No more blogposts

I haven't posted anything new for almost two years. And it seems I won't do it again - unless I have my own music projects to talk about. Stay tuned & take care.
Jefe

Zebra Katz

Zebra Katz is one of the most influential presenter of queer hiphop. And I like his world a lot - both musically both visually. You may know Zebra Katz's song Ima Read from 2012. I listened to this track back in the days and I was excited to check his recent music. Unfortunately Zebra Katz hasn't released any LP yet. He has some EPs but these pieces rock.

I collected some of his works in a playlist below. Listening to these tunes is just one part of the enjoyment. You should check the videos too because it is a professional art-commando for your eyes. Designer clothes everywhere, sexuality, and elegant viloence. Every video leads you into a weird world. And this odd universum is so cool, I took some snapshots from his videos, imagine what kind of things could work in Zebra Katz's mind. :)

And the music:



If you like this hiphop, or sometimes trappish, minimalistic techno music (hard to define), follow Zebra on Facebook, Soundcloud (mostly for remixes), and read more about him here.

Artifakts - Spilled Coffee: A Beat Tape (2015)

Long time no write on this blog, sorry for the one-month-long break. I got some other stuff at work, but everything is fine. So now I chose a music which reflect my recent calm state. It is hiphop, and its producer is called Artifakts. He is from Milwaukee (US), and makes cool beats. It is so simple.

If you like my recommendation, just start playing his SoundCloud stream and you won't regret it.

Actually, I have a video project where I used one of his tracks called Best I can. So fucking great and catchy hiphop tune. Even those my friends, who doesn't prefer hiphop said this tune is very fine.



So, first comes the self promotion, check the trailer of my project here :)


But get back to the music! Artifakts just released his EP called Spilled Coffee about 10 days ago.




This is an essential hiphop beat tape. Because of the fact that this is a beat tape, his tracks are very short, just presenting some themes and ideas about music, but I am sure you won't be bored. I mean I just switch this EP on repeat and could listen to it for hours. Wake up uses some samples from a movie I guess and you will know Artifakts is not fucking with you when it comes to music. The Pour is more intensive, while it has this awesome dubbed instrumentals which makes you feel the downtempo too. Fresh Cup is a dreamy tune, and The Spill can fit soundtracks of movies too - it uses some voices but it is distorted so much it sounds like a trumpet, if I am not mistaken. Great idea! Re-Brew is very close to German beatmakers, the clinging piano is a very popular choice, and it works here as well. This is one of my favourite beat, so bad that it is not even two minutes long. Start your day is more suspicious, it reminds me some movies from the 80s with cops: like they are investigating some crime and driving around the city of San Francisco. The Comedown uses Nancy Sinatra's Bang Bang, a very clever usage of this sample.

If you like Artifakts, follow him on social sites (Facebook, SoundCloud) and support him by sharing or buying his music or just go to his gigs if you have any chance.

Jefe

Crack Ignaz

Source: Juice on YouTube

Crack Ignaz is like the Austrian Gazsi Rap Show or the Austrian Kid Cudi for me. He is from Austria, rapping around, I understand the lyrics hardly - or even absolutely have no idea about the lyrics (I owe an apologie for my German teacher) but I don't care. Crack Ignaz sounds naive auf dem ersten Blick - but then you will realize that the tracks uses very serious and professional instrumentals. So this pseudo-naive attitude turns into some kind of phlegmatic music. Like they don't care about anything but to feel okay and usually there is some music. And this attitude fits hiphop, Crack Ignaz deserves five stars!

If you prefer Gazsi and won't be afraid of listening to German lyrics, then try Crack Ignaz out. He will release his album called 'Kirsch' on 17th July - on vinyl too. Even better!

• Gwalla and Ned Gscheid reminds me Kid Cudi tracks.
• Gustav Klimt is something absurd both in music and in video. There is something that caught me, I love watching that VHS-like, chaotic art-commando.
• König der Alpen - I have no words!
• Elvis - one of his best known tracks is Elvis. It is okay, but he has been really developing, becoming more professional.

