Sometimes the insights of outsiders are the most unique, and Nego Moçambique‘s take on cumbia definitely caught our attention. The Brasilia-bred Moçambique considers himself an Afrobreakbeat producer. He takes chunks of “global black music” and pastes them together with an ear for the dancefloors. “I say I make funk with a Brazilian accent, but there’s also other influences,” he once told XLR8R. But when traveling across South America, he was exposed to the music of cumbia, and decided to create an ode to this sound in the form of “Una Cumbia Instrumental.” He uses a box of old school electronic noises to reinterpret the traditional instrumentation of the style to create this smooth vision. (To hear a mix of Moçambique’s usual stylings, peep his Mutek podcast or cop the new single.)

The phrase, “Your language is so colorful” just took on a new meaning. A new program called Word DNA, created by Luke Loeffler, color codes your rhymes. You plug the text into the program, and it gives you back a color bar that adds certain hues to the words that rhyme. We tried it out with the below rhyme, and it showed rhymes we didn’t even realize were there.

In case you haven’t heard it yet, Lamin flipped a new mixtape called Fatama Was Here. Overall, it paints a mood of chaos paused mid-shatter. Shrapnel glitters suspended mid air, allowing for closer reflection on root causes. The mix offers some tuff track selection, featuring the full-fledged consciousness of Blu‘s verse; the rusted knife’s edginess of Dred Man-Gi; and the Portishead cool of Hyperdub’s King Midas Sound. But it also features lots of snippets and layers, he explains. “I feel as if this is two mixes in one. There are multiple narrative structures: there is the actual mix and then a sub-mix… something below the surface that rises up in between the cracks and breaks/transitions.” Fatama was named after Lamin’s aunt, who recently passed away in Sierra Leone. (Ingredients list below.) Photo by Photama’s World.

Lamin’s crew, Dutty Artz, is getting ready to drop a big gem this month with Jahdan Blakkamoore‘s album. To hold you over, they recently leaked a Jahdan mix called Bazooka Shot, which you can download free as a ZIP or as one single MP3. Below are two of the tracks from that mix that we’re really feelin’. Another fresh one from Bazooka is Nate Mar‘s “Rise,” but only two verses of it are featured on the mix. If you want to hear the whole joint before the album drops, Mars included it on a recent mix of his own, Whomp Wobble Whomp.

the jump » »