(Special Post) - Murk Daddy Flex - Third Compilation

Band / Artist: Murk Daddy Flex
Year: 2013
Genre: Bastard Pop, Chillout, Hip-Hop Beats

My Review:

So here is a musician that I was really enjoying. When someone sends me an email with music to share it always makes me happy, and the fact that its almost all good music being sent to me makes me even happier. It shows me that the people out there making the music really do want you to like their stuff, and they want you to keep it not just because of it being free, but because you like it that much.

But anyway... meet Murk Daddy Flex. The name sounds silly, the song titles are funny in a random reference of passing moments sort of way. He's pretty humble about his work too.

I would just say experimental sample based hip hop. Honestly all I have is audacity and a guitar hero mic so I just splice things together from different sources and record melodies and bass(so there wouldn't be much to take pictures of).

 I'll review below the interview.

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Jumbly Music: It's nice to meet you. How are you doing?

Murk Daddy Flex: It's nice to met you too. I'm doing well. My school is on spring break right now so its been nice and relaxing

Jumbly: So, whats your back story? Who all is in the group?

M D F: I was bored one day and started making beats really enjoyed it, and just kept doing that and here I am a year later. It's just me really.

Jumbly: Where are you from?

M D F: I was born in India, grew up in Cherry Hill, NJ, and moved to Georgia. I live in Athens cause I go to UGA.

Jumbly: Do you find it influences your style and your music much?

M D F: Haha, not really.

Jumbly: I would suppose there isn't a huge India, or New Jersey sound in there, but hell, inspiration comes from anywhere. Who makes your album art?

M D F: It's just pictures I find of tumblr so far, But for the next one, I'm getting my room mate and my other friend who are both artists to make something cool,

Jumbly: Do you tour much? Ever doing a tour through the US?

M D F: I'm only playing my first show on the 27th(opening for DJ Shadow), much less tour haha. Ideally, i would love to. I've gone on tour with my other band, and its a great way to see the country.

Jumbly: What way do you think is best to enjoy your music? Would you consider it good date music, driving music, chillout music, etc?

M D F: People have told me that its great chillout music. Personally i think it'd be best to listen to while walking.

Jumbly: Do you like giving away your music for free? Do you hope to continue or would you rather move to a pay system?

M D F: I do enjoy giving music away for free. At this point it's just more about trying to gain exposure. I would like to continure releasing music on a donations based system, and hopefully make some money by leasing beats and selling physical copies.

Jumbly: Do you have any sounds/ bands/ or pieces of art that you admire or try to emulate with your music?

M D F: I find myself really influenced by nujabes. Thats what got me into intrumental hip hop in teh first place. I also find myself really influenced by music outside the genre. For example, the band title fight, has perfect song structures and transitions that i try to emulate.

Jumbly: If anyone wanted to do a collaboration with you, would you be interested?

M D F: Yes, I would love to.

Jumbly: How should they get in touch with you?

M D F: My email is terry504@uga.edu
or just on facebook im not picky

Jumbly: What kinds of projects do you really want to do in the future?

M D F: At the moment I'm working on a collab with Jubee of Jubee and the morning after so that should be out in the near future, but other than that, I really havent given it much thought

Jumbly: Are there any bands on here that you're into currently? What do you think they did right, or should change in their follow-up?

M D F: I really liked Title Fight's most recent release, Floral Green. They have some of the best song structures and all of their parts last for the perfect amount of time. Gold Panda is really cool too. The way he uses samples is great.

Jumbly: Do you follow the blog? What would you like to see more of? Or any suggestions?

M D F: I have checked it out and I think its great. It's awesome to have a place for free music that is good. It has everything that a standard bog should. Maybe more youtube videos? because those are a really easy way to check out a band or artist, but I know thats not always available.

Jumbly: I've been toying with the Youtube idea. Sometimes its easy to do, other times I figure I should spend the extra time writing up reviews for other bands or getting together more singles. I'm glad you like the blog though, I sure as hell like your work.

Do you know any other great sites that people should check out? What about any other bands?

M D F: some bands that I think are good:
Pygmy lush
Cerce
Cara Beth Satalino
Nujabes
Lemuria
Dead in the Dirt

Jumbly: Thanks a bunch for sharing your music with me.
I have one last question. What special skills do you have? Can you fix a car, or make your own whiskey?

M D F: haha I'm not very skilled in useful things. Lets see, I can skip a rock pretty well and I'm also pretty good at the game cornhole.

_____________________________

..and we end an interview with the word cornhole. My childhood immaturity rears its ugly head.

Okay so the music. He says hiphop. I almost completely disagree. It has an element that reminds me of Pogo, with the whispery soft voices of people used as an instrument by being chopped and layered.

You may think you're in for this

But really its more of this.

I have enjoyed this stuff as chillout music for a few weeks while settling into some new roles in my life. (Its why the blog has been a little more slow recently.) It has such a jazzy element, and a feel of old musicals and film scores, it just has done wonders giving me something soft to turn back to when I'm too busy to think. You really should check his stuff out.

Murk Daddy Flex - Third Compilation

Wiccans - Field II LP

Band / Artist: Wiccans
Year: 2012
Genre: Punk, Hardcore

My Review:
Hot DAMN, I was not expecting the balls on this one. Its MEAN, in a really good way. I saw the name Wiccans, and thought it'd be kind of a more mellow thing, but it is very strong hardcore punk with a taste of metal  and some old southerner rock in there.

