Underground Fossils was an indie rap focused blog run by myself (Dimxsk) and by Trylemma, who passed August 3rd, 2024 from liver failure of unknown origin at the age of 34. We mostly posted week or twice weekly, the bulk of which were rare rips we made, found on old blogs, he acquired through his insanely broad connection to the scene, etc. We did all we could to make sure we didn't post stuff that (1) You could still reasonably buy from the artist directly, (2) You could reasonably buy secondhand for cheap, (3) You could download easily elsewhere, (4) The artist(s) asked us not to for any reason. Being involved in this blog was some of the most fun I ever had, even if at times it was time consuming, challenging or intimidating (having a readership). It was the product of one of the best friendships I've ever had. If I could say one last thing, it's to encourage all of you: if you have the time and desire, make your own UGF. Find a friend who loves this shit like you do and build it together. It will bring you incredible joy, enhance your connection to this amazing community, and change your life in unexpected and exciting ways. I know it did mine. Love you all!

Tuesday, December 29, 2020

New Music: Nan Fiero (fka Esem) - Looper

 


Hope the holiday season went as well as it could in 2020. Why not celebrate by peeping Nan Fiero's new EP, Looper? 

Nan Fiero is the new name from the rapper formerly known as Esem, of the Feo Faces collective. This year he's dropped a couple really good tapes of straight up good rapping, no bells or whistles. This latest release is based around the 2012 sci-fi film "Looper." The beats, which sample the film and which are updated versions of an old 2016 beat-tape he made (sadly no longer online,) and rhymes are moodier than his previous outings, but just as clean. 

Peep the EP HERE

Friday, December 25, 2020

Father Scott Unlimited - Sweet Potatoes (2002)

 


 

Any Educated Consumers fans out there? No?? Okay no post this Friday then. Go get your awesome free music somewhere else...

Well since I already went to all this trouble to track this album down, rip it, tag it and upload it, I guess I'll post it. Just know how deeply upset I am by your lukewarm interest in such a dope ass group like Consumers.

Sorry, weird mood this morning as per usual. Anyway Father Scott Unlimited is a little known project put together in the early 00's by a group of emcees out of Washington (the district not the state) with the humble names of Napoleon Da Legend, Jesus and also the well known Seez Mics.

I can't say much that wasn't already said better by UGSMAG here. That's one of the few mentions of this album I can find online. I will say I remember really liking the smooth, professional sound of this album and thinking the combination of the intelligent rhymes and seamless production makes it worthy of far more attention than it gets. So enjoy!

Oh and in writing this early I didn't realize what day it was gonna land on. Merry Christmas to some of you, and absolutely Happy Holidays to the rest. If you don't like my inclusive attitude then you should ask yourself why inclusive bothers you so much.


DOWNLOAD

 

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

New Music: Otem Rellik - We Creatures / Built Soft

 


 

Well it's not exactly new music, but this past October a personal favorite of mine dropped this fascinating little album, and since I just got the chance to listen to it I figured I'd do him a favor and drop a little post promoting it.

Otem Rellik is the Colorado based soft folk electronic rap circuit bender who's otherworldly production and depressingly beautiful vocals have been behind some of my most favorite songs for feeling sad. Blood Bone Piano actually made my list of my top ten albums of the decade because Otem Rellik is not only original and one of a kind, he's also been progressing towards an accessibility that I think would make him a staple for any indie music fans iTunes and that album was essentially a perfect blend of original and catchy.

I was never a huge fan of his older material, but starting with Elephant Graveyard back in 2010 and beyond I've really found his music both interesting and infectious. "Sour Segments" really impressed me with it's heart and mournful beauty for example, and actually really made me feel better through what was essentially one of the worst years of my life (2011).

So I've been annoying him about a new album for four years since unbroken&unheard with Bandcamp messages and he's finally delivered. What do I think? Well, Rellik's ingenuity for circuit bending has hit new heights with this one. Songs like "After School Special" really display a lush array of unusual sounds, used in very effective ways. Listening to the album with surround sound is a must. I can honestly say I have no idea where some of his synths come from but I guarantee you will be drawn in to the dreamy world he creates with them.

Lyrically he's as he always is, writing songs about nostalgia, heartbreak and loss sprinkled with hope. He's leaned more towards digitally altering his vocals which is unnecessary given his unique singing voice, but I guess my aging ass can tolerate a little autotune in the spirit of surreal sonic world building. I actually find myself thinking that given the recent revelations about Astronautalis (who Rellik has worked with and belongs to the same genre camp of folky indie pop rap), Rellik is really a good fit for those of us who really really miss that irreverent genre bending sound. Dammit Astro, why did you have to turn out to be such a dirtbag....?

Anyway it's not all rosy with them album, although I will say I did like it a lot. My biggest complaint is the lack of any songs that particularly resonate and have me hitting the back button all day. "Blood Bone Piano", the title track from the aforementioned album was one of those, as was "Sour Segments" and "The Back Catalogue of Broken Teeth" from his last album. Maybe that will change, and it may be a good thing as there may just be too much going on to really get these songs with the single listen I've had time to give them. Then again it may be that there is a bit more atmosphere than songwriting here, although I do need to say again that I liked this work. I've come to realize as a hardcore music fan that my response to a given album is likely to bounce around depending on my mood, what I'm doing and how I'm listening. So if you're looking for a simple yes or no, yes, give this one a shot. It's cool, showcases some daring stylistic elements and repurposing of toys in bizarre ways, and does contain some truly beautiful songs. Just because I haven't started singing along yet doesn't mean I won't.

 

Get we creatures | built soft here as a pay what you want, but toys / instruments are expensive so consider a donation!

 

Friday, December 18, 2020

Longevity - Blowed Xmas EP (2012)

 


Today's post is actually of some music that is currently up (for free) but that is also currently uncompiled and a bit hard to actually stumble upon. In 2012, Project Blowedian Longevity uploaded 3 tracks he produced from an apparent Project Blowed EP. The tracks were obviously streamable and also downloadable, but to my knowledge, the EP itself was never promoted or released beyond the individual tracks on the Soundcloud. Shame, because, on the vocals, are some heavy left coast hitters. The tracks include "Christmas In The City" (Feat. Aceyalone, Beond, and Ellay Khule,) "Killin Claus" (Feat. Otherwize,) and "The God That Stole Xmas" (Feat. Born Allah.) 

You can, and should, still peep the stuff on Longevity's Soundcloud but since this is the season, I figured I'd compile the tracks from the Xmas EP here. Enjoy!


DOWNLOAD

 

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Trylemma's Holly Jolly Christmas Mixtape V.2!

 


As promised, here is the fully revamped "Trylemma's Holly Jolly Christmas Mixtape V.2!" This year I compiled 28 fresh tracks not featured on V.1 (though by all means, go back and enjoy that one too!) Enjoy! 

TRACKLIST:

1. Buck 65 - The Night Before Christmas

2. Random - Christmas Is Comin'

3. Murs - Christmas Rules Everything Around Me

4. Planet Asia, TriState & Blu - Everyday Is Christmas

5. NutCracker - F.D.O.G., Tabb Doe, P.W. Esquire, B-Line & Equipto

6. Sahtyre - Home For The Holidays

7. Theory Hazit - Homeless On Christmas

8. Wool See - Merry Merry Vibes

9. Ras Kass - Jack Frost II

10. Jonwayne - Sticky Bandits

11. Macklemore - It's Christmas Time

12. Circus & Gangstahz For Gawd - Black Santa

13. Gregory Pepper - White Gold

14. Wordburglar - My Christmas Catalogue Number

15. Geniusis - Little Drummer Boy

16. Mark Reveley - Charlie Brown's Weird Christmas

17. Moka Only & Psy - Wonder Winterland

18. Earl Sweatshirt & Tyler The Creator - Fuck This Christmas

19. Jesse Dangerously & MC Lars - Swag Nog

20. Boac - Santa Claws Is Coming

21. Teenburger - White Christmas

22. Lucas Dix - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

23. Lil B - King On Xmas Eve

24. Noah23 - Wisemen

25. Bop Alloy - Our Message

26. Jolly Ol' Saint Ricc - Santa

27. D-Sisive - Here Comes Santa Claus

28. Born Allah - Mama Wasn't Kissing Santa


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Friday, December 11, 2020

Jundax - Oraloragami: The Karaoke Collection (200?)

