Beyond the Crooklyn Dodgers drop on his BTS mix, the mixtape MC release pace, and a name that calls to mind an ironic Butte-based white rapper, it’s clear how much classic hip hop production factors into Young Montana’s aesthetic. With the glory days of sampling long gone, Montana takes an almost traditionalist tack to his production, with layering and sampling taken to their most alternate 2015 conclusion. There was a reason why Jon Pritchard of Coventry is the only artist for whom Mary Anne Hobbs directly recommended that Daddy Kev sign to Alpha Pup.
The cliche is to refer to beat music as headphone listening, but Montana is the rare producer who makes it mandatory. Beyond the de rigueur 8-bit bleeps and Dilla deism exists a baroque architecture of stray chords, chopped vocals, and vaguely familiar funk. Underneath the dance party of “Sacre Cool” looms the graveyard moan of Skip James’ “Devil Got My Woman.” His latest, “F.F.F.F”–one of three new tracks he’s dropped in the last ten days — mangles the Fleet Foxes’ “Mykonos,” into scarcely recognizable parts, taking the most well-formed limbs (a gorgeous guitar lick and the Foxes’ forest monk vocals) and stitching them onto a entirely new chassis, one sleeker, harder, and heavy enough to run over a bison. Also highly recommended are “Hot Heatherr,” “No Dough No Show,” and “Yellowstone Swag.”
Download:
MP3: Young Montana-“F.F.F.F.”
MP3: Young Montana-“No Dough, No Show”
