Wednesday 2 January 2013

UFO!


 UFO!, like so many others in the trap scene, is not new to production, but rather a well-established artist who got reasonable acclaim for their work in other genres, but really came into their element with trap music. In the past he made drum and bass, and more recently moombahton, but what I really love are his heavy trap beats.

"2012", his collaboration with Bro Safari, is my absolute favourite of his tunes. I love the fact that the drop hits you with a big gritty bassline, and then drops back into something subtle and understated seconds later. The contrast just drives me crazy. Also the backspin effects sound damn cool.


 "GOON TOON", released as a Halloween free download, is damn good too. It sounds appropriately spooky, and using a scream sample in a trap song is a lot more effective and a lot less annoying than it sounds.



On the more chilled out/OG side of things we have "I$ YOU WORTH". The pitched-up vocals and big string sounds lead us into a drop which is just so ghetto, it hurts. Definitely the kind of thing you want pumping from the speakers of whatever shit gangster car you have.

Best thing about trap? All this shit, as with most trap tunes, is FREE DOWNLOAD.

In case you're wondering what his moombahton was like, this isn't bad:

WATAPACHI


Trap music is pretty mental. We can all agree on this right? The reason for this, according to some inside sources, is that it's white people making, appreciating, and then dancing to, black music. Anyone who's been in a club with trap music playing has seen that white girl trying, and failing, to get a ghetto booty bounce going. Now imagine if you take this mental music, and get inhabitants of the most mental nation in the world (clearly Japan) to produce it.

Damn right, WATAPACHI are a production/DJ duo from Tokyo, Japan. Let the carnage ensue.

What I particularly like about them is how in tracks like the above "Play" they achieve the hard-hitting effect that is desired not through ostentatious, in-your-face high pitched leads, but rather through understated but definitively acidy broken up lead lines.


"Let's Get Ratchet" is the track that first introduced me to them, and I fell in love at first experience. The appropriately ghetto samples about phat asses and getting ratchet just get me in the mood to go full mental in a club. After repeat sober listening I'm starting to find the sirens a bit irritating, but I'm sure in the right (club) atmosphere they would really get me going.



Out in the street, this track is almost referred to as murder. Great sample, great tune. Full stop.



More acidy leads here, sounds sick as hell. Makes my face do that "OOOOOOOHSHIII" expression. Business as usual.


And now for something a bit gritter. Grind just gets so damn dirty, especially compared to the cleaner type stuff we saw above. Really really sick.

Just for the purpose of showing their versatility, here you can listen to a Floss-type, trapstyle rythm, and you can listen to some of their more chilled out/trippy stuff herehere and here.

These guys are sick, and this is just a selection of some of their many many great tracks, so check them out properly for yourselves at https://soundcloud.com/watapachi.

Chris Hurst - Chilled Trap

  
Chris Hurst is a 17-year old producer from South Florida, and he makes a lot of pretty sick music. The above Major Lazer remix is chilled-out trap which keeps the summery reggae vibes from the original while changing the beat enough to to keep it fresh. I have to admit, I've enjoyed pretty much every remix I've heard of this song, but this one is especially good. Close your eyes and imagine the Jamaican summer.



This next one is just as good as, if not better than, the Get Free remix. It's once again super chilled trap, and let's be honest, you have to have pretty big balls to brazenly remix a classic like this. Once again, I just feel like I'm soaking up the sun in summery bliss, this time (appropriately) in California. The amount of talent this kid is showing is just ridiculous from a 17-year old.


This isn't bad either! Yet another good trap remix. This time he takes a classic and reworks it into something that starts out pretty funky and relaxed, but at the drop gets pretty "Ratchet" as he says in the title.


Hurst's newest effort is a remix of the classic rap track "Still Fly" by Big Tymers. I'm not too sure what I think about this one to be honest. While I'm not too into the build up, the drop has some serious potential. If only it went somewhere a bit bassier and harder, it would be really get me going.


One more think I like about this kid is he has a sense of humour. Realising he's part of the stereotype of white suburban kids getting into trap music, he is able to make fun of himself for it. On his Facebook page he posts "My mom on me making trap: "chris, why are you making that ghetto music? Too ghetto....too ghetto..." Me: "nah mom times have changed. White kids make this now." " 


Chris used to make dubstep before trap took over, but I don't think he worked very well in that genre. You can check it out for yourselves at his soundcloud. All of these tracks are available for free download just by liking his Facebook page! Just click the free download button in the widgets.