 

 

Hey y'all. So for once this week I knew just what to share for you. After the surprise revival of West Coast jazz rap act Private School and my review I remembered I had this one laying around, and that it'd been a bit of a pain to track down. Fortunately I'm determined to spare you guys the same experience, so here it is!

Jundax is a founding member of the Record Players, a NorCal super group composed of folks like Joe Dub, Maleko, Neila, members of Araknophobix and more. Her vocal style is laid back and sort of cute, but with a bite that comes from intelligence and the true DIY ethic that propelled all of those folks from the bedrooms and garages of the Bay to hard drives all around the world.

Oraloragami is lo-fi as hell, but also fun as hell and definitely something for the indie rap fan who still buys cassettes and finds it frustrating that they don't hiss anymore.


DOWNLOAD

 

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

New Music: Private School - Duchamp EP

 


Coming in under the radar a few weeks ago we had a new (short) album from some of the jazziest and coolest folks in the west coast underground scene, Private School! Composed of some of the pioneering hip hop voices that brought you the Record Players (alongside Joe Dub himself, the original SF indie rapper) this crew was relatively famous for composing and performing dreamlike, dusty sample based raps that toed the fine line between stoney and boring with poise and skill, somehow making somnolent into the finest praise for an art form that is well known for telling us to "bring the noise".

Ian, Jundax (aka Jun Dax, aka Quiet) and Dagoldenray are three emcees who share a style and a vision. Private Schools sound has been dope for decades now, and has managed to keep the same style surprisingly fresh through various incarnations, solo outings and side collabs (I Ran Y, INK etc.). Beginning in 2001 with Orientation, I can say I've always been a pretty big fan. Especially of Ian's production, which has more recently found a great home alongside vocals by Nonce OG Sach(illpages).

That said, how do they sound now? Well, true to form not much has changed about these folks between 2001 and 2020. And why not? There's something truly timeless about jazz, and it will always to me be a particularly evocative and interesting source of samples for the type of rap that hits like an opium dream.

Consisting of raps from all of the original members, some instrumental material and some interludish type songs Duchamp EP is a tiny slice of the sound we may already know well. With just 5 tracks and only a few that really qualify to me as polished songs, if it wasn't also free I might be slightly less enthused about it, but as it is there's no reason any fan of rap or even music in general wouldn't find this a nice break from the current political and medical climate of today's world.

As is always my only complaint about Private School, sometimes the lack of variation in tone, cadence and overall sound can get slightly tiresome (as in, it puts me to sleep a bit) and that's certainly still worth mentioning with Duchamp. However to be fair I went to a jazz show once and actually did fall asleep, so maybe I just don't have the proper attention span. That said, I enjoyed it and I enjoyed this as well. Clearly professional grade jazz sleepy rap. Enjoy!

 

Get the long awaited new EP from Private School, Duchamp EP, right here!

Friday, December 4, 2020

Toolshed Throwbacks (1999-2002)

 


Today we're digging in the scene rips e-crates for some oldie but goodie Toolshed releases!

Toolshed has always been one of my favorite Canadian groups. The Backburner mini-squad, consisting of Timbuktu, Choke, Fat Mike, and Psybo, always brought the creativity and light-heartedness that I enjoy in my rappity raps. Included below are some of the earlier works from the crew: 1999's "Cabin Fever," 1999's "Lyricistic Fibrosis", 2002's "Murr Bags B Side," and 2002's "The Scotch Tape EP." 

I believe Toolshed is currently, no pun intended, on the backburner especially with the rise of Swamp Thing, but maybe someday we'll see the guys return for one last go. Enjoy! 

 

DOWNLOAD



Tuesday, December 1, 2020

New Music Round-up

 


Hey UGF party peeps - hope the holidays are treating you well. Things are likely to get loosey on my part as we near the end of the year. In the meantime, here's some recent releases you might want to peep!

Starting down south, The Visionaries finally reunited voltron and dropped their fifth album appropriately entitled, "V." Hiero-head A-Plus dropped another one with The Architect with "Blvck Switzerlvnd." Gurp City and Rec League fans will enjoy the new Bigg Tae album, "Thanks for the Ryde." Likewise, Grand Invincible has returned with "Demolition Strictly." Finally, Def-I dropped new EP "DRZLTN" backed by Smoke of OD! 

Moving to the Northwest, we got another new album from Nickels Hawkeye entitled "All the Things." Claud Six (of Jellyfish Brigade) dropped EP "Hoodie Season." Finally, Rafael Vigilantics dropped a moody folky project in "Blue River, Grey Sky."

Finally, let's move to Canada where Factor dropped his latest "Eastlake," Kay the Aquanaut dropped new album "Ancient Fish from the Northwest," and People of the Sun (the latest group from MC Infored) dropped the live debut "Last Day of Summer." Oh yeah, overseas Zoen dropped a new instrumental project you should check called "Wonderful Times"! 

Thursday, November 26, 2020

Happy Thanksgiving from UGF!


 


Sorry to say it folks, no post for Friday. No free music, no reviews, no nothing. Trylemma is on a rare fossil finding mission in Armenia, and I'm going to the coast. I feel bad about that contrast there. But the NorCal coast is very nice too.

So how's about a song, probably my new favorite track from Ceschi since hearing the revamped version featured on the deluxe The One Man Band Broke Up vinyl, which you can pick up right here.

 


 

Maybe I've missed the point of the song, but if this year has taught me anything it's to marvel at the way we grow back tails when they get cut off.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Stay safe and healthy out there!



Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Demons in Disguise / Cheap Meat Suits - Selections from Demons in Disguise / Dark City (2008 / 2010)

 


 

Sorry for the late post today, Trylemma is out of town and I didn't know he wouldn't be able to post something. Just got home from work to his note. So, since I already uploaded this stuff for a homie I figured why not publish it for everybody.

For background go to my K.Clifton post. This is dark, abstract PNW hip hop. These are incomplete albums that I received from a different PNW rapper, this upload contains two collections of songs off of the albums Cheap Meat Suits by Cheap Meat Suits and Dark City by Demons in Disguise. Both are Quiz on the raps and I believe BLVCK CEILING on beats.

Enjoy, we'll get back to writing substantive posts soon enough!

By the way, does anyone subscribe to Weird Raps emails? He wrote a very interesting article on the "optics" of white journalists commenting on hip hop, which is relevant because I'm white and a blogger is a journalist in a world where you can buy a house off a video of you drinking juice while skating to Fleetwood. Anyway here's the article in question, and here's a link to subscribe, if you like UGF you'll definitely enjoy it!

Oh yeah here's the music I posted to share:


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Friday, November 20, 2020

Earthquake Weather - Eqw (2006)

 


 

Here's one for our reader who requested some Beastmaster. I'm really excited for this one as it's an album I'd never heard of until recently, and was lucky enough to scoop up as a physical.

The Beastmaster is a founding member of the Papervehicle collective, best known as the original home of Swashbuckling Napoleon's super producer (and former rapper) Edison. A San Francisco art rap weirdo fest, Papervehicle is one of my personal favorites for their unorthodox lyricism and insanely creative and interesting production.

