Users
DOWNLOAD: DJ Signify - Low Tide (feat. Aesop Rock)
Post-apocalyptic and experimental, the beginning of this track appears to merge eerie krautrock with light DJ scratch techniques. But patience, patience; slowly it builds into a ripping rap about the war, dope, “project gunway, project runway," and symbolic low tides. By the end of the song, we guarantee you’ll be beating your head to the beat and pressing repeat. Based out of Brooklyn, DJ Signify has been a man around the turntables since the nineties but continues to carve abstract and experimental beats into the classic hip hop formula.
Sounds Like: Sage Francis, Alias, Restiform Bodies
EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD: Cars and Trains - Sometimes Falter, Sometimes Sway (Meanest Man Contest Remix)
You know when Beck went through that funked-out post-hip hop jazz phase around the time of Odelay- even recruiting jazz guitarist Charlie Haden to record with him? The Meanest Man Contest remix of this electronic track by Cars and Trains track sounds similarly inspired - like an almost rusted, backyard jazz party that you have to keep lo-fi so the neighbors won't yell at you. The beat has got a delayed Afrika Bambaataa groove while various guitars, whistles, chimes, and guitar cymbals ebb and flow like they're 10-leagues-under-the-sea.
Sounds Like: Beck, Cars and Trains, DJ Shadow, Bookashade
Download: Meanest Man Contest - We Wouldn't Want It Any Other Way (Débruit remix)
EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD: Restiform Bodies - Pick It Up Drop It (Feat. Genghis Tron Remix)
.jpg)
Atmospheric hip hop sound like an oxymoron? Experimental hip hop crew Restiform Bodies have apparently managed to create just that. While the lyrics are a heavy dissertation against commercialism: junkies, bargain hunters, animal control, and strip malls, Genghis Tron has added waves of synths and light lasers to surround the song in a light, airy haze. Takes down-tempo to a new level.
Exclusive New Download: Restiform Bodies - Pick It Up Drop It (Feat. Genghis Tron Remix)
Download: Evidence - For Whom The Bell Tolls (Feat. Phonte, Blue, And Will.i.am)
True, while RCRD LBL has a plethora of indie rock, punk, folk, etc, we've featured a comparatively light amount of hip hop jams - but we're getting more in the game these days. First we featured the sick track "Life In Marvelous Times" by Mos Def. Now, we bring you one by Michael "Evidence" Perretta (who's a member of Dilated Peoples). I've had this track running through my head for a few days now. The beat is slow and mellow- (after all Evidence is know as Mr. Slow Flow), so it forces you to concentrate on the lyrics that weave the John Donne poetry title with inquiries about Obama, starched jeans, being mad at God and being inspired by the fire that inspires us. Not to mention his buddies Phonte, Blue and Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas give shout-outs in the background.
Sounds Like: Pete Rock, Dilated Peoples, Ice Cube, Black Milk
Download: Evidence - For Whom The Bell Tolls (feat. Phonte, Blu, And Will.i.am)
CMJ: STREAM: Hollywood Holt - Hollywood
.jpg)
This year Hollywood Holt is more ubiquitous at CMJ than skinny jeans and Raybans. But Hollywood Holt – due to his feverish will, talent, and necessary good humor, will hopefully remain far longer than some feeble fashion trend. The Chicago-based rapper is part of the same Chicago crew as The Cool Kids and Million Dollar Mano, that’s been packing basements for years (thanks to Flosstradamus’ Abbey Pub nights) while recently making national buzz and magazine covers. Like The Cool Kids, Holt can sling slow lyrics about mopeds, girls, and life’s positives (rather than ‘haterville’ negatives) over old-school hip hop beats. But he’s also adds a bit more spice with fast and funny zingers, energetic stage jumping (the guy’s like the mighty mini energizer bunny of hip hop) and electro synths, drums, and sporadic disc scratching thanks to producer Mano. Let us make it clear: this year’s Hollywood’s year. Look forward to him bounding onto a stage near you.
