Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Ya Know, Just Some Beats

Well hello everyone. I hope your 4th of July was great, I definitely got my American Pride on; I can only hope you did as well. So, it has been ages since we here at Attempts At Hip did a review of a band/album so when Benny Loco got in touch with us about his upcoming album Just Some Beats Vol. 1 we jumped.
Benny Loco hails from good ol' Boulder, Colorado. Does that ring a bell? Well, 3OH!3 hail from the same place. So, whether you like 3OH!3 or not, you know people in that town know how to put some beats together. Anyway, let's get to our main character here. Benny Loco has an electronica/hip-hop sound that blends together in a masterfully complicated way. There's no harmonica+iPhone app+bathroom vocals+Garageband anywhere near this one. And I know that's what you thought when you first saw electronica too - so kick that thought out and let's get down to business. Just Some Beats Vol. 1 is a strong 15 track album full of beautifully layered songs that never seem to disinterest the listener. I've been writing on various blogs for about three hours now and every time the album kicks off I'm actually a little frustrated because I can't figure out which song to start with again.
Now, I'm not an enormous eletronica/hip-hop combo fan for the exclusive fact that I'm about as scatterbrained as if a bird were to take 5-Hour Energy, do some illegal substances, and then try to do some math. What I'm say is: I get bored easily with boring music. This is not boring music. And that's a great change. The music honestly reminds me sometimes of Ratatat except more percussion and synth driven whereas with Ratatat you get heavy midi guitars. Which are great, but sometimes boring, honestly. The first song on Just Some Beats is entitled In Demand and really starts the album off strong. Every layer to the song is interesting and gives you that "I'm not 100% committed yet but I can't skip this" feeling. You know the one I'm talking about. A couple other stand out songs on the album are Bike Ride and Meta-Blap both of which demand your attention when they come on.
So that is Benny Loco at a glance. My synopsis: Badass electronica/hip-hop. I'm 99% sure this is going to be my go-to for some good work music and music I don't have to crane my neck to listen to. This is good stuff. Just Some Beats Vol. 1 is out soon so pick it up asap. You can download the album soon from Hairy Sloth Records which I'll link below. I'll leave you with a stream of In Demand and  Champions. Check those out as well as Benny Loco's MySpace below:
http://www.myspace.com/bennylocomusic
http://hairyslothrecords.com/
Benny Loco - In Demand
Benny Loco - Champions


Finally, I'm apparently on Twitter now. So if for some reason you cannot get enough of me, or Attempts At Hip, or the myriad other pieces of my web-life. Follow along @JackKellyIsHip (http://twitter.com/JackKellyIsHip)

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