Artist: The Inevitable Return of Montgomery Clunk

Montgomery Clunk – Choke by Error Broadcast

Have you ever heard Montgomery Clunk‘s Superbus EP from start to finish? My guess is the answer is “no” and you’re contributing to my case for Monty being the innocent victim of the biggest hype crime of last year. Maybe it was the disjointed rhythms, the abrasive basslines, or the ADD-inflicted melodies, but something stopped people from embracing the record as the genre-smashing electronic opus it was. This is a record so dense and meticulous that percussion seems follow different patterns each listen and harmony and discordance strut hand-and-hand for your amusement. After deissecting it over a thousand times I had two questions: “Is that snare on “Sink the Clunkmobile” somebody driving a golfball?” and “When do we get an LP?”. I haven’t found the answer to either, but I was assured this morning that the next EP, titled Modegreen, would emerge early next year. Until then Error Broadcast hits us with “Choke” as a free download celebrating 3000 soundcloud followers. For those still skeptical, Superbus is streaming below.

Artist: RAJA and the October Series

RAJA (formerly known as InfinitiRock) is 19. This may not mean much until you’ve ingested his already deep catalog. His debut as InfinitiRock 17 years, a beattape released on his birthday in March of last year, is 40 tracks of quality. A run through the tape will convince you that dude is the real deal. Madlib-style psych. homegrown, found-sound dubs. Spacey, uptempo bangers. Glitchy drum workouts. Classic hip hop joints. It’s all there, on a free download released on his 18th birthday. Fastforward to about 18 months later. Aligned with the young, mega-talented experimentalists Astro Nautico he’s dropped the October Series under the RAJA moniker. The change of name is of no consequence. The free, 3-release (in 3 days) series is 78 tracks that stretch the young producers boundaries even further, even exhibiting some very competent pop sensibility on Color (peep the Starchild assisted “That Girl”). You read it hear first: RAJA is going places.

October Series:

RAJA and Starchild – “Computer Games”:

Artist: WTF is a Constrobuz?

Beat nerds far and wide shrieked in excitement last week when Contstrobuz, one of the dopest indie producers active today, dropped the brand new tape Work Hard. This is a delight for myself considering I’ve been rocking with the guy since his Beats Vol. 4 tape basically soundtracked my summer in 2010. So who’s Constrobuz, you ask? I don’t know. From what a I can tell he’s your ordinary beat geek from Raliegh, North Carolina. What can be inferred is the fact he’s one of the more gifted post-boom-bap producers to emerge from the recent online beat explosion and has one of the more intelligent crate digging minds I’ve ever heard. Proof is in the puddin’ and in the last couple years Constro has released a lot of puddin’. 5 25-track beat tapes, a couple remix tapes, a couple collabo tapes, and even a physical tape. Not bad. In addition to his soulful, mega-compressed, ultra-chopped beat composing style he also has an alternate steez which is focused more on synthesizers, glitch, and melodies than samples and is exhibited on projects like his Bleep Blorp Remixes project (“Stoopid” = best Guccie Mane Remix ever) or his Constromoon project with Echomoon.

Work Hard is a 27-song tape that is available on Two Circles Records in both digital and physical formats (Cassette!). It’s one of his fuzzy, choppy sample excursions and is loaded with his patented stuttering grooves and impressive drum programming. Peep it, Cop it, Love it. Also, check out his soundcloud page for all of his past releases including his Beats Vol. 1 -5 which is essential listening for beat freaks.

Artist: Godlee Barnes

Blu’s a dope emcee. Despite the whispers of “disappointment” I’ve been overhearing about his album of the year candidate No York!, he needs to at least be respected for his approach to music. He dropped a classic album in Below The Heavens and could have easily followed it up with something as overtly sensible, but instead threw everyone a curve ball and actually made something contemporary. I liked that. You might not have.

I digress, kind of. Blu is also a dope producer. He’s got a nice, fuzzy lo-fi sound in a similar vein as Madlib, but with a enough little touches of his own to be distinctive. He recently released Open, a producer album featuring an assortment of new artists, and has a few mixed-bag releases under the name Godlee Barnes. Check those out below:
 

Artist: Knxwledge is Power

Does this guy ever sleep? In the last 5 days he’s released Komposure.EP and Flowrs.EP, both for 8 bucks. His 4th and 5th album in a month. Quality material. Again. I can’t keep up.

Artist: BUSTED!

Bambara – Drag Hesitation (BUSTED heRobust remix) by heRobust

HEY!
I know the above track isn’t new, but the dude HeRobust has been on a bit of a mission in the last few days, recruiting followers via Facebook and Twitter, posting remixes (such as the above) to his bandcamp and warning of new material. I feel it’s important to point something out: HeRobust is the shit. Rooted in down-tempo hip hop, his sound carries an unmistakably signature style involving constantly unraveling percussion and scattering high-frequency synths. As a blogger it’s normally requisite that I describe his sound by comparison, but you really need to hear it to believe it. He’s spawned a few of my favorite things in the last year as well, both directly and indirectly:

His debut Albumin EP  is one of the most original works that the North American beat scene has yet to produce.

