jamesphoney & jamesreindeer - Rough Tongue Surfaces (2008)

 

 For this Friday's post I wanted to return to an old favorite for these free album downloads, the defunct label Decorative Stamp. I was a huge fan of the work they put out, in my opinion some of the most interesting and frankly beautiful experimental rap came from that collective. And today's post is in my opinion the definitive DS album, Rough Tongue Surfaces by jamesphoney & jamesreindeer.

If you liked anticon (okay, yes there are some valid reasons to dislike them but they did put out some solid music as well) and you haven't heard this one, I urge you to give it a try. Imagine cLOUDDEAD with a darker, more unsettling and less "circusy" vibe, and you probably have an idea what to expect from this.

The two james' both have some of the most unique rap voices I've heard coming out of Europe. jamesphoney fronts a folk troupe now called BURIERS, or A Band of Buriers, and if not in an especially good mood and you're interested in seeing Neville Longbottom mutilate himself then you can watch their video for the haunting track "Filth" below:

 

 

Jamesreineer, or reindeer had a somewhat successful debut with France's fbcfabric. By far their best track, "Soulsuck" can be seen below:

I love these guys, and the album they craft together over beats from mega talented folks like Joel Siméus and Nimrod is in my humble opinion one of the best, most evocative and most listenable abstract hip hop albums ever made.

Enjoy Rough Tongue Surfaces!

Unfortunately I messed up. This is available pretty much everywhere, and somehow when I googled it it didn't show up until now. So rather than take money out of the pockets of people who I have tremendous respect for, and in keeping with how we do shit at UGF I have removed this link. If you already got it you lucked out because I guarantee the Decorative Stamp version has cooler stuff than the Amazon one. Sorry James and James. Let this post be a promo for their huge body of great work.

 

 

New Music: MC Roughneck Jihad & DJ Awkward - The Return of RAWK

 

 

God there's something so creepy about Awkward's album art. His work with photographs especially tends to look like snapshots of the moment when a dream goes really, really bad.

That said, he's also a phenomenal producer, and together with underground legend and a personal favorite of mine as well they are MC Roughneck Jihad & DJ Awkward. The Return of Rawk is their debut full length album after a few singles they've dropped in the last few years. This album includes those four tracks, as well as two more songs and instrumental versions of all six, so yeah. Get excited now.

And do they disappoint? In my humble opinion not at all. I believe Trylemma actually reviewed one of these singles now that I mention it, so you can take it from us both that this duo kills together. Awkward has proven themself to be versatile to the point of it being a superpower, with the ability to work with emcees as diverse and varied as Open Mike Eagle and Megabusive and still somehow bring out the unique personality of each rapper with ease and style.

Especially in the case of these RAWK tracks, where Roughneck is well known for his choice of beats composed of dusty grimy boom bap samples, and Awkward traffics in electronic, drippy tripped out synths. Unexpectedly, this combos effectiveness is undeniable. They bring out in each other alternate personalities, especially in the case of Jihad. These songs display a new side of the rapper, who's eclectic vocabulary and flawless poetic sensibilities straight up deserve the polished and professional beats served up here. Dope as hell.

So with all the great music Roughneck has put out lately, I have to say this and The Little Assassins Handbook are absolute gold, and the rest are great too. We're talking about a rapper who's first official album came out in 1993 so the fact that he's still killing it two decades later is pretty damn awesome.

Get The Return of RAWK from Bandcamp here or here (depending who you want to send some cash too I guess), and if you're so inclined you can cop the vinyl straight from the source right here.

James P. Honey & Joel Siméus - Book of Marion (2011)

Since we're running late today, I figured I'd opt for a short post and download. Book of Marion is the vinyl only collaboration between James P. Honey & Joel Siméus. It's one of my personal favorite "abstract" albums, with haunting and melodic production backing dreamy spoken word-esque poems by James.

This album is available for free download from his Bandcamp (and luckily he describes it in more detail than I ever could, seems to be really proud of it...), but each side cuts off about two minutes from the end, so you wind up missing a bit of the last track of each side. This complete version has the tracks split and labeled, in 320 kbps (made by yours truly).

Also, after thinking it over, Trylemma and I have decided that the Wednesday Review / Friday Download schedule is difficult to maintain. New releases ebb and flow, and time constraints can make putting together a thoughtful and worthy tribute to the artists we love every Wednesday difficult at times. So expect more downloads on Wednesdays, although we will still be doing reviews and other special features whenever possible. Peace!

