The Witzard

Just about a month ago, I got an email from my friend, producer buddy, and frequent collaborator John Bachman AKA Jumbled mysteriously labelled "2 things." Bachman was writing me about his upcoming Bmore Club -minded project, as well as an idea he said he had been "kicking around;" wherein he simply detailed he wanted to ask "producers to name 3-5 albums that influenced them/their style and talk a little about each album and maybe their [favorite] track." Needless to say, I was immediately interested and Jumbled and I collectively decided we would jointly run our producer playlist column (now, appropriately deemed "Beat-maker Bedrock" ) on both The Witzard and his Hatford & Reckord Tumblr . And without further ado, here's the inaugural Beat-maker Bedrock artist-penned column with brainchild and beat-maker himself, John "Jumbled" Bachman . Beat-makers and producers: if you're reading this and could like to partake in f...

"Hi, reaching out from Northeast Baltimore . This is Jumbled 's new album – sample-based Hip-Hop ... Proof that [there] is still sample-based Boom-Bap from Baltimore ," read a mysterious email I received from one John Bachman about a week ago; his latest self-released album as Jumbled [I wish it was longer] (WIWL ) has been in constant rotation since last Friday, although I've been a little preoccupied, to say the least, with a new county job in my sights! [I wish it was longer] was produced and recorded by Bachman, a self-described "husband, beat-maker, dish washer," and high school engineering teacher, over the past two years "between working, making beats, and organizing collaborations with [emcees]." WIWL is a painfully brief 13-track album with 2 appended bonus tracks, which plays out like a "Lesson" -filled DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist Brainfreeze-indebted mix between Jazzy breakbeat instrumental tracks and Baltimore area emc...

Merry Christmess by Jumbled Merry Christmess exudes a frantic sense of fluidity, similar in nature to that of my personal favorite Hip-Hop -minded Christmas comp. Peanut Butter Wolf Presents: BADD SANTA - A Stones Throw Records Xmas . After initially pitching a batch of holiday-themed beats to an East Coast-based crew of emcees to no avail, John "Jumbled" Bachman , unfortunately, aborted his then-untitled Christmas EP for a planned 2016 release. Now, nearly a year later, Jumbled is back with his fully-realized 15-track Merry Christmess comp. Following The Ghost of Len Bias EP with MGNTK. emcee UllNevaNo and THE INSULT with long-time friend and emcee Dwell (as Bully Preston ) Merry Christmess is Jumbled 's third proper release of 2017. While Merry Christmess is, in fact, Jumbled 's first beat-minded Christmas release, John Bachman 's Indie Rock/Power-Pop band, Soft Peaks actually issued a 2013 cover of The Kinks' raucous "Father Christma...

December Boys by Soft Peaks "It’s been a little while, but Baltimore ’s Soft Peaks are back with another EP! Three songs that were recorded a while ago, but sometimes life gets in the way. Band members went back to school, started families, and trying to find time to practice, in between dinner and putting the kids to bed," reads a rather quaint email I received from Baltimore 's Soft Peaks early Sunday morning. Its core members include lead guitarist and vocalist Jonathan Moore , second guitarist and vocalist Eben Dennis , and drummer, engineering teacher, and Hip-Hop producer John "Jumbled" Bachman , bassist Tim St. Clair , and keyboard and accordion player Michael Lambright . I've previously worked with Bachman on a number of occasions for this various publication, including a recent Scratching The Surface interview; although, to my surprise, he had never once mentioned he played drums in his own self-described "Power Pop" band during an...

Jumbled watering his pumpkins (SOURCE: John Bachman) So, by now, anyone who regularly reads this site should know we are long-time, supporters, and fans of anything our beat-making friend from Baltimore, John Bachman (otherwise known as Jumbled) creates and releases to the masses. With that said, Jumbled is back with his latest seasonal EP, Project 138. Yes, this is a project primarily featuring samples from New Jersey's own Horror Punk pioneers, The Misfits, and, maybe, even some Samhain & Danzig, too. It's hard to tell, though, because Jumbled layers samples and creates his beats so well, but Glenn Danzig and company are sampled throughout; Project 138, also, incorporates audio soundbites about The Misfits and their genre-altering rise to fame like bats out of Hell. Project 138 by Jumbled Bachman describes his inspirations behind creating the ghoulish project as, "there have been a few "inspired by..." Rap projects lately, but I feel like they haven...