The unofficial video for “Snail Gate” from the aforementioned EP can also be filed under “see to believe”. Vintage stock footage spliced together so carefully that it never misses a beat. Visual retro amazingness overload. Keep an eye out for SlurpTV.  Given the rising popularity of collage art and the “old is new” culture we could be seeing big things afoot for them.

Snail gate from SlurpTV on Vimeo.

And, the reigning king of the remix, Star Slinger (foreshadow) pieced together this little number and lovingly patches in Henry Rollins’ infamous rant against DJs and their lack of musicianship.

Don’t sleep.

Interlude: Yours, Truly

The dude Rob Squire has been on the radar for quite some time now, acting under a few aliases (Sixtoo, Speaker Bruiser Rob, Prison Garde) and steamrolling through whatever musical scene he wants. One thing is for sure: party-goers in this city owe a lot to him. Whether it’s acting as the curator of hot shit, headlining events or repping alongside other great artists (taking pictures on stage with Black Milk is a fond memory), his presence is always a guarantee that the night will be worth the morning struggle.

His latest incarnation as Prison Garde signifies his movement towards a more mature, scene-stalwart type, a natural progression from the balls-to-the-wall bass assaults of the Speaker Bruiser Rob/Megasoid era (an era which I enjoyed very much, thanks). Change is good right? Right. Systeme Hermes is the first thing I’ve heard from the Prison Garde moniker (except for a slick Weeknd remix) and it’s just what I expected: somewhere between haute-couture and rugged late-night ass-shaking. I hope you like 808′s, because the joint is loaded with them and all kinds of viscous vintage synthesizer love. It’s fairly undefinable because dude goes the extra mile to give a little something to everybody, so just have a listen. This shit will be destroying dancefloors in no time, trust.

Speaking of dancefloors, August 6th sees the inaugural edition of Yours Truly, a club night designed for the “discerning individual”, not unlike the aesthetic presented on Systeme Harmes. If you like the album, be at the party.

The free download and interview are over at Subdivision.

Artist: Do the Knxwledge

Haven’t you ever wished that when someone remixed one of your favorite rap songs that they’d do something new? You know, other than put the untouched acapella over an over-polished instrumental then play it back at an identical tempo, hopefully (but not always) on beat? You should meet Knxwledge, you guys have much to discuss. He’s had a great past year, and if you peep his albums your year will get better. You like your beats coated in dust? Knxwledge never adds less than an inch of it. He loves Hip Hop just like you and I, only somebody who does could craft a remix EP this endearing. Peep it and the rest of his work.

Label: Saturated Phat

Rifling through my inbox this morning I stumbled over an email from the fine folks at Saturate Records notifying me of the free release of a new EP, Anxious Forbes’ Trust Exercises. Are you following Saturate? No? Oh, that’s cool. You should though.

Saturate’s output mines an undefined niche somewhere in the middle ground between UK bass and L.A. electronic beat music, although it is much larger in scope and certainly shouldn’t be placed in any genre category. We’re talking about a start-up netlabel that, still in it’s first year, has released 5 free digital EPs, a blistering Label compilation, and is set to release it’s second physical LP. They have a large stable of contributors, who all have their own soundclouds where they post remixes and experiments that don’t appear on their records. They have an expertly cultivated visual aesthetic too, spearheaded by Thomas Wahle‘s pixelated psychedelic abstractions, that is shown with great pride in the amazing efforts put forth on their physical releases. And the music’s pretty good, as well. Experimentalism is certainly the theme throughout their young, impressive catalog. From the unraveling Hip Hop of Herobust’s Albumin EP (which gets an early nod for beat album of the year), to the robotic future Garage of Acre’s Paths EP, they’re offering so much choice so early in their run that they’re not just ahead of the curve, they’re creating their own.

Artist: My New Alias

Remember Napster? If you were a Canadian Hip Hop head living in a small town or city around the end of the 90′s, you were probably shit out of luck when it came to good hip hop.  If it weren’t for Napster and the nerds supplying it with music, I probably wouldn’t have heard about MF Doom until two years ago when I read the Pitchfork review for that album where he dropped the metalface from his name and completely forfeited my attention. It was one of those nerds who put me on to Anticon.

Remember Anticon? Before there were hipsters unafraid to admit they loved both The Kinks and Nas, Anticon were the prototype. Before angsty backpack rap was a genre, or even a trend, Anticon and it’s 7 founding members showed a versatility that has yet to be matched in it’s climate. Without intent to do so, they made Hip Hop that was oft-likened to post rock and oft-described as avant, the first time hip hop had ever received the prefix. It’s current roster confirms a label ready to take on the emerging interests of the internet generation: a stifling cast of artists who need not try to bend genres. It just happens naturally and effectively.

Remember Alias? He has classics under his belt. If you don’t believe it go and check the discog. He’ s been quietly (well, not really) promoting a new instrumental album, but it isn’t the antisocial boom-bap of Looking Glass or the targetless wanderings of Resurgam. It’s things like this:

and this: