Archive for the Instrumental Category
TOKiMONSTA “Creature Dreams” (Young Art)
“Tokimonsta is not content with standard 4/4 time signatures and versechorus-verse-style track construction — her instrumental compositions are a mind-melting mix of intricately layered samples, exotic percussion, and live instrumentation. Her songs take a strange approach to mellow —both cosmic and off-kilter. The seven tracks on Creature Dreams are all […]
Jon Bap “Yesterday’s Homily” (Dolfin)
Jon Bap‘s latest full-length album, “Yesterday’s Homily”, is a sonic exploration of free jazz, jazz fusion, funk, and more, as Bap looks at the duality of life with a fearless optimism.
CSC Funk Band “Above The Starrs” (Electric Cowbell)
In early 2017, CSC Funk Band deliver their most ambitious undertaking yet with “Above The Starrs,” an all-instrumental homage to the seminal East Coast hip-hop duo, Gang Starr, that consisted of MC Guru and the DJ/producer DJ Premier. In the three years since their last full-length “Funkincense,” was selected for […]
DJ Brace “Apatheia” (Nostomania)
There are certain things that, when held too close, distort our perspective. Emotions and ego can clutter the mind’s eye. Apatheia, which should not be confused with apathy, involves moving these things to a safe distance. This is not about a loss of feeling or disengaging with the world. The […]
saib. “Sailing” (Cold Busted)
Cold Busted has navigated the smooth seas to unearth Sailing, the new album from Moroccan guitarist and beat-flinger saib. The Casablanca based producer has steered his sound into warmer waters. Mixing tempered hip-hop beats with jazzy vibes and a lounge sensibility, saib. touches on a style that’s both chill and […]
Emapea “Zoning Out Volume 1” (Cold Busted)
Emapea, the renowned beat-maker from Poland, burst upon the scene with multiple compilation appearances on Cold Busted, an inclusion on Mark Farina’s Mushroom Jazz 8, and his stunning debut album Seeds, Roots & Fruits. Fans and headz worldwide have been clamoring for a follow-up, but all Emapea wanted to do […]
Didaflo “Rachel’s Suffering At The Hands of the Sentinels” (Rare breed)
Didaflo has returned after a year hiatus since his release “Doodooloops” with Urban Waves/Radio Juicy. His new LP “Rachel’s Suffering At The Hands Of The Sentinels…” showcases Didaflos’ cut and paste collage style of sampling from soul, jazz, & funk records to tell an aural story about the birth of […]
Samiyam “Pizza Party” (Stones Throw)
Advancing the unfolding legacy of instrumental hip-hop at Stones Throw is Samiyam’s Pizza Party: 24 minutes of off-kilter mobster music mixed with a warm soul sound that is unmistakably L.A. producer and beatmaker Samiyam. Praised by his collaborators Action Bronson, Earl Sweatshirt, The Alchemist, and Flying Lotus, Sam’s independent beat […]
Beastie Boys “In Sound From Way Out” (Capitol Records)
Beastie Boys ‘In Sound from Way Out’ NOW BACK ON VINYL!!!!