If The Witzard mainstay John "Jumbled" Bachman is truly "somewhere between Madlib & Mike Watt," does that mean Eben Dennis is the James Williamson to his Mike Watt? For those unfamiliar with this head-scratching "analogy," Mike Watt & James Williamson appeared together within the 2000's reunited iteration of Iggy Pop-helmed The Stooges ; Williamson played guitar with Iggy from 1970-71, 1972-74, and 2009-13, while Watt joined between 2003-13 playing bass across Stooges "reunion" albums The Weirdness (2007) and Ready to Die (2013.) Thus, we've been familiar with Eben Dennis' musical output just as long as we've been writing about Jumbled. In fact, Dennis provided additional guitar riffs to Berko Lover-assisted "Sam Adams" from our very first introduction to Jumbled, 2016's [I wish it was longer] or WIWL. Only Devotion by Plague Saints We've since covered John Bachman & Eben Dennis' work togeth...

You don't know?! by Jumbled John "Jumbled" Bachman is a Baltimore -based "teacher, husband & father, beat-maker, and dish-washer," who personally describes his music as something falling "somewhere between Madlib & Mike Watt ." We've thoroughly enjoyed and previously featured every Jumbled release since 2016's [ I wish it was longer] AKA WIWL , including Action Shots EP , The Ghost of Len Bias EP with Baltimore emcee UllNevaNo, Bully Preston 's full-length debut THE INSULT , and holiday-themed Hip-Hop comp. Merry Christmess on The Witzard . Now, Bachman, the proud new father of a beautiful baby girl, has effectively returned with his latest release, YOU DON'T KNOW?! ; not entirely unlike his two 2015 EP's, Club Classics and BOOM! YOU DON'T KNOW?! is a long-in-the-works sample-based Bmore Club -leaning collection. For those who may be unaware, Baltimore/Bmore Club music is "a Breakbeat genre; a blend of Hip-...

The Ghost of Len Bias by ullnevano x jumbled It would be safe to say that the immense musical diversity and sheer success seen published across the pages of The Witzard within the last year or two is largely due in part to one man, John "Jumbled" Bachman ; a self-proclaimed "teacher, husband, beat-maker, and dish-washer," Bachman has been a long-time champion, supporter, featured artist, talent scout, and most recently, idea man behind Beat-maker Bedrock here at The Witzard . Jumbled has either produced beats for, set up shows, introduced, or simply referred me to an ever-evolving crew of head-nodding East Coast -based emcees and beat-makers since we first met, after he sent me his 2016 album, [I wish it was longer] AKA WIWL . John Bachman and his wife recently welcomed a beautiful baby girl into their family and started a new school year at a new school, all the while, simultaneously working on a number of extracurricular projects: The Ghost of Len Bias , Bu...

We've been repping Jumbled AKA John Bachman here at The Witzard ever since his 2018 release, [I wish it was longer] or simply, WIWL . Self-described as "somewhere between Madlib & Mike Watt," the teacher, husband, father, beat-maker, dish-washer has been nothing short of productive these last four years. Bachman is a huge component in both the Baltimore and East Coast Hip-Hop music scenes and has, personally, been a great ally here at The Witzard. Jumbled has released action shots ep, The Ghost of Len Bias with UllNevaNo , THE INSULT with Dwell as Bully Preston, Merry Christmess, YOU DON'T KNOW?!, You Best Not Miss with Lace Berriez , Padre, and August Heat all on his own imprint, Harford & Reckord Tapes since WIWL . His latest effort, ORSULAK , definitely doesn't disappoint either; here, Jumbled has joined forces once more with his long-time friend and collaborator, Eben Dennis , for something that's a little more Mike Watt-leaning than his t...

