Matthew Herbert is someone who should have sparked your interest by now if you are any bit into quality music, left of the centre but with Soul. You might have heard him as Herbert, with his big band or as a producer for Roisin Murphy to name the most obvious ones. But he’s much more than that. Digging deeper into that could fill an entire blog in itself so I’m not going to do it. Just going to point out you a few doors to his world.

As a producer, sampling wizard, label boss and so much more he’s somebody who pushes limits. He’s avant-garde, if you wish, but not in the artsy meaningless way. He’s an innovator. One of the kind that makes you wonder why you haven’t done the things he does yourself. One who opens doors and possibilities for you and others. A genius although that word is used so many times it doesn’t do him enough honour anymore. But Matthew Herbert is more than about making edgy but beautiful music. He’s an artist with a strong opinion. Something rare these days. Read about it on his site.

But the reason to serve you this on a Friday afternoon when you’re getting ready to start the weekend is “ The Story”. A new song by the Matthew Herbert Big Band currently being plugged by the better radio hosts worldwide. With Eska on vocals (everything she sings on is gold lately). Bloody good song, with a message and simply sounding brilliant. One of my favourite songs of the year. And there have been a few already to claim that title. This song announces his new album called ‘There’s Me And There’s You’ out at the end of October on K7! / Accidental. Check it out. And check out the album’s mini site with a free demo edit mp3 of “The Story”.

A selected Matthew Herbert discography:

Herbert – Bodily Functions (!K7)
Herbert – Around The House (Phonography / !K7)
Roisin Murphy – Ruby Blue (Echo)
Dani Siciliano – Likes … (!K7)
Doctor Rockit – Indoor Fireworks (Lifelike)
Matthew Herbert Big Band – Goodbye Swingtime (Accidental)

Some personal favourites:

Doctor Rockit – Café De Flor (Lifelike)
Herbert – The Audience (!K7)
Matthew Herbert Big Band feat. Eska – The Show (Accidental)
Cassio Ware – Fantasy / Herbert’s Reality Dub (Playhouse)
Moloko – Sing It Back / Herbert’s Tasteful (F-111)
Recloose – Can’t Take It / Herbert’s Some Dumb Dub (Planet E)

If you want to know more there’s always Discogs off course.

Dieter said something about it on our radio show; the Ancienne Belgique, Belgium’s premier live venue, has renewed its website. From a simple informative site to something very web 2.0. With blogs, a community, videos and everything. They got, for example, entire concerts online for you to watch. Check it out.

Blaze’s Kevin Hedge isn’t somebody to limit himself to making music only. He’s a DJ, label owner, party organiser and much more. You’ll hear about it in the interview we did with them. But as we take our time to bring you the result of our chat with Blaze in the best possible way, you’ll have to wait a little while for that. But it will be worth the wait.

In the meantime you can keep yourself more than busy with this. One of Kevin Hedge’s projects is the 2MyBeat.com site. This aims to promote Soulful music in all its forms (or Global Soul as he calls it). You’ll find on the site mixes, downloads, videos, links and more. A nice way to discover tons of information and music. With the possibility to buy what you like through Traxsource.

Check it out.

Our friends from the Laid Back crew have given their site and logo a facelift. Not only graphically but content-wise too. No more free mixes for download. If you want music check their online radio station (where we got our own GO BANG! program, don’t forget) or their FM Brussel radio show (now on Wednesdays, same hours as us, instead of Fridays). They got things sorted on the administrative front too (something we’re working on too). And on top of that they’re giving away Infinitskills Nine compilation away for free in digital form. Still, you need that on vinyl. I know there are still a few copies for sale at Lost In Music Records. Buy it.

Check it all out here.

Now all we need is another Belgikolor party.

Big up to the Made In Japan boys we had in the studio last episode of our radio show. Don of the underground Soul Benij B has played their track in his show. Nice one. But for once we were first. Rarely happens, playing tracks before Benji plays them.

Our dear friend Alex from On-Point put online the interview he did with Mad Mats, our guest on Saturday, a couple of years ago. This time not in video form but text only. Read and learn a bit about the Swedish DJ / label boss who’s playing at Spectakulo this weekend.

Thanks for the extra promo and info. Mats will be in our studio to record next Tuesday’s radio show. For more tunes and facts.

Nice little interview with Chicago soul phenomenon Yaw proving Straight No Chaser isn’t dead yet.

An artist that became a big bleep on my radar with his ‘I Think It’s Me” release on Running Back is (Todd) Osborn(e). Haven’t heard his entire album on Ghostly International’s subsidiary Spectral yet but what graced my ears tastes like more. Interesting electronics defying categories. Just the way we like it.