Mogwai ” Every Country’s Sun” (Temporary Residence Limited)
“For at least half of their new record, Mogwai play—for the first time in years—with the same bratty conviction that defined their greatest records, like there’s something truly at stake. At its best, Every Country’s Sun is brash, gritty, unpretentious, and thrillingly claustrophobic—a work of volume and violence in tight […]
Psychic TV “Pagan Day” (Sacred Bones)
Shortly before Christmas 1984, the core songwriters, Genesis P-Orridge and Alex Fergusson, of underground arts collective Psychic TV quietly released a limited edition record containing sketches and ideas for songs. Some songs would become later fully-realized arrangements, some abandoned and others were just covered in praise of their creator. The […]
Terry Riley “Persian Surgery Dervishes” (AGUIRRE RECORDS)
The classic minimal music album is now available again on vinyl for the first time since the ’70s. During the 1970s, Californian composer Terry Riley concentrated on solo keyboard performances, continuing to make music yet writing down almost nothing. Riley selected a mode, chose a few motifs or basic patterns […]
Bill Orcutt “Bill Orcutt” (PALILALIA)
LP version. For those not following Bill Orcutt’s drift into increasingly ear-friendly orbits in his recent live sets, Bill Orcutt — his first solo electric studio album — shocks with its space and sensitivity. On this eponymous record, Orcutt mines the expansiveness and sustain possible on the electric guitar, letting […]
Leyland Kirby “When We Parted My Heart Wanted To Die” (History Always Favours The Winners)
2017 repress. Originally released in 2009. It’s a prescient hauntological elegy somewhere between Vangelis’ Bladerunner OST (1982), Lynch and Badalamenti’s Twin Peaks score, Erik Satie’s solo Piano works, William Basinski’s gradual tape decompositions, and James Ferraro’s washed out visions. Back in 2009, James Leyland Kirby explained: “Here we stand, twenty […]
The Caretaker “Everywhere At The End Of Time – Stage 2” (History Always Favours The Winners)
The second of six albums issued under the title Everywhere At The End Of Time, The Caretaker’s fictional first person account of life with early onset dementia, takes a more wistful tack as our protagonist gradually realizes that all is not well and begins to rummage deeper into the recesses […]
Electric Sewer Age “Moon’s Milk In Final Phase” (Soleilmoon)
ELECTRIC SEWER AGE was conceived in 2006, a glowing spark in the imagination of JOHN DEEK of Divine Frequency. A brief, cryptic announcement in 2009, followed by a few rough tracks released online, heralded its birth. Announced with nothing more than the tagline “an Infinity of Sewers thrown open beneath […]
Onra “Chinoiseries 3” (All City)
Almost 10 years have passed since Onra arrived with the charmingly eccentric Chinoiseries LP. Thirty two hip-hop beats formed the sample-based project – dusty Chinese vinyl hissing and crackling throughout – resulting in an intriguing and spontaneous mix of the producers interest in exploring a newly-discovered style of music with […]
Mujo “Nature Friend” (Vinyl Digital)
After releasing his debut on vinyl “REEL STREET JAZZ” with his buddy BluntOne the Hungarian beatmaker Mujo is back with another dope Instrumental release. On “Nature Friend” you can listen to 30 of the finest jazzy beats. Enjoy these crispy, natural release!
Eric Lau “Examples” (First Word)
First Word enters 2017 with a bang: a 28-track album courtesy of Eric Lau. This, his third instrumental album, is a veritable tapestry of vibes, ranging through Hip Hop, Soul, Jazz, Funk & Brazilian beats. A mere taste into the genius production skills of London’s Mr. Lau, it’s easy to […]
Eluvium “Copia” (Temporary Residence)
Originally released on CD and Digital formats only, Copia was eventually available on vinyl exclusively as part of the Life Through Bombardment Vol. 1 box set. With that set long out of print, Temporary Residence has reissued this stunning album on vinyl in a limited edition of 2,000 copies. Remastered […]
The Caretaker “Everywhere At The End Of Time” (History Always Favours The Winners)
Everywhere At The End of Time is the first in a series of six albums by The Caretaker, aka James Leyland Kirby, slowly cataloguing the stages of early onset dementia. Each album will reveal new points of progression, loss and disintegration, progressively falling further and further towards the abyss of […]
The Caretaker “An Empty Bliss Beyond This World” (History Always Favours The Winners)
The Caretaker conjures a quieter, more introspective spirit, lost in his own mind amidst a low-lit labyrinth of ever-decaying and antediluvian shellac phrases. Sourced from a mysterious collection of 78s, these vague snippets of archaic sonics reflect the ability of Alzheimers patients to recall the songs of their past, and […]
T.O.M.B. “Fury Nocturnus” (Peaceville)
T.O.M.B. stands for Total Occultic Mechanical Blasphemy, making it about the most accurately descriptive band name since Extreme Noise Terror. Under the leadership of the enigmatic No One, this shadowy Pennsylvanian noise cult (featuring Mayhem drummer Hellhammer) have been churning out demonic black industrial ambient madness for 18 years, purportedly […]
Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein “Stranger Things Vol.1” (Lakeshore)
A love letter to the ’80s classics that captivated a generation, Stranger Things is set in 1983 Indiana, where a young boy vanishes into thin air. As friends, family and local police search for answers, they are drawn into an extraordinary mystery involving top-secret government experiments, terrifying supernatural forces and […]