MC/Lyricist RawPoetic (aka JasonMoore) shares a new single, “Digits,” from his forthcoming album, Space Beyond The Solar System, out December9th on 22ndCenturySound. It follows lead single “A Mile In My Head,” which features legendary saxophonist ArchieShepp “soaring above a simple piano melody…with [IrreversibleEntanglements‘ Luke] Stewart’s bass driving it forward alongside a boom-bap beat and several smooth productional flourishes from Damu” (The FADER). “Digits” is immediate, with Raw Poetic’s vocals spitting over an atmospheric beat and keys. “‘Digits’ is basically about moving through the digital ages, yet being unfazed by it,” says Raw Poetic. “I like being an average joe. I like doing things in an organic way. So while the sound rides and moves into this unique digital format, we still give you what’s true to us.”
Although Space Beyond The Solar System could be considered a concept album by its outcome, its inception started from a string of experiments between Moore and frequent collaborator/producer Damu the Fudgemunk. These initial sessions had no specific direction but became the catalyst for what would become a prolific wave of Raw Poetic projects; five of which have been released since 2020. At two hours, absorbing Space Beyond in its entirety may be overwhelming for most, especially in the present day, but Raw and Damu are very aware of this. With a total of over 40-plus years experience between the vocalist and producer, the two of them went down memory lane taking every influence and experience in their personal histories to extract ingredients for a groundbreaking statement. Space Beyond The Solar System is their most comprehensive environment to date.
The creation of Space Beyond sparked a conversation between Raw and Damu about their creative chemistry, with Raw likening their direction to a “space beyond the solar system.” His comment was a eureka moment for the two artists, giving their wandering efforts a sense of definition that was needed. “I think we’ve been exploring music beyond our limits for a few years,” says Raw Poetic. “It’s hard to tell where we’ll land, but we are constantly pushing our way out of the norm. Hence the title, ‘Space Beyond the Solar System.’ It’s just to say, this is new territory for us. Where the sky was once the limit, now it’s just the start.”
Raw Poetic will head overseas to headline the Jazz Cafe in London April 1, 2023. More European dates to be announced in the coming weeks.
Jeremy “JayWood”Haywood-Smith went through a lot, like all of us, in the last three years but he had an added gut punch to the mess – the death of his mother in 2019. He, again like all of us, wanted to put those times behind him, but he realized he needed to take an honest look back to move forward, which inspired the name of his newest album, Slingshot.
The album’s overarching story takes place in one day and covers topics ranging from childhood to religion to racial violence, and the musical styles across the record cover as much ground, if not more. “God Is a Reptile” is a bumping, thumping track with psychedelic guitar flourishes and trance bass while he encourages us to not beat ourselves up over trivial crap. In fact we should, as the next track suggests, “Pray, Move On.” “All Night Long” seems to skewer people who will party their lives away while the planet crumbles around them. The fact that JayWood makes it a lovely dance track only emphasizes the ironic point.
“Just Sayin'” has JayWood and Ami Cheon singing us a danceable Zen lesson with funky grooves and lyrics like “I’m not thinkin’ ’bout the future. We can’t go down that path. ‘Cause I’m just rooted in the here, the now, the black, the brown, the truth…” “Is It True (Dreams Pt. 3)” has a great mix of hand percussion, processed beats, soothing bass, clockwork guitars, and pulsing synths as JayWood wonders if love is real. His vocals get trippy and drippy on “Kitchen Floor” – a lyrically scalding track that has JayWood shaking up white folks, black folks, his friends, himself, and apathy in general.
“Shine” (with co-vocalist McKinley Dixon) is a plea let black people just live their lives. “Tulips” seems to be a song directed toward a lady who JayWood sees at church now and then, but it might be directed toward God – who really is the same person. He encourages us on “YGBO – Interlude” that “If you’re healing, you’re gonna be okay.” “Thank You” is a song for his “dearly parted” mother and other people he’s lost, and we’ve all lost, in the last three years. “I just want to thank you for the best years of my life,” JayWood sings, and you can’t help but clap along with him. His lyrics about dealing with grief are spot-on: “Here’s hoping time will help when feeling low. Here’s hoping it’s not that bad thinking you’re in heaven now. So I’ll just keep my head in the clouds. Seems hard to go down roads I’ve never known. Seems hard to flow forward, not thinking about what happens now, but Imma do my best to make you proud.”
