[youtube id=”9yULNWlaj7g”] Waajeed pays tribute to African orisha “Shango” with an Afrofuturist video. A  dancer is filmed around Detroit’s brittle landscape making ritual moves and Waajeed is seen working in his studio with Shango’s red and white candles by his side. It ends with both men dancing around the studio in a red light. Listen to and buy the Shango EP here.

Ikutaro Kakehashi, who founded the Roland Corporation and invented the TR-808 drum machine died April 1st in Japan at the age of 87. Mr. Kakehashi’s work is behind the sound of some of the most influential music of the past four decades. Hip-hop, house, pop and R&B have all been touched by the 808 drum machine.

Mr. Kakehashi started his career in the ’50’s as the owner of a watch and then radio repair shop. He was an engineer with an interest in music and in 1960 he started Ace Electronic Industries where he started designing organs and drum machines. In 1972 he launched the Roland Corporation and under his direction, the company would invent the TR-808, TB-303 and TR-909 drum machines.

The TR-808 was introduced in 1980 and since then has been heard in music from Afrika Bambaataa, Marvin Gaye, Whitney Houston and Depeche Mode among many others. Kanye West named 808’s and Heartbreak after the iconic machine.

[youtube id=”9lDCYjb8RHk”] In 2015, 808, the documentary was released and it featured several artists talking about the machine’s influence over their artistry. [youtube id=”LMPzuRWoNgE”]  Kakehashi collaborated with then Sequential Circuits president Dave Smith to create the MIDI standard interface that allows computers and electronic devices to communicate with each other.

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In 2002, Mr. Kakehashi published his autobiography, I Believe In Music. Despite his previous successes he continued to work co-founding the ATV in 2014 after retiring from Roland in 2013.

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South African producer, songwriter and filmmaker Spoek Mathambo has released the house single “Black Rose” today. Fellow South African artists Damao, Suga Flow and Tamar are featured on the song from Mathambo’s upcoming Mzansi Beat Code. It is his third album and the mix of hip-hop, house and electronic music is deliberate and Mathambo offers his description:

“The album interludes and skits play with ideas of media. I record a lot of sounds with my dictaphone, steal clips from YouTube… Everything clashes to express things that are so specific and local yet global…nostalgic yet right now, or at least yesterday,”

Mzansi Beat Code will be released April 14th.

Biorhythm is the debut album from Eleonora Cutaia’s Inner City Sound Clash alter ego. Cutaia is a London-based producer, songwriter and A&R who has spent the last decade working as a DJ and was responsible for curating the Eleonora Presents Underground Soul Volume 1 compilation. The London-based artist recorded her deep house full-length over three years and multiple continents. Biorhythm’s 10 songs are a seamless passage of house, hip-hop and pop ideas sealed by a lush digital fog. “Biorhythm” is an instrumental cosmic takeoff that introduces the album as a club gateway, driving music and a float-worthy escape within Cutaia’s cozy production. The measured techno of “Biorhythm” courts a world of androids and robots but never loses its ability to connect with the world. The human element comes through with the voices of the guest vocalists who represent different genres in the metropolis. Jaidene Veda’s low-pitched vocals are stylishly carnal and build momentum on “Press Play” and “The One For Me.” The former is influenced by The Pet Shop Boys’ “West End Girls” and symbolizes the sound of night in the city by digital rhythms pulsating around Veda’s words and whispers from DJ Rise Ashen. Veda’s approach and Cutaia’s arrangements are in the same ambient world as some of Naked Music’s deep house releases that dominated in the ‘90s’.

“Forgiven” links back to Chicago’s glory days and Mr. Fingers’ wavy productions with Atlanta vocalist Dezaray. The primordial house beat, Dezaray’s reassuring tone and the lively energy poses “Forgiven” as the most favored for the dancefloor. The deep house blueprint lapses a bit for the sake of French rap duo Naiad, who appear on “Reve” and keeps the story in their native tongue. The smoky ambiance of the album shapes their words into a mood of needless translation. “Sunrise 2 Sunset” featuring Olu slows things down with introspective pop inspired by the Eurhythmics. Veda appears again on the sparse interlude-sounding “Blue Moon” which celebrates the need to take respite from the internet obsession with clicks and likes. Cutaia increases her cachet with the presence of house veteran and Rurals founder Andy Compton playing guitar on “What Goes Around.” Cutaia says an article on the collision of urban rhythms inspired her and Biorhythm reflects that idea with multiple styles submerged into a world of murky house that is smart, pleasurable and serene.