January 1st, 2018

Indie Rock Mag’s Year End Lists list 4 Hand’Solo albums!

Indie Rock Mag has just published their list of Top 22 Albums and 5 EPs of 2017, while contributors (and two of our favourite music critics in the universe!) Seb Lapin and Bertrand Saby each provide an additional 5 bonus picks. All in all, Hand’Solo Records makes the cut with four releases, thanks to great records from Touch, The Dirty Sample, Tachichi and Lucha Lonely.

Below you will find the write-ups for each of the Hand’Solo picks that made the list. If you click on each write-up, it should bring you to a Google Translate translation for those of you with the same lack of French kills as me. NOTE: I have excluded which lists and the ranking on that list… You can see the full lists at:

http://www.indierockmag.com/article30222.html.

THE REVIEWS:

November 29th, 2017

Tachichi’s Chico’s ’90s Project dropping December 1!

Track List:

01. No Comparison
02. Dive Bar Rap
03. Light Skin (for the Win) Remix
04. Space Jam
05. Enjoy Yourself feat. Ghettosocks
06. Diddy Dance
07. No Money, No Problems feat Ghettosocks, Kxng Wooz & Sean-One
08. Sippy Zombie
09. Pick Up Game feat. Ceeeeee!!!!!!!!
10. Remember feat. Ghettosocks
11. Be Sure feat. Aquakultre
12. F*ck Boy Burial
13. Radio Rover
14. Drummer’s a G
15. Kill the Patriarchy feat. Nilla & EMC

All lyrics performed by Tachichi (except for guest appearances)
Track 1 produced by Ghettosocks
Tracks 2, 6, and 12 produced by Sean-One
Tracks 3, 7, 11, and 15 produced by Uncle Fester
Track 4 produced by Chan Hays
Tracks 5, 10, 13, and 14 produced by DJ Gordski
Track 8 produced by DJ Moves
Track 9 produced by The Dirty Sample
All cuts by DJ Uncle Fester
Recorded and mixed by Shaun “Uncle Fester” Ryan
Mastered by Dorc for Banging Masters
Artwork & layout by Ghettosocks

November 6th, 2017

Dropping November 10 – Touch’s Journey to the West

Track Listing:

01. The Seventeenth Branch
02. Great Sage Equalling Heaven
03. The Monkey King
04. Imprisoned in Mountain of Five Elements
05. Gathering Firewood in the Snow
06. A Dialogue Between a Fisher and a Woodcutter
07. The Jade Emperor
08. An Abbott on the Keys
09. All Three of Us
10. An Old Church by the Sea
11. Fishing the Moon Out of the Water
12. A Moment of Indecision
13. A Momentary Slip Egenders Death
14. Epilogue

All songs by Touch. Cuts by DJ Dirty Needlz. Produced by T.Perk.
Recorded at Up In Arms Studios. Mastered by Nato.

November 3rd, 2017

M.O. Little & Ultra Magnus – Busin’ Makes Me Feel Good video

M.O. Littles and Ultra Magnus released their new Ghostbusters-inspired collab just in time for Halloween, so excuse my tardiness in posting new video “Busin’ Makes Me Feel Good” featuring prime prop action from Ecto-1. Produced by DJ SLAM! Video by Iceburgh Society.

October 14th, 2017

International Cassette Store Day

It’s International Cassette Store Day, so if you’re in Toronto stop by The Dupe Shop (1185 Bloor St West) and pick up a copy of The Dirty Sample’s newest album, Tuesday Nights On Cardero, with raps from Fatt Matt, Tachichi, Chaka Boy, Kaboom Atomic, Hash Mills, and Lesk-One.

Or pick it up online here: https://handsolorecords.bandcamp.com/album/tuesday-nights-on-cardero

September 29th, 2017

The Bobby Lonely Story is here!

Now available for free download… Or order a cassette.

September 27th, 2017

New album from Lucha Lonely out soon on Hand’Solo

I’m really excited that Hand’Solo Records will be releasing the upcoming third album from Kdot/Bobby Balkan emo alter ego Lucha Lonely… Dropping this Friday for free download with a pre-order for old school cassettes to follow. Not only are the cassettes perfect for those old Sony walkmans you’ve had sitting in the basement, they also have awesome double-sided flip covers for twice the viewing pleasure!

Pictures and audio coming soon.

Track Listing:

01. The Yayo
02. The Ram
03. Gold Bangles
04. Did Me Wrong
05. Ups and Downs
06. Big Smoke feat. 9th Uno & Anderson
07. I Can Change
08. Cheetah Skin Rugs
09. The New Me
10. Blowing Kisses at the Devil

All songs by Lucha Lonely, except track 6 by Lucha Lonely, 9th Uno and Anderson.
Produced by The Arkeologists. Cuts by DJ Shamann.

September 5th, 2017

Third Verse Extra Podcast interviews me! (please listen anyway!)

Back at the end of 2017, shortly before the big 20th Anniversary celebration of Hand’Solo Records, I spoke with Chaps aka Mark Charmbury for his Third Verse radio show, discussing the history of the label, hip hop in Canada, the Bassments of Badmen series, and much more. He and Chapter Thrive have re-purposed it for their Third Verse Extra Podcast, and I’m extremely honoured to get a crazy 319 Heads illustration out of it. The Han Solo homage is awesome!

Or listen here: http://ugsmag.com/third-verse-episode-19-thomas-quinlan/

August 11th, 2017

Primordial Emcee – Comic Relief (Official Lyric Video)

For the second single from Primordial Emcee’s X-Faction 2: Reanimated, his solo debut on Hand’Solo Records, Iron Wind merges the speakeasy jazz of the Roaring 20s with classic boom bap while Prime packs the punchlines with references to his favourite comic books. And to best honour the medium, a video of drawings and words. Halifax comic book artist Dave Howlett (SLAM-A-RAMA, The Last Paper Route) provides the fabulous artwork and Toronto’s LyricVids.com provides the familiar lettering.

Much love to Marvel and DC…

Written and performed by Primordial Emcee (@PrimordialEmcee)
Produced by Iron Wind Beatz (@IronWindMusic)

Mastered by Dorc for Banging Masters (www.bangingmasters.com)

Artwork by Dave Howlett (@paskettiewestern)
Video by LyricVids.com

August 2nd, 2017

MTM interview with The Dirty Sample

In a recent interview by J.Smo for Mid Tennessee Music, The Dirty Sample talks about his influences, his new album on Hand’Solo Records, and the part technology plays in music creation and promotion.

Read the interview here: http://www.midtnmusic.com/interview-the-dirty-sample/

« Newer Entries
Older Entries »