The folks over at Dutch soul site Quality Time have put together this free EP tribute to Nicolay, in honor of The Foreign Exchange’s Grammy nomination in the Best Urban/Alternative Performance category for the song “Daykeeper.” We’ve got our fingers crossed that they scoop up the award tonight!

Tracklist:
01. The Foreign Exchange ft. Muhsinah – Daykeeper (*Grammy genomineerd)
02. United Soul ft. Phonte & Yahzarah – Soul Clap remix
03. The Foreign Exchange – Nic’s Groove (Live @ Sirius/XM Radio)
04. Nicolay ft. Carlitta Durand – Lose Your Way
05. The Foreign Exchange/?uestlove – Purple Flip
06. Vikter Duplaix – Electric love (Nicolay Vocal Mix)

Download the EP

Strictly Social resident, and one of LA’s best DJs, DJ Destroyer has kindly put together this exclusive mix for us. Featuring some soulful beats and cerebral soundscapes, Destroyer displays his usual impeccable taste.

http://destroyer.podomatic.com

http://twitter.com/djdestroyer

Download the Beatlife Mix from DJ Destroyer

Tracklist:

1. STAY HERE – MUHSINAH
2. FOR THE HUNGRY CATS – PORTFORMAT
3. PLANETARIUM – IMAN WILLIAMS
4. SON (FEAT. SUZI ANALOGUE) – MINDESIGN
5. LA SAMBA – AFTA-1
6. ELECTRIC LOVE (NICOLAY REMIX) – VIKTER DUPLAIX
7. THE MEANING – 14KT
8. THRONES – GEORGIA ANNE MULDROW
9. CRAZY YOU (FEAT. SY SMITH) – ZO!
10. BEYOND 2012 – DAM FUNK
11. AMERICA (REVISITED) – JIMETTA ROSE

Here’s some thangs my soulful colleagues are blogging about this week:

Nu-Soul Mag talks to soulstress Amel Larrieux

Pinboard has an in-depth interview with Muhsinah

As usual, SongsInTheKeyofLife has the scoop on another great show, this time from UK soul legend, Omar

Check out Anjulie’s “Boom” video at Adventures of An Audio Diva

Credit to Illmami @ Soulbounce for posting this.
I was huge fan of GB’s Soundtrack For Sunrise album waaay back in 2004 but hadn’t heard much from GB since. Not sure if that’s because he wasn’t up to much, or I just wasn’t up on it. Either way I was excited to see that this free EP is available. It features GB’s interpretations of other dope artists like Little Dragon, Flying Lotus, Muhsinah, Exile, A Race of Angels in addition to….The Beach Boys.

DOWNLOAD

1. GB Interprets Little Dragon – After the Rain
2. GB Interprets Exile – Radio Medley
3. GB Interprets Flying Lotus – Riot
4. GB Interprets Muhsinah – Always
5. GB Interprets A Race of Angels – The Main Attraction
6. GB Interprets the Beach Boys – I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times

http://www.giftedandblessed.com/

Strictly Social’s DJ Destroyer has put together another dope mix that captures the essence of LA’s best progressive soul/hip-hop/electronica monthly. Check the tracklist below and download the niceness. Thanks Destroyer!

Download here:
http://www.zshare.net/audio/54447718faa69551/

Track listing
1. BELIEVE – Q TIP
2. ONCE AGAIN – MUHSINAH
3. THIS MOMENT – ANONAMAS
4. BOND 4 LIFE – BLACK MILK
5. M.I.L.F. FT. BILAL – 88-KEYS
6. MY LOVE – WAYNA
7. ENJOY YA SELF V2 – SLAKAH
8. LOVE HANDLE – 14KT
9. DEAR MAN – VICELOUNGE+DEE FERGUSON
10. PUT IT DOWN FT. KISSEY ASPLUND – REPLIFE
11. FEELS SO GOOD – DWELE
12. PUSHA MAN – AYAH
13. SLOW IT DOWN – ROY DAVIS JR.
14. MY LIFE – EQUATION
15. MANWOMANBOOGIE – Q TIP
16. BETTER DAYZ – VELBEN
17. DANCE ON MARS – SARAH WHITE
18. TAKE YOU ANYWHERE – RASHEEDA WALLACE
19. GALACTIC FUN – DAM FUNK
20. ON A CLOUD(TRACKADEMICS REMIX) – PPP
21. REAL THING(FLAKO REMIX) – ERYKAH BADU
22. CITY OF NOWHERE – BRITTANY BOSCO
23. FREE IT OUT – ERIC LAU
24. FEEL THAT MUSIC – SLAKAH
25. SHOW UP – LMNO & KEV BROWN
26. NEW WORLDS – THE BIG PAYBACK & REGGIE B
27. TALK SEX – SA-RA CREATIVE PARTNERS
28. SPIRIT – REPLIFE
29. RIGHT HERE(SEOUL CITY REFIX) – DJ MITSU THE BEATS
30. ONCE – BUFF 1
31. YO YO AFFAIR PT. 1 & 2 – MADLIB FEAT. FREZNA
32. WHO KNOWS – STACY EPPS
33. GO – ANTHONY VALADEZ
34. ROBERTA FLACK FEAT. DOLLY – FLYING LOTUS

myspace.com/lastrictlysocial
myspace.com/djdestroyer
nu-soulmag.com

Jay Scarlett let’s us know what’s up:

