Amir’s Top 10 Albums 2008
My old friend Amir told me he was thinking of writing a book about Fatbeats during the 90’s. I would love to see that happening.
I met Amir when he was working as an A&R for Fatbeats. Was almost fun and cool time. This is also tru this company that great people and friends had their vinyl distribution gig … Dj mehdi with Espionage, El-P with Co-flow, Dave 1 and A-track with their label Audio Research
Amir is one of the biggest music lover i know and heavy weight crate digger.
Here is Amir’s top 10 plus a cool interview from http://blog.fairtilizer.com/
What are you currently up to?
I run the label and magazine Waxpoetics and we’re trying to get a bunch of projects ready for the new year.
On the artist side, Me and my partner Kon just finished a mix for a clothing company called 101 Apparel out in California. They’re doing a special Kon & Amir t-shirt and we’re doing a mix to go along with it. Both will be out in the summer. Then we’ll go into the next BBE release “Off Track Vol.3″ which . We’re also trying to build a tour in Europe for the summer, when the albums drops.How was 2008 for you? What were the highlights?
2008 was great for me cause I had the chance to go to Korea for the first time of my life. I went there in May for a b-boy contest that the country of South Korea put together. I went out there for a week and it was amazing. I also got to go to Japan to deejay with Kon for the first time. That was like THE highlight. Another highlight was going out and standing in line for 4 hours to vote for Barack Obama, you know. These were highlights not only for 2008, but also for my life!
What about 2009? What are you looking forward to?
I’m looking to tour Europe heavily for the new album. I’m also looking to see us being featured in more ads, be able to travel more to deejay, and for our new album to make a lot more noise than the previous two.
Speaking of albums, what are 5 albums you can’t live without?Just off the top of the head…
Stevie Wonder – Innervisions
Marvin Gaye – I Want You
Miles Davis – Kind Of Blue
Eric Dolphy – Outward Bound
ATribe Calles Quest – Low End TheoryBeing a crate-digger, what’s your take on the future of vinyls? Are they gonna survive the times?
Yeah, I mean vinyls are surviving CDs. CD sales are dropping tremendously and some people are buying more vinyls than CDs. Vinyl is not outselling CDs but vinyl hasn’t really gone anywhere, it’s just become more of a specialty item.
You think CDs are gonna disappear?
I think CDs are gonna disappear because there is really no need for CDs anymore since you have mp3s and wavs and all that. Plus that technology keeps growing. CDs are taking up room in your house, while you could have a hard drive with like 20′000 songs on it if you want.
Where do you see the music industry going in the next few years? What are gonna be the ways to make money?
Definitely digital will be a huge part of the industry. Not only digital as far as music itself, but also images…any kind of viral mass media that you can provide with your record will be tremendously important. There will also have to be non-traditional ways or extra-added-value ways of selling music. In other words if an artist is able to get invloved in other strings of income that can help promote his record…that’s really how he’s gonna be making money. Also touring is gonna be another way artists will be making money, and it has been the case til now already. Even when the music industry was doing really well, most artists didn’t make money directly off their record sales. Touring is gonna become an even more important source of income.
Amir’s Top 10 Albums of 2008
1. Dam Funk-Rhythm Trax IV-Stones Throw Records
2. TV On The Radio-Dear Science-4AD Records
3. Five Corners Quintet-Hot Corner EP-Ricky-Tick records
4. Madlib-Beat Konducta 5 & 6-Stones Throw records
5. Santaogold-Self-Title-Lizard King Records
6. Million Dollar Disco Orchestra-Better Days-BBE Music
7. Chin Chin-Self-Title-Def Jux Recordings
8. Richie Spice-Gideon Boot-VP Records
9. Adesiji-Self-Title- NY Records
10. Jackson Conti-Suijnho-Mochilla Records
VISIT KON & AMIR’S MYSPACE
