#skech185

[beatsforbrothels]

SKECH185 - Up To Speed

[thesearenotphotographs]

Armand Hammer, Cavalier, Duncecap, SKECH185, and Henry Canyons at Union Pool

On Sunday, June 23, 2024, Union Pool’s annual Summer Thunder series continued with a free show headlined by Armand Hammer (billy woods & Elucid). The duo were joined by fellow Backwoodz Studioz artists Cavalier (who flew in from New Orleans for the show), Duncecap, plus SKECH185 and Henry Canyons (who were both backed by DJ Samurai Banana). The concert unfortunately fell on the final day of a heatwave but those who attended seemed to have a fun time despite the oppressive heat, with many people lining up at least an hour before doors opened, and staying behind after their set to buy merchandise directly from woods and Elucid. The New York Times highlighted the performance in their weekend roundup a few days before.

Armand Hammer were scheduled to perform a Summer Thunder show at Union Pool on Sunday, July 10, 2022, but the venue suffered fire damage nine days before this date and closed for about a month. I was excited to see that the duo rescheduled the missed date in this year’s edition.

Images I captured for Union Pool can be found here, and I am extremely grateful to Anna of UP for asking me to cover this special show.

Union Pool’s Summer Thunder series continues tomorrow (Sunday, July 7th) with a performance by Joe Bataan. Images I created last year of Bataan performing on Union Pool’s patio last July can be found here. They recently announced that Sun Ra Arkestra will be returning yet again on Sunday, August 25th to close out this year’s Summer Thunder series (photos from their sets last year are here). Details for 8/25 are available here, plus here’s Union Pool’s calendar for all of their upcoming events.

[culturedarm]

Jaffar Hussain Randhawa unfurls raags on a foggy winter afternoon from the rooftop of his house in Shahdara, Fatima Al Qadiri pairs up with her fellow Kuwaiti vocalist Gumar for an homage to lamentation singing as restive airs ruminate around the theme of unrequited love, and Kalia Vandever finds a sonorous bridge between cosmic jazz in the devotional vein of Turiya Sings by Alice Coltrane and ‘The Anchor Song’ by Björk, shafts of light stretching homeward to dispel the tenebrous gloom. Plus Jane Ira Bloom, Mark Helias, and Bobby Previte, Julian Lage, and Seljuk Rustum.

https://culturedarm.com/tracks-of-the-week-04-02-23/

[defjux]

I made a post yesterday asking if anyone would be interested in a playlist of lesser known hip hop, essentially only artists that have under 50k monthly listeners. Over 5 people seemed to at least have a passing interest which was good enough for me, so here's the playlist. The playlist has over 80 different artists at the moment, 3 songs each. I'll add more as i think of/discover them but figured this is good enough for now. Let me know if you discover anything new from this, or who you would add. I'll put the full list of artists at the bottom of this post too. Peace.

AKAI SOLO | Ace Cannons | AJ Suede | Amani | Anwar HighSigh/Has-lo | Archibald Slim | Big Kahuna OG | Bloodmoney Perez | Blue November | Bxnjamin | Brainorchestra | Brian Ennals | Cambatta | Cappo | Cavalier | Cunabear | Daniel Son | Day Tripper | Defcee | Demahjiae | Denmark Vessey | Duncecap | Fatboi Sharif | Gabe 'Nandez | Googie | Greensllime | Hemlock Ernst | Henny L.O. | IAMGAWD | Ill Conscious | illingsworth | Ja'king the Divine | Jack Jetson | Joshua Virtue | KILLVONGARD | Kashmere | Kipp Stone | Koncept Jack$on | The Koreatown Oddity | Lando Chill | Lee Scott | Lord Kayso | Lt. Headtrip | Lukah | Lungs | Maassai | Mary Sue | maassai | Mattic | McKinley Dixon | Melanin 9 | MidaZ the BEAST | Moses Rockwell | Nakama | Nappy Nina | Na$ty | Nickelus F | Noveliss | OKnice | Obijuan | Oliver the 2nd | Onry Ozzborn | Papo2oo4 | Paranom | Phiik | Qthree | Rap Man Gavin | Rhys Langston | Rich Jones | Rob Cave | SHIRT | Shemar | ShrapKnel | Skech185 | SolarFive | Soop Dread | Stik Figa | Sunmundi | SWAMPTHUG | Teddy Faley | Teller Bank$ | Theravada | Tree | UGLYFRANK | Unsung | Vic Spencer | Von Pea | Waterr | Willyynova | Zeroh | Zilla Rocca

[caltropspress]

CALTROPS 15!

