Lo-Fi Sundays 028 - DeKobe

Beats music doesn't always come in a rusty, low fidelity package and this weekend's highlighted producer DeKobe demonstrates it. Spread out across eight full LPs and EPs, his beats are clean and polished from the percussion to the sample chops to the presentation. He focuses keenly on these rudimentary elements and cultivates them to their utmost. By following this path, he does great justice to the legacies of Polish producer Blazo and the late Japanese legend Nujabes, two artists whom he takes great inspiration from, as evidenced by his social media content. 

The producer's real name is Julian Saavedra. Of Filipino heritage, he hails from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, a city adjacent to Toronto on the shores of Lake Ontario.  Beats music is of course a global phenomenon, but damn do a ton of great beatmakers come from Canada. There is a wealth of jazz material in his catalog. He makes slight forays into synthesizer work, but usually to give a light, glowing touch to traditional combinations of percussion, bass and samples. Within the open spaces of his most zoned-out beats, the vibes tread into the shallows of trip hop.

DeKobe's never released a beat tape or a single, opting always for the EP/LP format. Such faithfulness to that format which is becoming unique in DeKobe's line of work. His most recent EP, Interlude, was released just last week on May 8, 2018. When he dropped this, DeKobe alluded to a forthcoming project through the Jazz Hop Cafe. As even any casual lo-fi youtuber knows, the Jazz Hop Cafe does not play around; they're one of the finest platforms in the world for this music. By the same token, when it comes to straight up jazz hop, DeKobe's beats are at the top of the pile even on the global scale. However and whenever this project manifests itself, it's sure to be extremely potent. DeKobe presents only the most cultivated vibes, and will surely keep doing so into the future, so stay chooned. 

FOLLOW DeKobe:   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp   /   Instagram   /   Twitter

Lo-Fi Sundays 027 - drkmnd

"One must make use of freedom; only freedom of choice can allow one to escape 'nausea'." This is a fundamental principle of Existentialism as laid down by the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. It's also a principle guiding Callum Ward aka drkmnd, a thought-provoking low-fidelity producer from the United Kingdom. Callum's creativity is not completely bound up in hip-hop - he bends the beats toward electronic and ambient poles - but the traditional lo-fi aesthetic is the axis around which his music turns. 

His moniker hints at his vibe. Drkmnd music is a low-slung, sepia-toned, intellectual excursion. Less than a year's worth of tunes are available on his channels. Yet the progression of his skill and ability to communicate is tremendous when traced from his first release to his most recent, Nausea, which dropped April 30 on vinyl through United Common Records. Nausea runs the gambit from old school bumps and fuzzy drugscapes to dream marches that trace the edges of indie rock and downtempo electronica. He flexes impressively diverse writing here, including a bent collaboration with Lo-Fi Sundays favorite Senoy. 

His less recent works include the stoic full-length album Contemplations and the imaginative beat tape Absurdism. This tape is diverse within the lo-fi spectrum, too, exemplified by a ambient, four-on-the-floor, trance-inducing tune on the back half of the tape. The only sample I recognize across his entire catalog appears in his cut "new flwrs". It's the flute from "Cautari" by Paul Weiner, the same snip heard in the Nujabes' classic "Spiral". This speaks either to Callum's ability to dig deep into the crates or to my ignorance, or perhaps both. Drkmnd's pensive compositions can be heard on the recent Seasonal Sounds // Spring compilation from the Dutch imprint Dust Collectors, as well as Futures Vol. 4 and 5 from Calgary's Inner Ocean Records. 

Beneath the Bandcamp tracklist for Nausea is a quote; "Being an artist can be overwhelming, simply because of the sheer volume of creative possibilities that exist in the universe." The creative possibilities are voluminous, surely, and perhaps they overwhelm Callum himself at times. But if so, he's taking the heat off the rest of us. For sitting back with his music, amidst smoke wisps and wandering thoughts, "overwhelmed" is the very last state we find ourselves in. 

FOLLOW drkmnd:   Soundcloud   /   Spotify   /   Bandcamp   /   Facebook   /   Instagram

Lo-Fi Sundays 026 - parkbreezy

This weekend we're taking a slight detour from our usual path to showcase a more psychedelic side of beats with parkbreezy. That's the musical moniker of Parker Williams, a producer with an eclectic catalog who hails from Montclair, New Jersey and currently resides in Denver, Colorado. In a phrase, Parker produces lo-fi trip-hop, and the influences within his music range from rap and R&B to electric soul and downtempo. His ability to hybridize these styles is most evident on his new EP Ripple which dropped on 4/20/18.

