Tag Archives: Lunice

The holidays are the one time of year when I appreciate the fact that my Facebook and Twitter feeds are flooded with promotional posts. That’s because the holidays are the time for giving, specifically the time when producers dump all of their bootlegs/edits/unfinished tracks on the unsuspecting masses. The quality is generally a mixed bag, but we’ve received a deluge of heat in the past few days that deserves its fair due. On the raps front, Lil B, King Louie, Fredo Santana, Lil Silk and Fabolous have let loose new tapes over the past week or so. All deserve your attention, although save Lil B’s 05 Fuck Em and maybe spend a little more time with Silk and Louie.

The good folks at Mixpak were also kind enough to hand out a bundle of free tracks from their roster and beyond. The Holiday Bundle evokes the grime, dancehall and soca-based riddim culture that Dre Skull has so carefully curated over the past few years. Sudanim, Murlo and Koyote all bring their best to the table.

You’ve likely seen these already as well, but big hitters Flying Lotus, Zed Bias, Ryan Hemsworth Clams Casino all gave bundles of tracks away in the past few days. Casino’s third Instrumental Mixtape is probably the most cohesive attempt of the bunch, but FlyLo’s assorted beats, remixes and bootlegs offer some intriguing insight into the producer and his cohort’s recording processes. The Hemsworth collection is largely edits he’s designed for live play and the “Post-Rock Tears” version of Future’s “Honest” is a real beauty. Two step legend Zed Bias handed over 200 MB of live recording, remixes and production work under both his ZB sobriquet and his Maddslinky nom de plume.

Hit the jump for a jambalaya of free tracks…

Lunice Remixes T-E-E-D’s “Trouble”

By Gabe Meier

November 23, 2012

Uncategorizable

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Photo courtesy of The FADER

Lunice and Orlando Higginbottom, stage name Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, are two of my favorite characters in music. Not necessarily favorite artists, but when it comes to antics and eccentric personalities, few top these dudes on the intrigue scale. It’s no surprise then that Lunice’s take on Higginbottom’s “Trouble” is also a load of fun. The remix actually falls on the low-key side of each artist’s production dichotomy, but Lunice’s airy synths and sharp drum hits are exactly what the doctor ordered for a lazy long weekend. Stream and download below.

Cult Play With Captain Murphy

By Gabe Meier

November 19, 2012

New Music

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Witnessing the widespread panic that followed the initial posting of Captain Murphy’s Duality last Friday was almost as entertaining and mind-boggling as the actual music/visuals. Some people are actually angry that Mr. Murphy’s identity hasn’t been revealed, while others indulge in the jaw dropping list of producers involved, attempting guesses at which beat can be attributed to which beatsmith. While the Captain’s identity is still technically under wraps, you can now take home a copy (in one long MP3) of Duality and fret over it on your daily ride to work! You can also stream the chapter-split version of the tape below, courtesy of Masked Gorilla. Apparently, a deluxe version of Duality is on the way, which will (probably) contain exciting features like split tracks, producer credits (!) and hopefully some more cult-centered visuals. In the meantime, stream below and grab the full tape here.

Sounds From The Astral Plane (Reboot)

By Gabe Meier

November 18, 2012

Mixes, New Music, Remixes

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The below quote in from David Foster Wallace and Mark Costello’s Signifying Rappers, a discussion on hip hop and race, as well as a thorough criticism of rapidly changing, turn of the century media forms. I felt it was probably more worthwhile than the brief commentary I was going to plaster here instead.

You may now be getting some hazy idea of the sorts of really quite scary possibilities with which the rap we like is replete. And, hazier, of how complicated this stuff of sampler-from-outside can be. What’s remained passing strange, for use, is the vague threat’s appeal. The unease and ambivalence with which the rare white at the window loves rap renders that love no less love. Whence the fear, though, is really no matter. For look at the world, at the masses we’re part of. At what you look at closest. The plain 80s data is that, whereas love, devotion, passion seem only to divide, it’s fear and strangeness that bind crowds, fill halls, unite Us, somehow, as audience, under the great tent.

Discuss.

New Deniro Farrar & Shady Blaze – “All I Know” (Prod. Lunice)

By Gabe Meier

November 14, 2012

New Music

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Last month, Deniro Farrar & Shady Blaze released the Kill Or Be Killed tape, a dour tale of street realism set over production from the likes of Ryan Hemsworth, Friendzone and Sines. If you downloaded the tape from the duo’s Bandcamp, then you received a hidden, Lunice-produced bonus track called “Ten Fold”. Today sees the re-release of the Lunice jawn, restructured and renamed “All I Know”. Lunice matches space age histrionics with delicate keys and thin hi hats, the Montreal-based producer’s most subtle work in quite some time. Farrar and Blaze’s verses are kept intact so the emphasis is really on Lunice’s production here. Apparently this isn’t a one off collaboration either so we should be receiving more Farrar/Blaze/Lunice in the near future. Stream below and grab the first draft off of Kill Or Be Killed if you desire it.

