Hamachi Negro

Hello all,

Just a quick note to announce that the new CD by Baltin is available at long last, and yes it is Volume 30 (for anyone who wonders why the disc numbers might be out of sequence the Volume list includes three mixtapes that are no longer in print and one that is temporarily unavailable).

Here's the track roster:

Disc 1:
Alice Coltrane, Blue Nile
Janita, Let Me Love You (Tamita Mix)
Bird, Game (Jazztronik Triple Headz Mix)
Tre/Molo, Nylon
Democustico, Vaga-Lume
RSL, Inside Looking Out
Reel People + Dyanna Fearon, Washing Away
Kinky, Sol (Batucada) (live)
Monday Michiru, Yellow Light
The Matthew Herbert Big Band, The Audience
Re:Jazz + Ultra Naté, Twisted
Jazztronik, Listen to Your Love (DJ Mitsu the Beats Mix)
Mariah Carey, Stay the Night
Vicki Anderson, What the World Needs Now

Disc 2:
Mavis Rivers + Shorty Rogers, I'm Gonna Live Till I Die
Troubleman, Have a Good Time
Jazztronik + Monday Michiru, Tiger Eyes (English Version)
Everything But the Girl, Corcovado (DJ Marky + XRS Mix)
Patife + Cleveland Watkiss, Overjoyed
Amy Winehouse, Tears Dry on Their Own
Anjali, Asian Provocateur
Reel People + Dyanna Fearon, Butterflies
Mondo Grosso + BoA, Everything Needs Love
Restless Soul + Rasiyah, Time to Fly
Alice Russell, Mirror Mirror on the Wolf (Bonobo Mix)
Skye, What's Wrong with Me? (Nouvelle Vague Mix)
Gustavo Cerati, Beautiful
Swing Out Sister, Will We Find Love?
Peggy Lee, A Taste of Honey

For the full rundown, visit the Hamachi page on the official Liq site, and for anyone who feels inclined to give me any guff about including a Mariah song on a Baltin CD, I say what I've been saying: if Gilles can do it, so f*cking can I, and that track is MAGNIFICENT.

And, yes, that epically sublime boy on the insert is my dream husband P-Rod (Paul Rodriguez Jr.) on the inside cover. For more of his crushingly devastating loveliness, visit his Plan B page, his Nike page (search riders), and the bio on paulrodriguez.com. xo, B.

Still More New (Sonic + Filmic) Loveliness: Brand New Alice R. + Brilliant Monday M. News

I just stumbled on this new bit of jewel-like opulence (I know, I'm feeling back-in-the-day verbose this evening) from the goddess Alice Russell, and while I don't yet know where it's from, I have no problem saying that it's the most radiant dancefloor killer track from her in a long long while.

Also on the goddess front, for anyone who doesn't yet know, the new Monday Michiru cover album – with the title cut being "My Ever Changing Moods" (!!!???!!!) – is set for Japan-only release on Geneon on July 4th. Consult the official Monday site for the occasionally perverse but for the most part characteristically brilliant tracklist. And drench in this other bit of magnificent news culled from the girl's email newsletter:

"NEW JAZZTRONIK COLLABORATION!: You know I'm a fan of Jazztronik; I think Ryota is really talented as both a beat & track maker as well as a musician and composer. So when he asked me if I could sing and write lyrics for a new track, I leaped at the chance – HELL YEAH! We just finished last weekend and it's a fun Latin Jazz House number entitled "Mista Swing." To be released June 27th from Pony Canyon in the album entitled 'Grand Blue.'"

And the gods collide to provide more prescient Technicolor and vivacity once again... (xxooxx)

An Old Sonic Love Who's Turned Out to Be EPICALLY F*CKING EXQUISITE: Mark Ronson (Love + a Litany of Eye-Candy from the Beautiful One)

We all knew well before either Amy album that Mark Ronson was a production genius (as is Salaam Remi), but how I never caught sight of his RIBCAGE-SMASHING EXQUISITE beauty is a true f*cking mystery. Yet the flurry of buzz/hype/what have you surrounding the release of Version has brought tear-inducingly magnificent photo material on him out in tsunami force. And it's a lustrous/effulgent/shimmeringly f*cking beautiful beautiful beautiful thing. Enjoy the above eye-candy–with wistful flashbacks of young Mark Brydon....

