Review>>Top Ranking: A Diplo Dub (with Santogold)

If you know anything about Diplo, you would know that he’s pretty much crazy. His eclectic mixtape-making style is chaos at its best and madness anyways every other time. Diplo’s new project with Santogold, The Top Ranking Mixtape, is just that, the top ranking mixtape on the net right now, and I know I’m a little late to the party (I’ve had it for nearly two weeks now, and knew about it before that), but it’s about time I said some words about it. Better late than never, eh?

>>Read the rest of the review and download the mixtape

Poppa Was a Rolling Stone Mixtape

I was real reluctant to download this, and it’s been on my radar for a while, at least a couple of weeks.  Biggie vs. The Rolling Stones??  The idea was so far out there that I wouldn’t have even predicted it as a bad idea.  It’s just one of those things.  I love pizza, and I love PB&J, but I would never mix em up, you know?  Scary stuff.  It’s the same case.  Both the Stones and B.I.G. are incredible artists in their own field, but would it be good together?  Not to mention there’s the issue of the mixtape producers.  I could download it and it would just be a lot of laser sounds with little girls sayin’ “DJ CHRIS” every ten fucking seconds.  Well, I finally downloaded it last night…and I’m glad I did.  This shit is ill.

Before you listen to it, the idea seems a novelty, hardly something to take seriously, but when it’s playing, you can really see/hear the idea.  Some of the mixups are totally amazing, too.  My favorite track right now, for example, is “Niggas Paint it Black” (Biggie’s “Niggas Bleed” vs. “Stones’ Paint it Black”).  Just wait till you hear the “Juicy” vs. “She’s a Rainbow” mixup, it’ll put a smile on your face.  Granted, theres some of that mixtape stuff, sem-irritating intros and voiceovers, but its all in moderation, and I’m glad the producers stepped aside to showcase the samples.  Whether or not you admit to being a hipster, you’re gonna have a hard time not rockin’ (and rollin’) to this at your next party (or after-party).

Download Mixtape Here courtesy of The Vibe Source

–Frosty Fresh

MachineDrum and Theophilus London

During my daily surf-fest around the internet, perusing many a MySpace Music pages and the like, I found this dude, MachineDrum, out of Brooklyn, who really blew my mind. His name had already come up a few times in the previous week, whether it was on Mofomatronix’s Top Friends or somewhere else. Anyway, I finally clicked through and loved what I heard. Check out “Laugh and Cry” and MachineDrum’s remix of Cassie’s single “Me and U” remix especially.

MachineDrum’s MySpace

I’m a sucker for beat-making/deejaying videos, too, having dabbled in electronic music for a few years myself. So when I saw this on MachineDrum’s MySpace page, I flipped out. The things you can do with M-Audio’s Axiom 25 and Trigger Finger, plus your third party Digital Audio Workstation (I personally prefer Ableton Live), can be astounding.  That’s actually pretty close to my setup, so this is a lot of fun to watch.  Give this a little time.  It’s a long video at 8 minutes, but like a skilled musician of any kind, Machine Drum allows composition to add to the artwork.  He lets the beat build and breathe.  There are parts where you can nod your head to the beat, there are banger moments, and even ambience-esque lulls in the tempo.  It’s a very skilled integration of many types of electronic music.

Make a Muxtape

Yes, I spelled that correctly.  Muxtape is a real cool website where you can upload up to 12 of your favorite songs to share with your friends, or, if you don’t have friends, you can share it with me.  A few features make this pretty fresh.  Using sliders you can customize a colored bar that heads your mixtape or appears in the random active mixtape array on the main page.  I made one as an example, filled with some of my summer favs, which you can check out here

–Frosty Fresh