Hip-Hop Ain’t Dead, It’s Just Chillin’ in Kiwi Land.

What’s good everyone?! This is former Hip-Hop Director Bryce, aka DJ Collective writing from New Zealand where I am studying abroad. It has been awesome so far & I have been having a great time. I’m writing to spread the great music of David Dallas to you all. David is a native Kiwi and been making his way up the hip-hop scene in New Zealand in the past few years, most recently with his lately acclaimed Lp, “The Rose Tint”. I had to opportunity of seeing his perform a few days during our orientation week, and it was one dope show. The combo of a real steady flow and solid production, he has paired up and rocked a couple joints with the likes of Freddie Gibbs and Buckshot. Check out the single he put called “Take A Picture” and you can cop the full Lp from itunes below and won’t be disappointed.

The Rose Tint LP itunes

I’ve been rockin’ KZUU as much as I can from abroad, and wish everyone the best. Miss you all.

-bryce.

KZUU Top 30: 2/13/12

First Aid Kit swept in with the top spot this week. They definitely deserved it, if you haven’t heard their cover of Fever Ray’s “When I Grow Up”, it’s your lucky day, I’ll hook you up below.

When I Grow Up – First Aid Kit

Chairlift is still holding strong, and Air peeks into the top five with their latest, Le Voyage Dans La Lune (a triumphant return, after three years without a release). M83 was finally knocked out of the charts after a several-week run (RIP M83), and Cloud Nothings are holding right in there in the top 10! All is as it should be!

-Jillian

01. First Aid Kit – The Lion’s Roar

02. Chairlift – Something

03. Hospitality – Hospitality

04. Horse Thieves – Two Albums

05. Air – Le Voyage Dans La Lune

06. Emperor X – Western Teleport

07. Sea Lions – Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sea Lions But Were Afraid To Ask

08. Beets – Let The Poison Out

09. Cloud Nothings – Attack On Memory

10. Dr. Dog – Be The Void

11. Los Campesinos! – Hello Sadness

12. Quilt – Quilt

13. Asteroids Galaxy Tour – Out Of Frequency

14. Emika – Emika

15. Future Islands – On The Water

16. Porcelain Raft – Strange Weekend

17. Radical Face – Family Tree

18. Sigur Ros – Inni

19. Tycho – Dive

20. Atlas Sound – Parallax

21. Big Deal – Lights Out

22. Brief Candles – Fractured Days

23. Brite Futures – Dark Past

24. The Field – Looping State Of Mind

25. Imperial Teen – Feel The Sound

26. Psychic Ills – Hazed Dream

27. Right the Stars – Hello Yes

28. Royal Baths – Better Luck Next Life

29. Tom Waits – Bad As Me

30. Trailer Trash Tracys –  Ester Domino

The Twilight Sad – No One Can Ever Know

7 / 10

The new album by this Scottish noise group surprisingly lacks a lot of noise. These guys dropped the distortion pedals (at least for some songs) in favor of a dark, coldwave inspired sound. Many bands who play similar music attempt to add dark synths and end up making awful music, but The Twilight Sad pull it off 100%. This is solid stuff, think New Order meets Nine Inch Nails.

– Adam

Recommended tracks: “Dead City”, “Sick”, “Don’t Look at Me”

Tennis – Young and Old

6 ½ / 10

Pop duo Tennis released their first album Cape Dory last year and now they’re already back with another new album. Young & Old drops the lo-fi home-recorded sound of their debut in favor of a glossy studio sound thanks to production by Patrick Carney of the Black Keys. While the songwriting lacks compared to their sing-songy debut, the cleaned up sound results in a better sounding, and more enjoyable listen. Good for the (hopefully) upcoming sunny spring days.

– Adam

Recommended tracks: “Origins”, “Petition”, “Take Me To Heaven”

Islands – A Sleep and A Forgetting

4 ½ / 10

Islands are one of those bands I like to shit talk because I think they’re boring. And while I’m not ready to apologize just yet, this new LP isn’t half bad. Nick plays around with some eclectic songwriting and it comes out sounding sort of like Bright Eyes meets of Montreal, if that makes any sense. It doesn’t really work musically, but it’s an interesting sound. It gets weird when he starts playing Jimmy BUffet songs (I’m, sadly, only half joking).

– Adam

Recommended tracks: “In A Dream (It Seemed Real)”, “Hallways”, “Oh Maria”

John Talabot – ƒin

8 ½ / 10

This is the debut album by young Barcelona producer John Talabot. It’s a massively impressive record, bringing together house music and elements of chillwave and disco. The guest vocals by Pinoal provide a good backbone to some of the tracks, but the instrumentals work so well on their own it’s hardly noticeable. The opening track “Depak Ine” evolves so beautifully over the course of 7 ½ minutes, going from ambient jungle noise to a lurching-beat banger. It’s hard to imagine a better introduction to an album in recent memory. Seriously groovy stuff, one of the best debuts — hell, one of the best albums you’ll hear in 2012.

– Adam

Recommended tracks: “Depak Ine”, “Destiny”, “Missing You”, “When the Past Was Present”

Dr. Dog – Be the Void

6 ½ / 10

Hey, it’s new Dr. Dog! Imagine a dog with a lab(-rador) coat and a stethoscope handing out pill prescriptions. Hilarious. That doesn’t really have anything to do with the album though. The band live-tracked the whole thing and turned up the guitars. This gives Be the Void a much more “rock” edge than their past work. Dr. Dog are a consistently mediocre band though, and there’s not big enough changes here to change my mind about that. Woof!

– Adam

Recommended tracks: “That Old Black Hole”, “How Long Must I Wait”, “Vampire”

Shearwater – Animal Joy

6 ½ / 10

Shearwater’s 8th album hits a little harder than their last. I found The Golden Archipelago to be pretty boring, which makes Animal Joy all the more satisfying. The title is incredibly apropos; it sounds celebratory but not overly happy. It’s an album that radiates a primal feeling of strength. It’s disappointing because Shearwater can’t really pull this specific sound off, but it’s probably the best these guys have (or ever will) release.

– Adam

Recommended tracks: “Animal Life”, “Breaking the Yearling”, “You as You Were”, Pushing the River”

Shades – Clear Motions

7 / 10

Downtempo electronic music with melodic synths, relaxing vocals, and heavy drums… OK, this is definitely chillwave, but don’t let that scare you away. This is a very strong debut album from the Boise four-piece. It’s dance-y and hazy and everything that’s good about those artists everyone knows about, like Washed Out, Small Black, and Neon Indian. These songs will fit into pretty much any indie pop playlist. Seriously, play this on your radio show.

– Kelsie

Recommended tracks: “Posture Pt. 1”, “Ghostlike”, “Hard Fall”

Sharon Van Etten – Tramp

7 / 10

One of my favorite releases so far this year. Each track is masked with heavy emotion and glassy production provided by the National’s Aaron Dessner. This singer/songwriter has perfected her craft, shifting songs from crunchy rock to delicate acoustic tracks. Compared to her previous releases, this encompasses a fuller sound.

– Brennan

Recommended tracks: “Warsaw”, “Serpents”, “Leonard”, “All I Can”