Pullin from the Stacks DJ Ian Head

So I'm a big fan of Sean Kantrowitz's podcast, especially "Making Illmatic" which he hosts with Midaz the Beast. The latest episode had them - and guest Supastition - breaking down the best tracks on the JayLib album, and at some point there was mention of how great De La Soul would have sounded on these beats. So I decided to test some of that out, and since I only have a few De La accapellas, I mixed in several other artists as well over about 10 minutes of my favorite beats from the Jaylib album. All vinyl, put together super quick, so it's a little rough on the edges but hope you enjoy!

Back this week with some digs from the private press crate, one of my favorite places to find unique sounds and creative flavors. Hope you dig! Tracklist: Morning Sky, Faces of Jazz, Dale Jacobs Group, Lamont Johnson, Guzzia Bros. Band, Danny Ward and Reality, Les James Trio

I've been starting to index my records on Discogs recently, and it's been a good exercise to go back through a lot of albums I haven't listened to in a minute and decide whether I still want to keep them. When I first started digging in the mid-90s, Jimmy Smith albums (except for the elusive Root Down) seemed to be in dollar bins everywhere. I eagerly scooped them up since it was still Blue Note (many first presses) and you never knew what cool sounds you'd find on there. But admittedly as the years have passed, I've realized I can only handle so much b3 organ playing, especially in the more straight-ahead style of many of Smith's albums. So it's not often I've gone back to these records. But this week as I categorized them all and put a few on, I figured it was a good time to do a short tribute to the legend, and play a few non-Beastie Boy-sampled cuts I enjoy. A little crunchy at times but still some funky stuff! Dig it.

Third mixture of eclectic flavors in my Walking in Space live stream series. Monthly every Thursday live on Twitch at 7pm PST and 10pm EST - twitch.tv/djianhead - playing all types of things analog and digital.

Back from a short Las Vegas trip where I grabbed a few private press jazz pieces I'd been after for a minute (Moondog Records is highly recommended!) and spent a lot of time in antique and thrift stores. Here's some of those finds plus some newer releases for a more spacey vibe. Tracklist: Faces of Jazz, Tommaso Cappellato, Full Circle, Frank Strazzeri, Kenneth Jenkins, Jazzbois

Decided to go back to the Serato box (yes I still rock the original Serato 1 box and have yet to upgrade) and just "freestyle" a mix of all kinds of joints! Ran through a number of things and kept it all around 98bpm, per the title of this episode. Might start doing this once in awhile - fun to just mix stuff quickly and see what happens. Enjoy!