Tag Archives: Boston

EP: C.Z. – bathtub

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Over the past year C.Z. (of M|O|D)’s sound has gone in a number of different directions.  He started buzzing with a sound that could be pretty easily classified as trap with songs like “Doin’ What I Do” and over the past few months has moved towards a heavy UK Garage influence with songs like “wana do”.  Now, with bathtub, C.Z, is releasing his first solo EP in a while and is finding a way to make all of these sounds work together.  On this EP he weaves influences from a huge number of genres of electronic music together into a cohesive project, maintaining a consistent well-produced but quirky sound throughout.  This is a weird time for a lot of artists who have been labeled as “trap” in the past despite creating lots of different types of music, but it looks like C.Z. is doing a really good job of keeping things interesting.  Stream my favorite track from the EP below and the whole thing after the jump.

-TC

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mp3: Fat History Month – Bald History Month

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Boston lo-fi band Fat History Month is prepping to release their second full-length entitled Bad History Month, and have been kind enough to bless us with a single.  Listening to “Bald History Month” for the first time I was reminded of Foxygen’s Take The Kids Off Broadway EP, not because they sound anything alike, but because of the exciting and unpredictable songwriting style.  Just like on songs like “Middle School Dance”, “Bald History Month” ends in a completely different place than it started, and goes through at least 4 different distinct moods between then.  I can’t imagine what a full album would sound like, considering this song by itself is almost like four songs in one, so this has me extremely excited to find out.

-TC

mp3: ;) WINK ;) – STRUT 89

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So, it appears that Deep House is on the rise within the indie community, which kind of makes perfect sense, because it is mostly based around taking the most over-produced and over-emphasized elements that can make other types of house kind of hard to get into out.  There are a lot of artists doing this in an awesome way lately, and although Disclosure has kind of taken a less-than-honorable turn as of late, it looks like the genre might maintain its integrity yet.  One person doing Deep House right is mysterious producer  WINK.  ”STRUT 89″ has all of the hypnotic repetitiveness of other types of house with gorgeously produced synths.  On Soundcloud “STRUT 89″ is tagged as “SPACEHOUSE” which although I’ve never heard of it, should definitely be a genre.  Its rare that a producer suddenly pops up on Soundcloud with an already extremely polished sound like this, so WINK is definitely worth keeping up with in the future.

-TC

EP: Yung Satan – Maserati

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Out of all of the changing styles in M|O|D over the past year, one of the most exciting to watch in progress has been Yung Satan.  In the early stages of M|O|D’s work together Yung Satan stuck with a fairly distinct style of rapidly chopping samples to make melodic lines, but eventually started experimenting and moving away from it.  Over the course of late 2012 we saw Yung Satan mess around with a lot of different sounds, and now he is beginning to settle into one.  On PENG 003 Yung Satan contributed maybe his best track yet and is now releasing his first solo project in the form of an EP.  Maserati sees Yung Satan becoming comfortable among swelling, colorful, and melodic synths and vocal sample chops that recall his earlier style.  You can stream my favorite track off of the EP below and the whole thing after the jump.

-TC

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EP: M|O|D – PENG 003

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And so arrives the bittersweet ending to M|O|D’s PENG series.  Fortunately, I think PENG 003 is the best of the trilogy.  On the first and second installments of the series, we saw each of the five producers begin to pick up new styles after moving beyond their trap roots, and on the third, we see them begin to perfect them.  Arnold’s new melodic club-influenced style is bigger and brighter than ever, Rewrote’s ridiculously fresh and eclectic new distortion-heavy sound is more impressive than ever, Yung Satan cleans up his early ’70s rock influenced sound, LiL’ TExAS crafts what is maybe the first futuristic strip club anthem, and C.Z. continues to come into his own as a U.K. garage producer.  For anyone who thought M|O|D would never successfully be able to escape the bastardized trap label, this should change your mind pretty quickly.  Stream my favorite tracks below, and the whole thing after the jump.

-TC

EP: M|O|D – PENG 002

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Boston’s finest are back with the second installment in their PENG trill-ogy (hahahhah get it? im the man) and its more bangier than ever.  PENG 001 saw the five producers basically abandoning the cliché’s of their former trap aesthetic for more house and garage-influenced styles, and PENG 002 finds them polishing those sounds even more.  The EP opens with a track from C.Z. that represents the most clean and refined point his production style has reached yet, Arnold continues his experimentation with bass drum-driven music merging his quirky style with a cleaner house aesthetic, Yung Satan continues to build on the experimental and melodic sound he’s been building up, Lil TExAS finds the perfect medium between trap and house with probably the biggest banger on the EP, and Rewrote closes out with another indescribable and wonderfully experimental 8-bit track.  I can already see the improvement between PENG 001 and this, and its been less than a month so I’m excited to see where these guys take their sound in 2013.  Stream Lil TExAS and C.Z.’s tracks below and the whole thing after the jump.

-TC

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M|O|D – PENG001 (EP)

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With some of M|O|D’s earlier work, they were easily put into the increasingly claustrophobic box of trap music.  Trap music’s future is looking increasingly uncertain, so M|O|D are wisely moving away from the genre that many thought was all they knew how to do.  For PENG001 M|O|D kept it simple and down to only 1 track from each of them, which seems to be a really good format for highlighting each artists individual talents.  REWROTE’s track shows his sound to be just as indefinable as ever, LiL TExAS still maintains his southern flair along with some experimental sample choices that work really well, Arnold and C.Z. both are beginning to show the heavier influences of Boston’s burgeoning house and U.K. Garage scene on their music without ever resorting to straight four-on-the-floor bass drums, and Yung Satan continues his exciting experimentation with heavy reverb and synth work.  After appearing on the boiler room a couple of weeks ago M|O|D are sure to be getting an influx of attention recently, and this short EP is definitely a good move.  Stream my favorite track from the EP below and stream the whole thing after the jump.

-TC

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