[ aquarius records

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Showing results 951 through 1000 of 1265.

More experimental hip hop from the Anticon collective, this time under the monicker So Called Artists. We have loved almost everything Anticon has come up with, unfortunately, So Called Artists is probably the weakest project so far. The bizarre samples

Brand new album from French hip hop superstar MC Solaar. Pretty good album, certainly the best since Prose Combat: heavy beats, nice production and even some decent scratching. To be sure, there are a few weak slow jams on the album, but somehow they don't

RealAudio clip: Degats Collateraux
RealAudio clip: L'Aigle Ne Chasse Pas Les Mouches

Man, these Anticon folks are prolific. Seems like someone from this crew has a new disc every couple weeks. This is a collection of previously recorded stuff spanning 1994-1998 from Anticon head honcho Sole. The tunes on 'Learning To Walk' sound a lot more

RealAudio clip: 3rd Person
RealAudio clip: Prosperity

Live From Rome is not in fact live at all. And was not recorded in Rome. But IS the new record from Sole. And the latest in the neverending Anticon onslaught. And as always, it's a perfectly peculiar slab of outsider hip hop full of tweaked samples, unlikely arrangements, skittery loops, and weird white boy flow, dense and tongue twisting and confusionally clumsy, but in a good way. Production duties are split between the usual Anticon suspects: Odd Nosdam, Alias, Telephone Jim Jesus, and Controller 7 except for two tracks which are produced by Gooom bliss pop hip hoppers Abstrakt Keal Agram, and those two tracks are probably the strangest of the lot, which is saying a lot since on most Anticon records ALL the songs are strange. AKA add some of their Gooomy magic to the mix, a little disco groove, some fuzz guitar, some shuffling glitch and bass, some weird sing songy pop, and plenty of cut and paste and stop and stutter. Those may be the weirdest tracks but the record as a whole still manages to push the musical envelope just a little further, twisting and tweaking traditional hip hop into weird and wonderful new sonic shapes.

MPEG stream: On Martyrdom
MPEG stream: Drive By Detournment

As much as I love almost everything on Anticon, the two MC's who can seem to do no wrong are Dose One and Sole. And on this, Sole's sophmore full length, he proves himself to be the one true Anticon visionary. Like all the Anticon records that came before, the production is out of left field, totally off kilter with unlikely loops and bizarre samples. But the production manages to stay totally head nodding and super funky. Unlike the hyper-production-centric Def Jux camp, here it's ALL about the flow. And the flow is mind boggling, a stacatto and relentless avalanche of tongue twisting, verbally dense extrapolations on white boy blues, hip hop haters, as well as ruminations on all sorts of more esoteric topics. All delivered in a manic whine-y white boy drawl. This is most definitely the future of hip hop, lyrically challenging, musically complex, totally original and weird as fuck. A contender for 2003 record of the year and it's still only January!!

RealAudio clip: Da Baddest Poet
RealAudio clip: Shoot The Messenger

Our newest discovery, thanks to KMEL keeping us company as we tool around town, imagining that our crappy little tape deck is actually a 'boomin' system'. Sole manages to out-nasty even Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown. Wicked stuttering Timbaland style beats and streams of nasty sex style vitriol.

RJD2 and Blueprint are the duo that make up Soul Position. Equal parts old school hip hip and ANTI-glossy/gangster/mtv style rap. This is a really solid outing, voicing sentiments that are quite contrary in the larger world of mainstream hip-hop. At times it's almost like the equivalent of sXe hip-hop as they lament the down side of wasting your life in alcohol, speak out against sexual abuse and motivations based solely on crass consumer culture. Luckily it all sounds really good too which makes their message go down that much smoother. Fans of Blackalicious should definitely check this out. They start it off with what could be their mission statement on the song "No Gimmicks": "no major label power moves, no costumes no limits no gimmicks no shoot out in the streets no publicity stints no mtv cribs no out of shape fat boy telling you how to live..." Sign us up -- we're in.

