128 Oz. of Great-erade: 'The Basics EP,' by DTMD (Dunc & Toine Makin' Dollars)

Comin' from Prince George's County, Md., right in the middle of the DMV, Dunc & Toine Makin' Dollars, a.k.a. DTMD, is a duo to watch for in the years to come.

Granted, I'm about eight months' late in discovering their excellent EP, The Basics, but I can't pass up the chance to recommend that you go to Bandcamp.com RIGHT NOW and cop the free download.

Production heads may recognize Dunc as the architect behind the clipped soul of "The Shining," from the excellent Diamond District record featuring X.O., yU and Oddisee, who has gone out of his way to rightly hype DTMD.

"I MC/I must create microphone classics/Metaphysical craftsman with musical captions/Relaxin', lettin' the draft in/The in smoke out what we ashin'/The ganja/In rap, I'm a monster/N****s comin' back like karma/But y'all gon' pay for it like a sponsor/In the element of irrelevance and drama/The current testament was heaven-sent to calm ya," Toine raps over the smooth, wavering synths of "Fantastic," kicking a verse that belies the fact that neither he nor Dunc are even 21 yet.

It would be unfair to pigeonhole DTMD as a "nerd-rap" group, but that is undoubtedly the demographic to which they will most likely appeal. That said, if you're a real hip-hop fan, chances are you'll find something to like in the horns and guitars of "Champion," the conga-syncopated bounce of "What That Mean" or the Roots-ish vibe of the closer, "Above the Clouds."

Add to that a great video and better lyrics for a song that doesn't appear on the EP, "Loan for the Lonely," and you'll see DTMD as a couple hungry youngsters that deserve your time.

• DTMD on Bandcamp.com (download the EP for free here)

• Dunc's Donuts on Blogger.com

DTMD - A Loan For The Lonely from dunc & toine makin' dollas on Vimeo.

128 Oz. of Great-erade: 'Off the Grid,' by Dinner at the Thompson's

French singer Lucille Tee and Cali-based producer Fablive have combined to put together one of the best Franco-U.S. collaborations since French fries, a heady, psych- and hip-hop-influenced soul record that oozes cool.

Tee's vocal presence is like a less-nasal Erykah Badu, but with the same penchant for breathy, multilayered harmonies. But where Badu, for the most part, stays grounded in soul and R&B, even when working with hip-hoppers like Madlib, Dinner at the Thompson's sound on Off the Grid has the heavy knock to support a guest MC like Guilty Simpson, who shows up on the swinging "Rice'n'Beans."

Fablive's intricate production - which this particular reviewer would love to see paired up with any number of MCs - weaves hip-hop, jazz-soul, bits of electro and a heavy dose of modern psychedelia into the mix. On tracks like the twitchy "Levitating," the synth-stabbing "Whatever It Takes" and the uptempo "Different Beings" (featuring modern funkateer Lee Fields), the music is unerringly catchy, diverse and accomplished.

Three short, hidden tracks following the closer, "You are Love," also hint at the great potential this duo has to expand their range into solidly hip-hop territory.

Sit down to a little Dinner at the Thompson's; it's a well-prepared meal.

• Dinner at the Thompson's on MySpace

Don't Let Xenophobic Hate Cloud Your Judgement: A Keith Olbermann Joint

Thanks to Oddisee for posting this. It's a fantastic, reasoned, impassioned defense of the founding principles of this country by MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, vis á vis the proposed "Ground Zero Mosque," which is actually "a converted Burlington Coat Factory which is impossible to see from anywhere at Ground Zero."

I realize that asking conservatives to watch this is like asking me to watch Glenn Beck's schizoid 'Network' act. The difference? Olbermann uses facts to make sense; he doesn't use fear to get ratings. I wasn't the greatest history student, but I do know that the Pilgrims came here to escape intolerance and religious persecution:

128 Oz. of Haterade: 'Lions, Fires & Squares,' by Carolyn Malachi

The Washington Post has described Carolyn Malachi's music as "hard to put into words," but to me, it's pretty simple. If you took an empowered female, put her at the head of the P-Funk All-Stars and asked them to tone down the weirdness just a little bit, you'd have Carolyn Malachi.

