Author Topic: GALACTIC: "From The Corner To The Block" (!!!!!!!!!) (Read 61 times)

Elano · « **on:** August 15, 2007, 12:55:43 PM »

These New Orleans future-funk trailblazers take on Hip Hop and come up with their best album to date. Featuring a who’s who of today’s finest lyrical MCs, including Lyrics Born, Mr. Lif, Chali 2na, Gift of Gab, Boots Riley, and Juvenile. Other guests include Z-Trip, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, Soul Rebels Brass Band, Ladybug Mecca and Nino Moschella.

TRACK LISTING:

1. What You Need with Lyrics Born
2. ...And I'm Out with Mr. Lif
3. The Corner with Gift of Gab
4. Second and Dryades with Big Chief Monk Boudreaux
5. Think Back with Chali 2na
6. Bounce Baby with Z-Trip
7. Hustle Up with Boots Riley
8. Sidewalk Stepper
9. From the Corner to the Block with Juvenile & Soul Rebels Brass Band
10. Squarebiz with Ladybug Mecca and Nino Moschella
11. Tuff Love with Trombone Shorty
12. No Way with Lateef the Truth Speaker
13. Fanfare
14. Find My Home with Vursatyl and Ohmega Watts

Check this clip with Chali 2na

For those in the know, Galactic has long been one of the most exciting jazz/funk bands on the planet, merging its New Orleans roots with a variety of musical styles.

Along the way, the band has won over fans from all corners of the musical spectrum. Jazz fans can appreciate their musical chops, while rock fans identify with the swagger, and funk aficionados dig the band's indelible groove.

Meanwhile, the band has also developed an old-school, roadhouse sensibility and won over the jam band crowd with its willingness to be open and explore all musical avenues.

With the arrival of the band's latest CD, From the Corner to the Block (due to be released in August), Galactic proceeds to stand listeners on their collective ear and make its mark on the hip-hop genre by bringing in an all-star cast of eclectic MCs to rap over the band's imperative groove. Although idea of a New Orleans jazz/funk/rap album may sound like the band is making a left turn to some, it amazingly all makes sense in the grand scheme of this ever-evolving act.

It's not like the marriage of jazz and rap is a new idea or completely unheard of, it's just that no one has presented it this well for nearly a decade. US3 tried to make a similar blend sound cool in the mid '90s with "Cantaloop (Flip-Fantasia)," but the effort yielded mixed results. Branford Marsalis did it much better with his under-appreciated outfit, Buckshot LeFonque, and I haven't heard anyone come close to those results -- until now.

Once you can get your hands on the CD, feel free to start anywhere - it won't take long before you get a glimpse of the big picture. This is quite possibly Galactic's quintessential jazz/funk/fusion party record. Whether dishing up "Bounce Baby" with DJ Z-Trip, "I Got It (What You Need)" with Lyrics Born or the title cut (featuring Juvenile and Soul Rebels Brass Band), Galactic has cooked up an infectious stew of progressive New Orleans Jazz and hip hop.

So what inspired the apparent change in direction? Truth be told, this is the album the band has hinted at in its performance for years now. Long-time vocalist Theryl "Houseman" DeCloet departed the band nearly three years ago, in late 2004, and the band has continued to tour as an instrumental act ever since.

According to founding member and bassist Robert Mercurio, each of the band members is a hip hop and rap fan, so when work began on a new disc, they decided, "Maybe it's time to do the album we've always talked about. Why wait?"

"Timing and evolution wise, it just seemed right," said Mercurio. "We had a vocalist before so it wouldn't have made sense."

As it worked out, the band was able to hand-pick the guests who appear on the CD and develop the material as it deemed appropriate.

"We didn't want to make just an album with a bunch of guests," said Robert. "We wanted it to have a theme, a focus -- not just be another Santana album or Dave Matthews record."

With the new CD completed, Galactic took advantage of the opportunity to preview the material (with an overwhelmingly positive response) to the crowd at Bonnaroo a few weekends ago, performing with seven guest MCs during the band's three-hour set. Although it's not logistically or financially feasible to do an entire tour with that many vocalists, the band does plan to bring out two or three guest MCs on the fall tour, which starts in October, after the new disc is released.