Amen.
Keep your mind open.
[I’m just sayin’ you should subscribe, that’s all…]
King Gizard and the Lizard Wizard are one of the few bands out there who could start off an album with a song that’s over eighteen minutes long and everyone would think that’s a perfectly normal thing to do. Their new record, Omnium Gatherum, does just that with “The Dripping Tap.”
The album almost sounds like a greatest hits record, as KGATLW move back and forth between genres, time signatures, tuning preferences, and distortion levels. “The Dripping Tap” is a wild psychedelic freak-out, the kind that first got the band noticed just a decade or so ago (although it seems longer due to the massive output the band has generated in such a short time). “Magenta Mountain” starts off with soothing keyboard tones and then drops in slick beats that are perfect for a stroll or cruising on a Jet-Ski.
The funky bass on “Kepler-22b” takes you into outer space and encourages you to have a good time there (as do the lyrics). “Gaia” takes us back to Earth with re-entry burn riffs. Then, just to confuse ads, they drops “Ambergris,” a bedroom slow-jam that would fit on a Thundercat record. “Sadie Sorceress,” believe it or not, is a rap track – and it works.
“Evilest Man” is electro krautrock mixed with roaring riffs and smashing cymbals that sounds like something they accidentally left off Nonagon Infinity. “The Garden Goblin” is a fun, bouncy track that could’ve been listed on Fishing for Fishies, as could “Persistence.” “The Grim Reaper” is another hip hop track, complete with trippy flute loops.
“Presumptuous” bounces with Outkast-like pep. “Predator X” is a return to hard-hitting thrash metal, countered nicely by the trippy “Red Smoke” and “Candles,” which literally has the band singing, “Wheee!” at one point. The album closes with an instrumental – “The Funeral,” an interesting name choice for the final track, and an interesting choice to close the record with a track that only has vocal sounds and no lyrics.
Omnium Gatherum is a great place to jump on the Gizzard Train if you’re new to the band. It showcases so many styles they can play, and play well, that you’re sure to like at least a few things here.
Dälek, the groundbreaking alt-hip hop duo who recently announced the impending arrival of their eighth album, Precipice (April 29, Ipecac Recordings), have shared a second single, and accompanying video, from the set, releasing “Boycott” (https://youtu.be/g7kmJ1Igd40) this morning.
Will Brooks, aka MC Dälek, said of the track:
“BOYCOTT is the amalgamation of all of our elements.
Cooked like they supposed to be.
This song is my chest ripped open.
It is about the pain in our communities.
It is also about our strength and our inherent worth.
I been tried telling you…. Society’s been failing you.”
The band previously released the single and video for “Decimation (Dis Nation)” (https://youtu.be/a80PM1sphrQ), which was directed by founder Will Brooks, aka MC Dälek. Album pre-orders (https://dalek.lnk.to/Precipice) are available now, with the collection available on limited-edition 2LP gold vinyl, as well as a standard 2LP silver vinyl. The album’s cover was created by Paul Romano (Mastodon, Withered) with interior packaging featuring the art of Afrofuturist painter, Mikel Elam.
“Precipice was a completely different record pre-pandemic,” Brooks explains. “We had been working on the sketch of what the album was going to be at the end of 2019. I think me and (Mike) Manteca had narrowed it down to 17 joints out of the 46 or so that we had started with. Me and Joshua Booth had taken the 17 and really fleshed out the joints. The idea was to bounce them back to Mike and then arrange write lyrics. 2020 obviously had different plans for everybody. We basically put everything on hold. I ended up doing the MEDITATIONS series that year on my own. I think the catharsis of that projects, its rawness, the pandemic, all the death, the social upheaval, everything that went down… when I went back and listened to what we had down… it just wasn’t right anymore, it wasn’t strong enough, it wasn’t heavy enough, it wasn’t angry enough. It just didn’t say what I needed it to say.”
