The Witzard

QUAKERS are a Hip-Hop super-group consisting of three producers: Fuzzface (Geoff Barrow,) Supa K FKA Katalyst (Ashley Anderson,) and 7STU7 (Stuart Matthews.) Barrow is a founding member of Portishead, as well as BEAK>, and a co-founder of Invada Records, along with Ashley Anderson & Fraser Stuart. Anderson appears to have first met Barrow when they worked together on a remix, attributed to "Portishead," of Machine Gun Fell*tio's "H*rny Blonde 40." In addition to QUAKERS, Ashley Anderson is, also, an active member of both Moonrock with Michael Wright and Space Invadas with Steve Spacek. QUAKERS' third producer, Stuart Matthews, is an engineer at Invada Records and has contributed to recordings for Portishead, BEAK>, Anika, Geoff Barrow & Ben Salisbury, Crippled Black Phoenix, Turbowolf, and more. QUAKERS released their staggering 41-track self-titled debut on Stones Throw Records on 2xCD/LP formats in 2012. It boasted features from a wide...

While they may be a little out of my typical wheelhouse of head-nodding Hip-Hop or fist-clenching Punk Rock , I've always been a casual fan and long-time admirer of Radiohead 's rather unique aesthetic and business tactics... name-your-price In Rainbows , Kid A, OK Computer , I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings, The King of Limbs , Amnesiac, and COM LAG (2plus2isfive) . Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke and his band mates have seemingly always attempted to employ an underlying Hip-Hop feel and have a mutual respect for the genre as a whole; Philly -bred Tonight Show band The Roots sampled them on Game Theory stand-out "Atonement," as did Kanye, Pharrell & Lupe Fiasco 's short-lived super-group Child Rebel Soldier (CRS) , and even Portishead founder Geoff Barrow & Katalyst went as far as to revamp "Fitter Happier" on a Guilty Simpson & MED -asssisted Quakers cut. Yorke has even managed to work alongside the mysterious masked villain h...

"If my mother knew I was in show business now, she would worry herself just sick... she thinks I'm in Philadelphia sellin' dope," reads a comical Richard Pryor -esque bit from an unknown comic; it acts as the spoken-word intro to Guilty Simpson 's "Blunts In The Air," which dually serves as an unofficial mantra throughout Guilty 's hard-as-nails Katalyst -produced Detroit's Son . Guilty & Katalyst first met during the recording sessions that would ultimately yield Geoff Barrow 's 35-member Hip-Hop collective Quakers' self-titled Stones Throw debut (2012). Detroit's Son 's introductory track, "R.I.P." is actually a vocal version of Katalyst 's "R.I.P." instrumental lifted from Quakers , which seamlessly ties the two projects together right off the bat. Although it was initially billed as a "Guilty Simpson x Quakers" project upon the release of THE SIMPSON TAPE , Detroit's Son was...

"It's Katalyst [Ashley Anderson] and Geoff Barrow that produced my album. I met Katalyst in Australia and we had dope studio chemistry. Me & Phat Kat did features for the Quakers album & later, I found out they were on Stones Throw. When I met with Stones Throw, their name came up & it made sense because I really liked their production. Now, here we are," Guilty Simpson exclusively revealed to The Witzard on the inception of his hot-off-the-press new album, Detroit's Son. Anderson runs the Australian-based headquarters of Invada Records along with long-time friend, Portishead founder, and fellow Quakers bandmate Geoff Barrow; he's been releasing music under a number of aliases since launching his music career back in 1998... Moonrock, Katalyst, 35-member Hip-Hop collective Quakers, and Space Invadas with Steve Spacek. Having previously worked with everyone from Gift of Gab to Jack Johnson, Detroit's Son is Katalyst's first full-length proj...

