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Patrick Rodgers

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Krooked Drivers

Right Beneath Your Feet
Gravitas Recordings

By Patrick Rodgers
Dec 5, 2013

Right Beneath Your Feet , the new six-song EP from Krooked Drivers, is packed with big-beat styles that take a hip-hop head's sensibility for sample chopping and merge it with the kind of thick synth bass and pad washes that have taken over the post-dubstep world. The duo's intricately layered...
RUMTUM's John Thomas: "I'm just a nerd behind a computer and samplers"

By Patrick Rodgers
Oct 3, 2013

John Thomas remembers standing stage-side at Red Rocks, staring at a sea of bodies gyrating to the music of Tycho as he warmed up the crowd for Sound Tribe Sector Nine and marveling at the surrealism of the whole experience. "I'm at Red Rocks talking to Gold Panda and Dave...
Sole

WHITENOISE: nomoredystopias
Self-released

By Patrick Rodgers
Oct 3, 2013

For WHITENOISE, his newest release, Sole takes a surprising turn away from his usual far-left political-theory rhymes and gangster-chic production, offering instead a lo-fi, left-field, all-instrumental album. No longer spitting about Paris communes or the prison-industrial complex, he nonetheless gets his point across through overlaid vocal samples and song titles...
Late Night Radio

Far Into the Night
Self-released

By Patrick Rodgers
Aug 29, 2013

As Late Night Radio, producer Alex Medellin combines the sensibilities of big beat with a distinctive crate-digger twist. He seamlessly blends traditional hip-hop samples like funk guitars, horn stabs and heartbroken vocal strands with such contemporary flourishes as thick, crisp saw basses and bleeping arpeggiation. "To the Moon" is anchored...
Meet Patrick Lee, a musical loner who loves playing for a crowd

By Patrick Rodgers
Aug 26, 2013

Patrick Lee has taken a Jekyll and Hyde approach to music. He leads several musical lives that rarely intersect -- so much so that you could see him in one context and not recognize him in the next. There's Patrick Lee, the virtuoso piano/organ/keyboard player, who views live music as...
Goer

Adapter
Self-released

By Patrick Rodgers
Aug 15, 2013

Goer returns from a brief hiatus with a more contemplative, polished approach to its cavernous, post-Radiohead, lo-fi electro-indie pop. The percussion work on opener "Fill Your Cravings," for instance, incorporates more jazz and trip-hop than the frenetic style found on previous EPs Cove and Like Minds. The use of delay...
Qknox

On a Remote Frequency Outpost in Space
Self-released

By Patrick Rodgers
Jul 11, 2013

For those in search of a chill soundtrack to fight the summer heat, the prolific Qknox has delivered right on time. From back-room, cool-jazz musings to pulsing, post-Dilla neck-snappers, the eight tracks that make up On a Remote Frequency Outpost in Space deliver across the spectrum of beat-driven possibility. The...
DJ Babyshoe launches Shoeboxx Recordings next week with Real Cosby's new album

By Patrick Rodgers
May 23, 2013

There are many different versions of DJ Babyshoe running around Denver, depending on who you ask and when they last saw him. On any given weekend, Babyshoe (aka Eric Talledo) is crisscrossing the city spinning forgotten hits at the Lost Lake, playing a party hosted by TheHundred or unleashing late...
Grey Sinatra & HoTT

Diamonds and Beats
Self-released

By Patrick Rodgers
May 2, 2013

"Opening Gem" is the first track on the Grey Sinatra/HoTT collaboration Diamonds and Beats, and the song lives up to its title. Producer Sinatra shows restraint in the beat, letting a somber piano carry the weight until drums begin to trickle in almost a minute later, adding extra weight to...
Alphabets

400YEN
Cargo Collective

By Patrick Rodgers
Mar 21, 2013

400YEN, a five-track release from Alphabets, plays like the soundtrack to a robot-noir film. The title tune, a stylistic permutation of psychedelic DIY traptronica, is densely packed with gritty 808 bass frequencies and claustrophobic synth flickers that evoke a sense of place in the form of streetlights reflecting on the...
The five best jail-inspired musician memoirs

By Patrick Rodgers
Mar 14, 2013

Pop culture incrementally improved the chances that books would outlive CDs when news spread that Lil Wayne had inked a deal to write a memoir about the eight months he spent locked up on gun charges. Titled Gone 'Til November, the book is scheduled to be released in May. While...
Tatanka

