The Witzard's Andy Cooper "THE PERFECT DEFINITION" 7-song Remix Compilation (Exclusive Soundcloud Playlist)
"DEDICATED TO LOVERS OF MAXI-SINGLES AND EVERY JAZZY, ACOUSTIC BASS-DRIVEN HIP-HOP SONG, WHICH PROVIDED THE SOUNDTRACK FOR A PRETENTIOUS, UNNECESSARY ARTSY RAP VIDEO DURING THE EARLY 90'S..." reads the reverse side of Long Beach rapper-producer Andy Cooper's latest "Here Comes Another One" 12-inch. If pressed, I would likely equate Andy Cooper's second solo album, the layered effect to something along the lines of Homeboy Sandman's First of a Living Breed or Beastie Boys' 1989 cult favorite, Paul's Boutique; an increasingly fun, charismatic Golden Age Hip-Hop-reminiscent album chock-full with an insane amount of genre-eschewing samples. the layered effect is entirely self-produced by Andy Cooper himself—particularly, note-worthy for his past work with Ugly Duckling and The Allergies—and plays out like a care-free, fun-loving Hip-Hop album of days past.
After seeing Andy's "Here Comes Another One" video on Flea Market Funk, I reached out to Phil Rocafort at Barcelona-based Rocafort Records; I soon, heard a pre-release advance of the layered effect, which ultimately, led to The Witzard's recent comprehensive Andy Cooper interview. I soon, stumbled upon both Instrumental and Acapella stems for 2015's The Free EP and reached out to Andy & Phil at Rocafort Records with the preposition to host a remix "contest" (no prizes or places) at The Witzard. Now, a matter of mere weeks later, I'm proud to present to you: The Witzard's Andy Cooper "THE PERFECT DEFINITION" Remix Compilation featuring 100% original remixes from Places & Spaces producer Naturetone, Djar One (from Andy's personal wish-list,) Broken Machine Films Presents... Australian producer Dros, Drew Scott affiliate Mike East, recent The Witzard subject UncleRussie, and Swiss beat-maker Alejandro "Getro" Ortega. Andy Cooper's the layered effect is now available on Rocafort Records or wherever fine records are sold!
Sincerely,
Matt "The Witzard" Horowitz
Remix Compilation Coordinator
I. NATURETONE (Places & Spaces) - Swiss Hip-Hop producer Naturetone hails from Bern and started making beats during the early 90's as an emcee and producer with Swiss Rap group Three Tree Posse AKA 3TP. Heavily inspired by the Native Tongues movement, 3TP released two independent albums between 1993-95 before disbanding. Naturetone then, went on a lengthy hiatus and after a nearly 10-year self-imposed sabbatical period, made a quite return to the world of Hip-Hop; focusing primarily, on building up a back catalog full of new beats and finely-crafted original remixes. Naturetone Remixes for Algorhythms (Thirtyseven & Dr. Quandary) garnered him a slot on World Around Records' storied roster. Nihon (2010) an instrumental tribute to Japan and Turnings of The Sun (2012) incorporating live instrumentation amidst original compositions soon followed. Naturetone joined forces with fellow Swiss producer Zooki in 2016 to form Places & Spaces; their debut track recorded together, "Alive," was premiered on World Around's swan song, We Are World Around, Vol. 6, which was soon followed up by Places & Spaces' proper debut album, also, entitled Alive. TheRise, a star-studded remix album with contributions from various emcees, producers, singers, etc. from all across the world will arrive sometime this year.
