by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Lee Fields & the Expressions - Ladies (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Lee Fields & the Expressions - Love Comes and Goes (MP3)

Limewire Store: Tell us about the upcoming Truth & Soul releases you're most excited about.

Truth & Soul co-founder Leon Michels: We are releasing a Lee Fields & The Expressions full-length entitled My World on June 2nd. This has been a project that has taken us about four years to complete and is probably the best thing we've ever done for T&S. It's a record of mostly hard-hitting slow jams, laced with lush strings and Lee's incomparable voice. Lee is really one of the best singers living in America today and he really shines on this record. He is also an amazing live performer, the type of showman that doesn't really exist anymore, so if he's in your town, please check him out...it's worth it.

Leon Michels, the man with the good words for Fields, is co-founder of Truth & Soul Records and bandleader for El Michels Affair. That group's latest Return to the 37th Chamber a disc of Wu-Tang covers, came out in April on Fat Beats.

Truth & Soul, Michels and Fields all have deep roots in the NYC soul revival. Michels used to be a Dap-King before leaving to play with his own group and focus on Truth & Soul. Both Michels and T&S co-founder Jeff Silverman worked at Soul Fire Records, which released Fields and El Michels records before closing in 2003. Through the '90s, Phillipe Lehman (founder of Soul Fire) and Gabriel Roth (who founded Daptone) ran Desco Records, which previously carried the soul and funk torch. Sharon Jones' performance in a Desco Records Lee Fields session is often credited as the Sharon's breakthrough, and the label, and its future incarnations, went on to put out many of her records. Jones and Fields still sing together on occasion, like at Jones' 2007 Apollo Theater gig where the pair performed a James Brown medley.

Stones Throw is another label with Lee Fields connections. The hip-hop label points out that "Madlib recently jacked [Fields'] 'Flim Flam' drums for the TV on the Radio remix he produced." (Though it appears that track didn't make the EP's final cut.)

At the release party for Lee Fields' My World on Friday, June 5th at Southpaw in Brooklyn, both Stones Throw and T&S will be amply represented. The night's stars, of course, will be Lee Fields & The Expressions, accompanied by special guests Aloe Blacc (Stones Throw), The Ghetto Brothers (Truth & Soul) and DJs Akalepse & Jeff Dynamite (Truth & Soul) and Eothen Alapatt (Stones Throw). Tickets are on sale.

Poster for the Southpaw gig, with a video of Fields at the venue in 2006, below...

Continue reading "Lee Fields & the Expressions - MP3, new CD & release show"

by Black Bubblegum

DOWNLOAD: El Michels Affair - "Bring Da Ruckus" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: El Michels Affair - "C.R.E.A.M." (MP3)

El Michels Affair

They sound vaguely familiar, but it's not the same. That's the beauty of the El Michels Affair's covers of classics by Wu-Tang Clan - tracks like "Bring Da Ruckus" and "C.R.E.A.M." maintain the essence, but go off into a different realm. Both of the above tracks come from El Michel's Affair's sophmore album Return to the 37th Chamber (get it?), due on April 21st via the mighty Fat Beats Records.

Led by saxophonist/organist Leon Michels and producer/engineer Jeff Silverman, El Michels Affair began as a loose collaboration of session musicians (including members of top-selling acts Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, The Budos Band, and Antibalas) ...[and led to their] 2005 debut album Sounding Out the City, which earned critical acclaim and acted as the inaugural full-length release for Michels and Silverman's burgeoning label Truth & Soul (also the moniker for the duo as a production team).

In related news but more in the "i'll believe it when I see it" category, Raekwon's forever "coming soon" LP Only Built For Cuban Linx 2 is set to hit the store shelves this summer. So far, the new single "The New Wu" featuring Method Man & Ghostface is getting burn from mixtape DJs, and their publicist has released the following list of collaborators for the follow up to the 1995 Wu classic: The RZA, Dr. Dre, J Dilla, The Wu-Tang Clan, Jadakiss, Busta Rhymes, Bun B and The Game, among others. Dilla Dog and The Chef? Sign me up, yo.

Check out the below videos for more on the El Michels Affair, including a cover if the Wu classic "Can It Be All So Simple", and live videos with Raekwon including the Cuban Link classic "Criminology"!

Continue reading "El Michels Affair cover Wu-Tang, Raekwon releasing album"