The Witzard

"DEDICATED TO LOVERS OF MAXI-SINGLES AND EVERY JAZZY, ACOUSTIC BASS-DRIVEN HIP-HOP SONG, WHICH PROVIDED THE SOUNDTRACK FOR A PRETENTIOUS, UNNECESSARY ARTSY RAP VIDEO DURING THE EARLY 90'S..." reads the reverse side of Long Beach rapper-producer Andy Cooper's latest "Here Comes Another One" 12-inch. If pressed, I would likely equate Andy Cooper's second solo album, the layered effect to something along the lines of Homeboy Sandman's First of a Living Breed or Beastie Boys' 1989 cult favorite, Paul's Boutique; an increasingly fun, charismatic Golden Age Hip-Hop-reminiscent album chock-full with an insane amount of genre-eschewing samples. the layered effect is entirely self-produced by Andy Cooper himself—particularly, note-worthy for his past work with Ugly Duckling and The Allergies—and plays out like a care-free, fun-loving Hip-Hop album of days past. After seeing Andy's "Here Comes Another One" video on Flea Market Funk ...

The Great Revivers Instrumental Band (крепчайший алкоголь инструментальный ансамбль) or just "The Great Revivers," for short, are a self-described " Instrumental Funk, Library, Organ Groove band" hailing from St. Petersburg, Russia . The Great Revivers was collectively formed by one-time members of Wake&Bake! and The Reggaenauts and consist of players Artem Beresnev, Roman Lebedev, Stanislav Rybochkin, Alexander Shtykov , and Roman Zyryanov . Since initially forming, The Great Revivers have released a staggering 10 7-inch singles on Mocambo Records , Detroit-based Funk Night Records (Fnr,) Magnetic Loft Records , and Elchrecords between 2013-18, as well as a 2015 full-length entitled Have a Drink with Great Revivers . The Great Revivers' latest Fnr 7-inch, "тутутру [Tuturu]" B/W "Ездок [Rider]" went on sale a mere seven days ago and has already, completely SOLD OUT. Shout-out to Skeme Richards AKA @hotpeasandbutta at Nostalgi...

2 Hungry Brothers —or just "2 Hungry Bros." for short—have cemented a place as one of the strongest and most sought-after production teams in post-2000's Underground/Indie Hip-Hop ; over the years, having accumulated production credits for the likes of Homeboy Sandman , Fresh Daily, P.SO The Earthtone King , LiKWUiD, 8thW1 , Doc Reevez , and 2HB 's off-shoot crew Hunger Division , as well as numerous solo productions from each Deep & Ben Boogz . Last year, fresh on the heels of both Ben Boogz 's I Moreno and Deep 's Depth Perception Vol. 3 , 2 Hungry Bros. produced a full album for Hunger Division emcee LiKWUiD entitled Fay Grim . They, then, partnered with German -based imprint ORIGU to release a special 7-inch showcasing DJ Evil Dee -assisted "IllFayted," as well as P.SO The Earthtone King & Donwill -featuring "Hold That (Faybles)" on Side B . Now, LiKWUiD, 2 Hungry Bros. & DJ Evil Dee (Da Beatminerz/Boot Camp Clik) ...

Trunks EP. by UncleRussie Baltimore -based producer and beat-maker UncleRussie describes his latest EP as "the follow-up to The Bulma Tape series, the Trunks EP. sequences and highlights various timelines of Trunks Brief - Past, Present & Future (?)" He's of course, referring to 2016's The Bulma Tape and The Bulma Tape: Side B from last year, a Hip-Hop/Anime trilogy, which will likely close with Trunks EP. successor #TheBulmaTape3 . UncleRussie 's Trunks EP. takes inspiration, as well as direct samples, and influence from Dragon Ball Z 's "Future" Trunks, Androids , and Cell Sagas . UncleRussie single-handedly edited, arranged, and produced his Trunks EP. with assists throughout from beat-making buddies Action Bastard , Benjamin Banger, Bito Sureiya , Drew Scott, Jumbled , TEK.LUN, Swellthy , and UncleRussie himself. Trunks EP. features three sparse, yet fitting vocal assists from emcees Dot Com Intelligence , ONLY AKA @GwapSinatra, ...

