Kristoff Krane - Mixxy #3 (2010)

 

 

Hey ya'll. So Trylemma snatched up my desired review for this week (Deadpan Darling) leaving me with no burning need to post about any new releases (sometimes I actually prefer to listen to new stuff organically without analysis, and in a way I'm glad I'm not reviewing Deadpan Darling). Not that there isn't much good out there right now, we actually have a huge number of new albums available from folks like the vet Odessa Kane and Armand Hammer but I haven't had a chance to digest those. Anyway, short story long here's a download instead.

Kristoff Krane is in my opinion one of the most interesting voices to come out of the Midwest indie rap scene. Toeing the line between folk, punk and rap a la Ceschi and Astronautalis (sigh what a shame that guy...) with a serious nice guy positive vibe, Krane has been smashing genre boundaries and rapping like crazy for at least 15 years as a member of the amazing live band Abzorbr and Saturday Morning Soundtrack with Ecid, as well as his solo efforts culminating in the fantastic Kairos Pts. 1 & 2.

Mixxy #3 is a very long and very solid compilation of collabs, unreleased singles and freestyle sessions that was available briefly on his Bandcamp and then taken down inexplicably. The other 3 "Mixxys" were up there much longer and are now also gone. His overarching compilation I Freestyle Life (2005-2013) (available here) basically takes the best of all of these and offers them in one place, but it's no replacement for the fun, imagination and talent found in these little mixtapes and they should be experienced in the form they were intended.

I had to join and escape from one of those shady bootleg MP3 sales websites to get this album (the pay monthly until you manage to convince us to let you off the hook type joints). It was the last place I could find it. As a fan of Krane I knew I needed this, and even with my extremely extensive collection of Midwestern rap this mixtape contains 19 songs I'd never heard before. So with that, enjoy!

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H-Bomb - Spontaneous Combustion (?)

 

Due to running late today, here's a quick upload from H-Bomb, "Spontaneous Combustion." 

H-Bomb is a Northwest rapper from the duo Sinsemilla and the greater Tribal crew (perhaps best known for his days as a battle rapper.) To my knowledge, "Spontaneous Combustion" was his only solo album drop, and I'm not sure it even ever officially dropped! 

This is a repost from the, now deceased?, Beetbak blog. No album art or track titles involved. Enjoy! 

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New Music: Deadpan Darling - Deadpan Darling

 

Here's a slightly late post for a slightly old release of a very old album! 

I'm sure most of the crew here is familiar with Deadpan Darling - a trio consisting of Ceschi and Blue Sky Black Death that originated in 2005. The trio recorded an album and the demos floated around online for years. Unfortunately, due to time, money, and lost data - the album never officially dropped. Until now.

The self-titled album has been mixed and mastered (and re-recorded when needed) into a really beautiful body of work. For those who enjoy dream-pop with a dash of indie rap (exactly what you'd expect between a Ceschi and BSBD collabo) - you couldn't get a more perfect album than this (my favorite of the year thus far.) The lyrics and melodies hit hard here, even for those of us who have rocked with the demos all these years.

Do yourself a favor and stream this if you haven't yet - and re-stream it if you have - below. Then DL it for free! Physicals coming this Fall.

DEADPAN DARLING 

Buck 65 - Unhip EP (2010)

 

 

 This right here is an EP from Canadian rap pioneer and unapologetic weirdo Buck 65. From writing hardcore sex rap to penning tame lyrics for Sesame Street, this cat has been a staple of the underground for three decades (not to mention his invention of the "crap" country / rap genre during his 'I don't like rap' phase") and he does continue to impress.

This little album was available via a Sendspace download specifically from a few blogs such as Grandgood and UGSMAG, released to celebrate his 5000 Twitter followers (I think) but as far as I can tell it's gone... until now.

Contains some goodies, unreleased songs and remixes. The Buddy Peace produced track "She Kissed the Boy" is a standout and is one of his best somber ballads in a while. The rest are classic Buck. Weird, random and at times hilarious and fun little snippets of the Canadian wild life. Enjoy!

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New Music: Extra Kool - HRTBUURN Vol. 5: The Trash Tape

 

 

Happy Tuesday folks! I hope some of you are choosing to hop on the vaccination train. I was reticent at first about it (rush engineering and all that) but because of my job I was able to get my first shot and figured what the hell. It's going to allow me to travel again eventually is my guess. Anyway aside from a (really) sore arm the next day I feel fine. Got my second shot at the end of the month, hope all goes well. That's my plug for a return to normalcy, here's to that...

And now this. Extra Kool has a new "album" type  thing! Clocking in at just under 12 minutes, HRTBUURN Vol. 5: THE TRASH TAPE is probably really dope because Kool is always really dope. With an irreverent style of rhyming that has evolved over the years from verbose in the extreme to chill perfection, a new wave dark pop sound and a relatable personality (for me at least) I always enjoy his work. It helps to have production from some very talented individuals such as Awareness of calm. Dirty Laboratory always kills it.

So I haven't listened to this one all the way through yet. I wanted to get a post out there but I'm seriously swamped. From what I can tell skimming it this has some seriously dope production, more of Kool's trademark sincerity and some catchy ass songwriting. So what I'm thinking I'd love is if some of you guys checked this out (paying that $1 if you can afford it) and then commented below with your thoughts. Don't ruin it for me, constructive criticism only if you don't like it. That's always a possibility I guess when an artist calls their own album "trash". If you don't feel like it then you can just consider this a promo post for an artist who I really respect and enjoy.

