Is Juj planning a return? “Summer” is the second new track uploaded to his Soundcloud in a month, which leads me to believe he might soon be ready to follow up Slack, one of the most essential beat albums to ever emerge out of the California beat scene, and one of my absolute favorites in 2010. Juj’s unmistakable way with disjointed drum patterns and bottomless basslines gives his sound a distinct thump, and should suffice in warding off the usual bloggy comparisons.
Marvin’s Room (Shlohmo’s thru tha floor remix) – Drake by shlohmo
I’m not trying to show any favoritism here, this being the second Shlohmo joint posted in a week, but his album drops shortly and dude is clearly vying for your attention. This remix is downright sexy and rather than dissect it I’ll let Shlohmo fill you in:
(Via Wedidit)
“…i forgot i had this drake remix lyin around. this is seriously one of my fav songs of the year, if not ever. if youre one of those people that hates on pop music because you wear a backpack or smthing then plz chill out. try and appreciate shit even if u have to forget the context sometimes. good music is good music and u don’t have to front and pretend it’s below ur intellectual level. can u feel me? much <3 guys. even if u wear backpacks like me 
“
Shell of Light (Shlohmo Remix) – Burial by shlohmo
Most Burial remixes are met with mixed reactions upon reaching the web. Some are accommodating enough while others, well, not so much. I’ve seen death threats uttered via comment thread at the dude Phaseone for this beauty. Personally, I don’t quite understand the contempt. With Burial’s Andre Young-like output, you’d think that the hordes of his hyper-diverse minions would rejoice in some new music regardless. That’s the thing with Burial – his music is so steeped in emotion that it creates unique reactions based on interpretation and becomes linked to other experiences in that same vein of feeling. Fucking with songs like these could mean deharmonizing something inside someone that they wanted to keep for themselves, and that could elicit some negative reactions. I don’t see any such reactions stemming from this remix. Shlohmo is no slouch when it comes to conveying feeling in his own music, and my guess is he had a little place in his heart for the outro to “Shell Of Light”. He allows Burial’s sense of space to dominate the track, with sparse 808 crackle and fluttering vocals stewing in a pot with some low-bit synth tones. The result is to date the best reinterpretation I’ve heard of anything from Untrue, and should hopefully evoke positive reactions from even the most stilted of fans.
Shlohmo drops his debut LP, Bad Vibes, on August 9th.
For those unfamiliar with Groundislava, he’s a member of the helplessly creative Wedidit collective, who have had a steady string of experimental gems (this track was included on the fantastic Landlord EP released on Wedidit early last year). His recent Book of Tech EP wasn’t quite as thought-provoking as most of the crew’s catalog, but was a healthy (and free) measure of quality, chip-infused hip hop. 7 tracks of unrelenting video game sounds became a bit tiring however, even if they were a part of a well crafted whole. First single from GIL’s upcoming debut full-length, “Animal” sees a harnessing of these bleeps to create something special: a supernova of rushing drums and pulsing resampled vocals that create a spacious RnB that Timbo could appreciate. However, the real star of the show here is vocalist Jake Weary, who affects the track perfectly with his haunting campfire balladry. The layering and, at points, complete displacement of his voice only adds further gravity to the gritty, image-inducing narrative. If this is an indication of the direction this LP will take, there may be a potent addition to the ever-frayed “Future RnB” arena.
And props to Groundislava for making me remember that old jungle gym game where the ground was lava.
