Tag Archives: downtempo

Posted on by

The Sunday Soundtrack – 07 Aug 11 – featuring Clara Hill

Greetings listeners. Welcome to another edition of The Sunday Soundtrack! It’s been about a nine month hiatus…whew…long time coming, but it’s good to be back once again. It’s been a hot summer this year…all the more better to bring you some CHILLED tracks to offset the heat. This edition of the Sunday Soundtrack features one of the smoothest female vocalists I have ever heard…the inimitable Clara Hill.

From her last.fm page:

Clara started to discover the power of voice in the eighties, when she was singing alongside some tunes by Madonna. At a certain point it was clear to her that she wanted to join and front a band. Aged seventeen, she founded the acid jazz combo Superjuice, together with her friend Funès. In the early nineties, at the height of acid jazz, the band toured through Berlin clubs, gathering a high-profile reputation. During these years, Clara made her first steps in live music. During one of her shows, she met DJ Alex Barck from Jazzanova, who was spinning records as a support DJ. In 1998 he introduced her to the producers of Extended Spirit (2/6 of Jazzanova): Stefan Leisering and Axel Reinemer, that produced a few tracks with Clara. Relaxed and easy, a friendship started with Stefan Leisering and Clara Hill. With him, the song “No Use”

Clara’s thick, lush, harmonies go so very well with the wide chordal arrangements that Jazzanova and other similar artists she’s work with that I have to describe her music by taking the first letter of her first name, and combining it with her full last name: CHill!

Without further adieu, I bring you the playlist:
~~~~~~~~~~
1. Still Here – Aural Float
2. Reel Life (Evolution II) – The Cinematic Orchestra/Man With a Movie Camera
3. Reprise – Clara Hill/Best Of 3
4. Maybe Now – Clara Hill/Restless Times
5. Crush – Chevalier
6. I’m Here – Clara Hill/Restless Times
7. Flawless – Clara Hill/Restless Times
8. Under The Radar – Two Little Satellites
9. No Use – Jazzanova Feat. Clara Hill/In Between
10. Dub In Ya Mind (Blue Water Mix – Afterlife/Simplicity Two Thousand (Disc 1)
~~~~~~~~~~

I hope you’ve enjoyed the tracks as much as I do. Big shout out to my podcast massive for the ID drops in the podcast. Thanks for the encouraging words regarding the return of the podcast. An equally important shout to my regular and new listeners, as well. I appreciate you checking it out.

Clara Hill on last.fm

Official Website

Enjoy the day, night, afternoon, morning, or whenever you are listening to this podcast. For those of you on Twitter, feel free to follow The Sunday Soundtrack there.

::: oceans of rhythm :::

Fresh!

Posted on by

Welcome To The Sunday Soundtrack – 20 Feb 2011

Crew,

Welcome, once again to The Sunday Soundtrack. It’s been a few months, almost four months, since the last podcast and during the necessary hiatus, it was good to rearrange somethings, and get some new tracks to share with you. Officially, I wish you a Happy New Year and hope things are going well for you.

As said above, brand new tracks are on the playlist, representing the essence of what I’ve created The Sunday Soundtrack for years ago – a relaxing, yet no so common mix of laidback music for any day of the week. I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank all who gently poked me in the side to get the podcast back on board. Mad shouts to my entire podcasting crew (see the blogroll) for the encouragement, the ID drops, the whole nine. Keep doin’ it big, you keep me inspired. Special shout to all the fans of the podcast as well, your comments keep me inspired in the same way.


