...I will return like a Jedi with more reviews and freeness in the next few days peepz.
Top Quality Kashmere Jumpers.....Anyone?
One way to clarify the quality of any artist is the state of any tracks that didn't make it on to a particular album. Thay can range from a bunch of slapdash, random garbage, to polished, excellent efforts. But rarely is there an arguement for a collection of such tracks to actually be better than the original release. With raiders Of The Lost Archives, Kashmere now has that burden. This is in no way a slight on In The Hour Of Chaos (which is a very good album), at all. But such is the consistant quality of the tracks on Raiders that I have to wonder what other hidden gems are there floating around the YNR offices. Check this production list: Ghost, Zygote, Jehst, LG, DJ IQ & Jazz-T. UK peepz should now be salivating & If you don't know, get familiar. As usual Kasmere goes deep with his, painting deep & vivid portraits of life, good versus evil, the dark arts & a lot more in between. The tone for what's to come is set immediately with the opening chants of The Genesis, 'The sea turned black, the rivers turned red, the sun turned cold, the beats turned pale....'. Then the niceness begins when a chopped synth & cello sample is accompanied by a snapping snare & kick pattern. Through the Jazzy backdrop of Power Up to the ridiculously ill piano & Drums of Poison to the out there vibe of Red Monkey, the niceness continues unabaited. Then the bar is raised further still by Drunken Style. Kashmere, Severe & Baron Syn Back, braggadociously (?) ride a superbly sparse beat held together by short vocal samples & a nicely flipped hook. The level is maintained by the lovely darkness of Nightmare. Eerie strings & scarily warped b-line allow Kashmere to let his demonic/imaginitive side come to the fore, with lines like 'Running children got the vomit, devilish whipper snappers hitting grannies with the drop kick'. Right the way through to the final bonus track on the album, these so called cut away tracks don't let up. The way the samples are used on 1 of my 2 favourite track on Raiders. The Jazz, is just superb. As for the other fav, What Would Happen? Kashmere spins 1 of his otherwordly stories about a new kind of herbal remedy (if you catch my drift). I can only imagine that the subject matter of some of the tracks didn't fit the darkness of ITHOC. Adding the fact that some of these tracks are 3 years old only makes this release even better. Kashmere is arguably the most imaginitive MC we have on these (UK) shores. So when he is accomanied by great beats, as he is all the way through this album, the results are of a superior brand of niceness. Enjoy the taster peepz.p e a c e
Kashmere - Raiders Of The Lost Archives selection
2 The Easy Way (Freeness)
The man can spit, supports worthy causes & Nick Speed provides the sounds. Reason enough to grab this one I think.Danny brown - Hot Soup
Danny Brown's Myspace
These guys have put together a superb Jazzy Hip Hop album that is one of my favs of the year upto now. Superb!
The Afeeliated - Saving The City Vol. 1
The Afeeliated's Myspace
The Afeeliated - Saving The City Vol. 1
The Afeeliated's Myspace
This is top quality freeness these guys are giving away so don't be afraid to give 'em some props peepz.
Settle down with some headphones & a good book
I tend to read books in spurts. I buy them in twos. Something about one might catch my eye or the subject matter may look interesting so I buy them. And I’ll read the Hell out of the first one. But usually I’ll get about halfway through the second before the urge to recharge my Ipod kicks in & the cycle begins again. Fatgums, Randray, Ajax & Gammaray, collectively known as The Novelists , initial appeal is their attempt to blur these lines with Bookends. Fatgums & Gammaray provide all the beats considering this is their first foray behind the boards (they are originally DJs), they have pit together a varied soundscape, yet the continuity of the album is superb. Normally I find an album of this type will either ride a Jazzy or Soulful background. But these guys manage to straddle both with relative ease. Your head will definitely nod, but at a slightly different pace throughout. Take Crime In The City, a track that uses 3 different beats in about 3 minutes yet each of the 3 sounds progressively better than the last. Morning gets my vote for originality. Man goes to club, meets sexy English girl. They have sex, wake up in the morning & a ‘get to know you’ conversation takes place at the end of the song. Some of the lines in there are laugh out loud funny. So the album goes on from one entertaining head nod to another each track showing a different slant to what these guys are about. The DJ’s too get their shine on Novel Scratching, which even with the lack of an MC, is one of my favourites on the album.Even when i thought things were going to take a cheesy turn, My Only Vice Remix, doesn’t come across that way at all. In fact, the Mi Cheri Amor, sample actually works superbly in context with what came before it on the album. So to end proceedings with a slightly reggae tinged 10 man posse cut could be deemed a step too far. Yet at 5 minutes long each MC jumps in & out, thus keeping things moving along quite briskly. If this is a sign of things to come from these guys I’ll definitely be keeping my eyes peeled for more. A great debut.
p e a c eThe Almighty Has Spoken
Found this over at my people San Pasquale's place. Almighty, incase you didn't know, are Bronze Nazareth, C-Rayz Walz, Killah priest, M-80, Sone One & 5 Star (why he names himself after them i have no idea). Iv'e been looking out for any available scraps by these guys. Only to find a whole mixtape & new single off of the album. The is nice & the albums gonna be real nice. links are below. Enjoy!
Original Sin Mixtape
Obey (The Statesman): 1st Single
Trailer for the album
Too many cooks spoil the broth (this one's nice though)
I've been checking for these guys for a few years & now the musical chefs are back with the 3rd intallment of their remix series. This go round they've re-jigged tracks by The Game, Clipse, Biggie, CL Smooth, Jay Z, Steve Spacek, Scarface & more. It's nice & it's free so don't sleep now. Plus they've got plenty more freeness on their myspace including Their version of Jay's American Gangster & a remix of AZ's AWOL album. Give em some props & enjoy!
2Fly for some, but not for others
UFP (MC)& Squid (Beat Man) are 2Fly Shirpas. As usual you would expect the media powers that be to big up their charges. But this is definately worthy of a lot more attention & it's a freebie too. A lot of head nods & rhymes with a message. Don't be afraid to give big ups on their myspace either peepz.
Cannon Fodder. Anyone remember that game?
Live instrumentation is the way of the walk. A few posts back i reviewed The ArtOfficial album, Fist Fights & Foot Races. I eulogised then about the wonders of what The Roots used to do best (that's right). Kaboom is a slightly rockier outing than Fists Fights & the varied tempo of the album keeps things interesting. There are droplets of harmonies & spoken word in here too from MC Eze Jackson (nice name). He & the other 4 members of the group create great soundscapes for Eze to ride on. As for my personal standouts on this one. The smooth Jazz Rock stylings of Dilapidated Buildings & the multi guitar driven Soul Slammin', are my favs. But a special mention has to go to Get Serious & the Lit fuse that is Phrases. Definately money well spent. Peep the taster then give em a heads up on their myspacep e a c e
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