TNT #47 - J Dilla - Donuts

For our 50th episode (🤯) and last show of season 5, we have something for you by a man known as “Black Moses” to his peers and admirers alike. That’s right, for the second episode in our series on Stax Records, TNT is turning the lights down low and taking you into the ohh-so-smooth stylings of mister Issac Hayes and his second album on the Stax label, 1969’s “Hot Buttered Soul.”

For our last series of the season, we have the story of the rise and fall, the rebirth and eventual demise of the legendary Memphis R&B, soul and funk label, Stax Records. This month we’re talking about the groundbreaking album that helped kickstart what came to be known as the “Memphis sound” - the first official release on the Stax Record Label, 1962’s “Green Onions” by Booker T. & the M.G.s.

The boys at TNT are back with the second episode in our series about the dynamic Los Angeles indie label Stones Throw Records. This month, Thanh + Tim are coming to you with the sophomore release by the multi-talented LA-based violinist, singer, rapper, producer Sudan Archives, 2022's “Natural Brown Prom Queen.” Get your selfish soul to your nearest turntable and enjoy 🎧

This episode of TNT brings us to the left coast to dig into the famed LA independent label Stones Throw Records. To kick this series off, we bring you something bittersweet - 2006’s iconoclastic “Donuts” by rapper, producer, beatmaker, and record collector extraordinaire J Dilla - released on February 7, 2006, just three days before Dilla tragically passed away.

On TNT this month, we’re back with our friends at Dischord Records! Thanh + Tim dig into a record and a band that bring a little bit of youth and groove to the label: Q and Not U’s debut album, “No KIll No Beep Beep,” released in October 2000. On the bands's debut and their roots in the Washington D.C. music scene, Pitchfork noted that "few bands sound like this, and even fewer towns sound like this."

As TNT zeroes in on record labels this season, it was only a matter of time until Thanh + Tim made their way to the legendary Dischord Records. And what better to showcase the label than one of the heaviest hitting albums in all of post-hardcore, the foundational 1990 release “Repeater” by a little band named Fugazi. Enjoy this one, you ice cream eating motherfuckers! 🙃🍦

TNT is back in action and we're still dancin' 😎 April brings us across the pond from the noise of New York to the second part of our series on Soul Jazz Records. We're capping this one off with a deep dive into a collection of golden-age UK jungle, rave and hardcore tracks from the early 1990s, “Black Riot: Early Jungle, Rave and Hardcore,” released in the trenches of 2020.

The month of March kicks off TNT's deep dive into our next record label, London's own Soul Jazz Records. To start this series off, Thanh + Tim are talking about a compilation that features no wave, post-punk, mutant disco, and avant-funk all in one! Contort yourself along with us as we dig into 2003’s “New York Noise: Dance Music from the New York Underground 1978-1982.”

In the second part of our series on the Luaka Bop record label, this month TNT brings you a total jammer - 2013's "Who is William Onyeabor?" by the mysterious and prolific Nigerian electro Afro-funk pioneer William Onyeabor. The first official re-issue of Onyeabor's music since being recorded in the late 70s/early 80s, this compilation serves up Onyeabor's space-age synthesizers, disco-funk rhythms and pulsing drum machines - all created, produced and recorded by one fantastic man.

It's a new year and that means a new season of TNT! This year we're still digging into full-length albums - but we're also uncovering the record labels that provide the world with these releases and the rare gems that we look forward to uncovering. On our first show of Season 5 (!) Thanh + Tim talk about the 2017 Luaka Bop release, "Reflections: Mojave Desert" by British electronic music producer, DJ, and musician Floating Points.