1 – Optymystic-Tom Middleton/Life Tracks
2 – Letcha Letcha-Ten Madison/Travelling
3 – Harissa-Ten Madison/Travelling
4 – Miner’s Son (Aquatic mix)-Beth Hirsch
5 – Another Time, Another Space-Citrus Sun/Another Time Another Space
6 – afterthewoman-rdm
7 – Afternoon in the Park (Orbiting Dream) Ft. Dan Prudian-Inner Light Spectrum/The Path to Reality
8 – A Touch Of Jazz

It’s been a pleasure. I’ll be back with another edition within the month. Big shouts to all my indie musicians who are flowin’ everything from jazzy, downtempo instrumental hip-hop (stay tuned in the coming episodes), to @fave and @toddkelley, my writing partners on the Cross Country Collective (C3) project, my writing and business partner as well as LONG time good friend, Dan McCollum (we are After Six Productions on FB) and to all artists adding to this universal language of of music. One last shout out to @dvsjr and @shaktiirocket, I hope The Sunday Soundtrack continues to provide that musical backdrop for your Sunday brunches. To my fans, I salute you! Follow me here:

Fresh on Twitter
The Sunday Soundtrack on Twitter

::: oceans of rhythm :::

Fresh!

Posted on by

Welcome To The Sunday Soundtrack – 101010

Welcome listeners, to another edition of The Sunday Soundtrack. Here we are in the last quarter of the year, 2010. Seems like a whirlwind of time has past. Sometimes I just wanna stop the world, and hop off, hahah. Hope all is well with you.

All brand new tracks today, thanks to some time spend searching YouTube. Interestingly enough, I can spend hours in this goldmine, gathering tracks for the show, and the last treasure hunt turned up some really nice gems.

Back on this episode, after some time, is an artist I discovered when The Sunday Soundtrack first hit the netwaves, Michael E. I discovered him on myspace, and recently came across his track “Blow” from his latest release, Cafe Tranquillo. A signature track by him, it employs lush movements and laidback rhythms. His music’s always been a favorite of mine.

Returning once again, is Lazybatusu with their track, Keep On Keeping On. This duo produces tracks that range from a large sounding arrangement to, at times, tracks leaning towards a minimalistic sound, while all the time laying in that chillout vibe. This is a nice track, and you’ll be hearing more from this group in future podcasts.

I always say The Sunday Soundtrack is not The Sunday Soundtrack without Afterlife. This time, Dub In Ya Mind (Blue Water Mix), is what I’m featuring. Steve Miller brings the essence of Ibiza chillout in a relaxing track that can always find it’s place in activities where no multitasking is aloud (smile). I always love the way he incorporates the elements of female vocals


1. Viva Cubana (beachhouse mix) – Clublife/Dubai Chillhouse Grooves Vol 2.
2. Keep On Keeping On – Lazybatusu/Supperclub Presents San Francisco Vol. 8 Disc 2
3. People Come, People Go (Chillout Mix) – Arnej/After Hours Anthems
4. Always on my Mind (Bar Lounge Music Mix) – Soul ‘N’ Sound
5. Consequences f/Vanessa Daou (Late Night Mix) – Blank & Jones/Relax-Edition 4
6. Blow – Michael E/Cafe Tranquillo
7. California Sunset (Ambient Lounge Mix) – Various
8. Moon Beat – LTJ – X-Perience/Formetara de Dia Volume 1. Part Two [IMPORT]
9. Dub In Ya Mind (Blue Water Mix) – Afterlife/Simplicity Two Thousand (Disc 1)
10. Sunset Chill Lounge – Various

I was laced with some swag from SomaFM recently, here’s a short video about it. Shout out to Rusty Hodge, DJ at SomaFM,

As always, thanks for listening, it’s much appreciated. I hope the podcast provides the necessary chill(out) you’re looking for when you need it.

::: oceans of rhythm :::

Fresh!

Posted on by

Welcome To The Sunday Soundtrack – 19 Sep 10

Morning Sky
“Morning Sky”- Photo Credit: Hey Kim! 2010

Good day listeners…

Welcome to another edition of The Sunday Soundtrack. I hope your week was (or is) going well. Here we are half way through September and I have to ask the all to well known question: “Where has the time gone?” That question is rhetorical as I think our answers are all pretty similar. In any event, without time passing, I’d never reach this point of bringing you yet another podcast. Amidst the excitement of an oncoming start to the NBA season and football season underway, I hope you incorporate this musical into the time you find to chill.

