As you can see from the timestamp on the Linkin Park post below, it’s been a while since I’ve published anything here at Mining The Landfill. Last November, I was hired as the Music Curator at ChinaShop, Red Bull’s music and culture website. Over the past year we’ve been steadily growing the site and expanding the scope of the content we cover: art, film, live shows and festivals, design and, of course, tons of music. Come check us out. I think you’ll be really happy with what you find. Below is a list of links where you can stay up-to-speed on everything I’m working on.
A note about Mining The Landfill…
Though there isn’t much current content here, The Landfill archives my 13+ years of music writing, and as you can see by expanding the Sort By tab on the right, there’s a ton of stuff to check out.
I could sit here and wax philosophic about things like historical significance and underground credibility, but really the proof, as they say, is in the pudding. Over my 12 (short/long?) years of writing about all different sorts of music, the Ninja Tune label far and away represents the largest cache of artists, albums, singles and DJ mixes that I count among my all-time favorite. And while they’re not the only label to send rolling papers as press package swag, they’ve definitely sent the largest and widest.
This year marks their 20th birthday, and they’re celebrating with a string of awesome parties worldwide, as well as a killer boxed set. Not familiar with the Ninjas? Open another browser window, dial up an archival show from their Solid Steel radio series, place your order for Big Dada’s Well Deep compilation, and check out an interview with co-label boss (and one-half of Coldcut) Matt Black after the jump.
Ninja Tune XX: 20 Years Of Beats & Pieces comes out October 5. Since only 3,500 copies were made, chances are you won’t be able to get one by the time you read this, but you can drool about it here. More on the incredible 20-year anniversary parties in the States you can attend here. You can also read up on a number of Ninja Tune artists by clicking here and going straight to the search page with all my various Ninja Tune interviews and reviews; easily the most well-represented label on this site.
Dubnobasswithmyheadman, Second Toughest In The Infants, Beaucoup Fish. Three groundbreaking electronic music albums, all created by the same group and released in the same decade. Impossible to top, right? Not if you’re Underworld. Karl Hyde and Rick Smith have been making music together since 1979, but you could argue that the material they’ve released over the last five years has been some of their best.Barking marks the first time the band has collaborated on album tracks with artists outside of the core group, and the results are astounding. Personal favorites include “Bird 1″ (with Dubfire from Deep Dish), “Scribble” (with High Contrast, which you can download below) and “Diamond Jigsaw” (with Paul van Dyk). (Click here for a tracklist and full collaborator credits.) The ebullient and always poetic Karl Hyde took some time out of a recent vacation to rap with me about the new record and his own artistic journeys this year.
Barking comes out September 13 on Om Records/Cooking Vinyl, and can be purchased in a multitude of formats via Underworld Live. They’ll be playing one show in the US before the end of the year – Hard Haunted Mansion in LA on October 31 — but you can always hear their Crude webcasts online.
MP3: Underworld - Scribble (6:58)
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An acclaimed ethno-musicologist and multi-instrumentalist, Lloyd Miller has championed freeform Oriental and Middle Eastern jazz motifs since the late ’50s, even landing his own TV show in Tehran under the name Kurosh Ali Khan. Seriously, the cat has more international drivers licenses than some bands have albums. In his hands, even the simplest piano phrase can be transformed into a psychedelic outernational meditation. For this project, Miller hooked up with UK jazz collective The Heliocentrics, whose Inspiration Information collab with Mulatu Astatke was one of last year’s best releases. As you’ll read in the interview below, Miller is ultra opinionated about the state of modern music, which is good ’cause there’s a lot of beulshat out there.
The self-titled album from Lloyd Miller and the Heliocentrics will be available August 3 on Strut, which, I might add, is a kick-ass record label. You can purchase a CD, vinyl copy or digital download from Strut’s online store, or go the iTunes route here.
MP3: Lloyd Miller and the Heliocentrics - Electricone (3:42)
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