[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OuTXj4Ll7U[/youtube]
Perq, 100% surely my favourite beat producer in the world, and golden boy Pete Philly have been active since 2003. In 2004 the first collaboration EP, Mindstate, was released. It hit the world with a bang. Each track on the tape represents its own mindstate. The Mellow track is exactly what you want to hear in a mellow mood and Gratefull even ended up in my personal selection of all time favourites. In January 2007 the Re-Mindstate tape was released, the remixed version of Mindstate, to me a big miss. But in the end of the same year they absolutely nailed it with the new album Mystery Repeats. The very succesfull album lead to a European tour which ended December 2008, but did they ever come to Britain? No they didn't, it's about time then!
First off, Para might well be our new hero. But what you also need to know is that we're not just some sycophantic, slobbering groupies. We don't throw out accolades like that easily. Hero-status is best achieved through musical excellence and that, ladies and gents, is what we have here.
Twelve and a bit perfectly crafted little beauties, laced with soul, funk and blues, along with some of the nicest sampling of drum breaks I've heard come out of the UK in a long, long while. Then he laces them with the sultry vocals of Caitlin and you end up with my new favourite dance-around-the-house-like-a-madman record.
Madlib, his many incarnations and his 4 ton record collection always come with the goods. Too numerous to mention, but you all know the score by now anyway. Well now the Madliberator is in the lab creating a 12 part CD series under the title of "The Medicine Show". Set to be released over the course of 12 months, it will be a collection of his new hip hop production, remixes and beat tapes. Plus soul, funk, Brazilian, psych, jazz and 'other undefined forms of music'. 
The magical Yellow Brick Road has found an artist again, after Elton John and Eminem the bricks have been walked by Sabrina Starke. Comming from Rotterdam it is not easy to get signed by the world's biggest Jazz label BlueNote. 
