If you're sleepin, these guys are arguably at the forefront of the Los Angeles avant-rap scene. Nocando is the Low End Theory resident MC, and Busdriver's been doing his (weird/brilliant/hyper-eloquent) thing for years now.
They've got an album, 10 Haters, which drops on August 23rd via Nocando's Hellfyre Club. And it's got a guest list that rivals Dark Twisted Fantasy's in its breadth (and pure, unadulterated swag). For example, this jam's on a Nosaj Thing beat:
And here's a track with Nocando's Hellfyre cohort, Open Mike Eagle:
And then, if you're willing to swap websites for a second, they've even got a jam featuring none other than Del Tha Funkee Homosapien (who KILLS his verse), over some Shlohmo shit. You can stream it HERE.
You can download two tracks for free HERE (click the little 'down' arrows)
BONUS: the official, Busdriver-penned press quote announcing their inception:
"The evening has imploded on itself. And there you are fending against rabid conversationalists and an unmarked decibel that has torn into your very being. Your significant other's sweaty lower back is clinging to the lacquer brassieres of the morally bankrupt. What was your wallet is now a mound of putty with a hot coal burning at its center. How did this happen? Why is the emergency exit a hulking neon-lined vagina daring you to pass through it? And how did the DJ download your most cherished memories onto his Serato set-up, then blend them seamlessly into a Glitch Mob outtake? Flash Bang Grenada is how."
Oh what up. This day-month-year combo is crazy awesome.
Here's a sampler of what I've been digging lately, with links to larger acquisitions that I recommend you make. Some require money, some are free. Enjoy!
The newest addition to the illustrious WEDIDIT Collective, and MAN is he good. Absolute fucking fire. This shit is straight up future-crunk, my guess is they're finna be playin this in the clubs circa 2055. [GO GET HIS FREE EP]
That's right, the boys over at the Mecca of EDM blogs, Apes With Barrels, have done it again. Sickest productions I've seen from them yet, and of course they're all disco house. Funky, fresh, and dancey as all hell. Can't help but get down to this. [GET THE BUMPIN EP FOR FREE]
Mexicans With Guns is an impressive fucking producer. He makes really neat dubstep/hip-hop/beat shit with a shitton of Latin influence (read: percussion up the wazoo, and even a quasi-moombahton track). Nocando burns it up on this joint. [GO BUY HIS ALBUM, CEREMONY, AT STONES THROW RECORDS]
Kuhrye-oo is no stranger to you if you've been to a Gobble Gobble show (he's the dude on stilts playing the SP-404 strapped onto a shovel). But when he's not dancing around like a maniac in a tutu, he makes gorgeous, ethereal indie-electronica. He chops breaks like no other. You need to check him out. [GO RAID HIS SOUNDCLOUD, LOTSA FREE TRAXX. GET EVERYTHING]
Some chiller vibes. Got this mp3 from dublab about a year ago, and recently decided to purchase an album of his, First Narrows. Gorgeous ambient electronica. [GO BUY FIRST NARROWS]
Patkins and I have been banging our heads non-stop to this heavyweight jam for the past month. Jonwayne is the most exciting producer of the past year, and there's so much more to come (including a rap album). If you don't have Bowser yet, you need to cop that shit. He also did a badass mix for the Hit + Run Crew, you need it. Those guys put on a killer show this past weekend that the wayniac pretty much singlehandedly destroyed, see this dude live if you get the chance. [GO BUY HIS SWEET MIX FOR HIT AND RUN]
From the new mndsgn joint, NoMaps. This cat is probably one of my favorite beat producers, like, ever. Comes with bomb synths, groovy atmosphere, and swagger out the wazoo. Worth $8 and then some. [GO BUY NOMAPS]
As i usually do when i fly across the country, i made a mix yesterday. I call it the No Such Mix because theres a good amount of Nosaj Thing-related tracks on there. Enjoy it, i think its one of my best. Any silences are not errors - they are there for effect, yo. If there any tracks you think i should post, let me know in the comments. let 'er rip!
Tracklist: Islands (Nosaj Thing Remix) - The xx BRKLN CLLN - Joy Orbison Drop It Like Its Not (James Blake Harmonimix Remix) - Snoop Dogg Voiced (Dorian Concept Remix) - Nosaj Thing Archipelago - Teebs Lovely Bloodflow (Nocando Remix) - Baths Other Side (Nosaj Thing Remix) - Pollyn Into The Sun, Out In The Cold - Shigeto Caves (Teebs Remix) - Nosaj Thing
Music AND titties?! It's a good day for America, ladies and gentlemen.
Oh yes oh yes oh yes. If this post doesn't convince you to shell out a tenner, then I've failed to do my job....also it means you don't trust me. Which hopefully you should, seeing as we've been together for well over six months now...I THOUGHT WE HAD SOMETHING SPECIAL, INTERNET!! *sobs*
For y'all who don't know, Bomb Zombies is undeniably the best collab since Lennon/McCartney. Low End Theory residents DJ Nobody + MC Nocando = Bomb Zombies (though Nobody raps on a couple tracks too). Best name ever (and the music lives up to it). Their debut, Sincerely Yours, just came out this week on Nocando's label Hellfyre Club, and it is freaking awesome.
Just as with our loves 0. and Jonwayne, the best and most appropriately pretentious way to describe Bomb Zombies would be "the future of rap." That means screwed-up beats pulled directly from Low-End-Theory-land and brilliant, innovative lyricism to go along with it. But Nobody and Nocando manage to bring something else: the fucking party.
