DJ Excel - The Friday Nite Bounce LP (Bmore Original Records)

I've written a couple things about DJ Excel this year, first a Club Beat column about him a few months ago, and then featuring him in my Big Music Issue piece in the City Paper about Baltimore-based internet radio. And I've had this album since around the time he put it up for sale on the Bmore Original mp3 store back in like February and kept meaning to post about it here, but just never got around to it for the longest time, I think because I was waiting to hear from him about whether it was coming out on vinyl too. Right now the album is being sold on the site chopped up into 4 parts and is kind of priced more toward DJs, but maybe that's a good way for people to test out bits of it before copping the whole thing. I'd reccomend part 1 or part 3 first, but the whole thing is solid, really a different approach to Baltimore club than what most producers are doing right now, just focusing on the classic breaks and getting some more offbeat sample ideas in there, unmixed so it all just hangs together pretty well as an album. There's also a version of that "Push Ya Top Back" track with Bossman on here with Blaq Starr added to it.

DJ Excel f/ Emmy - "ALLNITELONG" (mp3)
I really like this, it's rare that I hear a Baltimore club track that I can really feel mellow and zone out to, but this and the Booman track I posted recently both have that elusive vibe that I really love. It really reminds me of early early Baltimore club with the Euro house influence in the synths plus the breakbeats and those rough vocal samples popping in and out, like Excel really seriously studied that era and came up with his own flip on it. There are 2 versions of this on the album, too, this one and an instrumental, and they're in a row so you can just chill to this track for 7 minutes straight.

Labels: Baltimore club, Blaq Starr, Bmore Original Records, Bossman, DJ Excel, mixtape/album review, mp3