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.

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’

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

Simon Amon (of Bathtub Piracy Recordings) teams up with Fret Hinge (the 2 men behind the boards of The Fringe, get it, get it?) and together they’ve made this incredible funky & sexy track called “Afrodisiacting”. I was pleasantly surprised because a) I had no idea Simon could sing like this, and b) I recall the production for The Fringe to be a bit more harsh and electronic.

The drum-heavy and bassline driven track is the perfect set up for Simon’s smooth vocals. The production and harmonies are plainly awesome. Broad enough to evoke an emotional response, and not too overdone that it gets a too slick rnb feel.
While the remix by Ebokai is in a total different form, bouncing simplistic beats and straight-up electronics, it’s just as sexy and groovy as the original. With the pitched-up vocals, chicago bassline and house-stabs it’s a straight-up dancefloor killer.

You can check out the tracks below, or download the package here.

Simon Amon x Fret Hinge – Afrodisiacting by Simon Amon x Fret Hinge

Simon Amon x Fret Hinge – Afrodisiacting (RMX by Ebokai) by Simon Amon x Fret Hinge

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.

Yet again this is almost 40mins of offbeat, filtered, bleeped and dusty beats. Add some commercial-snippets and hip hop acappella cuts and it’s a certified Elaquent release. He can downplay himself in the liner notes all he wants by stating that “poor mixing” was done, it doesnt’ matter because this is supposed to be downright dirty.

If you want a more complete review of the man E and his works, check out our previews review “elaquent: massive free downloads!“.

Get ‘Elaquent – In Colour vol. 3′ (MediaFire) here.

As usual Sandman lays down the new hip hop bangers mixed with the hottest tracks you missed out on.  This goes side to side with the occasional sampled original thrown in and dope timeless music for all us not-so-narrowminded peeps. Ofcourse all of this freshness is smoothly blended together, making this yet another Sands mix you won’t skip through!

tracklist:

1. Jay-Z Feat. Nas – Success
2. Art & Ron – Can’t Stop Talkin’
3. Marco Polo & Torae – Coney Island
4. Rustee Juxx feat. Sean Price – Wipe off Ya Smile
5. Alchemist feat. Snoop Dogg, Pusha T & Jadakiss – Lose Your Life
6. Drake feat. Lil’ Wayne – I’m Goin In
7. The Clipse feat. Wale – Forever Fly
8. Bishop Lamont – Grow Up
9. Lil Wayne – Mrs. Officer
10. Emily King feat. Lupe Fiasco – Walk in my Shoes
11. Freddie Cruger feat. Lin – Pretty Little Thing
12. Alice Russell – Hurry on Now
13. Jay Electronica – Exhibit A (Transformations)
14. Suff Daddy feat. Miles Bonney – Late Night Stuff
15. Suff Daddy feat. Kissey Asplund – Late Night Reprise
16. De Javaanse Jongens – On You
17. Mr. Beatnick feat. Ahu – I know all the Bitches
18. Pacific Division – Shut Up
19. Common – The Corner ‘09 Pt. 2 (Beatnick & K-Salaam remix)
20. Rich Girl feat. Bun B – 24’s
21. Paper Route Gangstaz – Bama gettin’ Money (Diplo remix)
22. Wham! – Careless Whisper (No Homo)

Download the blend for free here!

And here are some more older mixes (right-click -> download):
- Spinnin’ Mixtape 1
- Spinnin’ Mixtape 2
- Sandies Blends: Cherry Blend

While we were out there checking the headliners, a group consisting of 3 young Amsterdam natives almost managed to slip past us. Luckily a friend from Amsterdam slipped us an EP containing 7 sweet and soulful tracks by Nation Of Elzi.

I honestly have to apologize for posting this a couple of months late, because this is that summer barbeque shit right here! Jazzy rhodes, soul guitars and a lot of head-nodding beats are the ground on which some joyful and positive are laid-down. The EP can be easily filed between old Common and Slum Village albums, but without calling it a copycat-effort.

You can get this groovy release in 256kbps MP3 at the Nation Of Elzi website, and I also found a 320kbps version on ZShare for all you Serato/Traktor people out there.

Also, next saturday they’ll be opening for P.O.S. at the Sugar Factory.

Around that same time Kyteman’s album ‘The Hermit Sessions‘ skyrocketed in The Netherlands, ensuing in a shitload of gigs for his Hip Hop Orchestra of which Surreal and Jule are a part of. This in itself is a good thing ofcourse, but in my opinion it kinda meant less shine for these 2 dope EP’s. But hey, that’s what we’re here for, right?

:: Master Surreal – Adaptation EP

Tracklist:
1. All Right Now (Here I Come)

2. I’m Back – Cuts by DJ DNS
3. The God Of War ft. Tyrone of T-N-T
4. Adaptation Interlude (A Message)
5. In Love And War ft. Omar Soulay
6. Infinite Potential ft. Avi
7. Cowboys & Indians – Cuts by DJ DNS
8. Omega ‘09

Buy the EP @ iTunes here, and download the Master Surreal Mixtape here for free.

:: King Jule – The Hunter, The Tracks

Tracklist:
1. Saudacao (Intro)
2. A New Day – Cuts by DJ DNA (beat by yours truely)

3. Culture
4. Ill Format – Cuts by DJ DNS
5. Hold My Own

6. Street Style Lessons
7. R-A-W ft. Avi & Keynote Speakerz

You’ll have to search for this one yourselves for now.. I’m not using iTunes and I’m still waiting for the link =)

Next Friday (the 29th of May) 4 EP’s will be released at 1 party:

• Master Surreal – Adaptation
• King Jule – The Hunter, The Tracks
• Klap van de Molen & homies – Sessies
• RealiTijd – Kop Voor Mijn Plaat

DJ DNS (of Shit Is Bangin’) has made a 55min mix to celebrate Master Surreal’s EP. You can get the mix for free here.

The releaseparty will be held @ Rof! in Ekko. Doors will be open at 21:00 and the damage is EUR 8,-.

Skidz & Mseize are spinning between the acts, so b-b-b-be there!