The Breaks | scissorkick

The Foreign Exchange

31. October 2008

It would be dishonest of me to say that I’m a huge Neo-Soul kinda guy, but I’ve always been a big fan of the production from Nicolay, one half of The Foreign Exchange (with NC rapper-now-singer Phonte, from Little Brother). Their first collaboration, Connected, was one of the best hip-hop/soul records of 2004, and the [...]

Z-Trip’s Obama Mix

28. October 2008

1 Comment

I intentionally tried to stay away from any politics over the course of the last few years — I mean with so many more qualified blogs out there, who am I to get into the mix? But when the political and musical spheres bump heads, I guess it’s a little more appropriate to follow course, [...]

Midnight Lab Band

30. September 2008

2 Comments

I’ve always considered a certain level of anonymity an important quality among the musicians I tend to lionize. Not to say I expect a musician to release LP after LP under different pseudonyms, or drop mysterious white-label 12-inch vinyl as a career’s worth of output, but there’s a certain modesty and focus on the music [...]

Chandeliers

18. September 2008

2 Comments

I’m a bit at a loss for words after listening to The Thrush by Chicago’s Chandeliers. Perhaps I’m just being lazy, but I truly can’t remember the last time it was so hard to easily summarize a band’s sound with only a few words. To their credit, the quartet do a huge service to listeners [...]

Max Tundra

12. September 2008

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Back to school people. Sure, I haven’t had first day jitters in a long time, but I’m getting my Bugle Boys ready to impress nonetheless. Should I match with an OP or a Hobie t-shirt? Decisions, decisions. That’s how “Which Song,” the brand new Max Tundra single — from his forthcoming Domino LP, Parallel Errors [...]

Michna

11. August 2008

3 Comments

A while back, when I was DJing more frequently, I used to rely on a small stack of records to get me through particularly tough transitions within sets. One of those records was “The Underwater Adventure Hop Secret Treasure 12″from the Secret Frequency Crew, and I always felt like their full-length CD that followed on [...]

Red Snapper | Pale Blue Dot | 10.28.08

8. August 2008

4 Comments

I’d like to think that most music fans can count the records that changed their lives on one hand. Any more than that and the impact surely becomes diluted. Of course you have your favorite records, but a truly life-altering album may not even be that great of a musical accomplishment. It’s more a confluence [...]

Roots Manuva vs. Matt Helders (Arctic Monkeys)

5. August 2008

2 Comments

Few things are as exciting as a really top-notch, unsolicited, new-to-the-world remix. It wouldn’t be sensible of me to reveal my sources, but scissorkick has recently come across a truly stellar remix of Roots Manuva’s “Again and Again” by Arctic Monkeys’ drummer Matt Helders. Matt does a fantastic job giving this already solid track an [...]

Koushik

30. July 2008

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Stone’s Throw often relishes in mixing the new with the old but few of the venerable label’s artists sum it up as well as Koushik, the eponymous moniker of Koushik Ghosh. Mixing hazy 60’s nostalgia with new school beats and production, the music occupies a very unique place within a larger nexus of downtempo, soul, [...]

Menehan Street Band

30. July 2008

1 Comment

Whether a casual hip-hop fan or more hardcore, there’s little doubt that Jay-Z’s “Roc Boys (And the Winner Is)” has been on your radar at some point this year. Diddy’s suprisingly successful production mends an absolutely perfect horn sample with Hova’s indelible vocal skills for an undeniably epic single. For the curious, that sample comes [...]