Northern Heads celebrates 60,000 visitors

Northern Heads began as northernheads.com (a very lo-fi website, essentially a proto-blog covering largely Canadian improvisational 'jam' based music) from 2001-2005.   The website was founded by Canadian Luke Bowden and American Abe Robins and might best be described as jambands.com meets The Onion on ketamine.  

After some dark and hairy times Northern Heads was revived by Luke Bowden as a blog at first primarily focused on Detroit Hip Hop.  The notion behind this limited focus at the outset was that there are countless general interest blogs and music blogs out there and the world of music is so vast that once one starts down a path (say Blues from the 1920's) you could literally spend a lifetime trying to understand that little niche.  From an initial focus on the preternatural J Dilla, his protege Black Milk and many in his camp including Elzhi, Guilty Simpson, Sean Price and (Hybrid-era) Danny Brown the scope of coverage has grown.

Gradually the focus of the blog dilated to include its namesake the Grateful Dead, Phish and the immortal Prince - but more importantly progressive improvisational groups such as The Slip (now The Barr Brothers) as well as a variety of Electronic musicians influenced by a deep musicality (The Gaslamp Killer, Flying Lotus etc.).   Swinging to the other end of the spectrum my other area of specialization is Roots and Americana music with a fervent interest in Canadian groups with spine and spirit such as The Golden Dogs and their kin Zeus. 

As a freelance music writer I have always operated on the margins of Canada's nepotistic and clingy world of music journalism.  As a rule I do not feature any music which I am not deeply passionate about- setting a standard of requisite craftsmanship rarely present in the glut of releases pumped out on a daily basis.  Put plainly I listen to all the shit so that you don't have to.

As the New Year approaches we'll be highlighting the best of 2014's releases as well as highlighting long form interviews from the past year originally published on No Depression (the Roots music authority since 1995).  Thanks for reading and coming back - if you don't currently follow the blog please consider following it in the future.  I promise to bring you more music, more diverse music and insights, and more frequent updates over the coming year.

sincerely,

Luke C. Bowden

Church Remix - Slum Village, Skyzoo, Focus prod Young RJ

With two of three founding members of Slum Village passed (Baatin and Dilla) and Elzhi no longer fleshing out the new lineup these days Slum Village= T3.  And frankly T3 is a goof.  This is not simply a personal opinion, beyond his vaguely passable flow there is a sense in various interviews that T3's lazy style was a source of frustration to the more serious members of the group particularly Dilla. 

Here the highlight is the production of the consistently deft and melodic producer Young RJ (at one time half of BR Gunna with Black Milk) and Focus' verse deserves a nod too.

Waajeed (DJ Jeedo Dilla Tribute) Live From Dallas 02.8.13

 

Waajeed (arabic for 'finder' or 'seeker') born Robert O'Bryant is strongly connected to J Dilla and the career of Slum Village. An art student prior to becoming a DJ and producer (which he came to relatively late in life) - it was Waajeed who designed the cover of Slum Village's Fantastic Vol. 2.  He also introduced the group to their fourth member Elzhi and produced a handful of cuts for their third album Trinity (Past, Present, Future).  Waajeed is best known as one half of Platinum Pied Pipers.

 



True Story/ Dub Rock (Will Sessions vinyl)

It's very difficult to appreciate the sincerity and breadth of Detroit 'funk' band Will Sessions recent voluminous vinyl output unless you're as versed as they are in both Funk and Detroit Hip Hop.

As their name suggests they're a backing band for hire for fellow Detroit hip hop artists like Elzhi, Guilty Simpson and Black Milk.  They're also fully capable of backing actual Detroit soul heavyweights like Dennis Coffey who was one of Motown's original Funk Brothers studio band as well as having a substantial soulo career.

They're output of late (available on their bandcamp) represents intricate efforts to replicate live the productions of various hip hop producers; as they did on both Elzhi's recapitulation of Nas' Ilmatic as Elmatic with note perfect re-workings of beats by Pete Rock, Large Professor and L.E.S, or their Mix Takes One and Mix Takes Two which crams musical cues like a DJ set from the pillar of Detroit hip hop and neo-soul legend J Dilla, to his protege Black Milk, Guilty Simpson as well as rare funk cuts (and epochal hip hop samples) like Bob James Nautilus.



Here though on True Story they've truly out done themself.  True Story (moreso True Story Part 2 from Phat Kat's Carte Blanche)  is one of the most beautiful hip hop songs ever created with lyrics and vocals by Phat Kat (Ronnie Cash) and production by the notoriously underlooked and gifted producer Young RJ who with Black Milk were briefly BR Gunna .

In referencing the history of their contemporaries so flawlessly and with such reverence they are both doing something truly unique and making interesting statements about live music culture and sample based music culture.  Will Sessions are winking at the DJ, winking at the bedroom purist, the music writer and the crate digger.  More importantly they're winking.

