Sunday, May 16, 2010

Waldeck - Addicted


A driving force in his native Austria’s burgeoning electronica scene, Waldeck is a proponent of the Vienna Sound - a smoky, gorgeously eloquent mix of deep-rooted, turbulent beats and soaring, luxurious melodies. Waldeck has produced both albums of Saint Privat who won the Austrian Music Award 2005!

The 3rd Waldeck album "Ballroom Stories" has been released in August in Germany and Austria and has been critically acclaimed. It went straight into the longplay charts

John Hughes - Reset the Warehouse


Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Big Gigantic - I Need A Dollar Remix


With Summertime on the horizon, Big Gigantic’s Remix of Aloe Blacc’s ‘I NEED A DOLLAR‘ is available NOW and can be downloaded and streamed BELOW.
In the coming months, Big Gigantic will be releasing a series of singles with very special guests, leading up to their full-length album release, scheduled for late summer.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Alex B - You and I Both Know


Fresh-faced beatmaker and Brainfeeder mix contributor Alex B sent over this premiere of a track from his forthcoming debut, Moments. Entitled "You and I Both Know," this diddy is a brief look into the type of herky-jerky rhythms and smooth, spaced-out sonics to be heard through the album's 17 tracks. Within two minutes we are treated to a tweaked soul loop, delayed vocal stabs, sporadic percussive elements, and swirling synth arpeggiations wrapped around a descending bass melody. It all comes off sounding more like an interlude between larger movements, but we can only know for sure when Moments is released April 6 via Alex B's own Elm and Oak imprint.

You and I Both Know

Saturday, March 27, 2010

MF Doom - Doomsday


Simultaneously hailed as an underground classic and cast aside as poorly produced backpack rap, Operation: Doomsday inaugurated the reign of MF Doom in underground rap from the early to mid-2000s. The pretext for the album is very similar to that of Marvel Comics supervillain Dr. Doom. Carrying the weight of the past on his shoulders, Doom opens and closes Operation: Doomsday with frank and sincere lyrics. In between, however, many of the villain's rhymes are rather hard and piercing. On his subsequent material, he developed a more steady and refined delivery, but on this debut, Doom was at his rawest and, lyrically, most dexterous. The out-of-left-field edge of Doom's production — which features '80s soul and smooth jazz mixed with classic drum breaks — is indeed abstract at times, but his off-kilter rhymes are palatable and absent of any pretentiousness.

The career of MF Doom: newyorker.com

Friday, March 26, 2010

Drift


As the West Coast’s so-called “lazer bass” scene has blown up in the past year or so, Nosaj Thing (a.k.a. L.A. producer Jason Chung) has been one of those artists you often hear about without actually hearing any music. With the release of his debut album, Drift, it’s a safe bet that you’ll be hearing a whole lot of Nosaj Thing’s tunes from here on out. Settling somewhere between Flying Lotus’ otherworldly jazz and The Glitch Mob’s crunked-up floor-fillers, Drift is an impeccably produced record that sounds amazing in headphones but also has enough bump to hit the dancefloor every now and then. With its sliced-up vocals and buzzing synths, the haunting “Coat of Arms” is a clear standout, but “Light #1” and “Light #2” have enough funk to get your head nodding, and album closer “Lords” doubles as a cathartic religious experience.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Darondo - Didn't I


Say what you will about the obsessive record collector set, as long as they continue to dust off treasures on the order of "Let My People Go" they remain essential to our collective wellbeing. William Darondo Pulliam was a Bay Area "Gentleman of Leisure" who, when not preoccupied with his recreational activities, found the time to records three sublime singles for miniscule local labels in the early 70s. Were it not for the perserverance of records collector Gilles Peterson, whose "Gilles Peterson Digs America" brought Darondo's work back into public eye, these remarkable recordings would have remained largely unheard. "Let My People Go" is a body of work which, though small, compares favorably with the best soul and funk of the era. Darondo sings with an assured but frog throated tenor reminiscent of Sly Stone at his most restrained and a delivery that recalls Al Green at his most intimate.