The Herd - Future Shades

So its only been a few days since The Herd dropped their new album Future Shades and we've seen the first 3 parts of an 8 part series where by we get to know the individual artist on a more personal level. Urthboy was first up and we herd about the track Grandmas Song on the album and how it came to be. Elefant Tracks have kindly posted a video for Grandma's Song being rehearsed so check that below as well. Also we now here from Uncle Ho as part 4 of the series.

Illy is King

Illy is back, this time with his rappertagg which saw the first ever broadcast from Illy News Channel. At the start of the year we saw Bias B drop his final album and sign out of the hip hop nation. At the end of the year another hip hop legend is signing out therefore Reason is up next. Check it out

The Herd - Future Shades

Well the wait is over The Herd has finally dropped the new album, 'Future Shade'. Head down to your local record store and grab a copy of it if you haven't already got yours through pre order.

Spit Synicate New Mixtape

After spending the past few months traveling around the globe the boys from Spit Syndicate jumped straight back into the studio. Only this time not to record their next album rather heading back to their roots to record a mixtape. They first became known for the mix tapes after dropping "The Futures Bright" which featured some big names including The Tongue. Check out "The Food" below from "The Futures Bright" mix tape. The new mix tape is a free digital download so make sure you keep an eye out. Due to drop on the 23rd of september so watch this space for the link. 

“This is a way of thanking our fans, both new and old, for their support and patience with something fresh and free. We first made a name for ourselves by releasing mixtapes, this is a return to those roots – banging beats, sharp lyrics.” 

Nick Lupi

Drapht Bali Party Film Clip

Drapht as had a huge week adding dates to his 'Party Party Party" tour for WA and NT as well as adding a gold record to his wall, 'The Life of Riley". And now from his third single of 'The Life of Riley' comes Bali Party and the film clip. Check it out and be sure to head out to his shows when he hits your town!

Drapht – The Party Party Party Tour:
With special guests Muph & Plutonic, Thundamentals and Layla & Dazastah.
Wednesday 14 September – Station Hotel, Thredbo, NSW
Thursday 15 September – Penrith Panthers, NSW
Friday 16 September – Enmore, Sydney, NSW (Licensed/All Ages)
Wednesday 21 September – Bluestone Ballarat, Vic
Thursday 22 September – Chelsea Heights Hotel, Vic
Friday 23 September – Palace Theatre, Melbourne, Vic
Saturday 24 September – Thearton Theatre, Adelaide, SA (Licensed/All Ages)
Sunday 25 September – Mildura Settlers Tavern, Vic
Thursday 28 September – The Discovery Nightclub, Darwin NT – NEW SHOW
Friday 30 September – The Roey, Broome WA – NEW SHOW
Sat 1 Oct – The Pier Hotel, Port Hedland, WA – NEW SHOW
Sat 2 Oct – The Mermaid Hotel, Dampier, WA – NEW SHOW
Thursday 6 October – Players, Mandurah, WA
Friday 7 October – Metro City, Perth, WA
Sunday 9 October – Prince of Wales, Bunbury, WA
Wednesday 12 October – Armidale Uni, NSW
Thursday 13 October – Coffs Ex-Sericeman’s Club, NSW
Friday 14 October – Yamba Bowling Club, NSW
Sunday 16 October – Sugarland Tavern, Bundaberg, QLD
Wednesday 19 October – Townsville Uni Club, QLD
Thursday 20 October – Andergrove Tavern, Mackay, QLD

Fozzey & Van C - Your Heart film clip

Produced by : VanC
Writen by : Fozzey & VanC
Video Writen, Directed & Edited by : Angelo Saliba
Filmed by : Craig McDiarmid of "Twenty Three Frames" & Chris Baker of "The Bakery"
Models Provided by : Venlee Model Management
Venue Provided by : The Attic / Gilligans - Cairns Queensland
Presented by : Evident Entertainment


Download the "Under Pressure" mixtape FREE @
http://www.fozzeyandvanc.com

August Feature Artist - Stories For Nothing aka Kelton Muir

Each month Bottom Of The Atlas will feature an artist or group starting this month. This month we are going to get the ball rolling with Sydney based artist, Kelton Muir (Stories For Nothing). I managed to catch up with Kelton for a brief chat on his institutions, works and aspirations.

