She’s been lurking (and working) in the shadows for some time now and she’s decided it’s her time to shine. We’re happy! She’s got ridiculously good taste in music, and she pleases herself before making any concessions for you or I….our kind of girl….check for yourselves. This is her first podcast mind so go easy on her. We were all first-timers on the mic once:

Tracklisting

Strong Arm Steady feat Talib Kweli// Get Started
Medina Green feat Mos Def// Party Done
DTMD// Fantastic
Jneiro Jarel// N.A.S.A
Olivier Daysoul// The Walls
Pollyn// Still Love (Debruit Remix)
Will Powers// Adventures in Success (dub)
Mulatu Astatake// Esketa Dance
Shafiq Husayn// Nirvana
Bei Bei and Shawn Lee// Into the wind
Robert Glasper// The Robert Glasper Experiment
Gill Scott Heron// Me and the Devil
P.O.S// Goodbye
Atmosphere// Shoulda Known
Dabrye feat Doom// Air
Janelle Monae feat Big Boi// Tightrope
Big Boi// Royal Flush (Clean)
Juggaknots// Settle Down
Cunninlynguists// Mic Like a Memory
Mos Def feat Talib Kweli// History
Doom// Ballskin
Oddisee feat Tranquil// It’s Over

We’re feelin Amede, so much so we went to the trouble of interviewing him not too many moons ago. That was around the time of his Flat 17 Ep release….since then he’s been busy. Busy enough to put together a 24 track album AND start his own blog charged with pointing us in the direction of music we should know about…the brother’s not playing.

He sent us Soundscapes last week and I’ve been bumping select cuts ever since. My favourite so far is Herbs, which he’s let us pass on to you below. Don’t stop there though, if you do you’ll be 23 tracks short of a full album. A significant amount. Click here to make the jump to Amede’s new blog where you can find the missing beats…

Download Herbs

Ok. Mad late on this (mostly due to slackness – I got the email a good 2 weeks ago) but even though there’s only hours to go, i’m confident that the information will benefit the faithful (London-based) blog readers amongst you.

You know by now that i’m a beat-head with more than a slight slant towards the experimental. Ras G has been killing it with his Afrikan Space Program infrasonics and I thought it only right to let you know that he’ll be performing live at the Macbeth tonight with support from Eglo’s Shuanise, Ahu/Dolly, the ubiquitous Alexander Nut and Hoya Hoya’s Illum Sphere… all for a measly £5. Not to be missed.

I’m fairly confident i’m preaching to the converted here but just in case, here’s Mr G in action, altering cosmologcal vibrations so we can all be free….Sun Ra would have been proud…

Synchronicity is alive and well in the digital age.

I first heard Amede & The Soundsmith via the ubiquitous Alex Nut and his All Young Kings promotion machine. Amede’s work stands out, somehow managing to herd adjectives like ethereal, celestial and melancholic together in a pen of neck snapping beats, subsonically supported basslines and frequent nods towards the past sonic experiments of Jamaica’s dub laboratories. A few weeks after my AYK gift, I bumped into Amede outside Deviation and broke bread, I liked his vibe. More weeks/tweets later and here I am, glasses on, Cornflakes in bowl and ready to explore the world of Amede & The Soundsmith…

Firstly, we should start on a foundation of truth. ‘Amede’ and his partner ‘The Soundsmith’ are one and the same person, an ‘internal-duo’ as he puts it. The separation coming from a need to individualize the creative entities of the vocalist, Amede, and the beatmaker, The Soundsmith. Both of these personalities are extremely well formed. Even a casual listen to ‘Will She Ever Know?’ will tell you that the man can sing, listen again a little more carefully and you’ll hear it, the man can produce. Once you’ve digested that, you’ve then got to come to terms with the fact that these skills are living in a man with less than 20 years worth of calcium in his bones.

“I am 19. Many see me as an older person. I believe that come from being well guided by my father and his Nigerian background, he has been a prominent factor to keeping my head screwed on….At 10, I started singing. I have no idea where it came from in all honesty, only God knows! I performed my first show in my first year of secondary school and then that was it, music it was! In the summer of 2004, when I was 14, a cousin of mine and I got our hand on Fruity Loops, we was so excited about the prospect of beat making, we thought we were hot then even though they sounded wack. He went off to develop his sound and I did the same, listening to the sounds of Dilla, Slum Village and Dwele. I feel it has been an organic musical journey for me as I didn’t have any musicians in my family. Many artists of today had musical family member or were pushed into learning instruments as a child. Sometimes I wished I learned more instruments as a child, I’m learning now but it just isn’t the same as learning young.”

