Each month I’ll showcase a selection of songs that I’m absolutely loving. Some old, some new, some fast, some slow, but hopefully most of them are just obscure enough that your taste can potentially expand into other parts of the vast musical landscape. Who knows, you may be minutes away from discovering your next favourite artist…!
Here are my picks for January 2016:
- DJ Krush – Probability
I was excited to learn that one of my favourite artists released an album in October ’15 after 8 years in the wilderness. 53 year old Japanese native, Hideaki Ishi, aka DJ Krush, has been around a long time and to jam his music into one or two categories wouldn’t do him justice. The best way to understand what he’s about is to simply listen. Aside from the hypnotic beat, it’s the subtleties of this track that has me playing it on repeat.
Listen to ‘DJ Krush – Probability’ here.
- Jill Scott – Can’t Wait
I could have copied/pasted my review of Erykah Badu’s song from last month. I won’t because it’s lazy but you get where I’m coming from. Jill Scott is without doubt my favourite female artist and is the epitome of modern day R&B and Soul. I could have chosen any of a dozen of Jill’s songs, but this track is one I always come back to.
Listen to ‘Jill Scott – Can’t wait’ here.
- BT – Rose of Jericho
This track elicits fond memories of walking along the breakwall of my favourite beach years & years ago, contemplating what the next phase of my life was going to throw up. Obviously you won’t have the same emotional connection to this track but I wanted to include it anyway.
Listen to ‘BT – Rose of Jericho’ here.
- Seth Sentry – Run
For anyone outside Australia, you might be surprised to hear we have a strong hip-hop scene down here, which has exploded in the last decade. Seth Sentry is a clever writer, exhibits an easy flow and doesn’t mind letting loose. The album “Strange New Past” was one of my picks of 2015 and this track is one of its finest.
Listen to ‘Seth Sentry – Run’ here.
- ZHU – Automatic
Steven Zhu, aka ZHU, popped up out of relative obscurity early in 2014 with a cracking track called ‘Faded’. If you haven’t heard it, look it up. But for this list, I’m picking something released in November. ‘Automatic’ is a blend of heavy house vibes, mixed with the guest vocals of AlunaGeorge, and polished off with a sweet saxophone solo.
Listen to ‘ZHU – Automatic’ here.
I’d love to know what you think, and whether you have any recommendations you can pass on. Or check out my tracks from previous months below:
a coffee break with mike 
Loving the DJ Krush track, gonna have to search more of his, I am actually writing this before listening to all 5, (listening to Krush as I type this), I am salivating at the thought of listening to 5 artists ive not heard of before, I may not like them all but that is what listening to them is all about. Krush reminds me of a toned down Amon Tobin, I don’t mean toned down in a bad way just more ambient. Oh and I love that header picture.
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That’s awesome! I love seeing one of my posts serve its purpose 🙂 I’ve heard the name Amon Tobin before but I’m not familiar with his music (that I know of) so I’ll definitely give it a listen. For tracks sort of similar to Probability, try Krush’s album ‘Jaku’ although I love his other albums too- let me know what you think if you listen to more.
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Hi Mike. I listened to all 5 over lunchtime. loved the DJ Krush till the end. will definitely listen to more.
Jill Scott was OK. I may listen to other stuff but it didn’t hit me straight away as something I would go for. But I’ll check out your Erykah Baku review.
I liked Rose of Jerico. and will have a relisten to that a bit later when I get home.
Seth Sentry was not my bag at all. I do like some hip hop. generally more old school Rakim, Cypress Hill etc.
ZHU was superb. the production on that video was amazing. definitely will relishes and look for more.
a question… Were all these tracks released recently or are they your favs over the years
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A mix of both 🙂 DJ Krush & ZHU released their latest albums late last year but I only just realised, so I only heard Probability & Automatic for the first time this week. Jill Scott / Seth Sentry released their latest albums midway through last year. The BT song is a favourite from many many years ago but I like returning to older stuff often.
If Jill Scott wasn’t too appealing, I’m not sure if Erykah Badu will be either, but then again, it could just be one or two subtleties that make a difference!
I used to love Cypress and for hip hop I’ll still go back to Nas, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Lupe Fiasco. It’s a genre I enjoy but tend not to look for new stuff (although I’m not sure why!). Are you Australian? I like Seth Sentry because there’s something very very Aussie about him (and therefore something I can relate to) that obviously I can’t get from American hip-hop artists.
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OK cool, I asked the question as I realised today that most (although not all of the music I like is quite old, for example a Ive a music post going up tomorrow that was released in 2000 although I had no idea of this until today and I wondered if I am sacrificing listening to new stuff because I concentrate on the old so much.
I had Erykahs Baduism album way back in 96 (I check the date) and Iliked that album but heard nothing since so unless her style has changed I would probably still like it.
I am from the UK. Although like you I don’t really go looking for new tracks in that genre. I am typically into more ambient tracks, although three artists ive discovered recently are far from ambient (I love the way music works that way)
<a href="OK cool, I asked the question as I realised today that most (although not all of the music I like is quite old, for example a Ive a music post going up tomorrow that was released in 2000 although I had no idea of this until today and I wondered if I am sacrificing listening to new stuff because I concentrate on the old so much.
I had Erykahs Baduism album way back in 96 (I check the date) and Iliked that album but heard nothing since so unless her style has changed I would probably still like it.
I am from the UK. Although like you I don’t really go looking for new tracks in that genre. I am typically into more ambient tracks, although three artists ive discovered recently are far from ambient (I love the way music works that way)
a href="OK cool, I asked the question as I realised today that most (although not all of the music I like is quite old, for example a Ive a music post going up tomorrow that was released in 2000 although I had no idea of this until today and I wondered if I am sacrificing listening to new stuff because I concentrate on the old so much.
I had Erykahs Baduism album way back in 96 (I check the date) and Iliked that album but heard nothing since so unless her style has changed I would probably still like it.
I am from the UK. Although like you I don’t really go looking for new tracks in that genre. I am typically into more ambient tracks, although three artists ive discovered recently are far from ambient (I love the way music works that way)
This is the Amon Tobin track that reminded me of DJ Krush
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Something I love about music is that you never know what’s around the next corner – as I said, you never know when you might stumble across your new favourite artist and that’s pretty exciting! I was put onto Baduism only a couple of months ago – I’d always heard the name but never knew what kind of music it was. There’s a pretty good chance I wasn’t into that type of music when the album was released (I was 14 in 1996) – I can appreciate it a lot more now though.I like to go back to old albums but I always love digging around online for more music.
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Thanks for the Amon Tobin link, I really like that track… and yeah it’s quite similar to a lot of Krush tracks!
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Cool, glad to return the favour 😀
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I’ll dig up an Amon Tobin track when I’m home. trying to type this out on a phone is a nightmare
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