REVIEW: Hit+Run SOUNDCRASH @ Echoplex

So the Hit + Run Crew are a screenprinting and art outfit that fuck with all the trippy electronic/hip-hop/beat shit we love so dearly (we have 84 posts tagged with that label so far...swag), and they put on a SWEET show at the Echoplex last week. They did free, live screenprinting in the venue:

their mobile screenprinting setup: multiple screens on a rotating base. photocredit patkins

and we showed up early enough for free t-shirts and Jonwayne (!!!) mixes. Patkins and I (as well as our friend Azad, the Dr. Gonzo to our Hunter S. Thompson) were in attendance. Here's my recap of the night, with relevant tracks interspersed throughout.
The night opened up with the Dirty Bandits. They were solid, and a welcome surprise given their status as a drums-bass-guitar-vox band at a show full of laptop artists. Go check out their facebook, they've posted some tunes there. I may do more research on them, they were quite good.

After them came none other than the savior of my weeknights from 8p-10p P.S.T., KCRW's own Garth Trinidad. He had some technical difficulties at first (he was going all vinyl, though, so we forgive him), but once he got going he played a set of really interesting, eclectic house tracks, followed by a solid hip-hop set, which the crowd really got into (he even played Wu-Tang). He's probably one of the most influential music promoters in my life, as he provided my homework soundtrack for the entirety of senior year, and if you're ever listening to the radio late at night, during his show or not, tune into KCRW. Their late-night DJ's play really awesome shit, stuff you never hear on radio.
Then after his set, they announced that Blu, arguably one of the bigger names on the bill (and the explanation for why this was such a die-hard hip-hop crowd) would not be showing up. The crowd was visibly displeased, but most of them stuck around as far as I could tell.
Though the next act was hardly straight-forward hip-hop...Mono/Poly makes some fucked up shit. He has a very FlyLo-esque blend of trip-hop, dubstep, and jazz elements in his work, resulting in these incredibly trippy, heavy productions that boggle and delight. He's actually on FlyLo's label, Brainfeeder, and you should get his recent EP, Manifestations, HERE. One of my favorite joints of the year so far, from one of the scene's most underrated producers (imo).

Glow - Mono/Poly
[removed]
Then, again shifting the focus from laptops and mixers to good old-fashioned instruments, Sun Araw played a set of hypnotic, layered, noise-drenched psychedelia. It was a bit loud for patkins, Azad, and much of the crowd, but I got really into it (it helped that I had been making psychedelic noise music with a friend lately, so I was sort of already in the mindset). Go check them out, I really dug them and will DEFINITELY be researching them, probably with a post in mind.

Crete - Sun Araw [Right-click/Save-as]
(( from their upcoming LP, Ancient Romans, on Sun Ark Records. WE TRIPPY ))

Phreax - Sun Araw & Matthewdavid

(( a collab track with Matthewdavid, who DESTROYED Low End Theory last night. This one's a bit more improvised and freeform than the stuff they played at the Echoplex, but it's still quite reminiscent of their sound...and TRIPPY ))

Suddenly we switched technology AGAIN, this time to Jonwayne and his mighty little SP-404. He took that little metal box and brought the fucking house down, launching bomb after bomb at us from his arsenal of neck-snapping, heavy, swagger-up-the-wazoo beats. This being my second time seeing him, I can now safely say he's one of my favorite beat scene artists to see live, he just destroyed the crowd and had the MOST ridiculous energy. He dropped a mixture of his own absurdly awesome productions, and even FREESTYLED (see photo below).

Read Velvet - Jonwayne

(( from his elusive beat tape, Doodles ))

and other huge bombs by such producers as Samiyam:

Cushion - Samiyam

(( from his debut LP, Sam Baker's Album, which I am on the verge of purchasing from Brainfeeder ))

and one of our blog favorites, Zeroh:

Shit's This Easy - Zeroh

(( from More Throwaways, which you can get for free HERE. One of the weirdest beats I've ever heard, but it DESTROYS on a proper system ))

the man freestyles. photocredit patkins

Anyways, Jonwayne is the shit. Get Bowser now from Alpha Pup, you will NOT regret that purchase.

