FRESH Sequel:Behind the Scenes of Transformer 2 'Revenge of the Fallen

Okay so I geeked out big time, when I heard that the Transformers followup movie, "Revenge of the Fallen" was going to be filming in downtown Long Beach on Wed....so what did I do? Dropped my plans that night, and chilled out on the top of a parking structure from 6p to 12a. And for what? Well to see Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Ironhide, and the rest of the AUTOBOTS roll out of course. Can't forget about the cool explosions too. But it was a cool time, there were about 60-80 people on that roof alone, some friends and my bros met me up and chatted it up with a lot of cool people. Here are the three best clips i got that night, in a youtube playlist. If you really wanna know more details on it just check the page. Thanks to the guys at TRANSFORMERSLIVE for posting this before I did, they've got the best coverage on all this topsecret stuff....Wow, now I know what it feels like to be one of those guys that camps outside a movie theater to watch a first showing.

FRESH Artist:Opolopo featuring Amalia

Sweden has definitely been opening up my ears to some dope music these past years, from DJ's Roland Arnoldt & Jay Scarlett on their Bass Boulevard Show Days, to Little Dragon (def. waiting on their new one) and now to Opolopo. Im kind of new on this producer, forgive me, but browsing through some of his tracks, "Step into the Light" is egging me on to dig deeper...             
                                                                    
He's a funky producer tightening the grips of Nu-Jazz in Europe, and with vocalist Amalia balancing out the tracks with her heavy soul, this shit they are collabing on is all lovely to me.

Amalia, claims Vancouver,Canada & Manila, Phillipines as her homes according to her myspace, but with recordings on labels like Especial Japan, Emmek Acid Jazz Italy, Verve, and Sonar Kollectiv, to name a few, her voice and charismatic singing steez is being felt universally. Keep an ear out for her Debut Album with Opolopo, hopefully being released soon. In the mean time...dig' em if you please, Amalia and Opolopo are really layin' it thick with the soulfulness.

FRESH Influence: Isaac Hayes

Black Moses, Remembered....


piece by:FATOE

ISAAC HAYES gave the music world so much...heres just a taste of his contribution to
HIP-HOP via hiphopgiant

Isaac Hayes' classic burner from 1974's "Tough Guys", sampled by The South's GETO BOYS in 1991 and one of my favorite underrated Classic West Coast G's, Second II None in 1992.
Rest in Power Chef...

FRESH Track: There's a Drink in My Bedroom and I Need a Hot Lady

This is just one of those pick me up songs that lets you groove all the way through it. I found it on the Prima Norsk 3 compilation "The Space Disco Edition." Enjoy the FRESH Linkage!

myspace.com/feedelity

FRESH Documentary: THIS IS THE LIFE

If you know real west coast hip hop, then you are in the know about the sanctuary that many artists call "The GOOD LIFE."

This documentary is Directed by Ava DuVernay, THIS IS THE LIFE is a feature-length documentary chronicling "The Good Life" emcees, the alternative music movement they developed, and their worldwide influence on the artform.

Featuring new interviews with: Myka Nyne and PEACE of Freestyle Fellowship, Chali2na and Cut Chemist of Jurassic 5, NgaFsh, Riddlore, Tray-Loc & Wreckless of CVE, Abstract Rude and Zulu Butterfly of ATU, Ellay Khule of Hip Hop Klan, Medusa of S.I.N, Born Allah, Ganjah K, Fatjack, JMD, Omid, Pigeon John, 2Mex of OMD, Jyant & Eve of Figures of Speech, Big Al, T-Love of Urban Props, Sheena Lester & B+ of Rappages, Mear One, Mike Nardone of KXLU's We Came From Beyond, Garth Trinidad of KCRW's Chocolate City, Monalisa Murray, Jah Orah, Hines, Busdriver, Monique Matthews, Keen and B. Hall & R. Kain Blaze, co-founders of The Good Life.

Dig deeper at: www.goodlifelove.com

Enjoy the FRESH Linkage!!