Follow Crack Ignaz on Facebook or Bandcamp and support him!

Jefe

Fdel - Yesterdays Now Sounds EP

Source: Facebook

Oh man! Fdel released an EP after almost 10 years, celebrating Australian funky hiphop live acts. Fdel's new EP is something like Lack of Afro, a little bit Jurassic 5 or People Under The Stairs. Every track features someone who jumps in and helps rapping, tunes have moderate scratchings.

My favourite ones are the starting tune called 'Superstar',  then 'How Lucky Am I' and 'Somethin' For Ya Eardrums'. Superstar fits the summer, just imagine that you're holding your drink and nodding to the beats or putting your earphones on and biking around the city. How Lucky Am I has great drums and using cool samples, they are real hiphop beats while Somethin' For Your Eardrums has awesome piano and scratches. And if you prefer reggae, try Take It Easy.
I suggest to follow Fdel on everywhere you can (Facebook, Soundcloud), and if there are any chances to go to any of his gigs, just go - he's Australian, and fellas from AUS come to Hungary rarely.

Jefe

Uzipov - music video: A kedvem véget ért

Source: Facebook

I like these guys. I haven't posted about any rock music recently, sorry for dismissing it. So, Uzipov, one of my fav rock band - actually, they are only fresh band whose music I check from time to time - just made a music video called 'A kedvem véget ért' something like 'I don't care anything anymore.' or 'I'm not in the mood for anything anymore.'



Uzipov shot this video in A38 boat which is a great concert venue, so the milieu is just perfect.
Watch the video, don't fear the clown, but join him and shout as loud as you can - brilliant track. Now I have to listen to the whole album. Check it out here:


Support Uzipov by following them on Facebook, Soundcloud or by going to their concerts.

Jefe

Comfort Fit @ Boiler Room London (2013)

Almost two years ago Comfort Fit, aka Boris Mezga, a Berlin-based producer made a great 40 minutes long live act at Boiler Room London, including hiphop beats, boom bap, and some trap-ish sounds with 8-bit tunes.

The whole act waves well, it changes, it has peaks and calmer parts, every moments sounds it has its purpose. Professional work. I highlight my fav parts of the live act.

• It starts with Nitro, a track I used in my mixtape too.
• @10:40 - Then you can pieces of Kate Nash's Dickhead
• @16:39 - some snippets from a movies, is it Edward Norton? So cool samples (download it here)
• @21:24 - the so called yes/no track using kid voices and dreamy instrumentals
• @24:40 - my favourite part: there are some christmas vocals like ringing bells and then they are torn to many pieces in the name of boom bap - just check it out at @26:04.
• @27:26 - Bonny M's Ma Baker with the same conception, aargh!
• @31:35 - you can't skip the hammond organ and some tuba, just wait for it, it will come

If you like what you've just heard, follow and support the artist, he deserved it: Comfort Fit on Facebook and on SoundCloud.

Jefe

Jefe & Prefekt @ Tilos radio - GoFree set (October 2014)

Jefe & Prefekt @ Tilos rádió GoFree (2014.10.31.) by Jefe on Mixcloud

Prefekt and me were invited in Tilos radio last October - thanks to Zotyka, the host of the show called GoFree. I know that was a long ago but we just found this mix again on the radio's website. So, here is a one-hour-long set, we used vinyl only, you can listen to more funk, less hiphop and some soul tracks. Just enjoy, and you can also download this set here. If you like this kind of funk, tune on Tilos every Friday and listen to Zotyka's funk selection - it is worth it.

Jefe

IAMNOBODI – Elevated [2013]

It is time to recommend IAMNOBODI because his tracks appears on this blog from time to time. This guy is from Berlin and he releases his music at Jakarta Records and Soulection.

Here you can find a taste of his music from 2014.

