Also hailing from the snowy north shores of Canada...

...that's how Abdominal introduces fellow Canuck rapper D-Sisive on the DJ Format track 3 Feet Deep and also when I first realized Abdominal was Canadian. Though really, the hockey reference in The Hit Song should have been a dead giveaway. Today's post is all about Abdominal and a bunch of other interconnected artists from in and around the Toronto music scene.

The seeds for this post were planted when CBC Radio 3 started posting the archived streams from the show Fuse, wherein two musical acts are fused together to make new music together. What caught my eye was the combination of Abdominal with Henri Fabergé & The Adorables. I was familiar with Abdominal since he contributed raps to six tracks on DJ Format's Mature for the Mature B-Boy and If You Can't Join 'Em... Beat 'Em. On the other hand, I'd never heard of Henri Fabergé & The Adorables, though I was soon to become an instant fan.


Abdominal - T-Ode (feat. Notes to Self)
DJ Format - Vicious Battle Raps (feat. Abdominal)
Abdominal AKA Andy Bernstein hails from Toronto, a fact he proudly touts on the track T-Ode (featuring a hilariously awkward intro from Toronto mayor David Miller) from his 2007 debut solo record Escape From the Pigeon Hole. Vinyl Frontier, an earlier collaboration with partner-in-crime DJ Fase, ended up in the hands of DJ Format who was so impressed he invited Abs to the UK to work together. Soon Abdominal would make his name known internationally with his fast, clever rapping on tracks such as The Hit Song, Ill Culinary Behaviour, and Vicious Battle Raps, the latter of which was accompanied by an impressively coordinated single-shot time-shifting music video directed by Ruben Fleischer.

DJ Format - Ill Culinary Behaviour (feat. Abdominal)
DJ Fase & Abdominal - Fast Food
Abdominal - Big Track
Big Track is a hilarious rap aimed at taking advantage of a dubious promotion that paid rappers to insert Big Mac references into their lyrics. A recurring theme in Abdominal's lyrics is his penchant for food... fast food, in particular, so he was more than up for the challenge. I thought Abs made up this bizarre corporate scheme, but as it turns out he didn't. Not sure what the ad execs were expecting, but I'm sure they would have been thrilled by lyrics like: "Beef from a hundred different cows in that? Of course, you must be talking about... the Big Mac."


Henri Fabergé & the Adorables - Crawl Back
Henri Fabergé & the Adorables - O! Ella
After listening to the entire Fuse session with Abdominal, I decided to track down the self-titled debut of Henri Fabergé & The Adorables. And by track down, I mean visit their myspace site where I learned that their CD is available at various Toronto music establishments, in Japan(?), as a digital download from Zunior, or "randomly at one HMV, in Vancouver at the Robson and Burrard location". Uh, that one random HMV was sold out when I went so ordering directly from the label Fuzzy Logic Recordings was the best bet, plus mine came wrapped in a random tour poster with some stickers too. The Adorables are a musical collective from Toronto with a rotating door of musicians from several bands including The Bicycles, Born Ruffians, Spitfires & Mayflowers, Woodhands, and more. The band has held up to 13 members at times (heck, probably more), though a constant is gangleader Henri Fabergé AKA Henry Fletcher. Their music is usually described as catchy or poppy, and I'll add infectiously sing-a-longable. Oh yeah, Laura Barrett's also an Adorable, which is just bonus incentive.


Abdominal & Henri Fabergé and the Adorables - Move Your Feet [originally by Junior Senior]
You can listen to the Abdominal and Adorables Fuse session here, though one song that's conspicuously missing from the playlist is a cover song. And what a glorious unexpected combo it is: Junior Senior's Move Your Feet, a song that I first became a fan of due to its awesomely lo-fi animated music video. Major kudos to Abdominal for likely being the only rapper to have name dropped Ian Hanomansing and Peter Mansbridge. Add a sample of Corey Hart's Sunglasses at Night and you've got a recipe for a cover that should bring smiles to any Canadian listener. Well, smiles to any listener really, but bonus smiles for Canucks! By the way, Mansbridge fans should check out an amusing clip from The Mercer Report video archives (click on the last clip from episode 11).


Laura Barrett - Deception Island Optimists Club [from Ursula EP]
Abdominal - Pedal Pusher
Laura Barrett was a nominee for the first annual SOCAN ECHO Songwriting Prize in 2006 for Deception Island Optimists Club, which appeared on her Earth Sciences EP and was later re-recorded on her follow-up EP Ursula released a couple months ago. Coincidentally, the SOCAN ECHO Songwriting Prize for 2007 was awarded to none other than Abdominal for Pedal Pusher, a song about his days as a bike courier for which he attributes his ability to rap for long sequences without taking a breath (further elaborated on his track Breathe Later). Unintentionally good timing on this post... Laura Barrett is featured on this Saturday's Fuse with The Hylozoists.


Abdominal - Open Relationship (feat. Elizabeth Shepherd)
On this candid track, Abs raps about an unorthodox relationship "experiment" with now ex-girlfriend and Do Right Music labelmate, jazz phenom Elizabeth Shepherd. Apparently that didn't work out, but they still remained on friendly terms, recording the track together nearly a year after the fact.


Elizabeth Shepherd Trio - The Price is Right [originally composed by Edd Kalehoff]
Elizabeth Shepherd Trio - Beauty & The Beast [originally written by Alan Menken/Howard Ashman]
Elizabeth Shepherd's 2006 debut Start to Move, nominated for a Juno for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year, closes with a cool scat cover of The Price is Right theme, in which she also does her album thank-yous. I first heard a sample of The Beauty & The Beast cover on the Do Right Music myspace site and I knew I had to find it. Unfortunately, it's only on a Japanese compilation called Modal Jazz Loves Disney curated by Sunaga Tatsuo, which is generally pricey and/or unavailable. This version is ripped from a radio stream that was playing a vinyl record, so it's not great quality but it'll have to do for now. Luckily I know a couple people heading to Japan in the next few months that I intend to send on an errand (hint, hint).