Developmentally, the new record seems like a logical step from the band's last album, Ruckus, on which the group worked with producer Dan "the Automator" Nakamura (Dr. Octagon, Gorillaz, Head Automatica).

Ruckus saw the band take on a more modern tone and concise, structured format in the studio while beginning to experiment more with loops, sampling and electronica in a live setting on the subsequent tour.

When asked how working with Nakamura on the previous album influenced the group when recording From the Corner to the Block, Mercurio answered, "We took what we learned from that album, studio wise, and added more of a live feel to it. A lot of it wasn't a super conscious thing. Of course we had to decide 'Are we going to make an MC record or not?' but musically and stylistically, we've just developed this way."

http://www.galacticfunk.com/
http://www.myspace.com/galactic

DON'T SLEEP ON THIS RECORD,it's fuckin amazing!

Elano · « **Reply #1 on:** August 15, 2007, 01:35:44 PM »

While touring with Lyrics Born two years ago, the members of Galactic often jammed with the progressive Bay Area rapper. In doing so, they discovered a common source for their respective styles.

"A lot of these guys are drawing from the Meters, James Brown, Booker T, breakbeats and samples from funk and R&B of the 1960s, which is where we're coming from, too," Galactic saxophonist Ben Ellman said this week. "It made perfect sense."

That tour hatched the idea for Galactic's next album. Most tracks will feature a hip-hop MC, including Lyrics Born, Ladybug Mecca from Digable Planets, Boots Riley of politically charged ensemble The Coup, Chali2na of Jurassic 5, Gift of Gab from Blackalicious, Mr. Lif and Lateef the Truth Speaker.

"They're all from bands we dig, melodic hip-hop bands," Ellman said. "It was a realistic wish list, and most of it came true. Mystikal would be on there, if he was out of jail."

Another local rapper, Juvenile, does make an appearance, building on a relationship forged when Galactic backed him during an appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live."

Other local contributors include Big Chief Monk Boudreaux of the Golden Eagles and Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, who builds a wall of horns with Ellman on an instrumental called "Tough Love."

Despite the MCs, "it's not really a hip-hop album," Ellman said. "It's not really us trying to do hip-hop. It's the meeting of what they do and what we do. It's more of a collaboration, an intersection."

Initially, the album was to follow a story line by screenwriter Henry Griffin, with each MC playing a character. But the logistics of such a narrative recording project proved untenable, given the rappers' schedules.

Instead, Galactic asked each MC to rap about a specific street corner. Variations on that theme included a character on the corner, a business, an event and a memory.

"It didn't matter where the corner was," Ellman said. "It ended up becoming city-specific, about the urban environment."

Gift of Gab rocks a funk track called, appropriately, "The Corner." Monk Boudreaux celebrates the traditional home of the Wild Magnolias on "Second and Dryades," Mardi Indian funk of the future. Ladybug Mecca took the corner assignment literally: She rapped about right angles and geometry.

"She took 'corner' to the extreme," Ellman said. "She took it mathematical, which is really cool."

Juvenile "dropped 16" -- standard rap "guest appearances" are limited to two 8-bar verses -- about a second-line parade originating at Elysian Fields and Claiborne.

"He killed it," Ellman said. "It was an amazing 16. His verses were great. He's on a song with a real hard-core, street second-line rhythm."

Elano · « **Reply #2 on:** August 25, 2007, 11:09:24 AM »

Listen the whole album through this link!
http://entimg.msn.com/i/asx/audio_streams/Galactic_FromTheCornerToTheBlock.asx

everlast1986 · « **Reply #3 on:** August 25, 2007, 04:22:09 PM »

Also check the hookup spot. Best hip hop album out this year no shittin.

Elano · « **Reply #4 on:** March 05, 2008, 12:18:50 PM »

Check out Galactic's shows all across Europe this month, as they bring over their trademark New Orleans Funk and hip hop fusion sound. They will be joined by the supremely talented Chali 2na of of Jurassic 5 and Boots Riley of The Coup. Don’t miss the most explosive live hip hop show you’ve ever seen!