it's a little bit Finney

Beat Stew Vol. 4

Is the summer of synth-hop upon us? Quite possibly.

Too many interesting things have been going on in the Los Angeles musical world for too long to avoid anything but the emergence of a contemporary urban paradigm. It used to be that looking for a chill beat based soundtrack to summer revelry required nothing more than plopping on a Dre album or tuning into K-Day. But those days are dead.

Any semblance of relevance has disappeared from Power 106’s programming and on a larger scale, our understanding of stylish hip-hop and dance music has changed immensely. What was once the sole domain of cheaply slung verses and traditional beats has become an amorphous realm of rhymes, synths and electronics bent around this strange concept of music across genres. Something this centralized makes sense in this weird, wild city.

The resulting sound is as difficult to pin down as Dolph Lundgren slathered in baby oil. One man just isn’t enough to hold it down alone. With their newest mixtape, LA based Proximal Records proved that maybe its enough to just keep the fight in the ring.

Beats Stew Vol. 4 is a 23 track aural sacrifice to the gods of summer and a blazing testament to a wave of underappreciated music defining the Los Angeles sound. The self-espoused parameters of the mixtape are a curious assortment of styles including downtempo, electronic, hip-hop, rap, synth, boogie, funk and broken beat.

And, holy shit, it works. The collection is meaty and diverse but arranged around some strong, unspoken appreciation of hot days on steamy freeways and breezy nights beneath swaying palm trees and LAPD helicopters.

Proximal Records is the brain child of producer Jeff Elmassian and producer/artist Carl Madison Burgin aka Sahy Uhns. The latter’s pseudonymous, synth heavy beats are a prominent presence on the album, bringing to light what appears to be an ingenious and forward-thinking business plan on the part of Proximal Records.

As the promotional outlets for major record labels act with stunningly myopic conventionality, smaller labels like Proximal have a lot of leeway and even an essential responsibility to find new ways to build a depth of experience for listeners. By constructing an album as taste and style broad as Beats Stew Vol. 4, Proximal engages in very smart scene building. They’ve positioned themselves as savvy knowers with their finger on a multi-noded sound that could define a summer if they play their cards right.

Moreover, as a label owner, artist Sahy Uhns could have made selfish moves and spent his time producing and promoting a new album for himself. (His solo shit is fantastic by the way. Rolling lines of surging electro with snappy beats and undulating melodies. Check it here.) Instead, Sahy Uhns/Burgin chose to curate.

By handing over a lot of the glory, Burgin effectively created a music pyramid scheme. Twenty Four artists share the glory and shoulder the weight of diverse promotions. In the end, Burgin and company at Proximal Records get the largest share of the exposure bounty for this free album.

This is the most essential thing now: exposure. Fuck the old noise about moving units and selling out venues. It ain’t ‘95 anymore. The chance of selling 100,000 copies via Tower Records is nil and an arduous touring schedule, while fun, leaves you old, tired and used up. No, the new game is interconnection and fluidity.

What matters now isn’t as much power but reach. You stake your name and build your reputation on a strong diversity and an ability to adapt, connect disparate ideas and weave them into your signature framework of songs and albums.

Welcome to the future Los Angeles. Aural and strategic, Beats Vol. 4 is treading in the right direction. Download this shit for free and support a good thing.

One Last Time (Sahy Uhns) by TheophilusLondon

Quite a few people have asked me for this show. You can download it here. 

She is accompanied by Lowell George and Freebo. John Hammond plays for most of the second set and is joined by Bonnie et all. 

  Sahy Uhns

An Intolerant Disdain Of Underlings

1.Montebello Postpartum 03:00

 2.My Very Own Mariana Trench 03:44

 3.Anticipation Of The Night 04:01

 4.War Song 03:52

5.fever. chills and sweats. 03:08

 6.Earning Bridges 03:29

 7.Rain Song 01:13

8.13.73 ± 0.12 billion 05:13

9.I’mage 04:23

10.Ice Plant / Newly Destitute 05:05

11.Randsburg 05:40

12.We Offer Our Silent Presence 05:18

Sahy Uhns releases his debut album “An Intolerant Disdain Of Underlings” on October 18th 2011, both digitally and on CD as part of a 5″x5″ book featuring a collection of photographs from the deserts of California that inspired the album. Sahy Uhns’ record is an amalgamation of ambient soundscapes, field recordings, generative synthesis, hard-hitting beats and rich analog sounds – always with a sound design driven production that is uniquely “Sahy Uhns.”

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