Cali producer Ahwlee’s latest tape, [G]ist, is just what you need to chill. Ahwlee’s been on and off my radar for years and a tumble down the Bandcamp rabbit hole lead me to [G]ist. It’s a sub-15 minute journey through sweet calming tunes, perfect for a summer’s day or a quiet night while you’re relaxing. As major artists begin to embrace shorter releases, it’s important…
Music consumption has changed quite a lot in the past 30 years. The latest metamorphosis reduces songs to samples of their individual components. Forbes writer Cherie Hu wrote an interesting piece on the next wave of recorded music’s disruption detailing the emergence of “sample services”. The popular format changes from vinyl to compact disc were groundbreaking but Napster’s deconstruction of albums into profitable singles changed the…
Leftover Links has returned after a lengthy hiatus with links from Illect Recordings and Jakarta Records. It’s been 3.5 years since we last did an instalment of Leftover Links. As Soundcloud took down a lot of links featured in previous editions, we took a break. But now we’re back with some great links from our favourite record labels. Illect Recordings We kick things off with…
Beat Rabbi shows retirement needn’t mean complete obscurity with Mazel Tov Cocktail. You can’t keep a good hip hop clergyman down. While Beat Rabbi has no calls to return to the beat bimah, he has blessed us with a farewell project of sorts. Mazel Tov Cocktail is a 31-track beat tape, the last hurrah to a brilliant career, packed with classic boom bap and break-filled…
London producer Eahwee gives us !Healxng_ [Side.A] A lot of the lo-fi scene comprises of American producers but there are plenty on this side of the Atlantic. One such artist is Eahwee (pronounced errr-wee). The London beatmaker has been around for a few years but his latest tape, !Healxng_ [Side.A], is our focus today. A defining feature of the scene is the ability to stimulate….
Orlando’s BYSON takes us shopping in Japan with konbini. We featured BYSON a few months ago with his album, refresh, and now he is back with something new. “konbini” is a collection of Japanese-themed beats. The tape opens with sounds of supermarket shuffling and meanders into a piano-drum loop. The rest is a journey through Japan’s array of sounds and genres. I find myself swaying…
Musician and storyboard artist Louie Zong gets “cozy” with his 80th Bandcamp release. We Bare Bears is my favourite show of the last couple of years. So when I discovered one of the show’s storyboard artists on Twitter, it was an immediate follow. Louie Zong also creates incredible art of his own on his Tumblr but we’re here for the music today. 80 releases is a majestic…
Daryl Donald drops new track on Bandcamp called Nothin’ Strange. In discussions of good appealing music, this title is spot on. Daryl Donald is someone we’ve featured on Sampleface before and it’s great to hear more from him in 2018. Nothin’ Strange is a cucumber-cool track. The melody is driven by a soft guitar sample and accompanied by some beautiful vocals that undulate like the…
Not all heroes wear capes but they do release music. This is the new super album from Starchildluke called NOMAD. Yes, I’m writing about my own music. But who better to do it, right? NOMAD is a project I’d been sitting on for a few months with nothing more than a name and half-finished beat folders. So rather than them sit there gathering digital dust,…
Straight out of Argentina comes beatmaker mora. and his latest tape, suspendido. I don’t know how I’ve been running Sampleface for nearly 6 years and never found an Argentinan beatmaker until now. mora. hails from Berazategui, a coastal city in the Buenos Aires Province and suspendido. is collection of lo-fi goodness, from the warped title track to the ironically titled habla mucho. with its dragging…