Awol One & DJ ESP - A Twisted Messiah (199?)

 

Apologies for the brief hiatus. Today enjoy an old gypsy rip of Awol One's and DJ ESP's "A Twisted Messiah." I know very little about this one beyond its 30 minutes of dope beats and rhymes (Mass Dog makes an appearance as well.) Enjoy!

A Twisted Messiah

New Music Roundup Jan.-Feb. 2023

 

Dimxsk is taking a week off, so I'm stepping in with a short little roundup of my personal favorite releases that have dropped thus far in 2023. If you haven't peeped any of these yet - get on it! In no particular order, here are 15 of my favorites:

1. Pen Thief Records - Winter Collection 2023

2. Chadio - Cousin of Lucy

3. D-Sisive - Knoblich Gardens Three: The Blue Boat

4. Awol One - Scribbleface

5. Ghostcred - Air Against Sky

6. Sach - The Return of Grand Daddy Sach

7. Specswizard - Love Raps Vol. 1

8. Floods (aka Barfly) - A Light In The Dark 

9. Trace Blam - The Adventures Of Locash

10. Safari Al - The Heart Guides the Mind

11. Drainpuppet - Dysthymia 

12. Nickels Hawkeye - The Superman Sessions

13. Extra Kool - Giallo Argento

14. Blackwinterwells - Mortal 

15. The Perfect Color Combination - Stay Busy Til Death

New Music: Factor - Time Invested II

 

20 years ago, the GOAT producer Factor Chandelier, comin' straight outta Saskatoon, dropped his first official solo album, "Time Invested." Now, 20 years later, we finally get the sequel!

"Time Invested II" not only celebrates Factor's longevity in the game, as well as his birthday (the date on which the original and sequel dropped,) but also very successfully re-taps into the atmospheric folky prairie-hop that ran through the original (which a healthy dose of synths to update things.) 

On vocals, Factor calls upon some MCs who appeared on the original - Kirby Dominant, Sunspot Jonz, Kay The Aquanaut, Eligh, and Moka Only - as well as voices that have come to become Factor staples - Awol One, Ceschi, Def3, Myka 9. 

Everything about "Time Invested II" flows together so smoothly and both takes you back to the good ol days of 2000s underground rap while also continually proving how forward-thinking Factor is as an artist. Pay what you want for it below!

Time Invested II

Trylemma's Spooky Dooky Halloween Mixtape V2

 

And we're back!!!! No new version this year, but relive the horror with these 29 carefully picked tracks to get you through the season! 

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 

DOWNLOAD

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. 

New Music: Awol One - Flying With Bats

 

What do ya'll think of NFTs? As a long-time collector of physical items...and as a long-time music/video, um, pirate...they haven't really caught on with me yet. Of course, I'm also not going to be that dude on the internet who thinks he fully understands the concept and knows of the entire potential NFTs have moving forward.

Awol One's latest EP, "Flying With Bats," is a musical companion piece of sorts to his current line of NFT trading cards known as the "Secret Saviours of Underground Hip Hop" (a collabo with 2Mex.) You essentially buy a "pack" of the digital cards and keep them in your online wallet to admire, sell, and trade. The cards feature artwork of some big underground heads (e.g. Gift of Gab, Eyedea, and Subtitle) and if you're lucky, you can score sketches and even some exclusive tunes. Awol plans on expanding the collection as time goes on.

As for "Flying With Bats," Awol gives us seven songs (everything done by him) in traditional gritty static Awol style. I was a sort of expecting Awol to phone it in with this one, but the tracks are pretty solid, particularly the hooks. There's no real tie that I can see with the NFT cards, but I'll happily take Awol One music whenever I can. Peep it below!

FLYING WITH BATS

Awol One - Toilet Water (1998)

 

I never knew much about this one. It's a cassette single-esque release from the thousand year old MC Awolrus One from 1998 under Broken Records. The man had been dropping stuff prior to this but this is certainly an early release. It looks like it may have been a radio/label handout. Fat Jack and Mike Nardone handle the production. 

