BINKBEATS The "Beats Unraveled" Series

BINKBEATS, not a name most people know, not even most hardcore Hip Hop Instrumental fans.
This guy seems to have come out of nowhere popping up a few months ago on Facebook, YouTube, and SoundCloud. There is not much information about this Dutch producer, how long he has been making music, if he has any original material, or what he will do in the future. As of right now he has produced and posted one song a month for the past three months, all covers of Hip Hop or Experimental Electronic tracks. The interesting thing about how he plays is not just covering these songs that any underground Hip Hop fan would know, but that he is does it with live instrumentation.

Madlib, the producer that made the track The Healer for Erykah Badu originally, is best known as a "sample based" producer. It is interesting to listen to the two tracks, Madlib who sampled records to get the sound, and then you have BINKBEATS interpret the track back to live instruments; that were likely played in the original records that Madlib had sampled. BINKBEATS also uses looping techniques so he can have all the instruments that he is playing sound like a live band as they slowly build upon one another.

Flying Lotus or FlyLo is an Experimental Electronic Beat musician. For this interpretation BINKBEATS plays Getting There he uses a wide selection of Bells and Percussion as well as Piano's and Slinky's, he also introduces us to his vocals, which will be revisited in later tracks. This time using a mix of live instrumentation as well as on the spot sampling and looping (probably a lot like Flylo did in his recording) he brings this track to its desired place and starts to lay vocals over it until it is sounding a lot like the original. But because of the chosen instruments, a lot more organic sounding then electronic.

For BINKBEATS latest track Without You originally by Lapalux, he focuses on dreamy/dark Synths. The song slowly slowly builds with drums and vocals being played over the ever reaping Synthesizer samples. He also has a pretty memorizing Xylophone solo at around 2:45. Myself not being a fan of Lapalux or this song, was quite surprised as I kept hitting the repeat button to listen to this track again and again.

I would like to see BINKBEATS venture off and start creating original material himself. As you can see from watching his YouTube videos and the equipment he has, he could probably come up with some pretty impressive sounds. However if he never does, I will likely be just as satisfied with him releasing a cover version of a new song every month for our listening pleasure.

J. Rocc, The Taster's Choice.

J. Rocc, one of my favorite DJ’s, has always been best known for his work with and co-founder of the DJ group the Beat Junkies that started in 1992. However he has been doing so much work as a DJ/musician recently that it is possible he is gaining more fans these days than he ever has before. His run with Stones Throw Records started in the early 2000’s, what is Stones Throw most noted for? Well for starters, being one of the largest and most popular underground (indie if you prefer) Hip-Hop labels. Secondly, they have an extremely dedicated fan base; changes, no matter how small, do not go unnoticed for very long within the label. So when J. Rocc began DJing live shows for the duo Jaylib (Madlib and J Dilla), he tried to stay in the background and do what he does, “rock live crowds”. Only one problem with that, J. Rocc is good at what he does; if he cannot get a crowd dancing by the records he plays he will amaze them and put the crowd into a trance like state as his hands move faster than their eyes can see with his perfected turntable skills. So what happened after the Jaylib tour? You guessed it, J. Rocc seemed to be on the bill for almost every big live event and tour Stones Throw has been a part of since. With many 12” singles and podcast mixes following, and most recently he even released his first solo full length titled Some Cold Rock Stuf “Not a mix tape. Not a DJ album. Not a beats album. It’s the album.”

That was an extremely brief biography for the vast amount of work J. Rocc has accomplished so far, but I am not writing this post to talk about his entire music career, I am writing it to write a brief description about his Taster’s Choice Series. Volume Six was recently released, three long years after Volume Five came out. Volume six is an African/Reggae focusing on rare and obscure songs. Going in reverse succession Volume Five is rooted in Spiritual Jazz. Volume Four is unreleased, well, actually no one really knows if it has ever been created. The rumor is Volume Four was a Reggae mix, but with the release of Volume six being a Reggae mix, it is doubtful that if it even exists that it is also a Reggae mix. Volume Three is influenced by early and mid nineties Hip-Hop with a hint of Funk. Volume Two, a good mix of Funk, Jazz, and Hip-Hop, and Volume One a mix of Latin and Brazilian music. As you can tell, J. Rocc knows, listens too, and can mix a very eclectic range of music.

I am excited for more Taster Choice mixes in the future, not to mention other releases that I am sure he will release in between.