"Worked with Guilty on Quakers through [Stones Throw] . Then we met when he was here in [Australia] on tour. Hung out with [him] and Phat Kat in the studio. Those guys were digging the new beats I had, and when Guilty went to LA to do the video for "Fitta Happier," he mentioned that we were vibing in the studio and he was into the beats and working together," Katalyst recently wrote within an emailed conversation. "We recorded "War Drums" while Phat Kat and Guilty were in town for that tour. Stones Throw thought it could be a great fit for his next album and hit us up and I was into it," Australian -based producer Ashley Anderson then continued, concerning his relationship with collaborator Guilty Simpson . Katalyst produced the entirety of Simpson's Psych-Rock -tinged DETROIT'S SON at Quakers band-mate and Portishead founder Geoff Barrow 's local Invada Studios . Stones Throw unexpectedly dropped DETROIT'S SO...

Not only have veteran rapper-producers Killer Mike & El-P become something of long-overdue " Hip-Hop royalty," their now-infamous handgun and fist Run The Jewels (RTJ) hashtag-friendly logo has become forever immortalized on a batch of limited-run Marvel comic book covers. "One of my heroes, @therealelp , made a incredible instrumental piece for our end credits. I couldn't be any more excited," Fantastic Four re-boot director @joshuatrank exuberantly Tweeted nearly one month ago, forever cementing RTJ 's legacy within The Marvel Universe ; that very track, now titled "Another Body," was unveiled over this past weekend. First, in the form of a painfully brief 20-second snippet. Then, it was premiered on El-P & Killer Mike 's Beats 1 online WRTJ radio show and now, it has been strategically leaked to The Internet in its full-length form. '"another body" produced by me with [co-production] by the gawd, @littlesha...

Portishead mastermind Geoff Barrow has spent the majority of the last six months to a year of his life tediously constructing Hip-Hop beats along with fellow Quakers producer Katalyst for inclusion on new-found collaborator Guilty Simpson 's forthcoming DETROIT'S SON record, but he's currently readying a quick-strike 4-track EP with his other, other Krautrock -inspired band, BEAK> and their "alter ego," KAEB (or BEAK> backwards). Barrow and Bristol -based bandmates Billy Fuller and Matt Williams have released two full-length albums and a few miscellaneous projects since forming BEAK> back in 2009, but KAEB was just recently "formed" as an outlet to be used specifically for recording collaborations; as such with "There's No One," which was "written and filmed in one take [one day last year] at Invada Studios Bristol as part of the 4-track BEAK-KAEB EP ," reads an Invada Records -sanctioned press release. ...

"For a while now, Guilty Simpson has been working on a new album with Katalyst of Quakers, the 30+ member rap supergroup who came out on Stones Throw a couple years ago. Expect an album soon. Until then, here's one fresh from the lab – "Vanguard Organization,"' reads Stones Throw's latest press release uploaded earlier today; a mere uncanny, perfectly-timed coincidence, Stones Throw have unleashed Guilty Simpson's "Vanguard Organization," which he self-describes as "a throw-away cut [that] isn't on the album," as I've concurrently been piecing together an all-inclusive 15-question interview for this very site. The Detroit native whose actively preparing his second full-length for Stones Throw, DETROIT'S SON, candidly covers everything from his "lost" 2005 album recorded with J Dilla, being mentioned in the same sentence as Radiohead, the current status of OJ Simpson 2 and Random Axe 2, working with elusive emce...

THE SIMPSON TAPE is actually not Guilty Simpson & Oh No 's first collaborative project, contrary to popular belief; "This past year [2010], around the same time Madlib was creating his remix of Guilty Simpson 's Ode to The Ghetto for his Madlib Medicine Show #1 release, we had Oh No remix the tracks as well, using samples from the Now-Again catalog. Oh No 's collection, Ghettodes is not meant as as 'album', but you put [all] 14 tracks together, and you might as well call it that." Stones Throw quietly "leaked" a number of Ghettodes tracks out to savvy crate-diggers between 2008-10 including The Whitefield Brothers -sampling "American Nightmare," "Piglets," "Futuristic," "What to Do," "Y'all Scared," "Dreads," and "Killer." Just the other day, while I was perusing through Now-Again/Stones Throw 's Discogs label pages, I stumbled upon "Stones Thro...

