Listen to any modern r&b playlist and it becomes easy to forget that it wasn’t long ago that soul and hip hop existed as separate genres of music. And while I think both would have benefitted by sticking to their corners, this recent heatwave has exposed a patch of nostalgia that reminded me how exiting it was to watch the transition play out in real time.

Dubbed “New Jack Swing” in a Village Voice interview with the genre’s Godfather, Teddy Riley, who had come up producing artists like Heavy D and Kool Moe Dee, and by creating the classic instrumental for Doug E Fresh’s “The Show”. Riley applied the same production flair and love for the 808 to upbeat popular soul vocals, which married Hip Hop and R&B together forever, for better and for worse.

Nearly a couple of decades later, whether or not the music stands the test of time might have more to do with your level of involvement in the scene. Not since the jazz age has a culture developed such a sophisticated range of formalized dance steps, an involvement that required you to practice beforehand and create choreographed routines, and not just ad lib the moment. Where the original swing kids had Duke Ellington and the Astoria, jars of gin and Zoot suits, we New Jacks had Teddy Riley and wine coolers, Ikeda overalls and polka dot shirts, but those distinctions faded away the first time you ever jumped your own leg, then landed in the splits.

Johnny Kemp – Just Got Paid
Keith Sweat – I Want Her
Hi Five – I Just Can’t Handle It
Boyz II Men – Under Pressure
2 0’Clock – Gotta Get That Girl (12″ Version)
Johnny Gill – Rub You the Right Way
Luther Vandross & Janet Jackson – The Best Things In Life Are Free
Guy – I Wanna Get With U
Ready For the World – Yo, That’s a Lot of Body
Samuelle – So You Like What You See
Bobby Brown – Don’t Be Cruel (Remix)
Tony! Toni! Tone! – Let’s Have a Good Time
En Vogue – Hold On (Edit)
LL Cool J – The Boomin’ System (The Underground Mix)
Bell Biv Devoe – Word to the Mutha! (WBBD Remix)
Another Bad Creation – Spydermann
Wrecks-N-Effect – New Jack Swing
Heavy D & the Boyz – We Got Our Own Thang (Teddy Riley Club Mix)
Raheim – Does Your Man Know About Me
Ralph Tresvant – Sensitivity
Al B. Sure – Nite and Day
Troop – Spread My Wings
Flex – Hard To Say Goodbye to Yesterday

Electric Adolescence – New Jack Swing (right click to download) 60 mins/ 320 kbps/ 109MB

Download audio file (electric adolescence - new jack swing.mp3)

As part of this heatwave induced nostalgia trip I’m on, I also threw together a quick mix of guilty pleasure summer rap hits, hoping that nearly a year running this blog will have finally afforded me enough street cred to put Color Me Bad on a mix.

Candyman – Knockin’ Boots
Color Me Badd – I Wanna Sex You Up (Smoothed Out Mix)
LL Cool J – Around the Way Girl
DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince – Summertime (Remix)
Brotherhood Creed – Helluva (Mo’ Betta Mix)
A Ligher Shade of Brown – On a Sunday Afternoon
Dream Warriors – Ludi (Double Trouble Club Mix)
Marley Marl feat. Heavy D – Fools In Love
The Jungle Brothers – Spark a New Flame
De La Soul – Talkin’ Bout Hey Love
Ghostface Killah feat Slick Rick, RZA, Raekwon – The Sun
Take 6 – Don’t Shoot Me

Electric Adolescence – Summer Rap Hits (right click to download) 30 mins/ 320 kbps/ 68MB

Download audio file (electric adolescence - summer rap hits.mp3)

Perhaps some songs are thorough enough that any supplemental text would just be wasting space.

Wire – Heartbeat (right click to download) 3:16 mins/ 224 kbps/ 5.25MB

Download audio file (wire - heartbeat.mp3)

Jesus loves the Republican party because the Republican party loves Jesus. He loves the Republican party because He believes the second amendment is more important than the first, that military spending is holier than heathcare, and that the government has no right to regulate corporations, but has an obligation to regulate homosexuals.
 