Then another guy had volunteered to take Blu's spot, but we decided to dip. Also missed Elos, unfortunately, but we'd already had quite the night. One of the more eclectic shows I've been to, and I had a complete and utter blast at it. Really awesome music, solid crowd, plus I got a badass T-shirt and mix CD (by Jonwayne himself, which you can buy HERE if you'd like to just get the distilled atmosphere of this concert in one mix).

Support Hit + Run HERE, or by liking them on Facebook! I certainly did, after that tight of a show. Keep yr eyes open, they do shit around LA all the time.

-Lobster out!

Zeroh + AshTreJinkins REDUX

Fun fact: patkins and I were at this show. It was nuts.

So, you may have heard that we love Zeroh the BlqBrd. One of the first posts we put on this fuckin blog was this little track called "parkbench," which featured killer lyrics and a brutal beat by AshTreJinkins.

parkbench (prod. ashtrejinkins) - Zeroh


Well, they just did a second take, for a new EP collab they have coming out. You know that fucking awesome bit at the end that fades out far too quickly? They fuckin looped it. And it sounds awesome. Zeroh is on point here.

Barkpench by Zeroh @blqbrd

This makes me real happy. Expect a writeup soon on Zeroh's recent mixtape, he's blowin up. Stay trippy.

Lobster out.

HEY LOOK, MORE FREE MUSIC YOU SHOULD TOTALLY GET

God I love teh interwebz. All this music, totally free, by the generous courtesy of the artists themselves. So goddamn it, appreciate this opportunity and GET SOME. Feed your hard drive, it's not full yet (ideally).

1) Zeroh - MoreThrowaways

My favorite rapper on some fkn unicorn shit. These tracks are fire, seriously. Or, should I say, Siriusly...GET THIS TAPE! IT'S #1 FOR A REASON!

So Sirius - Zeroh

The man at his fucking best.

2) Tyler, the Creator - Bastard

Old shit. But good. Incredible, in fact...if you don't have this, your hipster cred is severely lacking. Look out for this Odd Future Alpha Wolf's label debut, Goblin, sometime this year (the website ominously indicates May 10th). If you haven't seen this video, get on that shit:

3) Frank Ocean - Nostalgia, Ultra

More Golf Wang. But on a different vibe, this one more like that Weeknd mixtape we posted (coincidentally, Drake likes Frank Ocean too). Some smooth alt-R&B for ya cochleae. Looks like wolves really can sing. Awesome shit, with some epic genre mashing (i.e. guitars) a la B.O.B., but seeing as Tyler the Creator intends to have that particular fellow perish in an airplane crash, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to make that comparison. But seriously, get this tape. He's a damn good singer and a rather accomplished songwriter (he's written for Bieber and John Legend...admit that's some serious swag, even if you loathe those artists), and I think he's among the more underrated Golf Wangers. Also, he said in an interview that "Bluegrass is swag." So he's the shit.

Songs For Women - Frank Ocean

4) Indigo Pyramid - Shades 2

The Indigo Pyramid (Nigel One, 10th Letter, B$Q, eLan, Infinite Potentials, and of course Zeroh) are a badass international collective of beatsmiths. They put out another free tape before this one, which you can get HERE. They even have a REMIX TAPE! Meanwhile, you should get this one, because it's also the shit. Yay beat music! Truly our blog's favorite genre, just check out how many posts have that fucking label...

5) Jonwayne - The Wayniac

An older collection of beats by Jonwayne. Certainly not as polished as Doodles (his most recent release, which you can't find ANYWHERE legally...) production-wise, but it's certainly badass, and if anything it shows you where he came from stylistically (i.e. AWESOMELAND). Also, it's all made with an SP-404 and two synths (a moog and a casio), so he certainly deserves some gear-expertise cred. Definitely worth grabbing until something official gets released.