FRESH Gameplay: EA Sports - NBA LIVE 09

For all you video game basketball fans out there, I've been a fan of the NBA Live franchise since 1995. Since the next generation platforms arrived, I witnessed this franchise go down the hole in game play and quality. In '08 I decided to purchase a revival of this series for my PS3, but was a little disappointed with a game that seemed unpolished with many bugs throughout the game. After watching these previews about next years release, I am proud to have remained loyal to this basketball game franchise. I'm looking forward to the new pick & roll control and the NBA statistical player updates & tendencies on a daily basis throughout the season. I see this game setting the standard for next generation systems and how sports games should be developed in the future! I got my pre-order receipt ready for the Oct, 2008 release!

FRESH Artist: Dâm Funk "Toeachizown"

Dâm Funk is in works of releasing his new album "Toeachizown", due out in '09 on Stones Throw. He is def. on the forefront of resurrecting that West Coast Electro-Funk and with his sets at Funkmosphere every Monday night in L.A., he proves that vinyl is king and his roots run deep. He recently released his "Burgundy City" b/w "Galactic Fun" 12" and has a slew of mixes from his Funkmosphere sessions and Stones Throw podcasts. Get at his Myspace where he's always updating his tracks. His arsenal of the warm vintage synths is unmistakably the core of his sound, from an uptempo track like "Galactic Fun" to some slow 80 bpm banger, he will put you on a beach in another planet. Put it this way, if I can imagine Dr. Dre as an underground artist, he'd be making music like this, or better yet , if Dâm Funk was an artist in the late 70's, Dre would be sampling his shit...straight West Coast G-Funk era.

FRESH ART: Banksy

Bristol, UK graffiti artist, Banksy, is one of the best when it comes to stencil art. His clever way of composing a piece around the environment is witty, and his social message speaks to the masses. If you didn't know the name Banksy, now you know.

FRESH Movement: Non-stop Dance Crew 2.0 - Dan Freestyle

Yo...here's another vid of a freestyle session inside a UCLA dorm room. Dan, a member of the the second coming of Non-stop Dance Crew, knows how to dissect a beat. This was shot in '07, but I still get amazed each time I watch it. Enjoy the FRESH linkage!

FRESH Anthems: Breakin' & Beat Street

We all know that certain songs remind us of different times of our life, I wanted to share you some tracks that bring us back to old school movies or just things that I relate to certain vibes. Enjoy the FRESH linkage!

FRESH Movement: Popping John - SoulBotics Crew

This is a dope freestyle popping video of Popping John of the SoulBotics Crew. The crew just finished competing in Juste Debout 2008 ("just upright"), an annual dance competition originated from France which focuses on upright street dance styles. The camera placement and background of the video is pretty sick. There even was a time during the vid when the police pulled up and he played it off like he wasn't even dancing on the street (4:20). I just wanted to share this clip so you could kill some time watching this instead of WORKING today!! ENJOY!

FRESH Crossover: Zooey Deschanel - She & Him

I'm a little biased on this one, but Zooey is probably the only young actresses right now that is making some good music. She and M. Ward (Him), have teamed up for a full length album, Volume One, which is out now.  In a perfect world, she'd be my girlfriend, and she'd be doing some old jazz standards from Ella Fitzgerald or Billie Holiday, but hey this folk-pop tip is some cool easy listening, too.

More info at sheandhim.com

FRESH Photography: Flashing..lights.

Call it light graffiti or light painting. The technique is simple - set a slow shutter speed on your camera, wait till it gets dark, take a flash light or any other light source and begin outlining your piece. When making figures you don’t need to repeat the pattern, one stoke to make the line is enough. Here is a fresh batch of light graffiti artists/photographers that lead the way for this dope movement. 








Check out more of these 10 Light Graffiti Artists.

FRESH Tribute: United Kingdom DJ Greg Wilson

I just recently got turned on to this signature electronic DJ pioneer. Greg Wilson is a true innovator of the term remix, utilizing more than just a turntable and mixer. Check out the videos and just witness his pure originality...

Greg Wilson Intro: With a DJ pedigree stretching back to the original disco era, Greg Wilson first came to national prominence in the early 1980’s as the first to champion New York’s emerging Electro-Funk sound. From day one, his support for this radical new electronic dance music caused deep divisions within the jazz-funk fraternity. To many ears, the new Electro-Funk sound had ‘no soul’… to some it didn’t even qualify as ‘real music’… Over 20 years on, how is the music viewed today? Greg Wilson is in no doubt:

" Electro-Funk's legacy is huge. It announced the computer age and seduced a generation with its drum machines, synthesizers, sequencers, dub mixes, bonus beats and samples… Its influences lay not only with Kraftwerk, the Human League and Gary Numan, but with Miles Davis, Sly Stone, Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder, Norman Whitfield and George Clinton? " - Greg Wilson

Electro-Funk is unquestionably the source from which much of today’s house, techno, and breakbeat-oriented club music originated. Essential labels releasing Electro-Funk tracks included West End, Prelude, Sugarhill, Emergency, Profile, Tommy Boy, Streetwise and many others.

