The Witzard

Jumbled watering his pumpkins (SOURCE: John Bachman) So, by now, anyone who regularly reads this site should know we are long-time, supporters, and fans of anything our beat-making friend from Baltimore, John Bachman (otherwise known as Jumbled) creates and releases to the masses. With that said, Jumbled is back with his latest seasonal EP, Project 138. Yes, this is a project primarily featuring samples from New Jersey's own Horror Punk pioneers, The Misfits, and, maybe, even some Samhain & Danzig, too. It's hard to tell, though, because Jumbled layers samples and creates his beats so well, but Glenn Danzig and company are sampled throughout; Project 138, also, incorporates audio soundbites about The Misfits and their genre-altering rise to fame like bats out of Hell. Project 138 by Jumbled Bachman describes his inspirations behind creating the ghoulish project as, "there have been a few "inspired by..." Rap projects lately, but I feel like they haven...

ALYX Ryon & Jumbled still from "Stan Kenton" music video (CREDIT: John Bachman) We're proud to share "Stan Kenton," the latest collaboration from D.C. emcee ALYX Ryon and Baltimore beat-maker Jumbled (by day, known as John Bachman) self-released today on Bandcamp. It's a raucous less than two-minute track encapsulated over a squalling drum-lade horn sample expertly executed by Jumbled himself. This new song serves as an introduction to their upcoming collaborative album slated to drop this summer. Said project has been in-the-making for a few years now following fruitful collaborations on Jumbled's Christmas album, Merry Christmess (2017,) and his Doo-wop indebted project, Jumbled's Jukebox [Doo-wop Inspired Hip-Hop], last year. ALYX Ryon is an up-and-coming rapper from the Washington, D.C. area with many singles and a few albums under his belt. He's a member of JUSTGORILLA, YungZILLA The ZillaGAHD, and TIXE, in addition to his own solo a...

It's Bandcamp Friday once more and like many of you, we woke up to about a hundred new Bandcamp Release Notification emails this morning. Honestly, there are far to many releases out today (and every Bandcamp Friday, for that matter) to spotlight here. Although, there are definitely ways to find and support music from your favorite underground artists, who will be recieving 100% of their total sales today, on Bandcamp today. We're quickly just gonna spotlight two of our personal favorite releases today, which both just go happen to be beat tapes. Run is a new 12-minute mini-beat tape from Baltimore beat-maker Jumbled. Jumbled says, "this project is a showcase of new beats loosely tied together with sound clips from videos and songs releated to The Super Mario [Bros.] This project may disappear down a Warp Pipe in the near future..." Jumbled had been noticing a lot of Super Mario references in songs he's heard recently and wanted to tie them together with som...

School is back in session across the Nation and our favorite teacher, husband, father, beat-maker, and dish-washer, John "Jumbled" Bachman has shared a new 7-track EP for your communte to and from work/school. Bachman is back with JUMBLED'S JUKEBOX, a collection of Doo-Wop inspired Hip-Hop. Jumbled describes it as "a project inspired by Tuesday night trips to the grocery store—jumping in the car and hearing the Doo-Wop radio show on 90.5 WKHS, out of Kent County, Maryland." JUMBLED'S JUKEBOX makes good use of "songs that have been long-forgotten by most, but are still cherished by some." It showcases a selection of vocalists over Jumbled's bare-bones instrumentation that harken back to simpler, times. This brief collection contains a varied assortment of beats with Jumbled choosing to not just sample Doo-Wop harmonies, but, also, include songs (samples? beats?) that maintain that vibe, as well. Jumbled's Jukebox by Jumbled Guests hear...

Sorry I've been a bit absent from writing here lately... but helping raise a nearly 1-year-old baby, along with studying for my Drone Pilot Certification Test, has been A LOT these past few weeks! However, today, we're produd to present to you the new joint EP from Philly rapper Torito and Baltimore beat-maker Jumbled. Music for The Rapture is a project that came out of a year of isolation from The Pandemic and from the sense of impending doom that, unfortunately, grew all-too familiar during that time. Torito & Jumbled have only ever met once in-person when Torito's tour stop took him to a Baltimore Chinese restaurant for a show that kicked off with (guess what...?) a Jumbled beat set. Since then, the pair have tediously pieced together Music for The Rapture with the shared mindset and restricted pace of working parents with young children. While only amassing four tracks in just under 10 minutes, Music for The Rapture is brimming with Torito's layered lyricism a...

