Jeen Bassa Music Is My Sanctuary Mix Cover
Great day in the morning to all you Mixtape Monday listeners and lurkers. Hopefully you enjoyed our house-heavy roundup from last week and utilized those beats to power through the Thanksgiving weekend. Now we've arrived in December, the time of twinkling beats, plunging temps and (wouldn't you know it) hard-hitting beats. This week the mixtape roundup skews hip-hop, with syncopated offerings from Tall Black Guy, DJ Melo, London's Livin' Proof all delivering the kind of boom-bap gifts that we treasure so much. It's better to give than to receive, of course, and so we're giving you an easy way to check on the best of what's around. Toss out the leftovers, put on a cap and start listening.
Terrel Wallace aka Tall Black Guy has skills like an expert gardener: he knows when to carefully prune and tend to a beat, and he knows when to just step back and let it grow. His latest half hour of interwoven selections only reaffirms that--his Hyponik mix charts a smooth and contemplative tone even as it merges specialists in all styles. Beginning with Oddisee's neo-retro production and continuing through Scrimshire's downtempo vibes, a Roots live J Dilla joint and Chris Dave's extraterrestrial jazz, TBG makes a monument out of what could have been a mess. This is ideal listening for days when frost grows on the window panes.
Tracklist:
Oddisee – "Scenic Route To You"
Colman Brothers – "She Who Dares (Scrimshire Remix)"
The Roots – "She Said"
Chris Dave – "Didn’t Exist"
Ingcognito – "Mr. Jones"
Diggs Duke – "The Pinnacle Of Class & Taste"
Jordan Rakei – "A Tribe Called Government"
Tall Black Guy – "Sweet You"
That one and only rapper who's got the authority and superiority to captivate the whole crowd's majority deserves a special tribute, and this week we've got an excellent one on our hands. DJ Melo D rolled up his sleeves this fall and put together No Equal, a mix entirely devoted to Big Daddy Kane. The result of Melo D's labor" bangs with the dirty and dry drums that made the late 80s great. In the mix are essential BDK cuts like "Raw," "Another Victory" and more. Cruise the avenue with this on and you'll be ending the year in perfect retro style.
The holiday season has just begun, but Diplo and his Mad Decent brethren have already shipped out a mighty fine gift--a brand new mixtape composed of old favorite holiday melodies that have been given the remix treatment. So you'll find Davoodi, DJ Fire, Diplo himself and more dropping copious bass and manic synth lines over the carols of wintery yesteryear. Just one look at the track titles should tell you what kind of sleigh ride you're in for.
Newly back from the dead, the Stones Throw Podcast is already owning December. The 'cast is being distributed through iTunes and will once again feature regular appearances from some of the best DJs and producers in the world. Episode 87 centered around breaks and the well-established work of Breakbeats Lou, who has been manning the wheels of steel up in the Bronx since 1974. In his mix you'll find The Meters, Chicago Gangsters, live James Brown and plenty of top-notch scratches in between.
Download the new Stones Throw podcasts here.
It's all about the vibe on this one. From the UK's shadowy but ever-emerging 22a Music Collective comes Jeen Bassa, whose new mix for Music is My Sanctuary is a slow-paced demonstration in the importance of the groove. From funk to first-rate underground hip-hop, Bassa has delivered an extremely satisfying listen. Is it that Shuggie Otis strut or the back and forth sway of Kankick that's got us feeling so relaxed? We don't need to know the answer, all we need is this on repeat.
Tracklist:
J Blackfoot intro
Jeen Bassa – "ruff city"
Olympic runners – "Get this thing down"
Pandit Sharda Sahai – "Tabla solo"
Shuggie Otis – "Sparkle city"
Alphonse Mouzon – "New York City"
Pakistan women singers – "Mersiyet"
Sergio mendes – "Pomba Gira"
James mason – "Slick City"
Valerie Walker – "Obeahman"
Al brown – "Ain’t no love in the heart of the city"
Kankick – "Citywalk broads groove"
Jeen Bassa – "I do"
Amanaz – "Easy street"
Vangelis – "The city"
Jeen Bassa – "7seas"
Blind Boy Fuller, Sonny Terry and Bull City Red – "Shake it baby"
Niagara – "City walk"
Delia Derbyshire – "Crystal city"
Jeen Bassa – "Interval"
Al Dobson – "4th street"
Doe Boy (prod Jeen Bassa) – "Blues street"
Reginald Omas Mamode IV – "Rare love"
Mo kolours – "love me"
Jeen Bassa – "Heart to Art"
Tenderlonious – "True Youts"
Henry Wu – "Outro"
Reginald Omas Mamode IV(prod Jeen Bassa) – "A Real thing"
Al Dobson – "Kirton street"
Tenderlonious – "hold on"
Mo kolours – "word up"
Jeen Bassa – "Leave it behind"
Call us crazy, but we love a live-recorded mix with no available tracklisting. There's a freedom from homework that comes along with it--a reminder to not worry so much about transitions and titles and instead just enjoy the music. This mix, comprised of entirely underground and unsigned hip-hop artists, is an extra special treat. Recorded at legendary Bucktown Chicago venue Danny's and full of dope bars and clever beats, this is hopefully a grass roots sign of what's to come. Many thanks to Chi-town's own Jonathan Kirby, who put together the mixtape of unsung proto-heroes.
