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About The New Beatmaker

Hi!  I'm Lee.  Welcome to my blog.  Here we talk music: news, reviews, interviews, tips, tutorials and more.  I'm also working on the upcoming podcast  Influenced  as a guest, writer and researcher alongside music aficionado Mark Williams and friends.  Watch this space! I have been a lover of music for as long as I can remember, an amateur lyricist for 25 years, a music writer for 15 years and a hobbyist musician and blogger for almost 10 years. My tastes range from jazz to house to hip hop and I love helping artists from all genres develop their sound. My music, videos, reviews and interviews have been featured in a variety of magazines and websites, including: B-Boy Tech Report Gimme That Beat Humanhuman Audio Skills Dream House Beats Where Did the Road Go Beat Tape Co-Op Push Power Promo Drum Magazine You can find my music on Bandcamp: Monkey Mind Sounds AKA LeeTNB And you can find me on Facebook: The New Beatmaker page Lee's personal page

Boonie Mayfield / Solomon Vaughn: Featured Artist


Here's a very funky, very soulful PSA from The New Beat Maker favourite Solomon Vaughn aka Boonie Mayfield / BoonDoc.


In 2011 the Colorado-based multi-instrumentalist and singer released 'Black Koolaid' via his own website.  A winning mix of hip-hop, soul and funk, 'Black Koolaid' came with heavy cosigns from luminaries including S1 and Ski Beatz.  Combining lashings of classic funk and soul with nods to J Dilla, Just Blaze and The Neptunes, the album has rightfully stayed in heavy rotation for many a head ever since.


Great musical skill is only one part of his success.  Vaughn had amassed a large online following long before his album dropped.  The catalyst was when he was forced to take to youtube to claim ownership on a set of beats.  This lead to a series of beatmaking videos that showed off his charisma and sense of humour, as well as his musicianship.  These videos have since racked up tens of thousands of views. 

Among these viewers was another The New Beat Maker favourite, Lanzo aka Lanzo Beats, who had this to say recently:        
BoonDoc convinced me to buy an MPC.  As soon as I saw his ‘BoonDoc on the MPC’ videos on youtube, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.  Definitely peep those videos if you have the time.  Dude KILLS the 1k
- Lanzo aka Lanzo Beats, in this exclusive interview.

Last year, Vaughn premiered his 'BoonDocumented' web series.  Following Vaughn and his journey through the ups and downs of beat battles, gear buying and restoring, applying to the Red Bull Music Academy and even reliving the trauma of a studio break-in, the show was essential viewing and provided another welcome insight into the life of the man behind the music.



Since then, he's become a part of the team over at mpctutorials.com. Time will tell what Vaughn is set to bring us on the back of 'Untethered Soul'.  Whatever it is, it's surely going to have been worth waiting for.



For more, visit: booniemayfield.com 

Credits 
Videos: youtube.com/user/BlackTuezday 
Image: myspace.com/booniemayfieldmusic 
Music: soundcloud.com/booniemayfield 

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About The New Beatmaker

Hi!  I'm Lee.  Welcome to my blog.  Here we talk music: news, reviews, interviews, tips, tutorials and more.  I'm also working on the upcoming podcast  Influenced  as a guest, writer and researcher alongside music aficionado Mark Williams and friends.  Watch this space! I have been a lover of music for as long as I can remember, an amateur lyricist for 25 years, a music writer for 15 years and a hobbyist musician and blogger for almost 10 years. My tastes range from jazz to house to hip hop and I love helping artists from all genres develop their sound. My music, videos, reviews and interviews have been featured in a variety of magazines and websites, including: B-Boy Tech Report Gimme That Beat Humanhuman Audio Skills Dream House Beats Where Did the Road Go Beat Tape Co-Op Push Power Promo Drum Magazine You can find my music on Bandcamp: Monkey Mind Sounds AKA LeeTNB And you can find me on Facebook: The New Beatmaker page Lee's personal page

Learn How to Play D'Angelo's 'How Does it Feel': Piano Couture

Barely a week goes by without me playing 'Voodoo' at some point and with it, a desire to learn how to play 'How Does it Feel'.   This tutorial video by youtube user pianocouture is one of the best 'how to play' videos I have seen for the classic track.   I think that instructional videos like this are good for two main reasons.  Reason one: obviously, a learner player will gain confidence and enjoyment from learning a favourite song of theirs.   Reason two: Even if a beatmaker has no desire to learn to play the keyboard, but wants to create a loop or a riff (a feeling) similar to 'How Does it Feel', what better way to, than playing the song itself (or similar sounds), sampling it and chopping it up? Either way, this is a great tutorial video.  I've subscribed to Piano Couture's youtube page and, if you are looking to get your key game up, I suggest you do too ;) Related Posts: ?uestlove talks new D'Angelo, J Dilla Video: youtube.com/user/pian

Objects In Orbit 'Panoramas'

REVIEW :  The New Beatmaker favourite changes his name, hones his craft on potential best album of 2020 Producer, Sound Engineer, Musician and Videographer Objects In Orbit has been a favourite of the site since 2013. Whilst there is not a single bad project in the catalogue of the artist formerly known as Evil Alex, he has evolved and improved almost constantly from one project to the next. He is a master of sonic suspense with many of his projects sounding perfectly at home in an art installation or art-house cinema. His trademark style mixes hip hop born sample-based techniques and 4/4 beat composition along with jazz influenced time signatures and experimentation. He often incorporates eerie, industrial stylings and at times dissonant tones.  Whilst predominantly instrumental, Objects In Orbit finely weaves into layers of musical samples either long stretches of dialogue, which make the listener feel as though they are eavesdropping on private conversation, or snip