Source: outlar.com

Dig deeper at:
electrofunkroots.co.uk

FRESH Nostalgia: The Mixtape Redefined

Remember when we used to make mix tapes? I'm talking about a 60-minute TDK, 30 minutes each side, cassette tapes. Hit the'record' 'pause' buttons at the same time on your double deck, and cue up that next track to be embedded on your custom tape. Back in the days, the cassette tape was the preferred medium, and the mixtape was a ritual we would all follow to make that crush know how we felt through slow jams, or it would be a means to share with the homies our latest mixing sessions. Well here comes a design company, SUCK UK, to re introduce the "Mixtape" packaging and feel, with todays ease of use of a jump drive. Go ahead and just drag and drop the Force M.D's tracks, and some Troop to complete that slow jam tape...

Peep the details :

1. ADD YOUR OWN SOUNDS TO THE USB STICK.
2. PLACE THE STICK INSIDE THE TAPE STYLE GIFT PACK.
3. WRITE YOUR OWN MESSAGE AND PLAYLIST.
4. GIVE IT TO SOMEONE YOU LOVE.

64MB USB MEMORY STICK
Store your own mix on the USB stick by plugging into your PC or Mac, then add MP3 or any other files to the USB stick.

C60 MIX TAPE
Stores up to 1 hour of high quality digital music - the same amount as you get on a C60 cassette tape. Perfect for creating your own unique compilation or mix ‘tape’. When you have 60 minutes you have to think carefully about what you are going to put on there! Write your own title, messages and play list all over the retro gift pack.

FOR MAC AND PC
6 different designs to collect

Source: Suck UK

FRESH Documentary: Talib Kweli The Movie by Nonstop Films

Peep this trailer out for a new documentary featuring Talib Kweli. Supposedly this flick has been in the making for about 10 years now, and will hopefully see the light of day soon. Check out the cameos by ?uestlove, Kanye West, Mos Def, Dave Chappelle, De La Soul, Common, Jean Grae, Pharrell, and Dame Dash, all speaking highly of Kweli. Credits to the Director, Video Rahim from Frolab.com for putting this together.

FRESH Movement: Philippine All Stars - Hip Hop International 2008 Champions

The international hip-hop dance scene is continuing to grow, and a crew called the Philippine All Stars are showing us that they are capable in keeping up with the rest of the world. They recently took 1st place in a fairly new dance crew competition that took place in Las Vegas last week. This competition was a place where UCI's Kaba Modern (2007 US Champions) gained recognition and stood out amongst other crews and stepped up in America's Best Dance Crew on MTV.

PI All Stars' routine was very fierce in my opinion. I thought the most suprising part of the set was the one armed wrap around lift in the begining...that was pretty hot! They varied in styles from crumping to locking and kinds of various stunts. They deserve the win and I am very proud that they represent the distant homeland. Can't wait because next year's competition is only going to get better...

FRESH Tech: Vestax QFO-LE DX

Vestax Releases their Limited QFO-LE DX (250 World Wide)

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The original QFO was introduced to turntablists, by Vestax and DJ Q-Bert, as the "ultimate on the go, all-in-one mixer turntable instrument" back in 2004. But with mixed reviews on its build quality, Mix DJ unfriendliness, sensitive pitch controls, and overall price, many users have put their used QFO's on ebay and craigslist or opted to stick to more traditional and Serato/Torque ready setups. Don't get me wrong though, scratch DJ's love this. My brother owns one, and loves to just jam on it for hours, as do I, but it certainly has its limitations.

Now to the new QFO-LE DX. They have resolved the issues of price by dropping the QFO's from $1,200 to $899, added features such as assigning different pitch moves, useful with long tones, improved the overall drive train of the system, kept all the usual curve/fader/reverse switches, improved fader, and kept the symmetrical layout that made it so unique.

