All Your Friend's Friends

by ALL YOUR FRIEND'S FRIENDS

Overview

Indie rock often sounds purposefully sloppy, boasting a loose, rumpled vibe that suits the inspired amateurism of many bands. Hip-hop, on the other hand, demands a certain precision, as MCs need a steady pulse to hold their rhymes in place, which is fortunate since the samplers and drum machines most producers favor bring a digital certainty to their tracks. So what would happen if you built a hip-hop album around samples from the catalog of K Records, purveyors of notoriously human and imprecise "love rock" acts following the example of label founder Calvin Johnson? Believe it or not, it would turn out pretty well, judging from All Your Friend's Friends, an anthology put together by the Pacific Northwest hip-hop collective Thee Xntrx, with beat master Smoke M2D6 building all the tracks from songs in the K Records archive. Of course, Smoke M2D6 has added plenty of drum loops and bass to these tracks, so while the building blocks of the original songs are often visible, this stuff doesn't sound like folks simply rapping over, say, the Halo Benders. Instead, these tracks feel cool and muscular, letting the organic sounds of the original recordings give shape and color to the electronics. And thankfully, Thee Xntrx have brought in some distinctive MCs to rhyme over Smoke M2D6's beats, and the high points suggest the Overcast Empire's hip-hop scene is as idiosyncratic and memorable as the underground rock community. In addition to members of Thee Xntrx, the rappers include associates of Northwest crews Oldominion and Sandpeople, and with a few rare exceptions, the verses are thoughtful and witty, often incorporating a political or social subtext while boasting plentiful street cred, and the quality of the flow is impressive (though "Pizza Chef" from Free Whiskey shows not everyone on board is a genius). What could have been a clumsy lo-fi variation on the Judgment Night original soundtrack instead turns out to be an interesting and genuinely satisfying collision of two distant but related independent cultures, and if you're interested in the more original sides of either indie rock or alternative rap, this is more than worth your attention. ~ Mark Deming

Product Details

Release Date:	11/10/2014
Label:	K. RECORDS
UPC:	0789856125524

Tracks

1. Cynic Syndrome  -  Candidt  - Zikki Carr  - Onry Ozzborn
2. Real Life Game  - Skyler Blake  -  Chicharones
3. Evolve Away  - Thomas Deakin  -  Xperience
4. Good Bad Girl  - Heddie Leone
5. Find Your Shine  - Danny Haigh  -  MG! The Visionary  - Ang P  - Poeina Suddartha  -  Wildcard
6. Where the Free People Go  -  AKA
7. Trial by Water  -  Eprhyme  -  Epryme  -  IAME
8. Pizza Chef  -  Free Whiskey
9. 3D Monocle  -  Bishop  -  Gold  -  JFK  -  Smoke
10. My Shady Gangster Uncle Kaiser  - Zikki Carr  -  Nyqwil  -  Xperience
11. Dancefloor on the Warpath  -  Smoke
12. Nothing Grows in a Flood  -  Barfly
13. Blackfist Brokenfont  -  Nyqwil  -  Silent Lambs Project
14. Work Is the Principle  -  Afrok  -  MG! The Visionary  - Ang P  -  Puget
15. We Never Look Up  -  Gold  - Danny Haigh  -  IAME  -  Miz
16. Simplify Complex  - Alli Baker  -  Saints of Everyday Failures
17. Ashen Embers  -  Xperience
18. Jumpkick the Legs  - Hash Adams  -  Candidt  - Zikki Carr  - Jesus Christ  -  DJ Luvva J  -  Free Whiskey  -  Heretic  -  Heretic  -  Jesus Christ  -  Miz  - Ang P  - Shellz Sck  -  Swamp Tiger  -  Xperience
19. Welcome to Forever  - Alli Baker  -  Simple  -  Smoke

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Bishop   Primary Artist
MG! The Visionary   Primary Artist
Jesus Christ   Primary Artist,Primary Artist
Heretic   Primary Artist,Primary Artist
Zikki Carr   Primary Artist
Swamp Tiger   Primary Artist
Shellz Sck   Primary Artist
Puget   Primary Artist
Poeina Suddartha   Primary Artist
Hash Adams   Primary Artist
Heddie Leone   Primary Artist
Epryme   Primary Artist
Ang P   Primary Artist
Alli Baker   Primary Artist,Violin
Afrok   Primary Artist
The Chicharones   Primary Artist
Onry Ozzborn   Primary Artist
Silent Lambs Project   Primary Artist
Gold   Primary Artist
Eprhyme   Primary Artist
Saints of Everyday Failures   Primary Artist
Candidt   Primary Artist
Simple   Primary Artist
Miz   Primary Artist
Wildcard   Primary Artist
Xperience   Primary Artist
Nyqwil   Primary Artist
IAME   Primary Artist
JFK   Primary Artist
Barfly   Primary Artist
AKA   Primary Artist
DJ Luvva J   Primary Artist
Free Whiskey   Primary Artist
Smoke   Primary Artist
Danny Haigh   Piano
Skyler Blake   Guitar,Ebo
Thomas Deakin   Trumpet
Smoke M2D6   Sequencing,Sampling

Technical Credits

Smoke M2D6   Beats,Mastering,Engineer,Mixing
Gregory Welker   Artwork,Design
Eprhyme   Executive Producer