In a time where the music industry has changed drastically, where little emphasis is placed on the concept and arrangement of an album (both by the artist and listener) its great when little glimmers of light shine through the the metaphoric clouds. Gold Panda’s Lucky Shiner is one such light, an amazing album I stumbled across a bout a month ago. With such emotion pouring from his work and track titles like “Parents”, “I’m with you but I’m lonely” and “After we talked” it’s hard to not acknowledge that this debut from Gold Panda isn’t a deeply personal piece of work. Layered with various samples, live instruments and hypnotic beats Lucky Shiner breaks down the constructs of hip hop, organic neo house and funky broken tribal beats to bring us something unique with an often oriental vibe and a some what amateur charm that brings it all together.
…continue reading The Golden Days

I’ve been meaning to post about this stunning video and soundtrack for quite sometime, but it has been left on the back burner, so here goes. Another outstanding Los Angeles experimental hip hop producer Dr Strangeloop recently had a mix featured on Mary Anne Hobbs experimental show on the BBC Radio 1 a few months back, Strangeloop has also released an outstanding video project called “2010: [or] How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Technological Singularity” to accompany it, memorizing stuff!! You can still grab a limited edition signed DVD from the Institue for cinema Studies for only $15.

Rumour has it that Dr Strangeloop was actually the first artist to teach Flying lotus how to make electronic music on a computer back in art school and was a huge influence in his early works. He’s currently working on an album under the Brainfeeder stamp too so expect some more amazing stuff from Strangeloop soon.

…continue reading Technological Singularity

I don’t know about you but I’ve been waiting quite some time for this album to be released and it’s been in hot anticipation by critics the world over. Ever since James Pants was signed to Stones Throw Records at the beginning of the naughties and when Stones Throw head honcho Peanut Butter Wolf announced James Pants to be the “next big thing” a buzz has been stirring.
…continue reading Who’s Pants?

It’s not every week I come across an album that I really love, not just because every track is great, but because you can tell that a lot of thought went into the project as a whole. Too many artists these days tend to rush their work resulting in releases that seem to be
a mish-mash of contrasting, generic or somewhat unfinished ideas.

“Suicide Beauty Spot” is the name of the latest studio release from a young producer called Point B on Combat records. He is currently residing in Brixton, no doubt taking a lot of his influences from its multicultural neighbourhoods.
…continue reading “Itchy deep-step”