Hartikainen, Pirkka (pirkka.hartikainen@partnergroup.com)
Wed, 6 Jan 1999 15:52:22 +0200
MASTERS AT WORK - incredible set of collaborations with BeBe Winans
(last year's best vocal tune "Thank You"), Kenny Lattimore, Louis
Salinas, Luther Vandross, Byron Stingily, Kenny Bobien. Even though they
also managed couple of less interesting twelves and probably some a bit
pointless remixes, I find their last year's output much more interesting
than, say, the '97 Nuyorican Soul album.
WEST COAST HIP HOP - MC's/crews such as Emanon, Rasco, Dilated Peoples,
Yard Massive, Planet Asia, Aceyalone, J5, T-Love, Styles of Beyond,
Lootpack & their producers/dj's. On the west coast, there seems to be
less ties between the "big artists" and "the underground", which is
probably a good thing. I'm not saying that there wasn't good stuff hip
hop from elsewhere, though, here's some: Unsung Heroes, MF Doom, Black
Star, Shabaam Sahdeeq, Eminem, Prince Paul feat. De La, the High &
Mighty, Shawn J Period..
STARDUST (+ DAFT PUNK & BOB SINCLAR) - even though they ruled the
crossover world of MTV, the tunes WERE good (except for the Spacedust
rip-offs & bootlegger's 'hard' remixes of course). Also, the videos &
label identities from Daft Punk stable have always been extremely cool.
The Beastie Boys of house music, then.
AFRO-FUNK HYPE - Afro-funk compilations on various labels and Femi Kuti
release on Sounds of Barclay. Fela-style rhythms were used heavily in
the house circles, mainly by the Nuphonic stable & Ibadan records (who
also released a bunch of heavyweight singles this year: beautiful cover
of The System's 80's anthem "You're In My System", and also a house
version of George Bass' "See-Line Woman").
SQUAREPUSHER and other cats who refuse to produce "genre" music for the
dancefloor market. Being a dj often guides ones tastes to the
one-dimensional.. with the amount of releases coming out these days you
could spend all your money on house or hip hop singles alone and still
miss some "vital" stuff. But when you're shopping, don't always go for
the immediately accessible underground hits representing your favourite
genre. Right now I'm blasting Astor Piazzola's "Allegro Tangabile" and
it plain rocks. I dismissed Blaze's "Directions" on Spiritual Life on
first listen ("hey, i don't need this experimental shit!"), but now I
swear by it. Keep your ears open and forget what's trendy.
I guess that's my advise for 1999!!
that was just off the top of my head,
pirkka
ps. check out my realaudio show http://listen.to/mixoftheweek
for the best in house, soul, hip hop and.. everything
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