Mimar the Beat Curator's Ninth Pick - Onra

This week's selection: Onra's unrivaled Bye Bye or The Final Chapter

Onra. Straight outta France. I can't put to words my respect for the guy's music. Which is clearly what you want to read on a music blog, said nobody. His style is persistent, defined, unique. His original chippy, almost glitch-hop style gives way to a profound knowledge and respect for music that is increasingly rare in hip-hop production.

The Chinoiseries gave me life! Volumes One and Two carried me for years, and really put me on to sampling and the art-form. There are maybe 6 or 7 producers who put me on to beat-making and ultimately got me to put myself to work at it; Dilla, madlib, Doom, J.Rocc, nothing people would be too wowed by, but the one I always pulled out as my wildcard was Onra. This cat is crazy. Volume 3 is no exception to the rule.

I usually try to go real underground and shine a light on an artist who the folks who stumble upon this might never have heard of, but Onra is certainly no longer that. The fella has blown up, he's got a following, and whatever I say has probably already been said elsewhere. The guy has an ear for a sample. For a few years since his 2nd chinoiseries volume dropped, he'd shifted towards a new style, 'future funk,' a kind of shout-out to 90s cali-style elevator r&b. Different enough from his previous albums that I personally wondered how he'd come back to what had made the Chinoiseries series what it is.

I'm not disappointed.  He's cultivated more variety and nuance to his percussions as a product of his forays into his new stylings, but stayed true to his chopped up samples from old Southeast-Asian records. That he's a French native with family roots in the region he is culling the samples from only adds a layer of intrigue to it, a subtle kind of subconscious self-discovery trip through his ancestry and culture. Perhaps I'm creating a narrative where it doesn't exist, but he certainly seems to have fun with the samples he's using, and an affinity for them that until now, three full servings, has been great to listen to. And it's brought forth records which will probably get a lot of burn over the years. Was it better than the first two volumes of the series? My favorite remains 2. Part of it is the novelty. Now you really kind of know what to expect. That first one blew me away as something I'd never heard before. The second cause it somehow managed to be more refined, crisper, but still diiirty in all the right ways, somehow better than the first. This one was solid. Not a fall off, which speak to its quality, but doesn't make the leaps and bounds required for me to keep the headphones glued to my head for a full two weeks like the last time... My only beef, through his twitter account I've learned the man is a Pacers fan. Any self-respecting New Yorker who lived through what Reggie Miller did to us in the playoffs knows that's a big no-no [Mutombo finger wag].

As always, check my music out too. I'm giving out codes for free copies of my first album Follow me on sptofy, take a screenshot to proove it and post it... somewhere, letting me know, and I'll send the digital code right to you. Check out my facebook page for more details! Spring has sprung; #SupportIndependentMusic.

Mimar the Beat Curator's Eighth Pick - Cuthead

This week's selection: Cuthead's unrivaled Mitsubishi

I find myself short of words. Every once in a while you come across a track that (as a beat-maker) makes you want to stop and give it all up; the kind of beat you always wanted to make, and you hear it and it's like, damn, too late. Someone got here first. Well, I just had this experience (not the first time, but this track hit me hard) listening to this one.

Cuthead. You read it here, folks. Fucking Cuthead! All his tracks are of a level far above my own, but this track smacked me like a ton of bricks across the face. I have much to learn--a freaking padawan, indeed. Cuthead, show me the way forward!

The beat comes in layer by layer, those toms kinda throw you off at first, and then that Japanese chopped up vocal. Okay, not groundbreaking, but dope. That three part kinda chain snare, right? Well cut up samples for sure (you'd hope, right? I mean Cuthead, right?), but suddenly at about the 50 second mark, something's up. A nice little instrumental sample, chopped to perfection, looped, cut off at different points, very nicely. At the 1:30 mark all hell breaks loose. Stutters, chops, and then BLAM. Perfection. He brings in the fucking Japanese kid's choir; brings in the rhodes/square bass/cuts, cuts, and more cuts. You lose track of the layers. And then the square bass closes it out. Class dismissed.

