DJ Sliink Brings Jersey Club to the Mainstream

By
April 9, 2012
New Music, Remixes
1 Comment

If you don’t live somewhere between Newark and Baltimore, you’re probably not all that familiar with the heavily local style of Club music that dominates teenage parties in the region. Baltimore Club originated in the 90’s and takes cues from ghetto tech, booty house and Washington D.C. style go-go music. More recently, the Club phenomena has extended up the coast and a specific brand of New Jersey club has emerged, centered around dance halls in Newark. Jersey Club tracks are usually situated around 134 BPM, although they can be slightly faster or slower, and tend to include complex chopped vocals, often from pop/hip hop songs. In recent months, 21 year-old producer, DJ Sliink, has taken the scene by storm with a sound that takes Club and infuses trap beats, moombahton and vogue house into the mix. While the Jersey Club scene is quite internalized, Sliink has broken the mold and has brought the Club model to the rest of the country. Case in point, his remix of the Diplo produced Usher track “Climax.” Shuffling drum patterns, and deep sub bass give the original a dance floor feel, all while maintaining Usher’s sexy smooth vocals. You thought the original got stuck in your head? This is a whole different animal. Sliink collaborated with Sinjin Hawke on Lights EP standout “Gas Pump” a few months ago showing he has the versatility to make more than just Club cuts, but who would want him to stop when he’s making bangers like this?

Sasquatch Artist of the Week: Star Slinger

By
April 8, 2012
Festivals, Live, New Music
Leave a comment

Nine weeks ago, the Sasquatch Music Festival lineup was released to much fanfare. Like all festivals, some hated the lineup while others loved it. For the more levelheaded, it appears to be a very balanced lineup with a deep undercard. From here on out we will be underscoring the lesser-known Sasquatch artists by highlighting a different artist each week. Beyond delving into each artist’s bio, sound, etc., we will attempt to give some insight into what will make their performance at Sasquatch so amazing.

Manchester is England’s 6th largest city, but is referred to by many as its 2nd city culture-wise. The home of Factory Records, the Madchester period, and more recently, the fabled Ware House Project series. One thing the city is not known for is hip hop, or grime for that matter. Whereas grime, and to a certain extent American hip hop, has dominated urban airwaves in London and Bristol for a decade plus, it has not gained much of a foothold in the North of England. It comes as a surprise then that one of the hottest hip hop producers, not just in the UK, but on the face of this earth is Mancunian (by way of Nottingham).

If you read this blog, you’re probably fairly familiar with Darren Williams aka Star Slinger. After releasing the impeccable Volume 1 beat tape in the Summer of 2010, Williams went from complete unknown to The Guardian’s “best new act of the year by miles.” It’s not easy to place Slinger’s sound (he calls it Booty LSD) as it falls somewhere at the intersection between hip hop and UK bass, taking cues from Chicago footwork and UK garage. It would be easy to clump him in with the maximalists of LuckyMe, but Slinger is influenced more by sample mavens The Avalanches and DJ Shadow. Volume One is a journey through chipmunk soul although Williams slightly deviates from the 70’s R&B line that Kanye West and Just Blaze owned over the first half of this past decade. On “Extra Time,” Slinger samples 80’s English alt-rock band Prefab Sprout’s “Wild Horses.” On album standout “Gimme,” he takes a more traditional route, sampling The Staple Singers’ “Let’s Do It Again” to incredible effect.

Stream/Download: Star Slinger – Volume One

While there are hundreds of producers out there producing “Dilla and Premier influenced” tracks (as my inbox informs me), Williams has differentiated himself through an impressive ability to create complex drum patterns. Taking influence from both British and American electronic music, Williams puts the emphasis on the drum machine in the studio. This is most apparent on the spat of remixes he has uploaded to his Soundcloud over the past several years, most successfully on his remixes of Gold Panda’s “Marriage” and Mount Kimbie’s “Before I Move Off.” Slinger’s samples are the most obvious part of his music, but there is an underlying beauty in his attention to detail.

Stream/Download: Mount Kimbie “Before I Move Off (Star Slinger Refix)”

More recently, Slinger has entered the world of American hip hop, enlisting Juicy J and Project Pat and R&B singer Reggie B for “Chain Dumbin,” a banging party cut that wouldn’t be out of place on Hot97 or any other pop radio station. Last week, Slinger dropped “Bad Bitches” featuring everyone’s favorite based martian and fellow The Pack member Stunnaman, a chilled down track perfect for the impending heat of Summer. We can only hope for more MC accompanied tracks as his remixes for Drake and A$AP Rocky are impeccable as well.

Stream/Download: Star Slinger – “Chain Dumbin” featuring Juicy J, Project Pat and Reggie B

Like most of the acts I have covered so far in this series, Star Slinger will be performing in the Banana Shack (dance tent), along with his either an MPD32, SP-404 or a set of decks. Be prepared for a healthy serving of contemporary Southern hip hop, maximalist bass music, as well as older hip hop cuts from the the Wu, Slum Village and more. Williams has a penchant for wild live shows and recently started up his own club night called Jet Jam, which featured British teens Bondax at the first event. Williams bares a slight resemblance to a Sasquatch so I wouldn’t be missing this one Memorial Day weekend.

