Gluttony Is The New

The Producer Puzzle: A Q&A with Shag

image

Ben Garside, the young beatmaker of those jazz-splashed, hip hop & soul creations I’ve been returning to all year long, just dropped his last tape of the year, 1992, and as always, I’m intrigued.What fascinates me about Ben’s tracks is his ability it reinvent, and in the process revive an interest in sounds. Stitched together sentiments from preceding golden eras melt through endless summer days spent playing video games in your parent’s basement, and yet it feels more like the present than ever. Melding the past into the future grooves of tomorrow has never sounded sweeter.

With any artist I’m digging, I always want the back story and almost insist on knowing more. I reached out to Ben after he dropped his Beats About People tape in June, and what came of our emails and gchats I’ve turned into a pieced together puzzle of an interview about the 20 year old producer-to-watch, known as Shag. Check it out below, (and wish him a happy belated Birthday while you’re at it).

What are your favorite sounds to sample?

I really try to sample as many things as possible. Soul is a good staple sound, but I try to find stuff that hasn’t been done to death. I’m also really into Jazz, but sometimes I prefer listening over sampling because the time signatures can be kinda tough to work with. I like to sample Video Games too because I’m a huge nerd. Lately I’ve been experimenting with a lot of different stuff.

What/How did you feel when you listened to Beats About People when it was done?

I felt hungry for more to be honest. This isn’t one of my favorite albums, though I like the way it came out a lot. Some of the “people” the songs are about are kind of weird to think about so it’s actually sort of a bittersweet release.

Where does the jazz and soul influence in your music come from?

Honestly, I have no idea. Neither of my parents really listened to Jazz or Soul around me when I was small. They were 70’s teenagers, so I grew up around a lot of folk music and psych rock. I guess I just WANTED to have the soul influence and kind of forced it upon myself. No explanation honestly.

If you had to describe your music as a food or dish, what would you pick and why?

Chop Suey. It’s pieces of anything and everything thrown into one big pot and shaken around until edible… er listenable.

Love your track, ‘Sexy Ways’ on the Potholes Compilation. It’s different from your older tunes. Is that the direction you are looking to head with your next release?

I’m really trying to kind of showcase everything I can do on my next EP. Like 2 tracks from each style I think I have if that makes sense. Some non-sampled beats, some sampled stuff, soul, jazz, etc. A few bassier, heavy tracks. Just want to include everything. I’m gonna be spending quite a bit of time on it.

Vinyl?

I love Vinyl. Vinyl’s cool. I think I’m gonna go to the record store today actually. I have a small collection going right now; maybe ~150 records, but I’d like to have walls full someday. It’s such a wealth of information. Seriously each record is like a page in a history book to me. It’s awesome to go back and see what the standards in music were 30 years ago; or to hear that problems people have in their everyday personal lives are the same and are just crooned differently over the tracks. It’s amazing to me.

What artists are you listening to right now?

Well, right now specifically I’m listening to Nag Champa by Common.

Lately though…

Lot’s, lot’s, lot’s.

Glocca Morra, Azelia Banks, DibIa$e, New Nas, New Aesop Rock, Algernon Cadwallader, Deerhunter… I could go on for a while.

Finish this sentence: Music is..

Evolution. I’m starting to get older and it’s crazy to see how much music has changed with me. It makes me so excited to see what happens in the future.

Listen to everything on Shag’s Bandcamp, and then listen again. 2013 is lookin’ shiny.

2012-11-21-19-00-00-Sketchbook-192kbps

Sketchbook with KUTMAH: The Jeremiah Jae Edition

A solid hour of Kutmah’s favorite Jeremiah Jae cuts on his weekly radio show, Sketchbook on NTS Radio. Super dope. 

While you’re listening, take the time to read this fantastic feature Resident Advisor did on Jeremiah Jae last year.

Also, about half of the tracks on Captain Murphy’s Duality Mixtape that dropped last night were produced by Jeremiah Jae, be sure to snag that as well.

You’re welcome.

Source SoundCloud / NTS RADIO

813 - Spaces (demo)

813 Spaces

“Jazztrap soul” is a perfect description. This is the track they left off of the DRIVE soundtrack cuz it was too raw. That jazz curveball, plus this oddly Three 6 Mafia vibe really threw their game off. Can’t fuck with Moscow. 

Pitchfork’s Finn Cohen wrote an article about all these emerging producers in Russia. I’ve probably written about most of them on the list. There’s a lil’ bitty on 813, check it out HERE.

(p.s. It wouldn’t be trap without the ubiquitous stutter Finn.)

