Forget head-nodding because this is just off. Not just off the grid but off everything, like catching an eel in a barrel. Synth, bleeps, bass, drums, it’s all just bouncing off the walls on “Brun” for 30 minutes. Actually I can’t really say anything more about it than that it’s kinda like what psychedelic was for rock music, but for beats. Sortof…

If you like freaked-out beats with weird synths and samples you should try it. And even if you don’t like that you should try it anyway, even if it’s only to help me figure out if this guy is borderline genius or just plain out of his mind.

Get it for free at Bandcamp.

Suddenly changes occured, almost simultaneously. We hit our 20s, MP3 encoding became popular, old-fashioned tracker applications were replaced with midi sequencers and with the emergance of broadband internet the PC/Amiga music scene died and was reborn in the form of netlabels. I’ve never spoken to him anymore and only rarely did his name pop up on the net. People fade away, thus is life and it’s quite possible he’s forgotten all about me and the other online guys. But I have something better than pictures to remember him by: I’ve got his music.

As he and I once did over a decade ago, I now share music with you on this blog. And it doesn’t seem more than fair that I share his music with you. This is Vae a.k.a. Aleksi Virta with “Meets Torsti At The Space Lounge”.

Now Vae wasn’t revered for his skillz in a tracker as much as he was praised for his ability to put just the correct samples and grooves together in any DAW to create something incredible, a fact which is evident on this little 35 minute album which was released through Monotonik.

The ‘Outer Edge Intro’ immediately sets the tone for the album. Spaced out dubby fx, percussion and groovy drums are accompanied with a freaked-out cinematic vocal bit. ‘Nebulae Herb’ continues on the same tip, doing it’s name justice by adding a badass Hammond-like groove and a 60s space-age synth solo. If you listen closely you can hear how a wild cut-up ‘Next Level remix‘ by Show & A.G. forms the basis for this track. Crazy!

Exiting the Nebulae we find ourselves on a beach reminiscent of the Caribbean, apart from the fact that we’re on Mars. Imagine a band playing their organs and Hohners in the red sands to a Southern-American groove. When you’re done slowly swaying your hips, the ‘Gavrila Nebula’ interlude prepares you for the insane jazzyness of ‘The Giant Catch 22′. Easily a candidate for Mark Farina’s “Mushroom Jazz” compilations, this hardcore 90s instrumental hiphop track has it all: walking basslines, jazzy rides, thick beats and harsh piano hits.

After this we’re up for some serious dub (without the stepping) on “Whirlwind Pistols Dub”. Grab your dreadlock-wig from the top shelf and toke up, it’s 4:20. More instrumentalism and short solo’s on this bass-heavy track. Irie! Irie Daily! But it isn’t until Vae goes total latin on “O Tema De Viagem Especial” that he presents his grandeur. Shakers, guitars, horns, organs, drumfills, flute, xylophone, everything is just there. When you’re just getting fired up he throws in a massive funk drumbreak to totally break you loose.

With the ‘Art Of Far’ interlude Aleksi exits the party and ventures back into space, showing off some drum programming that the stutter-boys that are now hype would be jealous of. It’s just a little taste to get us in the mood for the final track, but we’re not there yet. First ‘Dragons’ must be slain on a bombastic breakbeat track which would be in A. Skillz’s top 10 if he ever heard it. If there’s another remake of Shaft, this will be the soundtrack to a heavy fighting scene.

Being almost near the end of the space journey, Vae goes DJ Krush on ‘True Dwelling Place’. Raw beats, heavy bassline and abstract pads are key. Add a little sound fx here and there and it’s done. ‘Princess Melodiae’ sounds like the title reads: beautiful but dangerous. Starting off with moody melodics the track suddenly transforms into a beat and sample mash-up that could fit perfectly in a Flying Lotus set. At the moment you’re comfortably set in that groove, the beast is unleashed and out comes a dark hard synthy breakbeat ending. Going out with a bang was never so true.

