Links:

• Official Site
• FaceBook Page
• “Let It Rain (Lotus Remix) on Soundcloud

When I listen to the Blackout EP, I feel like me and this band have a tight bond. When you give these songs a spin, you get the impression that this band has been in your life for years, although reality says they have not.

The Blackout EP is filled with big beats, earth-shaking bass and cut up samples that fit together with great ease. With something like “Let It Rain,” I get the feeling as I did when listening to DJ Nassir or Mr. Oizo. Their cut and paste makes the deep Hip Hop blended with Art of Noise-like shenanigans a gutsy move, but you will find that Keys N Krates do it so much better. The music is accessible and welcoming as the transitions move about flawlessly.

“Ring The Alarm” is Dancehall with Lucas with the Lid Off jive. When the bass drops, holy cow, what an experience! They take a concept and exploit it while blowing the sound up to its fullest potential without compromising anything. Somehow they have managed to keep everything at a certain level of insanity to their mixes without going overboard. By the time you get to the end of “Ring The Alarm,” you will want it so loud the windows shake as much as the booty.

The tiny accents, layers, and direction to the songs help keep the repetition in check. And when they throw in a modest amount of Dubstep meets Basement Jaxx (“Oh Baby”) or glitch hop with a pinch of soul (“Uncle Otis”), you will want to lose your mind.

And if you have all this junk in the trunk, you can’t walk away from an EP like this with a deep electro dub track. And that they do with “Got A Lot To Learn.”

This is a band who is very aware of their electronic surroundings.

Link: http://notarnyc.com/

NOTAR is a smooth talker and a quick thinker. He does not need crude lingo to get his point across. All he needs is honesty, and that in my book is always a good thing. His point is more pungent this way.

With the help of Young Cash, Chris Carrabba of Dashboard Confessional and Counting Crows’ Adam Duritz, these people help bring a radio-friendly pop element to some of his songs. The song “Reach” is not just motivational in lyrical content, but the Top 40 overtones saturate the song with the only thing that comes out of it is NOTAR’s quick-fire tongue and modest speed rapping.

But it’s a sense of insanity to his other songs that attract me the most, much like early immediacy of the band Living Colour. NOTAR mingles Hip Hop skills with fierce guitar rock. The self-titled opening track reminds me of the silliness when Dave Navarro did guest guitar work for P. Diddy. Although the guitar solos abound with metal fervor, NOTAR’s attempt is smoother.

“Matador” ups the ante with a sense of urgency by adding more power to the power chords and creating his hardest-edge rhyming yet.

“Choose To Run” is his definitive work and a song that best exemplifies what it is that he is trying to accomplish on this album. NOTAR burns through some of his most accomplished skills as a lyricist and rapper.

I’m more of a fan of his fast action than his more radio-friendly bubble pop meets reality Hip-Hop. With two sides to NOTAR, it may or may not phase you. What is worthy of note is that he is an up-and-coming lyricist who has potential.

Link: http://www.facebook.com/MaxBurgundy

Max Burgundy smoothes out his Bronx Hip Hop scene with a mixture of sincere and steady. With writing more like pop prose, his debut EP is not the typical New York toughness that we are accustomed to.

What we get is love lost and tough times all wrapped around a spinning technology that seems to pass him by. “Life Ain’t Funny” is big beat soul dreams scorning high times and reflecting on family misfortune. He tries to pepper in a few four letter f-words with results that are completely unnecessary. The story itself should be the f-bomb but it gets lost in the train of thought.

I have mixed emotions about #Waiting. The production of this EP is slick. And Burgundy’s talent for enunciation is flawless. When it comes to rhyming, you know exactly what he’s talking about and with the beats, you know how deep he wants to go. But the lyrics tell us otherwise.

Between rhyme association and bringing the story into full spectrum, there is some work that needs to be done. And in time, I can see Burgundy becoming a lyrical poet that will be respected. That is if he lets heartache and feeling of want to overcome his flow. For now, I will take it at face value.

Download the full mix right here: Sole And The Skyrider Band – Nuclear Winter Volume 2 – Death Panel

I normally would not pay a second glance at a mixtape that comes my way, but Sole and the Skyrider Band’s Nuclear Winter is different.

Right before Sole plans to drop his full length bomb mid-month (Hello Cruel World on Fake Four Inc.), he feels the need to let loose his frustration and a mixtape theme that is every bit as interesting as it is vivid. Using Rap as journalistic statement, he does what any radical would do who is fed up with the media, make a clear and bold statement.

