mawone

I'm moving my shit to mawone.blogspot.com

For the more professional approach. Once again I'm leaving LJ, not purging this one. I'll leave this open just in case... but please keep following me if you have been. Life goes on in the new joint.

Aaigght y'all motherfuckas!!

Guess who's moving the fuck out of the epicentrum of familial and quasi-familial bullshit aka asshole stepdad?

It's finally happening. I get to move the fuck out and go chill with a homie back in my real hometown until I can find a spot and/or work. Let's get this hustle on.

My debut album Concrete Preservation is well underway. I don't give a shit if none of y'all wack ears-havin' pop songs-used to bein' not hip hop understandin' fin-folk can't dig it... it crackles and pops and hisses and I love the process of it right now. The songs are getting better and better the close I am to moving. I have a few more ideas I'm gonna include on it right after I have relocated, but until then... it's radio silence.

two fingaz

Today was a strangely stagnant day spent socially and musically comatose.

This usually means it's time to move to mixdown phase. Progress....kinda.

But what an awful hell that progress leads me to. This sucks.

Where y'all at? 
Comment on these pathetic entries or something.

Oh yeah, the new DOOM album.

All I gotta say is

Dub it off your man, don't spend that ten bucks.

in a year's time I'm gonna see this same blog post about my album.
Goddammit.

anyhow what can you do anyway like the man said what will be will be.
peace

I usually don't like to talk about my gear, but I'm super psyched about this: I found an SP1200 emulator. Yep. A plug-in that emulates the look, quirks and sounds of this .
Put my drums through that shit and it sounds ridiculous.

Greatest thing since sliced bread... and the original piece of equipment of course!

Man, if I could have all the great beats I was doing that got destroyed because of a hardware/software crash, I'd give one of my balls. For real. Just lost another puppy to the spirit world like five minutes ago. And that one sounded real good! Godammit.

So I'm flipping obscure japanese stuff that's not too old! I made a track out of a jawn that was released late last decade, and that's kinda rare for a producer such as myself. I'm always looking at years, maybe a little too much at times, trying to steer away from shit that sounds 'current' or just too slick. But sometimes I just bump into names that have released stuff not too long ago and the music is dusty as hell and has some dope samples in it. A good reminder that too often the 'i keeps it real'-producers look for beats looking way too much at extramusical characteristics of records. Y'all gotta listen to the music, as I should too!

also, I want to address something real quick:
What the hell is wrong with you finnish cats who listen to music on your ipods or whatever, and never bob your head to that shit? Even dudes who are obviously the hip hop type! I mean seriously, what's up with that? Is it because y'all listen to music that's so wack it's not making you move at all? Stop listening to that wack shit!
For real though, y'all need to cut that self-restraining out your coupon book and take it to the store and cop a lil somethinsomethin or something.

Dudes lookin at a cat mean 'cause he dares to bob his head to some Moka. Shame on you finns! 

I am currently listening to the growl of a bassline in the midst of a raw mix of a beat I'm very, very happy with. This growl comes from a part of this spacey jungle funk record I've had for a long time, I just never thought to use this particular segment as a loop. It's great finding new things in stuff I already have. Makes me even happier that I own said music.

Tonight was good. Took me a while to come up with anything worthy of keeping, but I started to get more on track with tonight's process than any other before this. I didn't really get any particular enlightenment as to what needed to be in the tracks, but more so on what definitely is not needed. It dawned on me that I was, at points, trying to make the joints too clean and that detracted from their appeal. The dirtier ones sound a lot better than some of the slick tracks I've concocted. And I'll dirty and fatten them up even more when I gets busy with the polish. But that's not until I've done all the tracks.
I've also found some new freedom in a sort of post-production. I have some jams that I'll reshape with the multitrack on some Teo Macero shit.
I like the idea that the album will have a beat tapish element and maybe a musique concrete/tapeloop adventurous shade to it as well.

I'll work some more tomorrow. Maybe my pace is finally picking up.

Life is sure keeping me busy. Or rather, I'm grounded to the shelter house with no computer/equipment to work on anything. Y'all don't even know how art-fag I want to start crying about it! It's disparaging to my art, booo!

