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The Up-Turn

“@TheUpTurnMusic / tinyurl.com/upturnfbook”

09/18/2014 New TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES

We are going through some major technical difficulties and our site has reverted back to where it was in 2012… we’re waiting for WordPress for support.

05/24/2012 mp3: SBTRKT- Gamelena

SBTRKT is one of the biggest forces in bass music right now, so it’s no surprised that the producer-centric blogosphere is going crazy over his latest leak ‘Gamelena’.  Working more as an announcement that he’s working in the studio again than as a proper single, ‘Gamelena’ shows off some experimenting and tinkering coming from  SBTRKT.  With the bird chirps and the low croaking bass thrown in the mix, ‘Gamelena’ sounds like an electronic jungle at times… which is just as cool as it sounds.  If this track really is just a teaser to  what he has coming up, his next release is set to be great.

-PK

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05/24/2012 Mixtape: Ace Mo- A Dream’s Depth

Ace Mo is the latest member of the experimental Makoshine collective to have his turn in the spot-light with his new EP A Dream’s Depth.  The release lives up to it’s name, acting as a sonic cloud pillow, of the memory foam variety, to rest my tired blogger ears.  The washed out sounds and soft textures coming through on this release sound somewhere in between the Final Fantasy 7 soundtrack and what I would expect the Final Fantasy 7 soundtrack to sound like when I’m dreaming.  That is to say, Ace Mo explores the dreamier and loftier side of electronic music while still rooting the tracks down so that they don’t fade into ambient obscurity.

-PK

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05/23/2012 mp3: Janka Nabay & the Bubu Gang- Feba

Out of all the international sonic flavor palettes, afro-pop has always been a favorite of hipster culture.  From Talking Heads to Vampire Weekend, indie culture has taken a lot of inspiration from the rich scene of African musicians making highlife and other forms of afrobeat in the 1970s.  It’s about time that a fully formed afrobeat band win bloggers hearts across the internet as a buzz band.  Janka Nabay & the Bubu Gang are earning some well deserved praise with their jam ‘Feba’.  While the song has its roots firm in the classics of the genre, Janka Nabay employs plenty of effects and synth washes which isn’t surprising considering that the Bubu Gang consists of some ex-Gang Gang Dance members.  En Yah Say drops August 7th.

-PK

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05/22/2012 Video: Vince Staples & Michael Uzowuru- Matlock

Most buzzing rappers these days make it after one of their videos goes viral on the blogosphere and is able to show off their unique style and image.  Now the incredibly talented Vince Staples has his own ‘Purple Swag’/‘Yonkers’ with this video for ‘Matlock’.  Listening to Vince’s deadpan and rich flow is paired perfectly with the grainy, black and white style of this video.  The dark vibe of the video is taken even further as a clips of riot footage are projected on to Vince and Michael.  Shyne Coldchai Vol. 1 has already proved Vince to be one of the best rappers making music right now, hopefully this video will help more people realize it.

-PK

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05/22/2012 mp3: Trap Arnold – EndersGame

I don’t know if you read the novel Ender’s Game when you were a kid, but I sure as hell did, which is why I had to listen to this when I saw it.  Luckily M|O|D member Trap Arnold made a track that is just as awesome as the book was.  With “EndersGame” Trap Arnold has done a great job of maintaining his distinct Future Trap style with rolling high hats etc. without drawing too much attention away from the song’s beautifully spacious chords and delicate melodies.  If I were ever to be floating in space, controlling a giant army with my brain, I would want this song to be playing in the background.

-TC

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05/22/2012 Enjoy It While It’s Fresh: Sidewalk Kal & Mattron

In one of my recent trances where black out for an extended period of time and end up finding many awesome tracks by awesome artists on my favorites list on Soundcloud with no recollection of how they got there, I stumbled across Chicago rapper Sidewalk Kal and his work with New York producer Mattron and had to share.  Although, it’s a huge party foul in the hip-hop community, I’m going to compare their work to Illmatic because to me the comparison came to mind right away.  Sidewalk Kal has a smooth, gimmick-less flow with wise beyond his years lyrics that remind me of Nas, and Mattron’s boom-bap beats remind me of the beats Nas collected for Illmatic (especially DJ Premier and Pete Rock’s) with an added hint of the modern abstract element of hip-hop popularized by beat makers like Madlib.  I don’t know too much about either Sidewalk Kal or Mattron, but I think their music speaks for itself, so listen below and link to their individual Soundcloud pages below that.

-TC

SIDEWALK KAL’S SOUNDCLOUD PAGE

MATTRON’S SOUNDCLOUD PAGE

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05/21/2012 mp3: Bayatas- aa

I’m super psyched that Bayatas has started releasing more again.  Although his recordings as the ultra lo-fi and yelpy Tree Hopping are past him, Bayatas is a more fully formed and polished project with some very strong singles already under his belt.  The biggest improvement from Tree Hopping to Bayatas is easily the singing.  While I had no problem with his unhinged and unrestrained sing-yelling before, it’s hard to deny the much more easy on the ears approach he is now putting over his always lushly tropical guitar work.  ‘aa’ demonstrates all the improvements and more with some additional atmospherics thrown into the mix.

-PK

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05/21/2012 mp3: Collider- You Didn’t Think This Through

When the dudes over at Tye Die Tapes aren’t putting out some of the best in underground garage-rock, they themselves are making some great underground garage rock.  As Collider, they are making some lo-fi rock with a heavy emphasis on the rock aspect of their sound.  With ‘You Didn’t Think This Through’, Collider show off some song-writing chops with a totally rawkin’ punk track with some guitar work that could have come from a 90s Modest Mouse release… or really any 90s indie-rock song.  Stream the track below and download the mp3 at their bandcamp…

-PK

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05/21/2012 mp3: Teengirl Fantasy- Motif

Teengirl Fantasy are a group that made it big right before the huge influx of producers we currently have flooding the blogosphere.  However, since making it big in 2010 they’ve remained relatively quiet allowing smaller producers to start to take the spotlight.  ‘Motif’ shows the group returning strong with a shiny new sound that takes influences from all over the electronic-music spectrum.  Over the course of the track’s 7 minutes, the group manages to twist and shift the same basic song idea into all sorts of psychedelic shapes.  The ‘Motif’ single will be dropping later in June off R & S to build up hype for an album they will be dropping later this year.

-PK

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