Now you know we fucks around heavy inside thee Witch House. So does our boy T.J. over at Actual Pain. Hell T.J. has had almost every single heavy hitter in the scene do mixes for the label and all of them are pretty fucking incredible! He just dropped a new one called Minus Something which features two mixes, one by each member of New York’s own White Ring.

I am super excited to release this hefty, mind-bending, two headed, mega-mix by one of my favorite bands White Ring. If I ran a record label I would sign them to a 40 record contract.

Anyways, this is a two part mixtape, one part by Bryan and part by Kendra. Bryan’s side features an exclusive NIN remix by White Ring which is fucking awesome beyond words. Enjoy!

Download it and here’s to a very, very creepy Saturday to you and yours! By the way we did a soft launch of the new Actual Pain collection online in case you hadn’t noticed just yet. Check out the incredible tracklist after the jump. I never thought I’d see Project Pitchfork and Waka Flocka Flame go back-to-back on a mix… never, ever!

Download Actual Pain Presents Minus Something by White Ring

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I don’t when Will Cody Watson sleeps… between running Bathetic Records and now writing for Impose, I’m shocked he still records and releases as much music as he does under his own moniker of Pink Priest. Not that I’m really complaining, because I love these Hexes collections of remixes he’s been releasing all year long.

As with all previous Hexes releases, Vol. 3 is another half-hour or so of Pink Priest tracks remixed into waaaaay creepy and dark ambient vibes by a whole host of talented artists you’ve probably never heard of and will hopefully seek out. If you’re a fan of drone music and Post-Rock… Boom!

While you’re at it, you may as well download Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 if you already haven’t. Stream or download Vol. 3 via the Bandcamp player below. Or you can just go bum around Pink Priest’s newly minted Bandcamp site where you can stay busy and download every single release he’s ever done.

Download Keep Watch Vol. XIX: Night Slugs (Click Here)

Can you believe it? We’re at our twentieth Keep Watch Mix…. Wow! We’ve kept you guys entertained and in tune with a wide and wonderful world of electro/dance for the past two years now with what’s become not only our signature dance series, but something dance fans look forward to every 30 to 45 days. We’re incredibly proud of that.

So join us won’t you? Lets Take this hour-long journey through space on a b2b (back to back) live session recorded at the Rinse FM studios, courtesy of the London duo o the tips of everyone’s tongues, Night Slugs. Slip inside their world,  where you’ll be served and intoxicating cocktail made up of Tech-House, Tropical House, Grime and big bad bass lines sure to get your body moving.

This is a very special 20th edition made by the Slugs to celebrate the release of our Fall 2010 collection and features a selection of the duo’s latest tracks, remixes and of course choice cuts from their own Night Slugs record label. This is one mix you’ll have on repeat for days, trust me!

The Night Slugs (who are Bok Bok and L-Vis 1990)  first came into existence in early 2008 when, inspired by a variety of experimental club music from around the globe, the duo linked up to start a club night dedicated to a brand new hybrid sound. This new aesthetic fused international gutter house styles with London’s unique soundsystem heritage. The emphasis was on innovation, breaking new producers, debuting fresh tracks, uncompromising bass weight, and above all a functionalist dancefloor-friendly vibe.

The Night Slugs party quickly gained a reputation for being amongst the freshest in London. Two years down the line, Night Slugs is an unstoppable brand. Their club parties are a London staple, a cornerstone of the UK’s bass mutation scene. Bok Bok and L-Vis’ record label of the same name is several releases into a series of groundbreaking EPs, showcasing fresh new sounds from the collective that has crystalised around the duo.

The Slugs’ own productions – international club anthems like “United Groove”, “Ripe Banana”, “Compass” and “Citizens” – have appears on a variety of boutique labels such as Mad Decent, Numbers and Sound Pellegrino.

2010 sees the duo join London’s leading underground music station Rinse FM. With an unparalleled pirate radio vintage of 15 years, Rinse is a bastion of the UK scene’s unique tendency towards self-reinvention, an ethos that deeply resonates with Night Slugs’ own drive for innovation; catch the duo on Rinse every other monday, 1-3pm GMT showcasing the freshest riddims about.

Fairly rarely do I put guitar-rock-pop type acts in a mix, but I managed to slip a couple mickies onto Ballet, which is fully ’80s and a fairly urban, summer’s-end affair for subway surfers and taxi-takers.

That said, there are some world music moments to meet eclectic standards. Ballet fun fact – three tunes on here feature Phil Collins as a liner-note contributor. Know which ones? It’s not Kajagoogoo… Tracklist after the jump.

