Throwback Thursdays #17: General Degree – Traffic Blocking

We were wading through the never ending deluge of fan mail the we receive here on a daily basis (wink), and came across one letter from our strong Caribbean fanbase, which told us off, and rightly so, for the lack of dancehall posts on the blog thus far. You’ve got to remember your roots goddammit.

This week’s Throwback Thursdays seemed the perfect time to rectify that situation, grave as it is. You just can’t beat a bit of dancehall from time to time, and there’s no better music for getting people going in a rave. ‘Traffic Blocking’ by General Degree was released in the late 1990s, but still sounds as fresh as ever today. Serious ting!

BONUS: The full release of the ‘Filthy Riddim’. For those who know slightly less than us about how dancehall releases work, the instrumental is produced, and is called a Riddim. Various vocalists record their own versions over the instrumental, and these are all released together, though the skill of the vocalists shines through in differentiating their version from the others.

Boxfresh: Twwth – Thousand Million EP

OK this release is ridiculous. It’s all about Finland for this one, with Twwth (formerly Teeth) coming from Helsinki. The label in question is Signal Life, which is run alongside Twwth by fellow Finn Desto, a long-time Scandanvian Dubstep purveyor who has recently turned his attention towards more Juke oriented matters in his own productions. The label on the other hand, has always been gloriously all over the place, with the previous release being a four track EP with one track each from Desto, Las, Kowton, and a pre-op Teeth, who incidentally provided that EP’s standout track.

On his own full EP, he’s produced the goods again. Clearly, label proximity to Kowton has rubbed off on Twwth, and on EP opener ‘Naomi XX’, he produces the sort of monstrous claps that haven’t been heard since Kowton’s remix of Untold’s ‘Stop What You’re Doing’.

The following tracks are nearly as nuts, and while we’re not going to go through a track-by-track rundown for reasons we’ve explained in the past, be safe in the knowledge that you will not be disappointed with a single track on this EP. Helsinki represent.

Twwth on soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/teethmattip

Buy the EP (you’ll have to do this to hear ‘Lined Dot’, which he’s not uploaded to his soundcloud for some reason): http://www.beatport.com/release/thousand-million-ep/1230084

Boxfresh: Mumdance – It’s Peak

After something of a hot streak around 2010 – 2011, with releases on Diplo’s Mad Decent label and grime label No Hats No Hoods, Mumdance was pretty quiet for a couple of years. About half a year ago he burst back on to our assorted feeds, and since then, has rarely been off them. A lot of his work this time round has been with upcoming grime producer Logos, but admittedly, for us, this wave of Mumdance hype has been mostly that – hype. The sounds that he and Logos have produced together have rarely sounded like complete tracks, with rhythms so off-kilter that  there was hardly a steady beat for the listener to latch on to.

We’ve only posted the preview of ‘In Reverse’ because we didn’t want to subject you beautiful readers to the whole track. Likewise with ‘Legion’ – such a simple track, and such obvious presets.

Admittedly, it’s entirely likely that Mumdance and Logos intended all of this entirely, being experienced producers. But for us, while experimentalism is a valid and worthwhile ideal to hold dear, it isn’t enough by itself to create music that passes any sort of quality test. Probably the best track to come from the duo is ‘Wut It Do’.

‘It’s Peak’ therefore comes at just the right time – right before we were about to stop paying interest to anything Mumdance did. It’s labelled as Techno on soundcloud, and indeed, is very percussion heavy. It’s also pretty weird sounding, so you know, I guess he can say it’s still experimental. But unlike his other recent tracks, we can totally imagine it going off in a rave, and that’s enough for it to get our seal of approval.

BONUS: Jammer – 10 Man Roll ft. Boy Better Know (produced by Mumdance)

Slept On Sundays #8: Demain – Everwhere EP

The aim of Slept On Sundays, as we’ve said before, is to highlight recent tunes that might have slipped under your radar, but are still very relevant. That description definitely fits the ‘Everywhere EP’ by relative unknown entity, Demain, to the extent that we’re not sure anyone except us has heard the EP. Don’t get us wrong though, we’re not saying anything about the quality of the content, just musing on the fickle nature of musical fashion trends. This can be seen in practice with the streams we can offer you – above is the promotional EP preview from Fentplates, while full track streams uploaded by anyone other than the producer himself were non-existent, except with regard to the title track (see below).

The ‘Everywhere EP’ was released only 4 months ago, in the middle of September 2013 on long-time deep dubstep purveyors, Fent Plates. It’s Demain’s first release proper, though he has previous with Fent Plates, having remixed a Dfaultuzer track for them in mid 2012. Despite this, Demain comes correctly, with a fully formed sound that would suggest he’d been releasing for years.

Title track ‘Everywhere’ is a definite highlight, exemplifying Demain’s ability to perfectly walk the line between a creating a chilled vibe and keeping a track’s momentum going. Vocals come from Capucine, floating above the track, words only half-formed, and all the more beguiling for it.

Meanwhile, ‘Deep Cover’ does what it says on the tin and goes in deep, with a casual shuffle that meanders on at around 120bpm, as the track subtly builds, never rushed in its development but always certain of it.

As we said, these two tracks are the only ones available to stream fully online, so if you want to hear the full tracks, then you can download the EP here (also the only way to hear J-One’s standout remix of the title track): http://www.junodownload.com/products/demain-everywhere/2276079-02/

Throwback Thursdays #16: Fleetwood Mac – Rumours

This week, we’re switching up Throwback Thursdays just a little bit. We’re traveling back in time to 1976, which is very likely the oldest piece of music to have featured on the blog so far. Likewise, change from the norm comes from that fact that we’re moving into the dreaded realm of… DUN DUN DUNNNNN… guitar based music. While we tend to eschew all that nasty acoustic business in favour of all sorts of assorted electronic blips and beats here at Structure Vs Agency, we’re not going to deny  music with clear pedigree. Who are we to deny one of the most critically lauded albums ever.