Source SoundCloud / Eight One Three

Lapalux Quartz + Strangling You With The Chord

I was (extremely) lucky enough to get to walk the affable streets of London while listening to Lapalux’s new EP, Some Other Time, before it’s release date a few weeks ago. Of course this was all after spending my first night in London on a tour through underground stations, city streets, music venues, and pubs with Lapalux himself. Not a bad way to spend your first night in the UK. Since I didn’t have a chance to do a proper write-up of this release, I thought I share my favorite tracks and a few thoughts on Some Other Time.

Lapalux is one of the few artists that’s managed to escape the dreaded second album not holding up to expectations set by the first conumdrum. Instead, Lapalux manages to pull you even deeper into his world, a softer, more intimate side of his world on his second release for LA’s Brainfeeder. Though only an EP, the five tracks on Some Other Time could be on repeat for days, gently melting into the folds of your brain and making a permanent home there. So I guess I’ll have another…

These beautiful, amorphous glinting, synth-filled colors, rickety, crackling shapes and across the spectrum sounds from droned vocal samples to deep funk-hop grooves, scattered with layered instrumental arrangements all floating around each other, like a mobile hanging over a child’s crib. It’s all so delicate, like he used the finest of needles to prick each sound from a sea of twinkling possibilities.

Lapalux has crafted a recognizable sound, while evolving his depth of understanding and growing as an artist. I asked Stu what a 12 year old Lapalux would think of his music, and he said, “I don’t think he would get it. I didn’t know what good music was at that age.” I can appreciate that. In awe of Some Other Place and the opportunity to get to watch an artist evolve with such grace. 

Lapalux’s Some Other Place is out now via Brainfeeder. Buy it. 

p.s. That chick on the cover is 14. I know, that’s what I said. 

GITNB’s Acts To Catch at CMJ 2012: Ryan Hemsworth I somehow convinced Ryan Hemsworth to play CMJ, and couldn’t be more pumped to catch his live set. To celebrate, Ryan did a ‘Two Truths and a Lie’ for Yours Truly today. Check out what I had to say about him + guess Ryan’s lie to get on the guestlist for Yours Truly/GvsB’s CMJ party on Thursday and see him live. Deep in trap music’s hard shelled cocoon characterized by dog barks, Jock Jams samples, and scattered hi-hats galore, one beatsmith has been tinkering away in an attempt to break loose. There’s no denying music comes in waves, and with each wave/bubble there is a point where that bubble eventually bursts. What’s left over is mostly drippy residue of something that once seemed so right. Instead of hiding behind fleeting trends and hits made by others, he takes snippets of just recognizable enough shouts, clicks and claps and weaves them through an undeniable set of production skills, bringing those elements to life, and making them a part of his song…These playful rips turned textural elements are then meticulously layered atop his own influx of beats that even stripped bare, could hold their own in a bob your head contest. This lone wolf, this phoenix flirting with clouds, is Ryan Hemsworth, who was kind enough to play “Two Truths and A Lie” with yours truly, and grace the stage this Thursday at 285 Kent in Brooklyn for the YTGVB CMJ shindig. Two Truths & A Lie: 1. For my 13th birthday I asked for Mystic Stylez by Three 6 Mafia and instead my mom bought me The Platinum Album by Vengaboys. 2. When I was younger I would ride my Razor scooter around my neighborhood wearing a cloud tie dye tank top, basketball shorts and Allen Iverson Answer V sneakers. 3. I was once hit in the groin with an indian rubber ball in gym class and threw up Zoodles. If you are in NYC next week, go see Ryan Hemsworth.

GITNB’s Acts To Catch at CMJ 2012: Ryan Hemsworth

I somehow convinced Ryan Hemsworth to play CMJ, and couldn’t be more pumped to catch his live set. To celebrate, Ryan did a ‘Two Truths and a Lie’ for Yours Truly today. Check out what I had to say about him + guess Ryan’s lie to get on the guestlist for Yours Truly/GvsB’s CMJ party on Thursday and see him live.

Deep in trap music’s hard shelled cocoon characterized by dog barks, Jock Jams samples, and scattered hi-hats galore, one beatsmith has been tinkering away in an attempt to break loose. There’s no denying music comes in waves, and with each wave/bubble there is a point where that bubble eventually bursts. What’s left over is mostly drippy residue of something that once seemed so right. Instead of hiding behind fleeting trends and hits made by others, he takes snippets of just recognizable enough shouts, clicks and claps and weaves them through an undeniable set of production skills, bringing those elements to life, and making them a part of his song…These playful rips turned textural elements are then meticulously layered atop his own influx of beats that even stripped bare, could hold their own in a bob your head contest. This lone wolf, this phoenix flirting with clouds, is Ryan Hemsworth, who was kind enough to play “Two Truths and A Lie” with yours truly, and grace the stage this Thursday at 285 Kent in Brooklyn for the YTGVB CMJ shindig.