Brothers – on the Summer in Jakarta compilation (listen to it in my mixtape)

When you know it – on the Stüssy x Soulection compilation (my previous blog post)

Intermissions for Syria – on the For the People compilation (my previous blog post)

Let’s check the roots of his music out! In 2013 he released Elevated, an album including 10 future tracks. This is definetely a fine future music LP.  If you are not familiar with this kind of music – what I doubt if you’ve been reading my blog recently – this can be your stepping stone.  No vocals, just dreamy instrumentals, catchy and dominant drums with claps: (e.g. Life in Pictures): this is somewhere between the boom bap hiphop and the electronic chill out music. Listen in peace:

If you like what you’ve jus heard, follow IAMNOBODI on Soundcloud, Facebook or check more tracks from him on Bandcamp.

Jefe

Various Artists - For The People

Source: YouTube

'For The Poeple' is an album, and it is a charity project as well. It is a compilation of the essential German hiphop producers' unreleased insturmentals. All of the artists are tested beat makers, you will know these kind of tunes: chilly sounds while the drums are full of heavy kicks, using great samples, chops, voice themes. For you to know, this compilation is Brenk Sinatra's idea, and if you buy this album, they will give all the money to refugees from Iraq and Syria. More background from their bandcamp site:

"My old friend Aras asked me one day if I could perform at the charity event he organizes for the refugees in the Kurdistan Region for the people who are on the run from IS fighters in Iraq ans Syria. [...] As I realized that performing there wouldn't be possible because of me being on tour with the Betty Ford Boys, I wanted to find another way to support this project with something bigger than just a performance. I started calling the homies and everybody was immediately down to support "FOR THE PEOPLE" with an unreleased instrumental." - Brenk Sinatra

I ordered this record and unfortunately it hasn't arrived yet, but I couldn't wait for the post to share this awesomeness with you. Listen in peace!

Some thoughts about some tracks:

• Dexter: Voyage - smokey living room with a big sofa
• Dramadigs: SaltLampCity - voice sample from The Warriors, can you dig it at the end?
• Shuko: So Hard Why You Wanna Love - using sample from T.I.'s Why You Wanna
• Fid Mella: Space Apes - a call for dub and reggae
• Ghanaian Stallion: Something With Soul - very strong Gramatik influence
• Suff Daddy: Dog Days - unmistakable tune from the Darth Vader of German beats
• Brenk Sinatra: Moon Balloon - do you hear that tunes similar to Jean Jacques Perrey's E.V.A
• Saiko: Ybab & Farhot: My Brothers - old school boombaps
• IAMNOBODI: Intermissions for Syria - this is something different from IAMNOBODI but it is still very great.
• Torky Tork: Orakel - it could be the OST of Utopia

Jefe

Phil Weeks

Phil fuckin' Weeks comes to Budapest this weekend: Lava Lava guys made a big shot. Max Graef was the only one whom I waited more than Phil Weeks. So, better get ready for something special this Friday at Corvintető. Phil Weeks is a real talent in electronic music. He mixes the disco side of house music with the love of sampling from the hiphop culture (hail to the Akai MPC 3000). So here is this guy from France who makes music for dancefloors, pumping the beats in your vein and you can't deny you enjoy all the tunes you hear. Monsieur Weeks owns a record label called RobSoul. I don't want to write more superlatives about his works. Simple amazing. I embed some of their stuff from various sources (YouTube, Spotify, Soundcloud).



First of all here comes some beat sampling videos - for the advanced listeners:

If you are still here, you can have some easier stuff to enjoy:

Aaaand if these made you like Phil Weeks, go and listen his latest beats:

Last, if you prefer sets than separated tracks, I recommend this:



Follow Phil Weeks on Soundcloud, Facebook, Spotify, YouTube.


Jefe

DJ Slow - State of high (2015)

DJ Slow in one the most influential hiphop producers in Hungary. His essential beats made Akkezdet Phiai vocals unforgettable for a generation of mine and this May he just put another cool work on the table. This monster album called State of high has 27 tracks, and if you are familiar with beatmakers you know you can get full length - ca. 3 minutes long - tracks and a lot of awesome one-minute-long sample tracks. Of course I won't write of the tracks one by one, I just highlight my favs.

