Ben Westbeech

I've been meaning to get to this post for a while. This new album from Ben Westbeech has definitely got me open. It's his debut album titled "Welcome to the Best Years of Your Life" and it's one of the first full length albums released on Gilles Peterson's Brownswood label. Westbeech is about 25 years old from Bristol, UK (Massive Attack/Tricky, Portishead) and is a producer and vocalist. Dude is a clasically trained pianist, cellist, and vocalist who is also a hip hop, soul, and dance music head. Welcome to the Best Years is a blend of soul dance and hip hop music... think Jamiroquai meets 4hero on the dance floor. The song writing is solid, with really catchy vocals kinda on the pop tip, but with the most incredible production. It's definitely something fresh for 2007 and one of my favorite albums so far this year. I've posted the tracks "So Good Today", which was the first single released on the Brownswood Bubblers compilation last year, and also the song "Get Closer" which is another one that I can't sit still and listen to. There's not a song on the album that I don't like, and there are some downtempo tracks, and and intrumental track or two as well. Don't sleep on this one. The sad part is the distribution sucks so it's hard to find right now on CD or LP but i've spotted some 12'' singles floating around so keep your eyes peeled.

Download:
Ben Westbeech - Get Closer
Ben Westbeech - So Good Today

You can check out a live performance and some vidoes too:
Ben Westbeech Live - Live
Ben Westbeech - Hang Around Video
Ben Westbeech - So Good Today Video

Lanu: This is My Home

This new "Lanu" album on the Ubiquity label is off the hook! It caught me completely off guard and has turned out to be one of my favorites so far this year. I have to thank Nix for this one, if not for him I would have probably still been sleepin on this. Lanu is Lance Ferguson, he's from New Zealand and is currenlty based in Melbourne, Austrarlia. He's been around for a minute as leader/guitar player of the Melbourne funk outfit The Bamboo's. Apparenly Lanu is a Tongan word meaning color, and it was his nickname as a kid in New Zealand. The album is uptempo, on some soulful house, hip hop, jazzed out dancefloor or just sit back and chill shit. It doesn't really sound like anything that i've heard before, but the album reminds me a lot of 4Hero and Marc DeClive Lowe in the sense that it's like a peek into the future of jazz, hip hop, soul for the next millenium. Not only is the album extremely progressive musically, but it's also extremely concious lyrically. I've personally accepted the chorus from the track Dis-information as one of my latest mantra's "Don't you listen to those things they tell you... if there's a chance to say something then say it!" The album title comes from the song "Mother Earth" which features my man, LA based Aloe Blacc, and label mate Quantic and I think this one might be my favorite track on the album, so you can check it out below. I've also added "Dis-infornation" and "Let You Go" feat. Melbourne's Christin Deralas on Vocals. I've been hearing really good things about Melbourne's music scene of late, and this album has pushed it up on my list of places to visit in the search for universal soul worldwide.

Download:
Lanu - Dis-information
Lanu - Mother Earth feat. Aloe Blacc and Quantic
Lanu - Let You Go feat. Christin Derales

Pharoahe

"Pharoahe Monch: (born Troy Donald Jamerson on October 31, 1972) is an American hip hop artist from Queens, NY. He is known for his complex delivery and multi-syllabic rhyme schemes... Pharoahe Monch's name is derived from the monkey doll Mon Chi Chi. After receiving a bad haircut, which left Monch looking like a "chimpanzee", girls in Monch's High School class began calling him "Mon Chi Chi", which was later shortened to "Monch"."-Wiki

I'm dedicating this first post to my man Pharoahe Monch. He's got a new album coming out June 26 called "Desire". I've dropped a link to the single for you here. Dude has got to be one of my favorite MC's. All of the Organized Konfusion (3 albums, 1. Self Titled, 2. Stress: The Extinction Agenda, 3. Equinox) stuff is classic and I can go back and listen to it now and it's still dope. But I think wiki put it best, there aren't many better than Pharoahe at the "complex delivery and multi-syllabic rhyme schemes". Not only does he have the illest style and delivery, but he's using his ability to make social and political comments, which to me is what it's all about. I've also posted a track that's kinda hard to find called "Book of Judges" which was released on the Marc Ecko's graffiti video game soundtrack in 2006. I really identify with that one, I hope you do too. The last track, "Love" is produced by Jay Dee and it's the first single from The Shining which was released last year. It's one of my favorite songs of last year, this year, and probably for a long time.

-sleepy

Rarrrrrgh!
You will now consider me the apocalyptic one
After this rhyme, henceforth, there is none
NO more will exist, when I emerge
From the mist in whence I was born into, scorned
Most of you can't even comprehend what I am saying
to you even in my human form the message I'm relaying
Why do you choose to mimic these wack MC's?
Why do you choose to listen to R&B?
Why must you believe somethin is fat
Just because it's played on the radio, 20 times per day?
My perception of poetical injection is ejactulation
The Immaculate Conception
The hall walker, who stalks bodies in Central Park
Soon emergency services'll outline that body in chalk
Then I begin to walk away and spit
Then when I walk away I talk shit!
Huh, a driver sprayed my face with mace
She didn't know that I enjoyed the taste of radioactive waste
When I'm in the backseat of your mid-town taxi
Don't even ask me for the cash G
The four cabs before didn't pick me up
Now ask yourself who the fuck's gonna stick me up

-Stress: The Extinction Agenda

Download:
Pharoahe Monch - Desire
Pharoahe Monch - Book of Judges
Pharoahe Monch - Love