Wednesday, October 7, 2009

The east coast was beautiful but there’s nothing like being back in Austin, where our major park is once again shut down because of ACL.  Sigh.  Here’s some hip hop to enjoy when you’re not at Zilker, but enjoying our city or your city in other ways:

NEW JAMS:

:Wordsworth - One Day (Tomato Juice Remix):  Wordsworth is well known from his time on Lyricist Lounge, but on Mirror Music (2006), he demonstrated the ability to construct well-crafted stories in variety of unique styles.  Tomato Juice, a beatmaker out of Paris, has gone on and remixed the whole album, and done a wonderful, subtle job of matching the beat to the moods of the songs.  This track fits the hazy period between summer and fall perfectly, the beat is meandering and the flow is all about the blur of sleep and laziness..  Hear it all at Tomato Juice’s Myspace.

:Breakestra - Posed To Be (Featuring Chali 2Na):  Not much to report here.  Well, other than this synthesis of funk and hip hop is an over the top slab of guilty pleasure.  Just know that they’re coming with the intention of making you shake your ass, and resistance is futile.

:Smooth Current - Don't, Won't, Can't Stop (Featuring Othello):  Smooth Current is best known from his work under the name DJ Ryow and the ShinSight Trio, a group with Boston MC Insight and another Japanese producer.  On Maintain the Focus (2009), Smooth Current steps out on his own and makes an album that sounds much like his new name - jazzy and laid back.  It’s a producer’s album, which means he focuses mainly on the beats and instrumentals while letting guest MCs take the mic.

:Antipop Consortium - Superunfrontable:  Antipop Consortium is back with more of their near-unclassifiable hip hop, booming with large beats and askew lyrics in the just released Flourescent Black.  This song makes me want to do the robot.

FLASHBACK PICK:

One of the more amazing things about hip hop is how it builds on itself and can even create a conversation, like the one between these two tracks (just listen to that shared bass line!).  I know of no other genre where you can get this kind of cross-generational joke between a track from 1992 and one from 2003 simply by using the same beat.  Disasters plays on the title of the first track in its rant against children, but Save the Kids is more about getting out of the ghetto, puberty (really), and the violation of innocence.

:Easy Business - Save The Kids:

:Non-Prophets - Disasters:

- Leah Manners -



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