I’ve been doing some trackhunting over the past week and have discovered a new way of getting new music for the podcast which is pretty exciting. With that, ahead of you is an hour of all brand new tracks that I hope you enjoy. Among the tracks are two from San Francisco based DJ and producer, Kaskade, and two from sought after and finally found artist, Lazybatusu. I’ve featured tracks from Kaskade on the podcast before, but Lazybatusu has been elusive in obtaining via my usual haunts…until I discovered my new source. I really like the flow of Lazybatusu and will be featuring more of their tracks in future SSPs. Their track “8am” I’ve heard numerous times on somafm.com’s Groove Salad and SiriusXM’s Chill, two long time sources of the tracks you hear in the podcast. I hope you enjoy it as well as I do.

In the coming months I hope to be showcasing some more of my own smooth electronica here as well. Stay tuned. With that, let’s tune into this week’s playlist:

1. Tonite f/Amy Michelle – Kaskade/Om Lounge
2. Close – Kaskade/OM Lounge 8
3. R-Evolution – Lazybatusu/Cafe Solaire Vol. 2
4. Mellow – Seductive Souls/Cafe Solaire Vol. 14
5. Can U Feel It? – Marc Antoine/Rendezvous Lounge 2
6. Get It On – Spacefish/Global Psychedelic Chill Out – Compilation Vol. 4
7. 8am – Lazybatusu/Cafe Solaire Vol. 14
8. Nkechi – Konferenz/Kontakt
9. Bay Of Hope – Planet Lounge/Grill Out
10. The Story Of Us – Chevalier

Thought I’d shoot a short video of where The Sunday Soundtrack podcast is created. Insight is always valuable. Thanks to my brother-in-podcasting, DarrenKeith over at My Love For Music for the idea. He’s done an on-location video of where he shot his podcast recently.

Thanks for listening, always appreciated, and a special shout to my entire podcasting massive, especially for the drops. Time for me to send new ones out to you as well.

To download the podcast, just right-click on the “Download” link and save it to your hard drive.

::: oceans of rhythm :::

F!

Posted on by

Welcome To The Sunday Soundtrack- 29 Aug 10 (Exodus of Summer)


Haigis Beach. Cape Cod, MA. Photo credit: Fresh!

Welcome Listeners…

Always glad to have you tune in to The Sunday Soundtrack. I just got back from a VERY relaxing week in Cape Cod, MA. Pretty much slept until 11am at the earliest everyday and didn’t even realize how much I really needed it. It was a necessary chilled out time for sure.

Here we are at the end of August and the summer has FLOWN by. I’ll be sad to see it go but the time away has made it memorable. Today’s tracks are handpicked from a bunch of favorites and I hope they prove enjoyable. Last week I featured a track from Bebel Gilberto and this week I bring you her sister, Astrud. Anything that the Gilberto family releases always proves to be a good fit for The Sunday Soundtrack.

Incognito (my favorite group of all time) has released their latest CD “Transtlantic RPM” in June. I highly suggest you pick that up. While I’m not featuring any tracks from that release, I bring you two great tracks which have a vibe that fits this podcast, “I Can See The Future”, and the laid back, well known favorite to many, “After The Fall” (I’d like to see my band cover the latter track).

As always, I love to feature tracks by Afterlife, the definitive flow for all things chill out, this week it’s Cry (Sunset Dream Mix), from The Mix EP. Jeff Lorber brings us “Tuva”, a track created and inspired by the ancient art of “throat singing (listen to the intro) from the natives of Tuva, a land Jeff once visited. One of my favorite tracks in this edition is Aquanote’s (Gabriel Rene) “Nowhere (Pearl Speakeasy Remix)”. This track, compared to the original, is my definition of what a true remix is, and in addition, I really love how the elements of the track come together. You can here three other remixes of it here .

