The world of instrumental hip-hop has gone through the wringer the last few years. Some of the heroes of this sound have moved on and left it to the new producers. Some of these new producers are still stuck in the “sample some funk drums, stick some keys and strings on it, and loop that shit for four minutes.” However, a rising crop of beatmakers have been innovating, expanding this mode and exploring new territory: Mike Slott, Flying Lotus, Illium Sphere, and over the course of three albums for First Word Records, kidkanevil has been proving himself to be on these exciting artists. His third album, Basho Basho continues the Japanese-influenced drums of Back Off Man, I’m A Scientist, and adding a slightly wonky, synth-fueled element to the intricate programming. The tracks on Basho Basho bounce with heavy bass kicks, and laser melodies bouncing all around, like on “Megajoy/J-POP”. The contemplative “Setsuko” feels like Japan in a dystopic 2020 night setting. The clattering and stumbling “Drunken Master” is beat-fu of the highest order, a rambling collection of squelches and percussion that lurches itself in the most genius of ways: loose but tight. Things go into overdrive with “Make Doves Bounce,” featuring syncopated keys and hugely warping synth bass enfolding a dominant kick drum. The synths in particular are a highlight, they stretch and twist around the beat in an organic swirl, vaulting this track into the stratosphere. The closing “Yokai” is melancholy and textural, hectic percussion, minor keys, and a tinkling of chimes that ride the album out on a feeling of hope to be sought after. Get yourself to Bandcamp and pick up a physical or digital copy. If you buy the CD from here, you get an immediate download, plus your choice of one of kidkanevil’s previous albums for free. Quite a good deal. Also, check out the promotional mixtape the man put together on Soundcloud.

This is the shit that keeps me going with music: sounds like it’s the club music on a spaceship zooming around outer rim of the galaxy (sipping on Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters, ya’ll). Check out “Quantum Leap,” for instance: insane laser melodies careening around and around the slappy beats, street cruisin’ music for the craters. Elsewhere you get tracks like the title track and “Goulash,” loud stompers lurching about the soundscape like wild monsters struggling to understand themselves. I could only imagine the chaos that reigns when “Skyfire” hits a loud soundsystem, the heart-stopping-on-a-dime changes, the complex rhythms and thick, undulating bass lines putting on a cosmic rock concert within four minutes. Closer “Titans” doesn’t let up. The title fits the epic nature of it’s tableau, drums setting the stage for a devastating synth workout that is like the gods talking to you in their own language. You don’t understand it, but you get it. It’s this kind of don’t-call-it-future-cause-it’s-happening-right-fucking-now! music that Slugabed, Ikonika, Joker, Mike Slott, Starkey, Eskmo, etc. are doing that defies genres and only leaves you feeling breathless with it’s fresh air.
Slugabed – Sonic Router Mix
Slugabed – Dummy Mag Mix

Gonna make this a quick one. Check em all out!

DJ Food – A Shape of Things Reader

DOWNLOAD | Info

DJ Food – A Weird World Reader

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DJ Food – Blech 20.1

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Chemical Brothers – Late Night Psychotronik Mix
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Bassnectar – 2010 IDJ Mixtape
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Shlohmo – XLR8R Podcast
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1000 Names – Lowriders Mixtape 002
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Bitesize Beats – La Mixette Vol. 24: Synthesize Me
DOWNLOAD | Info