MPEG stream: No Gimmicks
MPEG stream: I'm Free

Seems like hip-hop mixes had disappeared for a while there. All those sloppily pressed 7"s just dropped off the face of the earth. But we're fortunate to have locals still devoted to the art of fusing dancehall vocals to hip hop beats. What's refreshing about the four tracks on Sound Killers is that while most of the dancehall vocals are from fairly well known tracks, some of the hip hop rhythms are from older and otherwise less obvious tracks (ie: R.I.P. "One Minute Man" and Get Yr Freak On"). Included on this 12", two tracks to a side is Cutty Ranks "Limb By Limb" vs. Silas "The Jump Off", Capleton "Tour" vs. Baby "What Happened To That Boy", Supercat "Scalp Dem" vs. Eric B. & Rakim "Paid In Full", and Beenie Man "Girls Dem Sugar" vs. Erykah Badu w/Common "Love of My Life".

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. A super limited single (only 700 were made!!!) from the Space Travelers which features DJ Quest (of Live Human) and Cue, whose title track "Black Hole" will appear on the upcoming Future Primitive compilation "Urban R(evolution)". The huge electro break is cast in a downtempo groove with flashy turntable tricks and elements of Missile Command-esque video game noise, horn flares, and funk bass snippets that almost resemble Tackhead. Z-Trip's "Further Explorations into the Black Hole" on the flip side fills out the minimalist electro funk of "Black Hole" with cut-up Sci-Fi narratives and a slightly different handclap driven break. Along with these two tracks, 'instrumental' versions of each respective track and bonus beats of the Z-Trip remix are also present.

After years of underground mixtapes, this is the proper debut from oddly monikered Miami MC / producer Spaceghostpurrp, a seriously sweet slab of sinister darkness, a collection of hip hop slow jams, but slow jams that ooze and creep, all slithery and sick, blackened and ominous, the music a screw-ed low slung swagger, the beats a skeletal crunked out skitter, the sound all mysterious loops and swirls of grim shimmer, Purrp's cough syrup drawl the perfect match for the music's woozy drag. There's a bit of a horrorcore vibe throughout, think a more laid back Gravediggaz, which gives the whole record a seriously nightmarish vibe. One of the meanest, darkest, creepiest hip hop records in recent memory, and one that offers the rest of the world a glimpse of the grim dark underbelly of sunny Miami.

MPEG stream: Mystikal Maze
MPEG stream: Bringing The Phonk
MPEG stream: Been Fweago
MPEG stream: The Black God

MPEG stream: Heat It Up
MPEG stream: Ms. New Booty

Dark, grim, dubbed out Spectre is letting some light into his music. Dominated by murky loops and funky samples, Psychic Wars is not nearly as extreme nor darkly monolithic (and thus possible less impressive) as previous efforts. The samples are culled from french cinema, noir clips, japanese film, indian female vocalists, and are altogether more varied and interesting than Spectre has ever allowed himself before, reminding me of Funki Porcini or other Ninjatune artists, right on down to the generic girl diva vocals -- why do so many artists feel the need to use this element, much less use women whose voices always sound the same, like Sinead O'Connor. Sigh. Your mileage may vary. Guests include Honeychild, Sensational, Black Chameleon, Space Poet. MPEG Download: "Love" [/audio/spectrelove.mp3] MPEG Stream: "Love" [/audio/spectrelove.m3u]

MPEG stream: Love
MPEG stream: Secrets (featuring Honeychild)

We Aquarians have long been into Spectre, the undisputed master of, grim, dark, dubbed out instrumental hip hop. And we can never seem to get enough. So here's a comp that serves two purposes, a primer for those of you who are new to the sounds of Spectre, and a compilation of some of the best and loads of the rarest stuff for those of us who just need more. Including a handful of previously unreleased tracks. All remastered and even more BASS HEAVY than ever. Lots of murky loops, slowed down vocals, throbbing basslines, bizarre film music samples slowed down and twisted up, big phat beats, all cobbled together like some mad scientist, into some of the most potent druggy, late night hip hop EVER. Guests on the comp include Sensational, whose lazy, stoned flow perfectly suits Spectre's sound, Torture, M. Sayyid, Guess, Mr. Dead and of course God Albino from the Hawd Gankstuh Rappuhs MC's Wid Ghatz!

