Praise Jah!

In the early 80's, Jah Wobble recorded some killer dubbed out post-punk material that is long overdue for some DBJ exposure. Invaders of the Heart is a hella spacey percussive track for innerspace voyages and bearded dancefloors. This track is the focal point of the post; everything else is just garnish.

The other songs are the better material from his 1980 album The Legend Lives On. For a while I was playing Blueberry Hill in sets, much to the dismay of anyone listening. Today Is The First Day meandered about too much, so I took a quick stab at giving it some direction.

Jah Wobble - Invaders of the Heart (Exotic Decadent Disco Mix)
Mediafire | YSI | 320 kbps | Highly Recommended

Jah Wobble - Blueberry Hill
Mediafire | YSI | 320 kbps

Jah Wobble - Beat The Drum For Me
Mediafire | YSI | 320 kbps

Jah Wobble - Today Is The First Day Of The Rest Of My Life
(Shawn Ryan Edit) | ***updated with improved "master"
Zshare | 320 kbps

Jah Wobble - Tales From Outer Space (aka T.V.)
Mediafire | YSI | 320 kbps

$hawn slept over and I got lucky

Well it's Cropsy, the half man half lobster droppin' science. Check this 80's hip-hop artifact - it's expensive as fuck. I found it after Shawn visited my house for a session, but slept over after hearing that the local record show was in the morning (He's ill like that). This is a rare find, so enjoy. The Japanese kids were swarming - not so-so if you know what I mean... chillllll.

Sport "G" & Mastermind - Louder
Mediafire | YSI | 320 kbps

Sport "G" & Mastermind - Louder (Instrumental)
Mediafire | YSI | 320 kbps

Do you wanna...

According to Wikipedia, "kwassa kwassa refers to a dance rhythm from Congo, where the hips move back and forth while the hands move to follow the hips." According to the USDA, "Superprince is Grade A."

Vampire Weekend - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa (Superprince Edit)
Mediafire | YSI | 256 kbps

Philadelphyinz - Upstairs-Downstairs Mix

We did a mix for our pal Bushy, who runs the always excellent blog OurTalk, which is chock full of big room house and the occasional Joe Budden track. Long story short, Bushy's tech game is on the major fritz right now and he can't post it, so we're doing it here for now. However, I have to give dap to Bushy, because his blog is boss. Make sure you bookmark it.

Upstairs Downstairs: A Mix for Bushy by Philadelphyinz (Apt One and Skinny Friedman)

DOWNLOAD LINK | ZShare

UPSTAIRS by Apt One

Jimmy Ross- First True Love Affair
Giggles- He Said She Said (Bonus Beats)
Bobby LaBeat- Partay People
Les Rhythmes Digitales- Dreamin
Interlude - West Philly is Fucked Up
Time- Shaker Shake
Armand Van Helden- I Want Your Soul
Wiz Khalifa- Youngin On His Grind (Relative Q Remix)
DJ Apt One- Mickey Dreidels in Rome
Fast Eddie vs. The Flirts - Funky Danger

DOWNSTAIRS by Skinny Friedman

Project Pat - North Memphis
DJ Omega - Can't Hold Back
Dudenem - Watch My Feet remix f/ Twista
Trick Daddy - Nann (Ghost on Tape remix)
Starski and Clutch - East to West
Professor Murder - Free Stress Test (Caps and Jones remix)
Kid Sister - Switchboard
Outkast - B.O.B. (Skinny's Juke blend)
Skinny Friedman - Wallawallabingbang
Crime Mob - Stilletos (Skinny's Scrap Yard Juke remix)

Philadelphyinz myspace



We rest our case...


And for anybody reading this from parts unknown - we're currently booking a tour of the Eastern US, the Midwest and possibly Canada - so keep your eye out, or book us if you're feeling up to it.

Also, if you're in Philly this weekend, be sure to catch me with fellow Dollar Bin Jams contributor Mike Tee at Bleached Black.

Holy Mackeral!

I've been thinking about Roustabout! lately, which in turn makes me nostalgic for (among other Happy Valley institutions) the Bullet Parade.