The name “Q4″ comes from quadraphonic music, which generally means four sound sources creating a dimensional space for music to travel around in (ah….memories of Beastie Boys concerts….). Not exactly something you can replicate at home easily, and Sound Surroundings doesn’t attempt to do this. Rather, the square of sound is meant to be the three musicians and the listener. Arts the Beatdoctor, Sense, and STW comprise The Q4 and the album is very much in the realm of “downtempo” and “instrumental hip-hop.” What makes it immediately more than those labels, though, is the strong sense of melody and composition that pervades these beat constructions. Take standout track “One Of These Days,” which uses a sample I think I recognize from Michael Mann’s Miami Vice film. Amidst swooning strings, syncopated keys, and thick drums, the melancholy voice cries out “one of these days, and it won’t be long, you’re gonna search for me and I’ll be gone…”. It’s a heady brew and completely captures the essence of the very best of this kind of music. The Latin inflections of “Oscuros Angeles,” featuring Curra Suarez is grounded by deep bass and calls to mind a heady night out on the town. Songs like “Look Again,” “Goin’ Down,” and “Split Personality” show the artists in Q4’s predilection for using jazz as a main method of melody and atmosphere. Brushed percussion, meandering bass, falls of keys, horns, these are the sounds that careen around quadraphonic space between Q4 and the listener.

Only two minutes into “Indisches Panorama I,” the distinctive lead guitar sound of Michael Karoli pierces this idyllic opener of Kamasutra: Vollendung der kiebe and that’s when I remembered with a jolt: Karoli had died in 2001. He’s the only founding member of CAN to have passed away and his extremely unique playing all over this almost-forgotten chapter in CAN’s history makes the soundtrack’s release, 40 years later, all the more poignant, like finding a never seen photograph of a long gone love. That CAN still has relevance in 2010 is something in of itself, though. Karoli, Irmin Schmidt, Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit first came together as The Inner Space, all having been taught by Karlheinz Stockhausen. Kamasutra was commissioned as a soundtrack and predates most previously released music by this seminal group of musicians. The third track, “There Was A Man,” is especially notable, as it is a short version of “Joe,” the intended first CAN album that was shelved and later released as Delay 1968. To my knowledge, it represents the chronologically first recording the band did with original vocalist, Malcolm Mooney, always my favorite of CAN’s singers. It’s a rough blues stomper and seems somewhat out of place in the soundtrack, but is a welcome treat for fans. The soundtrack also features “I’m Hiding My Nightingale,” which I believe to be the only CAN song with a female singer (someone correct me), in this case Margareta Juvan. After those two vocal songs, it’s largely an instrumental affair, full of lush instrumentation by all the members, and much more epic sounding arrangements than we would come to expect from the later CAN. I haven’t seen the film for this soundtrack but the music makes me feel that it is played somewhat like a dream of the Kamasutra and not as erotic as you might expect. There is also very a strange version of Indian influence to the music, as if it had been filtered through early psyche rock, such as on a song like “Im Tempel,” which features a lovely harp opening, backbeat, and guitar. However, “In Kalkutta III” and “Mundharmonika Beat” are more like an American blues rock, with heavy drums, prominent guitar licks and harmonica. Overall, the soundtrack is very fun peak into the formative days of a legendary band.

Starkey flew over to the UK to do something pretty dangerous: build a new song within two hours, live on air, under the watchful eye of Mary Anne Hobbs. It was a fun show to listen to, and they have made the song free to download, as well as posting a great video documentary about the night. They are both well worth checking out here or at the Building The Beat page.
Starkey feat. Reso and Anneka – “Moments of Mine” (mp3)

And away we go….

