March 2013 Hotlist Week 4

The Kid Vicious - "I Wish I Was At A Water Park" 2013

This is quite a nice mix. Perfect transitions, nice song selection. All around good. I actually like this mix a lot more than previous stuff i've heard from him. Check it out here.

Jeremiah Jae - "Raw Money Raps" 2012

I think in this day and age it's extremely hard to make an original ANYTHING anymore, but I truly have never heard an album like this one before. It's refreshing to know that there is still some people in the hip hop scene that wish to keep it progressive. This whole album just is mixed in a super crazy way, so everything sounds like 10x more fucked up than it already does, and the way the vocals keep shifting from the foreground of the songs to the background is super psychedelic. The whole way these beats are put together is amazing. Like if you just heard these instrumentals, you wouldn't think in a million years they were for rap songs, but he makes it all work, as long as you're in the mood to go on this type of journey. Check out "Seasons", "Money", "Cat Fight", and "One Herb".

AstroLogical - "Audiosincretismo 2.23" 2013

This is a super solid mix, right up my alley, with lots of awesome instrumental hip hop sounding stuff. Check it out here.

Codex Of Plant Responses - "Book 65: Jezowate (Hedgehog)" 2013

This mix is very dancey, which I normally don't enjoy, but this mix is great. Listen here.

Birdy Nam Nam - "Jaded Future EP" 2012

The title track is from the full length "Defiant Order" and has been a staple in my DJ sets for the past year. Always a nice feel-good song. This EP is that song and 2 others with a couple remixes for each song as well by people such as Culprate, Foreign Beggars, Skrillex, and French Fries. There's nothing unpleasant on this EP, but also none of the remixes are outstanding or outshine the original versions. Check out "Goin In (Skrillex's Goin Down Remix)", "Jaded Future (Foreign Beggars Remix)", and "Cadillac Dreams (Culprate Remix)".

J.Nolan & Yung B Da Producer - "The Upbringing LP" 2012

This is a young up & coming MC/producer duo from New Haven, Connecticut (although they also seem to rep Newark and Atlanta as well on here). J.Nolan's flow and cadence reminds me a lot of people like One Be Lo and Naledge. MC's who seem almost boring at first, but when you stop and pay attention, they have quite a skill to their craft. The beats on here remind me a lot of 9th Wonder, but a little less laid back. This LP shows promise, but is not super great itself. The looped nature of a lot of the beats gets slightly repetitive to me after a while, but there's nothing weak on this album, and a lot of traditional rap fans will enjoy this. You can listen or download the whole thing here at his Bandcamp page.

The Heliocentrics - "13 Degrees Of Reality" 2013

I think i'm just going to have to revisit this album again after listening to it enough times to get used to it. Upon my initial listens this album is just a little too off center to actually be considered tight to me. It's kinda sequenced like a bunch of demos and loose ideas, and is very psychedelic in nature. I feel like instead of providing a cohesive album flow, the interludes are more of an interruption that break you out of whatever trance the previous song had you in, and it makes for probably a less pleasurable LP listening experience. This is still a very solid new jazz album, and anything negative I say about it is just me being nitpicky because I initially don't like it as much as a lot of their previous work, which could actually be a good thing in the long run. We'll see what I think about this album in a couple years. Check out "Collateral Damage", "Mr. Owusu, I Presume", and "Ethnicity".

4ndr345 M4RCH4L - "Textbeak Podcast #110: Vaatican Classics Vol. 1" 2013

I really enjoyed this mix a lot. Probably the most enjoyable mix i've heard in the last month, which is saying a lot. Just a great mix of songs and styles. Give it a listen here.

Adam Kvasnica - "Back In Brazil" 2013

Man, this guy is DEEP into all sorts of different styles of jazz. I'm gonna love going through his other mixes, he seems to have mixes for every style, era, region, etc. of jazz. Very tasteful and well done. Check it out here.

Eskmo - "Language EP" 2012

I don't know if he has a new full length on the horizon, but  it's about that time, I suppose. He's got a couple new EP's out there right now, and this is the older of the 2, dropping late last year. I was a big fan of the whole sound and style of his older album, but honestly, this EP is a little boring to me. It's all pretty light and airy, mildly dancey, and whatnot, it just doesn't seem to have those cool sound design details that his stuff from a couple years ago was littered with, that I enjoyed so much. Maybe this will grow on me. Check out "I Just Want", "Oh In This World Of Dread, Carry On" (this is the strongest track on here to me), and "Lifeline".

Kanye West Presents: "G.O.O.D. Music- Cruel Summer" 2012

Everybody's heard this, and I had heard it or parts of it in various places since it's release, but I never sat down and gave it a real listen for myself. I think this album shows that even though he's not the mind blowing,   progressive, producer of the future that some people in the music media make him out to be, Kanye still knows what's up with music today, and how to make not only hits, but music that just plain sounds good as well. Check out "Mercy", "Don't Like" (aspects of this beat remind me of late 90's Three 6 Mafia), and "Clique".