“Beats” (Used 15 times)

Late last night after attending a vegan cookoff with a theme of cooking with liquor, feeling ultra full, watching Clueless with my friend & smoking a joint I walk upstairs to my attic bedroom and realize I need to unwind before I can fall asleep.

Enter Mobster.

Hailing from Paris, Mobster makes beats, tracks that sprawl and disappear into your consciousness, a click & drone that sends you away from where you are. His music sounds like soaring in an airpane high above this earth as the sun is rising and you are just opening your eyes to another day.

Listen to when you want to disappear or reappear.

Bonus Beat Blast is an original Creative Commons beat/rhythm library from dublab’s international family of music makers, compiled exclusively for their Proton Drive.

Not only does it feature over 70 tracks by the likes of Asura, Daedelus, Kidkanevil & DZA, Raleigh Moncrief and many more, but the entire collection is licensed under a Creative Commons CC BY 3.0 license which gives you the freedom to share and remix the work even for commercial purposes as long as you credit the original source.

The full Beat Blast, including lossless FLAC files, is currently available only by donating to dublab -- a non-profit audio source and a very good cause! But since they are CC licensed, they're sure to be distributed far and wide, and dublab is encouraging you to share the myriad creations that these beats inspire.

As a teaser, check out this beat below from James Pants, one of several JP contributions to the Bonus Beat Blast. James Pants' Stones Throw releases are top favorites, taking what WFMU's Liz B calls "a freeform approach to dance music." And if you crave more rap beats, James Pants recently posted JP Failed Rap Beats #1: 2004-2008 + 1 from 2001 on his top-notch tumblr.

Digital Pit is the netlabel arm of the French musique libre webzine freezeec, and specializes in an array of high-quality digital beats.

FMA now hosts a handful of highlights from the label's deep Creative Commons BY-NC-ND catalog, including the French-language noire-inspired hip-hop of Mr Ascofi, the seductive downtempo jams of Mobster (check out the minimalist Björk-inspired track below), and the tripped-out smeared beat abstractions of Hiroshima make me wanna juke!

Check out Digital Pit's FMA Profile

and dig in deeper at www.digitalpit.net

In 2010, the Error-Broadcast label joined forces with Siberian music blog Gimme5 to curate Fly Russia, a compilation featuring some of Russia's finest beatsmiths. Drawing inspiration from hip-hop, bass-heavy dubstep, and a full spectrum of headphone-pleasing electronic sounds, these artists are on to something big and this comp is a perfect introduction. Fly Russia has already inspired an in-depth Pitchfork feature with special guest mixes from the 8bit-infused Pixelord and 80s/punk-inspired DZA, and an LA Times profile.

One of my favorite artists from this compilation is Damscray, aka Albert Khasanov from Orenburg. Human Workshop first introduced us to Your Rainbow Color Changer, with its intoxicating grooves and Middle Eastern-inspired analogue sounds. But Damscray's been at it since age twelve, and he's a real chameleon, appearing as half of Demokracy, Planet Terror, and Original fools and evolving with every release. So far this year, Damscray's already released Make Me Juke, an EP of Chicago-style juke music on Pixelord's Hyperboloid label (Russia's own Hyperdub?), as well as the Blot Method EP on Gimme5's new imprint.

If you have yet to dig into the virtual crates of Error-Broadcast label, they've also released music by the likes of Shlohmo, Comfort Fit, and KenLo Craqnuques, along with brand new releases from Fly Russia's own Pixelord, DZA, and OL. There's also some nice overlap with the new Jumble branch of Russia's FUSElab -- check out their debut compilation here.

Jus Like Music is a great online resource for under-the-radar sounds from the hip-hop/electronica/neo-soul/dubstep realms. Run by Gav aka Jeej out of London since 2006, the site offers music reviews (including tips on free legal jams), a podcast, interviews and -- starting this year -- records!

To help spread the good word about Jus Like Music Records, they released two free Creative Commons compilations in collaboration with Sweden's Apple Juice Break. Over the course of 41 previously unheard tracks (by 41 different artists -- more if you include all the guests) these "Oscillations" compilations set a high bar for the label's future.

Check out the comps in full here -- they both come with PDF's cock full of vibrant images + artist info.

Oscillations Part 1 //[PDF booklet]

Oscillations Part 2 // [PDF booklet]

Both comps are solid listens all the way through, but below you'll find some of my favorites including wonky sounds from Tokyo's Broken Haze (aka Keisuke Ito of the Raid Systems label), neo-soul from Paper Tiger's collab with Sabira Jade, a smooth jam of a track from Nashville-based Brazilian-bred Ocuban, Slovenian-born Glasgow resident Maya Medvesek aka 8Bitch, and an idea-packed collaborative explosion from UK producer Kidkanevil and Brooklyn's Sudanese-American MC/Producer Oddissee.