A Decade of Flying Lotus….mixed by The Gaslamp Killer
This is probably the year that both GLK and Flying Lotus are going to explode into the public consciousness. For the past couple years they have both been steadily building momentum in underground circles. What better way to welcome this new year than with a look back at Flying Lotus’ formative years. Lots of unreleased bits and bobs, as well as a healthy dose of his Adult Swim bumpers.
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Phaseone – White Collar Crime
I just found out about Phaseone and his mixtape and free album are blowing my mind. This is the mixtape. Below that is the album. Get em now!
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Phaseone – Thanks But No Thanks
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Coco Bryce – Lowriders Mixtape 001
Kick off mixtape for Lowriders Collective by upcoming artist Coco Bryce is some hot glitchy beat shit.
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Youngsta – RINSE.FM 12-17-09
Youngsta is a long time hero of the dubstep scene, known for moody sparse tracks and impeccable mixing. Typically his sets for Rinse.fm are down with an MC, but one day in December he did a completely solo set for 2 hours filled to the brim with absolutely crushing dubstep beats. Probably my favorite collective of pure dubstep to come out lately.
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Buddy Peace – Sudden Death Blues
A long time ago, Buddy did a podcast for Rhythm Incursions called Obituary Medicine which was easily the best thing I’d heard by him to that date. Mixing hip-hop and indie rock together, it was the precursor to his Wold Diesel Mountain release. Here we have a new installment along the same line as that original mix.
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Starkey – SubFM Seclusiasis Radio December 2009
Starkey’s monthly SubFM show from December ‘09 was amazing set of future bass music, chockfull of his own tracks and remixes, it’s an entertaining look into this prolific artist’s upcoming year.
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Guido – FACT mix 108
Another fun and fresh installment of FACT’s stellar mix series.
DOWNLOAD | INFO

Sonic Router Mix Series
Purveyors of fantastic music news, mixes, and downloads, Sonic Router is a blog I check regular to figure out what’s going on in this fast-changing world of music. Their mix series has some of the best artists contributing like Mono/Poly, Tokimonsta, Slugabed, etc.
LINK TO MIX SERIES

ATL RMX
I’m not going to do Adult Swim’s press for them, but suffice to say this is a collection of Atlanta hip-hop artists remixed by some fantastic underground faves like Starkey, Flying Lotus, Phaseone, Prefuse 73, El-P (LOVE THIS REMIX), Dabrye, Hudson Mohawke, etc.)
DOWNLOAD | INFO

Both Peter Broderick and Machinefabriek have appeared on this blog before, especially the latter, so my predisposition to this collaboration was already fairly established. However, I must admit I wasn’t quite ready to be as taken with this project as I am. Just before it was released I remember reading a quote from Broderick saying it was probably the release he was most proud of and that it felt like a true collaboration. Listening to it, you are able to tell where Broderick ends and Machinefabriek begins based their previous output, but the two sounds are so tightly wrapped around each other and integrated that this lines blurs sometimes, forming an entirely new artist in its wake. Opener “Departure” unfurls like an overture, with a quietly escalating bed of drone struggling to overtake the momentous piano. In many ways, I’m reminded of the Wagner overture “Thus, We Begin In The Greenish Twilight Of The Rhine,” with it’s similarly pensive build-up. The long “Kites” stretches out over eight minutes with a contemplative piano melody, strings, and undulating guitar drone holding it all together. The drones have the effect of submerging the strings so they heard as if from the next room and float in an out of your field of hearing. It’s easy to picture yourself watching kites weave through the wind when listening to this musical concoction. “Rain” is striking for how different it is to the rest of the album. After the low-key guitar drone and strumming of the first half, vocals and a traditional guitar melody take center stage on this track. It jolts you a little bit, but fits in wonderfully, coming mid-way through the album like this. Easily one of the best collaborative albums to come along in recent years, this is a fantastic addition to both Peter Broderick and Machinefabriek’s catalogs. I can only hope there will be more releases in the future.

I thought this would be fun (expect another Mix Roundup shortly, too, by the way), as mixes have brought me in touch with a lot of new music over the past year and there are so many of them out there these days. Without further ado, here are Like a Scientist’s favorite ten mixes of 2009.

No. 10

Terror Danjah – Glassglow Mixtape (LuckyMe)
Download Here

No. 9

Caspa – Essential Mix (BBC)
Download Here | Tracklist

No. 8

Starkey and Dev79 – Philly Mix (XLR8R)
Download Here | Tracklist

No. 7

Willie Isz/Dr Who Dat? – Can I Dub Your Tape? No!!
Download Here | Tracklist

No. 6

Nosaj Thing – LA Mix (XLR8R)
Download Here | Tracklist

No. 5

Jus Wan – Hotflush Podcast No. 5 (Hotflush)
Download Here | Tracklist Discussion

No. 4

Eskmo – Colorbrain (Brainfeeder)
Download Here | Tracklist

No. 3

Rustie – FACT Mix 79 (FACT)
Download Here | Tracklist

No. 2

2tall, Kper and Clockwork – A Boom Bap Continuum
Download Here | Tracklist

No. 1

Erwtenpeller – Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds: A Dubstep Refit
Download Here | Tracklist

