In celebration of the 5th anniversary of the release of The Foreign Exchange's debut album 'Connected', we have a very special 'Off The Shelf' installment for you today!

At the end of January 2005, on the heels of a sold-out performance at London's Jazz Cafe, Little Brother/The Foreign Exchange (consisting of Phonte, Rapper Big Pooh, Nicolay, Yahzarah, Darien Brockington and DJ Flash) recorded a live-in-studio session for Gilles Peterson's Worldwide show on BBC Radio 1 (United Kingdom). Originally, the BBC Radio 1 only aired the two Foreign Exchange tracks, 'Come Around' and 'Sincere', but we are now presenting this session in its entirety. Enjoy!

Thanks for listening,

Nicolay

LITTLE BROTHER/THE FOREIGN EXCHANGE BBC RADIO 1 SESSION [right click and save to download MP3 file]
Vocals by Phonte, Rapper Big Pooh, Yahzarah and Darien Brockington | Keyboards by Nicolay | DJ Flash on the decks | January 2005



Tracklisting:

01 Speed (Little Brother)
02 The Way You Do It (Little Brother)
03 Come Around (The Foreign Exchange)
04 Sincere (The Foreign Exchange)

This week's 'Off The Shelf' installment was actually requested through Twitter. You may know the song "So Far" in the instrumental version that is included on City Lights Vol. 1.5, or in the remix version that is included on The Dutch Masters Vol. 1, but the original vocal version is a little less known. The song, performed by Ilwil (Donwill and Ilyas) featuring Jameze, was recorded around 2002, during what you could call our Okayplayer days. I'm sure that we posted it up on The Lesson, and Ilwil included the original version on their 'Beat Thieves Vol. 1 Mixtape', that is no longer in print.

Donwill and Ilyas are better known as two thirds of the group Tanya Morgan, the third third being another one of my Okayplayer homies, mc/producer Von "First Date" Pea. Their latest album, Brooklynati, is in stores right now and is a must-have if you like your hip hop fresh. Don't sleep!

Thanks for listening,

Nicolay

SO FAR [right click and save to download 320 kbps MP3 file]
Verses by Donwill and Ilyas | Hooks by Jameeze | All instruments and programming by Nicolay | 2002

We proudly present you with the first single taken from the upcoming Nicolay album "City Lights Vol. 2: Shibuya", in stores September 15 on Foreign Exchange Music/HBD. Click on the single cover below for your FREE download!


As always, we encourage you to spread the word and forward this to anyone that you think may like it. We appreciate it!

Today, I am another year older, and what better to commemorate this than with a particularly festive 'Off The Shelf' download, aimed for the dancefloors!

In the previous installment of this series, I broke down the story of how I first met the lovely and talented Moon Baker, many years ago. That story really isn't complete without acknowledging another good friend of mine, the amazingly talented Dutch singer and keyboardist Ugene.

PURPLE FLIP [right click and save to download MP3 file]

Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson- Drums, Samples
Nicolay- Fender Rhodes, acoustic piano
Zo!- Korg synth, additional rhodes
Phonte and Carlitta Durand- Vocals

This is the first in a series of random goodies that we will be periodically dropping off in your mailboxes. (Who loves ya, baby?)

We recorded this over a month ago specifically for a ?uestlove tribute party dedicated to The Purple One himself. Other than passing it off to a few DJ friends who vowed to keep it on some secret squirrel, "bet you aint up on THIS!" status, no one has ever heard it. In the wake of the incredible loss we suffered on June 25 however, this joint took on somewhat of a deeper meaning.

We decided to share it with our fans not only as a token of appreciation, but also as a way of paying respect to one of our last living musical geniuses.

Let's not wait until tragedy strikes before we show love and gratitude to our heroes, people. Give them their flowers while they live.

This one's for you, Mr. Nelson. You are loved and appreciated.

Enjoy!