A little about the band. They are a 5 member hardcore band out of Denton, Texas (near Dallas). They are using 3 labels; Hardware, Pass Judgement, and a new favorite, Kartoga Works. Here's their Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/wiccanspunk

It has moments that sound like the Blue Oyster Cult, and then a vocalist that makes me think of a young frontrunner to Fear Factory. All together, it makes for a nice, somewhat short, but overall very satisfying album to grab. Big thanks to Kartoga Works for being such a badass record label.

Wiccans - Field II LP

*Edit; Kartoga has their site down for some upgrades, so I redirected through to their release message on icoulddietomorrow, another music blog*

Low Leaf - Alchemizing Dawn

Band / Artist: Low Leaf
Year: 2012
Genre: Harps, Dream Pop, Indie pop, Electronic, Neo-Soul

My Review:
This one sounds very similar to Little Dragon, but with more of a focus on analogue instruments, and a less funk-oriented sound (or at least depending on the track). The mixture of hip-hip, harp soundscapes, indie pop,and dream pop has apparently picked up the name Neo-Soul? It has melody and a good sound that I enjoyed enough to hunt down more.


 

Low Leaf is just one lady, and shes got really talented hands. Seriously, I would love to see her play live with all the skill she's been able to have while freestyling. She's also big into style and art, and so like all arty-style people, she's got a Tumblr account.

http://lowleaf.tumblr.com/

And I don't much like myself for doing this, because looks and music really should not be involved with one another, and it's easy to see this as demeaning....  but she is so cute.

Sorry, sorry. I digress. Here's her facebook profile.
https://www.facebook.com/eatLowLeaf 

And now, go check out the album

Low Leaf - Alchemizing Dawn

Free Studio Givaway: SALT Motion Picture Soundtrack

Band / Artist:James Newton Howard
Year: 2010
Genre: Film Score, Soundtrack

My Review:
SO excited that I could get to do this, especially since the blog still hasn't hit its 1 year mark yet. I've been chatting with some really interesting people over the course of the last two months, and I wanted to make some big things happen on this blog as much as possible.

One group I ended up in touch with was a pretty huge studio name, Remote Control Studios. They gave me a starter to see how well the attention I'd get from it was. LO AND BEHOLD, that starter is from James Newton Howard, who helped score The Dark Knight, The Hunger Games, Waterworld.. I'm very humbled and impressed. So what exactly would they give me? It all ties back to that lovely Angelina Jolie. Here's the simple IMDB page.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0944835/

This is a spy thriller through and through, with lots of action sequences, and the score reflects that. Its a mix of techno and orchestral pieces, that I really thought was under-appreciated by a lot of people.

So the hope is that enough people come through the site that the recording studio gets attention for giving away a soundtrack from a few years ago, and they in turn, spread my blog to other studios along with a good word. If that happens, who knows what kinds of artists might start giving away free music here! I'm so freaking excited I can't even begin to tell you.

So without any further bantering, I hope that you LOVE this one enough to share it with your friends.

SALT Motion Picture Soundtrack by James Newton Howard

Clemens Eduard Haipl - 330rawson

Band / Artist: Clemens Eduard Haipl
Year: 2005
Genre: Synthpop, New Age, Lo-fi, New Wave, EBM

My Review:
My first look at the cover yielded a "....What?". Its a strange album. Strange, but not bad.
If you liked Space Dimension Controller then you'll likely enjoy this. 

Some of it is heavily steeped in the synthpop genre, and some has newagey moments and some lo-fi video-gamey elements. Everything sounds just a hair to the left of what I’d expect to hear on various New Wave and EBM nights at a goth club crossed over with the music from Katamari Damacy, the most entertianing nonsense game out there. Some of it is in English, while the rest is mostly in german I think. The vocals have a lot of synth processing in some spots.
 
As far as the man himself, He lives in Vienna. He was one half of the band Cell1110, and is apparently a very prolific guy in Austria. Hell if I can find much more info, I don't speak German. I'm pretty sure I did find him on Google+ though.


https://plus.google.com/113120146981058885839/posts

And back to the album. It isn't 100% there, but its a pretty good freshman album. I only hope that he keeps making music and really works on his mixing and secondary production skills.

Clemens Eduard Haipl - 330rawson

3 days left - Josh Garrels Megapack

Band / Artist: Josh Garrels
Year: 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012
Genre: Breakbeat, Folk Pop, Jazz Rock, Modern Classical, Indie

My Review:
I posted the B-sides for Love & War a good while back, but then I saw this the other day and thought it might be time to revisit Mr. Garrels..

Its a very extravagant sort of folk/ndie. I don't really know what else to call it. At one of his shows he had a short talk about it, and he said "I'm not sure what to call myself...so I say folk".

SO the point of this mega-share is saved in a quote.

From March 14 to March 28, all 5 of Josh Garrels' most current albums will be available for free, exclusively on Noisetrade. This free catalog of music is given as a gift, but 100% of the tips received for any and all of the 5 albums will be given to World Relief and their courageous work in Congo. Congo is currently the most unstable, violent, and impoverished country in the world, with thousands displaced due to warring factions and a majority of the women suffering from gender based violence. Please consider leaving a tip, and in so doing, becoming a partner in the work for restoration in Congo. Thanks.

So I'd imagine that it would be worthwhile to donate a little to this one if you feel like supporting a good cause. I'm always happy when people do this. As always, enjoy, and share with others.

 5 Albums By Josh Garrels

Extra - New York's Alright 2013 Preview

 So in April, there is going to be a punk festival in New York. They released a sampler of the kinds of thrashing, oldschool punk that will be played there.