Your humble music reviewer went on a wonderful journey through the world of modern bass music this year and I think I can credit my #1 album of the year, Harmonic 313’s When Machines Exceed Human Intelligence, for this evolution of listening habits. No album this year captured my imagination like that one and through it I became more and more interested to hear what was going on in this new culture of music. “Bass Music” is probably the best way to describe the the current world of electronic club beats. It encompasses the dubstep, hip-hop, electro, wonky, grime, purple, etc., genres by distilling them down to the very foundation of each: the all-important groove, that bobbing, bubbling, slinky, deep bass behind it all. After hearing Mark Pritchard’s latest turn at the Harmonic guise, I went in search of similar people thinking along the same wavelength and many of the releases on the below list are the result of that.

Before getting to 2009, though, let’s spend a moment looking at 2010, the most futuristic-sounding year since crossing the threshold into the 2000s. I’m fairly certain that 2010 will be the year of Joker, the purple king himself. After a string of highly popular singles, live shows, and remixes, tracks like “Tron” and personal favorite “My Trance Girl” hint at the forthcoming full-length album he is working on as we speak. His particular brand of wonky grimey sounds is going to blow the lid wide open. His synth melodies are infectious and should have some pop appeal when the promotion kicks in for that album. Elsewhere, I think Starkey’s album is going to be a game-changer based on the snippets that have come out on radio shows and singles. I’m hoping against hope for an album by Eskmo, as his recent single and Colorbrain mix for Brainfeeder are unbelievably thick and vibrant. We also have a new Flying Lotus album to look forward to, tantalizingly entitled A Space Opera. I’m a bit up and down on FlyLo. Sometimes I think he is amazing, sometimes I don’t get it. However, I’m always interested to see what he’s up to. After Joker, my most anticipated release is definitely the Glitch Mob album, which feels like it’s been in the works forever. The combined supergroup of edIT, Boreta, and Ooah is a huge steamroller of glitchy boombap and some of the most exciting music being made these days. Expect to see reviews of these releases when they come as well stuff from Type (praying for a new Sanso-Xtro album), Miasmah, Bedroom Community (especially looking forward to Valgeir Sigurðsson’s soundtrack Draumalandið , etc. I’ll continue to be posting all the great mixes I find around the web, too. And be on the lookout for a sequel to the Like a Scientist mixtape, as well.

Without further ado, here’s the Top 10 releases of 2009 as interpreted by yours truly.

No. 10

Heliocentrics and Mulatu Astatke – Inspiration Information (Strut)
Legendary Ethiopian composer Mulatu Astatke follows up the historic live performance with Heliocentrics by releasing a full album of new compositions with this modern psych-funk band. Packed with gorgeous rhythms and trademark keys, it’s hard to deny the magic of one of Africa’s greatest musical treasures. This album came out towards the end of my overriding fascination with African funk music, but it sounds as vital and exciting as the best of that music.

No. 9

Silkie – City Limits Volume One (Deep Medi Musik)
Original October 12, 2009 Review
Young English prodigy Silkie lived up to the hype of his singles and live performances with an album that sounds fresh, serious, and thoughtful all at the same time. Along with burners like “Planet X” (a personal highlight), there are contemplative tracks like “Spark” and “The Horizon” that transcend club music. For me, this was one of my first exposures to full-length dubstep, an album you can put on in your house and enjoy just as much as hearing one of his singles booming over a club system.

