Caught in the Net: Tyler and Pusha T in bass-rap combo
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Your support makes all the difference.Tyler the Creator and his Odd Future cohorts have been getting non-stop attention in the last few months and the young LA rapper is showing no signs of letting up.
In his latest gambit Tyler has teamed up with Pusha T of Clipse and the Neptunes production team. The track, "Trouble on My Mind", was premiered on Red Bull's US website at ind.pn/puPwsa and released on iTunes on Tuesday. It finds Pusha T's urgent rapping style come up against Tyler's bass drawl. Also worth a special mention – I presume the kudos goes to the Neptunes – is the sparkling keyboard coda.
DoomStarks tape is a Ghostly mystery
Offering differing rapping styles, not too dissimilar to the contrast between Pusha T and Tyler the Creator (see above), Ghostface has teamed up with MF Doom for a recent mysterious cassette tape collaboration. Going by the name DoomStarks (Tony Starks being a nom de guerre of Ghostface), last week they mailed out a cassette to a few people featuring the track "Victory Laps (Madvillainz remix)". The song, with a great soul piano sampled loop, also made it to the radio on New York's Hot 97 – a rip of the track also found its way to the OneThirtyBPM blog at ind.pn/oa6lrN. An official Doom produced version of the track will hit iTunes on 26 July.
DJ Shadow still full of invention
It's a long way since DJ Shadow's 1996 high water mark Endtroducing, but the celebrated producer is still knocking out music with aplomb. His latest album, The Less You Know, The Better arrives on 5 September. A single from the record is available digitally on 1 August; it's also streaming now on Island Record's Soundcloud page at ind.pn/pNpS1q. Called, "I'm Excited", it is certainly excitable, with sounds blaring incessantly throughout and a high-octane rap from the Nigerian born, London raised grime MC Afrikan Boy. Not DJ Shadow's finest effort but a decent showing and proof that he's still got plenty of invention left in him.
'Appropriate' title track ten years on
Following Endtroducing (see above), another seminal sampling moment came in the shape of The Avalanches' 2001 LP Since I Left You. It's now about to get the tenth anniversary reissue treatment with a host of remixes, old and new, by the likes of MF Doom, El Guincho and Black Dice. Included among them is a years old remix of the title track by Stereolab. The track is streaming on Modular's website at ind.pn/qpPUad, who tell us "the original master has long since disappeared from the vaults, but we have this lovely, dusty, promo-only vinyl rip for you to enjoy, which in a strange way seemed perversely appropriate."
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