Having built up a solid dance floor rep facilitating the much loved Boomclap weeklies in Montreal – graced by peers including  Lunice, Jacques Greene, Brenmar, DJ Rashad, and Dubbel Dutch – Sinjin Hawke released a slew of vivid bootlegs and remixes in 2011 wringing the essential elements of beauty and booty out of top 40 R&B and Hip Hop, injecting symphonic chromosomes into ghettotech/grime influenced sounds. Download em.

Off the momentum of these releases, dude has recently secured a DJ residency in Barcelona. Now he’s collaborating with new friends to bend the musical arc away from poolside tourista house, toward more edgy beat chemistry – like that stirred by the cold winters and restless youth & artists of the Montreal scene.

The Lights EP – released in December on PelicanFly stretches his gritty romantic beatscapes even further. Here is a tease via megamix. Enjoy.

Here is the full length official video/short film for the Weeknd’s “The Knowing”, directed by Mikael Colombu, the mind behind dark and twisty videos like Cee-Lo’s “Bodies” and Bilal’s “Robots“. The journey to and cataclysm of planet “Ethio X” in the year 16311 is a cascade of imagery evoking Stargate, Ethiopian Poli sci/Cultural studies and the grotesquely beautiful art of H.R. Geiger, all in all giving me a rare case of the slightly aroused willies.  With so much provocative content to analyze – I leave further interpretation to the viewer.

As a bonus, here is a track Mr. Abel Tesfaye released last month called “Initiation”, featuring his signature R&B-for-vampires vocal stylings screwed, auto-tuned and everything in between. Peacepeace.

When I saw this new video on UGSMAG, purveyors of new hiphop media for those seeking refuge from the swag and trap stylings of the day, I rushed to the record shop and copped the album Dialogue. After listening through and blabbing to the homies about how dope the whole album is, I was surprised to find out that the album actually came out in 2009. I’m more than a little embarrassed for managing to sleep on Thavius Beck, cause the album is more creative and cutting edge than most of the hip hop I’ve heard for a minute.

“Go” and the rest of Dialogue speak to my love for lyricism. Beck’s rapid fire delivery kinda reminds of me of Living Legends Eligh, however unlike many dense rhymers he shares space with his epic, degenerate beats in a sonic dialogue that shatters the standard verse/bar formula. If I had to go into battle against an army of soulless terminators – this is what I would bump before facing my fate. A Mush records signee and certified Ableton guru, Beck boasts collaborations ranging from Cedric Bixler-Zavala of The Mars Volta, Saul Williams’, and 2MEX.  I will be  watching/hoping for some new face-mashing music from dude soon.

While our spoiled LxNxM brothers are dropping tequila shots, and dropping pounds traversing under the hot- ass sun of downtown Austin at SXSW, it’s only right that me and the Krieganator – without the slightest shred of jealousy – soldier on to bring you that new new.

Enter the Dropping Gems crew “a collective of musicians based in the Pacific Northwest. Our goal is to share a particular vision of the future of humanity as it’s expressed in the form of electronic music. So we produce and release albums, and create events for people to come hear us and those that we love and respect”. This combination of ambitious vision and love shines through the amphibious, conscious-percolating sound layers of Gem Drops.  Representing the crews first digital compilation, and featuring a mindful selection of other U.S. based electronic innovators – all of the proceeds of Gem Drops are entirely committed to raising funds for the American Cancer Society. Listening through, I haven’t been this pumped about an electronic compilation since the first Beat Dimensions in ’07.

Don’t be a cheapskate when you name your price for this album. Whet your appetite for future-hop and support a good cause. For $15 you can get the handmade CD with artwork.  Don’t sleep on these big beats made by big hearts.

The Medulla Transmissions is the soundtrack for your long overdue inner-space road trip.  Your navigator is Renaissance man Jahon Mikal; a classically trained pianist, dancer, singer, producer, and reader of auras.