"I raided the music vaults! Made in a bedroom [in] 1999, these mixtapes were never really finished. Lyrics written/performed by Tom Hardy. Music written/produced by me..." @EdwardTracy recently Tweeted. Ed Tracy is a London-based writer, creator, director, and "humble TV bloke" who's previously worked on Fonejacker, Facejacker, Banksy's Walled Off Hotel film, short film CAPTCHA, animated sitcom Sticky, and music videos for both Dizzee Rascal and Swet Shop Boys emcee/actor Riz Ahmed. Tracy's 1990's DJ-producer alias was "Eddie Too Tall" and he actually, worked with none other than BAFTA Award-winning actor Tom Hardy—then, known as rising emcee Tommy No.1. Yes, we're, in fact, talking about critically-acclaimed Batman: The Dark Knight Rises, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant, Taboo, and Venom actor Tom Hardy. Ed Tracy quietly uploaded Tommy No.1 + Eddie Too Tall's unfinished 1999 mixtape, FALLING ON YOUR ARSE IN 1999 to little fanfar...

Too 30 by Western Blot Al Shipley is a Baltimore area musician and multi-instrumentalist, as well as a well-respected music writer, who, over the years, has written for Rolling Stone , The FADER, Stereogum , SPIN, Complex , and Pitchfork, just to name a few. Shipley has been sporadically playing shows and self-releasing music as Western Blot for about five years now; his releases include "Button Masher" b​/​w "Child of Divorce," "The Power Let Me Down," and "Sore Winners," all of which ended up re-appearing on Western Blot 's 2016 debut full-length, Muscle Memory . Prior to forming Western Blot , Al Shipley played drums in a variety of Baltimore bands and says he simply started Western Blot "as an outlet for writing songs with synths." His records generally, showcase the vocal talents of Baltimore 's finest frontmen and women; for example, Western Blot 's latest release, Too 30 EP features 20ooo's Lizzy Greif...

Run (Disconnected) by Adam Lempel Singer and multi-instrumentalist Adam Lempel recently moved back to New York , after living abroad in Amsterdam , while attending Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht (HKU) for his Masters in Music Design . Lempel has now, returned to his "old stomping grounds" on The East Coast wherein he previously spent a solid decade in Baltimore 's DIY Indie Rock scene as part of WEEKENDS , Winks , and his own band, Adam Lempel & The Heartbeats . Since 2012, Adam Lempel has released an EP and an album with The Heartbeats , yet another album as "Adam Lempel & The Casiobeats," and a 2016 solo album entitled "STILL LIFE." I talk to Adam from time to time—we actually, met once at a (likely) 2011 Surfer Blood/WEEKENDS show at First Unitarian Church —and I know, he's been working on a proper follow-up to "STILL LIFE" for a couple years now. Said album, now titled Jinx , will likely be released at some po...

ElectroBluesSociety are a Dutch -based " Organic Dance music" duo mixing electronics with raw, vintage live Blues -based sounds; self-described as "two guys and a bunch of junk with a broad taste and an open mind. Together, they are mixing modern technologies with 30+ years of live stage experience." ElectroBluesSociety (EBS) consists of drummer and bassist Jasper Mortier and guitarist and Black & Tan Records owner Jan Mittendorp . Mortier has worked with the likes of Paul Oscher , Preston Shannon, "Sax" Gordon Beadle , Philip Walker, and Boo Boo Davis , while Mittendorp has toured extensively across Europe & The US with artists such as Percy Strother , Smokey Wilson, Boo Boo Davis , Erskine Oglesby, and Roscoe Chenier . Jan Mittendorp personally, worked with American R&B singer and guitarist Roscoe Chenier for nearly 20 years and released two of his critically-acclaimed albums— Roscoe Style (1998) and Waiting for My Tomorrow (2006...

"Two emcees: one from Chicago’s gritty East Side and the other, from Birmingham, UK. I became a fan of Chicago’s Vic Spencer around 2015, soon after his The Cost of Victory album dropped. I heard his unique voice, delivery, and wit and I knew this guy was special. In 2016, his album The Ghost of Living , produced by one of my all-time favorite producers, BIG GHOST, dropped and was Vic’s best album yet and one of my Top 5 favorite albums of 2016. I became a casual fan of the UK’s SonnyJim a few years ago, soon after his How to Tame Lions? (2014) album dropped, but it was his Mud In My Malbec album that made me a big fan of the emcee-producer and was also, one of my Top 5 favorite albums of 2016. Now, two years later, the two artists—who both put out two of the best albums of 2016—decided to collaborate on an album titled Spencer FOR HIGHER, based off a Mystery TV series from the 1980's called Spenser: For Hire. Maybe it was fate that these two talented artists separated by th...

