It’s been five years since we last got a full-length album from nerdcore duo Dual Core, when they dropped the infectious All The Things. Now the wait is finally over as we get possibly their most substantial release to date, Downtime. In the past five years, life had its ups and downs for emcee int eighty and producer c64, whether it be moving to different cities, dealing with day jobs, or personal relationships, but whenever the two had some downtime, they were staying in touch and making music here and there, and even playing shows.

drmn is an interesting album, not of your typical structure. Bringing together four different producers from four different parts of the world (USA, Greece, Canada, and Germany), DSPLAY, rak, marjen, and noblonski decided to collaborate by splitting an album four ways. While these four producers hail from different parts of the globe, it’s become clear over the last few years that producers are popping up everywhere to contribute to the conversation in instrumental hip hop.

The Austin group known as Magna Carda has been going strong as one of the mainstays of the hip hop scene there for years, with a series of high quality releases and one of the best live shows in town. We last heard from them in June, when they released their EP, Somewhere Between. Now they come back with another EP to close out the year, Coffee Table Talk Vol. One.

If you had the good fortune of seeing Myk Mansun at our SXSW showcase this past March, you would have also gotten the treat of hearing Turtle hop on the mic for a few songs. A long time staple of the L.A. hip hop scene, for various reasons he’s never gotten the shine that others have. At this point in his career, though, he’s come to embrace his role – he’d rather be obsolete and make the music that he wants to make than do anything else.

Shrimpnose is a producer from Minneapolis who has been making music for a minute now. Most notably, he produced the brutal “I just moved to Minnesota (so you’re all FUCKED),” by CRASHprez. Recently, a good friend of his passed away. In tribute to his friend’s life, Shrimpnose now gives us the beautiful EP, Dawn. Shrimpnose’s style is to work in sort of an ambient electronic vein, which works well when constructing music that’s meant to help cope with loss.

One of the few things you can count in this world is that come December, you’re going to get a Martian XMAS album from Vancouver emcee/producer Moka Only. This year marks the 13th edition in the series, and he’s showing now signs of slowing down. If you’re new to the Martian XMAS series, don’t expect a lot of actual holiday songs, or sleigh bells, or any of your other typical signifiers you get on Christmas albums.

Sign One is a producer and emcee from Orlando who has been creating his own particular brand of hip hop since the early ‘00s. The last time we heard from him was when he dropped his full-length album, Bottom Dollar, back in September of 2016 on Endemik Records. Now he comes back with a short EP for the end of the year called Lunchmeat. If you’re familiar with Sign One, Lunchmeat is exactly what you would come to expect out of him.

Back in 2013, hip hop fans everywhere were ecstatic when Louis Logic returned from a prolonged hiatus to release his first album in seven years, the brilliant Look On The Blight Side. However, it wasn’t too long after that album came out that Logic once again disappeared from his fans and returned to living a private life in New York. Little did we know, in 2014, after touring with ECID, the two started sending tracks back and forth between each other.

Rich Garvey has been quietly building up a strong resume over the last few years. Born in Liberia and based in Minneapolis, he’s worked as both producer and emcee on a couple of different projects that have helped garner him some acclaim amongst a talented and crowded Twin Cities hip hop scene. His latest EP comes to us courtesy of the French label Cascade Records, Onyx Gemstone. If you haven’t heard of Garvey, Onyx Gemstone is a good place to start.

Minneapolis producer Big Cats has made a name for himself by collaborating with such talented emcees as Toki Wright and Homeless, along with several instrumental projects. His last release came one year ago, when teamed up with Chance York to release Highest Self. Now he comes back once again with a year-end present, this time with an instrumental EP, Most Days. To record the music for Most Days, Big Cats enlisted the help of Nelson Devereaux on sax and flute, Eric Mayson on piano and vocals, Miguel Hurtado on drums, and Lydia Liza on vocals and guitars.