Cloudless Thunder
Self-released

By Patrick Rodgers
Mar 14, 2013

With Cloudless Thunder, the members of Tatanka show how much they've grown as a band since 2011's John Dunbar. The intro track, "Border Run," is a perfect example of how the act has gotten tighter as a unit since the last record, swinging with a dancehall bass line and playful...
While there have been a hundred Jay-Z mash-ups, American Gangster by Big J Beats stands out

By Patrick Rodgers
Mar 11, 2013

Contrary to trends among rising hip-hop artists these days, Big J Beats doesn't flood the internet with a new song or mixtape every other week. But despite the shortage of releases, he's definitely prolific, and it turns out his hard drive is a gold mine of unreleased gems, including American...
Dawn Safari

Tangerine Haze
Sublimated Sounds

By Patrick Rodgers
Mar 7, 2013

With each release, Dawn Safari blazes trails farther into the mushroom forest of dream bass, the self-described subgenre for his spacey brand of beats. His newest project, Tangerine Haze, is a three-track EP that further hones the aesthetic he solidified on Make Belief last fall: clever bass lines, thick washes...
Skyrider

The Tower
Self-Released

By Patrick Rodgers
Feb 28, 2013

From its opening salvo — the crushing sub-bass-and-glitch monster "Diamonds" — Skyrider's The Tower explores some deep, dark corners in the halls of electronic beatcraft. Seamlessly melding hip-hop, dubstep, industrial, glitch and various bass-heavy subgenres, the instrumental mixtape pairs a steadily throbbing low end with intricately layered samples and brighter...
Glucose owns a sensory deprivation chamber! Find out how his day job alters his music

By Patrick Rodgers
Feb 26, 2013

Glucose (aka Ben Gleason) makes hallucination-inspired music, so it's seems only fitting that for a living he owns and operates an isolation tank -- yeah, just like Altered States, only without William Hurt or the primal-DNA time portals. It's a job that leaves him plenty of time to work on...
A unicorn bumping and grinding -- I never thought I'd see that. Thanks, Artopia 2013!

By Patrick Rodgers
Feb 25, 2013

With Artopia's dense schedule, it's important to get limber. You can't rush into things. Pulling a muscle or getting a cramp early could mean missing all too many things. Much like a herd of wildebeests in migration, there is no forgiveness for being slow because time -- like a lion...
Twin Peaks

Lifetaking
Self-Released

By Patrick Rodgers
Feb 20, 2013

Twin Peaks kicks off the new year with a five-track EP that weaves pop, prog, no-wave and grunge into a tapestry that tells a tale of the group's creativity and technical proficiency. On "Noir Echoes," which clocks in at a hearty seven and a half minutes, the hard-rocking refrain plunges...
The misappropriation of country music: Kid Rock opened the doors for Mumford & Sons

By Patrick Rodgers
Feb 15, 2013

Country music used to have its own distinct identity, one that was tied to rich traditions of lonesome country roads, hard work, low pay and drinking. These days it's a black hole of insipidity. Following the Grammys, the Lumineers and Mumford & Sons are now reportedly making inroads on country...
Various Artists

Visions
Dirty//Clean Records

By Patrick Rodgers
Jan 24, 2013

Each member of electronic-music collective/label Dirty//Clean contributes a tune to its newest sampler comp, Visions, showcasing the individuality of each as well as the sonic tendencies that bind the crew together. A celebration of bass-music iconoclasm ensues. Amor, Est.'s "Amnesia Wreck" is intense, morphing from total cacophony into a listener-friendly...
Qknox

Qknox
Self-released

By Patrick Rodgers
Jan 17, 2013

Qknox's self-titled beat tape is an extravaganza of skills: finessing keys, chopping samples and programming tight rhythms. The producer effortlessly blends jazz and hip-hop, fusing them with more experimental, post-Dilla wonky futurism to create something that's equal parts chill and bouncy. While his passion for crate-digging is evident on cuts...
Meet Real Cosby, a local producer making dynamic, retro-futuristic, experimental house

By Patrick Rodgers
Jan 9, 2013

Real Cosby's new four-track EP, MmmmLuvv, is a dynamic, mind-blowing masterpiece of retro-futuristic experimental house in the vein of acts like Daphni (aka Caribou) and Four Tet. The elastic bass lines, disembodied vocal samples and organic sense of sentiment make it eminently listenable. This local producer (aka Paul Banker) immediately...