Cadence Weapon – Separation Anxiety

Mixtape time now this time in the form of Canadian rap supreme Cadence Weapon doing a pay what you like scheme not unlike the most recent Girl Talk album and Radiohead before it, I may as well mention Nine Inch Nails too while I’m at it hey.

Grab it from here:

http://www.cadenceweaponmusic.com/

It’s a really clicky electro house kind of affair really with loads of tracks / remixes / appearances all cobbled together as big hip-hop meets dance crossover party.

Artists involved in the mix up are people like A-Track, Herve, The Cansecos, Final Fantasy, Sally Shapiro, Sinden, RJ2D and Roots Manuva to name but a few highlights.

I really enjoy the hip-house style cross over stuff he does not enough hip-hop is really dancey anymore so it’s a nice refreshing change to see Cadence Weapon jump on some of these beats. Saying that a lot of these tracks are more like electro house remixes than anything remotely hip-hop. His remix of Rise Up by The Cansecos is a good example of this with subtle old skool pumping drums and electro abuse in a 8-bit sort of space invaders way.

When he does jump on the mic though he does it in his usual geeky pumping style talking about hipster and partying. The electro banger produced by Sinden, Count and Herve is a snap shot of this party style. A real highlight is the track right after Pretty Girls Make Raves, it’s the Final Fantasy collaboration that I have posted about before on this very blog. The violin skills of Final Fantasy meets the party beats and rhymes of Cadence in fine style with a killer hook.

The mellow melancholic tones of Italo songstress Sally Shapiro is another highlight for me, I’m pretty much in love with her sound though and this adds nasty bit of dirt to the proceedings which kind of makes me like it more.

No mixtape would be worth it’s weight in hip-hop history if it didn’t have a mellow girly number about heartbreak and girls and Cadence dos this with The Morning After which is all about a girl leaving, and it has a sad orchestral vibe to it.

Kennedy Curse is a wicked track with a well nice guitar loop and one hell of a flow. He makes me laugh by comparing lots of rappers to Girls Aloud as well, pity its so damn short. It drops into his jacking remix of Kid Sister that loops and jacks it up house style again but with some nice verses from the girl her self on top of some Rock The Bells break samples and electro bleeps.

The acid demo of Shout Out Out Out Out is an undisputed high light for me, I’m a sucker for a 303 bleepy bloop fest and it works so well with the rap and 80’s Esq. synth chords.

Chinball Wizard is pretty good as well but I only think I like it as the mad little horn loops remind me of that track used in the Spaced clubbing episode, you know the one where Brian breaks his fear of dancing and the starwars club manuva’s dooo dooo do do dooo dooo do do!

House Music Medley is a low slung dirty fucker as well, it takes the party central original version into down right dark and sloppy territory and though to bassline and allsorts of stuff like that it’s a medley like Jive Bunny and the mixmasters.

This mixtape is a little hit and miss in places but there is more that enough here to keep you interested and justify the price (ahem). Hip-hop mixtapes are usually a little all over the place in quality so I’m not to surprised about this, but then Cadence Weapon isn’t really your average hip-hop mixtape maker is he.

But if you are after a nice party sound track at a price you can choose then you really aren’t going to go to wrong with Separation Anxiety.

Final Fantasy & Cadence Weapon

These two did a radio station in Canada a while back and I found out about it yesterday and was very interested to hear it. I love both artists and couldn’t wait to hear Owen Pallett’s violin and loop-based music with Cadence Weapon rapping on the top. It works perfectly and each artist taes centre stage for three of their own numbers featuring the other in turn. We get hip-hop beats and ghostly violins that work so damn well together. The track list follows then check it out for your self in the link bellow.

