Podcast No.17 – Torb The Roach

For our 17th podcast we have a very special mix courtesy of Torb The Roach. Earlier this year Torb The Roach and Floppy McSpace released the excellent instrumental hip hop album, “Tape Echo – Golden Floppies”. A lo-fi, beat crunching, bugged out album that pushes the musical boundaries while keeping its feet firmly in the realm of hip hop. The promotion for the album gave us one of the best and most bizarre short films we’ve seen in a long time, if you’ve not seen check out here.
The mix Torb has provided shows the influences on his production, gathering funky breaks and beats from all over the world and from all spectrum’s of music. Torb had this to say about the mix and making music in general –

“I started making music and collecting records shortly after I started breakin in 1999/2000. The last 8 years I got more heavy into producing music and also started to dig deeper for rarer and lesser known stuff. This is a mix of tunes that inspires me on my work on the tape echo gold floppies release. I love weird and obscure stuff, and always try to find something that is new to my ears. I don’t care about the genre or style to much, I look for a certain vibe and feeling in the music. This is mostly 60’s and 70’s records, from all over the planet including Japan, Korea, China, Singabpore, US, Jamaica, Belgium, Sweden etc. When I dj I normally play more dance related stuff for bboy jams or clubs, it iss the same kind of vibe but more uptempo.”

Sit back, relax and enjoy this awesome mix!

V/A Shinobi Cuts – Cliff Thornburn

Shinobi Cuts presents the latest instalment of their highly entertaining remix chain albums, “Cliff Thornburn”. The premise is one artists submits a track, in this case Pete Sasqwax, it then gets passed to the next artists to remix, then to the next to remix the remix and so on. Until it finally arrives back to the original artists to give it the final rework. Once again the album features a remix from our very own LongDistanceDan, amongst many talented others.
Grab your free download now, which also comes with a seamless DJ mix of the tracks from Pimpernel Jones.

V/A – I Had the Strangest Dream Last Night (The Owls Were Silent)

To celebrate Twin Peaks’ long awaited third season, IRM will publish a digital tribute compilations of new and exclusive tracks inspired by David Lynch and Mark Frost’s cult series. This is the first volume, dedicated to the dreamlike dimension of Twin Peaks’ universe, as an introduction to the musical narrative to come. 15 more volumes are due for release before the end of the year. All of them will be available in free download.
Full of experimental electronica and beats, this is well worth a listen if you are a Twin Peaks fan or not. Grab the free download now!

Abstract Orchestra – Dilla

Inspired by the legendary live performances of The Roots with Jay-Z and the 40 piece orchestral arrangements by Miguel-Atwood Ferguson of the work of J Dilla, classic arranging techniques underpin modern loop-based structures.The band itself is based on the classic jazz big band instrumentation of saxes, trumpets and trombones and features the cream of the north of England’s jazz scene who collectively have played with Jamiroquai, Corinne Bailey Rae, Mark Ronson, Martha Reeves, John Legend & the Roots, Roots Manuva and Amy Winehouse.
“Dilla” by Abstract Orchestra is a tribute to the work of the highly acclaimed and influential producer. Opener”Welcome to Detroit/The Diary”takes the the vocal sample from Isaac Hayes’s “Man’s Temptation” and places it against lush brass and driving beats while”Workinonit”Transplants the original 10cc guitar samples from the Dilla original onto biting trumpets and aggressive saxes, underpinned as always by Joost Hendrickx’s on point drumming. On”Stop”vocalist Anna Uhuru handles the Dionne Warwick vocal with assurance while the band lay down an arrangement that is reminiscent of the work of David Axelrod and Don Sebeskey, both big sources of inspiration for Abstract Orchestra.
This album will please any Dilla fans, taking the original Dilla tracks and his sample sources and presenting back to the listener and a new and unique way. The album is released on June 30th on limited vinyl, CD and digital. Pre-order your copy now.