SHOESEccentric Breaks and Beats(Numbero)
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These days “bootlegger” usually just means “pirate”—someone illegally copying music off the Internet or selling unauthorized CD-R copies outside the Mega Mall. But the Numero folks apply it to the likes of underground hip-hop producer Madlib and R & B revivalist Mayer Hawthorne, both of whom they allege have sampled Numero releases or put them on mixes without permission. (Madlib and Hawthorne are both on Stones Throw, which hadn’t replied to an inquiry by press time.) Though the laws on derivative works and fair use are fairly clear-cut, in practice they’re also widely challenged or outright flouted, and some argue that they’re outdated in the open-source era. But the Numero folks have no use for that gray area, and when they came across Eccentric Breaks and Beats, a collage of samples from some 70 Numero releases constructed with no legal clearance whatsoever, they leapt into action.
But then, “with our cease and desist letter ready to be dropped in the mail, an interesting thing happened: We kinda got hooked on the flawlessly arranged pastiche.”
G.O.D. JEWELSGreatness Opens Doors(mix tape)
Restraint is one of the toughest things for a musician to learn, but the payoff is big. The subtle hooks on the Interiors‘ five-song Teeth EP would get smothered if the band used the well-worn alt-rock formula of loud-quiet-loud; instead they keep their tunes reined in, protecting the fragile melodies and adding a taut feeling of suspense, right at the edge of anxiety, that might be the most compelling thing about them. The late-Fugazi-as-indie-pop approach of “No Maps” and “Please Don’t Leave Me Behind” makes a great case for not turning everything into a big deal.
