Archive for March 2011
Japan's Kan Sano Previews Fantastic Farewell Even Though He Just Got Here
Bye!
Image credit: Kan Sano/Soundcloud
I’m not sure why Berklee-trained jazzed pianist/Tokyo-based beatmaker Kan Sano is saying goodbye, but it’s cool, as long as he leaves us with this record.
Fantastic Farewell is set to drop in April, and we’ve already heard a couple of the tracks from this collection. “Dream In” made its way onto Iggy a couple of weeks back. His Stevie Wonder remix for Japan won’t be on the record, but there are plenty more instrumental delights of the jazzy variety.
If jazz is a bit over your head at times (like it is for me), Kan does a great job of bringing those complicated melodies into the realm of understanding for instrumental hip hop aficionados. All that harmonic madness is there, but it swings with a hip hop beat. A lot like Yesterday’s New Quintet.
Have a listen to the sampler for Fantastic Farewell below, and stay tuned here for more on the album.
http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F12833789 Fantastic Farewell preview mix by Kan Sano
Getting Ready For The First Full Album From Mexicans With Guns
Run!
Image credit: Mexicans With Guns/Soundcloud
While most people residing near the border are avoiding the hell out of Mexicans With Guns, I’m putting myself right in the line of fire. Right now, I’m bumping tracks from his upcoming album Ceremony, and I’ll tell you, it’s absolutely sick. It’s like there’s drug war going on in my headphones just for me.
I won’t divulge too much presently, but expect a review of Ceremony here soon.
In the meantime, check out the track that has been Mexicans With Guns’ rallying cry all the way through Austin at this year’s SXSW. Along with rappers Freddie Gibbs and the legendary Bun B spitting some pitch-dropped vocals, MWG has created one hell of a hard track.
No one sounds quite like this. “Highway to Hell” has a syncopated latin beat buried within its hard and slow crunk rhythm. All the layers make it so grimy and heavy that you probably can’t even handle it. Or can you? Test your might below.
http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F11887893 01 Highway To Hell ( Big Red & Sizzurp Edit) by mexicanswithguns
France's Evil Needle Hits You With a Lo Fi Dream
A shot of evil.
Image credit: Evil Needle/ Soundcloud
Evil Needle blipped onto my radar a few weeks ago with a bunch of hip hop remixes that made me smile one of those funky, evil smiles.
Today, we get a little update from the man behind the man behind the plunger, the Stasbourg Syringe, the… OK, I’ll stop.
On “Lo-Fi Dreams,” you hear that familiar warm crackle of vinyl, then a sudden and inexplicable appearance by Cheech and Chong, and then BAM… you’re having one of the lo-fi dreams he was talking about.
Nasty beat. Nice melody. Dope bells. Just enough laser sounds.
Home run.
http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F12726228 Lo-Fi Dreams by evilneedleprod
Slideshow> Braids @ SXSW 2011: A Lesson On Why This Stuff Is Called 'Shoegaze'
Photo credit
Montreal must be a dreamy place, seeing that it inspired the ethereal, warm-Sunday-pleasant-mushroom-trip sound of Braids. The Canadian band of four echoed their way onto everyone’s radar last year and built internet hype that exploded at SXSW this year. Subsequent explosions continue as the band remains on the road with electronic mastermind Baths.
Yeah, Baths and Braids. You would think that there’s some kind of quip you could make with those two names, but I’ll just save you the time, there isn’t.
Watch out for Braids, prohpecy states that this is only the beginning of their reign as leaders of the electro shoegaze movement.
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Bands We Like: Oakland's Wake Keeps Beats Concrete
Talk about Un-Google-able.
Image credit: Wake/MySpace
I found another one, guys. Looks like there’s a whole stash of these sick beatmakers in the grab bag that is LA, and every time I reach in and pull one out, it becomes my new favorite.
This time around, however, I was tricked into falling for a guy from Northern Cali. Wake is based in Oakland, but he’s with the LA-based Proximal collective, a group we’ve just begun to tell you about.
Like his cohorts, Wake has a crisp sound that incorporates less ambient noise and more G-funk than the more well-known producers from the area. This is their competitive advantage. While the rest are experimenting with synthesizing dream states, Wake is just making chunky beats that require neck braces.
From the bits and pieces I’ve heard, he creates beats in two general styles: The boom bap beat, and the bizarro club beat. An example of the first can be heard below.
For further listening, check out his recent single here.
Keep an eye on us, and we’ll keep an eye on Wake.
http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F11571390 Wake – ButtaBump by proximalrecords
Slideshow> Gobble Gobble @ SXSW 2011: Let The Naked Canadian Rumpus Begin!
