Featured Artist: Soulo Starr

Johannesburg/Cape Town, South Africa

Soulo Starr drops his Early Works from 2007-2009, knocked out the MPC on Cosmic Dust Records.

The 9-track release includes raw, sample-based beats, chopping smooth vocal hooks, the occasional rap hook and sweet percussion sounds. Each beat signifies the golden era of hip-hop, through the live, edgy feel of the drums. Listening to the beats makes you want to rap on them, but you know you can’t as you have to savour the snares and kicks over each ill sample.

Some standout tracks off the release include: “4 DILLA”, “Afta”, and “The Mack”. Peep it here on Cosmic Dust, then cop it for $7 USD:

 

Peep Soulo Starr’s future mix for some turnt down, new wave hip-hop:

http://soundcloud.com/soulo/future-flavours-mixed-by-soulo

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Featured artist: Bläp Dëli

Healdsburg, United States

Member of  TheSandboxCollective, beatmaker Bläp Dëli produces abstract electronic hip-hop beats categorised as “NSIDM”.

According to the homie, NSIDM involves warped out sounds that are most likely to make the listener feel intoxicated and bizarre. These intoxicating productions come about through vinyl cut sampling, live recordings, remixes and dope beats bounced out of drum pads.

The homie Bläp D’s beats consist of elements of raw hip-hop instrumentals, dreamy soulful synths, and smooth vocal hooks. Another admirable facet of the dude’s productions, are his change-ups. His beats tend to start off fairly modest, easing into things, and at a certain point, the beat escalates about 5 notches towards the future.

Residing in the woods, it appears as though Bläp Dëli gains a lot of his influence from his surroundings, as his productions have an ambient, planetary element as well, whilst still bearing that bass heavy hip-hop. Furthermore, one can appreciate the creativity that goes into the creation of these abstract beats, as each one takes the listener on a different encounter. However, one of the things that makes this dude next level is his selflessness, as the majority of releases (beats and albums) are available for free download or name your price.

Finally, having released a 20-track album at the beginning of this month “Astral Wax Experience”, Bläp D has a few projects in the pipe, such as featuring on a Pragmatic Theory release in the near future.

Grab some of the homie’s releases here, particularly “Muddy Waters” because it’s extra dope: http://blapdeli.bandcamp.com/

Cop “Astral Wax Experience” as a pay what you want download here: http://sandboxcollective.bandcamp.com/album/astral-wax-experience

Some dope Bläp D beats to peep:

http://soundcloud.com/bl-pd-li/openurmxnd-astral-wax

http://soundcloud.com/bl-pd-li/wutwrx4yu-off-keep-kalm-and

http://soundcloud.com/bl-pd-li/ghoscrnk

http://soundcloud.com/bl-pd-li/bl-p-d-li-gin-with-candlz

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A Sol Mechanic

Los Angeles, United States

A Sol Mechanic is an LA beatmaker that produces variations of experimental electronic hip-hop.

Sol’s productions comprise of a blend between new school and old school hip-hop, to create experimental sounds in the form of triphop, and chillwave. The dude’s beats are melodic and embody the boom bap-type hip-hop beats, and include raw, soulful vocal hooks.

A Sol Mechanic has a boatload of releases on his bandcamp available for download, and a variety of dope hip-hop oriented beats on his soundcloud. Peep some standout beats here:

http://soundcloud.com/a-sol-mechanic/l-kngl-ss

http://soundcloud.com/a-sol-mechanic/galaxy-diamonds

http://soundcloud.com/a-sol-mechanic/sunriseotreats-from-unheard

http://soundcloud.com/a-sol-mechanic/blowing-os-1

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B.Lewis

San Francisco, United States

B.Lewis is an experimental electronic hip-hop beatmaker, residing in San Jose, California.

Synthed out, boom bap hip-hop beats are significant of B.Lewis productions. Similarly to other beatmakers in the same category, the dude makes use of dope samples when creating these tracks. However, what makes B unique is his drum patterns and offbeat yet somehow melodic sounds. The dude has a bunch of  these beats available for download on his bandcamp page, each release different in its own  right.

The lushness of the synths, combined with the bass heavy hip-hop kicks and carefully selected samples, mesh creatively and form the B.Lewis sought after style of production.

The dude’s latest release is a full length album “Finding Incandescence” (2013), which dropped in April, and is available for download on his bandcamp for $8 USD or more.

Peep B.Lewis’ bandcamp page here and cop some releases: http://blewis.bandcamp.com

Some personal favourite B.Lewis tracks:

http://soundcloud.com/blewie17/my-reigns

Worrrrrd

Knxwledge

Los Angeles, United States

Experimental hip-hop beatmaker Knxwledge, resides in LA, and produces sample-based beatstrumentals of the 5th kind.

