Beat Week: Label Compilation Day

Seriously, i am too slothful this week to be thinking of anything too creative for you cats this week. Fortunately for everyone involved, ye olde inbox has afforded us some stellar new beat music for us all to share, enjoy and then call a slut behind its back. So guess who's getting a full Beat Week this week (at least until i bounce on Friday to head to Pitt for the Outdoor Classic)?

You can tell a lot about a label by the strength of its artist compilations tapes. Denmark Records' roster of Southeastern beat artists on its DenFriends Compilation proves this label is an up and coming force with which to be reckoned. You've already heard the likes of Junk Culture here at LET before, but please allow me to point out that you also need to check out their other acts like, Bambara, C Powers and the Selmanaires. Admittedly, some of the tracks here are about as fringe "beat" as you can get (i'm looking at your closer to pop submissions, NAPS and Heads on Sticks, and your almost soul composition, ArnHao), but i think it's pretty safe to assume anyone who reads the LET Beat Meet is going to find at least a few tracks here to dig. And even if you don't, the price remains the same, which, at free, is kind of hard to beat.

mp3: Drag Hesitation (BUSTED heRobust remix) (Bambara from DenFriends Compilation)

mp3: Dew ft. Graham Stephenson (C Powers from DenFriends Compilation)

1320 Records dropped their Volume II compilation some months ago. Hell, i even posted Alex B's "Dro on the D-Lo" way back when, but for whatever reason, it took me until now to listen to the entire thing. Point being, my mistake for waiting this long. There are tracks here more symphonic in nature, foregoing the staid and stuff live orchestra while creating similar arcs, motifs and flourishes with far simpler electronic toys. Sure, i might have been high and on a treadmill whilst listening to it myself, but check it out yourself and tell me if i'm lying.

mp3: Lo Swagga (STS9 from 1320 Records Volume II)

mp3: Virtual Boy (Threshold of Pain from 132o Records Volume II)

i dig Friends of Friends Music's philosophy--the driving force behind discovering and sharing new music is through friends. The fact that their latest compilation tape features such heavyweights as Shlohmo, Strangeloop and Daedelus “choos(ing) a song from any era of popular culture to be source material of a song for (their)‘Pop Massacre’ compilation” shows that FoF are exactly the kinds of chums you want recommending music to your ear holes.

mp3: La Bamba (Ritchie Valens) (Mexicans with Guns from Pop Massacre)

mp3: Wouldn't It Be Nice (Beach Boys) (Strangeloop from Pop Massacre)

Predominately Blunted Beats

Today, we're focusing on a bunch of beat music that's found it's way into my grimy little hands of late. It's no secret i love this stuff. i only wish DC had its own Low End Theory (sorry, 18th Street Lounge, but you ain't it) or similar beat scene. Oh well, at least we have the Interwebs giving us sorts of goodness from around the globe.

Baths' Cerulean is easily in my top ten albums for 2010. This 21-year-old electronic music maestro tears it up on this one, combining glitchy electro with an assortment of found and created sounds that makes a pastiche of creamy goodness. Though he dropped the CD a while back, he just released another single, "Lovely Bloodflow," for our free listening pleasure. Better yet, it's one of the best tracks on the CD, adding some haunting vocals to the click clack. Not for the faint of funk. (Ed. note: today's post is entitled "Predominately Blunted Beats" because we don't want to piss off young Baths any more than Pitchfork did recently by assuming he's a poth ead.)

mp3: Lovely Bloodflow (Baths from Cerulean)

A top notch jazz prodigy pianist and one of Brainfeeder's finest jamming together? Um, yes, please. Austin Peralta tears it up with Strangeloop from this set recorded at the Roy O. Disney Theatre Performance at CalArts on July 22, 2010.

mp3: Roy O. Disney Theatre Performance (Austin Peralta and Strangeloop from Live at CalArts- 7.20.2010)

Thanks once again to the majesty of random Hype Machine surfing, i stumbled upon yet another genius beat producer in the making, Shigeto. The currently Brooklyn-based DJ just dropped a new EP, full of ghostly machinations and otherworldly beats. While everyone who is anyone on the beat scene seems to be coming out of L.A. or London these days, Shigeto looks to even the score for those of us who find ourselves on the East Coast without a champion of our own these days. i'm telling you, keep an eye on this kid.

mp3: After the Smoke (Shigeto from What We Held On To EP)

mp3: Bitter Sweet (Shigeto from What We Held On To EP)

Thanks to the stellar article in XLR8R, i recently stumbled upon the website for the We Did It Collective, home to such geniuses as Shlomo, Jonwayne and others. As luck would have it, they tend to post a lot of tracks, many of which are free. i've stumbled across a few definitely worth sharing. One up is from an artist i believe named Chris Adams, though the accompanying text for his new EP is sparse, to say the least. It does explain that he used no synthesized sounds, recording all the noises used himself. All i know is it sounds good, and he looks suspiciously like a guy who used to deal me pot. They've also recently hosted a crazy mix by Jonwayne, definitely worth the download. While most of the We Did It stuff is beat-centric, they've also had some dope ass rhymes by 0. Anyone who can rhyme "cunnilingus" and "dingus" in the same verse is A-OK in my book, children. At the risk of giving away a source of endlessly good shit, bookmark their site, peeps.

mp3: CricketsandDolphins (Chris Adams from IAmYouAsMeMyFriend)

mp3: Paranoia Mix (Jonwayne from the We Did It Collective Website)

mp3: cloudlevel (0. from We Did It Collective Website)