Adventures in hiphop - Mixtape (January 2015)

This time I selected my favourite hiphop tracks into a mixtape that I've listened recently. The tracks are free on SoundCloud or on Bandcamp pages, and of course you can download this mixtape as well, if you're so pervert. Most of the artists are German hiphop producers, there is an Austrian guy (Mono:Massive) and you can see some North American guys too (Marco Polo, Kevin Kool). All of them are great beatmakers.
I know, the mixtape collapses twice - I just couldn't keep it in one piece but I hope, you'll like it anyway. Here it is:

Adventures in hiphop (January 2015) by Jefe on Mixcloud

I also made a playlist of those tracks, so you can download them separately. (Tracks from Hubert Daviz and Mono:Massive are on Bandcamp.)



If you like some of the artists, follow them on social sites or order their music, or just go to a party where they play: Hubert Daviz, Twit One, Fulgeance, Melting Pot Records (for Betty Ford Boys and Carpet Patrol), Melodiesinfonie, T&A Records (for The Rub), Mono:Massive, Darker Than Wax (for Kevin Kool & Phoniks), Figub Brazlevic, Bruce Missile, Bluestaeb, Klaus Layer, Feelin' Music (for S. Fidelity. These guys deserve any supports!


Jefe

The Ruffcats - The Essence vol 2.

If you think Germans can't do a great job in funk, you were mislead. It’s high time for you to know the following name: The Ruffcats.
I mean, if you prefer listenting to real funk music with a lot of hammond and trumpet with tight drums (like The Bamboos [AUS], The Haggis Horns [AUS], The Qualitons [HUN], Dokkerman [HUN]).

I found The Ruffcats on the website of MeltingPot Records which is a German – mostly – hiphop label. (MPR released The BeatPower, a compilation album I wrote on the blog before and they are responsible for Suffy Daddy’s albums too). In this case there isn’t any hiphop but funk music presented by a band. Melting Pot defined The Ruffcats as the best live bands in Germany nowadays. You can order their vinyl and/or digital releases but from some reason they made their The Essence vol.2. album free so you can download it. And by clicking the picture below, you can listen to this album:

I really like those tracks that are sort of skits or just short practices (Und, Dann) because these songs are the most creative parts of the album. You can get uptempo funk music (Ritalin Kid, Betty’s Babies) and also some chilly beach psychedelic funk (Seven of Five). Junkyard Dog starts like a funeral ceremony and then it is evolving more like Tom Waits ballade or a Tarantino-movie soundtrack.

If you want more, follow these guys on SoundCloud or on Facebook.

Jefe

Cooly G – Playin Me (2012)

I read an interview with Cooly G made by Electronic Beats Magazine a few years ago. I don’t know why but Electronic Beats presents that kind of electronic artists that haven’t impressed me at all. They are definitely talented musicians but they just make too similar music to each other. I still think that happy, uptempo music is harder to create than atmospherical, melancholic, downtempo electronic music. It is like the teenagers who usually write sad poets but cheery lines. Or the amateur filmmakers who do the same in film: serious topics, drama after drama, no humour or comedy.

But let’s get back to the artists Electronic Beats features. If I can’t have any personal impressions about/from them I can’t name any of them and never know whose music I listen to. They are almost the same. Of course Cooly G was different for me (otherwise she won’t be on the blog).
You can read her interview in Electronic Beats Magazine.

Cooly G has a label called Hyperdub. The magazine featured Cooly G's roots, her semi-professional football career, and - as a mother of two - how motherhood influences her music. I don't read many interviews but this was great because you could really know her. And that personal thing made her more interesting than the others. As I read the interview I could imagine her making her music. I think her studio could be simple, kind of Spartian but - as you will figure it out from her album -, also very effective.

Cooly G makes more kind of rnb music than electronic. As Electronic Beats wrote: Cooly G’s debut longplayer Playin’ Me (Hyperdub) is the soulful light at the end of dubstep’s long, dark tunnel. (2012)  It is also dub with a lot echoes and delays, piano, high percussion (Come Into My Room).
The instrumentals sometimes are made of quite broken beats, almost avant-garde or experimental for me (Is It Gone). Beside this the whole album has a constant flow, and I couldn’t find big, definite peaks in the tracks. While I was listening to the album Playin me I often thought „there will be the climax, a peak soon” (e.g. He Said I Said), but in the end the tracks just ended. Anyway the whole stuff is easy to listen and easy to love.

If you like underground rnb and dub(step), try Cooly G. All you can get is no theatric themes or huge solutions in music, but a very cosy atmosphere.

Find Cooly G on Facebook, on SoundCloud or on Spotify.

Jefe

Yuzame Netlabel - 4-Way Split Album (Culture)

Pisti recommended this free EP. 4-Way Split Album [Culture] contains 2-2 tracks from 4 Japanese producers at Yuzame Netlabel. Some of the tracks are more topics than music I think. There is one common thing in both: they distort vocals with some instrumentals and noises, then they make loop of them (e.g. Repeat Every Day). You may hear similar music to this when you listen to Gramatik, Flume or 20Syl. Some of the tracks are not very melodic but these guys are Japanese and you couldn’t think their stuff is easy-to-digest for Europeans. My favourites are siroPd and _yi – adustam and ΔMUNOA is just too much.

