review: Flume - Flume Deluxe Mixtape

Hip-hop? Electronic? probably the former because all the tracks have rappers (except the R&B one).

Flume's a producer from Australia who makes synthy hip-hop indebted electronic music. This is a bonus disk from a deluxe edition of his debut album, with rappers over (what I think are) edits of instrumentals from the main album. Nothing goes wrong here, most of it is solid rapping over solid beats. Always cool to see this sort of juxtaposition (and Flume apparently has good taste in rappers), but not much here is mindblowing either (esp since we've heard stuff in this vein for the last few years, both as a result of remixes and actual collaborations).

Still, there are definitely tracks on here that should get played: Freddie Gibbs and Killer Mike both turn in great performances as usual, and they've got very good beats to work with (tracks 5 and 3, respectively). Track #7 ("Warm Thoughts") might be the most interesting thing on here, and does a great job of bringing all its elements together naturally, but it needs to be cleaned up (which I'll try to do at some point). And #6 is a nice modern-indie-R&B thing.

FCCs: this is mostly clean/edited, except for 7 and 8.

play if you like those Ratatat hip-hop remix collections from a few years ago.

1: slow, somewhat mournful/reflective piano. pitched up vocal sample in the background. stalley's not a bad rapper, just a little generic (and maybe better suited to breezier beats).
2: atmospheric pads over synth bass, bleepy keys, what sounds like synth kicks and samples for the other percussion. singing male vocals on the hook. solid verse from ghostface.
3: shimmering synths and propulsive drum programming (though not super-heavy). rich bass. the beat reminds me a little of the "drive" soundtrack, or "CPU" off big boi's second solo album. good killer mike verse.
4: shuffling claps and brushed cymbals over mid-tempo beat
5: heavy kicks, bluesy vocals on the hook, choppy distorted synth keys. dope (haha, pun accepted) verse from freddie gibbs (play this track!).
6: beat has a bit of an upbeat 90s R&B vibe, brought out all the more when how to dress well's (90s/future-R&B) vocals come in.
7: skippy drums seamlessly come in off the prior track, with a catchy pitched down and chopped up piano line. sheets of complementary synth weave in and out in the background. the rapper flows really well over the beat, not saying anything profound, but definitely a good addition to things. FCCs: fuck and n***a between 1 and 1:30, fuck and bitch around 2:00, fuck and n***a between 2:20 and end.
8: i think this is flume's big hit? reminds me a little of nosaj thing. hip-hop rythms, glowing synths. prior track's FCCs roll into the first few seconds of this one.
9: short, bright outro, w/ slightly incongruent (in a good way) aggro MOP verse.

recommended: 5, 7 if it gets edited, 3, 6