The A-Trak post a couple weeks ago where I outlined my non-interest in most of the mixtapes on the market yeilded a few cool responses from people suggesting I listen to their mixes, or directing me to mixes that happen to be floating around in the ether of the internet. The dope thing is that everything I wound up listening to was impressive to me in some form or fashion. This gave me the bright idea that an occasional post specifically dedicated to the art of the mix might be a nice addition to my small arsenal of themed posts here on Blogarhythms. It won’t be a regular thing like “Records at Random,” but like “People who should suck but don’t” (I know, I’ve only done one of those, but trust me, there will be more) it’s something I’ll be coming back to as often as is warranted.
This time out the feature spot goes to Brooklyn-based Marshall Law (former sound engineer for the X-Ecutioners DJ crew, Large Professor protégé, and current member of the Thisish production squad) and his take on the mash-up mix, titled Testing the Waters. As mixtapes go, even mash-up mixes, Marshall takes an unconventional approach; layering records, acapellas, breakbeats, and his own original productions on top of one-another and pressing them into a new sonic composite. Moving at a breakneck pace, Testing the Waters is heavy on cut-up drum breaks (with lots of fills and snare-rolls), glitchy micro-edited samples, and dusty crate classics, interspersed with kitschy Pop cuts and more contemporary Hip-Hop joints. This mix of high velocity drums and diverse vinyl source-material reminds me of RJD2’s Your Face or Your Kneecaps mix from early in the decade quite a bit.
At just over 51 minutes in length Marshall packs a lot of funky shit into his mix, employing material from The Roots, The Jackson Sisters, Busta Rhymes, Vanity (yes, I chose to include their photo because they’re sexy), Kool G Rap, The Meters, Sly and the Family Stone, Ghostface Killah, Led Zeppelin, Rakim, Bobby Brown, Olympic Runners, Michael Jackson, Thomas Dolby, Justin Timberlake and many others. And no matter what corner of the musical spectrum he draws from he somehow manages to turn whatever he plays into a propulsive, drum-fueled neck-snapper through some form of manipulation, be it sampling, chopping, editing, splicing, time-stretching or simply mixing a breakbeat or his own drum programming over it. It’s all over the place, and in a lot of ways it’s a mess. But it’s a gloriously fun, lovingly crafted, head-nod-inducing mess. And that’s really what I want out of a mixtape, whether it’s put together with the pause-button on a tape-deck, turntables and a mixer, a four-track, in a studio, or even on a computer.
Download the entire mix on the Testing the Waters page on the Thisish website.
-El Keter