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New Music: Small Town Echoes - Tales Around the Calor Gas

June already... and we're headed into a Summer that promises to drop some serious heat, starting with the newest Onry offering in July. Can't wait for that! A quick note, if you visited last Friday hoping for the Dren EP and found that the link was missing, the problems been resolved. It's still up so feel free to download!

For now, I've chosen something a bit more obscure for my Wednesday review. Small Town Echoes is a live hip-hop / alt rock outfit from Bristol, UK that boasts an emcee as well as a gifted female vocalist. I stumbled onto them through an aimless Bandcamp browsing session when their first EP was new, and I have to say I enjoyed what I heard.

Small Town Echoes is sort of reminiscent of Heiruspecs in their sound, with an emphasis on more rhythmic guitar playing utilizing lots of reverb and palm muting. Their songwriting is melodic with the female singer carrying most of the choruses to good effect. The beats move steadily but have a melancholy tone, which goes well with lyrics that touch on the struggles inherent in a class based society and the frustrations that result. I feel like this would be more for the hip hop fans that also enjoy modern rock (with punk sensibilities), as there is a very heavy alternative rock influence present in these songs.

Since this a rap blog, I'll go ahead and say the emcee is not my favorite thing about this group. Stylistically he's not very unique; his voice does work with the music, and I enjoy some of his lyricism but often his delivery falls a bit flat and he fails to justify his presence on some songs. On the other hand I feel like the band as a whole does offer something with a fairly original sound, and he has the potential to mature as an artist and meld better with the group. I'd love to hear what they sound like after a few more years of working together, but that seems unlikely to happen (more on that below).

Here's a video for "Pot Luck", the b-side on the Break the Mould single offered on Bandcamp. It's a good taste of what Small Town Echoes is about:

Tales Around the Calor Gas is probably not the place to start for the curious. It's mostly live recordings and live sessions, although it does have a nice studio track as the closer ("Pack of Wolves"). Hearing these songs live makes discerning the lyrics a bit difficult, and the sound is obviously more raw. But you can tell the songs are well written and the band certainly doesn't lack in passion.

So Small Town Echoes has dropped 3 EPs at present on Bandcamp, and from a brief communication with the guitarist it seems that the band may be moving on, sans the emcee, as "Kin". The vocalist Kassia Gawronski has a great voice, so for those who like to branch out from rap music it could be something to keep an eye out for.

That's about all I have for today. I don't know much about the band in question. However, I do hope that all of you enjoy the chance to check out something a bit different, and definitely stay tuned this Friday for something seriously dope...

Get Tales Around the Calor Gas here for free download, and check out Small Town Echoes' other work as well, also offered for whatever you're willing (or not) to spare.


Also, once again an official thank you from UGF to Ludz for the NWO (Deepcave)! Not only has he been hooking me up with music for years via his former blog, he's also seriously contributed to the pruning of my Holy Grail list. Thanks dude, you kick ass!

Theory 77 (fka Theory) - The Rules of Rust (2007)

This week's release is one close to my heart for sure. Theory 77 is / was a producer / DJ / emcee from Brighton, UK who's signature mix of acoustic folk and blues with indie rap always reminded me of Buck 65 (in a good way). His songs tend to be about things like being in nature, witchcraft, old movies, stories about unique people and of course music itself. His raps are decent, however to me what really shines is his production and especially his skills behind the turntables. Theory is an amazing battle DJ. Not being one myself I may not be the best judge of what is easy or difficult, but in the video below he looks to be absolutely killing it.

Note: The above song is not from The Rules of Rust. It's featured on his last full length vocal work Let's Be Friends. Not my favorite of his but still a fun listen, if you're interested in it let me know, it's not available retail anymore.

I discovered him through CDBaby around 2010 and managed to find all of his albums (excluding Preface, if you have this let me know!). CDBaby sells two of his full length releases here. For All It's Worth is amazing and probably a good place to start, however since it doesn't fit the UGF definition of a 'fossil' as described on our banner, I decided to go with The Rules of Rust.

This album is short but gives a good feel for Theory's personality and sound. Fun, whimsical and introspective, lots of acoustic guitars and blues oriented sampling. As mentioned above, it should appeal to fans of Talkin' Honky Blues era Buck 65, as well as Sage Francis, Adeem, Josh Martinez etc.

Where he is now I don't know. It seemed like for a bit he was going to land on Strange Famous Records, he curated and produced the D(eat)h Mix they have up on SoundCloud. Unfortunately he seems to have stopped recording, I've been on the lookout but a lot of his stuff has disappeared from the net and there seems to be nothing else coming. I know he had a kid, I guess he's a full time dad now. If he sees this he should know I've enjoyed his work, hopefully you will as well!

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