Catching Up

Photo Via Spacesick

A few recent pieces, since I haven't checked in here in a while.

• over at XXL, I reviewed Laws' mixtape Yesterday's Future and the Cali Swag District's Deeper than the Dougie mixtape
• Interviewed Alex aka Dirty Beaches and Eddie Argos of Art Brut at Passion of the Weiss
• Reviewed Miracle Fortress' Was I The Wave? at POTW
• Covered NXNE for POTW. Fun but exhausting. The White Eyes are the truth.

Also been blogging for my new gig at Good World Games over at our Tumblr. Try our 1st game MyConservationPark today and tell me what you think!

Exclaim! Music School: Where I Play - Muneshine

Some genuine summer jam material for these 29 plus degree days. I wrote about local emcee/producer Muneshine's home studio for Exclaim!'s June issue. Click the excerpt below to read the whole thing.

Muneshine wistfully recalls the first beat he ever made, a flip of the Beatnuts' "No Equal," constructed the day he bought his MPC. "I chopped up parts of that beat, trying to learn how to use the MPC and create something new with samples." Even before that, Bakker vividly remembers early attempts at beat tapes using the "pause" and "record" buttons on his boombox. These days Muneshine operates slightly more modern equipment: what he describes as a "piece of shit" PC, two laptops and an Ozonic MIDI keyboard controller. He constructs his songs with Adobe Audition and employs Reason for engineering purposes, while inexpensive Rokt KRK monitors supply surprisingly potent bass.

Plus: reviewed Animal Farm's Culture Shock for Exclaim!
I also recently started writing for XXL's Reviews section. Here's what I've written so far:

Tyga - Black Thoughts 2
Outasight - Figure 8 EP
XV - Zero Heroes
Trae Tha Truth - Undisputed
Ace Hood - Body Bag
Fiend - Behind Limo Glass
Fabolous - The Soul Tape