In late 2020 producer Will Magid, known to the music world as Balkan Bump, quietly released Osmanity, his full-length debut under the moniker. It's a wildly fun and ambitious record that really sounds like nothing else out in the musical ether. It's an album with deep grooves and big musical ideas, clearly crafted by someone with a deep well of skill to draw from and, perhaps more important, a more than palpable LOVE for music. “The title track 'Osmanity', me and my buddy Greg who co-wrote it, did the basic framework of it about 4 years ago. The CloZee track came out about a year and a half ago. Basically, I just started working on music and at some point realized, 'Hey wait, these songs fit together. I could put out an EP but I have more than four or five songs,'” says Balkan Bump describing the genesis of Osmanity to me over the phone from his home in Oakland. “Deciding to make an album at that point guided the rest of the writing and production process. It gave me a framework, 'Okay, I'm going to make this record. It's going to largely incorporate sounds from the Ottoman Empire, but of course with hip-hop and electronic and some jazz.' That decision gave me the context to get the album to another level as far as the cohesiveness of it. That's where the interludes come in and a few of the songs I wrote really late in the process to seal the package of the record together.”
While the album is a clear, cohesive statement with one person at the helm, Osmanity is at its core a deeply collaborative record, and for good reason. “I'm a pretty social person and I grew up playing in bands. So the idea of being a lone-wolf producer is not really my personality. For the most part I really thrive in environments of collaboration – out in the world at a festival, on tour or even just on the computer, on Soundcloud. In the case of Poldoore, we met on Soundcloud like 10 years ago and I think I've played trump on nearly half of his songs or something and he's done several remixes for me. CloZee, we toured together and vibed a lot together. We were talking about hip-hop [earlier], and I love the idea of group like the Wu-Tang Clan,” the excitement in Bump’s voice is more than palpable. “Okay, you have this group but you have all these individuals who have their own careers and collabroations. I look at the music world that way. All these artists are really connected, there are so many threads. The classic example of the scene I'm in is Big GriZmatik. Gramatik and GriZ and Big Gigantic are obviously separate artists, but can easily be one artist with different muscles being shown when different players step out front. I love that idea. It's not that I seek collaboration out or that it falls in my lap, it's more of just a natural continuum of the folklore nature of music.”
BURNT starts 2021 strong with "Reaching for the Sun"
It didn't take long – just one day, with a January 1 release – for the first really interesting album of 2021 to hit the galactic frequencies, as BURNT started off the year with their sprawling opus Reaching for the Sun. If you like reggae, any flavour of reggae - roots, dub, ska - this is an album you need to get into your ears. If you're just a passing fan of the music - the spirit and soul, the vibes - then you also need to get his into your ear canals. Reaching for the Sun is a spiralling, lovely journey into the heart and soul of reggae, created by a group of humans that clearly have nothing but genuine love in their hearts for the music. Oh, and the serious musical chops required to bring their ideas to a crystallized fruition.
This album is a big one, especially for me personally, as this album has pulled me back towards inspiration, back to writing. Like many people reading this, the past year pulled me away from many of the things I've personally loved. The inspiration to do these small but necessary things had just slowly dwindled away and when the flicker of inspirado would linger, the energy was rarely there to match. But Reaching for the Sun got into my bloodstream and lit something inside me almost instantly. Even though BURNT has been on my radar for sometime, I knew this was the moment I had to reach out and make contact with these groovy humans. Using the magic of conference calling, we talked about all manner of things including the creation of Reaching for the Sun. (Stay tuned for a huge installment of 5 Questions with Rags featuring BURNT. Coming very soon.)
That Reaching for the Sun is positively overflowing with such smooth grooves and was created in the midst of global pandemic is more than a feat. It's one thing for a DJ or rapper to be able to create in this environment, but for a large group of players so synonymous with live performance and recording, this is a genuine achievement. And to release an album – a unified piece of art – of such length in an age when a lot of music is seemingly created to be consumed as singles, is a refreshingly bold move.
