SWEAT.X is a South Africa based project from rapper Spoek Mathambo and producer Markus Wormstrom.
Last October they released their first EP "Ebonyivorytron" which was very well received by the underground.
Tagging this sound as Miami Bass or Hip House doesn't cut it. Ghetto-Rave is a much better description for this smart, dirty and overpowering music.
This spring they toured through Europe and raised a lot of attention among the urban hipster crowd.
Their new EP titled "187" will be released sometime this summer on Try Harder Records.
They also announced a tour of Europe in September, of
Australia in October and of the US in December.
Download:
Related Links
- MySpace: www.myspace.com/sweatx
Los Mono from Santiago, Chile originally came together to do a soundtrack for a cartoon tv show. It was Vicente Sanfuentes a.k.a. Original Hamster that put together this dream team composed of the best of the best that Chile has to offer. Namely the group consists of Vicente himself, Sebastian Silva, Cristian Moraga, Gonzalo Gonzales and Nea Ducci.
They soon realized that they were destined for bigger things, gave up the project for the tv show and kept on doing it for themselves.
They'd already written ten songs for that show, and so they decided to release them as their debut album.
What came out is "Somos Los Que Estamos", a nice blend of funk and hip hop with some danceable beats. The technical and musical quality of this record is undisputable. It's just high energy music and it's hard not to get into it!
You'll not find any of their songs in my playlist because Imeem currently doesn't allow me to upload their tracks. I hope to resolve this soon but meanwhile enjoy their awesome video for the single "Promesas":
Download:
Related Links
- MySpace: myspace.com/losmono
Big Space a.k.a. Space Vein has been making beats and rapping for the past 10 years. He's originally from Lesotho but has now made his home in Johannesburg where he met his partner in crime Spoek Mathambo.
Together they formed the Slush Puppy Kids, an offspring of dirty grime funk.
The two new tracks "Beep Beep" and "Slushed Out" are banging! They mix up grimey basslines and filthy dubstep drums with some ill rhymes.
Spank Rocks über-hip booty bass beats acted as a model for this new crew from Johannesburg but the Slush Puppy Kids sound is tailor-made for people who are already out for some new exciting shit.
Download both songs and more legally and for free on Big Space's My Space page.
The Mixtape "Slushed Out Vol. 2" is on it's way and will soon be available on their My Space.
Free The Robots from Santa Ana, California is the brainchild of Chris Alfaro a producer who pays homage to the past with a drive for the future.
He blends elements of Jazz, Electronic, Hip Hop, Trip Hop, Soul and Psychedelia to create a sort of future jazz.
Alfaro spends hours of his time in record stores crawling through a vast number of old Jazz records in search of the ideal sample. When he finds one, he rushes back to his studio to do his thing. The recipe might not be new, but the results are quite tasty.
Free The Robots was started as a side project by Alfaro in 2003 while also playing with different bands, producing MC’s, and DJing full time. Having worked with so many different styles of music, Alfaro commingles them all to create beautiful Hip Hop instrumentals in the legacy of RJD2 and Kid Koala.
Check him out on My Space.
Download legally and for free:
- Clocks and Daggers here (courtesy of BBQChickenRobot)
Buy "The Killer Robots" digitally on iTunes (US)
See him live:
| Dublab radio session | Los Angeles, California | ||
| all Salsa (DJ Set) @ the Crosby | Santa Ana, California | ||
| Daedelus, Jel, The Gaslamp Killer, Eliot Lipp, Mophono, Deru, Free the Robots | San Francisco, California | ||
| Daedelus, Nosaj Thing, Free the Robots @ Trilogy Lounge | Boulder, Colorado | ||
| Daedelus, Nosaj Thing, Free the Robots @ Backspace | Portland, Oregon |
I got a mail from Chew Fu pointing me at his new hot as hell mixtape "My palms is out" which I really urge you to download legally and for free here.
Chew Fu is a supa dupa remixer from Brooklyn, NYC. He remixed tracks for numerous top artists including 50 cent, Beastie Boys, P. Diddy, Snoop Dog and T.I.
He's so hood and so good. His trademark is having the ability to take a Hip Hop track and tailor it for the dance floor.
He really kicks ass on this mixtape, which is full of wicked new tracks he made, and if it doesn't make you dance I don't know what will.
The mix includes the single "Shake you thang" from Doug E Fresh & Chew Fu himself.
Have a look at his My Space.
Caramello is a British born unsigned artist you should seriously be lookin' at.
He somehow managed to get genius producer Tommy Henriksen from LA to collaborate on his debut track "Danger". Tommy claims on his website that "every band he worked with, either has got a record deal or a reality check in the music industry".
"Danger" is an electro-influenced Hip Hop track featuring a big beat, distorted bassline, melodic synth grooves (which in my opinion sound a little bit cheesy) and heavily vocoded vocals.
I'm eager to hear what he's coming up with in the future.
Visit his My Space to download the accapella to his track "Danger" - there is a remix contest goin' on!
Dutch wizz kid ESTAW has landed in New York City and rocks the boat.
There has already been a lot of buzz around his extraordinary remixes last year and now his debut EP "Break It Down", featuring vocalists J-Cast & A-Clay and remix masters Herve, Detboi & Chew Fu, is released on Brooklyn Zoo MBC.