Pillz (jonwayne's drum circle) - Gucci Mane

Not actually on this tape, nor is it even on his recent joint, Remixes Are Things. But it should be. Because it's fucking awesome. "IZ YOU ROLLIN?!?!"

.....................bitch, I might be.

Lobster Out.

2/26/11 Wavelength of the Moment: 0. / Zeroh G7 / Elliot Blaqbird

Zeroh has blessed us with a new incarnation: Elliot Blaqbird. In his own words:

"Three Weeks ago I started recording just about everyday... some joints were on beats I liked, some where on beats I made. Some serious, others comical or satirical, but they're journal entries... experiences to draw reference to when I forget and stray off the path. Enjoy, thanks for listening, peace and light."

It's brilliant. And loopy. And free. Check it out.

Light up, listen, love.

sunkids (teamonhisbaqdoe) - Zeroh ft. jonwayne

He kills, jonwayne likewise. Look the fuck out for these two this year.

thankyouSD - Zeroh

So fucking sick. Funky, chill-ass vibe, lyrical acrobatics galore. Dude is on another level.

calm the mnd - Zeroh

Cool shit.

If these tracks haven't convinced you to grab this free little (33MB) tape, I don't know what will.

But seriously, do it, he's awesome.

~ Elliot Blaqbird - Zeroh ~

•{( Read up on this man, he's worth your time. )}•

Lobster out.

1/31/11 Wavelength of the Moment: Zeroh again? ...seriously?

photocred: loverfly

Yeah. Shameless, I know. We sort of enjoy this dude's music.

Killin it as usual. Play em' and weep at his tumblr:

~ rapping over flylo about love gone sour ~

~ he references "Ice Age" in this one ~

~ rapping over Dak. also sick ~

+ *EDIT* oh hey, there's more +

Read up on/grab his lyrically mind-blowing (and free!) tape G7 University HERE.

lobster out.

~

HE'S BACK

"@ZEROHG7 | LIGHT SOURCE | LOVER | PHILOSOPHER | SOUND SHAMAN | BLAQBIRD | W.D.I.C. | N 0. V8 R | EVOLVER | HEALER | TRILL ASS RHYMER"

So proclaims the ressurrected tumblr of legendary Long Beach underground rapper and producer 0., who now appears to go by the name of Zeroh G7. It's relevant because he just released a new (FREE) tape, G7 University, and it does those descriptions justice.

GRAB IT HERE [TL;DR LINK]

Lacing beats by both well-established beat scene names (Flying Lotus, Teebs) and up-and-coming producers (Juj, KNX), Zeroh is absolutely on FIRE here...literally. Full of references to his favorite psychoactive herb, G7 University is Zeroh's most cosmic, intricate effort yet.

His work has expanded brilliantly with regard in detail and scope. These aren't just hip-hop instrumentals: here there be FlyLo jams. That means crazy experimental beat scene shit, and Zeroh rides these waves effortlessly, matching the often uneven beats with equally trippy vocal production techniques and deftly written, agile lyrics. The result is a novel, innovative synthesis of rap and beat, one that maintains a beautiful sense of aesthetic unity. In my opinion, this is the closest thing I've heard to a rap Cosmogramma, excepting its length.

But at the same time as it's big, it's also brilliantly focused: lyrically, Zeroh has always been brilliant. But here I perceive more purpose in his writing, more of a higher mission, if you will (pun semi-intended). He's acquired an eye, an ear, and a tongue for speaking about our generation, and although truly appreciating his wisdom takes some sifting through layers of wordplay, it's an enjoyable quest, high or sober, and the tape lends itself to repeated listens.

