I guess Buck65 does remember about rappin’ and making beats. He just made Language Arts Part 7 available for free download on his website. It’s on the same vein as the earlier projects in the series but seems slightly more lo-fi. I guess ’cause he’s less concerned about having to push it as an official album in the future, an album which he is already working on. He also released a new single called Temporarily In Love and a short documentary via Itunes Canada which I have yet to peep. But I have listened to this mixtape on some crappy headphones and I have to say, it’s soundin’ pretty freakin’ great. buck65.com, article, side 1.mp3, side 2.mp3
Strong Arm is a “mixtape” in the New York-style underground hip hop sense of the word… with a twist. None of the instrumentals are from hip hop records. The music comes from the worlds of punk, classical, folk, library music, everywhere else.
It was recorded in a day on a budget of $0 and it shows. This is a scrappy piece of work. There are loud vinyl pops, mistakes, vocal glitches… In other words, it’s very lo-fi. Considering the patch-work, collage-style assembly and that everything was done by me, by hand, in my bedroom, I’m calling this Language Arts Part 7.The music runs down like this:
Side One:
-Intro (music: This Heat – Horizontal Hold)
-Dang! (music: Incredible Bongo Band – Let There Be Drums)
-Hole In The Road (music: Dub Specialist (Coxone Dodd) – Rastaman Version)
-What Grace Means (music: John Fahey – Sunflower River Blues)
-Don’t Belong (music: Trans Am – Firepoker)
-Suspect feat. Claire Berest (music: Sebastien Tellier – Trilogie Femme)Side Two:
-Brace Yourself (words: Rev. Sister Mary Nelson – Judgement)
-F.O.S. (music: The Homosexuals – Snapshots of Nairobi)
-Old-Time Stuff (music: Gorecki – Olden Style Pieces II from the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs)
-B&W and Read All-Over (music: David Wescott – Passage Of The Red Sea)
-Full Blown (music: Six Finger Satellite – Pulling A Train)
-Cutthroat (music: Broadcast – Microtronics 02)
-The Old One-Two (music: Flowers/Morgan – Activity Three)A few other notes…
– I think something like Hole In The Road puts this project into it’s proper context. Most people trace the roots of hip hop to Jamaica and the DJ who “toasted” over b-side dub versions of singles. That’s exactly what this is. It’s a following of that older tradition that pre-dates hip hop as we know it now.
– What Grace Means is a song for my new niece. It’s just for her.
– Suspect features Claire reading a nursery rhyme that comes from a
Canadian children’s book (from the Sixties, I think) called Garbage
Delight by Dennis Lee. A classic…* WARNING – F.O.S. is an exorcism and contains strong language!
– The little spoken word clip at the beginning of The Ole One-Two
comes from a Charles Bukowski recording.Enjoy.
Buck
