10 posts tagged “hip hop”
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Rappers are like clusterbombs, some drop and explode on contact, while others fall and lay in wait for unsuspecting hands and ears to come along and find them. This is the concept behind Alltruisms' debut album Clusterbombs. An intriguing combination of politically charged lyrics, unique beats (courtesy of a slew of guest producers), and good old fashioned backpack rap, Clusterbombs is proof that true hip hop is far from dead. Striking a perfect balance of political awareness, self deprecating humor, and lyrics about things we can all relate to like car trouble, girl problems, and having trouble finding a job.
Alltruisms rhymes with a style that is reminiscent of other underground hip hop heavyweights such as Atmosphere, Sage Francis, and Brother Ali. With guests appearances provided by several other Gravel Records artists Clusterbombs is a strong debut album that showcases the talents of a number of up and coming Chicago artists.
As far as debut albums go this one shows that Alltruisms will have no trouble reaching a wider audience of hip hop fans and should continue to be a lyrical force to be reckoned with. Clusterbombs is in stores July 1st and if you pre order a copy from Gravel Records it comes with a cd of the album's instrumental tracks.
Alltruisms has found a rare balance between hard hitting political commentary and everyday subjects everyone can relate to, from inner city backpackers to suburban rich kids, Alltruisms appeals to a broad range of hip hop fans and should have no trouble finding fans all over the country. Although his MySpace doesn't have any tour dates currently listed I wouldn't be surprised if alltruisms hits the road before the end of '08. Until then be sure to stay tuned to W♥M for more reviews and other musical goodies.
Links:
myspace.com/alltrubombs
gravelhiphop.com
myspace.com/gravelrecords
You know the feeling. Down 40 squids just for existing :o( Well here's a man who feels your pain. Dunno if Mike Skinner ever made it accross the pond but there can't be a soul in britain who doesn't know who The Streets are. The sometimes-mockney's brand of hip hop, garage type social commentary generally centers around general drug culture and the clubbing lifestyle, but any deviation from this in to normal relationship themes have given The Streets huge hits such as Fit But You Know It or 2004's no.1 single Dry Your Eyes. I'll stay off the latter as its been played to death, but for the uninitiated here's a selection of The Streets' finest, starting with a decent example of my day (ignore the video content, it's fan made and I could find no MP3s) and ending in a drug induced haze which if I recall correctly was banned from terrestrial UK television. Que WHM reader's mice heading straight towards the play button on that one then...
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First up is Ghostface Killah vs. Rhythm Roots All-Stars with "Charlie Brown". The original track, produced by MF Doom, was intended to be on Ghostface Killah's 2006 release Fishscale, but it contained a sample from Caetano Veloso's "Alfomega" and didn't receive clearance. Jump to now and here's the track featuring Ghostface's fast-paced rapping skills and the Rhythms Roots All-Stars' funky beats.
The second release contains "four unique dance remixes of 'Charlie Brown' by world renowned French electro producers Yuksek, Orgasmic and DJ Mehdi, as well as Los Angeles-based DJ and production duo Guns N Bombs."
And the third release features up-and-coming hip-hop artists Wale, Pase Rock and 4th Pyramid rapping over beats by the 45 King and remixes by New York-based producers DJ Ayres, Inflagranti, Eli Escobar, and Sammy Bananas. 45 King is most famous for "The 900 Number" which samples Marva Whitney's "Unwind Yourself" and probably most recognized in DJ Kool's
Starting May 6, Scion will be distributing "Charlie Brown" and the remixes at Scion-sponsored events and will also be available as a free download online. On May 13, the 45 King remixes will be available for purchase from all leading online retailers.
Links: Scion A/V
6000 Year Peach is a funk/breakbeat/hip hop outfit out of Brisbane, Australia and although I often profess my hate for dance music. This is mostly a mere cover-up to maintain my image as *cough* very cool britpop chick. However, give me a beverage and stick me in a darkened room and I'll quite happily dance away.... but not to everything.
Buddha Breaks by 6000 Year Peach is an album that would get me up and dancing. You see, Buddha Breaks does not adhere to what I think of when I think of hip hop, breakbeats and/or funk. Buddha Breaks is extremely cruisey and laid back, almost to the point of me wanting to classify it as lounge music. Forgive me if you would like to disagree, but it's perfect music for the background to a dinner party, a cute little cocktail bar or perhaps... vacuuming (if you make sure you have the stereo volume set to maximum).
It's computerised mostly, but with hints of real instruments. If i had to pick a favourite track I'd choose Computer Is The Sound as it reminds me of cheesy computerised 80's music. Howewver, Cool Cats is also brilliant in my opinion as it's possibly the least dance music-esque track on the album; it's still electronic, but it has it has vocals... incoherent vocals, but vocals all the same. Also, a special mention to the track Poly Br@ke due to it's inclusion of samples from the highly hilarious telly show Summer Heights High (very much worth tracking down if you've not seen it).
