In practice, beats music is all about the chops. In practice, it's all about the soul. Enter Soulchoppa out of the southeastern United States. The young producer out of Georgia has just barely begun to rear his head on Soundcloud, but his beats already possess a touch of greatness.
Read MoreLo-Fi Sundays 040 - Rio Major
“Are you one of those so-called badasses?” As soon as that line rings in the ear, it’s entirely understood just what kind of producer we’re dealing with. Rio Major, the broken-beat project of Jonathan Eklund, is a crash course in beatsmithing and sample stitching. Eklund is by no means a stranger to musical prowess, nor is he freshly hitting the pavement.
Read MoreLo-Fi Sundays 039 - tech flips
Coming out of Minneapolis, Minnesota, beats producer tech flips has just got it like that. Digging through his dense catalog that spans the past two years, one soon realizes that the producer makes nothing but zoned out hip hop instrumentals that cut close to the grain. He's flipping samples, splicing together cracking drum arrangements and makin' em bounce.
Read MoreKromuh - Fragments EP
One of the hallmarks of well-done neuro hop is a squeaky clean stereo spread. The sounds could not be dirtier, but the mix-downs are spacious and sewn up. Kromuh, a versatile young producer from the Midwest, offers just this kind of well-balanced but hard-hitting composition on his new four-track EP Fragments.
Read MoreSound of Solasta - EasyJack
For the last installment in our Sound of Solasta series, we linked up with a vital individual within the infrastructure of Solasta Festival, the producer/DJ and sound system connoisseur Jack Whelan. Known on the stage as EasyJack, Whelan the co-owner and lead engineer for Soundsystem Cultures LLC, an audio production and Funktion One sound system rental company based out of Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Read MoreWISDOM - SKYVUE
Coming in at exactly 30 minutes long, SKYVUE from Texas-based beats producer WISDOM is a meditative journey. WISDOM uses thumping rhythms and spaced out, distant melodies to activate strong psychological currents within his listeners.
Read MoreLo-Fi Sundays 038 - AywɛɛTիαSɛɛɗ
"We hereby declare ourselves to be another order of being...an astro nation of the united world of Outer Space." These words from the mystical jazz and thought pioneer Sun Ra are sampled in "Much Music More Peace", a beat suite from producer AywɛɛTիαSɛɛɗ (pronounced I-we the seed) aka Aywee. Music from Aywee could help form the soundtrack for this astro nation. The producer gathers pieces from the past of jazz, soul and hip-hop and collages them to create futuristic head-bopping beats.
Read MoreJade Cicada - Fish Juice
More than a year after his last major release, our favorite cicadomorpha has unleashed his most crisp studio production to date; Jade Cicada’s Fish Juice is a one-inch-punch of high-powered, jazztastic neuro music. In the time since Eolian Oms first graced the ears of eager fans, Cicada aka Skyler Golden has been hot on the block touring aggressively and quietly leveling up his sound design and engineering capabilities. The progress in his work is clearer than sunlight.
Read MoreGaddy - Mixtape Mentality Promo Mix
You’re high-stepping through candlelit caverns in the Himalayas, aligned as hell, scoping out monks who may or may not be trying to get over on you. In the back corner of the cave Gaddy is spinning fat breaks, old vinyl and Houston Texas hip-hop. Heavy bass and dangling synth chords start rocking the cave, with fresh samples ringing out. You’re getting into the groove with Gaddy, whose next release Mixtape Mentality, drops Tuesday, August 7th right here on The Rust Music.
Read MoreLo-Fi Sundays 037 - OTESLA
Hailing all the way from Denmark, and continuing the trend of excellent European lo-fi, OTESLA comes correct with sly cuts and fully furnished beats. Their music especially excels in keeping a focal point, with each track typically revolving around some hypnotic rhythm or signature tone.
Read MoreDami - Mazy//Waves
There are intersections between lo-fi beats and ambient music. In some instances the emotions these different genres target and the moods they cultivate are very similar. The same pads and synthesizers draped over dusty beats sound sublime when isolated into an ambient soundscape. Dami, a new ambient project between lo-fi beatmakers Bretsil and Dweeb, is a product of these intersections.
Read MoreA Conversation with the Organizers of Solasta Festival
On August 17 & 18, the homegrown gathering Solasta Festival returns to Spirit Crossing in Sneedville, Tennessee for the second year. The lineup is dreamy and the extracurricular activities include audio development workshops and a unique Sunday Brunch. The Rust Music has been corresponding with the festival’s three key organizers about their intentions and areas of focus for Solasta, as well as the festival's short history.
Read MoreLuSiD - Highjacked VIP [Premiere]
It's 2:00 am...the elevator door slides open. Three hooded figures slide the cart of brick work out onto the roof lobby of the residence. The Boss said to stay low - the cameras angle high. This was the last job of the night we had to finish to earn our rank. I paged the boss that we arrived as we wait for his signal.
Read MoreSound of Solasta - spacegeishA
For the next installment of the Sound of Solasta series, we're tapping into another industry powerhouse who will bring a multiplicity of talents to Solasta Festival on August 17-18. Rebecca Drylie-Perkins, better known by her performance moniker spacegeishA, is a top-tier DJ and the co-owner and director of Street Ritual.
Read MoreLo-Fi Sundays 036 - Es-K
Beats from Es-K bump on a higher plane. This beatmaker, Robert Ronci from Burlington, Vermont by way of Kansas City, Missouri, is truly a sampling extraordinaire and a master hip-hop composer.
Read MoreMaxfield - Under the Pink Umbrella
Sometimes it feels like alternative electronic music has reached a critical mass. Within this landscape, the Boston-based producer Maxfield feels right at home. A string of EPs and singles in the past year has perked ears in the right places, but it wasn't cutting through the noise. Now, Maxfield comes with Under the Pink Umbrella on Street Ritual. It's his strongest work to date, breaching the surface with dynamic tunes that bear his own unique fingerprint as a producer.
Read MoreLo-Fi Sundays 035 - [s.beats]
Coming out of Ploiesti, Romania, [s.beats] has stolen the spotlight for this installation of Lo-Fi Sundays. Coming up on a little less than two years releasing music, he has already managed shoot over 170 tracks out of the cannon.
Read MoreInner Ocean Records - BLESS Vol. 2
BLESS Vol. 2 is a triumph of curation, offering almost four hours of music from 99 producers. The producers range in notoriety from globally ranking beat legends like Vancouver's bsd.u to individuals like Mojarra - Da Smokefish from Colombia who has 24 Soundcloud followers.
Read MoreShambhala Music Festival - Chord Marauders Showcase
The Chord Marauders are London-based, jazz-infused label that is a collective between artists Geode, Congi, B9 & Jafu, and a beacon of originality in the dubstep universe. They’ll hit Shambhala Music Festival on August 10-13 for what appears to be one of the only label showcases in this legendary festival’s history.
Read MoreSound of Solasta - Saltus
Come mid-August Solasta Festival is slated to return to its pristine stomping grounds of Spirit Crossing in the mountains of eastern Tennessee. It's being presented by a plethora of industry players who explore their own artistic expression within music, as well as curate and operate various audio-focused companies of their own. Through the Sound of Solasta series we'll explore the inner machinations of these multifaceted individuals and their outlets.
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