You can listen to fat beats with some Hungarian folk music samples in the first track Worldizmine. Then Pastone part2 is myterious. Biolin is a crazy mix of beats & classical violin (it is a well-known piece, but I'm sorry I don't know who conducted this sample). Go to Juan and you'll get a lobby music of a hotel in Florida from the 80s - nice guitars. :) Fullaza is a high class beat with a groovy bass guitar, while Sand brings you to the sea shore and it can remind you Gramatik's Portoroz in July.

Slow is on the same side in the hiphop area like Suff Daddy and other German hiphop producers at Melting Pot Music. If you liked my blog post about Beat Power or Souleance, you will definetely love this material as well. Unfortunately vinyl edition has not been released... soon I hope fine records will be pressed with some of these tracks because it would really deserve that format. You can download the album for free, or you can buy on cassette too (again, back to the contemporary German hiphop culture! :) )

Jefe

Asagaya - Light of the Dawn

I listened to Asagaya at the first time in a Jakarta compilation album. Track called Washy P is still one the best tune on this list (besides Ta-ku). So, according to the LP cover of Light Of The Dawn, Asagaya is a Japanese man convinced to be the heir of a cherokee chief and the album tells his story, his travels - his music is chamanism and chaos. Great intro, for me it has too much mannerism but it is okay. We understand that this is very important for the artist - but you'll also get this from his music.

This album was produced by Guts, and it sounds crazy. Something in the way could be a great intro - but it is an outro. It doesn't matter, I will defineteley use this track as an intro in my sets. The album has a lot of great vocals. E.g. awesome and catchy hiphop beats like Suncat, Washy P, Penguin Beach and Women The lyrics are easy to remember - they are not difficult - and it needs some time to make you like them. There are more soulful, funky stuff with trumpets and female vocal: Elusive Delusive, The Nature Creature. Redneck Parade has very intense RJD2 impressions. Armenian Princess is like a western OST, a call for Ennio Morricone fans. In the Mountain of Bliss is a great shaman blues ballade, somewhere next to Captain Beeefheart and Katie Melua.

I like very much this vinyl. It is diverse, hiphop, blues, shamanism, I guess there are more and more music that uses native American motives (e.g. see Romare).

If you like what you just heard, gon on here:



Jefe

iamyank - Lost Sounds & Adventures of Poco Eco

I wrote about a producer Professor Kliq nearly two years ago, who made video game music. Now I would like to recommend to you a mobile app game and its music too. So, go ahead let's face the Adventures of Poco Eco and adventures of iamyank, the Lost Sounds EP.

You may know iamyank who makes kind of soulful futuristic electronic music that can sometimes fit post rock too. (Sorry for labeling the music but it is for the industry, if you know what is the closest genre of it, you can get a hint if you want this or not. If you do, you can grab a copy and support the artist.) So, iamyank and his friends made a unique collaboration for his latest EP, Lost Sounds. I don't want to analyze and rate the game because these blog is not about games. I just put here some screenshots. I let you decide from the title and the pics, like we used to play games on Commodore64 when we were kids. You knew hardly anything about the game, there were no tutorials. Just loaded it and started to play. You discovered the whole game during you played with it, and that was awesome. So, go and download it: Play Store, iTunes.