That is, however, my only caveat regarding this album: it's an extremely new sound. Spun of both cannabinoid and lyrical magic, it may lose you on the first listen, or even offend you. But keep at it. The dialect may be "intellectual-neo-hippie-with-soul," but the wisdom is universally human. Habituate yourself to the language and sounds, and the knowledge will shine through. This is a beautiful and inspiring work, currently on repeat in my iTunes. But I understand that it may not click with everybody, at least not immediately.

The future is at your fingertips...just click the link.

OH YES BITCHES.

want this man's earlier work? THIS LINK will aid you in your quest.

also, on a less profound but still badass note, wolfgang gartner has some new shit. go get it HERE.

~Logos~

"In the beginning there was the Word,



And the Word was with God,



And the Word was God."

-John 1:1

Word.

Dibiase on the decks while Jonwayne and 0. bless the mic. Wish I'd been in L.A. for this, but still. The point of this post is: beat music might be in the spotlight, but the future of rap is waiting in the wings...and I love it.

Tim Berg and some trim Beats

bad visual puns ftw!

hi there. so its tuesday, which means... absolutely nothing related to the mission of this blog. Anyway, this is a two part post; the first three tracks are all Tim Berg, or Tim Berg remixes (note that Avicii = Tim Berg...). All really awesome prog house or prog electro house or prog-whatever. 

The last four tracks are some fresh beats for you.. look for descriptions. thus the iceberg with speakers embedded ... i couldn't resist.

BERGS

Bromance (Avicii's Arena Mix) - Tim Berg

Awesome progressive house track... wish it had vocals, but hey. its awesome.

Seek Bromance (Porter Robinson Remix) - Tim Berg

Porter Robinson takes Bromance, turns it into electro house, adds vocals, and makes it a fucking JAM.

Alcoholic (Niklas Gustavsson, Ludvig Holm & Jonas Sellberg Remix) - Tim Berg

With that many northern european names remixing this track, it better be good. and it is. The original version of Alcoholic came out with a TON of remixes, and i found this to be the best one. Heavy prog house banger... bedroom rave status!

BEATS

B L U R - BAHWEE

This is from a new beat tape by Bahwee - definitely some interesting stuff. It was posted at WEDIDIT (link here) Its really chill and very hip-hoppy - but I definitely can't not move when i play this track. soo sweet. The whole EP is $7, but check out the link i gave you and the comments below it....

Anchor Steam - Teebs

This is from the Teebs/Daedelus album from the Los Angeles series. Its only available if you buy it from them on tour (which i plan to do when the come to Boston 11/3 with the Gaslamp Killer). Anyway, i found this on XLR8R. Cool shit.

Psycles - 0. 

I found this one by combing his SoundCloud - i suggest you do the same. Theres lots of good stuff that artists post on their soundclouds (especially beat producers) that you can just straight up download. This is one of those tracks. It's a treat - syncopated, heavy beats with 0. rapping on top of em. Download this.

<3 (Daedelus' Snorelaxed Remix) - Baths

I found this on FMLY, i think. Essentially <3, slowed down and with interesting bleeps and bloops dropped in. Good homework music.

Bergs and Beats batch, zipped

LOVE
PATKINS

Zeroh sum game

0. being a genius, as usual. There is also wayyy more on his sound cloud to check out. Also, revealing that he uses Fruity Loops... 
fruip loots by Z E R 0. H
more later 


\\\patkins///

ZEROH RAPS OVER FLYING LOTUS

((look, literally "over" him! heh heh heh...))

Oh lordy this is a trip. Cosmic rhymes over a Cosmogramma beat ("Nose Art"). Trippy as hell but god I love it. 0. kills it. Every time. You should read up on him. The dude's supposedly got a tape coming out in the near future, but until then the world waits with bated breath...

∆ CHECK IT ∆

"Respect your deities."

Lobster out.