You can get the separate tracks at archive.org or download everything in the pack I’ve uploaded at MegaUpload (link updated) or zShare.

As added bonus you can check out an interview with Vae at Imaginary Planet and listen to/download a rework I did of his 2000 track ‘Beige Amme’ below.

Vae – Beige Amme (What’s That In My Sink remix)

Can’t really say much about this collection. It’s SirOJ, it’s a beattape, it’s chill. By now you probably know what to expect from the Slumgillion producer: minimal beats, good grooves, laidback samples and complementary synthwork.

Ok that may sound a bit boring, which this release definitely isn’t. It’s kind of an after hours space-age lounge collection throughout, with a couple of sparkling gems on it. Ranging from jazzy beats to futuristic electronics, you’ve got an hour of really decent music in 30 tracks. My personal favorites are the more downtempo’ish tracks like The Doks, Zwart ~Wit and Who’s Bringin’ It Back.

There’s a small downside to this pack, some MP3’s are in pretty low quality and the volume between tracks varies from time to time. Still, it’s free!

Check out some of the beats below (courtesy of Blunt Guts Nation) and download “Vibe Out” through zShare.

Siroj – baby dork – vibe out by BluntGutsNation

Siroj – 204 – vibeout by BluntGutsNation

Sir oj – thirty two – vibe out by BluntGutsNation

That sparked your interest, but you’re not ready to spend your hard earned cash yet? Well you’re in luck, because Suff has a nice collection of remixes online for free, called “Suff Refills”.

The Refills is 45mins of pure Suffness, only this time he’s put acapella’s of your (mostly US) favorite artists on top of his sample-heavy drums. Whether it’s chilled-out mood’ism, heavy boom-bap or über-funky disco tracks, Daddy matches his beats to the vocals like it’s nothing. A must-have for hip-hop heads and beat-dj’s!

Tracklist:
01 – Slum Village – Look Of Love Refill
02 – Suff Daddy & Morlockk Dilemma – Ich Trinke
03 – The Alkaholics feat. Diamond D – Next Level Refill
04 – Guilty Simpson – Before The Verdict Refill
05 – Dabrye feat. J Dilla & Phat Kat – Game Over Refill
06 – Suff Daddy & Fleur Earth – Wasichloswerdenwollte
07 – Notorious B.I.G – Big Poppa Refill Instrumental
08 – Erykah Badu – Honey Refill
09 – Phat Kat feat. Guilty Simpson – Nightmare Refill
10 – D3CCPT feat. Guilty Simpson – Psycho Refill
11 – Notorious B.I.G – Nasty Boy Refill
12 – Fleur Earth feat. Frank Nitt – Changes Refill
13 – The Alkaholiks – Hip Hop Drunkies Refill
14 – Morlockk Dilemma – Unterwegs Refill
15 -Audio 88 & Yassin feat. Morlockk Dilemma – Isolation Refill

Check out track 13 below and get the 320kbps MP3 package at Suff Daddy’s Bandcamp.

Hip Hop Drunkies (Suff Edit) by Suff Daddy

The first EP (”19/76″) that Crookram released on Budabeats back in 2008 was met with open arms in the downtempo scene because of the perfect in-style feel and melancholic atmosphere. Two year later he returns with 19 tracks to show us downtempo isn’t only not dead, it’s actually in damn good shape! Let’s do some quick highlights here of the album that came out on Budabeats as well as Bankrupt Recordings.

The album starts off with an oldschool ‘who am I and what do I do’ intro. A dope beath with a bunch of rap vocals scratched on it. Da Crook still brags and boasts and follows with ‘Crookrilla’, one of his sample-laden breakbeat tracks that Wax Tailor would be proud of.
Next up on the menu are ‘Breakadawn’ and ‘Missione Pericolosa’, two steady 90bpm groove tracks. Dope cinematic vibes with straight drums is the recipe. ‘Bij De Rest’ also features these ingredients but because of the dusty Dutch sample (nice find bro!) it has kind of an early Spinvis vibe.

