VARIOUS ARTISTS - "Jay Fusion Presents Jewels & Gems V. 5"

5th installment of the series Jewels & Gems from the mighty Jay Fusion!! For those who don´t know, Jay Fusion is an UK DJ and a long time GGC member, and his perception for good sounds is one of the main points that make him so cool and joyful, but never sounding poppy. It´s clear that Jay pay a tribute to Hip Hop here, specially for the master J. Dilla, who appears with 3 tracks plus a highly influenced one from Robert Glasper. There are some New Grooves tinged tracks here and there, but Hip Hop deal the great part of the cards here. A masterful compilation from Jay Fusion, and just a lil of a mega dose from Jay that we´ll put up here!!

Tracklisting:

1. Baldwin Brothers - A Word From The Doctor
2. The Cinematic Orchestra - All Things To All Men
3. Squarepusher - Tetra-Sync
4. J. Dilla - One For Ghost (The Strap)
5. Nas feat. Jay-Z - Black Republican
6. Black Milk - Popular Demand
7. J. Dilla - Think Twice
8. Dr. Who Dat? - Beat Rock
9. DJ Vadim - Dig Yourself, Baby
10. Stateless - Too Late
11. Thief - (Like) Leaves
12. My Brigthest Diamond - Something Of An End (Version)
13. J. Dilla - Hi
14. Soil & Pimp Sessions - A.I.E.
15. The Cinematic Orchestra - Child Song
16. Dr. Who Dat? - Brazilian Thought
17. Little Brother - Lovin’ It
18. Slum Village - In The Lab
19. Robert Glasper - J Dillalude
20. Benny Sings - Coconut

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INTERVIEW - The Cosmic Soul Syndicate

Dovelhoaonovo and Blak´s Lair are two music blogs responsible for bringing a whole range of sounds to people who never had the opportunity to listen to them. Both are true legends in the blogsphere, and now their owners are joining forces as a supergroup of DJs and producers, The Cosmic Soul Syndicate. With the help of long time GGC member and UK producer Jay Fusion, and many ideas in their spacey heads, the group talks exclusively and in first hand about the release of the last volume of GP´s initially conceived compilation Interstellar Soul, one that has everything to be a true Soul landmark.


GGC STAFF: It´s a great pleasure to see you joined as a supergroup!! Please tell us how and why you got to this!!

GP: All of you know that i particularly love projects, i love to be in touch with these guys changing info and discovering what´s new in the whole musical world. I was always connected with Vlada and all these guys, so it would be easy to get a project with them. All i did was to tell them about the project and Interstellar Soul 4 concept. The answers were all positive, a thing that made me happy as a child earning the first toy!!

JAY: I too, have a love of projects, and love to hook up with like-minded music lovers. I have been liaising online with GP and Vlad for a while now, so along with Blak and Joaquino, I think we have a lot of to offer in terms of love of music, and with us being based across many different countries, we will definitely have a good mix of culture to accompany our love of music.

VLADA: Hm. Like we all said we are all in this kind of colaborations. There is a really good energy between us and idea was "in the air” for a long time, but this project put that idea from thoughts to work...

BLAK: I was more then happy to throw in with GP,Vlada and Jay. Having known GP for years it was our first time to work together on a project. Me and Joaquino have been members of the Blak's Lair Family , but a joint effort with these guys was to good on pass up.



GGC STAFF: How did you conceived the Interstellar Soul 4 project?

GP: Since the first volume of the series i had in mind that it would be only 4 volumes. Then i would decide about what to do with that. I wanted to do something different than the other volumes, i wanted some different eyeview of what i conceived. I knew these guys always appreciated the concept of the series, so no one better than them to go deep in the art of diggin tracks for this crazyness!!

JAY: Although I could not personally contribute towards the earlier Insterstellar Soul projects, I have been listening to them in my car for a while now, and am happy to be able to add some of the tracks I love to this latest Insterstellar Soul 4.

VLADA: I am fan of Insterstellar Soul from part 1, and the main reason is the cosmic touch on it. Part 1 was really a discovering for me and when GP e-mailed us for part 4 i was like “YEAH I´M IN”!!

BLAK: I have loved the earlier volumes of the Interstellar Soul series, so it was nice to be invited to join them on this 4th!!

GP

GGC STAFF: We heard some tracks you selected for the project. There are some ultra hardcore changing in the initial concept. Tell us why you thought this way?

GP: Well, as i said before, the inclusion of these guys in the project would be the main point to achieve paths we never being before. I had a conceptual thing in mind, something like a sci-fi story transcripted to people ears. That´s why we decided to go this way.

JAY: Yeah, I love a cosmic feel to my music, so it has been a natural step to contribute to this concept.

VLADA: Like we said, cosmic feel is the main ingredient here and there was just a way to stay in touch with complete Insterstellar Soul, but with some changes cause there are 5 heads now. Everyone with their own creativity and style to bring to the table.

BLAK: I've loved the cosmic sounds of Dr.Lonnie Smith, Roy Ayers, Genne Harris and others for years!!



GGC STAFF: We felt that sometimes it seems to be a kind of a soundtrack for a movie or something similar. Was this exactly what you planned?

GP: Not exactly, but there´s a concept behind this work. It´s about a spaceship conducted by alien forms (we), and this spaceship (a mothership – our group) comes from the present to future and also visiting the past. Then this mothership falls into a time tunnel with a free pass to a space voyage. This is the concept. That´s why we decided to put vintage and new stuff all around it.

JAY: I am hoping the listeners pick up on this concept. Music is timeless, so this will work!!

VLADA: We are traveling through space and this is the music for better traveling!!

VLADA STOJANOVIC

GGC STAFF: Very interesting!! And how you thought about the name for the group?

GP: Me and Vlada had the Idea for the group´s name. We wanted something linked to the series proposal and the album concept. So, when we think about that mothership story and all the musical shit involved, we got Cosmic Soul Syndicate as the perfect match.

JAY: Yep, I did not have to add more to this, as i think it has been pitched just right. Well done guys!! (laughs)

VLADA: Well, GP and me was talking about the name for a short period. I was like this is not group. 5 heads, 2 collectives. GGC and Blak family. This is a Syndicate. A lil more talk and then you have it.

BLAK: To me this is just some lovers of great music getting together to share ideas in a cosmic format... I've been a member of GGC for awhile now and I'm part of the Blak's Lair Family. So it was about time we did something nice as a Syndicate...



GGC STAFF: Could you please tell us about your working process?

GP: It was a little bit hard. I had the previous concept in mind and then i asked each one to select 8 soulful tracks. No matter if it was Soul, Funk, Jazz or Hip Hop. The most important was to follow the concept. Spacey, cosmic tracks. Harcore Soul stuff, you know.

JAY: I have really enjoyed throwing my selections into the “ring” for selecting. It is always good to “dig in the crates” to pull out the gems!! lol

VLADA: Oh my God!! I gotta say that this was hard for me to work. But sweet pain. I really wanted to bring my best stuff into this project. Since i am known as a Jazzman, Smooth Soul and Disco lover, cosmic feel was something new for me. Plus we need to work as a unit. There must be a concept not just 5 different styles. But it was all great. I learned something new, i brought something new for people and for me of course.

JAY FUSION

GGC STAFF: It´s curious when you say this term “Hardcore Soul”. What´s the Idea behind it?

GP: Please don´t relate it to Hardcore or Punk stuff. I particularly like some old school Punk, Hardcore and heavy stuff. But when i say “Hardcore Soul” it means different and hard listening forms of Soul and Jazz. Those type of music that you have to listen carefully to achieve each piece of it. We think this is all good, cause some people can´t listen to those poppy mainstream shit anymore. That´s why we go progressive and totally underground.

