The Mitchell and Dewbury Band: Beyond the Rains

My main album this summer (besides Soil and Pimp) has been the Mitchell and Dewbury band's new album "Beyond the Rain". The music is strictly jazz and soul, but is also great for the dancefoor. The whole thing really swings from beginning to end, with a coulple of tracks on the funk tip and a couple that really bump for the dancefloor. The duo is a UK based DJ and jazz head Russ Dewbury and producer and DJ Ben Mitchell. The songs are a collection of some new work and a few tracks from their first album "Rapping with the Gods" that they revisited for those who may have missed them the first go round. The album is ablsolutely incredible, I mean every track is banging, so i've been having a hard time deciding what tracks to post. My favorite track though features the group "Fertile Ground" out of Baltimore who is one of my favoite bands (i'll have to make a Fertile Ground tribut post next) of the last 10 years so it was no question that I was going to like the album. Most of the songs on the album feature guests, mostly vocalists, and include heavywieght jazz cat Terry Callier on the song "Darker than a Shadow", probably the most downtempo of the songs on the album. After long deliberation i've decided to post "Spaces and Places" featuring Fertile Ground and "Kaleidoscope (Wheel WIthin a Wheel)" featuring Lizzie Rendall.

On a side note, isn't it kind a weird coincidence that two fo my favorite tracks from this summer (see the Soil and Pimp post) are titled "Wheel within a Wheel" and are both original compositios? Makes you go hmmm.... doesn't it?

Download:
The Mitchell and Dewbury Band - "Spaces and Places" featuring Fertile Ground
The Mitchell and Dewbury Band - "Kaleidoscope (Wheel WIthin a Wheel)" featuring Lizzie Rendall

Soil and Pimp Sessions

Soil and "Pimp" Sessions has to be one of the craziest names that i've heard of for any kind of musical group. And what's up with the quotes around the "Pimp"? I kept seeing this name pop up with nothing but good things associated to it, but because the name was so weird I was very skeptical. After a while I figured out that Soil and "Pimp" Sessions is a band of young Japanese jazz musicians consisting of 6 members: Shacho (agitator, spirit), Tabu zombie (trumpet), Motoharu (sax), Josei (piano), Akita Goldman (bass) and Midoryn (drums). I guess they hooked up in Tokyo around 2001 and have been rocking shows since then. At somepoint in the last few years Gilles Peterson found them and got them to be one of the first artists on the Brownswood label with the album "Pimp Master". The music is some high energy jazz soul fusion for the new millenium. I've heard it described as "Death Jazz" and "Punk Jazz" and "agressive alternative jazz" but to me the "Pimp Master" album is nothing but soulful. It's full of these amazing mellow, soulful tracks, but at the same time there are some really high engery songs that i've never heard anything like before. Some of my favorites are "Waltz for Goddess", "Low Life", "Wheel in a Wheel", and a really nice version of Branford Marsalis's "Mo Betta' Blues". Part of what amazes me the most is that this new soul and jazz/hip hop music (new music with an old soul) underground movement is a global one that transcends language and culture. So there is this old spirit that we are tapping into, but playing a big part in this is the new technology that allows us to crate the music and share it instantly through the net. But enough rambling. I've posted the "Waltz for Goddess" and "Wheel in a Wheel" tracks for your enjoyment.

Download:
Soil and "Pimp" Sessions - Wheel Within a Wheel
Soil and "Pimp" - Waltz for Goddess

You can check out a live performance and some vidoes too:
Soil and Pimp Sessions Live - Live
Soil and Pimp Sessions - "Summer Goddess" Video
Soil and Pimp - "Mashiroke" Video