Earthquake Weather takes Beastmaster, pairs him with Zygoat of Audiopharmacy (a live rap act I know nothing about but can say they're awesome, I own every album they've done as a group) and has them trading dark and gritty abstract rhymes over dusty gloom bap production, with the occasional Jack Nicholson sample thrown in. What's not to like?

Enjoy Eqw!

 

DOWNLOAD

 

 

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

K.Clifton - Songs in the Key of Pessimism

 


 

Happy Tuesday, and what a Tuesday it is! Last go round I was complaining about the election, but now America has decided to rejoin the 21st century. Hooray for us! Now someone needs to sic the dogs on Donnie the Doofus so we can get some governing done, teach some folks the Webster definition of "justice" and hopefully not catch the plague.

 Anyways, as usual I was running out of time so no review this week, but I think I've got just the thing for a time of year when the leaves are dying and it's getting dark at weird hours...

Songs in the Key of Pessimism is a work by an artist who you've probably heard before, but maybe didn't know. K.Clifton (fka Quiz10 or Quiz) is a producer and rapper from the PNW who utilizes slower sample based tracks to instill a sense of quiet foreboding and vague uneasiness. His laid back and deep vocal style also adds to the dark quality of his music, and he's utilized it in a variety of ways and with a variety of different producers and emcees.

This particular album is fairly new, and for some reason is no longer available. I personally like it because it is I believe one of his last albums before he took the plunge into trap music as one member of Wrists. Not a bad group per se, but this album right here is a great demonstration of his transition between the Quiz sound and what he does now, and I think it's remarkably effective.

Lush, dark and disturbing. Just something to get you excited for a weekend indoors worrying about catching the plague and dying...

 

I've got some more darkness coming for your Friday fossil as well. Just that kind of week... This next one is for fans of Papervehicle and affiliated cats.


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Friday, November 13, 2020

Bastard Patriots - Bastard Patriots (2010)

 


Today's post is a more obscure entry from the Sandpeople catalog - Bastard Patriots' self titled debut from 2010. Bastard Patriots consisted of Randolph Mctools (of Harvard Joeys) and Jon the Baptist. Jon is best known for being a co-founder of the Sandpeople, though he parted ways (on not so amicable terms,) with the group early on. He is also the (biological) brother of Sleep of Oldominion. 

The duo was heavily politically based, as made evident on this album (their sole release) where the many failings of the government are addressed head-on (industrialism, police brutality, drug laws, militarism...) Some hardcore braggadocio and a dash of metaphysical raps are thrown in for good measure as well - think a less cringy West Coast version of Jedi Mind Tricks. The production is very rough and rugged and is handled by Flavordisk, Coley Cole, Pale Soul, $imple, and DJ Zone. The sole feature on the album comes courtesy of NW head honcho Onry Ozzborn. 

As noted, this was the duo's sole release. A second release was planned and was partly recorded, but was ultimately never finished and, due to some personal reasons, the duo eventually parted ways. McTools began focusing on other artistic pursuits (he has a great art collection) and Jon the Baptist, as far as I know, faded to black. 

Peep the album below! 


DOWNLOAD

Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Factor, Factor, and Factor Oh My!

 

2020 hasn't brought us much good (good job last Tuesday tho folks,) but one small solace can be found in the great Factor Chandelier (the best producer OAT imo) seemingly channeling his 2010 self and dropping numerous gems on us throughout the year. For those at home keeping score, here's what he's given us thus far:

Factor started things off with his solo release "First Storm," which featured some great tracks from Onry Ozzborn, Mestizo, and Cadence Weapon among others. From there, he switched things up and gave us a super solid boom bappy EP with Dope KNife in "Kill Factory." He then gave us an EP with Crabstyle MC LOGS, "Voyager," and an EP with Cali legend Myka 9, "People Into Making Progress," which coincided with a vinyl release of the duo's 2009 album, "1969" via Fake Four. Most recently, he collaborated with Oldominion rapper Diveyede on the EP "Goldbloom," a dark gothicy soundscape. And if all that wasn't enough, he's got a new instrumental album dropping later this month, available for pre-order now, called "Eastlake" (I was lucky enough to hear this and it's crazy!) And of course, there's singles in the mix too, my favorites being "DRKWLKR" from Ceschi + Siul Hughes and "Purple Bruise" from Dex Riley. 

So if your backlog is long, thanks in no small part to all these Bandcamp Fridays, and you haven't gotten around to all these releases yet - make sure to make them a priority! 

Friday, November 6, 2020

Optimystic Populists - Syntactical Assault (2004)

 


Straight out of Humboldt County, and by request from our amazing readers comes Optimystic Populists' debut EP Syntactical Assault. I've always been a fan of that SC Mountains style sound, and JtheSarge and Pendragn offer it up in a way that reminds me of the homies JKC but without the sometimes cringe worthy nerd factor that makes me want to roll the windows up (I say that with nothing but love).

This album to me helps to define Sarge's later work, as he offers opinionated political fast raps over classic sounding beats, all the while sticking to the NorCal sound. That's really about all I have to say about it. Nothing truly groundbreaking here, Sarge did that when he hooked up with M9 and started rapping adventure comics. This one is just dope underground rap that if you found this blog, you'll like for sure.


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Tuesday, November 3, 2020

New Music: Phantom Thrett - Loose Leaves 2

 

Before I get into this review, as you have to be aware unless there's something wrong with you today is election day. Maybe one of the most important elections in our country's history. I have made no secret of my leanings when it comes to the current state of America, nobody has benefited from Trump's bungling, clown-on-crack "leadership" style except  Trump and those like him (maybe not even them, it remains to be seen). How he's convinced anyone that we're better off now than we were in 2016 fucking mystifies me.

Get out and vote, and even if you like the state of our nation now, please consider what Trump's dismantling of the checks and balances our country's founders put in place to limit the power of the executive office might mean for the future of this nation. Maybe you think Trump isn't so bad. But sooner or later we'll wind up with someone who is, and he can now use precedence Trump has set to abuse executive orders, benefit from treasonous foreign collusion and pocket taxpayer money all while ignoring Congress to bully his plans into action. We're one step closer to fascism thanks to the orange buffoon, and in four more years who can say how many more protections set in place to make our country different from the monarchy we rebelled to escape will have been ignored into irrelevance?

That's that, now here's this.

 

 

Phantom Thrett is a one in a million rapper. I can't emphasize enough how talented of a poet this man is. You may have read my review of his performance opening for R.A.P. Ferreira, but this is my first time highlighting one of his releases [they're all amazing and available for mostly very low prices on his Bandcamp (see the customary link at the bottom of the page)]. However, since we try to talk more about recent releases here I'm going to focus on his new mixtape, Loose Leaves 2. I feel like UGF needs to publish some support for someone as clearly skilled and dedicated to the art as Thrett is, and this record is a great introduction to his unique and immersive take on hip hop.

Thrett's sound is hard to pin down. With a production style and preference that consists of lo-fi, slowed down jazz samples and dusty drums his tracks tend to offer the listener the sonic equivalent of a hot summer night on the outskirts of a thriving metropolis, and an approach to writing that jumps effortlessly between sleepy raps and syrupy R & B influenced singing. I feel like Thrett's work is a time travel experience through urban music's dense and layered history. His albums offer something rare in hip hop, and that is I believe a sound that could get older folks who look down on rap interested in it as a real and vital form of artistic expression. His spoken word poetry is beautiful, emotionally deep and relatable. Listening to his music almost always makes me feel good, even when it makes me feel good about feeling bad. Does that make any sense? If it does than I think you may like him as much as I do.

As a concert goer I was very impressed with the level of wisdom and enlightenment present in the songs he performed. Thrett seems uniquely gifted at capturing the human experience through words in a way that is both ingenious and easy to grasp. I feel like that is an extremely difficult thing to do properly, sometimes rappers demonstrate intelligence through the obfuscation of what is basically an inherent lack of meaning in their tracks (not naming any names, and not even judging this approach to writing, I feel like confusing for the sake of confusing definitely has it's place in music, especially if that place is alongside a psychedelic of some sort). Thrett however writes lines that have you saying to yourself "holy shit I never thought of it like that but he's totally right!" And you can pick up those nuggets of wisdom through casual listening, and needless to say less casual listening can be extremely rewarding.