JAY: Yes, “Progressive” is my middle name!! I know genre titles are needed sometimes, but when i host my own night “... the KITCHEN SINK”, genre and generation is irrelevant. Just good music travels time - period!!

VLADA: This was one of the things also where i was discovering myself (laughs).



GGC STAFF: We see that there´s a strong partnership between you from GGC and Blak´s Lair people. Is that true or you joined specially for this project?

GP: Yeah, this is true and we thank god for this!! We always loved Blak´s work and their ability to put up so many albums in a month. But the main point is their musical knowledge and the diggin´ activity. We love this!! We have a very similar way of thinking. That´s why we started a partnership between our Blogs and other projects. This is for real, not only for Interstellar Soul 4 project, but for life!! We love these guys!!

JAY: I am really looking forward to connecting with the crew here. Nothing else compares to music!! Music is life!!

VLADA: Blak's Lair are our blog brothers and we have really really strong partnership for a long time!! We are all family.

BLAK: Thanks, thanks, thanks a lot... (laughs)

LORD BLAK

GGC STAFF: Some people think the two Blogs are conducted by the same crew. Can you talk a little about that?

GP: Yeah, obviously. We sometimes see people asking us as we were the same thing as DOVELHOAONOVO. It´s a good question. Although there´s a similar structure between the two Blogs, DOVELHOAONOVO´s managed by the Global Grooves Collective and Blak´s Lair by Blak´s Crew. Like we said before, all we have is a strong partnership, but there are two different Blogs made by separate crews.

JAY: It is great that we are individual, but can also come together to produce wonderful projects!!

VLADA: One thing that is great is that we (GGC and Blak´s Lair) are not "the same blog." We both have our own kingdoms, but still strong connection. We are all family!!

BLAK: Guys answered that to me!! (laughs)



GGC STAFF: What about Jay Fusion collaboration?

GP: Well, Jay´s a legend in the UK underground scene. I always loved his work as a DJ and producer, so no one better than this guy to join us. We could invite a lot of talented people, but we wanted to restrict a little the number of folks involved (laughs).

JAY: It's great to be part of this movement now. It's all about connecting and linking to spread the music. I have been exchanging projects with Vlad for over a year now - we can both be seen/heard on www.mixcloud.com - http://www.mixcloud.com/vladastojanovic/ and http://www.mixcloud.com/jayfusion/ !! Also DOVELHOAONOVO has been my favourite “site” for a couple of years now, but we will all be interlocking with each other to bring us all together, i am sure.

VLADA: Oh My God!! Jay is my London brother. We have a really good communication with Jay for a year and much more. I am such a big fan of his JEWLS&GEMS series, that you´ll finally start listening at DVAN. Jay is a “must be in” ingredient for this project!!



GGC STAFF: Now, the most important question and a thing people certainly would ask you: when Interstellar Soul 4 will be released?

GP: Probably, 1st march. We planned to release it til the end of january, but we were forced to delay it due to a lot of parallel work. People can count on us: you´ll have another monster!! A new group of DJs and producers, all fresh and new, legendary collabo, DOVELHOAONOVO and BLAK´S LAIR together united!

JAY: I am really looking forward to this project being aired. My peeps here in the UK are on standby!! ROLL ON 1st MARCH 2010!!

VLADA: GP said. MARCH. And i truly hope!! We wanna do that on right way. So that's why it is not january.

The Cosmic Soul Syndicate

GGC STAFF: Finally, thanks for being so receptive!! Best wishes!!

GP: Thanks a lot!! As i said before, you´ll not be disappointed. Here comes another work full of love. This is Just for you, folks!!

JAY: I really hope you will all enjoy this!! Peace – JAY!!

VLADA: Thank you!! We are always here!! And for the people: Grab Interstellar Soul 4. We are travelling through space (literally) and time. Wanna Come?? March is the date. STAY TUNNED!!

BLAK: Thank you too!!