Got some surgery done yesterday, no worries I'm doing alright but no need to tell you I'm pretty fucked up right now. Mister doctor decided to hook me up with some of them morphine pills. That said, Calibar has some problems concentrating on this computer screen.
Chillin' music to go with the buzz I guess, I'm more in a laid back mode than crazy jumpy mode fo' sure. Music always reflects your feelings.
I'll keep it quite short tonight, as I have places to be & people to see. I tried to mix it up a little bit for you, but rest assured, we'll be putting up 2 posts tomorrow in order to make up for this laziness.
Tonight's post features a few up & coming electronic music producers, one in particular who is known for his trailblazing approach to hip-hop, and some summery rap music.
James Drake is a one-off collaboration between two Philedelphia-based DJs. Mr Carribean and Bombé have just put out this re-edit/mashup mixtape of James Blake & Drake songs, and surprisingly, it works.
I'm not usually into the whole mash-up scene, but given that Bombé is the homie and I trust his taste/skills, I had to give it a spin.
While a large number of you might not like either Drake or James Blake, this re-imagining of their tunes fits extremely well together, and is the perfect laid-back summer music. This is mighty proper atmospheric r&b for a beautiful day.
We are failing pretty miserably at updating this week, so I've prepared 4 posts in advance, which will all drop in the next few days. We shall redeem ourselves in your eyes, my friends. Do not fret.
This morning, I've got a really dope post lined up for you, featuring 4 tremendously fly tunes. We have a great remix of The Shoes by our confrère Mackpaye, an incredibly trippy tune by Al Ripken Jr, a preview of the upcoming Pelican Fly release , and a mellow reggae tune.
Mackpaye is ATV fam, and we're pretty stoked to present to you his newest production, an amazing remix of French producers The Shoes' song Cover Your Eyes.
He's pretty much a maestro of proper house music, stuff that sounds champagne-soaked and forces you to two-step with the quickness. This particular production, which is already supported by The Shoes themselves, is probably his best work to date. It starts with a delightful piano line, and then injects a healthy amount of uptempo bass, snaps and flutes into the mix. Cover Your Eyes is already a pretty groovy tune, but Mackpaye's take on it is so unbelievably organic and raw that you can't help but listen to it on repeat. Keep it up homie, you're on the right track.
Holyyyyyyyyyyyy mother of god. The first time I heard this frantic behemoth of a tune was during Lunice's set at the Boiler Room, where he played a few seconds of it, literally stopped the music to tell everyone how dope it is, and then restarted it and started wylin' out as he usually does. Everything I Got Now is one of the craziest tracks in recent memory. This is pop-and-lock music on amphetamines.
We posted the vid on our Facebook page a while back if you want to check it out. The part I'm talking about is around 22 minutes in. Oh, and become a fan of the page while you're at it.
Al Ripken Jr also released a free EP under the name Captain Cougar via Top Billing a few days ago, which you can get here. It's on that sci-fi lazeriffic rap tip, and totally worth the download.
Keep an eye out for this bad boy, people, because his recent output is unbelievable.
I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating: Pelican Fly is definitely one of my favorite labels. This young Belgian label is my coup-de-coeur; my recent obsession. They've only put out two releases so far, the Richelle & Mister Tweeks EPs, but both of them are been so tremendously insane and fresh-sounding that I couldn't wait to see what they had in store for us next.
Their newest release, the Thy EP (FLY003), will be released on the 17th of June, and it comes to us straight from Australia. Lucid, an insane producer I've been following for a while, is a perfect choice for the third Pelican Fly release. His innovative style is pretty out-there and bizarre (in a good way), and this riddim continues the trend. Kalso is pretty much the audio equivalent of descending into madness, a grandfather/cuckoo clock & kazoo-sampling carnival of horrors. The EP will feature 4 original tracks, and remixes from Pelican Fly's own Richelle and Bay Area producer Cosmic Revenge.
Don't forget to follow Pelican Fly on soundcloud, they'll probably start releasing previews of the other songs soon enough. My prediction: Thy will be a pretty wild and unbelievably trippy ride. Insane asylum swag.
To finish off the post, I figured I'd delve into a bit of laid-back reggae. Pressure Buss Pipe, the talented Rastaman most known for his classic anthem 'Love and Affection', which we've already posted in the past (here!), puts in a solid effort with this amazing love tune.
Pressure is one of the greatest artists in modern reggae, and this gorgeous tune should put you in a great mood. If you've never heard 'Love and Affection', though, do yourself a bloody favor and download that shit from our site pronto. It is one of my favorite songs, real talk.
This man's influence stretches way further than I can even explain. I would not feel particularly worthy of writing a proper tribute piece, so I will leave you with some of my favorite tunes from this absolute legend. Explore his back catalogue, it is legendary. GSH paved the way for a lot of what you call hip-hop & soul these days.
The songs featured on this blog are for promotional use only. Our goal is to promote the artists we feature, to expose great talent to a wider audience, and not to steal money from their pockets. If you would like a song removed, just get at us in the comments and we'll be more than happy to oblige. If you like the music we feature, then support the artists next time they roll through your city, either by going to a show, or by buying merchandise!
