Black Milk - Demo Beats 2012

Black Milk, a producer/rapper as well as drummer/percussionist, who appears on the cover of his landmark album Popular Demand with an MPC tucked under his arm, plays the 'instrument' live and in the studio better than most any human being (Pete Rock's up there too).  Which is part of what makes Demo Beats 2012- a recently dropped teaser of his current output so fascinating.  This future-forward material veers out into some new bracing territory (sounding at times unabashedly similar to even Dilla's Donuts with it's style of constant revolutions of sound) that suggests a much broader sonic palette and production environment.  Where his last full length release Album Of The Year was definitive for how he captured the live sounds of instrumentalists Daru Jones (drums), AB (keys) and bassist Tim Shellabarger (not as much for his personal lyrics of the crushing year he had marked by loss) here we see a man tossing off, literally, a series of tossed off beats (one of 400 produced in the last year he'd rather hold onto for now) that echoes at points his deep crates neo-soul lineage while pointing to something else entirely.

Pete Rock on the MPC

Pete Rock is one of the true masters of Hip Hop production, with a particular gift for often stirring and soulful instrumentals.  He has of coursed produced for countless icons and invariably puts his indelible stamp on the work by bringing out the best in the artist.  Here he talks about how he constructs beats on the MPC (Midi Production Center), the advantages and drawbacks of automated time-stretching features versus his manual preference, how he sources and then chops the samples that appeal to him.  He ends triumphantly building up with a rock solid bass line a Pat Benatar classic.  A true master at work.