Speaking about nice finds, ‘Please Get Out Of The New One If You Can’t Blend The Ancient’ is a beautiful and funny interlude. It almost seems like a message to all the young kids out there making hip beats without researching their predecessors (my words, not Crookram’s!). The title track ‘Through Windows’ and ‘Two Seven Three Eleven’ continue the downtempo stream that’s ideal for a sunsplashed sunday morning. It’s the perfect build-up to ‘Good Morning Good Days’, an interlude which welcomes you to the more uptempo track ‘Makedonija’.

After this happy segment it’s back to cinematic moodyness with ‘Your Eyes Are Full Of Hate’, ‘Bodies’ and ‘Badalamenti’, an eastern Europe influenced track in which Crookram shows us he’s capable of more than simple breaks and boom-bap drums. ‘A Man Named Ivan’ continues the exotic sample-trip before getting back to straight funk on ‘Business Is Business’ and ‘Eugène Et Le Cerceau’, which are more minimalistic and reminds me of the Belgian loop-cutters 40 Winks.

Ending the album in style, the last 3 tracks take us back to the Crookram we know from “19/76″. Dragging movie styled sampled accompanied by robust beats. A perfect goodbye and ’till next time that makes you lunge for the repeat button before the final track is over.

On “Through Windows” Crookram not only shows us his growth as a producer, but also that regular downtempo music isn’t dead and the pile of old records to sample from is still not depleted. As much as I love our new erratic stuttering synthy counterpart, I’m filing this release as a classic without a single doubt.

Check out the intro track below and download the album at Budabeats or Bankrupt Recordings (direct links).

crookram-back to school by budabeats

update: The Dutchies can check an interview with Crookram at 3voor12. And here’s a video of the track ‘Through Windows’

When I tried to describe the album to a friend last week, I couldn’t come up with anything else than ‘emotionally beautiful’. Now that I’ve had some time to let it sink in I’d say it sounds like Ugress meets Glitch Mob with the moodyness of Aphilas.

“Passing By Behind Your Eyes” is a very consistant album and it represents all aspects of modern music production: synthwork, sampling, drum programming and extensive composition. In stead of taking the more minimalistic approach, as a lot of hip producers do nowadays, Pretty Lights takes the complete opposite route and delivers a very layered and cinematic sound while still keeping a raw and fast-paced dancefloor edge. Don’t expect no 2-minute looped beats either, every track has a strong build-up and varied composition.

Throughout the album the workflow seems pretty straight-forward. There are groovy tight drums with a layer of nice and moody samples, which forms the froundwork for the melodic synths that are placed on top. Since the sampling isn’t the main focus but an equally important part as the rest of the composition, even the most purist sample-heads can’t front on the usage of a couple of well-known tracks (I just love how he flipped “Stretch – Why Did You Do It” on the 8th track “Let Em Know It’s Time To Go”).

Next to offering a load of releases online for free Pretty Lights also play live in a 2-man combination. Check out the video below (which is of the track with the Stretch sample)

It’s 11am, over 30 degrees celcius outside already and I’ve been rocking “Yello-21″ since I rolled out of bed about an hour ago. So that’s over 3 times in a row already.  Ba has a really nice blend of bobbin’ hip-hop beats, laid-back samples and lovely synths. All this is packed in a more analogue sound than most of the new beats that are coming out nowadays.

There’s not one track on this little gem that oozes any kind of darkness. The release is made up of a couple of full-length tracks accompanied with 1-min shortbeats, and everything just feels like a good hot summer’s day. You got sample-heavy tracks on one hand (’Intro’ and ‘Just Now’), and groovy synthloops (’Giant Clock’ and ‘Meditation’) on the other. Put this end-80bpm pack on your mp3-player, break out the speakers, grab some beers and get your ass down to the park!