Now, if I didn't know Andy (Mr 6000 Year Peach), I would say that the creator of this music had just sat down at the computer one day and decided that they want to be a DJ. However, I know better and now you do too. Andy was in my music classes throughout our later years of high school and when I listen to Buddha Breaks I can hear that there is an underlying musical knowledge that is not just retstrained to flutes, pianos, guitars and glockspiels. As opposed to some idiot that's just slapped together a few breakbeats and called it "music".
Just to work in a britpop reference, i'd like to briefly remenise about the day that Andy played guitar for an horrendous rendition of Blur's Sunday Sunday (with me on keyboards and vocals, no less).... it makes me laugh inside as I think about it even now.
Anyway, back to the point 600 Year Peach has (accoring to his myspace page) played alongside, D-KO, The Funk Trust Djs, Lab 4, Kato, Devastating Dave, Vertical Transport, Chemical Kurt, Juvanille Djs, Anakin Skywalker, Down n Dirty Djs, Travis White, Guy Davy, Adam Phillips, and the Plump Djs, which is quite an impressive list (impressive in that someone with next to no knowledge of the electronic music world, me, has actually heard of some of these artists).
Well, that's about it from me. To hear more of 6000 Year Peach mosey on over to his myspace page or if you're in a position to do so, you can email 6000-year-peach@inthemix.com.au for bookings.
Sal
Discography
Sounds Like
Sigur Ros, Matmus, Mogwai, Tricky, Mos Def, Common, Saul Williams, Dead Can Dance, Gorillaz, Kanye West, Portishead |
If you think about it, ambient navel-gazer music and incisive rap are probably the strangest musical bedfellows possible- but that's what Reality Serum is producing, under the new genre 'Trans-Urban', and it's pretty damn exciting, to say the least.
Camanche and Twizle- the former brings the hip-hop, the latter the ambient guitar- are two Long Island accidental bandmates. Twizle's cred as a Beatles Sgt-Pepper era guitarist is such that he actually appeared in the recent film Across the Universe, but that's beside the point. They're genuinely doing something so new and interesting that I'm stumbling over myself to share it.
Think Sigur Ros or the much-mourned Dead Can Dance (Eastern chords, adagio tempo, lush and complex sounds, barely any beat beyond sparse bass), overlaid seamlessly with spoken-word, rather like Saul Williams, and you're getting close. It's Tricky if he and Mos Def took a wrong turn into Mogwai territory at night- vaguely haunting, and can be slightly jarring if you've always taken your hip-hop plain with crunchy beats and little more.
Putting rap vocals in a very large and sprawling musical landscape, which is what ambient music is, is a risk, and it's tough to balance the hard with the soft. Sometimes I came away wishing that the vocals took more of a prominent role- they can get swallowed by all the washes of sound- or that there was more of a sense of urgency to match them.
It is important, though, to recognise good music when it comes your way, and trust me, this is very good music. It makes you listen, it intrigues you and pulls you in. One of the things which often isolates people from the mellow navel-gazing genre is that it doesn't grab listeners- it's background noise but doesn't engage- and sometimes hip-hop is criticised for sounding too harsh and simplistic. Maybe Trans-Urban is a way to fix both criticisms.
I know, I know, I'm making some grand claims here- but Reality Serum are making alchemy out of their crossover, and you should give them a listen. It's that simple.
They appear not to have any touring dates coming up because they're heading back into the studio, which is a shame. However, you can get their CD, 'Hop In', via iTunes, CDBaby or PayPlay.
12/13/2007 19:27:27
jennifer
my♥posts
myspace.com
supplerecords
I've been meaning to do this for a while, grouping four or five bands
from one city. Today I'm going to concentrate on bands from Chicago,
Illinois.
Each of these music group are very, very different from each other... which really say something about the culture of this city!
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Tour
12/06/07 Lilly’s Chicago, IL 01/12/08 Krush Skatepark Tinley Park, IL 01/18/08 The Metro Chicago, IL Discography
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The first group from Chicago are the superhero hip-hop rappers called Yea Big + Kid Static. It seems both Yea Big and Kid Static were already established artists prior to joining forces.
"Static Leads The Coup" is my favorite song off their debut album, which was released last month (October 23rd). The artwork, concept (comic book, Star Wars, etc) and rapping style kind of reminds me a lot of Deltron - so if you enjoy that, this album should be right up your alley.
Just a note, Yea Big is huge into mashups, so he really brings his ear and sounds in mixing the album.