Below are two rips of the tape. One is an unsliced rip that I believe I got from KaliyugaPro a decade ago. The second rip is an online one with the individual tracks. If anyone has anymore info on this release (or a physical copy they want to sell) drop it in the comments! Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD

New Music: Avatar & Dynamo - Speak Truth To Power

 

Well, two weekends ago we were blessed by a surprise album drop from 2Mex, "Ghostwriting Songs for God," as well as a surprise album drop of the long awaited collabo from Myka 9 and Profound (RIP,) "Nine Clouds." Then, to continue the West Coast greatness, this past weekend we got a surprise drop from Avatar and Dynamo - "Speak Truth to Power." 

Avatar and Swedish producer Dynamo last teamed up in 2009 for the release "Chaos Theory." Apparently, however, they've been cooking up songs since then and finally chose to release the collection in form of a new album. For those who enjoy that gritty west coast alt sound - this is for you. Features include lots of familiar faces: Awol One, Xololanxinxo, Radioinactive, Neila, and Thesis Sahib!

Peep the new album HERE! 

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! 

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 

DOWNLOAD

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. 

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! 

New Music: Awol One - Tony The Walrus

If you're reading this, I don't need to explain who Awol One is to you. There is a chance, however, that I need to explain that the underground legend (then and now,) has a new album dropping on January 31st called "Tony The Walrus." I got an early sneak peek and am here to do a track by track review in anticipation of the drop. So here we go:

1. Extrordenary Narwhalrus: After Awol's previous project, the punky "Primer" which I was not a fan of, I was curious and a bit apprehensive about the direction of "Tony The Walrus." The project's first single, "I Can Do That," calmed my worries and this opener definitively put them to rest. The track really screams everything I love about Awol solo projects. Over a heavy bass and some eerie synths, we get the thousand year old behemoth rapping slow and grimey, offering words of advice and warning to those who would challenge him. Great way to start things off.

2. So Poor All I Have Is Money: I've heard a few peeps over the years complain about Awol's delivery style, which is strange as (1) His delivery is usually top notch and (2) He has far more than one style. This next track is a perfect example, where Awol rides the lo-fi beat with ease - even showing traces of that Blowedian chopping. The content is a perfect match as Awol discusses the importance of ingenuity in the music realm ("Hunt down the mundane, boring, and dull.") The hook switches things up sonically with some really smooth 80's-esque keys that tie things nicely together. 

3. I Can Do That Feat. Open Mike Eagle: This is a Blowedian collabo long overdue - and it does not disappoint! I've always appreciated the sense of humor that both of these guys possess, so it's only right that we get a light-hearted left-field braggadocio track, over a static-y slightly off-kilter instrumental. Awol flexes his ability to destroy a wide variety of animals (particularly via the head region) - proving that the Walrus is truly supreme. Open Mike runs through his list of talents which includes child safety, karaoke, and off-the-clock emailing. Immediate classic. 

4. Underground Rapper: Here we have the first dud of the project, and it's mainly due to the production. The main synth melody never really takes off and instead ends up drowning out Awol's voice for most of the song. There's a couple beat breakdowns as well that don't really work. The content is interesting - part of the hook recites "Everywhere I piss, the flowers grow." I can never be sure of meaning in indie rap, but I wonder if the line is a commentary on how particular underground artists' output, which go un-noticed or unappreciated, often end up being the fuel of more widely acclaimed works. Or maybe Awol's actual piss is just that potent. 

5. Pizza Bones: Straight head-nodder here! LL decided not to go back to Cali, and Awol here vows not to go back to "alleys" lol! And in order to ensure we don't do the same, he drops lines of knowledge throughout the track regarding personal growth, anxiety, and ultimate rebirth. I particularly enjoy his "trying not to be anti-everything" - something which I find to be far too rare in indie rap these days. 

6. Manifested Words: Another head-nodder with some throw-back claps tossed in the mix, which is fitting given the topic. Awol spends the first part of the track talking straight greasy ("I kill emcees out of pure nostalgia") and then touches a bit on his come-up, particularly linking up with CBS and the Shape Shifters and ultimately meeting one of his big influences, GURU. The vocal sample of GURU shouting Awol out at the end is a cherry on top. RIP. 