So the album is being made slowly but surely. I'm working on instrumental productions that have more going on than just a beat. Although I might bust out the occasional banger as an interlude or something, it's looking to be weighed towards more songs than beats. I wish I had more time to work on this. If my current 'home' would be a better place to be in, I would have more time. Right now all this is just ridiculously debilitating. It's all these big ideas that I never have enough time to actually work on, and I can attribute all these troubles to my stepfather. Fuck that asshole.

Okay, things off chest - moving to other stuff

I heard finally heard 8 diagrams front to back. It was wack. I'm sorry, but RZA just doesn't do things I like anymore. I only liked the first couple of joints on the record, and I would have liked more Ghostface. RZA is a parody of himself on the mic: Asiatic black hebrew the god gon' get dissed on by ghosts with ears of corn and heads of lettuce? WTF?
Way too much singing and hooks as well. Fuck hooks. I'm not gonna have any hooks ever if I make a rap record.

So I'm countering my (saw it coming)dissapointment with Diverse's slept-on  One AM album in my player right now. I've heard like two songs and some instrumentals off of it. This will be better than the wu record.

I'm weighing the choices to either go to school - or not go to school. Either way I'm gonna listen to it today, if not on the bus then at the shelterhouse.

....

I think I'm just gonna call in sick and return the essay I was supposed to make by email. I can't take this school shit right now.

Way too much time has passed without an entry. Time tough.

I have been having a sort of a blank time. Until today, when my girlfriend went to visit a friend of hers in Helsinki. I had some time to myself and I made three beats that I'm quite happy with. I'm regaining my direction, engines restarting, system rebooting... It's hustle time soon.

That's next week. I have dedicated these seven days for a pause, a withdrawal if you will. A time to gather my thoughts and ideas in a new lump of grapes to smash on an unsuspecting face, and I will try to repel anything that bars me of this. I'm hopeful that I'll get back on track, although I'm scared shitless. All this moving back to my old hometown and all.

What I'm gonna do sometime next weekend is put together a tape. Some of it might be featured on the album, most of it might not. I'm sitting on roughly like six songs that are worth keeping, so I really need to step up. I know what's been depriving me of progress and I just need to paint some arrows and... at the same time not paint no mu'fuckin arrows. This record is hip hop beats, get it right natives.

So now that that's off my chest, I'll prepare something fun for next time.

Let's keep on breathing for a while more

Everything I make sounds like utter shit

Everything else sounds heavenly.

Not good.

be back in a minute

I made 0 beats today.

Fuck my life.

Tomorrow will be a bullcrap day at school and I won't have time to work on any beats after, unless I get to the shelter house later than I'm supposed to. That wouldn't be a good look though, I mean I want to try and be on time to that joint 'cause it's polite and everything. It just sucks that I can't squeeze the juice out of all my creativity with all this limited time I have. Although, some of it can be blamed of doing stupid mistakes when I'm not concentrating enough(like deleting a whole list of samples from the machine by accident) and then getting all gloomy about it and not being able to work. Next week is a week-long winter break though... Maybe then I should have some time to REALLY get down.

I don't really know what else to put here.... hmm.

Oh yeah!

Check out my man Q from germany www.myspace.com/qcut
and specifically his Vinyl Rumination series. It's like Beat Konducta but way more organic and funky. This guy knows what he's doing and he does some good shit.

aaight I'm out

peace

Okay so another one of these quick entries.

I'm chilling at school, waiting for a class to start. I gave the funk/soul cd-archive of the library another perusal today but only found compilations. The vinyl section is equally pathetic. I mean, I have seen worse but it's not making this album process any easier. This country is so doomed if you're trying to fuck with wax and sample.

Y'all need to listen to RJD2's Your Face Or Your Kneecaps-mix. For both the roflworthy intro and the DOPE funk.

" When tall midgets criticized the black women we idolize, something inside us rebels whether or not they apologize. It matters not to me if you're five feet nothing or eight feet short, i will tell you to your face or to your kneecaps, leave that black woman alone. I need no special day nor time to call attention to the most beautiful creatures in the universe. Black women.

