“Soul” (Used 15 times)

Every album by the French group The Juanitos is a party. The newest release, Welcome in the House of F.U.N., lives up to the band's party standards. Welcome in the House of F.U.N. delivers a sonic soul party, a vacation in the tropics, and time travel back to the swingingest '60s hot spots! There are even tips of the hat to the Chambers Brothers and Jimi Hendrix. Enjoy!

Jus Like Music is a great online resource for under-the-radar sounds from the hip-hop/electronica/neo-soul/dubstep realms. Run by Gav aka Jeej out of London since 2006, the site offers music reviews (including tips on free legal jams), a podcast, interviews and -- starting this year -- records!

To help spread the good word about Jus Like Music Records, they released two free Creative Commons compilations in collaboration with Sweden's Apple Juice Break. Over the course of 41 previously unheard tracks (by 41 different artists -- more if you include all the guests) these "Oscillations" compilations set a high bar for the label's future.

Check out the comps in full here -- they both come with PDF's cock full of vibrant images + artist info.

Oscillations Part 1 //[PDF booklet]

Oscillations Part 2 // [PDF booklet]

Both comps are solid listens all the way through, but below you'll find some of my favorites including wonky sounds from Tokyo's Broken Haze (aka Keisuke Ito of the Raid Systems label), neo-soul from Paper Tiger's collab with Sabira Jade, a smooth jam of a track from Nashville-based Brazilian-bred Ocuban, Slovenian-born Glasgow resident Maya Medvesek aka 8Bitch, and an idea-packed collaborative explosion from UK producer Kidkanevil and Brooklyn's Sudanese-American MC/Producer Oddissee.

Juanitos is an internationally-minded SoulJazz inspired group from Chamébry, France. Juan Naveira & co have been making all kindsa exotic beats since 1991, starting out as garage-punk then taking a turn towards 50's surf with exotic instrumentation. According to their official bio, this was partially inspired by Crypt Records' Jungle Exotica compilation.

Oddio Overplay introduced Juanitos to the FMA with the fantastic 2007 album Exotica. They also have a track on BlocSonic's NetBloc vol.24, and lots more at their website.

Their latest album, Soul Africa, is an irresistable Afrobeat & reggae-leaning organ-ic funk party released earlier this year. It's licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 France, so these good vibes can be shared worldwide!

>> Juanitos - Soul Africa

With all of the shine that Chicago gets for its role in bringing house music to the world, some tend to overlook its involvement within other genres.  On that note, look who blew in from the Windy City to the FMA:  MC/Producer St. LaRok. 

A member of the Miami Beat Wave Productions crew, LaRok leans heavily on the lessons learned from late '80s/early '90s hip-hop, bringing his own intricate instrumentals and lively wordplay to the rap game.  If there's any truth to 2010 ushering in a second "Golden Age" for hip-hop, his Leap Year EP could certainly be used as evidence for that argument.  To get better acquainted with this artist's work, here's a double shot of LaRok to showcase his talents on the mic and behind the drum machine.

Intro tracks don't get much better than "TIME/Leap," featuring the St. flowing fluidly over a shoulder-hunching beat that allows hip-hop to flirt with bossa nova patterns.  Meanwhile, "Archetype" focuses solely on LaRok's production, which pits rolling, sharp snares against a cloud of inviting chords.  Consider him one to watch as this new decade gets underway...

Here we are with the second in our Xtended Edition series. XE releases are meant to give albums, that were originally released on defunct labels or independently, a second chance at getting much deserved shine. Each XE release is packed with the original album, features fresh art and contains at least a bonus disc of exclusive goodies — remixes, outtakes, new tracks & demos. This XE is one very deep set! Coming in at 68 tracks… 3 hours, 9 minutes and 47 seconds in length, there’s little doubt that it’s got something to offer all you groove and beat fiends. Some of you may recognize Tha Silent Partner (TSP) from his work found at Jamendo. Some of you may only know him from his appearances on the netBloc series and the recent maxBloc single “P Pulsar”. Either way, you’re about to get to know his work in a big way, both through his music and through this release’s extensive liner-notes.