This isn't just what happens when a great rapper laces beat-scene instrumentals. Nocando comes off as more playful here than on his debut, Jimmy The Lock, forgoing brilliantly-penned angst, threats, and rants for proclamations that "young, dumb and reckless is the modus operandi" and homages to chicks with bangs (no joke. bonus track is called "Bangs"). And this is hardly just a Nocando solo show: Nobody throws down on a couple of verses, letting loose such absurdly brilliant gems as "who's your daddy girl?/is he the shit like me?/I didn't think so, girl" and "she got bangs, bangs, she got bangs, bangs/rock her hair in her face like it ain't no thang" (the hook from aforementioned bonus track).
Nobody's production also seems to take itself a little less seriously without sacrificing quality. There are a lot of mainstream elements here that you'd expect to hear from KIIS FM, not Low End Theory: cheesy pitch-shifted hooks, kitschy drum sounds, and auto-tune up the wazoo. But he takes all these things that we usually groan to hear and twists them all in just the right way to make something really new-sounding and hard-hitting: yes, you've heard that drum sound or synth before, but here there's something deliciously off-kilter about the way he's strung the song together, and no song is left without a neck-breaking beat; yes, he turns the auto-tune knob to 11 on most of the hooks (and a good deal of Nocando's verses), but here it's a stylistic choice: it's like mad-scientist-does-Top-40.
And I'm not just pulling these analyses out of my ass. The two were listening to a lot of Drake and Lil Wayne while on a tour of Japan, when Nocando uttered the prophetic words, "We should do a whole project where we try to do these kind of songs." (from this interview)
And that's what I love most about this record: it's innovative and aesthetically pleasing, but it's undeniably a take on mainstream rap. It manages to simultaneously deliver heavy bass, crisp beats, sick raps, and pure unadulterated swag. You get your pop hip-hop fix without the unsavory aftertaste of crap lyrics and mainstream production. These are two fantastic artists getting together and just playing. And the result? A great album full of funky, catchy jams. So stop reading this and get out your credit card/debit card/paypal password.
I'll provide some teasers to sway you all over, but no downloading cuz the point of all this is to get you to buy the album. Yes, it's unauthorized, but if it convinces you to pay up, then I've done my job.
Payola - Bomb Zombies
Sick shit. Fits in nicely with the Top 40 radio theme I was playing around with.
Get 'Em - Bomb Zombies
This is them doing a sexy club banger. And while the hook definitely sounds like it came straight out of commercial rap ("get em high/get em low"), the verses aren't just a bunch of simplistic tripe about how "shawty got a body like oh-oh-ohhhh." No, instead we get Nocando lacing words together like no other, which (aside from managing to be actually sexy) actually redeems the relatively inane hook.
Bangs (Bonus Track) - Bomb Zombies
Yeah. I had to. So great.
You get the idea. Buy this album, you will NOT regret it. And if you choose not to/are morally against buying music for some reason, then you can probably find it on mediafire somewhere. The primary point here is that you should get this album.
Mr. Oizo, aka the muse of those gentlemen over at Apes With Barrels, has mastered the aesthetic of weird-ass electronica. And yet he never misses a chance to bring the funk, either: chopped up slap bass, computerized vocal samples, and weird little pitch-bent clavichord breaks make this track an awesome little oddity.
Baths posted this track on his facebook page; it's by a friend of his. Really neat indie/beat music stuff, a lot of the sounds in there remind me of Baths' stuff, actually, specifically "Maximalist," but the expert vocal chopping and drum work reminds me a lot more like Duke Dumont's remix of Lily Allen...this is a really cool track, it's well-structured and awesome. And most importantly, it makes me want to hear more from this guy. Indie/electronica/beat track.
I know next to nothing about Themselves, but as you're probably aware by now, it wouldn't be our blog if we didn't post a Baths track...so here you go. No shame. Strange vocals, but not in a bad way at all. Great track.
Bomb Zombies (best name ever!!) is the EPIC duo of Low End Theory residents Nobody and Nocando: Nobody on the sick beat and pitched-up hook, Nocando killing it on the mic as usual. Their Sincerely Yours EP is out November 9 on Hellfyre Club, Nocando's label. And I cannot freakin' wait. "Fuck what you heard, this is what you need to hear."
matthewdavid, a dublab labrat and founder of the almighty Leaving Records, is the shit. He's certainly at home with the L.A. beatheads, but he has a penchant for fucking with field recordings and tape manipulation as well, so his stuff has this incredible experimental/atmospheric vibe. I love it.
Now for a certified JAM: Samiyam remixing Shigeto. Hell fuck yeah. Prepare to drown in heavenly sawtooth synth chords before the kick knocks yr skull in. Awesome percussion, bass, beat...Samiyam is a boss.
I know very little about the UK's Mount Kimbie, except that supposedly they put on one hell of a live show. And this track certainly supports that claim: it's super mellow, intricate, and performed live. I think they're generally described as "post-dubstep" (genre pigeonholing ftw), and you can hear why that is in the beat, but this is pretty damn far from dubstep, sharing more in common with deep house and UK funky in my opinion. But descriptions aside, give it a listen, it's a neat track.
BONUS [zip only]: The Fear (Duke Dumont Remix) - Lily Allen (<-- youtube link). Beautiful. One of my favorite songs ever, gorgeous synths and brilliant vocal chopping. Worth getting the whole batch for, we promise...
Alright, let's be straight here. This is a music blog. We share music. Sometimes by giving it away for free. But we try to maintain some sense of ethics while doing so.
Music posted here is for promotional purposes only. If you have any copyright-related objections please comment or report or whatever and we'll take down the offending link.
On music submissions: email links n shit to dr.dr.musics@gmail.com or shnaily@gmail.com