I need only look around at the proud strut of a round butt, the healthy look of a sterling cook mixing love mood with soul food. The dark sides of a sisters brown eyes, the beauty inside and out, the quiet strength in her pout. "

So I guess I'm officially working on my solo album right now. Big up to all the people involved.

I've been working on beats for seven hours straight today. I have come up with some good material, but I have lots lots more work to do and I need to keep real busy. I'm still trying to figure out what this whole record will be about, but I'm confident I'll reach some sort of an enlightment real soon. The real pain is trying to fight back some of my usual habits and preferences that I have when I do my beats. I'm thinking of giving up the idea of pleasing you futhermuckers and making some part a part b clean kick bullshit. Fuck that! Haha. I'll do a couple dozens of beats not adhering to any conception of how music should roll and see what my accomplices in this think.


I keeps it movin like late night krylon bombers when the dogs start barkin

Today we're gonna get into something like this






Meiso by DJ Krush


This album is what I refer to when I ever dare utter the words "quite flawless", "personal messiah album" or "beat bible" or even the ever-elusive "perfect". Only one other album shares this status for me, and I will most likely produce a similar post about that record some time in the future. At this hour though, we shall be straying(do the knowledge)

DJ Krush as an artist is a very interesting one, and a sample-based producer I hold in high-esteem. And while I usually don't like to quote Pitchfork Media-writers, one of them put it well in a review once: 

"Krush has been credited with injecting hip-hop's trademark rhythmic minimalism with the Japanese artistic sensibilities of loose spacing and evoking the strongest impact with the slightest gesture. Such endeavors are best heard on his classic Mo'Wax joints Strictly Turntablized and Meiso"

That's that right there: Evoking the strongest impact with the slightest gesture. This I consider the thing that makes sampling so interesting and great, because you're dealing with chops, loops and little sounds and the heavier you can get with one change up, the better you are. Period. And Krush, with this record, demonstrates that practice extremely well. In fact, so well that I find it rather frustrating to write about this album as it plays because it has so many facets to it that I like very much, and I'm not certain I have all the words to match them. I will give it a try though.

I first heard about this record through a friend of mine(sup JanneMatti) who bought it when I still lived in my own hometown. He brought it with him while visiting me once, and after repeated listens we were both convinced that it was a very, very good album. I later went and bought it for myself as well because I sensed that it had much to offer namely beneath the surface, and required a concentrated perusal to reveal me it's true nature.
Now, Meiso was released in 1995. This was around the time when most of my favorite rap music was released anyway, so the sound was seducing by default. I mean this was around the time Wu was doing it, Common was starting to do it, as was the Roots, 2pac was out there, Jeru, Big L... shit was dusty. And this record has many references to that sound, even though it's really from a whole different country and culture. Still, that's one of the best things about it. As soon as you pop it on and the first track with CL Smooth(damn!) starts to rhyme, you go like 'ahhh shit we back in 93!!!". As Krush is from Japan,  I kind of imagine him looking at american hip hop culture from the sidelines with a magnifying glass, admiring the exceptionally dusty sound present at the time and sort of embodying his infatuation with american golden-age hip hop, the byproduct being some incredibly good music. Fuck a byproduct though, this album is the main raw ish!

