What I really like about Py’s mixtape Tripping on Wisdom is it appears to have been a real collaborative effort between herself and producers Throwing Snow, George Fitzgerald, Damu, iO, Raffertie, Breton, Greenwood Sharps, Kadabrah (like the name) and Black & White Diamond Tiles. Py apparently never being too precious with her vocals here and allowing the producers to indulge their wants which in turn makes this mixtape in terms of arrangements, an absorbing listen.

She also displays a consistent ability to write catchy, ear-wormy hooks across a range of styles that incorporate slick R&B, House and bass driven Dub. It’s a strong body of work like this that helps establish Py is an artist with clear ideas of where she wants to go stylistically and for me cements her position as one to watch.

I for one will be making sure I catch her this Thursday at YoYo (Notting Hill Arts Club).

Download: Py – Tripping on Wisdom

A few weeks back, we put you on a fresh sounding R’n'B singer, who dropped his infectious heartbreak track, ‘Alone’ and then we revealed the mid tempo ‘Motions’. Now Poo Bear drops his new mixtape.

Burrowing into the awkward corners of all things badloving, from emptiness (‘Holding On To Nothing’) to distant relationships (‘Couldn’t Be Love’), Poo Bear uses his rich, smooth tone over hints of hip hop breakbeat to chronicle the typical course when it comes to lovelost. Sharp layered harmonies and honest breaking lyrics, the mixtape is full of  original penned songs, but it’s also a nice addition to have the Lauryn Hill ‘Sweetest Thing’ cover to complete the journey too.

Download for free below.

Last time Falcons gave us original R’n'Bass, this time the duo gear up for some summer sunshine by offering a free soundtrack of subbed, trilled out, hard hitting heat.
Finely selected, the duo go against the grain, to include obscure remixes of some classic tunes from Ludacris, Ciara and Jagged Edge. Also thrown in the mix, a modern edge made up of xxxy, Machinedrum and their own banger – Nigeria.

Back in December, we introduced you to Julian – an XO / the Weeknd affiliated singer foregoing his own interpretation of contemporary, darkwave R&B. Like the sound he’s expressing and his aforementioned crew, Julian hails straight out of Toronto – a current mecca for all things progressive in Rhythm and Blues.

His melodic tendencies may sound familiar to many traditionalists and while vocally there is room for improvement, it’s the atmospheric wave he’s riding on the production side of things that make this tape most appeasing. Masochistically sexy and hauntingly chill – Black Heart is scattered with THC enabled odes to nights gone dark.

As with any new artist, it’ll be interesting to see Julian’s progression – looking forward to more finely tuned, cohesive sounds from him.

It’s been a long road of delays, label drama and personal issues but 21 year old Teyana Taylor has finally released her new mixtape The Misunderstanding of Teyana Taylor. Aimed at setting the record straight, the 15 track tape consists of production from the likes of Tone P, Jukebox, Hit Boy and more and also features appearances from Wale, Jadakiss and Fabolous.

Taylor impressed us with ‘D.U.I’ last month – hoping theres more like that on this tape. About to tuck into this myself now, do the same by downloading below and the tape very much follows in the same promising way – it’s good to see Taylor mature from her ‘Google Me’ days. Paying homage to Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill throughout (from title, to skits), it consists of brooding atmospheric R&B slow jams, sexy mid-tempos and a couple bangers. In all – it’s a strong listen front to back.

Download: Teyana Taylor – The Misunderstanding of Teyana Taylor

So, have you per chance been hooked yet on Iman Omari’s extended player Energy? I mean, it does herald a new dawn where the residue of a commersh T-Pain/Terius R&B world coalesce with the twitchy abstractions of underground Electronic Soul and even hints of early Fly-Lo. It’s all colliding into what feels like a warm, ambrosial five year mess. Yum.

Well, Tiffany Gouche by birth, yet Tgooch on digital wax, this 23 year old Inglewood singer/songwriter/self-instrumentalist cites The Fugees and The Roots amongst her inspirations – but inhabits a similar subversive Leftcoast realm as Omari (who submits a few productions on here). Admittedly whilst her debut tape Lionheart is still rough around the edges and there’s a couple fillers you can tell were made when still searching for a direction…. for everything else there’s evidence this young lady’s almost found hers. I’m excited to seeing where T and those of her ilk will be taking that amalgamated style. Definitely worth a download, some surefire glimmers of something great. Her tone recalls a bit of Jazmine Sullivan aswell. Peep the taster tracks uploaded below & download the rest of Lionheart. #nosimba

Download: Tgooch – Lionheart

Portland’s Chi Duly unleashes his latest project Balloons of Haus. As the title indicates, the producer offers up on some of The Weeknd’s tracks from the mixtapes that paved the way for Abel’s success last year. According to Chi, this is “‘house music for the “I’m not really into techno’ folks.” I’m about to get into this and make sure you peep his earlier mashup project October’s Very Cold combining Drake and Coldplay while you are at it. Let us know what you think!

Download: The Weeknd – ‘Balloons Of Haus’

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Demonic Florida rapper, producer and Raider Klan member SpaceGhostPurrp has spent the last couple months spookin’ hard – his name scattered across blogs with a steady tirade of disquieting releases. Not surprising he recently came to wider attention after producing two A$AP stand-outs ‘Keep It G‘ and ‘Pretty Flacko‘, when he’s fluently connecting the dots between five borough bleakness and Bay Area/Dirty South leaned backs. Whilst on some mystical gangsta shit, Purrp (much like his pal Rocky) proves himself a clever curator of aesthetic. God of Black Vol. 1 punches above the belt of current trends, taking 90s southern underground Rap hair relaxer and dousing it in Horrorcore hair-raiser.