10 tracks, by 5 bands;  
Altered Boys,
Bad Noids,  
CREEM,
Hounds Of Hate,
Nomad  

I'm not a very huge fan of the Oldschool punk, probably because I came of age during the first wave of less-punky-punk in the 90s. I can still appreciate what it is, and hopefully some of the punkers out there will appreciate this one for what it is. Raw, abrasive, arrhythmic, and pissed.

Alright Festval 2013 Sampler

Poetic Death - Darcia

Band / Artist: Poetic Death
Year: 2012
Genre: Hip-Hop

My Review:
Some pretty nice garage hip-hop by Chad Marshall. The dark cover doesn't hint to how smooth and emotive parts of the album feel. Here's his website.

http://www.poeticdeath.com/#243/custom_plain

One thing I always disliked about hip-hop and rap is that it rarely talks about anything. Music should always do something for the mind, and not just tickle the “Food, fighting, and fucking” part of the id.

The album rides along a tone of nostalgia for a lost lover in the aftermath of a huge breakup. I recommend it if you're a fan of R&B or would be, its a humble, underrated album with a lot to offer.

Poetic Death - Darcia

Los Subliminales - La gente llora​, La gente miente

Band / Artist: Los Subliminales
Year: 2013
Genre: Indie Rock,

My Review:
Looks like more and more musicians are hitting up the blog. That makes me really excited. I got this one a little while ago, and I'm going through and listening and I enjoy it, indeed. review later on.

_____________________________

Jumbly Music: It's nice to meet you. How are you doing in this fresh year?

Los Subliminales: Very well, we are very happy with this opportunity.

Jumbly: So, whats your back story? Who all is in the group?

LS: Really we are two school friends that we started a band, a lot of great people pass through our band, and about three years ago, we find our definitive formation and started to find our sound to make a record.

Jumbly: Where are you from?

LS: We are all from Santiago, Chile.

Jumbly: I believe that you guys are the first band to show on here from Chile. Awesome. Do you find it influences your style and your music much?

LS: Yes, there is actually a lot of Chilean and South American rock, especially Argentinian that we like. there is a strong influence of the British rock, since the Beatles in the Chilean rock sound, and we think that kind of sound plays a huge influence over our music.

Jumbly: Who makes your album art?

LS: A friend of the band, she is called Natalia Muñoz, she is graphic designer and illustrator (@hazzy). We give her total creative freedom to make the art while she listen the progress of the record process and she make the beautiful illustration that is the cover of the our first EP.

Jumbly: Do you tour much? Ever doing a tour through the US?

LS: With the launch of our EP, we gain a lot of attention and we are playing constantly in Santiago, our goal in the short run is to play gigs in other cities of our country and maybe in a year play in other countries like Argentina or Peru

Jumbly: What way do you think is best to enjoy your music? Would you consider it good date music, driving music, chillout music, etc?

LS: mmmm our music is winter music. In our country we have very rainy and cold winters, I think that kind of weather plays a huge influence in our sound, a kind of melancholic and sometimes aggressive sound.

Jumbly: Interesting answer, very fitting to New Wave. I like it.

Do you like giving away your music for free? Do you hope to continue or would you rather move to a pay system?

LS: Yes, we think that charge people for your music is way to old schooled, we prefer giving away the music for free, play more gigs and get more exposure, maybe in some years we release our music under the model of pay if you want to, like Radiohead.

Jumbly: Do you have any sounds, bands, or pieces of art that you admire or wish you could emulate with your music?

LS: Yes, we are very influenced by the Post-punk movement of the UK, we like a lot the clash, joy division and new order. in the future we like to try more dance sounds to our music, adding drum machines and things like that. You could say that right now we are trying to emulate in our version the sound of the Madchester movement

Jumbly: I had to do some research there, but it is a really interesting area to spend some time reading about. If anyone wanted to do a collaboration with you, would you be interested?

LS: Of course, we always like to get in touch with creative people.

Jumbly: How should they get in touch with you?

LS: to our mail: lossubliminales@gmail.com

Jumbly: What kinds of projects do you really want to do in the future?

LS: Right now, we are preparing a to make visual intervention when we play live, project images over our body when we playing and arrange our live show, and also we like to record a video and in the second semester we enter the record studio again.

Jumbly: Sounds like it could come out pretty trippy if you do it right. What would you like to see more from the blog?

LS: I think the blog is pretty great, its awesome that you take the time to listen music from all over the world.

Jumbly: Do you know any other sites that people should check out? What about any other bands?

LS: super45.net independent music from chile, there is an explosion of new music here, the media called the new wave of Chilean pop, you should listen to then, they are very good.

Jumbly: Thanks a bunch for taking the time to share your music with this blog. You guys are great.
I have one last question... Do you think lobsters have an afterlife?

LS: hahahah maybe

___________________________________________

On to the review.

There is a certain dancey indie pop sound to this, reminding me of something like The Rapture, although this band is more closely connected to New Order or other post-punk, new wave bands. It has a sound using many of those elements, the electric/acoustic guitar sound, the simple two-hit drums, the slightly synth-y sound that saturates the perfomance, and the use of stronger guitars during the breaks in the lyrics. I'll also mention how nice it is to hear something come from South America, and reference a very british musical movement. (Its similar to the joy I had hearing the Motown style funk coming from a Harbour City Electric, who hails from New Zealand.)

I enjoyed this, but was kind of hoping that the vocals would come through a little more clearly in some parts, and maybe even pull back a little in others. Its always nice to see variation in clarity and volume used as an element to the music.

