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.).

Mimar the Beat Curator’s second weekly pick – L.P.’s Groovin’

Mimar the Beat Curator’s Weekly Spotlight - the week of August 26th: L.P. (Lost Perfection)

This week I’m shining my little, slightly defective flashlight on L.P. I first heard him right about when he released this track on soundcloud—a kind of tripped out, Pete Rock meets Rob Swift type of beat that I played out by listening to too many times. Anyway, back to the present, and he put this new track up, another very solid track which I've nearly played out in the same fashion; so I thought it was high-time I paid my respects to L.P. here in my second entry as ‘Mimar the Beat Curator.’

This week it’s L.P’s track, Groovin’, though he’s worth a follow and a thorough listening beyond just the one track. It’s actually been two months since this track was put up, but I heard it and knew it needed to be mentioned here, as well as his whole body of work, which is pretty damned enjoyable to listen to. The Raydar Ellis mix just seemed far too fitting as a first entry, so I held off on this one. Still though, L.P. deserves the spotlight.

The Brazilian sampling off this track is phenomenal—it’s been a while since I’ve messed with any Brazilian samples myself, but for those unfamiliar with the process of 'beat-making' there are periods of time when certain types of samples, or samples from certain regions and local genres get really big; whereas we’re now in the middle of a Turkish psychedelic epidemic (of which I’m fully on board with—love the shit), there was a time not long ago when these Brazilian jazz/bossa nova-styled beats were really making their rounds. I think any decent beat-maker has a good bit of Brazilian music, and probably gets excited at the prospect of messing around with samples from that grouping. Anyway, this track here is a great example of Brazilian sample usage. L.P., of Groningen, in the Netherlands, is a master of the craft, and I hope the man catches on, as his talent is deserving of it. Anyway, enjoy the beats.