Hollywood Holt's CMJ Schedule:
Oct 24th R Bar 7 pm
Arlene's Grocer 1:30 am
October 25th 205 Club
Sounds Like: The Cool Kids, Million Dollar Mano, Spankrock
Stream: Hollywood Holt - Hollywood
DOWNLOAD: Big Gipp - Hot (Treasure Fingers, KLEVER & Rob Wonder Remixes)
Big Gipp’s probably best known as an original member of Goodie Mob, the crazily awesome Atlanta hip-hop group that gave rise to a then-unknown Cee-Lo. Yet again for their extensive remix series, the people at Scion A/V have pulled another somewhat-forgotten rapper from obscurity and paired him up with some ace remixers-du-jour, roping in fellow ATL natives KLEVER, Treasure Fingers, and Rob Wonder to re-work a Gipp track called “Hot”. We actually couldn’t manage to find an original version of this song anywhere on the internet (feel free to shoot us one in the comments) and Gipp’s sticky grunt is only sprinkled throughout less-than-half the tune, so obviously the focus here is on the remixes. All three make for some pretty bumpable rave moments, but if we had to pick a winner it’d be Rob Wonder’s devastating Bmore-like take, if only because Gipp saying “Get burnin’ up…” on loop with a crazy amount of reverb is something we could listen to for hours.
Sounds like: Aaron LaCrate, Tittsworth, EPMD
Download: Big Gipp - Hot (Rob Wonder Remix)
Download: Big Gipp - Hot (Treasure Fingers Remix)
Download: Koushik - Bright And Shining
.jpg)
These days we just can't get enough of the Ontario-based super star mixer/vocalist Koushik. "Bright and Shining" is festive 70s disco, with cloudy Beatles vocals, heavy cymbals, and a creative double drum cycle that's almost got a go-go beat. "Lying in the Sun" is perfect for doing just that, with shimmering lo-fi beat and day-dreamy lyrics. Though admittedly a CD for summer, Koushik can brighten up any day.
Sounds Like: Four Tet, RJD2, DJ Shadow
EXCLUSIVE ALBUM STREAM: Reefer - Reefer
Why, oh why, did Nick Thorburn and Daddy Kev meet at SXSW, get together on Maui, copulate musical ideas to have the due date land on October 14? It's just not fair that this project, christened Reefer for some reason or other, is being presented to the world as summer is dying. This mini album is six sun-bleached songs - including a crooning "Blue Moon" cover worthy of the soundtrack to a modern Blue Hawaii - and three interludes - beginning with crashing waves and two different voices telling us, "you're not seeing the forest through the weed, man," and "the safest way to say hello is 'aloha'." The scene is set. We are firmly in Hawaii, a welcome change from the cold of Montreal and the bustle of LA, and we are invited on Nick T. and Daddy Kev's sonic vacation. While you're sitting inside today, looking at turning and falling leaves, put on the head phones and get swept away in Reefer's gorgeous tropical vacation narrated by Nick T. in his most uniquely lovely work since the Unicorn's Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone.
Sounds Like: Islands, the Unicorns, the Shangri-La's, Lemonade, Computer Perfection
Previous Download:
Download: Reefer - Let It Go (Flying Lotus Remix)
DOWNLOAD: dOP - Cum With Me
.jpg)
The Parisian trio, dOP took on its current form after personal tragedy, the sudden death of their guitarist. But rather than let their mourning affect the tone of their music, Dam, Clement and Jo embraced a sort of wary optimism, as well the structural templates of dance music. But their free spirited approach to music in the first place (aided by the mentoring duo of French pranksters, Noze) meant these "constraints" were actually be great opportunities. Now the group often skronks, slinks, slouches, slugs and sates in their jazz-inflected style to a swinging beat. This rather unique sound has landed the band spots on Milnor Modern, Circus Company and Orac Records.
The two tunes we have for you display both ends of the dOP spectrum: "Between the Blues," from the EP of the same name, finds the trio channeling the Neptunes' Pharrell Williams, cobbling together a drippy/blippy hip-hop beat over which Jo launches his slant rhymes. By contrast, "Cum With Me" is the band's twisted take on straightforward house, heavily pocked by sax blurts, ostinato synth riffs and helium-breathed vocals. It's easy to grapple with the titular double entendre while letting your hindquarters decide what's best, a trait dOP makes maximum use of. Their birth may have coincided with tragedy, but dOP's open-minded, malleable sound seems to predict a bright and quirky future.
Sounds Like: Noze, Gnarls Barkley gone house, Outkast
Site developed by Gelo Factory