All his beats ride low with sunken basslines and buttery smooth synth pads. The drums are generally smooth but impactful and coated in a thin layer of dust. The chops on"Chest Pains" are a great example of his attractive percussion. Parker has been producing for at least four years, and the progression of his music is atypical. Crawl back into his Soundcloud and one can find lo-fi house, traditional lo-fi hip hop chops and wobbly jazz electronica. There's some excellent re-fixes in the archives, too, including spins on Pretty Lights' "Finally Moving" and the Tom Misch tune "The Journey". Parker collaborates frequently with fellow Denver resident pheel., whose upcoming Lost in Thought EP featuring work from parkbreezy will drop right here via The Rust Music in May 2018. The first collaboration between these two, "thank you, Jeff", is a fine beat where a doodling keyboard and wandering flute socialize with vocal cuts over a pocket kick, snare and ride cymbal sequence. 

With diverse ingredients parkbreezy creates music that negates boundaries of genre while remaining faithful to the sonic aesthetic of lo-fi. He opens new spaces revealing the bright possibilities that arise from creatively crossing over between styles.

FOLLOW parkbreezy:   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp   /   Facebook   /   Spotify   /   Instagram

Lo-Fi Sundays 025 - Wild Mofo

The surface layer of the lo-fi community can deceive casual onlookers into thinking it is a disconnected, fragmented genre of isolated producers. It is upon the second, and sometimes third glance that the associations and relationships of this niche begin to catch the eye. Wild Mofo is the lo-fi project of native Parisian Arnaud Delouette. Delouette not only gives a top-notch representation of battered and weathered beats, he's also a co-founder of the Paris-based label THA ReCoRdZ, a collective of rhythm junkies and low-fidelity devotees. Curating a bevy of content on a weekly basis, Arnaud and his colleagues have been putting their best foot forward to highlight the community that gives them the ground they stand upon, and what better way than to lead by example.

The music of Wild Mofo is a twisted landscape of half-skewed samples and slapstick percussion that seems to always fall gradually into syncopation. Cutting frequencies and bit-crushing elements of a track are barely the first step in crafting this retro-future stylization; lo-fi hip hop is characteristically "lazy" in the rhythm, and Arnaud provides textbook examples of giving songs a true swing in the beat. The tracks in his discography are stuffed full of deranged rhythmic turnarounds and aural artifacts, with a littering of one-off instrument samples and choice vocal cuts from some serious heavyweights in hip hop the world over. If you're in the market for a beat potpourri, look no further: Wild Mofo already has ample experience curating any choice of flavors.

FOLLOW Wild Mofo:   Soundcloud   /   Facebook   /   Mixcloud

FOLLOW THA ReCoRdZ:   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp    /    Facebook

Lo-Fi Sundays 024 - Zeus the Elevated

When it comes to beats, some enjoy the jazzy, bright and crispy clean sound while others enjoy the raw, dark, distorted knocks - not that the two styles are mutually exclusive. But if you fall into the latter category, peep zeus the elevated. Hailing from somewhere in the expanse of Canada, zeus is a familiar character on Soundcloud. It seems any dank instrumental that one visits, zeus has already been there and dropped his two cents in the comments. He uses no digital audio workstation, crafting his beats straight from the mpc 1k. sp555, sp505, and sp404.

More than most beatmakers, zeus appears to be influenced by the rugged '90s hip-hop sound - the grain. He samples Wu-Tang, Nas, and Big L heavily, and his beats possess the same raw and exposed attitude that these musicians were known for. You can hear this clearly on "heavy.thoughts", "dirty" and his "day-dreamin" mini-tape. At the same time, zeus cultivates moments of extreme solace and ethereal emotion. Hitting these two extremes simultaneously is what distinguishes this producer.

If you really want to peep why zeus is elevated, listen to our favorite cut from the producer, "Time", which was included on the lo.fi.hiphop one-year anniversary tape. Zeus drops knowledge and creates a mystical atmosphere that stones the listener, placing him or her in suspended animation for 100 seconds. This is the kind of vibe that keeps us digging through lo-fi.  

He's a big part of the always on point Mt. Fuji Tapes family and Dumb Nice, has some tasty collaborations with saiko, dweeb, and owls at night. His Jumpin Through Loops series is hypnotizing, and he's a true master of the straightforward vocal sample. Zeus holds it down, there's no question about that. We always look out for what he's listening to and for his new cuts, which come about once per month. 

FOLLOW zeus the elevated:   Soundcloud   /   Spotify   /   Youtube

Lo-Fi Sundays 023 - Sazetrax

When one refers to the “balance” of good music, it is a commentary on the shared association of tone, level, and presence in a song. Balancing these elements while crafting an engaging musical narrative is the demarcation of a pragmatic musician. This mark could not be more apparent this Sunday. Brooklyn-based producer Sazetrax is a rainy day foray into a vibrant and self-reflective mind state of shuffled beats. His music exudes an attitude of trotting down New York sidewalks when the wind has a frigid pinch and the air stirs with the scents of the urban sprawl.