~ ~ ~

EDIT: IT IS YOUR DUTY AS AN ELECTRONIC-MUSIC-LOVING HUMAN BEING TO GO HERE. It relates to two things: Wolfgang Gartner and Wolfgang Gartner. SO DO IT

Weekend Randomness

WHAT UP. Here's a various assortment of songs and genres that I wanna share, just in time for the weekend.

Chicken Run - Canblaster

Hyphy. Just, hyphy. Really catchy and fun.

Venga - Picco (Chuckie's Back To Voltage Remix) 

Dutch house. El Langosta hates dutch house, but this is another really catchy and fun one.. and it samples mariachi. I mean. its epic.

Wabbit VIP - Misshin

This is awesome. its like someone took Elmer Fudd rabbit hunting in a Gundam suit. Yes.

Youth Blood (12th Planet & Flinch Remix) - Jinder

Awesome intro, awesome drop, very very good dubstep. Reminds me of Flux Pavilion.

Marmite (Doctor P Remix) - Caspa

I've posted this already but I'm posting it again. If a hangover personified itself in dubstep, this would be the result.

Rubber (Flying Lotus 'Unprotected Sex' Remix) - Mr. Oizo and Gaspard Augé

This came out a couple months ago with the release of Rubber. Classic FlyLo, but I haven't seen it posted anywhere. Anyway. A lot of playing with downbeats. Very Cosmogramma-y

I Can't Breathe - eLan

One of my favorite beat producers of the moment. This is from his Magnificent Mistakes EP which you can download free. 

C'est La Vie - 0. ft. eLan

eLan + 0. fat beat, dark sounds.

And theres a zip!

Weekend Grab Bag Zipped

listen and love it

///p///

Tent Sessions. Read that shit.

So there's this guy. Monsiuer Alper. He's my best friend's roommate at NYU. He also just started a blog. In which he records musicians playing live music. In a bitchin' tent. It's pretty damn awesome. Check it out:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

tentsessions.blogspot.com

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

also, new joint from WEDIDIT Collective beasts 0. and eLan. You've heard me rant about how fucking amazing Zeroh is. Twice now, I think. Well, the dude holds up. Brilliant lyricism in generous helpings, plus some fun soulful sung bits in the second half. Also: one awesome, woozy, spacy beat courtesy of eLan. Gotta check this dude's production more, he has a couple of tapes out that I need to get.

Z e r 0. h - C'est la vie (prod. itsMeELAN) by eLan



P.S. Patkins and I saw Baths and Daedelus live at Low End last night. It was awesome. Review to follow.

Because Patkins is lazy/has a girlfriend

I'm just going to keep posting until he breaks the monotony. This shit is by 0. (or "zeroh"). I've posted on him before. Aside from having one of the most raw, complex, intellectual flows I've ever heard from an MC, he happens to be a great experimental/electronic beat music producer as well. Very left-field, but it complements the flow quite nicely.

I think this is an earlier release of his, from 2009 I think. More of a clear hip-hop influence in the production, but that probably stems from half the tracks having other producers on them. Not like the more electronic, self-produced stuff from the ennui beattapes he did for WEDIDIT (see my previous post if you want em).

Sound 0 - 0.

And this is the latest thing he's posted on his Tumblr page (he puts tracks up all the time), a collab with the more ladylike MC Chels, who also spits fire here. Fantastic track.

SolPlane - 0.


....POST, PATKINSON!!

Star Slinger.

I stumbled across this guy a couple days ago. he considers himself a beat music artist (think 0., Shlohmo, et al.) and i agree but this album has a very different, interesting and lighter vibe to it than some of the stuff over at WEDIDIT. Check him out. all his stuff is posted for free on his site.

