Bonobo - The Keeper

Emancipator - Greenland

I have first stumbled upon Emancipator's music thanks to his outstanding "Safe In The Steep Cliffs" album and became a massive fan since the very first minutes I heard it.
Douglas Appling, cause that's his real name, is only 24 year-old American who has commited 2 studio albums so far, both absolute state of the art. His style can be roughly described as a blend of such genres like hip-hop, jazz, classical music and of course electronica. The album blends new instrumentation and organic samples with the signature Emancipator style of clean production, silky melodies and addictive drums. Dense layers of choirs, horns, American folk instruments such as the banjo and mandolin, violin and some distinct Asian influences make for a playful but refined album built out of intricate tracks listeners can enjoy on as many levels as they want.


"Greenland" is a track that didn't really catch my attention at first, but as the time was passing, this track has been growing on me, soon to be found among the personal favorites from the album. There's just nothing you could dislike about this tune - it's immensely groovy, has outstanding guitar riffs, drums soft as silk and beautiful violin parts, all put together with incredible taste and balance, proving Mr. Appling may be young, but his production skills stand on highest world's level. 


Although this track is soft and warm, at the same time if you close your eyes while listening you can almost feel the cold Greenland's wind on your face. 
For sure this is not last Emancipator's track I'm posting here, I'll keep dropping the ones I fancy the most, like "Greenland", "Kamakura" or "First Snow", I want you to treat this first one as a encouragement to buy the whole album on Emancipator's Bandcamp page - the best spent 10$ in your life, I can see no possible option how anyone could regret buying this masterpiece. 

Bonobo freebies!

Few facts for starters:
- Bonobo is a brilliant artist
- He's signed to Ninja Tune
- Ninja Tune was celebrating 20th anniversary this year

What can be a result of all that components? I don't know what you were thinking but you're probably wrong :)
Ninja Tune decided to celebrate their feast by giving away 20 completely FREE music packs ( 20 years, 20 packs, one per week) containing never released before tracks coming from label's biggest stars, e.g. Amon Tobin, Roots Manuva, The Cinematic Orchestra, Kid Koala, Mr Scruff, The Bug, King Geedorah, Zomby, Jaga Jazzist, Bonobo, Toddla T, Daedelus, Dorian Concept, Eskmo, Floating Points, Jammer, Two Fingers, Wagon Christ, The Heavy, cLOUDDEAD and even more wicked remixes. All details available on Ninja Tune XX official website.

This is not news, all the celebrations are long behind us, but still, I like Bonobo's music too much not to write about any free tracks coming from him. Among all five tracks, "Ghost Ship" and Aaron Jerome's remix of "Walk In The Sky" are the ones drawing most attention. First one is a downtempo jazzy masterpiece, with looped piano taps accompanied by other instruments and great glitchy bassline, it sounds like one great jazz session. Can't get enough of it, but that's the thing with Bonobo's music. "Walk In The Sky" follows this pattern, although it's a remix, the components are about the same, enriched with Eartha Kitt's vocals.

Full tracklist for Bonobo's pack:
01. Ghost Ship
02. Eye's Down (Breach Remix)
03. Ketto Revisited ft Bonobo
04. Recurring (Dextro Remix)
05. Walk In The Sky (Aaron Jerome Glitch Mix)

Right now download on the official site is disable, but I have come up with alternative link and a preview for two previously mentioned tracks:






...and here is short clip from Ninja Tune XX party in London:

Karim Abousleiman - Zipped & Skipped / Black Ribbon

Karim Abousleiman comes from Lebanon's capitol, Beirut and composes cinematic Orchestral music for movies and electronic music for fun and boy he does it good... He says about himself he's still young and has a lot to learn, but by listening to those two of his newest tracks you can find out yourselves he has already learned immensely lot.

Let's focus for a second on "Zipped & Skipped" - 6 minutes track that even Portishead, Massive Attack or Mandalay wouldn't be ashamed of. I mention Portishead not without a reason cause Bristol's top band influences are rather clear if we consider the jazzy, calm vocals by Lynn Abousleiman (name similarity is not accidental - this must be truly music-talented family) and sounscaping melodies created with both, analog instruments and organic synths - orchestral works for movies really paid off. Despite his age, Karim with this track proves his music maturity and great sense for just the right ingredients of a good track (killer analog guitar bassline in particular is worth mentioning).