Elzhi - Sound Clash Festival, Toronto (setlist)

Elzhi (elZhi)
Sound Clash Festival
Harbourfront Centre Stage
July 14, 2012
setlist

Blue Widow (from forthcoming album The Weather Report)
Halftime (prod. Will Sessions, orig. prod. Large Professor)
Life's A Bitch (prod. Will Sessions, orig. prod. L.E.S./ NAS co.)
D.E.M.O.N.S. (prod. Black Milk from The Preface)
Fire (Remix) (prod. Black Milk from The Preface)
Tainted (prod. Karriem Riggins, from Trinity Slum Village feat. Dwele)
Deadly Medley (prod. Black Milk from Album Of The Year)
Hiding Place (prod. 9th Wonder from The Minstrel Show Little Brother)
The World Is Yours (prod. Will Sessions, orig. prod. Pete Rock)
Come Get It (prod. J Dilla from Welcome 2 Detroit)
Do You (J Dilla from Detroit Deli (Taste of Detroit) Slum Village)
One Love (prod. Will Sessions)
Memory Lane (prod. Will Sessions, orig. prod. DJ Premier)
Represent intro>
Represent> (prod. Will Sessions, orig. prod. DJ Premier)
C.R.E.A.M. (prod. GZA, Wu Tang Clan)
Motown 25 (prod. Black Milk from The Preface)
It Ain't Hard To Tell (prod. Will Sessions, orig. prod. Large Professor)
Detroit State of Mind (prod. Houseshoes, orig. prod. DJ Premier)

Will Sessions Elmatic and Elmatic Instrumentals

It's hard to know what to point to as primary in the recent flurry of output from Detroit based 8 piece soul funk ensemble Will Sessions.  This summer past they played a range of dates from clubs to large festivals soul wah guitar legend
Dennis Coffey (and original Motown Funk Brother).  They also toured in support of their Elmatic mixtape collaboration with Elzhi originally of Slum Village.  This is a refashioning of Nas' pivotal Illmatic with Elzhi revisiting the opus with live backing.  Both Elmatic and the Elmatic Instrumentals are available for free download and at least Elmatic is worth listening to for non beat-heads.

1. The Genesis
2. Detroit State of Mind
3. Halftime
4. Memory Lane
5. The World Is Yours
6. Represent
7. Life’s A !! Ft. Royce da 5’9 & Stokley Williams
8. One Love
9. It Ain’t Hard To Tell (Pete Rock Shout)
10. Pete Rock Shout

Elzhi releases Elmatic mixtape produced by Will Sessions

Elzhi originally of Slum Village, one of the most slept on so-called 'conscious' rappers of the past decade, has released an homage of sorts to Nas' debut Illmatic.   The Elmatic mixtape was made free for release yesterday and the recording can be found at this link. Production is attributed to Will Sessions, a sprawling soul funk with horns ensemble hailing from Detroit, Michigan. 

Having met and formed through the jazz program at Wayne State University Will Sessions backs or has backed (in addition to original Funk Brother Dennis Coffey) Guilty Simpson, Black Milk, Mayer Hawthorne, Monica Blaire, Phat Kat, & Rickey Calloway.

The most recent lineup of Will Sessions seems to be Sam Beubien (arranger/trumpet/keys), Bryan Arnold (trumpet/keys), Tim Shellabarger (drums), Tom Parks (trumpet), Matt Martinez (photos), Ryan Gimpert (bass) and Eric Kacir (guitar).  It's not clear how the group collaborates in a production environment with for instance Elzhi.  Sam Beaubien (in addition to being a member of The Country is particularly known for his superlative arrangement on Mayer Hawthorne and the Country's breakthrough album A Strange Arrangement.  Both Beaubien and Tim Shellaberger had their hands fully in the mix of Black Milk's trademark Album Of The Year showing an ease and facility collaborating in various genres.

Elzhi's Elmatic features guest spots from fellow Detroit heavyweight Royce Da 5'9, Stokly Williams (of Mint Condition) and the original producer of Illmatic Pete Rock.

The tracklist for Elzhi's Elmatic is:

1. The Genesis
2. Detroit State of Mind (Houseshoes Shout)
3. Halftime
4. Memory Lane
5. The World Is Yours
6. Represent
7. Life’s A Bitch feat. Royce da 5’9 and Stokley Williams of Mint Condition
8. One Love
9. It Ain’t Hard To Tell (Pete Rock Shout)
10. Pete Rock Shout

Black Milk Deadly Medley video (w. Royce Da 5'9" and Elzhi)

In by no means the best cut off Black Milk's title worthy Album Of The Year here is the the Detroit triple threat of Royce Da 5'9" and Slum Village alumnus Elzhi (or eLZhi) on the Deadly Medley.  An extremely lyrically confident Milk swelling atop his own beat matches the braggadocio of both of his highly lyrically adept collaborators.  Milk and Royce's previous outing Losing Out has a similar surging confidence although the continued production growth and sophistication is more deeply felt particularly with the addition of Elzhi for whom Milk produced perhaps one of his more succesful outings ever The Preface.