Super fun show tonight as we start out with some nice downtempo beats (I can’t seem to get Mount Kimbie’s Before I Move Off out of my mind…) then wind it up into some dancefloor stompers, and end off with a few drum’n’bass classics (in age if not stature) . Kele’s The Boxer hasn’t gotten much shine on the show in the past year, but the Bloc Party frontman’s solo outing has some gems on it, even if it isn’t solid throughout the course of its 10 tracks. I’m still looking for the perfect track to mix out of On the Lam with however (I’ll admit this show’s attempts were pretty half-hearted). There’s a slow drum’n’bass or fast breakbeat track out there which is perfect, i’m sure… I just haven’t found it yet — But the search continues…
This week for the Fat Beat Diet, I’ve got a pre-recorded mix which was originally recorded live December 11th at Local 002. I started playing right after the GSP roundly trounced Koscheck for the UFC title, hence starting out with LL Cool J’s Mama Said Knock You Out. Followed it up with some pretty familiar hip hop, funk, breaks, etc…
I only played 1 hour of the mix on my show, but here’s 2 hours of the mix for your enjoyment (Note: the mix doesn’t start until 17 seconds in).
I like it when I play a track and then hear it the next day on the Musiquarium (In this case Night Air by Jamie Woon). I like to imagine that Sid heard the track on my show and then played it on his. It’s unlikely since he’s always working on Thursday nights (in fact, I often run into him taking a break outside the Den on the way in to the studio). More likely, we just have a lot of overlapping tastes in music. Night Air in particular has been a huge hit over in the UK, so it’s hardly like we’re digging very deep for that one. Woon placed in the Top 5 of the Beeb’s Sound of 2011 along side another Fat Beat Diet favourite James Blake. At any rate, it’s always gratifying to find out someone likes the same music as you, no matter who they are.
This week I uncharacteristically felt in a Christmas mood so I had to break out the best Christmas album of all time along with a few other favourites (a little late now, but go download Mayer Hawthorne’s version for free). After a few holiday-themed tracks (admittedly, LL Cool J’s Rock The Bells is a bit of a stretch), we run through some funk, hip hop, breaks and bleeps.
Starting the show out tonight with a nod to the 30th anniversary of John Lennon’s death by playing a few Beatles-inspired tunes – A rarity here on the Fat Beat Diet. Personally, I have little attachment to the band. Regardless, The Budos Band re-interpret the classic Day Tripper, turning it inside out, or rather back to front, for Reppirt Yad. Then the Overton Berry Trio rework Hey Jude into a slow building funk monster. The Overton Berry Trio featured a bit in the music documentary Wheedle’s Groove, which I happened to watch the other night. The doc centers on the relatively obscure Seattle funk and soul scene of the 1970s and I highly recommend it if you’re a music documentary buff like me. It totally made me wish I could travel through time and catch one of those shows back in the day. Since I had that music scene on my mind, I played a few other pieces of music mostly taken from the excellentreleases Light In The Attic records have put together highlighting this forgotten scene.
A bit later in the show, we’ve got a few other blasts from the (not so distant) past in the form of Jamiroquai and Son of Bazerk (which I’ve already briefly touched on). I found the former’s latest album Rock Dust Light Star surprisingly satisfying. The band’s always done a good job of keeping on top of music industry trends (and just a step shy from fads), from the early acid jazz days to their house-tinged millenial output to this album, which plays on both soul revival and electro sounds.
Towards the end of the show, I dropped Rhythm Heritage’s Theme From SWAT via 3rd Bass. This TV show theme song remains one of the funkiest TV theme songs ever.
With the recent death of Leslie Nielson on my mind, I got my 70’s TV cop dramas mixed up, confusing the semi-serious S.W.A.T. for its sendup Police Squad, which is the one which actually starred Leslie Nielson, a precursor to the Naked Gun movies which catapulted him to fame as the goofy Lt. Frank Drebin.