Loose Leaves 2 is a mixtape style collection of tracks recorded through the second half of October, so these are fresh out the oven and relevant to our experience of the day. With production mostly handled by Jippy and not Thrett himself this is slightly different from what he's offered in the past, but with that said I don't mind too much. Songs like "Caviar" and "Built This Way" offer production that brings out some of Thrett's smoothest jams yet. All of the production is melodic and slowed down, and works wonders whether he sings or raps over them. The songs are all very short, in fact the entire record is 17 tracks and less than a half hour long, but the vignette style fits well with his poetry and allows him to pop up, make statements both humble and earth shattering, then disappear again. This is in line with the description of the album, Thrett is the most well known unknown, he offers his art and vanishes from the scene. Makes me feel blessed to have gotten the chance to hear him live.

So that's about it for today. I just finished listening to this record while gearing up for the day, between exercising, brushing my teeth and feeding the cat. I feel spiritually fit, mellowed out and eager to get started with the rest of my weekend (this was written Sunday morning). There's nothing wrong with music that makes you feel damn good sometimes, especially when it comes in such a smart and professional package.

 

Get Loose Leaves 2 from Thrett's Bandcamp page here! The write up for this album is straight up gold status poetry as well by the way, read it.


Friday, October 30, 2020

Meen Green - The Leftovers (2014)

 


Add losing Meen Green earlier this year to the long list of reasons as to why 2020 can fall the fuck off. 

One of the great things about Bandcamp is that it seemingly gave/gives a platform to a lot of OGs that can be used to get the new new out there - Meen Green was one such OG. "The Leftovers" dropped on Bandcamp in 2014 but was seemingly removed thereafter. I'm sharing it here as it doesn't seem to be available elsewhere and was originally available for free DL.

Enjoy the blaze tunes and take a second to support Meen Green's estate by purchasing something that is still up on his Bandcamp HERE. Enjoy!


DOWNLOAD

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

New Music: Escape Artists - Evergreen

 


It was a nice little treat last year when the Escape Artists Bandcamp page upped the new unreleased "Theta Metronome EP" from Aamir and Cognition. Updates and messages continued to go out after and I was hoping for a new full project in the future. And now we've got it in the form of "Evergreen." 

Apparently, "Evergreen" was first conceived of in 2006, but kept getting pushed to the backburner as other projects took precedence. Luckily, the crew finally got together again and put the finishing touches on this batch of songs! And for those of us who enjoy that left-field Escape Artists sound, Aamir, Xczircles, and Ahmuse do not disappoint! Features include the expected left-field all star gallery - Riddlore, Ngafsh, Sach, 2Mex, Awol One, Existereo, L'Roneous, Penny, Subtitle, Jizzm, Rifleman, Raj, EVS, and more! 

Peep the album HERE



Friday, October 23, 2020

AndrRomak (Andrre & Roma) - Life Up There (2006)

 


 

So here we are again at the end of the week! As promised, to myself and all of you, I'm taking a step back this week and offering another download. It's down to the wire though, and I'm down to my proprietary algorithmic method of determining which fossil to post. After making it most of the way down the A's on my iTunes I came up with this.

I don't know if this is a real release. It does have a track from James P. Honey that is as far as I know unique to this EP so I assume it must be real, but the files are all mixed up and labeled like it was compiled by one of Andrre's many many fans. There is a lot of cool stuff on here though, and after I share a bit of background you can listen and find out what.

Roma's the DJ(ish) Andrre's the rapper(ish). One produces lush and haunting beats with a reliance on natural instruments such as keys and strings versus the far more common these days electronic spacey "trippy" sounds, the other raps and sings with a Quebecois accent that sounds like it lost a fight with a few cartons of Marlboros. I love both of them, and they work exceptionally well together. Andrre has some solo work as well as a full length album as AndrRomak out on Milled Pavement. Get it now.

Side note, Staplemouth of New Cocoon was supposed to do a project with Roma I believe. I heard a few tracks and found them frankly amazing so I hope that may still happen (hint hint).

Whether or not this release is a legitimate product of the names it bears, it's dope and I saw it first during my proprietary, absolutely not alphabetical scrolling based search of iTunes, so it's what y'all get for today.


DOWNLOAD

 

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

Mellow Drum Addict - Corner of Broadened Mind (2009)

 

 

 This week, after doing a few longer review posts in a row I feel like taking some time off. Not much of that lately. Luckily for you that means more fossils this week, starting off with this gem from Christian rapper Mellow Drum Addict.

Corner of Broadened Mind is a beautiful piece of work. It should appeal to secular rap fans (such as myself) as much as it does to those of us who listen with our religious convictions in mind. Employing a boom bap style with jazzy melodic samples and a voice built both for singing and rhyming, Mellow Drum Addict raps about life, himself, music, and of course morals and values although the preachiness is notably absent here and the emphasis seems to be on creating great hip hop. Mellow Drum Addict is here not a Christian rapper but a rapper who is Christian.

Anyway, that's it for now, enjoy!


DOWNLOAD

 

Friday, October 16, 2020

Trylemma's Spooky Dooky Halloween Mixtape V2

 


After a couple years of horrific stagnation - Trylemma's Spooky Dooky Halloween Mixtape has finally been updated to V2! The result is 29 carefully picked tracks (none of which appear on V1) suited to serve as your soundtrack this Halloween! Enjoy (insert ghoul sound.) 


TRACKLIST:

1. Onry Ozzborn - Intro

2. Wool See - Midsommar

3. The Mighty Underdogs - Monster

4. Awol One & Mascaria - Wolfman

5. Earlybirds - Walking Dead

6. Meyer Wolfsheim - Haunted Soiree

7. Duella Deville (Nebz Supreme) - Full Moon Rising

8. Signor Benedick The Moor - Halloween Song

9. Port Authority - Werewolves

10. Moe Pope & Rain - Gotham

11. Genghis Khan - Friday The 13th

12. Die Young & Deeskee - Vampire Hunter

13. Del Tha Funkee Homosapien & Bukue One - Horror Slides

14. Circus - Jason Voorhees Wont Stop Dien

15. Debmaster - March Of The Monsters

16. Azrael The Silent Angel - Gothic Horror

17. Swamp Thing Feat. More or Les, Wordburglar & Jesse Dangerously - Monster Island

18. Cookbook & Uno Mas - Monster Mosh

19. Noah23 - Blood

20. Extra Kool - Haunted Hill

21. Free Daps Feat. E-Turn - Monster Movie Part 1

22. Time - Vampire Mask

23. Yes Men - Early Halloween

24. Gajah - A Werewolf In LA

25. Lexington & Whatevski Feat. Cam The Wizzard - Bride Of Frankenstein

26. Nocando - Anne Rice

27. Delinquent Monastery - Halloween Queen 

28. Ruben Steiner & Ira Lee - Andy Warhol Vampire 

29. Nedarb Nagrom - Halloween 


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And if sequels suck, feel free to return to V1 (featuring tracks from Buck 65, Mega-Ran, Nolto, Equipto, Ecid, Zion I, and many more) HERE

Tuesday, October 13, 2020

New Music: Awol One & Pigeon John - Can't Handle Us

 


We've been promised multiple intriguing Awol One collabo projects over the years that have yet to surface. Remember when Awol and 2Mex were gonna drop an IlluminatiByNature album years ago? Or how about the Awol One/Busdriver collabo project? We're also still waiting on the Awol One/Deceo Ellipsis project (though I'm pretty sure that one is coming soon.) I initially feared this Awol One/Pigeon John collabo was going to meet a similar fate when it was slated to drop in August and didn't. Luckily, we finally have it in form of "Can't Handle Us" EP! 