Today, Wiz Khalifa, Big K.R.I.T., Smoke DZA, and Girl Talk present new single, “How The Story Goes,” from their forthcoming collaborative album, Full Court Press, out April 8th on Asylum/Taylor Gang. The album includes various combinations of the artists working together, and, following lead single, “Put You On,” today’s track features the trio of Wiz Khalifa, Big K.R.I.T. and Girl Talk. Built around a hazy sample, Khalifa and Big K.R.I.T. trade verses over Girl Talk’s (aka Gregg Gillis) production, complete with glimmering keys, an infectious bassline and a subtle backbeat. “Wiz recorded his verse first. I thought the beat was a slightly different vibe than normal for him, but once he got in the booth, it felt like a natural fit. K.R.I.T came in and built the rest of the song around that verse. He was able to capture the feel of the sample and take it somewhere new,” says Gillis. “This turned into one of the songs that I ended up going back to the most.”
Full Court Press is a culmination of friendships going back ten-plus years and a “unique intersection of all of our work,” says Gillis. From Wiz’s melodic sensibility to K.R.I.T.’s rhythmically tight delivery to DZA’s colorful wordplay, all of the artist’s distinct styles play off of each other. On Girl Talk’s first album since 2010’s All Day, his production keeps the project diverse, each song with its own individual style and mood, while still working as a cohesive body of work. The sample selection and arrangements highlight each of the artists’ most entertaining and compelling characteristics.
From years of expertise at finding unlikely pairs in mashup work, Gillis has an uncanny ability at finding samples that feel like a natural fit for his collaborators. “With any particular sample or beat, I usually have a strong idea of what I’d like to do with it. But when working with other people, it might go somewhere else completely. Sometimes it’s difficult for me to shake what I originally had in mind. I think that’s partially because I spent so many years working alone, in complete control of every detail. It’s both exciting and challenging to be pushed creatively, and in the best situations, you find yourself enjoying someone else’s ideas more than what you originally had planned.”
Later this month, Girl Talk kicks off his first tour in over nine years, with most dates completely sold-out. A full list of tour dates can be found below. Watch the Video for “Put You On”
Full Court Press Tracklist 1. Wiz Khalifa, Smoke DZA, Girl Talk – Mind Blown 2. Wiz Khalifa, Big K.R.I.T., Smoke DZA, Girl Talk – Put You On 3. Smoke DZA, Girl Talk – Season 4. Big K.R.I.T., Wiz Khalifa, Girl Talk – How The Story Goes 5. Wiz Khalifa, Smoke DZA, Big K.R.I.T., Girl Talk – No Singles 6. Wiz Khalifa, Girl Talk – Ready For Love 7. Big K.R.I.T., Smoke DZA, Girl Talk – Revenge Of The Cool 8. Wiz Khalifa, Big K.R.I.T., Smoke DZA, Girl Talk – Ain’t No Fun 9. Big K.R.I.T., Girl Talk – Fly The Coop 10. Big K.R.I.T., Smoke DZA, Wiz Khalifa, Girl Talk – Everyday ft. Curren$y
Girl Talk Tour Dates: Thu. Mar. 31 – Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues^ *SOLD OUT* Fri. Apr. 1 – Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom ^ *SOLD OUT* Sat. Apr. 2 – Boston, MA @ Royale^ *SOLD OUT* Mon. Apr. 4 – Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre^ Tue. Apr. 5 – Chicago, IL @ Metro^ *SOLD OUT* Wed. Apr. 6 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Ave^ *SOLD OUT* Fri. Apr. 8 – St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant^ Sat. Apr. 9 – Kansas City, MO @ The Truman^ Mon. Apr. 11 – Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre^ *SOLD OUT* Tue. Apr. 12 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot^ Thu. Apr. 14 – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom^ Fri. Apr. 15 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom^ *SOLD OUT* Sat. Apr. 16 – Seattle, WA @ The Showbox *SOLD OUT* Mon. Apr. 18 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent^ *SOLD OUT* Tue. Apr. 19 – San Diego, CA @ House of Blues^ *SOLD OUT* Wed. Apr. 20 – Phoenix AZ @ The Van Buren^ Fri. Apr. 22 – Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater^ *SOLD OUT* Sat. Apr. 23 – Austin, TX @ Emo’s Ballroom^ *SOLD OUT* Mon. Apr. 25 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel^ *SOLD OUT* Tue. Apr. 26 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club^ *SOLD OUT* Thu. Apr. 28 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel^ *SOLD OUT* Fri. Apri. 29 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer Sat. Apr. 30 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE^ *SOLD OUT*