I trust you’ll enjoy all the tracks on the playlist, so without further adieu:


1 – I Can See The Future-Incognito/No Time Like The Future [Bonus Track] Amazon
2 – Nowhere (Pearl Speakeasy Remix) – Aquanote/Nude Dimensions, Volume 3 Discogs
3 – Alive (Instrumental) – J-Boogie’s Dubtronic Science/Mushroom Jazz 6 Om Records
4 – Cry (Sunset Dream Mix) – Afterlife/The Mix EP Discogs
5 – After The Fall – Incognito/100 Degrees And Rising Amazon
6 – L.O.V.E. And You & I (Dr. Ghe Mix) – Jazzanova/Jazzanova Remixed [Disc 1] Amazon
7 – Aquarian Angel- Blue Six/Aquarian Angel Amazon
8 – Certain Sadness – Astrud Gilberto/A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness Amazon
9 – Handsome – Bathysphere/Bathysphere’s Daylight Shrubbery EP Official Site
10 – Tuva – Jeff Lorber/West Side Stories Official Site

As always, thanks for tuning in. It’s been a gorgeous, but busy day 1 back from vacation. My apologies for getting this out later than sooner. Kudos to my entire podcasting crew and you, the listeners. Enjoy.

::: oceans of rhythm :::

F!

Posted on by

Welcome To The Sunday Soundtrack – 15 Aug 2010

Hello listeners…

Welcome to another (long awaited) edition of The Sunday Soundtrack. I trust everyone has been enjoying this quickly fleeting summer. It’s been dissipating a little TOO quickly for me. In any event, it’s really good to be back, bringing you another collection of chilled tracks for your listening pleasure. I want to take a moment to thank all those who passed encouragement along my way during the hiatus. I trust it will not be as long between podcasts. I enjoyed putting this one together in hopes that you’ll enjoy what it has to offer.

On deck are a number of my fave artists, none new to the podcast, but adding a certain, je ne sais quois (kidding), a certain chilled out, laid back flow for your relaxing moments. 4Hero, Blackfish, Bebel Gilberto, and Afterlife are a few of the offerings on tap. Without further adieu, I bring you…the playlist:


1 – Morning Child f/Carina – 4Hero/Play With The Changes
2 – Hidden Shore – Blackfish/Hidden Shore
3 – Sustain & Maintain (Love’s Remix) – Big La vs. Todd/Blue… Kinda Grey
4 – Let It Go – Angelica Love Ross
5 – Somewhere – Alex Cortiz/Mood Food
6 – Seed – Keston and Westdal/Truth is Stranger
7 – s.i.p. – Boozoo Bajou/Dust My Broom
8 – All Around (Telefon Tel Aviv Remix) – Bebel Gilberto/Telefon Tel Aviv-Remixes Compiled
9 – Sunrise [DJ Thunda & The K20 Allstars Mix] – Afterlife/Collections: The Best Songs of Ibiza’s Sunset
10 – Rood Beatz (Cornucopia Remix) – Afterlife/Lounge Ibiza Vol. 2

All of the above tracks featured on today’s podcast can be found on iTunes and Amazon.com.

I’d like to give a special shout out to Dionne…I know it’s been a moment, but I’d be remiss if I forgot the message a special friend of yours gave to me some months ago. I hope you enjoy today’s podcast.

Wishing all of you a great day as well. Thanks again for listening…

::: oceans of rhythm :::

Fresh!

Posted on by

Welcome To The Sunday Soundtrack – 07 Feb 10

Welcome listeners!

Welcome back to another edition of The Sunday Soundtrack. I am definitely glad to be back on track with some smooth electronica, ambient, and downtempo tracks for your enjoyment. It’s been (as usual) a very busy month and as I had mentioned on the FB group page, I’m transitioning the podcast from a weekly to monthly format. The reason is primarily to return to the type of content in blog and podcast that I originally started with at the inception of the podcast back in Dec 2007 – links, commentary (more), etc. This will also help with the amount of other musical production projects I’m involved with…oh, and then there’s my day job (wink).

I’m in the midst (with the rest of the DMV) of Snowpocalypse 2010…lol. We got over two feet of snow today and I haven’t shoveled a flake yet. Tomorrow morning I’m up at it early, and the earlier the better because there’s a LOT of white stuff out there!