The Sazetrax catalog includes almost 50 unique tracks and a helping handful of beat tapes sprinkled throughout. The dynamic range of the music hones in on the traditional boom-bap style of lo-fi hip-hop, but decidedly takes a different route than the usual “dusting” of samples. Instead, the fidelity of the chopped bits of melodies and drum lines are intentionally kept full of life and color, but never too much. It's just the right consistency, and the results strike home on the aural sweet tooth. Dive anywhere into the wide collection of tunes available and, on a moment's notice, take a trip down a wormhole of disembodied nostalgia.

FOLLOW Sazetrax:   Facebook   /   Soundcloud   /   Tracktrain

Lo-Fi Sundays 022 - saib.

Highly-cultivated beats continue to spring from the mind of a young Moroccan man named Hamza aka saib. Saib. instrumentals are distinguished by their elite musicality, a reflection of Hamza’s proclivity with the guitar and natural feel for melody and rhythm. His extraordinary output ranges from dusty, compressed lo-fi cuts to jazz, swing and bossanova. We’ve tried humbly to capture this diversity, focusing heavily on those hypnotic head-nodding tunes perfect for a lazy Sunday. Skip around a bit to hear blues- and jazz-influenced guitar playing, and stay through the end for a pair of tributes to the two great beatmakers.

Saib. admits owing inspiration to Nujabes and other musicians who compose for anime, this according to a 2017 interview Hamza gave to StereoFox. The cut “Sakura Trees” beautifully borrows the same sample heard in Nujabes’ “Brothel Love” from the famous anime Samurai Champloo, and “Butterfly Lovers” has an unmistakeable East Asian feel. “I used to play blues, fingerstyle music and progressive rock and I ended up focusing on improvisation, bossa-nova and jazz,” Hamza tells Stereofox. “Three years ago my brother introduced me to music production and suggested to start recording music on the laptop, I really wanted to make sounds like Nujabes (my phone had the full Nujabes discography and I was really into Japanese Hip-hop at the time), so I started messing around with Ableton and here we are now!”

Leading beat labels Chillhop Music and Hip Dozer frequently feature saib. on their compilations. “West Lake” from Chillhop’s 2017 Fall Essentials is simply sublime, and one of the producer’s most enduring tunes. Its delicate string melody evokes ripples spreading across reflective water on a chilly morning. The title likely alludes to West Lake in China’s Hangzhou province, where Hamza has been studying mandarin and computer science. Much saib. music has the intention and the ability to evoke different landscapes. His Buena Vista EP from Hip Dozer indulges bossanova and South American musical tropes. “Palm Trees” plucks a familiar jazz melody in a tropical style. “Groovy Blues” brings to mind a southern United States speakeasy, and “Funk It” sounds like a sunny city sidewalk glazed with the smell of marijuana. 

Saib. may have an EP or two on the horizon in 2018. He has dedication, talent and a prodigious capacity for music making, so EP or not, staying chooned to his channels will yield only positive results and perpetual vibes. Saib. is entertaining to be sure, but beyond the tunes he evinces something greater - a glimpse of the boundless potential behind this beats music.

FOLLOW saib.:   Soundcloud   /   Spotify   /   Bandcamp   /   Instagram

Lo-Fi Sundays 021 - Dweeb

Dweeb beats have all the smooth and sweet flavors one could obtain after a run to the local convenient store. Spindly piano loops and pocket drum patterns are his bread and butter. He delicately manipulates these essential lo-fi hip hop elements, and generates such a wide variety of material from their interaction. In between the kick thuds and snare pops, dusty tones stretch out and create a soft pillow for the mind to rest and vibe upon. 

This accomplished "beet farmer" splits his time between Minneapolis, Minnesota and Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. His clever nickname, evoking a yeoman harvesting his yield, accurately reflects the consistency in Dweeb's catalog. Down at the beat farmer's market, one can reliably assume whatever Dweeb is offering, it's a high-caliber bump. Some of his tunes are whimsical and fun, others are aloof and reflective, most are named after food. His wide body of work includes a raft of singles and collaborations, at least three beat tapes, and a juicy cut on Kush Gong Vinyl's recent Bits 2 compilation. Projects like his "Cream Soda" beat tape and his Neapolitan singles, or cuts like "Caramel" and "Tootsie" from his Treats tape are as indulgent as their names would imply. Dweeb also popped up on the STZZZY Youtube feed just this week with his frequent collaborator of comparable talents, too ugly. If you relish the relaxation that comes from a smooth, jazzy instrumental, stay chooned in to Dweeb the beet farmer. 