Cadence Weapon – Grim Fandango (with Final Fantasy)
Cadence Weapon – Sharks (with Final Fantasy)
Cadence Weapon – Mini TV’s (with Final Fantasy)
Final Fantasy – Paris 1919 (with Cadence Weapon)
Final Fantasy – This is the dream of win & regine (with Cadence Weapon)
Final Fantasy – What do you think will happen next (with Cadence Weapon)

Final Fantasy & Cadence Weapon

Cadence Weapon – Afterparty Babies

Cadence Weapon is what hip-hop is about for me, party jams full of fun and dancy beats and great wordplay. The flow is impeccable to say the least. I have been kind of neglecting hip-hop recently because not much of it has grabbed me since MF Doom. Cadence Weapon is a joy to listen to and the range of influence on Afterparty Babies is so diverse and well executed. It’s full of old school sounding electro party beats and hip-house tunes. Hip-house has been neglected for a long time and been cast off as some kind of joke but here it is done so well. Often in hip-hop the influences are to backward looking and retro, on Afterparty Babies Cadence Weapon makes the old sounds come alive with a modern shine. This could fit well into Warp records IDM style hip-hop section with Flying Lotus and Prefuse 73 quite easily. Cadence Weapon is only twenty-one and an ace young talent. This record is one of the best this year easily and it may even pip Why? And their ace album Alopecia just because Cadence Weapons flow is far better and less nasal and annoying. They are two very different artist though so not really much need to compare them. Maybe Wiley will do something with his record out this year but I’m not sure he will match Cadence Weapon’s effort. For a start cadence Weapons beats and flow is already more fun and original than Wiley’s smash hit euro disco anthem Wearing My Rolex. Curtain tunes remind me of Daft Punk gone hip-hop, which is something I would like to hear.

The stand out tracks for me are: the opener Do I Miss My friends? Which has a humming almost house aping tune, like a hip-hop version of Steve ‘Silk’ Hurly or other old school house legends. The theme to this album is of being an accident of some loving hence the title afterparty babies this is so beautifully honest and executed with such humour. I love that he dedicates it to all of the accidents out there and tells you to keep making mistakes.

In Search Of The Youth Crew is a banger of a tune a proper high-energy party time hip-house number. The baseline reminds me of Homework era Daft Punk tunes like Revolution 909. Like a summary house anthem rooted firmly in the hip-hop. Kool Keith has done similar before and I love his stuff too. The hook The Youth Crews Back is well catchy.

True Story has the phatest base kick that blows cold air at you through the speakers. It has a Baltimore beat style to it with the slow kick and skiting snares.

Limited Edition OJ Slammer is an intense bleepy number with the achingly cool 8-bit style synths that seem to be all over the place right now. Some supream scratching is on this one by DJ Weez-L. This tune is great.

Juliann Wilding gives a shout out to tech-house which I like lots. The hook as always is catchy and makes you want to dance. The tunes and lyrics really follow through the concept of the album right down to the finest detail. You feel like you are at a house party.

Real Estate is a anthem, sorry I mean ANTHEM! Live this tune kills. I made a deal today we selling real estate…

Message Matter is another banger with good scratching and flow. For some reason it reminds me of Wooha by Busta Rhymes even though it isn’t very alike at all, maybe it’s the string loop that does it.

Your Hair’s Not Clothes! Makes me laugh especially the title. It is a booty base number. I love his sense of humour and the way he puts things down its so honest and dead pan its so refreshing in hip-hop when someone isn’t so cocky it hurts.

Tattoos (and what they really feel like) is also a great laugh about how tattoos are like to get, its like a conversation over the subject in a rap form. I really like the bit about drawing the outline. This track makes me smile and reminds me of talking to mates about why they got tattoos and why. Cadence Weapon is very much like a friend chatting to you at a house party.

The New Face Of Fashion is a bit of a deconstruction of hipsters and how they try to hard. Its great fun and the beats are aggressive and fun all at once in that loopy disco house style.

Getting Dumb is the tune I was thinking of when I said Cadence Weapon is better the Wiley as this tune is a party banger with a big synth baseline in an electro style. The hook is brilliant again, which is followed by some scratching and ace drum machine work with some fat tom tom sounds like I have heard on electro tunes. It’s the most aggressive tune too.

