Virtual Boy, the latest off the Alpha Pup assembly line, drops the first taste from their forthcoming Symphony No, None.  The record drops February 1, and a full-fledged review will come later. In the interim, there is “Mass,” the haunting liturgy that transcends the trademark Low End sound. Violins and organs swell and crash, proceeded […]

Nosaj Thing – MIS, Brasil 2010 (leg. português) from Cauê Ito on Vimeo. If you subscribe to the ideology that beats need raps to be fulfilled, you’ve probably already long ceased to read this blog, or are in the process of breaking away to download the latest MP3’s from Games, Tennis, Weekend, and Troubled Jai […]

As the photo above indicates, Jamie xx and Jason Chung share the same wardrobe designer. A garlic averse soul who sculpts their suits in a lampless cavern deep in the bowels beneath SoHo. Neither of them have tasted clean oxygen in weeks, which serves to explain the artistic synergy that the two possess. They share […]

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 […]

The mercury was a mocking 113 this afternoon, making recovery from Off the Books impossible. Slurred recollections and crystalline images will come later. In brief, Mount Kimbie came through and crushed the buildings, holding 200 people-plus hostage until 1:00 a.m. on a Monday morning.  Shlohmo remixed “Pretty Boy Swag” until he looked like Jesus, and […]

Young Montana hails from Coventry, so it’s a safe bet that he didn’t derive his name from the San Francisco 49ers string of Hall of Fame quarterbacks. I’m guessing it’s a British variant on American rap names–one that makes me want to tout him as that new dope boi Yung Montana. That said, G-Side would […]

Admittedly, I’m still not finished listening to the second week of Mary Anne Hobbs Vs. The Volcano, Or I Got Stranded in LA and All I Got Was This Lousy Podcast, but I suspect that like last week, it will go down as one of her finest shows of the year. Hobbs calls a mix […]

Lest I cannibalize myself (and not in the inspiring Alive way), should you have any interest in reading my thoughts on Nocando’s excellent “Hurry Up and Wait Remix,” I will point you in the direction of my Sam Zell-owned feudal overlords. The concise version is that its arguably the best morning commute anthem since “9-5ers […]

Take “Incredibright” from Alpha Pup on Vimeo. Aaron Frank has never climbed a mountain nor played an electric guitar. However it happened, Take had a right to be irate that Only Mountain leaked a month early. A driving force behind the underground LA beat scene for the last decade, Sweatson Klank’s debut not only evidences […]

It’s hour 36 and the the hyperbolic decompression from Friday night’s show continues.  By all accounts, the evening was a smashing success. Rah Al Milio’s mushroom fondue went over well, 5 0′ Clock Shadowboxers revived Blue Oyster Cult for the millenial generation, Nocando taught the bespectacled and be-blazered set how to freestyle, and The Holloys […]