Beats » Passion of the Weiss

Feb
07

Jonah Bromwich’s favorite vacation spot is the Isle of Wight. There’s only so much concrete meaning that we can infer from beatmakers’ music. Without lyrics acting as signposts, all we have to go on is tempo, mood and the occasional sample. Not much really. That’s what makes it so fun when a producer like Shlohmo… Continue reading »

Jan
28

DJ Burn One – “When There’s Smoke” Beat Tape

Like dolphins and Dick Cheney, occasionally a beat needs to breathe. Burn One understands this well — dropping an instrumental mix-tape composed of his oven-roasted country soul feasts. Slow slinking smoked-out funk that aims for some imagined house band that the Dungeon Family never knew. If I was in college, I would demand that this… Continue reading »

Jan
25

Daedelus – “California”

Alfred the Great drops a bomb to rip up the nu-”California” stereotype established by Phantom Fucking Planet in 2002 and continued until whenever The OC croaked. How much would you rather hear this than that wrist-cutting-in-the-sunshine sop that soundtracked Adam Brody’s amateur neuroses? (Let the pro’s handle this, son.) Maybe I’m biased. Daedelus’s original last… Continue reading »

Jan
11

Son Raw: Beatfighter steps into the arena

Son Raw is the message, the medium, the content and the platform. The first thing you learn in a 100 level communications class is that the medium is the message, or at least that’s what we learn in Canada. We’re very proud of Marshal McLuhan. You see, he was a theorist who…ok I’ll stop before… Continue reading »

Nov
22

yU’s Fresh Garbage

Jonah Bromwich wrote his first draft of this on a smoked banana peel. It’s hard to avoid self-deprecation when you’re standing right beside incredible talent. While yU is probably the best rapper in Diamond District (and maybe even on Mello Music) the producing wizardry is usually situated in Oddisee, whose Rock Creek Park is the… Continue reading »

Oct
28

Beat Traps: Knxwledge is Self

Chris Daly cons comics and not the other way around. It’s a bitch to live up to prophesy. Just ask Darth Vader. In his preordained role to reign supreme over nearly everyone, Knxwledge has demonstrated a propensity and proclivity towards Madlib-ian consistency (alliterations rule, bitch; look it up). Since the end of June alone, the… Continue reading »

Oct
25

Midnight Snacks & Movie Stars

In sleep, Evan Nabavian gets to be a viking. I think all men indulge in fantasies of being rock stars, superheroes, star athletes, firemen, hard-boiled cops, war heroes, Mossad agents, billionaires, samurai masters, professional wrestlers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and movie stars. But the terrible price of glory has been well-covered by Hollywood. An odd… Continue reading »

Sep
20

Sach O: TRC – The Leak

Sach O wonders if a producer will ever empty out his hard drive and call it “the dump.” And the flood of free beats does not abate. If this were an era in which music required physical discs of plastic to be distributed, I’d bust out the old chestnut about being buried alive in the… Continue reading »

Sep
13

Bounce, Rock Creek: Oddisee’s DC Ode

Now ask Jonah Bromwich about DJ Kool. Washington DC has two nicknames. The first, as I was informed by my snide, street-smart-and-proud-of-it, seventh grade teacher, is “Chocolate City,” which refers, of course, to the fact that there are a lot of black people who live in DC. The second, which I only learned a couple… Continue reading »

Aug
18

Sach O: Lunice keeps it One Hunned

Sach O can’t believe something good came of Montreal’s Hip-Hop scene. Those Scots at LuckyMe must really like Montreal. While most EDM labels have yet to realize there’s more to this fair city than guitar players in plaid shirts, those forward-thinking Glaswegians have signed not one but TWO acts from around here: House&B emotionalist Jacques… Continue reading »