Needles & Grooves AoTM /// Vol. 0 - June 2019 /// MARK DE CLIVE-LOWE - Heritage Vol.1

Skalap

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MARK DE CLIVE-LOWE - Heritage Vol.1 (Ropeadope Records / 2019)

3779
Artist Page / Bandcamp

First of all thank you all for the discussion, the guesses, the laughs you gave me. It was a lot of fun to run this thread and see how hard you struggled to find out my pick. Thank you also for all the wrong but great guesses you shared, you have certainly opened new paths for some us and that’s exactly what I expect from this.

There are two main reasons why I picked this album. The first is that I LOVE this album. It is certainly the album that I listened the most in 2019 and I keep listening to almost every week. I have been listening to MdCL's music since the beginning of the ‘10s, when he was collaborating with the great English label Tru Thoughts (Quantic, Alice Russell, Hot 8 Brass Band). I consider MdCL, along with Gilles Peterson, as one of the big brothers of the incredible London/UK jazz scene that has exploded in recent years. Without people like them, there would probably have no Shabaka Hutchings, Nubya Garcia or Joe Armon-Jones. MdCL's music is at the crossroads of the musical genres I love the most. There's a subtil mix of electronica, hip-hop, soul, jazz and a touch of world music (Japan here, a country I love and I have listened to a lot of music in the last months - those who are in the Jazz thread, and my banker, know what I'm talking about). You’ll have various links at the end of this text if you want to learn more about MdCL. I wanted to make you discover this great musician I admire through this excellent album, one of the best released this year and a real contender as best album of the year. As the name suggests, Heritage Vol.1 is the first in a serie of two albums. This first is the day, it is quieter and meditative and draws deeper into the Japanese roots of MdCL. The second, just as good, is the night and incorporates hip hop, drum'n'bass and broken beat sounds. I recommend this second volume if you want to continue the journey. As you’ll read in his Bandcamp page, these songs were recorded with an all-star band : Josh Johnson on alto sax and flute (plays/played with Leon Bridges/Esperanza Spalding), Teodross Avery on tenor sax (Talib Kweli/Mos Def), Brandon Eugene Owens on bass (Terrace Martin/Robert Glasper), Brandon Combs on drums (Moses Sumney/Iman Omari) and Carlos Niño on percussions (Build An Ark/Lifeforce Trio). Oh, and it’s on red vinyl ! So you colored vinyl addicts will be even more happy with this pick J

The other main reason why I picked this record is its name, Heritage, which has a special meaning for us, N&G forum members. Only when the VMP staff announced their decision to shut the forum down did I realized how important this place was in my life. Reading the forum’s posts was the first thing I used to do every morning. I wanted to know what had been told while I was sleeping and read all these posts about music, TV series, personal problems, sandwiches, hot dogs, etc…. I also used to find all these great people I have never had the opportunity to meet, people that I feel to know without really knowing but with whom I can discuss anything and everything. These people have no genre, no color, no religions, no political convictions. They are people with their own opinions but who respect those of others. These are people I love and exaggerating a little bit, it's almost a family (I certainly share more things with you all than I share with some of my family members). Am I wrong to think that? The number of contributors and the amount raised in just a few hours to help our dear administrators to build our new home proves that I might be right. I do not have the words to express how pleased I am to be part of this community and how proud I am of us. Once again, a very big thank you to, in alphabetic order, @AndySlash, @AnthonyI, @Captainfog, @Colonel_Angus , @David A., @gouis, @mcherry, @RenegadeMonster for their incredible work as well as for the time and energy they have given us. Needles & Grooves is our heritage and we, all of us, have to take care of our home.


You can order the record at :
Artist Bandcamp page or wherever you want (support your local if you can).

You can re-read the AMA we had with MdCL on June, 10th :
AMA

You can listen/watch :
Heritage album narration with Mark explaining the meaning behind each song Thanks to @Captainfog
MdCL live set for Le Mellotron French global music radio recorded in 2014 Thanks to @Captainfog

You can read reviews of the album at :
All About Jazz
Glide Magazine
Downbeat
UK Vibe
Twisted Soul Music


You can read MdCL interviews at :
Revive Music
Jazziz


Whether you like it or not, here a few other albums that I could have picked or you may enjoy too. You can consider these records as swaps or as new worlds to discover (I prefer the later option but it's up to you) :

Mark de Clive-lowe - Heritage Vol.2
Day turns to night as Mark de Clive-Lowe’s Heritage II takes us from the meditative zen of Heritage into a world of jazz and Japanese roots culture fused with hip hop, drum’n’bass and broken-beat.
>>> Because… Obviously !