SOURCE: MF DOOM CAPSPOSTING (CREDIT: Angel "Tha Soloist" Vergara) Honestly, it doesn't even feel like there's a proper way to elegize an eccentric and extremely talented artist such as MF DOOM, who meant so much to so many of us for so many years for so many different reasons as truly unique as DOOM himself. So, what better way to pay tribute to The Man, The Myth, THE MASK himself than by speaking to those closest to him? With a heavy heart, I proudly present Shadows of Tomorrow; a new recurring column in tribute to DOOM in an effort to re-tell the tall tales, strange stories, and lesser-known tidbits of The Metal Face Villain himself. R.I.P. Daniel "MF DOOM" Dumile Thompson. "The first time I heard MF DOOM rap, I told the person who got me hip [to him] I could "rap better" than DOOM. I didn't understand it. I was listening to, like, Curren$y & Odd Future and sh*t, but that was not long-lived, as I heard "One Beer" the n...

Just this past Friday was the first Bandcamp Friday of 2021 and to help celebrate the occasion, our favorite Baltimore-based producer, JUmbled (who describes himself as falling "somewhere between Madlib & Mike Watt") returned with a gaggle of goodies: a new project, Classic Rock Breaks, Vol. 1 and a CD-only comp. entitled Just The Singles , as well as resurfaced CD copies of his early Rap/Hip-Hop album, Keep Diggin' , Monster Jam, YOU DON'T KNOW?! with bonus cuts, and Bully Preston's The Insult, and cassettes of You Best Not Miss with Lace Berriez and his 2019 instrumental beat tape, Padre. Classic Rock Breaks vol.1 by Jumbled As stated above, Just The Singles is a Tone Lōc - Lōc-ed After Dark-inspired CD-only comp. featuring Jumbled's collaborative efforts with the likes of ALASKA, Cody Cody Jones, Dot-Com Intelligence, Dwell, salk. Drew Scott, Torito, UllNevaNo, Vans_Westly, and more. For those painfully unaware, the remainder of the aforementioned...

CREDIT: Hand-cut "EAST." Art By: John Bachman (@NapalmDef) Happy New Year to all of our trusty readers out there! Let's hope this year will be better than the last! Today, for our first post of 2021, we're back with new music from Vans_Westly & Jumbled. We've previously featured Vans' 2017 QUILLS EP produced by NelWayne & Drew Scott, which was followed up by Bubble Boy (2018) with beats from Scott & Height Keech and released on Cold Rhymes Records. Vans_Westly's latest release, an EP entitled Rapscallion, fully produced by friend of The Witzard, John Bachman AKA Jumbled. Rapscallion was, actually, released on November's bandcamp Friday last year with 50% of the profits raised going towards Bail Fund and 50% towards BARCS or as Vans himself put it, "100 percent goes to good sh*t!" Rapscallion by Vans_Westly Now, as 2021 has kick-started itself into gear, Vans_Westly has returned once more with a proper music video for Rapsc...

If The Witzard mainstay John "Jumbled" Bachman is truly "somewhere between Madlib & Mike Watt," does that mean Eben Dennis is the James Williamson to his Mike Watt? For those unfamiliar with this head-scratching "analogy," Mike Watt & James Williamson appeared together within the 2000's reunited iteration of Iggy Pop-helmed The Stooges ; Williamson played guitar with Iggy from 1970-71, 1972-74, and 2009-13, while Watt joined between 2003-13 playing bass across Stooges "reunion" albums The Weirdness (2007) and Ready to Die (2013.) Thus, we've been familiar with Eben Dennis' musical output just as long as we've been writing about Jumbled. In fact, Dennis provided additional guitar riffs to Berko Lover-assisted "Sam Adams" from our very first introduction to Jumbled, 2016's [I wish it was longer] or WIWL. Only Devotion by Plague Saints We've since covered John Bachman & Eben Dennis' work togeth...