“I think once we got sent home now it was like 'We have all the time to do this, but how are we going to make the album work if we can't be together?'” explains Jamal, producer and player of both sax and keys. “We didn't really have a plan for anything. I also think that honestly had we been able to get together to do an album the way we normally do, we probably wouldn't have had as many songs as we did.”
The challenges of making a record with a full band that can't be in each others' presence are clear and many, but it's the immediacy of the creation process that gave some of the biggest challenges while creating the record. “You put a part down and you send it, you have to wait to hear back if it works or if it doesn't, whereas if you're all together you can lay something down and know right away if it's gold or if it's shit,” says Burnt bassist Karthik. Producer and player of both sax and keys, Jamal adds, “The magic part about doing it live and with everyone there, is being able to see everyone's initial first reaction. When everybody fucking lights up at the same time. 'That's the take! That's the one!' That reaction is invaluable and no matter how good you are at communicating, you can't replace that.”
The long recording process, exacerbated by the separation, changed the process so much, that Burnt ended up with their most sprawling album to date, running over two-hours and 27 songs. “I think that doing this all from home – it slows the process down because each person has to do things one at a time. And when you slow things down you just keep coming up with more shit to throw on the pile,” explains Jamal. “Had we all gotten together, we could have banged out 12 songs in a month and half and that would have been the album. But because we kept coming up with good ideas before the other songs were finished, it felt like we couldn't really throw them out. It didn't feel like there were any filler songs we could throw out.”
Hard to believe that at over two hours there isn't any filler littering the sonic landscapes of Reaching for the Sun, but as someone who has listened to the album more than a few times, I can confirm that Burnt has pulled off the feat of a seriously bounding, filler-free record. And even on such a jam-packed record, there are songs that leap out of the speakers and grab the ears attention, reggae-lover or no. “Moscas” is a slow-burning jam that weaves it's way down to the ear drum. “That one is just super raw and I would say out of all the tracks on the album, one of the most authentically BURNT – To what the essence of what the band is and does. It came from a very organic place that no other band could have done,” says Jamal of the track. Karthik recalls the inspiration for the album, “Back in the day, in the San Diego desert, we used to record at Studio One in the Coachella Valley, and there was always a gang of flies in the studio. There was always fly paper and there's pictures of me around with two fly swatters, swatting the shit out of flies.”
“It’s hot as fuck, and it’s sweaty and there's moscas everywhere.” - Danny (Not pictured. See paragraph above.)
“Moscas” stands in stark contrast to – but somehow remains in the same spirit of – a song like the high-octane bounce-fest that is “Bolo The Kelp Rider.” An instrumental track that drives along with relentlessly fun momentum. Guitarist and vocalist Danny has vivid memories of the creation of “Bolo”: “Some of these tracks were kernels of songs that have been floating around with us for years. At some point we were up at Rob's place in Point Arena, which is on the coast about three hours north of San Francisco. Rob was telling me a story of this guy who hangs out down at the beach there, Schooner's Gultch – he's known to be seen shadow boxing with invisible enemies, and his weapon of choice is this giant bull-kelp whip. He drives a Cadillac down this dirt road, flying at a breakneck speed, knows every curve by the back of his hand and he's somehow able to just cross the Coast Highway – a very busy highway – miraculously in his Cadillac and skids into his parking spot at Schooner's Gultch, hops out and does his routine of shadow boxing with a giant bull kelp. I was enchanted by the story and after some adult beverages later, the bones for that song started to come out.”
Even though everyone in BURNT has their instruments and has a role, those roles are shifting and changing all the time. I found this out first hand when I asked drummer Rob about the big, heavy hip-hop banger, “Ablaze.” “As the drummer in the band, I didn't play drums on that track and I like the drums on it. That's the rest of the crew here doing that,” politely responds Rob to my direct question about the track. Jamal adds, “Because we were recording all separately, most of the tracks started with a drum loop or sequenced drums or something. Almost every track started like that and then we'd wipe the drums and Rob would play in. I think 'Ablaze' was one of the only ones that the vibe was already there and Rob was like, 'I don't need to do anything on this one, it's good to go.' There might have been two of those songs on the album.” Even though he didn't play on the track, Rob still looks at the track as a big one for the band. “That song is a powerful track. I feel like we wanted to release that in the summer. That song was pretty much done before 2020 occurred. November of 2019. All of a sudden that song got really relevant to me, so I'm glad it's out there in the universe.” The track is another testament to the power that a group of people can have both in creating art and spreading a message. One of the more powerful tracks on the album, “Ablaze” grabbed me right away just like the deep, almost sinister dub reggae of “Ganjamal Dub Revenge,” a track that builds and stomps its way to a towering crescendo featuring rhymes and flow of powerful Karmic Basis, MC and frequent BURNT collaborator. “Anger. Just fucking mad at the system. That's the feeling,” says Karmic Basis of the standout track. Personally, I wish I had of asked Karmic about “Twisty” because, upon retrospect, it's absolute fire – a perfect amalgamation of hip-hop and reggae that is going to make it onto any number of future playlists that I will be making.
The sunny vibes associated with reggae obviously buoy Reaching for the Sun, and nowhere is that ethos more evident than on a couple of other standouts “Frankie and Dobby” and “Moonglow.” The former a beautiful, slowly lilting love track that will probably steal a piece of each listener's heart. “That was a fun track to record on. I have a lot of basses – that's an understatement – throughout this process I had to figure out different basses to use for different songs, different amp settings and everything,” Karthik says of the beautiful ditty. Danny adds, “Karthik was very humble in his reponse here. The bass playing on that track really blew me away. Not just because it’s such a tasty groove, but because he really has so much chops as a musician but clearly worked hard to find and focus the pocket on that track. That’s a real thing for our musical evolution together.”
And then we come to “Moonglow,” a song that has been haunting BURNT long before the seeds of Reaching for the Sun were even created. “It's a song that's had three or four different versions. More than 5 years – I thought maybe it would be a single one day and it just never really came around. We were trying to revamp the old version, at some point Danny was like, 'We need to strip everything off of it.' So we stripped it down to literally just the guitar. Karthik redid the bass line for it. We wiped out the drums and Rob did drums on it. Even then I thought for awhile it was going to get cut. It was one of the last tracks to make the album and it was thanks to Miguel from Sublime who finally did the finishing touches of the guitars and some weirdo synth work that glued the whole thing together and brought the song to life. I'm so happy because honestly that's one of my favourite songs on the album and it was pretty damned close to not making it. Again,” says Jamal, to a big laugh from the rest of the band on the line.
I could go on and on here about every track on Reaching for the Sun, (For instance, keep your ears open for the gritty, hard-hitting “Shadows” and the warm reggae-hug that is “True Love Never Chain”) but why would I want to take away the experience of sitting down, lighting up your favourite herb or pouring a glass of your favourite drink, laying back and taking in the first incredible musical journey of 2021? If you've made it this far reading this piece, then you're probably already on the train, but if you haven't heard the album, or BURNT at all, you should go right now and get Reaching for the Sun spinning and ride down the sonic highway to auditory bliss.
Grab Reaching for the Sun from BURNT's bandcamp now! (Or stream on Spotify if that's your bag. But they're independent and buying music directly is ALWAYS a good way to support good homies and good art.)
5 Questions with Rags #73 - Tom McGuire (Tom McGuire & The Brassholes)
Sometime in the last couple of months of 2018, the great YouTube algorithm smiled upon me and sent me a downright infectious tune called “Ric Flair,” by Tom McGuire & The Brassholes, a band I had definitely never heard of before. Instantly enamoured with the incredibly catchy single, the song quickly found its way into my daily listening diet. You know that feeling where you find a band but then there's only a few songs/videos to help satiate that sonic lust? Well, that's the feeling I was engulfed with when I started digging a bit more but thankfully for myself, and the rest of the unsuspecting world, Tom McGuire & The Brassholes were mere months away from releasing their self-titled debut album. “We started the record through a crowdfunding campaign last December (2017), which was ultimately successful. We recorded over January and February, and a bit of March too. It's been ready since then and we've been dying to have people have access to it. Nobody knew who were though so we had to kind of build it up to get the point where there would be interest in the album. It's been around about a year we've been waiting to show this to the world,” McGuire says, speaking to me from his home in Glasgow, as he prepares vinyl copies of the album to send to those ahead-of-the-curve listeners who preordered the album. And finally the time has come.
Released into the world January 18, Tom McGuire & The Brassholes is already starting to dazzle listeners with its scope, intimacy, storytelling and straight-ahead musical force. While the album is deep and rich, brimming flourishes and fresh ideas – a clearly thought-out and dense peice of sonic art – “Ric Flair,” that first single that hooked me and apparently a whole gaggle of other people, was created in nearly complete spontaneity. “Me and some of the guys in the band used to host jam sessions in town. Where there would be no one to play I would sometimes just make up songs on the spot to keep myself on my toes. One night I asked 'What's the next song gonna be?' And someone piped out 'Ric Flair!' Ooookay, here we go and I just spat out the chorus line and we spontaneously played the song and it was pretty sick. I held onto it...thankfully I remembered it. I went home and wrote it more fully and I'm very glad I did because it's the reason so many people are caring, having an idea of who we are.” He's right. Because as more people find that song and the album, more people are going to bring Tom McGuire & The Brassholes into their lives. And that means more people dancing, more people experiencing the sonic joy that this incredible band can deliver. And that can only be a good thing. Rags Music is proud to have Tom McGuire as a guest for this instalment of 5 Questions with Rags, as The Brassholes set off on what is sure to be a massive year for this phenomenal band.
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1. Do you remember the first album you bought with your own money?
First album I bought with my own money was...I used to be into punk rock. I still am actually, I love punk rock. My first record I got was a compilation from Nitro Records called Deep Thoughts and it was a killer. And I got Green Day Dookie on cassette tape. That's my roots. I remember that well. My first CD was punk rock and not some shite pop.
Yeah, I've asked that question a lot and there are some pretty regrettable answers.
I'm proud of me. There's nothing to be ashamed of for me.
2. When's the last time you did something for the first time?
Right now there's a lot of firsts happening for me. Being on national radio was a pretty big deal. We were on BBC Scotland when 'Ric Flair' was coming out. We went on BBC Scotland and played a session.
Read MoreA Year In West Coast Bass with Jim Vanderhorst.
2017 is the year I really felt like a legit part of the bass community here on the Canadian west coast. I've met and talked with an astonishing breadth of people with fantastical levels of skill and love for their respective crafts. Djs and producers, photographers, dancers, visual effects and lighting people, sound engineers, visual artists and writers – all working to help this music and culture we all love to thrive. One of the people who I've come to respect deeply both on a personal level and artistic level, is Jim Vanderhorst, the man behind Rebel Cause Films – the company behind some of the most unique and definitely most watchable festival and artist recaps films. His eye for his the medium and his never-ending push to show the most human parts of the culture give his videos an unparalleled warmth and sense of community. His compassion, thoughtfulness and willingness to speak up for what he believes when filming, discussing or just participating in the culture is a powerful and valuable trait. As someone who has made his name observing bass culture and translating what he sees for further consumption, I couldn't think of anyone more appropriate to help me take a look back at some of the things that made 2017 such a big year for bass music here on the best coast. As we enter a new year in bass and whatever weird-ass shit the party brings, we take a final look back at a pretty incredible 2017 with the incomparable leader of Rebel Cause Films, Jim Vanderhost.
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What's something that you've noticed in the bass community that you would like to see changed in the upcoming year or trends you'd like to see end?
There needs to be more awareness of just how bad women have it in this scene. There's a big discussion about it right now but a lot of things aren't being talked about. Like, go-go dancers are lucky to get paid enough to pay for there outfits...but they're usually not. They're getting in for free. People walk around thinking they're getting paid a bunch and treating them like shit. Like, 1% of Djs are girls. It's not promoted much and when they do get to play in this area it's an all-girls night, it's pandering and that's not helping the cause either. There are places like Calgary that have some great female acts that are starting to grow but out on the West Coast I'm not seeing it. I think a lot of shit that happens is just not fair. I think men need to really take a second and understand it's not fair. Women are organizing these entire things. Shambhala and Bass Coast are fucking run by women. And yet the talent buyers and everything are all hiring predominantly male acts. The women that are organizing everything are so busy making shit happen for us idiot men they sometimes don't notice the disservices being done. We have a huge long way to go before things are actually fair and I think we need to start taking better care of women who wanna get involved in performance, whether they're go-go dancers or Djs. Guys who want to do it should not complain about things being unfair for guys. So many male stage performers I've seen talk about how hard it is to be a man in this scene.
Read MoreCHUURCH: Building a base with Lean Bass.
Chuurch has established themselves as one of the most forward-thinking acts in the ever-expanding world of bass music, playing massive numbers of shows and festivals around North America, winning over new fans (UUnion Members, as they've been appropriately dubbed) wherever they lay their beats. As the influence of religious institutions wanes as time goes by, and people find new places to commune, Chuurch may be one of the most aptly named acts in music right now. Their signature 'Lean Bass' is a yin-yang of dark/moody and fun/groovy. Chuurch's is a sound that bridges those gaps between light and dark, welcoming all listeners from wherever they may come from.
“I'm a hip-hop producer, I've produced for Snak the Ripper and a bunch of other cats, and Jeff's (Aka EviCtion) classically trained, he has a degree in jazz theory but he makes electronic music. That's the preface of how it starts. We get into the same room and we really just don't stop,” recalls Justin (aka Makemdef), of the genesis of Chuurch. “We lived in the same house for two years and a bit. We just moved out of there this summer. We went through a lot but the one thing we did was just make beats all the time. All the time. All the time. It's crazy. We had the cops at our house so many times from noise complaints,” he says with a laugh, as he's readying to board a bus for a 15 hour ride to drop the grooves to the UUnion in and around the West Coast. “I figure in a year or 40 down the road, I'll be looking back at this laughing about those first 15 hour bus rides just to make it work. It's gotta go into the book, for sure.”
Those years of living together, amassing a huge backlog of music and learning to work relentlessly with each is starting to pay off in spades, as the duo are always showing up to wherever they are called with new music, new sounds for the ever-hungry ears and hips of dance-floor goers. “We really love making beats. We have a new beat for every different festival, for every new show we played. We just walk around and think, 'What's the crowd like? Who are we playing for?' Whether it's East Coast, California, wherever it was, what kind of beat do we want to make? We just manifest it, just conjure it up. That's why we have so many beats. We just get carried away. We're both really hungry. We're both complete polar opposites in every spectrum with a similar goal and common denominator.”
Whatever differences the duo may have are entirely irrelevant as the two have found a musical synergy that eludes many throughout their travels. “At FozzyFest, I walk into the green room at the stage and Jeff is sitting there, first time I've seen him in over a month, and he doesn't even say 'Hi.' He just looks up with his headphones on, at his laptop, and just waves me over and hands me the headphones. He had taken the stuff I had sent him from point A to point B. We were working on this song right off the bat seeing each other. We exported it 18 minutes before we started and it was the first song of our set,” Justin drops with a casualness that belies the incredible musical feat he just described.
It's that respect for the art and dedication to new ideas – as well as just being really fucking good at making music – that is helping Chuurch build a strong, dedicated fanbase. “Me and him just do what we do 100%, same as you do what you do 100%. Same as of all of the people involved in making this whole scene economically sensible. That's what it takes, is ninjas. There's no small part to it when it comes to contributing to this. That's what it's all about. You can totally remind someone having a shitty day that it's all good, just those simple gestures, offering your own personal gifts. A person can just take it and run with it. That's what it's all about – building each other up so we can keep building the culture up.”
Keep up with all things CHUURCH over at their Facebook page and the UUnion Fanpage.