Pop & Hiss

The L.A. Times music blog

Category: Nocando

E. Super Celebrate Album Release Party Tonight At Low End Theory, Unveil Exclusive MP3

July 7, 2010 |  7:50 am


While Flying Lotus, Nosaj Thing and Gaslamp Killer absorb most of the international attention lavished on the Low End Theory, less discussed is the interplay between the Lincoln Heights Weekly and the Project Blowed scene. Granted, Nocando, the spot's lone rapping resident is an alumni of the legendary South L.A. rap graduate school, but Lincoln Heights club the Airliner has regularly hosted the likes of both new Blowedians (Dumbfoundead, Open Mike Eagle, Intuition) and veterans like Busdriver, Aceyalone, and Abstract Rude.

Tonight marks the debut of E. Super, a quartet of producers compromised of Maestroe, Kuest1, Alwayz Prolific, and Alpha MC, whose stellar "Side A" was released Tuesday on Nocando's Hellfyre Club imprint, a subsidiary of Alpha Pup. Unlike many of the younger laptop fiends emanating from the Low End, E. Super have steadily building a rep over the last decade, collaborating with everyone from their fellow Blowedians to Stones Throw-signed Oh No, to underground heavyweights Casual and Prince Po.

"I initially only planned to release  rap records but I'm putting this record out because these are the beatmakers who have stuck behind the young L.A. rappers and help create the sound of Open Mike Eagle, Dumbfoundead, Verbs, Intuition, Satyre, and myself," Nocando said. "They've been winning beat battles and beat showcases for years in this city. As soon as Maestroe told me that he had an instrumental project with Prolific, Kwest and Alpha MC, I told them that I'd release it on my imprint."

"Side A" finds them incorporating everything from 80s funk to Giorgio Moroder, 8-Bit nostalgia, hard-core hip-hop and the occasional Radiohead sample. For an all-instrumental album, it's surprisingly song-driven and deceptively melodic. Though it feels slight at just 21 minutes and 14 tracks, E Super make the best kind of impression, one that leaves you waiting to hear Side B.

Download: (Pop & Hiss Exclusive)

MP3: E. Super-"We Super"

MP3: E. Super-"Embedded In Me"

E. Super, Tonight at Low End Theory at the Airliner, 2419 N. Broadway, 9 p.m. $10, $5 for members.

-- Jeff Weiss


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Exclusive Pop & Hiss Premiere: Nocando -- 'Hurry Up and Wait Remix' featuring Murs, Intuition, Open Mike Eagle and Dumbfoundead

May 4, 2010 | 11:39 am

BW166853_2-008.tifIf life is so "hurry up and wait," few can empathize like Angelenos. After all, local living is characterized by starts and fits: glacial traffic jams, constant indecision from the dizzy entertainment industry, and the peculiar pairing of big-city existence with a slow sun-stunned tempo. So it's fitting that the best morning commute soundtrack since Aesop Rock's "9-5ers Anthem" would be created by five of the finest rappers to get stranded on the I-10 West.

The remix of the first single off Nocando's stellar Alpha Pup debut, "Jimmy the Lock," finds the erstwhile James McCall recruiting Murs, Open Mike Eagle, and the first two signings on his Hellfyre Club imprint, Intuition and Dumbfoundead, with whom he's currently barnstorming the West Coast.

Over a glitchy freeze-tag banger from Nobody, Murs boasts that he's the new "Bruce Lee making 'Fist of Fury 8,' " while proceeding to excoriate a shady ex-girlfriend. Next, Alaska-raised, L.A.-based Intuition, continues his strong run in the wake of "Girls Like Me," offering anecdotes about jilted prom dates and miscellaneous swag and sleaze. Leimert Park-raised Nocando again illustrates why he's on the short list of the city's best, branding his hometown a city of "slang and sin, where everybody wants to play and win," while shouting out "weird black chicks with shaved heads and blond bangs who shop on Melrose." Open Mike Eagle supervenes with a tar-and-feathering of kids trying to fit in "little skinny jeans like Russell Brand" as well as "conscious kids who keep their heads buried like an ostrich."

But the victor might be Project Blowed staple Dumbfoundead, who spits a tongue-twisting double-timed invocation of the Low End Theory as well as L.A. tacos and "dirty Chucks and chains."  Five-and-a-half minutes of witty rhymes, heavy bass, and snapping drums the "Hurry Up and Wait" remix is a tacit throwback to the era when a posse cut didn't mean five aesthetically unrelated rappers e-mailing files back and forth. It's like tar-black coffee propelling you to slam on the gas only to realize you're still stuck in traffic -- which is what repeat is for. 

-- Jeff Weiss

Download: (Pop & Hiss Exclusive)

MP3: Nocando - "Hurry Up & Wait Remix" ft. Murs, Intuition, Open Mike Eagle & Dumbfoundead

MP3: Nocando - "Hurry Up & Wait"

MP3: Nocando ft. Busdriver - "Two Track Mind" (Left-Click)

Photo: Nocando. Credit: Marco Romano



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