"PGH to PHL. Cody & Don have been yucking it up as pals and collaborators for years, but up until now, they have never done a full album together," reads a description on Bandcamp. ialive & Cody Cody Jones (then, known as Stillborn Identity) have been working together sporadically ever since 2015-16. ialive appeared alongside Cody on Jumbled-produced "Groundhog Day" from STLBRNcollabamonth2015. "Often succumbing to areas of internal turmoil, we see the boys letting go of inhibitions, flipping the script, and cutting loose on tracks like a dirtbike through dry leaves," said description continues. Through 2017, Cody Cody Jones & ialive released two collaborative digital splits together entitled FOUR TO THE FLOOR 1-2. ialive appeared alongside Blastmaster Baker on "Call of The Void" from Cody's monthly/year-long 2018 project, Year of The Dog. Rap of The Month. ialive & Cody Cody Jones have since worked together on a number of...

As many of you may know, this past Friday was Bandcamp Friday, wherein Bandcamp decide to waive their artist fees, graciously giving artists 100% of their profits accrued over a 24-hour period. My wife and I had a baby appointment on Friday, but I posted a comprehensive Twitter THREAD containing noteworthy new releases. Plus, I personally supported nine different artists spending $40 in total on Friday alone. This was the second time Bandcamp has done such Bandcamp Fridays events amidst these uncertain time and I hear, there are already plans to do another one in June. So, even though this month's Bandcamp Friday has already passed, your favorite Indie/underground artists could still use you support! We've decided to run a couple features spotlighting some of our favorite artists, albums, EP's, mixtapes, genres, etc. right here on The Witzard! We're calling it Best of Bandcamp and this inaugural edition will spotlight Bandcamp-only beat tapes released in recent weeks...

We've been repping Jumbled AKA John Bachman here at The Witzard ever since his 2018 release, [I wish it was longer] or simply, WIWL . Self-described as "somewhere between Madlib & Mike Watt," the teacher, husband, father, beat-maker, dish-washer has been nothing short of productive these last four years. Bachman is a huge component in both the Baltimore and East Coast Hip-Hop music scenes and has, personally, been a great ally here at The Witzard. Jumbled has released action shots ep, The Ghost of Len Bias with UllNevaNo , THE INSULT with Dwell as Bully Preston, Merry Christmess, YOU DON'T KNOW?!, You Best Not Miss with Lace Berriez , Padre, and August Heat all on his own imprint, Harford & Reckord Tapes since WIWL . His latest effort, ORSULAK , definitely doesn't disappoint either; here, Jumbled has joined forces once more with his long-time friend and collaborator, Eben Dennis , for something that's a little more Mike Watt-leaning than his t...

"CAPITOL RECORDS' BEASTIE BOYS LOOT "PAUL'S BOUTIQUE" -- NEW ALBUM IN YOUR FACE BY MID-JULY "Yo, whassup with de Beasties??!! What gives, they split to Rio or somp'un?' Yeah, yeah, everyone's favorite B (for Beastie) Boys have taken their time getting new vinyl out. But I am here to tell you that the time has c o m e t o q u i t y e r j o n e s i n ' , cause...dum dum dum.. .IT'S HERE. So this new records oughta blow away any speculations and/or misconceptions surrounding the Beastie Boys. It's called Paul's Boutique , and it's coming out on Capitol Records -- the Beastie's brand new label. The LP is named after a men's store in Brooklyn whose low-tech radio ad -- phone number and all -- is sampled right into the LP. The album should hit sometime around mid-July. The first 12", featuring the Boys' upstanding anthem "Hey Ladies," will drop June 30th. The sleeve picture for the 1...

GRIND NO DIE by Constituents A couple years ago, we did a feature on Baltimore -based Grindcore band Constituents AKA CNSTS' 2017 DEMO cassette and digital release here at The Witzard . However, over the course of the past year and a half, CNSTS have morphed from a 4-piece to a 3-piece now consisting of vocalist josé , guitarist/bassist clint. and drummer zap . Just yesterday, Constituents "quietly" returned, which is ironic, with their second proper digital release simply entitled GRIND NO DIE . It's a blistering 7-minute mix of Grindcore , Powerviolence, and Metal , which consists of 9 "micro-songs." It also, contains an "INTRO," as well as numerous interlude "skits" created by Baltimore beat-maker and friend of The Witzard , Jumbled AKA John Bachman . East Coast Grindcore die-hards and Hip-Hop heads will well know, however, that this isn't exactly Jumbled & clint. AKA salk. 's first time appearing on record to...