Throughout the decidedly future-funk, electro orchestra of Transmissions – Jahon Mikal’s other artistic confluences can be heard – from the fundamental hip hop mastery of his big bro/hip hop vet Vitamin D to his current work with the up-and-coming Seattle based Hip-Doo-Woppers The Heartfelts. The album also features vocal support from emcee/dance artist Maxie Jamal.

The complex beats and lyrical harmonies are so polished but maintain an organic vibe that is autonomic like the functions of the medulla, kinda like the art behind the simple act of breathing. Fresh.

Please show love and offer what you can, for this this pay- what-you can download album.

Here is some interesting new sound courtesy of one Ben Bronfman, enviro-creative renaissiance man and beau to M.I.A.  Beyond having a hand in the the production of Kanye’s “Monster”, dude is doing big thangs like co-founding Global Thermostat, a revolutionary carbon capture firm that separates CO2 directly from the air, or more recently becoming a principal in Algae Systems LLC, a third-generation bio-fuel company that takes waste water from cities and (using CO2 captured by GT) generates Jet-Fuel and Diesel fuel. That’s what I call going hard in the paint kids.

Founder of Green Owl, an environmentally conscious record label & apparel brand – Bronfman recently released this single “Gold” from his new group Teachers.  Also check out his eerie stripped down & rocked out remix of “Monster”.

Shouts to Checktheweather.net, a national online community and web platform to support and amplify the voice of young people of color in the US fighting for environmental justice,  for the good look and the good work!

TEACHERS — GOLD by Teachers
Monster (Teachers remix) by Teachers

I came across this joint almost a month ago, and it definitely left an impression. The synth heavy, haunting effects and palpitating bass- come courtesy of producers Musiq Korner. The triumph in Nipsey’s grown-man prose is supported well by June Summers‘ soulful hooks, and I feel something in the music that makes the difference between a good rapper and a great emcee – heart.

The song adds a new dimension to the hood-hop hydraulic sound and rhymes that dominate most of Nipseys mixtapes, convincing me that this South Central LA ambassador is an artist that might be marathon material, as opposed to the sprint characterized by most mixtape phenoms.

Download Nipsey’s recently released (Dec.21st) and quite crackin mixtape Marathon here.

Toast is the resident logistician for LxNxM and according to the stats y’all are showing us more love – I just want to say we appreciate each one of you. This creative endeavor has brought our crew closer, and our ideas have only start to take root…

Keeping the love going, I have been mesmerized by the next level soulstress Nneka. We mentioned Nneka a few months back vis-à-vis a collaborative mixtape she dropped with tastemaker J.Period titled The Madness (Onye-Ala).

Nneka has experienced a much deserved rise to global status since then.  The Nigerian-German/Nigeria- raised singer has landed a song “Viva Africa” on LISTEN UP! the official FIFA 2010 World Cup soundtrack, she also just joined Nas and Damian Marley on the Distant Relatives tour – making me regret missing their Seattle stop even more.

There is something higher about Nneka’s music. An anthropologist by training, she resonates her human experience to the listener with poetic clarity – in my humble opinion she is definitely channeling something the world needs in her music. Check out Nneka’s official site to cop her first U.S. release, Concrete Jungle and learn more about this visionary artist.

So I first heard about Laws from my former partner-in-rhyme  Taybot. Me and my dude have been known to have divergent angles on hip-hop, but as I sat back and listened to the Laws’s mixtape 4:57 – Laws got it in with ample quotable punchlines and witty-as-hell wordplay over beats undulating between the glitzy and the grimy .

The Brazilian born Florida-based Laws has the emphatic co-sign and beat-patronage of heavyweights like the street-oriented Don Cannon, J.U.S.T.U.S. league, Dj Khalil and even collabs on the brit-electro-tip with Calvin Harris. At best, 4:57 bridges the lyricism of the Rawkus era with contemporary auto-tune sensibilities (yeah I put those two words next to eachother) which is exciting from a bigger picture perch.

Man I’m backin Laws -  in hopes that he rides the buzz out to and finds his spot – do your thing emcee.

Click here to Download 4:57