"Can't Handle Us" is a four song EP with Awol One on the raps and fellow Good Lifer Pigeon John on the beats. Gel Roc stops by as the project's sole feature. While short (none of the four tracks exceed the 3 minute mark,) the EP is extremely successful in combining the two men's styles and sounds. Awol has rocked over countless beats, but harder, darker, more eerie sounds are a staple of his. Pigeon John switches things up a bit by giving the Walrus some upbeat poppy-sounding instrumentals - and Awol delivers on them all - giving us some top quality reflective raps as well as some tongue-in-cheek braggadocio raps. Fun times all around. 

You can cop the EP digitally on Bandcamp HERE or cop a very limited cassette or 7" of the EP HERE. The cassette features a bonus remix of "Can't Handle Me" with Kool Keith on the beat and Pigeon John on the mic (with DJ Hoppa on the cuts.) You can also cop a 7" picture disc of said remix at the previous link. 

And if that's not enough Project Blowed for you - wait til Friday when we're getting new albums from Open Mike Eagle, Sahtyre, and Kenny Segal! 

Friday, October 9, 2020

Variex - Lavender Canvas (2006)

 


 

So as promised, I have for you today an early release from the subject of my Tuesday post, Variex. Lavender Canvas is arguably the album that started it all in more ways than one. First off, it's the release that was entirely produced by the artist himself which gave him the opportunity to begin cultivating the sound that becomes his trademark with his later releases. His first album, while really notable in a charmingly DIY sort of way featured a number of guest producers and lacked the professionalism and songwriting skill that he shows, beginning here. Secondly, this album can really be thought of as the genesis of the New Cocoon label, which introduced me to his work as well as the work of some of my very favorite musicians.

Lavender Canvas was put out on the label Broken Branch Noise, which was also home to artists such as Wormhole, Slew, Dayeve Xienze, Herald Foster, Unspeakable Easels etc. After some artistic differences (lol) these cats decided to form a "new cocoon" from which to create something different, and there you have it. Variex provided me with that information and I figured it was cool background. To be clear, Variex himself is no longer associated with the label, after some artistic differences. He now makes music on his own Red Tempo Records, and with his vast experience and artistic merit I expect great things from him and his associates.

Anyway Lavender Canvas is highly enjoyable art rap, heavily influenced by shoegaze and electronic music that deals with personal issues and struggles. It is very different from Struggle Sandwich, but in a lot of ways is every bit as good. It's been a pleasure getting to know more about Variex, and if you haven't heard him and enjoy anything from Anticon or Fake Four I can basically guarantee you'll like this. Thanks!


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Tuesday, October 6, 2020

New Music: Variex - Struggle Sandwich

 


 

So it's been a crazy week for me (do I start posts with "so" a lot? It seems so) which is becoming more and more common lately. I'm recovering from dental surgery which was even more fun than you might expect and I'm strapped for time. However, I got a really cool email from the subject of this post and it turns out he actually reads our blog which is seriously fucking fantastic. So I really feel like the least I can do is try my best to help him promote an album that demonstrates from the first note how talented, driven and dedicated to the art of hip hop Variex actually is.

For those of you who weren't aware, Variex has been a musician first and foremost for his entire adult life. Starting back in high school he led a spoken word club and wrote and produced songs for himself, eventually learning the art of engineering formally and going on to have a hand in tons of music from Bay Area artists and beyond. For a more detailed background and lots of other information, check out his website over here. I discovered his music through his affiliation with the radical artist collective New Cocoon, which I just now learned he had a hand in founding. It typified their willingness to make music that could struggle to attain mainstream appeal, but lived through it's sheer audacity and heartfelt desire to destroy conventional norms. However, for me his signature style of electronic shoegaze folk rap was instantly something I could both relate to and seriously enjoy. Not only was his production unique and intricate, ranging from unsettling to beautiful to hard as fuck but he employed a sing song high paced rapping style that was impressive, fun to listen to and unlike most of what I'd heard before.

Up until recently Variex's work could be summed up as such. Mostly hand crafted electronic sounds and effects, with spacey and melodic production provided the background for emotional and personal poetry about difficult subjects. Honestly, I could have been happy with hearing that style from him indefinitely. However, starting with his collaborative effort with Rawbeartoe Always Something, Variex's sound has taken quite a different turn. That album seemed to reflect a more funky and R&B side of the musician, and it gave somewhat of a preview for what he had in store for his fans.

Two years ago Variex dropped the The Bread Crumbs EP, a sort of preview for Struggle Sandwich and a radical turn away from the style he'd made himself known for. Demonstrating what had up until then been a sort of behind the scenes fascination with the G-Funk style of West Coast hip hop, The Bread Crumbs EP was very well done but proved to be not for everybody. Variex's talent behind the boards and behind the microphone has been indisputable for a while now, but the question with his newest album was how well he could fit those talents into a tribute to the West Coast stylings of old, popularized by artists like Bored Stiff, San Quinn and Too $hort. The production and sound of The Bread Crumbs EP was laid back, professional and funky, and borrowed heavily from the artists mentioned above. It utilized talk boxes, g-funk synths and sample based beats along with lyrics with slightly more edge although still about his family, his home and his past.

I personally liked The Bread Crumbs EP. Not everyone did but if nothing else could be said for it, the man is extremely talented when it comes to making music on an indie rappers budget and resources. Plus when it comes down to it, a dynamic musician is a real musician. With age and experience Variex has found himself drawn to a different style and with his extensive credentials his work is always worth a listen.

Now I say all that to say this. Following up the EP with a full length album in the same format was a bit of a risky move for the artist, who tells me he considered scrapping the Variex alias entirely for this record and using a different name. However, considering that he plans this to be his last record for a little while he elected to release it under the name he's worked so hard to bring to our attention.

Struggle Sandwich builds off the energy and ambition of the previous EP, and in a way brings Variex's career "full circle". Blasting off with a previously released track giving an extensive history of his love of rap music from "I Got 5 On It" to "Daylight", we begin to see that the G-funk style is not really a departure for Variex at all, but an attempt to be true to a part of his work we haven't heard as much of, and bridge the gap between his indisputably indie and indisputably popular roots.

This album plays all the way through like a summer drive through the SF Bay Area. As a lifetime resident of that same part of the world I hear so much in this music I can relate to, from the laid back blunt scented production that brings to mind a backyard BBQ on a summer evening (no watermelon sugar highs here) to the very real observations on the changes we've experienced as the internet exploded and made living in our home towns a struggle for so many of us. All tracks are definitely influenced by the Bay Area legends of the previous decades, but they have the same emotional appeal and stylistic flair that made me an instant fan of Variex ever since I heard Quitting Tomorrow. Despite (or maybe as a result of) being a bit slowed down in some places (one thing that made Variex's older work fun to listen to was his rapid fire delivery) he's able to more fully showcase his songwriting abilities. My girl opines that his love poem to his partner of 10 years "Until I Met You" is better than "Evenfallingsky" because she can understand what he's saying. While I disagree a bit (Evenfallingsky is amazing), it brings up another point that this record could very easily find more widespread appeal through it's identifiable themes and accessible sound.

 Struggle Sandwich, entirely produced, rapped and lacking a single credited feature save some guitar work and scratching on two tracks is clearly a sort of magnum opus for Variex. It is polished, catchy, relatable, smart, slick and hella cool. And while I will say again that I found the originality and experimental sounds of his older material in some ways preferable, there is no way to avoid finding something on this record for a true fan of hip hop to vibe out to.

Alright I did my best. As I stated earlier I'm recovering from surgery and I have a mouth full of stitches and a belly full of pills. But I wanted to help draw some attention to an artist I respect, and I hope you will have sympathy for me and look past a possibly meager review to the great music it's attempting to showcase.

