Neon Indian. Traped in a pantry with his machines.
Hiya, Ommies! It’s Friday, and that means time for some freebies to start your weekend proper. This week I’m trying out some categories because let’s face it, not all fresh-off-the-mixing-board music is great. Some weeks you can’t keep up with it all and it’s like Christmas (or whatever holiday you prefer) and other weeks you find yourself listening to Phil Collins on repeat (true story).
Love it or hate it? Feel free to email at jenboyles at gmail.
THENEWISH:
Neon Indian – Sleep Paralyst:
The 21-year-old’s music is like an electro sunset, each synth its own individual ray that warms up the tune. This track is vocal but not overpowering with a distant but optimistic vibe that kind of reminds us of Miami Horror (get familiar if you’re not, he’s great).
FRINGE:
Danny Byrd – Sweet Harmony:
Though the liquid funk genre seems to have its feet firmly planted in Londontown, it’s tracks like this that make me wish it would pick up Stateside. Byrd is a huge highlight of that city’s Hospital Records, and this track is one that will make your heart soar (either that or I’m just a total sucker for the mircrogenre). Boh!
HIP-HOP
Rye Rye – Hip-Hop Changed (Prod by Crookers):
A Baltimore breakout after Blackstarr put her on his “Shake It To The Ground” banger (circa ‘07), Rye Rye returns to rap over a well done Crookers number that for once doesn’t sound like it’s trying to strip you of your hearing forever.
A weekly feature here on the Om blogs starting today, JB’s Friday Free-4-All aims for one thing: no file expunging from downloader’s remorse. Let me know if you like the tracks and post your own in the comments if you have any to share with us this go-round.
1. Nneka feat. Jay Electronica – Walking (J. Period Mix)
Nneka is the next big soul voice in electronic music, highlighted here in this breezy jam. Another one to check out if you like mystical d&b is a Chase & Status remix of her song “Heartbeat”.
3. Jason Tyler – EZ2LUV
Chicago/Miami producer Jason Tyler strikes gold in really capturing the soul of millennial house music but with a newish twist reminiscent of Armand and A-Trak’s Duck Sauce project. Is heavy sampling on the upswing?
5. Green Velvet feat. Kid Sister – Everybody Wants
Easily one of Kid Sister’s best tracks to date, “Everybody Wants” really hones in on her rhyme style, and GV’s sparse but dirty beats are a perfect compliment to her vocals.
Posted by: Jen Boyles on March 5, 2010 @ 12:26 PM
Posted in: Free Downloads
Something incredible started happening to Chicago’s musical identity in 2006: It branched beyond Kanye. Seemingly overnight, artists like Kid Sister, Flosstradamus, The Cool Kids, Mano, Mic Terror and many more came to the forefront to show their middle fingers to that “second city” complex and blew up without hesitation. Some called it New Chicago, some called it juke, but Shala called it the movement. One of the city’s leaders then and even more so now is Olusola Akintunde a.k.a. Shala, whose Movement collective helped to jump-start the careers of at least a few of these new players (Hollywood Holt and Mano most notably). While Shala spent most of his time back in those days hyping up his city and focusing on the others, he’s finally grown some sense and honed in on his own music — which just so happens to be a ear-pleasing merging of brilliantly penned Southside rap, soul, funk and hands-down unapologetic attitude. Peep “Getty”: As Africans we own thangs, we don’t know no better / You say we live on HUD, Your crib be Rent-A-Center / Never get it f’ed up, Africans we hustlas / Everything for sale, we chargin’ you to give a f***
Make sure you check the link at the end of the interview and get yourself some new tunes.
What makes Shala. unique?
I’m Nigerian so I’ve always had a musical world view that’s influenced by everything around me — ignorant, intelligent, classical. I’m definitely a leader and know I’m supposed to do something really big with this music, something beyond attention from girls and getting in trouble all the time.
Describe your sound in one or two phrases.