Just in case you've been living under a rock for the past few months or recently awoke from a coma—we're terribly sorry for 2017!—Beat-maker Bedrock (BMB) is a new, recurring column here at The Witzard; initially, the brainchild of Baltimore-based beatsmith John "Jumbled" Bachman, BMB simply asks beat-makers and aspiring producers to highlight 3-5 of their personal favorite albums, which, early on, helped shape their overall sound and style. I'm proud to present to you our first Beat-maker Bedrock column 2018 and 14th overall features a playlist selected and meticulously arranged by New York-based rapper-producer and We Are The Karma Kids founder Lt Headtrip—or just "Headtrip" for production work. Following his critically-acclaimed 2017 album, Comedy of The Filtbeast , Lt Headtrip teamed up with The GreenHouse Studio/Backwoodz Studioz producer and engineer to curate LNYCHPIN; described on Bandcamp as "a full-length collaborative album featuring 16 ...

"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...

Last year, UK -based Hip-Hop label Village Live Records released a string of critically-acclaimed and incredibly well-received albums and projects from the likes of Gas-Lab , Kuartz, Remulak AKA co-owner Doug Barclay , AVER's phenomenal DIE BERLIN DATEIEN, Benaddict, Slim & Ella Mae , Ded Tebiase, Funkonami , and Chrome & Donnie Propa's DIRTY ROTTEN MIXTAPE in tribute to Jeru The Damja . Now, Village Live has unveiled their first release of 2018: Ukrainian beat-maker KLIM Beats' Natural ; a full-length Instrumental Hip-Hop LP, pressed on "Cherry Red" vinyl, standard Black vinyl, cassette tape, and before long, digital download. Village Live quickly sold out of 125 "Cherry Red" Natural 12-inches with Japanese -reminiscent Red OBI strips, mere hours after KLIM Beats' record first went on sale this past Monday night at 7:00pm sharp ( UK time.) Now, 225 Black Natural LP's with Black OBI strips and clear cassette tapes are cu...

"Peace! I appreciate you reaching out... I was familiar with TCOR 's production, prior to the joint with [Flashius Clayton] , but that song's the first that I've rhymed on one of his beats. We linked from there and he started sending me stuff. "B.I.E." is the first of many [collaborations] between us," Nebraska sharp-spitter @SleepSinatra told me within a recent Twitter Direct Message. Sleep Sinatra and the aforementioned producer TCOR AKA The Custodian of Records first worked together on "Achorman Fight Scene" from Flashius Clayton 's recent WOLF MOON EP , alongside Chicago emcee Vic Spencer . "You're gonna see me with these good brothers frequently, in the future; might as well get used to it. Talented-a$$ muthaf***as, man. Salute each of them," @FlashiusClayton enthusiastically Tweeted. On "B.I.E." The Custodian of Records creates a refreshing Jazz -laden, beat-inflected soundscape for Sleep Sinatra t...

Rocafort Records is an independent record label formed by cousins Ivan Muench & Philippe Rocafort in 2013 and is currently, based between Lausanne, Switzerland and Barcelona, Spain. Specializing in a particular brand of Funk, Soul, R&B, Afrobeat, and Latin Boogaloo, Rocafort Records has been "dedicated to editing and re-releasing songs that had previously gone unnoticed or simply, never seen the light of day;" such gently dusted off and re-issued artists include The Nitty Gritty Sextet, Les Ambassadeurs du Motel de Bamako, The Slingshots, Cross Bronx Expressway, DJ Format & Abdominal, Phat Fred, and AFRICA GONE FUNKEE: A Collection of Rare & Funky Tracks from The Motherland. Flea Market Funk recently premiered the first video-single from Ugly Duckling & The Allergies emcee and producer Andy Cooper's upcoming Rocafort Records album, the layered effect. "The video follows the Jazz theme of ["Here Comes Another One"] with a 1920's Par...