Tranqill x Free The Robots x Take x Matthewdavid
I got rather swamped in quality freebies in the last 24 hours, leading me to do the only logical thing – combine them all into one easy to digest summary. From London to L.A via Dublin welcome into your life fresh new, and free, music from 4 rather talented artists and 3 rather dope labels.
First up is London’s Tranqill, whose ‘Hidden Treasures’ EP has been a very long time coming and will finally see the light of day in a few weeks thanks to the always on point One Handed Music label. The first single if you will from the EP is Deadly Wintaz a video for which you can view above before heading over to his bandcamp to download the track for free and the whole EP for £2. Yes you read that correctly – £2 buys you what is quite possibly the nicest ‘uk hip hop’ release in a while (and we used that tag likely, but you all know what we mean).
As OHM put it:
Tranqill makes the kind of raw, spontaneous, thrilling rap music that made us fall in love with those classic Wu-Tang records.
We couldn’t agree more. I can’t remember the last time I was this hyped about a rap release from London. Check the bandcamp preview below for more.
Next up is L.A’s Alpha Pup who are about to release the also long-awaited debut album from Free The Robots. It drops end of March but in the meantime the label has kindly given a track for free to download via their newly relaunched website. We got the album last night and am very excited to give it a proper listen – expect some previews in our March show for sure and more good things from Free The Robots, one of the many L.A producers who hasn’t really yet ‘blown’ up if you will despite some already stand-out productions and work for labels like Equinox in Europe.
Download Free The Robot’s ‘Orion’s Belt Buckle’ and be sure to check the newly relaunched Alpha Pup site and go cop their recent Nocando album – first essential rap album of the year for me.
Last up is Dublin’s All City Records who are about to drop the second of their 10×10 series, which we already mentioned last month. The second in this series of 10″ records from L.A based producers teams up Matthewdavid with Take aka Sweatson Klank, a favourite of ours and someone we’ve had the chance to meet and hang with last summer which was a real eye-opener as far as learning about the history of the beat scene in L.A and its progression through the last decade.
Splitting this 10″ the guys do an amazing work further showing the versatility of the current L.A underground. We’re very happy to be able to give you a taste in the form of two tracks, one from each artist. See below for stream and download links.
Look out for more from All City including a Musinah 7″ with production by Flying Lotus and 00 Genesis.
For now though get stuck into all this free goodness and be sure to go and support the artists and labels if you like what you hear. Look out for more previews from all these guys in the March show. Much thanks and love to the labels and artists.
Download Take – Soul Particles (right click and save as)
Download Matthewdavid – Know You’re Not Alone (right click and save as)
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Fulgeance – Ann Arbor
No secret has been made on this here site and radio show about our liking and interest in the One Handed Music label. You just have to look at the tracklists since January to see that. And they don’t even pay us!
Seriously though, as Trick pointed out to me by email a while back One Handed are obviously on it when it comes to their A&R approach and this is reflected in their next release, the ‘Smartbanging’ EP by Fulgeance. The French producer has become a favourite of mine since I first discovered him last year on the excellent 7×7 series, and even more so since I saw him live in London earlier this year. The man makes sweaty club music rooted in hip hop without taking itself too seriously, allowing for ridiculously infectious slowed down 4×4 rhythms laced with deliriously addictive synths and melodies. All of which he performs live on 2 MPCs while talking to the audience and just being an all-round great showman. If you ever get the chance to see him live, don’t miss it.
Back to the point, his new EP on One Handed has been one of my favourite releases of the year so far, with the title track rightfully getting an airing whenever I’ve been able to. After some pressing issues the EP is finally ready for release, and to celebrate this joyous fact the lovely people at One Handed are giving out a track for free (beats going round decapitating people as the French have been known to do).
So see below for a stream and download of ‘Ann Arbor’ taken from the ‘Smartbanging’ EP and also look over on the Bandcamp page for full details of the EP and links to buy the digital version (as well as a direct link for Ann Arbor if ours somehow doesn’t work for you). Vinyl version should be dropping anytime now, keep an eye on One Handed’s myspace for that. Also see PR blurb below:
Smartbanging’: it’s a made up word, but it’s as good as any to describe the style of this French don of the MPC2000: he makes the kind of goodtime party music that never goes out of fashion – but he’s about as far from ‘fashion’ as you can get. And he makes it all with a musical finesse that elevates it above the dumb club bangers and offers nourishment for the head as well as fuel for the feet. His EP features four of his own mutant discoid cuts and a strange, mesmerising late night trip from Detroit electro wunderkind Jimmy Edgar.
His two EPs for Musique Large and his alter-ego Peter Digital Orchestra have won him fans such as Busy P, Gilles Peterson and Dazed & Confused.
As usual a big big thanks to Alex for the love, and all that’s left to say is please proceed to get sweaty to this. Oh yeah and buy it, it’ll make your life better.
Download Fulgeance – Ann Arbor (right click and save as)
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Win a limited edition Paul White album!
Its no secret we’re huge fans of both Paul White and his label One-Handed Music, whose releases have been consistently excellent to date. So, to celebrate the release of Paul’s excellent new album “The Strange Dreams of Paul White” we thought we’d shake down the label for one of the deluxe copies of the album that comes in a screen-printed pillowcase. All you need to do is this: email us the name of one other artist on One-Handed Music, sending your entry to paulwhitecontest@rhythm-incursions.com. That’s it. Simple eh? Deadline for entries is Friday, 5th June.
If you’ve not heard Paul’s album, head over to his excellent Bandcamp page where you can preview all tracks on the spot. I’d also recommend you check his other releases, where you can buy both digital downloads (on a very fair “name your price” basis) and CD copies if you prefer.
Oh and someone was saying to me the other day that he never enters contests because he never thinks he’ll win. Now, not to give too much away here, but trust us, the entries for this aren’t as huge in number as you’d think, so your chances of winning are excellent indeed. Go!
