The Jukebox 45's

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Total Tracks: 22   Total Length: 53:58

eMusic Review

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John Darnielle

eMusic Contributor

04.22.11
Stones Throw founder has his mind on his…
Label: Stones Throw

A collection of rocking, lurching sides from the Bay Area hip-hop DJ whose beats come with heavy eyelids and seem to emerge from a thick cloud of smoke. Wolf's masterpiece is My Vinyl Weighs a Ton, but I get more mileage from this one, which is so laid back that it practically comes with its own lawn chair.

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So fine

hefeweiss

I bought this on vinyl in 2002 or 2003 all thanks to a great vinyl pusher in Ames, IA. This is timeless. 10 years from now this record will only be better. PB Wolf and Stones Throw make the world a better place for reintroducing the world to lost funk and finding new ways to make it relevant/heard.

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funkaho

mrush

i stumbled on this quite accidentally while searching for some funk to burn through some downloads on. man, oh, man, am i stoked to have found it. four months in and i'm still regularly rocking it on my headphones--by far the best way to listen to it--and dropping it when i have friends over who know their shit and can't handle weak-sauce indie efforts. this music is coming to you filtered and fiddled with by someone with incredible ears and crates and crates of vinyl so... you know each track was chosen with love and care. i'd choose standouts for you but this disc was meant to be listened to in sequence in its entirety and to be honest, every legit musical track has something to recommend it.

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They Say All Media Guide

Self-confessed 7″ obsessive Peanut Butter Wolf has almost every hip-hop 45 ever recorded, and by 1998, he began issuing new ones as well, on his own Stones Throw label. Drafting a host of friends — including Madlib, Karizma, Breakestra, and A-Trak — plus a few original rare grooves from the ’70s, his series got the CD compilation treatment here, and it’s one of the tightest, most invigorating breakbeat releases of the year, literally packed with excellent productions, hilarious one-offs, and truly obscure funk. Madlib has some of the best tracks here (under various guises), like a remix of Quasimoto’s “Microphone Mathematics” — basically a freestyle treatment over a cut-up De La Soul sample — and a dark track called “The Ox (Fantastic Four).” For another big highlight, “My 2600,” Jeff Jank’s Captain Funkaho project, turns in the meanest groove ever tied to an Atari tribute, calling off cartridges like Debbie Harry name-checks Fab 5 Freddie in “Rapture.” The five tracks of older material are excellent as well, including a spaced-out children’s record called “Rocket Ship,” performed by the Stark Reality and apparently produced by Hoagy Carmichael, Jr. Old and new, funk and hip-hop and acid rock, it all flows together perfectly on this collection of rare grooves, with more attitude than Big in Wigan and better productions than a dozen Irv Gottis. – John Bush

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