Headliners grab headlines for a festival, but its often the strength of the undercard that makes a great musical experience on the ground. By their nature, undercards carry unfamiliar names. There's value in wandering festival grounds hither and thither drifting towards whatever catches your fancy. In fact, we recommend this approach. But The Rust Music was designed to give unheard artists an audience, so we took a magnifying glass to the undercard at Psychedelic Sleepover.
Read MoreLo-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.
Read MoreSeppa [Interview]
Within every ripple and wave of emerging musical currents, there are inevitably a few stalwart figures gripping the torch of creativity; a few true bandits of aural experimentation and execution. Sending such permeable waves from across the pond, Sandy Finlayson, under the moniker Seppa, is perched squarely at the forefront of arhythmic modern sound design and aggressive, visceral arrangement. The Rust took the opportunity to pick at the mind of this tenured low-end crusader. Peeling back the layers revealed a producer and musician who is meticulous with his choices, while maintaining an impressive level of creative malleability.
Read MoreLo-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.
Read MoreLo-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.
Read MoreTsimba - Dématérialiser EP
Hybrid bass producer Tsimba is back with his fourth EP, Dématérialiser, an indulgent and meticulously crafted four-track release on Wormhole Music Group. Tsimba aka Mark Evans Musto has earned a reputation for quality in sound design, composition and performance, and he only elevates that reputation with this release.
Read MoreLo-Fi Sundays 025 - Wild Mofo
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.
Read MoreRenraku Global Media - RKU-V01
Renraku Global Media routinely works with artists from around the world who specialize in some of the most far-out interpretations of electronic music. In keeping with the spirit of innovation and left-field content, the label teamed up with four unnamed producers, who may or may not be some Renraku favorites, to craft a four-track EP with a serious catch: it’s a vinyl-only release presented sans artist or track names.
Read MoreLo-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.
Read MoreMickman & DeeZ - Invaders [Single]
Mickman and DeeZ each channel their prolific sound engineering ability into "Invaders", an absolute wipeout of a song self-released as the pair prepare to take the United States on their second tour together in as many years. Both producers have outdone themselves here, linking up to push out some of their gnarliest energy and cleanest sound design yet.
Read MoreLo-Fi Sundays 023 - Sazetrax
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.
Read MoreStaff Picks - 2017
Our collective has an insatiable appetite for new music. We compulsively sift through the depths of the web for tunes we can share with each other and ultimately with you. The sheer volume of music released on a daily basis can be overwhelming. So for a moment we are looking back on 2017 to remind ourselves and our readers of the best drops that went unmentioned in our publication.
Read MoreLo-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.
Read MoreCraftal - Boxed In EP
A clog in the creative canal can constrict many musicians. Any artist, for that matter, must navigate boulders and board ups that would block the path to expression. In this context, the title of Craftal's latest release - Boxed In - may be misleading. Boxed In reaches out and embraces the broadest universe of patterns, textures, arrangements and sound designs to date.
Read MoreWonk#ay Records - Pull Up EP
Something about the United Kingdom foments the growth of dark, twisted bass music so properly, and our friends at Wonk#ay Records serve up the latest example of this well established relationship with Pull Up. This ambitious release showcases the talents of Objcts, Dystopik, Rupta, Zimbu, and includes an absolutely smashing collaboration from neuro heavy-weights Kursa and Seppa.
Read MoreLo-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.
Read MoreElements Lakewood Music & Arts Festival - Zoo Logic Warmup Mix
Presenting the second promo-mix in anticipation of Elements Lakewood this summer, Zoo Logic has provided a well-crafted smorgasbord of melodious interplay, evolving sound design, and excellent cuts between tracks. The mix features a majority of original Zoo Logic tracks alongside a few choice remixes and selectors, and is sure to whet a multitude of palettes with its varying stylistic directions.
Read MoreLo-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.
Read MoreAfterdub - Mad Zach [Profile]
Mad Zach is one of the most interesting personages in contemporary electronic music. He is one of the world’s foremost experts in controllerism, which is the practice of using software controllers (MIDI, Open Sound Control, joystick) to create and perform music. He’s been finger drumming for almost a decade and his skills are masterclass. On March 8 Mad Zach will roll into Brooklyn, New York laden with gear and keen on expanding and potentially blowing minds at Brooklyn Bazaar.
Read MoreLo-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 tambre of low-fidelity production.
Read More
![Seppa - Interview + Boosted [EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59530136f5e2319eabb7d87f/1626113208781-BZ7C6B7E3LCECV7UD4CS/Boosted.jpg)