As I said, for a few days I couldn't even touch the keys. Fear not though, I'm back. Bar set higher than ever. Apparently this fella's been around for quite a while, and he's got a pretty lengthy discography so my usual standards of going for more obscure artists might be in peril here, but I just had to share this one. It appears he's German, and he had tour dates scheduled throughout Europe, mostly in Germany all summer so it looks like he's largely known across the pond, as they say. Anyway, all hail - this guy can chop up a sample!

As always, check my music out too. I'm giving out codes for free copies of my album, just check out my facebook page and find the recent post where I offer them! Winter isn't coming here in New York, it's already here! Stay warm, folks.

Mimar the Beat Curator's Seventh Pick - CUTH

                                          

Mimar the Beat Curator's Seventh Pick - CUTH

Mimar the Beat Curator’s Weekly Spotlight - April 27th, 2016: CUTH

Well lucky sevens abound, my seventh edition of this here little blog thingy features a beat-maker that can't miss. Towards the UK shines our inconsequential little spotlight, as we present a master of the chopped up and programmed sample; CUTH, out of Brighton. The man seems to have a lot of oldies on hand, and while I've always been scared of using this kind of music, only having done it sparingly, this beat-maker makes it more than work. Anyway, it's CUTH for version 7 of this here irregularly produced little ugly duckling of a music source. Enjoy!

This time around, I'm pointing you guys to CUTH's Mittens (or The Put Down, or Walkaway, so many to choose from!). I wanted to put Onra up here, but I felt like it went against the spirit of what I'm trying to do. Onra is well known and hardly qualifies as 'undiscovered' or unique to what I'm listening to, in particular. With that said, Onra has been so influential for me, up there with Dilla, madlib, doom, blockhead and others, so I'm pleased I found this guy.

First off, it's not fair to CUTH to just say that he 'sounds like Onra' - the man has an original sound, especially pertaining to the samples he uses, which largely consist of what sound to me like a blend of 50s and 60s rock and roll/doo wop records, with a bunch of funk and soul for good measure (any good beat-maker worth his/her salt has to have some on hand, I suppose). The way he chops them up is what is, to me, very reminiscent of Onra, particularly his first two volumes of the Chinoiseries (Ladies and gentlemen, part 3 is coming too, if you didn't know, brace yourselves...!). Anyway, I have no disdain for another artist having a similar style as their musical inspiration, in fact, because onra himself had seemed to have moved on to new territory musically (see Fundamentals), I'm even glad someone has kept up that chinoiseries style. Anyway, his music is not so singular, CUTH shows an array of styles and skills, so don't think I'm accusing him of anything - far from it, the man, cumulatively, has a dope style that's completely his own.

Lastly, for a shameless plug, I'd like to steer your attention to FREE MUSIC! I released a bunch of my older tracks, and mixed them up with some 'theme tracks' into a kind of album. I wanted to mix tracks and link them like albums used to be in the pre digital days, when we used to buy full albums and listen to them from beginning to end. The end result is that each track alone may be slightly less coherent, but if you have a moment, and want to listen to an album like we used to back in the old days, please go ahead and download it! It's on bandcamp, cdbaby, and up on soundcloud (but no t downloadable there), so please have a listen, leave comments, and hopefully, enjoy! Enjoy this spring weather, it's gonna be a hot summer, folks!

Mimar the Beat curator's Sixth Pick: Sabata's 'Flying Nimbus'

This week's selection: Sabata's chopped up and mellow beat Flying Nimbus

This here was another one of those beats where I realized how much further I had to go as a beat-maker before I was making music at this caliber. It also gave me slight flashbacks of JDilla, with that heavy bass and finger snap, which is really never a bad thing - we certainly didn't get enough of his beats before his untimely passing.

With that said, sabata here is no copycat. This beat-maker has clearly plotted out a unique style and seems like an exciting new (for me) beat-maker to follow. Keeping it in the states, sabata, from Virginia, may not be new to all of you, given his(/her?) relatively high number of followers on soundcloud, and in this case, they're clearly deserved. 

This beat has some very nice usage of vocal samples, seemingly from an anime, which may have inspired the song, if not the title and image chosen for it (see above right). Ever since the 'musings' of Doom and Madlib (I know, I know, enough with doom and madlib already!), I've been obsessed with finding and using fun vocal samples from various media, so to see someone doing it as well as this is always nice, in and of itself. That it's done so subtly and unobtrusively is for me a lesson, and I think has a very nice effect on the track.

