There’s no doubt that we are currently riding a rock resurgence. It happened in the mid 90s, and it’s happening again a decade later. And while I’m as excited as anyone, don’t forget that there is still quality sample-based beat magic being birthed all over the globe. For instance, you have Vancouver’s No Luck Club, an instrumental hip-hop trio from Vancouver who merge the dexterity of the Scratch Pickles with the songwriting chops of Shadow or Rjd2. Their newest disk Prosperity is conveniently broken down into Cinematic, Uptempo, Introspective and Nada suites and they are as adept at each style as they are juggling their laptop + 1200 set-up. This isn’t experimental scratchadelica in the vein of Ricci Rucker or Q-bert. It’s a hell of a lot more listenable with moments reminiscent of Z-Trip rock madness and DJ Krush introspection (like today’s post “Better Times Will Come”). There’s a lot of sick shit happening in Vancouver. Add the intelligent eclecticism of the No Luck Club guys to the electro-boogie digging of DJ U-Tern and the mash-up prowess of the Hai Karate team and that adds up to a soon-to-be West Coast trip.
RIYL: Rjd2, DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, Major Force, Z-Trip, Coldcut
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