B. Squid - Movie Night
Written by Chi Chi Thalken on May 26, 2020
B.Squid is an artist from Los Angeles that is part of Abstract Rude’s Keep the Feel family, something she joined after winning 16 bar competition that Rude had created. She dropped her first album, Cloud 9, back in 2015. Since that time, she’s been working as an artist in multiple lanes, including her day job filming music videos and photographing concerts. Now she finally returns with her sophomore album, Movie Night.
Damu the Fudgemunk, Archie Shepp & Raw Poetic - Ocean Bridges
Written by Chi Chi Thalken on May 22, 2020
Damu the Fudgemunk is a producer from the D.C. area that has been working both as a solo artist, but also collaborating with the likes of Flex Mathews, Insight, Blue, and Raw Poetic. For his latest project, he had the chance to work not only with his friend and frequent collaborator, Raw Poetic, but also a jazz legend in saxophonist Archie Shepp. The unique recording sessions led to a full-length album, Ocean Bridges.
Lowlight Plains - LossLess (Chpt.1) & (Chpt. 2)
Written by Chi Chi Thalken on May 22, 2020
Lowlight Plains is a group from Adelaide, Australia, consisting of emcee Jack Vaul and producer Wakemare. While both artists have been making music for years, the pairing of the two is relatively new. They now make a bold statement with their first official release, a pair of EPs called Lossless (Chpt. 1) & (Chpt. 2).
Lowlight Plains likes to describe their sound as “grit hop,” and I’m not mad at that description.
Thorts - Jacked Off a Ghost
Written by Chi Chi Thalken on May 22, 2020
Thorts is an emcee from Bunbury, Australia who has been releasing music for a while now. In recent years, he’s collaborated with everyone from Tommy V to Swordplay to Aetcix to Noblonski, just to name a few. If you’ve been following his career, you know that he tends to release shorter projects as opposed to full length albums, usually opting for the 3-5 song EP. This trend continues as releases his latest project, Jacked Off a Ghost.
Renee Dion - PATIENCE • RELAX • ENDURE
Written by Chi Chi Thalken on May 21, 2020
Renee Dion is an artist from Columbus that has been putting out music for about a decade now. She first came on our radar in 2014, when she collaborated with producer Jon Rogers to create the album Moonlight. In more recent years, she’s been focusing on self-produced projects such as last year’s Sonic Chocolate. Now she’s returned with a short, self-produced project to help people through the quarantine, PATIENCE • RELAX • ENDURE.
The Dirty Sample - NO!
Written by Chi Chi Thalken on May 21, 2020
If you don’t recognize the name The Dirty Sample, there’s a chance you might know the Calgary producer by one of his other names, including Apeface, Planit, or 2 Blue Apes. Any way you slice it, he’s been making music for about fifteen years, with his last instrumental project, Pay Up, which came out in 2016. Now he’s back with another full-length, NO!.
With seventeen tracks coming in at about 32 minutes, you can do the math and figure out that this is an album that is less about the individual track, and more about the journey across the different beats.
Mute Speaker - Smidiríní
Written by Chi Chi Thalken on May 20, 2020
Mute Speaker is a producer originally from the UK, but now residing in Cambodia. Over the years, he’s made his name as a solo artist, but also as a collaborator with Acid Reign emcee Gajah. Most recently, we heard him collaborate with Pensacola emcee Oso Negro on the EP Unk Funk, which came out just a couple of weeks ago. Now he’s already back with a new project, Smidiríní.
If you’ve never listened to Mute Speaker before, Smidiríní is a great place to start, because you get a little bit of everything that makes him special.
Mecca:83 - NinetyFour
Written by Chi Chi Thalken on May 20, 2020
Mecca:83 is a producer from Manchester that has been releasing music for nearly twenty years, under this name and aliases such as Rise. Along with his own instrumental music, he’s also produced for everyone from Gallant to Grap Luva. While he’s been releasing a string of singles this year, we get his first collection of instrumentals in 2020 in the form of NinetyFour.
Sometimes you don’t need to overthink things, and sometimes you don’t need to make a grand statement.
Night Stone - Night Stone
Written by Chi Chi Thalken on May 19, 2020
Night Stone is a new group with some familiar faces, with producers Lazerbeak and ICETEP teaming up officially as a duo to make a full-length album together. The two have been in each other’s orbits for a while, with ICETEP having worked on several Doomtree projects, mostly producing for Sims. After all this time, the two finally got on the same page, and now present their self-titled album.
If you’ve heard any of Lazerbeak’s material over the years, you might think you have some idea what this album might sound like.
Daedelus - What Wands Won't Break
Written by Chi Chi Thalken on May 19, 2020
Los Angeles producer Daedelus has been part of the electronic and hip hop scenes there for twenty years, with groundbreaking releases on labels like Mush, Plug Research, and Ninja Tune. Most recently, he just finished up an extremely ambitious trilogy of albums for Brainfeeder, Righteous Fists of Harmony, The Light Brigade, and The Bitterenders. Now he returns with a completely different project, What Wands Won’t Break.
If the last trilogy was some of Daedelus’s most subtle and nuanced work of his career, What Wands Won’t Break is Daedelus working out all of his pent up energy over the past couple of years.