One Love,
'Tay and Nic

Around 1995, I was playing bass in a Dutch P-Funk outfit called Groovin' Pict. It would be an understatement to say that I could write a book about the many adventures of this group and its various formations, but that is a different story altogether. Back then, one of our rival bands had a new female singer called Moon Baker, who was both gorgeous and incredibly talented, and after hearing and seeing her in action, we all knew that we had to get her to join our ranks. To our delight, we were eventually able to persuade her to come sing with us, and Moon and I ended up playing music together in different configurations of the group until around the year 2000.

Fast forward to 2004. Moon called me up one day and told me she was at long last going to start working on her solo debut, and she wanted me to be the album's main producer. Over the course of two years, we worked on and off on writing, arranging and recording her album, titled "ABC Of Romance". It was released in 2007 by Supertracks Records, and knowing that, the term 'Off The Shelf' should not be taken literally in this particular context. However, I think that the release was limited to The Netherlands, Germany and Japan, so I don't think you'll mind if I drop one of my favourite songs that we did together, "Stay". If you like this track, you can find the full Moon Baker album "ABC Of Romance" on iTunes, Amazon and CD Universe.

Not only is she a phenomenal singer, but Moon is an amazingly humble, down-to-earth and sweet person. In my opinion, she hasn't yet gotten the full recognition that she deserves. I'll continue to do whatever I can do on my end to change that. If you dig the music, make sure that you spread the word! As always, thank you for listening,

Nicolay

STAY [right click and save to download 320 kbps MP3 file]
Vocals by Moon Baker | All instruments and programming by Nicolay, 2005/06

BONUS:

ABC OF ROMANCE (NICOLAY REMIX feat. KAY) [right click and save to download 320 kbps MP3 file]
Vocals by Moon Baker | Rhyme by Kay | Saxophone by Candy Dulfer | All other instruments and programming by Nicolay, 2007

This mixtape by the homie from Toronto DJ Mensa has been making the rounds in the blogosphere for the last couple of weeks, and rightfully so, as it is a nice introduction to the work of The Foreign Exchange and their extended family, put together in preparation for The Foreign Exchange's performance in Toronto earlier this June. Check out the tracklisting below.

Download link: Take It All With You (A Primer To The Foreign Exchange Experience) - Mixed by DJ Mensa

I am pretty sure that the fellas of United Soul (an R&B duo from Philadelphia that since changed their name to U.City) didn't end up using this remix, but I know they liked it, and so does my wife Aimee, who suggested it for the next installment of Off The Shelf. Just a smooth joint to cuddle up with your significant other to, done somewhere in '05. Shoutouts to U.City, Yahzarah and Phonte. Enjoy, and thanks for listening!

Nicolay

' SOULCLAP (NICOLAY REMIX)' [right click and save to download 320 kbps MP3 file]
Vocals by United Soul, Yahzarah and Phonte | All instruments and programming by Nicolay, 2005

Things don't always work out as you would hope, and the reasons why usually have little to do with music, and all the more with the people "behind the scenes", as the following example illustrates. Of course, not everyone in the music industry is a shark, but it certainly is my personal experience that the good people are exceptions that prove the rule.

At the end of 2004, I was contacted by a fairly well-known indie hip-hop label's A&R (Artist & Repertoire) director (who shall remain anonymous). The guy was working on a new project with legendary group The Last Poets, and he wanted to see if I could remix a song called "Dakari" track that also featured Keith Murray. The remix was intended for a 12" single to promote the album, and would potentially even be included on the album as they were not too thrilled about the beat that was used for the original track. Eager to expand both my range and my resume, I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to reach a new audience, and we came to an agreement that worked for all parties involved. I finished the remix in January of 2005.

In July of 2006, I was approached by people representing world renowned jazz keyboardist Bob James. They were working on putting together a project, to be called 'Sampling Bob James: The Nautilus Project', on which several DJ's and producers would present their take on one of the most sampled tracks in hip-hop history, 'Nautilus', from Bob James' 1974 album 'One'. To my delight, I was invited to be one of the contributors, but instead of sampling the original, I chose to 'cover' it and re-create the track from scratch.