By DJ Fusion
What’s the word Planet Ill?
It’s time during this first week of March 2010 (and happily, slowly getting closer to spring) to hit the masses again with another weekly installment of Indiesent Exposure.
For those who are new to this section, this is the weekly music column where folks drop some FREE music downloads & information about quality artists from the Independent Music Community who deserve more exposure and props for keeping their art lively & original.
Hopefully by each post, Planet Ill’s Indiesent Exposure will give your ears temporary respite from the daily wackness, boredom and/or iCoonery that bombards the masses through the mainstream radio and TV airwaves’ definitions of Hip-Hop, Soul, Funk, Jazz, Rock, Reggae, House, World Music, etc.
If you like what you hear & download (some joints of which will hopefully be new to folks), PLEASE support these artists as much as you can- hit up their websites, purchase some product, go to their shows, etc. At the end of the day, music artists need to eat like everyone else for putting in their work.
For this week’s Indiesent Exposure session, we have 2 free EP/sampler releases and 1 free mixtape that collectively touch base on the Hip-Hop, Jazz and Funk groove ends of the music spectrum and hopefully, will be able to get heads interested in more the artists’ catalogs of material…
Please check out everything below from these talented artists and let the Planet Ill family know what you think when you get the chance – hope everyone enjoys the selections!
Let’s get into it:
Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Johnny Polygon has been making noise as being a pretty dope MC/producer/singer for the past year who’s been contributing a cool and unique slice of latter-era Hip-Hop music.
Starting off his career grinding in the Midwest’s indie music scene in conjunction with traveling and working in LA and NYC, Johnny Polygon ended up being “discovered” & signed by DJ Green Lantern to his Invasion Music Group collective.
Ever since I received the promo of his Group Hug EP (which heads should check out, by the way) around 6 months ago, I’ve been wondering why in the hell has Johnny Polygon been more or less quiet in regards dropping any new complete solo music material for others to see what’s going on with him.
He has been keeping busy, doing everything from putting in work with Dead Prez and Nas on their last albums and touring around solidifying more and more of his fan base.
The Rebel Without Applause mixtape is Johnny Polygon’s latest work and contains mostly a bunch of brand new tracks along with a track or 2 from the Group Hug EP.
Johnny Polygon’s music has a pretty solid mix of pretty spaced out Hip-Hop, Electro and Rock Music production values paired with a nicely adaptable flow as an MC. As far as his singing goes, he does a pretty straight job sans autotune…kinda Pharrell-ish but lower on the octave scale.
Dude is definitely an oddball, but he’s himself, which is rare in Hip-Hop’s creative arena , regardless of whether a music act is signed onto a “major” label or doing indie distro to get out there.
Not too insane, but also not on some pretentious art-school type of vibe with his music and subject matter, Johnny’s kind of like that weird cat who always smoked trees in your dorm but was cool enough to share a swig of Cask & Cream with you while just telling a bunch of crazy stories.
Hopefully, some extra PR and other positive moves can get him more recognition in the mainstream music arena and beyond….only time will well.
If you’re digging this project, find out more about what’s going down with Johnny Polygon with extra music, videos and other whatnot over at his official website, http://www.JohnnyPolygonOnline.com.
Johnny Polygon – Rebel Without Applause (Download; Backup Download)
Tracklisting:
1. There Go Johnny Polygon (prod. By Green Lantern) *
2. Johnny Polygon feat. Gabe Real – Get There *
3. Johnny Polygon feat. Amanda Diva – Get Right
4. That’s You *
5. At It Again (prod. By DJMFShalem)
6. A*s On The Flo
7. The Riot Song *
8. Get Over
9. Unfortunate Fame *
10. That’s What Girls Do
11. Night Off *
12. Johnny Polygon feat. Gabe Real – We Got It
13. Johnny Polygon feat. Gabe Real – The Meaning of Life
14. Johnny Polygon feat. Kid Cudi – Riot Song RMX
15. Kids Broken Hearted *
16. To You… (Strings Arranged By Gabe Real) *
17. Johnny Polygon feat. Amanda Diva – Blvd Broad (prod. By Sympath By The Conductor)
18. Smile (prod. By Sho’ Tyme) *
* personal favorite tracks
Music Video #1: Johnny Polygon – The Riot Song
Music Video #2: Johnny Polygon – That’s You
The United Kingdom’s (Bristol to be specific) Smerins Anti-Social Club is a 9-piece band that with their musical influences of heads like The JBs, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sly & The Family Stone, King Tubby puts together a pretty nice slice of music that ranges from straight Funk to Disco to Jazzy Dub types of landscapes.