Considering how much love ‘Rumours’ has gotten over the years, at this point it seems a bit big headed to assume that this little blog could add anything valuable to the discourse surrounding the album, either positive or negative. And that either says something interesting about the way that cultural artifacts get canonised and mythicised, or it says that ‘Rumours’ is indeed objectively perfect. Either way, we’re not gonna say much more.

Structure Vs Agency choice picks: ‘Go Your Own Way’, ‘ Dreams’, ‘Never Going Back Again’ and ‘I Don’t Want To Know’

Boxfresh: Cutta Chase & Fredo – The Fifth Element LP

Released on the stroke of the New Year, Cutta Chase & Fredo’s heavily space-themed collaborative album is the perfect piece of listening material to launch you into the future, as it’s filled with all kinds of positivity and deep musings. Immediately you know they’re on our level. But that’s all we’re going to tell you about it for now – for a full review by this blog’s glorious and shadowy founder, head over to the good people at Wordplay Magazine for a full review. Suffice it to say that Cutta Chase & Fredo have already put in a strong contender for album of the year.

To download, head over to https://cuttaxchase.bandcamp.com/album/cutta-chase-fredo-the-fifth-element-lp

BONUSES: 1 track from each featuring artist on the EP, except for the guy Smoovth, we don’t know him.

Verb T – Showbitchness

Frankie Stew (part of Concept of Thought)

Slept On Sundays #7: Gatekeeper – Let Us In

Gatekeeper is pretty much the perfect candidate for a Slept On Sundays feature, being one of those top quality artists who sticks infuriatingly to the ‘quality not quantity’ school of music production. Despite having releases on some of the most renowned labels in the Dubstep scene, such as Shakleton’s Skull Disco label and Peverelist’s Punch Drunk imprint, he’s never really gained the level of individual praise that other artists releasing on these labels have.

Listen to ‘Let Us In’, and it’s hard to understand why. The intro starts off sparse and off beat, making it tricky to mix, but this allows suspense to be maintained while the tune builds perfectly until it explodes at the first drop. We hate those dubstep snobs who go on about subs the whole time, but you really do need a sub-woofer to fully appreciate this track, as the otherwise indecipherable bass line is the locus of the track’s rhythmic momentum. Oh yeah we just went deep on you motherfuckers, deal with it. Anyway, nuff said about all of that, just kick back, get some pina coladas on the go and appreciate the track.

Throwback Thursdays #15: OutKast – Git Up, Git Out ft. Cee-Lo

What with the recent news of OutKast’s imminent reunion, it seemed an appropriate time to give the duo some love. Here’s hoping that the Coachella slot and accompanying reunion tour leads to some new music – even better, some high quality new music. It would be a pity for Idlewild to be the finishing statement of musical intent for the group.

So we’re all agreed, the time is ripe for some OutKast appreciation. We’ve gone for ‘Git Up, Git Out’ from 1994’s ‘Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik’ for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it features Cee-Lo on the first verse in one of his finest rapping performances. Secondly, the  beat, jheeeez (matched in quality on ‘Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik’ only by ‘Ain’t No Thang’). Finally, today’s Throwback Thursdays has an added significance, what with it being the new year and all that. We don’t know about you guys, but it seems to get harder and harder each year to kick your life back into gear after the Christmas and New Year’s debauchery/relaxation. The song’s obvious message has a blunt force because  they keep smashing you over the head with it, but in this instance, the blatant message comes across as relatable and uplifting rather than corny and contrived.

So this is our gift to you readers, a collective kick up the backside for us and you to achieve what you want to this year. Fuck OutKast though, we’re taking all the credit.

BONUS: Cee-Lo goes in deep. We’re all over this ‘meaning of life’ shit today. Woah.

Boxfresh: Future Brown – World’s Mine ft. Prince Rapid, Dirty Danger, Roachee

We originally had this post planned for last year, but you know how it is, Christmas and all that has a way of just fucking up all your regular shit… in a good way. We’re back now though, with plenty of spine-tingling plans lined up, so don’t worry if you only got coal for Christmas. But before all that, let’s just dive back into the nitty gritty, the daily grind, of good quality, new music – the raw material that provides the fuel for this blog and many a continued miserable existence.

Considering it’s the New Year and all, blogs traditionally post their hot tips for the year, who’s gonna turn heads, and so on. We’re no different, and although we heard about Future Brown last year, they’ve only made two tracks available on their soundcloud, and aside from that, there’s only a few pieces of promo smattered around here and there. That makes 2014 theirs for the taking, and take it we hope they will .

Hold up a fucking sec, we hear you shout, tell us something about them for christ’s sake. Fair enough. Future Brown is production supergroup, made up of Fatima Al Qadiri (straight up don, releases on Night Slug’s sister label, Fade To Mind), Lit City Trax’s J-Cush (released Visionist’s most recent EP), and both members of Fade To Mind associates Nguzunguzu, Daniel Pineda and Asma Maroof.

‘World’s Mine’ features Ruff Sqwad members Dirty Danger and Prince Rapid, alongside Roachee, former Roll Deep member, and hopefully it’s a statement of intent that backs up our high hopes for them. The collage of talent flying in from all angles gels together naturally, both on the production and vocal front. It’s good to see that while Future Brown are definitely part of and will benefit from the current resurgence of instrumental grime (and all the new wave experimentalism that comes with it), they’re aware of grime’s roots, and the benefits of getting a some shit-hot MCs to spit fire on a beat. Expect to hear more from them, as we post whatever they put out.

BONUS: Future Brown make a valiant effort to salvage Trap music with ‘Wanna Party ft. Tink’