Chucklez - Singles, Unreleased, & Features

Ambient Abstractions artist and half of The Sideshow Chucklez recently dropped a mixtape featuring numerous collabs and singles w/ Malakai Beats and guest spots from the Ambient crew. I highly recommend checking this out, as a standalone album this mixtape serves as an awesome introduction to the musical genius that is Chucklez.

JDirty - Wash Your Hands feat. Mac Lethal and Muck Sticky prod. Malakai Beats

A little over a month ago (an indication I need to update this blog more regularly) the good homie JDirty released a bomb new album entitled Employees Must Wash Hands Before Returning To Work, featuring special guest emcees Mac Lethal, Muck Stucky, Axe Murder Boyz, Hypnautic, Innerstate Ike Super Smash Bros, EZ & Adj., & Big Trox. The music video for the track "Wash Your Hands," produced by Malakai Beats & feat. Mac Lethal and Muck Sticky was released a short while later. The entire album is clean (no pun intended) and I would definitely recommend copping it either digitally or in physical form from the ScrubHopShop.com website. The story behind the beat is interesting: Dirty hit me up about collabing at a time when everything happening w/ Ambient Abstractions releases coming out was in full gear so I really had to dig through the archives to find something which would work for the song as all my current material was more or less tapped. I knew it had to allow the artists to shine while also having a certain vibe, so I found this beat I made years ago and added some extra elements to it to bring in a certain amount of spontaneity. It went through a few incarnations before I sent Dirty the final track and the rest is history. JDirty is one is the dopest independent artists doing it today and an awesome cat to work with. I would undeniably recommend getting up on his previous releases.

The Sideshow - InZombiA

The Sideshow recently unveiled their debut album InZombiA, featuring a barrage of awesome new tracks in a variety of different styles. The Sideshow is composed of both Magus The Great and Chucklez, and the album features guests including Reaper Descending on vocals, Freddy Grimes, Daniel Dahmer, J Dirty, Still DOE, Bo Young, Words Babylon, & Miss Psycho Sideshow. Production features Magus The Great, Malakai Beats, & White Recluse. All in all, this is a dope album, definitely worth checking out and a prelude for things to come. As mentioned the style of the production combined with the lyrical density/vocal delivery constantly shift throughout the album. It's a rare thing to have an album where every song sounds unique and yet still works together with every other song. If this record is a sign of what Ambient Abstractions was able to pull off in 2012, chances are 2013 is going to be a year to look forward to.

Zero Caige - Inferno

Recently the homie Zero Caige unveiled his second album, an extended EP entitled Inferno featuring production by malakai beats, Excalibur and Zero. Guest emcees include Words Babylon, Still Doe, Magus the Great, Lyriscologist, White Recluse, & Jon Kramer.

PEEP IT!

Salt Lake City Digs

Digging @ ReSpin Records

Over the weekend I took a trip to Salt Lake City to visit the Guitar Center up there for some new monitors (more on that later because they're dope) and ended up finding myself spending a few hours at Respin Records on South Redwood, Taylorsville. Other than Randy's, I can definitely see myself coming back here.

When you walk in you immediately realize there's two separate rooms. In the back they sell used tables and have several shelves containing alphabetical ordering and newly appraised records. First thing I started on was the soundtrack section, which actually had more items than Randy's. The front room was divided up into primarily 4 or 5 sections: Jazz/Big Band, Children's, Soundtracks, Classical, etc., but the main bulk of material was actually miscellaneous boxes. Thousands of records stacked in boxes. What was truly amazing was that although the shelves were bursting with vinyl there were actually boxes stacked waiting to be put onto the shelves. Some of the boxes were labeled "please don't go through" obviously because they all haven't been appraised yet. I was totally tempted to start going through the boxes that didn't have that warning but I was spending so much time sifting through the aisle bins it wouldn't have really made much of a difference.

The majority of records in the front room were basically what you would expect, with gems hidden in between Lawrence Welk, but an entire side of the store was all dollar joints. I was literally too overwhelmed to properly think straight. Primarily I was interested in finding some French and Italian soundtracks on this particular dig, but ended up finding a lot of good Leo Kottke records and loads of other stuff. The people working there were all super cool, and I was treated to some Run DMC as I dug through the crates. What was super trippy was that I didn't even know this place existed, despite it being RIGHT NEXT DOOR to Guitar Center. Later on in the day while hitting up Randy's I overheard people talking about ReSpin and giving them high reviews. From what I could gather ReSpin acquires a LOT of really good records, and from my own personal experience I could readily validate that claim. This is truly a store that does it right, and one in which you could easily get lost in. If you're a serious digger be prepared to spend at least 3-4 hours. Unfortunately I was on limited time and didn't even touch the Jazz section. Next time...

Ambient Abstractions - Audio Terrorism Vol. 2

Also recently dropped was the second installment of the hugely successful free mixtape series Audio Terrorism, featuring tracks from the entire Ambient Abstractions roster: Magus the Great, Words Babylon, Still DOE, Chucklez, White Recluse & Tha Relapz Krew, as well as guest spots from T.R.E.E.S. Productions, Schol@r, & Suzpekt Phade and Ghost of RSR. The album weighs in at 16 tracks of pure fire. Production includes joints from Malakai beats, Excalibur, Words Babylon, White Recluse, Shaun Cass & More.

PEEP IT!

Still DOE - Chill Mode

With all the craziness and dope releases coming out of Ambient Abstractions lately, I completely forgot to make a blog entry about this when it first came out. The homie Still DOE recently dropped his solo record Chill Mode produced entirely by Malakai Beats. The album is 10 tracks and features the likes of Magus the Great, Chucklez, Daniel Dahmer, & Words Babylon. Magus contributes to the mixing and mastering, and the beats span from several years containing a mix of compositions and samples. Overall the album is solid and definitely work copping, a huge evolution in Still Doe's music and a prelude for things to come.

Words Babylon - I Probably Should've

This past week Ambient Abstractions put out Words Babylon's second album release I PROBABLY SHOULD'VE... feat. Malakai Beats production. The album is a stylistic and thematic departure from his previous release For Lack of Better Words but is nonetheless solid track-for-track and very worth checking out.

For a feature interview with the man behind the madness:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=413439835356621&set=a.413436832023588.101890.180634478637159&type=1&theater

Still here :)

It's been MAD LONG since I've updated this blog, which seems to be a recurring theme here. Anyway, after last summer I basically laid low for a while and quietly worked on several different projects, but overall feeling like I was on a kind of hiatus (mostly from clearing up a bunch of older beats). The entire year of 2011 has actually been ultra busy for the entire crew at Ambient Abstractions, which included live shows, promotion, music videos, CD releases, etc. Quality material such as the Words Babylon debut LP For Lack of Better Words feat. Malakai Beats (track 13, "Mankind Vanish" feat. Illuminati), the debut Record Breakers album Sex, Drugs, & Rap 'N Roll featuring many tracks produced by Malakai Beats (tracks 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, & 16), various singles such as "How I Ride" feat. Chucklez & Magus the Great, not to mention the upcoming Mole People project that encompasses the entire AA clique plus affiliates and special surprise guest emcees. About 10 beats are done, and they sound epic. So far the only sneak peek has been the recently released Mole People trailer, so be on the lookout for that:

I want to keep this blog piece at least maintained on an every-other-month basis, lots of new record finds, new digs coming up, etc. A lot more thought and content will be phased in as well. In general this was supposed to be sporadic anyway, so hopefully any kind of viewership I get here will be happy with the kind of stuff I cover. Keep your head tuned.