Filed under: Beats | Tags: beats, hip hop instrumentals, instrumental, instrumental hip hop, jazzy, sample based
Knowsum has 37 beats up for €1 on Bandcamp- kinda makes every other fiscally responsible move you’ve ever made look silly in comparison.
Filed under: Beats, Experimental | Tags: bass, beats, bee ampersand, fuck the radio, melbourne
FOR KIDS is a collection of old Bee Ampersand tracks from 2-3 years ago which never saw release.
Filed under: Beats, Chilled, Hip-Hop, Jazz | Tags: beat, Chilled, instrumental hip hop, Jazz, sample based, Trip-Hop
Back on that jazzy boom bap tip today. Sadly, I can’t resist the urge to make the following comment even though it’s lazy as fuck writing: “I’m really vibin on Vibin.” There. It happened. Sorry everyone. Check out Jay Reed for more.
Filed under: BRILLIANT, Hip-Hop, Premiere | Tags: brilliance, Brilliant, Electronic, Grime, Hip Hop, Premiere
It’s with great pleasure that we premiere The Booth.
ABLE8 is a busy man, as Kassie found out when she sat down with him for our Lunch With ______ series. For this release he has teamed up with familiar collaborators MC Points (see: I’m Mad) and Benny Diction (see: Life Moves) to spawn a bass-fulled hip-hop jam. I choose the use of the word ‘spawn’ quite purposefully- there’s a real slick grimey feel present in The Booth‘s production that hits just right with Points and Benny D‘s respective flows. Don’t sleep on this. Give it a peep.
Filed under: Interview, Lunch With | Tags: gig, interview, Tall Black Guy Productions
Lunch with Tall Black Guy had its issues at first- the main one being that it was 10:15am for him in the UK and 8:15pm for me in Australia and neither of those times are good for lunch. He assured me that even if it was lunch time, he had no food readily available anyway. But that’s ok right? I still got to sit down and chat to Terrel Wallace, somebody who has left an undeniable mark on the face of the hip-hop beats scene- won the prestigious Robert Glasper remix competition and is gearing up for a tour of Australia and New Zealand.
FTR: When I got the call to interview you, I happened to be hanging out with some of the peeps who are opening for you at your Melbourne show- so I asked them if they had any questions. First up, Jackson Miles of Coco Noire wants to know where you got your name from?
TBG: Ah, well, I was in graphic design school- one of the assignments was that we had to create a company to represent ourselves. I was one of the few black students in my class, so to have more of a pro-black approach I decided to go with Tall Black Guy Productions, actually, before that I called it ‘Right On Productions’. I used to have this little guy with a fist and a pick and all that stuff but I changed it to ‘Tall Black Guy Productions’ and it stuck from there.
FTR: Well fair enough! Seeing you through the webcam- you are obviously black, but how tall are you?
TBG: (Laughs) I am a ‘guy’ too yes… I’m about 6′ 5″
FTR: Man that’s not that tall I’m about six five
TBG: (Laughs) It’s not that tall.
FTR: The next question is from Amin Payne, but before I ask- just on this note- have you peeped any of the Melbourne guys?
TBG: Actually Amin Payne I’ve conversated with him a few times, we’re friends on Facebook so yeah, I’ve heard of him before. And I also just got in tune with this other group called POLY, but they aren’t from Melbourne, they’re from… oh I’m trying to think of exactly where they are from… But anyway yeah, those are the only two from that way I think.
FTR: Cool, so Amin wanted to know, we’ve had a Hollywierd 1 and 2, will there be a third?
TBG: Nah, not really- those are more the experience that I had while I was in LA- I stayed in LA for about a year and a half- so I made that music in that place to capture my experience of being there so, I think that’d probably be it. For the next series what I’m trying to do is like, every-place that I live, create some type of media from that place. So when I went back home and stayed in Detroit, 8 Miles to Moenart that was the time capsule for that period of my life. Since I’m in the UK I’m definitely going to try and make a peice of music while I’m staying here as well, you know, at some point.
FTR: How would you say the London scene compares to Detroit or L.A? Are you more inspired? Is it totally different?
TBG: Well to be honest, with living in Detroit or LA I never really got out there as far as experiencing the scene of those two particular places so I can’t really comment. I have been to London for a few shows, I would say that the crowd is more diverse, it’s different types of people who come out- so that’s cool. When I was putting in the ground work while staying in Chicago, you had more or less artists coming to support the artists. There were fans, but it was mainly artists coming out to support the other artists, whereas over here, you actually have ‘fans’ and people from everywhere coming down to check out music so that’s pretty cool.