FOLLOW Dweeb:   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp   /   Spotify   /   Facebook   /   Instagram   /   Twitter

Lo-Fi Sundays 020 - Elijah Nang

Elijah Nang is a storyteller. With a brush of boom-bap he depicts landscapes and narrates travels, mostly across Japan’s countryside and through its teeming cities. Nang loves anime and maintains an obsessive enthusiasm for the Land of the Rising Sun that shines with brilliance in his beats. Others before him have spliced Western hip-hop with Eastern anime, most notably Nujabes, to whom Nang pays tribute with multiple songs including “Yuki Pt.II 降雪” and “Sunburst 太陽”. Nang picked up where the others left off, and continues to elevate the Eastern beats aesthetic to transcendent heights. 

Nang’s sonic journeys correspond to his actual travels. He communicates his experiences through songs like “Shibuya Lights 渋谷” in which rippling percussion and piano samples create a glistening night skyline, or “Kyoto Evening [To Be Continued]” in which Koto samples and a jostling low-pass filter depict a city’s bustling but reserved nightlife. The Koto is a traditional Japanese string instrument and its appears across Nang’s body of work, including a delightfully subtle introduction at the end of “Bonsai 盆栽”. Sampling this native instrument is one way by which Nang evokes the East, similar to hand drums conjuring images of the Indian subcontinent, or certain orchestral melodies evoking the Balkans. 

A worldly fellow, Nang hails from London, has Nigerian heritage, attended high-school in Missouri (if Facebook can be trusted), and psychologically occupies Japan. He's been producing since 2006. He’s made music for rappers and used to rap himself, but now he's all about the instrumentals. This decade plus of experience in the breaks is reflected in the consistently high quality of his production. Nothing Nang produces is substandard. His beats could be construed as overly formulaic, as certain patterns are repeated across his catalog. The formula’s ingredients, however, are so delicious and fulfilling. Anyway, it’s this very repetition that can hypnotize a listener, allowing him or her to sink so deeply into the grooves.

Nang’s most recent release, Lost in Japan II, was released in January of 2018 and is available for download on the artist’s Bandcamp. Singles from this enchanting LP dropped months ahead of its release, including the cathartic “Haru” which was included on Chillhop Music’s 2017 Spring Essentials compilation. Past releases include Lost in Japan, Travel EP, and the Imagination EP from three years ago in which the foundation of Nang’s current sound can be heard. We sincerely look forward to more music from this prolific producer, when perhaps he will be lost in Cambodia, or Korea, or elsewhere. Until then, beats for days are available on Nang’s Soundcloud. We've lined up 20 favorites for this lazy lo-fi Sunday.

FOLLOW Elijah Nang:   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp   /   Facebook   /   Tumblr

Lo-Fi Sundays 019 - Kuranes

Europe is a consistent hub for lo-fi music. The next stop on the global map of producers takes us to Italy and the beat-server Kuranes. His compositions scatter in many musical directions, but always maintain the familiar thematic timbre of low-fidelity production. “MΔRS” is an expedition through extraplanetary synthesis and persistent, complimentary percussion. “~” is a classic hip-hop progression, with detuned piano lines waning in the background to hold the mood. “Ex oblivione” takes on a jazzy flair, gracefully developing around cascading melodies and disembodied hymns. “lord of sleep” creeps its way from start to finish with melancholy, dissonant chords and scales, riding a constant headnod that bounces on thick, muffled snares.

Only having popped up in the last 2 years, Kuranes has released an impressive amount of music. He has nine official releases to his name between ep’s, albums, and beattapes not to mention singles, his latest a collaboration with saiko. His most recent work, “Ukiyo”, was pressed onto  30 limited vinyl records alongside the standard digital distribution. Standard logic dictates that a close eye should be kept on such a weaver of rhythms. His talents are fresh and finely tuned, so there's sure to be even tastier beats to come in the near future.

FOLLOW Kuranes:   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp   /   Facebook

Lo-Fi Sundays 018 - Wisdom

Instrumental hip-hop a not a style of music which draws listeners with its technical virtuosity. Yes, producers and highly cultivated fans can and do appreciate the technical aspects of a tune; the cleanliness of the sample chop, the compression of the kick drum, the dynamic of the note relationships, or the deft use of white noise. But the main attraction of instrumentals is the vibe they create and the feeling they evoke. Even the most base musical elements can offer a profound listening experience once they’ve been transfigured through a tasteful arrangement by the beatmaker. 

