First up, this mixes' title is sort of false advertising as I don't think any of these artists are from South Africa. There is a remote chance that Malcom McLaren used some backup singers from Soweto on Buffalo Gals, but I am not vouching for it. It gets difficult to title these things sometimes, and there is at least a track by Gil Scott-Heron from an album of the same name, so in my book that counts.
This mix came from me having to head to Detroit this week for work, and wanting something to listen to on the plane and in the rental car. My experience with the local radio stations up there has not been very favorable so far, minus a feed from a public radio station in Toronto that you can sometimes pick up.
Anyway, there are a few tracks on here that I cannot offer much commentary on other than I dig them. I don't know much about Beatfanatic who opens and closes this set. Of what I have heard, his discs drag in the middle (as do most electronic and rap discs), but definitely has nailed entrances and exits. There are a handful of tracks from Stones Throw artists, like the one from the late Jaylib, who might rival 2pac for posthumous releases, the Miles Davis cover from Otis Jackson Jr, is off of a Yesterdays New Quintet compilation, as is the Madlib track and the just released new single from Dudley Perkins.
Erykah Badu is easily one of my favorite female vocalists, rivaled only by Gillian Welch. There probably couldn't be a wider contrast of artists, but the heart wants what the heart wants... I know Bady has performed a few times with My Morning Jacket, so maybe a meeting with Welch and Rawlings is in her future someday, right after a duet with Falco and Brigitte Nielsen (oh wait, that actually happened - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xH8Wqdb4U0 ). I put a couple of tracks off of her very underrated Worldwide Underground disc.
Also in the mix are a couple of old school hip-hop tracks. Nothing too obscure, but nothing too obvious either.
The only really new tracks would be the above mentioned Dudley Perkins track, and the track "Ecstasy" by the Swedish band jj. Without a doubt this song is the best of 2009 in the category of "Songs about drugs, that sample Lil' Wayne and hail from Sweden".
The artwork is a photo of funk queen and oft rumored subject of the Stone's "Brown Sugar", Marsha Hunt.
Outside of that, I got nothin'.
Enjoy!
http://countryclubofthezeroseven.blogspot.com
