Straight Up Hood Rich

Bonobo – Black Sands

So one of my favorite artists just had a new album come out today.

With the experimental  warmth of ‘60s french films and the pizzicato flavor of breakbeats, Bonobo established a niche of post-party chill-out.

He is also currently getting ready to kickoff a world tour promoting the new album Black Sands, starting this Thursday in Chicago.

We Could Forever

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Continue reading…

The American Dollar

God is it time to actually take the plastic off the windows? Is it really starting to warm up outside? Did I survive yet another horrible winter? Its really hard to believe sometimes but, spring is almost here.

With that said, I have something that should hopefully bring everyone out of their slump and look forward to the sunny days ahead. The group is named The American Dollar and I was lucky enough to stumble upon them while listening to last.fm on random. If I had to quickly summarize their music with one word, it would simply be amazing.

They are also currently getting ready to kickoff a Midwestern tour hitting some spots pretty close to Pittsburgh.

• Mar 27 2010 Midtown Scholar Bookstore Harrisburg, PA
• Apr 1 2010 The Boot Norfolk, Virginia
• Apr 3 2010 Annabell’s Akron, Ohio

More tracks after the jump.

DEA

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Continue reading…

Inspiration Monday EP5 – Deaf Center

Deaf Center are collaborators Erik Skodvin (AKA Svarte Greiner, Xhale, Solitaire Albread) and Otto Totland (AKA Supine, Nest), operating out of Norway since 2003. Old classmates, they finally decided to write music together and ended up creating the Neon City EP, soon followed by the full length album, Pale Ravine.

Deaf Center – White Lake

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Inspiration Monday EP4 – Dextro

This is post number 100.

Dextro is the music production alias of Scottish artist Ewan Mackenzie. Under the Dextro moniker he has released a number of works, most notably to date the album Consequence Music and the 12” single Do You Need Help.

The new album, entitled ‘Winded’, has now been released on 16K records.

The Unknown

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Continue reading…

Inspiration Monday EP3 – Helios

When I decided that I wanted to start writing this column, the first artist that came to mind was Helios.

This electro-acoustic production is actually the solo project of Keith Keniff. Keith was raised in rural Lancaster, PA and got attended Boston’s Berklee College of Music. Since then he has been releasing tons of music and his more recent stuff as been with Type Records.

You can actually stream three of his releases on Type records here.

Backlight

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Continue reading…

Inspiration Monday EP2 – Lights Out Asia

Welcome to week 2 of my new column “Inspiration Monday.” For those of you who missed last week, you can get the rundown here.

This week we take a look at a wonderful group called Lights Out Asia.

Real nice downtempo post-rock that fits right in with whatever you are jamming out. With some tracks hitting well beyond the 10 minute mark, it seems that sometimes you’re drawn into this state of awesome.

Radars Over The Ghosts of Chernobyl

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Continue reading…

Inspiration Monday EP1 – Booka Shade

Lets start off this post by me formally introducing you to a new column here on $$$$.

Every now and again, I will have a friend come to me with a dilemma, they want some awesome music to listen to while they are working on their computers, and are fresh out.. I usually help them out, but realized that it was starting to become quite common.. Thus… This weekly column was born… Inspiration Monday.

I will do my best every Monday morning to provide you guys with a killer artist that will provide you with the jams to make working at that computer all week less painful. So to kick things off this week, we have a French duo I have been following for a few years, Booka Shade.

I got hooked with their full length album “Movements” and I have been enjoying it ever since.  More info on where you can find them after the jump.

Night Falls

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

In White Rooms

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Continue reading…