Wiz Khalifa Tour Dates: Fri. Apr. 15 – Northampton, MA @ Carniroll Festival, The Roll Up at Three County County Fairgrounds Mon. Apr. 18 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre Sat. Apr. 23 – Washington DC @ National Cannabis Festival Sat. Apr. 30 – San Bernardino, CA @ Smokers Club Festival, Glen Helen Amphitheater Sat. May 14 – Turlock, CA @ Dazed On The Green – Stanislaus County Fairgrounds
Big K.R.I.T. Tour Dates: Thu. Apr. 21 – Raleigh, NC @ Lincoln Theatre* Fri. Apr. 22 – Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore* Sat. Apr. 23 – Norfolk, VA @ The NorVa* Sun. Apr. 24 – Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of Living Arts (TLA)* Tue. Apr. 26 – Boston, MA @ Royale* Thu. Apr. 28 – New York, NY @ Gramercy Theatre* Sat. Apr. 30 – Silver Spring, MD @ The Fillmore* Mon. May 2 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom & Tavern* Wed. May 4 – Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre* Fri. May 6 – Chicago, IL @ House of Blues* Sat. May 7 – Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave II* Sun. May 8 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line Music Café* Tue. May 10 – Denver, CO @ Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom* Fri. May 13 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater* Sat. May 14 – Seattle, WA @ The Showbox* Tue. May 17 – San Francisco, CA @ August Hall – Music Hall* Thu. May 19 – Los Angeles, CA @ Belasco Theater* Fri. May 20 – San Diego, CA @ Music Box* Sat. May 21 – Las Vegas, NV @ 24 Oxford* Sun. May 22 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom* Tue. May 24 – El Paso, TX @ Lowbrow Palace* Thu. May 26 – Austin, TX @ Emo’s* Fri. May 27 – Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live* Sat. May 28 – Jackson, MS @ JXN Festival* Sun. May 29 – Arlington, TX @ So What!? Festival* Wed. Jun. 1 – Mobile, AL @ Soul Kitchen* Thu. Jun. 2 – Birmingham, AL @ Iron City* Sat. Jun. 4 – Louisville, KY @ Mercury Ballroom* Sun. Jun. 5 – Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl* Tue. Jun. 7 – New Orleans, LA @ House of Blues* Fri. Jun. 10 – Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle*
* w/ ELHAE and PRICE
Keep your mind open.
[Why not go to the subscription box while you’re here?]
Raw Poetic announces Laminated Skies, his official debut solo album out March18thonDef Pressé, and presents its lead single “Sunny Water.” Produced by Raw Poetic (aka Jason Moore) alongside friend and frequent collaborator Damu The Fudgemunk, LaminatedSkies was recorded during the sweltering summer heat of 2019 at Windom Road Studio in Brentwood, Maryland and features guest musicians Pat “P” Fritz (Panacea, Archie Shepp) on guitar and Irreversible Entanglements’ Luke Stewart on bass. Damu’s production adds a tapestry of instrumentation, including live and programmed drums, strings, vibraphone, kalimba, melodica, vinyl scratching, and synthesizers. With Moore pulling musically from myriad genres, the multidimensional work draws inspiration from several sources, including spirituals and Ralph Ellison’s novel The Invisible Man. Today’s single, “Sunny Water” is a serene introduction to Laminated Skies, swirling in hypnotic haziness.
Moore was born in Philadelphia to a rich family legacy. Both of his parents were members of the original Black Panther Party and his uncle is legendary jazz musician Archie Shepp. Before eventually settling in Northern Virginia, Moore was raised in the Washington Metropolitan area, and both Philly and DC have played a major role in his artistry. By college, Moore had founded Restoring Poetry in Music aka RPM, and became the lead MC in Panacea(Rawkus). Formed by producer/beatsmith Kyle Murdock, the duo released five albums before disbanding on a high note in 2010. Throughout his career, quality has remained synonymous with Raw Poetic’s reputation: just see the resume stacked with national tours; further collaborations with K-Def, Blu, and Kev Brown,; airplay on MTV,VH1 and BET, spins on Sirius/XM, GillesPeterson Worldwide FM/BBC 6 Music; syncs on the Showtime series Shameless,Weeds, and more.