Group Name: Stories For Nothing

Members: Kelton Muir 

Releases to date: First Book of Rhymes

Idol: Nick Briant-Smith aka Solo from Horrorshow

BOTA: When did you officially decide to release works under the title “Stories For Nothing”?

Stories For Nothing: There wasn’t a precise date as such when it started, I guess that it was sometime last year during year 12, it just happened. That shit was all a blur really.

BOTA: Your first release, First Book of Rhymes. What inspired these tracks.

Stories For Nothing: First Book of Rhymes is literally that, my first book of rhymes combined into a short album. The inspiration for this collection of songs came from my very early introduction into aussie hip hop combined with my introduction into kidulthood. I was finding my feet in both, and that is strongly represented in the music.

BOTA: Who and or what would you say is your biggest inspiration for you when creating your music?

Stories For Nothing: The biggest inspirations for music would have to be fellow Sydney artists, Horrorshow. I also draw inspiration from Tupac and various other artist.

BOTA: What do you wish to achieve through your music?

Stories For Nothing: My ultimate life time goal would be to make an impact on peoples life. I want my music to inspire people and spread infectious emotions through the audience. If I can achieve that, even if only with a small group of people, I will be a happy man.

BOTA: What best describes your music?

Stories For Nothing: My music is an exhibition of my emotions and the thoughts, feelings and actions of those around me through musical expressionism, poetry and witty lyricism.

BOTA: Why did you start to make music?

Stories For Nothing: I actually wrote a rhyme about that today... “for most of my life-time, hip-hop has been my life-line, so late one sour night-time i picked up a pen to write rhymes”. I guess I just felt the need to express myself and music was simply my outlet. Plus, hip-hop has been so influential to me and my life, I feel like I should give something myself to the genre.

BOTA: Are there any future works and performances planed/in progress?

Stories For Noting: I just finished a string of live performances supporting the likes of Phatchance, Coptic Soldier and the Electric Elements Crew as well as doing a few small shows of just my own work (well, my work and the work of my amazing acoustic band). I have a few shows on the radar including a few local festival slots and the "Hologram" shows, so my schedule is continually busy. My "Second Book Of Rhymes" is going to drop soon, it’s in the mixing process at the moment. It should be considerably stronger than my First Book Of Rhymes and is going to be something that I will be very proud of when I release it. Busy times ahead – stay tuned.

Download First Book of Rhymes for free here and in the meantime check out this track below called What's Going On produced by Jae Moon and mastered by Phatchance.

What's Going On - by Stories For Nothing by Stories For Nothing

Phatchance and One Above's "Somebody I Used to Know Remix" (Gotye/Kimbra)

Its finally here Phatchance and One Above have released their Somebody I Used To Know track. Check it out down below and spread it round. Deffinatly worth a listen its a change from Chance's latest acoustic work. We can see that on this one he really has taken his music further both lyrically and musically. The slow beat and chant like lyrics at the start that slowly progress to build up to the chorus really shows this. Download it now off sound cloud while you can.

Phatchance_Gotye_Somebody That I Used To Know (Hip Hop Remix) Remixed by One Above by phatchance

Horrorshow headline in the Northern Territory

Horrorshow are heading out back this weekend to headline the Take Control Youth Festival. The festival is a drug and achaol free event that is being put on by the Northern Territory and Gove FM. The event is free so if your anywhere close by get down there and check it out. It is the biggest festival day that the NT will have ever seen held at the Hingle Oval in Nhulunbuy. The festival also brings many other artist to the stage both local and from around the country. For more information head to www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=199964670057531 

CHILDREN COLLIDE
HORRORSHOW
SLEEVEHEADS
TJUPI BAND
EMERALD SUN
EAST JOURNEY
ADK
THE RIFF

INDIGENOUS HIP HOP PROJECTS
SPORTS CLINIC & HIP HOP WORKSHOPS

Treehouse Mixtape!