Anyhow, this is a shorter album that would still go great alongside a decent mix of other lighter rock bands, and would make a strong playing for a mix. Enjoy it.

Los Subliminales - La gente llora​, La gente miente

Pretty Lights - The 2010 trilogy

Band / Artist: Pretty Lights
Year: 2010
Genre: Electro, Trip-hop, Bastard Pop

My Review:
 Play this
https://soundcloud.com/prettylights/sets/pretty-lights-2010-ep-trilogy

Derek Vincent Smith, the man, the mystery, the music. 
He's from Fort Collins, Colorado, and he's fresh into his thirties. He makes you dance.

He heads the Pretty Lights Music record label, which gives away their music for free, but asks for a donation via PayPal. All members of the label try to make all their money from touring and tips, which is an incredible thing to see someone do well in.

In 2010, his music career had begun to kick off pretty well, so he decided that during his touring, he'd make this trilogy of albums. He got everything together and cranked out his first on March 2nd, Making Up A Changing Mind.

By July 29th, he dropped Spilling Over Every Side.

And had the finale out by October 22nd, Glowing In The Darkest Night.

Here is his website.
http://www.prettylightsmusic.com/#/home

This set of albums has a ton going on. Trip-hop layouts, Electro and Dubstep effects, tons of Mashups from old Funk and R&B, as well as a ton of other places. It all melds together really well, creating a lush, funky Bastard Pop sound that makes you want to dance badly with your friends. I strongly encourage you to grab these three, and then go back to his website and drop him a couple bucks so he can get a cheeseburger or a beer.

Pretty Lights - Making Up A Changing Mind
Pretty Lights - Spilling Over Every Side
Pretty Lights - Glowing In The Darkest Night

 

 

 

Deadfile - Deadfile

Band / Artist: Deadfile
Year:2012
Genre: Post-rock, Blues, Mashup, Neo-Classical, Dark Jazz

My Review:
I'm not a big fan of post rock. I was sort of a few times, but I've never been able to really embrace it. In my quests I have found many things bordering on the post rock genre that I do enjoy, and this is one that I would definitely consider as having a shot of being in that list.

This album is a rich mix of Neo-Classical, Dark Jazz, Post-Rock, and a strange mashup of Blues tracks into the first couple songs. It's slow, building mournful music with enough of the post-rock flavor to keep it interesting, but not enough that it turned me away.

So in summary, if you like post rock, and like violins and cellos, then you'll really enjoy giving this a chance.

Deadfile - Deadfile

Special post - Kukishi.tumblr - EP

Band / Artist: Kukishi.tumblr
Year: 2013
Genre: Punk-Rap, Alternative Hip-Hop, Dirty South, Rap, Bastard Pop, RnB, Lo-fi

My Review:
I got a rather cryptic email from a guy that was just a link to a Tumblr page. After a peek at what was there I asked the sender if it was music he was submitting, to which he replied "depends on if you like it".

Well I had a series of conversations with him after that and gave the tracks a listen in my Mardi Gras driving time, so here's what I can share with you. I edited them down to here, and made sure to omit enough to keep some of the mystery.

Just a heads up, there's some fairly blue parts in here toward the middle, but I didn't feel right editing it out.

________________________________________________

Jumbly Music: howdy. whats going on?

???: just listenin to Depreciation Guild. (ケ ≖⊿≖)ケ ..Are we interviewing now?

Jumbly: lol. yeah sure... SO where do you live? Whats the story on the music?

???: is it important where i live?

Jumbly: not directly, but it's nice to have some information about the music and the musicians.

???: It isn't totally me. and meh

Jumbly: so I'd assume that this is a shell persona in a sense

???: mmm depends on the song, but really the whole project is that. I don't put my name on the album, or ever say it in a song. I don't have any word names for the album or songs. The album name is just however you read the images of the covers.

Jumbly: do you have a persona that you'd prefer to go by? anything to make the work searchable? Why separate yourself so directly from your work?

Kukishi.tumblr: just the website name Kukishi.tumblr is what i'm sticking on stuff. Kinda starting from scratch...

Jumbly: alright. It seems like a cool idea to have the Tumblr part as an actual piece of the name. What would you say is influencing you as far as this work?

Kukishi: Umm I don't really know genres...rap and non-rap. It's very sample heavy full of everything i like, and some stuff i don't like.

Off the top of my head there's major samples of; newtral hilk motel, notorious big, ogre you asshole, bloc party, fight club, a clockwork orange, anamanaguchi, Kaiji, Animal collective, grizzly bear, Conan OBrien, BILLY STEWART, the zombies...

I'm sure theres more i'm forgetting

Jumbly: are you trying to meld the references into anything in specific? Would you say you're emulating any other artists with your work?

Kukishi: thats a weird question, the melding one

Jumbly: this is a weird interview.

Kukishi: I've done weirder :T

i guess a lot of the album with the samples i tried to use things oddly. ummm making hyped up bangers out of indie sounds, and doing things like non-4/4 time signatures and tempo changes, things that don't really happen in raphops.

Jumbly: are you planning to tour/ collaborate with others?

Kukishi: No plans to tour.

I've collab'd with people in the past and will in the future but that stuff isnt ummm...well those are one off type deals. Theres no collabs on my EP beyond the Notorious BIG verse, which doesn't really count. I don't like features on albums, they're shallow.

Jumbly: well, I haven't got much of your history or anything, so I'm just wondering, do you prefer to release your works like a hiphop mixtape, or you intend to release a full album in the future?

