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)

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)

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

Kyteman dropped his well-received album “The Hermit Sessions”, Keynote Speakerz released their “Remix Record“, EP’s by Master Surreal and King Jule are scheduled to blow and if I’m correct Arts The Beatdoctor is (as always) working on tracks in his new pad. Inf’s “The Go Round” is also scheduled to be released soon, and until that time we can still chill out on Pax & Pry’s “A Day Off”.

But let’s put that aside for a second and focus on the recent issue: Skiggy Rapz has signed to the Austin-based Beats Broke label and as of May 12th (yea tomorrow!) you can buy his brand-spankin’-new EP called “Bang To The Boogie” on CD or MP3.

It’s been a while since Skiggy dropped his last EP “Boatdrinks”, so let’s not get into the usual compare-the-old-with-new review style and just check out this EP on it’s own.

As it should be, the release is very well timed. Spring is already in full effect here considering the weather and BTTB fits it well. Venturing into a more musical side of hiphop, Skiggy delivers a fresh and cheerful blend of summer-worthy tracks. Uptempo beats with uplifting melodics are combined with Skiggy’s signature content-filled raps to make a solid feelgood EP.  The guys get proper lyrical lines and the girls get hooks they can sing to.

Also featured on the EP are Tinusz and Annemarie of the happy-go-lucky band Leaf, and remixes are done by Inf and Arts The Beatdoctor.

Ofcourse a release like this should be celebrated. This will take place Thursday the 14th of May @ Ekko. The doors will be open at 21:00 and the damage is EUR 6,-

For people sympathetic with Beats Broke and Skiggy Rapz there’s  a discount on the album. It only lasts until today, so better check your mail/hyves/myspace inbox!

Also, there’s already 1 track up for free download at bandcamp, click!

If you’re not on their mailinglists, shame on you and tough luck! Luckily you can already order the EP here or get it the next thursday at the releaseparty.

In itself this may be not such an eye-opening fact, but it seems the .pl beat-lovers don’t limit themselves to established artists. They have a tendency to dig a bit deeper and appreciate artists that are not so prominent on the radar. This realisation triggered my memory to pull out an album that was handed to me by longtime friend DJ Proces (of Polish origin, former DJ and producer of Next Item): Noon – Bleak Output.

Released in 2000 on dDrecords, Bleak Output is a timeless minimalistic downtempo album which focus relies mainly on mood. The 12 tracks are not mixed together, but float into each other. This makes it possible to listen to separate tracks alone while keeping a sense of wholeness when you listen to it from beginning to end.

It’s almost uncanny how Noon manages to make each track unique and yet keeps the overall atmosphere of the release 100% the same. Although the use of similar vocal cuts (of movies? radio-plays? I have no idea actually) throughout the album aids in keeping the vibe, they are merely a small piece of of the artwork. Let’s say they are the screws or nails you’d use to hang a beautiful painting on the wall with.

The drums are, ofcourse, obviously present in most tracks and are nicely sequenced to accompany the melancholic samples and mostly staccato basslines. In all elements it’s clear that it’s sampled material because no effort has been made to cover up the cracks and pops made by old and overused vinyl, and we should be thankful for that.

I could do a track-by-track review of this album but I’m certain my words can’t capture the beauty of this heavily chilled piece of art. I used to think about empty, hollow and uninhabited spaces when I would read the word ‘bleak’, but after this album I found it to represent a place that offers contemplation, introspection and rest.

link to rapidshare

Although the album is classified as drum & bass (’intelligent‘ if you want to put it in a corner), it’s way more than that. When put next to the regular dnb album of that time, ‘Colours’ stands out by taking every aspect of composition and arrangement 2 steps higher. Whereas most tracks back then were just beats accompanied by some pads and a little bit of melody, Adam F goes all out on his debut album by serving us extensive arrangementns where the breakbeat is only a pillar on which the music is built and not the entire foundation.

This becomes instantly clear at the intro track which is a 70’s chase-scene funk fueled short with fast hihats and a wah-wah guitar. Before starting off the first full-length track on the album, the intro seamlessly blends into a breakbeat-driven prelude which includes a little live trumpet solo.

After showing off his talents with the 2 short intro tracks Adam brings us an angsty futuristic dnb track that’s based around a single drumloop, a constant pad and a bombastic orchestral hit. By adding other drum excerpts, effects and a filthy heavy bassline, ‘Metropolis’ becomes more and more interesting while maintaining it’s subtle composure.

For a cooling down, the next track offers sweet pads and chords, jazzy guitars and is topped with a crispy vocoder. ‘Music In My Mind’ is a perfect example of how to match dance music with the structure of smooth-jazz composition.  The guitar, trumpets and lead-synth are the main features here, while a thick short bass-hit keeps punching through to keep the pace up.

It’s back to the Metropolis vibe after that, with ‘Jaxx’ being another heavy but atmospheric dark track.

Having shown that he’s capable of doing hard dnb party-tracks, F goes on to show that he’s more than just a dance producer. Starting with ‘Mother Earth’ he explores extensive drum-programming and general atmosphere before going on to the more melodic ‘The Tree Knows Everything’, which is a dnb driven ballad with vocals by Tracey Horn (of Everything But The Girl). The lyrics take you back to childhood times and the accompanying piano and synths compliment that feeling well.