MPEG stream: Pillars Of Smoke
MPEG stream: Backstab

2nd album (duh) of dark dub hiphop, an AQ-fave. Mostly "instrumental", though one highlight is the guest spot by rapper God Albino. Pretty much everytime we play this in the store, someone buys a copy--it's that good.

The Ill Saint's third album is easily his best, as the subterranean production on the first two albums has been fleshed out a bit in this hip hop elegy for demented thoughts and sounds. Spectre's carnivalesque horror hip-hop tracks (that on "Ne Cede Malis" sounds like the Mickey Mouse theme song played in a minor key) are loaded with brash noir strings, dubby passages of schizophonic reverb, and slow motion beats. Damaged lyrical content provided by Sensational, Mr. Dead, and the white-boy-on-crack rants of God Albino. This is underground hip-hop at its best.

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY.

"Illbient" aQ-fave producer Spectre brings us (literally, he brought these in himself, on a visit to SF) another album of dark, bass-heavy, mostly instrumental hip hop, smoke-hazed & paranoid; this latest one, his ninth, being a vinyl-only release on his own label WordSound. The True & Living begins positively yet ominously, with "inspirational" spoken word samples taken from the movies Waking Life and The Matrix, eventually joined by echoing maniacal laughter that segues into track two, the aptly titled "Impending Doom", which is a dizzying collage of end-is-nigh soundbites, of all varieties (some scarily plausible, others not as much) over loops of strident strings and horns, layered with beats and scratches. That sets the mood for the whole record, an apocalyptic, suspenseful hip hop soundscape. For example, the track "Destroyer", which is built around someone (a concerned citizen-scientist? demented doomsayer?) explaining one "nightmare scenario" in particular. One quote from that panicked fella sums it up, and made us chuckle: "We're about to have a solar system come though the middle of OUR solar system; this can't be good." Of course, we won't we laughing if/when that guy is proven right. Again, this inconvenient information is suitably set to music sourced from the climax of some old sci-fi thriller or something. All that apocalyptic shit sets the stage for the title track, on which Wu Tang's Killah Priest drops science in grandiose, mystical fashion. We're primed to believe his hype after all that we've been through on the record already. The album's other rapper cameo comes on the track "Triumph", featuring the unique flow of frequent Spectre associate, and another aQ fave, Sensational. So those are a few of the highlights, but we're digging the whole damned doomed and dubbed-out thing. Oh, and regardless of whether the world is ending soon or not, this record IS limited - to just 250 copies!

MPEG stream: Impending Doom
MPEG stream: The True & Living
MPEG stream: The Omega Point

Perennial AQ-staff fave Spectre (otherwise known as WordSound label honcho Skiz Fernando) has wisely left his tried and true formula alone, and thus come up with a fourth full length of scary, incredibly dark and heavy dub. I can't think of anyone this good that is this, well, apocalyptic about it. Scary scary stuff. Where's my mommy? Mostly instrumental, although four awesome tracks include guest rapper Sensational. Pling plong random piano, noir film brass samples, grunts, alarms, arpeggiated strings. Must be heard to be believed.

RealAudio clip: Four Hoursemen (w/Teledubgnosis)
RealAudio clip: Bassick
RealAudio clip: Skrippin'
RealAudio clip: Heist

A tolerably well mixed 74 minutes of hip hop, soul, electronica, etc from the likes of Nightmares on Wax, Tek9, Terranova, Les Nubians, Runaways UK, 4Hero, etc. As with most of Spinna's releases, there's a second disc of the unmixed original tracks by

G.E. Stinson and friends!

Imagine the Roots, if Busta Rhymes and Onyx were members, and Bjork sang all the refrains. Sounds like a mess, but it works perfectly. This was kind of a hard record to pin down. The first track is all stuttering Timbaland, with a demented, off-kilter, Busta Rhymes style flow. Track 2 is a bit of jungle fluff, but from then on, it's all cream. Kind of like a grittier, streetwise Bjork record, with catchy as fuck melodies, wicked beats, and really funny, super creative rapping. Now usually I don't go for the light stuff (you know, Del, Tribe Called Quest, and all that), but the Spooks manage to add some grit and grime, making this record darker than I expected. And consequently, my favorite hip hop record since the Zion I.

