true one-of-one!
Tune of the Week: Gravediggaz
Gravediggaz were something of an underground hip-hop supergroup. Formed in 1991, the group featured DJ Prince Paul and the RZA. Frukwan, formerly of Stetsasonic, claimed the group’s name signifies "digging graves of the mentally dead, and it stood for resurrecting the mentally dead from their state of unawareness and ignorance.". Their style mixed the horrific and the humorous, predating any “Horrorcore” artists. This tune predicts a lot of that genre’s rock crossover appeal as well. Bang Your Head!