Jesus watches Fox because he likes his news delivered by professional wrestlers. He thinks America was better in the fifties, and can’t understand why so few black people agree. He one of millions who bought Sarah Palin’s book, and one of hundreds who read it. He doesn’t think Glen Beck is crazy. Jesus Christ has a reoccurring nightmare about Michelle Obama’s arms, and wakes each morning with clenched fists and the American Flag he wraps himself in drenched with sweat.

Neu! – Weissensee (right click to download) 6:46 mins/ 128 kbps/ 6.21MB

Download audio file (neu! - weissensee.mp3)

Fans of their earlier work should be quite pleased of the (currently available for pre-order forthcoming Books Album, The Way Out. While much of the album has the outfit refining a sound cultivated over a series of experimental yet unalienating albums, they forge a new sonic territory somewhere between Sgt. Peppers and Prince Paul.

The Books – I Didn’t Know That (right click to download) 5:10 mins/ 320 kbps/ 5.92MB

Download audio file (the books - i didn't know that.mp3)

The Books – The Story of Hip Hop (right click to download) 4:30 mins/ 320 kbps/ 7.74MB

Download audio file (the books the story of hip-hop.mp3)

For those that slept, the first single from the album was included in the Raised In Cassettes mix a while back.

With decades having lapsed since Michel Hutchence’s impeccable hairdo outpaced the 90210 sideburns as the north star of white guy grooming, is seems surprising to regard the sometimes overpolished radio darlings as being ahead of their time, but this lesser known single from the bands early days could have just as easily been a blog-era hit. A cool reminder that any band that ends with the lead singer killing himself invites a revisit to their back catalog.

Let’s not pretend we’re too cool to dig the hits.

INXS – To Look At You (Extended Version) (right click to download) 6:32 mins/ 320 kbps/ 14.9MB

Download audio file (inxs - to look at you (extended version).mp3)

INXS – Need You Tonight (Mendleston Mix) (right click to download) 7:04 mins/ 320 kbps/ 16.2MB

Download audio file (inxs - need you tonight (mendelson mix).mp3)

INXS – Guns In the Sky (Kick Ass Mix) (right click to download) 6:02 mins/ 320 kbps/ 13.8MB

Download audio file (inxs - guns in the sky (kick ass mix).mp3)

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of spending time with a Canadian you’ll know that we’re sorry. Not for anything in particular, just generally. If you bump into one of us on the street, we’ll be the ones to apologize, to a point where it makes you wonder what a country with relatively clean hands has to feel so bad about.
 
Like any country with running water and a stock market, we have had a checkered history with the original tenants of our land, and several run-ins with the French, but never has a country fetishized their sins as thoroughly as Canada has. Our airports, government buildings, and public places use Native art the way Persian homosexuals use leopard print, and everything we read is coupled with a French translation, even though I’m personally more likely to have a conversation in Tagalog. We put more money towards art funding than any country in the world, with a wildly disproportionate amount of that going to multicultural artists and projects, to a point where we haven’t just turned our guilt into an art form, we have adopted it as a national identity so pervasive that it makes one wonder what would be left if all that went away.
 
In the end, I still prefer living in a country that settles its grievances with art funding and tax policy as opposed to settlement camps and suicide bombers, and I like having the French language around, if only for aesthetics, but with America acting like Al Pacino during the last few minutes of Scarface, the Middle East fighting their way back to the seventeen century, and Europe looking like a great sweater that has seen one too many winters, maybe my countrymen can celebrate this Canada Day by grading the world on a curve, and letting ourselves off the hook.
 
A little glimpse of the part of our culture that doesn’t involve nature, gentrification, or winter sports, here’s a mix of some Canadian rock and new wave from the eh-ties.