 

Get Struggle Sandwich from the homie himself on mp3 or CD right here! Oh and check in Friday for some difficult to find music from the man dating back over ten years. Thanks dude for allowing us to offer this gem!


Friday, October 2, 2020

Guest-Post: Elucid - The Bible and the Gun (2002) + Bond - Eminent Domain (2004)

 



Guest-post today from an overseas friend....

I suppose that once one is part of a cultural scene, one rarely asks the question why one does what one does. She reads the blogs, listens to the albums and playlists, ranks these albums and playlists, maybe writes reviews, sometimes she trashes other people's reviews and so on. What happens when she asks herself, why she does all that in the first place?

Does she seek the best this kind of human activity has to offer? Is it pleasure or emotions that she's after? Intellectual satisfaction? What about music (i.e.) that she only listens to because it is talked about? In this case her reason may consist in her interest to be able to participate in a conversation, rather than being in touch with greatness. Most likely there are many other cases one could mention or discuss. I want to simply pose the following question: Why do we want to listen to the first tentative steps of our favorite artists?

I'm talking about these abandoned old tapes, the neglected early works. Neglected by the fans, critics and the artist alike. The ones the artist himself isn't proud of, he may blush when you mention them at the end of a concert. The ones the artist never considered uploading on Bandcamp, even though they so easily could.

We know that those early works won't be amazing. We know they may even be bad. So do we want to experience bad art? Or maybe we want to experience our heroes not as these sacred entities that we and their music make them out to be? The entities that were able to create such works as Dour Candy or Valley of Grace like a rabbi shaping a golem out of clay or God forming Adam out of mud. Maybe we want to get rid of these "out of the blue myths" by gaining that one piece that lets us tell a humble origin story instead. Maybe we want a disenchantment of art.

Whatever it may be. Here are two such abandoned and neglected early works. Elucid's debut album from his pre-Armand Hammer and even pre-mixtape days and Backwoodz Studioz' first release: Bond's Eminent Domain EP. The latter features a lot of familiar noises that later got re-worked into Billy Woods' Camouflage and Bond's Golden Gunn, as well as exclusive songs like the opener "Harvest", which retroactively adds another great song to the already amazing catalogue of Billy Woods and Bond collabos: "Two ounces in my place but only one in the court case/ Interesting/ Justice got a fucking handscale/"


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Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Trylemma's Favorite Summer Releases

 


Summer has come and gone, though not that it much matters in 2020. To "celebrate," here are my 10 favorite Hip Hop projects released between June 20-September 22 of this year. 


10. MILC & Lawz Spoken - Cocaine Cobra: Some real banger production from Lawz Spoken who is on a tear this year and while MILC isn't quite a Sandpeople level type puncher, he still more than holds his own on this album. Peep it

9. Only One - Project Mayhem: A nice surprise drop from Only, who brings some of the more clever, humorous punchlines that you'll likely hear all year. The album's closer with Sapient and Illmac, "Soap," is in the running for song of the year. Peep it

8. Juice WRLD - Legends Never Die: It took me a while to warm up to this as there's a lot of obvious posthumous production throughout this thing, but the songs as they exist are still solid and are a fitting tribute to Juice. Peep it

7. DJ NoWords & Ngafsh - Dynamic Duo: Not sure if I should be more thankful to Fsh for bringing NoWords into the game ore to NoWords for bringing Fsh back into the mix. Either way, this album absolutely proves how well the classic LA CVE sound can thrive in a new decade. Peep it

6. Nappy Roots - 40RTY: A dark melancholy yet optimistic album like only the Nappy Roots can provide. These days, it's rare for true vulnerability to be presented in a way that doesn't come across as corny or manufactured, but Nappy Roots have been doing it for multiple decades, and this is one of their best! Peep it

5. Pink Navel - Giraffe Track: A very cohesive and engaging coming of age album from Pink Navel, complete with lots of smiles and tears. The Ruby Yacht prince lays a lot of personal history on the table here and it's a fun ride throughout. There's also an accompanying book which should be fun to dive into... Peep it

4. Video Dave - Week 1560: Perhaps the most "summery" project on this list. Video Dave gives us a run through of his week in a very breezy fashion via raps and croons to soothe the soul. A wonderful debut for Open Mike Eagle's Auto Reverse label. Peep it

3. VA - RYD Radio, Vol. 4: The strongest installment of the RYD Radio series yet. Avocado plucks, over the course of the long compilation, a wide array of styles and sounds here, perfect for showcasing that battle rappers aren't all acapella bars. Lots of talent on this one, but Geechi Gotti might be the ultimate star of the show at this point. Peep it!

2. Illmac - SMMR: No one questions Illmac's pen, which is one of the strongest in the game, but musically, I find that he can often get a bit stale, almost robotic in his delivery. He changes all that up with "SMMR," however, really stepping up his flows, cadences, and hooks to large levels. The Sandpeople history track, "Forest Grove," is the cherry on top. Peep it!

1. Uggish - ...And Now to Learn to Fish: For the top spot, here's an album that really went way too under the rader. Uggish from Bi-Polar Bear delivers his (debut?) solo album in form of the soulful whimsical "And Now to Learn to Fish." Uggish's cinematic and reflective rhymes create an ideal end of summer album. Peep it

Here's to being alive this time next year! [Variex's "Struggle Sandwich" would have made the list, but it doesn't officially drop until October 2nd.] 

Friday, September 25, 2020

Brzowski - General Surgery (2004)

 

 

Surprise! For this Friday's post I'm not prepared... again... Life gets in the way doesn't it? Oh well, I was thinking about it and I figured now would be a good time to share one of my holy grails that was finally unearthed by the homie Ludz.

General Surgery is the second unofficial album from Brzowski, who's career and credentials I discussed at length two weeks ago, so I won't go into too much of that here. But let's just say this little gem is a great way to get introduced to his earlier work, assuming of course you've already peeped our first post and picked up his very first album New England Gothic. Now that you have both maybe it's time to give that The Subjugation of Bread a listen right over here? Just a thought.

Brzo, if you're reading this maybe you can offer some specifics on this album. My understanding is this is an unofficial compilation of collabs, singles and demos that was offered up for promotional purposes. It contains some great tracks, most of which are impossible to find elsewhere.

Anyway I feel like Brzo wouldn't mind me sharing this but if I'm wrong please let us know dude. UGF is all about Brzowski and Milled Pavement, if you've been sleeping then wake the fuck up.


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Tuesday, September 22, 2020

New Music: Thorts131 (Thorts & sMoKeY131) - Weightlifters

 


 

So it's been a very exciting month for me as far as hip hop goes. Not only did I hear from one of my heroes and get a chance to preview their excellent cassette release The Subjugation of Bread (Brzowski & C $ Burns, see my last post), but shortly thereafter I get an email from another artist I'm slowly but surely developing some serious respect for asking for another preview post. So that artist is of course Thorts who, coming right on the heels of his oddball project with Sweden's own art rap superstar Joel Siméus has done a 180 and released an album with Germany's sMoKeY131 of Milled Pavement fame as Thorts131. Their debut collaboration Weightlifters displays not just his unique personality and quirky sensibilities but his remarkable songwriting prowess and skill with the pen. I'm particularly excited to share this gem because while his last collaboration was endlessly entertaining and fascinating I knew that it would not be for everyone. Thorts131 I believe may be the release that could get most indie rap fans on board with this cat in a big way. Of course, as he lays out on the album opener "Rock":

I don't need to stay relevant

I wasn't in the first place

I'd rather spit what I want with intelligence

The race is irrelevant

I'll never come in first place
 

While I respect the humility and the artistic integrity he expresses here, I really do have to say that anyone who loves hip hop should be a fan of this album and while first place probably isn't a realistic goal when the judges are easily confused, there are people who appreciate real art and this is it.

