"INSTRUMENTALS.3 is a collection of ideas I was experimenting with in 2016 that don't quite fit into a bigger instrumental project I am currently working on (you could say they are the off-cuts, I guess!) I put it up as a FREE download, so people can see progress in the beats I'm working on, but really just so they aren't [sitting] around on my hard drive. My girlfriend told me I should stop being a perfectionist pr*ck and release them, so I did. It's her fault," THE NATURAL CURRICULUM (TNC) rapper-producer AVER replied within a Twitter DM, when I asked for a bit of background information concerning his latest project. "All Musical & Visual Excretions by AVER; Except cuts on Track #3 by El Statiko; This sh*t is not really mixed or mastered, soz," reads INSTRUMENTALS.3's rather fitting Bandcamp description. THE NATURAL CURRICULUM consists of AVER, emcee Bill Sykes, rapper-producer Chalk, DJ-producer Omas, beat-boxer Jam, DJ El Statiko, and (sometimes) DJ Ink; they've collectively released a whopping 17+ EP's, solo releases, group albums, and mixtapes since initially forming back in 2004—although, DAYSE & AVER EP 0001 wasn't released until 2011.


AVER readily lists his personal sources of influence and inspiration throughout INSTRUMENTALS.3's creation as El-P's pre- Run The Jewels group Company Flow, Cannibal Ox, DJ Shadow, Portishead, A Tribe Called Quest, Herrotics, and of course, his "mates in TNC and a [sh*t-ton] of Jazz!" Flea Market Funk proclaimed: "these instrumentals are super tight; from the Jazzy "Cheese Evils," to the Boom-Blip of "Experiments In Peanut Butter," to Melvin Van Peebles-esque "Touching The Frog," these instrumentals are something you might want to grab up. Sometimes dark and brooding, sometimes drunk Dilla-type drums, sometimes futuristic [Drum 'N' Bass] meets broken beat, we like the cut of their jib" within his Friday INSTRUMENTALS.3 review. I can personally attest that there are about 100 original compositions, rhymes, and instrumentals available for FREE download and mass consumption at THE NATURAL CURRICULUM's Bandcamp page, this including INSTRUMENTALS.3, as well as their first proper full-length, The Best Fertiliser Is The Gardener's Shadow, which was released in September of last year.