The six tracks (two remixes) on Lions, Fires & Squares, purportedly influenced by the D.C. native's recent trip to South Africa, encompass slow-rolling funk, spoken-word, R&B, the occasional video-game bleep and anything else that seems to fit.

"Textual" finds Malachi requesting "Let's get textual/I think you wanna know what's on my mind/Can't talk/I gotta run/I got a gun pointed at my personal time," as an uptempo groove suddenly spins off in rivulets of triplets, with guest HHR contributing an excellent verse.

"Orion" has her falling for the ageless constellation, inviting "Hey space cowboy/I want you in my interplanetary good vibe zone" as waves of neo-soul and harmony wash over the bottom-heavy beat.

A Claire Hux remix of "Textual" gives it a club-music spin, and Kokayi adds a syncopated swagger on a remix of "Orion," but it's Malachi's smooth, sliding alto that commands the most attention.

I haven't heard her first two records yet, but I'm happy to work backwards from here. Chances are, it'll be a worthwhile journey.

• Carolyn Malachi on MySpace

128 Oz. of Haterade: 'The 7th Hour,' by 7th 7ign

It's a mixed blessing to hear a forlorn soul loop as the backing for "Spinning Wheel," the opening track from Wu-affiliate 7th 7ign's (Sign's) debut record, 7th Hour. On one hand, for an old Wu head like myself, it's a refreshing bit of nostalgia. On the other hand, there's always the chance that new-school hip-hoppers will accuse him of trying in vain to recapture the Wu's glory days.

To be sure, 7th Hour isn't going to surpass Enter the 36 Chambers on your top-albums list, but neither is it simply a throwaway Wu-crew record. 7th 7ign has a commanding vocal presence, creating interesting, slightly-cryptic verses, without descending into the massively-obscure arena that Killah Priest permanently occupies. And the production settles nicely between RZA's baroque, tortured soul and the muddy, lo-fi sound of the Killa Bees compilation records.

In particular, tracks like "Everyman Bleeds," "This is War" and "Spinning Wheel" stand out as promising examples of where 7th 7ign can go when he wants:

"The wheel starts spinning/The end is the beginning/Constant motivation my world's in rotation/My fam comes first/React you get hurt/'Cause the first shall be last and the last shall be first."

That's some old-school Wu shit right there, and it's always welcome in my record collection.

• 7th 7ign on Myspace

A Warning to Nerds Everywhere: Sports is NOT for You

What happens when you combine Office Space, shotput and Eastern European nerds? This:

128 Oz. of Great-orade: 'Jazz Young Spirit,' by Various Artists

When I was in high school, my mother bought me a copy of the Afro-Cuban Allstars' A Toda Cuba Le Gusta, with fantastic tracks like "Maria Caracoles" and "Los Sitio Asere." It got me into Cuban jazz in a big way, branching out into Ruben Gonzalez and Ibrahim Ferrer records and even a fantastic LP whose name I still am not 100 percent sure of. I believe it's Ska Cubano.

Anyway, not since I first threw on the A.C. Allstars has a Latin jazz record grabbed my attention like this showcase of ten young musicians, despite the negligible mid-'80s bad-tie-abstract artwork on the cover.

The predominantly Cuban musicians (not everyone... Charly Sarduy is from Spain, Esperanza Spalding from Jersey City, N.Y.) rip into nearly every tune. Sarduy's "Charly en la Habana" starts off as light, uptempo funk before blasting off into chunky polyrhythms; breathy scatting intermingles with twitchy piano and percussion on "Loro," with a coda that sounds almost like a spacey Grateful Dead improv session, Spalding's vocals taking the place of Jerry Garcia. And the simple piano-and-congas combo on Marialys Pacheco's "Intro" sounds like the best song on a great '70s action-movie soundtrack.

Puerto Rico's Yasek Manzano shifts meters and slows things down a little on the abstracted, bouncy "Amnios," in addition to creating a hazy, tropical-jungle atmosphere on "Drume Negrita."

This is an out-of-control-great Latin jazz compilation.

• More on Jazz Young Spirit (you can also order it, but this is a German website, where you're ordering in Euros... don't know if it's commercially available in the U.S.)