Get ready to dance for days because once you hear this new EP I guarantee you won’t be able to stop. Darius is a producer based out of France who has a plethora of groovy tunes for your listening pleasure all available to stream on his soundcloud page. His latest EP entitled “Romance” was just release this past Monday [via Roche Musique] and it is just 20 full minutes of electronic bliss. I recommend that you stream it in full below and see for yourself.
Nothing’s debut album “Guilty of Everything” envelopes the listener in a thick blanket of shoegazy alt-rock, teleporting them into an ethereal realm of artful angst and fuzzy guitar riffs. Hidden within the thunderous wall of sound is a spring of analgesic tranquility making the album near impossible to stop listening to. The band’s heavily distorted guitars and spectral vocals provide a rich atmosphere which gives credence to critics’ comparisons to giants like My Bloody Valentine. “Guilty of Everything” is set to release on March 4th. Stream below and enjoy.
-Denali
Flatbush Zombies’ “Architect” Erick Elliot has made almost all of the beats that the NY hip hop group have put out so far. There’s a few notable exceptions (see the Harry Fraud production “Live From Hell”) but the lack of outside producers shouldn’t feel like a bad thing. Erick is a skilled producer and rapper, and his sound meshes pretty much perfectly with fellow rappers Zombie Juice and Meechy Darko.
Trash Talk are a Sacramento hardcore outfit famously signed to the Odd Future label, and those expecting a collaboration of violent and energetic proportions may be disappointed. “97.92” is nice though. The beat laid down by Trash Talk’s Garrett Stevenson is a grimy, New York thumper complete with reversed samples and drums a bit faded in the mix. Erick starts and Juice follows, but it’s Meech who again shines the brightest — with his gravelly voice that sorta sounds like a cross between Busta Rhymes and The D.O.C. after he got his larynx crushed. Erick and Juice are capable, surface-level MCs but with Meech you have to dig a little deeper. He’s “gotta keep it cryptic/powers that be wanna censor us/They’re trying to make some sense of us/I just told them cash the check/go and make some cents with us.” The Zombies haven’t yet released a proper “album”, though more mixtapes won’t leave anyone complaining. Stream “97.92” below.
– Daniel
Helm, the alias of London sound artist Luke Younger, has been releasing music since 2007. It wasn’t until 2012’s Impossible Symmetry that Helm was known to much wider audience. That release came out on Pan, and started a wonderful relationship with him and the label. Helm’s recent release, The Hollow Organ, is his third release on Pan.
For the uninitiated, Pan releases music from experimental artists. So on first listen you might be looking at yourself if what you’re listening to is really music, but trust me, here’s a label that specializes in sound. The Hollow Organ is just another fantastic piece from Helm. It opens with a light drone that gives way to thumping percussion and the sounds of what could be a Tesla coil firing straight into you brain. Ominous doesn’t seem to do opening song “Carrier” the justice it deserves. As the storm subsides, it takes you to a leaky boiler room that is possibly being visited by alien invaders.
“Analogues”, the second track is a paranoid race through the dark alleyways of a city that seem entirely too foreign for somewhere you’ve been before. Just when you thought you had finally settled yourself out, a gang of dudes sweep you off of your feet and throw you into a van, carrying you into “Spiteful Jester.” It’s a mind scraping affair, and leaves you completely discombobulated. It doesn’t stop, as much as you keep forgetting it’s happening.
Closing track “The Hollow Organ” is far the greatest of the four tracks. Imagine after having your brain scrambled in the song before, you wake up and find yourself laying out on an examination chair in the middle of an empty room. You get the strange feeling that something isn’t right with you, and you vaguely remember something happening but you can’t quite place it. You head to the only exit, a large steel door that sits slightly open. Pushing the door open it’s obvious you’re in some underground location. Darkness surrounds you, save a couple of dim lights that flicker from the ceiling. The hallway in front of you extends for quite some distance. Doors are on your left and right, but most are locked, those that do open reveal rooms that have been caved in. Your footsteps echo in the most ominous of ways. You reach the end of the straight hallway with a daunting choice: Left or right? In the current haze you’re in, you choose left. As you go down the black hallyway, you eventually hear an organ being played above you. It’s very disorienting, but you push on regardless. The organ fades slightly, but you finally see light from around a corner. You head up the stairs from which this light is coming from and find yourself emerging in an alleyway. Next to you is an old warehouse you were apparently underneath. The location is familiar. You pass the warehouse all the time on your way to work, but never pay any mind to it. With the sound of the organ still faintly playing, you gather yourself and head home, not quite sure what just happened.