Hmmm. Don't know exactly what to make of this. It's a sorta sci-fi themed mish mash of frantic beats, scratches, spacey fx and heavy guitars credited to the odd pairing of uber-intellectual DJ Spooky and Slayer/Fantomas drummer Dave Lombardo, with such equally unlikely guests as Chuck D, Dalek, Meredith Monk, Meat Beat Manifesto's Jack Dangers and Living Colour's Vernon Reid. Maybe the only question to ask is: how come Buckethead's not on this too? ...or Bill Laswell? Or Anthrax?? There's something very early '90s about this, and the trio of updated, electro-metallized PE raps that Chuck D contributes -- "Brother's Gonna Work It Out (2005)", "B-Side Wins Again (2005)", "Public Enemy #1 (2005)"-- just add to the deja vu. We mainly ordered this in 'cause the last unlikey Dave Lombardo collaboration (the one where he plays Vivaldi!) we encountered was actually weirdly cool. But this... not sure why it exists, exactly. Some parts are all right in and of themselves, but it doesn't seem to add up to anything other than a demonstration of the range of Spooky's Rolodex.

MPEG stream: B-Side Wins Again (2005)
MPEG stream: Terra Nullius (Cyborg Rebellion on Colony Planet Zyklon 15)

An interesting project -- DJ Spooky, resident illbient black boho issuing missives to the masses from NYC (eeuw, I'm starting to talk like him), enlists the talents of excellent avant / free jazzmen: shimmering piano courtesy Matthew Shipp, cakewalkin' groovy bass from William Parker, squeals and cries from Joe McPhee's horns, athletic, careful drumming from Guillermo E. Brown. And of course, Spooky on laptop / turntables / kalimba etc. I was all set for this to suck, but it doesn't suck. It's "jazzy" trip hop that works. It's actually some of the most accessible work I've heard from these jazz virtuosi, so it's a nice introduction to them if you find truly free jazz too abstract to enjoy. Once in a while some sadly predictable breakbeats cheapen the music, but those segments don't occur too often. Augmented with the vocal flow of Carl Hancock Rux, Napoleon, High Priest (Anti-Pop Consortium). Pauline Oliveros even makes an appearance. If you like the clips below, you'll like the album. WARNING: Just for heavens sake *don't* read the liner notes -- Spooky's so frickin' pretentious he ruins the experience. Let others do the critical analysis, no one wants to hear you analyze your own work, man! It's as if he thinks we won't "get it" unless he takes us by the hand and explains. The guy needs an editor: "Check the vibe as jazz for the gene-splicing generation. An echo of the here and now put through the hard drive... It's a voodoo economics of the sound waves rolling across the basilar membrane... It's a post-rational thing... It's a synaethesia [sic] thing...Use your eyes to hear and your ears to see -- check the rhythm reality." Aaargh! Is he stoned or something?

RealAudio clip: ibid, desmarches, ibid
RealAudio clip: Reactive Switching Strategies for the Control of Uninhabited Air
RealAudio clip: It's a mad, mad, mad, world

Boots Riley of The Coup and Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine.

Mike Skinner, otherwise known as The Streets, is this white British hip hopper with a Birmingham accent who raps about the mundanities of a life filled with trips to Mickey D's, pints of lager, barely scraping by, doing too many drugs, life's injustices, and so on, and on. That's really about it. Your standard hip hop blueprint, nothing wrong with that. And the musical backdrop to Skinner's rapping is pretty much doing what it's supposed to do, supplying beats and rhythms, chiming in with a sampled soulful vocal loop every time he has to stop to catch a breath. Really not that exciting. So why was this record nominated for Britain's prestigious Mercury Prize? I guess it's his style of rapping, which is this utterly monotone spoken flow (if you could call it that: his clearly enunciated passages actually sound sort of clipped). Very unpretentious, which is a good thing. It's not bad, and I kind of like the vocals, but... Hmm. Maybe if the instrumental accompaniment was better than the dub lite / UK-garagey / Casio preset stuff that's there now, then it would be great, but for now it's just kind of a novelty. Gold Chains is better than this. If it means anything to you, The Streets is the first band signed to the major-label sponsored VICE (yep, the magazine) Recordings. Oh, and it also includes 3 videos you can play on your computer. (They're just ok.)