I feel what he’s saying, but I think he’s being a little hard on himself. From my Jurassic Park perspective, Amede is learning young. How many 19 year olds do you know releasing innovative, introspective, soul-drenched music on their own labels? I know a few who push out the throwaway sound of now from their ReDrums and Subtractors, but music with longevity….a handful. On the subject of releases, Amede & The Soundsmith dropped their debut single ‘The Underground’ early this with their follow-up ‘Flat 17 Ep’ having hit the digital shelves in August. Why ‘Flat 17′ Amede?

“Flat 17 is where I was staying for my first year of university at the time of its creation, it’s the place where the idea came to fruition, where each track was composed. Flat 17 is the birth place of the EP. The project is aimed at letting people know what it is I do, what I am capable of and who I work with. Each track consists of different elements which are part of me. I wanted to show that I don’t just sing, I don’t just compose, I can also produce for others, beatbox, songwrite, create my own artwork…Another motive behind it was to lead a pack. I believe it’s good that a creative circle of artist has somebody who just goes ahead and puts plans in action, it was to inspire my creative partners too. I work with some amazing musicians, Nadine Ceaser who won the 219 Variety Show last year, lyricist & vocalist, T-funk and producer, Azekel. It was partly to show them that whether Flat 17 gets a thumbs up or thumbs down from people, getting it out there can be done by one of us. I believe it has inspired them to also get their music out there too.”

Big respect for that and incidentally, a clear ‘thumbs-up’ for the EP. Now I’ve heard it, I want more! Luckily for all of us, there is more to come. A&TS’s Bohemianmusic Label is currently germinating a ‘beat-trilogy of free downloads’ which will involve external remixers and live renditions of some of their material. There is also more to come from lyricist T-Funk and songstress Shanaz Dorsett. Nice. Maybe not too surprisingly for a self-confessed perfectionist who clearly wants to be in control of his own destiny, Amede, and his partner the Soundsmith also have set their sights on deconstructing the black art of Mastering…and growing beards?!

“The direction I’m heading into is actually more of the technical background of music. I have a love for mixing but mastering is where I really want to take it, I want to wake up early in the morning in my studio mastering and mixing music with my producers beard growing out of control… it’s where the love is at. As an artist, I simply want to be a big part of the evolution of today’s music and to primarily make honest music from the soul, what I may sound like a decade from now is something I’m not sure of but I know I will be knocking sounds out to my grave.”

Word.

Amede likes you people, so much so that he’s given us the ‘Flat 17′ Ep track ‘Vast!’ for free, and asked us to pass it on to you.

Download Vast!

He also let us in to the very personal space of what inspires him to do what he does right now…

Amede & The Soundsmith’s Top 5 Inspirations:

1. I’ve been listening to a lot of Fela Kuti’s ‘Expensive Shit‘ album, Samiyam’s ‘Moon Shoes‘, Hudson Mohawkes ‘Rising 5‘ and the classic by Tom Scott – ‘Today‘ that track is amazing!

2. Knowing that God has love for me!

3. My Fathers wisdom!

4. I went to watch Soul Power in West London two weeks ago. I found it very inspiring seeing all those great musician vibe with each other. It was pure love recorded in history and I hope I can be watched upon in such a manner one day.

5. My peers! God as allowed me to grow around very inspirational young creatives which I know will leave thier stamp one day and it’s a blessing to be part of that.

So there we have it, young talents with a luminescent future. Amede…..and the Soundsmith.

Links:

Official Website
Myspace
Twitter
Shanaz Dorsett Myspace

Ok, I was over at Moovmnt and caught site of a preview of Samiyam’s new extended EP Man Vs Machine. I’m feelin Samiyam’s style bigtime. Definitely rooted in Hip Hop but definitely taking it elsewhere…anyways, I tried to sort out previews of the tracks but my computer kept spazzing out (very unPC I know but i’m not a fan of Newspeak). On my quest to get ‘em, I stumbled across an interview with space-dwelling Rastaman Ras G and Sacred at PooBah’s site. Locksmen who move beyond the boundaries of Reggae number few so its big to see Ras succeeding with his Space Bass Hip Hop ish. I never did sort out the audio so you’ll have to click on the  Moovmnt/Man Vs Machine links above for that. Here’s the interview though…

Ras G and Sacred Video (36min)

4 am and i’m still here…not for long though…shutdown is coming….I feel it.

I found this tasty beat soup on Cinnaman’s Myspace blog. Mmmm….squelchy…