Here’s the newest single off Reflection Eternal’s upcoming album ’Revolutions Per Minute’ which is said to release on April 6th. The track is a lot slower than what we’re used to from Hi-Tek, but it’s a good track and could mark a return to form for Kweli & Hi-tek.
Download: Reflection Eternal – In this World
24 year-old Londoner BUG is a keyboard player, songwriter and producer. His debut single Cosmic Lab b/w 20 Winks, is out now on the newly formed Jus Like Music Records & has already received accolades from artists such as Ty (see our preview of his upcoming album), Ohmegga Watts & Eric Lau (see our previous post on his ‘Kilowatt V2′). Listen to both tracks on the widget below.
Download: BUG - Cosmic Lab / 20 Winks
Here is the new 5 track EP from Freddie Joachim. This EP shows him moving towards a more funky style of beat whilst using amazing motown-esque samples. Listen to the whole EP on the widget below.
Download: Freddie Joachim – Dust
UK emcee Tranqill’s new EP was 2 Years in the making but is finally here courtesy of One-Handed Music. Whilst it doesn’t officially drop until March 15th, you can download it now from his Bandcamp page. The EP is only 4 tracks (including a Paul White remix) & their instrumentals, but it’s quality music & for just £2, it’s a serious bargain.
He’s offering ‘Deadly Wintaz’ for free download too. A seriously good track produced by Dj IQ (former Droppin’ Science guest & extended family).
Listen to the whole EP on the widget below.
If you like what you hear, check out this other track of his produced by Oddissee: Tranqill - The Supplier Prod. by Oddisee
Freddie Joachim started out as a dj/turntablist in 1996 spinning all sorts, but always had a strong focus on hip hop and jazz. In 2001, he turned his focus to recording and software based production. Freddie’s produced a whole load of jazzy instrumental hip hop albums & a crazy amount of remixes of hip hop classics, all of which can be downloaded for free on his website. His music has a very unique sound, his beats are very jazzy, often laced with beautiful piano & guitar samples and warm, perfectly crafted basslines. Whilst he has a sound that is very much his own which I highly recommend to all, I think fans of Kev Brown, Pete Rock and Japanese producers like Uyama Hiroto, Nujabes & Nomak will particularly enjoy his music.
Freddie has produced for many indie hip hop and soul artists, with releases in North America, Europe, and Asia. In Spring of 2008, he released his first full-length album entitled ‘In With Time’ for Japan, which featured artists such as Aloe Blacc, Blu, Lauren Santiago, and others. He also mentioned he is now working on a new instrumental album entitled ‘Midway’ that will be dropping sometime around June via San Francisco label, Mellow Orange. ‘Midway’ is going to be a third original compositions, and the rest sampled based beats. Apart from ‘Midway’, Freddie and Question are releasing a 10″ vinyl with a couple of tracks from the ‘Study Guide’ album around late Feb via the label Homegrown Blends & he’s also working with Lauren Santiago on her upcoming album.
Here’s a track generously donated by the musical genius off his upcoming album, enjoy!
Download: Freddie Joachim - All Right (Right click, save as)
Lennon is a 17 year-old native of Connecticut who whilst has only been producing for 4 years now, has a mature sound that’s far ahead of his years. Lennon grew up on Dilla and mentioned some of his influences being Kanye, 9th Wonder, RJD2 & Alex Goose, which is evident in his music. Apart from influences spanding through all music genres, Lennon also draws great inspiration from the legendary Spike Lee’s movies.
Currently, Lennon is working on a new project with the Cosmic Souls Collective (one of the members, EPonym, rhymes over Lennon’s ‘Like That’ track on ‘Beat Tape’) which he recently joined, a couple of blog mixtapes & is always looking for opportunities to produce for other artists. Looking to the future, Lennon’s dream would be to work with people like Eminem, Dre, Flylo, Drake, Jill Scott, Lupe & The Roots. Given his talent at such a young age, the sky’s the limit really.
‘Beat Tape’ is Lennon’s most recent project and displays a variety of his production styles. On the mixtape you will hear a remix of a Madlib track, a Masta Ace classic & also a load of great jazzy, soulful & even eerie instrumentals. Lennon also has a couple of other tracks & another beat tape for download on his website, check it out here. Big up to Lennon for help with the post.
