We’re a decade and a half past Wu-Tang Forever and the novelty of pitching up soul and R&B samples has long lost its novelty. You would have thought that Kanye and Burial would have pushed it towards the vanishing point — when every chipmunk chop no longer has any emotional resonance. You would have been […]

It’s been three years since Nosaj Thing dropped Drift and opened eyes to the idea that the Low End Theory was more than a Tribe Called Quest album. Flying Lotus may have been the advance messenger, but Nosaj Thing was instrumental in kicking the gates down. As was Mary Anne Hobbs, whose XFM program was […]

Well before Dave Tompkins decrypted the DNA of the vocoder, it existed as Los Angeles’ preferred funk steroid. No telling how many times the Troutman’s soundtracked my juvenile declensions. Power 106 played “Computer Love” enough to make me wary of my shoddy Intel 486. Through the tubes Snufflupagusing out of his mouth, Roger was able […]

Chris Daly can’t say the word “syllogism” without giggling. Listening to The Tracatus by Kone is heady stuff, indeed. Not only does the title reference the great work Tracatus Logico-Philosophicus by the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, but vocal snippets throughout quote Nietzsche and espouse the tenants of logical positivism. Now, I’m more of an existentialist […]

Chris Daly has eyes in the back of his dread. It has come to my conclusion that Free the Robots is not the moniker of one alleged Chris Alfaro, but is, in fact, a prime directive from a funkily deranged Mother Ship floating just above the planet’s atmosphere. Think I’m lying? If his latest Alpha […]

Jonah Bromwich thinks you’re not bi-polar, but more like Amy Poehler. “Put in work, son.” “Do work, son.” These expressions have become ubiquitous mantras over the last few years. We say these things casually–to friends looking to score, to siblings with job interviews. They’ve become synonyms for “good luck.” When you say things casually, they […]

What do you know about the Wayniac? Forget the false white rap dualities. It’s 2011 and everyone knows that there a few white people who can really fucking rap, and a whole lot who can’t. Jonwayne can really fucking rap. He chooses not to most of the time, because the 21-year old La Habra headhunter […]

At the forefront of instrumental hip-hop and modern electronic music, Take has spent years helping forge a strong scene within his native Los Angeles, but also constantly evolving to avoid stasis. Before critics got misty-eyed over James Blake’s sweater set this winter, Take had already covered similar territory, manipulating and stretching his own vocals over […]

Art via Kevin Vitella Bonus points for the balls to remix the unremixable. Roc Marc’s “Scarface” needed no alternate vision. His Hempstead glass shard rap had the bleak brutality usually only found on Breaking Bad and Mobb Deep tracks. But for their official Fat Beats-sanctioned remix, 3:33 decided to give the original warlord, the Close […]

Virtual Boy “Mass” from Alpha Pup on Vimeo. For all the bogus new-media cliches spouted about the 21st century music business, certain realities are immutable. Witness Alpha Pup, who along with Brainfeeder operate as the premier in-house labels of the Low End Theory (respect also due to Leaving Records, Friends of Friends, and Non Projects.) […]