7. Jealous And Bitter: I'm not in love with the riffs and hollowed-out noisiness of this one. The raps don't do much to save the track either. The theme is Awol overcoming his jealously of other rappers who made it and adopting a realization that he's built to last in the rap-game and has the skills to outlast the noobs. This is all fine and good, but Awol's writing doesn't really give any impact to the content.

8. Some Kind Of Genius Feat. Gel Roc, Megabusive and DJ Roach: Cloaks in the building! And they brought Computer Chip with them...along with a Circus intro?!?! The theme here is pretty simple - God's infinite power and creations as explained through the notion of time, geometry, counter-intelligence, quantum mechanics, wormholes, third eyes, probably some other stuff. You have some of the slickest from the West delivering it to you tho, so it all sounds so good. And just because this is rap, if I gotta crown a winner - I think Megabusive gets it (he's last for a reason folks.) Hope Circus is doing well. 

9. When I Look Around: This one should please the OG Shifters fans out there. Over some spooky keys and upbeat percussion, Awol uses simple jumping off scenarios (waking up on a strange couch post-party, driving around the block) to tackle deeper existential questions of humanity's relationship with each other and the universe. All done via a story-narrator type delivery. This one needs a video asap. 

10. Scary Man: I've always loved Awol's melodies and he certainly saved the project's best for the closer here. Over a jazzy instrumental, Awol takes on a sly, potential sinister, persona (I imagine Dracula lol) with endless powers...and a very infectious melodic flow! I hope he has the book and/or action figure ready! Very solid closer. 

All in all, this is a great Awol One album (a huge step up from "Primer" imo,) that really showcases his various sounds nicely in a 10 song package. The project officially drops on all platforms on January 31st. And from the looks of things, it seems like a cassette might be available as well. Peep it then! 

The Beat Cave (DJ Roach) & Handshake Tony (Awol One) - Demons & Angels (2012)

Before today's upload - a bit about how we are going to choose what we post. Our main "rule" is that a project will only get uploaded if it is currently unavailable for sale digitally and currently unavailable for sale, to the general public, in a physical format from the artist or a major first-hand distributor. I put "to the general public" because sometimes an artist will have a couple spare physical copies in his basement that he'll sell you if you email him personally - we don't view these cases as a hindrance to uploading. And of course, if an artist let's us know that they don't want their stuff posted - we will take any and all relevant links down.

As for rips - we will be posting lots of types of them. Dimxsk handles most of our personal rips and he is currently working on improving the sound quality of the vinyl rips that we'll be posting in the future. We will also be posting some older harder to find scene rips from yesteryear. We might also occasionally post rips from blogs that no longer exist or no longer upload (e.g. the great Ghetto Tyylit.) Finally, we will sometimes post random online rips that we've collected over the years. In any case, we will always give, to the best of our knowledge, the proper ripper/group credit for whatever rip we post.

Also, really quick - huge thanks to foob for already sending us some of the stuff on Dimxsk's wantlist! Also huge thanks to Jibs from This Is For The Hustlers and Pseu from T I L. I N F I N I T Y for giving us a shoutout. Both of those guys are obviously legends in our little scene so it means a lot.

Whew! So with all that out of the way - today's upload is 2012's "Demons & Angels" from DJ Roach and Awol One, going by the names The Beat Cave and Handshake Tony, respectively. This was a pretty lowkey release that, as far as I know, never got any sort of digital release. I also only saw physical copies available via Kunaki for a couple of months. Very little general promo as well. It's a shame because it's a great project (nothing super lo-fi) with lots of great features (Abstract Rude, Ariano, Gel Roc, Doc Lewd, Massive...) It sounds like something most casual Shapeshifter/Awol One fans would love. The Walrus does have a propensity for putting out jewels that disappear quickly though. Enjoy! [Ripped by Dimxsk.]

Download