I ran into their music during another one of my Bandcamp web travels of musical whimsy (glad someone told them to put in categories for people to search for different genres) and discovered a lot of their work is on there for free or pretty cheap.
As a fan of musical talent, I gravitated towards the live album on the ‘site, which gives pretty quality introduction to what audio goodness Smerins Anti-Social Club offers.
From mid-tempo stompers like “The Whale”, “Arse Concerto””slow burn from a dramatic jazz track to Saturday Night Fever disco action and the ska of “Pavlov’s Plums, the crew definitely show they have the chops to be both diverse and interesting without sacrificing any sort of genuine feel and fun to the music.
Find out more about what’s good with Smerins Anti-Social Club over at their official website at http://www.Smerins.com.
Smerins Anti-Social Club – Smerins Anti-Social Club LIVE!!! (Download)
Tracklisting:
1. Arse Concerto
2. The Whale *
3. Codename Risky *
4. Pavlov’s Plums
* personal favorite tracks
Music Video #1: Smerins Anti-Social Club – The Alibi
Music Video #2: Smerins Anti-Social Club – Dr. Who
Remember about a few years ago (approximately 2007 to pinpoint things) when a Washington, DC Poet and MC by the name of Bomani “D’mite” Armah made a huge stir when his song and music video for “Read A Book” it premiered on BET’s 106 & Park?
People on both sides of the fence – those who didn’t want to be told what they should do by anyone and the regular contingent of Black Media types and whatnot who complain about ANYTHING related to Hip-Hop – got pretty annoyed with the indie musician whose satire and message apparently touched home with too many people.
AND Bomani had the NERVE to do it to a pretty damned good Southern Crunk Hip-Hop production and style that actually sampled Beethoven’s Symphony #5 (hell of a way to not pay for sample clearance) you could hear at the time on any mainstream radio station.
In between the release of the Radio Friendly LP after the single dropped to now, Bomani has been doing a lot of work collaborating with other musicians as both a solo artist, in groups and through building with others via his own Park Triangle Productions multimedia studio.
The Bomani Armah + DJ RBI Presents: New Classic Mixtape Sampler is a preview to the full New Classic Mixtape mixtape release later on this month.
Working off the inspiration that started in the Fall of 2009 to rhyming to classic breakbeat flips by WPFW 89.3 FM’s DJ RBI of everything from James Brown’s “Funky Drummer”, Melvin Bliss’ “Synthetic Substitution” and more, the sampler definitely has an old school Boom Bap style vibe to it that luckily doesn’t really sound dated.
Along with Bomani’s skillful engaging delivery and topics on each track, it definitely shows that he’s more than the Black Weird Al Yankovic title people still want to place on him to this day and as an well-rounded artist to be on the lookout for the future.
Check out more of the latest of what’s happening with Bomani Armah’s music, performances, writing and other good business over at his official website, http://www.NotARapper.com.
Bomani Armah + DJ RBI Presents: New Classic Mixtape Sampler (Download)
Tracklisting:
1. Ghetto *
2. God Made Me Funky *
3. Talkin’ ‘Bout Change
* personal favorite tracks
Music Video #1: Bomani Armah – Read A Book
Music Video #2: Bomani Armah – Grown Ass Man
DJ Fusion’s E-Mail: fuseboxradio@gmail.com
DJ Fusion is the creator and co-host/mix DJ of the syndicated FuseBox Radio Broadcast (http://FuseBoxRadio.podomatic.com/ for the radio show archives) and the website BlackRadioIsBack.com, two areas trying to fight audio B.S. one day at a time…check folks out around either way when you can. 🙂
Also feel free to touch base with a sis on the Twitter Expressway at http://twitter.com/FuseBoxRadio.
If you dig the music vibe I’m on & want to download some free mixtapes from the FuseBox Radio/BlackRadioIsBack.com collective, hit up my constantly updated Bandcamp page over at http://FuseBoxRadioBroadcast.bandcamp.com.
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