Issue 15 of the Caltrops zine is AVAILABLE NOW. Hit the DM on the usual accounts or email caltropspress@gmail.com to cop.

This is a Backwoodz Studioz SPECIAL ISSUE featuring interviews with such indie rap stalwarts as SKECH185, Defcee, Curly Castro, PremRock, and Duncecap.

[dustedmagazine]

Dusted Mid-Year 2023, Part Three (The Lists)

Natural Information Society

Swapping records is fun, but when it comes down to it, we like what we like.  What’s that?  Glad you asked.  Read on for our writers’ mid-year favorites.    

Jennifer Kelly

Meg Baird — Furling (Drag City)

Robert Forster — The Candle and the Flame (Tapete) 

The Drin — Today My Friend You Drunk the Venom (Feel It)

En Attendant Ana — Principia (Trouble in Mind)

Stella Kola—S-T (Self-Release)

Mudhoney — Plastic Eternity (Sub Pop)

Sleaford Mods — UK Grim (Domino)

The Tubs — Dead Meat (Trouble in Mind)

Nighttime — Keeper Is the Heart (BaDaBing)

Purling Hiss — Drag on Girard (Drag City)

Lonnie Holley — Oh Me Oh My (Jagjaguwar)

The Toads—In the Wilderness (Upset the Rhythm)

Dan Melchior—Welcome to Redacted City (Midnight Cruiser)

James and the Giants—S-T (Kill Rock Stars)

Ben Chasny and Rick Tomlinson—Waves (VOIX)

Bill Meyer

Natural Information Society — Since Time Is Gravity (Eremite)

Elkhorn — On the Whole Universe in All Directions (Centripetal Force)

Meg Baird — Furling (Drag City)

Robert Forster — The Candle and the Flame (Tapete) 

The Necks — Travel (Northern Spy)

Milford Graves — Children of the Forest (Black Editions)

Peter Brötzman  Heather Leigh — Naked Nudes (Trost)

Yo La Tengo — This Stupid World (Matador)

Magic Tuber Band — Tarantism (Feeding Tube)

Drew Gardner — Flowers in Space (Feeding Tube)

Jozef Van Wissem and Jim Jarmusch — American Landscapes (Incunambulum)

Dave Rempis/Elisabeth Harnik/Tim Daisy — Earscratcher (Aerophonic)

Alasdair Roberts — Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall (Drag City)

Jonathan Shaw

BIG BRAVE — nature morte (Thrill Jockey)

Wound Man — Human Outline (Iron Lung) 

Gel — Only Constant (Convulse)

Home Front — Games of Power (La Vida Es Un Mus)

Sleaford Mods — UK Grim (Domino)

Spirit Possession — Of the Sign… (Profound Lore)

Bryon Hayes

Yo La Tengo — This Stupid World (Matador)

Big Blood — First Aid Kit (Feeding Tube / BaDaBing)

Meg Baird — Furling (Drag City)

Califone — Villagers (Jealous Butcher)

M. Sage — Paradise Crick (RVNG Intl.)

The Reds, Pinks & Purples — The Town That Cursed Your Name (Slumberland)

John Atkinson — Energy Fields (AKP Recordings)

Joseph Allred — What Strange Flowers Grow in the Shade (Feeding Tube)

The Far Sound — The Far Sound (Centripetal Force)

Ulaan Khol — Milk Thistle (Desastre)

Powers / Pulice / Rolin — Prism (Cached Media)

Lia Kohl — The Ceiling Reposes (American Dreams)

Tim Clarke

Jana Horn — The Window Is The Dream (No Quarter)

Arrowounds — In The Octopus Pond (Lost Tribe Sound)

Meg Baird — Furling (Drag City)

Pile — All Fiction (Exploding In Sound)

Tim Hecker — No Highs (Kranky)

Califone — Villagers (Jealous Butcher)

King Krule — Space Heavy (XL/Matador)

This Is The Kit — Careful Of Your Keepers (Rough Trade)

Cory Hanson — Western Cum (Drag City)

Andy Shauf — Norm (Anti-)

Patrick Masterson

Pile —  All Fiction (Exploding in Sound)

Yves Tumor — Praise a Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) (Warp)

Wednesday — Rat Saw God (Dead Oceans)

