3Ball is slowly but surely gathering pace, with more and more releases from people other than the few usual suspects who defined the genre. The Rebel Records here delivers 5 wicked tunes from Mr Kanti W with eye-watering saturated trumpet and synth throughout, opening with the wonky tempo ramp-ups-and-downs of Jalisco, and ranging from the happy-go-lucky, uncomplicated San Luis Potosi to the colder, darker Nuevo Leon (with some cheeky LFO on the synth to remind you not to take that darkness to seriously). Unexpectedly, Coldplay's Clocks gets a remix - alarm bells ring - remember that insipid Rythms Del Mundo version? - but as the piano gets chopped into 3ball triplets and morphs into hardstyle synth, the very existence of Coldplay is validated. Well worth a spin - and it's free!

DOWNLOAD - MR KANTI W - M3XBALL

Check out the Coldplay mix:

Coldplay - Clocks (Mr Kanti W Remix) by Kantiw

(via Tropical Bass)

Zifhang out of Santiago, Chile - who produced a couple of the beats on Copius' Blind Mans Maze LP - sent me his EP to check out and it's chock full of wicked jazzed up, blazed-out hip hop beats:

Pentium III 846Mhz EP (Coverless)(Single Downloads Available) by Zifhang

Grab the whole EP: Zifhang - Pentium III 846Mhz EP

Some awesome kuduro right here! Free for today only, Akwaaba's 2009 compilation Sem Transporte:

And via Masala, check out Titica, probably the only Transexual artist in African music...

Grab her album here: Titica - Chão

Norman. & Nate provide some blissed out winter smoking session beats on a slightly wonky - but not too wonky - instrumental hip hop vybe...

Back Woods Beat Tape by Norman.

BROKEN DUB: Incredibly appropriate name for this free EP of glitched out dubtronics released by Modisti netlabel. The tunes are pleasingly short, in fact the whole seven tracks are over within 15 minutes, which is a good thing sometimes: if you've done all you're going to do within two minutes, why drag the track out to seven?

Taking in dub/step, glitch, breakcore and general electronic experimentation along the way, most of the EP is an enjoyable listen but to be perfectly honest, pretty forgettable. It's opening track Disappoinment and closer, Vector Dub, which really make this a release worth checking out - the former being more or less exactly half way between dubstep and Aphex Twin's Richard D James album, and the latter another dubstep based tune which makes incredible use of the way silence can smack you round the face in a beat (see Dr Dre's Some LA Niggaz beat for one of the best examples of this I know)

DOWNLOAD THE EP: Pablo Ribot - Broken Dub

In case you've been wondering (and I'm sure it keeps you awake at night), "is it possible to make Gabba sexy?", La Muerta (whose true identity is a closely guarded secret*) has dropped this free album crossbreeding it with moombahton which provides the definitive answer: SORT OF. I mean, massively distorted gabba kicks are probably only ever going to moisten the most masochistic of panties, but at the same time even when being sonically bludgeoned it's almost impossible for the hips to resist a dembow at this tempo. This is wicked stuff, by far the most ballsy take on moombah I've heard.

DOWNLOAD: LA MUERTA – COMPLETE

01. BEATARDS – TRAMP (LA MUERTA RMX)
02. ZULU GESTAPO
03. DE SCHUURMAN – NU GA JE DANSE (LA MUERTA RMX)
04. HALO NOVA – PANTY RAID (LA MUERTA RMX)
05. UNABLE
06. DOYO – BOYA (LA MUERTA RMX)
07. RIDDIM DOS SANTOS
08. NOCHE DE ENTIERRO
09. MARTES DE CARNIVAL
10. ZOMBIE REVOLT
11. SCHLACHTHOFBRONX – BACKUP RUN (LA MUERTA RMX)

Tribe Called Red present 5 moombah reinterpretations of classic hip hop joints (including Eric B & Rakim, Public Enemy & more). Kind of like a much more digestable version of Jon Kwest's Moombah Marauders Native Tongues remix project which I couldn't actually get all the way through (love Native Tongues, nice idea, too much of it). Don't Sweat The Technique is my personal favourite.

DOWNLOAD: A Tribe Called Red - Moombah Hip Moombah Hop EP

Years in the making... my boy Copuis has finally dropped his solo LP (well OK, it was months ago now, but I've been sleeping on this) Blind Man's Maze, available for free download at Bandcamp... check it:

Blind Mans Maze by Copius

He's been taking his time putting this project together, honing his skills for the last 7 years, and he's wound up with something that sounds really well rounded & complete - mad respect to him for taking his time to produce a proper album, & not just taking the first ten tunes he made & putting them out there like so many hip hop mixtapes out there.

The album opens with a selection of straight boom bap excellence. Didn't ya know - just straight rhyming, showing off his quite nasal, monotone flow and matching it perfectly with the beat - tumbling over it each bar until the last beat which is strictly two syllables. Say wot is a highlight with it's Zifhang penned beat and playful flow.

Lyrically Copius is at his best talking about the simple things, like on Synical Sidewalk Talk - just a celebration of being alive in the city he lives in, oozing immense joy in the everyday. Here he reminds of Cat Empire, talking about stuff which is insignificant, personal, local but which gets at something universal to an extent which can't be reached if you try to go direct.

This is amazing. From 50 seconds into Pyramid, an enormous, oppressive wall of kuduro-trance, you just know this EP is gonna be epic. 6 tracks of "deep and grim Post-Kuduro excellence" as Hat & Hoodie described it... who are you to resist it eh?

Out today! Grab this free EP from me collecting some of my Moombahton based tunes made on the bus earlier this year. Look out for part 2 coming soon!

bus bounce by andykisaragi

DOWNLOAD THE EP FOR FREE: andykisaragi - bus bounce EP