FTR: Oh! And I’ve been mistaken, I thought you were in London, but you are in a different part of the UK?
TBG: No, I’m outside of London- by train it’s like… two hours, driving is about three to four hours.
FTR: Oh snap! So what was behind the decision to move there from Detroit?
TBG: Detroit was not the best place to me at the time. It was very depressing. My wife is British, so it was one of those things… we actually just came over to visit, and her parents said you should explore the possibilities of trying to make something work over here, so we went through that whole protocol, it worked out for the better and we’ve been here almost three years now.
FTR: Cool- so it wasn’t a musically motivated decision?
TBG: No, at the time I knew at some point we would want to do it because my wife is from here, she had already been in the states for like six and a half years or something around there, so, you know, at the time I had never been outside of the United States except for once back in 2009 when I visited. Moving wasn’t even on my radar back then so when I did make the move I was like “this is the best. thing. ever!” (laughs)
FTR: Absolutely! Now another thing I want to know, break down your studio set-up for us; is it largely software based? Are you an analogue guy? How are you working on your productions?
TBG: I have a super duper limited set-up. I work with Sony Acid, a midi controller, and that’s it.
FTR: What controller are you using?
TBG: An M-Audio Keystation 61
FTR: So it’s apparent through your music that you are a jazz lover, you use a keyboard midi controller, and not long ago you put out a Grandmaster Flash flip in 6/8… Are you a musically trained guy? Or is it something that you just self taught and picked up?
TBG: Nah, just over the years listening to so much music and, you know, you pick up little different things. That 6/8 stuff, I was actually doing that for like, years and years. I’d say about four or five years before I started letting people even hear that stuff, so like, that 6/8 I used to just do it for practice. Know what I mean? One day I was like “Man, I wonder what The Message would sound like in 6/8″… I thought of it at work or something and it took me like a month to chop. I had to chop the beat first and then the hardest part was making the vocals stay in the pocket and make them say it in 6/8. That was very time consuming, I would work on it for a few days, stop. You know, I had to like mimic what I wanted them to say… but in 6/8 you know what I mean?
FTR: Lots of little chops.
TBG: Yeah, exactly. Very time consuming, but it went over well.
FTR: For sure! And your show, are you using the keystation to play live as-well? Are you DJing? What’s the live set-up?
TBG: The live show I’ve been practising for about three months, I’m using an APC40- I’m going to do more of the live thing, I got my tracks all tracked out into Ableton and you know, hopefully that goes over well!
FTR: Is this the first time you’ve done anything like this?
TBG: Well I got Ableton last year, and the APC40 last year as well, so It’s been a year since I’ve had it. When I first got it I was doing more of the DJ set up, you know, you do ‘A’ and ‘B’ with the cross-fader, tap in the track and stuff like that. But now I want to bring the live element to it and really try to ‘perform’ these tracks. This is my second time bringing it out live, I did it in Croatia literally like two weeks ago, same thing with the tracking it out and it went over really well so this one is going to be a little bit more, I have tracks that I’ve made over the years, all different types of tempos and everything.
FTR: Dope! Unfortunately that’s all we have time for, but I gotta ask one more question- if somebody sees you at a show and they want to buy you a drink- what’s your drink of choice?
TBG: Uh… I don’t know…
FTR: You don’t know?!
TBG: Some water or something probably at the time because I try to keep it straight until after I do my performance- so when we are in the middle of a performance I’ll probably just have some water and some fruit or something I don’t know (laughs)
FTR: (laughs) For sure dude, well on that note I’ll probably see you in two weeks at your Melbourne show!
TBG: Cool beans man! You have a nice night.
If you also would like to check out Tall Black Guy bring his new live set to Melbourne, click the banner below:
Filed under: Beats, Chilled, Dance | Tags: Electronic, Funky, Guitar, music, smooth, soulection
Japanese native turned Cali resident. starRo‘s summery California should contain enough smooth funk vibes to see you through the weekend.
Filed under: Dance, Electronica, Upbeat | Tags: bass, Dance, Electronic, glitch, music, Upbeat
This bouncy number is a fun little jam from the mind of Joe Mousepad. The full EP is dropping soon courtesy of Rootnote Collective.
Filed under: Beats, Hip-Hop | Tags: beat, beats, instrumental hip hop, lo-fi, sample based
Just over one week old at the time of posting, Dil Withers‘ lo-fi sample-based hip-hop beat Situations is fresh off of the… MPC60.
