Case in point: Minneapolis vocalist and songwriter K.Raydio. Her debut EP, the entirely Mantis-produced Significant (Other) dropped yesterday amidst minimal fanfare, but still netted hundreds of plays and downloads off of Facebook buzz alone. The record is a fresh blend of Raydio’s stunning voice and Mantis’ crisp, engaging beats, featuring some solid guest appearances from J.Dante and Phonetic ONE.
All of this is leading up to the release of Cities Without Houses — the long-awaited spiritual successor to Mantis’ classic original album. You can catch a preview by checking out tracks 5 and 7 on Significant (Other):
Ladies and gentlemen, mammals and mutants, we’d like to introduce one of our 2010 Draft Picks: the Las Vegas rap terrorist, Devastate. Before we drop his debut on World Around, the Zero EP, we rented out a boardroom at the Mandalay Bay for a signing ceremony and recorded interview.
Dr. Quandary: What are the influences who have shaped your vision, your music, your weltanschauung?
Devastate: Let’s start this bad boy off with a cliche…. Every day life. In this beautiful, macabre and entertaining world, its damn near impossible to not be influenced one way or another. I don’t think its about what influences my music though, I think its more about what adds fuel to that metaphorical fire.
These ideas are going to be thought, these emotions are going to be felt, right? Right. The interesting part is what grabs the abstract, molds it and then hammers it into something tangible.
Days in front of the radio got my feet wet. The desire to mimick what i was hearing put me on the diving board. The fact that my parents loathed my efforts, well… Hell, that gave me the balls to front flip into this metaphorical pool.
Hundreds of human beings have inspired me. Musicians, philosophers, authors, mythical heros and friends. They’ve all inspired me to take certain steps. They all gave me the tools to grow, but the primary goal is to feel the joy that kind in front of the radio was drenched in ...
First of all, if you’ve never heard the 5 O’Clock Shadowboxers, take some time out to fix that today. Zilla Rocca is the man behind the mic on that project, and he’s teamed up with World Around for some new projects. We met up at a dive bar in Quebec City for this introductory interview…
Thirtyseven: What are the influences that have brought you to where you are today?
Zilla Rocca: I got caught up in ‘08-‘09 with people I no longer work with in trying to be something that I wasn’t, namely to land a nice plushy Major Label Rap Contract. At the same time, I was doing Shadowboxers, which became the biggest thing I’d ever done. But the people I was dealing with didn’t like it, didn’t understand it, and frankly became resentful and petty when it proved to be more successful than any of their work. But I was a “team” player and enjoyed their stuff, so I was gung-ho about sleeping with the devil because we were “a squad”. I compromised myself, something I swore I’d never do.
Now that I no longer deal with them, I’ve realized that the people I respect and enjoy the most don’t do things conventionally. They don’t buy into the norms of What You Must Do As An Artist in 2010. El-P has never played it safe; his music is raw, he stands behind it, it’s got ...
Reclusive UK beatsmith s. maharba has been having an amazingly good year. Fresh off selling out multiple pressings of his vinyl debut, S/T, and a spotlight on BBC Radio (!!!) — now he’s been featured on the internationally famous beats showcase BTS Radio.
Obviously, this is awesome music and I don’t need to sell you on it…so click the image below to check it out:
First up, the Madison heavyweight hip hop live band dumate has been having an amazing year, and to celebrate, they’re offering their full length album, We Have the Technology, for free through Bandcamp. Click here to get yours. This is a limited time offer deal.
The dumate team has been very, very busy this year…especially MPC player / producer Man Mantis. He’s dropped an experimentally awesome EP’s with J. Dante, Whole New World, and a classic-flavored EP with dumate emcee DLO titled The IceMantis EP, which has been getting great reviews.
I mean, really great reviews. The Onion’s A/V Club gave it an “A” rating, concluding that the dumate crew was “grotesquely underrated on both a local and national scale.” Amen.