Lately I've been working with an MC, so it's made vocal sampling a little more complex; A, having to match it to lyrical content, and B, having to place it in parts of the song that give the MC space for his verses - or essentially, to construct actual songs with vocal-sampled 'choruses' and the like. Anyway, back to our topic here, sabata serves as a great teacher/example in how to use vocal sampling for instrumental beats meant to be listened to on their own; not too repetitive, not too complex, or scene-stealing. Anyway, enjoy the beats here, as again, the track I've selected is hardly the only good one among the bunch by this talented beat-maker.

As always, check mine out too, while you'e at it - I'm putting together my first LP of beats for release, so any and all feedback is appreciated - good or bad, as long as it's constructive. Hope this early spring is treating you all well!

Mimar the Beat Curator's Fifth pick - Twigs' Trying so hard

This week's selection: Twigs' chill, soulful beat Trying so hard

When I first heard this track, I was like, 'oh, is this off that new Pete Rock that I haven't heard yet, or maybe Premier?' No, it's, live out of Perth, Australia; that's Hugh Twigley you're listening to. For this round, I present to you Twigs.

I shared this track on soundcloud a few weeks ago, and every time I've listened to my beats or played them for someone since, and his track comes on, I get that feeling of inadequacy that I feel whenever I hear my favorite beat-makers. Is it the drums? Do I need new VSTIs? Am I trying to do too much? The best beats only need a nice sample (well chopped up, naturally), and a solid beat to match... or perhaps that's too simplistic, but this track, and others by Twigs certainly speak to that logic. Give the man a listen!

Last time I posted, I spoke of the international nature of this blog. This was after posting tracks by a Russian (Souless) and a Slovenian (Gezi) beat-maker. Since then, I've thought I'd get back to my own roots as a New Yorker, and find some good old-fashioned, local, New York hip-hop to put on display, and yet, alas, here I am again, this time putting an Australian on blast. Well, so be it - I'd heard this track, and been impressed by it enough that I honestly felt like I'd be doing a disservice to this blog by not mentioning it here. Anyway, check out this Twigs fella - I'd bet he already has a place in the hearts of the Aussie hip-hop scene, and if he doesn't, he should, and soon enough he may well be impacting us further abroad. Look out!

And now for a break from our regular programming. I've noticed that this blog has actually reached quite a few people, according to my fancy google blogger stats (which I only just noticed). With that being said, please do go ahead and like/follow me on facebook, here, or on G+ or wherever else you can. I know, I know - shameless self-promotion, booooo! But to be honest, I didn't know if a single person was reading these posts of mine, until I saw those stats just now, and not knowing if anyone was reading this at all, I haven't been... ah hemm... particularly prompt in my posts, so to speak.

Anyway, as always, enjoy the beats of Twigs, and as always, check mine out too, while you'e at it - I've been busy making beats again, so as per feedback - the more the merrier, as they say.

Mimar the Beat Curator’s fourth weekly picks – Gezi/Soulless

It's been quite a while since my last deposit here, and well, such is the way of things I suppose. Anyway, Evis is hard to follow, and I've been tossing around a few 'picks' in my head for this weeks' write-up, and in the end, I figured I owed whoever you are out there more than just one selection, given my absence of late. So without further ado, I present the Mimar's fourth entry into this hallowed list of Mimar-approved beat-making legends; Gezi and Soulless.

Both of these artists reside in places where I personally haven't heard much in the way of good hip-hop, to be perfectly honest. Gezi's from Slovenia, and Soulless is from Russia, but if Kristaps Porzingis has taught us New Yorkers anything, it's not to worry about where a talent is from, so much as how damned good they are. These guys are cut and chop masters - which probably means they're tearing through MPCs like its their job... maybe it is? I'm not inclined to verify if these guys are amateurs or not, because... who cares? The music is good, and thus the recommendations stand. Anyway, Gezi is shredding up some good ol' soul here, and Soulless mashes up Pink Floyd and remixes the legendary New Yorker MF Doom aka Metal Fingers aka King Geedorah aka Viktor Vaughn aka... etc... so whether from Slovenia, Russia, or Jamaica, Queens, good hip-hop is good hip-hop.