Enjoy Easter With New Jay Electronica

By
April 8, 2012
2012, New Music
Leave a comment

What a week for new music. To top it off, we have the mysterious Jay Electronica (finally releasing the full version of “Dear Moleskine”. A snippet of this track was released in 2009 with a short video to accompany it (watch here). The slick track was produced by Just Blaze and is predominantly an instrumental track with a short verse from Jay. After following the man for such a long time, you begin to appreciate every little snippet he puts out. That being said, he needs to just drop the album already. Stream the track below and enjoy.

New Ab-Soul Featuring Danny Brown and Jhene Aiko – “Terrorist Threat”

By
April 7, 2012
New Music
Leave a comment

Dear Barak, I know you’re just a puppet, but I’m giving you props. You’re lying to the public, and I just love it. I hope it don’t stop

This is lightyears late in internet time, but how could we pass it up. “Blessed” producer Dave Free (also the president/GM of TDE) on the beat. Ab-Soul and Danny Brown spitting with an intense focus that only a select few (half of whom are on this track) MC’s in hip hop can manage. Jhene Aiko interpolates “Notorious Thugs” with aplomb. Hopefully, this will show up on the next Ab-Soul project that will, in all likelihood, catapult him to level of Kendrick and Schoolboy. Now I’m off to Paid Dues to catch his set. Jealous? You should be. Stream and download below.

Rustie Murders Pete Tongs’ Essential Mix

By
April 7, 2012
Mixes, Remixes
2 Comments

Last night, a short, pale man wandered into a radio station in London and proceeded to lay down one of the best mixes of the year. His name happens to be Rustie and the radio station happens to be BBC Radio One. The radio show, Pete Tong’s Essential Mix, happens to be one of the most influential mix series’ in the world. The track selection? Nothing too special. A little unreleased Obey City. A little unreleased Jackson and his Computer Band. A little unreleased Hudson Mohawke. A lot of unreleased Rustie, including a VIP of “City Star” and the demo version of “All Nite.” Maybe that TNGHT joint that Rustie previewed at the Boiler Room a couple months back. Like I said, nothing too special. Download the mix here and keep holding your breath until that TNGHT shit drops. Full track list after the jump.

Read More

RL Grime Remixes Shlohmo’s “The Way U Do”

By
April 6, 2012
New Music, Remixes
Leave a comment

There is not another collective out there whose artists complement each other as well as We Did It. Whether it’s Shlohmo remixing Salva, D33J remixing Shlohmo, or in this case, RL Grime remixing Shlohmo, the chemistry between the artists is highly visible. Airhead and D33J have already taken a crack at “The Way U Do,” but this is easily my favorite take. The repetitive synth stabs give the track a nice entrancing feel as it weave in and out of heavy distortion. Even better, the track is up for free download. Look out for RL Grime’s Grapes EP on 4/20.

Spaceghostpurrp Waxes Poetic About London Bitches

By
April 6, 2012
New Music
2 Comments

Your bitch got beauty, but mine’s from London

There has been a lot of hysteria over the new Kanye track and the new G.O.O.D. Music track over the last couple of days so I’ll quickly address both here. On “Theraflu” it was nice to hear Kanye own a track as an MC. Haven’t seen him go in like that in years. And.. nevermind. Fuck “Mercy.” Maybe I’m too stuck in my ways, but why can’t Pusha T rap like he did circa 2004? Not even HudMo’s “additional instruments” (whatever that means) can save this one. Now onto some real shit.

Back in February, I wrote that I was coming around to the Spaceghostpurrp hype. Well, now I’m firmly placed on the bandwagon. The Carol City MC/producer and Rvdxr Klvn kingpin sounds like Dungeon Family wrapped in gauze and dipped in acid. It’s crude, misogynistic and antagonistic to just about anything and everything. Matching A$AP Rocky bar for bar on “Purple Swag Pt. 2” certainly helped pushed him into the spotlight, but it is the mixtapes, Blvcklvnd Rvdix 66.6 (1991) and God of Black that really epitomize the Rvdxr Klvn aesthetic. “Lustful ’97” is a love song. Sort of. The chorus of “you want me, I want you” signifies that, but Spaceghost is a pretty vile character so his fairytale isn’t gonna play out like yours. Moans occasionally cut through the clanging beat to signify the presence of some female counterpart, but she never really materializes making the chorus even more distant and vague.

“Lustful ’97” isn’t for everyone. It doesn’t fit into the sub-three minute parameters of radio rap. Spaceghost’s vocals are put through multiple filters and beat is dark and grimy. It’s music for outcasts. For the angry youth. And that’s why I’m on the bandwagon. Stream “Lustful ’97” below and download it here.