Talking turkey.
Photo credit: Chris Carrasquillo
If you think Gobble Gobble’s internet presence is visually spastic, wait ’til you see them live.
The Canadian electropop foursome is still trekking through the US bringing bright colors and upbeat melodic-electronics to venues large and small. We caught one of their four appearances at SXSW this year, and it was a little more raucous and a lot more shirtless than anyone expected.
Gobble Gobble hit Austin in the midst of an intense tour schedule. They could be anywhere at this moment, and maybe, just maybe, they’re in your backyard right now, go look! But first, check these out so you know what to look for.
All photos by Chris Carrasquillo
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New Video from Twisted MC Jeremiah Jae
Tapes n’ tapes.
Image credit: Brainfeeder
If you thought Jeremiah Jae’s debut Rappayamantantara was weird, wait til you see this video. Incidentally, if you didn’t think Jeremiah Jae’s debut Rappayamantantara was weird, then YOU are weird.
“Raw Tapes” is one of many tracks by Jeremiah in which the beat never really drops, at least not in the way you expect. The sounds are jarring, the lyrics partially lost in effects, and whole track basically just smacks you over the head with a hammer, pours gas on you, and puts shoe polish all over your face.
Hey! I stole that from the video. Watch it and be weirded out.
PS-It’s not super well done, but give the kid a break.
Jeremiah Jae – Raw Tape$ from Ounce. Films on Vimeo.
Greek DJ Blend Mishkin Gives Us a Taste of The Islands, But Not Greek Islands
Oh a blender, I get it, hahahaha
Image credit: Paris DJs
We can thank the Greek for inventing columns, math, and feta cheese. We can thank Blend Mishkin, who is Greek, for linking every song on his new mixtape’s tracklist to their respective internet homes. How considerate!
Mishkin put together this mix of reggae and dub songs for Paris DJs and its a fun tape to rock as it’s getting warm, but be careful, some of this stuff is dangerously cheesy.
If you’re over 30 and you leave you’re top two shirt buttons open and you use any amount of hair product, be wary that being caught bumping stuff like this will galvanize your douche-ness. However, if you’re young and laid back and lounging on your porch on a hot day, you’ll be A-OK.
I haven’t heard of most of the artists on this mix, but that’s how you want a dub mix to be. Mishkin did the work of finding the obscure tracks, likely through his DJ activities throughout Europe, and you get to remain oblivious about the details and just bob your head to the reggae beat, mon. Sorry, that was awful.
The track below is one of 17. Check out the entire list, complete with links, here.
iL Wants You To Remember That Movie apoLLo1ne3hree
iL stands for Illinois
Image credit: Error Broadcast
That’s the homestate of this young producer with large hair and an affiliation with Error Broadcast, who largely comprised our list of favorite producers from Russia. How they wound up releasing iL’s work, no one knows. Error Broadcast doesn’t even know. They have zero info on the kid. And his personal Soundcloud page is completely empty.
Seriously, who is this guy.
Who cares though, his new release apoLLo1ne3hree is crazy awesome.
apoLLo1ne3hree is what happens when you take an R&B album, break it into seperate R and B components, beat those each one to a static-y pulp, and then put them back together. Some of the tracks take this to such a length that they can be kind of hard to listen to, but it all adds to the intrigue. iL is clearly doing this on purpose to mess with your head.
Download the album here.
Hear a sampling below.
http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Fplaylists%2F659562&color=802275&show_playcount=false&show_comments=true&show_artwork=falseiL – apoLLo1ne3hree by Error Broadcast
Dutch Producer Nangdo Finds A Bunch of Old Beats, Shares Them
Beat after nameless beat.
Image credit: Nangdo/Bandcamp
In a 6000 year old college town in the northern Netherlands, a kid named Nangdo has been working on beats. The beatmaker just dropped a collection of 16 beats constructed in his lab. From the sound of the, the kid loves Pete Rock; lots of jazzy keys and pronounced snare sounds.
Nangdo has dropped a couple of packaged beat collection, but this set of tracks entitled Lost Beats 2001-2006 compiles misplaced sounds made during that pivotal era for beat producers of the world.
Dilla was still alive, DJ Shadow hadn’t yet released a bad record yet, and DJ Premier hadn’t resorted to producing a record for Christina Aguilera.
(Sigh) Those were the good old days, and it’s nice to hear a few loops from then and compare them to the warped abstractions instrumental hip hop has turned to in modern times.
Twas a simpler time.
Download the collection free here.
http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/track=340406710/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB//
