DJ, Composer and producer Adrian Younge visited NPR's Fresh Air to discuss his latest projects and musical influences - including Spaghetti Westerns, Philadelphia Soul and the Wu-Tang Clan - with host Terry Gross. Younge, of Wax Poetics and Soul Temple Records, cites composer Ennio Morricone as one of the progenitors of the sounds you hear in mid-90s hip-hop classics. The marriage of inspirations including composers like Morricone and 60s soul groups - including falsetto gods The Delfonics - is how Younge found himself producing the guitar buzz and heavy drums of the new LP Adrian Younge Presents The Delfonics. The album features Delfonics' original lead singer William Hart over Younge's meticulously crafted tunes that are meant to get back to the tenets of funk and soul music production at its height in the 60s and 70s. Younge's transition from beat maker to composer was inspired by his need to translate the sounds in his head to final composition in ways that sampling did not allow. Younge recorded and mixed the project in his all-analog studio - a move that preserves the quirks, warmth and hand-sewn quality of the music. With this album his aim was not to cover songs or rehash old soul techniques, but to find a way to produce the grooves and messages that would allow him to create a record that combined the aesthetics of early 90s hip-hop drums with all the bass, bells and whistles of old soul. A born preservationist, Younge presents a record that can ultimately stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the records of that time. Moving his ear for cinematic soul scoring over to hip-hop, Younge will be debuting material from his Twelve Reasons To Die album with Wu-Tang's Ghostface Killah tomorrow at SXSW 2013. Listen to the interview via NPR. Scroll down for festival details.
Adrian Younge x Ghostface Killah at SXSW:
March 14th, 2013
12:45 AM – 2:00 AM
Venue: Scoot Inn
Wristbands & Badges Only/21+
1308 E. 4th Street
Austin, Texas, 78702
