News of D’Angelo’s upcoming album keeps getting better and better. Yesterday we reported that Q-Tip had begun producing for D’s long awaited comeback LP and today, long time friend and collaborator Questlove reveals even more insight…

Speaking to Rolling Stone, The Roots drummer said: “[the album is] going to throw people off the same way that Prince’s Dirty Mind threw his R&B fan base off. In the past few years, [D’Angelo has] discovered Bowie and Zeppelin, the Beatles, Pet Sounds, Captain Beefheart and Zappa”. He also reveals that around 30 songs have been recorded for the album over the past few years.

Fuelling the excitement even more, Questlove also revealed: “I saw a guitar in the studio and I was like, ‘What the hell’s this?… One night, when he didn’t know I was watching, he took a dinner break from recording. Suddenly, I heard [Funkadelic's] ‘Maggot Brain’ playing. I realized he was in the studio room matching it note-for-note. For the last 12 years, he’s been strumming the guitar… He is so painfully shy about it. I think in his head, if he doesn’t surpass Eddie Hazel, Santana, James Blood Ulmer and Frank Zappa as an axeman, he doesn’t want to share it with the world.”

“… I’ve never heard these sounds before. He’s very particular about his patches. He’ll take an ordinary sound and he’ll filter it through a guitar processor. He’ll take that particular sound and put some wave envelope noise on it, and he’ll put it back in the keyboard and that’s his sound. There’s song we worked on called ‘The Charade.’ There’s this symphonic trombone sound, which normally would be a cheesy sound Swizz Beatz uses. But he’ll take that sound and then put it through a guitar filter and put it back in the keyboard and then put it through another filter. It’s totally unique.”

No official release date has been announced yet but rumours point towards August. With D’Angelo, you never know – lets just hope whenever it is – it’s soon!

[via SP]

Tweet is out to melt your heart with this one – here’s her latest #TweetTuesday offering.

Accompanied by just her guitar, she sings a near perfect melody – it’s difficult not to mention how pristine her vocals are on these songs. And impossible to ignore the way she layers her harmonies. Melt.

Q-Tip has revealed that ahead of his new solo album The Last Zulu (out on Kanye’s G.O.O.D Music label in 2013), he has begun producing new material for Kendrick Lemar, Soul singer Ledisi and most excitingly – D’Angelo. Speaking to Giant Step, the former A Tribe Called Quest front man said:

“I’m basically doing a lot of production right now and that’s going really well… I’m about to start my new album in the latter part of the summer and it should be out next year, so I’m excited about that. I’ve been excited about music in general, so it’s really good. I’m making music for other people and myself: Kendrick Lamar, D’Angelo, [and] Ledisi”. 

Definitely feels like there’s a lot to be excited about.

After an intensive 3 days at LoveBox, we begin the new week with some fresh music from London’s Jessie Ware. ‘Wildest Moments’ is a heartbreakingly elegant power-ballad affair with crashing 80′s drums, tender lyrics and of course – a passionate delivery from Ware.

Jessie’s debut album Devotion is due out August 13th – pre-order here. The image up top is the cover artwork.

I could get very used to #TweetTuesdays.

For the second week running Tweet (who’s been missing in action since 2005′s It’s Me Again) has released a new song. Last week she covered Aretha Franklin’s ‘Day Dreaming’ and today it’s a new song called ‘Trouble’. And just as we’ve all come to expect – it’s another soulful ballad rich in perfectly layered harmonies. Very few artists ‘own’ their sound like this lady does – she has an unmistakable style.

This album can’t come sooner.

Yesterday saw the release of The Bravest Man in the Universe, Bobby Womack’s first album in over 12 years. Today we’re treated to the LP’s first official video for the single ‘Whatever Happened to the Times’. Like the rest of the album the song was co-produced by Daman Albarn & Richard Russell (XL Recordings) and despite how amazing it is, it is literally just 1 of 12 incredible tracks on the album. Can’t recommend it enough.

Buy The Bravest Man in the Universe via iTunes now.

D’Angelo played his first U.S live show in over 12 years last night when The Roots brought him out for a surprise performance during their Bonnaroo Festival set. Backed by his legendary Roots crew, ?uestlove introduced some very special guests including James Poyser, members of the Time and Parliament-Funkadelic. But it was the words “I’ve been waiting 12 years to say this — ladies and gentlemen, D’Angelo!” by  ?uestlove that changed everything.

The 90 minute set saw covers of Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Sly Stone, Funkadelic and Led Zeppelin but didn’t include any D’Angelo songs. You can download the entire set below thanks to FunkIt…

Download: The Roots & D’Angelo Live at Bonnaroo

Update: Official footage from the show has now been added after the jump…

Read more…

Grammy winning singer Lauryn Hill is facing federal charges and jail time because she failed to file and pay her taxes between 2005 – 2007. The US internal revenue services have claimed that Hill owes the government more than $1.8 million (£1.17m). She will now have to appear in court in Newark, New Jersey to face charges on 3 counts of tax evasion. If found guilty she could face a maximum penality of 3 years in jail and up to $300,000 in fines.

In light of these charges and surrounding media attention, Hill has issued a long, very personal and very open statement addressing in much detail the reasons behind her missed tax payments. In it she explains:

“For the past several years, I have remained what others would consider underground.  I did this in order to build a community of people, like-minded in their desire for freedom and the right to pursue their goals and lives without being manipulated and controlled by a media protected military industrial complex with a completely different agenda”.

“…I kept my life relatively simple, even after huge successes, but it became increasingly obvious that certain indulgences and privileges were expected to come at the expense of my free soul, free mind, and therefore my health and integrity.  So I left a more mainstream and public life, in order to wean both myself, and my family, away from a lifestyle that required distortion and compromise as a means for maintaining it.  During this critical healing time, there were very few people accessible to me who had not already been seduced or affected by this machine, and therefore who could be trusted to not try and influence or coerce me back into a dynamic of compromise”.

Hill goes on to address needing to protect her family from “hostility, false entitlement, manipulation, racial prejudice, sexism and ageism that [she] was surrounded by” and how/why this lead to her facing these charges.

Read the full statement after the jump.

Read more…

Oh Tweet, where have you been?

After what seems like a million years away the ‘Oops (Oh My)’ singer/songwriter has finally returned to us – her first official offering since 05′s It’s Me Again. Taken off her upcoming album Simply Tweet due out later this year – ‘Day Dreaming’ (a cover of Aretha Franklin’s 1979 classic) puts that sultry voice on full blast, but as ever – keeps things graceful and elegantly subtle. And of course – it’s riddled with those trademark harmonies.

After a string of incredible singles and sneak peak videos, Bobby Womack is finally about to release his much anticipated album The Bravest Man in the Universe. Produced by Richard Russell and Damon Albarn, the album marks Womack’s 27th release and features collaborations with Lana Del Rey and Gil Scott-Heron.

In an interview with the Guardian the legendary Soul singer said “bad as I been, I can sing my ass off, better than I could before” – an undeniable truth made abundantly clear while listening to the new songs. This has ‘Album of the Year’ (potential) written all over it.

The Bravest Man in the Universe is due out on XL Records on June 11th.

[via Guardian]