Kukishi: i'm going with "EP", especially since it's about the right length by the official terms of what an EP is...as decided by someone a hundred years ago for a medium we don't even remember.

Jumbly: Well doing everything from a blog would be a more forward facing way to approach it. So far you've got the EP on a blog, do you have a plan of how you'll expand that in time?

Kukishi: There's a single now too. Gonna be some more. Finishing up B-sides and trying to get a music video made

oh there is something else...for one of the music videos i had the idea of having a qt just stare into the camera for the length of the song....magibon style with less longface. and i've been having trouble getting someone to agree. if you got any qts in your readership that would be helpful.

Jumbly: I'll leave a message for volunteers. If anyone wanted to contact you about doing some kind of collaboration?

Kukishi: there's a thing on the tumblr you can send me a message with, http://kukishi.tumblr.com/ask

Jumbly: alright. Have you been following the blog, or did you have any suggestions there?

Kukishi: No idea! More porn maybe?!

Jumbly: do you have any extra artwork or photos you'd like to share in your post?

Kukishi: umm nothing in particular, want something?

Jumbly: Sure. if you don't care, I'll go with what I have.  

Kukishi:

i like calling the side-A tracks niggercore

Jumbly: well, your beats are good, and the genres chopped up and taken hold of was fun. I chuckled at the clockwork orange samples

Kukishi: I really showed self restraint on that track. It was originally 20 minutes of "DEVIL TROMBONE"

Jumbly: I have no idea what that is. but 20 minutes of it would probably be pushing it, unless you just want to fuck with people.

Kukishi: "fuzzy warbles"

Jumbly: Ohhh yeah, the quote.

Kukishi:  "DEVIL TROMBONE". That's my favorite quote from a clockwork orange. Double entendre-ing his music setup. Bitches be on their pitiful portable picnic players

Jumbly: I do love the sex scene, its hilarious, and a wonderful use of the music. That scene and the attack scene with the rest of the gang on the water are the best two in my opinion.

Kukishi: Can't take the eye scene huh?

Jumbly: No, I can take it fine, I just think that as far as cinematography goes, those two scenes are the better. specifically the attack scene, but the fuck scene is just good film that I might be biased for on the basis of hilarity.

Kukishi: I like it all so i got nothing to say. every scene in that movie is memorable and iconic in its own way.
*peers into buttcheeks* ARE YOU NOW OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN A HO-MO-SEXUAL

Jumbly: yeah, that movie is really well put together, I like to wonder what it'd have been like were it made now.

Kukishi: don't worry it'll get a horrible remake eventually. "WE'RE REALLY NOT EMULATING KUBRIK ITS.....MORE BASED ON THE BOOK"

Jumbly: I'd hate to see the remake happen, I just wonder how good it's be if it were made now.

I'll probably mention my distaste about the *niggercore* thing, and the general usage. I like to be pretty honest about the music, but I try to stay objective. My tastes aren't other peoples, and I'm not working for pitchfork.

Kukishi: you should relax on "nigger" its not going away ever, and it's post-racist now. also i'm pretty certain there's a phonetic reason its so popular

Jumbly: fair enough I suppose. I avoid it for all the hatefulness I've experienced around it

Kukishi: welp, you mah nigga now. Its not like i go around saying nigger, i'm an adult after all. Nigger is a good hype word for hype songs....better than swag anyways. 

i'm pretty sure there's something phonetically addicitive about the G sound though. nigger, faggot, swag. guh. GGGGG. real g shit. GGGGRRRRL. gangsta used to be a big word. fell to the wayside because the meaning got in the way :T

Jumbly: well as I know it, "Gangsta" was really more of a musical genre name than anything else. G-funk was the chill brother to it, but Gangsta was the east coast responding to the belligerence of the west coast style. I suppose Dre is the founder of G-funk, which says something about why it'd be more chill.

Kukishi: i never really got that side, pac/snoop/dre/NWA/etc. They were all lacking lyrically. 2srs

Jumbly: well pac, nwa and the like were more the originals of the west coast scene, it morphed over to G-funk in time.

Kukishi: snoop had his moments. growing up it was badboy all the way until it fell apart.

Jumbly: Cypress hill had a decent amount of funk to their stuff as well, but they are more of an outlier to me... Alright well lets finish up the interview bit.

Kukishi: k

Jumbly: do you want to say something about anything posted before on the blog or suggest any other bands that people should look into?

Kukishi: you ask people to review things for your blog?

Jumbly: No I don't ask them to necessarily review things, I usually ask if they like any of the other artists I've posted or if they have any other artists they'd suggest to the readers, but I'm trying that out, everyone has an opinion, and other musicians voicing an opinion about others in the field, seems like something worth trying.

Kukishi: I could gush about Ogre You Asshole all day but it probably wouldn't be a fun read. I know some guys but none of them have finished albums/mixtapes so I cant even push them. 

I couldn't review anything because i don't have the proper vocab for it. I listen to all kinds of stuff across different genres....so much so that i have a hard time getting genres unless there's something specific to it. Like...this is rap, it has rapping....this is screamo, it has screaming...this is bleepbloops, it has bleepboops, but then I listen to to rapping screamo with bleepbloops and I don't know what I'm supposed to call it, or why I may or may not like it.

Jumbly: Well that's understandable. If you wanted to say anything its cool, but I don't mind if you don't.

Kukishi: I'd say something about how the west needs to have 20 new animated series each season like japan with 2 songs book ending each show #animation #newmusic

Here have some EXCLUSIVE. gonna be a b-side track, wubwubs made out of chiptunes

Kukishi.tumblr - Chipwubho (demo)

Jumbly: Thats sounding pretty badass. Last thing, what is the most valuable thing that the internet has taught you?