So, if you live in Chicago, check it out, they're playing a few gigs, including the Metro (I've been there before!).
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Tour
11/30/07 JBTV Performance/Interview 12/01/07 Lewis University - Romeoville 12/28/07 Uncommon Ground - Chicago, IL Discography
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The Villains of Verona are a indie pop band from Chicago. Their debut album is coming out, it's called The Oh Bonanza LP. I wasn't given an exact release date, but according to their press release, the album's final mixed is completed as of August of this year (mixed at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin). The album was done with producer Jon Alvin at the IV Lab Studios.
Of the batch of unmastered songs that I've got, there are a few songs with a boy singer. This is unusual because the Villains only have one vocalist, Rachel.
The song that stood out for me from The Oh Bonanza LP is "The Only". For even more songs, check out their myspace and also they're set to play new songs for JBTV tomorrow. If you live in the area, be sure to check JBTV on Wednesday at 11pm.
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This Episode has one EP, Warm Up My Defenses but according to their blog, they're working on their album, called Spider Tree.
I suspect they got their name from watching too much television. So it's safe to assume that they also probably watch a lot of movies - as in their song, "The Movies".
The main vocals is by Desi in this song, and it tells about how she wants to be in the movies. It's a pretty catch song.
Also, if you like that 80s new wave-type sound, check out their song "Move On" - you can download it from their website. If you like what you hear, you can add them as a friend on vox.
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Our last Chicago band is called The Red Plastic Buddha. They kind of remind me of a 60/70s psychedlic rock band.
They contacted me recently and asked me to take a look at their video for Forget me Not, which sparked my interest enough to search and downloaded some of their songs off their record label's website Spade Kitty.
Of the ones I've downloaded, I liked "Rollercoaster" the best. Listen to that guitar and there's no doubt that you start hearing Pink Floyd jamming with Buddha, reaching nirvana....
If you enjoy these roundup, let me know - and also send in your city suggestions. Of course, I will return to do another roundup of Chicago bands later.... but I think my next city spotlight will be on my own Minneapolis, Minnesota. I can't believe how many bands are from around here!
11/29/2007 21:11:43
vu
my♥posts
www.weheartmusic.com
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I first came across LBCT's blend of funk, jazz, hip-hop, blues, rock, rap, ska, country and who knows wtf else on the tabloid Jenny Jones chat show which incidently happened to have one of the finest line up of live band appearances I've ever seen on TV, but enough of that... Over five years I searched far and wide for every single thing the band have ever recorded, which wasn't so easy as they officially broke up around 2000, before I first heard of them.
They formed in the late 80s in Milwaukee, WI, fronted by a man called Noah Tabakin. They recorded three studio and two live albums but due to their range of styles and extended length of the albums it feels like a hell of a lot more. Noah freestyles, raps and beatboxes over a few songs, in addition to playing the sax and DJing. Some of the finest saxaphonests, bassists, funk guitarists and drummers in the area joined up, add in some trombone, trumpet, covers of heavy metal songs, and a range of vocalists from female hip-hop to male country singers and you have one of the widest musical styles to a band I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. No wonder frontman Noah is now part of a so-called "circus punk marching band".
Anyway, I've included a few songs in this post, but focusing primarily on anything with a bit of a dark side.
Starting up is the obvious "Halloween", their only released instrumental track from a live show in 1996.
"Licorice", which hopefully not to much of you are treated with tonight (it sucks, eh?) is from the same show, and demonstrates Noah's hip-hop vocal style.
Up third is a version of LBCT song "Florence" that was re-jigged by the band for their special Halloween shows throughout the 90s, and rebranded "Florence Goes To Hell" by their fans. It's much more of a treat if you've heard the original first, as this one flips the light hearted acoustic tune on it's much darker sided head.
Finally there's one of my favourite LBCT tunes, the synthed up, sexed up "Sindy" from their last ever official show in 2000.
I say official as the band to this day still get together to play reunion shows every now and then. Unfortunately a wee English kid with no money can not afford the trip over the pond, so has to make do with whatever turns up online. Which ain't much; below are the only videos of the band I've ever found - poor quality, dark, mobile phone clips, but fuck me if the 40 seconds of "Billy The Kid" on there isn't the best sounding country style track I've ever heard.
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Anyway, if there's one thing you do on a whim from this site, I'd suggest it's grab a hold of every Little Blue Crunchy Things album you can find, most of which are on digital download sites right now. You can start on their MySpace site and if you're not full enough of treats by this evening, just take a listen to Angels, the original Florence, Thunder, Hurricane, Babies, How Ya Gonna Do Me, Slip Away... hell, anything, and you'll get a taste of the greatest musicians ever.
- Christopher