House Music is maybe the best track on Afterparty Babies its certainly one of my favourites. Live it kills completely and you loose your self in the party spirit. The drums are so phat and jacking. This is also a pretty aggressive number but also a massive joy that would rock a lot of floors. This is the Hip-House anthem of the year so far by a long way.

Unsuccessful Club Nights has some ace scratching and a great house style loop that brings this track alive. Its about rocking a party even if know one is there. Warning if Cadence Weapon is on the decks he might start off with some Sesame Street, just to let you know.

The last track We Move Away was so good live when I saw them recently. It’s about moving away from where you live and the chorus is irresistible. The four four kick and 808 hand claps are so good too. The line I wonder why we move away has such a dynamic energy with the backing track its just perfect.

This whole album is going to get some serious repeats. I was only going to write about some of the tracks but it turns out there isn’t a bad one at all in Afterparty Babies. Hip-hop album of the year so far and I don’t see it getting budged any time soon. It’s also one of the albums of the year regardless of genre full stop.

I’ll house you, I’ll house you, I’ll house you, your in my hut now! I’ll house you, I’ll house you, I’ll house you, your in my hut now! I’ll house you, I’ll house you, I’ll house you, your in my hut now! I’ll house you, I’ll house you, I’ll house you, your in my hut now! I’ll house you, I’ll house you, I’ll house you, your in my hut now! I’ll house you, I’ll house you, I’ll house you, your in my hut now!

Nasty Fest IX Review: That Was Exciting!

Well where to start with Nasty Fest IX, maybe the beginning? Yeah go on then. We decided to go a little later to save our energy for the mad bands at the end, plus my sister wanted to treat me to pizza, brilliant. Oh yeah this is a music blog bear with me. After much searching the Faversham was found and just in time for Slow Club.

Slow Club where alright I wasn’t blow away by them at all. They were a bit lacklustre in their performance, plus there was a lot of people around the edges talking, which didn’t help with the quite numbers. I would maybe listen to them at home or at a different gig. Slow club eased us in with some mellow twee-indie-pop and they really like The Mae-Shi so that’s a bonus, and later the girl joined them for a acoustic intro to Run To Your Grave, which was really nice and which pretty much descended into madness after she finished, but more on that later.

Lord Auch impressed me live as appose to their myspace tunes, which didn’t do them many favours. The drummer had a brilliant swing to the rhythm, and a dirty low-slung base that added to the rock’n’roll grove. They didn’t sound unlike 80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster if they made music in the 50s and didn’t rock out as much. The vocals where both terrible and perfect for their sound in that it drew together all the elements well.

Unfortunatly Cutting Pink With Knives had cancelled, which was a shame as I was looking forward to seeing them.

A Place To Bury Strangers where on next in the main room so we headed over for some really loud and fuzzy rock. They are a bit like My Bloody Valentine but without the ace tunes. But their set was pretty enjoyable overall. They either played in complete darkness or with the strobe on for ages. They made some serious noise that kind of hurt your ears at points.

Dinosaur Pile-Up from the little I saw of them where pretty good. I couldn’t get very close because the smaller room was so packed for them. I’m sure they were really good from the crowed they pulled. The sound at the back was incredibly bad, so I gave in and went to the bar to get a drink and head to the front for Cadence Weapon in the main room.

Cadence Weapon really got the party started, I was so impressed with them. DJ Wheezel was amazing and the best DJ I have seen live since Cut Chemist. I was enjoying him so much I even started a Wheezel chant that people joined in with. Cadence Weapon brought back the acid house style IDM influenced party hip-hop with great style. They where the only group on the bill like this and it was so refreshing. His word play was magnificent and the flow was one of the best I have heard in recent times. There was a lot of hipsters throwing hip-hop shapes which was well funny, hell the Faversham is full to the brim with hipsters with perfect hair and dresses, bless them and their trendy ways. Any way back to Cadence Weapon their latest single House Music was one of the highlights of the evening for me. I was so impressed I had to go and get the album from Cadence Weapon himself so expect a review of that soon, we bonded a little bit over Acid House and the old Jungle Brothers lyrics he used to close his set. I’LL HOUSE YOU, I’LL HOUE YOU, I’LL HOUSE YOU, YOUR IN MY HUT NOW! I’LL HOUSE YOU, I’LL HOUE YOU, I’LL HOUSE YOU, YOUR IN MY HUT NOW! I’LL HOUSE YOU, I’LL HOUE YOU, I’LL HOUSE YOU, YOUR IN MY HUT NOW! I’LL HOUSE YOU, I’LL HOUE YOU, I’LL HOUSE YOU, YOUR IN MY HUT NOW!

