Even Dirt Off Your Shoulder After All (KMT Mix)

- Jay-Z vs. Finley Quaye -

I’ve become a mashup madman, lately! I’ve found about a half dozen mashups in the last week and I’ll be throwin ’em up on here for the next month.

Now before any of y’all start bitchin’ about how old this is, don’t worry, I’m well aware! But if you haven’t realized yet, I could give a shit how old a song is. If it’s good, I’m gonna post it. And this shit is gooood.

Waterproof London is a dogpile of good smashups. I’ve been simply amazed by some of the good rhymes laid over chill beats. I might end up featuring a couple more […]

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Sweet Child O’ Mine by DJ Deckstream

"She's got eyes of the bluest skies"

I’ve come across a few covers songs lately, so I thought I’d contribute a favorite of mine from DJ Deckstream’s Music Castle. Deckstream is a DJ/producer from Japan who could be classified in either hip-hop or jazz depending on the song/album. In Music Castle, Deckstream covers quite a few different oldies, all with a nu jazz style. Some famous songs include Tom’s Diner, Tripping Out, Just the Two of Us and my personal favorite, Sweet Child O’ Mine.

I chose Deckstream’s remix of Sweet Child O’ Mine because of its dreamy, relaxing take on a classic by Guns N’ Roses. One thing I would’ve loved to have seen on the track, along with a few others, is the original vocals included. It would’ve been interesting to hear Axl Rose’s voice over these instrumentals, but as this album is more intented as background music that may have been why Deckstream had chosen to leave him out.

This song actually brought up an interesting question in my mind: would you consider this a cover or remix What are the differences I think of a remix as cutting up a song, rearranging it, adding or removing parts and really making it your own. Compare this to covering a song where the song is relatively kept in its original form, but the performers put a little of their own style into it. As you can tell I marked this as a cover. What do you think

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European Comfort by Gota Yashiki

(Better than) just elevator music.

Another goodie from Gota! One of my first posts was Gota’s All Alone, and now I come to you with his second, European Comfort. It may not be as good as All Alone (in my opinion), but it’s got a nice calming tune that’s perfect for an elevator… or better! I’ve gotta say, one of Gota’s best abilities is combing instrumentals in such a fluid way. He’s what really got me into this new style of jazz… well, him & DJ Okawari… and I guess you could throw Nujabes in there too.

I’m actually trying to get into more current jazz (like Gota), but it’s proving hard to find what I like (it’s always difficult getting into new genres). And I’m finding with nu jazz or acid jazz (or whatever you wanna call it) that a lot of it does remind me of elevator music, boring and repetitive (unlike Gota). So, if you have any suggestions, please oblige me. Also, tell me if you’d consider this elevator music, now that I’ve engrained it into your head…

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Crescent Moon by DJ Okawari

"While I float to Neo-Tokyo..."

I’d say Crescent Moon is what first got me into DJ Okawari (right before Animal Forest. At the time (around a year ago), I became increasingly interested in Hip-Hop from Japan (the DJ’s not the MC’s), and came across Okawari’s second album, Diorama. Diorama is more of a Nu Jazz style with Hip-Hop influences, and doesn’t feature any MC’s (something Okawari should possibly reconsider for his next album… I vote yes!). His music (this song in particular) for some reason brings me back to the song 3030 by Del with the quote, “while I float to Neo-Tokyo with Opio”. Probably because Okawari is from Tokyo, and his music reminds me of a night out in Tokyo, but most likely because I have nothing else to talk about, so I need a filler :)

I’ve been getting a lot of Japanese hits on my site lately (mostly looking at Okawari), and if any of you know of any similar music to Okawari then please post some of it on here! I need an expert to point me in the right direction… anyone :D

One other thing, I also posted this on Animal Forest, but it’s also worth mentioning here – the cover artwork for this album is incredible! Check it out in it’s entirety here or just click the image at the top (the beautiful vector’d girl).

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Music Castle by DJ Deckstream

A relaxing compilation of covers.

DJ Deckstream is a well established producer in Japan that has worked with several well-known emcees including Moka Only, Pep Love, Mos Def and Talib Kweli. His album, “Music Castle”, is a stretch from his usual upbeat, hip-hop style to a jazzy, chilled-out set of covers. The album covers such classics as Tom’s Diner, Just the Two of Us, Sweet Child o’ Mine and a few others from genres in classic rock to rap.

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All Alone by Gota Yashiki

Some damn good sax.

I’ve recently started to get into jazz. After searching a popular music forum, I found their “Staff Picks”, and thought I would try out their recommendations. I found Gota as a popular pick, so I gave him a listen. I enjoyed the first track quite a bit, which happened to be All Alone. What impressed me so much was the saxophone, played by Ian Kirkham, and the guitar, played by Kenji Jammer. Both played well off each other, and showed a real elegance in their style. Just give this one a listen, if you enjoy it enough then check out the rest of the album, It’s So Different Here. I decided not to review the entire album because of personal preferences, but if you like this song, you’ll most likely appreciate the rest of it.

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