No Sleep 'til Baltimore was a tribute/benefit show held at The Ottobar in Baltimore back on Friday, July 7th. It was billed as a "benefit to help local musician adopt" with "local musician" being producer John Bachman (Jumbled) and his wife Rachel . Not only was No Sleep 'til Baltimore a fundraiser to help The Bachmans earn money for their adoption, it was dually billed as a tribute to the Beastie Boys' monumental Rick Rubin -produced 1986 Def Jam debut, Licensed to Ill . Berko Lover did a rendition of "Girls," GUY GRAMS performed a roaring rendition of "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party!)" MC Bravado & S.U. The Clique covered "No Sleep 'til Brooklyn," Drew Scott & Vans_Westly did "Hold It Now, Hit It" with a little help from Jumbled himself, The Hell Hole Store covered "Brass Monkey," and much, much more. By all accounts, No Sleep 'til Baltimore was a great suc...

CREDIT: Hand-cut "EAST." Art By: John Bachman (@NapalmDef) Happy New Year to all of our trusty readers out there! Let's hope this year will be better than the last! Today, for our first post of 2021, we're back with new music from Vans_Westly & Jumbled. We've previously featured Vans' 2017 QUILLS EP produced by NelWayne & Drew Scott, which was followed up by Bubble Boy (2018) with beats from Scott & Height Keech and released on Cold Rhymes Records. Vans_Westly's latest release, an EP entitled Rapscallion, fully produced by friend of The Witzard, John Bachman AKA Jumbled. Rapscallion was, actually, released on November's bandcamp Friday last year with 50% of the profits raised going towards Bail Fund and 50% towards BARCS or as Vans himself put it, "100 percent goes to good sh*t!" Rapscallion by Vans_Westly Now, as 2021 has kick-started itself into gear, Vans_Westly has returned once more with a proper music video for Rapsc...

Padre by Jumbled It's been an exciting year and a half for John Bachman AKA Baltimore -based beat-maker Jumbled and his wife, Rachel . One day, The Bachmans got a call about potentially, adopting a little girl, so they immediately drove to Upstate New York and their lives, as they knew it, instantly changed forever. Upon their return back home to Baltimore with baby Lucy (LB) just a few short weeks later, Jumbled happily moved his records and equipment from Lucy 's new bedroom and into the home's guestroom. Thus, entering his aptly-named "Green Room" phase, which chronologically, started with YOU BEST NOT MISS EP with DC emcee, Lace Berriez from late last year. Padre consists of a barrage of beats Jumbled has painstakingly created and fine-tuned within the last 12 months or so in The "Green Room." Its content were primarily recorded during the early morning hours before LB would wake up or on the rare occasion Mrs. Bachman would go out...

ALYX Ryon & Jumbled still from "Stan Kenton" music video (CREDIT: John Bachman) We're proud to share "Stan Kenton," the latest collaboration from D.C. emcee ALYX Ryon and Baltimore beat-maker Jumbled (by day, known as John Bachman) self-released today on Bandcamp. It's a raucous less than two-minute track encapsulated over a squalling drum-lade horn sample expertly executed by Jumbled himself. This new song serves as an introduction to their upcoming collaborative album slated to drop this summer. Said project has been in-the-making for a few years now following fruitful collaborations on Jumbled's Christmas album, Merry Christmess (2017,) and his Doo-wop indebted project, Jumbled's Jukebox [Doo-wop Inspired Hip-Hop], last year. ALYX Ryon is an up-and-coming rapper from the Washington, D.C. area with many singles and a few albums under his belt. He's a member of JUSTGORILLA, YungZILLA The ZillaGAHD, and TIXE, in addition to his own solo a...

