Kind of a smooth rap/jazz song by UK-based band US3. The title “Cantaloop“. The band has been around since 1992 and released their first album “Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)” in 1993. This is a remastered and re-released version from that album. The record,released in 2013 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the original album, is a classic. I don’t normally get into the rap/hip-hop material, so this is a bit of a departure for me. The song is very interesting in its fusing of jazz, funk and rap. Surprising that it is from 20 years ago. Enjoy.
American musician Michael Franti (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It’s almost summer. Forget that Calgary was plus 6 yesterday with biblical rainfall and the mountains got a sprucing up with a bunch of new snow. I am going to call it and say, summer starts now. To bring it in with some music, I give you Michael Franti and Spearhead with “The Sound of Sunshine”.
California-based, the band, fronted by Michael Franti, plays a great mix of, well, pretty much everything. I hear funk, jazz, hip-hop, reggae, some folk and lots of fun. Great tune, and wherever you are, remember Canadians love summer. It is short and we make the most of every minute.
Today’s list makes a change. Time to go to a countdown. Only 350 songs to go. The play-list includes both classic rock and a classic player. Yes, the great one, Neil Young, makes another appearance here. It also includes Skinny Puppy, which is a new one on me.
The band, Spoons, hail out of Burlington and were your prototypical 80’s synth-pop hair band that were everywhere back then. This song was one of their bigger hits and was recorded in 1984, only hitting 55 on the Canadian Billboard chart.
Trooper have played since 1965. I have seen them on two occasions. Once sitting in the front row at a bar in Winnipeg way back in the day, the second, about 10 years ago at the Brier (Canada’s Men’s Curling Championship) in Saskatoon. Don’t really remember either performance that well. This song was recorded in 1976.
Corey Hart was never my favourite, other than “I Wear My Sunglasses At Night” which was kind of cool. To me, he epitomized pretty much everything that I didn’t like about 80’s music. I am sure there will be some disagreement on that, or maybe not.
Just Jun MC aka Changster DJ dropped me an email with a link to his music. Took a listen and figured I’d share it with you. Good tune. A bit out of my wheelhouse, but, as I always say, Good is Good, and I am all about promoting Canadian talent. A bit about Just Jun MC as posted on CBC. Thanks for your permission to post your bio here. Give it a listen and let us know what you think.
Vancouver born and bred, Canadian musician representing hip hop and music. Just Jun became interested in Hip Hop as a youth, fanatically following local radio shows and bootlegs of songs, generally unavailable to Canadian kids. He got involved with break-dancing and graffiti as a youth, as well as rapping and rhyming. As he got older, he got involved with deejaying too…
One thing that seemed out of his grasp at the time was understanding music theory and was eventually able to learn by accident, teaching himself and going to school for it. Because of Hip Hop, Just Jun, gained respect for music in general, having learned the history of music and theory and how to produce music.
“I got into music and culture because of hip hop and I grew to find out more history and the roots of everything. I learned from history that you can not appreciate hip hop, without appreciating the history behind music and how it came to be. Much like the movie Back To The Future, other history instigated and formed the history of Hip Hop, and I appreciate that. If you look at hip hop’s birth, it came about from Funk and Soul Records, breaks, and innovation onto disco deejaying techniques. Without the former history, there would be no hip hop, and I would not be here speaking about or involved in this…” JUST JUN MC
“I have a goal to form a funk and soul group as well. I have various melodies and songs I would like to construct. I’d also like to work with an orchestra…” JUST JUN MC
Plex is an award-winning hip-hop artist and producer based in Toronto, Ontario. He released his first album in 2009 and has established a broad base of fans throughout North America. His newest release is titled “Demons” and is available on iTunes.
This tune, named “I Can’t Breathe”, is off the album.
Is It Possible To See It All 