Following 2020’s Ocean Bridges, Moore’s highly praised collaborative effort with his uncle Archie Shepp and Damu The Fudgemunk, Laminated Skies is his sixth solo album and his first official release for a label. It’s also his most personal album to date. “I still can’t fully describe what kind of album this is so I’ve now reserved myself to telling people it’s a ‘Jason’ album,” says Moore. “I wanted to tell people what the hell is going on through my head sometimes; how I feel as a guy from Northern Virginia. Sometimes it’s invisible, other times invincible. Sometimes loved, sometimes hurt. Once we got started mixing and matching ideas, well… it became something that I am very proud of.”
Damu elaborates: “I’m extremely proud of what we did on this album. When Raw asked me to get involved I was amped. I’ve watched Raw become a producer over the last ten plus years, teaching himself how to record and lay tracks. His production style is so unique, free and different from mine that I soak up a ton of inspiration from collaborating this way. With both of us usually exclusively perceived as hip hop artists (which we don’t mind), ‘Laminated Skies’ feels like a victory for us to show our appreciation while creating honest art, but escape the box without actually making a formal announcement. It’s easily one of the best things I’ve been a part of.”
Just so we’re all clear, neither of the two men on the cover of the excellent Chicago-bred hip hop EP Happy Medium are Montana Macks, but they areJyroscope. Macks is the EP’s producer and beat maker, one of the best in the Windy City and Midwest. The men you see on the cover are the vocalists / rappers, I.B. Fokuz and Collasoul Structure.
Happy Medium is a refreshing breeze from a music world dominated by scores of rap albums that could essentially be named I’m Going to Tell You How Cool I Am for the next Forty Minutes. Happy Medium explores themes of fatherhood, practicing compassion, meditation, touring, marriage, and family.
“War Going On” is a great opener, covering stresses in relationships such as unending bills, lack of sales on the tours, and trying to hold it together the whole while (“I’m afraid what’s next will be the death of me.”). Mack’s rolling beats, accentuated with simple piano chords, are outstanding. Fokuz (“You know it’s work when you toil and you’re never content.”) and Collasoul (“Being the ‘strong one’ means you’ll never know when you’re gonna tank.”) weave intricate tales of the grind on “Work” over Mack’s melted jazz samples.
They take on the grind of not just work, but everyday life and music-making on “Auto Pilot,” with Collasoul claiming (like many of us would if we took the time to look inward), “I’m either finally mastering patience or oddly getting really good at stalling the process.” and Fokuz stating, “I feel like I’m living in a rerun.” Both men wish they could make many moments last longer on “Frozen in Time” (which has some killer scratching from DJ Seanile and some of Mack’s best sampling on the EP).
By the time we reach the closer, “Take It Easy,” the band has realized they need to just pause for a bit and reset. We all need to do this along with them. So much would fall into place if we did – better relationships, health, and society in general. We just need to follow their lead.
We only had four bands on our itinerary for day three of the Psycho Music Festival in Las Vegas. One was a must-see for us (especially for my wife) and another was someone I, for some reason, had never seen before this festival.
First up were shoegazers Flavor Crystals, who played the early afternoon at the Rock & Rhythm Lounge to a small crowd, but a small crowd full of shoegaze fans. They dropped a heavy sound bomb on the place, flooding the casino with fuzz.
Flavor Crystals melting faces and minds.
They also added to my set list collection from the festival.
Thanks, fellas!
We took a break for a few hours and then came back for three consecutive shows at the Michelob Ultra Arena, which is connected to Mandalay Bay. Meanwhile, Summer Slam was happening at the stadium across the street, which made for a weird mix of T-shirts seen in the casino. You saw everything from shirts for wrestlers like John Cena and Rey Mysterio, Jr. to bands like Dying Fetus and Cephalic Carnage.
The first band at the Michelob Ultra Arena certainly weren’t the death metal category, but were rather Thievery Corporation, who put on a fun show combining bhangra, reggae, dub, rap, and funk. It was my second time seeing them, and the first time I saw them was also in Las Vegas (at the Cosmopolitan Hotel Casino rooftop pool), so it was an interesting return for me. They put on a fun set.
Sitar, drums, congas, bass, synths, and vocals from Thievery Corporation.
Next were The Flaming Lips, who are one of the best live bands going right now and one of my wife’s favorite bands ever. It was, as always, a delightful, uplifting experience. The usual spray of confetti into the crowd was minimal, and there were no giant, confetti-filled balloons launched into the crowd due to COVID concerns, but there was still plenty of fun to be had. It was fun to stand next to a guy who’d never seen them before then, and he gave me a happy thumbs-up during the show.