Treehouse is a design studio who have worked with many aussie artist over the past years to design and create spectral album covers. The team at treehouse consists of three mates who have grown up and studied design, art and photography together. After working for larger design agencies they decided that they wanted to focus their projects to their love of music. The tree house mix tape sees a range of tracks from artist who have worked with the treehouse boys including featured artist earlier this week Forbes who's album artwork for his ep, Kid Been Waiting. The mix tape also includes tracks form hip hop grates like Hau, Ozi Batla, Phatchance and many others. Check it out now!

Rappertag Update

Well it seems like rapper tag has been going for ever and as though it will go forever but in reality its just under 1 year old. After Mantra dropping his tag at umber 39 not long ago the official number ov views across all rapper tag vids was more than 1 000 000. Its hard to think that when 360 came up with the idea that it would ever grow to be this big, and thats before we even start to talk about the "underground rapper tag". Anyway Mantra tagged Jeremedy who is one of the less know rappers to be tagged of late but is by no means any less skilful. As you will see in his tag that man killed it. Illy your up next son!

Future Shade - The Herd - In Stores 26th Aug 2011

The Herd are due to release their new album on the 26th of August. The album is filled with tracks that draw inspiration from many different places and is underpinned by hip hop bit by no means is not contained by any genre. 

The herd have always written tracks expressing their personal and political views, something that i’ve always loved about their music. The Herd are nothing short of great storytellers and I for one can not wait to see what the new album Future Shade brings.

Pre order the album online to receive your copy of the album signed and an exclusive bonus unreleased MP3 track Like A Riddle. This track will be emailed to you within 24 (Business hours) of ordering the album. The track is exclusive and not on the album. 

Keep an eye out on The Herd's youtube channel for interviews with the members. So far we have learnt a little more about Jane Tyrrell and her fine arts, and Urthboy and what goes on behind the management of the label. We also see their personal connections from the album and their views on certain tracks. (View Below)

You can stream the album for a limited time right now here. Check it out now and support Australian Hip Hop. http://themusic.com.au/audio/the-herd-future-shade .

360 - Killer

360 just released his third single from his forth comming album Falling & Flying. The track Killer goes to show how yet agin how 360 is taking his music in a forward to a new level. Check it out below. 

360 - Killer by theinsound

Forbes Kid Been Waiting EP

Kid Been Waiting is the latest release from Gold Coast emcee, Forbes. In January of 2010 Forbes dropped his debut album, The Abstract. Since then he has been working towards bigger and greater things. Earlier this year he was due to drop an ep but due to other circumstances including the influence of Pez saying that this needed to be more than just a free download and should be on the shelves of JB. As a result Forbes is now working on his second album, All or Nothing which is due in 2012. 

Over the past few months Forbes has continued to push the boundaries dropping tracks here and there on his sound cloud. Kid Been Waiting presented by Bad Meet Evil Streetware is a collective of some of these tracks and some new ones, including Get This Feeling FT Pez. If the latest EP from Forbes is anything to go by, then All or Nothing is set to be nothing less than a classic. Head over to http://forbes.bandcamp.com/ to download Forbes new EP and while your there grab his first album The Abstract as well. Like his Facebook page here for updates and news.

Big Phrase Is Back!

Its been some time since we've seen an album from Phrase but the wait is nearly over! When phrase dropped clockwork in 2009 it seems that he took his music to a new level with tracks like spaceship and Clockwork, but with the release of Babylon tomorrow the stage is set for the bar to be raised higher once again. 

When Phrase set out to produce his latest album, Babylon he wanted to create something that sounded like he was an emcee from the 60’s. Although Phrase listens to, loves and makes hip hip his always been influenced by british music from the 60’s with groups like The Kinks and Small Faces having a great influence on his life. He believes that Babylon is the strongest songwriting and most exciting music that he has produced in his career, a statement that i’m sure that many of us will agree with. 