Kukishi: the most valuable thing the internet taught me is that stealing isn't stealing if the thing isn't a thing, so steal all the things that aren't things.

Jumbly: alright. Well thats pretty much it. Thanks for the chat and all, I'd like to hit you up later and see if you want to do some kind of art collaboration

Kukishi: k, thanks

__________________________________________________________________ 

Now on to a review. If you read all the interview then you already partly know what I'm gonna say, and if you didn't, you're likely to be pretty "TL.DR." about a long review, so I'll make it brief.

The layout is something like a mixtape, with the album being 2 mp3s, each containing a handful of songs. Its like an mp3 version of a cassette. If you like death grips, you'll probably like this. If you enjoy bastard pop, there is plenty to appreciate in it.

Its one part mash-ups and bastard pop, one part dirty south rap, and a little garage r&b. The lo-fi part is a strength, and cutting up all the samples he's using makes it pretty fun, and it definitely does have the bones to make it some good weird rap/r&b. The lyrics have some really solid moments for this style of rap, but some of the aggressive dropping of hype words hold me back from staying in the groove in parts. 

I would say that if he keeps up making music, then a year or two worth of growth is going to leave him making some fairly grade-A alt-rap-punk-bastard-pop, which is something I look forward to seeing. Especially with that extra he tossed me. Enjoy.

Kukishi.tumblr - EP

Also, if anyone wants to be a part of his music video he's making, shoot him a message.

Carthasy - Apertures & 0110/Mindcage

Band / Artist: Carthasy
Year: 2010, 2011
Genre: Post-Metal, Prog Metal, Prog Rock, Alternative Rock


My Review:
If you have an affinity for Porcupine Tree and Tool, then this is definitely a little gem for you. They have some high minded talk describing their songs on their website..

http://www.carthasy.com/#!bio

..but they would be better served with a simple review. They do a pretty great melodic prog metal. Its good, has great layouts of the tracks, and they use effects on guitar and vocals at just the right amount to make them all pay together. I'm looking forward to a full album from them, because if this is their debut, they are likely to grow in just the right way.

My only real qualm with the band is their logo, especially from the demo they did here

Carthasy - 0110/Mindcage

The idea behind the logo seemed really decent, but that font and they way it was integrated into that logo was just irking the hell out of me. I had a few minutes to spend, so I made this.

..and figured it's implement well like this..

but regardless, enjoy the album.

Carthasy - Apertures

Bootie Loves Whitney

Band / Artist:
Year: 2012
Genre: Mashup

My Review:
A Mashup cd of Whitney Houston. I guess this happens any time a pop star dies. I don't think I mind. A couple songs don't very directly use much Whitney, and some weren't the most amazing tracks to me, but its pretty good overall. I enjoyed it enough to keep it.

I've shown stuff from Bootie before, but it might have only been stuff from Bootie Rio. In either case, here is the website for the San Francisco branch of the global Bootie Mashup empire.

http://bootiemashup.com/about/

Hope you find the album enjoyable.


Bootie US – Bootie Loves Whitney

Special post - DJ Sarcastic - Holophonic Samizdat

Band / Artist: DJ Sarcastic
Year: 2013
Genre: Dub, Lo-fi, Breakbeat, Trance

My Review:

Weirdo Techno at its finest. The album uses a mix of oldschool amen breaks, trance, and jazz elements to make the skeletons of the tracks, then fleshes them out with tons of eclectic lo-fi samplings. After that, the whole thing is simmered in some heavy dub, and served fresh.

It comes together like a trippy cross of Bonobo, Thievery Corporation,  and 90's Meat Beat Manifesto. The chillest tracks are my favorites, especially "Red Programs in American Exile", which I must've listened to on repeat for an hour.

In case you were curious about the name (I was.), here is a description from the page.

Holophonics is a binaural recording system created by Hugo Zuccarelli that is based on the claim that the human auditory system acts as an interferometer. It relies on phase variance just like stereophonic sound. The sound characteristics of holophonics are most clearly heard through headphones though they can be effectively demonstrated with 2-channel stereo speakers, provided that they are phase-coherent. The word "holophonics" is related to the concept of an "acoustic hologram".

Samizdat (Russian) [səmizˈdat]
(in the former Soviet Union)
(Communication Arts / Journalism & Publishing)
a. a system of clandestine printing and distribution of banned or dissident literature
b. (as modifier) a samizdat publication
[from Russian, literally: self-published] 

Now, onto an interview.


Jumbly: It's nice to meet you. How are you doing in this fresh year?

DJ Sarcastic: I'm doing okay. In Montreal it's really cold in February still so we're just trying to get to the spring, then I'll be doing better. Much snow and ice on the ground still. Glad to be alive in 2013 as 2012 was a pretty stressful year.

Jumbly: Ugh. I know snow is pretty to most people, but to me it instantly sets off some alarm in my head that screams "This is frozen hell. Stay away". Suffice it to say, I can empathize with your discomfort.

So, whats your back story? Who is in the group?

DJ S: I am the group, I'm DJ Sarcastic, it's just me, I make all the music.

My back story is that I've been DJing in and around Montreal, Quebec, Canada for about fifteen years and making music on my own for about ten years. I used to play in a band when I was in high school ('93) called King Hemlock too. I spent many years heavily into the local techno scene, organizing events with the Level 4 Productions crew in Montreal and DJing a lot, working at a local record store and putting out a record or two. Somewhere around 2002 I started writing music reviews for a local magazine -you have some idea of what that's like, heheh, I wrote a column called Lalla Land (cause I'm Steve Lalla)... and my musical interests really expanded, first by necessity but then by choice.