Hyperbole aside, the Bullet Parade is the definitive State College band, and not just because they gave me and my friends something to look forward to every Wednesday night for the year or so we were legal to drink at school. Their oft-changing lineup is a microcosm of the Roustabout! scene itself (and all of Penn State for that matter), with a new crop of kids coming and going every four years, give or take. When I last visited in the fall of 2006 to guest DJ at Chronic Town, it was clear that the scene carried on without us: new venue, new crowd, even a new reporter covering my old Roustabout! beat at the paper. It was a sad realization, that the Roustabout! we knew and loved was gone forever. Still, after seeing all the work that BP frontman Jeff Van Fossan and Chronic Town manager Jesse Ruegg have put into the new place, it's nice to know that Roustabout! and the Bullet Parade will always have a home in State College, and I'm grateful to have been a part of that.

In any event, the fact that the Bullet Parade plays its own outstanding original music sets the band apart from the ubiquitous State College cover band, so in that sense they're not at all representative of the town. They did, however, make room in their sets for some very well-chosen covers, which back in my day included "Holland, 1945" by Neutral Milk Hotel, "Shoplifters of the World Unite" by the Smiths, "Crash" by the Primitives, "Ever Fallen in Love?" by the Buzzcocks and, your payoff for reading this far, "I Wanna Destroy You" by the Soft Boys.


I chose the Soft Boys for this post because, of all those bands, their sound is probably the most similar to that of the Bullet Parade, both jangly and psychedelic. "I Wanna Destroy You" is a great song, but I prefer "Kingdom of Love" for Kimberley Rew's guitar and Robyn Hitchcock's completely amazing lyrics: "You've been laying eggs under my skin/And now they're hatching out under my chin/Now there's tiny insects showing through/And all them tiny insects look like you."

Incidentally, this album is somehow not listed on Discogs. Get it!




The Soft Boys - I Wanna Destroy You | Mediafire | YSI | 320 kbps



The Soft Boys - Kingdom of Love | Mediafire | YSI | 320 kbps

Diamond Girl

Sometimes I prefer the Bonus Beat:

Nice & Wild - Diamond Girl (Bonus Beats)
Mediafire | YSI | 320 kbps

Nice & Wild - Diamond Girl (Disco Version) | Mediafire | 320 kbps

G-Funk Era 2008

You know, as I sit down to post this it occurs to me that I've been dedicating a lot more time to making tracks and posting them here than I have been to actually putting up any Dollar Bin Jams. But hey- today's tracks are tomorrow's dollar bin finds, right? (Calling all label managers).

Today's special is a nice lil' spin on west coast gangsta synth work- anybody who recognizes any of the samples gets a gold star (tip- the synths are all original).



DJ Apt One - Mickey Dreidels '92 | Zshare | YSI | 320 kbps

And to tip my cap to the original and stated purpose of this fine outpost in the inhospitable desert of the internet- here's the super duper OG g-funk track, the one that really started it all.



Ohio Players - Funky Worm | Zshare | YSI | 256 kbps

Rave!

The Mars Mix is great - the others are not.

Planet Soul - Set U Free (Mars Mix) | Mediafire | YSI | 320 kbps

Planet Soul - Set U Free (E.H.R. Mix) | Mediafire | YSI | 320 kbps

Planet Soul - Set U Free (Heavy Duty Mix) | Mediafire | YSI | 320 kbps

Sirènes

The venerable techno duo/collaborative project System 7 has an outstanding new record out now, but they've been doing it since before there were mp3s. Here's an oldie but a goodie, featuring the handiwork of no less than Marshall Jefferson, Laurent Garnier and Carl Craig.

System 7 - Sirènes (Marshall Jefferson Mix) | ZShare | YSI | 192 kbps

System 7 - Sirènes (Laurent Garnier Mix) | ZShare | YSI | 192 kbps

System 7 - Sirènes (System 7.1) | ZShare | YSI | 192 kbps

System 7 - Coltrane (Water Mix) | ZShare | YSI | 192 kbps

Die Pause

Time for some twisted German sounds that start in the bottom of your gut and camp out in your cerebellum. For this, you can thank Kraut keyboard impresario Florian Fricke. This is the first track on the first Popol Vuh album, Affenstunde.