Star Slinger, Volume 1

ALSO check out these more recent productions, which are more like some of the stuff from Flying Lotus, etc. Cool shit. again, free

Slow N Wet - Star Slinger

Fiveng - Jonah (Star Slinger Remix)

loverly

//p//

Back In LA! (LandLord EP)

After traveling my ass off to distant though awesome places, I am back in L.A. for the summer. Appropriately, I was listening to this on the way home:

Why You'd Want To Live Here - Ben Gibbard

A tribute to my hometown. Ripped this from a live set Ben did for All Songs Considered over at NPR. An amazing live set, it's online for free, download it on iTunes from the All Songs Considered Podcast if you're a fan, even if you've renounced Death Cab (especially after they sold a song to the Twilight soundtrack...).
(also grab this)

ON TO THE REAL STORY TODAY, FOLKS:


This EP was posted about two and a half months ago at the WEDIDIT Collective (arguably one of the most "with it" places on the interwebs), and I've returned to it regularly since then. LandLord is a collab between GroundIsLava, a badass producer and WEDIDIT homie, and Jake Weary (credited here as just "Weary," I think) who I have yet to research but I promise a post at some point. As far as I can tell, GroundIsLava produces and Weary sings, but don't quote me on that.

Anyway, some of my favorite beat music jams are vocal tracks (RobertaFlack by Flying Lotus, Ooops by Hudson Mohawke [a more mainstream song than most beat music but similar vibe to LandLord] and everything 0. does), so to hear these guys on this EP combining all the glitchy, hip-hoppy production of the beat music movement with really killer, soulful vocals, really makes me happy about music nowadays. These guys have said that "future r&b" is pretty much what they're going for here, and I think they NAIL it.

COP THIS SHIT!! (also it's free)

The Upside - Landlord

My personal favorite track. Great synths, thick beat, and AWESOME vocal production (the same can be said for pretty much the whole album). PLUS it comes with a catchy chorus, guilt-free! "I'm so down for you, down, til the ceiling's the ground..."

The other tracks on here are great too. "Animal" is fierce and ominous, another killer chorus with nasty-ass vocals. "The Upset" has this awesome 8-bit feel over a stuttering beat and bassline, and these wobbly square synths that these guys seem to love so much. And there's instrumentals too, for those of you who like your boom-bap without too much vocal saturation ("Airport Security Sabbatical" and "Bluetooh Narcotics"), though I'm all for it.

again:COP THIS SHIT!!(remember, it's free!)






P.S. All Songs Considered has an awesome series called "You've Never Heard....[album name]?" where they ask young interns to review classic albums. Pretty neat to hear fresh perspectives. God I love NPR. Check it.

AshTreJinkins

Ladies and Gentlemen, AshTreJinkins. A 17-year-old (!!!) beat music producer from California who did the production for the 0. track I posted a while back. That was such a glorious beat that I just had to check him out, and I've been giving his Dec. 2009 DirtyDreamz EP a listen this week. These are some neat tracks, make sure to give em a listen. He does moody, subby ambient beats then effortlessly switches to synthy bangers. He's posted the EP for free on Bandcamp, so check that shit out!

Zeroh Tolerance

This jam is the work of an awesome Hip-Hop/Electronic producer and MC known simply as 0. (or “Zeroh”), a member of the LA-based WEDIDIT Collective, whose latest success Shlohmo you’ve probably heard of if you follow the L.A. Beat scene.

parkbench (prod. AshTreJinkins) – 0.

Really impressive production by 18-year-old AshTreJinkins, though I wish that awesome three-bar bit at the end would last longer... Either way: deep kicks, godly handclaps, and that smooth vocal sample just make this a simply beautiful piece of glitch-hop-tronica (new genre name? I think we need one for all this stuff…). I'm definitely looking into his shit.

Then there’s 0. I just downloaded his ennui beattapes, and MAN is this dude impressive. About half his stuff is just this trippy live-electronics stuff, glitchy as fuck but with the same hip-hop influence underneath it all. Then he starts rapping, and the hypnotic awesomeness just triples. AMAZING flow and lyrics.

He did three beattapes for WEDIDIT, each one produced in a week, and the results are fantastic and diverse. I suggest you cop that shit.