The finesse of the album just might be the exceptionally good balance I have never heard in any other album quite like this one. But like everything else on this disc, it doesn't strike you immediately. It's as if Krush & Co. really wanted you to have some bang for your buck, forcing you to listen to the record a number of times until you get enlightened about what's so great about it. It's impossible to put into words on the inital couple of listens.
So by this balance I not only mean the perfect structure as a whole, where the listener is treated with gritty,  beautiful interludes between tracks or taken back to a joint with a vocal performance, where nothing is protruding from the image that is being painted as the album plays, and nothing is overshadowed by any other element that usually threatens to do so in these kind of efforts(examples being, sadly, Krush's some later albums). Nope. The balance goes much deeper.
Krush always counters a heavy beat with small details that go with it, amazingly sort of using them as the flesh to cover the skeleton that the often kick-heavy drum patterns provide, even though he's using very small and minimalistic things. That's the intrigue of it though: Krush forms the instrumentals and beats to invite the listener's ears to go a lot more deeper than other records might, which in turn amplifies the force of the small fragments that Krush paints his beats with. Again, the strong impact/slight gesture pairing.
One genious example is the appearance of an alternative horn sample on What's Behind Darkness, the third track of the album. First of all, DJ Krush demonstrates an astounding ear for atmospheric jazz samples, often tuning them down or muffling them slightly to replace the edge with enigma. Second, his sequencing is beautiful. The second horn I mentioned is a transitional one, moving the track to a turntable-solo, but Krush introduces it as merely as a subtle element that appears to draw the odd wandering listener back to the hypnotizing low-pass magic he's employing on the beat. As it's true nature is revealed, it dissappears from the palette of samples indefinitely, never to appear again. This makes you want to listen to the song over and over almost just because of the placement of that one horn sample(or I just might have a severe case of sonic OCD of some sort, but we don't need to go there... haha).
The album is chock-full of extremely well-chosen and well-processed samples, such as the chorus part of Blank, the sixth track of the album. The minimalism is the strongest suit of the song, as it basically only consists of a slow drum pattern with stumbly hi-hats, a filtered bassline, and an rhodes-melody muffled so hard you'd think the Yakuza choked that shit with a pillow before Mo'Wax let Krush release the thing. The combination is superb though, and as it's placed on the album so that the listener is already accustomed to the soundscapes that Meiso creates, the minimalist nature is charming and as the track gets to it's abrupt end with a vinyl crackle, it's almost like you want to give out a single peaceful exhale.
The instrumentals are more frenetic towards the end of the album, and Krush has a very interesting collaboration with DJ Shadow as the finale, which in all it's dustyness is an awesome display of the chemistry they managed to create; interestingly Krush sounds like Shadow and Shadow sounds like Krush(their respective parts are listed in the liner notes), but still both bring their own expertise to the table in sonic design. Sort of like Shadow's What Does Your Soul Look Like?-slices paired with what Krush did on Kakusei.

A notable aspect in all of the songs is how Krush utilises his turntable-decks as a genuine instrument(which they are), for example controlling an instrument solo from a record, at times slurring and pitch-shifting it, such as the flute in Anticipation, the album's first instrumental song. His scratching is also worthy of note, as it carries the same appeal as everything else does. Less is more, but he certainly doesn't make it sound like he's holding anything back. The subtle cuts featured carry more weight than many would imagine, and as Krush sets up his occasional scratch solo it's always pleasing to hear. Needless to say, Krush dodges the 'turntablism'-tag completely, as the attention is clearly more divided to the beats and rhymes than scratching.

As I listen to the songs with vocal guests, I can take a very critical stance and sort of throw curveballs at Krush and see how long he lasts in Survival mode, meaning does he stumble in the usual pitfalls of music like this or does he avoid mistakes. Take the Big Shug-assisted Most Wanted Man for example. The chorus in particular, as the final bar of it ends and we have been treated with the Gangstarr-sounding piano and hard drums, the tastily distorted chorus vocal(where Guru actually does backups), what Krush employs the big man to do? An extremely good, and subtle Barry Whiteish vocal croon. I was sold on that alone, and as the song progresses, Shug sets his lyrics into interesting metaphors while mainly concentrating on riding Krush's groove and not overbearing the beat.
It doesn't hurt Krush's cred to have the song basically being one big nod to this.

Sticking with the Survival Mode and the songs with guest spots, the title track with Black Thought and Malik B. is still one of the more perfect 90's rap songs in my mind. The extremely atmospheric loop and Thought's flawless verse is extremely impressive:

"I come from Illadelph where your health,
you never take for granted
It's hot as the Equator in a cypher around the planet
Or abnormal, niggas appearing out of portals
and demanding your soul
....
Remember me,
the thought I represent essentialy
and mentally,
eventually you'll mention me
as most high,
my decibels are most fly"

I prefer Black Thought over Malik, but believe me, he does not falter on his part at all. Krush kept the chorus instrumental with creative turntable work, scratching a sample of upright bass almost-but-not-quite not in tune with the beat. Teetering on the edge of small chaos is where the song truly excels.

