Madlib

Geoff Barrow & Ben Salisbury

Q&A: Portishead producer Geoff Barrow on hip hop, krautrock, and film scores

DROKKGeoff Barrow & Ben Salisbury: Drokk: Music Inspired by Mega-City One (Invada, 5/1/12)

“Lawmaster Pursuit”

Geoff Barrow & Ben Salisbury: “Lawmaster Pursuit”

If there’s one band that pulled off the long, mysterious hiatus with mystique intact, it’s Bristol, England’s Portishead. Yet when the ’90s trip-hop act resurfaced in 2006, it had substantially changed — gone were the down-tempo beats and much of the melancholy, replaced with a new sound and sparse, driving rhythms that owed more to krautrock than Def Jam.

Beatsmith/songwriter Geoff Barrow was guiding it that way. Since the reunion, he’s been on fire, issuing music in a variety of guises with Beak> (a rock band), Quakers (a sprawling hip-hop project), and as Drokk (a soundtracking duo). That’s not including the records that Barrow has produced for others and released on his label, Invada.

With no shortage of topics in tow, we caught up with Barrow to talk about drum sounds, film scores, and writing music for Judge Dredd.

Stones Throw Records Founder Peanut Butter Wolf

Fund this: Stones Throw documentary gets Kickstarted

When Peanut Butter Wolf started Stones Throw Records in 1996, his friend and rap partner Charizma had just been killed. What started as a cathartic way to release the music they recorded together soon grew into something much larger, a record label releasing an eclectic range of music, with artists as diverse as Madlib, Mayer Hawthorne, and Omar Rodriguez Lopez on their rolls.

J Rocc

The Groove Seeker: J Rocc’s Some Cold Rock Stuf

On a weekly basis, The Groove Seeker goes in search of killer grooves across rock, funk, hip hop, soul, electronic music, jazz, fusion, and more.

J Rocc: Some Cold Rock StufJ Rocc: Some Cold Rock Stuf (Stones Throw, 3/8/11)

J Rocc: “Play This (Also)”

[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/08-Play-This-Also.mp3|titles=J Rocc: “Play This (Also)”]

One of the most important figures in DJing and turntablism over the past two decades, J Rocc is finally releasing his debut effort of original cuts titled Some Cold Rock Stuf.  Original in all senses of the word, J Rocc has amazed audiences from Los Angeles to Tokyo with a distinct style that began by co-founding the landmark DJ crew the Beat Junkies in the early ’90s with Melo-D and Rhettmatic.

Along with fellow beat junkie Babu, and the likes of Mix Master Mike and Q-Bert of the Invisible Skratch Piklz, J Rocc was a part of the pioneering scene that brought respect back to the DJ, establishing the turntable as instrument while forging a new path towards instrumental hip hop.

The Mad Platter

Behind the Counter: Rhino Records & The Mad Platter (Claremont, CA)

Each week, Behind the Counter speaks to an independent record store to ask about its recent favorites, best sellers, and noteworthy trends.

ALARM recently spoke with Dennis Callaci, general manager of the Inland Empire-based Rhino Records and The Mad Platter, about the sisterly record stores and the potential correlation between UFOs, Jim Morrison, and Vietnam (hint: he’s not interested). To kick off the Q&A, here’s a photo of Mad Platter employee Jonny holding his favorite record.

The Mad Platter
Jonny holds The Cure's Disintegration

Lazer Sword: Five artists ahead of their time

Lazer Sword: “Batman” (s/t, Innovative Leisure, 11/2/10)

Lazer Sword: “Batman”

Lazer Sword is the DJ duo of Lando Kal (Antaeus Roy) and Low Limit (Bryant Rutledge). Together, these two dance-floor destroyers pump out hip-hop/electro burners heavy on bass and mile-a-minute mixing. The forward-thinking group creates its eclectic sound through a general disregard for genre, straddling styles with a diverse range of samples. Unsurprisingly, many of its influences are pioneers that sounded out of place in the musical landscape of their respective eras. Lando Kal and Low Limit shared some of these futuristic artists with ALARM.

Low Limit’s picks:

Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa

The brilliant Frank Zappa — producer, shredding guitarist, anti-censorship activist, and ringleader of The Mothers of Invention — is without a doubt from either the future or outer space. Zappa was an incredibly talented composer with the most impressive, satirical sense of humor, who was never afraid to challenge his listeners with experimental outbursts, political commentary, or other weirdness. He named his children really bizarre names like Moon Unit and Dweezil…and I heard he appeared in an episode of Ren and Stimpy, as the voice of the Pope.