Classical Electronic

Classical Electronic, no I am not talking about early Electronic music, I am talking about Classical Orchestra and Symphonic genres portrayed with Electronic sounds and instruments!!!!! It is amazing, listen to the almost 20 minute multi-movement piece from Chicago World Brigade here and enter a whole new world of music. There are others who make music in this genre, but this track is the best I have heard. You can explore this type of music more at the what seems to be a dead blog now, Classitronic.

J. Rocc, The Taster's Choice.

J. Rocc, one of my favorite DJ’s, has always been best known for his work with and co-founder of the DJ group the Beat Junkies that started in 1992. However he has been doing so much work as a DJ/musician recently that it is possible he is gaining more fans these days than he ever has before. His run with Stones Throw Records started in the early 2000’s, what is Stones Throw most noted for? Well for starters, being one of the largest and most popular underground (indie if you prefer) Hip-Hop labels. Secondly, they have an extremely dedicated fan base; changes, no matter how small, do not go unnoticed for very long within the label. So when J. Rocc began DJing live shows for the duo Jaylib (Madlib and J Dilla), he tried to stay in the background and do what he does, “rock live crowds”. Only one problem with that, J. Rocc is good at what he does; if he cannot get a crowd dancing by the records he plays he will amaze them and put the crowd into a trance like state as his hands move faster than their eyes can see with his perfected turntable skills. So what happened after the Jaylib tour? You guessed it, J. Rocc seemed to be on the bill for almost every big live event and tour Stones Throw has been a part of since. With many 12” singles and podcast mixes following, and most recently he even released his first solo full length titled Some Cold Rock Stuf “Not a mix tape. Not a DJ album. Not a beats album. It’s the album.”

That was an extremely brief biography for the vast amount of work J. Rocc has accomplished so far, but I am not writing this post to talk about his entire music career, I am writing it to write a brief description about his Taster’s Choice Series. Volume Six was recently released, three long years after Volume Five came out. Volume six is an African/Reggae focusing on rare and obscure songs. Going in reverse succession Volume Five is rooted in Spiritual Jazz. Volume Four is unreleased, well, actually no one really knows if it has ever been created. The rumor is Volume Four was a Reggae mix, but with the release of Volume six being a Reggae mix, it is doubtful that if it even exists that it is also a Reggae mix. Volume Three is influenced by early and mid nineties Hip-Hop with a hint of Funk. Volume Two, a good mix of Funk, Jazz, and Hip-Hop, and Volume One a mix of Latin and Brazilian music. As you can tell, J. Rocc knows, listens too, and can mix a very eclectic range of music.

I am excited for more Taster Choice mixes in the future, not to mention other releases that I am sure he will release in between.