This weekend has been, because of the snowstorm, pretty lazy. The tracks I am featuring are a few of my favorites, hopefully they’ll become the same for you. As I mentioned before, I often pick tracks that I think musically describe my general demeanor across a spectrum. If I had to pick a track from the playlist that fits how I feel at the moment, I’d say it’s Blackfish’s “Hidden Shore (Asia Mix)”, the opening track below. Of course, the definitive track, by constraint, this weekend IS Headphonism’s “Stay Home and Chill”. Any track I feature from Incognito is always a favorite, I think the group, for over 25 years has achieved a universal vibe that touches all in one way or another, an achievement that I think has been unparalleled by any other group. To fully round out the soundtrack, I always have to include some ambient goodness, this time around it’s Darshan Ambient’s ” The Geometer of Dreams” That being said, without further adieu, I bring you the playlist.


1. Hidden Shore (Asia Mix) – Blackfish/Finest Asia Lounge (The Year of The Monkey)
2. Magnetic Ocean – Incognito/Tribes, Vibes & Scribes
3. Wanderers Creek – Art Bleek/Between Yesterday & Tomorrow
4. Entropy – Chevalier/Balance
5. Gotta Be Love – Joey Youngman/Om Lounge, Vol. 10
6. Smooth – Alex Cortiz/Magnifico
7. Stay Home And Chill – Headphonism/Om.Chilled
8. Come Back (Bonus Track) РJose Padilla/Caf̩ del Mar: The Best Of (Disc 2)
9. The Geometer of Dreams – Darshan Ambient/From Pale Hands To Weary Skies
10. Florent 2 A.M – Blank & Jones/Relax Edition 3 (Sun) – EP

This is the year where I hope to bring to you more of my tracks. Tracks that fall into the same genres I have been featuring on my podcast. There’s a love I have for instrumental music, especially downtempo and chillout tracks that can evoke a certain mood. Moods that in these days of rushing and running that are probably welcomed by all of us. They’ll vary from short interludes to full pieces…so…stay tuned.

I’d like to give a special shout out to The GRAMMYs for allowing me (as you know) to be the official community blogger for the Jazz nominees this year. It was a blast writing the blog posts and honor at the same time. I had a great time doing it and made some great connections as a result. Congrats to the other official bloggers as well:

Once again, thanks for listening to this edition of the podcast. For those of you that are on Twitter, you can follow The Sunday Soundtrack here. On Facebook, you can join the group here.

Stay tuned next Sunday for a SPECIAL Sunday Soundtrack podcast, entitled Cupid’s Hunt 2010. One in a series of podcasts honoring the spirit of Valentine’s Day. I’ll be bringing to you a unique mix of tracks for you to, of course, chill to….

Until then…..keep it chilled.

peace,
F!

Posted on by

In The Lab – Dec 2009

Greetings crew….

Happy Holidays (Kwanzaa, Happy New Year, etc) to all. A lot of you catch my tweets about what I’m doing musically, so I wanted to give you a peek at where it all happens. All the composers, songwriters, musicians, etc have such a spot, most of them (obviously your truly) tend to call it a lab of some sort. I was talking with a friend yesterday, who’s a songwriter/musician/producer about studio workspaces and how they run the gamut of styles. I kinda thrive on ergonomics, comfort, and organization, etc…helps the muse flow freely. As for as tools, I’m a firm believer that the best utilize what they have to the max to get the results needed.

I’m looking forward to completing a long awaited CD that my partner and I have been working on, continuing work on a collaboration called “contempojazzsoulhop” with my boys Fave and Todd, a smooth jazz project with KLWJazz, more remixes for Philip Clark, gospel jazz keyboardist Kevin Battle, vocal group Destined 2 Praise, vocalist Dana Yates, more production work with AfterSix Productions, saxophonist Harron Evoria, annnnnnd my own CD project, whew. Ok, anyway, here’s mine, in it’s current form:

That’s about it…now u see where the tweets flow from, the hangout spot.

Happy New Year…

peace,
F!

Posted on by

The Sunday Soundtrack f/Afterlife – 06 Dec 09

Hello, and welcome back for another edition of The Sunday Soundtrack. I hope this post finds you well.