So that's out of the way. Thorts has been in touch and given me a bit of background information on himself to give this post some more depth. Born in a small town in Victoria, Australia, Thorts became a fan and a rapper at virtually the same time when he was introduced to Cypress Hill in 1995 at the age of fifteen. Following some "really bad tapes" (his words not mine, I'd love to hear those) made through clever use of analogue equipment he began battling and making appearances on the radio a few years later. He's moved around through his home country and prior to the internet remained a fairly isolated voice in his neck of the woods. Now he mostly performs with artists outside Australia (with the notable exception of his talented partner Kady Starling, who he did a split with recently that's mind blowingly good as well as Aetcix [collaborations found on his Bandcamp page {see below <another parenthesis>} as Field Trip and Thorts & Aetcix] and DJ Silence). Now that you're suitably confused by that last sentence, we can talk about me for a bit. I was introduced to Thorts' work on Variex's album Beneath Six Feet of Dust performing alongside Tommy V. and A.Hymnz. I immediately felt like he had something special to offer, and it seemed like from there he began showing up more and more.

sMoKeY131 is a producer from Germany, who’s been a fixture in the scene through his tapes and live turntableism for a good 20 years now. I’ve seen his name I've seen pop up on a lot of albums by artists I enjoy, especially from Europe although he made some appearances on the fantastic Goose Bumps compilations Milled Pavement put out a decade or so ago. If you don't have those then go pick them up, we'll wait. Even nearing age 50 he still spends his time digging in crates to elevate his production and make more awesome music for us to enjoy. That wisdom gained through experience in the hip hop scene is very easy to see on this album, as I'll go into below. 

What can I say about Weightlifters? First off the production is basically flawless for the content and style that Thorts is employing on this album. Old school and dope, melodic and hard, part Dj Muggs part Dj Abilities. sMoKeY makes use of a combination of sound effects, dusty jazz and surprisingly beautiful strings to create a sense of depth and darkness with a humility that allows Thorts to benefit from, but not have to battle over, his music. "Meat & Bones" in particular, a song that picks apart the superficial differences between people and identifies our commonalities is stirring, gorgeous and emotional without being preachy or self indulgent. The rest of the album surfs between this sound and a darker a-melodic style (this is where the Muggs comparison originates) but it is all professional, smart and original. The album wraps up with a beautiful string sample based instrumental track "Black Swans (Reprise)" that leaves the listener feeling as if they've awoken from an unsettling but ultimately hopeful dream. Given the darkness of the rest of the songs, the album closer is sorely needed and really caps Weightlifters nicely.

Thorts is really on another level of awesome on this release. As I said last time I reviewed his work, it seems like with every album he drops we get to know him a bit better. His ability to be brutally honest about his struggles with addiction, anxiety and self doubt give his music a humanity that never seems artificial or gimmicky, a problem I find can arise when an artist may set out with the intention of being brutally honest. What I mean is I think Thorts gives us the art he does because it's just what he makes and couldn't be anything but this. This is not to say that there are not moments of humor on Weightlifters, also in common with some of his later work. "Cats for Catnip" makes use of a nursery rhyme that seems very left field but is incredibly charming and actually manages to get stuck in your head. This in some ways adds to the dark quality of the songs we find here, as even when he's being weird he sounds a bit cynical and the juxtaposition between the use of cat as literally a fuzzy animal and as a metaphor (catnip being self destructive behaviors) makes the song amusing in a very dark way. Something else that's notable is the way this album pays homage to those who came before. There are old school references found in many places, and given what we now know about Thorts' education and experience in the hip hop world this is not surprising. It's refreshing to hear from someone who acknowledges and respects their history.

I'm starting to run on a bit long. One last thing. This album is basically without credited features, except for one notable exception. On "Myself When Young", we have Variex, the very rapper who introduced me to Thorts (also a rapper I have a lot of love for), and one of my personal favorites and someone I was beginning to think I'd never hear from again, Staplemouth of New Cocoon "fame". Both of these features are extremely effective as Variex is at his best lyrically and stylistically, while Staplemouth has taken a break from his usual apocalyptic and occultist stream of consciousness mind blowing double time rhymes to speak a bit about himself. I may be mistaken but with the exception of some of his really old material with Riff Raff (no, not that one, he goes by Self Target now and is primarily a seriously talented producer) I don't believe he does much of that. So this track is worth whatever the price of the album alone. It's personal and unique as hell.

All that said, if I haven't convinced you yet to give this one a shot Thorts was nice enough to put together a few clips featuring songs from the album. "Slide" is a track about resentment and rage, while "Black Swans" is a sort of stream of consciousness fairy tale gone bad. Both give the viewer a good idea what to expect from Weightlifters and are worth checking out for any fan of hip hop period:




Thanks for reading, and thank you so much Thorts and sMoKeY for giving me the opportunity to peep this gem. It's amazing and you should be proud as hell of it!


Get Weightlifters here on October 1st!


Note: I just heard from Thorts this morning that there a few uncredited voices on the album that deserve a mention. Rapping the nursery rhyme on "Cats for Catnip" we have his 10 year old daughter Sage Advice, and rapping the chorus on "Pages" we have his 21 year old daughter Paige Turner. Seriously dope family right there. Hopefully on the next round we can hear from his son who didn't want to be on Weightlifters. Teenagers... :-)

Friday, September 18, 2020

Future Shock - Focused (2000)

 


Today's post comes from OG Christian rap independent extraordinaries Future Shock and their 2000 release, "Focused." 

Future Shock consists mainly of Sojurn, Ajax, and Ahred (then known as Redbonz) (there's been some DJs involved throughout the tenure as well.) Future Shock is perhaps best known for helping to found the left coast collective Tunnel Rats (alongside the likes of Shames Worthy from the Good Life Cafe/Project Blowed.) This release, "Focused," collects previously released loosies into one single release - courtesy of the great MP3.com! For those who enjoy that minimalistic lofi 2000s indie rap sound, with some goofiness in the mix, peep it! 

Huge thanks to Timburton20 for hooking me up with this. WMA files as sent to me. 


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Oh yeah - and for those who need to get more of their Hallelujah on (just remember - god isn't real,) check out the new album from Dee-1 and Murs, "He's the Christian, I'm the Rapper" that dropped today HERE

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

New Music: Wool See - Podcasts Vol. 1

 


As my Northwest is currently on fire, I thought I'd highlight some fire from the Northwest (#bars.) Wool See is the one man band moniker of Iame of the Sandpeople/Oldominion (originally from Oregon, now residing on the East Coast.) Over the past weeks, Iame has been releasing tracks on his Youtube page that serve concurrently both as songs and as mini-"podcasts." This six-song release, which is currently free to download on his Bandcamp page, collects the first set of these tracks. 

Ever since covid broke in the U.S. this year, Iame's Twitter page has been a great source of both information and coping in relation to the crazy 2020 that we've had thus far - from the coronavirus, to the racial unrest, to the upcoming presidential election cycle, to the fires that have me wiping my eyes. His "podcast" series builds upon this by transforming his tweets, and greater overall thoughts, into (self-produced) songs. 

For those who shy away from the preachy (which includes myself generally,) no need to fear here. Iame approaches the topics with a sense of humility and even humor at times, while still making sure that lasting political and social points are made. And the songs hold up as songs as well, with some infectious electronic glitchy production and some pretty catchy hooks - which is all super impressive considering that a couple of these joints are 100% freestyled off the top! 

For those looking for another friendly voice in a weird era, check out "Podcasts Vol. 1" (again, available for free download) HERE

Friday, September 11, 2020

Mad Squirrel - Bear With Me (2003)

 


 

Okay, so I'm coming down to the wire once again this week and I had to pick something to post for you lovely folks. I vaguely remember someone requesting this one a few months ago though. At the time I didn't have it, but Trylemma worked his magic and managed to dig this up recently. Awesome.