Phrase speaks about the album mix as the most emotional part of the album. Mainly because with the mix down and making final decisions on how each song will sound its like shutting the door on a chapter of his life. He feels that he has many mixed emotions about the mix, as nerves set in as to weather its perfect but theres also that strong sense of excitement of what is to come.

With Babylon Phrase took a different approach to writing the tracks, compared to the processes used over the past two albums, Talk With Force and Clockwork. Phrase wrote the entire album at home and the album dose not feature any samples with all original music instead. At the end of last year he got married and during the production of the album his wife helped to workshop while sitting at home with the guitar and keys. The approach to the album was that of a more traditional song writing as such instead of just getting beats from a producer and writing over them.

He mixed and recorded the album in Sydney but had all of the lyrics written before heading to Sydney. During the recording process he says that he felt a lot of pressure from the success of his previous albums But felt as thought the past works were very different to this album due to his personal experiences in life. Turning 30 this year and getting married last year he says that he feels as though he has grown up and is in a better place personally than he was when he was recording Clockwork. In saying this he found it hard to find subject topics that he was passionate about enough to write about but he believes that this has only led to better music.

The album features some big names including Jimmy Barnes and Ales Sparticadia. The track Velvet Glove ft Jimmy Barnes is one that Phrase clearly has a love for as he felt so strong about it that even know it was not a single, and rather just another album track he felt the need to get Jimmy Barnes on the hook. He wanted Barnes as he felt that there was no one else in the country that had a strong enough voice for the sound Phrase was after.

The album artwork is by an artist Gus Luni. When he saw the artwork it immediately spoke to him and Phrase believed that it clearly said Babylon to him. The title for the album comes from the idea that over the past few years Phrase has found his feet and now knows what he is on about in life.

The album hits the shelfs tomorrow so head down to your local JB Hi-Fi or any good record store or head to iTunes and grab you self of the album. For the mean time head over to http://babylon.phrasemusic.com/ to stream the album. Big ups to Phrase and all those who worked on the album this ones sure to be a banger!

How You Been

Two weeks ago we saw the release of the second album from the Thundamentals, Foreverlution. After listing to it there are some classics followed by those that i know will become personal favs. Already I have grown to love the track, How You Been Ft. Jace Excel.

The track is one that I'm sure that we can all relate to. That someone who we wished we could be best mates with for the rest of our lives but slowly drift apart regrettably. The laid back beat and chorus really gets you in the mood to reminisce about the past, to think about the present and think about all those who you care about and wish to be with for the rest of your life.

Jeswon kicks off the song with his verse with the line "way back when, before i started rapping with tuk" and then goes on to reminisce about a mate who he used to be close with and regrettably is no longer is close to. It hits close to home for all of us unfortunately, weather it be a childhood friend, your best mate from school or just those kid you used to hang with. As a year 12 student myself i know that once I leave school there will be those mates who grow distant from and thats part of doing your own thing, people come and grow throughout out lives. "times changed you chose to go the corporate route, its awkward now, we ain't got shit to talk about, you wanted to get paid, kid go ahead do it, you thought it was stupid how i chose to make music, but now the fans loose it you finally understand that despite never seeing you your still my brother man."

"Its strange when best friends become strangers." I guess that this is an appropriate to finish up the song as it sums it all up. Its clear that in the first verse that Jeswon clearly feels this "way back when, before i started rapping with tuk" The whole song is brilliant and I for one carnt wait to see it live! Big Ups to the Thunda Crew go cop that album yo!

Big Village

Big Village is an independent record label who represent the latest wave in Sydney’s Hip Hop artists. Big village consist Daily Meds (P.Smurf, Mikoen, Billie Rose and Roleo), Loose Change (Rapaport and Ellesquire), True Vibenation (Verbaleyes, Native Wit and Gabriel Clouston), Reverse Polarities (Kit Complete, MC Mute, P.Smurf, Mikoen and Billie Rose), Tuka, Ellesquire and Jeswon.


