Robot Koch
Robert Koch’s nom de beat, “Robot,” is more than a play on words. If it was just that, it’d be stupid. The idea of an indeterminate grey area between human and machine pervades every element of his...
View ArticleYura Yura Teikoku – Hollow Me / Beautiful
In their native Japan, Yura Yura Teikoku are twenty-year psych-rock veterans, beloved above-ground vets with a ten-album discography revered for the sort of obstinate high quality of Sonic Youth more...
View ArticleR.A. The Rugged Man
R.A. the Rugged Man is one of those legendary lost-in-the-shuffle rap auteurs, a story of absolute incompatibility with record labels probably exacerbated by his silly name, his insiders-only rap style...
View ArticleBeak – Beak
It’s impossible to listen to Beak and not search for traces of Geoff Barrow’s other, slightly more epochal outfit, Portishead. Elusive and creepily perfect, Portishead records demand devotion and...
View ArticleEluvium – Similes
Ambient can seem above reproach, too lofty and amorphous to criticize. Infuriatingly, this is kind of true: who, after all, is going to tell Stars of the Lid to quit making that track over and over...
View ArticleDJ Boo – Recycled Beats
The DJ mix is always a question of identity: Who is the DJ? And what are they trying to prove? Not that they’re all so self-conscious, but the mix always asserts something. On The Block is Hot, Pt 2...
View ArticleWu-Tang – Return of the Wu and Friends
Fifteen years in, the claim seems just as remarkable, improbable and fucking righteously correct: Wu-Tang (still) forever. Right? Around the time of 8 The Hard Way this elegant maxim felt like...
View ArticleThe Souljazz Orchestra – Rising Sun
The Souljazz Orchestra treat their dense stew of Latin rhythms, soulful brass and Ethiopian tonalities as if something light and easy like comfort food, not haute cuisine. The resulting music is less...
View ArticlePhantogram – Eyelid Movies
Phantogram’s debut Eyelid Movies comes across as a shrine to things that sound great on headphones, full of crisp and spry drums, and breathtakingly lush synthesized textures. It could end up pretty...
View ArticleLove is All – Two Thousand and Ten Injuries
Sweden’s Love is All specialize in itchy, reverb-soaked art-punk that rarely sounds less than massive: even a plaintive cut like “Repetition” blooms into trilling regalia. On their first record, the...
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Meets Hip-Hop’s New Watchmen: BURNTmd, Snoop Dogg, Pacewon & Mr. Green
Police brutality and racial profiling always seem to pop up in local and national news without fail. And it begs the question of how responsible law enforcement officials really are, with all of their...
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RINSED Pushes The Feeling On With MK – TONIGHT
The title says it all; as if RINSED hasn’t gotten bigger and better each time around, the Brooklyn-based smang-rave collective is doing it big once again with the heavyweight champion of feel-good...
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Watch Buckeye State’s Mekka Don “Stack ‘Em” to the Ceiling
Ohio-bred and New York residing Hip-Hop artist Mekka Don releases his visual for the song “Stack ‘Em (Dollar Bills).” In the motivational video Mekka stacks his paper for the eventual payoff in the...
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PLSTK & Universal Grammar Officially Launch Music Video Show, Future Sounds...
Our friends and family at PLSTK & Universal Grammar officially launch internet based music video show, Future Sounds Classic this evening. To catch you up on what Future Sounds Classic is, we...
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SWTF 07: Jeremih x Colta – Fuck You All the Time
Lots of times we DJ’s hear new tracks that are on point, funky, sexy & all that good stuff, but for one reason or another it’s tough to play out live. The drums might not hit hard enough. There...
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Artist vs Artist: Cloudeater vs The Difference Machine
Our Artist vs Artist interview series is back this week. This time, we get in on the conversation between ATL’s psychedelic hip hop group, The Difference Machine and Prefuse 73 mixed, Cloudeater....
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Shinobi Ninja are in Search of The Cure on “Power Strangers” [to be cont...]
If you ever thought the power rangers were cool, put Brooklyn rockers Shinobi Ninja in their NYC tour van and have them thrash their way out of the chaos of shi**y booking agents, evil fans and...
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DIRTYPHONICS TV! (Latest Episode & Recaps)
Our friends The Dirtyphonics have been on a whirlwind tour all over the world and have looped us in to their (mis)adventures. Through the course of their “Irreverence Tour,” they’ve been documenting...
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Friday Fresh 13 – Raymond Roker – Santa Cruz (Yes, that Raymond Roker!)
A while back, we made a public call out for mixtapes to feature in our Friday Fresh column. Lo and behold, our friends at simfonik.com dropped a straight classic on us, by URB Co-Founder and...
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Live Updates from Lightning in a Bottle 2013!
Check back for live photo updates from Lightning in a Bottle courtesy of URB’s photo correspondent, Paulo Von Borries! ambientgoo’s photostream on Flickr. Photos by Paulo Von Borries!
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