Ballet by A Silent Flute

Download A Silent Flute’s Ballet from Sound Cloud

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Мишка Presents The Glitch Mob Drink the Sea Part 2: The Mixtape

The Glitch Mob have long been a festival favorite, rocking crowds from Lollapalooza to Red Rocks and key slots at Coachella and Ultra rocking crowds with straight dancefloor burners a la their seminal Crush Mode mixtape (a favorite around the Мишка offices) chopping and screwing the best hip-hop acapellas with shattering, fuzzed out bass lines and head-nodding beats.

The trio graduated early this year to a heady catalog of original music with their recent debut album “Drink the Sea”, currently on an international tour, but haven’t left their roots far behind. On the Drink the Sea Part 2: The Mixtape , The Glitch Mob manage to marry the power of their live and studio personas as they present their new album mixed with some vocal gems from MCs like Nas, Jay Z, Wayne and divas such as M.I.A. and La Roux.

The Glitch Mob’s mixtapes are pass-along favorites, that have made fans of the group across the Atlantic and back, time and time again. Drink the Sea Part 2: The Mixtape will be no different. If you’re going into it expecting yet another party starter from the trio, you won’t be disappointed.

Don’t forget to catch the trio throughout the United States as they embark on the Summer leg of their Drink the Sea tour! If you need more Glitch in your life make sure you check out their profile on our Bloglin series, Serious Saturday.

Young Jeezy - 1000 Grams Vol. 1 Mixtape (2010) [CTE] // Grade: C

Young Jeezy’s 1000 Grams Vol.1 opens with a minute long phone message. It’s oddly enough, a sort of a take on Mahatma Ghandi’s “Be the change you want to see”quote. He talks of getting money, and how his collection of wealth and stuntin’ should serve as a motivation for people to get money. Jeezy is talking about motivation through personification. The message is  set to music that sounds like an overture from The Last of the Mohicans score – that is to say epic, grandiose and swelling.  I could use these sentences to sum up all of Jeezy’s discography. This is why I celebrate his entire catalog.

The first real song on the mixture is “Death B4 Dishonor”, Jeezy over Rick Ross’ “B.M.F”– the most bombastic and chest puffing song on the radio in a couple of years. This is followed by “Choppa N Da Paint”, Jeezy over Waka Flocka Flame’s “Hard In Da Paint”, a song so gigantic and evil sounding that I’m sure at least 25% of violence in the south can, at least, be tangentially attributed to it. This is followed by “Dope Boy Swag”, Jeezy rapping over Soulja Boy’s “Pretty Boy Swag”, the plodding and sinister beat that was dedicated to male beauty. The first half of this tape finishes with “Powder”, Kanye’s “Power” reinterpreted as an ode to opulence through cocaine acquisition.

These tracks are where Jeezy is usually at home, these are the type of beats he’s owned over the last five years. Cold, boisterous and larger than life – he usually drops his patented brand of Tony Robbins via The Wire motivational philosophy, espousing hard work, a belief in self and amoral adherence to capitalism in it’s purest form.  But on this mixtape, Jeezy unfortunately doesn’t sound like he believes his own rhetoric.  It’s a lot of “hey, drug dealing makes you rich”, but missing the motivational elements that transcend actual drug dealing. Jeezy sounds like he’s on autopilot– there’s few punchlines and none of the subtlety that he usually has. In the rest of his work Jeezy has used his “Ha, Ha” ad-lib like Pikachu uses the syllables in his name – that’s to say a non linguistic form of communicating his emotional state. Expert Jeezy observers can distinguish between the jovial “Ha, Ha”, the pensive “Ha, Ha” and the saddened “Ha, Ha”. There’s only one kind of laugh on this mixtape.

The last song on the tape “Porsche Music”, feels like where Jeezy has been headed over the last two years. It’s Jeezy rhyming over a lush and soulful instrumental that contrasts perfectly to his gruff baritone. We’re used to him over the cold and synthetic beats like “B.M.F” where everything is dark and bleak. But, Jeezy recalling (creating) tales of drug deals and trafficking over a track that bleeds emotion sounds amazing and is the only track on this tape that needs to be on your “best of the Snowman” playlist. Hopefully, this song is a preview of whats to come on Thug Motivation: 103.

Download Young Jeezy’s 1000 Grams Vol. 1 (Click Here)

Download Screwed by Babe Rainbow (Click Here)

So I just clued in on this pretty awesome mix by Babe Rainbow which I’m sure with a name like Screwed, you clever folks can guess what it’s going to sound like. An hour of screwed, dragged whatever the fuck you want to call it Hip Hop, resurrecting some new life to plenty of classics.