Wayne Coyne versus a pink robot.
My wife went back to the hotel room after the show, and I stayed to see Danzig. I’d somehow gone my entire punk teenage years, college years, and post-college years without seeing Danzig, Samhain, or any variation of The Misfits. Danzig started a little late, but Glenn Danzig and his band came out to an appreciative crowd and played the entire Danzig II: Lucifuge album and then some of their favorite hits. It was an impressive set, and the guitarist was especially talented. Glenn Danzig wasn’t too concerned about possible COVID infection, however, as he tossed multiple used water bottles and face towels into the crowd – half of whom left before his three-song encore, which baffled me.
One funny conversation I overhead as I was leaving the Danzig show was between two guys. One was checking the set times on his phone. His friend asked who was currently playing. “Cannibal Corpse,” said the man with the phone. His friend replied, “Yeah! Let’s fucking get brutal!”
Danzig being his spooky self.
I made it back to the room after wandering the casino a bit and being a bit overwhelmed by all the visual and aural stimulation, not to mention all the smoke of various kinds I’ve been around all day. We had an easy morning planned for the last day, and then a night of wild rock, Cambodian funk, soul funk, and metal lined up for Sunday.
Today, Jyroscope – the project of MCs I.B. Fokuz, Collasoul Structure, and DJ Seanile – and producer Montana Macks release “Take It Easy,” the newest single from their recently announced collaborative EP Happy Medium, out July 23rd. “Take It Easy” is an equally composed lesson in jazz, hip-hop, and meditation. It sees the group finding a ‘happy medium’ in their lives, appreciating what they have and who surrounds them. “It just seemed like I was going through this gauntlet of horrible shit that just kept coming,” Collasoul Structure says of the single’s genesis, explaining, “I literally closed my eyes for a moment and said to myself, ‘take it easy, bring it down.’” On “Take It Easy,” Fokuz offers his rebuttal to life’s myriad of challenges: “Peace is an everyday practice when ya conscious/ just a little levity can shake up the monotonous/ I sit and meditate when I awake and let the mind rinse.”
Happy Medium is a potent manifestation of an endless journey for balance. Over sleepy jazz samples layered in well seasoned beats courtesy of Montana Macks, the aptly-titled Happy Medium EP sees Jyroscope exploring the difficulty in maintaining a focus on one’s craft, career, and the life responsibilities that come with putting down roots and starting a family.
Preceding Happy Medium, Jyroscope released several projects including the Hip House mixtape, On The House, and the bouncy boom bap-filled, MUTEEP. With a reputation around Chicago and beyond for their polished, high energy live performances, Jyroscope teamed up with long time friend and producer Montana Macks (Chicago Reader’s 2020 runner up for Best Hip Hop producer) for Happy Medium, their best effort to date. Happy Medium is the result of over a year’s worth of work that began with a wildly fruitful session in late 2019. They felt the title best reflected where they currently are as artists and people. With their poetic rhymes and heart-felt imagery, Happy Medium makes for a captivating listen, one that is sure to have fans new and old itching to run it back well before the final note has faded away. Pre-order Happy Medium EP
London-based label Def Pressé is thrilled to announce its exclusive partnership with KPM/EMI to officially open KPM’s iconic music and sound design library for the first time ever. A production music label dating back to 1956, the KPM library contains over 30,000 original recordings of non-commercial music made for licensed use in television, film, radio, or any other media outlet. Ranging from cinematic symphonic themes to bizarre sound effects, elaborate environmental landscapes of computer-synth orchestras to film scores, these licensed recordings, commissioned without the pressure of generating commercial hits, have long been a treasure trove for producers digging for samples. This adventurous undertaking, initiated by Def Pressé in affiliation with EMI Production Music’s hip-hop outfit The Real Fifth, will see a handful of carefully selected composers and sound-excavationists creating all-new records alongside an array of featured singers, rappers, and instrumentalists, to be released by Def Pressé in two forthcoming series: KPM Crate Diggers and KPM Originals.