Big Village was founded by the artist that it currently represents. During the formation of the label all members have contributed their expertise in one way or another. The label is run entirely by the artist from event promotions, web design, social networking or gig bookings. This group of young artist are truly taking on a BIG challenge. 

The label was established in 2010 which was a BIG year for this collective group of artists where we say releases from Tuka, Will Rap for Tuka, Daily meds EP and a free digital release form Loose Change.  This year we have seen and can expect the Big Village Complication, Ellesquire’s solo album, True Vibenation EP and a full length album from Daily Meds.

Check out the following vids where some of the Big Village crew jumped into the Triple J’s studio with Hau on the Hip Hop show and the Be My Guest Video clip from the Big Village Complication.

Mantra KILLZ rappertag

Old mate Mantra takes his rapper tag to the next lever check this shit out!

Bliss n Eso Tour Contest

Bliss n Eso have been on tour for a number of months now rocking shows all over the country. If you managed to catch one of these gigs or if you have ever been to a BNE gig you'll know that they brought there a game and killed it! They seem to have a stage presence and sense of showmanship that is like know other in the scene. You would have seen the cameras following them constantly on and off stage documenting their tour, and possibly been the camera operator your self if you downloaded the BNE iPhone app which allowed you to capture footage of the gig to send in to be used in the editing process of the soon to come tour dvd.

Bliss n Eso are turing to you their loyal fans and asking you this, Whats your favourite photo from the tour and why? All that you have to do to be in the running is to find a photo that you like from the tour from their albums and comment as to why you like it and then share the photo to your wall its that simple, why wouldn't you answer. The winner will be announced mid August and will take home a signed copy of the upcoming dvd and tour hoody! The only condition of the contest is that you have to complete both steps. All of the tour photos will be released from the 14 shows one show a day. With 12 show's photos already been realised get in fast!

Head to their Facebook page to enter  www.facebook.com/blissesoizm 

I guess it is songs like this that makes you really appreciate the versatility of Australian Hip Hop. The unusual combination of Tom Ulgy featuring Pez is a clear example of how hip hop can be combined with various other forms of music to create something wonderful. Its been a while since we have herd from Pez as his had some stuff in his life that his had to sort out as we herd his his rapper tag but if they lyrics of this are anything to go by then the next album will defiantly be well worth the wait. Big Ups to Pez for the colab. 

Lyrics


Living within a sedated space,
You're living in a cage
It's breaking all the patterns in your brain
And these days,
It feels like you just want to gun up a parade

I'm not sure how I got here,
Hopeless and so distant
- Maybe you can blame it on the times?
But most of the time it feels like I'm not here
See with all I was sure that I wanted from life
I never thought that I'd pause and just watch it go by
Now it's life and it's always the same
But I swear I wasn't always this way

I was somebody else
I was somebody else
I was somebody else
I was somebody...
I was someone...
I was somebody else

I used to think how to pass the time
Now I think how it passed me by
It's kind of strange how I do feel ashamed
'Cos in truth though I choose to complain
I still remember the first day that I pushed me aside
I'll get to it but I just need some time
You think it's O.K. if you have your own aim
Somewhere still up in your mind
But then your brain becomes weak
And love becomes fear
Days become weeks
And months become years
'Til you're here, you're in a crisis
You feel like you're in denial if you keeping
I swear it makes me wish I could change tense
And go back to when everything just made sense
But I can't so I'm sitting at this same desk,
Counting down the minutes while I'm thinking of a day when...

I was somebody else
I was somebody else
I was somebody else
I was somebody...
I was someone...
I was somebody else

I was somebody else
I was somebody else
I was somebody else
I was somebody...
I was someone...
I was somebody else

Looking at the stars while you're waiting
But look into the past of your way in
Hold it along
Hold it along
Maybe you can blame it on the times?

And the Winner Is ...

Leg Up T-Shirt Contest Runners Up

Leg Up T-Shirt Contest Runners Up

Leg Up T-Shirt Contest Runners Up

Leg Up T-Shirt Contest Runners Up

http://www.facebook.com/thundamentals

Thundamentals t-shirt contest is almost at a close