And let's get back to Lost Sounds EP! The first track Lowlands completely reminds me of a German electronic duo - who are unfortunately not active -, Dadamnphreaknoizphunk. If you like the sounds of Lowlands, try the Germans' 1999 album, Electric Crate Digger. The Bird Tamer is post rock for me while of course it is not post rock. Put more guitars, cymbals, lower the drums and you'll get it. :) Marching Metronome is not as cold as you think from its title (during the game it was my fav level when this track was played). It has some serious tribe feeling, like you get some peyote and follow the saman - see, I told, this is my favourite! Okay, prepare because Lotus is the next. It is like Jean Michel Jarre and French electronic music from the golden 70-80s era. You got the tribe trip, now you get outer space! I want to have an extended version of it, 7-8 minutes of these topics could become an even better track. The Untold and beyond - it is interesting if there is a vocal, the music just get mainstream. Mainstream in a good way, I mean it is like a radio hit. Okay, I can't get out of this spiral. Listen to it and you'll see. I am very critical with female vocals. Dori's tone is not my famous one but listening to the track again and again, I am getting more than okay with it. Anyway she reminds me Sarah Blasko. During the game I felt that as I was heading to the end of the game, the music was just geting better and better. Maybe it is because of the game (you know you are going the climax, the peak) but it is also working with the tracks, Turbo and Pauza is a great grand finale!

Summa summarum: this is my first advice in the blog like that, but please don't download iamyank's Lost Sounds!
Download the game on Play Store or iTunes! 
Because in this way you can get the EP too. Of course, not everyone is a gamer, but don't think of this as a game. Think of it as an adventure, a discovery. Don't miss the chance of playing with Poco Eco. It is great, the music is awesome, you will have an incredible journey.



If you want to catch Yank, check his dates here.

Jefe

Adventures in hiphop #4 - Old School Mixtape (April 2015)

Adventures in hiphop #4 (April 2015) by Jefe on Mixcloud

Recently I have been making playlists on papers writing down the tunes of my vinyl records. I wanted to make an old school hiphop mixtape so long. So, this is it. This mixtape is the result of my second try, mixing is difficult with vinyl records without any digital help (e.g. looping). The quality of the tracks is different which you'll recognize easily, but the vibes are great maybe it can make you not to stick to the perfect (and sometimes cold) digital quality. This selection is still far from any excellence but I am very excited to share this with anyone who likes old school hiphop. In the mixtape you can listen to Afrika Bambataa, Naughty by Nature, House of Pain etc. Listen in peace!

You can also download this mixtape here: Jefe - Adventures in hiphop #4 (April 2015)

Jefe

Nils Frahm - Solo (Piano Day)

A post just came by on my Facebook stream - what a co-incidence - and this time it wasn't fully shit and advertisement. I checked Nils Frahm and I got some info about his project on Piano Day. So Nils made a great accoustic album full of piano works. You can download it for free (even in WAV) and you can support him to help making a dream come true: to build the Kalvins M450. If this sentence doesn't mean anything for you, don't worry, neither I have known anything about this project.

So, Nils Frahm played on a Klavins M370... a piano which is very unique in form and in sound. And the builder of this instrument, Mr Kalvins has a dream, to build a better, bigger piano, the Klavins M450. It sounds very great: the idea and the piano too. Read more about this project here: http://www.pianoday.org

I haven't known Nils Frahm, but he is one the most talented piano players who mixes his talent with electronic music. He is like Bonobo, Caribou.


If you like piano works, try his play on this monster Kalvins M370. Passionate, beautiful, compact, clear sounds, goose-bumps. It is worth it. It reminds me a more relaxed Yann Tiersen. Really. Listen in peace:



Also you can check Nils Frahm's live act on Boiler Room and follow him on SoundCloud or on Facebook.


Jefe

Adventures in hiphop #3 - Mixtape (March 2015)

Adventures in hiphop #3 (March 2015) by Jefe on Mixcloud

I found plenty very great underground hiphop, future beats recently on my SoundCloud stream. So I decided to make the next episode of my selection called Adventures in hiphop mixtapes. And now volume3 is here. Since I collected free tunes only, if you search for the producers you can download their songs for FREE. Listen in piece!

If you like the whole mixtape, you can download it here: http://goo.gl/Q0v7Id

Find the separated tracks here:

Jefe

Grime playlist

I collected some of my favourite grime tunes in a Spotify playlist. I don't want to introduce grime genre in a long article, here you can read more about it.

