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Various Brains Vol. 1

by Brains

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1.
Arp Crunk 02:50
2.
3.
4.
Wiley Theme 04:11
5.
6.
Fake Eski 01:01
7.
8.
Roots Beat 01:57
9.
Doe1 02:45
10.
China Black 01:53
11.
12.
13.
14.
Put It Down 04:24
15.
16.
Brainsynth 04:47
17.
18.
19.
20.

about

This is the first in a series of digital compilations of various/old/random tracks off my hard drive. I've got roughly 150 tracks from the past 15 years in a variety of finished or un-finished states and Top Nice thought it'd be a good idea to let people hear them.

"Brains" is a production name I came up with after I moved to London in 2004 and was influenced by the grime music I heard here. At the time there were lots of MC's and producers named after parts of the human body (Ears, Knuckles, etc.) and as I was starting a PhD, I picked the bodypart I thought was most appropriate for me.

I loved the tempo and space of grime and was captivated by its raw production and synthy melodies (my favorite grime instrumental of all time is Funktionz by XTC and I was lucky enough to cop 2 white labels of it). It also sounded quite different to the rap and hiphop I grew up listening to in St. Louis, USA. The thing about St. Louis hiphop is that we pretty much listened to everything as far as mainstream hiphop goes: southern rap was very popular but you could hear UGK, Bad Boy Records, Luke, Dre, DJ Premier, No Limit, Geto Boys, Tribe Called Quest, Three Six, all played together in a single set on Magic 108 FM. I think it made me quite open to what hiphop could be, perhaps paving the way for my interest in grime.

However I'd never produced much hiphop. I found the idea of being a white hiphop producer a bit embarrassing and the fake hustler machoisma of the average rapper put me off. While grime was obviously a hiphop derivative, it nonetheless gave me a space inside hiphop where I could work. There was an inherent physical and psychological distance from America, and in musical terms I could explore my love of synths and melody, and exploit my strong knowledge of the southern American "crunk" music I'd be listening to since the 90s (crunk also had the same tempo as grime, around 70 bpm). Most importantly, grime allowed me to produce a form of hiphop music without having to think about American racial politics.

Not all of these are grime or hiphop tracks, there are also pre-Brains tracks made before my arrival in London. But by and large grime and hiphop have been the biggest influences in my unreleased productions - I'm sure you'll hear it. I hope you enjoy these, there are quite a few more to come as well!

credits

released February 1, 2012

##########################
##Paul B. Davis
##VARIOUS BRAINS VOL 1
##www.topnice.org
##www.post-data.org/~paul
##www.beigerecords.com
##########################

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Top Nice UK London, UK

Top Nice is a creative ensemble based in London and Stockholm,
producing festivals, exhibitions and club nights since 2004.

TOP NICE UK is our record label which we started 2013.

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