Popol Vuh - Dream Part 4 | Divshare | YSI | 160 kbps

It's teh rmx

As you may recall, a few days ago I put up the jam West Philly Windstorm for the downloading pleasure of all decent citizens of the world. As you may also recall, the first participant in our Dollar Bin Jams MixSeries was a gentleman by the name of Paul Zyla AKA Relative Q. Got it? Good.

Well the bol Relative Q went and laced up a really dope remix of West Philly Windstorm complete with wobbling bass and really excellent re-interpretations of some of the original samples I used. The whole thing builds and builds at half-time until it breaks into a driving, bass-heavy groove over a conga break halfway through. Fuckin excellent.

Listen to it here:

DJ Apt One - West Philly Windstorm (Relative Q Remix) (Direct link)

More remixes of this track and a handful of others are on the way by various persons, stay posted via my myspace.

Related:
-DJ Apt One - West Philly Windstorm
-Dollar Bin Jams Mixseries Vol. 1 - Relative Q

Oh, and by the way, I'd just be crappy promoter if I didn't tell you to come to Philadelphyinz at Medusa Lounge this Saturday. And also, it would benefit you to know that if you don't, you just indicted yourself as having extremely poor taste.

New Mix!

Plenty of percussion and atmospherics to maximize your space out potential...

1. Roedelius - Regenmacher
2. Lexx - Sirocco
3. Sylvester - I Need Somebody to Love Tonight
4. Alan Parsons Project - The Voice (Instrumental)
5. Peter Visti - Dolly
6. Fred Cherry - Bus Ride to the Zoo
7. Shock - Shock Talk (U-Tern Disco Mix)
8. Chas Jankel - Glad to Know You
9. Konk - Your Life (What U Want)
10. Impi - Impi (Dub)
11. Urban Blight - Urban Nite Dub
12. The Quick - Zulu (Instrumental)
13. Nicky Siano - Move (Splash)
14. Tom Tom Club - Lorelei (Instrumental Long Version)

Shawn Ryan - Please Don't Take My Man
(Divshare because ZShare is acting a fool!)

Shawn Ryan - Please Don't Take My Man (ZShare)

When a nut is not just a nut

This track has been around for a minute, but it may be new to you. It's never circulated on the "internet," although it's two years old.

I like to think of it as music for a more sophisticated kind of robot.



DJ Apt One - West Philly Windstorm (320)

Enjoy!

The "Real" LFO

Although to be fair, it appears that "Brainstorm" was out before this LFO's first Warp release here. Rave on.



LFO - LFO (The Leeds Warehouse Mix)

the other LFO

Apparently this is not the LFO that was on Warp Records, though they sound alike.



LFO - Brainstorm Part 1 (Zshare, 320kbps)

LFO - Brainstorm Part 2 (Zshare, 320kbps)

look what i found

Unlike most twenty-something white rap dj's, I don't own The Isley Brothers' Go For Your Guns for "Footsteps in the Dark" which is better known as the song that "Today Was A Good Day" sampled. (I've got that on 45.)

I picked up Guns because, hey, Isley Brothers record for a dollar. I had kind of forgotten about it until I reorganized a bunch of stuff this weekend and ended up finding a bunch of records I forgot I actually owned.

Guns isn't the Isleys' best work. It's a little generic for its 1977 release and leans on some boring rock influence a bit much. But it's got some jams, not the least of which is "Tell Me When You Need It".

It's a medium funk jam about a man who can't take his lover's mess anymore. It also features a lot of fuzz guitar. This really could be a Devin the Dude song.



The Isley Brothers - Tell Me When You Need It (Parts 1 and 2)

Recess Radio

I recently had the honor of being on Recess Radio with Cropsy and Chester Copperpot. Over the course of about an hour, you will hear hip-hop, disco, house, post-punk, jazz and more. This show is everything your ears have ever wanted.

Recess Radio - Jungle Gym Session 7

You can find other episodes of Recess Radio here.

Remember

Sorry Vivien, but this song is much better without you!



Vivien Vee - Remember (SR's instrumental edit)

PHILA to MD to ITA

I love italo, I love club music, I love making both. Why not make both at the same time, with a bit of that BASS thrown in for good measure???