" Action Shots is the new EP from Baltimore beat-maker Jumbled . Living in a Soundcloud world, collaborations between producers and emcees are trickled out as singles—so in an effort to avoid that, Jumbled compiled [six] new songs together in this EP," Baltimore producer, Power Pop drummer, and high school engineering teacher John Bachman (aka Jumbled ) wrote within a recent emailed press release. Maybe most notably, Bachman's Action Shots EP marks the premier of his latest rapper-producer duo, Bully Preston formed with one half of Dwell & salk. from his The Witzard -premiered [I wish it was longer] single, "Train of Thought." "He misspoke when asking about a Billy Preston beat and it stuck (pretty obvious), but I think he's recorded 4-5 songs already and more to come," Jumbled said, as he detailed the origins of Bully Preston 's name; a minor faux pas on Dwell 's part, when once referring to "Fifth Beatle" an...

"I went to an event called Baltimore Beat Club that I played beats at and had an open mic cypher. I don't think Izaac lived in the city, but came to this Beat Club and to the next one—that I couldn't make. He produced his own stuff on GarageBand, but I sent him some beats that he liked. [He] sent me this one and I tweaked it a little. But since then, he's deleted his Soundcloud, Facebook, and Twitter. ACTUALLY, I tried to look him up again and he changed his Rap name to Mick Boche and relocated to San Diego," Baltimore rapper-producer Jumbled, who moonlights as high school engineering teacher Mr. John Bachman , revealed during our featured interview a few months ago. Since conducting that fateful Jumbled interview, I've successfully gotten in touch with the man, the myth, the legend, Mick Boche (formerly known as Izaac) and fellow Baltimore multi-instrumentalist and Folk-Pop artist, Jordan Parrish (Birds With Teeth). Boche relocated to San Diego, California d...

"I can't really say what the title will be, but it should be released as a single in a week or two, depending on what [Jordan Parrish] decides to do with it. I decided to work on it because it really brought me back to the "Hopeless Romantic 1+2" tracks emotionally and it's always nice to challenge yourself to write something new about a familiar subject," San Diego rapper-producer and engineer Mick Boche revealed within our previously published interview a few months back. Long story short, I actually first heard about "disappearing" emcee Boche (then Izaac) from my friend and collaborator John "Jumbled" Bachman, who featured Izaac within a bonus track, "World's On Fire," on his impeccable Baltimore-centric beat-minded album, [I wish it was longer]. Not long after, Izaac's social media accounts were completely wiped and he went dark, unbeknownst to Bachman and I, having left Baltimore and secretly relocated to San Di...

August Heat by Ialive John "Jumbled" Bachman was one of the many talented artists, writers, and Beastie Boys super-fans who contributed to our recent 3-part PB30 All-around Breakdown feature and now, he's returned with his second self-released full-length of 2019, AUGUST HEAT . Jumbled 's first long-form project since January 2019's Padre , AUGUST HEAT is just as it sounds: 17 tracks-worth of sweltering instrumental beats and emcee-assisted vocal tracks. "In early June, Jumbled compiled a list of his heat: heavy Boom-Bap beats that meshed together to create an album," explains a press release. John Bachman goes on to define "heat (noun)" as "1. hot beats / raps, 2. oppressively hot or humid weather, 3. pressure" and then, somehow, manages to reference a JAY-Z rhyme from "Light Up" alongside Drake: "Triple entendre, don't even ask me how." Although, originally conceived as a single-emcee affair, AUGUST...

" about the album... Proof that [there] is still sample-based Boom-Bap from Baltimore. When you get a chance, please check out the new album from Jumbled, called [I wish it was longer] . When Jumbled sent early demos to friends, many responded that they were disappointed with the brevity of the project. All songs are produced by Jumbled, in his home in Northeast Baltimore. As with most albums, this project took almost 2 years to complete, between working, making beats, and organizing collaborations with emcees. This album is meant to be a showcase of production, which is enhanced by guest vocals," read the introductory paragraph of a cold email submission sent by self-described "teacher, husband, beat-maker, [and] dish washer" John Bachman. Mr. Bachman, a high school engineering teacher, records sample and Bmore Club-based Hip-Hop as Jumbled during his nights and weekends off. I fostered quite a relationship with John online over the course of the past month, du...