A Lesson from Professor Boogie: Brandon Coleman’s Resistance | November 7, 2018 |
The Book of Matthewdavid “In My World” | July 24, 2014 |
Peter Holslin thinks cassette tapes are sexy I’m picturing a bedroom on the moon. Two lovers are tangled on a purple divan. Tendrils of burning sage float in zero gravity. And on a dresser-drawer, a Sony Walkman ripples with the New Age R&B love vibes of Matthewdavid’s new album, In My World. The beat-maker born […]
The Sustained Rise of Mono/Poly | June 26, 2014 |
It’s hard to believe it’s been a half-decade since the summer and fall of 2009, when Mono/Poly’s “Beatles Bitch” and “MS-14” acted as nitroglycerin inside Low End Theory. Dubstep had yet to defeat itself and the suplexing wobble and bass of his tracks was so heavy you didn’t even know to respond. They felt like […]
Thundercat – “Evangelion / We’ll Die” | February 13, 2014 |
Eric Thurm doesn’t know where the bathroom is. It’s taken Thundercat a while to release a video off Apocalypse. Fun and funky dance floor burner “Oh Sheit It’s X” seems like the obvious choice. But the man responsible for bringing back the space bass doesn’t roll like that. Instead, the first visual offering from Apocalypse […]
Azizi Gibson, The Ghost in the Shell | October 7, 2013 |
Evan Nabavian’s favorite Ghost is Dennis Coles. Rap fans’ years of bellyaching about radio pandering left them bereft of rappers who can rap well and make songs with real musicality. The infighting created an ideological divide between rappers with skill and rappers with style (oversimplifying, of course) where hooks and catchiness fell in the latter […]
The Underachievers – Leaving Scraps | August 22, 2013 |
Tosten Burks can’t decide if CJ Spiller is the new Brian Westbrook or the new DeAngelo Williams. I don’t know what I’m looking for in the evolution of Lex Luger, but I guess this will do. Boisterous orchestras are replaced by rappity trap ambience on the Underachiever’s “Leaving Scraps,” and while neither Issa Dash nor […]
Question in the Form of an Answer: Thundercat | June 11, 2013 |
As an Australian-based journalist, it’s a little rare to interview an American artist on the verge of an album release. But not as rare as it used to be: independent musicians now make the majority of their money touring, and that includes touring internationally. Sometimes the timing gets a little awkward. I caught up with […]
Brainfeeder’s Azizi Gibson | June 5, 2013 |
Max Bell is headed overseas. Germany, Thailand, Singapore, Maryland, Los Angeles—Azizi Gibson has never not been on the move. Raised as perpetually mobile military brat, he has no real hometown. As a result, it seems he’s not bound by any particular regional sound or set of aesthetic criteria. There’s no scholarly (read: sometimes cringingly derivative) adherence […]