Electro rock with funky soul Nigerian pop. They’d come see that motherfucker wouldn’t they?
How do you feel about rap music right now?
Now more than ever it’s a movement of underdogs and that’s what hip-hop has always really represented. I live in Chicago and it’s an underdog city, so you’ve got the underdogs in the underdog city winning.? Right now, Chicago has a need to express itself and a unification of that need gathers into a voice so loud no one can ignore it.
How would you describe your city?
Chicago is in the middle so all the influences came from all over the place. It’s the flower that’s growing out of that concrete and is amazing because No. 1, it grew out of concrete and No. 2, it’s gonna be beautiful because everybody that walked past it watered it. People call it a little brother to New York but there’s more to the story. It’s that little brother that thinks he’s lame because his big brother is so great, but ends up being super great after he gets past himself. Lupe [Fiasco] showed us we can make it from just being who we are. Kanye still shows us you can be player and make it. Look at Hollywood Holt – he looks eclectic and very rock and roll. He doesn’t look like the kind of cat that would beat your ass, but people know. We surprise you out here.
For the last several years, Chicago has been a bit about the juke. What’s juke music?
Juke means move. Someone asks you, ’How’s the party?’ You say, ’It’s juking’. When you see black people juking in the 1940s, they’re having a good time ain’t they? Jumping around, flipping each other around, having an amazing time. Chicago juke is just fast dance-party rap.
Valentine’s Day is over but the warm-and-fuzzy vibes are still thick around here, friends. House music O.G. DJ Sneak was feeling the love this year too, as evidenced by his mix of luscious R&B, poppy hip-hop and feel-good dance tracks for A-Trak’s Fool’s Gold label. ‘For The Ladies Vol. 1’ was released as a podcast for the imprint (subscribe here) and features everyone from A Tribe Called Quest to Jill Scott to N*Sync (yep). The whole thing’s carried off at a cozy but bumpin’ BPM and is sure to make any jaded soul smile.
Posted by: Jen Boyles on February 17, 2010 @ 9:27 PM
Posted in: Music
Big Jess and MaD SoN of the Unknown Prophets are part of the thick web of indie hip-hop woven around the Twin Cities, home of Rhymesayers Entertainment. Out here, if you’re not on Rhymesayers or Doomtree records, you’re on your own — quite literally. But the UPs are like the Switzerland of Minnesota rap — they’re not affiliated and they’re just fine with that, thanks. We sat down with the two MCs who have grown from rappers on the corner to daddies with a mortgage, and here’s what they had to say. Check out the two tracks for free download at the end of this post – “Forever” feat. Swedish MC Promoe is the answer to the UPs first single, “Never” feat. Slug.
Some people say you make rap for grown folks. What say you to that?
MaD SoN: Our music has matured and grown with us throughout the years. Being a great battle MC is not as important as being a great father and husband these days. We have always written music with themes that mattered to us at the time we wrote it. Our fan base has grown with us. We used to see teens to 20-somethings at our shows and now a majority of our fan base is 25 to 35 years old.
Big Jess: I like the fact we’re true to the music we make. We don’t write about a life we don’t live. We don’t party like we used to, so we don’t write about partying like that anymore. Our music tends to be on some “Grown Man sh*t”.
You’re one of the few Minnesota hip-hop groups not on Rhymesayers or Doomtree. Would you call yourselves underdogs?
Mad SoN: Everyone loves an underdog…but it can also get annoying after a while. We are definitely ready to shed that title. I’d rather us be known for making great music album after album. Being able to grow musically but still stay true to our positive message and themes. We are true DIYers. We write, record, mix, promote, and perform our own music. We have fans that stretch from California to Greece, from Canada to Japan and from Germany and Sweden. Not bad for a couple guys from Northeast Minneapolis.
How did you and Jess meet initially?
