Buck 65 - Language Arts Part 7 (free download)

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