DJ Apt One - Mickey Dreidels in Rome (320 kbps)

HOLLER.

And by the way, if you're in Philly this Friday night, the 18th of January, catch Skinny and me at Fluid Nightclub as we welcome Baltimore Club king DJ Tittsworth. It's free before 11:30 on the internet-only guestlist, which you can sign up for here.

Pigbag!!!

This band wore many hats, three of which are showcased here - Pigbag flavored disco-funk, dub and jazz. Hit the 'O' Deck and Six of One are off of their final 12" from 1983. The band broke up that year, so I imagine the single tanked. I just found my copy at Own Guru in Baltimore last weekend.

I used to use Schounda, a b-side from 1982, to open my dj sets. People don't really know what to expect after that.



Pigbag - Hit the 'O' Deck

Pigbag - Hit the 'O' Deck - Instrumental

Pigbag - Six Of One

Pigbag - Schounda

Talkin in my sleep

Most people know West Street Mob for their Break Dance Electric Boogie breakbeat on Sugar Hill, that track flips Michael Viner's Apache with some vocoding. Surely you know it, it was even repressed on Sugar Hill, maybe even twice. But recently I stumbled upon a West Street Mob record that I must have passed over dozens of times over the years. Perhaps I heard just one side of this particular record if I ever tossed it on the platter. But I ran into the unfamilar West Street Mob record recently at Jerry's Records back in my hometown of Pittsburgh (perhaps the largest all-vinyl store around, including Amoeba Records in the Bay, certainly the best.). I dropped the needle and guess what I heard? A vocoded version of Sly and the Family Stone's Sing a Simple Song.



West Street Mob - Sing a Simple Song

Mice or Monsters

Whoever decided to omit this track from their retrospective is fucking stupid! Quality punk funk from 1981.



Medium Medium - Mice or Monsters

Double - Woman Of The World

Double were a Swiss synth-pop duo consisting of Felix Haug & Kurt Maloo. If you stand in an elevator or department store for 45 minutes or so, you may catch their 1986 chart hit "The Captain Of Her Heart". Those of you cursed with being a thirty-something will undoubtedly remember this track from massive radio play back when radio play meant something.

Two years before they broke, Double were making dark, Italo-influenced proto-House. An incredible and underrated example of their abilities exists in the form of a track called "Woman Of The World". If you are craving oddball cosmic sounds with some sort of percussive "edge", this is your tune and it sounds relevant 24 years after its initial release. Bravo, Double!



Double - Woman Of The World (Instrumental Long Version)

Rock the throwie

I guess I've gotten into the habit of posting tracks from the "hey, you know that sample" file in my brain. Here's another one for you, and it's a goodie to be sure.

Saxwhoadie Grover Washington, Jr. is one of the most important and prolific figures in jazz history, but he inspires little more than ambivalence from those outside the 50+ African American demographic. Recording with Bob James and others on CTI and Kudu records, he put out a number of tracks that hit the Muzak-Rap Hit-Quiet Storm trifecta. CTI/Kudu is best known for spawning as many puke-inducing smooth jazz hits as it is famous breaks and hooks. Now, Grover was a little more pop-sensible than Hank Crawford and Bob James, Just the Two of Us, Mister Magic, Black Frost, Inner City Blues and this track, Hydra are listenable to the max.

Take a listen to this jam, and you'll immediately recognize it as being the basis for the Artifacts' Wrong Side of the Tracks, Biggie's One More Chance and, most obviously, Black Moon's How Many MCs not to mention some others if you're well versed (All On My Nut Sac anybody?). Oh, and all that aside, it's SICK!



Grover Washington, Jr. - Hydra (320)

Oh, and if you're in New York this weekend, be sure to catch me (Apt One) and Skinny Friedman along with our special guest Nick Hook of the band Men, Women and Children (and the dope throwback house outfit Sports) at our I PIRATE NY monthly at the Lucky Cat in Brooklyn. See yinz there!

New Hot Chip Remix!

Don't sleep on this one! New hella funky Hot Chip remix by Philadelphia's own Peter Dragontail. Live basslines to start your party proper.



Hot Chip - Ready for the Floor (Peter Dragontail Remix)