Centre of the release is the commercially viable hit ‘Circles’. Upbeat drums and sunny pads drift alongside a steady and really present bassline.

The only thing drum & bass about ‘Dirty Harry’ are the choice in drums. Apart from those it’s just a straight 70’s blaxploitation funk track, reminiscing of scores Isaac Hayes did. Hard but liquid basslines are key to this track and they’re accompanied by flutes and, ofcourse, the wah-wah guitar again.

‘F-Jam’ featuring MC Conrad (THE dnb MC at the time) goes back to straight intelligent: simple beats, chilled pads, trumpet solo’s and the deep full voice of Conrad.

The not-so-unusual-but-still-surprising guest star Ronny Jordan drops in for ‘Colours’. Adam easily adapts his style to Ronny’s guitar solo’s while maintaining his own sound which became so apparent in the previous track. This track is just straight-up smooth jazz: guitar, rhodes, saxophone and recurring themes. An unexpected but real nice twist at the end of a dnb album.

Finishing off with another ‘intelligent’ track, Aromatherapy is a perfect outro track for this release.

Although we’re more than 10 years down the road since the release of Adam F’s debut, it’s a timeless classic that still sounds fresh now. It’s also clear that this album pushed the limits and upped the bar for regular drum and bass producers.

Enjoy!

• Going to parties and pestering the DJ every 5 mins by asking ‘hey man, what are you playing now?’.
• Your friends. Who heard about stuff from their friends. Who, in turn, heard about it from their friends. And so on.
• Reading foreign magazines.

Over the years hip hop became a more mainstream style, the internet went from dial-up to cable connections, and music tv channels started to get bigger and bigger. This was one cause of the drop of interest in magazines. On the other side, magazines got more and more biased (I won’t even go into the whole Benzino/Source thing) and the amount of pages per magazine went down while the amount of advertisements in those magazines slightly grew. Where I used to lay down 5 Guilders for The Source, I now have to lay down 7 Euro’s to cop it. That means I’m paying more than double for a magazine that has half the content it used to have.

So why should we buy a magazine? Because sometimes they feature an article that you just can’t miss out on. XXL Magazine just laid one down for their April 2009 (wait.. isn’t it February now?) issue, and whether you’re a fan in your teens now or in your 30’s, you probably know the album on which the article is centered: The alltime classic from Nas, ‘Illmatic‘.

Some guy named Thomas V. was nice enough to drop hi-res scans of the article online, which features a track-by-track nostalgia comment-race by big names like DJ Premier, Large Professor, L.E.S., MC Serch, AZ, Q-Tip and ofcourse Nas himself. Next to a really dope article you also get some back-in-the-day photographs of Nas and his companions.

Get it here (found by Skidz and traced back to ‘the T.R.O.Y. blog‘)

1. More Than Meets The Ear vol. 2
2. Aphilas – Instrumentally Ill
3. Three Free Dutch Beattapes
4. Elaquent free downloads
5. Keynote Speakerz video download

And now, on to the next free beats!

In our neverending quest of finding dope beats, whether they are old or new, we hit a little Swedish goldmine called Erik L. Coming from a country that has deep roots in popular music (ABBA, Ace Of Base and production companies that account for at least 25% of the US hipho/rnb-based chart hitters) it’s no surprise that this 6-track EP is a super-production soundwise.

The intro track sets (as it should) the mood for the EP: shuffling beats, samples and dope synth basslines and stabs. Following next is a tight new-style hiphop track featuring Detroit CYDI and Stryfe. Vocalists Stray and Kissey Asplund are up next, laying down some pure sweetness on ‘Get Myself Together’.

Erik keeps it hiphop by adding a beat-only track on which he is accompanied by a DJ called Noun. After that it’s back to a real Detroit reminiscent rap track featuring Rep Life. If the complimentary funky outro track leaves you hungry for more, just keep an eye out on Erik L’s blog.

Get the EP here.

Premo has done productions for nearly every big and small name in hiphop, and over the last couple of years he’s extending his works to promoting new artists and even pop records (check out the production roster on this Christina Aguilera album for instance). Add the countless spray of mixtapes to the pile and you’ll need a new storage room only for housing the letter ‘P’.

There’s one limited release that’s been overlooked by many though: “Time 2 Chill“.

It’s so overlooked that I couldn’t even find a decent picture of the cover online, and to be completely honest I’m still trying to get my hands on a hardcopy (it seems to be released on vinyl only) of this album.

Being used to Premier’s minimalistic cutting and bouncing modus operandi, this album will amaze you from the first track on. There isn’t a rap verse to be found on this album, the production method goes way deeper than anything you’ve heard before by Premo, and while every track is different the whole album is straight-up downtempo. Ofcourse Premier wouldn’t be himself if every track wasn’t laced with a lot of smooth, obscure samples and breaks.

Starting off with heavy breaks and moody samples (”Get It All Going”, “Bangin’, Slamin’ Jam”) the album first progresses into lighter and slow tracks (”Mow Mow Beats”, “It’s Like This And Like That”) before climaxing with some very uptempo and even electronic dance tracks (”The Deepa Movement”, “Searchin’ For It”).

Either break open your walllet or fire up your p2p client, get the album and be prepared for a chilling smooth downtempo trip that’ll last 50 minutes.