The story with "Black Ribbon" is a bit different, purely instrumental piece, and that goes by only if we don't consider field recordings from crowded café somewhere in Lebanon as vocals. As far as I'm concerned, this mumbling is a really nice touch, gives this track some sort of "industrial" feeling, deepened by occasional hihats. The composition of this track is something rather unique - in the first half we can hear the basic kick drum with soundscaping synths, whereas in the second half we hear the all-natural piano lead, which just assures you that you were taken on a trip to a crowded, full of smoke place with a band emerging from the fog somewhere in the corner, playing just for you....

I'm hoping we will hear about this young lad sometime in the nearest future, when he surprises us with his great production ideas some more.

Both tracks can be bought here. (don't be cheap, support the arising talent)

Zipped & Skipped:


Black Ribbon:

TOKiMONSTA - Solitary Joy

Great chillout track from Jennifer Lee's (TOKiMONSTA) album "Midnight Menu", which got it's way into the public awareness and has been getting nothing but good reviews since the premiere. So, what does Jennifer offer us through the album?

"Born and raised in the South Bay area of Los Angeles, Jennifer was an unfocused pupil of classical piano. However, she has come to use this background to create vast textural soundscapes by utilizing live instruments, percussion, digital manipulation, and dusty vinyl. Through the creation of beats, she is able to fuse vintage sounds with progressive styles into something unique."

That sounds about right, especially when we take into consideration fact she focuses her style around hip-hop, broken beat, soul and everything that sounds great but just doesn't let you specify the origin so easily.
"Solitary Joy" focuses all the influences in this one track. Soulful vocals, hip-hoppy broken beat, nice synths...
It's got all the package to make you nod your head with approval and satisfaction.

TOKiMONSTA is yet another representative of America's new age electronic beats producers, making their way into crowd's ears and hearts. Their style is obviously different from mass European producers, focusing entirely on electronic synths and 4/4 tracks (ok, not entirely, but it caught on that Europe is home for techno and related genres). With producers from across the Atlantic the story is a bit different, their hip-hop and soul influences are obvious and clear, which results in fresh sounds with totally different look on electronica in general, which you can convince yourselves by listening to "Solitary Joy":



Although this post is about the track above I wouldn't forgive myself if I wouldn't share with you just one more track from Miss Lee - "Lovely Soul", track that suits afternoon delights even better. I think after listening to this two you'll know why "Midnight Menu" is gaining such great reviews among press, internet, and of course music lovers all around the world.




These are just two examples of what's going on on the album, hope you're intrigued enough to check on it as a whole, and I guarantee - you will NOT be disappointed!

Dabrye - D-town Tabernacle Choir

 

I've known Tadd Mullinix's aka Dabrye work for a very long time, but been a massive fan of his just since not long ago. It has all changed the moment I've heard his "One/Three" album and it got me for good. Dabrye doesn't ring a bell? I'm pretty sure even if you have never heard OF him, you have probably heard him. Just listen to this track to prove my point:



Sounds familiar? It was used couple of years ago in the Motorola Razr V3 commercial (no product placement, just to refresh your memory). This track is a perfect example of Dabrye's style - best known for head-nodding beats with saw-tooth bass lines and a keen eye to forward-thinking production.

"Hyped Up Plus Tax" comes from the previously mentioned "One/Three" studio album, his first, and many say best ever released. I agree with this only partially - yes, it's a great album (don't mistake with random tracks putted together just to create enough material to release it on a CD), but the next one, "Instrmntl" also blew my mind away, at least most of it.
The thing with Mr. Mullinix for me is he should stick to instrumental, experimental tracks, not going into pure hip-hop with rapped verses, because this sort of merge just doesn't work for me. Of course there will be people who say his vocal tracks are also extraordinary, which I'm in no position to deny, that's just my subjective opinion.

Here are two more tracks coming from both, first and second album, extract from what I think Dabrye has best to offer:

Flying Lotus - Tea Leaf Dancers + Remixes

First track from Steven Ellison's debut on famous Warp Records - "Reset EP". It's a very simple and complex track at the same time - it really requires very skilled and experienced producer to release a track with so simple, constantly repeated beat, but yet so gripping you want to play it over and over again. It's partially Andreya Triana's fault - choosing her to sing on this one was a bullseye, her mellow and relaxing vocals pull you in like a vortex...