Instrumental hip-hop offers more space for this transfiguration than most musical styles. There sometimes appears to be a tacit challenge for producers; “do the most with the least”. What great rapture or simple relaxation can you provoke with your small handful of musical elements? In this context, the depth and color of the feeling provoked by a beat determines how valuable that beat becomes for a listener. 

WISDOM beats stone you. The face flushes and a tingle rinses down the spine. Cool and familiar, ripples of energy move out through the arms to the fingertips, raising goosebumps as they go. Undiluted calm envelopes the mind. A single note initiates a rush of clarity and throws the listener into a meditative state. WISDOM entertains and keeps the head moving. But plunge under the sublime surface vibe and the technical skill to the great beneath; the sound, a vibe, a sum greater than its parts, an understanding transmuted through syncopated drums and melody.

Exposure hasn’t fallen heavily yet on WISDOM aka Alec who resides somewhere in the Lone Star State. His work has been featured on a thorough compilation from San Francisco beats and lyrics label Fuzzoscope, and a tape from the steadfast lo-fi curators of Bandcamp, lofi.hiphop. His only at-length drop to date is “DINGE”, a 30-minute tape released on February 7, 2018, the unofficial world beats day. Before it appeared there were only a few short beats available from WISDOM on the Cloud, but quantity is not significant before quality. It may not come for a minute, but stay chooned for the next drop from this wise beatmaker whose momentum builds with each kick and snare. 

FOLLOW WISDOM:   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp   /   Spotify   /   Twitter   /   Instagram   /   Facebook

Lo-Fi Sundays 017 - KarmawiN

Rise, shine, and rub the sleep out of your eyes because the multi-lateral conductor for this Sunday's musical overtures demands a fresh spring in each step today. Standing tall in his home of Lyon, France, KarmawiN has been steadily releasing an ever-growing catalog of top-notch lo-fi beats and other hip-hop treats. Sometimes vibrant, sometimes melancholy, and always with an attitude, his tracks tackle a multitude of sub-genres, tempos, moods, and instrumentation. 

"Like a Ninja" creeps its way from start to finish following a harmonic minor scale that brings out the Samurai Champloo in all of us. Gated reverb on the snares keeps the upper registers of the frequency spectrum bright, with just enough space in between to let the hi-hats and sparing brass samples breath and flourish. Choice vinyl cuts surrounding samples referring to a Ninja's duties certainly help to keep the mental picture in focus. "Yōkai" follows the far eastern motif, utilizing samples distributed by fellow beatsmith Soul Maker. "Diggaz" fleshes out a familiar jazzy flair, with harmonious piano samples cutting and crossing one another underneath the canopy of brass flutterings and staple hip-hop vocal cuts. 

E1K, a recently formed beat-tape distribution label based out of Germany, put out KarmawiN's first official tape release, Noir, back in January. The beat-tape features 11 masterly crafted tracks that bring out a plethora of hues and tones that are so vital to lo-fi specifically, and hip-hop in general. Alongside the digital release, a physical tape is available for purchase by those who prefer to have a hands-on medium with which to collect their favorite music. If all of this tickles your fancy, then sit tight for some new music assuredly on the horizon from this young upstart.

FOLLOW KarmawiN:   Souncloud   

Check out "Noir" here:   Bandcamp 

Lo-Fi Sundays 016 - Lunchbag

What could be more unassuming than a lunch bag; brown, paper, one size, mom wrote your name on it. But what’s this? Inside is an unexpected cornucopia of flavor, treats of all colors from a fat Italian sandwich and fresh fruits to candies and a bag of your favorite chips. This is the experience of discovering lunchbag, an adept producer based in Stuttgart, Germany. 

There’s a broad range of lo-fi flavors in the producer’s lexicon, from straightforward Wu-Tang head-nod re-fixes, to 1970s jazz cut ups. “2chordhosen”  showcases lunchbag’s ability to tease out a vibe from minimal musical material. It’s built on two simple chords and spiced with some delightful ivory doodling, but still carries a great emotional weight. “c h e s s b o x i n” and “Figaro” among others demonstrate the producer’s fondness for classic American hip-hop, and his ability to remodel it with refreshed essence. “2face” and “column” seem to spin a raw lo-fi jazz thread, a creative counterbalance to the traditional hip-hop tunes. His tracks have been picked up by the Berlin and London-based Complex Channel Records and Estugarda, a hip-hop collective from lunchbag’s hometown of Stuttgart. The latter's ambitious compilation "Lava" also features a lunchbag cut called "Crossing Fingers". 

