As explained with the review of Safari Al, there is a young crop of hip hop talent emerging in Wisconsin. Milo’s I wish my brother Rob was here served as an introduction not only to his talent, but also to Safari Al and Nicholas J through some guest verses. As it turns out, Nicholas J actually beat his friends to punch with a solo release a couple of years ago with his DEMOlition mixtape, but I imagine that like myself, One of a Kind will be your first introduction to the young artist.

Pierce Warnecke is an interesting person, whose travels in life have stationed him in California, Paris, Berklee School of Music, and currently, Berlin. On top of being an elecrtonic/instrumental hip hop producer/composer, he also works as a sound designer at music software company. On his latest release, The Machine Regrets, he seeks to tell the story of a machine gaining consciousness and the difficulties it encounters as a result. The first two tracks, “De-Processed,” and “Re-Processed,” do an excellent job of setting the stage.

Adrian Younge first made a splash by scoring the 2009 film Black Dynamite, a parody of blaxploitation movies of the 1970s. It was on this score that Younge displayed his talents as songwriter and arranger, combining influences such as Ennio Morricone, Isaac Hayes, and RZA. On his latest project, he harkens back to a piece of work he did much earlier, a film score to a fictional film called Venice Dawn.

One of the most exciting parts of being a music journalist is discovering talent at the beginning of a career. Or, to be more accurate in this case, when that talent taps you on the shoulder and opens a door to an exciting scene. This is precisely what happened last October, when a young Wisconsin artist named Milo submitted his solo debut, I wish my brother Rob was here. Milo was clearly talented himself, but there were hints of even more music to come due to the guest spots from Safari Al and Nicholas J.

In a short amount of time I’ve become very intrigued by Columbus, Ohio’s Maggz. After being introduced to him first as a producer for another emcee, then hearing him rhyme over another producer’s beats, he released the first in a series of instrumental EPs based on the seasons. After Soundscapes: Autumn Selection came out, well, last autumn, he comes back with his winter collection. Maybe it’s because for the first time in over twenty years I’m living in a place that has discernible seasons, but this series is resonating with me.

Tensei is the Chicago duo of Midas Wells and Simple X. The two have been working together off and on since the late ‘90s, and while they’ve had plenty of individual production credits over the years, it’s only in the past couple years that the two have reconnected and committed to working as a duo. Taking the name Tensei, which means “Heaven Star” in Japanese, they first garnered attention by winning a remix contest for Bilal, which led to Plug Research signing them.

It must be nice to be Lazerbeak. It must be nice to have a friend (in this case, DJ Plain Ole Bill) go through some unreleased beats that you’ve been working on and to emerge with an album in tact. Seriously, I’m in awe of just how talented and prolific this guy is. On the heels of working on last Decemeber’s incredible No Kings with the rest of Doomtree, he comes right back with his first instrumental album in Lava Bangers.

Yöt is a four piece group from Helsinki, and Bitch Bender marks their third release. They’re calling it a mini-LP or mini-album, and I’m not clear as to why they’re avoiding the term EP, but that’s all just a matter of semantics. What matters most is that they released a collection of six songs of instrumental hip-hop, dub, and skweee. Before I could really listen to their music, I had to deal with Yöt’s titles on this release.

It’s been a while since I Self Divine released his debut solo album in 2005, but now that he’s back in a big way. In the time since you last heard from him, Devine has been working at the Hope Community Center in Minneapolis, helping to develop programs that encourage others to develop skills as artists, musicians, and political activists. All this time, he was still writing, so when he finally went back in the studio, he had a plethora of material to work with.

With major labels, when albums get pushed back, that usually means that the label and the artist are at an impasse in their views about artistic expression vs. commercial viability. In the most unfortunate of cases, it means that a really interesting album will get shelved indefinitely. However, when an independent artist has an album that gets pushed back, it’s not nearly as damning a message. Most of the time it’s purely the result of working with smaller budgets and coordinating schedules with other artists, producers, and engineers.