The Witzard

From what I can gather, Drynage Orchestra is a Japanese Hip-Hop crew consisting of emcees Steez & Grow-D , as well as in-house producer GG . It appears as though there's, also, a group within the group, Garahavi , consisting of just Steez & Grow-D ; " Garahavi takes their name from the classic Edo G[/Ed O.G.] song "I Got to Have It, " which, when said in Japanese , sounds like "Garahavi."' Drynage Orchestra/GG & Garahavi 's latest release, "Forbidden Fruit," features New York -based emcee Jaylon "Timid" Carter . Oddly enough, Timid has toured extensively with Ed O.G. and, actually, first met Grow-D & Steez a few years back while touring across Japan with Ed O.G. & Da Bulldogs and his crew. Timid has shared the stage with the likes of Travis Barker & DJ AM , Warren G, Paul Wall , Jeru The Damaja, CunninLynguists , A-Alikes, Agallah of Dipset , and Pack FM. Carter has been fortunate enough to w...

Root Down feat. Fleur Earth - Oonops Drops Vol. 1 by Nautilus German -based DJ Oonops (AKA Patrick Decker ) is a self-described "connoisseur of tight spider beats and juggler with different musical genres" who hosts a monthly Brooklyn Radio Mixcloud show and has compiled guest mixes for world-renown stations such as Laid Back Radio (LDBK) and Breakin' Bread . As DJ Oonops tells it, he first discovered Japanese Jazz Fusion/Soul-Funk trio Nautilus "a few years ago" by chance, upon diggin' up their first few 45 singles; amazed with their work, Decker soon "got in touch with [Nautilus] and dropped several tunes in [his] shows for Brooklyn Radio " including Oonops Drops - Straight from Japan II , Smoky Jazz Session 4, Black Gold of The Sun , WORLD TRIAL 2, and SMOKY JAZZ SESSIONS 5 . "After that, I had the idea to bring them on German label Agogo Records for a wider audience and I compiled this compilation out of their first two albums...

"Video premiere!! Thanks to Otto Granillo and Junko Seki , I got to get my [New Wave] on producing this catchy tune, "Wallflower" for their group Kotolan . Mixed beautifully by my main man, Stephen Kaye at SunKing Studios ," The Lions producer and bandleader Dan Ubick AKA Connie Price enthusiastically wrote on Facebook this past May; just about a month after "Wallflower," Kotolan unleashed their second Dan Ubick -produced single, "Toyko Subway." Trombonist, audio-visual artist, and "OTO" half of Kotolan , Otto Granillo recently told me that he and his wife/bandmate Junko Seki "have been writing an producing singles lately, instead of making an album." Although, Granillo says they're currently "throwing around the idea of releasing a full-length album in the future [with] a group of previously-released singles from a specific year/period" of Kotolan 's recent work. Granillo currently plays trombo...

(1) For people not exactly familiar with your musical output, how would you best describe the process of recording with guitar pedals and loops? I feel like my process is very straightforward. Its just one layer at a time, just like a painting. I use my pedals to change the color or timbre of the guitar. The loop pedal allows me to maintain a canvas, and the pedals and guitar allow me to paint on it. (2) What sort of new projects, if any, are you currently working on? Would you care to go into a little detail (for each)? As of now Takako Minekawa and I are working on a new record. I just bought myself a sampler keyboard, its exactly the same model Takako and I use for our duo. I told the public that the last record I made was my last guitar looping record. I wanted to get this sampler for myself and see what kind of sounds I can collect and use for my new adventure of music making. (3) I recently reviewed your new Soundcloud track, "Foggy Cliffy Night Drive," w...

After establishing what could best be described as a budding "bromance" with seasoned Less Than Jake bassist Roger Lima (@lessthanRAJ) , experimental guitar virtuoso Dustin Wong simply Tweeted a rough new track, along with a quick micro-message: "some new sounds from a week ago : )." It's 2:34-worth of guitar-drenched hiccups that Wong's dubbed "Foggy Cliffy Night Drive" and essentially, the latest output to be added to his ever-growing post- Ponytail solo discography. Fresh on the heels of the conclusion to an expansive three-album arc, Meditation of Ecstatic Energy (2012), Dustin Wong seems to already be working on the proper follow-up to his latest September-released Thrill Jockey album. A self-proclaimed guitar loop and pedal innovator, Wong recently lamented to Ad-Hoc , "I had a show about a month ago [August] where I was using three loop pedals with different set-ups; it was all improvised, looping guitar and vocals. I was actu...

These here, my friends, are a few of the things that "Blog Dreams" are made of: 1-3 buzz-worthy new-comers, chemistry, kinship, spur-of-the-moment collaboration, creativity... sex, drugs, and violence. With little-no concrete information to springboard off of, this post will almost purely consist of cold, hard reporting! Hodgy Beats' complex rhyme schemes are cleverly strewn across the bleeps and blips of a Jonti -produced beat. Overall, the final product [dubbed "Nagoya" ] is truly a brilliant juxtaposition of the interesting pair's Pop tendencies and sheer aggression. A beat which was reportedly created, flourished, laced, and completed over the course of one mere night (9/27-28). Hodgy Beats is a flourishing member of LA -based Odd Future and it's sub-crew, MellowHype ; While Jonti [Danimals] is a talented multi-instrumentalist /producer, hailing from Sydney, Australia and Stones Throw Records . Be on the look out for Jonti 's debut long-p...