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 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. 

Mimar the Beat Curator's First Weekly Pick - Raydar Ellis' Mixography:The Collective vol. 2, Native Tongues

Mimar the Beat Curator's First Weekly Pick - Raydar Ellis' Mixography:The Collective vol. 2, Native Tongues

Mimar the Beat Curator’s Weekly Spotlight - August 19th: Raydar Ellis

Hey guys. Since I hate self-promotion anyway, I’ve decided to focus more on shining a light on other folk’s music a little bit. I'm still making new beats, and have plenty of beats that I haven’t edited enough to put up, so keep listening for those (To hear my beats, you can click here), but I’m going to do a weekly spotlight on a beat-maker you probably don’t know, and a track that caught my attention for one reason or another.

This week it’s Raydar Ellis’ Mixography: The Collectives - Vol. II, Native Tongues.

I’m normally going to just find a track from someone, usually a beat-maker (though this time I’m featuring more of a traditional DJ, which I’ll likely do occasionally) who caught my attention on soundcloud. I’ll assume many of you will likely not have heard what I post, but this week, in my first edition, I thought I’d do something a little different. This is a DJ’s set, and having just been featured on okayplayer’s site, you very well may have heard this. Still though, the music he mixes was so formative for me, musically, that I feel like this is the perfect intro to this weekly spotlight thing.

If you don’t know who the Native Tongues are, then just go to google, wikipedia, whatever, buy yourself a good 20 essential albums or so (I’m not going to list them here, you can find that kind of thing anywhere and I assume you’ve heard of Google, yes?), and by the Gods, you’re welcome.

Anyway, listening to this mix is like listening to my playlist circa 2001 (and often still to this day), only mixed really well by a clearly talented individual in Raydar Ellis, who I’ll be sure to keep track of from now on. Enjoy the beats and remember… All hail the Mimar!