This quarantine life finally got me posting on the regular, so the long overdue post about the best LPs dug up in 2019 is now here. Tomorrow comes the “Melting Pot Radio Hour” run down, and then finally I’ll be caught up and moving on to new old music for 2020.
So, this is a record that I’ve wanted for over 20 years. Ever since hearing Lootpack’s “Answers,” from back in 1999, and then a year later finding out what the sample was, it’s been on my wantlist. The album is a fairly rare one, sometimes popping up on Ebay or Discogs, but never out in the wild. So when a copy showed up, quite fittingly, at one of Egon’s pop-ups at Madlib’s Rappcats, seeing it there on the wall all sitting pretty, it was a hard thing to pass up. I still trip out on how much of the original beat comes just from this song, and also at just how heavy that bass is on the original.
Absolute Elsewhere – Earthbound
Speaking of West Coast Hip-Hop and Rappcats Pop-Ups, this one came to me from Cypress Hill’s DJ Muggs’ Rappcats sale of his collection. Seemed like people had passed this one up, even though it has label of “incredible samples!” Seeing that, even though I’d never seen it before, I grabbed it quickly and checked it out. Turns out this is inspired by the same material as “Chariots Of The Gods,” but was recorded in 1976 and so it’s spacier than psychedelic, which perfectly fits the West Coast Hip-Hop sound that Muggs helped to shape. Definitely got more to say about this one in a future post.
The New Expression – Don’t Have Time To Lose
Another Rappcats Pop-Up buy, and another one that I’ll have a lot more to say and share in a future post. Really don’t know much about this band, and it’s a mystery why they’re on Paula Records, which was a fairly straight blues label at the time. But the record is a kind of a country, psych, jazz-funk thang. The cover and back (both of which are in the previous post on best covers from 2019) were definitely also a major reason this one is on this list.
This is another longtime want, though I’m having a hard time remembering where I first heard this silky smooth utterly addicting groove from Brasil’s Cassiano. The copy picked up at the Mr. Bongo Rappcats Pop-Up might not be pristine, but that’s rarely bothered me and “Onda” was without a doubt the song that I listened to most on repeat in 2019 (hell, maybe 2020 too) and few songs have ever filled me such joy.
The Jazz Minstrels – Poopin’ The Sloop
I’ve already written about this record, which was a total surprise when DJ Shadow first dropped the needle on it at his Rappcats pop-up in the Summer last year a couple weeks before my birthday. It’s one of the most interesting “unknown” jazz-funk private press records I’ve ever run into and discovering music like this, and records like this are exactly the reason why I still enjoy sharing music, whether in mixes, in the club, on the radio or here on this blog.