Damu the Fudgemunk - Victorious Visions

Earlier this year, D.C. producer Damu the Fudgemunk released an album with emcee Flex Matthews called Dreams & Vibrations. After enough people asked, Damu went back and reworked and packaged the instrumental tracks and is now releasing them as the instrumental album, Victorious Visions. Sometimes instrumental versions of albums are merely tools, mostly used by other artists. Sometimes they are included as bonus material when you buy an album. Every so often, though, you come across an album like Victorious Visions, which just completely stands apart as its own thing.

Rich Jones - The Shoulder You Lean On

Chicago artist Rich Jones has been releasing music since the beginning of the decade. Over the years he’s worked with everyone from Vapor Eyes to the O’Mys to Show You Suck, just to name a few. While he came up as an emcee, in recent years he’s been exploring more of his soul/singer/songwriter side. Nowhere is this more apparent than on his latest EP, The Shoulder You Lean On. In the spring of 2017, Rich Jones met up with producer J.

Fort Ancient Records - Fort Ancient Airlines: Biloxi

Fort Ancient Records is a Cincinnati collective consisting of producers Homage CVG, Waldo From Cincinnati, Phonopage, Dren AD, and Samuel Steezmore. Earlier this year, amongst their other projects, the collective started a beat tapes series called Fort Ancient Airlines, the idea being that each volume would be a short instrumental trip somewhere, with a pilot leading the way. After making stopes in Rochester, Long Beach, and Kansas City, the group takes one last trip this year, this time to Biloxi.

Stan Forebee - Revision

Stan Forebee is a producer originally from the Netherlands, but now based in Melbourne, Australia. He’s been working steadily since releasing his debut album, Jazz Sessions, with a bunch of beat tapes and EPs following since. While we patiently wait for his next official album, we get Revision, a collection of unreleased music from the past eight years. While this collection spans eight years, don’t expect some sort of multi-volume career retrospective.

Evil Needle - Igida

Evil Needle is a Berlin-born, Paris-based producer who has been releasing music for over a decade now. The last time we heard from him was a little over a year ago, when he dropped his album Abyssal. Now he comes back with an EP by the name of Igida. The concept of Igida is a little broad and vague, as Evil Needle explains, “Igida explores how we tumble onto the hazards of life and the way we heal as a whole play without Dues Ex Machina.

Amerigo Gazaway - Lauryn Hill & Nina Simone: The Miseducation of Eunice Waymon

Amerigo Gazaway is a producer now based in Berkeley, who has been known over the years for making a series of mashups, creating collaborations that never were. Some of his previous projects have paired De La Soul with Fela Kuti, Yasiin Bey with Marvin Gaye, and UGK with B.B. King. Apparently while discussing his work at Pop Con two years ago, writer and professor Zandria Robinson called him out for having any projects celebrating women artists.

The Department of Darkness - The Department of Darkness

The Department of Darkness is the pairing of emcee Schaffer The Darklord and producer Vince Vandal. Vandal actually produced all of Schaffer’s 2015 EP Sex Rhymes, but this marks their first official venture as a duo. They now present their self-titled album. The first thing that hit me about this album is just how much fun it is. While this is technically an album from a duo, there are so many guests on the album, it really feels more like a posse album.

Fardust - Yama

Fardust is a duo from Bologna, Italy that initially met because they were both playing violin in the local orchestra. As it turns out, their musical connection went beyond just classical music, and they soon found themselves working together making modern electronic music. After releasing their first two songs earlier this year, Fardust now present their EP, Yama. In the opening bars of the first song, “Komorebi,” there is a great moment of tranquility as Fardust quietly build the outline of the song with manipulated vocal samples and birds chirping in the background.

Blacknerdninja - The Mission Statement

BlackNerdNinja is an emcee from Athens, Georgia who has been putting out music for a few years now. His last project came out in April of last year, an EP by the name of The Story So Far (Pop-up Shop). Now he comes back with another EP, The Mission Statement. If you’ve never listened to BlackNerdNinja before, The Mission Statement makes for a great starting point. With the exception of one track produced by Lu B, the rest of the EP is produced by Flawless tracks.

Laboreal - Frequence

Laboreal is a producer based Nantes, France. He used to make music under the name of Pix, but switched to Laboreal in 2013, which also marked a change in style for him. He last release came out just about one year ago, when he released the album Le Carre Bleu, a challenging album that kept you on your toes. Now he comes back with an even bolder experimental project, Frequence.