This Free Album Friday post is an album from Washington D.C. producer Damu the Fudgemunk, don’t let the strange name fool you he is nice. Damu started to gain some attention thanks to some videos on youtube of him playing live on his MPC in a New York park. He is in a group Y Society with rapper Insight. I haven’t really made an effort to seek out their stuff but I’m a fan of his production. Spare Time was a free album he put out in 2008 with beats, remixes and Y Society songs. He put out a full length for purchase in 2010 called How It Should Sound: Volume 1 & 2 which I recommend. You can download Spare Time here
Damu The Fudgemunk “Colorful Storms” [Instrumental]
Note since I missed Free Album Friday last week I’m changing the date of this post to make up for it. Been busy will be back to updating on the regular very soon.
Now I don’t know you guys/gals but I’m a huge Prince Paul fan, he is easily one of my favorite hiphop producers. From his work on classic albums with De La Soul, Gravediggaz or Handsome Boy Modeling School or songs like “It’s Hard Being the Kane” for Big Daddy Kane or “Wax Paper” for J-Live if he is involved in a project I’m checking for it. When I got word that he recently put out a lost album for free it was like a late birthday present. As Paul writes about the album
“This was a project that I wanted to put together with Amityville MC legend Superstar. As I thought about it the more I wanted to recruit more MCs we knew to make it diverse . Superstar already had the name “Horror City” so we recorded under that name. This project was recorded right after the first Gravediggaz album 6 Feet Deep in 1995. I shopped the demo but unfortunately it got looked over and never got signed. I sat on this project for a while but it always had a dear place in my heart because I thought it was really good and the talent was there.”
A few of the beats he ended up reusing for his A Prince Among Thieves album so they will be familiar but it’s a pretty nice album. Hopefully we get more stuff from the Prince Paul vault in the future. Download Prince Paul Presents Horror City here
I don’t know a lot about california based DJ/producer/audio engineer LDonthecut but he recently dropped a free instrumental EP that I thought would make a good Free Album Friday post. It’s called Road Work because he was on a west coast tour with LMNO and Kev Brown (as their DJ) and made these beats while on the road. Download the album here
If you listen to Squeeze Radio (and you should be by the way) you are familiar with Homeboy Sandman. He is a New York MC, part of the AOK Collective and on the High Water Music label (owned by Squeeze Radio host Sucio Smash). Homeboy Sandman has been one of my favorites of the past few years due to his witty and nimble flow. So since his new album, The Good Sun, drops on June 1st (buy it at http://amzn.to/GoodSun) I thought it would be a good idea to have a couple Homeboy Sandman posts over the next few days including this Free Album Friday treat.
In 2008 he dropped a free mixtape called There Is No Spoon. It features a decent amount of songs from his 2007 album Nourishment (Second Helpings) and a little from his 2009 album Actual Factual Pterodactyl plus exclusive content. Although it has the stuff that makes mixtapes annoying (DJ drops, shorter versions of songs, etc) it’s a good intro to the boy sand. Download There Is No Spoon here.
Merchandise
Homeboy Sandman – Nourishment (Second Helpings) album MP3
Homeboy Sandman – Actual Factual Pterodactyl album MP3
Homeboy Sandman – The Good Sun album CD / MP3
Hey hey everyone it’s been a while since I’ve made a Free Album Friday post or really a post at all but now I have a working computer I will get things back to normal.
Sometimes the Free Alum Friday album has a few songs I like but Where is Danny? is one of my favorite albums of 2009. Danny! aka D. Swain has been releasing albums at a regular rate since 2004. He signed with Def Jux in 2007 but hasn’t released a full length with them yet (he did put out the Just Friends 12″ on Def Jux). Where is Danny? was supposed to come out on Def Jux in June of 2009. Eventually towards the end of 09 Danny! made it available for free. It never came out on Def Jux, we learned later Def Jux is essentially dead. For more on the Def Jux thing read this post by El-P.
