Welcome! This is Week 1, and a most auspicious beginning for Underground Fossils. Trylemma has had an amazing year sourcing rarities, and I've used my USB tape deck to produce some rips for you of a few of the rarest examples. We also decided to include a rip of Brzowski's first solo project New England Gothic which, for fans of the Maine indie rap / doom metal artist should be a pretty dope listening experience. There's a lot more to come, and we're totally stoked to be here. Happy New Year!
Epic: Touch of Grey
To
start the blog off with a bang, we present, coming straight outta
Saskatoon, DJ Epic's (now known as Epic) "Touch of Grey" mixtape. This
tape, which is indeed a mix-tape in the truest sense, was released circa
1997 when Epic was the head of the BeatComber crew (which included
Chaps, Soso, Knowskills, Innate, Deluxe, M. Phasis, and Fall Guy.) Epic
estimates that he sold about 30 of these bad boys hand to hand back in
the day. I'm not entirely sure what the "#5" that is visible on my copy
(see scans) means. It may be the fifth "Touch of Grey" cassette that
Epic dubbed or it may be Epic's fifth mixtape overall or it may be
something completely different. We get some classic tracks included here
from the likes of Outkast, Buck 65, and Kool Keith, along with some
quiet jewels like the M. Phasis freestyle. Enjoy!
T.
Note: Side B does cut off a bit early. Goddamn cassettes!
Subtitle: how2beat_thebeat01.872
Next, we have a Subtitle cassette from Highground: how2beat_thebeat01.872. Probably comes between 01 and 02 in that series, but we honestly know next to nothing about this work, and trying to read Mr. Marks' handwriting didn't really lead to any revelations about it. We know that it contains tracks from 02, and some new ones as well though. Trylemma conjured it up, I ripped it, and we are confident that this is the first time ever it's been offered online in digital format! Be aware, it's very lo-fi, and it has a bit of whine that comes in around track 7 and persists for the rest of the album. My copy of Written By... Megabusive ft. Smash Adams has the exact same sound but none of my other cassettes do, which makes me think it's an artifact of the tapes Highground used. It's only noticeable during silent intervals between songs so hopefully no one finds it intolerable.
D.
Note: I labeled the tracks as they were on the insert, but I strongly suspect that the song Key 23A is the one where he says "Key 23A" a whole bunch, and not the one before it where he doesn't say it at all. This suggests the rest of the songs may be titled incorrectly also. The artwork also only lists 12 songs, but there are quite a few more. Finally, the artwork came cut off, the above scan is how it looked.
Brzowski: New England Gothic
Finally, we have New England Gothic by Brzowski. I managed to get a used copy of this from a guy on Discogs and I'm very glad I did, it's a must have for Milled Pavement fans. Released in 2002, predating the Raygunomics EP by a few years, this album shows Brzowski gaining confidence in himself as a rapper and writer and developing his unique sound of spoken word inspired poetic rap. It's not his best work but it's brutally honest, emotional, and especially (and so importantly) DIY as fuck. If you like Brzowski's weird goth rap music and don't have this, now you do. Enjoy!
D.
So that's it for our first post! We wanted to line up our debut with the New Year, but our official post day is Friday. Be sure to tune in next week before you head out for TGIF drinks, we've got something real dope planned. No spoilers. Finally, do us a favor and spread the word! This isn't even close to the end of the exclusive rips we've got on hand and more fossils are unearthed all the time.
This is the first Ive heard of Brzowski... have anything else by him? feelin it!
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