here are only a handful musical artists that reach the zenith of fame and success in popular culture, of course the most notable being Michael Jackson, Madonna, and our featured artist, Prince.

In the hip hop world, there is a drive to find the most unusual or hard to find songs to sample from.  Beatmakers are known for spending hundreds of dollars and man hours digging through dusty record bins just to unearth a rare sample that no one else ever used before.

Some artists set rules and limitations for their music making process. This type of manifesto quickly narrows down the seemingly infinite possibilities they have to approach creating. At the same time, it gives them the opportunity to find all of the treasures that are hidden within those limitations.

If you are looking for music that takes you away from the mundane routine of modern day life and places you decades into the future, then you need to open your ears and your third eye to the music of Computer Jay.

While much of the music world looks to make songs that are shiny and perfect, the producer known as Actress looks to create something that is completely outside of that box. Actress, who’s government name is Darren Cunningham, is the founder of the reputable Work Discs record label, which has put out some of freshest music from the UK underground. He has spent the past decade pushing his own style of electronic music far away from the dubstep sounds of his early days.

Somewhere deep down in Auckland, New Zealand you can find Lord Echo tinkering away in his studio working on his weird and wonderful dubbed out music. Lord Echo is actually the alias of multi-instrumentalist and producer Mike Fabulous, who you may know from his work with the band The Black Seeds.

The debut album by The Arcs, titled “Yours, Dreamily”, was one of the hidden gems of 2015. During some downtime, Dan Auerbach, singer/guitarist of The Black Keys, pulled together a group of long time acquaintances and fellow musicians for two weeks of recording sessions to create this amazing side project.

[From Excellent Reception : Episode 2] By lil’dave Joseph Deenmamode is a Mauritian-English producer, singer, and percussionist who goes by the stage name, Mo Kolours. The music he makes is an eccentric melting pot of lo-fi field recordings, dusty samples, dubby breaks, and freestyled chants. Each track maintains a minimalist simplicity but yet it feels…

I hate doing year end lists but 2015 was such an amazing year when it came to music. So, i’m going to take some time to run down 10 of this year’s greatest releases. This is in no way a “best of” list. Instead, it’s a collection of songs that shaped the sound of 2015,…

[From Excellent Reception : Episode 2] By lil’dave I don’t think I know of many artists quite like Low Leaf.  At first glance, she is a just a female that is holding her own in LA’s male dominated underground beatmaking scene.  Then you realize that she’s also a vocalist, a classically trained pianist, and is…

[From Excellent Reception : Episode 2] By lil’dave The MPC (aka Midi Production Center) is a sampling drum machine created by Rodger Linn back in 1988. It best know as the device of choice for hiphop and electronic producers to create some of most popular sample heavy tracks of the past 20 plus years. Detroit native…

[From Excellent Reception : Episode 2] By lil’dave Jamie Lidell has built a career off of spontaneity. The British born singer is known for the way uses technology to layer his vocals into complex rhythms and melodies. Over top of them, he proceeds to sing soulful songs with his richly toned voice that can quickly…