Category: Music

This was my favorite album for a while in high school. It taught me a lot about the absurdity of life & how to take it all as it comes, no matter how nonsensical everything is. There are a lot of drifter vagrant anthems on here because Buck was homeless when he wrote a lot of these songs. I thought that was rad for some reason when I was a teenager. Also there’s lots of contemplations about “suicides” via Buck’s profound “Riverbed” series. I hope you get as much from these abstract rhymes as I did so many years ago. ♥Neonn

This album feels unreal in how brave it is. This motherfucker is really out here talking this hardcore of revolutionary shit I can still hardly believe it even after listening so intently to it all. “They fucked the slums so hard they gave birth to a resistance….” Carrying Dead Prez’ torch on here, telling folks in the hood to redirect their anger (& traumatized destructive expressions of it) at the system that oppresses them rather than their neighbors who might disrespect them. Hip Hop needed this album, bringing back that Panther energy. Please listen, it will blow your mind. ♥Neonn

“KXNG Crooked dropped a new album titled Good Vs. Evil, his third project of 2016. The LP sees Crooked donning the persona of a superhero from an alternate reality. In this universe, lower class citizens use violence to fight back against oppression.

“It all started when I was watching a news segment on the murders of Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland and all the other black people killed by Police” Crooked said. “I saw Tamir Rice’s mother on TV and the pain in her eyes made my blood pressure boil. No mother should lose a child like that. Then, I watched cops kill unarmed people on film and go home to their families like black lives didn’t matter. No charges and with paid leave. At the same time, I watched officers capture Dylan Roof alive and buy him a hamburger after he slaughtered nine black churchgoers. I thought to myself, are we under attack as black people to the point where I might have to shoot an officer just to survive a mere traffic stop? I thought, how crazy is it that we even have to think about in America (in 2016)?  Then I thought, how ill would it be to have a black superhero (that other black children can look up to; the same way we do Marvel characters) to tackle and these issues.” [XXL]

“Bringing to mind an amalgamation of bands like Lifetime, CIV, New Found Glory, the Movielife, and early Saves the Day, the Bay Area’s Set Your Goals straddle the line between pop-punk and hardcore. They burst onto the scene with a 2005 self-titled EP on Straight on Records. Comprised of vocalists Jordan Brown and Matt Wilson, guitarist Dave Yoha, bassist Joe Saucedo, and drummer Michael Ambrose, the guys later rechristened their eponymous EP Reset for an April 2006 reissue on Eulogy that included a bonus track and enhanced video footage. They followed up three months later with their infectious debut full-length, Mutiny!, which blended rousing melodic hardcore with insightful, positive lyrics and ample pirate references. Becoming an official six-piece with the addition of guitarist Audelio Flores, Jr., Set Your Goals hit the road in support, playing several dates with Gorilla Biscuits and Comeback Kid before spending fall alongside Less Than Jake, the Loved Ones, and Catch 22. In 2008, Set Your Goals left Eulogy, signing on with Epitaph the following year for the released of their second album, This Will Be the Death of Us. The band continued to tour, hitting the road with bands like Four Year Strong, The Swellers and You Me at Six before releasing their third album, Burning at Both Ends, in 2011. ~ Corey Apar, Rovi”

“For the purposes of mystique (and, one assumes, legal reasons due to the various participants owning recording contracts), the experimental noise rock collective the Sound of Animals Fighting appear in public only in cheap creepy cute children’s Halloween masks with cartoon animals on them. Furthermore, the members of the band — really more of an always shifting musical collective in the manner of Broken Social Scene — are referred to only as the animals their masks represent. Therefore, their debut album, The Tiger and the Duke, lists the Walrus, the Lynx, the Bear, the Nightingale, the Ferret, the Armadillo, the Hyena, the Octopus, the Skunk, the Llama, the Swan, the Dog, the Raven, the Tortoise, and the Tiger as participants. As gimmicks go, it’s a good one….” [more on Spotify]

One of the best emo pop punk albums I’ve ever heard. This gives me a whole new level of respect for MGK, who was always a talented hardcore emcee but never somebody I was particularly impressed with in terms of substance. This album is interesting because it’s like the emo meme was barrowed from punk into Hip-Hop, & then back to punk again. This a wonderful cathartic synthesis of both aesthetic sensibilities. Listen close! Great driving music, too. ♥Neonn

“dear friend, after countless hours of work over the last 14 months, this experiment of an album has finally been released into the world. i feel a strange ambivalence, at once joyful to share the work and hollow, having just let go of this art(ifact) which has incubated within me for so long. there is also the familiar sensation of being so close to the project now that i no longer have more than a vague inkling of its merits. i look forward to listening to it a few months from now with fresh ears.

“‘EXISTENTIAL RISK’ is an attempt to come to terms with a number of rather heavy issues facing humanity, many of which i’ve never heard anyone else address in the rap genre. it is also an urn containing the ashes of past selves and many experiential particles which needed to be ejected from my psyche. thank you, from the bottom of me, for listening to and contemplating this thing i made. i sincerely hope it gives you something. love, jordan” (more description here)

“‘FRAGMENTED’ is an EP about uncertainty, cognitive dissonance, fragmentation of identity, suffering, heartbreak, and the oft-overwhelming process of attempting to synthesize a coherent worldview or life-meaning from the various intermelding oceans of context and culture through which we swim in 2016. it was “born in a nightmare,” as Open Mike Eagle might say.