Up next, Man Mantis is working on an instrumental release, Cities Without Houses. Based on what I’ve heard, I think it’s going to make some serious noise for him…stay tuned.
We’ve got a lot of extremely dope producers on the World Around roster.
This year has seen incredible releases from nearly all of them. First we dropped Naturetone’s debut, Nihon, an ambitious and exotic tribute to the music and culture of Japan. Naturetone was fortunate enough to make a pilgrimage there this year…and he got married this year, too!
Then came Dr. Quandary’s magnum opus, Beyond All Spheres of Force and Matter. It’s been a trip watching this release ripple through Teh Internets — we see a ...
Fresh out of a court-mandated rehab vacation, Humpasaur Jones has been sleeping in the studio again. The first new release is the “2010 Anthembanger”, which we’ve built into a remix contest. If you’re not the producer type, great news: there’s already 3 remixes done, courtesy of Louis Mackey, Naturetone, and our newest addition to the roster, Custom. (More on him soon.)
The accapella file is the last track and the tempo is precisely 99 BPM. The deadline for the Contest contest is August 29th, 2010. (Because it’s a Sunday…and because we want to post the winners on September 1st.) All submissions go to: powerweirdo at gmail dot com.
Available exclusively in conjunction with our friends over at Potholes In My Blog, World Around Records presents the first installment in Louis Mackey‘s new beat tape series, Destroyer of All Things. This tidy collection of seven beats is a perfect way to familiarize yourself with with this poet-cum-producer’s signature blend of psychedelic soul and hard-hitting, barbarous breaks.
World Around listeners were first introduced to smooth-talking SeniorClassman J. Dante when he cranked out a whirlwind EP with our resident boom-bap specialist Man Mantis; the result, the Whole New World EP
, was an instant classic, and earned the duo a lot of accolades in the blogosphere.
Dante has big plans, and we’ve already received word that the Whole New World LP is in the works for 2010. Meanwhile, the ever-hungry rapper keeps breaking new ground and concept-to-fruition speed records. This time around he linked with his cousin, producer and vocalist DawnsSon, for the Destiny EP. It’s a bit of a departure from his laid-back and classic style, featuring heavy electro influences and autotuned choruses alongside Dante’s signature delivery, but it’s dope and different nonetheless.
Here at World Around, we’ve been fans of Witness since his outstanding Ever Since EP, way back in 2005. After that, he stepped up his game ferociously with the Evermore EP (Buy it here) and dropped a collaboration with AZ producer Mobb Robb named .45 Sweetheart.
Whatever he’s working on now, it’s crazy. Nobody knows if this collaboration will grow into something bigger, but for now — enjoy this for what it is. An exceptionally dope song.
Dr. Quandary - Beyond All Spheres of Force and Matter
May 23, 2010
Releasing this project is a huge milestone for World Around Records. Beyond All Spheres of Force and Matter is a vision that Dr. Quandary had back when we first started World Around, and I’ve listened to this album evolve for several years now.
I thought what I was hearing back then was dope, but Quan had a very specific vision and he kept pushing himself until he achieved it. Clearly, he was going for one of the most epic, spaced-out, and cinematic instrumental hip hop albums humanly possible, because that’s pretty much what happened.
After years of building the huge, intricate percussion and the rich layers of samples, Dr. Quandary turned to synthesizers to flesh out his vision even further. For several of the tracks here, he’s also worked with multi-instrumentalist mastermind Matt Scott who laid down (fretless) live bass to bring the final mix together. The result is something timeless, and the sci-fi cover painting by Federico Piatti compliments the project perfectly.
Yes, there will be posters. And vinyl.
For now, though, we’ve got it up on Bandcamp for $5. You can of course listen to the entire thing, for free, all day at work. We encourage that sort of thing. As a “thank you” for helping us to fund our operations, Dr. Quandary is including a bonus EP, Semuta, with every Bandcamp purchase.