So basically I'm asking ya'll to do my job for me. I'm sorry. And keep the requests coming, we had one but he retracted it so basically I'm lost as to what I should upload this week...

Enjoy HRTBUURN Vol. 5: the Trash Tape, only available here for the low low price of $1... and let me know what you think because I'm seriously curious!

See ya'll Friday!

3NP! - Family Maxi-Single (1997)

 

Today we bring you 3NP!'s "Family" maxi-single from 1997! 

3NP! was a group/crew headed up by MG! The Visionary, named after his record label "Third Nail Productions." The group mainly consisted of MG! himself but also included some guest spots throughout the years, most notably Smoke from Oldominion. The vibe, like early Oldominion, was Christian, though not overtly preachy or self-serious. 

This single is taken from 3NP!'s debut album, also from 1997, "Poetically Consecrated." It features the title track taken from "Poetically Consecrated," a nice edit, a cool remix, a couple skits, and an exclusive track to this release called "The Transcending." Pretty nifty stuff. MG! handles all roles on this one. 

While we're at it though - anyone else miss maxi-singles? Lots of cool stuff to be found on those. Peep it below! 

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New Music: Serengeti - Jeremy C

 

Running late this week, but in the endless flow of Serengeti releases, check out his latest - "Jeremy C." The project collects tracks made with Jeremy Cox circa 2010. And as expected, the whimsical is strong here! Peep it HERE. 

soso - Poor Man’s Survey (2004)

 

 

Thanks for tuning in again folks, and as promised I've upped my game and delivered some fresh music on time. 30 minutes or it's free, so send me money. Just kidding.

That important bit out of the way, what we have here is a collection of some beats by someone who is probably one of my favorite musicians as well as rappers. I don't really weight what he does against any other rappers to be fair, because his level of originality, compositional ingenuity and absolutely brutal emotional songwriting puts his music on a level that's almost it's own genre.

soso's album Poor Man's Survey is a collection of  instrumentals, mostly songs with fellow prairie rap god Epic made 'as a companion piece to soso's 7"' according to a Discoger. It's pretty damn good, soso's production is absolutely fantastic with or without lyrical accompaniment. It's stark and dark and somehow sums up what I imagine a Canadian winter to sound like so perfectly...

Why am I sharing this today? Because I'm so f*cking stoked to be hearing a new vocal album from the man himself, with super producer Maki out at the end of the month. Go ahead and preorder it here if you're in the State's and here if you're not, or want to get a physical. Check out the links at the bottom of Mism's page for sources.

Enjoy, soso is peerless and I guarantee you'll love some of this at least.

DOWNLOAD

 

 

New Music: Thorts & Joel Siméus - The Happy Little Vegemite EP

 

 

A lot of you may be thinking, "wow Dimxsk reviews Thorts a lot". The reasons are threefold: 1) Thorts is f*cking dope, 2) Thorts lets us hear his music ahead of time for review purposes and 3) Thort's albums are short making them easy for me to review with my current work schedule. Take The Happy Little Vegemite EP. At 4 tracks long this is a bite sized treat of dissonant noise, surreal imagery and dark cynicism. It features one of my current favorite producers and one of my current favorite rappers working together as they did before as Thoel Simerville, this time with Joel handling production solely and Thorts doing all the rapping (hence the name change and Thorts "pouring his f*cking Thoel out on "Good Egg").

So for edification I asked Thorts a very simple but probably a very common question. What the fuck is Vegemite mate? He had this to say:

"Vegemite is a spread for toast (haha), an Australian one that most people in the rest of the world absolutely hate and are disgusted by but we are brought up on it so it's normal for us.

Here is a commercial for it from back in the day"

A commercial for Vegemite from back in the day

 

I guess it could be said that titling this from something that is in a way very personal for the rapper (sounds like Vegemite is the wheaties of Oz) is fitting. This is Thorts at his most stream of conscious, throwing a bird at convention. The lack of vocal contributions from Joel make it a bit more accessible for those who don't speak Swedish (unless you're like me and don't necessarily care) but this is still a very very weird album as a result. It is also so far removed from Long Distance (his most recent EP with Whatever Cecil, which is beautiful and intricate but also much easier on the ears) that it again impresses upon me how versatile the rapper can be. Probably a skill set that comes from such a long time in the game (Thorts is a vet in the Australian scene), leaving him familiar enough with the art to bash headlong through genre barriers and express himself freely.

There's not much else to say here. I liked this EP a lot, it's got moments of darkness (the ironically title "Happy Little Vegemite" which has a grimy and grinding noise beat that brings out that aggressive wordplay) moments of levity (or at least a more upbeat tone in the also ironically titled "Rainy Day" contemplating the fleeting nature of existence and time) and moments of sheer weirdness (in "Lake Baikal" as in shit be deep like). And it may be the result of talking a bit with the guy, but I feel like Thort's music has a sort of personality to it that is completely unique to the rapper and can be readily delved into and experienced through the speakers. I'm curious to see if any of you agree actually, or if I'm just crazy. But the metaphorical fourth wall is missing here I feel like...

You really just have to hear it. If Thoel Simérville was too Anticon doing Nine Inch Nails for you but you felt like you could've gotten with it had it been just a bit more accessible, then this is your solution. It won't put a rose in every cheek, but maybe just a cheek here or there, and I can only imagine Joel and Adrian don't mind that too much.

Here's the video for my favorite track off the album, "Rainy Day":

 Get The Happy Little Vegemite EP here, and thanks as always for reading. You guys are the sh*t. See you Friday and hopefully on time this time !