We met in high school. Jess had been writing/performing rap music since junior high — his dad was a incredible jazz/blues guitarist so he would record using his equiptment. I was a guitar player in a bunch of rock bands. My nick name was “Banger Mike” — ha. Jess hung out with the basketball players and I hung out with the freaks. Around our junior year, we started hanging out with the same crowd — the neighborhood hoodlums — and my rock taste turned towards hip-hop. Jess asked me to play guitar on one of his songs and that is what sparked my interest in making music with him. I wrote a 16-bar verse one day and used a karaoke machine to record my verse on Masta Ace’s “Terror” song. I played it for Jess and he was shocked when I told him that it was me rapping on the song.
So when did the band really start to form?
MaD SoN: Jess had been submitting his songs to rap and R&B station KMOJ’s Rush It or Flush It. He got flushed every time! We ended up writing two songs and submitting them and they were both anonymous “rushes.” Enter the Unknown Prophets. After that, in 2000, we did a song with Slug from Atmosphere called “Never” and the rest is history.
Tell us about the first time you recorded together and how it’s different now.
MaD SoN: We recorded the Prophecy album back in 1996 in Jess’ grandma’s basement (where he was living at the time). It was recorded on reel to reels and was a long process. We loved to record back then, and still do today. Today though, we have the ability to record on our own time without feeling rushed. We can bounce ideas back and forth with each other now when we want. Jess and I both put in an equal amount of writing the music nowadays whereas in the past Jess handled most of the production. Recording the final project at Jess’ home studio is always interesting. When we both combine our ideas it always turns out amazing in the end.
How do you define your style of production?
Big Jess: That’s a hard one. I listen to a bit of everything and somehow a bit of it gets thrown into the creative pot.
Are you happy with the amount of success the UPs have had?
Big Jess: Yes, I’m happy. Of course you want more, but we’ve done this for 10 years with no budget and no label. We’ve done pretty well.
The merciless crunch upon the magazine industry still heard via an echo of unemployment this past decade seems to foster two very distinct points of view among readers: Going digital is either a sign of failure or the new frontier. Though there’s nothing like glossy pages and heavy cardstock covers under your fingers, mags are turning out to share a similar destiny as vinyl — there will always be a craving for them in certain circles, but the mainsteam trend points at those three little w’s.
This brings us to Self-Titled magazine, a New York-based online publication with six digital issues under its belt featuring the likes of Jay Reatard (RIP), School Of Seven Bells, Florence & The Machine and more. It comes out dukes-up on its social media profiles, claiming to be “reinventing what it means to be a music magazine in an age of blogs and half-baked writing.”
That kind of statement’s got some bite to it, but in a way that makes you want to know more.
On it’s Facebook page: “Self-Titled is a music magazine that has nothing to do with music. At least not in the traditional sense of self-important ‘criticism’ and profiles that read like regurgitated press releases. Yes, we print reviews and full-on artist features, but we also pride ourselves on answering the questions others don’t ask.”
Now, this is all kind of interesting because they also run a blog, but damn if this didn’t make us want to crack open an issue (virtually, of course), the latest of which you can read here here.
From Mirrors to Muse and Kasabian to Calvin Harris, the UK is churning out exciting new artists like we’re at the end of times — perhaps they know something we don’t. Late last year, The Guardian released their top 40 greatest bands list and some of our favorites definitely got the shaft (as did Bowie, who is probably still furrowing his brow at being placed below The Streets). One group we’re sure will make those ubiquitous year-end lists in 2010 is a UK foursome called Scanners, whose debut single, “Salvation” will appear on their February full-length “Submarine” produced by Stephen Hague (famous for his production with legendary New Order, who, like Scanners, know their way around a moog).
Curiously, the band’s debut will be released stateside on Hollywood dance scene kingpin Steve Aoki’s label, Dim Mak, which traditionally puts out electronic cuts. Scanners, on the whole, are a very full-sounding indie band with the ferocity of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the gritty, organic feel of Siouxie.
We’re told remixes are forthcoming from not only the band itself but Don Diablo, Tittsworth, Dan Sena, and Dirty Disco Youth.
