Beat Meet: The Embarassment of Riches Edition

Since the holidays screwed up my blog week last week, ye olde inbox received a horn o' plenty's worth of stellar beats. And because i'm such a helluva guy, i'm going to share them with you.

Ah, Project: Mooncircle, how i love thee and thy dopish ways. Continuing with their kick ass Finest Ego series, this time up, the label features some of today's hottest Russian beatmakers doing their thing. Now, i know what you're thinking about Russian DJs, but, c'mon, man, that's racist. Allow me to confirm the fact that P:M yet again knocks this one out of the park, particularly on tracks by Pavel Dovgal and Shawalski. Here's what i'm trippin' on, though--how come all these foreign compilations only use English language samples? i'm just asking. Regardless, here's a little mini-mix to prove my point about just how good this bad boy is.

mp3: Finest Ego Russian Beatmakers Compiliation Mini-Mix

i can't tell you much about the Cutler beyond what you can read on their website yourself, other than that their latest, The Best Things in Life Aren't Things, is a stone cold groove, baby. Jazzy/funky instruments, cymbal-ic percussion and Charlie Brown sounding vocal samples? Yes, please.

mp3: PAYR (The Cutler from The Best Things in Life Aren't Things)

mp3: Sync Estate (The Cutler from The Best Things in Life Aren't Things)

You didn't think i was going to allow LET to falter in its goal of maintaining its place as THE leading source for heavily and probably illegally sampled children's movie beats, did you? Hells no, i'm not. So let's check out Pogo's latest update to his already classic take on Alice in Wonderland.

mp3: Alice (Extended) (Pogo from Deeper Down the Rabbit Hole)

mp3: Oyster Dreamland (Pogo from Deeper Down the Rabbit Hole)

i'm normally not a huge remix fan, but when one of my fave up and coming beatmakers is behind the board, what can i do? Here's oOoOO's take on Marina & the Diamond's "Obsessions." i've got to be honest, i'm not at all familiar with the original, but i sure as hell am digging the remix.

mp3: Obsessions (oOoOO Remix) (Marina & the Diamonds from Soundcloud)

If the cats at the WEDIDIT Collective give a song props, i'm going to have to give it a listen. So far, they have yet to let me down. And they maintain that streak with this Juj-recommended track by Ackryte. i'm assuming the instrumental is NOT about Ackryte's problems with the Alabama Police Department, but what the hell do i know?

mp3: Ackryte_x_AL_PD_-_Untitled (Ackryte from Soundcloud)

Is there anything better than "re-released" Dilla? Maybe "re-released" Dilla remixed by Madlib? OK, i'll buy that.

mp3: The $ (Madlib Remix) (J Dilla from Hella International)

Free Music Friday

To start, many happy returns of the day to The Missus. Doesn't have a damn thing to do with today's Free Music Friday, but, hey, it's half my blog, so i'm going write about what i'm going to write about. Plus, you dig the Missus, too, so you should wish her one, too.

Anyway, we received some nice tunes the past couple of weeks while i've been traveling all over the place, so you get to enjoy the fruits of those looms, as it were.

Surprising no one, Stones Throw continues to give out more freebies than whore with poor pimp management. i don't know about you, but i've always been a huge fan of voice boxes. Fuck that auto-tune shit, i'm talking about the original real deal. Whereas Roger Troutman popularized the sound (using his own variation on the instrument), the ST crate diggers have uncovered a treasure trove from Bruce Haack, the inventor of “Farad," one of the first truly musical vocoders, and first to be used on a pop album. Also from the gang, Aloe Blacc's Good Things finally hit the stands, and to celebrate, they dropped this ultra-groovy, soulful number to get your juices fellow in a most mellow manner.

mp3: Electric to Me Turn (Bruce Haak from Farad: The Electric Voice)

mp3: You Make Me Smile (Aloe Blacc from Good Things)

Daytrotter did a session with the folks in Admiral Radley, and it's a good one. Go check it out. We keep telling you how good Jason and his crew are, so maybe this will make true believers out of you.

mp3: I Heart California (Admiral Radley from Daytrotter Sessions, 9-22-10)

Sadly, i've been a little less impressed with each new Thermals offering, but i am kind of digging the new single from Personal Life. Call me crazy, but the lo-fi noise of their self-titled EP remains their high water mark for my money. Sure, they've grown musically and lyrically, no doubt, but where's the fun in that? i first saw the band open for Sleater-Kinney years ago, fell in love with Kathy Foster while she was bouncing around on stage tearing up the bass, and have been hooked on and off ever since. This one goes a decent ways towards making me need to call my sponsor again.

mp3: Never Listen to Me (The Thermals from Personal Life)

i know what you're thinking, a live DOOM album? There's been a lot of talk about if this is even a real live set, how old it actually is, blah, blah, blah. All you need to worry about is the fact that DOOM spits fire, this is loads better than Live From Planet X, and the first track is free. The Villain is back, y'all, so don't sleep on this one.

mp3: Beef Rap (DOOM from Expektoration)

Another new Alex B track just hit the interwebs, so you know i'm going to post it here. It's about smoking weed and it's more bottom heavy than your fat-assed prom date, so you know it's worth listening to.

mp3: Dro on the D-Lo (Alex B from 1320 Records Volume II)

And to close things out, the latest from 0OoOO's eponymous EP. Personally, i dig the track, but i'm not sure about this "witch core" nomenclature. Really? Sure, it's spooky and has ethereal, seemingly disembodied female vocals, but is that honestly the new sub-genre name we want? Eh, fuck it, it's glitch, and it's good, and that's enough.

mp3: Burnout Eyess (oOoOO from oOoOO)