Tom Caruana Presents: "Inner Space - Side B Taster" Feat. Willie The Kid & P. Blackk, Kool Keith, yU & ODDISEE (Tea Sea Records)
Many of our readers may unknowingly know Tom Caruana from his work on genre-shaping remix/mash-up albums, such as Wu-Tang vs. The Beatles - Enter: The Magical Mystery Chambers, Black Gold - Jimi Hendrix vs. The Wu-Tang Clan, and An Adventure to Pepperland Through Rhyme & Space. Caruana has, also, received critical acclaim (especially, here on The Witzard) for his band, Son of Sam's 2017 album, CINDER HILL, Black Gold: Spare Nuggets 2xLP, and 2018 self-titled EP with Detroit emcee Boog Brown. I've been frequently emailing back-and-forth with Tom Caruana and it appears as though, he has a handful of as-yet-unannounced/unreleased projects currently in-the-works or nearing completion; although, until very recently, I had not personally heard a peep about Carauana's latest project, Inner Space. It will artfully incorporate and remix samples culled from iconic Krautrock/Prog-Rock band Can's storied discography and takes particular inspiration from their 1973 Future Days album. "Someone said I should do an album called "Can-Ye." I liked the idea, but don't really like Kanye. So, I found acapellas by good and interesting rappers. Many of the acapellas [were] sent to me by the artists themselves," Tom Caruana explained on the origins of the album within an email.
"Made loads of beats out samples from of Can album tracks and out-takes, matched beats up with acapellas, [and] put them into four rough groups: 1. Uptempo, 2. Mellow, 3. Deep, and 4. Dark. Each group of tracks became a 20-minute Side of a record," he continued. Inner Space will feature found acapellas from Abdominal, dead prez, Blu & M.E.D. Willie The Kid & P. Blackk, Kool Keith, ODDISEE, Devin The Dude, East, Kev Brown & Grap Luva, eLZhi, Bahamadia & Hezekiah, Björk(?) & Thirstin Howl The 3rd, Percee P & Edan, MF DOOM, Stahhr, Sean Price & Roc Marciano, Run The Jewels, Danny Brown, Afu Ra & Fat Cat Kareem, Pharoahe Monch, Bahamadia, and Sir Menelik. Plus, exclusive acapellas attained directly from artists including Soundsci, PATEN LOCKE, Phill Most Chill, Homeboy Sandman, Andy Cooper, Oxygen, yU, Dillon & Greg Nice, billy woods, and Supastiton. Tom Caruana has, also, culled acapellas from Denmark Vessey, The Black Opera, and J Scienide's contributions to Son of Sam's various projects, as well as a brand new track with Willie Evans, Jr. Each track is, simply, labelled with each artist(s)' name and thus far, an 8-minute "taster" from Side B/2 has been released. It features previews "Willie The Kid & P. Blackk," "Kool Keith," "yU," and "ODDISEE" all expertly spitting atop airy instrumentals constructed from Can samples. Tom Caruana's Inner Space will be released on digital album, CD, cassette tape, and Blue/White & Red/Black 2xLP formats on Tea Sea Records Tuesday, July 15, 2019.