I'm a real fan of vinyl and records, and my collection now includes lots of psychedelic rock, current and older, jazz, blues, country, reggae, dub in addition to all my electronic records that're mostly techno, jungle, trip hop, dubstep and so on. The music I make now incorporates elements of electronic music, sampling, and live music, and it's really influenced by what I've been exposed to in the past. I don't write for the newspaper anymore, they folded in 2010 like 95% of print media. ;) ...

I work in an office and by night I turn into DJ Sarcastic and kick out anti-capitalist tunes in my basement.

Jumbly: Who makes your album art?

DJ S: I designed the album art myself. I've done a lot of the artwork for DJ Sarcastic, and had some help with other Level 4-related artwork from Mindlabs and a local artist called Rhys Taylor. Rhys and I did a weekly night together for a few years and he put together some great flyers for that, they're still all online here http://level4productions.com/mix.htm his stuff is pretty cool. But ya nowadays it's really easy for artists to attach visual elements to their music through youtube videos and so on. I like to do graphics and draw and everyone takes pictures nowadays; like many musicians I usually have an idea of what I want the cover to look like. So we do it ourselves.

Jumbly: Do you tour much? Ever doing a tour through the US?

DJ S: As a DJ I've played a few times in the states mostly in Vermont and have travelled to Europe. To tour a "live PA" or live set frankly I'd have to sort out some technical aspects first. My real love is playing records for people though.

Jumbly: What way do you think is best to enjoy your music? Would you consider it good date music, driving music, chillout music, etc?

DJ S: I'm not sure but I think that as a general algorithm, the more altered your state of mind is, the more you will enjoy this album. Also it should be played loud. In the past I've been more focused on making dance-floor oriented music for DJs to play in clubs and raves. The digital releases on bandcamp however are really more suited to "listening". Exposure to hypnotic visual patterns, repetitive blinking lights, spiralling patterns or optical illusions would probably make listeners more suggestible.

Jumbly: Do you like giving away your music for free? Do you hope to continue or would you rather move to a pay system?

DJ S: All my years in writing music review for a magazine, organizing events and trying to run a record label have really led me to be where I am now.

Most of what goes on in the music "industry" or the music "business" is complete B.S., a gigantic fraud and a big waste of time and stress, so I just choose to focus on the music side of things and eliminate the aspects that bother me. Today with the internet it's easy to do that, but there's always been underground, outsider and alternative music published whether in the CD, cassette or vinyl medium. I really don't have the time to deal with the concerns of the mainstream music industry, I don't feel like competing nor can I afford to compete with those out there that are really trying to sell their music, so ya, I do like giving away my music for free, and ya, I do hope to continue being able to do it.

Honestly it's a very real fear that someday soon the world wide web will become a giant store like HMV, which could actually make it difficult for independent artists to give their music away digitally anymore, we'll see what happens.

Jumbly: Do you have any sounds/ bands/ or pieces of art that you admire or wish you could emulate with your music?

DJ S: My inspirations come from a wide variety of sources but they're often artists that I feel went beyond the call of their genre or style to express themselves in a way that felt true and honest to the listener, and I'm often attracted to lyrics of political or social consequence.

My biggest influences manifest themselves in my record collecting and listening habits; over the last year or so I've been heavily admiring Phil Ochs, Townes Van Zandt, Bob Dylan, Nilsson, Gil Scott Heron, the Last Poets, or the Lost Children of Babylon, to name a few artists that range from folk and rock to hip hop. I also really admire the sounds of guys like Ripley Johnson (of Moon Duo and Wooden Shjips), Shackleton, Demdike Stare, and René Pawlowitz (Shed), Tom Russell (Truss) and Deadbeat -to name some artists who do not use lyrics or vocals as much.

In my music I don't try to emulate any of these artists so much as I try to make something new out of the old. I use a lot of samples from records that I enjoy and then I turn them into something different, so I might sample a drum roll from the beginning of the Nilsson track "Poli High" and put it together with a dub bassline that I write, so in the end it won't sound anything like the original context. I also use many spoken word samples from movies, videos and, 'cause I'm a bit of a bookworm, audio books sometimes too. My music is totally informed by the cut-and-paste hip hop sampling aesthetic, and in that sense it borrows from 1990s producers like Coldcut, DJ Food, Frankie Bones or even RZA, but my goal is to end up with music that isn't easily qualified as 'hip hop' or 'trip hop' or 'techno'. 

Jumbly: If anyone wanted to do a collaboration with you, would you be interested?

DJ S: Sure I've done some collaborations; I especially like remixing tunes, here's a recent one I did of the Quebec City techno artist Bleupulp:

Jumbly: How should they get in touch with you?

DJ S: They could e-mail me at djsarcastic at gmail.

Jumbly: Thanks a bunch for sharing your music with me.
I have one last question. William Burroughs, or Jack Kerouac?

DJ S: That's a tough one but I'm gonna have to go with Burroughs. Steely Dan, who are one of my favourite bands of all time, named themselves after the metal dildo in Burroughs' Naked Lunch, And i'm reading The Ticket That Exploded right now. I've been reading it for a few months, while I was making many of the tracks on the Holophonic Samizdat album -along with some other books, it hasn't exactly been easy to read. Really though, the answer is Gaddis. Or maybe Pynchon.