With the help of the following — Kool A.D. from Das Racist, Busdriver, B. Dolan, Mac Lethal, Ceschi Ramos, Cadalack Ron, LuckyIAM, Time, Pictureplane, K the I??? and Bleubird — the songs tackle topics like climate change, the death of Osama Bin Ladin, the economy, war, New Orleans, and more in an anarchic approach that reminds me of Water Robert McChesney’s “Will The Last Reporter Please Turn Out The Lights,” who discusses the failures and current turmoil of bad journalistic practices that has become standard. That’s okay because Sole is doing his part. You may not notice it as much for truth but more for a wake up call and a reminder that Fox News, CNN and MSNBC’s standards are not the right standards.



Link: M.O.D. Technologies home page (currently inactive)

When this stuff was new (back in the early 90s, in the middle of the grunge revolution), Praxis was something of a revelation.

Keyboardist Bernie Worrell (Parliament-Funkadelic) was the mainstream anchor to a weird bunch of misfits that included famed producer Bill Laswell (Material), a session drummer who goes by the name “Brain,” and the enigmatic speed guitar virtuoso, Buckethead (who to this day performs wearing a featureless white mask and a bucket on his head). Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis) explored the space where speed metal, hip hop, and free jazz met. It was a skronky, sprawling mess of a record that was nevertheless able to captivate the adventurous listener.

By 2005, thirteen years later, the Praxis project had apparently run its course with the recording of Profanation: Preparation for a Coming Darkness. The core lineup of Lasswell, Worrell, Brain, and Buckethead, was on board. High profile guest vocalists (Iggy Pop, Serj Tankian, Killah Priest, and Mike Patton) were brought in to breathe fire into several of the songs. And then… nothing. It took three years for the record to see any sort of release, and when it did, it was in Japan only. Although by 2009 the record was available digitally in the US, it wasn’t until this year that Laswell himself was able to physically release the record here.

One of the rules of rock and roll is if a record’s release gets held up for more than a year, there’s a reason for it. And if it’s held up more than five years, that reason will be painfully apparent when you finally get a chance to listen to it.

Profanation is not an exception to that rule. It’s a sprawling mess of ideas and unfocused execution, made listeneable by the sheer talent of the guys in the room. Not surprisingly, the strongest tracks are the cluster featuring the high profile guest artists. “Furies” would fit in nicely on any latter-day Iggy Pop record, as he croons over Buckethead’s aptly crunchy licks. Killah Priest rhymes over a fairly traditional funky/jazzy hip hop track that sounds entirely out of place as an intro to Serj Tankian’s wailing “Sulfur and Cheese” — which itself sounds like nothing more than a System Of A Down studio outtake. And therein lies the main problem with this record: it very much sounds like it was recorded in the mid-aughts, and its datedness is a distraction. A listener’s tolerance for this sort of wankery depends to a great degree on the nostalgia associated with the time and place it was first experienced.

Profanation suggests a seven year gap (even a cognitive one) is a bit too much to overcome.

Links:

alpha.live – http://twitter.com/alphaisforever
J. Brookinz – http://twitter.com/jbrookinz
Heavy Gun – http://heavygun.blogspot.com/

Indiana’s self-proclaimed rap leviathan, alpha.live has treated 2011 like a lion. This smooth-tongued lyrical master’s gentle roar is like a train only to pick up steam. Lately, he has teamed up with the creative and talented beat producer J. Brookinz to create a powerful song that fuels classic Hip Hop style with a progressive twist that will be sure to make you want more. alpha.live’s experience in lyrical freestylin’ only pays off on a song like this.

The Six Shot EP is alpha.live and J. Brookinz at their finest and is sure to please everyone. Confidence is the game, and their confidence shines on these songs.

Link: http://philadelphiaslick.com/

Snubbing their nose at all the fantastical Rap and Hip Hop that saturates the radio airwaves, Philadelphia Slick believes in a better place; a place of realism and hard-lined philosophy that is there to help all of us become better people. Everything’s Game is not here to throw a bunch of “Yeahs” at you or build a song based on repetition, but they do want you to throw your hands up in the air and that’s a good thing.

Not as cool and unified as Automato and not standing out like A Tribe Called Quest, although they probably lean more toward The Light Movement than anything else, they make modest Hip Hop that is accessibly pleasing, yet by throughing in enough “f” words it gives the illusion that they mean business.

Not that you won’t find any resolve here by the end of it all, their album is a gritty approach that serves as favorable indie Rap. Hang the DJ is right in their eyes because those rap stars on the radio do nothing for their lives, and they will be the first to tell you.

Click the label to download the mix

From the stage to the dance floor to America’s Got Talent, the electronic powerhouse has been storming the world with their dance-infected grooves and deep-cut bass.