Even though it may be chilly outside, Oscar Key Sung will be sure to warm you right up with his smooth Australian voice and electronic R&B vibes. “Holograms” is his most recent single and title track off of his upcoming debut EP which will be released March 3rd [via twobrightlakes] and it sure gives us a lot to look forward to. Stream the track below and be sure to check out the rest of his stuff here on his soundcloud.
Erin
The Seattle duo Odesza has again released an awesomely funky, groovy, and all around fun track. Sticking pretty close to their typical style, Sun Models will no doubt make you bob your head. The chopped and screwed vocal samples from Madelyn Grant help add a fun happy vibe to the track. Definitely worth a listen or two, or three… or four…
Mt. Royal is a relatively new group based out of Baltimore led by Celebration frontman Katrina Ford. Much like Celebration, Mt. Royal touts swaying, soulful grooves, yet manages to find its own voice by breaking away from Celebration’s roots in psychedelia. Their latest EP, candidly titled Mt. Royal EP saturates the listener with rich melodies and intoxicating rhythms. Upon listening to first track on the EP, one can quickly draw parallels to heavy-hitters like Beach House or Foxygen (who I love), though Mr. Royal is still able to bring something unique to the table to avoid being redundant. Ford’s powerful range of vocal expression coupled with the ardent instrumentation from the rest of the band makes Mt. Royal EP a fun and stimulating listen. Give it a go on the player below.
-Denali
Spark Master Tape is a mysterious rapper that’s known for his DJ Screw beats courtesy of producer Paper Platoon and a deepening vocal effect much like what Flying Lotus does with Captain Murphy. There seems to be a bit of a trend in hip hop in this regard with rappers like A$AP Rocky deepening the vocals on his hooks, and Lil Ugly Mane using the same technique on most of his verses. Spark Master Tape’s beats almost always feature the stuttering hi hats that everyone seems to be using these days. The southern, chopped and screwed sound that Three Six Mafia brought to the table years ago is certifiably back, and here to stay.
What’s interesting about Spark Master Tape, and something that separates him a bit from other trap rappers, are the rhymes themselves. His subject matter covers a wide territory, though that isn’t to say Spark Master doesn’t still diverge towards typical trap-rap tropes. On “Propeica”, Spark Master Tape raps about “the hood looking like Vietnam” over some dark graveyard production. When it comes down to it, the real star here is without a doubt the Paper Platoon beat. The short verses are distorted pretty heavily in spots to the point where you can’t really here what’s being said, and they lead quickly towards the loud hook that no doubt knocks hard. Spark Master still delivers some clever lines (“fuck a backpack/I pack gats/like I’m in a western.” Everyone seems to want to know who exactly Spark Master Tape is, but the music is certainly speaking for itself, and like the sound he embodies he’ll definitely be here for a while.
Stream “Propeica” below.
https://soundcloud.com/sparkmastertape/propeica-produced-by-paper
— Daniel
When I think of Glasgow and music, two things come to mind: post-rockers Mogwai who put out their eight studio album recently, and party starting LuckyMe, who probably ubiquitously predicted the trap movement. Mogwai is the long lasting post-rock group that as of recently have invited synthesizers into play. Menacing at times, and melancholy at others, Mogwai has proved to have lasting power in their almost twenty year career. In Contrast, LuckyMe has been around since 2008. The label started the career of Hudson Mohawke, and featured releases from Lunice, Rustie, Baauer, as well as the debut of TNGHT, and many more. So for two musical forces so vastly different, how do they come together? These two otherwise opposite forces come together on Sevendeaths’ Concreté Misery.
Concreté Misery combines the sensibilities of Mogwai along with Sunn O))) with sparkling synthesizers and just a dash of fear to create an amazing release. How does LuckyMe tie into this? Well, they released it. While it’s not that surprising to see a label try something new, it is definitely still unexpected. This album doesn’t amp listeners up with machine gun hi-hats, but rather sends rushes to the adrenaline by layering noise on top of noise. The paranoia builds and builds until you literally can’t take it anymore, and only then do the songs very politely come to a close.
Sevendeaths, aka Steven Shade, knows when to end it though. While drone can be fun in a punishing way, this album only lasts 34 minutes and is very nicely broken up into six songs. While we all love hour long drone records consisting of three 20 minute songs, Concreté Misery is very digestible. Unlike the type of art music the title takes after, elicits actual emotions and doesn’t feel like your run of the mill avant-gardish musique concrète.
KZUU 90.7fm 