Jayda G — Guy (Ninja Tune)

Ryuichi Sakamoto — 12 (Milan)

Malla — Fresko (Solina)

Skech185 — He Left Nothing for the Swim Back (Backwoodz Studioz)

Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru — Jerusalem (Mississippi)

Meg Baird — Furling (Drag City)

Andrea — Due in Color (Ilian Tape)

Memphis LK — Too Much Fun EP (Remote Control)

BigXthaPlug — Amar (United Masters)

Andrew Forell

Algiers — Shook (Matador)

King Vision Ultra — Shook World (Hosted by Algiers)

Asher Gamedze — Turbulence & Pulse (International Anthem)

99LETTERS — Makafushigi (Disciples)

The Drin— Today My Friend You Drunk the Venom (Drunken Sailor)

Comet Gain — The Misfit Jukebox (Tapete)

billy woods & Kenny Segal — Maps (Backwoodz Studioz)

Kevin Richard Martin — Above the Clouds (self-released)

SQÜRL — Silver Haze (Sacred Bones)

The Murder Capital — Gigi’s Recovery (Human Season)

Parasite Jazz — Paradise Jazz (Disques de la Spirale)

Christian Carey

The Reds, Pinks, and Purples — The Town that Cursed Your Name (Slumberland)

Aaron Cassidy —  A Way of Making Ghosts (Kairos)

Arrowounds —  In the Octopus Pond (Settled Scores)

V/A – Red Hot and Ra: Nuclear War LP (Red Hot)

Oval —  Romantiq (Thrill Jockey)

Meg Baird —  Furling (Drag City)

Black Duck —  S/T (Thrill Jockey)

Mother, Sister, Daughter —  Musica Secreta (Lucky Music)

Natural Information Society – Since Time is Gravity (Eremite)

Alasdair Roberts —  Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall (Drag City)

Fever Ray —  Radical Romantics (Mute)

James Romig —  Spaces (Sawyer Editions)

Brad Mehldau —  Your Mother Should Know (Nonesuch)

Nina Berman and Steve Beck —  Milton Babbitt: Works for Treble Voice and Piano (New Focus)

Marc Ducret —  Palm Sweat (Out of Your Head)

Jennifer Grim —  Through Broken Time (New Focus)

Erkki — Sven Tüür: Canticum Canticorum Caritatis (Alpha Classics)

James Ilgenfritz —  #entrainments (Frequent Seams)

Brandon Lopez —  vilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevilevile (TAO Forms)

Lonnie Holley —  Oh Me Oh My (Jagjaguwar)

John Liberatore —  Catch Somewhere (New Focus Recordings)

Sebastian Rochford, Kit Downes —  A Short Diary (ECM Records)

Frederic Rzewski —  Late Piano Works (Naxos)

Rebecca Saunders —  Skin (NMC)

Guided by Voices —  La La Land (self— released)

Susan Narucki and Donald Berman —  This Island (Avie)

Chamber Music From Hell —  Chris Opperman (Purple Cow)

Elkhorn —  On the Whole Universe in All Directions (Centripetal Force)

Purling Hiss —  Drag on Girard (Drag City)

Caterina Barbieri —  Myuthafoo (light-years)

Yo La Tengo — This Stupid World (Matador)

Ian Mathers

Fifteen, in alphabetical order:

Aarktica — Paeans (Projekt)

Acid King — Beyond Vision (Blues Funeral)

ALL HANDS_MAKE LIGHT — “Darling the Dawn” (Constellation)

Avalon Emerson — & the Charm (Another Dove)

Brìghde Chaimbeul — Carry Them With Us (Tak:til)

The Drin — Today My Friend You Drunk the Venom (Feel It)

Ladytron — Time’s Arrow (Cooking Vinyl)

loscil // Lawrence English — Colours of Air (Kranky)

Meg Baird — Furling (Drag City)

Mute Duo — Migrant Flocks (American Dreams)

The National — First Two Pages of Frankenstein (4AD)

Tacoma Park — Tacoma Park (Self Released)

Tørrfall — Tørrfall (De Pene Inngang)

Yo La Tengo — This Stupid World (Matador)

Yves Tumor — Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) (Warp)

Derek Taylor

New releases

Kirk Knuffke & Joe McPhee Quartet + 1 — Keep the Dream Up (Fundacja Sluchaj)

Natural Information Society — Time is Gravity (Eremite/Aguirre)