As a bonus I'm posting bunch of unofficial remixes made by various unsigned, underground artists from. First on the block is remix made by Orlando Marshall, producing under a name BusCrates 16-Bit Ensemble. He's version is even more tripping than the original, except the vocals it's hard to find any points of parity with the original from FlyLo, which in my opinion is very good, shows Orlando's ingeniousness with creating good beats, which you can find more about on your own by checking out rest of his tracks on his soundcloud page.



Next one is the remix that astonished me most of all, made by HayZee - great sounds, great synths, gives the track a whole new quality:



Last one is a remix coming from Mark F. aka Polychrome, his version is least of a broken beat from all, great hats and arrangements going on instead:

Bonobo feat. Andreya Triana - The Keeper

First single from my favorite album this year, Bonobo's "Black Sands". Couldn't wait for this one and when I first heard it I knew it was worth waiting - it almost doesn't have weak points, most of the tracks are great, I'm not even mentioning the production level, cause it's the top world's shelf...

"The Keeper" is a mellow, but yet incredible groovy track, with what a call "moist" beat (characteristic sample, resembling tapping water) and Andreya Triana on the vocals charms with her voice. After working with such names like Flying Lotus, Mr Scruff or Theo Parrish, she found her soulmate in Simon Green aka Bonobo. She sings three tracks on "Black Sands", all of them being great, both in terms of production and vocals.

Ten years after his first release Bonobo shows us he's an experienced, complete artist with incredible intuition for soft, warm pads, hi-freq hats and sub-zero bass lines, what results in top-notch downtempo beats, filled in with greatly arranged vocals, giving defined texture on their own (check out "1009"). To sum up, I strongly recommend listening the whole album, it's really worth it, don't also forget to check out on Andreya Triana's "Lost Where I Belong" solo album, produced by no one else but Simon Green, so as you can imagine, this duo simply can do no wrong....

...and here's the proof - Bonobo feat. Andreya Triana - The Keeper

Little Dragon - No Love feat. Jonny ILL

Little Dragon is a Swedish electronic music band, and this right here is a song from their first album called... "Little Dragon" from 2007, or maybe I should say remix, cause Mr. Jonny ILL also got his hand in this one. What he has done is add literally couple of verses to the beginning of the song, and from there it's just the original. I like it though...

The change was cosmetic, but gave the track quite a nice flavor, the rapped verses are good introduction to the track itself. Jonny ILL has spotted the line, and it's a good thing he didn't interfere the track further, cause that in my opinion would spoil the final result.

Bibio - Lovers Carvings (Catz'n'Dogz Edit)

Polish production duet has edited an epic chilling track from British producer Bibio. Greg & Voitek (Cat & Dog), who used to produce wicked techno as 3 Channels, and then softer, "organic" house as Catz'n'Dogz have completely stole my heart with this edit. I must say I have never expected such a tune from the Pets.

So what do we get here? Guys have taken Bibio's classic and re-designed it, skipping the 1.30 min. instrumental intro, which personally I think is good in the original, but getting rid of it did good to the edit. It has been stretched out, given a proper intro and outro to make it more Dj-friendly, also added some pads and beats, rearranged a bit, what in the conclusion gave an amazing almost 7 minutes journey. It's one of those tracks you just want to play over and over again, never having enough. I have actually used it in one of my mixes, Origami 007 (with a licence to kill :P), which was very well recieved, even by the Pets themselves. So, check out how well they did with this one:

Air - All I Need (byDesign Rework)

For my first post here I have decided to pick one of the tunes that has seriously caught my ear last couple of days, made by extraordinary production collaboration byDesign. It consists of soundcloud's downtempo edits superstar Matthew Kyle and his production partner, hiding himself behind his initials, B.L. Matthew is actually responsible for first ever OrigamiGuestmix, which can be found here. Each one individually and both together deliver some of the best downtempo vibes nowadays, at least for me.

Thats for the starters, now lets get to the point, which is the remake of a timeless Air classic. The original is an extraordinary piece of music itself, but byDesign guys managed to make it even better by giving it an additional jazz parts from another version of this tune along with some rearrangements, keeping the original (amazing) bassline and chopping the vocals, leaving only the sexiest parts and groans. All this results in timeless remake of timeless classic, track you want to play your friends and get back to innumerable times. It's a great example of what happens when a true classic gets into hands of a producer with great ear for deep and warm vibes, creating something magnificent. That puts the M.K. & B.L. duo on the top shelf of my favorite producers, not only from SC. Check out the tune yourselves and give your own opinion: