Whenever we watch Janelle Monae perform, the feeling can be described exactly like a five-year-old with a snow globe for the first time. Someone sees us staring at it and begins to shake it. We are completely bewildered by all the action—white stuff going bonkers in a ball. Say what?! Our hearts start racing and the synapses in our brains begin to fire off at rapid pace. What is going on? How can there be so much action in one tiny thing? Who is responsible for this miracle? We don’t know about the rest of you but we still feel this way about snow globes.

The point is she is a shooting star. All this fuel burning all at once, yet still so small, so contained. She is also Diddy’s saving grace. Our last hope that the man does truly believe in talent and great music. Janelle’s album dropped yesterday and as we told you months ago, its a definite purchase. She does not wear that James Brown cape lightly; she earns it repeatedly gliding across the stage to “Tightrope.” Watch her make your eyes percolate after the jump.

If this is what was going on across 110th street then we would officially move uptown. This song is already bonkers with a crazy video but to hear Bobby Womack’s vibratto wail live is just insane. He’s obviously the star of the song while looking super lowkey on stage. All-black-everything Bobby? We respect that.

A few thoughts: How one would go about becoming a back up singer for Gorillaz? Where are the auditions advertised? Are the interviews animated? How awesome would it be to wear one of those hats with the little cherry on top? Yeah!!! We’re gonna ponder Damon Albarn’s universe, you guys watch after the jump.

[Frolab]

Tonight Theophilus London returns to New York for The Fader’s party, “One Step Beyond” at the American Museum of Natural History. It’s a bit of a homecoming for the Brooklyn young’n who spent a couple of weeks overseas last month. Outside of his own captured moments via iPhone or disposable cam (yes, he still favors the analog way), it’s rare for his local NY following to see him in the place where he earned his big break—London town. That is unless you’re DJ Treats who was on-stage to bring the excitement to a blog near you. Check out a few shots after the jump.

FEBRUARY 4TH, 2010 AT CORSICA STUDIOS (FOR “OFF MODERN” PARTY)

FEBRUARY 5TH, 2010 AT CLUB FABRIC (WITH A-TRAK)

FEBRUARY 6TH, 2010 AT THE GARAGE (FOR GILLES PETERSON’S WORLD WIDE AWARDS)

I think it’s safe to say that Corinne is aware of the fact that she keeps her eyes closed during her performances and therefore needs to have fantastic eye makeup steez. Also her jumpsuit is so fly I immediately felt bad about my outfit today. As for the music, what more do you want us to say? We know that she doesn’t have to see in order to perform this dope cut from new album, The Sea. She kills it! She may not jump around and have things blow up around her but I’m pretty sure she dropped all panties and boxers in that room. Everybody probably left immediately to go make love, which means XXXmas babies! Ok we can’t verify that but people should have left immediately after and got it on. Corinne Bailey Rae is hella smooth!–Judnick Mayard

On Live Remixing:

“Basically we don’t have a singer so we use the DJ as the singer and just interpret around him. When we’re performing, we are essentially deconstructing a track and reassembling it in real time. Like at tonight’s show, we took an MGMT track and threw a Dilla flavor on it. A lot of times we also take folksy-rock things like Feist and put a UK funky feel on it. We re-interpret tracks live onstage. The people who come to see us expect it. They know that we’re just going to freak any track we work with. But there are no expectations on what the content will be because we’re so varied.” – Matisse

On their process:

“Matisse is our songwriter, he comes from a classical background so he’s really into the songwriting aspect. It’s pretty random though. Someone might hear a reverb on a guitar that they like, then we put it in the mix and use it in a totally different setting.” – DJ Jr. Flo

“I am a trained classical pianist. So when I started branching out, these guys really helped me break out and learn to work with a group in a more informal setting whereas at first I was lost looking for some sheet music or something.” – Matisse

On Recording:

“For the Live Re-Mixing 101 project we went up to The Farm in Northern Ontario. The Farm is literally a farmhouse with a recording studio that basically stopped buying gear in the ’70s or ’80s so all their gear is analog and tape. We recorded live straight to tape, it was awesome. Right now we are working on a lot of great stuff, both re-mixes and some original stuff. We’re working with a producer named Grand Theft who’s helping us out with some of the production and songwriting.” – Adam Tune

Aside from a minor disagreement at the table over the superiority of ProTools (Tune and myself) versus Ableton Live (Matisse), Keys N Krates proved to be cohesive in both ideology and performance. Though there are many live groups that have DJs, it is unusual to see an ensemble that brings together all of the elements into a cohesive unit, using the turntables and mix equipment just as much as an instrument as the keys and drums, all the while feeding off of each other as a means to reinterpret the tracks. -Eric Sandler

But before talking about Saadiq, I have to set the mood for where he transported the crowd to the gilded era of Motown and Stax at NYC’s cavernous but packed Terminal 5 last Friday. His band, seven musicians dressed in crisp black suits complete with slick black ties, backed his equally dapper self as he took us through New Orleans, Oakland and New York, mastering the classic soul sound, yet always with a distinctively original flavor. Despite Raphael Saadiq being the star of the show, he also spotlighted his bandmates, fully cognizant of their talent. Perhaps the most surprising part of the night was about two hours into the show when Charles, the formerly silent keyboard player, was prodded by Saadiq to sing a few notes. Starting off modestly, with Saadiq comically donning a huge “Charles” sign behind him for support, Charles unleashed into an ascending scat that brought our plane up to maximum altitude. The initially timid Charles couldn’t be stopped once he got a taste of the audience, continuing throughout the rest of the show. Raphael said he only plays with people who are better than him and this, combined with surprise appearances by Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Mohammed from A Tribe Called Quest, was proof he wasn’t kidding. Even Raphael grabbed a turn on bass, musicianship from a leader with a smart ability to foster a talented group of musicians.

Fortunately, it seems the concert represented a microcosm of how Saadiq runs his life. Right after he stops touring in January, Saadiq plans on going back to the studio to finish his next album. If you aren’t already counting down the days on this one, you crazy. —Eric N. Sandler

More pictures after the jump.