New Track: Tim's Party Time

A track I threw together a lil while ago and revisited last night. Mix of some classic breaks, some Fela, and my own synthy goodness. Can you figure out which parts are synthesized and which are real? Gave it to my friend Tim to work with, hopefully he'll spit some hot shit over it. Go check it out in the Soundclick player at the bottom of the page.

Also, just to reiterate, I'll probably be rotating songs in my Soundclick player rather than permanently leaving em up. So enjoy this one for now......

Sweet Sweet Sarcasm: This is a good song.

http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2009/11/23/do-you-think-they-know-what-rough-rider-means/

Just look. H/T Jay Smooth via Twitter.

Also, is that the Imperial Death March playing in the background?

P H A T A L

Phatal has a kick ass new website. It's still being tweaked a bit, but please check it out. Explore and give us your feedback!

Watchmane: How I Got Over by the Roots

I'm really digging the new Roots single "How I Got Over" The video's pretty cool, very tasteful and straight forward. I do wish that the Roots would get more videos that compliment their sound as much as their content/lyrics. The track itself is pretty classic roots fare: Fela-ish keys and drums, conscious and fun lyrics, soulful singing. I always love the sense of honesty and playfulness the Roots bring to their music. Definitely a nice change of pace from the vast majority of the music you hear right now.

Changes

So I'm making a few changes to the blog over the next day or two. Namely some link updates, possibly a bit of reformatting, but primarily the nature of my Soundclick player is going to change. Since a large amount of the material I'm producing now is actually getting made into songs I'll be taking down a lot of my tracks in order to avoid bootlegging and overexposure. I will still sometimes post full songs, but when I do they will be rotated in and out (for a month you may be able to hear the track and then it may get replaced by another one). I will also upload previews of songs. I know it's less fun to have track previews instead of full songs, but the internet is a sketchy place and I need to protect my IP (as in intellectual property, not my address). That said, I hope an increasing regularity of posting updates and thoughts as well as my music will keep this a worthwhile site =)

Also, since I'm updating the links section I think it's an appropriate time to say bye bye to the long dead blog "Too Sense" which was simply fantastic and disappeared over a year ago. I wouldn't have a website if dnA hadn't encouraged me too, so I salute you. Be sure to check out the new sites in the links section. They're wonderful.

Likeblood News

Mbea Da 1, Yung E, Dre Strong: Can you figure out which one's the ninja, which one's the samurai, and which one's the pirate?

First up on the catching up to-do list is Likeblood. They've been having a crazy successful and busy year. A video on MTV Jams, another on 106 and Park, tracks with guest appearances by Raheem DeVaughn and Bobby Valentino...things have definitely been getting interesting.

The latest piece of news is that Likeblood is currently on a national tour hitting up 30 cities over the next month with none other than Raekwon and Dead Prez. Please check out the tour, it's sure to be amazing. Also, check out their website and twitter feeds for more info.

Screw It

Welcome back

The blog is back. I've uploaded a new track "Last Memory" to the Soundclick player at the bottom of the page. Just something I cooked up yesterday as a quickie. There's a lot of news to catch up on; big things have been happening over the past year. We'll talk soon. I missed you.

New Instrumental: Gears

Something I cooked up a couple nights ago. Feels a little incomplete to me, but it has a real lo-fi classic sound that I'm feeling right now.


Boomp3.com

As always, comments and criticism appreciated.

Instrumental: Everyday Endings

This is a piece I made about 2 1/2 years ago. It is all sampled material, from about 7 different sources (some of which I'm sure will sound quite familiar), and was made entirely in a waveform editor. As always, love to know your thoughts.


boomp3.com

Progress

First

GO CHECK OUT THE NEW LIKEBLOOD VIDEO NOW In addition to the website the video is currently airing in full rotation on MTV Jams, so if you have extended or digital cable you might catch it on TV. (I didn't produce this track, but Likeblood are some of my closest friends and I've been producing for them for about 3 years). It's a really good video, stands out from the lot in my opinion, and I expect big things for them. (You can catch Blastphumis in the video throwing a little cash at the camera, good times lol)

Second

Likeblood, Blastphumis, and I have all been extremely busy with various projects. Blastphumis and I have an up and coming Phatal Records compilation album. The Likeblood album, is dropping in the near future so keep an eye out for it. I've also been working with a few singers on various projects... In short, I apologize for neglecting this blog so much. I'm really busy and I now have to be more particular about which tracks I upload to the site.