In the playlist there are some old school grimers who just made this genre (e.g. Wiley, Dizzee Rascal) and some lessly known artists. If you like grime check these musicians or tune on SB TV on YouTube. It is like a spawning pool for the latest UK grime artist. As I wrote Wiley just made this genre and he releases album almost every year. (His album called 100% publishing is a masterpiece.) At the beginning he called this music Eski-beat after his nickname. Anything that guy touches becomes gold. Terror Danjah is more than grime, his track I'm Feelin U is a 2-step beat while Minimal Dub is some future dub or I don't know what definition I can use for it. Lynx & Seed has a very fat beat with characteristic ragga vocals. Dizzee Rascal is as well-known as Wiley, the Bassline Junkie is like a mainstream grime, quite opposite of Terror Danjah. True Tiger is a group who uses classical hindi music as a sample, try it, it is worth the time. Meridian Dan's German Whip has a very simple vocal but it is still catchy. Foreign Beggars used to be one of my favourite grime artists - for a few tracks, they are just too much after 15 minutes. Dels is quite odd in this playlist. His music is lyrical and more sophisticated but I think it still fits the grime genre - after all here is Dizzee's "dance-grime" tune too. If you like Dels, you can read about him on the blog here.

So prepare for some heavy beats, grimy vocals and listen in peace:

Jefe

Eskmo - SOL (2015)

I know I already recommended Eskmo's new album on the Facebook page but I wanted to write my opinion down. This album deserves it. :D When we started the blog with Tom in 2011 we shared a flat and I listened to the music Tom chose in the player. Eskmo was something I couldn't put into any boxes of my taste. You may say it is a fortunate thing because this music is so unique it deserves its own label in your head. But if you can't connect a music to others, and you stop listen to it, no other music will evoke it again. Sometimes uniqueness just sucks.


So last weekend I searched for Eskmo because I haven't listen to him and haven't heard any news of him for ages. I found that he released his album SOL in the beginning of March. Eskmo's latest album is so unique I hope I won't forget it. Just like in his same titled album (Eskmo) this time I prefer those tracks again that have vocals (Blue and Gray, Mind of War, Feed Fire, The Sun is a Drum, Can't Taste).

The whole album is a travel - it is not a coincidence because SOL was inspired by Eskmo's travels in Egypt, Costa Rica and in the US (Yosemite). As it is written on his website:

"If that sounds ambitious, that's because it is. SOL is a widescreen experience, full of diluted beats that leave acres of space for the trickle of field recordings and weaving of string sections and piano tinkering. "

So if you like it, follow this good guy on any social sites (Facebook, SoundCloud), go to his gigs and support him by ordering his white vinyl.

Jefe

Romare - Projections (2015)

The first time a listened to Romare's music was a few weeks ago when I got Ninja Tune's newsletter. Nowadays I usually don't read newsletters - not even listen to the music they contain. But this time I was lucky otherwise now I would terrible miss Romare. This guy made a very great debut at Ninja Tune. His music is close to Max Graef, Bonobo, Seven Davies Jr., psychedelic music from the 70s and blues.
If you like creative music (buzzword :P) you must taste Romare's album: Projections!



Projections is very repetitive and it is simple in a very good way. When I say repetitive I don't mean house music only (Rainbow or Roots which refers the classical Detroit house scenes) but the looping of blues songs (e.g. Motherless Child, The Drifter). And when I say simple I mean Romare doesn't use too many instruments. His music is very clear and easy to understand. As I told it is simple meanwhile it is very rich, full of emotions.
I like very much that lack of samples and instruments. You can listen to the whole album and learn a lot from its tracks. You can understand the structure of melody and rhythm, you can feel how it develops or how it is heading to its end after the peak. I couldn't pick up my favourites from the album because every track has a reason why you can love it and why you'll select the Repeat option on your player. Romare, this album is 10/10, thank you!

If you like Romare, follow him on SoundCloud, Facebook or order his music (prefer vinyl!).

Jefe