II. DJAR ONE - "DJ Format has already "Re-layered" one of the tracks, but aside from him, I would love, production-wise, to collaborate with People Under The Stairs, Djar One, DJ Suspect, Propo'88, and of course, it would be fun to hear how The Allergies would deal with these songs," Andy Cooper replied when asked who he might like to have participate within a hypothetical the layered effect remix album; in all honesty, this very answer was the match that sparked the initial idea for this whole Andy Cooper "THE PERFECT DEFINITION" Remix Contest/Compilation here at The Witzard, in the first place. I personally, reached out to the five emcees highlighted within Andy's own producers "wish-list" and Djar One was the first, and only, beat-maker to reply back. Djar One is a Le Havre, France-based DJ, emcee, producer and beat-maker from the Serpat Crew, who runs an independent French Hip-Hop label called Beats House Records. "The label started [to] release the discography of the Funkiest posse ACOOSMIK. We continue to release the solo projects of Djar One, Senbeï, and Kesta and work on the new group PITCHCAPS, who rock a heavy Boom-Bap Rap [edge]," Beats House Records write on their Facebook page. Beats House Records' Bandcamp page features a slew of projects from Senbeï, il Ritalo & Djar One, PITCHCAPS, Kesta, and Djar One himself released on successful 45 vinyls throughout 2017. One of Djar One's latest releases was, in fact, "The Get Down" B/W "My World" 45 featuring Andy Cooper and RYT, respectively. Djar One has also produced a handful of tracks for other artists all over the world, like Dragon Fli Empire, Loréa, Gérard Baste, Le Studio Bagel, Carpetface, and many more.
III. BROKEN MACHINE FILMS PRESENTS... - Josh Rogers, otherwise known as Broken Machine Films Presents... has been creating and banking samples since 2002. He's created over 30 albums utilizing only vintage equipment and medium and practicing the art of cassette-to-cassette manipulation. Broken Machine Films Presents... was recently featured on Memories Overloaded: A Tribute to The Caretaker, Godless America Mixtape Vol. 4, Gorgeous Lights' Latenight, and Bedroom Cassette Masters 1980-89 Volume Nine. Rogers himself attests his "creations have been most associated with like going to a late 70's lo-fi drive-in Grindhouse B-movie double-feature with your main squeeze; putting the listening device on your [car] door and continuing on with your date. Not paying so much attention to what is transpiring on the screen anymore... you have more pressing matters to attend to." Broken Machine Films Presents... has, additionally, been doing video production/ documentation for fellow artists since 2001. Josh Rogers also, runs what he affectionately describes as "a little label called Illuminated Paths" (IP.) Upcoming IP releases to primarily feature Broken Machine Films Presents... production works will include Houston emcee VIPER's 'BOUT THA MONEY & NOOB SAIBOT's I-II featuring a variety of Underground Hip-Hop artists; both albums are expected to be released sometime during 2018 and are currently available to preview on Illuminated Paths' Bandcamp page.
IV. DROS - "One day, Dros was born. Dude made beats for days and breathed fire-lasers out the mouth with abundance; plus, I heard he claimed like... seven gold medals in the local amateur triple-bypass surgery circuit. My dad says he's a true hero," Dros (News) charismatically wrote on his own Bandcamp page. Since kick-starting his career in 2017, Dros has self-released a number of beat-minded projects including Hieronymus Dros, Fresh to Death, Nature of The Beat Vol. I, and most recently, "Chameleon" featuring New Jersey emcee CRIMEAPPLE. According to the mysterious man himself, Dros has more projects currently in-the-works to be released throughout 2018.
V. MIKE EAST - "My name is Mike East. 30-years old from West Warwick, Rhode Island. Been making music my whole life. Started out playing guitar trying to get bands going, sharpening basic song-writing skills. Bands never seemed to work out and rapping was much easier to not only practice, but it also, wasn't necessarily, a group activity. Around the end of my junior year, LimeWire instrumentals sucked, so I decided to start making beats, so that me and my friends could rap over them; got a copy of Fruity Loops 3.0 and the rest is history, as they say. Been making beats almost daily for the last decade or so. Gonna make them almost daily for however many more decades I get to rock it on this rock," Mike East wrote within his self-penned artist bio. Not only has Mike East produced various loosies for other artists and friends, such as "Save Your Aim" and "Wreckshop" for Drew Scott and Eze Jackson's "For The Win!!!" he has produced albums on his own, as part of two Rhode Island-based crews: Ocean State Horror House's BETWEEN HELL AND A HOT PLACE (2013) and Devil Squad's self-titled 2014 album AKA The Secret Order of The DEVIL SQUAD.
