The first time my friend Adam Kerchman introduced me to E-603, I didn’t really understand what I was hearing – I assumed it was just a bunch of weird rap songs, and filed his stuff away into the ‘listen later’ folder, where it stayed for the next 5 months or so. It wasn’t until I came across Jockin’ On Ya during a random shuffle (redundant much?) one day that I truly understood what it was that Adam had unleashed on me – a myriad of meticulous mash-up madness of magnanimous magnitude, made manifest by a master of musical mini-mixing (and much more). In fact, here’s how I feel E-603 stacks up in the current mash-up food chain:
Girl Talk < The Hood Internet < Super Mash Bros < E-60-muthaeffin’-3
So imagine my delight when I found out that a month ago he had released a new album called ‘Torn Up’ for free on his website. I immediately downloaded the sucker, and for the past few weeks I’ve had the thing on repeat on my iPod & iTunes constantly… it’s like a super-psychedelic megamix containing everything I’ve ever listened to, all set to a steadily intensifying beat that switches up and smacks you in the face with something fresh and new every 2 nanoseconds or so. Granted, the album does lean a lot more towards the hip-hop side (as most mash-up artists tend to do anyways), but the little indie inserts that come in are enough to make my jaw drop like that guy in the first episode of Fringe. Gruesome stuff, I know, but someone had to make that analogy sooner or later.
Still, as I’ve said before – it’s one thing to read about music, but another thing to actually hear it. So without further ado, here’s the first track off the album for your unabashed tasting:
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E-603 – “Smash That”
Right off the bat you have Kanye West, Nirvana, Eminem (as part of D12), We Are Scientists, Foo Fighters and even ‘N Sync – and that’s all within the first friggin’ minute! The addition of Lenny Kravitz and Lil Jon later on are actually more enjoyable than you’d think upon reading, and the inclusion of blink-182′s All The Small Things bridge as a recurring sample takes me back to high school every time I hear it.
If you were left hanging by the inconclusive-ness (inconclusivity?) of the song’s ‘ending’, then that’s because the entire album plays like one single track all the way through – the way each track segues into the next is oftentime so seamless you’ll find yourself 8 songs into the album before you know it. So you kind of get the idea of what E-603′s stuff is like, but just for the hell of it here’s another track from the album that I’m sure most of you out there will appreciate:
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E-603 – “Push ‘Em Up”
This track’s definitely a lot heavier, but it’s one of my favorites off the album because of its sheer diversity – the sequence with Limp Bizkit and Fatboy Slim is genius, and the way it goes into Math the Band after that manages to catch most people I’ve shown it to off guard. Plus, the inclusion of Passion Pit’s “Little Secrets” near the end is always a welcome addition, and makes me want to go re-listen to Manners all over again. In fact, I’ll go do that right now.
Okay, I’m back. Long story short, get Torn Up for free here, and if you feel like it do donate some cashes his way ($25 gets you a handwritten love letter, and for $1000 you can live at his house for a weekend and play badminton). And while unfortunately you can’t get his debut album Something for Everyone off of his main website since it’s currently closed down (lol wut), I’ve taken the gracious liberty of uploading it here for all 3 of my readers. You know who you are ;)
Alright, off to go recover from my wisdom tooth surgery now. Enjoy the muzaks, and if not then… I don’t want to know you.
Dang, this guy is really good. Thanks for sharing Kev :D
Sounds amazing man! Haha, and super mash bros is already awesome as it is from what you’ve let me listen to. Should definitely get that from you when we meet tomorrow or something. =D
Glad you like it, man! Unfortunately I can’t come to the studio tomorrow since I’m still recovering from my wisdom tooth extraction, but I should be alright by Friday. Will pass you both of Super Mash Bros’ albums then – though if you check your Twitter DMs, you can actually get them both pretty quickly now if you’d like ;)
Oh man that was awesome. I need to get a ipod video now. Seriously thanks for sharin, that was all really great. I love music with a more layered sound.