He delivers top-notch, electro-influenced house music that is ready to heat up any dance floor but his love for Hip Hop and R&B still shines through the whole record. The nearest style I can think of is Armand Van Helden's older stuff like "Funk Phenomena".
Now that the New Rave hype is over, Estaw could takeover and call his stuff Urban Rave...
"Break It Down" was released on April 28th as digital download on iTunes & Beatport.
Download legally and for free the song "Break it down" here.
Checkout his Homepage , My Space for more freebies.
See him live:
| Palms Out @ Sepomana | Middlebury | ||
| Somewhere tba | Montreal | ||
| Break It Down release party the NYC edition | Brooklyn | ||
| Murdercola @ Remedy | Pittsburgh | ||
| Syglyd | Copenhagen | ||
| BYTE @ Native | Bristol |
Free Blood , a duo comprised of Madeline Davy and John Pugh, describe their sound as "The soundtrack for parties gone awry".
The first three years saw Free Blood strictly as a live phenomenon playing smaller venues and house parties around the Brooklyn And Manhattan boroughs.
In 2005 the band began collaborating with notorious production duo known as the Brothers (Josh Ryan and Eric Emm) and since then released 2 EP's "Part 1" and "Part 2"
The latter has been released a week ago and features to new songs "Grumpy" and "Royal Family".
Their sound could be described as electro/soul/disco oddness of the very finest kind, it sounds like Gnarls Barkley is meeting Jamie Lidell in Hot Chips studio.
Visit them on My Space.
Downoad "Grumpy" here and "The Royal Family" here.
Buy the EP's (vinyl or digital) here.
You can currently catch Free Blood on tour across North America opening for Hot Chip:
| Vic Theatre | Chicago, Illinois | ||
| First Avenue | Minneapolis, Minnesota | ||
| Commodore Ballroom | Vancouver | ||
| Showbox | Seattle, Washington | ||
| Crystal Ballroom | Portland, Oregon | ||
| Filmore Auditorium | San Francisco, California | ||
| Ukranian Cultural Center | Los Angeles, California | ||
| Mayan Theatre | Los Angeles, California |
Watch the video to "Ready" (Live on 'From The Basement'):
Santi White loves percussions, she studied Cuban, Haitian and West African Hand drumming.
Then she went to New York to work as A&R for Epic but ended up writing and producing Res's debut "How I do". She also sang in the punk band "Stiffed" but left in 2007 because she was offered a solo contract.
Her latest project is "Santogold" in which she collaborates with hotshot beatmeisters like Spank Rock, FreQ Nasty, Diplo, Switch and fellow "Stiffed" member John Hill to provide us with tremendous electro beats and heavy bass lines mixed with punk guitars and new wave synths.
Her style is comparable to M.I.A. (with whom she recently toured) but more varied and sophisticated.
The handful of tracks that have already surfaced definitely showcase her versatility and talent as a vocalist, as well as a nice range of production styles and influences.
Her debut album "I believe in Santogold" drops on April 22 on Lizard King Records.
Check out her MySpace.
This is her very arty video for L.E.S Artistes:
Sean “Diddy” Combs has announced yesterday the signing of acclaimed new artist Janelle Monáe to Bad Boy Records.
She makes her solo recording debut with the groundbreaking “METROPOLIS” project, an epic musical journey into the future which introduces Janelle’s android alter ego, Cindi Mayweather, an alien from outer space who is on the run from evil cyborgs who want to capture her because she broke the law by falling in love with a human...
“Metropolis" is a innovative, cheeky, sci-fi themed debut that crosses musical genres: from R&B to Funk to Rock 'n' Roll.
The lyrics are fresh, the vocals are crisp and smooth and Janelle is just bewitching.
She chose to release her album in four different EPs or "suites", the first being the 5-track EP, The Chase. Her debut full-length album (containing all four EPs) will follow in September.
Check out her incredibly polished website and My Space page.
See her live:
| The Blender Theatre at Gramercy | New York, New York | ||
| Atlanta Ballet (Fox Theatre) | Atlanta, Georgia | ||
| Don Cheadle’s "Darfur Now²" Documentary | Atlanta, Georgia | ||
| Private Event (San Francisco, CA) | San Francisco, California | ||
| Private Event (Los Angeles, CA) | Los Angeles, California |
Excerpt from press release:
"On the concept of the suite release:
The concept of the suite release was inspired by the observation that the iPod generation no longer buy or listen to entire albums, they listen to playlists. They grab their favorite three to four songs from a particular album, add those to a playlist, and then discard the rest of the album like yesterday's news. In order to re-excite the public, the label is forced to do guest spots and remixes, additional videos and deluxe CD releases....all in a vain attempt to intrigue the record buyer again. With this in mind, the Wondaland Arts Society has decided to release Janelle Monáe's content in a quarterly "suite" fashion. Like successful serial programs such as Lost or Heroes, this release schedule allows dynamic artists such as Janelle Monáe to always stay fresh: she will always have a new chapter or musical world to visit, a new song raiding blogs and earbuds. As one can imagine, this suite model continually excites the consumer and music lover, while creating countless opportunities for Ms. Monáe to experiment artistically and grow creatively with her audience." (from www.janellemonae.com)
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