So I haven't had a chance to even listen to this yet. I included two versions because one is apparently not so great, the other is supposedly better. You can decide. It's a tape rip, so keep in mind it's gonna sound like a tape rip. If you're even reading this you probably have hundreds of those though so why am I saying this? It's Thursday night, I've been awake since 3:30 for work. Oh that's why.

Anyway Mad Squirrel is a key member of the many years defunct Bay Area based Forest Fires Collective. His flow can sort of be compared to a weirder Kirby Dominant, but the truth is he's got a sense of style and poetic sound that's all his own. His work with the FFC is good, as is his work with Blake 9 as The Acorns. Those albums are all fairly easy to find, but this number is not.

This album, like most FFC material is produced by both Edison Victrola and Feller Quentin. You can find a few more albums by Quentin here, just click that tag! His work is great and I actually made that Latter tape rip so I'm proud of it.

Wow I'm tired and I need dinner. You guys just ignore me and listen to some dope West Coast underground now okay?

 

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Tuesday, September 8, 2020

New Music: Brzowski & C$ Burns - The Subjugation of Bread

 


 

Well guys, as you know we at UGF do our best to cultivate positive relationships with the artists who's work we love. That's why we have stricter rules than some about what we post on Friday's, why our reviews are more posts about music we like than positive versus negative critiques and why took the time to give our shout outs to our favorite artists of the 10's. And I'm honored to announce that one of my personal favorite artists not just of the last decade but definitely of this new one as well, Brzowski was paying attention. So he offered UGF the chance to listen to his newest cassette The Subjugation of Bread (out 9/11/2020), and I of course was honored and excited to be given that chance.

There's the background. Here's a bit more. Entirely produced by C Money Burns, who's work with Brzo  as Vinyl Cape, that alt rap-metal hybrid machine that will kick you in the balls if you call it nu-metal led to some of my favorite Brzo songs to date, The Subjugation of Bread is quite a bit different from what the duo has done before. C Money Burns has proven himself to be a multi-talented instrumentalist who can not only put together some seriously heavy metal tracks but also spacey and emotionally stirring melodies. His solo work as Elevator Hotels is very much worth a look if you're interested in music outside the hip hop genre, especially if you grew up listening to Depeche Mode or The Cure. His work here is in a way a summation of his skill set, a mixture of live instrumentation, sampling and his signature heavy percussion that evokes very effectively a world on the brink of total collapse.

Speaking about impending doom is par for the course with Brzowski. He's dark like American currency is green and blood is red (see what I did there?), he wouldn't be the musician he is without a depressive bent and a desire to express it. That however is a serious oversimplification of what his music has to offer. Rarely in the music scene have I had the good fortune to find a poet with his ability to speak coherently with such unusual vocabulary, and with such a solid disinterest in adhering to conventions. Take for example the mind bending alliteration found on "Red Lanterns" below:

"Subverting and exploiting the desires superstructure can't satisfy

A self-shot pic from the machinery, self-surveillance, spectacular spook chasing"

Nobody sounds like this, and make no mistake how much I appreciate his contributions for that reason alone.

On The Subjugation of Bread we find Brzo taking the plunge into serious protest rap. We've been seeing for a while his willingness to share his political views with the listener (most recently on the excellent "Tear the Facists Down", found on what may be my favorite of his albums, mixtape or not, Blooddrive Vol. 4). The Subjugation of Bread is a serious look at the state of the Western world and how capitalism has worked for us in practice. I agree with what he says here, it's hard not to if you live in the US and bother to follow current events, um... ever. His penchant for twisted and clever verbosity helps keep what is very solid political conversation well outside the realm of preachy, and I think manages to effectively make his point while at the same time keeping the experience fresh and entertaining, as music should be.

The combination of vocal samples and lyrical content, together with sophisticated instrumental work by Burns allow each of these songs a visual quality that makes them immersive and powerful. The included tactical manual also offers more insight into the duos thoughts, and overall depth to the message. I am not as articulate or educated as the man himself, so after asking him for a summary of the message behind The Subjugation of Bread and getting this response, I feel like the best thing I can do is step back and let him tell it to you:

"Willful ignorance is dangerous, self-education is essential, media literacy needs to be ingrained (who OWNS your favorite news/magazine/site/radio/video channel etc.).... Capitalism has been pointed to as the only available avenue to deliver prosperous futures, that are heretofore not arriving, for the vast majority of people living in these systems. This is the Hauntological aspect of Capitalist Realism. I understand the irony of selling anti-capitalist music in a capitalist society, but have been overwhelmingly supported in this project with C$Burns, which tells me a fair amount of people are willing to pay-into this kind of artistic/philosophical exploration, if not try to move these ideas into physical space after the fact. I'm seeing a lot of pre-orders from new names that I don't recognize, and this is an encouraging development.


In November of 2019, C$ and I were having a humorous phone conversation, derisively laughing at how often peers and pundits alike throw around terms like "Communism", "Socialism", and "Anarchism" having no idea what they actually denote as political systems. We went on to talk about how irksome it is to have your average US citizen use the terms "the Left" to mean "the US Democratic Party" (which is functionally Center-Right). This was the genesis of the project: "Hey, let's make a project that explains it to them!", and after another round of cackles, we decided this was in fact precisely what we would set out to do. We of course are addicted to information-based complexity, and so poetry, metaphor, obscure references, and more than a few in-jokes are included in the lyrics and the design of the book itself. We want the project to unfold and become a richer experience beyond "music" after digging in beyond the initial listen.

The purpose of including the lyrics, images, and the "suggested reading list" was to offer a richer understanding of the content by providing a map to triangulate our position, much the way Media Literacy functions. One has to plot and triangulate what art means by its historical/cultural context. This was a rare occasion where the content and sentiment became more relevant between the time the project was completed (February 2020) and when it was released (9/11/2020)." - Brzowski

Very good. As I told him I remember reading one of his posts a few years ago, basically making the point that apathy is as destructive as active destruction. Viewing evil as too powerful to overcome is an excuse to be lazy and allow someone else to do the good work that you might've been called on to do yourself if you bothered to care enough. That resonated with me as at that time I was definitely feeling as though protesting, voting and organizing were unlikely to ever amount to anything real and therefore not really worth the effort. This was mostly a result of depression rather than a lack of concern for the state of things, but what I got from what he said was that it doesn't really matter, I was still allowing myself to be one less voice on the right side of things.

On fully listening to the album twice now, and doing my best to read the accompanying Tactical Manual (see what he says above if you're debating picking that up along with the music. It's essentially half the album you'll miss out on without it) on a computer which is difficult because of the format (I can't wait for my preorder package), I came out of it with this sentiment. Things like drugs, shiny possessions and so-called esteemable positions are what we use to survive in a world that basically lives off the suffering and humiliation of MOST of us. It's never been more obvious than it is now. Brzowski and Burns want us to stop accepting what should be unacceptable, and they're letting us know in a way that's dark, clever, funny in some places, melodic, sad and hard hitting. This album not only offers a half hour of dope hooks, crazy poetry and head-noddable instrumentalism, but it's a very handy way to get oneself excited about possible solutions. This album is fantastic and sorely needed in the world of today.

I just want to take one moment to thank Brzo for reaching out and giving me this opportunity. I can say for Trylemma and I it's seriously awesome to know the artists we love are seeing the stuff we post on this humble site. See ya'll Friday!

 

Do yourself a favor and pick up a physical (or I guess a download works too, maybe if you ask you can get a PDF of the book although good luck reading it on a computer) of Brzowski and C$ Burn's cassette The Subjugation of Bread here, dropping this Friday! You don't have to be a fringe Leftist to love it though, don't worry!