Boston’s Mood Indigo is back with another one replete with uncomfortably sparse vocals and a clear understanding of how to utilize empty space and silence. Mood indigo has been releasing a steady stream of tracks over the past few months so if we’re lucky we’ll get a full project soon. “Glimpse” is another step forward though and as long as he keeps churning out tunes like this, no complaining from this guy.
Robert Glasper has already released what is easily one of my favorite albums of 2012 in Black Radio. With an outstanding list of featured artists including, but not limited to, the inimitable Erykah Badu and Yasiin Bey (Mos Def). Now, half a year since the release of Black Radio, the Remix EP has been released with a mouth watering lineup of producers and guest vocalists. I guess I will just list them off: ?uestlove, Phonte, 9th Wonder, Black Milk, Pete Rock Georgia Anne Muldrow, and vocals from Bilal. I’ll start you out with this remix of “Letter to Hermione” by Robert Glasper and Jewels, accompanied with the slick flow of none other than Black Milk. One of my favorite parts of this track is the minute long outro that is then backed up by an awesome voicemail from Ma Dukes.
Up next? How about a Pete Rock remix of the track, “Black Radio” also featuring Mr. Yasiin Bey.
To top off the remix project, Glasper followed up his previous Dilla tribute, from In my Element, with “Dillalude #2”. A nine minute compilation of a couple of Dilla tracks ranging from “The Look of Love” and “Open Your Eyes” that all feature Casey Benjamin on vocals!! Give ‘Dillalude #2″ a listen below and you can find the rest of the tracks on Robert Glaspers’ soundcloud here.
Grown Folks have been inextricably linked with Main Attrakionz for the past few years, acting as their tour DJ(s) and handling a good amount of production work, so it only makes sense for the Montreal duo to handle production on what is probably the last single off of Bossalinis & Fooliyones. The album drops in a few weeks (October 22) via Young One Records and should be Mondre and Squadda’s magnum opus. On a side note, it’s really nice to see their songs actually, you know, mastered and shit. As much as I love (and hate) the whole “cloud” aesthetic, lo-fi is almost always a bad look for hip hop artists. Just ask Blu. Stream and download “Cloud Body” below.
Chicago legends DJ Spinn and DJ Rashad are not ones to fuck around. From the onset of “She Turnt Up”, the intent of the track is established. Loose women, white powder and (enhanced) orange juice are the priorities for Spinn and Rashad who continue to perfect and expand upon their Juke origins. “She Turnt Up” falls more into the Ghetto House category and will appear on Teklife Vol. 2: What You Need, scheduled for an October 23 release on Lit City. Stream below.
Kastle’s Symbols label has been on a tear as of late, with releases from Druid Cloak, We Sink and Jason Burns & Kastle in the last month alone. Symbols is one of the few labels out there whose visual aesthetic matches the sound they produce with ruthless efficiency. The next Symbols release comes from North Carolina production duo Clicks & Whistles who released their last EP on Distal’s Embassy Recordings last month. Clicks & Whistles appear to have ramped up the BPM on 2 Much Higher, embracing Juke on every song besides XI’s remix of the title track. It’s an interesting look for the duo who have cut their teeth making slower hip hop jams, so give it a listen below and grab the EP on October 23.
Son Raw summed up my opinion of Purity Ring perfectly earlier, calling them a “pair of living, breathing, American Apparel manikins”, but if anyone is going to make their watered down, monolithic take on pop and hip hop palatable, it’s Bruiser Brigade don Danny Brown. Going in over a slightly altered version of one of Purity Ring’s better tracks, Brown spits one of his longer verses and then goes into some weird autotune shit towards the end. It’s unfortunate. Actually, the whole song is pretty unfortunate. Danny’s verses aren’t bad per se, but they’re also not what we’ve come to expect. Anyways, stream below, maybe you’ll like it more than I did.
Another day, another brilliant Reloaded outtake from Roc Marciano. The album will drop on November 13 via Deacon and if tracks like “Rocky II” and “Sweet Nothings” can’t make the cut than we are in for some serious head noddery. “Rocky II” is a smooth bit of boxframe music that Marciano just rides over. To be honest with you, this is one of the very few Marciano tracks where the beat is more memorable than the verses. Of course, he’s still more clever/innovative than 99% of rappers out there on “Rocky II”. Stream below.
For some reason, I have consciously ignored Teengirl Fantasy for the past few years. I don’t know if it’s the name or what, but something just turned me off about them without ever actually taking the time to listen to either of their albums. After hearing rave reviews after their performance at Decibel Festival, I decided to belatedly give the duo a chance. Nick and Logan’s washed out take on analogue house is euphoric without ever descending into Balearic territory. Their least dance-able songs seem to effortlessly propel forward, which might be their most admirable quality. Highly recommended their albums, but they’ve also put in quite a bit of work on the remix front. Their latest retwerk is of Holy Other’s “Love Some1” and the results are stadium worthy. With Los Angeles crooner Kelela, synths swim fluidly among rapid-fire percussion hits and Kelela’s voice churns as the song accelerates into house territory. Not a big tune in the banger sense, but Kelela’s voice just fits into the seams of the duo’s production so well that I could imagine it streaming out of a massive sound-system with ruthless efficiency. Stream below.
A few years ago, I remember listening to some Yelawolf mixtape with a Kane Beatz beat on it. I think Juelz Santana was also on the track. I bumped the track all the time for a few months. Then I realized Yelawolf kind of blows and Juelz and Kane were the only reasons why I liked the track. Anyways, Kane Beatz has some heaters beyond his Top 40 production, although I’ll admit “Right Above It” is hawt. Fat Trel is a Washington D.C. native who’s been attempting to fill the void left by Young Jeezy (he’s gone right?) and Clipse with snarling, rapid-fire crack anthems. Taking a break from writing crack rap for a moment (sort of), Trel gets all misogynistic on “Is It Chu” over Kane’s murderous backing. And sometimes you do just need a little misogyny in your hip hop. And yes I am a man so you can hate me for saying that. Stream and download below.
So Gunplay is probably going to jail for a while. Seems like there’s a skilled Southern rapper who gets locked up every year. Not saying it’s a conspiracy, but Illuminati. His latest track samples Freshly Ground’s “I’d Like” (although it’s probably from that shite Mt Eden song) and sees the coke addled (what’s new?) MMGer as paranoid and antagonistic as ever. I view Gunplay as sort of new era Andre Nickatina, with some of DMX’s maniacal tendencies. That’s a good thing. Stream and download below.
The Astral Plane 