It’s been a crazy week. The GRAMMYs are well underway and I was chosen to be the official community blogger for the category of Jazz. We have an excellent group of community bloggers, all on Twitter, that do an excellent job of representing the major categories. Any time it gets busy, I usually resort to doing a very chilled podcast. That being said, I bring you the king of chiil, Afterlife. Steve Miller is Afterlife and is the top downtempo producer in the UK and the most played artist in Ibiza. I couldnt see why he WOULDN’T be the top rated. Take a listen to the tracks, and I’m sure you would agree.

Special shouts today to @mainelementlove, thanks for the comment you left. My apologies for posting the podcast late tonite (see above). @deegospel…go and get your scribe on.

I present to you the playlist


1. Clear Blue Sky – Afterlife/The St. Regis Chill & Groove
2. Ozo – Afterlife/Speck of Gold
3. Speck of Gold – Afterlife/The St. Regis Chill & Groove
4. Breather 2000 (Arithunda Mix) – Afterlife/The St. Regis Chill & Groove
5. Smooch – Afterlife/Speck of Gold
6. Miracles – Afterlife
7. Shine – AfterLife ft Cathy Battistessa/The Blue Bar
8. Falling – Afterlife/Simplicity Two Thousand
9. Cry – Afterlife/The Mix EP
10. Cry (Sunset Dream Mix) – Afterlife/The Mix EP
11. Sunrise [DJ Thunda & The K20 Allstars Mix] – Afterlife/Speck of Gold
12. Rood Beatz (Cornucopia Remix) – Afterlife/Speck of Gold

Afterlife Online
The Official Myspace Site
The Official Afterlife Website

Back to studio work…

Have a great day!

peace and blessings…
F!

Posted on by

Welcome To The Sunday Soundtrack – 08 Nov 09

kenyastreet

Photo Credit: Kenya Allmond

Greetings Listeners…

How’s everyone’s weekend been? I hope well and extend the wishes to your day if the weekend is over when u are listening to this. Next month will be the two year anniversary of The Sunday Soundtrack. I can’t believe how two years flew by that quick, but I’ve loving every minute of this. Someone tweeted me a question asking if I get any money from doing the podcast. I replied that I don’t, and that it is a labor of love project. While I definitely DON’T and WON’T mind any donations (hmm, how do I get that Paypal Donate button on here…LOL), the comments my listeners leave are so very much worth it, so I extend a great thanks to all of you. I’ve made, and continue to make, cool connections with listeners as well as artists with whom I love showcasing their tracks. Brings me new material, as well as u, my listening audience. The thing I love the best is bringing to you underground artists that u may not have heard otherwise, and making u aware of a genre that I think pretty much (as mentioned in the podcast) describes me, as a person. I think the tracks in this podcast that provide a pretty good description are Secret Garden, The Hook, and Ozo….

That being said, XM Radio and somafm’s Groove Salad were both on point this week flowing some brand new tracks I didn’t have in my collection. Today, I share them with you. Without further adieu, the playlist:


1. Ford Transit – The Dzihan & Kamien Orchestra Live In Vienna
2. Ocean Air – dZihan & Kamien/Freaks & Icons
3. Ozo – Afterlife/Speck of Gold
4. Beautiful Being (DJ Brian Seed Mix – Eastern Sun and John Kelley Beautiful Being – EP
5. Life and How to Do It – All India Radio/Permanent Evolutions
6. Bingelsession – Visitors From Venus/Cocktail Hour
7. Our Secret Garden – Sine/Cool Off Chillout, Vol. 2 (Bonus Track Version)
8. Smoke & Mirrors – Worldwide Groove Corporation/Chillodesiac Lounge, Vol. 1: FEVER
9. The Hook (DJ Spinna Instrumental Mix) – Grand Pianoramax/The Hook (Remixes) – EP
10. Satellite Anthem Icarus – Boards of Canada/The Campfire Headphase

All the above tunes can be found on iTunes, and I suspect Amazon.com

Shout out to my entire podcast massive (see the links to the right) for doing it big everytime the drop musical goodness. Big up to Kenya for letting me post the photo. You’ve got great photographic eye.

Have a great day….

Best,
F!