The Witzard

golden pears by âtƒ "I wanted to make a full, lush-sounding album that retained lo-fi aesthetics... something that works as one big piece, instead of just a beat batch. Tried to mix everything together like I would a DJ set, hopefully it works. Also notable that I included a no-sample, guitar-based track ("duckling") and worked with an artist (Jared Pittack) on the cover. I usually don't included my non-beat music because it feels out of place, but it just felt appropriate to put it on there. Letting someone else design the cover was awesome, Jared came up with all that on his own and I think the tape is the better for it. Thx for the support man, cheers," self-described "electric wizard/cave-dweller" All These Fingers (âtƒ) wrote within a recent email containing his latest, and 44th released, mixtape: golden pears . I recently got in touch with âtƒ after hearing Future Islands frontman Sam Herring , aka sharp-tongued emcee Hemlock Ernst ,...

It's really no secret, at this point in time, that Future Islands frontman Samuel T. Herring moonlights as Socrates & Locke Ernstfrost -referencing greenhorn emcee Hemlock Ernst . "17 years in-the-making, Hemlock Ernst finally got pressed to wax. Thanks to @madlib and @nowagain for making my childhood dreams real," read an impassioned @futureislands Tweet posted on the heels of Sam Herring 's official Madlib -produced debut EP, Trouble Knows Me ; although, he professes he's been rapping since the 9th grade (around 1998), Hemlock Ernst 's first recorded appearance "on wax" was as recently as 2010 on Rapdragons' Baltimore -minded "Gotta Go." He's since rhymed alongside The Alchemist & Oh No (Gangrene) , Scallops Hotel, Curse ov Dialect , Milo, Busdriver , Cavanaugh, Open Mike Eagle , Scoop DeVille, Fat Tony 's Charge It to The Game , and most recently critically-acclaimed artists, BADBADNOTGOOD & Clams Casino ...

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...

"With bluesy organs, descending basslines, and one of the slowest, hardest-swaggering beats we've heard in a good while, "Everyday" calls upon [Rod] Stewart 's classic number "In a Broken Dream," re-contextualizing it as a tale of modern ennui (read: boredom )," as okayplayer effectively describes A$AP Rocky 's latest At.Long.Last.A$AP (ALLA) single, "Everyday;" recorded with a very unlikely cast of magnificent characters... Rod Stewart , Miguel, "Uptown Funk" super-producer Mark Ronson , and co-producer Emile Haynie. When it comes to ridiculous left-field collaborations, "Everyday" falls somewhere in between The Fat Boys' utterly awesome Beach Boys -backed "Wipe Out" and Kid Cudi 's surprisingly smooth Michael Bolton & King Chip -assisted "Afterwards (Bring Yo' Friends)." Ronson ingeniously managed to convince R&B crooner Miguel to passionately sing: "Everyd...

It must be pretty hard to try to stay "Punk Rock," rebellious, and still keep food on the table these days; Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA V) was released last week and features a pretty awesome, broad-spanning in-game soundtrack. Rockstar uploaded an expansive 59-track 3 volume collection to iTunes: The Soundtrack, Original Music, and The Score (composed by Tangerine Dream ). Included within are tracks, both new and old, from the likes of Clams Casino , Tyler The Creator, Oh No , Yeasayer, Jai Paul , Lee "Scratch" Perry, Yellowman , WAVVES, and recently re-invigorated Hardcore super-group OFF! The Keith Morris -penned "What's Next?" was conjured up exclusively for GTA V and plays alongside Black Flag , Descendents, The Weirdos , and The Germs on a fictitious radio preset. Noisey reports that Morris, just off a stint with Black Flag off-shoot FLAG , should "head [in]to the studio soon to record a full-length of all new tracks." VICE R...

"WE REMIXED THE BEAT FOR "GUV'NOR" AND DOOM SPAT NEW VERSES ON THE TRACK," BADBADNOTGOOD (BBNG) Tweeted almost immediately preceding Noisey's world premier of the JJ DOOM remix, which was lifted from Keys to The Kuffs (Butter Edition) . Lex Records plans to unleash the expanded and remixed album version on August 21st, but sadly the 12" picture discs won't ship until the end of October; The 2-CD set includes the original 14-track album, plus 4 BRAND NEW tracks and a gaggle of all-star remixes, 2 of which make use of expanded DOOM verses, too. In addition to BBNG and in-house producer Jneiro Jarel , Butter Edition features glitched-out remix contributions from Beck , Clams Casino, Radiohead members Thom Yorke & Jonny Greenwood , and TV on The Radio mega-producer Dave Sitek . Chester Hansen, Alex Sowinski & Matt Tavares AKA BADBADNOTGOOD previously recorded and self-released a blazin' instrumental Jazz cover titled "DO...