Aruán Ortiz — Serranias — Sketchbook for Piano Trio (Intakt)

Mark Dresser — Tines of Change (Pyroclastic)

Andrew Cyrille — Music Delivery/Percussion (Intakt)

Steve Millhouse — The Undwinding (Steeplechase) 

Archival Releases

The Jazz Doctors — Intensive Care/Prescriptions Filled: The Billy Bang Quartet Sessions 1983/1984 (Cadillac)

Milford Graves w/ Arthur Doyle & Hugh Glover — Children of the Forest (Black Editions)

Abdul Wadud — By Myself (Bisharra/Gotta Groove)

Sirone — Artistry (Of the Cosmos/Moved By Sound)

Marion Brown — Mary Ann: Live in Bremen 1969 (Moosicus)

Steve Swell’s Fire Into Music — For Jemeel: Fire From the Road (2005-2006) (RogueArt)

Margaret Welsh

Wheatie Mattiasich — Old Glow (Open Mouth)

Rozi Plain — Prize (Memphis Industries)

Glass Triangle — Blue and Sun-lights  (Relative Pitch)

Andy Shauf — Norm (Anti)

Yo La Tengo — This Stupid World (Matador)

Horse Jumper of Love —Heartbreak Rules (Run for Cover)

Bill Orcutt  — Jump On It (Palilalia)

Lana Del Rey — Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (Interscope)

[fornowrecords]

https://ift.tt/SAXlG0g

[beatsforbrothels]

Sleep Sinatra & Bloomcycle - Origins (ft. PremRock & Skech185)

[culturedarm]

The trumpeter Enrico Rava and pianist Fred Hersch interpret the lilting romance of ‘The Song Is You’ by Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern, the saxophonist Sam Gendel slips inside the squelching bass and cascading shower head of ‘Anywhere’ by 112 and Lil’ Zane, and Lori Goldston goes long with her Pacific Northwest collaborator Greg Kelley for the visceral strains and gossamer improvisations of All Points Leaning In. Plus Skech185, Jeff Markey, Lia Kohl, Deerhoof, and Vladislav Delay.

https://culturedarm.com/tracks-of-the-week-22-01-23/

[defjux]

Who are your top 5 rappers? Or top 10 if that's easier

sure, here's 10 in no specfic order Breeze Brewin DOOM Aesop Rock billy woods Pharoahe Monch Black Thought Serengeti Posdnuos Ghostface Killah Zeroh

the list of honorable mentions/artists that could occupy that number 10 spot is long though. shout out to Aceyalone, Mos Def, Jam Baxter, Redman, Ka, RAP Ferreira, ELUCID, Mach-Hommy, Lupe, Open Mike Eagle, Nickelus F, Cavalier, Earl, MIKE, Cities Aviv, Navy Blue, El-P, Vordul Mega, AKAI SOLO, Skech185, Noveliss, Quelle Chris, Denmark Vessey, Defcee, Roc Marciano, Blu, Sean Price, Onry Ozzborn, Edan, Guru, Killah Priest, Del, and all of the other artists that have made any kind of significant impact on me.

[caltropspress]

RAPS + CRAFTS #14: SKECH185

1. Introduce yourself. Past projects? Current projects?

Hey, I’m Willie McIntyre Jr. but on stage I am SKECH185. I grew up largely in Chicago, in neighborhoods on its South Side, but I am now a New York resident for the last 9 years. I am a part of a 6-man crew called Tomorrow Kings, a duo called War Church, a duo with producer Jeff Markey and have worked with various labels (Galapagos4, Fieldwerk, ReServed, Backwoodz) over the last 18 years. My most recent project is entitled He Left Nothing For The Swim Back.

2. Where do you write? Do you have a routine time you write? Do you discipline yourself, or just let the words come when they will? Do you typically write on a daily basis?

A lot of my writing is done at coffee shops. Being at home is far too distracting because there is always something to clean or arrange, etc. I usually start my day by hitting the gym and then writing for a couple of hours. There is no guarantee that I will write a full verse or a verse that I love when I write, but I write daily as a matter of improving my techniques or experimenting with new ways to phrase things or deliver lines. I maintain a level of discipline with it in hopes of being able to steadily evolve my style.

3. What’s your medium—pen and paper, laptop, on your phone? Or do you compose a verse in your head and keep it there until it’s time to record?

I will write in my head and in my phone but all verses eventually make it on paper. It's the only way I can finalize and edit and it's the only way I’ll remember the cadence or timing of some bars.