VI. UNCLERUSSIE - Baltimore-based producer and beat-maker UncleRussie describes his latest EP as "the follow-up to The Bulma Tape series, the Trunks EP. sequences and highlights various timelines of Trunks Brief - Past, Present & Future(?)" He's of course, referring to 2016's The Bulma Tape and The Bulma Tape: Side B from last year, a Hip-Hop/Anime trilogy, which will likely, close with Trunks EP. successor #TheBulmaTape3. UncleRussie's Trunks EP. takes inspiration, as well as direct samples, and influence from Dragon Ball Z's "Future" Trunks, Androids, and Cell Sagas. UncleRussie single-handedly edited, arranged, and produced his Trunks EP. with assists throughout from beat-making buddies Action Bastard, Benjamin Banger, Bito Sureiya, Drew Scott, Jumbled, TEK.LUN, Swellthy, and UncleRussie himself. Trunks EP. features three sparse, yet fitting vocal assists from emcees Dot Com Intelligence, ONLY AKA @GwapSinatra, and El Hippie Moonbear. Since 2016, UncleRussie has self-released The Bulma Tape, The Bulma Tape: Side B, The Bulma Tape | Side B | Extras, Iman Europe-remixing The Caterpillar Remixes EP, BXRTHDAY. Remix EP for Berko Lover, and most recently, Trunks EP.
VII. GETRO - Alejandro "Getro" Ortega originally, started making beats during the early 90's, as a founding member of Swiss Hip-Hop pioneers Three Tree Posse (3TP) along with Patric AKA Naturetone and Bowie. 3TP released two albums between 1993-95, The Quest and Ostlärm on Sound Service/Ostring Records. Ostlärm featured Three Tree Posse's core members, as well as new additions Zoran AKA Zooki, Mirio, and DJ Pablo. Soon after, 3TP disbanded and Ortega says "life happened" and years later, he would return with his solo project simply entitled "Getro." Getro released his first and to date, only, single "Chumm mir schwümme drvo" feat. Chantemoisselle was released on Spotify in 2013; a few years later, Getro started holding regular beat sessions with his old friends from 3TP and got back into Hip-Hop again. Alejandro Ortega's Andy Cooper "THE PERFECT DEFINITION" (Getro Remix) is actually, his first original remix in all of his years of Hip-Hop beat-making.
* BONUS * UNIBROW DUCK - "Hi, everybody! My name is Tin AKA Unibrow Duck and I'm a graphic designer from Croatia, now living in Canada. I finished a graphic design high school, then, moved on to have an M.A. in Art History (both in Zagreb,) but all the time, doing some graphic design work on the side. I had a lot of small jobs/volunteer projects, which definitely gave me the confidence that graphic design is something I wanted to do in my life. Whenever I can, I like to use my drawings in the design, but if some other approach works, I'll use that. It's important to think outside the box. For example: Matt asked me to create an illustration for [The Witzard's] Andy Cooper [Remix] Compilation. Here, I included a mix of things: a swan (a reference to Ugly Duckling,) stacked LP's—representing old school sampling in Rap, when you had to actually, have a certain LP to use that sample and a reference to the name of the album—and a hat and a scarf, which is a reference to "Rick Said So;" based on one of the photos of Rick Rubin I found, when he was the Beastie Boys' DJ. I drew everything, scanned the image, made the adjustments with an image-editing program, and that's it! I would like to thank Matt for this opportunity; keep up the great work, man! If you like my stuff, you can check my Tumblr and Twitter pages. QUACK!"
