29 April, 2008

most mc's equal broken phones

Mm. Allen brought the musical topic back to the blog, but in a very puzzling way.

Let's talk about Elemental/Tom Caruana, for a bit.

Elemental's Cup of Brown Joy was the song tossed my way as something "potentially steampunk". But yet again, we have oddity here--I'm not entirely sure who's responsible for "Cup of Brown Joy"--which is, quirkily enough, a rap song about good tea. (No, really.)

So either Tom Caruana is the rapper as well as the musician, or--Elemental is the rapper, and Tom Caruana is the musician? I went to check out Tom Caruana and found "Something to Remember, which I love the feel of, and Shake Settled Minds--not as good, for me, but still, sharp tight rap.

Elemental can be found on MySpace, as is Tom Caruana. Which gets confusing again.

You can find a ton of snippets to peruse of UK hip-hop here, including Caruana, but that gets me no closer to understanding who he is or who Elemental is.

This helped a little--apparently, they're both big names at the Brighton Hip-Hop Festival, and they teach hip-hop, musical theory, stage presence and writing on the side. Okay...that's something...

Other than that, I'm not finding a lot. So are we adding Brighton hip-hop/tea rap songs as potentially steampunk or not? Your guess is as good as mine.

(And I don't know if this has any relevance to the argument, but I'm kind of enjoying the fact that people are rapping about tea.

('Earl Grey Killah'. Hee.)

9 comments:

Edward Pearse said...

*points to the credits at the end of the Brown Joy video

Elemental is the Rapper.
Tom Caruana is the Producer.

Now how much involvement either had in the creation of the piece I have no idea. Obviously it's not big budget stuff, but if only more rap music was this well written it might be worth listening to.

Emilly Orr said...

Tom Caruana apparently produces for a lot of people, in addition to doing his own stuph (as I said, I quite liked "Something to Remember", linked above). Also something I never knew--there's a huge hip-hop/rap community in Brighton of all places. (Why Brighton? Brighton in general is just especially rap-worthy? I have ZERO idea).

But yeah, I'm going to be looking into it. I'm still unsure as to whether Saul Williams really fits 'steampunk' as a musical genre, but now we have more players.

At this rate? I'm going to end up developing a whole separate timeline.

Edward Pearse said...

Oh and apparently the video was created by Moog of http://www.peculiana.com/

There's also a high quality version of the clip here: http://www.vimeo.com/794351

I'm currently doing corrections of the lyrics transcription that was posted here: http://www.caledonforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=912

elemental said...

Good day, indeed- I am the rapper and mr caruana makes the lovely music. We have just made an albim together with cup of brown joy on it- you can find it at www.tcrecords.net it's not completely steampunky. Not veyr much at all really, but by harry we are very jolly happy with it and we hope you like it too. if anybody IS near brighton I also do a very silly victorian show entitled 'come into my parlour', the trailer is at my myspaz www.myspace.com/mclemental Sorry to sell myself like a tupenny whore, but it's so nice to have been considered a mystery. however briefly.

Emilly Orr said...

Not at all, sir, and I'm overjoyed to hear of the album. I'm updating a current post going out with the information--hopefully it will drive more wanderers to your door.

Thank you for stopping by. Whatever "steampunk" music is--or isn't--"Cup of Brown Joy" has been embraced as one of the anthems, so you're being heard more often than you think. :)

elemental said...

how delightfully splendid of you. Mr Caruana has just beat me with a stick for getting his website wrong. it is in fact www.teasearecords.net where you can buy our items. Thanks! Any help shifting our little package is most gratefully received. Please do spread the word...

Emilly Orr said...

It's quite all right, I figured that out; the correct web address went out in today's (rather more exhaustively researched, for other reasons) post.

And I'm more than happy to spread the word. The sheer concept of "Brighton rap" is rather deliriously stunning to the frontal lobes. I must help other people headtilt as much as possible.

itsdavidvc said...

Mr. Elemental,

Sadly, many of us in our little community are on the wrong side of the pond (or in Sir Edward's case the opposite end of the globe) to stop by to see your show. However Miss Orr, Sir Edward, myself, and a host of other eccentrics would love to meet you in Second Life for a cup of (virtual) tea.

A believe a livestream of your parlour show in Caledon Steam Sky City would be very well attended indeed.

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hide away, they say, 'cos we don't want your broken parts

Yeah, so...remember that thing I was recovering from? You know, last year ? Yeah. I did it again. So this is Em Faw Down Go Boom part ...