If you aren’t familiar with Germany’s well-rounded sonic culture, you’d be forgiven for overlooking their abundance of stellar Lo-Fi producers and rhythm junkies. This week, we’re giving the spotlight to one such germanic beat shuffler; upper class is a straightforward, no frills producer with beats that send the head rocking back and forth between the roaring 20s, the R&B/Hip-Hop laden 90s, and the spice of modern sampling power.
Read MoreLo-Fi Sundays 062 - mora.
Grainy, wavering, echoing notes are a hallmark of the ascendant lo-fi hip hop sound. Mora., a producer based in Buenos Aires, Argentina who’s been at it for approximately three years, hits these notes effortlessly. His sound surrounds the listener. The lead melodies in his music are set against a backdrop of pads which sound like a music box that’s been dropped into a bucket of water; shimmering echoes carried on crisp drums.
Read MoreLo-Fi Sundays 061 - Mononome
Mononome draws inspiration from the crate digging forefathers and lends a vision that is all his own. This native of Greece has spent years digging for the right records to mold his sound. The approach is one that’s familiar, but it’s accomplished using an entire body of music from Greece that’s gone largely unheard this side of the world. All of his tracks are entirely produced, mixed & arranged with an AKAI MPC 2500. The music is without digital influence, a nod to all of the pioneers who have brought us to where we are now.
Read MoreLo-Fi Sundays 060 - NometronN
Bringing a weighty vibe and a bright musical disposition out Kiev, Ukraine, NometronN steals the spotlight for this edition of Lo-Fi Sundays. Replete with all the dust, shimmer, and smokey veneer of archetypal boom-bap, NometronN strikes a careful balance between composition and arrangement.
Read MoreLo-Fi Sundays 059 - KLIM
KLIM aka KLIM Beats has a knack for sampling soul music. He’ll peel off a precious woodwind or brass arrangement from some long forgotten 45 and use it as the foundation for a bright new beat. With finely-tuned production and chops that stand out from the pack, and a recurring 1970s feel from the sampled material, KLIM beats are like a soundtrack for a trip back to the future.
Read MoreLo-Fi Sundays 058 - Mura Kami
Within the bounds of boom-bap beats, there’s so much that one can try. Producer Mura Kami likes to try it all. His beats run across a spectrum of styles, from familiar tape-delay fare to Brazilian-influenced bossa beats and phonk.
Read MoreLo-Fi Sundays 056 - el.
Although we’re not sure where producer el. aka Mighty Recordings may hail from, fingerprints of the northeastern U.S. hip-hop sound are all over his beats. Productions from el. fit well behind verses from your favorite rapper, although they’re just as exciting as instrumentals. He’s been making music for at least six years, but most of the knocks in our curated playlist come from the last two.
Read MoreLo-Fi Sundays 055 - AJMW
Hailing from across the across the pond in West London, musician and producer Ashley Warden concocts groove-blending lofi and fireplace beats under the moniker AJMW. Without fanfare and shiny post-production, Warden breathes life into smooth and dynamic arrangements that respond with organic points of tension and release.
Read MoreLo-Fi Sundays 054 - delt
One of the draws of lo-fi hip hop is its consistency. It’s so easy to sink deeply into a groove when the tunes roll over, one after another, kick after snare after kick after snare with atmospheres that shift but never too far from a focal vibe. Bumping out of Spokane, Washington, the producer delt is a paragon of consistency and the result is a smooth sensation for listeners.
Read MoreLo-Fi Sundays 053 - a.bee
Beats from Dutch producer a.bee are recklessly experimental. From dizzying chopped percussion and atmospheres that haunt, to synthesized bass that verges on an acid sound, the producer’s approach is one we don’t stumble across frequently in the wide world of lo-fi beats.
Read MoreLo-Fi Sundays 052 - Axian [Interview]
To mark one year of Lo-Fi Sundays, we’re publishing a conversation with an eminent representative of beat music, Alexander Fjellerad Thomsen, better known as Axian of Aarhus, Denmark. In addition to covering who Axian is and how he makes his spacey, sample-cut music, we ended up discussing beats music generally, the “lo-fi community” at large.
Read MoreLo-fi Sundays 051 - Xon'a'jazza
Channeling the smooth noire of jazz and ballroom sonatas, Xon’a’jazza is a hidden gem reaching out from the Russian Federation. Combining dusty instrumental motifs with craftily sampled hip-hop verses and a particularly clean mix-down, his productions are set aside from typical lo-fi in their stereo depth and percussive clarity.
Read MoreLo-Fi Sundays 050 - Furozh
“…And I sound the way I feel.” Smooth and resonant words that producer and peacemaker Furozh seems to live by. Furozh beats carry with them the sound, swing and essence of the concrete jungle of New York City from which the producer hails. They also carry an inspiring and necessary message of peace, goodwill and uplift in between their breaks and sample-cut melody.
Read MoreLo-Fi Sundays 049 - wowflower
Based out of Boston, Massachusetts, wowflower is a young beatmaker with an exceptional talent for melody and atmosphere. He creates vibratory fields full of colorful static backed by fuzzy, textured percussion. At 22 years old he’s released 14 albums and a pair of mixes. It’s likely that most of that is hardly touched upon in our curated playlist, which features compositions from the past 18 months or so.
Read MoreLo-Fi Sundays 048 - Tenki
Warming bones straight out of the deep Canadian tundra, Tenki is a sample-carving wiz with a slapstick approach to controllerism. Flipped, reversed, pitch-shifted samples, and even palindrome phrasing sprout heavily dot the arrangement of each song. His choice of call-and-response between sampled phrases is the fuel that powers the evolution of his catalog.
Read MoreLo-Fi Sundays 047 - Dwyer
Lo-Fi Sundays 046 - ningen
Transmitting raw jazz energy from Germany to the ears of the world, ningen is stepping up the paradigm by taking lo-fi straight into his own hands. From melody to stereo-imaging, this novel producer is bucking the usual reigns of sampled music. Taking a cue from some of the finer craftsmen of break-beat music, ningen crafts his samples from scratch, performing primarily through guitar and piano.
Read MoreLo-Fi Sundays 045 - G Mills
G Mills has been working hard lately, from an epic tune on the BLESS Vol. 2 compilation to a short but sweet tape on Dust Collectors. The consistently rich quality to his music is perhaps its most noteworthy aspect. His compositions fill up the stereo spread. The sample selection is robust, as G Mills leverages the full weight and potential of each sampled sound, even a split second glitch.
Read MoreLo-Fi Sundays 044 - Saito
If it is indeed the ear that chooses the sample, then Saito’s ear is aimed directly at the heart of conventional soul music. His clear musical affluence is not only his most defining characteristic, but signals that the well is nowhere near tapped dry for this modern day bard of the beat.
Read MoreLo-Fi Sundays 042 - Sup Nasa
There is no denying that Space is a vibe, and Sup Nasa taps into that vibe to bring about some incredibly serene and well-intentioned music. Slinging beats from way out on the Italian peninsula, Sup Nasa is a member of the industrious NINETOFIVE record label, and sits right at home with a curated team of rhythm junkies and lo-fi bandits.
Read More
![Seppa - Interview + Boosted [EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59530136f5e2319eabb7d87f/1626113208781-BZ7C6B7E3LCECV7UD4CS/Boosted.jpg)