Two Truths & A Lie:

1. For my 13th birthday I asked for Mystic Stylez by Three 6 Mafia and instead my mom bought me The Platinum Album by Vengaboys.

2. When I was younger I would ride my Razor scooter around my neighborhood wearing a cloud tie dye tank top, basketball shorts and Allen Iverson Answer V sneakers.

3. I was once hit in the groin with an indian rubber ball in gym class and threw up Zoodles.

If you are in NYC next week, go see Ryan Hemsworth.

Source yourstru.ly

Lullabies (Jim-e Stack Remix)

by Yuna

Yuna Lullabies (Jim-e Stack Remix)

GITNB’s Acts To Catch at CMJ 2012: Jim-e Stack

I have been listening and talking about Jim-e Stack a lot lately. Since I’ve been in Europe, labels, bloggers, talent agencies, etc have been asking me what’s good in the states, and every time, I end up mentioning Jim-e Stack. He’s been great at not releasing too much material, and at the same time creating a signature sound with the few tracks that have gone live. In 2012, quality control is so crucial and a smart move on the part of any new artist looking to make waves. 

‘Hefty bubble waves’ and a playful vibe a’la Thomas the Tank Engine, is the best way I can describe Jim-e Stacks’ signature sound. The use of synthetic percussion notes, high pitched drums and a humming bassline characterize his tracks no matter the tempo. I’m such a fan. 

If you are in NYC next week, go see Jim-e Stack. 

Source SoundCloud / The FADER

Monto Pot Luck + All Is Well

As I prepare to descend upon a country that has touched my tiny, black heart so deeply this past year, I feel like it’s a duty, and honor that I present this artist’s latest work to you today. Ireland’s electronic music scene is bursting with so much young talent it’s hard to keep them all straight, but my boy Monto shines through effortlessly.

Bringing a smooth and sexy hip hop vibe to everything from rap joints and top 40 dance tracks to reverberating uk garage notes, haunting down tempo echoes and everything in between, twisting each click into his own beat creation. Through it all he’s managed to bring a vibe and style to the beat maker scene that he can truly call his own. One to watch for sure.

Monto’s EP Best Boy is out today via Melted Music, get it HERE.

Monto | Soundcloud | Facebook  

Ryan Hemsworth Charly Wingate (Video)

I was lucky enough to get to premiere Ryan’s new video for the first single off his forthcoming EP on Wedidit for Yours Truly today. Here’s what I wrote:

Giving a black and white description of your music is never an easy task, so Yours Truly asked Ryan Hemsworth to describe his sound as a food or dish instead, his response only confirms his status as a creative genius,

“Kitchen sink cookies, and well baked. There are a lot of artists making kitchen sink cookies and taking them out before the buzzer goes off or putting more than they should into them. Fresh buttery cookies off the pan into your ears.”

And kitchen sink cookies are exactly what we’re serving today. Yours Truly is beyond excited to be able to premiere Ryan Hemsworth’s first single and video off his forth coming EP, Last Words.

“Charly Wingate” is a two parter, a dark rhythm, hip hop underground jam building into an R. Kelly-esque after party anthem for the ages, inaugurating Hemsworth into the Wedidit family of top notch producers on the rise. The more you strip away Hemseworth’s infectious black and yellow lullabys and rap spattered samples, it becomes more apparent those hat tricks are just icing on the cake, for what lies underneath is dramatic, carefully crafted originals gently floating of the top of a sample-filled glass. The accompanying video for “Charly Wingate” is an animated ‘Through The Looking Glass’ take on Ryan Hemsworth’s playfully colorful world of deconstructed samples, beats built to touch the sky and the creative thought process that ties that brilliance together.

Out of the trap-withered, samples-in-the-place-of-beats ashes, our phoenix has risen, no pseudonyms or burnt edges here, Ryan Hemsworth is going for household name status.

Ryan Hemsworth’s Last Words EP with remixes by Shlohmo + friends, drops August 21st via Wedidit. 

Ryan Hemsworth | Soundcloud | Twitter

Video by Hector de la Vallee and Octave Abaji

Source yourstru.ly