We are late with the Beaties again this time around, but so what? It’s basically fucking summer. Get off my fucking back, asshole. For Volume 23 we have a maniacally chopped offering from Dil Withers and UPLIFT, a lush Kanye remix from Kirvy, a spacey and masterfully crafted beat by some artist who suddenly changed their name to u space, a wonderfully organic-sounding track from Lux Natura, and finally a synthed-out instrumental from Oakland’s OSØ. Hit the jump to be wowed.
CT homie and incredibly talented producer Color Plus just released this track a few days ago. ”Pulp” shows Color Plus beginning to experiment with house styles, and doing so with ease. Driven by a very house-sounding organ chord progression, this track switches between classic four-on-the-floor house drums and the more hip-hop influenced percussion which Color Plus is known for without missing a step. Every day I see more and more electronic producers bringing house elements into their production, but few have executed it as perfectly as Color Plus has with this track.
-TC
I have already kind of accepted the fact that this post is going to be a pathetic demonstration of our pseudo journalism that you come here for because I literally know nothing about this artist, but this shit is waaaaay too good not to post. Somehow this song popped up in my Soundcloud feed a few days ago, and I have been listening to it a lot since. From what I gather, this is a demo for a collaborative project by two guys named Abhi and Dijon, and thats literally all I gather. The demo is the perfect blend of beat music experimentalism and heart-wrenching R&B aesthetic and vocals, sans the bullshit pretentious air taken on by many contemporary R&B experimentalists, that I suddenly feel l has been missing from my life. I’m looking forward to hearing more from this project in the future, but right now I’m fine with listening to this song on repeat for a few hours.
-TC
The first song I ever heard by HAPPY TRENDY was his awesome cover of Coma Cinema’s “Tour All Winter”. With this song, he’s once again putting an awesome analog spin on a song, this time by Frankie Cosmos. Put together with three different synthesizers, and as HAPPY TRENDY puts it a “cardiac muscle” with a warm lo-fi fuzz laid over the top of it, this cover is headphone music at its best. I would highly suggest you just go to HAPPY TRENDY’s Soundcloud page and just press play because its all really good, but you can also go to his bandcamp and stream some EP’s there.
-TC
Slam Skillet, who first caught our attention with his gorgeous and high-energy beatie “Gemsbok”, is doing some big things. His sound has only matured and his newest EP, Rachis, scored a feature on Noisey. Rachis is filled with bubbling, strobe-accented beats that twist and bend around boom-bap vibed drums. Slam Skillet is definitely a master of sounds and capturing good feelings in small samples that is equal parts Daft Punk and DJ Koze. Although we feel like nostalgic parents seeing Slam Skillet grow up and make a name for himself, we couldn’t be happier about how his beats are starting to catch on with more people. Stream my favorite tracks below and the entire EP after the jump.
-PK
Hanz’s new single (yes Hanz has blessed our mortal world with more of his godly works) is called “Reducer” and that title makes a lot of sense for the new material. ”Reducer” is harsh and desolate, not because the sounds are noisy or directly abrasive, but because they are huge and impossible to grasp. It’s soul crushing music, the kind of soundtrack I’d expect for digging a hole into infinitum. There are peaks of light, Hanz allows fleeting seconds of pleasant Sam Cooke samples, but they are instantly crushed again under the weight of the bass. Hanz has reduced the chaos of his songs down to a minimum necessity and the result only makes those few pop moments more affective. With “Reducer”, Hanz proves once again that he’s operating in his own lane.
-PK
This year, every day more and more producers are experimenting with house-influenced styles, and to be honest, when I heard the four-on-the-floor kicks at the beginning of this new Ricky Eat Acid track, I was a little disappointed (especially considering I’ve been getting really into his more ambient work as heroin party lately). Fortunately, by the end of the track I was completely won over. ”In my dreams we’re almost touching” has all of the high energy of house music, without compromising the textures and repurposed noises that make Ricky Eat Acid’s music unique and awesome. As I’ve been saying for a while, Sam Ray is the type of incredibly talented artist who deserves recognition, and with his band Julia Brown recently getting noticed by Pitchfork, as well as upcoming releases from both Ricky Eat Acid and Julia Brown, it looks like Ray is poised to have an awesome year, so be on the lookout.
-TC