In Constant Rotation + Respect to Another Soul-Jazz Empress: London Elektricity + the Mighty Liane Carroll

I've always loved London Elektricity and been despondent that I never got to see the live show while it was still extant, but I did not know about the Live at the Scalia disc/DVD set until I stumbled on it while doing research before Tony Colman's LE US DJ tour in March of '07. Ever since its purchase I cannot seem to stop its constant 24/7 rotation, and have been playing NOTHING else (except for occasional "Love Bug" breaks (see the M-Flo post below)), with this masterwork of live D+B infiltrating my speakers for days on end.

With that in mind, I have also always loved the flawless vocal phrasing of Liane Carroll, and while I have to continue to stew in my jealousy that my girl – and the other true soul-jazz goddess – Tessa Souter got to see Liane at Ronnie Scott's while she herself was in London to kill it at Pizza on the Park, I now at least have the LE live set and this sonically miraculous take on "Dublin Morning" to content myself with. Though it should go without saying, the bit of loveliness that is "Dublin..." has that radiant, sun-kissed Style Council-via-Terry Callier lustre that nothing else can rival, or tarnish. And yes, the other reason for my loving her is clearly her penchant for maintaining a vocal elegance to rival Nancy W. and Cleo L.... even while belting coral-reef-collapsing dancefloor killers with Tony Colman and co., as on this gorgeous take on "My Dreams," with Liane aptly covering for (the great) Robert Owens to say the f*cking LEAST. And as for any other thoughts on Liane you might have while watching these clips, she clearly has a beautiful spirit and my directive is to just close your eyes and soak in that mighty voice.

Much–Needed Color + Light Pt. 2 (The Godly Beautiful Nickodemus + Quantic for Apple)

More on the effulgent color + beautiful boy tip, it's lovely to see the most beautiful DJ in America – Nickodemus (see above) – + the also brilliant + lovely Quantic getting love via the new iTunes clip. I haven't always loved Apple's ad campaigns (including every other iPod commercial to this point), despite my swearing by Mac as a religion, but between their employing "Mi Swing es Tropical" for this commercial and their continual employment of the perenially magnificent and utterly sublime Justin Long – I miss Ed – as the proverbial face of Apple, they're sure as f*ck doing something right. See bonus Justin below... and for blurry but still lovely shirtless Justin visit here.

Much–Needed Color + Light Pt. 1 (The Inevitable Swing Out Redux)

After a sad-ass 35th birthday and a weekend of carnage in San Francisco that was meant to help me find an apartment – a futile plan without a triple-digit income or a recently deceased relative it would seem – I'm pressing on to where to move in Texas, the logical choice being Austin. The chief appeal of Texas is of course that it's closer to Mexico, which I hope means the promise of many beautiful Mex boys. Don't start forwarding my mail yet, we'll see.

In the meantime, I need some radiantly unnatural Technicolor and vivacity to keep me up, as it where, and for that I turn back to my loves Corinne and Andy and my favorite Swing Out Sister clip: the ambigulously tropical spot for "Somewhere in the World." This is, once again, before Corinne got her hand gestures in check even to a point, but she looks lovely and Andy of course looks lovelier.

Also on the tip of lustrous color and flawless art direction, I occupied my birthday week with Bachelor in Paradise, a miraculous feat of Eames/Koenig/Neutra-derived aesthetic sublimity – even with the grotesque handicap of starring Bob Hope as a lethally dangerous lothario let loose in a suburban tract development!?! If ANYONE ON EARTH can overlook the presence of Bob Hope and still call it aesthetically immaculate ANYBODY can. That said, art direction aside, Lana Turner's 90mph Afro-Cuban fire dance in a polynesian nightclub, the presence of the oddly compelling Janis Paige (see also the equally essential 1959 Please Don't Eat the Daisies), the ever-miraculous Reta Shaw in her usual busybody bulldagger role (only diverted from in her staggeringly brilliant nightclub singer turn in 1962's Made in Paris)) – and a script that only the goddess Vera Caspary could pen. Dig these jewels:

"It would be pink."
"That's not pink – it's California coral."
"Who thinks up the names for colors in this country – Tennessee Williams?"

"Isn't it a little early?"
"Early? It's April!"

"A shrimp cocktail and 5 gibsons – not the most balanced diet."
"I shouldn't have had the shrimp cocktail."

"Hey, if your mascara runs you're gonna discolor your vodka!"

Genius.

M-Flo Loves Boa + I Think They're Both F*cking Adorable (In a Completely Non-sexual Way Of Course)

I love that there's such a disconnect in J-pop that disposable (but adorable and engagingly infectious) pop artists like M-Flo and Boa can keep on with their pop grind and still work with the gods Jazztronik and Shinichi Osawa (respectively). That said, I cannot for the life of me get the "Love Bug" out of my head, and don't really have a desire too. For much much much more sublime Boa, click here.