When Omarion signed to Maybach Music earlier this year, we heard a lot of jokers talking smack, hinting at the former B2K frontman’s irrelevance. Sorry, but if you’ve never lost your shit to “Ice Box” in the club, you really have not experienced the true meaning of “YOLO.” Regardless, Maybach O has released a free EP, “Care Package,” that should put the doubters in their place. The Boss himself declares, on the gratuitously compelling “Rozay Interlude,” that the EP is to “hold you sexy ladies over through the winter,” and that’s exactly how I see this release functioning for me. It seems O’s been paying close attention to what’s worked in r&b this year, and it’s paid off—”Arch It Up,” featuring Trae the Truth, borrows more than just title keywords from Miguel, and “Admire,” the EP’s standout track featuring Problem and Tank, hints that O’s studied at the school of “Late Nights with Jeremih.” He transcends potentially tragic guest appearances—the previously released “M.I.A.” (with an unnecessary, as always, Wale appearance) is a sulky after-hours heater, and even a Joe Budden feature can’t ruin the sparkly, almost Dream-like production of “Trouble.” Though it slightly loses momentum towards the end, “Care Package” is an impressive release, and has us very anxious to see what Omarion has in store next year.
Stream: [wpaudio url=”https://truantsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/02-Admire-ft-Problem-and-Tank-DatPiff-Exclusive.mp3″ text=”Omarion – Admire feat. Problem and Tank” dl=”0″] via DatPiff.
Following an extended hiatus after their first album, Darkstar is back with an amazing new single entitled “Timeaway” in the run-up to their new album. The track was released for free (in exchange for your email address) almost two months ago, so we definitely slept on this one a little bit but that doesn’t mean that the track is any less amazing. Opening with a slowly speeding up music box and what sounds like a clock ticking, Timeaway sees Darkstar taking their glitched-out, gloomy vocals and bending them with echo to dizzying effects. If you thought they’d perfected them on “Dear Hearbeat,” get ready to think again. The 12” single features 10 different locked groove loops (no, not that Locked Groove) that might wreck your stylus but still sound cool. On top of that, Darkstar’s promo even features hi-res artwork you can download and print out because the only thing that’s better than free music is free art, right?
Stream: [wpaudio url=”https://truantsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Darkstar-Timeaway.mp3″ text=”Darkstar – Timeaway” dl=”0″] via Darkstar.
Crazylegs have been one of our favourite promoters for a long time, with the best nights of this Truant’s four year spell in Bristol undoubtedly spent at their parties – reaching new levels of wavy at a tiny party with ten secret headliners that turned out to boast Slimzee, Jam City, Loefah and a host of others we were too toasted to recall; witnessing the first ever – and best ever- Hessle Audio showcase in the city; getting the opportunity to see legends like Roy Davis JR and Todd Edwards rubbing shoulders with the generation of producers they influenced. The move to record label was inevitable and welcomed, with an exquisite release by hotly tipped Bristolian Ziro paving the way for a wave of records that are sure to stay true to their curation ethos: forward thinking street music firmly rooted in the UK tradition. Though they are yet to announce those next few, Crazylegs have dropped a huge hint in giving away a refix of Bassjackers’ ubiquitous funky anthem “Klambu” by bright new hope Beneath.
Channelling the 2005 Grime/Dubstep interzone to imbue his colossal sub-130 bpm-ers with both weight and darkness, Beneath‘s self-released white labels developed lines of continuity with one of the best periods of UK music whilst pointedly avoiding pastiche. His Klambu refix walks the same line, augmenting the original with heavy grime kicks to add another kind of rattle to the bony percussion. Beneath’s music is compelling because it posits a counterfactual history for UK dance music: instead of rejecting dubstep and grime tropes wholesale and spending years in a substanceless tech-house wilderness, producers could have taken the best of classic era DMZ and FWD with them, and continued to mine a niche that was far from exhausted. Many took the rise of rivals to the name “dubstep” as a reason to abandon everything about that era, to the detriment of the music scene. Thankfully time seems to have healed some of the wounds brought on by the dubstep world’s existential crisis and Beneath is at the forefront of a wave of new producers picking up where others left off.
Stream: [wpaudio url=”https://truantsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Beneath-Klambu-Refix.mp3″ text=”Beneath – Klambu Refix” dl=”0″] via Crazylegs.
Here, Gucci Mane’s largely unnoticed creative renaissance continues, and Young Scooter raps another so-lazy-it’s-hot verse in his aloof, disconnected charisma. The unnamed producer’s beat is party and large and filled with many of the best cheap trap-rap preset drums and synths; you’ve definitely heard those horns before, right? It’s not Gucci’s strongest performance lyrically (we’ll miss you forever, 2008) but still, the adept wayhe hammers emphases into on-beat words will make certain lines stand out and stick with you. And, of course, he does a great job of carrying momentum through his verse with a supple flow built around sustained runs of half rhymes. The video is worth a watch, if only for the odd and almost tragic disconnect between the ultra derivative crew-money-and-girls shots and the rampantly interspersed footage from Slick Rick’s classic “Children’s Story”. These two have a tape in the works; Free Bricks 2 doesn’t have a release date yet, but it will do eventually. P.S. Scooter does the GBE head shake dance in the chorus. Come on dude…
Written by: Ian Maxwell, Meaghan Garvey, Simon Docherty & Tim Willis.
Check out past installments in the Sunday’s Best Archives.