RealAudio clip: Don't Mug Yourself
RealAudio clip: Weak Become Heroes

On red vinyl!

Yet another gnarled tendril of the ever expanding Anticon tree of life breaks up through the hip hop soil reaching for the sun! This time on the always impressive Lex label. The Anticon connection here, at least the most noticable one is the presence of Dose One and his immediately recognizable high pitched stream of consciousness flow. Sonically, A New White is the logical progression from the last Clouddead record Ten, loping organic instrumentals, simple, skittering, funky drum programming, sweetly melancholic melodies and of course Dose One. The main difference is that Subtle is a full on band, with a seriously varied instrumentation: electric and acoustic cello, electric and acoustic bass, woodwinds, synthesizers, drums, guitar, keyboards, melodica and sampler that offers up a way more expanded, and much fuller sound. The Subtle seasonal eps released over the last year or two sort of slipped under the radar, but this release should have everyone scrambling to catch up on what they missed. Anyone who digs Clouddead, Alias, Boom Bip, Themselves and all that Anticon stuff will obviously love this.

MPEG stream: Song Meat
MPEG stream: I Love L.A.

On their second album, Subtle (aka Jel and DoseOne also of cLOUDEAD, 13&God and Anticon) appear to have sat themselves right down in the vacant seats between TV On The Radio, Gnarls Barkley, Peeping Tom, heck, maybe even Black Eyed Peas and Outkast too! And they've done so with a rather comfortable ease. For Hero For Fool is a quirkful, good time blender magic of hip hop, pop, funk, soul and film score music. Groovy highlights include "The Mercury Craze" and "The Ends".

MPEG stream: The Mercury Craze
MPEG stream: The Ends

MPEG stream: Swanmeat
MPEG stream: Farewell Ride

Double disk set of the essential tracks by The Sugar Hill Gang plus lots of rarities, including a radio commercial and 12" b-sides. Comes with extensive liner notes on the history of The Sugarhill Gang.

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. A 180 gram vinyl colection of greatest hits from two groups that brought hip-hop from the streets of New York to global hit status. These guys took rap to a multi-billion dollar business forever changing the concept of popular music. Remember when MTV finally started showing hip-hop videos? Remember Yo! MTV Raps with Fab Five Freddie and Ed Lover? These guys paved the way for hip-hop to break ground into popular consumption. And here they are, a show-down between the two bands. Great hip-hop! Not the first of the time, but the biggest! And some of the best! Hells yes.

Most of you probably haven't heard of DJ Swamp, which is not all that surprising. His big claim to fame is his stint as Beck's DJ. But the sound here isn't all that Beck, it's a bit grimier and grungier and 'underground' sounding. There's some good stuff on

RealAudio clip: Ring Of Fire
RealAudio clip: Worship The Robots

Like the title indicates, freestyle raps galore, Sway and King Tech inviting a host of hiphoppers to do their stuff on the Wake Up Show. Some names: Pharoah Monch, the Jurassic 5, Eminem, Akinyele, GZA, Masta Killa, Onyx, DMX... Good stuff.

Four versions of the title track, which can also be found on his solo album, plus three versions of "Do You Dance". Once again in budget-priced cd format.

DJ Rob Swift of NYC's amazing X-Men! You remember him from Return of the DJ Volume 1. His full-length debut utilizes his turntable skills on some great jazz-funk grooves, getting into soundtrack-y DJ Shadow territory at points.

Highly anticipated solo record by one of the X-Ecutioners NYC turntablist crew.

[ aquarius records — Hiphop ]