I read some fragments from a partially disjointed Noisey interview with Jeff Broadway and Peanut Butter Wolf , the director of forthcoming documentary "Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton: This Is Stones Throw Records" and the Indie Hip-Hop label's co-founder the other day. One particularly interesting [tid]bit dealt with the film's star-studded interview section; when the interviewer said, " Kanye must've been a hard get," Broadway quickly responded, "Actually, as far as who took the most convincing, that'd be DOOM ." Yep, 1/2 of MADVILLAIN , the walking enigma formerly known as MF DOOM was hard to track down - Go figure! ha Preceded by a behind-the-scenes making-the-video segment the other day, Noisey UK ( DOOM currently resides in South London ) released the Steve "ESPO" Powers -directed "BOOKHEAD" clip late Wednesday afternoon. Lex Records must really have DOOM in a tight nut-hold, cause they're already r...

It's a collaboration that no one really expected, but everyone secretly dreamt about and longed for: [MF] DOOM & Clams Casino ! We're talkin' about the most mysterious man in Hip-Hop and rising Cloud Rap beat-maker, Mike Volpe (Clams Casino). The Nutley, NJ native's self-released Instrumentals 1-2 mixtapes (2011-12) are arguably right up there with classic DOOM albums Operation: Doomsday , Mm.. Food, and MADVILLAINY , and MF DOOM Meets Clutchy Hopkins. @clammyclams Tweeted early Monday morning, "new track (feat. DOOM ) available now at new site CLAMMYCLAMS.COM ," which in turn, linked to Soundcloud . "BOOKFIEND" essentially features DOOM spitting wordy, dense rhymes about occult leader Alistair Crowly , Kindle tablets, allusions to "November Has Come," whatever the Hell Tetragrammaton is, and Netflix over a spaced out Clams Casino beat... "It's Netflix to the head, second best trick to get chicks to the bed....

Depending on who you ask, LONGLIVEA$AP is easily the most progressive/digressive Hip-Hop album of the last 5-10 years! A$AP Rocky sprinkles in stylistic touches [musical nods] to Public Enemy 's youthful rebellion, Wu-Tang Clan's expert swordsmen-ship, Beastie Boys' "Fight for Your Right to Party" mentality, and Kanye 's worldly fashion sense throughout the record. While it leaked back in early December nearly a full month a head of it's impending Jan. 15th release date, it's the sheer power of featured rappers and producers that's either gonna make or break the eventual fate of LONGLIVEA$AP . Shit, almost 1/2 of the album's rapping friends are housed on 2 MASSIVE posse cuts, "F*ckin' Problems" and "1 Train:" Action Bronson , Danny Brown, Kendrick Lamar , Joey Bada$$, Drake , Yelawolf , Big K.R.I.T. and 2 Chainz. Florence [-The Machine], Gunplay, Pharrell , Gucci Mane, and Waka Flocka 's assorted talents ar...

Purity Ring - "Belispeak II" (Danny Brown) While Danny Brown has already worked with non- Hip-Hop cats like The Big Pink and The Streets The D.O.T. , he recently Tweeted : "Everybody I wanna work with don't wanna work with me, so I gave up on asking people to do songs with me a long time ago." Mr. Brown then proceeded to list The Weeknd and Purity Ring amongst his dream collaborators. Nearly 1 month later @ 12 midnight Oct. 9-10th, Purity Ring quietly debuted "Belispeak II" online, which just so happens to feature Danny Brown ! Back in August, Corin Roddick mentioned to Pitchfork that his production work's influenced by Soulja Boy, Justin Timberlake, Clams Casino , and that he'd "really like to get into producing for Hip-Hop and R&B artists." " [Danny] Brown , who first saw Purity Ring on their summer tour, expressed interest in wanting to work with the band via Twitter and the two then exchanged ide...