27 year old producer/remixer Gregory “Tha Silent Partner” Davis currently calls Boston home, though his roots lie in the UK. He made his first blocSonic appearance back in 2007 on “netBloc Vol. 11: The Raw And The Cooked” with the spaghetti-western flavored “No Mas”. He then re-appeared, along with Unknown aka Formula as MUTE, on “netBloc Vol. 15: this album won’t eat your gas money” with the powerful and soulful “Is It Too Late For Us All?”. Now he’s back with “Tha Complete Platters Sessions XE”.

To understand what the Platters Sessions are all about, here’s a bit of background. Back in 2007, TSP began releasing a series of “Platters” releases via Jamendo and under his label Me, Life & Music. The Platters series were an exploration of vinyl samples based on particular themes. The first installment, “Platters Act. 1 (Lounge Music And Exotica)” featured lush orchestration and smooth rhythms. Then in 2008, the second installment, “Platters Act. 2 (The Untouchables)”, went sort of unreleased (more about that can be found in TSP’s liner-notes). It featured an episode of the TV show “The Untouchables” infused into a sonic world of funky hip-hop beats and jazzy melodies. Finally, in 2009, TSP dropped the third and final act of the series… “Platters Act. 3 (Tape Deck)”, a sort of beat tape, but with a completely unique TSP vibe.

For the first time, “Tha Complete Platters Sessions XE” collects all 3 acts together along with a bonus disc of outtakes from the period, making for an incredible 3CD set of sonic treats! Add to that the maxBloc exclusives on the “P Pulsar” single along with the “Starksy (Featuring Seti A.K.A. K9)” single that’s set to follow this release along with it’s exclusives and you’ve got a whole hell of a lot of new listening!

So what’s contained on this release, you ask? Disc One features the first two acts — “Platters Act 1 (Lounge Music And Exotica)” with it’s dusty, chilled vibe & “Platters Act 2 (The Untouchables)” with it’s exploration of the fusion of story-telling and music. Disc Two contains “Platters Act 3 (TAPE DECK)”… which is a sort of beat tape infused with a sound that’s unique to TSP. Finally, Disc Three contains “Tha Director’s Cut” — 18 bonus previously unreleased tracks that came out of the Platters sessions or were produced for other projects during the same period. This is where you get to hear tracks that feature the vocal skills of lyricists such as Life MC of Phi Life Cypher, Mayhem, Revalation, Seti & HT. On the whole, this is a fantastic collection of adventerous & eclectic music!

I’d also like to mention that there’s one other “first” that this release represents. It’s also the first long form blocSonic release to contain material culled from Gregory’s Me Life & Music label archives. Around the same time that I began thinking about the XE idea and how to best approach it, Gregory made an offer I couldn’t refuse. He offered up complete control of the ML&M archives in order that blocSonic may give that music an online home that could do it justice. I immediately saw the opportunity to work some of the archives into this XE series and here you have one example of what we plan on doing. In the future we plan on releasing other XEs, maxBlocs and Originals that contain material culled from the ML&M archives. A very special thanks to Gregory for the opportunity and the trust that he’s placed in blocSonic! I hope you feel that blocSonic’s done the Platters series justice.

So there you have it… more sonic treats for you to absorb. Thanks again for taking the time to visit blocSonic and giving our releases a download & listen. Enjoy it. Share it. Blog it. Podcast it. Tweet it.

Remember… next Tuesday (April 6^th, 2010) is the release of the second maxBloc single for this set, “Starksy (Featuring Seti A.K.A. K9)”. It’s going to be packed with yet more exclusive material not found on this collection. Come right back here to blocSonic to grab it!

Grab “Tha Complete Platters Sessions XE” here at FMA.

Want high-resolution album art, liner-notes or lossless FLAC audio? Check out the blocSonic release page!