Soiled Mattress & The Springs, as I predicted where a bit like a jazz/rock group playing seaside music, this was confirmed by the actual real beach balls flying about for their set. I was still on a high from the Cadence Weapon set so had a little boogie to them. Some of the tunes had a good grove to them and where enjoyable, other parts of tunes didn’t quite do it for me mind.

No Age: now I was so excited about seeing them I was like a giddy school child. They had some sound issues with the microphone during the first song, but that was still awesome. They played the tracks perfectly from their albums, completely spot on. The mentioned that the first person to start crowd surfing would get a free No Age T-shirt, this started a lot of mayhem. There were people in the air and a mosh-pit ensued. I got right into this madness and each song after the pit started was perfect for it too. No Age’s set seemed short and sweet but I was so involved it could have been quite long. I would love to see them again as apparently they have been better in previous shows recently. I can’t wait to find out how true that is.

We all decided to wait around for The Mae-Shi and chill out after the No Age craziness. We would need our energy for ‘the most fun band in all the land’ as I like to call them.

The Mae-Shi where on really good form and I’m pretty sure they remembered us from the York gig recently in which we went crazy for them. The crowd was a lot bigger as expected at Nasty Fest so they didn’t do as much in the audience. They still came in for some shouting and to throw the sheet over the top of everyone for Leech and Locus. They played a good load of old stuff, which was really good to hear. They seemed to be more rock and hardcore this time, I liked that. To chill out the crowd the Slow Club girl came on to play her cover version of Run to Your Grave acoustically, at least I’m pretty sure it was that girl. When she finished all hell broke loose as The Mae-Shi went into their version of the tune, which is kind of like their most well known and maybe their catchiest tune. My friend tapped me on the shoulder and said lets get on the stage, so we headed up there and others where encouraged to by the band. The stage filled with people and the band played the rest of the set with us up there singing along and having a laugh, it was brilliant. I just hope it didn’t spoil the enjoyment for others not willing to stage invade. As always The Mae-Shi where so sweet and friendly at the end of their set with high-fives and hand shakes. I love The Mae-Shi such a great live band, buy the albums see the shows you wont be disappointed.

Yeasayer where the last on the bill and it was so nice to have a band that weren’t crazy and you could just listen to and relax. Their African sounding psychedelic indie pop was so very nice. They didn’t blow me away but I enjoyed it ever so much. The tracks 2080 was stunning but the highlight by far was when Cadence Weapon joined the band for a free style on rising Sun, I think that’s what it was called, I haven’t got the album as yet. This was the end of the night for me, we decided to head home.

Overall Nasty Fest IX was brilliant I think you can guess which bands where the best for me. Cadence Weapon, No Age, The Mae-Shi really stood out big time. The Faversham is ok as a venue the sound was pretty good even with some technical hitches. It was full to the brim of posing hipsters mind, which usually brings the mood down a bit, but for the people at the front the passion wasn’t lost. I’m a little disappointed I couldn’t see all of the bands but at least I gave them so props on my preview the other day, at a festival you are never going to see everyone you want, all sorts get in the way of that. Great stuff, enjoyable night, even the cancellation of my train home and the freaking wait for a replacement bus couldn’t put much of a dampener on the night.


P.S. I have no idea what picture to use so why not have somthing cute, this is the internet after all.

P.P.S. DiS stuck up some photes of Nasty Fest IX go and chek them out here.