Ballroom Dancing and Bass Music at Beat Cinema

By
April 5, 2012
2012, Interviews, Live
Leave a comment

Photo by Madeline Feig

The Inland Empire is known for suburban sprawl, biker gangs and not much else. It is the region East of Los Angeles that stretches from somewhere around West Covina to San Bernardino. Despite its proximity to LA, it is about as far a stretch from the beaches of Santa Monica, art galleries of Culver City and clubs of Sunset Boulevard as you can get in the state of California. So it came as a huge surprise when we found out that a beat scene (albeit a small one) is present in the quiet town of Claremont, CA. A few weeks ago I was introduced to Beat Cinema, a hip hop, experimental, beats, funk, soul and psychedelic night at the Hip Kitty Jazz and Fondue Lounge. Claremont is a small college town swimming out-of-place in the extended suburban and industrial sprawl of Los Angeles county. It is known fondly as “the city of trees and PhD’s,” and couldn’t be more displaced from the streets of Lincoln Heights where the fabled Low End Theory takes place.

There was no doubt in my mind that I had to check Beat Cinema out. Low End Theory is a mecca of sorts for people like us, and the idea that Beat Cinema could provide at least a portion of the culture, community and musical talent supplied by LET was enticing to say the least. We spoke with Beat Cinema’s founder, Rick, about a possible interview. This Tuesday, the night’s bill boasted (DJ) Nobody, Portland’s Quarry, Alpha Pup rep Dot and all the club’s usual residents, so we decided to make an appearance.

As we walked into the Hip Kitty around 9:30, we were greeted by leather-wrapped booths and a large upscale bar; the venue was, in fact, a jazz club. The only real indication that this was Beat Cinema was the assortment of turntables, mixers, MPD’s, and APC’s on a long table at the front of the room. We found Rick and walked out to the patio to get the interview started. Outside, there was a DJ playing some Domo Genesis, a black and white film being projected on the far wall and (DJ) Nobody mingling with the crowd. This felt more like it.

Beat Cinema first started out as a movie night curated by Rick and his sister. Rick started DJing in between films as a sort of intermission, and eventually got the idea to combine the two concepts; thus, Beat Cinema was born. Rick says his motivation to begin the project stemmed from fatigue and annoyance after one too many 40-minute drives into LA to see shows. Beat Cinema’s debut featured The Gaslamp Killer and Ras G back in September of 2009 (an event Rick still considers one of the best Beat Cinema’s), and the concept took off from there.

In the years since, Beat Cinema has brought in a wide variety of impressive guests, such as Samiyam, Mono/Poly, Tokimonsta, KNXWLEDGE, Salva and more. Dublab took over for a night and Daedelus, Matthewdavid and more made appearances. Despite the impressive list of artists they’ve brought in, Rick likes to keep the night low-key, preferring to avoid the type of promotional flyers that he considers “litter;” according to him, 90% of the beat scene probably hasn’t heard of Beat Cinema. It really is a hidden gem nestled in the expanse of the Inland Empire. Cult classic films still regularly, but the emphasis is now decidedly on the music.

This is not your average club night, though. The crowd is slightly older than you would expect, and there is far more milling about and socializing than dirty dancing. In one perplexing moment, a middle-aged couple began ballroom dancing in the middle of Quarry’s set. With stuttering bass music blaring, the couple pulled off moves with aplomb as the younger crowd watched from afar with wry smiles. Like I said, this is a far stretch from your typical LA club.

In the middle of the conversation, Rick told us a story about his roommate’s birthday party a few weeks back, where Flying Lotus just happened to play his new album for the party guests. It goes to show that even out here in the desert, the sense of community in the beat scene is still apparent. Claremont is far removed from Lincoln Heights, but Beat Cinema is closer to Low End Theory than you’d think.

Daedelus Featured On Topman CTRL Mixtape Vol. 3

By
April 5, 2012
Mixes
Leave a comment

Daedelus has been on fire lately, reinterpreting Chicago juke on his last track and bringing back this little trip-hop ditty from 2005. Now he’s featured on this month’s Topman CTRL mix and Juke influence he showed on “Curtains Don’t Talk” are readily available. I’ll let the curators take it away:

This DJ mix sees him delve into that love of the rhythms of juke and footwork, while also throwing in drops of dub, smooth radio pop, old jungle classics, and some very familiar cuts. It’s fast, frenetic but also beautiful; a masterclass in the art of DJing and throwing up surprises with the next song.

The mix features Krampfhaft, Machinedrum, as well as a steady heap of contemporary R&B. Stream below.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

New Teen Daze

By
April 5, 2012
2012, New Music
Leave a comment

Teen Daze just released “The Future” off of his upcoming album, All of Us, Together. The album is set to come out on May 22nd. Like most Teen Daze tracks, “The Future” is blissful electro pop that has proven to be his forte. Teen Daze is a master of making these feel good dance tracks. Stream the track below and check out another track off the album from our previous post here.