The Witzard

Lost Remixes by Algorhythms Justin Boland & Kyle Tierce were the co-founders of beloved and now-defunct Indie/Underground Hip-Hop label and collective, World Around Records . Thanks to Zilla Rocca , we ran a sort of label send-off/track-by-track breakdown for their final comp. before permanently closing up shop, 2017's We Are World Around, Vol. 6 . Tierce frequently records and releases "dusty, sample-heavy beats inspired by the Psychedelic music of the late 1960's" as Dr. Quandary , according to Discogs . Aside from his solo output, Quandary recently released an album of fictional Italian "film scores" as MASSIMO E MASSIMO with Dakota Crane and produced the entirety of one-time label mate Louis Mackey 's 2017 effort, AVGVSTVS . Boland, on the other hand, has recorded and released music under a revolving door of musical nom de plumes, over the years, including, but not limited to Thirtyseven , Humpasaur Jones, Hump Jones , FDR with Godforbid...

Elder Orange is the recording alias of Vermont -based producer, multi-instrumentalist, and "all around nice guy" Matt Scott (@MatthewLScott.) For years, Scott had a long-standing working relationship with international collective/ Indie Hip-Hop label World Around Records , until the imprint's demise in 2016. World Around issued a number of collaborative releases featuring Elder Orange alongside Dr. Quandary and Louis Mackey , as well as tracks appearing on We Are World Around, Vol. 5-6 . Matt Scott splits his time between Elder Orange and North East Kingdom Soul/R&B/Jazz/Funk/Rock quartet The NEKTones , in which he provides gtr. vox. AKA guitar and vocals. While Scott has released and participated in countless projects, he just liberated his proper debut album, All My Friends Believe In Ghosts (AMFBIG,) this past Friday, June 1st, which was also, his father's 64th birthday and Scott's first day on leave from his job of eight years to pursue music fu...

My Man Shafe (@MyManShafe) is a South Philly Soul magnate, Funk buster, crowd rocker, and self-proclaimed " Street Funk/Soul rapper." Shafe self-released a FREE mixtape/street album entitled "Who's That?!" recorded and mixed by Zilla Rocca and has since unveiled material with Nex Millen , Wrecking Crew on Wu-Tang Pulp, Curly Castro , Zilla Rocca & Has-Lo, Small Professor for World Around Records , Son Raw, and most recently, Career Crooks' "Mike Milligan (Kitchen Brothers)" with Curly Castro & ALASKA . "I make Soul music. Even though I rap and came up as an emcee, my music is Soul . It's Soul because of the place that it comes from," My Man Shafe profoundly writes within his on-site Bio . " Soul music comes from the gut; the bottom, the pit of your stomach. It's a feeling. It's a vibe. It's the notion that we've all been through things and together, we can overcome," he continues. Si...

Alive by Places & Spaces Places & Spaces are a self-described "Hip-Hop Rap Boom-Bap Golden Age" production duo hailing from Switzerland consisting of old friends Naturetone and Zooki . "For the past 20-some years, Naturetone & Zooki went places, different places. In the early 1990's they made beats together and pioneered Swiss Hip-Hop as part of the group Three Tree Posse [AKA 3TP ]," reads Places & Spaces' Bandcamp description. Places & Spaces' first song, also titled "Alive," initially appeared on now-defunct label, World Around Records' final compilation, We Are World Around Vol. 6 . I actually had the opportunity to speak with Patric (Naturetone) as part of my label-encompassing We Are World Around Vol. 6 double-header piece earlier this year. Naturetone & Zooki first worked together as 3TP between 1993-95 and met back up again in 2016 at "some beat-making sessions run by a mutual friend for...

I'm currently working on ironing out the fine details for a premier of a Zilla Rocca remix of CURTA's "Rap Trope Questionnaire" (or CURTA ZR remix), which should be making its digital debut here at The Witzard shortly. While emailing back and forth with Zilla, Jake & Brent, Zilla nonchalantly mentioned he had a track on a compilation released by "the guys from this label I rocked with for a while, World Around Records;" said compilation was uploaded just one day prior on Valentine's Day and was fittingly titled, We Are World Around Vol. 6. Zilla further detailed that "World Around was based out of New England and put out some good, spacey East Coast Art-House records over the years, if you're not familiar with them" within his initial email. As a matter of fact, the deeper I dug into We Are World Around Vol. 6 (WAWA V6, for short), I realized that while I hadn't previously heard of the label, I previously had worked with a number ...

Creative Director Kyle Tierce (Dr. Quandary) with some final words on World Around Records: "One of the things we had always really enjoyed putting together, and which had also always been hugely successful, was our annual We Are World Around compilation series. Starting in 2010, we made it a tradition to kick off each new year by releasing a collection of new material from our roster and our extended family. We'd invite the whole gang, as well as whoever else we might be digging or working with at the time, to throw down some exclusive music, which we'd then weave together to create a tracklist. It was always amazing how well they would come together—in hindsight, they always sounded pretty polished and cohesive, even though they weren't pre-planned in terms of theme or whatever. We Are World Around, Vol. 6 wasn't any different. Within a couple days of emailing everyone, we had already received something like seven tracks, so we were well on our way to having ...