These beats, that can be described as abstract hip-hop, or ‘hop.hip’ as the dude refers to them, are nice for their raw, old-school hip-hop feel and creative use of samples. Knx mixes up sounds such as soul, jazz, and R&B, to create his beats, giving them that unique Knx style. Homie has a boatload of experimental hip-hop releases on his bandcamp page: http://gloof.bandcamp.com/, all reminiscent of the raw, 90s hip-hop, yet differ in their own right. Bass heavy and boom-bap reinstated, Knxwledge’s throwback meets new school style of production is definitely noteworthy and worth a cop at a reasonable price.

A personal favourite Knx type of release, is the [TWRK]s, which is a bunch of remixes of hip-hop artists from the likes of Danny Brown, to Cam’Ron.

Cop these [TWRK] releases here:

http://gloof.bandcamp.com/album/db-fixxxs: Danny Brown XXX remix album

http://gloof.bandcamp.com/album/hexual-sealings-vol-3-bootleg: Bootleg beattape with some [TWRK]s on it

Dopest Knx track:

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Insightful

Oakland CA, United States

Insightful is a Callie-based beatmaker that produces experimental electronic hip-hop tracks.

Synthed out, and packed with heavy sub-bass, Insightful’s fat beats are versatile as they make for headbobbing listening, and are club bangers in their own right. The dude has released a few albums on his bandcamp page, that range from experimental hip-hop to slowed up electronica. More often that not, his beats include tripped out vocal hooks that compliment the sub-bass and space age sounding instruments.

In terms of his releases, some standout ones are:

Fondle Package (2013), an electronic hip-hop remix release

The Shy Lanterns Glow (2012), an experimental hip-hop album

Both albums are available as pay as you want downloads on the homie’s bandcamp page: http://insightful.bandcamp.com/

Latest Insightful track:

http://soundcloud.com/insightfulone/forgive-the-fog

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Different Sleep

Chicago, United States

Chi-Town native Different Sleep, produces experimental, slowed up west coast beats of an electronic nature.

Different Sleep has only one official release, in the form of an EP (2012) titled “Next Time I See You”. This 2-track release takes a different direction to the homie’s other productions, and has an earthy, slowed feel to it, and is perfect for lazy Sunday listening.

Sleep’s latest track, which dropped 10 days ago, is called “Feel You Near Me”, has a trillwave sound to it supported by slowed up, distored vocals, which is in a similar direction to his previous releases. The beat is dope and packed with bass heavy kicks and rolling snares, in a similar fashion to his production on the West In Dust compilation (2012).

Both tracks are truly amazing and can both be copped for free here:

http://soundcloud.com/different-sleep/feel-you-near-me

Cop the “Next Time I See You” EP here:

http://differentsleep.bandcamp.com/

Righteous

Deech

Minsk, Belarus

Deech, another Activia Benz artist, produces electronic hip-hop glitched out beats on an experimental tip.

Dude has released two EPs on bandcamp thus far, one in 2010 (“Eight”) and one in 2012 (“Multi-layered Shining”). First off, it is only fair to give the man mad props for making both of these amazing releases free downloads. Secondly, both are hip-hop electronic releases, and comprise of spacey beats layered with analog synths sounds, bleeps, bloops and lasers. Eight is a personal favourite album, as it is arguably the more experimental of the two, as well as being more hip-hop influenced.

Cop both releases here for free: http://deech.bandcamp.com

Peep track 1 off Eight, probably the most space age of the tracks:

xxyyxx

Orlando, Florida, United States

xxyyxx is a young beatmaker who began knocking out experimental electronica productions at the age of 17.

His style of production is characterised by warm. smooth synths, and distorted vocals, that allow the listener to drift off into a state of euphoria. Much like his name, xxyyxx productions are of an unconventional nature, as he meshes weird vocal hooks with each other to create unique sounds. The homie has a number of releases available for download on his bandcamp page, that are bound to take you on a mind trip of the 4th kind.

Cop his releases here: http://xxyyxx.bandcamp.com

Finally, a personal favourite track off his self-titled album:

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Thriftworks

Jake Atlas, Bay Area, United States

Thriftworks, residing in the Bay Area (San Francisco), creates experimental, glitched out productions with a hip-hop influence.

His latest release, “Terry – D”, takes a more experimental approach in terms sounds, as apposed to “Rainmaker” (2012) which was very hip-hop centric. Thrift’s conceptual choice of track titles, thought provoking sounds accompanied by warped out vocals, ensure that his releases are always able to tell a story. For me, “Daydreams” (track 13) is the coolest track on the album because of the way the synthed out vocals and the bass heavy beat intertwine, supported by the futuristic bleeps and bloops.

I feel it’s safe to say that thrift’s productions are most certainly planetary, probably of the Mars kind.

Cop the album for free here:

http://jatlas.bandcamp.com/