New Music: Various Artists: Chrome Children Volume 2 [Full Album]
Peanut Butter Wolf and his Stones Throw crew seem hell-bent on keeping themselves in our thoughts and on our stereos, and with the release of Chrome Children in October and Stones Throw: Ten Years just last week, it's clear the compilation is the label's current weapon of choice. Totally subverting the concept of a "proper" release schedule and in keeping with the throwing-music-to-the-digital-wind philosophy of Madlib and Talib Kweli's recent Liberation LP, Stones Throw is now offering a second volume of Chrome Children free for download in its entirety. It's almost too much, like celebrating every gift-giving holiday on the same day with one enormous pile of presents.
Not that we're complaining. In fact, Chrome Children, Volume 2 might even outdo its predecessor in eclecticism, with contributions not only from label stalwarts like Madlib, Oh No, and up-and-coming crooner Aloe Blacc but also from elder statesmen like Garys Wilson and Davis (the latter in his Chocolate Star guise), Baron Zen, Clifford Nyren, and onetime N.W.A member (!) Arabian Prince. As if we needed anything else to be amped about, Kieran Hebden appears as Four Tet in collaboration with Guilty Simpson and as the producer of the Aloe Blacc track, and the Jazzistics track features production from Madlib's Yesterdays New Quintet.
We would thank Peanut Butter Wolf and company if we thought they had time to talk. Now if they could only stabilize their download server-- this thing is maybe too popular for its own good! Tracklist:
01 Madlib: "Chrome Dreams" [MP3]
02 MED & Dabrye: "Rhymes With an L"
03 Roc C: "Living for the City"
04 Chocolate Star: "Stay With Me"
05 Percee P & Koushik: "Reverse Part Two"
06 Oh No: "Gitback"
07 Guilty Simpson & Four Tet: "Money Motivated Movements"
08 Madlib: "Selah's Children"
09 Baron Zen: "Theme (Danny Breaks Remix)"
10 Aloe Blacc: "Happy Now?"
11 J.Rocc: "Bubbha's Dance"
12 Gary Wilson: "Soul Traveling"
13 Clifford Nyren: "Keep Running Away (Egon's Edit)"
14 The Jazzistics: "Marcus, Martin and Malcolm"
15 James Pants: "Murder"
16 Arabian Prince: "Strange Life"