The Witzard

RE: Crates 001 by Pat Van Dyke "After the release of Technicolor HI-FI , the fellas from Open Crates approached me about recording some music to launch a series of 7-inch vinyl releases that would feature remixes, re-works, and edits of existing music... essentially, a series of "bootlegs" or "white labels." I'd been anxious to take a stab at recording re-interpretations of songs that had influenced me over the years, so I was keen to make it happen," self-described drummer, producer, and band leader Pat Van Dyke (PVD) wrote within a recently emailed statement. PVD has once again teamed up with his "It's Alright" collaborators Melinda Camille & David Stolarz , as well as bassist Josh David , DJ MentPlus, and horn players Bryan Beninghove, Ted Chubb & Peter Lin to collectively unveil Open Crates' premier edition of their RE: Crates 45 series. "A few months passed and we had a show at Brooklyn Museum performing ...

"We recorded "Letting Off Steam" here in [Australia] in 2014. We both dug that joint, but it didn't make the album for various reasons; so, good to let the peeps hear it. Written and recorded in the same day. Just a dope vibe, really. Guilty killed that beat. Mad flow on that... "Love" is a joint we also had to leave off the album due to the album length. Neither of us like long records. It's a dope jam and Guilty's message/ lyrics are amazing. I really wanted peeps to hear that joint. Its deep. I mixed it again and got a much better mix, which is the one you [hear] released a couple of days back. That's all I can tell you." – Detroit's Son and Detroit & Extras producer Katalyst "Right now, all I'm listening to is beats. DETROIT'S SON is my favorite album. And I'm in a time capsule, bro – I'm still listening to The Commodores ha! I'm really into my own wave right now. I mostly listen to Jazz , when I...

While tough-as-nails emcees Guilty Simpson & Danny Brown don't seemingly have much in common (aside from mutual collaborator Black Milk ), the two like-minded lyrical wordsmiths are surprisingly cut from the same battle-worn "cloth." Simpson & Brown both just so happen to have unleashed newly-minted material yesterday, August 3rd: "Animal" produced by Quakers beatsmith Katalyst and "Worth It" produced by Lil B affiliate, Clams Casino , respectively. Late Monday afternoon, I curiously Tweeted @guiltysimpson , whom I recently had the opportunity to interview for this very site , inquiring if he and Mr. Brown had ever worked together; to which he quickly replied with a video still of Elzhi 's "Fire" Remix featuring Black Milk , GUILTY SIMPSON, Fatt Father , DANNY BROWN, and Fat Ray . Lest we forget, Guilty & Danny additionally teamed up way back in 2010 on Quelle -produced Detroit State of Mind 4 mixtape cut, "Mu...