Nicolay
I'm sure a good number of scissorkick readers are familiar with 2004's finest hip-hop record, The Foreign Exchange's brilliant Connected. Today's post salutes that record's producer of the moment, Nicolay who is currently making the most solid beats this side of Kanye West's mixing board bomb squad. Look, if you can name a better producer currently making beats as listenable, as reverent and as malleable to acapellas as Nicolay, I am on it with an open wallet and a ready wrist. Truth be told, overground cats like Kanye, Just Blaze, Jay Dee and underground alchemist like Blockhead, Paris Zax, etc. are some of my favorite producers and even their stuff doesn't hit me as hard as Nicolay's. I guess it's the humility he seems to exude from his reworking of samples and his obvious love of instrumentals. His sound -- hyperbole warning!! -- puts him at the forefront of producers to follow Pete Rock who is the undisputed champion of introspective, soulful yet dance floor friendly cuts. His new City Lights Volume 1.5 on BBE sounds and feels a lot like the Petestrumentals record released in 2001. Musical, developing loops that stand on equal ground as forefront instrumentals or background accompaniement. Please, do not sleep on Nicolay. You will regret it. Today's post "Light it Up" is the instrumental version of one of Nicolay's oldest tracks (from a 2002 Little Brother 12" on ABB Records) which reworks a sample from a classic in the ingenious way -- with an indelible tone and pace -- that characterizes the style of this up-and-coming Dutch master. Resources
Nicolay :: "Light it Up"
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