Saturday's Record Show at the VFW

My homie Tommy and I got to the Record Show at a decent time on Saturday morning and it was already PACKED!  The more record shows I go to the more diverse the crowd seems to get.  There were dirty old guys copping 8-tracks and badly-dubbed VHS cassettes, eccentric music fiends dropping three hundo on a 45, teenage up-and-coming producers (I see you Bold Illin diggin' over my shoulder in the next crate grabbing that Guru single!), hippies, hermits and all.  Oh, and a couple dudes were definitely high off the ganja.  I don't care how musty thousands of records make the room, you can't mask that.

With a potential layoff looming this coming Thursday I had to hold myself back at the Record Show on Friday.  I succeeded in not going crazy and dropping all of the cash in my wallet.  With such a busy I haven't had a chance to listen to all of the records I picked up.  But from what I have listened to I would say that I ended up with some quality records, but none that blew my mind.

Kalyan is one of the many records that I've picked up knowing nothing about it except for what was on the back cover and the artwork.  It lived up to my expectations.  They are a group from Trinidad who defied a simple genre-description.  With their mix of disco, boogie, island, and reggae they helped to create a brand new genre that encompasses many of these elements called "soca".  Each track has a different vibe to it, though everything is obviously heavily influenced by the island.  This is one of my favorite tracks.  It's a straight instrumental groover with simple, background vocals.

Kalyan, "Nice 'N' Slow"

I'm a sucker for remixes, especially ones found on an EP full of remixes without a common theme.  There's a couple terrible remixes on here but there's two that stand out.  Both flip the original feeling of the track, and bring out different elements in the lyrics and vocals.

I'm not a huge fan of Jurassic 5, but I could listen to this remix of their breakout single all day.  I'm struggling to describe the instrumental sound of Jurassic 5, but it's definitely not soulful and laid back.  That's exactly what this remix brings to Jay Five.

Jay Five, "Quality Control"

I was a little hesitant to listen to this Outkast remix because they are so original and on point that it's hard to either improve upon their originals and portray them in a relevant, new light.  I was pleasantly surprised that this remix brings something completely different to the track.  Gone is the happy-go-lucky nature of the song.  It's replaced by an eerie backdrop.  There's a serious bassline that really sets the mood but what really knocks this remix out of the park are the slightly off, echoey handclaps.  I loved the detail that went into this beat.  It makes me listen to the lyrics in a completely different way which is what a good remix should do.

Outkast, "So Clean and So Fresh"