On their third release, the Dutch label Lowriders Recordings reached out to a Canadian artist, Montreal’s Hovatron. The youngster is part of a burgeoning scene there, one which I’ll have to learn more about based on the strength of this EP. He’s working with a range of influences that brings in the synthesized glitches and melodies of skwee and other European electronic styles and the bass and drums of Bay Area hyphy hip hop.

Beats Anitque is the Bay Area trio of David Sartori, Tommy Cappel, and Zoe Jakes. Since their first release in 2007, the group has been fairly prolific, with four albums to their name and several EPs. They work to create a fusion of sounds that draws from more traditional Eastern European and Middle Eastern music and mix them with hip hop and electronic production techniques. It’s a formula not too far from Thievery Corporation, and much like them, the music of Beats Antique can be hit and miss.

This project began earlier this year when ST/MiC was asked to do a verse for a promo for Elusive’s album Beat Placement. Having a hard time picking just one beat, he flipped around the request into got everybody to agree to this EP. A few months and guest spots later, we get Preserves featuring Elusive and ST/MiC. Knowing that the original request given to ST/MiC turned “In Time” from Beat Placement into “Fly Definition” featuring Jazz Addixx, and listening to the rest of the EP, I can’t help but think that the Charlottesville emcee would have been better off just releasing a single.

2011 has been a hell of year for Has-Lo. With one album and an EP already under his belt, he’s back with one more album for good measure. Conversation B is being pushed under the context of a complete re-envisioning of In Case I Don’t Make It, but I feel like that sells this album short, as it stands very well on its own. It’s a different album than his last, and it lets us get to know more sides of this talented artist.

After the release of In Case I Don’t Make It this spring and in anticipation of his new album later this fall, Has-Lo gives us this EP of older unreleased material to tide us over. As short as it is, it’s incredibly rewarding and varied. It gives a fairly complete portrait of the Philadelphia emcee/producer. Where ICIDMI was an intimate and honest portrayal of a man struggling to deal with the weight of the world on his shoulders, Illegally Yours is decidedly more playful in tone.

I don’t know who’s writing for Goapele’s website, but if you go to the front page, you’ll encounter a quote that claims “Break of Dawn doesn’t linger on R&B’s lackluster clichés, it hypes you up, kicks you in the stomach, drives you to tears, and then reels you back in on a sunny Sunday morning…Break of Dawn is stepping out a bit. It’s less guarded, it’s sexy and it’s stadium-worthy.” Aside from this being just terrible writing, it really makes me wonder what they’re trying to accomplish, as it does a terrible disservice to Goapele.

You might know Basil Clarke from the ‘80s Manchester group Yargo, most notable for recording the theme to Tony Wilson’s show The Other Side of Midnight. The group featured a mix of reggae, post-punk, and African influences, combined with the smooth soul of Clarke’s vocals. These days, Basil Clarke has dropped the Basil from his performing name, and on The Measure Of My Worth, he’s dropped just about all of the engaging eclectic musical elements to gives us a straight ahead “Quiet Storm” album.

Hectic Zeniths is the work of producer/multi-instrumentalist Adam Morgan Prince. Taking the name from an anagram for the German word “zeitschtichten,” which means “layers of time,” this album came together of the course of the last three years. Prince has released other work under the name of amplifya, but those were short remixes or EPs, nothing close to the complex and complete listening experience that Hectic Zeniths presents. This album is simply one of the most beautiful and moving instrumental hip hop/electronic albums I’ve come across in years.

For the older hip hop heads, all I have to say is that there is a new Freestyle Fellowship album, and that’s all they need to know. But for a group that hasn’t released a new album in almost ten years, there are a whole new group of hip hop fans that have come of age without them on the scene. This is a group consisting of Aceyalone, Myka 9, Self Jupiter, P.

While attending SXSW this past spring, there was a moment during Aceyalone’s set when he called a bunch of Project Blowed emcees on stage for a freestyle session. I expected to see some of the usual faces I associate with the name, such as Myka 9, Abstract Rude, 2Mex, or Busdriver. Instead, we got a younger group that was largely unfamiliar to me. It quickly occurred to me that there is a new generation coming through the ranks at the legendary L.