The best rap spice, however, comes from Deflon Sallahr on Ground. This cat has an incredibly vicious delivery and lyrics, and to my dismay I am unable to find any info on any of his other work. Seems like he has completely dissappeared after this guest spot. If any of you readers know anything about dude, contact me.

Alright, so. The genious of the beat is apparent in the very beginning; Krush obviously took a sax squeal with a bass under it, from some jazz record I suspect, and worked the lower frequencies so that it sounds closer to an ambient noise than horns. He brings in a slow, bouncy break and scratches a sinister horn melody as the chorus while Deflon spits the catchies thing on the record:

"Time keeps ticking while my style stays raw
the strong stay standing while the weak ones fall"

The main shine being in the actual verses, where the dark wordplay is so dense and raw that it almost hints me of Onyx. But just almost. The song is full of reasons why I'm bummed I can't find anything else featuring Deflon, like this one:

"I keep coming back, until you ain't coming back
I'm painting you black
and you've been marked with darkness
your heart beats of life, yet life will beat you heartless"

Sallahr goes deep into dark subjects, like institutionalized racism, the ghetto, fates of the abandoned and anxiety. Sometimes utilizing a metaphor to deliver the message and then after a few bars unveiling another part of the bablyon he's obviously trapped in. It has appeal that is hard to describe, other than it just works. Like how Shook Ones pt. 2 still works like a charm. Now looking at the track lenght, the fact that the song clocks in at almost 6 minutes and doesn't feel like it at all is amazing. Because the track, again, consists of little more than a bass loop, a drumbreak and scratched horn choruses with to break the spitting to three verses.

Now I believe the only thing left to go in-depth in is the personal meaning of the album to me. As I mentioned before, only one other album has made an impression this deep to me, and with that album Meiso has shaped my production in a very significant way. It taught me to look very deep into what I'm sampling, and as the beats stress the basics pattern-wise, it's a very important learning experience to get to know that the most minimal things applied to a beat can yield the most maximum results. To know what you're doing in building very ground-level, fundamental elements is a skill often overlooked in today's music. I think everyone, especially if you're a producer, should hear this record and look for the same brilliance I once found, and still find that it offers.

I shall edit one more thing here:

Check the liner notes. The amazingly fitting, raw and brilliant cover is by none other than... Futura 2000!

Before you even read one letter/character of this particular post(if you did... Chuck D will be summonen to growl at YOU! )
please check the post below. NOW.

And download that joint. Forreal.

----

In the midst of gaming and music, I've forgotten to blog! Wack. Not that I haven't been busy, but I'm bummed that I don't, in the end, blog that much. It's fun, I'm missing out on fun!

So okay, the remix album is finished and out there for grabs for free, and I'm glad I don't have to work on it anymore. Enough about that joint though, here's some other fun stuff: http://2dopeboyz.com/2009/01/19/2dopeboyz-dj-kos-best-to-do-it-remix-contest/

So the assingment was to remix this particularly nice track: 
 

I like that joint, even though I usually have a problem listening to Royce. I'm not a fan of Supastition either, but I digs me some Elzhi. Anyway, the beat is dope and the first two verses are cool.

So I submitted my remix:



Now this was made in one afternoon with my girl chilling with some comics and I periodically turned to her on some "does it sound awful?" and she's of course like '...no', probably totally oblivious to whatever I actually did to the track! Jokes aside, she's a helpful ear regardless.

The actual process of the beat was fun, because I was thrilled to find that particular break I used. It was one of those parts where I could instantly hear the potential of the sample if I were to alter it in the ways you're hearing on that remix. And I still keep nabbing those drum sounds from a certain videogame that many would probably consider a very, very unlikely source for a gritty snare like that. The structure of the original track was so conventional that I didn't have to sequence the beat to a great extent in terms of verse-chorus transitions. I just did the usual tricks and it worked.

Also, I got a good little laugh out of replacing supastitions "don't let the smooth beats fool you" with "don't let the *STATIC* beats fool you" since my remix is dusty as hell. Fuckasmoothbeat!