I once spent a childhood spring break watching Police Squad on VHS. Anyways, onetime host of Cocktails with Claire (which aired years ago on Saturday afternoons on CJSW) and current hot dog slinger extraordinaire Jon Truch was kind enough to call in to the show and point out the error, but not in time for me to mention it on air.
Here at the Fat Beat Diet, we’re mostly about metaphorical diets and fats, but the name does have a basis in the real world as well: We’re unabashed foodies and fans of literal, physical fat — like that of a well cured pig. I’ll occasionally be writing about food over at Slop Press, so if you’re also a fan of good food, please do drop by once in a while. Just in time for the Holiday Season, they’ve got some fine De La Soul-inspired aprons for sale for the hip hop foodie in you (sister site Vancouver Slop also has some fine Biggie-themed T-shirts).
So for the sake of cross-promotion, we started out the show with De La’s Stakes is High and kept it in a hip hop mood for the whole show.
Super fun extended version of the Fat Beat Diet tonight as Nathan (who does the show after me) came down with the flu. With the extra time, I felt I really had the freedom to roam a little bit. We started out with a James Blake‘s devastating Feist cover, Limit To Your Love. Blake strips the track down and adds some deep bass rumble to shake the tears from your eyes.
The young Brit’s been popping up on all sorts of lists of ‘people to look out for’, and for good reason. Just take a listen to CMYK, which followed on the show – a nice glitchy dubstep experiment which builds satisfyingly around a sparse chopped vocal sample. From there the show rolled through some dubstep and drum’n’bass before settling into some hip hop beats for a sec. I love mixing my favs from the 90s with some current content, in this case courtesy of some fine Canadians such as CJSW’s own DJ Cosm (Free! Single! here!), Calgarian Cinister Cee and ex-Calgarian Lord Marbury aka the Dirty Sample (who’s Joshua’s Dreamixes album has been getting some pretty consistent play on the Fat Beat Diet), and Toronto’s Elaquent (More free stuff here!). Great to see Son of Bazerk back on the rap scene as well (and I’m not the only one who thinks so). Winding up the show at the end with a couple of alphabet rhymes from Papoose and Blackalicious. I really want to throw in 3rd Bass’ comical addition to the meme as well, but as it turns out, I didn’t have it on hand. So here it is:
A few disco breaks groove to finish off the last few minutes of the show. Here’s the show.
Starting off the show this evening with some Flying Lotus. Dude is mad prolific, it’s hard to keep up with him. Tonight’s two songs were taken from this year’s Cosmogramma full length. Then some mellow hip hop and some more left field beat type stuff from Dabrye, Gonjasufi and sometime FlyLo neighbour Teebs. The two lived in the same apartment complex and Teebs roomed with Samiyam, so it comes as no surprise that Teebs is down with the whole Brainfeeder crew. His debut full length Ardour was released in October on FlyLo’s Brainfeeder label. Then some classic funk and hip hop, new and old, before we squeeze in a little drum’n’bass at the very end of the show.
I had the chance to fill in for the the Road Pops a few Fridays ago. I could certainly never match Kevin and Grant for witty and sometimes inane banter (c’mon guys, i lurvs ya, but you know it’s true), so I just did what I do best – play a little bit of everything beat-related.
Super fun show tonight starting out with a disco feeling and moving in to more straight up house and electro towards the end. Definitely the recipe for getting someone in a dancing mood.
This week, we’re still basking in the afterglow of the adrenaline rush that is funding drive, so the mix is talk free. We start by paying our respects to the late great Gregory Isaacs, who passed away in late october. Following that, we ran through some downtempo then onto some some hip hop. Local duo Dragon Fli Empire have a new song which they’ve entered into the All-Albertan Song Contest, so I had to drop that but mostly the hip hop’s on a classic tip. We slowly wind up the show towards the end, and will probably pick up where this left off for next week’s show.