Jaymz Bee & The Royal Jelly Orchestra - Fly Like an Eagle (feat. Elizabeth Shepherd) [originally by Steve Miller Band]
If you thought Seal finished off Fly Like an Eagle with his cover from the NBA/Looney Tunes movie mash-up Space Jam, definitely take a listen to this smooth groove cover. On the Price is Right track, Elizabeth Shepherd gives a shout-out to Jaymz Bee and the RJO who she collaborated with on Toronto Launch Pad, a collection of covers performed by the RJO with various featured vocalists. An early version of Elizabeth Shepherd's Start to Move is the only non-cover on there. Presumably the album served its purpose, helping to launch Shepherd into the limelight. More good timing on this post... her sophomore album Parkdale comes out next Tuesday!


Jaymz Bee & The Royal Jelly Orchestra - Sunglasses at Night (feat. John Southworth) [originally by Corey Hart]
Before Richard Cheese started lounging up contemporary songs, Jaymz Bee and the Royal Jelly Orchestra were giving the lounge treatment to Canadian hits like You Oughta Know, Superman's Song, Safety Dance, and more on 1997's Cocktail: Shakin' and Stirred. A 2002 follow-up Sub Urban featured lounge hip-hop hits. Currently Jaymz Bee is a host on JAZZ.FM91, a jazz station based in Toronto. In fact, my teenage cousin in T.O. was a guest host with Jaymz Bee twice last year... so there's my Kevin Bacon connection to Abdominal and DJ Format!

DJ Format Unsampled

Alright, now that I've got all that Raconteurs business out of my system, here's a post that's long overdue. I first caught wind of UK hip hop artist DJ Format about 5 years ago when the music video for We Know Something You Don't Know made the internet rounds. Breakdancing mascots is all you need to know. It wasn't until a couple years later when I saw the music video for 3 Feet Deep and began to take notice. After some, uh, "scrounging" I listened to a few more DJ Format tracks and liked what I heard, even though I didn't (and still don't) really listen to any hip-hop or rap. I eventually bought his debut album Music For The Mature B-Boy when I was in England a couple years ago and several tracks have become constants on the ol' iPod playlists. None moreso than The Hit Song featuring Canadian rapper Abdominal (more on him next time). The Hit Song can be summed up by its self-referential chorus:

"I use the word 'hit' in many sen-tences,
Listen how many 'hits' I manage to condense in the first verse,
In the second, I'm trying to rhyme as many words I can find that sound like 'hit',
In the last third verse, hit-related metaphors.
Example: I write more hits than Matt's got hit samples."
(Note: those are the lyrics as best as I can figure since other transcriptions available online aren't overly helpful)

DJ Format - The Hit Song (feat. Abdominal)
It's catchy, it's funny, and it's perhaps too clever by half, but then again, part of the fun lies in deciphering its lyrics.

Similar to digging up cover originals, I find it fascinating to uncover the sources of sampled music whether it's learning the sources of Fatboy Slim's big hits (check out A Break from the Norm for an earful) or breaking down Deee-Lite's Groove is in the Heart into its constituent parts. Naturally, after numerous listens to The Hit Song I began to wonder about the James Brown-like coda that ends the song. What I found out was that it's a sample of the song Hit Record performed by soul singer Mickey Murray, who indeed sounds remarkably like the Godfather of Soul. And as it turns out, Hit Record itself is a cover song, originally performed by Brooks Benton.

Mickey Murray - Hit Record [originally by Brook Benton]
Brook Benton - Hit Record
The song is a cheeky step-by-step guide on how to make a hit record. Ironically, I don't think any of these songs were really hits.

Razzy Bailey - I Hate Hate
Another ingredient that finds its way into The Hit Song is a sample from this anti-hate anthem by Razzy Bailey. If you're well-familiar with The Hit Song you'll find a nice surprise in the middle of this track.


DJ Format - Here Comes the Fuzz
Also from Music For The Mature B-Boy is the instrumental track Here Comes the Fuzz, which is built entirely around a repeated bass riff that's heavy on the fuzz.

The Quartertones - Here Comes the Fuzz (Remix) [originally by DJ Format]
Though labeled as a remix, this b-side to The Hit Song single is a cover of Here Comes the Fuzz performed by Toronto-based jazz/funk/fusion group The Quartertones.

Now that you've given Here Comes the Fuzz a spin, you've got to be asking yourself where that funky riff originates... and would you believe, it's from The King himself, Elvis Presley. Change of Habit is from the 1969 Elvis film of the same name, in which The King stars as an inner city doctor that falls for one of his nurses, who unbeknownst to him is secretly a nun. So many things seem wrong with that synopsis, but it must have seemed like a good idea at the time! Mary Tyler Moore stars as the undercover nun and for Elvis, this would be his final acting role. Now you know where the Fuzz came from.
Elvis Presley - Change of Habit



A couple bonus tracks:
DJ Format - Stealin' James, pt. 1
DJ Format - Stealin' James, pt. 2
DJ Format cuts and pastes together James Brown samples on these tracks, two sides of a 12" vinyl tribute released by TD Records. In this interview, he says he doesn't mind if people download it for free since he made it for fun and the record itself is "a totally dodgy release and breaks all copyright laws". That said, both DJ Format albums Music For The Mature B-Boy and If You Can't Join 'Em... Beat 'Em are definitely worth owning if you dig these tracks.

Hey, if you have any more insight into DJ Format samples, give me a shout or drop a comment. I'd love to know the origins of Last Bongo in Brighton.