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I first heard of The Foreign Exchange from Garth Trinidad's show on KCRW. He was playing a track from a Mushroom Jazz CD called "Nic's Groove." I was drawn to the groovy blend of hip-hop, R&B, with a touch of house, and wanted to hear more. So I picked up not one but two copies of their debut album Connected -- the original CD and the equally impressive instrumental-only version -- and became a fan.

These discs and the band's recent follow-up, Leave It All Behind, deftly blend so many sounds that I had no idea what their live show would look or feel like.

The line at the world famous Roxy Theater on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood went down two blocks the night of Sunday, June 14th. I've been to at least ten shows at the Roxy in the past and only once for a John Legend show has the line extended down similar to what I saw on Sunday. To be honest, initially, I was annoyed. Maybe I'm just a snob, but I hate waiting in lines and while I knew that the Foreign Exchange would bring in an audience, I didn't think it would be like this. Nevermind the fact that this would mark FE's first performance in LA. Nevermind that their latest album Leave It All Behind was one of my favorite albums last year and was my candidate for Album of the Year when it came out. I hate waiting in line. HATE it. To my surprise the line moved quickly enough and by the time I got in, the room was almost full. And you could feel the energy and anticipation.

Amoeba Music,

More props for Nicolay's version of the Bob James classic!

Along with James Brown's "Funky Drummer," Melvin Blisss's "Synthetic Substitution" and the Honeydrippers' "Impeach the President," "Nautilus" by Bob James qualifies as one of the most important and most sampled records in hip-hop history. James may be best known for "Angela," which became the theme song for the TV show Taxi, but many of his tracks have been cribbed for hip-hop tracks, with "Nautilus" turning up on Run DMC's "Beats to the Rhyme" and Ghostface Killah's "Daytona 500" among countless others.

Remaking "Nautilus" isn't a task that one would take on lightly, but Nicolay, the producer comprising one-half of eclectic soul outfit Foreign Exchange has just decided to let his version out of the vault for free downloading. Apparently, back in 2006, the Dutch-born producer was approached to work on a project called "Sampling Bob James: The Nautilus Project" and he delivered a total re-working of the track from scratch sans samples, for a project that has yet to see the light of day.