And there you have it.
Kick on a blacklight, lay back in your hammock, and enjoy the grooves dude.

DJ Sarcastic - Holophonic Samizdat

Henrik José - 2007 (New Music)

Band / Artist: Henrik José
Year: 2007
Genre: Indie pop, Bedroom Pop

My Review:

I've been listening to this for years and years. I must've found this guy around the time that he originally released it, and have been playing it ever since.

Henrik José is a singer/songwriter out of Malmo, Sweden, who sings like an angel when you're taking muscle relaxers (shush, I had a prescription.) He used to have this available on his website, along with a huge pack of work he did under the name "Bliss". This falls really close to the bedroom pop genre, with its soft, somewhat slow melodies. It is available on soundcloud now, but you have to download each track individually. Its worth it. I hope you enjoy it.

Henrik José - 2007 (New Music)

Mad Tea Party - Found A Reason

Band / Artist: Mad Tea Party
Year: 2012
Genre: Bluegrass, Dance, Folk Pop, Indie, Surf Rock, Rockabilly

My Review:
This is totally becoming one of my sweetheart bands. I posted 3 short albums of their stuff back during the Halloween specials. Here's their site.

http://themadtea.wordpress.com/

This time around, the album is full length, and the music is more their own. Its bluegrass and indie folk, but still slips in and out of the rockabilly and surf rock sounds for tracks here and there. If you like any dancey country stuffs, or just have a thing for acoustic instruments and retro sound, this might be awesome for you. I danced in the car to it my whole drive.

Mad Tea Party - Found A Reason

Boom Bip & Charlie White - Music for Sleeping Children

Band / Artist: Boom Bip & Charlie White
Year: 2012
Genre: Alternative Pop, Electronica, Hip-hop, Experimental, Spoken Word

My Review:
Music for Sleeping Children is more of an art collaboration than a band work, but its still an album, and its still by good artists, and good enough that I'm keeping it. So this is the gist, visual artist Charlie White calls up Boom Bip, and says "Hey, I'm interviewing teen girls about their lives in a recording studio. Come turn it into music." So that happens, and it becomes an EP of fun and oddly existential music, released side by side with crazy artsy music videos.

This isn't the first project that they did together.

 The project stems from White's investigations of the representation of American adolescence, and was born from a relationship forged between White and Hollon in 2009 when they collaborated on "We Like to Shop," a simple clap-along song from White's experimental cartoon, OMG BFF LOL that Hollon converted into a throbbing club track for the work's US premier at the Aldrich Museum. From there, White and Hollon set out to realize a far more ambitious project conceived by White as the marriage of in-depth teen interviews, discussions, and studio projects with pop, electronica, hip hop and experimental composition. Working in tandem, White and Hollon fashioned the concept of each track around the original studio recordings of teen girls ranging in age from 12 to 16. From eager enthusiasms, to exuberant chants, to adolescent melancholia, Music for Sleeping Children underscores the complex tensions resonant in the teen voices while transforming each girl into a popular music form of her own. Magical, uncomfortable, and original, Music for Sleeping Children is an artwork, an archive, and an album.

Boom Bip & Charlie White - Music for Sleeping Children

V-day special: Mixtapes from me

Happy Obligation Day!

I really don't much like Valentines day as far as a romantic thing goes. Because of that I took the initiative another TALENTED AND AWESOME friend of mine did (Hi Eric), and started making mixtapes for people a year or so ago. I couldn't just do one, for whatever reason, so I started what seems to be tradition now, by making 2 of them. All my friends get these, or help me curate them while I'm in the planning part. Since I run a music blog, it only makes sense that I share them here with all the people browsing.

I try as much as possible to bring stuff that isn't very common, or is a really unique version of something that is. I also try to make edits and blends to ensure the songs fit together the best I can, so you have an enjoyable listen, and then I make the artwork. This years sets go as far back as 1993, because I really love to go as far and as wide with the music as I can make it fit. Here's this years haul. They have their tracklistings in the readme files with each one.

Ser.aph - Be Mine (2013 Mixtape)

Running time, 1:15:36   Get it here.

Ser.aph -  I'm Yours (2013 Mixtape)

Running time, 1:11:30   Get it here.

If you enjoy them, feel free to re-gift them to your friends or loved ones as well. I'm just happy when other people enjoy things that I do. If you really enjoyed it, and want more, then go check out Valentina and Valentino, from last year.

Any suggestions for songs on next years mixtapes? Leave em in the comment section and I'll work on it.

Also the password is magically delicious.

Garren Epley - ...Ellipses EP

Band / Artist: Garren Epley
Year: 2012
Genre: Alternative Hip-Hop, Experimental, IDM, Lo-fi, Rap

My Review:

I'd call this Hip Hop, but its got the kind of feel that IDM had back in the days of “Braindance”. This feels like a stripped down version of Family Glue from Global Goon, with this humble Hip Hop style laid out and then added to with layers of sampling and warping. It has some really catchy moments, but i thought that the usage of the little digital track naming voice in each track was kind of throwing off my groove.

This album is hosted by Oligopolist Records, a sponsor with a really cool business model. They avoid Itunes and most other indie labels, and host themselves, giving most of their money to the artists. Check them out here.

http://oligopolistrecords.com/

  

Here's a copy of the album as found on Internet Archive

Garren Epley - "...Ellipses EP"
 
This one had a problem in the initial download, in that it was listed out of order, so I fixed it up and I'm sharing a repack of the tracks with the right labeling and all. You can get that here.

Garren Epley - ... (Repack)