1. Make sure your soundsystem can handle monstrous amounts of sub-bass. 2. Take your preferred dissasociative/hallucinogenic substance. 3. Turn the overhead lights off, and the christmas tree lights on. 3. Get yourself and your significant other undressed. 4. Press play. Enjoy.
#seapunk is one of the most interesting scenes I've ever had the pleasure of discovering. It's like a frankenstein mash of PLUR rave culture, online messageboard imagery, LOL Boys-esque vibes and gargantuan bass overloads.
I'm guessing the parties get a bit weird. It's all gravy, though. Blue mohawks, aquatic imagery, MDMA and sex aren't exactly a bad combination.
I realize that today's post is not too cerebral. I didn't sleep very well. You guys oughta loosen up a bit. Enjoy the vibes.
When we first started to gain a following on Avenge the Virgins, about a year ago, one of the first people to contact us and suggest music was a like-minded blogger named Loic Mackpayen, a.k.a Mackpaye, a 19 year old from Reims, France, who runs a hip-hop and electronic music website called Source of Cool.
Mackpaye also mentioned that he DJed and was thinking of getting into production. As he started releasing his Source of Cool mixes, which you can grab on his soundcloud, posted below, I started noticing his remixes and original productions start creeping into them.
Therefore, it was only natural that he would start releasing his music on a proper platform, and lo-and-behold, he recently sent us an e-mail informing us that 12-3 Recordings out of Stockholm was releasing his debut EP, Appeal/Fragrance.
12-3 Recordings is a relatively new label, founded and curated by Sticky Stockholm, a producer and DJ out of the Swedish DBTY! camp. Mackpaye's EP is their third release, and it is a very solid effort indeed, already gaining early support from LOL Boys, Art Nouveau and WATM Magazine, among others.
Both tunes can be described as proper house music, with a very deep soulful vibe. The A-Side, Appeal, is a nostalgic and groovy deep house tune that features a sexy r&b sample, but my favorite of the two is Fragrance, probably because I'm a sucker for horns that melt into great stuttery vocals. Jazzy, loungy but still likely to make you dance until the early hours of the morning. This is heartfelt house music, the kind that forces you to put your hand in the air with your eyes closed. Soulful & sexy.
I've included the press kit and both songs, which are streamable. Appeal/Fragrance drops tomorrow, the 9th of March, on both Beatport & Itunes, so be sure to cop this impressive effort from this talented newcomer in the strong Reims scene.
Young Reims-based producer, dj and blogger Mackpaye was picked up on 12-3 after sending some super dope, and truly soulful demo tracks this winter.
This very debut EP is a smooth master piece consisting of equal parts deep vibes and vocal flow. House music paying tribute, and looking forward, it fits the 12-3 catalogue perfectly.
Appeal is almost melancholic, modern r’n’b meets a classic house sound in a sweet symbiosis. The B-side, Fragrance, is a more classic track in both structure and sound, a true jewel full of groove.
No descriptions today, fortunately/unfortunately. Close your eyes and feel the amazing vibes provided by your friendly neighborhood ATV. Everything featured today is either an upcoming release or tunes that were very recently released. One unifying similarity is that every producer featured today is young, innovative and gets me excited about music and things to come. Fresh sounds and tons of swagger.
Considering I dig these dudes so much, and have been forcing their (admittedly) dope shit down your throat for the past month and a half, I figured I'd focus on the multimedia aspect today. You already know pretty much everything there is to know about them, and should have all of their free mixtapes on your hard drive.
So, in the spirit of the holidays, and of course, my pandemic laziness, I will leave you with very few words on this snowy december evening. Instead, I've picked a few videos off of their site that I think you'll dig.
Guess I gotta do a fuckin song with Dom Kennedy Get these fuckin hip-hop bloggers to start feelin me [...] Maybe I should buy some Hundreds, wear some fucking skinny jeans and follow in your footsteps like a motherfuckin millipede centipede Make songs about Gucci and cigaweed [...] No I'm no fuckin hipster, mister No I'm no fuckin Kid Cudi All my fuckin fans love me
Well, this shit's almost done. One more massive OFWGKTA post after this one, and that's it for this segment. I trust that you've been enjoying the feature for the past month.
This particular segment has been a long time coming, and I know that a few of your have been waiting on it. Today's focus is on the mastermind behind OFWGKTA, the ringleader of this merry band of swagged-the-fuck-out kids.
I present to you today...
Tyler, the Creator a.k.a Wolf Haley a.k.a Ace Creator
Tyler, The Creator is probably the most recognizable figure in Odd Future Wolf Gang and, for many, the reason that we were introduced to the collective. Not only is dude one of the most talented rappers out there at the moment, he is also a supremely gifted producer.
I first saw his video for French a few months ago, and it blew me away. I had no clue what to think of it at first. I actually had to watch it a few times to really comprehend what I was seeing. At first, I thought it was some weird horror/murder rap shit, but as I looked closer, and started to search for more of his material, I finally clued in to the brilliance of the whole Odd Future movement.
Considering that Tyler was a toddler when horrorcore or whatever was popular, it is irrelevant to even try to compare his material to any of that trash. Sure, he's into really macabre shit, but he didn't define his swag by listening to a fuckin' Necro tape.