Filed under: Beats, Electronica | Tags: beat, Dance, Electronica, glitch, Trip-Hop, Upbeat
Valeda from U.S. based EASTGHOST can boast a whole lot of goodness for a track less than three minutes long (even though it comes close at 2:59). The best beats are ones that draw you in and lead you along till the end, and Valeda does just that- stuttering snappy samples and all.
Paradise music festival is back again this year with another all-Australian line-up. Running Nov 28th-30th at the stunning Lake Mountain alpine resort, we are proud to be media partners with the 3-day camping festival, and so you can expect to see some sneaky exclusives over the coming months.
Filed under: Electronica | Tags: Chilled, drum and bass, Electronic, electronic music, Electronica
UTR90 has a few tracks floating around on the interwebs for the digi-diggers to find. This four minute trip is a great introduction to some of his best work.
Filed under: Chilled | Tags: Australian, beat, Chilled, Deep, dreamy, electronic music, melbourne
‘Burn City vibes. Buried Alive is over a year old now, ironically buried in the ever-growing miasma of dope shit that you shouldn’t be missing.
Filed under: Beats, Experimental, Interview, Lunch With, Psychadelic | Tags: Electronic, experimental, future beat, interview
FTR: So, great and venerable Tigermoth…
Tigermoth: Hey man.
How’s it goin’?
Really good! Had a really strange night though…
Why? What happened?
(shakes head) Oh man… fuck… man…
(laughs) You can’t just shake your head and swear, you gotta elaborate!
Uh… Crazy women.
This is going in the interview so be careful what you say!
(laughs) Exactly, I’ll leave it at that!
You are on your best behaviour- although you do have some exciting times ahead; the album release…
Yeah! Vinyl.
The vinyl is being released, what’s the story behind the name Traversing Karma?
Initially I had the idea of calling it ‘Traversing Karma Across Divides’.
It just popped into my head one day a few years ago and I knew I’d start making this album- I was piecing it together.
I just had this concept that had being evolving for a while- what my karma was… what ‘karma’ meant. Looking back on things and looking forward and seeing… I got this idea that sometimes what you think is good or righteous maybe isn’t, and people can get caught up in righteousness and soapboxing and I was really conscious of avoiding that and exploring what was right and wrong, who I was, and sort of navigating through that, you know? Without trying to be too self-righteous- just being true to myself without causing any detriment to anyone around me or anything like that. And it can be a difficult thing sometimes, you know?
And that spiritual sort of theme is something that not only comes through in the title and the artwork, but also the samples that you’ve used.
Yeah
Was that a very conscious decision on your part?
Not conscious in the way that before I start making the music I say I’m going to make ‘spiritual music’. I think that’s maybe just who I am, and so the sounds or whatever I gravitate towards, or the samples that I use are things that I’m drawn to. And the melodic ideas, it’s what I’m feeling I guess. So that’s going to come through, not consciously- it just is what it is.
So it’s just the way you feel it flows out of you?
Yeah
Has it always been that way?
I think my first album Underwater Beats… I started making before I went to live in Japan. When I got to Japan I really found a-lot of music that resonated with me. I found a-lot of spiritualism that I had been looking for that I hadn’t been able to find in Australia. So back then when I started on the first album, I’d make it, and then decide that’s not what I wanted it to sound like- I’d go back and add a couple of songs, take a couple out… It took me quite a while to create that channel where it could easily flow out. So I guess in the beginning it was much more conscious, but after I created that channel, and the more I did it- the easier it became.
Absolutely
You know, I’m making a-lot of music at the same time too, and a-lot of it’s not sounding like this… I just don’t let people her that kind of stuff.
Do you think then there’s room for an alias? Or is it just for yourself?
I’ll be releasing a hip-hop remix album under the Tigermoth name, but the alias I have been thinking for the more ‘club’ or ‘party’ type music stuff is ‘TJ Tigga’.
(laughs)
My nickname in school was ‘TJ’ or ‘Tiger’ so it really just chose itself.
You’ve got Traversing Karma on CD… there’s one in my car that I bump all the time. What was behind the decision to bring it to vinyl?
I released The 9th Tiger on vinyl. The digital album was 18 tracks but I couldn’t afford to press a double record so I had to go back and choose 8 tracks that fit on a twelve inch.
I’ve been DJing for… I think I started in 2001, I was DJing for a couple months just to get some money on the side as I was a musician- jazz, funk, hip-hop musician when I was younger. A couple of months after I started DJing I bought an MPC… Back then I knew four people who owned an MPC- two of them lived in Adelaide and two of them lived in my house. I kind of had a different route, these days some people start with beat making because it’s so easy to access the tools, but back then there wasn’t even Protools for home computers. So I grew up with DJs and vinyl was always really important to me. Ever since my first album I wanted all of my albums to be on vinyl. I was very lucky that before I started Tigermoth I already had labels who had released vinyl for other projects I was involved in- I came in with that ethic. I think it’s really important for the legitimacy of the music to have it on vinyl and stay true to my roots.
