Leonard Dstroy - Higher Vibrations (2010)

If you've been listening to our mixtapes, you may have heard a song by Deep Thinkers, a high-energy, freaked out turntable heavy, instrumental hip-hop piece called The Technicolor B-Boy Slideshow. Now, meet the producer. Kansas City native Kyle Dykes, here under the moniker of Leonard Dstroy, continues his frantic, jumpy, maximalist hip-hop beats to an incredible degree.

And maximalist is certainly a perfect word for what's included here. In Deep Thinkers, he, with the compliment of emcee "Brother of Moses" (Aaron Sutton, who makes a brief appearance on this album), made much more subtle arrangements. Aside from the previously mentioned Technicolor B-Boy... and Kiss The Sky the album consisted of, relatively, standard beats. It had styles of jungle and ambient music mixing it's abundant samples, but they were still categorically "hip-hop" beats. Here, it's a distruction of it. It may start as a hip-hop beat, at the core there may be a standard beat underlying the song, but he jams a myriad of crashes and crunches and rolls and thick buzzing bass to create a glitched out, uninviting beast of what is usually considered a "hip-hop" beat. It's like taking a J Dilla beat, over a Otomo Yoshihide piece, over an Aphex Twin track. It's mystifying.

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Sharpshooters - Choked Up (1997)

Choked Up is a blended medley of old-school hip-hop tracks and instrumentals. The album is a varied listen, with tracks ranging from funky hip-hop cuts -Mr. Supreme has a taking-these-chumps-to-school flow similar to Guru of Gangstarr on some tracks- and acid jazz and dub-inspired instrumentals with smooth, mellow drum-patterns.

On the tracks with vocals, the rhymes are sharp and delivered with great flow (Herbs in my sight tryin' to be best friends/ now they floating in the river rockin' cement tims). Subtle production helps underscore the easy listen-ability of these songs. This carries over to the rest of the album. Iit's very hard to not bob your head along through out the entire CD.

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Nicolay - City Lights Vol. 2: Shibuya (2009)

Your favorite producer may no longer be your favorite producer, folks.

Nicolay is a Dutch producer with a large body of very enjoyable work. In addition to his many solo projects, he's one half of the hip-hop/R&B group The Foreign Exchange with Phonte of Little Brother. In 2008 he released the album Time: Line with Kay of the foundation. His instrumentals are very laid-back and mellow. Live instrumentation is also often used as opposed to samples.

This is a mostly instrumental album except for occasional vocals delivered beautifully by Carlita Durand. The concept is that you are on a vacation to Shibuya, Japan and this is the music of the city. There are some beautiful sounds used to create a very relaxing album. Teetering on the edge of must-listen territory.


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Dert - Talk Strange (2009)

Whenever I make a 2009 list, I always forget this tape. I guess that's to be expected since it was released on New Years and I still had a "2008" mindstate, but I can't believe I keep forgetting this since it's probably one of my favorite releases this year.

Dert is best known in the underground hip-hop circuit for his mash up tapes made of samples from various artists. On this one he decided to use primarily Bjork samples throughout the entire album, which basically sounds heavenly. It has a nice cool feel which like a lot of Bjork's music too. So since I love Bjork so much, naturally I thought this album was great, not to mention it's free so all you reading this have no reason not to pick this one up.


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Man or Astro-Man? - Destroy All Astromen! (1994)

Only Man or Astro-man? could incorporate NASA samples into their music and make them sound exciting, with their hypnotic surf rock and infatuation with cheesy, low-grade sci-fi flicks. Covers of Dick Dale, the Rezillos, and even the Mystery Science 3000 theme song can be found on this album. Not as experimental or "out there" in comparison to their material on Touch and Go Records, but it still holds true to the Man or Astro-man? ethics of being ahead of their time in the surf genre.

Not going to lie I got this album primarily because of the album cover and band name. But I'm really glad that I decided to pick this one up. Every track is bursting with hard nosed traditional surf complimented by their trademark space-age sounds. Masterful guitar work and those wacky voice clips from old B-movies.

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Sample

Ecstatic Sunshine - Freckle Wars (2006)

Ecstatic Sunshine is a creative outlet for guitarist Matthew Papich. What originally began as a duo (with Dustin Wong), it has now become a solo project for Papich. Freckle Wars was recorded when ES was still a duo, which makes this album different from the other albums in ES' discography.

From the beginning of this album until the end, the album make the listener really pay attention, as the music is a canvas for something so much better. While listening to the music, your mind is free to wander and wonder during each song. Some songs may take you back to your childhood, while others make one think about their future. I think this is why I beginning to love instrumental music more and more. You know what the song is about, and no one else. This album is also very happy album, which makes it all the more beautiful. The actual music on this album is some of the finest guitar work I've ever heard. The guitars also have a fantastic tone, which sets the mood for what you are listening to. I feel like taking this to some of my friends who think guitarists who shred are good, and say "This is what real guitar playing is like!" The guitars also have a fantastic tone, which sets the mood for what you are listening to.

Freckle Wars is an amazing album, the best in ES' catalog, and serves as a canvas for who ever is listening to it's mind to be free and have a fantastic time (being high while listening to this is great too!).

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