Grapefruit dj by Grapefruitmusic

Grapefruit, a musician based in Portland, OR, sent through his most recent tape, Freeway Romantics (via Gnar Tapes), and floored me with the dense, hallucinatory synthcapades packed into this release (which made sense considering his self-professed affection for Yves Malone). I was never one for the glossy drones of those synth pop musicians of the last two years, instead preferring the lo-fi, pseudo-psychedelic synth explorations more in  line with Tangerine Dream than Depeche Mode, so I thought - HEY! let’s ask Grapefruit for a mix, I’m sure he’ll send over some new komische styled tunes I’ve never heard before. 

Instead, he turns in ~40 minutes of pure pscyh rock. so mister Grapefruit floors me for a second time. Check it above (d/l will be available soon), this one’s a contender for favorite mix of non-original music that’s come through The Kort…

Stream Freeway Romantics below; KORTMIX011 tracklist after the jump.

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i’m not sure if it’s complimentary to consider an artist’s music “appropriate” for soundtracking a natural disaster or observing one second-hand while stuck outside in various airports, but Kevin Palmer’s sonic experimentations as Best Available Technology did just that for me. Kevin was kind enough to send through just under 40mins of original material in a KORTMIX the day before Sandy hit NYC, so my time spent fervently refreshing news sites with Kevin’s mix on repeat led to quite the dramatic evening.

Kevin composes visceral dub rhythms emboldened with natural hardware compression - think the ‘Shlo-Fi EP’ underscored with Basic Channel’s patience. Composed of all unreleased material, this mixtape offers a clear purview on BAT’s sonic temperament and meditative practices. He was gracious enough to answer a few of our questions as well, so enjoy the double whammy of mix + interview after the jump:

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Mapes & Dirtstax share a common ethos with us: an unquenchable love for vinyl. When we first heard their mix series, ‘Vinyl Party,’ ~1h long journeys through house/techno/et al, we felt the same vibe we pursue with the Worth The Wax series and knew we had to support the cause. In the spirit of encouraging young blood to stick with vinyl and forego the temptation of digital “blends for days,” we present a special Kort exclusive Vinyl Party. From M&D:

“Matt and I grew up in the same town, but it wasn’t until we both settled in Brooklyn that we started mixing together regularly. We put this mix together one afternoon to show the kind of music we’ve been enjoying recently, regardless of what sub-genre it may fall under. Vinyl Party has always been about mixing records and having fun, and hopefully that comes across in this mix.” 

Keep up to date with future Vinyl Party mixes on their Mixcloud.

stellar mixtape from rising techno creator Samuel Kerridge. peep the interview if you haven’t yet, and keep this dude on your radar. 

following from last week’s interview with oddlogic, we’ve now got his KORTMIX to share with you. no tracklist, all bangers. dive in…happy monday, music fiends. track list after the jump:

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Following our interview with the rising American badman last week, we’re proud to present the latest installment in our mixtape series courtesy of Helix. Dipping through Berlin techno, London grime, and some acid-inflected excursions later on, Helix proves adept at blending his wide array of styles into a sumptuous whole. The highlight for us is smack dab in the middle, as he drops his forthcoming Night Slugs banger, “Drum Track” laid in with a classic grime acapella.

rising Aussie producer Hugo Frederick blends the best of IDM with booty bass and irreverent effect tweaks. he offered us this exclusive mixtape highlighting his influences and favorite artists at the moment - check his unreleased heelluva jam “Waved pt 1 + 2” towards the end…keep your eyes on this dude, he’s off.

scoop his free remix EP 

http://soundcloud.com/hugofrederick

We posted up a solid snapshot of the life of Greg Philips, aka Keyboard Kid, on Friday; and now the #BASED man has graciously provided us with our 5th entry in the mixtape realm. Following a heated dancefloor session from Brooklyn’s own Hirshi, we leave it to Seattle-bred Keyboard Kid to spark up and throw some haze in the mix with a cloudy, soulful collage of crate-diggers’ vocal samples and beats from the farthest reaches of your slowly melting cerebral cortex. Entirely his own productions, this one’s for the 3am comfy headphones crowd…big ups, Kid.

KORTMIX004: tomlaan by www.thekort.com

Tomlaan, a young producer from the Netherlands, offers a hefty 37 minutes of original material for the latest Kort mix. Borrowing heavily from the introverted soundscapes of early Warp records, Tomlaan weaves decrepit melodies through bristling, neck-snapping beats, each track an exercise in minimalism that lets swung rhythms and lush chords get just the right amount of breathing room. The mixtape flows elegantly, beginning with ambient Boards of Canadian stylings and masterfully swelling into all-out industrial brain-mushers with smooth melodies tying the whole piece together. 

There’s something to be said for producers who can tell a story using the only original material in a mix - and we won’t steal tomlaan’s thunder by giving that away. Perfect for a Friday night in, or that last subway home…do not sleep. These dude has sounds to spare.

Peep the full track list after the jump:

tomlaan - Weatherdeay 
tomlaan - untitled 
tomlaan - CPC 
tomlaan - want 
tomlaan - ZoZ 
tomlaan - Exsimple 
tomlaan - Ding 
tomlaan - Crab2illa 
tomlaan - Mr Lazy Noise 
tomlaan - Witchslap 
tomlaan - Photo4

Follow tomlaan on: Soundcloud | Twitter

http://tomlaan.nl

Past Kort Mixtapes Heeeeeeere

KORTMIX003: Hirshi (Archie Pelago) by www.thekort.com

Hirshi is one-third of the Brooklyn jazz-electronica outfit Archie Pelago. Dude produces, DJs, and plays the trumpet - I can’t think of a better trifecta to sum up the New York City music scene than that. Though you won’t find any Herbie Hancock in this mix, Hirshi shows off how much farther afield his tastes lie than the Dirty Apple. Funky rhythms shot through an inkjet lens with just the right level of bass to make them heads grin. 

30 minutes of pure grooves - get your Friday night started with a click of that orange play button

Peep the full tracklist after the jump:

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Kort002 by SP-33

We recently wrote up SP-33’s unveiling of an instrumental accompaniment to his Escape from tha Carter album, and as noted, we were very impressed with his interlocking soundscapes derived from John Carpenter’s 1981 classic. As interested as we are in this recent release, however, we Kortologists were simply floored by the thoughtfully plotted mixtape the man called Ezra has put together for us.

A hypnotic journey through rain-drenched alleys, snow-matted fields and the melancholic mind of a maturing producer, SP-33 has floored us with a mix consisting of some of our absolute favorites. Put together with care and delicacy, this is a mixtape for late nights and high quality headphones. Sink in, kids.

Tracklist:

A GUIDE TO GIVING UP ON YOUR DREAMS:

Burial-In McDonalds 
Aphex Twin- Mold 
Radiohead- Treefingers 
James Blake- Whelhiem Scream 
John Hopkins- Vessel (Four Tet Remix) 
His Name Is Alive- One Year (Four Tet Remix) 
Burial- Stolen Dog 
Flying Lotus Ft. Kanye West- Love Lock Down 
Caural- Mouth 
Aphex Twin- I 
Kiln-King of Wasps 
Grouper- Wind and Snow 
cLOUDDEAD- Cloud Dead number 5, Pt. 2

The Kort Mix 001: Innobushu by www.thekort.com

When I first invited the talented and recently discovered Innobushu to help launch the new KORT mixtape series, his humble reply was that he would “just have to find all the good spices to make a delicious soup.”

He picks a few standards that a well-stocked kitchen ought to have, sprinkling some Prefuse, HudMo, and Lukid, that combined effuse a familiar, enticing aroma. But the table salt doesn’t make the dish; the real kicker comes from deep within the spice cabinet, behind that second and forgotten jar of cinnamon. Those boxes of dusty yellows, reds, and browns that only connoisseurs and ageing cooks would ever know, and a lucky few would discover in their lifetime, are what make this beat minestrone stand-out. Innobushu’s dish is defined by the song selections that come from hours of dredging through soundcloud, surfacing tracks from artists I’ve never heard before and I’d wager most of you haven’t either. This isn’t a DJ mix, nor is it even of just one genre; it’s more of a demonstration of the various beat-music iterations that have permeated both bedroom and studio productions over the past five years. And we here at The Kort have a lot of respect for the wide-eyed perspective…check the tracklist after the jump.

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