The KPM Crate Diggers series will consist of new albums by select producers made entirely of samples from the KPM archives, as well as other renowned library music labels including Coloursound, SelectedSound, ThemesInternational, ConroyRecordedMusicLibrary, and Francis, Day& Hunter, all of which Def Pressé artists also have exclusive access to. These releases will be entered into the KPM archives for future use as “library music,” making these producers “KPM Artists” in their own right. The KPM Crate Diggers series will kick off with Damu The Fudgemunk, and see forthcoming releases from JazzyJeff, StroElliot (of TheRoots), J-Live, ChrisDave and many others to be announced in the coming months.
The KPM Originals series will see new albums composed of entirely new, sample-free compositions, released by Def Pressé and added into the KPM catalogue, also for future use as “library music.” Artists confirmed to participate in the KPM Originals series include BastienKeb, CoreyKing, and ChrisDave, with more to be announced in the coming months.
Kicking off the KPM Crate Diggers series is Conversation Peace (out September 3rd), a new album from Damu The Fudgemunk, the Washington, DC-based musician and producer known for his many collaborations with RawPoetic, ArchieShepp, Blu, and others, in addition to his own acclaimed solo work. “The music that would become Conversation Peace began with a trip to KPM’s London HQ in late January of 2020,” says EarlDavis (aka Damu the Fudgemunk). “I had just finished wrapping up post production on my album Ocean Bridges with Archie Shepp and Raw Poetic. As a record collector, I’m very familiar with the legacy of the KPM brand. Listening to the entire catalogue was a history lesson and the amount of great composers and compositions in the recordings was endless. As a producer looking for textures, inspiration and grooves, the abundance of those things made it extremely difficult to narrow down what I wanted to use. From drums to sound FX to orchestras to small rhythm sections to ambient noises, I heard a wide variety of things and they were all so well produced and recorded. The history of KPM and the opportunity to collaborate with the prestigious lineage made the stakes very high for me and I knew I needed to deliver a quality product. It’s an honor to be the first artist to release a KPM Crate Diggers title.”
“Damu the Fudgemunk came to our studio in London to carefully dig his way through the whole KPM 1000 series,” says Peter Clarke of EMI Production Music. “If anyone is in doubt about sampling being an artform, they just need to watch him work! It’s great to breathe new life into all these old recordings, too. And then place it straight back into library music for use in media. Exactly how it was originally intended.” Listen to “Four Better Or Worse (Pt. 1)” Feat. Nitty Scott by Damu The Fudgemunk
Developed in the mid-’60s, the now-iconic KPM 1000 series launched the golden years for KPM, with the birth of the “Greensleeves” albums (named after their consistently plain-green record covers). Currently, the classic KPM archives boast over 30,000 original recordings by acclaimed library composers such as KeithMansfield, JohnCameron, TheMohawksfounderAlanHawkshaw, TheShadowsdrummerBrianBennett, DavidBowie and The Beatles’ collaborator, Alan Parker, and ExoticapioneerLesBaxter. KPM has extensively recorded at studios such as London’s Angel and AbbeyRoad (The Beatles recorded most of their albums here during the KPM 1000 recording era).
A massive amount of work has gone into taking care of these aged reel-to-reels, vinyl records, and DATs. They have been painstakingly digitized and made available to Def Pressé and the selected artists working on these projects.
“For years, all of these old archive tracks have sat dormant on the LPs—undigitized and only discoverable by those that had copies or had enough money to get them via Discogs or Ebay,” says Paul Sandell, Senior Content and Distribution Manager at EMI Production Music. “There’s a huge amount of pride here at EMI PM about KPM, and the other archive libraries. Not only is this music an important document of television music from the time, but it has a far wider cultural impact – whether from the theme music to a cult TV show, the sleazy funk of an erotic exploitation flick or as music sampled by the likes of Jay-Z, Drake, Florence and The Machine, and many more.”
“KPM has always been there with us for as long as I collected records,” says Def Pressé founder Matt Moat. “While digging for records, it would always be a straight pick-up, no need to listen. Their records were collectibles and coveted as such. It was always a dream to somehow be connected with this library in a fuller way. The moment I met Pete and we discussed what EMI Production Music had been doing with the catalogue, I had to dream up a way Def Pressé and our friends could take this stuff, flip it, and end up as ‘Library Musicians’ ourselves. To be able to contribute to the KPM Library means the world to all of us.”
“The relationship between hip-hop and library music has always been strong,” adds Sandell. “But this project really unifies the process between the library and the creative input of the producers. It’s a high five between the two to say ‘look what’s possible’.”
