Max Bell atoned for not celebrating Yom Kippur even though he’s not Jewish. Most instrumental albums suffer from a lack of cohesiveness. It’s the reason why I’m reluctant to check out most Bandcamp pages with the tag “beats” or  “instrumental.” More often than not, you’re apt to find a bunch of half-completed sketches; dusty, dull, […]

Is there anything better to listen to on a broiling summer day than a mix of tropical Brazilian burners. No, there is not. Pazes understands our plight. Hence, the 19-year old wunderkind behind this February’s Southpaw EP, has quietly dropped this simmering mix of unalloyed gold gathered from the area around Asa Norte, Brasília. Not […]

Between Madlib, Daedelus, and the Gilberto Gil-appreciation society, the last several years have been rife with producers chopping Brazilian samples to their own ends. So the exchange of ideas becomes properly symbiotic with 19-year old Pazes releasing his debut, The Southpaw EP, next week on San Antonio’s Exponential Records. Weaned on his father’s rock and […]

According to simple-minded caricature, San Antonio is a city best known for Tim Duncan, Pace Picante Sauce, and the Alamo (which according to my research gleaned from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure has neither bikes nor a basement). Though Austin and Dallas typically absorb the glare of the Texan music spotlight, Exponential Records, based in the […]

Cover By Dan Love Artifacts, the debut solo record from San Antonio producer Aether, was last year’s most underrated beat record. Come list time (it finished at a too-low #46), I claimed that few artists were as accurately defined by their name. In Greek myth, Aether is the personification of space and heaven, and Diego […]