Revolution Void

The instrumental hiphop album All's Fair in Love of Wax has been uploaded to Jamendo and is awaiting moderation. It should be online within 48 hours. I will post links here as soon as it comes online. Update: Here it is! Thanks for listening! -Jonah

Labels: hiphop

I am excited to announce the forthcoming release of my debut instrumental hiphop album by new recording project The Insider.

The album will be much less eclectic than my Revolution Void material, but should still contain enough variety to be interesting. I am hoping it will be different enough to add something new to the genre, while remaining true to my intentions of creating a relatively straightforward instrumental hiphop album.

So far there are 15 tracks which are candidates for the album, but I am going to cull it to around 10. The songs are all essentially finished, and at this point I am just fine tuning various things, as well as mixing and mastering a few tracks. Also, I am trying to add in some unobtrusive samples and little details, flourishes if you will. The album is probably fine to release right now but I like adding little "easter eggs" for astute listeners to notice.

I am reminded of the quote, perhaps by Mingus (not sure, please tell me if you recognize it):

"I know I am finished with a song not when I can't add anything else, but when I can't take anything else away."

In that spirit, although I am adding little details here and there, I am always keeping in mind that less is more, and that for everything added, something else is taken away.

Another challenge in producing an album in this digital age is the tendency to be a perfectionist to the point of losing the humanity from the recording. Since it is easy and free to spend as much time as you like in post production fixing mistakes, it is a common pitfall to keep fixing mistakes until the music loses its vitality, trading visceral experience for sterility.

I am reminded of another quote, whose author I also can't place. (Perhaps a French filmmaker?). The quote is,

"A masterpiece is not perfect, it is full of mistakes. It is the triumph of the mistakes which makes it a masterpiece."

As for the title, All's Fair in Love of Wax is an obvious parody of "All's fair in love and war", a common proverb derived from John Lyly's Euphues (1578). (Incidentally, the original quote which the proverb was derived from is "The rules of fair play do not apply in love and war").

In my case, I have always been infatuated with vinyl and am an avid record collector, but have shied away from sampling in my other recording projects. For The Insider, I decided I would just go for it, copyrights be damned! So the title is a way for me to express a similar sentiment, sort of, "All's fair in love and war and sampling!"

Since the album is basically finished, you can expect it to hit the web anytime as early as next week or as late as the end of April.

Thanks for reading (& listening)!

Labels: hiphop, news

Here are some tracks which can be used as building blocks, either for other songs or for soundtracks and segues.

These are all released under the Creative Commons Attrib license so you can use them for whatever you like (just give credit).

• Minimal Instrumental Hiphop Segue MP3 | WAV
  Sparse, minimal downtempo breakbeat and a Moog-ish bassline. This clip is only 34 seconds long so it would have to be a segue, incidental music or music cue.
• Hat Pusher Overkill MP3 | WAV
  Overdriven breakbeat with pushy hihats. Warning: Very loud!
• Too Cool for Homeschool MP3 | WAV
  This track starts with solo turntablism filtered with light delay. The beat drops-- a simple, crisp drum-machine breakbeat with sub bass. The beat is then filtered through a flanger while the turntablism continues.
• Biomythos (ambient soundscape mix) MP3 | WAV
  Sparse vibraphone evokes a sense of mystery, while a phased synth pad provides counterpoint. Remix of a track from the 2006 release Thread Soul.
• Filtered Breakbeat with Clav Solo MP3
  The main solo on this track is performed with the Native Instruments Elektrik Piano Clavinet (along with some filtering effects). The breakbeat has a lowpass filter using Ableton Live's built-in Auto-filter effect.

Labels: creative commons, hiphop, samples

This collection of tracks was released as part of the Hiphop White Label series. All of these songs are released to the public domain, granting free use to do anything you wish with them, including using the tracks in whole or part in commercial endeavors, without requiring to give credit.

1. Back in the Day
2. Cut-Up Piano Beatz
3. Wes Coast
4. Shufflectro
5. New York City
6. Epic Strings
7. Day Before New Year's
8. Desperate Measures Theme

Labels: hiphop

The R.V. track Weekend Amnesia is featured in this excellent jazz/hip-hop podcast: Urban Cocktail Hour 03-07-07

Here's a link to the MP3 directly: Download

And a description from the site:

Take some smoothed out lounge music, add a splash of hip hop, and stir in a little jazz for mixer and you have got an "Urban Cocktail Hour!" If you like your cocktail hours loungy and your hip hop jazzy, you'll love this mix!

For this month's mix, I found myself inspired to play music with a little more acid jazz and hip hop influence. I marked it "Explicit" because there are a few random curse words but it is far from offensive. There are plenty of sultry melodies, great vocals and smooth rapping to fill out this sexy hour long episode.

Labels: hiphop, jazz, mix

Much to my chagrin, the auto-emailer I use to publish the Hiphop White Label series did not work correctly and missed Episode 2 of the series. So, I'm posting it here. Better late than never, as they say.

This installment of the series focuses around a simple piano, bass and drum motif. It was composed around 2002-03 in collaboration with Michal Gola, a Czech graffiti artist and hiphop producer.

Download MP3 (3.6 MB)

Cut-Up Piano Beats @ Ourmedia

Labels: hiphop