The ever interesting Little White Earbuds blog did an interview with the man. Good reading. Check it out. And check the man’s music.

Hope some of you have read “Last Night a DJ Saved my Life” by Bill Brester and Frank Broughton. It’s one of the definitive books about dance music culture. DJ History is the web addition to the book. A good source for those looking deeper. And a platform for who wants to ramble on with others. Now there’s a blog too. Go check it out.

Big up to Thierry Steady Go! for being The New Mastersounds’ favourite DJ. Check it here.

Rather funny news. Sebastien Tellier will be representing France with the song ‘Divine’ at the Eurovision Song Festival. A Belgian move like they say, sending an electro pop outfit to that epitome of kitsch (remember Pas de Deux and Telex). Some of the French scream scandal because the song is in English. They should scream it because they are sending something decent to the most pointless contest you can find. Anyway good one, mr. Tellier.

Infinitskills are the 3 guys who are behind the Nine release we bigged up not so long ago and who are part of the Laid Back crew that brought you Belgikolor last Friday. People that make nice things happen. Read an interview (in Dutch) here. And download a beattape. Both courtesy of the impeccable Kicksnare site.

A video my friend Jonathan send me. About House music vinyl shopping / distributing in the US. Check their site out here.

You probably are familiar with social networks like Myspace, Facebook and maybe even LinkedIn. They are all nice. Plenty of people to connect with or discover and damn handy to promote your stuff if you are anything like us. But that’s about it. Unless you have too much time on your hands or a thing for dumb games and applications.

The one other network I’m part of is Coopr8. Up until now I haven’t been very active on it but slowly I’m getting the point and pro’s of it. It’s smaller, much more focused and it’s more informative for me than it is handy to drop info on.

The Coopr8 network has, I guess, the same goal as most other ones but seeing that it originated out of the London Broken Beat scene it is a lot more focused. Coop is, by the way, a regular party in London’s Plastic people where the dons of that scene play their music pure and uncut. So it connects people with a similar mindset, taste and issues. You can still spam it with your promo but it makes little sense. It’s much more handy to connect with people, check out what they are doing and even learn from the handy groups on it.

It is pretty useless if you see it as another promo tool (unless you organise Bruk events in London maybe) but it is nice if you want to get involved in the somewhat leftfield soulful music scene.

My page on it is over here. Not much to discover yet but if our plans in general work out a bit like we hope they do, there will be much more of us on there soon.

The keynote speech during the Appletree night at Bitterzoet on Friday was hilarious. One of the most absurd party moments ever. The typical Nalden “hahaha” was on its place. Anyway check out the new site because it’s is fantastic.

Through the Blog about the record sleeves I’ve stumbled upon this one. About Mod Culture. I’ve got to admit that it is a prime example of me being a slacker sometimes because the link has been staring me in the face for quite some time. Because it’s written by a friend of mine who I respect a lot, I’ve seen it mentioned like tons of times before and still it took an unknown site to get me to check it. Shame on me.

Although I myself am not a Mod I do like the culture a lot and am influenced by it (although be it very shallow). I love the way Thierry (Steady Go!) and friends are into it. I’ve been stunned plenty of times by their collection, gear and behaviour. The most memorable one being at a Hammond Funk festival in the South of France with Thierry and seeing him dig up his stuff to iron his Cardin shirt before leaving for the festivities. Being the bum I am sometimes I take my old school Fred Perry’s right out of the machine and wear them. Easy.

The Blog itself goes deep into Mod culture. Trying to reconstruct the history of it in a decent way. It’s got info for hours to read. And it’s one of the top sources as it is being used by the BBC for a documentary on the Mods. Check it.

Where the Mod scene in Brussels is still alive it’s not so vibrant on the party front as it once was. There’s still the “Going Underground” parties at Churchill’s and one-offs here and there. There are plans to organise a monthly party but the much too familiar search for the right venue isn’t easy. If you know a small club with a wooden dance floor and a decent sound system in Brussels, let us know and we’ll inform them.

Not a big fan of the man. I have a problem with his voice and flow. Which results in the fact that I can listen to only 2 songs of his latest album without using the “next” button before they end. And even then I can’t stop but thinking he should have left all the vocals to Dwele on one of them. Productionwise I rate him higher but still far from the best like he claims more than often.