Download: Lennon – Beat Tape
Wasiu M. Brion from Poland released this instrumental tribute to his favourite producers a little while ago. Apart from his beats having a very distinct, crisp sound to them, I was also amazed at how many different styles of production he has. For more, go to his Myspace here, there is a nice remix of Guilty Simpson’s ‘Before the Verdict’.
Download: Wasiu M. Brion – Shy Tribute
Amir ‘Oddisee’ Mohamed, born in Washington D.C. and raised in Maryland, is a producer/emcee who is really pushing his creative boundaries. After working with Hip Hop greats such as DJ Jazzy Jeff, Talib Kweli, J-Live, Asheru, Little Brother, Cy Young, Kev Brown & Kenn Starr, Oddisee is now 3 quarters of the way through his season themed series of predominantly instrumental albums. Compared with Oddisee’s previous productions, the season themed albums seem much more experimental, yet still have a strong Oddisee feel to them. As it happens, Oddisee said via email that a lot of the beats from the Odd Season albums are actually several years old. He also mentioned that he sees these 4 projects as a platform for himself to display versatility in his production.
With all seasons done except spring, Oddisee has managed to make each album so far carry a distinct vibe of the respective season. Whilst a big fan of the autumn & summer albums, the production style on ‘Frostbit’, ‘60901 Instrumental’ & the 2 tracks with UK emcee Tranqill on the recently released ‘Odd Winter’ really stand out from the rest. To hear more of Oddisee’s music, check out his MySpace here, or download the other season themed albums for free here. Big thank you to Oddisee for help with the post.
Download: Oddisee – Odd Winter
via Put Me On It
Last Wednesday 13/1/2010, the American legend of Soul and R&B Teddy Pendergrass died from Colon cancer at the young age of 59. Born Theodore DeReese Pendergrass on 26/3/1950 in Kingstree, South Carolina, Teddy was a musical legend whose career lasted for nearly 40 years. He started off as a drummer for The Cadillacs, later merged with Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes and then in the late 70’s launched his first solo album.
Teddy Pendergrass’ music has been sampled by many modern Hip Hop artists such as Little Brother, D’Angelo, Big Daddy Kane, Mobb Deep and has had a huge influence on R&B singers, most notably probably, Jaheim.
In memory of the legend, Roads-Art made a tribute track called ‘My Place’, which is basically a great instrumental sampling the timeless classic ‘Come Go With Me’.
Cold Legistics: After hearing some of their beats, I got in contact with Chris Brassard, one half of Cold Legistics, to get a bit of background on them and their sound. Cold Legistics started about 4 years ago, and consists of Chris Brassard & Teddy Rosenthal. Teddy goes by the name of Teddy Roxpin, lives in Boston, MA, and works with a lot of rappers in the Boston area. Chris, a native of Providence RI, currently lives in Portland Maine studying at Uni and started producing when at high school, at the young age of 15. Chris’s main influences are Dilla, Dj Premier, Pete Rock, Hi Tek, RZA, Kev Brown, and Bullion. Apart from the ‘Deeper Than You Think’ EP, Cold Legistics’ most recent release is an album released online last week called ‘Northern Star’, which can be downloaded at the link below:
Download: Cold Logistics – Northern Star
Deeper Than You Think EP: Cold Legistics uses clean, intricate drum beats and have immaculate use of sampling. Throughout the EP you can hear samples of Marvin Gaye, Gil Scott-Heron, Redman, Big L, David Axelrod and even The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, all used in moderation to compliment the beats. The album takes you on a journey through different tempos and sounds, from the laid back ‘Didn’t Want To’ with it’s Kev Brownesque guitar samples & vocals subtly echoing in the background, the Dilla inspired genius of Sampling Interlude’ and ‘I’m Gone’, to beats like ‘Coming Home’ and ‘Traffic Interlude’ which could be mistaken for 9th Wonder produced masterpieces. This EP has a unique sound and is my favourite of what I’ve heard from Cold Legistics, but do check out the ‘Northern Star’ album too.
Download: Cold Logistics – Deeper Than You Think EP
Future Releases: Apart from future Cold Legistics releases, Chris and a crew consisting of Maine locals O*zee, Shane, Reis and Essence, will also be dropping an album soon under the name ‘In the Attic’. I’ll keep you all posted on news regarding that one.
Big thank you to Chris for help with this post.
