For the second installment of It’s A Demo I turn to El-P. “Everything Must Go” aka “EMG” was from his 2007 album I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead but recently he made this demo version available. Lyrics and the basic timing sounds the same but the demo version is much more stripped down then the album version. The album version is much more dense with the various layers of sound. In the demo the drums and the X-Clan sample aren’t fighting as hard to be heard and the guitar sample gives it a little different flavor.
El-P “Everything Must Go” [Demo]
you need flash to play the song
You can download this demo here. If you have a demo you think that would be good to share with the people (either yours or something you have came across over the years) feel free to hit me up (info is in the Contact section).
This is the first of a new feature I’m calling It’s A Demo. As you could guess from the name it’s to share demos of songs. It could be from promising up and coming artist/group or demos of released songs.
I’m a huge Death From Above 1979 fan, they no longer exist as a group, but it did consist of Jesse F. Keeler on bass and Sebastien Grainger on drums and vocals. Since breaking up Keeler spent more time with MSTRKRFT which is an electronic group he is in with Alex Puodziukas aka Al-P. Sebastian put out an album with a backing band called Sebastian and The Mountains. I’m not really a fan of either post DFA1979 group but I do like the song I’m sharing here.
It certainly seems like in the demo of “(Are There) Ways To Come Home?” this was something Sebastien worked on by himself before sharing/collaborating on it with his band. Also there are large stretches in the demo with no words that eventually get filled in on the finished version.
Sebastien Grainger “(Are There) Ways To Come Home? [Demo]”
you need flash to play the song
You can download this demo here. If you have a demo you think that would be good to share with the people (either yours or something you have came across over the years) feel free to hit me up (info is in the Contact section).
I listen to a lot of hiphop so this website features a lot of hiphop but I’m trying to make an effort to shine the light on other kinds of music. Which leads me to making a rock Free Album Friday post. The Wild are a four member group from Atlanta. They play rock with a bit of country/folk twang. They made Set Ourselves Free as a free download but you can send them a few bucks via paypal or buy the record or CD here. It’s a good album, some of the songs sound a little too much alike for me but overall it’s worth checking out. You can download Set Ourselves Free here.
In addition to being in the band the members also work at Wonder Root which is a non profit center for artists. They have a production studio, dark room, place to practice etc. Sounds like a really great idea you can visit WonderRoot.org to learn more about it and donate some money.
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]
Late Bloomers is a Californian hiphop trio made up of Nonstop (mc), Ahh’zel (producer/mc) and DJ Giant Squid (DJ/Producer). The recently released their Growth Series 2 EP for free. I wasn’t really up on them before this but they are certainly on my radar now. After a few listens the production is really what makes them to me but the more I listen the more ill pay attention to what Nonstop and Ahh’zel are spittin. Check it out, you can download Growth Series 2 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
A-trak (Alain Macklovitch) has been around for a while now he first made his name winning the DMC’s (the DJ competition) in 1997 when he was only 15. He is a member of The Allies which is a collective of seven DJs the most well known being himself and Craze. He also produces, runs his own label Fools Gold Records (released music from Kid Sister, Kid Cudi and Cool Kids among others) and is Kanye’s DJ for live performances or when he needs some DJ work on a song (and the one that hipped Kanye to Daft Punk which led to his hit “Stronger”). Also fun fact he is the younger brother of producer Dave One (one half of Chromeo).
This week A-Trak released Dirty South Dance 2 which is the followup to his 2007 album. The dirty south albums feature for the most part dance reworkings of hiphop songs. The first one, although it did have quite a few songs I skipped, the songs I liked I played a ton. So I was looking forward to the new one. But after checking it out I’m not really feeling it, there are a few ok songs but nothing compared to my favorites of the first one. But being Free Album Friday I figure I might as well share them both. So you can get 1 here and 2 here.
This Free Album Friday album comes from Los Angeles MC Diz Gibran and New York producer Moonshine. Soon You’ll Understand came out around this time last year. The clothing label Crooks and Castles put it out as a promo. Don’t get me wrong Diz is nice on the mic but the production really carries the album. Overall it’s good, there are only a few skippable songs. Download the album here.
Diz Gibran “The Hardest Word”
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Diz Gibran “New Religion”
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Related Links
Diz Gibran – Myspace / Twitter
Moonshine – Myspace
Diz Gibran – featuring BJ The Chicago Kid “Truly Yours” music video
Diz Gibran Soon You’ll Understand album free download
Meant to post about this album a while back but never happened (note i’m changing the date of this post to make it a Free Album Friday post). Dilla Jawns is an album of Dilla beats played by The Roots. It works pretty good, while there is nothing super great on here I only disliked two of the tracks. Since it’s a band we don’t the DJ scratches or vocal samples (I kinda would like the M.O.P. vocal sample on “Make Em NV”) to keep things fresh. But it’s a nice album to have on in the background, plus its free (download Dilla Jawns here). If you like this album you will like a past Free Album Friday post where I shared The Remix Project Mixtape. On it a band plays various hiphop beats.
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?”
you need flash to play the song
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