“if you look closely enough, it’s also probably about love and fun and peace and laughter and joy and all that good stuff. it’s also about whatever you want it to be about, or whatever it seems to be about to you. i put a lot of me-stuff into this artifact, and i hope it gives you something. luv, jordan.”

Listen on Spotify

“IOWASCA is an 80-Minute Digital Ayahuasca Ceremony. A deeply healing, liberating, and uplifting Medicinal Sound Journey. One that you can return to time and time again. To let go of old patterns and burdens. Tap into Higher Frequencies. Move deeply into the Now. And reprogram your subconscious mind for… Gratitude. Joy. Lightness. Abundance. Love. Fun. Fearlessness. Peace. This entheogenic genre-bending soul-rap album is…

“A Portal to a new Universe… A Magical Place where fear is an illusion, Divinity is everywhere, and Life is an Eternal Playground to express your Soul. This Universe actually exists, and it’s possible for you to tap into it Now. Heaven is a frequency, available at all places and times. If you allow us, we can illuminate the Path to get there.”

“a wise man named Dunzo Donalds once told me that “your first songs are your best songs,” which further confirmed an intuition i had felt stirring within me: that i needed to release my earliest raps….

“really though, these songs i recorded in a small studio apartment in Busan, South Korea in late 2013 and early 2014 hold a special place in my heart, and it feels right to me to share them with you all. these glimpses into my psyche were born from a place of pure excitement—from a sense of the world of rap-making as a Narnia of endless possibility.

“as always, i truly hope this music gives you something.

“with love and a jolly belly laugh,
jb”

🔥 Anton Iorga (@antonyofegypt) is a prolific metagnostic activist scholar poet, my favorite emcee in the world, & a good friend of mine, who writes verses from the perspectives of various mythological guises, such as Kalki, Antony of Egypt, Legion, Kikwaakew, & Sunya, to name a few.. 👽
They’re busy writing & studying & juggling a ton of different projects, including managing a fully nonprofit hip hop record label called Revolt-Motion Records, which publishes all their music & literature & graphics & videos as free culture in creative commons, so they leave it up to listeners to upload their tunes across the interwebs 🎃 so heere ya go fam, Enjoy & Evolve! 🔮

For tons more intersectional activist music & resources, check out their website www.revolt-motion.com/

Send your compliments directly to the poet @ www.facebook.com/kikwaakew

And check out my epic interview with this brilliant artist on the Utopian Cartography podcast @ www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQu78Vl7-5c

“Tipper is the professional moniker for Dave Tipper, a British electronic artist/DJ/producer associated with styles including nu breaks, glitch hop, and downtempo. Originally part of the late-’90s drum’n’bass subgenre nu breaks, Tipper became entranced by the scene at age 16, when his older brother turned him on to the whole rave culture.

“Eventually growing bored with the fast tempos and repetitiveness of drum’n’bass, Tipper began to experiment with tempos — leading to his debut album, The Critical Path, in 2000 on the Higher Ground/Sony label. During the making of the album, Tipper began to suffer from hearing damage due to the elaborate and booming stereo systems inside his cars. With the problem sorted out, Tipper returned early the next year with his sophomore effort, Holding Pattern, which led to tours of both Europe and America. The DJ mix Tipper Presents Sound Off appeared later in 2001 via the Fuel label. Surrounded followed on Myutopia Recordings in 2003 and was one of the first electronic music albums to be recorded in 5.1 Surround Sound.

“With distribution by Kudos Records, Tip Hop marked the debut of his own Tippermusic label in 2005. Incorporating elements of hip-hop production, it helped lay the groundwork for glitch hop. His imprint also issued 2006’s The Seamless Unspeakable Something and Relish the Trough, 2008’s Wobble Factor and Tertiary Noise, and 2010’s Broken Soul Jamboree. The latter saw him embrace a downtempo, more ambient sound.

“After a series of EPs, Tipper announced in 2013 that health concerns would limit his festival appearances, and he released Dusty Bubble Box: EP Remixes to help raise funds for medical bills that included cardiac surgery the same year. After time off to recover, he returned with 2014’s Forward Escape, which hit the Top 20 of Billboard’s electronic albums chart. By that time, Tipper was making festival appearances with dedicated so-called uptempo or downtempo sets.

“In 2015, he released two EPs, Fathoms EP and It’s Like…, and in 2017, he returned with Flunked EP. It became his highest-charting release to date, reaching number 15 on the Billboard Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart.” ~ Marcy Donelson & Greg Prato, Rovi

“Psychedelic duo Simon Posford and Raja Ram are Shpongle, an ambient / electronica project formed in 1996 after the pair viewed a solar eclipse in India. After that event, they entered the studio and attempted to duplicate the experience in sonic form, and the result was a 20-minute track, “…And The Day Turned To Night,” which was featured on Twisted Records label compilation titled Eclipse. Shpongle’s full-length debut album, Are You Shpongled? was released in early 1999. Their sophomore effort, Tales Of The Inexpressible arrived in 2001 and featured the additions of Spanish and East Asian instrumentation. In 2005, the duo released their third album, Nothing Lasts…but Nothing Is Lost (Remastered, 2019) which was intended to be their final project. However, Shpongle returned in 2009 with Ineffable Mysteries, which incorporated world music themes, and the God Particle EP in 2010. Museum of Consciousness followed in 2013. Their sixth album, the appropriately titled Codex VI was released in 2017. In 2019 they played 2 sold out shows at Red Rocks, Colorado with the full live band. Work has already started on their 7th studio album to follow in 2022.”