If I have time, I will post the long awaited analytical album post innnn one hour. Word.

 

Now I have reached the fun part of the remix project: I'm just waiting for a DJ acquaintance of  mine to lay down some cuts on a few tracks and in the meantime I get to put in fun vocal samples, interludes, add some final effects to some parts, etc. The edit so to speak. I took one track off because honestly, it was way too thin and sounded like shit. Sorry, y'all won't get the complete remixes of None Shall Pass, hope you can live with that.

I don't really have any other news besides that I have kept busy, but now I have a week off from school and I get to spend half of it with my lovely
girlfriend. Some time off music and beats too, as much as I hate it. Pausing at points is good for an artist, ask anybody. Anybody but me because it's taking a whole lot for me to muster the willingness to admit that :<!

Today two good friends of mine are coming to visit, I'm a little worried about them being entertained here since it's really just my messy room doubling as my makeshift studio. I did put in an hour or two on cleaning it so I dare let civilized humans enter. Fortunately they're the nicest people I know so I doubt they'd care but... I just don't want to be a sucky host. 
Well, as much of a farce this all is living in this house. Troublesome stepdad and everything.

Oh well, next week it's blogging and gaming and chilling time. Believe dat.

peace

I gotta jet like now but....

I mixed&mastered three songs to bump in the mpfree player this morning, and I'll probably do one more later today if I make it home in time. I'm past halfway with these joints, liking it. I'm pretty confident that this will be all done by this weekend. I'm keepin real busy since I got a bunch of almost overdue school shit do as well, and an even bigger project on the horizon if all goes well. It's tough to try to balance between school and music because one of the two is of no importance to me at the moment but I still have to do all that right now if I want to get out of that damn facility alive.

oh yeah, compression is a hell of a drug

I got Damu The Fudgemunk in the headphones right now as I write this. The cat is sick with the MPC sonically, has been for some time now. He produces the beats in Y Society. Check dude out @ wonkabeats
Don't be afraid of raw music.

Gotta keep up the momentum and... not die. 


Expect a writeup on one of my all-time favorite albums soon. I want to produce something sensible in writing for a change.  

 

So

I've been throwing these finished remixes up in my second-hand mp3 player and trying to proof-listen my joints after mixing them. I remember reading an interview of Prefuse 73 where he said that he likes to use his iPod and some cheap headphones to listen to his mixes to see if it sounds right. Granted my monaural crackly soundscapes are way different from that dudes bizarre but dope beats, but it seems that the process works for me too. I'm happy with what I'm producing right now, and I'm glad to have all the tracks in the stage where I can just make my edits, mess with effects, insert interludes and finally bring the raw tracks to life.

I have learned a lot from this project. From mixing techniques to various aspects of the structural dynamics of beats in general. There's so much to pay attention to when one wants to make something sound lively. I'm certainly happy with my growth as an artist, even when I get fits of (the infamous)fuckallthisshit where half of my HD gets wiped because one person thinks it sounds like shit. Haha, that's what got me into this project in the first place.

I had a wild idea of me actually adding a verse on one of the tracks but I ditched the idea because I simply didn't have enough time & energy along with the fact that your average listener familiar with the other material would probably get reeeeally weirded out some sudden extra rapping. Instead, I'll probably be adding guitar from a friend and some scratches from another friend. Ain't it great to have friends? 



Also, something very, very, very, very fortuitous happened last weekend. You might hear about some day.

Let's just say that I'm very anxious to just suffer through this one class of swedish and go mix me a draft for 39 Thieves to bang in the headphones tonight.

Oh, and here's a fun quote from an apparently funny dude over @ mpc-forums.com for the myspace kids trying to get big putting their shit up:

"I heard if you get 250,000 Myspace plays, an exec from Columbia Records is going to swoop down into your basement lab or whatever and carry you off, to work with all the big names in the game. Groupies be all over you and you're just like smilin' and puffin' on a blunt..."

you heard the man that shit will happen, trust me. The label dudes will come down in a chopper and fly you out and feed you coke and cristal. Just keep promoting your snap and clap.

Peace I'm out the do'