It’s a shame the album didn’t get a proper release because I’m a big fan of the record and I think more people would be if it reached them. The entire album is produced by Alex Goose. If you have been reading this site for a while you will know I interviewed Alex (read it here) or you might know him from his The Blueprint 3 Outtakes album he put out. In our interview Alex was saying how Madvillainy was a big influence on the Where is Danny? record. He went on to say “it’s a different sound compared to anything him or I have done in the past”. I can see the influence of Madvillainy in this album from its unusualness like the track “Scrambled Eggs” which is an ode to breakfast or adding fart sounds to “Lost One” (not a fan of it btw) to lyrics like
Cravin’ to bone
Laid up with Raven-Symone, naked
Made a clone
Paid him to spray the cologne fragrance
He never came through
Useless help
If you want somethin done you gotta do it yourself
- Danny! “Fa Fa Fa”
Danny! also brings a double time flow on “Gone Danny Gone” and has a Kool Keith like wackiness about him on various tracks such as on “Where is Danny?”
Danny! “Where is Danny?”
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Danny! and Alex Goose make a good pair and listening to it you can tell they are having fun trying out their ideas. Although I do skip some of the tracks there is 40 minutes of quality music on this record. It’s easily one of the best albums of 2009, don’t sleep. You can download “Where is Danny?” here
Introducing is a new feature I’d like to bring to the site where I shine a spotlight on a up and coming and or not well known yet artist. To kick things off I talked to producer Alex Goose. Although he messed with things over the years he has been producing seriously since 2004. He started with an Ensoniq EPS sampler but has moved on to other things but was secretive on what he is using currently using.
Alex Goose “Hova Needs This”
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Alex Goose “Dear Winter”
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He just recently put up a free album called The Blueprint 3 Outtakes.The story goes an A&R with the Roc heard the stuff Alex did for Brittany Bosco and got in touch via Myspace to get a tape from him for Blueprint 3. Alex went though hundreds and hundreds of his beats that he thought might work well with Jay-Z and made some new ones and sent the best in. “The A&R liked them but he told me Jay didn’t really hear anything that he was looking for. My tracks didn’t match the sound of the Blueprint 3 obviously. I just made what I envisioned could be a classic record for Hova. Our visions didn’t click together. It happens.“ So Alex made some of the tracks he sent in available to download for free to share what could have been. He and his team did a nice job on the presentation of the site as well. Although when I downloaded the album it took a really long time, I imagine it was due to everyone trying to grab it at the same time.
But even though that Jay-Z opportunity didn’t work I asked what other artists would he like to work with. “Beck, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Nas, Kid Cudi, Raekwon, The Black Lips, Deerhunter, Beirut, Grizzly Bear, Warpaint..those are just some of many I have on an actual list. Mostly rock bands because I feel like I could learn more. I feel like it’s harder to politically push boundaries within hip-hop because people are scared to take chances but chances usually equal success. Let’s be honest…when was the last classic album put in hip-hop? I’m so tired of 808 claps.“
In the past he has worked with Brittany Bosco and Danny! and is currently working with and Jake Troth (Myspace). Def Jux rapper Danny! is the most well known out of the bunch. They met each other in school. Both attended the Savannah College of Art and Design and began working on music together in 2005. Alex did all of the production on the upcoming Danny! record called Where is Danny? some of the guests include Che Grand, Danny Brown, Von Pea, and Drake among others. Talking about the record Alex said “It’ll be interesting to see what people think because it’s a different sound compared to anything him or I have done in the past. It’s not particularly my production style but i wanted to capture what he was going for, which is minimalism. He was particularly inspired by the Madvillain record and wanted to push boundaries of what people perceive as a hip-hop record. I listen to a lot of garage, folk rock and pysch rock from the 60’s which is where a lot of the inspiration came from on the production end. It contains a lot of obscure samples and psychedelic tones. It’s kind of like an art record.“