4. Do you write in bars, or is it more disorganized than that?

I write in bar-looking structures but some lines are two bars that I will leave as one long line because it is a complete thought. I do a lot of scratching out and writing new pieces and notes in the margins too.

5. How long into writing a verse or a song do you know it’s not working out the way you had in mind? Do you trash the material forever, or do you keep the discarded material to be reworked later?

There is no real time I can think of. Sometimes you can just tell it's working. Sometimes you're trying to be aimlessly intelligent and miss the mark. Sometimes simple for effect is lazy. I will always perform surgery on a verse and pull out lines that work. I tend to write bar by bar so every bar can stand on its own as a thought. I rework material all of the time and I will mine from old verses if what I’m writing at that moment fits with older material.

6. Have you engaged with any other type of writing, whether presently or in the past? Fiction? Poetry? Playwriting? If so, how has that mode influenced your songwriting?

I’ve only done op-ed type of writing and, perhaps, poetry for school.

7. How much editing do you do after initially writing a verse/song? Do you labor over verses, working on them over a long period of time, or do you start and finish a piece in a quick burst?

I edit verses anywhere from 2 to 5 times and I do different types of edits (edits for flow, originality, accuracy, progress, and ambition).

8. Do you write to a beat, or do you adjust and tweak lyrics to fit a beat?

I usually write in silence. I will listen to a beat and memorize the pockets, tone and drum pattern then write in silence until I have an idea about how I want to structure the song.

9. What dictates the direction of your lyrics? Are you led by an idea or topic you have in mind beforehand? Is it stream-of-consciousness? Is what you come up with determined by the constraint of the rhymes?

The beat will often tell you to write to it. With that in mind I will also hear beats and I will recognize a verse or song that was written that fits it. I rarely keep a stream of consciousness rhyme but that will often be a jumping-off point. There aren’t too many constraints in my rhymes; my chorus and bridge structures depend on how much I can pull out of the beat based on how it services the rhyme approach or subject.

10. Do you like to experiment with different forms and rhyme schemes, or do you keep your bars free and flexible?

Every rhyme is an experiment and exercise of some sort. That is what keeps it fun for me.

11. What’s a verse you’re particularly proud of, one where you met the vision for what you desire to do with your lyrics?

The first verse on “High John The Conqueror Speaks” on my War Church album Gunship Diplomacy. It was one of the moments in which I felt like I actually contributed something new to hip-hop. It was something that only I could have done.

12. Can you pick a favorite bar of yours and describe the genesis of it?

“At a distance, even the greatest man is just an ant.”

While getting my degree, I had to take an art history class in which we spent a brief moment learning about painters who focused on painting scenes of the sublime. The idea of realizing nature and the universe is so much of a humbling experience that I had to throw it in a rhyme.

13. Do you feel strongly one way or another about punch-ins? Will you whittle a bar down in order to account for breath control, or are you comfortable punching-in so you don’t have to sacrifice any words?

None of that matters to me at all. As long as it sounds cool that is all that will be remembered.

14. What non-hiphop material do you turn to for inspiration? What non-music has influenced your work recently?

Groups like Protomartyr, Radiohead, Coltrane, Miles Davis, Moses Sumney, Animal Collective, Arms… A lot of post punk, a lot of comic books. Podcasts. Old Dick Gregory interviews. I have, as of late, been obsessed with watching interviews from the 60s and 70s because there is something to seeing a person speak about something when they don’t know when the next time they will speak is. There is gravity to it that I find important still.

15. Writers are often saddled with self-doubt. Do you struggle to like your own shit, or does it all sound dope to you?

My biggest fear is making something that people can find somewhere else. By the time it gets recorded, I’m confident in performing it in front of a full house based on the quality. I worry about making songs that sound similar the most.

16. Who’s a rapper you listen to with such a distinguishable style that you need to resist the urge to imitate them?

Teddy Faley and my brothers in Tomorrow Kings

17. Do you have an agenda as an artist? Are there overarching concerns you want to communicate to the listener?

I don’t have an agenda but I am very opinionated. I just want to illustrate what being human means to me and maybe start a couple fires along the way.

RAPS + CRAFTS is a series of questions posed to rappers about their craft and process. It is designed to give respect and credit to their engagement with the art of songwriting. The format is inspired, in part, by Rob McLennan’s 12 or 20 interview series.

Photo credit: Fresh Kils