But really what I want to talk about is the Serato capabilities this thing has. Up until recently, the use of DJ software has basically changed the whole game up, period. The addition of a Serato capable QFO was a smart, but a late move by Vestax for the QFO-LE DX. Here's a description from Vestax.com of how it works:

THRU/VINYL Select Switch
THRU: The vinyl sound is outputted as a LINE signal from THRU OUT. This is used to send the control signals of software control vinyl to computers. The signal from LINE IN 2 is sent to PGM 2.
VINYL: Sound signals of the vinyl played on the QFO LE DX are sent to PGM 2.

What I'm hoping this does is open up the flood gates of a new type of scratch DJ language. Turtablists can flip their routines by putting together their self-produced beats, sounds, and customed sequenced samples, to create their own unique routine and leave the often used battle recs behind, but at the same time add the versatility and advantage the QFO offers. What I see also is that this QFO can now be a more mix DJ friendly tool, well after you get used to the sensitive pitch control.

For example: As 'track 1' plays on the left side or channel 1, change it to INT mode to play it independently from the computer. Load 'track 2' on the right side on your laptop, match it, then mix in channel 2, fade out channel 1. Then repeat. Right? I imagine this how it would be done. I have seen many demos on the new QFO on youtube but I have yet to see it in action with a Serato setup. Hopefully someone posts a tutorial so I can actually see how weird that would be to mix on just one turntable, and if that ever takes off, imagine DJ's rocking a party with just a QFO-LE DX and a laptop. Damn now that would really be streamlining the whole mobile DJ!

In any case, to take closer look on the QFO-LE DX check Vestax.com, and peep all the features I missed on it, and here's an informative Demo on youtube. Here's an old rare demo of Q-Bert fooling around on the prototype in '03, highlighthevideo at 3:50...classic. .

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FRESH Movement: U-MIN

Dancers of all different backgrounds should be able to appreciate these cats. They've been featured in Missy Elliot's video "Ching a Ling", the Martin Solveig's video "C'est la vie" , and have various routines sprouting all over the web. Their popping style is pretty versatile and sick! Enjoy the FRESH linkage!

A FRESH Sample: Madlib : Black Ivory : Q-Tip.

Okay so Q-tip is finally coming thru with an new album this October titled The Renaissance, and one of the singles, produced by the late J-Dilla, "Gettin' Up" has been making it's way around the blog circles. It's a dope track and it's been getting the approval all around because of it's laid back piano sample coming courtesy of the Black Ivory track "You and I". When I first heard this sample in early '06, it was coming off of a Madlib track "Understanding" off of Stones Throw's jukebox, before they released Movie Scenes. Anyway, I love the way this sample is used in these 2 tracks, and the original is just one of those old soulful falsetto-singing-Stylistics-type jams, i've always been into. ------------------------------- "Understanding (Comprehension)" Madlib, The Beat Konducta Volume 1-2: Movie Scenes (2006)

"Gettin' Up"- Q-Tip, The Renaissance (Coming Sept 12, 2008)

for more info on Q-Tip's new album peep this, and here's the single.

"You and I" - Black Ivory, Don't Turn Around (1972)

And one more thing, when this Q-Tip album drops, let all make an effort to buy it. Not only will it let let Motown Universal know that QUALITY Hip-Hop still sells, It will also help in the current financial troubles of the Dilla estate. More on that later......

FRESH Album of the Day: SWAPS by Rephrase

This album contains a bunch of break beats and some uptempo flavor. It's a dual album and I'm feeling basically almost all of it. I barely caught on the Knowfoowl/IODA label and thought others should be in the KNOW.



I'm working on getting some webspace to post a few tracks, but for now enjoy the myspace linkage.

http://www.myspace.com/rephraseremixes

FRESH Photography: Smashed Clay, Stopping Time

Martin Klimas is an awesome artist and photographer born in Germany. In one of his latest series he drops porcelain figurines from above, and with a high-speed camera catches the transformation of clay into shattered pieces. The amazing still life shots are caught at 5000th of a second. They remind me of scenes from the Matrix or 300, very surreal and destructive . Check out more dope photography and his portfolio at www.martin-klimas.de

FRESH Movement: The Original Non-stop Dance Crew

Freshness that originated circa 1997...dance crews existed waaay before the time they were exposed on America's Best Dance Crew. These guys repped Oxnard, CA and probably inspired lots of dancers in the SO-CAL dance circuit now.