“Apertif” is a recent drop, and one of two lunchbag tapes available on Soundcloud. An aperitif is an alcoholic drink taken before a meal to stimulate the appetite. This tape typifies lunchbag’s laid-back style, and at times highlights the producer's aptitude with a synthesizer, as does an older tune of his called "Burn the Plastic". This tape will certainly whet one's appetite for more of lunchbag's beats. They aren’t exceptionally thick, compressed, or trashy. They’re not overly distorted or dark with that attractive lo-fi loneliness, but they strike the nerves just right. There’s great familiarity with the boom bap, that bedrock tool of the hip-hop trade, and little reluctance to dabble in jazz samples and reap the melodious profit. With this subtle blend of jazz and hip-hop that’s not too hot and not too cold, it’s easy to kick back and relax with lunchbag beats. 

FOLLOW lunchbag:   Soundcloud   

Lo-Fi Sundays 015 - Senoy

Senoy stuck out to us while listening to the Homegrown compilation released on Friday by Inner Ocean Records and STZZZY. Based out of Berlin, Germany, he is the curator of a modest catalog that pushes in a range of stylistic directions. A multifaceted producer and composer, he worked closely with the artist Parra for Cuva to craft the album Darwis, a melody-driven collection of instrumental electronica. His first solo album, Shine, was released through Inner Oceans Records in September of 2017, and falls more in line with the lo-fi aural aesthetic.

Shine is a vivacious journey through the various affectionate moods of lo-fi music, dipping its fingers in hip-hop and ambient tones and arrangements. Comprised of a large amount of original instrumentation and a light pinch of synthesis, the album has an ebb and flow that bares the musics' direction with crystal-clear fluidity. 

سغىيْ is a particularly wild track, with a heavy synthesizer presence and many of the staple trappings of more electronic-focused music. Warped and distorted string samples drone from start to finish, occasionally becoming drowned out by the slight wobble of deranged melodies and glitchy brass lines.

K36. F L Y is entirely in line with traditional lo-fi hip-hop music, bringing into the headspace images of pollen falling onto suburban streets in the early spring. The kick is pushed to the center of the mix with strong, hard-lined compression, and fills the low-end of the frequency spectrum with a rhythmic thud. Various key chops are blended effortlessly into re-pitched vocal samples that seem to respond in kind to the piano's siren call.

All of his available music can be found throughout his own soundcloud, and his album is available for purchase through the Inner Ocean Records bandcamp. Throw a few dollars in his direction to support the project, and you'll be instantly satisfied with the fidelity of the results.

FOLLOW Senoy:   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp   /   Facebook

Lo-Fi Sundays 014 - Folridomi

Floridomi is a consummate professional when it comes to the beats. Based in the home of hip-hop, the New York City producer's reverence for beats - their past, present and future - is abundantly clear. He releases work on Dust Era  and has participated in their “Selects” series, where the critical Las Vegas lo-fi label taps producers to curate some of their favorite selects. Domi’s contribution from January, 2016 included cuts from Madlib and J Dilla among dozens of others. Our floridomi selects highlight the producer’s diverse capabilities, from jazz and boom bap to the pure lo-fi grain and the slightly psychedelic. 

His Flowers tape showcases many styles, punctuated by braggadocio vocal samples and chuckling radio skits. There’s “Alpinia” which flips a Brazilian samba into a head-nodding boom-bap beat, “Etlingera” which weaves sultry piano samples through open space, and “Constantia” with rustic Spanish guitar samples. His ability to walk tall through different styles finds floridomi constantly collaborating. Included here is one cut with flavors, one with wūf, and an absolutely spellbinding beat with the magician borealism called “Pachinko” that was reworked by Danish producer iamalex on his track “Together”. 

“Rich palace” delivers an expected but healthy dosage of synth bass. “Spliff Politix” is a delightful, bouncing boom-bap ode to the cypher that takes us into the producer’s oddities tape. This hilarious and engaging tape highlights “the weirder side of my beats” according to domi. Tracks on this tape get so low-key and left-field that they’ll find you sinking into your couch with your head in the clouds. According to the producer there’s a “spiritual successor” to this tape in the works, so stay chooned for that. 

The low-key vibe keeps riding with “smoke signals” and “risky business” which offer supreme examples of the sauntering basslines that are a hallmark of floridomi’s sound. 

A number of his albums are available for purchase on Bandcamp or streaming on Spotify. Beats continue to flow regularly from his Soundcloud. The caliber of their production only continues to rise, and the attention to detail never slackens. If you enjoy beats, dig deep into floridomi. 

FOLLOW floridomi:   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp   /   Twitter   /   Spotify

Lo-Fi Sundays 013 - Hoogway

A veritable part of the allure of the lo-fi community is the relative anonymity of a vast plethora of its producers and constituents, and this motif holds true with regards to hoogway. Based out of Brussels, Belgium, the one-man beat cypher leaves little more than a paper trail comprised of just nine melancholy compositions. Sometimes, it is necessary to dive into the background of an artist to provide a certain clarity and context to their work; in this situation, it is the work that provides context and clarity to the artist.

