The Witzard

By now, it's fairly widely known that Hemlock Ernst is the rapping alter-ego of Future Islands erratically-dancing frontman, Samuel "Sam" T. Herring. Herring is/was, also, a member of The Snails (as Sammy Snail,) Art Lord & The Self-Portraits, and Trouble Knows Me with Otis Jackson, Jr. AKA Madlib. Sam Herring has been an active member of Baltimore, Maryland-based Future Islands since 2006, but has, supposedly been emceeing for decades prior to joining the beloved Indie Rock/Synth-Pop quartet. Herring has been doing guest verses on other Hip-Hop/Rap artists and producers tracks as Hemlock Ernst for quite a few years now and has appeared alongside everyone from Height Keech to Busdriver. Ernst first came in contact with LA-based producer Kenny Segal while working on "Souvenir" from R.A.P. Ferreira FKA milo/scallops hotel's 2015 album, So The Flies Don't Come. It appears as though Ernst & Segal have secretly been chipping away at completing a ...

Kenosha, Wisconsin emcee Safari Al —AKA S.al, S. Al, Emmanuel Fade, Safari Al (Journeyman Hip-Hopper,) @s_afari_al, etc.—is a Ruby Yacht/Ruby Yacht Makers Guild (rbyt) affiliate and frequent milo/scallops hotel collaborator. The man also known as Alexander Kollman is, actually, a visual artist and carpenter by day with a degree in Biomedical Engineering. Safari Al has been consistently recording and releasing Hip-Hop music since about 2014 when he temporarily moved out to Los Angeles with milo; although, S.al has been quietly making music for at least eight years, having released music as part of or alongside Busdriver, The Dilla Gents, milo, Mugwampers, REDWALL , scallops hotel, WC Tank, and short-lived Folk/Hip-Hop group, MANTRAS, as well as Ruby Yacht and now-defunct Hellfyre Club. Since 2012, Safari AL has rapidly recorded, finessed, and self-released nine separate projects on his own personal Bandcamp page. In-between these aforementioned releases, S.al has appeared across m...

Milwaukee -based 91.7 WMSE 's Local Lunchbox segment fittingly describes Sahan Jayasuriya as "a Wisconsin native, who has served as drummer for a variety of Milwaukee bands over the last decade. His latest venture is a foray into sample-based beat-making under the name Cold Lunch , where he pulls from a variety of formats and music styles to create new works." Cold Lunch 's I Feel So Action "Side" of strata... is a bit more Blues/Jazz -based when compared against steel tipped dove 's I Steel of Radiance "Side." Cold Lunch 's production work throughout strata... honestly, reminds me a bit of s.al 's 2011 Soundcloud loosie, "Moanin' "—or "a throwback vibe to help the ladies and fellas start kickin' the jive"—which expertly samples Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers' 1959 track of the same name. I Feel So Action fittingly ends with a smile-evoking Cold Lunch -produced track, of course, entitle...

717 (part I) by Mugwampers Mugwampers are a Hip-Hop crew, collective, art-house, etc. hailing from Livingston, Scotland consisting of founding members, emcee SaIGO and producer 'i's . Over the course of the last few months, Mugwampers have unleashed a collection of "warm-up" projects, including 'i's failure.to.communicate and feature-filled .and then there was flowers and SaIGO 's 'i's -produced spoken word project, ANOTHER TIME MAYBE . . Now, Mugwampers have returned with their first official long-form project, 717 (Part I.) A sprawling 5-track EP with sonic benchmarks and Bandcamp tags ranging from Electronic to Hip-Hop/Rap , Metal to Spoken Word , Abstract Hip-Hop to Ambient , Plunderphonics to Screamo . 717 EP1 is the first in a series of three planned EP's Mugwampers have recently recorded, which will each focus on various styles and sub-genres of Hip-Hop . Ahead of 717 (Part I) SaIGO & 'i's unleashed a mus...

Mugwampers are a Scottish Hip-Hop crew consisting of beat-maker and producer Chris McCormick AKA 'i's and emcee Aaron Bonnar AKA SaIGO and collectively hailing from Livingston, Scotland. Although, they have yet to release a proper full-length collaborative project, SaIGO & 'i's been communicating through social media since 2014, working together, actively recording material, and earnestly started building their brand last Fall. 'i's has quietly released an album entitled failure.to.communicate and a 6-track compilation EP dubbed .and then there was flowers under the Mugwampers banner/Bandcamp page within just the last two months. Nestled amongst a who's-who of featured guests including billy woods, s.al AKA Ruby Yacht's Safari Al, Uncommon Nasa, and cunabear, 'i's & SaIGO slipped out their first collaborative track attributed to Mugwampers, "white liez," on .and then there was flowers. However, I can positively assure you, Mug...

Chris McCormick AKA 'i's is an Ambient Hip-Hop/Electronic producer and beat-maker hailing from Livingston, Scotland . Many of you might remember him from a The Witzard post back in 2016: 'i's —then know as ('i's') —along with all these fingers (now known as Gould '72 ) and Butch Dawson , produced beats hand-selected and gloriously re-used by Future Islands frontman Sam Herring under his rapping alter-ego, Hemlock Ernst . 'i's is now part of Mugwampers , a rapper-producer duo/crew with emcee SaIGO , which seems to also, be functioning as a label, imprint, brand, and Odd Future -like creative collective. " Mugwampers are a Scottish Hip-Hop duo that draw ideals from the abstraction of art, meddling in Experimental Hip-Hop , Ambient, Jazz , Plunderphonics , Punk , Metal, and whatever we like; we will just see where a session takes us. Mugwampers are the least important important people you have never heard of," 'i's rec...

"we wrote it after our homie died. al made a beat tape wit' every beat named after mark . i came to his house and wrote to the first one he played. it sat on a hard drive 'til now," @yomilo AKA milo AKA scallops hotel AKA Rory Ferreira wrote in response to a Tweet inquiring about REDWALL 's "AGONY." As milo referenced within his Tweeted statement, the track's actually, titled "AGONY (for Mark) (II)" and is credited to "REDWALL," which consists of milo and Alexander Kollman of The Dilla Gents AKA Safari Al AKA s.al . milo die-hards will know, Safari Al , actually, appeared on "Super Happy Sunshine Fun Club" from milo 's first mixtape, I wish my brother Rob was here , released on Hellfyre Club in 2011. "AGONY" is, of course, the second release from REDWALL following their 2014 single-track EP, (Boyle) and Piles , which featured contributions from Ruby Yacht associates and frequent collab...