Abstract Tribe Unique's Golden Quartette

As I mentioned before, in 1995 Abstract Rude was close to a record deal at Grand Royal home of the Beastie Boys. The album Mood Pieces was meant to be released there but only two tracks made it onto a compilation from the label. Behind the scenery there exist two records which have never been released, one only made it to the test pressing status, while the other probably went for promo status, but I'm not sure if it really is a promo record or just a test pressing, too. What I'm talking about is the "Blast Off Into Infinity (12" Test Pressing)" and the "Ohh I'm a Getcha (12" Promo)".
What I think is, that Mike D visited a Good Life session where he probably was impressed by a performance of Abstract Rude & the Tribe Unique and asked them for a demo tape. In his raps, Abstract Rude mentions "I handed a tape to Mike D from Grand Royal" multiple times and also "MC A plays the bass on OG Crew" which might be a hint for a different unreleased version of the "Heavyweights Round III" track, probably the one that was deleted on utube. Also a rough version of "Blast Off Into Infinity" was deleted!
The Blast Off Into Infinity record has stamped in the date NOV 17, 1995 while there isn't no direct clue on the "Ohh, I'm A Getcha" record when it was pressed except that it contains the hint, that it was mastered at Capitul Recordings. But I think that through Aceys deal with Capitul, Abstract gained access to the golden chambers and for that reason, I will definitely date it to '95.
In '97 ATU had a deal with the crown loyal label Big Dada, which resulted in another 12" with two tracks from the Mood Pieces album and later on in '98 followed a 12" on Deemo Records containing the track "Caught Up In the Rappcha" together with a track from Syndrome on the flip-side.
I think that these records give a good hint, how many obstacles upcoming artists have to pass and I don't want to know, how many patience was put into the "Mood Pieces" album through the years before it was finally self-released by ATU. Although I'm not a 100% familiar with all the background info, I think that the given hints paint a good picture of what was happened and I'm glad, that beside a ton of unreleased underground stuff, "Mood Pieces" was finally released in '98! A record that captured me from the first time I heard it and may never let me go...

Blast Off Into Infinity 12"

Ohh I'm A Getcha 12"

My Experience Is 12"

Caught Up In the Rappcha 12"

Jumping On The Afterlife Train

As Jack posted up some Afterlife stuff, I herewith post up one of my favorite Afterlife albums. I can remember in around 1999 or 2000 when I got into the CVE and found the Curbserver. At that time I had a very slow internet connection through an analogue modem patiently waiting until the download of a song was finished, which lasted around 15 minutes. Most of the downloads took longer, because there often was a connection failure or a time-out. Can you imagine? Most of the stuff that was downloadable from Curbserver was from this album. I can remember downloading the songs "Can you love a villain?", "Hot up in this club", "Do you love me?", "Killa Dealaz", "My minds on you", "Hold Yo Ground", "Role Model" and "Clockwork". So they offered most of the bangers from this album as a free download! But you can only find "Hey fish filet" on this album, a great track featuring Micole and Riddlore...

NGAFSH - Da Upgrade

Is there something fowl?

No, there isn't! As a son of the jazz musician Steven Fowler, Matthew Fowler aka Mumbles seems to had a positive influence from his father. Most heads may know Mumbles from Aceyalone's second album "A Book Of Human Language" and he also did two tracks on Aceyalone's first album "All Balls Don't Bounce". That's were both got together when Acey had his deal with Capitul back in '95. AC also has two appearances on this one and he didn't got the easiest beats to rap to. There is also an appearance of the Brazilian jazz vocalist Flora Purim who is known for her unique way of singing and an incident were she was accused for smuggling prohibited goods, I think you know what I mean. The lyrics she is using on the track "Never Ending" were taken from the track "Uri (The Wind)" from her album "500 Miles High".
This album doesn't only offer vocal tracks but also instrumental ones. To come back to the work Mumbles created, you can find different influences completing his repoirtoire with indian, psychedelic and jazzy elements. All in all the album has a slight touch of the World Music Genre. So enjoy your meal.

Mumbles - Transformations / Illuminations

Request: Project Blowed Sampler

Project Blowed Sampler