When you hear the phrase “electro wunderkinds”, you think “wow, I’m curious to know where this music is from.” Germany? New York? Los Angeles? Miami? London? How about Salt Lake City. Oh, Be Clever are from SLC and they are getting a chance to share brand of electro goodness with the comforting “Blanket”. Oh, Be Clever consists of producer Cory Layton and vocalist Brittney Shields. Get to know them and know them well.
Silbi Dog (Atypeek/I.O.T.) is a new EP released by DOOKOOM and what is a DOOKOOM? They are a South African electro-hip-hop outfit from Cape Town, and they want to introduce you to their song “Dirty”, which may be very dirty or is just a title to lure you into their vibe.
The guys in Department M (that’s two men, along with a few friends as the band they perform with for live shows) have come out with a new 7″ single Hide & Seek Records called “Bleak Technique”, and they’re hoping you’d be interested in checking it out. They’re not posting the A-side but would like for you to flip the record over and check its B-side, so listen to “Long Way Into Your Heart”.
Finnish duo Ideomotor only formed last year but their music is making people aware of who they are fairly quickly. They play indielectro (I don’t know either) but Kimmo Myllyviita and Erkka Wennonen are making sure once you hear them, you will be sporting “Indielectro Pride” bumper stickers on your cars. Their debut EP For A Moment We Are Strangers was released earlier this year so to get on the indie side of their electro(des), check out “Amplified”, which is said to be “anthemic”.
“G.U.N. (Give Up On The Now)” is a new song by a pop group who are on the electro/shoegaze side of life, so please welcome Radar. The group are currently on tour on the East coast so if you are in the following cities, please check them out and have some fun.
May 20… Washington, DC (Tree House Lounge)
May 21… Annapolis, MD (Metropolitan)
June 4… Washington, DC (Art Soiree Sunset Rooftop)
June 6… Martinsburg, WV (MJ’s)
Randomer is back with an all new recording, a new 3-song EP that finds him on a new label (L.I.E.S.) making some very interesting electronic pulsations. The title track gets into a bit of a comfortable repetition, almost tribal at times, almost meditative but allow tie rhythm to capture you and you’ll find yourself nicely trapped in it. “Jakobs Dream” comes off a bit more electric and high voltage at times, as if its pulse is trying to have a life of its own. “Huh” gets a little bit old school on the electro side, as if you can imagine a bunch of b-boys and b-girls running to the dance floor, jerking their heads and bodies in a maniacal fashion and not wanting to stop. It’s almost as if this couldn’t have been made from one person but what unites them is how great these tracks are, not only from one another but that it’s another from one Randomer. Random, like his name but different.
In Khan We Trust is the new EP from newly-signed OWSLA artist Valentino Khan, whose work you may know if you’ve been keeping your ears to the pulse of whatever is pulsing these days, I don’t know. What I may not know, you should know very well, you know? Now he has a new set of music to himself, which you may hear in its entirety at this very second. Press play now and be enthused.
Book’s Jook is a column dedicated to placing a record within my dream jukebox, if I were to have one. The Seeburg jukebox shown below is similar to the one I have wanted since I was a kid. To read more on why I started this column, click here.
When I moved from Honolulu to the Pacific Northwest in 1984, I was a fan of funk music for a long time. I was also familiar with who Afrika Bambaataa, for he was the man behind one of the greatest songs of 1982, “Planet Rock”, which felt like an anthem back home. As a kid who listened to a small share of records on Tommy Boy, Bambaataa was very much the man; when I moved to a new city and state. finding someone else who liked him was great, especially in a place that was unfamiliar to me. He was a new neighbor who lived just down the street, a kid named Travis. As someone who had a copy of Rockwell’s “Somebody’s Watching Me”, he wanted a copy and felt that the only record he could trade it for was Art Of Noise’s “Beat Box”. I didn’t hesitate. I don’t remember what record I obtained the Bambaataa 45 for, but when I saw it and liked the song, I needed it. This may have been the first record on Tommy Boy I had seen pressed as a 45rpm 7″ single, so at the age of 13, I didn’t want to pass this up.
The song, made once again with The Soul Sonic Force, sounded as if it was out of this world, pretty much part of the theme heard in many electro songs like Jonzun Crew’s “Pack Jam (Look Out For The OVC)”, Planet Patrol’s “Play At Your Own Risk”, and G.L.O.B.E. & Whiz Kid’s “Play That Beat Mr. D.J.” It was something to pop and break to, so “Renegades Of Funk” was something to dance to, even if the privacy of my own bedroom. You were able to get into place “many, many galaxies away” and while we didn’t know when we were going to come back, heading out into that unknown land was about exploring the future that was beyond 1999.
I loved the chants within “Renegades Of Funk” and yet what I loved more was its B-side, “Renegades Chant”. I wasn’t sure if Bambaataa was speaking English, making up his own language, or simply bringing in the power of the Zulu Nation. As a kid who was curious about this Zulu Nation from afar, it seemed like it would be something to want to understand, even if it was bits from other well known songs. The song was produced by Arthur Baker and John Robie so by default, it felt not good, but great. I never realized he was dropping a bit of mathematics when he said “knowledge…wisdom…understanding…the funk” but before I did, that was my favorite part of the the song, as if he was about to explore due to the power of the funk, which I completely understood in my own way. I felt a need to learn this language and join Bambaataa’s mothership, even if it would take me a lifetime.
Years later, I would find the 12″ single for the song, complete with the color cover, which was somewhat of a rarity in some circles. Yet I still have that original 45 to this day, and that one will never part from me.
A 62 minute mix is what Numonics & The Infinite are offering everyone to stream & listen or download. The title of the mix is simply called 95, and honors the highway that goes through Miami. This is the complete track listing:
01. Numonics – Camping Out In That Corridor
02. Numonics x Infinite – Fear The Cyclops
03. Numonics – Posted in the club
04. Numonics – Drug Dealer
05. Jeremih – All the time (Numonics Remix)
06. Numonics – Beat It Up
07. Sin (feat. REKS) – City On Fire
08. Numonics – LOW
09. Numonics – Dat Glitch
10. Numonics x Infinite – Tres
11. Numonics – Feline Fiend
12. Eleanor Rugby – So You Wanna Rap?
13. Numonics – I Got That Work
14. J NiCS – Hitman
15. Numonics x Infinite – Show Me Dubs
16. Numonics x Infinite – Wrek Trap
17. Numonics x Infinite – Terrorist
18. Numonics x Infinite – Klingon
19. Trick Daddy ft Trina – Nann (Numonics x Infinite Remix)
20. Numonics x Infinite – Bong
21. Numonics x Infinite – Supernova
22. Numonics x Infinite – Say Goodbye
23. Numonics x Infinite – On That Fateful Day
24. Sevenstar – Wolves of New York
25. Numonics x Infinite – City Slicker Dreams
This Is Book's Music 