Madlib Medicine Show Megathread

Started this thread to discuss the remaining volumes (8-12) as well as any of the previous ones.

MMS 8: Advanced Jazz

MMS 9: High Fi Sounds For Smokers and Drinkers, feat. Frank Nitt

are these any good?

Duh

Really looking forward to #9, a whole album with frank, wow. can't wait!

  On 8/20/2010 at 5:55 PM, Ricky Downtown said:

are these any good?

Basically, yes. All of them, although 'good' is a monumental understatement.

And I think the blurb on Stones Throw about #9 sounds a bit ominous (i.e. 'if it's not finished'). If it's not done in time, I doubt I'd be the only who'd be perfectly happy with him just bunging out a CD of some of those unused beat tracks that he has knocking around.

i read a review of a madlib record that basically called it an unfocused mess with a few good parts and a lot of mediocre beats, and seemed like he rushed through it. Although I like Madlib, isn't that a pretty true assessment of the guy?

My rating of the Medicine Shows so far:

5 > 3 > 6 > 7 > 2 > 4 > 1

Have not heard #8 just yet.

i think #6 is my favorite. hoping #8 will be the best one.

I might like #6 more than #3, we'll see. I love his psych/prog-rock side, great songs there.

#s 3 and 5 still so far for me still. Although I've never had any interest in reggae, #4 is also a blast as well (maybe that's just psychological as it was put together by Madlib).

Thanks for the megathread GK, been loving all of these (all that I've heard so far, still playing catchup)

Also thought it worth mentioning that I gave Beat Konducta Vol 1&2 Movies Scenes a spin the other day and goddamn it is some dope shit. Remember reading somewhere that it was mostly unused beats from the Madvillain sessions. Anyway it's a damn shame that it came out about the same time of Donuts (a classic in its own right)...

what's the opinion on the Blue Note album: Shades of Blue?

That was the first Madlib thing I heard and it's pretty different from the rest of his output.

  On 8/22/2010 at 6:55 PM, Bob Dobalina said:

I gave Beat Konducta Vol 1&2 Movies Scenes a spin the other day and goddamn it is some dope shit. Remember reading somewhere that it was mostly unused beats from the Madvillain sessions. Anyway it's a damn shame that it came out about the same time of Donuts (a classic in its own right)...

Fuck me if that ain't my favourite Madlib right there. Only 5 - 6 come close in the whole of his back catalogue for me. First I'd heard about the Madvillain thing though, very interesting...

  On 8/23/2010 at 2:39 AM, Caretstik said:

  On 8/22/2010 at 6:55 PM, Bob Dobalina said:

I gave Beat Konducta Vol 1&2 Movies Scenes a spin the other day and goddamn it is some dope shit. Remember reading somewhere that it was mostly unused beats from the Madvillain sessions. Anyway it's a damn shame that it came out about the same time of Donuts (a classic in its own right)...

Fuck me if that ain't my favourite Madlib right there. Only 5 - 6 come close in the whole of his back catalogue for me. First I'd heard about the Madvillain thing though, very interesting...

  On 8/23/2010 at 2:30 AM, Hanratty said:

what's the opinion on the Blue Note album: Shades of Blue?

 

That was the first Madlib thing I heard and it's pretty different from the rest of his output.

Agreed - this was my 2nd madlib experience after YNQ's Angles Without Edges (a fantastic album in it's own right - I remember reading somewhere that he taught himself how to play the vibraphone in like 6 days or something). Shades of Blue is solid enough, although unfortunately I associate it with all those insert-jazz-label-here remix compilations that were barely worth a listen.

  On 8/23/2010 at 5:34 PM, Bob Dobalina said:

Shades of Blue is solid enough, although unfortunately I associate it with all those insert-jazz-label-here remix compilations that were barely worth a listen.

A greed. There are some really good jazz tunes on there. Footprints, Stormy and Please Set Me At Ease are probably my only favorites out of the whole album, but the rest of the album is OK. There's also some pretty standard layering that you see used from his other monikers(Quasi comes to mind..) as well, which is not exactly sub par but kinda...; honestly just really ambivalent towards the album. Nothing too amazing or not good enough, which could be a sign of this "rushed" production credit he's been receiving. You can tell he adds the most flavor to the tunes with his favorite jazz artists/samples.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YikLz6WFej4

the reason I asked about Shades of Blue is because I have a cd called "Sources for Shades of Blue" which is the full tracks he used to assemble the album. The tracks are good on their own and it made me think he didn't do very much to it, besides selecting them. So I've always had this chip on my shoulder for Madlib because he got a lot of critical hype for that release. Still, I think Madvillain might be the best rap album of all time.

  On 8/24/2010 at 1:34 AM, Hanratty said:

the reason I asked about Shades of Blue is because I have a cd called "Sources for Shades of Blue" which is the full tracks he used to assemble the album. The tracks are good on their own and it made me think he didn't do very much to it, besides selecting them. So I've always had this chip on my shoulder for Madlib because he got a lot of critical hype for that release. Still, I think Madvillain might be the best rap album of all time.

Agreed, I wouldn't recommend it for starters nor place it anywhere near his best, as essentially it was a commissioned work and inherently limited as such. Yet I also hear that blunted in the bomb shelter mix (trojan? catalog mix) is awesome, but I haven't been able to track it down yet... (anyone with some raging clues kindly pm a brah)

And yeah at the very least Madvillian was the best rap album of the past decade

Loving #7 Advanced Jazz - great tunes and some hilarious shit too.

He's a King, he's a Pin, he's a Kingpin!

I'm actually relieved that he took a month off, still got 3 or so to catch up on

Waiting two months for a new Madlib album now is like waiting 5+ years for the new BoC.

#8 - Advanced Jazz (out)

#9 - High-Fi Sounds for Smokers & Drinkers (delayed, probably until October)

#10 - Black Soul (soul mix, coming out in October)

some of it's good some of it's very standard while still being enjoyable enough

Does anyone have No.8 yet? I ordered from Amazon (cancelled because it was out of stock) then Juno. Been waiting for a week now, and Juno are usually pretty fast.

  On 9/27/2010 at 2:53 PM, Caretstik said:

Does anyone have No.8 yet? I ordered from Amazon (cancelled because it was out of stock) then Juno. Been waiting for a week now, and Juno are usually pretty fast.

Yeah, I have No. 8 / Advanced Jazz (mistakenly called 7 in my last post) although I'm here in the States and bought it from my local record chain. Definitely worth the wait, great tunes and lots of madlibian interludes including a great snippet of a herbie hancock interview where he's talking about his first experience with miles davis...

  On 9/27/2010 at 7:14 PM, Bob Dobalina said:

  On 9/27/2010 at 2:53 PM, Caretstik said:

Does anyone have No.8 yet? I ordered from Amazon (cancelled because it was out of stock) then Juno. Been waiting for a week now, and Juno are usually pretty fast.

Yeah, I have No. 8 / Advanced Jazz (mistakenly called 7 in my last post) although I'm here in the States and bought it from my local record chain. Definitely worth the wait, great tunes and lots of madlibian interludes including a great snippet of a herbie hancock interview where he's talking about his first experience with miles davis...

Finally picked up a copy here today, yet to listen but your recommendation's got me looking forward to it later.

Also, No. 10 has been properly announced on Stones Throw. Now THAT looks shit hot.

  On 10/6/2010 at 6:35 PM, Caretstik said:

Also, No. 10 has been properly announced on Stones Throw. Now THAT looks shit hot.

, that looks dope. Still got way too much catching up to do with the other medicine shows, there's at least 3 I haven't heard yet