I’m currently involved in collaborative music making with two of my favourite locals. John Hassell, aka Peon/Seekae/oneofour collective, and Marcus Whale aka Scissorlock/Collarbones. I’m super excited about both projects, and both are coming along quite nicely.

I’m proud to present the fourth installment in the oneofour collective’s ongoing mixtape series.  Mixed by yours truly – it’s made up almost entirely of tracks from regular collective members, with locals Erespex, Limetipe, and Broken Chip also contributing tracks for the first time.

Head over to the website to download it for free.

Since the beginning of 2010 I’ve been meeting up with a bunch of guys almost every week to appreciate and dissect each others music, and talk at length about the minutiae of producing music. Every now and again the output of the whole group is compiled into a mix, available for free download. There is some amazing music in there, and if you’re at all interested in contemporary beat based music there should be something for you.

You can hear some 48/4 and Peon mixes via Soundcloud.

Or, download some mixes here.

For all its widespread interests and influences, instrumental hip-hop as a whole has one major rule: there must be beats and a melody. All of the sounds at play in any given track usually exist out of service to either of these two elements. That may not seem like much in the way of a limiting rubric, but just the same, it is easy to notice when someone is breaking the rules. On his new EP, Open Tuned Occidentals, Australia’s Cleptoclectics gleefully plays with hip-hop conventions. His compositions are littered with a kitchen-sink variety of sounds not customarily associated with the genre.

Opener “Move On” appears to be a statement of purpose. The track floats in on a flurry of noise; strings, woodwinds, synths, and drums rattle away seemingly randomly, like a marching band tuning before a performance. A drum beat suddenly rises out of the mire, and the instruments syncopate around it. The track finally begins to make sense rhythmically, and then it suddenly ends. “Golden Fleecing,” a stir-fry of diced samples and synths, follows suit. But just as soon as Open Tuned Occidentals gets the listener settled into a sort of Dadaist groove, quite fittingly, things shift gears. The rest of the EP traffics in a hazy, shambolic boom bap, not that far in scope from the work of auteurs like Prefuse 73 and Flying Lotus.

Judging from the more conventional material, Cleptoclectics could, if he wanted to, turn out more mannered, sonically pleasing compositions. However, it also appears that he’s more interested in the sounds of instruments sometimes than how they fit together in any rhythmic or melodic fashion. Open Tuned Occidentals is by turns an inspired pastiche of shimmering noisy hip-hop and a five-car pile-up of gonzo synths and found sounds.

-Craig Jenkins

Some of my friends got a little worried when I posted this elsewhere, which was nice of them.  But my main reason for sharing it was that it’s beautiful, rather than any attempt to spread my occasionally fragile state of mind.

First time I listened, I almost shed a tear.

I’ve organised an album launch for a friend from Brisbane; Andrew Tuttle, aka Anonymeye. It’s happening this Friday @475 King St.

Even though I’m very excited about this event, the main reason I’m posting this here is to show off the amazing work of Pat Armstrong, my poster designing, visual ninja associate; who generously lends his skills to worthy causes.

Recently, I’ve uprooted myself from the unremarkable inner west semi detached I called home, for close to four years, and moved over to this place. The last few weeks have been draining, but I’m liking it here.

We have just published our callout for the next round of exhibitons/developments/workshops. So if anyone reading is interested and has ideas, feel free to apply.