The Witzard

End Of Future Park by CURTA Die-hard Hip-Hop heads and The Witzard 's trusty devotees alike will recall: the last time we heard from Denver emcee CURTA , he and long-time producer 4Digit were preparing to release their CLICK BAIT EP on FilthyBroke Recordings/Hello L.A. Lest we forget, Philly Noir-Hop originator Zilla Rocca 's re-contextualized and remixed version of CURTA 's "Rap Trope Questionnaire" was premiered right here at The Witzard last March. Now, CURTA are back with their first single, "The Messiah Complex," lifted from upcoming EP End of Future Park slated to be self-released on Bandcamp this upcoming March 19th. " End of Future Park is named for a construction sign meant to indicate the point at which the City of Denver 's proposed "future park" starts and ends," CURTA wrote within a recent press statement. "This sign is painted on an underpass pillar a few blocks from my home and small studio whe...

"'Rap Trope Questionnaire" is kind of a round-about way of talking about being manic depressive, but from the perspective of someone inhabiting an arena where that sort of behavior is welcomed and even encouraged. It is like an asset in some ways to be able to turn the personality up to 150%, even if it is "blindness to kick bliss in the shin and put my emotional win on display again" (yuck, quoting [myself] feels gross!)" CURTA emcee Jake recently wrote within an emailed statement. CURTA was formed in Colorado a number of years ago because, as Jake puts it, he simply "wanted to make music that was not beholden to prior ideas of what a "band" should be;" often labeling themselves as a Glitch-Hop or Art-Rap group, CURTA and in-house producer 4Digit readily cite Pavement , Coil, Saul Williams , and Pere Ubu as immediate sources of influence and inspiration. Zilla Rocca , a close friend and frequent collaborator here at The Wit...

CURTA is the chosen nom de plume of Chicago -based emcee and " INDUSTRIAL -LEANING CARNIVAL BARKER" Jake Danna , who often works alongide in-house producer Brent Larsen AKA 4Digit . We, here at The Witzard , have covered CURTA 's last few projects, including: 2017's FilthyBroke Recordings -released CLICK BAIT EP , last year's self-released End of Future Park EP , and an exclusive Zilla Rocca Remix of "Rap Trope Questionnaire" from 2015's Replica . Over the years, CURTA has shared concert bills across the globe with the likes of milo , Mac Lethal, JPEGMAFIA , Listener, Belly Belt , ceschi, Sewer Rats , B L U E | B I R D, sole , ELUCID, k-the-i??? Andy D. Church Fire , and naughtybabysub. This, however, brings us to CINDY BLURAY : a rather mysterious French producer and musician who says she grew up "making music and playing in caves" since she was about 12. CINDY came up within the Punk, Goth & DIY scenes in her hometown of Bo...

SLAB by Elyria Sequence Solium Records is a French DIY and non-profit tape label; most of the imprint's releases are collaborative projects complete with high-quality packaging and artwork. Solium is run by a Frenchman named Yoan and has been steadily issuing Experimental/Hip-Hop/Noise -centric limited releases on Bandcamp since August 2018. For their latest release, Yoan recruited a cast of characters whom The Witzard regulars should be very familiar: Denver Noise -makers CURTA & 4Digit . Here, collectively billed as "Elyria Sequence" (for the first time!) CURTA & 4Digit are joined by fellow Denver -based beat-maker Brotherhood of Machines . Not to be confused with similarly-named Brotherhood of THE Machine , Brotherhood of Machines seems to have some sort of affiliation with Sean "Erik Samuel" Makau at Bob Cosmo Radio/Phantom Haus , who, just so happens to be CURTA 's long-time manager and promoter. SLAB by Elyria Sequence Elyria S...

Chefren "Chef The Chef" Gray is a rapper-producer, multi-instrumentalist, and singer hailing from Bridgeport, Connecticut . He recently emailed me, after being referred to The Witzard by my past collaborator CURTA , with a link to his latest 10-track project DEMONZZZ . Chef The Chef is playing a CURTA show along with fellow openers Zak G + ECID & PremRock at Connecticut 's own Stella Blues this upcoming Thursday, October 12th at 8:00pm, as part of CURTA 's awesomely-named Circus In a Suitcase 2017 Tour . "I was really influenced by my surroundings. My experiences and just the mental battles I fight everyday. So, I called it DEMONZZZ because I wanted people to instantly be able to see right through me," Chef The Chef wrote within an emailed statement. "I wanted to be very transparent. I feel like being vulnerable is a valuable trait in deciphering who we are as people," he continued. Chefren Gray initially told me he created DEMONZZZ ...

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 ...

Ubik MCDXCII is a mysterious London-based Avant Hip-Hop/musical artist and analog photographer. His second full-form project, Blackout Blinds was recently released on French tape label, Solium Records ; Yoan at Solium , also, very recently released a double-tape dubbed SLAB attributed to Elyria Sequence , AKA CURTA, 4-Digit & Brotherhood of Machines . The Witzard recently premiered an exclusive offering from Cindy Bluray & CURTA called "N0153_W45H" and now, it appears as though, Bluray has mixed "Mythologies" from Ubik MCDXCII 's Blackout Blinds . Otherwise, the rest of the record was tediously mixed by Riccardo "Rico" Gamondi of Italian Experimental Hip-Hop group, Uochi Toki . "This is a boisterous record. The ever-present clamor making life in London claustrophobic lifestyles, the Orwellian high-tech modernity clashing with an ancient past, the parenting of an Autistic child in an autistic society; these are all important themes...

"It's a song I always loved, but I could never figure where to place it, in terms of albums and such. I've performed it a few times and it always did well... I kind of Kanye'd the hook and had variations of it done by El Malito & Margel The Sophant , before I put it together the way it is now. I just wanted it... to be great because the beat is crazy and the story/concept is heavily indebted to this book, The Song Is You by Megan Abbott ," Wrecking Crew & Career Crooks emcee Zilla Rocca wrote, via text Monday night, concerning his latest stand-alone single. "Lemon Drop" was released in a similar fashion to Zilla 's recent influx of 90's Golden Age Hip-Hop -evoking Noir-Hop loosies: "98 Avirex Flow" and Ghostface Killah & Raekwon -flipping "Faster Blade Redux," which was fittingly premiered right here at The Witzard . Zilla Rocca further explained that it's his "goal to drop one song a month for...

Michael J. Collins (MJC) is the founder of FilthyBroke Recordings and an extremely talented mixing and mastering engineer I've recently crossed paths with; Collins has had a hand in a number of releases I've covered here at The Witzard in recent weeks, including Walter Gross' Black Box Tapes -released VESTIGE and CURTA 's forthcoming CLICK BAIT EP , as well as FilthyBroke 's own Library Lunch: A Benefit Compilation for Anti-Bullying . Michael messaged me Wednesday morning with a private press stream to Providence, RI emcee Spocka Summa 's then-unreleased The Progression 001 EP , which he fittingly called a "gift" to help me "get ahead of some of the press." Spocka Summa further detailed that " The Progression is Part 001 of a 3-part series of EP's. Entirely produced by my close friend Last Child ; this first installment serves as an intro to two upcoming bigger projects. The Progression is the journey of myself and my th...