The lo-fi, cavernous sound can grip on the same wavelength as last year’s Shabazz Palace‘s, but it’s Robitussin roots certifiably trace back to Three 6 Mafia’s early work, and at times creep into grim Gravediggaz territory. With spaced out hood dweller rhymes stretched across tracks like some jet black glue and stand-out cuts like ‘Suck A Dick 2012′, there’s little mercy in this character’s world.

Fill your codeine cup and bring on the next volume.

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At the top end of Jan, I got my analytical panties in a twist about a new, mystery (whooo whooo), cross-electronic producer Evian Christ. Whilst levels of innovation and also semi-arbitrary ‘to whom hype is bestowed’ model of bloggosphere should always be up for question, a couple Christ cuts have still rotated heavily this past month in the office (particularly ‘MYD’ and ‘Go Girl’). Meanwhile, emerging from the cyber woodwork is 22 year old UK resident Joshua Leary as the shaded soul behind the sobriquet. Having just been snapped up by contemporary Brooklyn label Tri Angle, they’ve released his YouTube greatest hits (so far) as a mastered collection available to download free.

Have a butchers below as he works his way through these nocturnal Footwork and Ambient bass exercises, plus you can his catch his face down at Tri Angle records showcase in Hackney Downs Studio, London alongside Balam Acab, oOoOO, Holy Other, Romy XX and others.

This chap is securing a very promising year for himself right now

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In preparation for her summer debut album, Atlantic signed artist Delilah relinquishes a mixtape to get listeners to understand what she is all about.

Eight fresh sounding tracks, showcasing the musical strands that make up Delilah, she offers up daring future R’n'B with underground sounds, including a dubbed remix of ‘Love You So’, provided by Joe Goddard. Her versatile voice effortlessly transcends across smooth, yet gritty melodies held in ‘The Gospel’ to the throwback sounds in ‘Love Drug’.

Definitely one to be watching form the British Isles in 2012.

Roses Gabor – young female songstress who uses London as her roots, but has shared a fair amount of stages, singing alongside the likes of Gorillaz all across the world. And of course who could forget last year’s summer tune with SBTRKT ‘Pharoahs‘.

With very little of her own solo material floating around the interwebs, it was perfect timing for Gabor to release her first official mixtape. Entitled The Wonderful World of Roses Gabor, going by the mixtape, I assume her world is full of partying, dancing and more partying. With fall to floor beats, dance samples and instrumentals provided from Hudson Mohawke, Redlight, Dizzee Rascal, Mac Band and Dead Prez, what else is there to think other than… party!

Great pre-shoobz music… stream below and download.

PinBoard is in (snowy) Amsterdam right now for reasons of sheer musical pilgrimage, and a couple hours ago the dreadful news that D’Angelo had cancelled the fourth sold out night of his comeback as hopeful fans queued caused impending uproar, but worse – broken hearts.

At present it’s speculated tonight’s cancellation is due to the artist sustaining a leg injury during his Paris show last night. Tomorrow’s gig at Paradiso is currently said to go on as planned. Fingers crossed the idol returns to shape and we all manage to get to the holy grail. Otherwise… inexplicably pissed.

For all our Dutchies and other international wayfarers in the city here tonight aswell as the UK fams back home, throw up one mo’ gin thanks to OkayPlayer who’ve just dropped this ‘fantasy concert’ tape of high quality live D’Angelo recordings compiled by expert NY producer/connoisseur Sam Champ. You need this tonight.

Hang tight, we’ll keep you posted via our twitter.

Tracklist:
1. Fantastic Intro
2. Brown Sugar
3. Devil’s Pie
4. Crisco
5. Left & Right
6. Chicken Grease
7. Lady
8. Left & Right (Reprise)
9. Feel Like Making Love
10. Can’t Hide Love
11. Things You Do (Fall in Love)
12. One Mo’ Gin
13. Me and Those Dreaming Eyes of Mine
14. S.D.M.
15. Untitled (How Does It Feel)

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Finally got around to checking to this new tape by LA rapper and extended Odd Future fam Vince Staples that’s been making it’s rounds online. The production coughs out Californian wooziness and clunking drums, that wouldn’t do too shabby sparring as a leftcoast cousin to, say, LiveLoveA$AP – though these 13 tracks are more indebted to the MellowHype or The Jet Age of Tomorrow vibe for obvious reasons. But Staples’s flow unravels some cold quotables at a real laidback but virulent pace; he’s got a real knack for both meditating over and acutely mocking the environment around him.

Overall the combo of buddah cloud beats and unexpectedly penetrative lyricism are ensuring repeat listens for this short, sharp set right now.

Atlanta, Georgia native T.I remains in the limelight with his VH1 show airing weekly in the US and building his acting credits up, but he hasn’t forgotten his bread and butter – the music. In preparation for his forthcoming  eighth studio album,  T.I released a mixtape which this cut is taken from.

With a sample from Kool and the Gang’s “Summer Madness”, this Dre produced beat is whipped with West Coast rays and brash horns,  leaving T.I and Dre to trade back and forth with ease. Great to hear Dr. Dre warming up for that Coachella headline set too.

Grab the free tape F*ck Da City Up now.

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The Bawse is back. Haven’t tucked into this just yet, but with features from Nas, Kelly Rowland, Pharrell Williams, Wale and more – it’s sure to be a corker. Bump it. Sky high.