A common trope amongst producers stemming from all sub genres of hip-hop is the "chopped sample", with its ragged edges and off kilter transients. Eschewing this technique, hoogway instead opts to allow the original arrangement of his samples to shine through the mix. Perhaps it comes in the form of "morning coffee", a melodious and luminous piece that lets the beat fall back more than a few times to let the piano sing without constraint, bringing your attention away from the rhythm, and focusing on the note relationships that give so much life to articulate music. "the jazz party" takes on a vibe of dimly lit bars and social clubs, with a casual sway back and forth, bouncing around fluttering chords and off-kilter snares. Bringing a far-eastern atmosphere into the mix, "ascending" feels like a nod of the head towards the multitude of Asian producers who have mingled their cultural scales and modes with the western hip-hop rhythm.

The last uploaded track from hoogway came around 4 months ago, and it is unclear if the project will continue in the future; if anything is certain, it is that these musical artifacts take on a life of their own, and any future releases are bound to be just as captivating.

FOLLOW hoogway:    Soundcloud   /   Instagram

Lo-Fi Sundays 012 - bastrd

Nine of ten top-shelf hip-hop tracks start with undeniably dope drums, and ten of ten tracks from the prodigious producer bastrd have just that. Bastrd lays biblical levels of compression onto his drums. Each kick sounds like it might pop open your earphone, and the hats sting like bees. Unpredictable, the drums stop, start and stutter and exemplify that slightly-off sound that has always been foundational in beat music and lo-fi hip-hop. Permeated by an improvisational jazz ethos as well, bastrd beats are inventive, unorthodox and simply enchanting. 

The movement of many of the tracks is manic and difficult to pin down. In some cases the drum pattern is more jazz than hip-hop. In others, “90% off” for example, the drum pattern hardly resembles anything familiar. The cymbal sampling here is particularly busy and well done, filling the mix with rich resonating rides and crashes. This freeform approach to drums distinguishes bastrd from so many producers who - not to their discredit - are content to rock with the more traditional boom-bap. 

Songs shift direction and spin in circles like “wawa” or the mystical jazz-infused cut “why remember". It’s not your average head nod music. Nonetheless, in a given moment it can twist your neck, as on the mini-mix “sick” from New Year’s Day, or the cut “Milo”. This one comes from bastrd’s stunning release from October, 2017; An Anthology of 16th Century Azerbaijani Classical Works by Fuzûlî. Only three of the 20 tracks on this absolutely mesmerizing effort are included in today’s playlist, so visit bastrd’s bandcamp (linked below) for the full monty. 

The producer ranked onto lofi.hiphop’s latest compilation, and his most recent drop is a jaunty and mildly psychedelic collaboration titled “2047 type beat” with the Oklahoman elegy off that producer’s forthcoming tape. Stay chooned to bastrd’s channels for more extraordinary knocks, and come back to our LoFi Sundays column next weekend as we continue to spotlight our favorite contemporary beatmakers. 

FOLLOW bastrd:   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp

Lo-Fi Sundays 011 - gny

Part of hip-hop's illustrious magic revolves around its world-wide appeal; the pervasive 4/4 time signature and repetitious melodies have a way of inspiring the head-nod, regardless of culture or geography, so today, we're giving the spotlight to gny, a Philippine native by the name of Eugene Yaptangco who has an unmistakable penchant for brewing archetypal lo-fi.

Separating the good, the bad, and the ugly with lo-fi can sometimes become convoluted, and the tropes that often denote musical prowess are left at the door, making the true value of this underground genre a variable that depends entirely on what the individual interpretation of the music. gny offers a product that is far less ambiguous in its musical acuity, and far more enriched in its composition, arrangement, and presentation. 

His most recent beat-tape, hall of mirrors, shines far brighter than many of its contemporary releases as a conscious connection between hip-hop and jazz music. The conceptual goal for the collection was to explore the motif of jazz artists creating a vast array of interpretations of particular songs, and how that can be applied to the crafting of lo-fi rhythms. gny was gracious enough to provide some precise language about his exploits: "Each of these beats samples 5 different artists who created their own version of the same song. My thought when creating this project was: these jazz artists can create their own version of a song, why can’t beat-makers do that, too? Collectively, the titles of the beats create one sentence explaining the reinvention of this music in the hip-hop approach, and the tape’s titled /hall of mirrors/ since it is looking into different reflections of the same thing."

