The second installment of Beats Working, my new column/blog at Blurt Magazine was published this week. I discuss Alex Zavala’s mesmerizing beats, Comma, TOKiMONSTA, and Paul White. Check it out — streams, downloads, and lots of words. Thanks for reading.
“Supreme” - Exclusive J. Rocc mix for LA Weekly’s West Coast Sound by rebeccahaithcoat
J-Rocc’s long-anticipated debut album doesn’t sound like turntablism’s flashy moments, such as the scratch exercises that underpin the debut from NYC’s the X-Ecutioners or Q-Bert’s Demolition Pumpkin Squeeze Musik. Instead, J’s record is artful in a different fashion, with mere nods at the once-bustling DJ battle circuit in sporadic tricks and cuts. See more at The Brooklyn Rail.
“Besides…” is Diego Bernal’s second full-length LP. I wrote about it for Blurt Magazine earlier in 2010 (when it was free, incidentally). Bernal swipes a few notes from the Shadow/Cut Chemist/Madlib playbooks, but he’s his own producer, and these beats sound closer to mid-’90s NYC hip hop than any of the breaks records this Texas artist discovered in his neighborhood’s secondhand shops. Check it out here, and dig his first one, too.
From Illinois-based experimental producer Lorn, Nothing Else is as rich with spooky string sections as it is with rumbling synth bass. This podcast with Gaslamp Killer is, eh, killer.
Madlib sib Oh No breaks from mining 1960s Turkish funk 45s to build beats on an iPad. Doesn’t really let us in on it, but only show your poker hand when you have to, right?
Drowsy beats and summery bliss: Paul White, Viernes, and Adaledge in the headphones this week.
