36 - Hypersona


36's Hypersona is album filled with delicate, layered ambient textures. The album itself is dreamlike, residing in the realm between reality and fiction, treading the line so that you can't quite tell in which it is placed. The fragile harmonies are simply beautiful to listen to; this would be a great album to listen to before you go to sleep. Easily one of the best ambient releases I've heard this year. What's more, it's being distributed for free by the artist.

8.4

8tracks Mixtape - Let's Groove


Tracklist:
1. edIT—Battling Go-Go Yubari In Downtown L.A.
2. Friendly Fires—Paris
3. MGMT—Kids
4. The Ian Carey Project—Get Shaky
5. Kanye West—Get 'Em High
6. The Presets—Talk Like That.
7. Klaxons—Atlantis To Interzone
8. Kid Cudi—Day N Nite (Crookers Remix)
9. Arctic Monkeys—I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor
10. Talib Kweli—Listen
11. The Prodigy—Smack My Bitch Up
12. Boys Noize—& Down

J Dilla - Jay Stay Paid


J Dilla is back again. This time however, it's all original material, with the occasional MC guest spot. And you know he's badass, as per usual. I Told Y'All loops a menacing synthesiser, with some overlaid vocal samples. It's hard to believe that all of this material was sitting in Dilla's collection, not good enough to be released. Having said that, his older albums before his death were even better than this, if you can imagine that, so it's not all that hard to believe. This album is very heavy on the synthesiser, juxtaposed with his trademarked heavy bass section [see McNasty Filth of Jaylib's Champion Sound album if you wanna know what I mean when I talk about a Dilla bass section]. Fans of Blu will be happy to know he makes an appearance on the album, though to be honest, his verses on Smoke were a bit underwhelming in my opinion [Sidenote: the album art for this really reminds me of the album art for Blu & Exile's Below the Heavens]. Dilla Bot Vs. The Hybrid is another stand-out on the album; as the title suggests, it has a very robotic sound to it, with Danny Brown providing some solid MCing. I'll finish this review with something his mother, Maureen Yancey, recently said in an interview with eMusic.com:

"Dilla never changed. It was always music, totally music, and more music. The only thing that changed was that the bass got deeper, and our heads would thump more."

7.6

8tracks Mixtape - Old School Rules


For those of you who don't know, 8tracks is a website that allows users to create their own mixtapes. This is my first tape, a collection of 60s/early 70s folk, rock and pop music. Check it.

Tracklist:
1. Bob Dylan—The Times They Are A-Changin'
2. The Beach Boys—Wouldn't It Be Nice
3. Nick Drake—One of These Things First
4. The Beatles—With A Little Help From My Friends
5. The Doors—Twentieth Century Fox
6. The Jimi Hendrix Experience—All Along The Watchtower
7. Neil Young—Cinnamon Girl
8. The Who—Love, Reign O'er Me

Delta - The Second Story


I'm one of Aussie hip-hop's biggest haters. Weapon X & Ken Hell. Bliss N Eso. Frontline. Jackson Jackson. The Herd. Hilltop Hoods. Hate 'em all. And this isn't regular, garden-variety dislike. I'm talking some serious hatred. So I heard about Delta when his first album, The Lostralian, came out a couple of years back. And I ignored it. He realised his second LP, the one I'm posting here, about a month ago. I hadn't heard Aussie hip-hop in so long, I thought I'd give cynicism a rest and try the album out, see what it's about. God-damn. This album is fire. The beats rock; Shades of Green and The Lines are standouts in terms of production. And the MCing itself is just so consistent. Delta's flow doesn't drop off for any of the 12 tracks on the album, and the guest spots are tight as hell, not compromising the album or making it a list of 'Delta featuring X'-type songs. Check this shit out. Now.

8.1