Minyo Crusaders - Echoes Of Japan
Minyo Crusaders rework historic Japanese folk songs (min'yō) with Latin, African, Caribbean and Asian rhythms on their debut album “Echoes of Japan”.
>>> Because you’ll never have another chance to listen to traditional Japanese folk songs on Cumbia music.

Coladera – La Dôtu Lado
La Dôtu Lado swings as much as it seduces. It maps new musical routes linking the Cape Verdean island sounds of batuque and funaná, with deep candomblé inspired rhythms and the heart tugging sway of fado.
>>> Because they say summer is coming and you’ll need a sweet album to chill at night.

Nu Guinea ‎– Nuova Napoli
Nuova Napoli is the result of a long musical research that has become a historical investigation on the sound that shaped Napoli during the ‘70s and ‘80s, starting from the contamination of genres (disco, jazz-funk, African rhythms) which ended up in Nu Guinea’s DNA.
>>> Because Je Vulesse, track 2 of the album (try not to move your feet).


Thank you and enjoy !
Skalap
 
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Guesses :

The Comet is Coming- Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery @duke86fan
Mark De Clive-Lowe ‎– Heritage 1 & 2 @ChristoBee
Dexter Story - Bahir @agutierrezb
Ezra Collective - You Can't Steal My Joy @Mr Moore
Ronin Arkestra - First Meeting @AC Slaughter
Flying Lotus - Flamagra @axeinthehead
The Milestones - Beautiful Light @ByersVinyl
Masaki Batoh ‎– Nowhere @akhliber
Gotta be something from Analog Africa @Mather
Te'amir Sweeney, Professor H ‎– Te'Amir & Professor H Present: Circle @ChristoBee
Bunny Lee ‎– Dreads Enter The Gates With Praise @duke86fan
Various ‎– Style & Fashion (A-Class Top Notch Hi Fi Sounds In Fine Style) @duke86fan

Not It :

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook @Lee Newman /// NOT 2019
The Vamps - Day and Night @Selaws /// NOT 2019
Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness @manonkouch /// NOT 2019
Kid Cudi - Man On The Moon: The End of Day @chris_d_cole / @duke86fan /// NOT 2019
Hot Chip - In Our Heads @dbarila /// NOT 2019
Smack - Noite e Dia @ChristoBee /// NOT 2019
Cowboy Junkies - Pale Sun, Crescent Moon @doncornelius /// NOT 2019
Prince - Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic @Murfocakes /// NOT 2019
Mulatu Astatke & Ethiopian Quintet - Afro-Latin Soul @Turbo /// NOT 2019
Sukurumba - Up The River @surrealmadrid75 /// NOT 2019
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ @Enoch /// Who knows?
Maniaks ‎– Le Jour Et La Nuit @ByersVinyl /// NOT 2019
Billie Piper ‎– Day & Night @chrisM /// NOT 2019
The Bravery ‎– The Sun And The Moon @hut hut hike /// NOT 2019
Kamasi Washington - The Epic @axeinthehead /// NOT 2019
Sunda Arc - Flicker @Poly-Rythmo /// NOT 2019
Sun Ra ‎– Media Dreams @ByersVinyl /// NOT 2019
Minoru Muraoka - Bamboo @surrealmadrid75
Dur-Dur Band - Dur Dur of Somalia - Volume 1, Volume 2 & Previously Unreleased Tracks @uvwxVinyl

Not It At All :

Paula Abdul - Opposites Attract @Teeeee /// NOT 2019
 
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Ladies and Gentlemen,

First of all, as you may have noticed my English is not the best so my apologies for any mistake I'll write while trying to run this thread. We are gonna do a test run of our own AoTM. Any suggestion/idea/critic is more than welcomed but must be shared in the Needles & Grooves ROTM : Brainstorm.

The AoTM Vol.0 will be revealed on May 31st.

This is your first hint, may the force be with you and the chance be with me :

3056

Surprise Hint :
I spent part of the afternoon at Le Mondial de la Bière and I am a bit drunk in a very good mood :

2019


New Hint :

52.634306, 1.296676

Last Hint :



Very Last Hint :

 
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so I am guessing we will just be buying it ourselves?

Yup! It's a test run so we'll see in the future how we can work to have a group buy or something like that from a label and/or an artist. At this step, I think it's important to see how we will react to this non-exclusive AoTM, if we will participate, etc... We should give us a few months, share ideas and see how we can improve this.
 
Yup! It's a test run so we'll see in the future how we can work to have a group buy or something like that from a label and/or an artist. At this step, I think it's important to see how we will react to this non-exclusive AoTM, if we will participate, etc... We should give us a few months, share ideas and see how we can improve this.

this is how a certain other club started
 
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My guess is Kid Cudi’s ‘Man On The Moon: The End of Day’
 
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