On a side note, this thought gave me pause - hip-hop is international now in a way that it never has been before. How amazing is it that people all over the world are crafting, refining, and developing the art form with this kind of passion? So far, I've highlighted beat-makers from Holland, Japan, and now Slovenia and Russia. I never expected this to be the case when I set out to start writing these things up, so anyway, that was a nice realization.

It especially resonates that one of these is Russian - while our politicians lead us head-wise into war and calamity (perpetually), or fear-monger regarding immigrants and refugees, here we have an American beat-maker writing about (commending!) a Russian beat-maker regarding the common language of music, and more specifically hip-hop music. Given the time and energy that goes into doing this, and the degree of knowledge regarding music, sampling, mixing, etc, etc, etc. it goes without saying that even despite potential 'differences,' there's no doubt we could probably sit down and talk about music and chop samples up for hours. It's not an invitation, I'm just saying that it's a good moment to remember that despite the perceived differences we're supposed to have with certain people, at the end of the day, we're all just that; people - the products of our experiences - and as such, we're probably not all that different. Even though we're supposed to think of Russians as a threat, and Russia as this meta-physical manifestation of some kind of 'evil,' it's just a place with borders drawn on maps, full of people in most ways like you and I. That this artist is making hip-hop at such a high level speaks loudly to our similarities far more than it does any of those perceived differences. Music is one of those great equalizers, and carries with it the potential for so much more than just music or art.

Anyway, enjoy the beats of Gezi and Soulless, and as always, the songs I linked you guys to here are only a small sample of an otherwise fantastic selection of music that both of these beat-makers have up on soundcloud. Check out their music, and of course, mine as well (I put up a Brazilian sample-infused beat after I wrote my Lost Perfection rec for you guys, check it out), and as always, all hail the Mimar!

Mimar the Beat Curator’s third weekly pick – Evis Beats

Ladies and gentlemen, brace yourselves, hold your hats, make sure you're seated, and so on. You're about to have a new favorite beat-maker. Well, he is at least going to be among your favorites. I present to you Evis Beats.

Almost everything the man touches comes out gold, or so it has been in the short window that I've followed him. The track I clicked on first, which he just posted, pretty much explains it without my needing to so say too much more about why I think his beats are as good as I think they are. I was like "oh, let me go and find an iconic 'evis beat' to show the world what I mean," and lo and behold, the first one I clicked on, his most recent, did just fine. Then the next one came on, and was equally as impressive, and well, my job is done, in terms of why I'm choosing him - easy.

When I decided to write this blog, not long ago, to be honest, I already knew Evis would be one of my first posts. So I'm glad to finally be shining a spotlight on him.

I've created a sub-genre, in my head, that I refer to as 'Japanese beats' - my genre's name is not artful, nor particularly clever, but anyway, I've come to see a distinct style of beats coming out of Japan of late that excites me (the more, the merrier, right?). Growing up musically with the likes of DJ Honda, Japanese hip-hop was never completely off the radar, but there wasn't a unified sound that I could call specifically Japanese. DJ Krush came around (into my knowledge, anyway) and something started to percolate, and more recently, Ta-ku, and more and more Japanese artists via soundcloud and the like, and there it was; a style emerging that, to me anyway, seemed distinctive. It's clean, it seems to be more, perhaps MIDI controller-based, rather than MPC-based (I could be wrong on this), which means more loops, less chopping, a kind of 'refined' sound, which outside of these Japanese producers I wouldn't identify as a redeeming quality (I've always been into the dirtier, turntablists, or the Dooms and Madlibs of the beat-making world myself), but with these guys it just kind of worked. There's often a kind of 'twitchy' electronic sound to the beats, subtle, but which adds to the aesthetic, and certainly contributes to setting the style apart. Anyway, I'll keep on the look out for more examples of this style that I'm talking about, but Evis certainly has mastered it, and if he isn't already, he should be viewed as a pioneer in Japan for what he's doing.

Enjoy the beats (and as always, check mine out too, while you'e at it.).