Organic Downtempo

If the afterworld includes a red-light district, Erotic Rhythms from Earth would qualify as its soundtrack. The third recording from Austin, Texas programmer/multi-instrumentalist Shane O'Madden beckons you into an off-focus world of amorphous boundaries, one that hovers somewhere between eternity and soft-core carnality. Offering an assortment of quirky temptations too intriguing to resist, O'Madden blurs Middle Eastern textures (principally generated via violin) and ambient electronic wayfaring with sultry, unhurried trip-hop textures, subtle female cooing, and understated rhythms. It all combines to exude a beguiling mood of faint danger and fashionable decadence, where the final destination is a bazaar of hidden, delicious pleasures…

The leaves are turning colors, the leaves are falling, the sounds are getting calmer and more melancholic. "Autumn Breeze Vol. 6: Chill Sounds For Relaxing Moments" brings chill sounds for relaxing moments in autumn. Selected by DJ Michael Maretimo.

Maretimo Records presents Maretimo Late Night Grooves Vol. 4. Enjoy the magic sound of the night. Smooth jazz & cosmopolitan lounge sounds selected by DJ Michael Maretimo.

The fourth volume in Verve's Verve Remixed series was a long time in coming considering how quickly the label spit out the first three. Nonetheless, it is a welcome addition to that shelf if remixes are your personal thang. This set concentrates, once more, on vocalists, and the array is rather startling on the surface, though it's sequenced beautifully. As with any of these packages some cuts work better than others, but there are some true highlights here. Marlena Shaw's reading of Ashford & Simpson's "California Soul" is given a killer treatment by Diplo and Mad Decent, keeping the entire thing rooted in its source material and stretching it with judiciously added bits of early funk, Ramsey Lewis-style soul-jazz, and hip-hop…