While there is only so much to dig through for now in the case of gny, it is also worth noting that he has an electronic project as well, by the name of Technicalia. Running through both projects will surely be enough to satiate until the next installment from this meticulous, multi-faceted producer.

FOLLOW gny:   Soundcloud   /   Spotify   /   Facebook

Lo-Fi Sundays 010 - slr

Like the water off the shores of this producer's home state, beats from New-Jersey based slr (sailor) are thick, choppy and refreshing. The producer has hit on various lo-fi sub-styles over the years, but with recent offerings dives into a layered, aqueous sound. We're not the only ones impressed, either, as slr cuts have been featured on tapes from lofi.hiphop, the imprint curated by eminent lo-fi producer bsd.u.  

Most of our favorites have a jazzy, improvisational demeanor, whether a piano, horn, or xylophone is the sampled instrument of choice. The thick, layered texture - hear it on “Shift” - comes in part from spreading wide the dusty hi-hats and practicing some adept side-chain compression. This technique compresses the drums in such a way, usually the kick drum, so that it subtly dampens all the other elements in the song each time it thuds. This pops the kick out a bit more and gives more dimension to the rest of the mix. Strong basslines add more viscosity, some seriously strong like the boom on “R.E.M.”. Then of course there’s the vinyl cracks and rushing white noise that subtly sets off a tune like “cook”. 

From what’s available on Soundcloud and Bandcamp, one can hear that some of slr’s older beats don’t have this thick dimension, tending more towards the soft, spindly side of lo-fi. The production is very diverse if you go back years, hitting other vibes like on “Natalie Portman Goes on a Safari”. Here’s a disjointed, sort of fumbling rhythm with a lead melody played on some delightful equatorial percussion instrument.

The producer collaborates frequently with other notable beatmakers like brother mynor, bsd.u and sensi, with whom he produced an entire tape titled “The Maintenance” that is excellent and laid-back. Unlike his jazzy work, the collab with bsd.u is disorienting, and, as one Soundcloud user writes, “FREEZING”. We’ll keep an ear on the horizon for future collabs, and to hear slr sailing through some forthcoming beat tapes. 

FOLLOW slr:   Soundcloud   /   Facebook   /   TrackTrain

Lo-Fi Sundays 009 - iamalex

Hailing from Copenhagen, Denmark, Alexander Christoph Wiese a.k.a. iamalex has been dropping warm, soulful beats - the musical equivalent of comfort food - for just under a year according to his Soundcloud; the blink of an eye, but enough time to land on compilations from some of contemporary Lo-Fi's most outstanding imprints like Chillhop Music, Hip Dozer, Inner Ocean Records, and Saikei Collective. 

Beats from iamalex differ from other Lo-Fi offerings. Each is a fully-formed composition, which is not to suggest that the one-minute piano and drum snips so integral to Lo-Fi are not valuable. But the length, complexity, musicality, and at times the lyrical content of iamalex tunes defines each as its own distinct entity. This is most apparent on the producer's recent work, Treetop Hotel EP, with a three-minute song like "Memories" The gorgeous, melancholic lyrics and catchy guitar lick create a bright and accessible pop vibe, but the song is anchored with the dusty, chopped traditional trappings of Lo-Fi.

Our favorite cut from the producer is "Together", featured on Inner Ocean Record's prolific tape Bless Vol. 1. There's an idea germinating behind this beautiful music. "I think there are two things within the human being, as there is in myself," a woman's voice says. "They want to be alone, but they also want to be together." The melody, composed of warped guitar and key samples, is just sublime. Layers of soft synth bass, and a bass guitar sample are introduced underneath, buoying the melody from kick to snare as it hammers away at the emotional fortitude of the listener. Coated with chimes and glittering keys, this one creates a slight psychedelic and cerebral atmosphere that is irresistible.

Iamalex's drums always knock, with adept side-chain compression on the kicks setting off clean, popping snares embellished with a whooshing effect.  Tunes like "The Joy" and "The Breeze and Beatrice" showcase an exceptional talent for identifying soul samples, both vocal and instrumental. The latter tune, also featured on Treetop Hotel EP even treads into the waters of electro-soul with a conversant flute sample, violins, and aching blues vocals. All this materials combines into highly-developed colorful collages more musically dynamic than traditional Lo-Fi. 

Stay chooned to iamalex and explore his offering. In the expansive universe of Lo-Fi production his beats are a cut above, and they're beginning to generate a wider response online, particularly since the producer has been able to link up with so many popular labels. His craftsmanship only seems to be improving, but for now, kick back on another lazy - or perhaps industrious - Sunday, and enjoy the vibes which this special producer has to offer.

FOLLOW iamalex:   Soundcloud   /   Facebook   /   Instagram