I also asked if he was a fan of Ant (of Atmosphere) as some of his stuff samples the same songs Ant has and wondered where he stood on the whole this sample has been used before issue. “I find this all a bit funny so I’ll explain my take on it. To me, samples are free ground and it’s all about who can flip it the hottest if it gets into any “they used this sample first” type of thing but I don’t really care. It’s obvious we both look through similar sample sources. The “soul” sampled tracks on the BP3 Outtakes including “Walk Away” are pretty old. Like “Walk Away” was made originally made in 2004, but I resurfaced it last spring and changed the drums on it because I wasn’t as good at drum programming then but I knew it could be good for Hova. I went through like 600+ old tracks to see if there was anything I started awhile ago that I could resurface and that was one of them. I sampled a lot of stuff of that Laura Lee album actually. Same with “Rise” which is a Bo Hanson sample that I’ve had for years because I love his music. The tracks on this album aren’t even everything I sent him, just my favorite ones. Either way, Ant and I obviously sample similar things. I rarely sample soul any more these days but more so, late 60’s psych rock, prog rock and french and italian soundtracks… because that’s what I actually listen to in my own free time. I’ve got people hitting me up saying that I flipped the samples better than him which is tight but I don’t really care about all that. I just wanted to make good music that I thought Hova could rock too. Funny story…I sampled “In The Space” by Janko Nilovic years ago, the same one No I.D. used for Jay’s DOA song. I’ve had that sample for so long. So I know how that feels…“
Danny! “Lip Flappin’” (Produced by Alex Goose)
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Brittany Bosco “It Was You” (Produced by Alex Goose)
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As for as upcoming projects the previously mentioned Where is Danny? album is coming out soon on Definitive Jux records. Also Alex is doing some work on Brittany Bosco’s album Black along with producer Omer Ferrer & The Big Up!. Also a small update to the article Alex will be working on an album with Chicago rapper GLC (Myspace) best known for being on the Kanye’s songs “Drive Slow” and “Spaceship”. It will be a kind of music + fashion thing with Alex producing, GLC rapping and designer Matt Senna doing clothing through his company Jamie Marx (website) for the project. You can download The Blueprint 3 Outtakes for free at theblueprint3outtakes.com also he did some work on Brittany Bosco’s Spectrum 2.0 and you can download the album or select tracks for free at brittanybosco.bandcamp.com
Slug (MC) and Ant (producer) of Atmosphere got in the holiday spirit and are giving you a new album, Strictly Leakage. It’s got some nice joints, worth checking out. Also Slug isn’t the emo, depressing guy he has been lately on Strictly Leakage. Its not a mixtape kinda album Ant does produce but they go jacking for beats on the first track with “YGM”. Where Slug rocks over the classic Big Daddy Kane beat of “Young, Gifted and Black”. To get a feel for the album here is “That’s Not Beef, That’s Pork”
Merchandise
Atmosphere CDs / MP3s
Atmosphere – Overcast! album CD / MP3
Atmosphere – Lucy Ford album CD / MP3
Atmosphere – You Can’t Imagine How Much Fun We’re Having album CD / MP3
Atmosphere – When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold album CD / MP3
Various Slug Collaborations
DJ Vadim – featuring Slug “Edie Brikell” MP3
Molemen – featuring Aesop Rock, Slug and MF Doom “Put Your Quarters Up” MP3
Living Legends – featuring Slug “Night Prowler” MP3
Grouch & Eligh – featuring Slug “Boom” MP3
Jake One – featuring Posdnuos & Slug “Oh Really” MP3
Other Work Produced by Ant
Brother Ali – Shadows of the Sun album CD / MP3
Brother Ali – Champion album CD / MP3
Brother Ali – The Undisputed Truth album CD / MP3
Brother Ali – Us album CD / MP3
In the past he has worked with Brittany Bosco and Danny! and is currently working with and Jake Troth (
