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.

So insane it's borderline April Fools... joke or not though this is genuinely awesome: Dex Digital's mixtape of tunes by obscure rap crew Word Munchaz... Opening with a bizarre slow jam with the autotune turned all the way up to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and lyrics which jar brilliantly with the smoothness of the beat, the whole tune is just dripping with Wrongness. That first tune is so insane that at first I thought it must be a one off, but as the mixtape goes on it's clear that kind of Wonky Bad Trip R&B is Word Munchaz' whole thing, and I love it. The overall effect is of something subtly, yet completely, wrong, claws down the blackboard of my brain but somehow in a good way.

The tune about jeans (which is the second of two) starting at 16.08 is the highlight for me, showcasing the Munchaz lyrical insanity (which is almost Tarantino-esque in it's banality) against a beat laden with too-loud-howls and gunshots.

Check out Dex Digital's write up of the mix, including some back story on the Munchaz: mixtapeshow.net mixtape 138: Word Munchaz

Check this new release from King Deluxe of lushwonkycinematic beats & bleeps by Aleph, some epic gamelike moments in here, when Sulfozinum drops into a slow bleeping march at 2:32 I'm transported to a sinister world of pixelated bad guys, love it.

The official word:

The music here from is inspired by Astyanax Mexicanus, the impossible-to-catch cave fish that is born without eyes, so must rely on sound and the tiniest of vibrations to survive. Aleph sees a zen kind of connection it shares with the samurai, for whom elusiveness is also a way of life.

Likewise, he himself strives to be in touch with the vibrations all around him, which seems to shape how he approaches his craft. Same goes for Ali Can Meydan, who’s beautiful interpretation of this story graces the cover.

The cover art is pretty amazing and Ali Can Meydan's other stuff is well worth a look. Anyway here's the EP:

Aleph - Haunt For Little Blind Fish by king_deluxe

For a limited time you can download the 192 version here for free: Aleph - Haunt For Little Blind Fish (192kbps)

The full quality version is availble for a mere 4 buckaroos: Aleph - Haunt For Little Blind Fish at Bandcamp

I'm confused by how good this guy's tunes are...

This is bafflingly immense, funky, bleepy, wonky. Music with character...

Calicoleaf - A Town Full of Swells by CalicoLeaf

and this is... uh. I have no words. Kind of reminds me of Nobuo Uematsu's Final Fantasy 7 AC soundtrack in its narrative & combination of sounds.. it's an ADVENTURE

Zubin Mehta - Nessun Dorma (CalicoLeaf RMX) by CalicoLeaf

Gonna keep this short n sweer: This is some swingin wonky electro awesomeness. I love how you can't really work out how its all going to fit together for the first minute or so.

Red Nichols - Strike up the band (maratekatropical remix) by maratekatropical

PS. no idea what that image is all about. just the first one that caught my eye searching for 'wonky swing'

Want some totally awesome UK hip hop, with just a hint of wrongness? Well check this wonky 2-step drawl...

Download the free 4-track EP here: GhostPoet – The Sound of Strangers EP

The world is awash with free music these days!

There was a big discussion lately on a Bristol geeks mailing list I subscribe to about the Digital Economy Bill with the result that several people concluded that they'd be boycotting BPI members music for the foreseeable.

Being active in music-blog-land it's hard to get so passionate about it I find - I haven't bought (except for from charity shop, & car boot sales) any major label music for years. Not because I'm too cool for it or it's too mainstream for my tastes, I love a bit of Dario G, me, but because I'm so completely swamped by the amount of music I can (legitimately) get by bypassing the music 'industry', often for free. Of course, there's still major questions about how independent artists should go about releasing music these days, but I just feel like something like the DEB could not be less relevant to the way we interact with music these days. Let them have their fun making no-longer-applicable rules, lets have ours with some amazing music, shall we?

So anyway, after the jump, here's a whole bunch of free (mostly hip hop based) albums that I've been checking out lately...

via Fiddlefreak...

Feeling quite intoxicated by this tune today... amazingly hypnotic almost-acapella (just a little hand drum action to accompany) which keeps lulling you into thinking you've found the groove for a few beats before hitting reset in an extremely jarring, wonky way.

Julie Fowlis - Thig Am Bata

Just found this dude on Soundcloud: Meltus Riddler

He's making some awesome glitch-hop-step with occasional 8-bit flourishes and some vocals from someone named Slippy Skills which I'm loving. Check this one out:

Super Rap 64 feat. Slippy Skills by MeltusRiddler

just grabbed some maaaad shit from Run Riot... check it! Man that's wonky!

Freddy Todd - Can't Fathom This

There's 3 more available for free if you head over there... or why not check out Freddy's myspace