Hip-hop was never my main musical obsession, but it pulsed through the background of my youth—skate sessions, cheap forties, porch-side blunts—quietly shaping the soundtrack of growing up. Ben Pedroche’s Independent as F*** a vibrant history of indie rap from 1995–2005, taps straight into that world, revealing how artists built their own freedom and infrastructure far from the grip of major labels.
Tag: Hip-Hop
Factsimile :: Its all in the facts (Neo Ouija)
Life scatters its milestones unevenly—some slip into obscurity, while others remain etched in the mind, vivid despite their distance. These rare memories, intimate and haunting, reawaken with uncanny clarity when immersed in soundscapes like those crafted by Factsimile.
Lefto Early Bird :: For midnight drives
Seamlessly weaving together the pulsing rhythms of house with the atmospheric textures of electronic jazz, Highway Project unfolds like a cinematic score for nocturnal wanderers—a sonic companion crafted for midnight drives and the open road’s quiet mysteries.
CLOUDWARMER :: Nostalgia For a Future That Never Happened (blocSonic)
Swimming together in the tangential downpour of torrential media percussion and repercussion, all of this material can be considered as an excavation of a lost futurist consciousness.
Jairus Sharif :: Find energy in exploration
“I’m enthusiastic about so-called distortion, noise, blur, etc. and began to find energy in the exploration of signal-to-noise ratios and what true clarity of signal means to me. Accuracy, as I had previously understood it, is of little concern to me, and I’ve found that clarity in spirit has a high level of distortion as one of its most desirable traits.” ~Jairus Sharif
Sideboard & Amorobsoleto :: Discount Computer Software (Evel)
Both artists transcend mere nostalgia as they not only use sampling as an important part of their creative process but also structure their tracks on original synth lines and beat making that bring freshness to the production.
V/A :: Quality Time Volume 4 (Bonding Tapes)
Quality Time Volume 4 slices a deep cross-section through the label’s unique sonic vision; to encapsulate a myriad of abstract electronic music structures and blend them seamlessly in this fourth volume. It might also be fitting to find more quality time and head back to Bonding Tapes’ earlier volumes again.
Trièdre :: Evasions Fertiles (Roulette Rekordz)
A hypnotic and disjointed hip-hop beats collection merging with strange electronic sounds.
Brain Rays :: Slime (Acroplane)
Slime unearths powerful rhythms while at the same time uncovering unique sub-genres that coalesce on this multifaceted and heavy-duty album.
Jvox :: Man Is A Machine (Component)
Joel Tallent, also known as the multi-talented sound manipulator Jvox, makes a triumphant return to Component with a ten-track instrumental electronic feast connected by dizzying melodic structures.

















