March 2013 Hotlist Week 1

KOOL A.D. - "63" 2013

One of 2 new free/name your own price albums from one half of what used to be Das Racist. I haven't listened to the other one yet, but this is pretty cool. It seems like he has a wealth of pretty dope sounding beats at his disposal and is just laying tons of these freewheeling, stream of consciousness, freestyles over them. Sometimes it comes off sounding lazy, but most times it's pretty funny and entertaining. Listen or download here.

Cathleen John - "Intra Veritas" 2013

Another superb mix I heard on Mixcloud. This one is super hyped up with lots of fast paced drum and bass. Check it out here.

"Tectonic Plates Volume 3" 2012

Compilation from British label Tectontic Recordings. This collection is OK, but listened to as a whole LP, it gets kinda tiring. I've heard of most of these artists before, so I fairly knew what to expect, but the overall sound of this compilation is filled with extremely deep bass tones and in my mind, not enough hype behind them. (maybe?) It's kind of more for when you're in a dreary mood but still want to hear and feel some pounding bass. It's still more upbeat than trip-hop stuff, but it definitely falls in a mid-range between that vibe and normal club music. Check out "Promise A Secret" by Illum Sphere, "Blow Out The Candle" by Pinch, and "Phantom" by Addison Groove.

Cathleen John - "Vitreis Globulis" 2013

As you can tell, i'm fairly mesmerized by this person's mixes. Listen to this one here.

Monica Rene Rochester - "Retrograde Renegade" 2013

Another Mixcloud find. This is a mix of a lot of late 80's and early 90's stuff on the more avant-garde side of things. Great tracks by Legendary Pink Dots, Nurse With Wound, Bauhaus, etc. Check it out here.

Slum Village - "B Sides" 2012

This popped out the week of xmas, and I wasn't sure what it was. It seems like it's just some random rare B-sides from every era of their career. Cool with me, because this is a pretty good mix of songs I never heard and alternate versions of songs I have heard. Check out "Church (Remix)" featuring Focus & Skyzoo, "2000 Beyond" featuring ?uestlove, and "My Life" featuring Frank N Dank.

The Beach Boys - "That's Why God Made The Radio" 2012

It's amazing that they even got back together for real to make this album after putting together the official "Smile" release. I didn't expect this album to be good at all, and it's not, but it does show that they can use modern production and make themselves sound nice. There's a couple listenable tracks on here, but most of the album is more Kokomo than Good Vibrations, unfortunately. Check out "Isn't It Time", the video for the title track, and "Summer's Gone".

DJ Eclipse & DJ Premier - "Rap Is Outta Control 2/24/13"

Listening to this reminds me of why I have gravitated further and further away from hip hop in recent years after being so into it throughout my youth. All these tracks just seem boring and lifeless to me. A 2 hour radio  program, and I think I heard 2 tight beats... Check it out here.

Brenmar - "Boiler Room x RBMA Rental House Jam" 2012

Just a quick little set here. Pretty party oriented. He's not doing anything special, but he's not failing either. Listen/watch here.

Menahan Street Band - "The Crossing" 2012

Really awesome instrumental funk album. I feel like they stepped it up from their last album. There's some really strong tracks on here, and they've tightened up a little bit as musicians too. Check out the title track, and videos for "Ivory & Blue" and "Lights Out".

THEESatisfaction - "THEESatisfaction Loves Erykah Badu" 2013

Nice little free download from this female duo from Seattle. This is the 2nd in a series of free EP's where they take an artist they love, and make new beats and compositions out of samples of them. The first one they did was Anita Baker, and i'm gonna have to go back and check that one out, because I do like this one. They are really good at taking awkward loops and slowly turning them into headnodders. The source material of the samples is like 95% unrecognizable too, unless you're a freak and listen to nothing but Erykah Badu, it would be damn hard to pick them out. Listen/download here.

Jessie Ware - "Devotion" 2012

This made a lot of noise in the music world last year, so I figured i'd see what the fuss is about. This is pretty good for a pop album in this era. She seems like she could make any style of song relatively competently, but at the same time there are no stand-out spectacular songs on here to me either. I just see that she has the potential to be a huge star if she plays her cards right. It shouldn't be that rare that a pop album is actually tolerable, but nowadays, I guess it is. Check out the video for "Sweet Talk", the video for "Night Light" (I actually think this is one of the 2 super corny songs on the album, but it has a video), "110%", and the video for "Wildest Moments".

Theophilus London - "Timez Are Weird These Nights" 2012

This is the remix album companion to last year's "Timez Are Weird These Days". I had always thought he was actually from London (because apparently i'm an idiot like that), but doing some research, I see that he was born in Trinidad and came up in New York. He's an interesting artist within this new era of rap, and I have a feeling he'll become a pretty large fixture within music in the future. This remix album is OK, but it's nothing special. Just some club mixes of his songs that aren't awful. Check out "Stop It (Crookers Remix)", "Last Name London (Brodinski Remix)", and "I Stand Alone (Skream Remix)".