Archive for the ‘hip-hop’ Tag
Dälek – Gutter Tactics
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From the smokes of a fictional large scale urban protest rises this loud hip-hop album. The tone set with words at the intro, protesting against the wars USA has initiated in the recent history, is kept throughout, almost constantly backed by layers of machine noise. It’s as if somebody has blended hip-hop and the aggressive spirit of metal correctly for the first time.
DJ Shadow – The 4-Track Era
There’s a very cool limited edition release from DJ Shadow out there that’s slowly been appearing on the torrent scene. It’s 4 volume set of his early mixes that he originally made on his, you guessed it, 4-track recorder.
My favourite here is the first volume prepared in 1991 for a Bay Area radio station, which consists of two long streams of upbeat hip-hop remixed in an already recogniseable Shadow moody manner. The second disc has got his mixes of the best music from the early 90s era.
I’ll update this post when I find the remaining two volumes.
download vol1 and vol2
The Herbaliser – Same As It Never Was
Same as it never was begins as if it’s an instrumental hip-hop album. And hip-hop really is the root of Herbaliser’s music, played by a mini orchestra around Londoners Jake Wherry and Ollie Teeba. But only a couple of seconds later it reveals its true kaleidoscopic face, made of glaring elements of funk, jazz, soul and backed by beats that knock on every hip club’s door. By the time catchy Can’t Help This Feeling is over, you’re most likely going to be completely in love with Jessica Darling’s absolutely stunning and timeless voice. Instrumentals though is how Herbaliser lads started, and there’s handful of them here too. They are an intriguing experience, and more than once I thought that the music could end up on a James Bond soundtrack.
Jay Dee
I first heard the late Jay Dee (or J Dilla) while listening to instrumental hip-hop radio on last.fm. He’s a masterful producer, worked with people like Flying Lotus and ?uestlove. His tracks really do stand with out when you listen to a stream. Here’s a full discography.
One Day As a Lion EP
Filed under: music | Tags: electronica, experimental, hardcore, hip-hop, rock
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No matter how hard you try… Yeah so we now have Zach De La Rocha’s solo album where he’s in a duo with an ex-Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore. I don’t know, maybe we don’t need a RATM reunion after all?
Flying Lotus – Los Angeles
Filed under: music | Tags: bass, dub, electronica, experimental, hip-hop, instrumental, minimalistic, psychedelic
Leave a Comment Hey everybody! It’s been a long journey and now this blog is alive again.
A few textures deep hazy mix, perfect soundtrack to walking around a modern city in the night, when psychedelic is the escape and the means. He goes a lot further in experimentation than Massive Attack for instance. Largely instrumental, but there are three hypnotic vocal tracks as well. The torrent includes nice artwork in PDF.
The Roots – Rising Down
The Roots are one of the few hip-hop acts that I listen to, so I checked this new album out with interest. I like how most of the songs are politically provocative and heavy: Rising Down, 75 Bars, Criminal… I think that it can speak to many people of all musical tastes and makes a lot of sense in the ears while you’re walking down the street.