No. 8

Leyland Kirby – Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was (History Favours The Winners)
Original November 25, 2009 Review
Epic, lush, huge. Three full discs of modern classical experiments by the former V/VM composer. Snatches of strings, piano, and feedback float along with a feeling of nostalgia and melancholy pervading the landscape. My following of this kind of Type Records/Miasmah sound ebbs and wanes sometimes but you can’t deny the majesty of what Kirby has accomplished with this mammoth release.

No. 7

Various Artists – Tectonic Plates: Volume 2 (Tectonic)
Dubstep god Pinch’s label continues to release deep tracks throughout it’s history and the latest compilation delivers big with tracks from Joker, Martyn, 2562, Skream, Benga, and even Flying Lotus. If the individual tracks aren’t enough, the second disc weaves these tracks plus many more into a huge sprawling mix by Pinch himself showcasing the purest of 2009’s dubstep sounds.

No. 6

Simon Scott – Navigare (Miasmah)
Former Slowdive drummer Simon Scott came out of nowhere with this lovely guitar, drone, and percussion album. Miasmah again shows it has an exceptional ear for picking out the newest composers that are working in this new evolution of ambient music.

No. 5

Mary Anne Hobbs – Wild Angels (Planet Mu)
Original October 5, 2009 Review
Personal hero and first lady of bass, Mary Anne Hobbs’s third compilation proves to be the best. With Mark Pritchard, Hudson Mohawke, Starkey, Mono/Poly, Mike Slott, among many other fresh producers, providing beats and bass galore, MAH shows she is a true tastemaker and more importantly, the biggest fan of forwarding thinking electronic music around these days. A true inspiration to music fans and critics alike.

No. 4

Ben Frost – By The Throat (Bedroom Community)
Original September 19, 2009 Review
Visceral and detailed, By The Throat had a lot to live up to. And it did it in spades. For some reason, I had the feeling that it would be a long time before Frost released a new album, so it was surprising to get something so good so soon after Theory of Machines. A welcome fall treat.

No. 3

Kryptic Minds – One of Us (Swamp81)
Original October 26, 2009 Review
First hearing their studio mix for Blackdown’s blog, I knew this album was going to build and build in my head and I was afraid it wouldn’t live up to what I wanted it to be. I was wrong. Deep flowing bass, lush synths and strings, echoing percussion, for me it represents the best that dubstep and music can be.

No. 2

Clark – Totems Flare (Warp Records)
Original August 20, 2009 Review
Five albums later, Chris Clark is still continuing to evolve and bring fresh sounds to Warp. After loving his first three (all very different) albums and being less than thrilled with his fourth, I found Totems Flare to be a remarkable turn. At once recalling moments from his entire discography but sounding squarely current and responsive to the musical landscape of his home country, it’s a striking album from an artist that you could swear you had a pretty keen handle on already.

No. 1

Harmonic 313 – When Machines Exceed Human Intelligence (Warp Records)
Original March 7, 2009 Review
Why do I love this album? At the time I heard it, it was quite unlike most things I was obsessed with at the time. However, the cover was enticing, the title whimsically science-fiction enough for me, and I remember really enjoying the Harmonic 33 library music album. When I took it home and was confronted with a bass heavy, electro-ish sounding album, I was perplexed. Soon, though, it became my standard go-to for when I needed to take a car trip. Rolling through the city at night, letting a burner like “Cyclotron” rattle my poor little Saturn, it was a transforming experience. Everything I love about hip-hop and electronic music is in this album. Sharp snares, thick rhythms, and a sound that feels as if it coming back from the future, it’s music like this that puts me in touch with the core of my obsession, that link between sound waves and your body, circumventing your brain, and becoming completely about emotional response.

End of year lists are funny sometimes. I tend to be a fan that is full throttle into what I’m listening to at the moment, always searching for the next hill to cross over, the next fresh sound. However, good music is good music and it’s no small thing that my favorite album of the year was one of the first released this year. I can’t wait to see what happens after January 1st, 2010, just a few weeks away. It should be a spectacular year for music.