Yeah, this is another instrumental Hip-Hop post. I promise, I’m not on a crusade to sell you on the sub-genre, or make it seem more vibrant than it has been of late. It just so happens that I need beats to play in the background during talking segments on my radio show, so I listen to lots of instrumental stuff in my quest to stay well-stocked. I figure, if it’s good enough for me to talk over on the radio, it’s good enough for you and your friends to talk over in your house or automobile. Sometimes it’s also pretty good music too. Here’s some of that last one.
Norway-based, Swedish/Chinese producer Kaman Leung’s beats sound sort of like Dubstep if it was influenced by the Boom-Clap J Dilla, Dabrye, and Flying Lotus rather than Drum ‘N Bass and UK Garage. For some reason that results in a couple of joints on his new album Lacrimal, out now on the Japanese Z5 Records label, sounding like the work of El-P on some Little Johnny From the Hospitul junk as well. Why Dubstep - D-n-B + Dilla = neo-old-school Definitive Jux is beyond me. But the comparisons stand. And my ears say those comparisons make sense. So bite it. Whatever you or I might think though, somebody absolutely needs to get Beans, M. Saayid and High Priest reunited over tracks like “As Hope Fades” and “Stillborn,” stat!
Not to overstate the man’s influence on up-and-coming producers, but Dilla comparisons might be in order for Japanese beatmaker Deceptikon as well. Granted, there’s also a pretty significant amount of Prefuse 73-ish-ness to many of the compositions on Greater Cascadia, his newest releases, out now on the the now defunct Merck Records, too. But a track like “Almond Groves” has all the organic warmth and grit, in addition to the subtle synthetic undertones, of a Ummah-era Jay Dee production. All eight tracks on the disc are instrumental, with the exception of “Montana,” which features the Gainsville, Florida-based Hip-Hop crew Cyne kicking lyrics over Deceptikon’s stuttering drums and electro-bass programming.
UK-based beatsmith Bias is just as new a find for me as Kamen Leung and Deceptikon, even if his most recent record isn’t as new as theirs. His sophomore LP Time and Tide actually dropped last year on his own Canteen Records imprint. He’s been in the game for a minute, first as the DJ for UK emcee/producer Lewis Parker, then as a producer in his own right. His Time and Tide is a 13-track, 41-minute journey through a colorfully cinematic soundscape comprised of boom-bap drums, melodic vocal samples, chunks of hip-hop lyrics, and pieces of movie dialogue. Hip-Hop tracks aren’t often described as “beautiful,” but Bias uses his sampler to craft genuinely beautiful music. I can’t even single out highlight tracks, because the record is just stunning from beginning to end.
-El Keter