All that didn’t make me want to visit his Blog when I discovered he had one. But I did anyway and was pleasantly surprised. Some awesome architecture on it, for example. And I know he’s got more culture, brains and style than the average popstar but still didn’t expect this. Some nice things to discover. And some kitschy, baroque stuff too, I’m afraid.

Some completely other music for once. Not raw electronic music made by some black kids out of Detroit but distorted guitars played by white guys out of Washington DC. Fugazi was one of the main bands in my musical world when I was 16. I was a skater, I listened to the music that went with that and Hardcore and other loud guitar music was required listening. But from all the bands of that era that I had cassettes, LP’s and CD’s of, Fugazi is one of the sole that still stands strong. Their music still strikes a chord with me. It still blasts through my speakers very regularly. Because like the Detroit influenced electronica I like so much it’s got tons of Soul.

But Fugazi was more than just music alone. They had strong principles that made sense when I was 16 and still do. Got through this Blog to an interview with Ian MacKaye, member of Minor Threat and Fugazi and very inspirational human being.

Really feel his opinions about the whole lifestyle business, major companies like Nike or big record labels and on politics. People that are this earnest and pure are rare but they push you to think about the choices you make and path to follow. Sometimes the easiest way is to follow the herd. Reset your brains and follow. Never been good at doing that but on the other hand lost directions often too. Then it’s good to read an interview like this which makes you think and stay focused on what you feel is important. Check it out. Highly recommended.

Marc de Clive-Lowe, the New-Zeeland keyboard wiz who delivers quality Music on a more than regular base has started a Blog. With charts, upcoming shows, travel stories and a remix competition. And that last thing is even greater than it sounds. MdCL has always been very web 2.0 but this time he has even outdone himself. You can remix the entire The Politik (his project with Bembe Segue) LP. One or more songs and the original Artwork of the album. Love it. Check it out.

Found a great source on Old skool Hiphop on the net. Interview, artist profiles, stories, pictures, … . A good point to start if you want to extend your knowledge of the origins of the genre. Mind, the site is as Old Skool as the music it’s about. Great site to kill the slow moments at work.

If you want to contribute to a dope online Hiphop magazine in the Dutch language, click here. Kicksnare.be is looking for helping hands.

Underground Hiphop phenomenon Jay Electronica has created quite a buzz on the internet. Even before releasing something. Well, there’s some music floating around on the internet which sound promising to say the least. Some googling might hook you up with it, I’m sure. For those preferring only music you can buy; He’s the first signing on Erykah Badu’s Control Freaq label and his album should drop somewhere in 2008 in the shops.

Anyway, if you want to know what all the fuzz is about check out Gilles Peterson’s Podcast with lots of music by the man and an extensive interview.

Or check his own Youtube channel.

I’m Just going to copy their promo talk. I’m going to order my copy for sure. Looks dope both layout as content-wise. Preview here.

a brand new publication inspired by the five elements, the four noble truths, three - the magic number, forever two stepping (never half) but still always on the 1.

get your copy of issue 1 before they hit the shops. featuring too much good stuff - from a look at the burgeoning hip hop scene in detroit feat. denaun porter, guilty simpson, invincible and black milk. an exclusive interview with the original king of diggin’ - dj muro. we track down elusive french street artist invader. new BBE signing robert strauss gets personal with leroy burgess. we get into the studio with benga, master of the 26 basslines. and take a look at the sound of uk bhangra through its cover art, and revisit the New York downtown scene through the photography of paula court.

there’s also interviews with arthur verocai, simphiwe dana, the mighty jeddo, yukimi nagano, jay electronica, christian prommer, paul white & interactivo.

plus columns from benji b, WE ARE, heatwave, and all the usual reviews, travel, longplayers, charts… get shook!

Shook.fm
Shook.typepad.com

Like the On-Point.be peeps Benji B gives his predictions for 2008. And a little rundown of 2007. Check it out. With sound snippets and everything.

Time to reactivate those - by all the festivities - marinated brains and add some knowledge to them. About Disco with a capital D. Prelude has to be my favourite Disco labels. I never leave home for a dj-set without some of their records. Their dubby, electro-ish take on 70’s and early 80’s dance music always fits in perfectly with more contemporary favourites I play. Most of their music still sounds fresh today.

If you want to check it out or deepen your knowledge about it, here’s the perfect starting point to do so. An extensive article about the label with an interview with the founder, a lot of sound samples and a discography. Actually, the entire Disco-Disco.com site is awesome with lots of interviews, overviews and info. Bloody good source of info if you want to learn about Disco.

Had visited the site before but it was brought back to my attention by this nice Blog.