As a bonus to their well-received release Drink The Sea, the band — along with Мишка — presents Drink The Sea Part 2: The Mixtape. Expect the party to keep going when you put this blend of Glitch Mob-fused electro glitch and Hip Hop vocal stylings in the stereo. Here’s a play-by-play:

1.  ANIMUS VOX  vs.  NAS, JAY-Z, LIL WAYNE & DR. DRE
2. FORTUNE DAYS vs. LIL WAYNE, BUSTA RHYMES, THE GAME, DAFT PUNK & DRAKE
3. WE SWARM vs. M.I.A., MOBB DEEP & DAFT PUNK
4. HOW TO BE EATEN BY A WOMAN vs. THE GAME, FABOLOUS, JAY-Z, PAGE, WALE & DRAKE
5. A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM vs. LFO, FREDDIE GIBBS, & YOUNG JEEZY
6. BETWEEN TWO POINTS feat. SWAN vs. LIL WAYNE
7.BAD WINGS vs. LIL WAYNE & LA ROUX
8. FISTFUL OF SILENCE vs. RAPPER BIG POOH, JAY-Z & BLACK ROB
9. STARVE THE EGO FEED THE SOUL vs. PAUL WALL & BIRDMAN
10. DRIVE IT LIKE YOU STOLE IT vs. BIRDMAN, DRAKE, COLLIE BUDDZ, THE GAME, JAY-Z, DR. DRE, JIM JONES & BOO

Glitch Mob will be invading The Vogue in Indianapolis, September 13 on the End of Summer Tour.

Link: http://www.discobiscuits.com/

Here in their fifteenth year of activity, The Disco Biscuits continue to load up ubiquitous genres in the trunk with their fifth studio album Planet Anthem. Once holding deep roots in the soils of jammy incongruity, this collection flutters high in the sky with breezes of melody and intelligent song craft. Featuring plenty of East Coast hip hop vibe, Planet Anthem is a rambunctious busybody; the fruits of which spawned from collaborations in the recently purchased Philadelphia studio space once owned by DJ Jazzy Jeff.

Appointing big name producers and other outside hands, such as Don Cheegro and Dirty Harry and Roc-A-Fella’s co-founder Damon Dash, maintains the fatty sheen of gaudy production. How appropriate, however.

Electro hop “On Time” is on deck for the pop charts with the lead vocal track sheathed in dripping Auto-Tune and one of the most toothsome breakdowns you will hear. “You and I” sounds 3OH!3-approved with pandemic hooks and teasing drum breaks. Arabian nuances add refreshing mystique to the otherworldly trance of “Über Glue”. Tracks “The City” and opener “Loose Change” can be heard influenced by countless white-boy underground hip hop records of the past decade and a half.

Verse for verse, “Fish Out of Water” is as close to indie rock as they get; however, the chorus falls back upon something that could of come from the Fun Lovin’ Criminals canon—minus the politics, of course.

The Disco Biscuits run the gamut from synth-rock to electronica to alternative hip hop. So wildly all over the place, it’s amazing how everything gels together. While lyrically nothing to write home about, Planet Anthem is still replete with convivial, radio-friendly pop songs.

Link: http://www.myspace.com/thejdavistrio

The Hip Hop world has had their fair share of blingy tripped-out jazz with smooth operators spinning words into a weave of commentary that is equally swank in style and often poised in context.

However, The J. Davis Trio’s third attempt just does not cut the cake when it comes to integrating the two ideals. Listen to one song from These Things Happen and you may disagree.

Take “Breezay,” for example. At first, you hear the bouncy beats and the swooning of a stand-up bass. Bongos may accentuate the head-bobbing, and instrumentally you have the feeling that something is going on. But then you get to the lyrics rhyming and when they say “we going to do it like this,” you are not sure what “this” is as you spend most of the album scrambling around to figure out what they are really trying to grab at.

And what you may agree on is that the album as a whole demonstrates a tired redundancy to their songs. They may do well at making a song like “Breezay,” but that is all they are good at making. Everything on Everything Happens lies on a linear plane and maintains the same tempo and song construction.

The excessive explicitness and the over-abuse of shouting out to their nigga really distracts from not just the message they present (whatever that is), but also the combination of smoothness and an otherwise accomplished lyricist.

A lack of diversity and potty-mouthed rappers trying to build prestige the wrong way, it’s the live musicians who really save this album from being an absolute mess, but it’s not enough to pull this band from the confusing muck of style and substance.

The band needs to take some lessons from others like Automato or A Tribe Called Quest and work on the polish.