My buddy Mike (CFCF) and I were talking about doing an all chopped and screwed night during Pop Montreal and I got all excited so I screwed up these tracks. Enjoy.

If you head over to Mixpak you’ll even find a great interview with Babe Rainbow about making the mix and just screwin’ and choppin’ in general. Why do I love things slowed down so effin’ much? Grab some Robitussin, light an L and join Nas and AZ cause when shit’s slowed down, life’s a lil’ less of a bitch! Full tracklist after the jump.

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Download Мишка Presents ℑ⊇≥◊≤⊆ℜ’s Zombie Rave: Special Edition (Click Here)

Happy Friday the 13th! So did any of you really think I’d not go out of my way to do a Zombie Rave mixtape for Мишка? Especially on this date of all dates? I know some of you love this (like I do) and others of you are still  scratching your heads about it all but there’s no denying that Witch House/Drag have become a force this year and ℑ⊇≥◊≤⊆ℜ (of Mater Suspiria Vision) Zombie Rave mixtapes have only helped cement that. If you need some more in depth writing on the matter head over to Seen where I wrote a small feature on Mater Suspiria Vision. But I’m imaging at this point if you visit the Bloglin you kind of know what’s what and have formulated your own opinion on it all.

This summer, ℑ⊇≥◊≤⊆ℜ of MSV started up the rather ambitious Zombie Rave Mixtape series, which forms the third unholy side in MSV’s triumvirate (the other pieces of which are their videos and their own music). These Zombie Raves are usually around hours of pop and dance music remixed and slowed down to a codeine pace and littered with horror movie samples. We’re fully aware that this has the potential to be completely unbearable. But trust us when we say it’s actually transfixing, especially if you’re the sort of person who is into darker dance music.

This Special Edition for Mishka is now the 4th Zombie Rave mixtape to come out this summer and among all the runes and mysticism, these mixes are starting to present a clearer definition and a broader scope to Witch House. Zombie Raves reanimate the dead and bloated corpses of decades of pop, rock and dance hits until they’re wholly their own catchy and evil creations that get your body moving while freaking you the fuck out.

This Zombie Rave: Special Edition is the first Zombie Rave mix to be released with an open-ended download policy. There were only 100 downloads for the original Zombie Rave, 200 for part 2 and 300 for part 3. If you didn’t catch them when they debuted, you were usually left out in the cold in just a day’s time. Anyone who is still salty about that, well this Special Edition Zombie Rave is for you. An hour and a half of pop and electro “dragged” through the deepest bowls of Hell, creating a dance party most are unaccustomed to hearing. Chug some syrup and prepare for time to stand still, your mind to be blown and to love every minute of it.

It also wouldn’t be MSV unless there were some sick visuals to go along with whatever music they are doing. I’ve peppered this post with some of the videos that were created for tracks used on this Zombie Rave: Special Edition. This past week they have been slowly leaking the videos starting first with Scooter’s “Posse (Zombie Rave Mix)” set to scenes from Poison Ivy, then there was Tears For Fears “Shout (I’m Not Afraid of the Devil Mix)” set to scenes from Fulci’s Zombi. Today along with the mix, comes the final video for Lady Gaga “Alejandro (Zombie Rave Mix)” up above.

I don’t even what the hell the visuals for this are taken from as I’ve never, ever seen them. But how appropriate is that giant eyeball headed female eh? If anyone has any clue what this movie is, I want to know now!

Head after the jump for the complete tracklist to Zombie Rave: Special Edition and Happy Friday the 13th! R-E-S-I-D-E-N-T-E-V-I-L!

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Download ЭЗ3O|0/O\0|O~>’s – Russian Zombie Rave

I caught this over on the Mater Suspiria’s Vision Facebook page and was intrigued by it. I at first thought it was just called Russian Zombie Rave for the hell of it but no, it’s exactly that. 45 minutes of Russian Pop “dragged” to shit. It’s actually the first time in my life I’ve sat through Russian Pop and enjoyed it.

I have no clue what ЭЗ3O|0/O\0|O~> name is supposed to be, but I’m all for pushing Russians into creating evil shit. Here’s what he had to say about the mix:

Посвящается Мише Шиянову, который показал мне первые микстейпы зомби-рейва, Ване Егорову, который сейчас в Минске снимает отечественный фильм про зомби, и артисту mater suspiria vision, в подражание которому все это сделано.

Can’t read Russian? Well here I’ve translated it for you: Dedicated to Misha Shiganov, who first introduced me to the Zombie-Rave mixtapes. Vanya Egorov, who is now in Minsk filming a movie about zombies and Mater Suspiria Vision for whom this homage was made.

I truly hope that Russian made zombie flick gets a Zombie Rave soundtrack!