A few things about Matthewdavid 's new EP are almost instantly alarming "right off the bat:" (1.) That call-to-arms of a title - Producers In 2012 Learn to Spread Love EP ! (2.) Submissive-looking Rick James flanked by 2 fucking 3-eyed tigers on the cover... vaguely reminiscent of a terribly AWESOME tattoo! (3.) The massive amount of "sound ground" that Matthewdavid somehow manages to cover over the course of 3 brief tracks: Soul , Dubstep, Chopped & Screwed , Hip-Hop, Pop, Dark R&B , etc. Matthewdavid's overall style is essentially an Ambient sort of Instrumental Hip-Hip , something largely popularized by guys like Clams Casino in recent years. Matthewdavid [McQueen]'s lengthy-titled EP comes on the heels of his Brainfeeder debut, Outmind (Feb. 2012) which was released in conjunction with his own label imprint, Leaving Records . They successfully self-released Matthewdavid 's most recent project, a mixtape called Jewelry EP ; It ...

I guess bath salts are a formidable, new substitute for getting "CRUNK" in today's Popular [Hip-Hop] Culture ; Basically used to describe getting crazy/drunk @ a party... minus all the face-gnawing, bullet holes, carnage, nausea, and paranoia-enducing side effects, etc. A$AP Rocky and YG Addie A$AP Ant have enlisted the help of fellow Brooklyn area emcees, Flatbush Zombies for their latest track - "Bath Salts," which is seemingly the first cut from A$AP Mob's upcoming (untitled) Killa Beez -like group album. That very album will feature A$AP Rocky 's complete, lesser-know Rap crew: A$AP Twelvy, Ant, Yams, Bari, Ferg, Ty Beats, Nast , and resident producer, Clams Casino . "Untitled" A$AP Mob comp. is rumored to see a proper release sometime before A$AP Rocky 's debut record, LONGLIVEA$AP , which comes out on Sept. 11th (Polo Grounds). "Bath Salt" was produced by a up-and-coming young beatsmith who chooses to go by the my...

When Instrumentals first dropped last year, it had that underlying "something great is going to happen" sort of feel and now a year later, on the heels of Instrumentals 2 , something great HAS indeed happened! Even when just looking @ it's commercial reception, Instrumentals achieved leaps and bounds for an independent online release; The collection was eventually label-released and re-mastered. This homegrown success is essentially what allowed Clams Casino to make the type of high-profile beats that he's managed to create in recent months. Gaining dual acceptance into both mainstream/underground circles has allowed Mike Volpe [Clams] the chance to work with Lil B , Soulja Boy, Florence + The Machine , G-Side , The Jealous Guys, and Big K.R.I.T. In fact, most of the instrumentals featured across Instrumentals 2 have been stripped down and re-purposed as vocal-less edits. These tracks previously housed either A$AP Rocky , The Weeknd, Lana del Rey , Squadda B , W...

For all intensive purposes, MondreMAN is the "Rakim" of up-and-coming Oakland "Cloud Rap" duo, Main Attrakionz . Aside from the fact that they quite obviously love weed, beer, Pro Wrestling , and "airy" [ Ambient ] beats... little else is known about the illusive rapper/beatsmith team, nor their Green Ova crew. Since bursting onto the Indie Hip-Hop scene back in 2010 along with fellow stream-of-conscious artists like Cities Aviv, Danny Brown, Lil B , Clams Casino , A$AP Rocky, Das Racist , and Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire ... Squadda B & MondreMAN have branched off to record separate solo projects. MondreMAN liberated his latest effort, M A N EP back in December, which has easily become his most well-received release. Surf on over to Main Attrakionz' Bandcamp page to pick up selections from their newest batch of solo, group, and Killa Beez -esque releases. During his latest promotional push behind M A N EP, MondreMAN released a companio...

Yeah, sometimes Hip-Hop seems pretty sexist, egotistical, and uninspired @ times. But everything doesn't always have to be über-complex and life-shattering... so, yeah whatever! I feel as though A$AP Rocky's latest music video: "Wassup?" is miles away from uninspired; In fact, it's highly-conceptual and well thought out. A collaboration with London -based Journalist/Editor , Andy Capper (VICE) , laid over Clams Casino 's typically lush production work, which showcases Rocky's creative side. The track stems from A$AP Rocky 's nearly instantly popular post-label contract mixtape, LIVELOVEA$AP . Dually billed as co-director, Pretty Flacko displays his "acting chops" and pays tribute to a few of his favourite films: The Warriors, Scarface, Willy Wonka (1971), Belly , and Enter The Dragon . Purple background tints, plenty of "40's," scantily-clad women, weed, Benjamins , etc. are of course thrown in for good measure. A$AP Rock...

