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Track Reviews

Chris Turner – stickyGREEN (Prod. Pete Rock)

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Our buddy Chris Turner does it for y’all and serves up this fresh Pete Rock-produced tribute to Weed Day for FREE, baby! Chris Turner + Pete Rock for FREE! Only in America, baby! p.s. This track is dope! The Pete Rock groove is ridiculous. Check it!

Chris Turner – stickyGREEN (Prod. Pete Rock)

Chris Turner: (Myspace) (Twitter) (Bandcamp)

Rating: 8.6

brown8

reviewed by
04-20-11

BOAT – Classically Trained

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BOAT’s “Classically Trained”, new off their recently released fourth LP Dress Like Your Idols, is a proper guitar tune with GREAT melodies. From verse to chorus, prechorus to bridge, vocal harmony and guitar layering abound, building the song’s excellent dynamics. Sounds good, right? You know what to do! Get into it below.

BOAT – Classically Trained

BOAT: (Official) (Myspace)

Rating: 8.3

brown8

reviewed by
04-20-11

FaltyDL – Brazil (Cairo’s Falling Down Remix)

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FaltyDL tracks are mint on release. As such, any sort of remixing, refixing, and other like noodling of Falty’s tracks can prove difficult and/or futile. To be frank, most FaltyDL remixes we get are pretty shit. Cairo, a DJ out of Australia, manages to break that trend with what totals up to one of our fav remixes of the year thusfar. Cairo absolutly nails the groove on this. The hook, the vocal track, all expertly interpreted. Finding tracks like Cairo’s “Brazil” remix are why we do this.


FaltyDL – Brazil (Cairo’s Falling Down Remix)

Cairo: (Soundcloud) (Twitter)
FaltyDL: (Myspace) (Tumblr) (Soundcloud)

Rating: 8.9

brown93

reviewed by
04-20-11

Grouper – Alien Observer

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Grouper’s “Alien Observer” is beautiful. The track feels almost sacred, like sacred choral music. A track perhaps best heard in context of a some edge of the galaxy cathedral or, in my case (fast forward about 20 minutes), my bedroom as I drift off and away into sleep.

Grouper – Alien Observer

Grouper: (Myspace)

Rating: 8.3

brown8

reviewed by
04-19-11

Ryan Leslie – Glory

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Whoa. Where the fuck did this come from? Who’s this guy and what has he done with Ryan Leslie? The vocals, the instrumentation, the feel of the song. Fucking great. But LOL, where did this come from? This is the same dude that dated Cassie, right? Ryan Leslie, let us know.

Ryan Leslie – Glory

Ryan Leslie: (Official) (Myspace) (Facebook)

Rating: 8.0

brown8

reviewed by
04-19-11

Uffie – Wordy Rappinghood (Tom Tom Club Cover)

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Feel that pulse running through your toes, and then to your knees, and up through your entire body. Yep, you’re just as hooked on this new Uffie cover of Tom Tom Club as we are. And it feels so good! Just wanna move our dancin’ feet!

Uffie – Wordy Rappinghood (Tom Tom Club Cover)

Uffie: (Official) (Myspace) (Facebook)

Rating: 8.1

brown8

reviewed by
04-19-11

Tom Vek – A Chore

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Vek is back.

Tom Vek – A Chore

Tom Vek: (Official) (Myspace)

Rating: 8.5

brown8

reviewed by
04-19-11

Estelle – Break My Heart (Feat. Rick Ross)

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Estelle links up with everybody’s fav overweight C.O. on “Break My Heart”. Estelle sounds great. Rozay’s laid back mafioso sound is a winning direction for Ms. Swaray. If there’s more of these gold-plated lush life sort of jams on her upcoming All of Me , Estelle could be in line for a strong return.

Estelle – Break My Heart (Feat. Rick Ross)

Estelle: (Official) (Myspace)

Rating: 8.1

brown8

reviewed by
04-18-11

Sade – I Would Have Never Guessed

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“I Would Have Never Guessed” is another of the excellent unreleased tracks that will be included on Sade’s upcoming Ultimate Collection package. “I Would Have Never Guessed” is also a really really good torch ballad. The song is sort of in the same lane as Sia’s “Breathe Me” or DHT’s version of “Listen to Your Heart” except performed by someone with the chops to carry such a spare/vocal intensive sort of song. Sade’s performance is quiet, soothing, all that sort of stuff but it’s also powerful; she’s singing from a real place, a very precise point of emotion. Win to Adu.

Sade – I Would Have Never Guessed

Sade: (Official) (Myspace)

Rating: 8.2

brown8

reviewed by
04-18-11

MED – This Is Your Life (Feat. Blu) (Prod. Exile)

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Two of the best MC’s doing it right now on an Exile beat? Over before it even began. Mint.

MED – This Is Your Life (Feat. Blu) (Prod. Exile)

MED: (Myspace)

Rating: 8.3

brown8

reviewed by
04-18-11

Cage the Elephant – Aberdeen

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Cage the Elephant leads off tonight with a primo cut from their excellent Thank You, Happy Birthday LP. All the sweet shit you loved about 90’s alternative radio (close your eyes and try not to hear Weezer in that intro) is live on “Aberdeen”, heavy up-in-the-mix bass-driven verses, big distorted guitars, and even bigger melodies. It’s enough to make you wanna strap on some vans and start playing pogs. Your torpedo, our slammer.

Cage the Elephant – Aberdeen

Cage the Elephant: (Official) (Myspace) (Facebook)

Rating: 8.1

brown8

reviewed by
04-18-11

The Pilots – Question and Answer

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As experimental electro, r&b and smooth jazz continue to cross paths, note “Question & Answer”. Collaborations beckoning.


The Pilots – Question and Answer via YYY

The Pilots: (Info)

Rating: 8.1
brown8

reviewed by
04-15-11