Thursday, September 23

Dead As Digital / The Road Goes Ever On / Stadiums and Shrines [Collaborations Cassette]

Collaborations are always something interesting to listen to; the mash up two or more different artists with their own distinct taste and style of music and seeing what the end result is brings on a lot of excitement and anticipation. Case in point with this new cassette release put out also by a collaboration of music bloggers: Dead As Digital, The Road Goes Ever On and Stadiums & Shrines. The concept behind the project was to bring both bloggers and musicians together to make some music and put it out for the world to listen to and enjoy; its a beautiful thing really. The artists featured on this tape represent a lot of the names that have been going around the blogosphere over this last year in the DIY/electronic genres and to be honest, I was quite impressed with this lineup (track list below).

After giving the compilation a listen to three songs really stuck out from the rest. I don't know weather it was my appreciation for Hip Hop but the track "Breaking" caught my ear; all credit due to Star Slinger's tight production and Emay's incredible rhyme schemes and flow. And as an added bonus, Blackbird Blackbird supports with backup vocals and getting in his own verse. Collectively they go by the name Seeing Suge.

The second was performed by one of my favorite new artists, Holy Spirits who collaborated with Massachusetts' Gem Club. The track is another gorgeous layering of vocal harmonies and sound that give a feeling of absolute bliss; the violin was a nice added touch. The third I'll give mention to is the track that wrapped up this project. Another Star Slinger production this time featuring Texas' Pandit who used a sample of the song by Atlantic Starr with "Second To None", which could also be found on the Madlib / MF DOOM collaboration Madvillainy. Star Slinger produces his own beat for the sample with Pandit adding such ambient vocals that the song would make one want to cool out except for a little somethin' else going on in the track (just don't bump this at work) that scratches that idea.

Even though I mentioned only three tracks on the compilation, there are many more worth checking out. This project not only is loaded with good music but it brought the whole DIY and blogging communities together. It seems like everyone is getting behind this project and I hope that this will bring on more to come in the future. The tape can be picked up here

Track List

Side A
1. Top Girls and Guerre – Melt
2. Teen Daze and Jaded Hipster Choir – Low Glow
3. Weed and Foxes In Fiction – Teenage Dream
4. Closed Cassette and Top Girls – For Now
5. Ghost Animal and Rachel Levy – We Don’t Care
6. Ghost Houses – Ritual

Side B
7. Holy Spirits and Gem Club – Fingertips
8. Seeing Suge (Star Slinger, Emay and Blackbird Blackbird) – Breaking
9. Pepepiano and Warm Waves – Air
10. Gay Boiz (Kumon Plaza and Rachel Levy) – High Level Alchemy
11. Star Slinger and Pandit – Self Love


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