So I make music now with the album in mind, and knowing that I have to make 35 minutes of music for one LP. And I’ll keep doing that… One day if I get more money coming in I’ll make double LPs. I’m always going to release on vinyl. I did Duality and the Infinite and that nearly got picked up by a label in the states and that was also made for vinyl so I’ll be coming back to that and putting that out on vinyl too.
So the end game for you is to always have your music in that physical form?
For these kind of things. These albums are very focused with specific ideas as albums not just track after track, you know? It’s a narrative, almost like the album is one long track itself.
So vinyl is the best medium to do that on, you put a record on and let it play out without skipping through tracks or putting your iPod on shuffle or whatever.
Yeah man! I was talking to Aoi yesterday- he started making beats on computers and he’s come back over to using samplers and he was talking about how anyone can get a computer program these days and watch a YouTube video on how to make a beat. You can do it in a week and develop some sort of proficiency but the music that really resonates with me and always has… I mean I might hear a dope track but it doesn’t hit me in the way that my favourite albums have. Albums are things that I listen to over and over again, it grows every time and it takes a level of commitment from the listener and that’s how I grew up liking to listen to music and it’s the type of music I want to make as Tigermoth.
So you’ve got the release party for the vinyl coming up on the 23rd, tell us about the line-up you’ve curated for that
Well, I’ve got Bevin Campbell from The Blend program on PBS 106.7FM. He has been very supportive of me for quite a-while now- going on three years. He is very under-rated as a DJ I think.
Absolutley! I was a guest on his show last Monday. The tunes he’s packing are phenomenal
Dude! Even as a radio host he’s one of the best in the world! I’ve always said that to him, like “Dude your voice is like butter man!” It’s made for radio, like they’ve cloned… or, you know…genetically modified classic radio DJs and put them all into Bevin’s voice or something (laughs). I hope he has a-lot of success with what he’s doing because you know, I know, and people who know, know what a great DJ he is. And as a selector, which is quintessential man. Super humble.
I’ve also got Able8 from Uncomfortable Beats. He’s been doing a-lot of things and is super supportive of other people, he’s had me down at one of his nights too.
And then after that we’ve got Amin Payne…
From the Condensed Milk collective
I really like what he does with his beat show… He’s coming from a similar place, although his music is quite different to me- he’s got a certain sensibility with it that I like. I think it might be his Iranian heritage and I think he was a guitar player when he was younger too. He’s part of The Operatives too and doing a-lot of great things at the moment.
So the people I’ve been picking are people who I think are doing good things and are also slightly different to me, I didn’t want a whole line-up of my-sounding music the whole night, I wanted it to go through waves.
It’s looking like a must-go gig for Melbourne beats…
I hope so! I’ll be there! (laughs)
In terms of curating a line-up of guys from different collectives, there’s a strong beats scene in Melbourne; coming from Brisbane yourself though, what’s the comparison?
They’re different cities you know? I was really lucky when I was younger that the guys who were a bit older than me were really doing cutting edge stuff worldwide. And I was fortunate to have that as my influence.
There are lots of people doing things in Brisbane; I’m not really up with it because I was always a bit of a recluse up there. What I was doing didn’t really fit into it at the time I think. Brisbane is kinda like a hippy town, a-lot of the beat scene is… how would I put it… the live band scene is more prevalent than beat makers in Brisbane, so the audience is still slowly coming around to it. It’s really hard to put a beats night on in Brisbane because people have been doing it for quite a-while but it’s hard to generate interest. It’s not like Melbourne man, people love the beat scene in Melbourne- they do in Brisbane too- but there’s not the same quantity of people into it that there is down here. It can be difficult sometimes to put nights on and get large numbers, and maybe there’s not the same quantity of quality that there is down here!
If you are lucky enough to be down in ‘burn city on the 23rd you can check out Tigermoth‘s vinyl launch party here
You can also peep his Facebook and his bandcamp.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Next week is the first of a new weekly series at Less Than Zero.
F*CK THE RADIO is presenting a new night aimed solely towards supporting Melbourne (and by extention, Australia’s) world-class beat scene. Opening night will have a collection of artist from We Built the Pyramids, Condensed Milk, Uncomfortable Beats, L-Burn Illuminati and our very own F*CK THE RADIO crew.