• _yi’s My Culture sounds like an electro house producer who signed to Ninja Tune. And then Nightdrive is pure hiphop.
• siroPd is a master of loops in Repeat Every Day. Creation is chip tune which makes me think of random old school video games.

If your are curious what Japanese electronic/dance music sounds today, get your free copy here and follow Yuzame Netlabel on SoundCloud.

Jefe

Hanne & Lore - Tourette de Mar (2014)

The first track I listened from Hanne & Lore was a remix of Piemont's Komboloi. When you find something special, some quality shit, you just know it from the first moment. Then you get comfortable with it, you get used to it and search for it. Addiction, you can say and this time this is true.

Hanne & Lore are a producer duo from Herford, Germany. They are well-known in their genre (more than 30k followers on Soundcloud, almost 60k followers on Facebook), they released their first EP in 2008 (source: discogs.com). I searched for a fresh release from them on vinyl, and found this: Blah.



Unfortunately I couldn't buy this record - I'm sorry but I don't like the other track enough and this isn't worth for me: 9 EUR for one track. (Man, don't blame me. I am just an executive, not a manager.) If you listen to Blah, you may recognize the genre. They are very similar to Tube & Berger's tech house (who were introduced on the blog before).

Then I found their release called Tourette de Mar and then I realized that they can't make mistake. Or they can hardly. On Tourette de Mar you can listen to 4 tracks: a pair of original-remix songs. (This time the duo Piemont made a remix of Hanne & Lore's track. Collaboration hin und zurück!)
They are more minimalistic style and less tech-house but it is still very easy to love them and get into their mood. If you like this, follow them on SoundCloud for their new tracks and mixes. Or like them on Facebook for up-to-date news.




Jefe

Ez3kiel - L U X (2014)

Ez3kiel is an ambient, dub, post rock, electronic rock etc. band. Their music is downtempo but it brings many feelings in heavy themes and could make deep impressions to everyone easily. Not happy radio music or deep house party anthems. They have been doing contemplative music since 2001. In brief: Ez3kiel is playing a dub-influenced dark post rock.



Their latest album L U X - just like the previuos LPs - is full of epic tracks. I am a big fan of their albums Battlefield, Barb4ry and they did great job again in L U X.
These guys are precise in their music - it sounds if they measure every moment of their music like a pharmacist on his/her scale. This is reflected in their artwork too: check their album covers (Handle Wtih Care, Barb4ry, Ez3kiel versus tour, Napthaline, Battlefield, Ez3kiel and the Naphtaline Orchestra, Ez3kiel Extended, L U X). They are like bizarre steampunk world mixed with some Ghost In The Shell puppies. Every steps Ez3kiel makes is great, so if you haven't met them yet, the album L U X is your perfect chance. (Follow them on Facebook.)



Listen to the L U X on Spotify:

Jefe

Too Many T's - Running Wild EP (2014)

Picture: Facebook

You may know Too Many T's from London. Leon and Roos bring an oximoron to the rap scene: they are making fresh old school hiphop music. "That actually sells." I wrote about their previous EPs here and about a month ago they released their next chapter of their history the Running Wild EP. The whole stuff is free on their website but they won't say a wrong word if you can support them with a few pounds. Anyway, let's see the Runing Wild before you go mental and run wild because of my regular bullshit. (Bullshit is after the embed EP! [: )






Salt shaker is a great intro, it summons Gramatik and the electronic hiphop scene. Scratching and sampling is just awesome, unfortunately the intro takes only one minute. The Realness is a boom track, a must to listen to. You can hear how Leon's and Ross' voice develpoed, it is clearer, they articulate better. The instruments are heavy kind of Wiley beats. The Same Thing starts with afro-funky beats and then you got real hiphop about diversity. 1992 pt. II. uses Main Source's Fakin the Funk and cuts by Featurecast, that must be enough to start the track. You can find two skit on the EP, Beatbox is okay but Simon's attitdue to rap music and his monolouge is crazy - it can be a real meme like the trader's speech in 1 Hét (HU short movie). In Better Bug you get a classic cooperative rap track where everyone have a verse - anyway I would have put this track at the end of the EP as a grand finale. Running Wild gave the name of the EP and it is not my favourite one but it is just a matter of time. I wish there were more rap tracks like Skee-Lo's I Wish nowadays...and Too Many T's made it with Wish I never. It seems Too Many T's did a favour for Simon because they made a track about drugs too, especially marijuana - lyrics is sick!

Summa summarum: the Running Wild is a great rap EP, after the Earl Necks & Round Grey remix mixtape and The T.P. EP this time the balance is perfect between the vocals and the instruments (ftw who did the mastering!). I think the EP has only one disadvantage, it is a digital release, no vinyl. :(

If you can't get enough of them, and also don't have the chance to go to their next concert (that means you live outside of the UK) just tune on Soho Radio London because they regularly have a show once a month: classic hiphop, and some fresh Too Many T's sound. For more info follow them on SoundCloud and Facebook.

Jefe