Altered Zones

After a startlingly productive year, Richmond, VA's Ohbliv just dropped a new beat tape called New Black Renaissance [Side A]. Part of what has always drawn me to 'Bliv in this era of glitched-out, hyperbolic beatmaking is his knack for letting the beats breathe. On "Let's Explore," even the hissing vinyl static is chopped with care, not to mention the call-and-response of the bass and keys, the faint sighs that bleed through the mix, and the invitation put forth by the mysterious vocal. It sounds like a jazz fusion group conducted by his sampler, or an open-minded abstraction of the sample-delia of the best early '90s hip hop albums that calms the soul and nods your head. --Matt Sullivan, Altered Zones

MP3: Ohbliv: "Let's Explore"

New Black Renaissance [Side A] is available for download on Ohbliv's Bandcamp