Check out the intro track below, and download the soulful pack at Bandcamp for free!

Intro (Africa Get Down) by Bagir-Ba

Tokyo Dawn signed yet another hot up and coming artist to their roster: Swede:art. Already known on the web for his Mondayjazz and Soundcloud sessions, the neck-breaking German electronic musician Joachim Prügl has dropped his debut album “Emotional Colors“.

If you’ve bought the last two TDR releases you know exactly what to expect: head-nodding beats, piercing synths, thoughtful raps and soulful vocalism. For some this is a reason to blindly buy Emotional Colors, for others it may be the reason to ’skip it, because I already have enough of this style’.
If you’re one of the latter persons, you need to read on. Where Comfort Fit’s “Polyshufflez” took your head all over the place with his crazy electronic bouncing beats, and Portformat’s “The Repeat Factor” brought you back to the floor with a more soulful boom-bap sound, Swede:art slides neatly in between and adds some real electro-funk in the mix.

The album has an overall chilled-out feel and the emphasis lies more on the space between the drums than on the beats itself. This space is smoothly filled with funky and thick basslines, small sample excerpts and s-s-s-s-sweeeeping synths. Next to the usual TDR suspects Blaktroniks, Caits Meissner and Comfort Fit, Swede also recruits beat-funkateers Duktus (featured on the latest Brownswood Bubblers) and Pursuit Grooves (why haven’t we done an article on her yet?).

From the staggering opening track “Black Mining” to the soulful “Linguistics” (feat. Stray) and ending with the broken beat’ish  “On My Way” (feat. Note & Duktus), Emotional Colors is a versatile release for every beat-lover.
As an added bonus you can listen to Swede:art mixing up old, new and coming TDR tracks at Mixcloud before you buy the album.

The mix consists of the more(up) tempo oriented tracks on which Nagano is featured, making it a nice and smooth jazzy 55mins, with some touches of electronica. With all the tracks from different sources packed together it’s easy to observe how versatile Yukimi’s vocal talents are. Whether it’s trip-hop, poppy electronica or straight-up (nu-)jazz, she seems to get into the perfect vibe with ease, adjusting her way of singing perfectly to the style.

Uncle Q does a great job blending all these different tracks together into a great mix which is easy to listen and enjoy.

Tracklist:
01. Koop – Whenever There Is You
02. Ge-ology – Blues Alley
03. Little Dragon – No Love
04. Quartermaine – Mystic Qool Breeze
05. Little Dragon – After The Rain
06. Little Dragon – Feather
07. Shuya Okino – Pieces of You
08. Little Dragon – Forever
09. Koop – Summer Sun
10. Little Dragon – Thunder Love
11. Hird – Love You My Hope (Do Right Remix)
12. Swell Session – The Music in Her Eyes
13. Koop – I See A Different You
14. Jafrosax – Drawn 2 U
15. Little Dragon – Never Never

Get it here (on z-share through thecouchsessions.com)

Now don’t you dare to judge this album in comparison with Polyshufflez. Although the 2 producers are friends and work closely, Portformat has really developed his own style. If you thought hip hop was dead and neo-soul long buried, in comes PF to prove you wrong. “The Repeat Factor” is pure electronic soul for our generation. Thick basslines over head-nodding drums, melodic raps accompanied with swaying chorus-vocalism and smooth pads laying the ground for raw synths.

The release is nicely split, putting a 100% Portformat solo instrumental between every couple of featurings. The list of people who bless the tracks with their vocalism includes Bless1, Shaunise, Caits Meissner, Joe Kickass, ofcourse Blaktroniks and US residents Dudley Perkins & Georgia-Anne Muldrow!

Whether it’s hiphop, neo-soul or spaced out beats, Germany’s Portformat is your man.

You can check out the album and buy it at the TDR website