Tribal Music Inc: Do The Math (1996)

From a compilation of 1990s Seattle hiphop music, that I almost completely missed. I knew a little Source of Labor, not much more. The creative center here is one Vitamin D, impresario over a home studio known as The Pharmacy, and a bunch of alum of Garfield High School, the collective braintrust behind Tribal Music Inc or Tribal Productions. The groups include names like B-Self, Sho Nuff, The Ghetto Children, Samson S & H-Bomb, Union of Opposites, and Phat Mob in the sample track below, and all of them play together like they like making music together. Phat Mob epitomizes the laidback and deep grooves vibe that pervades; first words: "listen to a story of a drum set,"..."tappin' and tappin', ... "first a drum set." It's the Hiphop side of '90s downtempo electronica, as if De La Soul and Native Tongues spawned urban hiphop scenes all over the country and Tribal Productions are the proud Seattle Edition. Also shares that easy going deep grooves vibe with the same late '90s vintage Soulquarians (J. Dilla, Questlove, Erykah Badu, etc) but much more rap-centric; Gang Starr, Blackalicious, and I'm sure many more I don't know. Less celebrated than another local rap comp from around the same time, 14 Fathoms Deep (1996), Do The Math goes down like "butter and chocolate." Night music. Check it out.   

"Wrong Number," Phat Mob (1996):   

Phat Mob are sampling The Stylistics 1972 version of "You'll Never Get To Heaven (If You Break My Heart)": 

Dionne Warwick's original version, written and produced by Hal David and Burt Bacharach, and released in 1964: 

It Was The Snake!

 

"The Snake," PJ Harvey & John Parish, 1996, Peel Session. Short, not sweet, half way through almost breaks the spell with-- "You salty dog!"-- but in the end the salty aside only helps bring home the sexual furies of Eve's betrayal. Blockbuster post-punk distaff artsong rage. Kim Gordon and Kathleen Hanna and Fiona Apple big fans.   

"Up," Tall Dwarfs (1996)

I was thinking listening to the album this song comes from, Stumpy, that maybe by 1996 the Dwarfs have lost a step but actually the music, rather than their own as on previous releases, is their curation and editing of music made by sixteen home tapers from all around the world. Chris Knox and Alec Bathgate wrote the songs but then put the music together from these home cassette recordings they collected from other lo-fi home tapers like themselves. That's why they call themselves on this album the International Tall Dwarfs. And maybe why this one has the ghostly cast of the Velvet's "Heroin," slowed down and stretched out for all its spiritual-emotional worth. This is also Galaxy 500 territory, although not sure they have any song quite 19-minutes long. Epic lo-fi. Bloodletting indie rock; an uplifting dirge. Hummable. Rock-a-bye Baby, Up. 

"Long Season," Fishmans (1996)

 

Apparently, much of the internet psych world has been aware of this 35 minute masterpiece for a long time but still very deserving and glad to spread the love. Japanese band that put out five records in three years in the late '90s before the sudden death of the singer. An explosion of alt-indie Trip Hop creativity. And on this one the universal language of pastoral psychedelia, blenderizing Philip Glass, jangly guitars, funky drums, sweet group harmonies and the kind of swelling cathartic collective jamming characteristic of long from psychedelia. No translation needed. Brilliant.