Time travel feels a little more possible after taking this one for a spin. Indigenous Futurisms is a melding of neo-ancient sounds, the product of DJ Jarrett Martineau's dedicated hard work. Martineau is a part of the RPMfm collective, and took it upon himself to craft a mixtape that highlighted the Afro-futurist sonics that have kept the likes of Flying Lotus, Ta-Ku and No I.D. coming back to the drum-driven well for more. We're told it was made possible in part by the good folks at Kimiwan Zine, and for that we're eternally grateful. In this mix you'll catch plenty of Sun-Ra, but also trap, house, hip-hop and electro-r&b that sounds ripped from the playlists of a 2020 block party.
If you've already had enough of winter and are looking for a taste of some sun, sea and sand, then DJ Dub and Mister Tobes have got the perfect (audio) escape for you. Heat Wavez is one for the ladies and showcases female-only electro-funk bangers that come with enough banging 808 beats to make the thermometer burst. The Jets, Taylor Dayne, Nocera and a host of other femme fatales all sizzle in this mix, which would be the perfect soundtrack to a Christmastime pool party in the Bahamas with an all-white-only dress code (no disrespect, Solange). Chromeo fans especially will want to step hard to this.
Tracklist:
Shannon - "Stronger Together"
Sweet Sensation - "Hooked On You"
Wish f/Fonda Rae - "Touch Me (All Night Long)"
Jody Watley - "Don't You Want Me (Remix)"
Taylor Dayne - "Tell It To My Heart"
Carmen - "Time To Move"
Brenda K. Starr - "What You See Is What You Get"
Nu Shooz - "Don't Let Me Be The One"
Jets - "Crush On You"
Pretty Poison - "Catch Me I'm Falling"
Siedah Garrett - "Do You Want It Right Now"
Eileen Flores - "Touch Me With Your Heart"
The Jets - "Cross My Broken Heart (Extended Version)"
Xena - "On The Upside"
Pyjama Party - "Yo No Sé"
Exposé - "Point Of No Return"
Vikki Love With Nuance - "Just Love You"
Exposé - "Come Go With Me (Extended Mix)"
Rochelle - "Magic Man"
Angela - "All Hung Up"
Nocera - "Summertime"
Last week's house music mixtape blowout left us far from satiated. We cant' get enough of that four-on-the-floor bass pulse, and thankfully the internet has no shortage of suppliers. We were tipped off to Will Coloan after his all-Janet Jackson mix hit the net last month, and it seems he's been pushing into new and different sonic territories since then. His latest mix, Cafe de la Coloan, is a fantastic, house-heavy hour of both rare and classic selections and boasts a distinctly European vibe (but that may just be the espresso talking). Put it on and pretend you're coasting offshore near Ibiza--listening is believing.
Finally, as a very special and somewhat unorthodox close to this week's mixtape array, we're bringing you a very special grip of songs dedicated to the late great Rich Nichols, aka The Roots's longtime manager, aka DixPop. Originally posted by our good brothers and sisters at Revive, the selections harken back to Nichols's earliest days as a disc jockey at Temple University's WRTI radio station. The Philadelphia Jazz Project's Homer Jackson worked with Nichols during his early radio days, and remembered him to Revive as follows:
Rich would come to the station carrying no records or CDs of his own. Nor would he have made a plan for his show. He would simply take a few minutes to grab a few interesting records out of the new releases bin and spend a little time figuring out segues. The transitions were important to him. Probably the most important aspect of programming a show.For him, and I should extend that to say for many of us, as deejays, it was about improvising and responding to what was playing, what responses we got from our audiences via telephone; as well as and how we felt emotionally that day and what we had on hand that stood out from the new releases. That’s how Rich Nichols developed his shows.
As a special tribute, Revive worked with Jackson to compile an ad-hoc playlist of the tracks that were often played by Nichols during his own DJ days. Call it a contemplative, commemorative "conceptual" mixtape. You can read more about the entire venture here. R.I.P., once more, DixPop.
