Diplo and photographer Shane McCauley are launching the zine series Blow Your Head. Each volume will explore a different country and musical genre. For this volume, the duo traveled through Trenchtown, visiting Tuff Gong Studios, Gee Jam Studios and Sugarman Beach, documenting the most cutting-edge music and dance with candid photographs of the players and venues.
Each volume is an 8 x 10 inch, 96 page black and white softcover printed in a limited edition of 1500 copies.
Northerner Melé has long had a Southern leaning – he’s been melding southern hip hop snares & rhythms with a distinctive but undefinable UK sound since he started out producing as a teenager. His track ‘Lego’, released on his sophomore EP for Mixpak, brought inspiration for the first volume for our newly released Mixpak Pressure compilation, leading us to lock 10 producers all with a common investment in the dirty south sound.
Fresh from the success of ‘Beamer’, we met up in a London diner to talk about ‘Stage 2’, and find out how deep into the deep south he goes.
So let’s jump straight in with your track from Mixpak Pressure – ‘Stage 2’ – how did that come about?
I made [Stage 2] literally a few days after I made the ‘Beamer’ instrumental so I was still kinda trying to mess about with big pads and chords. [Stage 2] one of those things I was playing out now and again; it was just another track I made. But then I started sending it out and people really liked it, Dre [Skull] really liked it, and when he said he was doing a rap influenced compilation I thought it’d be perfect for it. We tried to add a bit of a vocal to it but it didn’t really work with the track so we decided to keep it instrumental.
We teamed up with Vice Records to re-release Vybz Kartel’s Kingston Story earlier this summer, and now they’ve dropped an exclusive DnB tinged remix of ‘My Crew’, by UK producer Tim Reaper. Head to the Noisey site to listen.
If you missed the brand new video for ‘My Crew’, shot in Kingston this year, head here to watch it.
The very first in our new compilation series, Mixpak Pressure, is out today! Buy it at iTunes / Juno / Boomkat now.
A collection entirely inspired by Southern rap instrumentals, MP1 plays off crunk, screw and other offshoots, tapping into the current interest in all things Dirty South, while putting a modern spin on the sound. Unencumbered by a full vocal, producers are able to strip down and flip the script, while exploring the trunk-rattling bass and scattershot snare rolls that characterize the sound. The resulting tracks can be used in a variety of sets from dubstep to downtempo, and the moods here span the spectrum from mellow to straight-out crazy.
Australia’s Lucid turns out the anthemic trance-driven “Transet,” pairing well with a hard-knocking piece called “Trunkin” by Philly’s Krueger and Matt Shadetek’s massive “The Machines”. The Bay and NYC meet up on Dark Ages’ old-skool hardcore-inspired “Amnesia Houz,” while UK grime producer Mr. Mitch gets simply ruffneck with horror house vocal play on “Badman Wheel.” Elsewhere, Mele, Sam Tiba, Sleepyhead, Strange VIP and ¡El Cucuy! go wild and drop it down low. Crank this one loud and mix it up.
Mixpak FM 039 is brought to you by Big Dope P, Parisian producer, DJ and head of the Moveltraxx camp. Known for joining the dots between Juke, Ghetto House, Jersey Club, Hip Hop, not to mention his latest collaboration with Kuduro star Puto Prata, (which you can grab for free right here), P can Break it Down, Pop it or bring the Southside anthems.
His Mixpak FM is an amped-up quick fire blend of straight energy, giving up some of the best that Moveltraxx has to offer, bringing Paul Johnson, Blackstreet, Estelle & Driicky Graham in a new light, and going in hard like Branko.
You can subscribe to Mixpak FM via iTunes, subscribe with an RSS reader from the Mixpak FM site or download this mix directly.
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Mixpak FM 039: Big Dope P
