velour

After returning with the Prince-like “Speedway” last month, Julio Bashmore and Hytal look primed to establish 2013 as the year of Velour. Not only will the duo release “Speedway” (along with b-side “Dial”) in the near future, but they’ve also remixed BenZel’s “Fallin’ Love” to full bedspring squeaking effect. Borrowing a good deal of influence from mid-aughts Ed Banger material, Bashmore and Hyetal utilize stomp boxes, cheesy vintage synths and a “Hyph Mngo”-esque intro for an absolutely massive crossover banger that fits perfectly atop the current trends in UK electronic music. Stream Velour’ “Fallin’ Love” remix below and hit the jump to stream “Dial”.

mexicans with guns

As one of Innovative Leisure’s keystone artists (and occasionally Friends of Friends), Ernest Gonzales aka Mexicans With Guns has been one of the key figures in bringing LA’s blunted beat sounds to the greater United States and has excelled despite his location in the relative badlands of Texas. Unfortunately  Gonzales has been quiet over the past 12 months (by his standards at least) so his latest remix of San Antonio band Pop Pistol’s “No New Years Knows” comes as quite a relief. The original’s general mood is kept intact by Gonzales who installs a hip hop tempo and some timely vocal cuts. The remix isn’t groundbreaking or anything, but it’s just nice to get more Mexicans With Guns material. Stream below.

tessela

Like most of his brethren from Bristol, Tessela has a fondness for booming low end and genre-less productions of the banger variety. To kick off his very own imprint Poly Kicks, the man born Ed Russel will release Hackney Parrot/Helter Skelter, the former of which has been floating around the internet and and gathering steam for some time after being debuted by Loefah. The two tracks comprise of a mish mash of unrelenting takes on contemporary garage, breaks-heavy percussion (amen to be exact) and high energy rave vocals. The bass takes on a life of its own on each track and sounds absolutely mad on a big set of cans. The EP is out sometime in March, but until then, stream the previews below.

evenings

On April 16, Friends of Friends’ latest signee, Evenings, will release his debut LP Yore, which will consist of remastered versions of the Virginia-native’s earlier self-releases. “Friend (Lover)” is the first taste from the EP and features many of the familiar characteristics we’ve come to know and love from FoF release. The claps/organic percussion, melancholic vibe and codeine-drenched vocal work all sound innately familiar, but that’s the beauty of Evenings: His music is dissociative in its sense of comfort. Like most of Kid Smpl’s work (who also featured on FoF’s Show Me The Future compilation), Evenings’ music is best suited for headphone listening and carries with it the connotation of some sort of intense emotional experience. Both artist’s music vaguely reminds me of this Zadie Smith essay, specifically the deeply emotive qualities she connotes in certain situations. Both Evenings and Kid Smpl both bring out what Smith refers to as “joy”, “that strange admixture of terror, pain, and delight.” Instead of the visceral qualities of joy that Smith describes though, Evenings’ music is more abstract and implacable. The listener gets a warm feeling of deja vu when listening to “Friend (Lover)”, but can’t even begin to remember where the feeling comes from. It’s a thrilling way to come out of listening to such melancholic music. Stream below and look out for Yore on April 16.

throwing snow vellico

Throwing Snow’s tunes have always been maleable enough to operate in a dance music context, but have never been aimed directly at the dancefloor per se. The way he twists his bass melodies brings about an introspective quality absent in most straightforward bangers. That being said, tracks like “Melum” and his remix of Eskmo’s “We Got More” do plenty to get the good ol’ blood flowing. With that in mind, take a gander at his latest track, a collaboration with his brother Alistair made for the sole purpose of rump shakin’. The track follows the general UK trend of hefty techno with a good deal of chintzy synth melody to boot. “Pennines” has not been signed by a label yet (get on that folks), but you can stream below.

giraffage

So so many other Golden State producers of his ilk, Giraffage has been on a constant upward trajectory over the past few years and appears primed to make some major waves at the intersection of dance music and hip hop. San Francisco-born Charlie Yin’s latest effort, “Close 2 Me”, features a sample from Cathy Dennis’ disco anthem “Touch Me All Night Long” and light-hearted squiggling synth stabs. The high hat-heavy percussion offers up a light hearted angle to the somewhat tedious vocal sample, which comes off as heavy-handed for the most of the track. “Close 2 Me” will appear on Giraffage’s Needs tape, which drops February 12 via Alpha Pup.

kevin gates luca brasi

These bitches love Luca

The Luca Brasi Story is finally here and it might just be the clearest Kevin Gates tape to date. In the past, Gates’ dual growling/crooning sides have come into awkward contact with each other, but on Luca Brasi, the two styles meld perfectly. Gates’ gritty Southern street tales angle isn’t exactly the freshest hip hop around, but few artists can convey the dire nature of life (and life in Baton Rouge is certainly dire) quite like Gates. Curren$y and Master P add some classic Louisiana flavor in their features and should assist in bringing Gates some much deserved attention outside of his own state. The highlights of the tape are “Just Ride” and “Hero”, two conflicted anti-hero takes that offer up Gates as sensitive thug, community leader, and well, someone you probably shouldn’t fuck with unless you want to sleep with the fishes (I’m sorry, I had to). The production work from Maven Boys, Grizzly On The Beat and others is undistinguished, but generally stays out of the way and highlights Gates’ snarl especially well. Grab The Luca Brasi Story over at DatPiff and make plenty of Godfather references this week.

grown folk

Photo by Kane Øcean

Most producers who stretch themselves across multiple disparate genres sacrifice some quality in their overall production acumen, but the few who excel at this difficult task often elevate themselves to new levels. It’s fair to say that Montreal duo Grown Folk have achieved the latter, succeeding in the dance music world (with an EP out on Templar Sound and joint work with LOL Boys)  and proving influential in the hip hop world (with production work for Main Attrakionz). Next week (Feb 11), the duo will release The Boat EP on Icee Hot (which you can preview here), but to add some icing to the already tantalizingly sweet cake, they’ve let loose “Cornelia”, a light-hearted attempt at the rave sounds of yore. Stream and download “Cornelia” below and look out for The Boat on February 11.

zodiacJeremy Rose aka Zodiac recently contributed to a Red Bull Music Academy feature (which you can view after the jump) on the rise of so called “Alt-RnB”. The video features Rose, Miguel, How To Dress Well and BadBadNotGood and makes a pretty solid attempt at deciphering what makes “ethereal” pop music so damn enticing while dispelling some of the silly connotations the internet has attributed to this group of artists. To complement the RBMA feature, Rose released a new Zodiac jawn that certainly would be bolstered by one of the aforementioned crooners (or former vocal partner Jesse Boykins III), but functions rather well as an instrumental. As much as I hate to say it, ethereal is the perfect adjective for “PE1”, which halts and stutters through a series of vocal chops, off beat percussion and screaming samples. Stream “PE1” below and watch the full RBMA feature after the jump.

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throwing snow

I can’t think of a producer that evokes more raw emotion out of bass weight and synth work than London native Ross Tones aka Throwing Snow. December’s Aspera EP was Tones’ best release to date and a clandestine journey through 140 BPM heartbreak. Not one to rest on his loins, Tones recently contributed a remix to Brighton footwork master Ital Tek’s Hyper Real EP and the results are predictably brilliant. “The Flood” is a paranoiac, futuristic jawn punctuated by shuttering high hats and footwork’s traditional rapid-fire elements. Throwing Snow slows the track down and throws it into half-step, giving it a glossier sheen, while retaining the queasy nature of the original. The future is looking real good if it’s sountracked by these two wildly talented producers. Tek’s Hyper Real is out now on Civil Music.