Trooper – The Boys In the Bright White Sports Car
Gino Vannelli – Black Cars
The Parachute Club – Rise Up
Platinum Blonde – Situation Critical
Loverboy – Working For the Weekend (Demo Version)
Martha & the Muffins – Swimming
Men Without Hats – Pop Goes the World
Gowan – You’re a Strange Animal
The Payolas – Eyes of a Stranger
Bruce Cockburn – Lovers In a Dangerous Time
Honeymoon Suite – New Girl Now
Rough Trade – High School Confidential
Glass Tiger – Someday
Chilliwack – My Girl
Doug & the Slugs – Who Knows How (To Make Love Stay)
Kim Mitchell – Patio Lanterns
Corey Hart – It Ain’t Enough
Barenaked Ladies – What A Good Boy
The Tragically Hip – Wheat Kings
Stompin’ Tom Connors – C-A-N-A-D-A (Cross Canada)
　
Authors note: if anybody is thinking about writing a comment about Bryan Adams being excluded, or the Barenaked Ladies and Tragically Hip not being from the eighties, you might want to spend that energy explaining to your father why he shouldn’t expect grandchildren.

Electric Adolescence – we spell canada with lower case letters (right click to download) 45 mins/ 320 kbps/ 103MB

Download audio file (electric adolescence - we spell canada lower case letters.mp3)

Taken from the second volume of an off genre remix project, cinematic dubsteppers Mount Kimbie get a deep and minimal 4/4 treatment by Tama Sutro & Prosumer.

Mount Kimbie – William (Tama Sutro & Prosumer) (right click to download) 7:37 mins/ 320 kbps/ 17.4MB

Download audio file (mount kimbie - william (tama sumo and prosumer remix).mp3)

Do you remember those old block parties? The girls hangin’ out on the stoop doing the wop? Do you remember the battles at Union Square? Kool Herc at Sedgwick Ave? Saturday nights above the rollerskating rink? Remember the Bridge Wars? The untouched white trains and the fat rope chains? What about the New York City Breakers and the Rock Steady Crew? Remember the “yes yes ya’ll”s and the 808 loops?

Me neither, but I’ve seen some shit in magazines that made it all seem pretty fly.

Sleeze Boys R N The House – Sleeze Boyz R N the House
Otis Clay – Love Bandit (Electro Vocoder Mix)
Clarence “Blowfly” Reid – Blowfly’s ABCs
Ray Gun Omics – Project Future
The Russell Brothers – The Party Scene
Kurtis Blow – AJ Scratch
Run DMC – King of Rock
The Fat Boys – Fat Boys
Grandmaster Flash – Larry’s Dance Theme
The Classical Two – New Generation
Levi 167 – Something Fresh to Swing To
MC Mitchski – Kool DJ Red Alert Is a Great Man
Grandmaster Melle Mel & the Furious Five – Internationally Known
The Sequence – Funk You Up (Long Version)
Frankie Smith – Double Dutch Bus (12″ Version)
The Rocksteady Crew – Get Back Baby Brother
Strafe – Set It Off
Zero Hour – The Dark Side
B Beat Girls – For the Same Man
Ose – Computer Funk
Extra T’s – E.T. Boogie
Steinski – Everything’s Disappeared
Gucci Crew – The Dating Game
Kevie Kev – All Night Long (Waterbed)
The Mary Jane Girls – All Night Long
The Kryptic Crew – Jazzy Sensation
Toddy Tee – I Need a Girl
B.O.S.E – Let’s Jam (Slow Jam)
Cherlie D – Your Love is Dead

Electric Adolescence – I’m Not From the Streets but I’ve Seen Photographs (right click to download) 60 mins/ 320 kbps/ 137MB

Download audio file (electric adolescence - i'm not from the streets.mp3)

I don’t know much about the broad behind these vocals, but when I hear this song I want to learn to knit and make her a sweater. And just to prove it’s not purely sexual, I’ll even make the dude a pair of mittens.

More than just a passing fancy, the song was also featured on my best of last decade mix.

Alaska In Winter – Horsey Horse (right click to download) 3:16 mins/ 320 kbps/ 7.47MB

Download audio file (Alaska In Winter - Horsey Horse.mp3)

Forged from the same spirit as that YouTube video of the fat kid playing with a lightsaber, here’s a playful slice of unhip-hop for those who sacrificed the ability to please a woman in favor of dreams of a galaxy far away.

Sir Oj – Lightsabermass (right click to download) 3:08 mins/ 320 kbps/ 7.18MB

Download audio file (sir oj - lightsabermass.mp3)