I think it's pretty safe to say that The Weeknd (Abel Tesfaye) comfortably teeters the fine line between glitched-out smooth New Age R&B and hard-hitting Hip-Hop ; while the same could arguably be said for 16-year-old New Zealand new-comer, Lorde . Her break-out single "Royals" 1/2 jokingly shouts out semi-common bravado-worthy shit like: diamonds, "gold teeth, Grey Goose ... Cadillacs, Cristal, Maybach ... jet planes, islands, [and] tigers on a gold leash." But now, the Lorde/Weeknd connection has been further solidified, as Tesfaye recently managed to conjure up and release his own "Royals" remix. My beautiful girlfriend said earlier, and I paraphrase, that it "makes her wanna dance lol and she could [likely] hear this remix in a future movie!" Following the wide-spread release of her first 2 EP's (Love Club & Tennis Court) , Universal Republic plans to unleash Lorde 's proper debut album, Pure Heroine between ...

"Seems @theweeknd have said there is no sample used or enough likeness to "Machine Gun" to warrant any infringement... or credit," head Quaker and Portishead mastermind Geoff Barrow angerly Tweeted early Wednesday morning. It sounds like Abel Tesfaye (The Weeknd) initially asked Barrow and Portishead for permission to use said sample and upon being denied clearance, loosely re-created "Machine Gun"'s ferocious, almost Tribal -sounding drum pattern. But honestly, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense... since The Weeknd and Portishead are both signed to Universal Records , plus Geoff Barrow and Beth Gibbons are self-admitted Hip-Hop supporters. "Belong to The World" is actually The Internet 's second taste of The Weeknd 's upcoming "sophomore" album, Kiss Land . In what seems like an effort to foster more of a prominent public image, Abel Tesfaye granted Complex his first full-fledged earlier in the we...

Truth Be Told by Apollo Brown & Guilty Simpson Guilty Simpson & Apollo Brown are quite arguably the most downright Funky , brutally honest Detroit natives since Smokey Robinson & The Miracles ! Fresh on the heels of a few solid 2010-11 joint albums , Apollo Brown successfully flipped a smooth crooning [ghostly] sample of "Awe, baby, it's been so-ooo looong" that's perfectly suited for a few introspective Guilty Simpson verses. Generally mis-labelled as an "Underground MC," Simpson has been actively rapping ever since 1991... released his Stones Throw debut, Ode to The Ghetto in 2008, and has worked with everyone from J Dilla to Geoff Barrow (Portishead). "Truth Be Told" is the first taste/lead single to whet our appetites for Dice Game , which is currently slated for a Nov. 13th release. Guilty Simpson & Apollo Brown managed to rope in a set of top-notch feature guest verses from Torae and Planet Asia , too. "S...

Numbers-wise, Stones Throw 's Quakers [collective] is just about as MASSIVE as it's earth-shattering name-sake: 41-track album, 35 members, 3 producers. Because of Quakers' sheer size, it's almost ludicrous to try and summarize the wide scope of their self-titled debut... I have a copy, but have yet to listen straight through in one sitting. Guilty Simpson & M.E.D. are 2 of the countless featured rappers that Geoff Barrow (Portishead), Katalyst , and 7-Stu-7 recruited to come in and lay down verses. Quakers and Quakers (Instrumentals) are both now available for purchase over @ Stones Throw on vinyl, 2-CD, or mp3. Temporarily backed by The Quakers All-Star Brass Band , Guilty & M.E.D. abrasively lace up "Fitta Happier." Barrow pulled samples from 2 separate 1997-2000 era Radiohead tracks, "Fitter Happier" and "The National Anthem," now re-interpolated and complete with a horn section. It's companion Eric Coleman -di...