Metal Lungies

Young British beatmaker Melo-Zed made a cool boom bap thing out of an obscure Meek Mill feature from 2012. The wonders of the SoundCloud generation.

Pennsylvania’s Swarvy is quickly becoming one of my favorite new beat dudes. “Jawbraker” sounds broken in the best possible way and “Tapeghost” is a blunted medley with so many colors that it feels much longer than its six minute runtime.

One of the few worthwhile tributes from Dilla Day 2014 was Sir & Iman Omari’s “Designated Driver” which mimics James Yancey to satisfying effect. Also peep Omari’s Vibe Tape +?+?+ (2), which includes an oddly succesful neo-soul flip of Modjo’s “Lady”.

Kingdom pairs the sultry vocals of CHVRCHES’ Lauren Mayberry with club-ready bass in a worthy, perhaps unintended, homage to The Neptunes.

London-based beatmaker fLako with a tactile and melodic remix of a 2011 track by Soosh. Sometimes you can tell when an artist is playing with a different deck.

After a trio of great EPs, Anglo-Mauritian singer-producer Mo Kolours drops the single from his first full album. He still has his signature clattering drums, but there’s more emphasis on his singing on “Mike Black”. We’re not complaining.

A nice surprise in December was the 777 compilation from L.A.’s Hit+Run crew featuring a swath of the city’s most exciting beatmakers. Deep breath: Mono/Poly, Jeremiah Jae, Zeroh, Kutmah, Gonjasufi, J.Rocc, Dibia$e, Ras G, Gaslamp Killer, Computer Jay, and Knx. Come for the progressive beats, stay for the latent Jewishness — song titles include “The Synagogue” and “Beta Israel” and the latter is on some blunted klezmer shit. Yo, I think I just named Ras G’s next album.