Third

I'm currently in the process for writing reviews for the most recent J-Live, Roots, and Nas albums. I also may do a short piece (not a full review) of the newest Portishead. I'll post them ASAP along with some new tracks! I expect to have at least one other post done by the end of tomorrow, and all of this should be done within the next week or two.

Thanks for continuing to check out the blog!!!!

New Instrumental: Ahead of It

Something I cooked up last week. Likeblood has been asking me to churn out some more commercial instrumentals, and I've taken it as a challenge. Here is the first of many I'm working on for them.

The track is a mix of samples and synthesis. I encountered a fairly common problem with this track; the sound that resembles clinking glasses is a sample, and is layered in with the old synthesizer sound that repeats throughout the whole track. I searched the sample source, and attempted to edit the sample in order to remove the synth sound for parts of the song, but to no avail. I'm curious if people find the old synth sound so repetitive that I should drop the clinking glasses sound more often in order to get rid of it... Anyway, I chose to just role with it and see how it came out, I'm curious what you all think.

boomp3.com

Also, big thanks to Boomp3.com for still running strong!

Had to put this up...

Sorry for the large gap of time between posts... I'll figure this out eventually =)

In the meantime, here's Nas with DJ Green Lantern and Barack Obama. If you have to ask why I'm posting this, you're funny. Thanks to dnA for pointing this out.

New Instrumental: Warming

Here's a track I threw together last night. It's still an early version; I intend to mess with the drums a bit and add in a third section to act as either a chorus or bridge. Hope you enjoy!

10 Points to anyone who guesses the sample.


boomp3.com

Oldie But a Goodie

Man do I suck at keeping up my posts. Sorry about that...life is hectic right now and most of my music energy is being used preparing for the upcoming mixtape Blastphumis and I are working on. I'll try to keep you updated, and I hope to FINALLY have some new tracks with vocals up here soon.

In the meantime, here's a track I made a whiiiiiiiiiile ago that Blastphumis and I are currently working with.


boomp3.com

New Track: Ice

My latest instrumental. Everything is sampled except the bass. As usual, feedback is always appreciated.

boomp3.com

New Track: The Green Goblin Enjoys A Film

Why is this track called "The Green Goblin Enjoys A Film"? Because my brother told me to call it that.

I'm VERY proud of this instrumental. I think I'm learning a lot more about layers and levels (especially thanks to my kick ass new monitors). This is about 80% sampled with some drums and synthesized strings thrown in to emphasize and add mood. The track has some small development, but mainly just switches between 3 loops. I've been listening to a lot of Jay-Z and Lupe lately and I think I was slightly influenced by the types of production they tend to have. What I mean is I think this is one of my more lyrics-friendly tracks that still maintains listenability as an instrumental.

Hope you enjoy!

boomp3.com

Thanks Mom and Dad!

I GOT NEW SPEAKERS!!!!!! M-Audio AV 40s baby! This should greatly improve the quality of my work since I will be able to hear more subtle differences in levels without having the compression of the headphones I've been using.

Reviews Coming Soon

I'm going to post my reviews for the new Lupe Fiasco and Jay-Z albums pretty soon (next few days). They're really good and I didn't want to just review with my first impressions so I've been giving myself a chance to give them a more in-depth listen.

Also, New Years Resolution #8032: Post more often.

New Track: Sinking

A new instrumental I made. Mostly samples, a little synthetic embellishment on the drums. Hope you like it.


boomp3.com

New Track: Fading

Another 100% sampled track. It's a very mellow, sad sounding instrumental IMO. Blastphumis seemed to like it a lot when I played it for him, so maybe I'll have a vocal mix with him in the near future =)

boomp3.com