Albums Of The Month

Somewhere between the past and the distant future, sparked by dusty old jazz records and beat generation hip hop, at the sonic cross-roads of Detroit and Vienna, lies a series of sound stories steeping in the head of 23 year old beat navigator Paul Movahedi, also known as The Clonious.

The Adroit Adventures EP, released on Ubiquity in June, was the first set of tales to exit his studio and hit limited edition wax. It was immediately picked up by the likes of Mary Anne Hobbs (who aired a Clonious mixtape the week of it’s release) and Benji B on BBC Radio. DJs from Helskinki to Tokyo to New York also gave thumbs up to his unique blend of bouncy cosmic vibes and glitchy shoegazer funk. On Between The Dots his debut album, Movehadi continues his development of sounds that are at once new and classic, soulful and striking, organic and electronic.

“If a regular hip-hop head and the biggest IDM nerd both find a track on the album that they like, it would make me happy,” says Movahedi. “The album is the sum of what I like. These tracks are little adventures that just want to say hello,” he jokes.

Read more: The Clonious - Between The Dots (Ubiquity Records)

The SA-RA Creative Partners™ is a trio of accomplished musicians, producers and trendsetters, comprised of Om'Mas Keith, Taz Arnold and Shafiq Husayn.  On their musical quest they have dazzled with amazing productions, collections, mixes and remixes. But now, for the first time, with Nuclear Evolution: The Age of Love, they deliver a completely new and original album. Built from scratch, it’s a truly coherent and innovative body of work. Musical, adventurous, and even more evolved than anything they’ve done before, Nuclear Evolution also shows a controlled, polished, and in-the-pocket side to their work. It is an album on which SRCP™ shine as the innovative musical force they promised to be, ever since the cult hit “Glorious” first shattered bass bins and minds worldwide.

Whether on the otherworldly opus “Love Czars,” the bombastic  soul of “I Swear,” or twisted tales of drug-fueled-freaks on “Traffika,”  Nuclear Evolution: The Age of Love blends next-level production with a unique and unconstrained blend of street wit, dirty-sex talk, tall stories, and intergalactic future sounds, and is set to become essential listening for the summer of 2009.

Read more: Sa-Ra - Nuclear Evolution, The Age of Love (Ubiquity Records)

Fact or fiction? Is Clutchy Hopkins an alias? Or is this the true name for a reclusive musical powerhouse? Are his recordings vintage, new, or a mix of both? Some may wonder about these things, along with why some dudes have a long pinky nails or whatever happened to myspace, others may ask if any of this really matters? While the mystery surrounding the artist is no longer news, the music only gets better, maturing like a fine wine.

This album was delivered to Ubiquity HQ on a beaten-up iPod, which was wrapped in what looked like ancient scroll, but turned out to be two paintings of Hopkins by Spanish artist Thabeat Valera. One painting is the album cover, and the other will feature in the booklet. The iPod included all of the album tracks, plus a reading of the story behind the recording, repeated in 10 different languages.

It’s the most varied Hopkins album to date encompassing lots of vocal textures, and a dash of worldly vibes. Check the Brazilian-psyche-like “No Contact…Contact,” and the mad spooky science of “Miles Chillin,” or the shuffling “Thinkin’ of Eva” which would sound perfectly at home playing in a Parisian café. It’s an album influenced by Hopkins time in jail, where, while in the courtyard, he met many international prisoners waiting to be deported. Lo-fi, acoustic, finger- snapping, hand-clapping, whistle-and-hummed jam sessions gave Hopkins the ideas which he later put to tape. The album booklet will include the entire story, unfiltered.

Read more: Clutchy Hopkins - Story Teller (Ubiquity Records)

Singer and songwriter Johnny Malone met saxophonist and flautist Allan Barnes while they were students at Howard University in Washington DC in the 1960's. In addition to being under the tutelage of Donald Byrd who was head of Jazz Studies, they were classmates with future stars like Donny Hathaway, Leroy Hutson, and Angela Winbush. Barnes was already a member of the hugely popular soul jazz pioneers The Blackbyrds.

“We were at crest of the wave of early jazz fusion, plus the culture at Howard was a little outside of the box. We had great teachers – it was an ideal place to study and learn,” explains Barnes.

When the two friends formed Malone Barnes and Spontaneous Simplicity (named after the tune by Sun-Ra, whose band Barnes regularly appeared with when in Washington, DC) the collaboration yielded Freedom Serenade, an album of super spacey and spiritual jazz funk. Released in limited quantity in 1976, on their Humpin’ International label, this rare and underground album bears the hallmarks of contemporaries like the Blackbyrds, the Mizell Brothers and DC neighbors Oneness of Ju-Ju. "Warp Ten" features a solo battle between Barnes and trumpeter Curtis Pope (of the Isley Bros and Wilson Pickett bands). Songs such as "Moonstruck" and "Journey to the Stars" are DJ-friendly futuristic funk tracks with a sci-fi flavored nod to peers Funkadelic and Parliament.

Read more: Malone & Barnes and Spontaneous Simplicity - Freedom Serenade (Luv N' Haight)