The Witzard

"Hey Carl ! So, I was cooking pierogies earlier and made this little mix of your music as MANIKINETER on Spotify . And I was wondering, if you might be interested in making a mix for The Witzard ? Maybe, Halloween -themed/tinged and we can include some (or all) of your music as MANIKINETER , as well..." read part of a recent email I sent to Carl Kavorkian a couple weeks ago. The Witzard regulars may, in fact, recognize Kavorkian's name from his recent musical re-birth as Noise Rap behemoth MANIKINETER . He's self-released a staggering three EP's— Mannequin Eater , Missing & Not As They Do —in just two short years, all while fine-tuning his frantic one-man live show. So, lo and behold, now, a matter of weeks later, Carl Kavorkian has hand-selected 22 seasonally-appropriate festive favorites, as part of his exclusive Halloween Playlist for TheWitzard.com . Carl 's Halloween mix includes ghoulish selections from everyone from Gravediggaz to George Cli...

"I'm Jeff Richie from New Jersey . I make Punk-Rap under the name "JE DOUBLE F" and New Wave under the name "TUFF TURF." First of all, I've never considered myself a "beat-maker" or a "producer." I've never considered myself much of anything. Nothing specific, at least. I write songs, I record them; sometimes, with sequenced instrumentation à la Rap/New Wave , sometimes not. No bullsh*t, no claim to be part of any specific "culture" or "scene." In fact, I think music culture and scenes are a complete waste of time. With that said, here are three albums that f**ked me up permanently:" I. GRAVEDIGGAZ - 6 FEET DEEP (1994) "I had been listening to a lot of traditional Hip-Hop around the time that I first heard 6 FEET DEEP . I was probably 16-years-old. This album proved to me that you can make " Rap music" that's not about intercity violence and drugs—two things that I had (an...

Bitmilltary by ayyy donkey Death Grips are a notoriously on again, off again, and currently reformed Hardcore Punk -infusing Sacramento -based "Aggro-Rap" band; if you're not familiar, just think, a hypothetical musical ménage à trois between Black Flag, Beastie Boys , and Gravediggaz – two of which are coincidentally sampled throughout their genre label-pulverizing debut mixtape, Exmilitary . Death Grips' underlying influence can, believe it or not, be heard on everything from recent father of two Kanye 's own 2013 Dancehall -leaning Aggro-Rap magnum opus, Yeezus to recently deceased incomparable Thin White Duke's final album, ★ (Blackstar) which was additionally influenced by President Obama 's favorite rapper, Kendrick Lamar . While we patiently await Bottomless Pit , the long-rumored follow-up to Death Grips' double-disc March-April 2015 "reunion" album, The Powers That B , an amateur remixer known as ayyy donkey has taken it u...

Fresh on the heels of collaborative full-length albums with Omar Souleyman and Neneh Cherry , Post-Rock and Electronic multi-instrumnetalist Four Tet (Kieran Hebden) unleashed about 10-15 tracks upon hitting 100,000+ Twitter followers Monday evening; "let me go through the hard drives and see what's there..." The bulk of the tracks included on what we'll just call Twitter 100k CD-R , for the sake of convenience, were all written-recorded between 1999-2012, according to Hebden's calculations. Four Tet then continued to liberate a generous batch of rarities and unheard remixes, which includes but isn't limited to solo fragments, on-again-off-again pseudo-band Percussions , and Welsh musician David Wrench , as well as a Grimes re-work and separate Atoms for Peace and Gravediggaz remixes. "gravediggaz SID rmx 2000" is a slightly glitched-out remix of "Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide" from their 1994 Horror-core debut record, 6 Fee...

Brooklyn 's very own Flatbush Zombies are preparing to essentially single-handedly "bring [back] da mother_ucking ruckus." The One, Two crew of tag-team rappers Meechy Darko & Zombie Juice are backed by the morbidly RZArected beats of in-house producer, Erick Arc Elliott . Flatbush Zombies indeed evoke the mid-90's, Gravediggaz popularized genre of Horrorcore ... adding their own unique updated twist(s), in an effort to revitalize the music after Limp Bizkit forever tarnished and brutally killed it. From what I can tell, The Zombies released their first track, "Thug Waffles" back in November 2011; Since then, they've slowly leaked out a handful of additional tracks: "S.C.O.S.A." "Caps Lock," "Gucci Gucci" (KREAYSHAWN) , and "Suspiria." While their latest track, "Laker Paper" was liberated roughly 2 days ago, there are still no signs of a Flatbush Zombies mixtape/full-length. But if the ...

Now, don't get me wrong, I love Thanksgiving just as much as every other warm-blooded American citizen; Gotta love those celebratory, non-present giving holidays! But I must digress a tad but, and admit that the historical roots of said festivities aren't as "cookie-cutter" as we are all generally led to believe. For argument's sake, majority of us were taught back in grade school that the Indians/Pilgrims met, laughed, united, and collaborated to produce the joyous, harmonious feast that was forever immortalized as "The First Thanksgiving." According to various alternative accounts, the settlers at Plymouth Rock were in fact a very cruel, conniving brand of people. "They landed at Plymouth with a smile on their face / They said, "We're your brothers from a far away place" / I know the Indians greeted them with wide open arms / Too simple-minded and trusting to see through the charms / In came the religions, the liquor, and...

Essentially a backyard "super-group" formed by 2 über-creative Baltimore solo artists: Griffin Pyn Sewn Leather and Max Eisenberg DJ Dog Dick ... Dog Leather somehow manage(s) to seamlessly blend the all too familiar sounds of Hip-Hop, Punk , and Grunge . Sampled genre elements are then chopped, mashed, and melded against the [long-forgotten] D.I.Y. audio traits of Noise-Pop , Horrorcore, and so on. I think that the 2 tracks presented here, effectively show both ends of the spectrum - This concerning Dog Leather 's overall sound. To call their debut album for Ehse Records (Greezy Man and Stinky Man Meets Smutty Ranks on Tarantula Hill) an "experience," would be dangerously mis-guided and thereby not recommended. "Do Gleat Her," an airy Pop -filled [loose] love ballad is about as close to "mainstream" as Dog Leather will ever get; While "TROLL SPRAY" is another sort of un-hinged, Noisy animal entirely! Greezy Man and Stin...