Tyler, The Creator's trademark, if you will, is his gravelly baritone voice, an almost demonic drawl that surprises the hell out of you when you actually see what he looks like. Color me surprised, but I wasn't expecting a hellspawn's voice to come out of a skinny black skater from California. In terms of lyrics + wordplay, Tyler is extremely impressive. Not to say that the other members of Odd Future Wolf Gang cannot hold their own, but Tyler seems to be on a whole other level in terms of subject material. While the other members spit about fuckin' girls and smoking weed, Tyler raps about videotaping rape and mass murder. Of course, Earl also raps about that dark, ghastly, borderline deranged shit, but he's been sent to bootcamp by his moms, so Tyler has to hold down the fort til he gets back.
Probably the raddest thing about Tyler is his production skills. Dude holds it down on the mic something serious, but his beat making is so on point, so innovative and unlike anything that's out there at the moment. He's like a new school Kanye, except that he's obsessed with rape, dismemberment, vandalism and skateboarding. Visionary is probably too strong a word to use, but whatever. Wolf Haley and the OF are ahead of their time, just waiting for everyone to catch up.
Peep Tyler and Hodgy performing life and bodying the fuck outta that crowd. Rapping to a crowd with a green ski mask on is so hype hahahaha.
You can grab his classic album BASTARD for free off the link below. Honestly, I would've just posted every single song from it, but that'd be somewhat counterproductive. BASTARD is one of the best albums that I've heard in the past few years, and if you have yet to hear it in its entirety, well what the fuck are you waiting for. Entirely produced by Tyler himself, it offers a fascinating glimpse into his decidedly twisted mind.
I know that I've already posted the original recently, but I could not resist posting Tyler's remix of it. He is apparently a huge NERD fan, and gave this remix out for free on Odd Future's web site. It's just dope to see him pay homage to artists that he respects, I guess.
Well, as I said, I'm going to be wrappin up this segment next week. In case you've missed the previous ridiculously dope ones, I've included convenient little links to them. Of course, there's a lot of my usual inane rambling, but there are links/songs galore for your listening pleasure, too. Also, a metric ton of SWAG.
Honestly, every time I post about Odd Future, I could just copy paste the word swag a thousand times and leave it at that. You'd get the idea.
This week's edition of OFWGKTA shines the limelight on a rapper that may not necessarily get the same amount of burn or whatever as the other members of the crew, but it still a force to be reckoned with: The King, Mike fuckin' G.
Slow, chopped and screwed beats are this OFWG rapper's poison of choice, and he decimates them every single time he hops on a track. Like all of the crew, he has a very distinct style, but his signature flow reminds me a lot of West Coast hip-hop, much more than the other members. Even though some might think he's from Houston, given the types of beats he gets on and his flow, his swag is very Californian. Don't ask me to elaborate on that, but if you disagree, go ahead and say why in the comments. You know, this dude should rap over screwgaze or witchhouse or whatever the fuck it's called, that'd be pretty rad.
Mike G is still very much OFWGKTA in mind, body and spirit, but I think that he is one of the more accessible members. I mean, dude is still talking about doin fucked up shit and partyin', but I can imagine him spittin it on a beach, rather than in a dark, moldy, boarded up insane asylum, like in a lot of Wolf Haley and Earl songs. A good change of pace, really. Give this dude a minimal beat with just a snare and a bass drum hittin once every five seconds and I'd bet he'd make it sound dope.
Like Domo Genesis and MellowHype, Mike G is much more on the mellow side in terms of beat selection. He's heavy on the wordplay and all that, so all it does is give him more leeway to ride the great OF productions. Slower beats don't necessarily mean sluggish flow and lazy punchlines, all it means is that it sounds better when you're layin in the cut. Nothing like bein' blizted and appreciating dope rhymes and spacey-as-fuck beats.
Here's a video of him performing at Low End Theory, which should at least give you an idea of his demeanor. Dude is mad laid back hahaha. He's probably blunted out of his mind though so it's all gravy. Fuck Steve Harvey.
You can download Mike G's dope 9 track mixtape, called Ali, at the link below. Beats by Left Brain of MellowHype, SydThaKid and of course, Tyler, the Creator. The very definition of fucking awesome.
I probably sound like a bloody broken record when I repeat this, but hotdamn these dudes are fire. I've noticed that my posts on OFWGKTA don't really feature much in the way of videos, so I've included a video of a Wolf Gang performance just to give you an actual look into what I've been goin' on about these past month. This shit is hyyyyype. SWAG.
You can check out the other profiles I've done so far on this crew if you want to catch up on some mixtapes that you may have missed. All of them are free. How the fuck are you gonna argue with that? Odd Future is a movement, a phenomenon, a supernova and lifestyle all rolled into one . Oh, and there's going to be a feature on them printed in the newest edition of The Fader Magazine sharing the spotlight with the young Based God Lil B & the insane Young L. How's that for blowin' up?
The horsemen of the apocalypse are here, people. Except they skateboard, rock Supreme snapbacks and smoke way too much ganja. Oh, and most of them are in high school. What were you doin' at that age? OFWGKTA are makin power moves. Get on it. #RARE
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!