Flying Lotus – Los Angeles
Muhsinah – Day Break 2.0
Q-Tip – The Renaissance
Santogold – Santogold
Benga – Dairy Of An Afro Warrior
Daru & Reggie B – Future Music
Theo Parrish – Soundsculptures Vol 1
Aqeel – Inside The Mind Of An Afro American angel
Erykah Badu – New Amerykah
Coultrain – Adventures Of Seymour Liberty

Keep up with Jay at: http://ampsoul.blogspot.com/ & www.myspace.com/bassboulevard

The very dope Muhsinah has just dropped a digital release The Oscillations: Sine which looks like it will be followed by The Oscillations: Triangle. According to the discography on her site she released an EP called The Oscillations back in 2005 so I’m not sure if this is 100% new material, or perhaps an extension of that previous work. In any case it’s now available on iTunes, Emusic and the like so go checkit. Here’s a little taste – check out the video below for “Construction”.

www.muhsinah.com

Construction from Rxlngr on Vimeo.

So unless you’ve been under a rock as of late, you’re probably hip to the fact that the much-lauded pairing of Dutch beatmaker Nicolay + Little Brother’s Phonte AKA The Foreign Exchange are about to drop another album. Leave It All Behind will be dropping digitally on October 7th with a double CD release to follow on October 14th including a full instrumental disc. So if you’re not already salivating just at the thought of this impending goodness, take a listen to the first single “Daykeeper” featuring Muhsinah, and also the album sampler. After wrapping your ears around this, you’ll be drooling for sure. Less hip-hop, and more soul/downtempo/jazz, Leave It All Behind seems like it’s going to be sonically beautiful and a must-have. “Daykeeper” is a fresh track with a smooth, soulful beat that feels like sunrise. Go grab it here:http://www.theforeignexchangemusic.com/daykeeper.php

The album sampler can be found here:

http://www.theforeignexchangemusic.com/LIAB_sampler.zip

Foreign Exchange Leave It All Behind Sampler
a. Take Off The Blues
b. All or Nothing
c. Something To Behold
d. If This Is Love
e. If She Breaks Your Heart

So the dope folks over at ArtDontSleep have another killer show coming up for all you LA heads. On August 8th you can catch Platinum Pied Pipers, Muhsinah, and DJ sets from Kutmah and The Gas Lamp Killer. All the official details and such are below. Go have fun kids.

KCRW, ECHOPLEX AND ARTDONTSLEEP PRESENTS
Performances by Platinum Pied Pipers Cast No. 2, Muhsinah, and DJ sets by Kutmah and The Gas Lamp Killer

Friday August 8th 2008

The break is over and KCRW, LA Weekly, The Echoplex, and ArtDontSleep are at it again! In the midst of a Californian summer comes more heat, from Detroit and DC! For more information, visit www.myspace.com/artdontsleep. It will be held at The Echoplex, located on 1154 Glendale Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90026. Ticket prices are General Admission: $15. Admittance is again 21 and wiser. Presale tickets are available at Turntable Lab, located on 424 N Fairfax Ave Los Angeles, CA 90036, online at Ticket Web and through Shoptext by texting “PPP” to telephone number 467467. Guests are subject to availability.

Platinum Pied Pipers Cast No. 2 (www.myspace.com/platinumpiedpipers)
On the coattail of their second Ubiquity Records’ release Abundance, Platinum Pied Pipers’ duo Waajeed and Saadiq return, after three long awaited years, with a new mash up of vintage and modern influences, including pop, house, funk and Detroit techno, and combines them to be everything that is truly PPP’s sound. Their debut Triple P was hailed as the heaviest classic album of 2005 and their truthfully hyped live performances lead to a top three nomination for the Giles Petterson Worldwide Award, for Album of The Year. This time around PPP steps forward with PPP Cast No. 2: the refreshing St Louis crooner and lyricist Coultrain, Texas’ Karma, Jamila Reagen, from NYC, and long time Detroit collaborator Neco Redd. In the words of Waajeed, the inspiration for the new album is to “put some paint where it ain’t.” Fresh as ever, PPP has set the standards again!

Muhsinah (www.myspace.com/muhsinah)
DC producer, engineer and singer Muhsinah is the unexpected future soul! In a matter of seconds, her sound captures an audience wholly! In 2005, she released her self-produced Oscillations EP, but her full length album, day.break 2.0, is what earned her some buzz. BBC’s Radio 1Xtra’s Benji B brought her into the studio for an interview session, she just finished a UK tour and continuously flies forward! As Interdependent Media’s A&R Dominic Del Bene said, “Muhsinah’s music slithers all over your body like warm fuzzy slugs, thousands of them. Its warm and its dark and it effects you. Finally, when those thousands of fuzzy slugs have engulfed you, you feel the whole weight of it all…I’ll agree with it to the ends of the earth.”