"Evian Christ" is a mysterious, young British music producer who randomly uploaded a handful of promising tracks to YouTube over the weekend; In fact, 8 sample-based instrumentals were uploaded to the newly-created account over the course of the past few days. Dummy notoriously posted about Evian Christ & "drip" when it had just 1 mere hit (Dec. 30th) and their accompanying music has since set the blogosphere ablaze! Track titles are mildly cryptic and include: "thrown like jacks," "go girl," and "fridge, crank, gun." Only time will tell who "Evian Christ" really is and what's truly in store for him/her. But based solely off all of this recent media attention, I can only image that it will imminently result in the signing of a major label deal. If KREAYSHAWN can get a $1 million deal/1.5 million hits, then I'm sure that Evian Christ can manage to get some sort of semi-size-able deal off all this web-gen...

Self-proclaimed "Ringtone Rapper," Soulja Boy is that young, instantly successful artist that everyone loves to hate. Soulja's detractors proclaimed that he's one of the highly "disposable" rappers that have allegedly "killed" [ruined] Hip-Hop in recent years. His die-hard fans will obviously fire back with examples supporting the exact opposite. I must admit that I am in fact one of those fans; Albeit a close observer who's followed Soulja Boy 's career path over the years, but a fan nonetheless. A creative 21-year-old young man hailing from Chicago , Soulja Boy 's overall message is surprisingly positive and violence free - In an era of "Hard as Nails" gun-slinging rappers, DeAndre Way is a rarity: Guy simply traveling down the straight-and-narrow who claims absolutely no gang affiliation whatsoever nor a violent, blood-drenched past. Soulja Boy initially burst onto the music scene with debut single/turned viral meme, ...

Earlier this year, 23-year-old Nutley, NJ native, Mike Volpe ("Clams Casino") released a mixtape chock-full of instrumental Hip-Hop beats - completely on a whim. Said mixtape, the aptly-titled "Instrumentals" was received with great praise far and wide! So, instead of making one of those cliché "Year-End Lists" like everyone and their brother, though I will admit that I briefly contemplated the idea... I'm just gonna go ahead and say it: Clams Casino - Instrumentals was hands down, the Mixtape Album of The Year ! And with that said, it's almost inappropriate to categorize this genre-jumping materpiece as solely "Hip-Hop." Soon after, Witch-House label, Tri Angle released a collection of original Volpe material: Rainforest EP (June 2011). For all intensive purposes, Clams Casino essentially created Lil B 's now infamous stream-of-consciousness #BASED musical stylings. One could further argue that Volpe also had a strong ha...

Lana del Rey [Lizzy Grant] effectively became 2011's "It Girl" with the release of her phenomenal debut single, "Video Games" (Stranger) . Like many struggling singer-songwriters, Grant has been signed, dropped, and significantly changed her public image since bursting onto the scene (2009). With that said, it can be assumed that Lana del Rey has collected just as many "haters" as she has avid supporters. To be perfectly honest, the only other artist I can think of that made this much commotion... garnered so much wide-spread buzz/hate and critical acclaim -- right out of the gates -- with just one track is Britney Spears . And maybe in this post- Mike musical era, that's the true synthesis of Pop Culture: Britney Lynn Spears . After months of repeated teasing and speculation, Lana del Rey 's major label debut, Born 2 Die will [finally] be released this coming Jan. 30-31, 2012. Pitchfork reports that it will feature "Off to The Ra...

Full disclosure: This is like a "Dream Post" for us here @ The Witzard , as it includes 3 of my absolute favourite things... Indie Hip-Hop , voluptuous women [redheads], and cutting-edge sample sources. I really hope that all of my fellow Hip-Hop heads and crate-diggers , and of course our array of female fans thoroughly enjoy this assortment of tracks, too. The blending of Lana del Rey's sampled vocal riffs and go-to Hip-Hop stylings makes more sense than you might think... since Lana del Rey is in fact, a self-proclaimed Hip-Hop aficionado: "You're so fresh to death & sick as ca-cancer. You were sorta Punk Rock , I grew up on Hip-Hop ." I must admit that I'm really looking forward to seeing/hearing what this seductive songstress has in store next for the music industry! For starters, it should be noted that up-and-coming producer "Silky Johnson" is in fact named after Dave Chappelle 's infamous character of the same name, who ap...