Russian Zombie Rave Mix by ЭЗ3O|0/O\0|O~>

Wale - More About Nothing (2010) [Self-Released] // Grade: B

Growing up in New York in the nineties, through the course of Seinfeld’s run, I always wondered how cats outside of the city (or cities in general) related to the show. It always felt wildly tied to the minute experiences of living in a large, multicultural city. I couldn’t imagine how someone in Missouri was going to relate to an episode about battling for parking spaces or one about getting a good view to see the floats go by during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.

So, two years ago when Wale dropped his Seinfeld themed Mixtape About Nothing, I was kind of baffled as to how well that would go over, because if Seinfeld is weird enough in the burbs, then it shouldn’t relate at all, to the world of rap. It’s a show about three narcissistic, neurotic, single white New Yorkers and a dude who is most likely a highly functioning autistic. That’s not hip hop. Jerry has no swag – dude wears mom jeans, has a mullet, and tucks his shirt into his pants – yet somehow pulls down some really bad chicks. I’m still lost as to how he had a new girl come through every week, dude was not that funny. Nonetheless, using Seinfeld to inspire themes for songs and to glue together your mixtape should fail as miserably as a Nikki Minaj/Trina/Jean Grae/Eve super group about the exploits of The Golden Girls*. But, as we know the Mixtape About Nothing was actually really ill and a critical success. Wale managed to warp Seinfeld samples into his braggadocio and use the shows dissection of everyday minutiae to springboard into some far reaching topical songs – shit, he even got Elaine to do a drop. But now for the sequel to the tape about nothing, how do you ring more from the improbably fertile Seinfeld well? Get Jerry to drop a 16? Larry David going to executive produce?

On More About Nothing, Wale stays with what worked on the first tape and adds lil bits of spice on top. On “The MC” he jumps on a  go-go influenced beat  and shows exactly why all gimmickry aside, he is a pretty damn good emcee. While Drake has been spreading the clipped metaphor around rap like herpes – Ron Mexico – Wale has perfected small thematic rhyming bursts within a verse. On the last tape he started playing with the idea on “The Feature Heavy Song” with his hockey inspired section but on “The MC” he really goes in with a protracted section about the type of chicks he likes, reiterating the word like over and over in a demonstration of rhyming ability. “The Soup” follows suit with the heavy go-go drums and Wale rapping to rap, with an occasional detour to discuss some of the issues he’s had in the press lately.

After that reintroduction of the Wale we already knew, the tape changes up feel a bit and drops gears into a soul sampling, smokers song called “The Breeze (Cool)”. This song has the type of beat that’s chilled out and bleary eyed enough that only Wiz Khalifa could do it justice. And right there on cue at the second verse, dude shows up to talk about weed and bad bitches in his signature sing songy delivery. Par for the course for Wiz. Speaking of golf, one of the stand out tracks on this tape has to be “The Eyes Of The Tiger”, where Wale becomes Tiger Woods as he calls his mistress(es) and tries to cover his tracks. Over a paranoid and hyper-actively grandiose beat, Wale goes through every emotion and thought one could imagine Tiger (or any one) would have as they realized that their infidelities were going to be exposed to the world. In that expounding from specific celebrity incident to universal experience it’s reminiscent to “The Kramer” off of the last tape, where Wale uses Michael Richards racist outburst to explore the usage of the N word in rap music.

In that extrapolation from specific to general, is where Wale finds a link between himself and Seinfeld. While on the surface Seinfeld is very NYC based and unrelatable to those who don’t dwell in urban environments, it’s really about commonly held dilemmas of social awkwardness, narcissism and poor communication. Similarly, this tape finds Wale even more Seinfeldian than his last tape – he’s still rapping for rap heads – but, he’s also taking on more universal themes. He’s going in strong on relationship issues with at least five songs on this tape dedicated to that topic – when he says on an interlude that he was surprised to find out how diverse his audience is, I’m willing to bet he meant he was surprised how diverse (read: hot) his female fans are. While that’s not a reality a lot of people share (adoring female fans), everyone can relate to the the intoxicating effect of lust and the struggles of relationships. Jerry knew it, Wale knows it, you know it. But, what I don’t know is how Seinfeld was supposed to be smashing Teri Hatcher in 1993. She was real and spectacular, he was wearing a Canadian tuxedo.

*Obviously Trina is Blanche, Nikki is Rose, Jean is Sophia and Eve is Dorothy. Now that I think on it, I’d buy that CD with the quickness – if for no other reason that to hear how Nikki shouts out St. Olaf. Probably rhyming it with Zoloft in her valley girl voice.

Download Wale’s More About Nothing Mixtape (Click Here)