Kill Or Be Killed With Deniro Farrar & Shady Blaze

By Gabe Meier

October 9, 2012

New Music

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Deniro Farrar’s sound has always been more akin to West Coast artists like Main Attrakionz and Schoolboy Q than his East Coast and/or Southern counterparts and the Kill Or Be Killed tape sees the Charlotte native matching bars with Green Ova member and East Oakland representative Shady Blaze. The tape is essentially an expanded version of last month’s DESTINY. altered and features an drool-worthy list of producers ranging from Green Ova mainstays Ryan Hemsworth and Friendzone to Sines and Lunice’s 808s driven take on Bass music. Like the title suggests, Farrar and Blaze are mainly concerned with street realism and their contrasting lyrical styles mash surprisingly well. Astral Plane favorite Haleek Maul features on the desolate Hemsworth produced “Cold Blood” and contributes one of the tapes best verses. Stream Kill Or Be Killed below and head here to download it (name your price).

Captain Murphy and TNGHT Move Weight

By Gabe Meier

August 20, 2012

New Music, Remixes

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When Lunice and Hudson Mohawke came out swinging at the American hip hop consensus, many assumed (myself included) they were aiming their fine-tuned WMD at the Southern hip hop conglomerate. Their first remix of Flocka’s “Rooster In Rari” reinforced that assumption and the EP was even pigeonholed by some as an extension of the trap phenomenon. Oh how we underestimated the project. When Lunice and HudMo hinted that they had MC’s lined up for every track on the EP, I assumed the features would be a menagerie of well-known Southern MC’s with maybe an A$AP Rocky or Danny Brown thrown in for good measure. This though? They have certainly outdone themselves Captain Murphy: you probably know the name by now. He sounds a lot like a pitch shifted Tyler/Earl combination. “Shake Weight” involves the Captain going the fuck in over the bubbling, immense heap of braggadocio that is “Bugg’n”. The doors are wide open folks. I’m looking forward to Canibus throwing his next paranoid rant down over “Gooo”. Fuck, and this video? I jokingly posted a while back that we were just going to become TNGHT stenographers, but would that really be such a bad thing? Grab the free download below and watch the video above (preferably under a controlled substance).

Download: Captain Murphy – “Shake Weight”

BadBadNotGood + TNGHT

By austineaster

August 6, 2012

2012, Live, New Music

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As you should know by now, we raved quite a lot about the new Hudson Mohawke and Lunice collaboration TNGHT. Their EP is absolutely massive and we couldn’t be more excited to see that BadBadNotGood covered the duos breakneck banger, ‘BuggN’. BBNG performed this cover live at the Mad Decent Block Party. It’s the perfect track for the group to perform and the track is huge.

From Free Gucci To TNGHT: A Retrospective

By Gabe Meier

July 24, 2012

2012, New Music, Remixes, Uncategorizable

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So the TNGHT (Hudson Mohawke + Lunice for those living under a rock) EP saw its American release today. Instead of an album review (words don’t do it justice), we’ve decided to compile a little retrospective on British producers lending their talents to American hip hop. In an interview with FACT last month, Lunice had this to say:

We’ve been doing this shit for years, and it’s not like we’re new or anything, it’s not like we’re new money shit, it’s not like we came out of the blue and we blew up like crazy. We’ve built a whole foundation of our work. So it’s about that time. I feel like that sort of movement is backed with all of our homies together, like: “This is us! You can’t do this shit! You can’t just take our ideas and come up with it all after all these years. We’re coming for you!

Clearly, Lunice believes that American hip hop producers have been misappropriating hip hop-indebted UK bass for a minute now and are taking a stand. While I don’t think Toomp and Hit-Boy are listening to too much Mount Kimbie, I get it: Lunice has a persecution complex… just kidding. With the EP set to take the States by storm and the duo’s remix of Flocka’s “Rooster In My Rari” igniting the interwebz, it’s easy to see where Lunice’s frustration is coming from. As the UK sound constantly progresses into exciting new territories via labels like LuckyMe and Night Slugs, American producers are often too content to find a sound and stick with it. As a result, some of the best interpretations of American, especially Southern, hip hop have come from British producers. TNGHT might be the apex of the trend (yes we know Lunice is Candian), but many other (mostly) pasty perpetrators have attempted to freshen up Stateside hip hop tropes, both new and old. This is not meant to a comprehensive review, because that would be impossible. It’s just a list of a lot of really fucking good producers remixing a lot of really ignorant hip hop music.

Dubbed by some as the “British Diplo”, it made all too much sense for Sinden to host volume two of Mad Decent’s Free Gucci series. The Burrrtish Edition features 16 remixes of Mr. Radric Davis’s trap anthems, courtesy of a coterie of revered Brits: HudMo, Rustie, Melé, Mosca and Toddla T just to name a few. Predictably weirder than the Diplo hosted Volume One (with the exception of the Flying Lotus contribution), the tape is an exhibition in low end sounds with varying levels of success. HudMo’s take on “Party Animal” essentially spawned TNGHT, is utterly playable to this day and should probably soundtrack your next night of drunken shenanigans. Melé also wins big with his wonky reinterpretation of “Missing” from The Appeal: Georgia’s Most Wanted (a largely overlooked Gucci project). Stripped down and menacing, “Missing” is a precursor to some of Melé’s more recent Soundcloud uploads. Burrrtish isn’t much of a cohesive project drawing from every realm of bass music, but who cares when HudMo, Melé, Rustie and Sinden bring the collective heat?

Download: Sinden Presents Free Gucci 2:The Burrrtish Edition