28 Albums From My Bandcamp Collection

Selections from my Bandcamp purchases over the years.

Oct 19, 2024

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In recent months I’ve shared some album lists based on my Twitter threads that people seem to enjoy. Those lists include:

Today I wanted to share 28 albums from my Bandcamp collection.

Since its founding in 2007, Bandcamp has often been seen as an artist-friendly platform that blends digital ownership, physical merchandise sales, and streaming.

Listeners can purchase both digital and physical (when available) copies of albums from their favorite artists. Artists keep a higher percentage of sales than they do via any streaming service and can also sell other physical merchandise in addition to cassettes, tapes, and vinyl.

Though the company’s reputation has been stellar for much of its existence, that seems to be changing. A sale to Epic Games in 2022 followed by a sale to Songtradr in 2023 was followed by a gutting of both Bandcamp employees and the site’s Bandcamp Daily digital publication staff. Layoffs by Songtradr CEO Paul Wiltshire especially targeted members of the union bargaining team.

I am very troubled by these recent developments and I honestly don’t know what the future holds for Bandcamp. Despite its continued profitability before the Epic Games and Songtradr takeovers, the greed of tech seems to destroy everything good or noble with time. I hope that isn’t the case with Bandcamp.

Despite concerns shared by many artists and fans of the platform, it is still one of the most artist-friendly places to distribute music in terms of revenue share. So with that being said, I’ve compiled 28 albums from my collection of 331 albums, EPs, and singles.

There’s a lot to choose from here - electronic/experimental, R & B, rap, a blog-era classic, a video game score, and a healthy dose of instrumental hip-hop. I’ve pulled certain albums out to highlight them and each hyperlink will take you to the Bandcamp page for that album.

Enjoy, and please let me know what you think of my picks in the comments.

Sang Stasia! by Stas Thee Boss (2020)
Streets of Rage (Remastered) by Yuzo Koshiro (1991/2020)
Stillness In Wonderland (Deluxe Edition) by Little Simz (2017)

Vault Series #3: Score-One Mixtape Skeletals by DJ Harrison (2013)
The ONE...COHESIVE by G-Side (2011)
Re-Birth by OBUXUM (2019)

Abstractions by Zo! & Tall Black Guy (2021)
These Roots Are On Fire EP by Kilamanzego (2020)
Flight of the Wig by Psalm One (2019)

Howitsnd by Sndtrak (2018)
Lúil Ó Fadó by mejiwahn (2018)
‘73 by ewonee . (2018)

Kauliflowr by Knxwledge. (2013)
Nickel & Dimed by 14KT (2013)
Trophies by Apollo Brown & OC (2012)

VWETO II by Georgia Anne Muldrow (2019)
Forever In Love EP by Aleighcia Scott (2018)
They Think We Ghetto by Quadry (2021)

Dream Child by Omari Jazz (2020)
I Didn't Ask For This by Illingsworth (2016)
Pastimes, Vol. 4 by AJ Rios (2018)

The Gift: Volume Two by DertBeats (2015)
Butter Trilogy Pt.2 by Leem Lizzy (2019)
Bess by Pursuit Grooves (2019)

::hoopdreams:: by 10.4 ROG and Liv.e (2018)
Edibles by Count Bass D (2019)

On a Diff [type] Level. by Jay Alpha (2017)
Rock Creek Park by Oddisee (2011)

The Micro-Chop Monthly: October 2024

A new edition of the monthly playlist plus links to every song for every platform.

Gino Sorcinelli

Oct 05, 2024

A new edition of The Micro-Chop Monthly playlist is available. You can check it out on Spotify and YouTube.

This month I’m trying a little experiment. I’m providing a Songlink for every song on the playlist. People can listen on their preferred platform by simply clicking the link. I’m not sure how useful or functional this will be but I figured I’d give it a try. I’d love to hear what you think in the comments.

As always, I’ll continue to add to the playlist throughout the month. That means I will update this article any time I add something new. You can bookmark it if you want to revisit it.

I’ve also sprinkled YouTube videos for select songs throughout the article and will continue to do so as I add more. There’s some great new music on this month’s playlist. I hope you’ll check it out.

“Groundhog Day” by Nappy Nina and Swarvy (2024)
“space 2” by maassai (2024)
“Hex Girlfriend” by Stas THEE Boss (2022)

“Ock Deli” by Desde (2023)
“Parts of a Whole” by Spayd L7 (2021)
“HAVE” by Wavy Bagels (2022)

“Keep it Cool” by Scuttino (2023)
“Love Hell Or Right” by Rakeem Shabazz, Furious Stylez, K!NG jvmes, Backwood Sweetie (2023)
“Twisted Up” by Greg Grease (2024)

“Hope, Jeremiah 29:11” by BritYah, G. Bautista (2021)
“Wash The Dishes” by Che Noir, Benny The Butcher (2022)
“ORANGES - A COLORS SHOW” by Nolan The Ninja (2019)

“Nature Of The Beast” by Raz Fresco and Dibia$e (2021)
“Fade Away” by Illa J (2019)
“Thrill” by Love Mansuy featuring Liv.e (2020)

“Heart Break Escape” by Liv.e (2023)
“Bout It - A COLORS SHOW” by Liv.e (2021)
“Naps Jam” by Nappy Nina (2019)

“FLIGHT CLUB” by el delpha featuring lojii (2021)
“U Know M$$” by Pink Siifu and YUNGMORPHEUS featuring lojii (2022)
“All Ways” by Swarvy featuring Pink Siifu (2018)

“Therapy” by Conz and Joe Ayinde (2020)
“I Don't C U” by DJ Babu (2016)
“Jacob's Ladder” by Cedar Walton (1978)

“N.P.S.” by Cedar Walton (1980)
“Marcella's Dream” by The Crusaders (1978)
“Hallucinate” by The Crusaders (1975)

'Skilled Trade' by Apollo Brown

A 17-year-old beat tape favorite.

Gino Sorcinelli

Oct 03, 2024

Over the past decade, I’ve listened to more beat tapes and instrumentals than I can count. In the early days of Micro-Chop I made five 104-beat playlists on Spotify. Due to some of those beats being taken down, those playlists are a bit shorter now.

From 2018 to 2019 I made a 10-beat playlist every day on Spotify or SoundCloud and shared the playlists in the Micro-Chop Twitter feed. I called them The Micro-Chop Daily X. I had several producers like Dibiase guest-curate playlists.

In 2019 I made a 179-beat playlist featuring 179 different producers for Okayplayer’s “Mixtapes Mondays” series that Karas Lamb ran. A lot of the beats on that playlist have been taken down off Spotify but it’s still pretty massive and loaded with heat. For Twitter users, I made a thread of the albums these beats come from titled, “164 Beat Tapes/Instrumental Albums, Instrumental Versions of Rap Albums, and Singles with Instrumentals by 164 Different Producers.” It’s a long thread so you can start at the beginning or the end. (The thread actually contains 166 beat tapes from 166 different producers, the 164 was a typo.)

As much as I like putting together playlists and threads, I also love the process of throwing on an instrumental record and listening front to back, sometimes repeating the same album over, and over, and over again.

There are certain beat tapes I always come back to. Apollo Brown’s Skilled Trade is one of those tapes. The record started as a collection of beats Brown assembled for the offices of his label Mello Music Group. It became such a hit they decided to release it.

I love how Brown plays with the format on different tracks, switching up the style and flow of the music and keeping it interesting for listeners. Early on he employs simple, beautiful loops on “Migrate.”

As the record progresses you’ll find “Hold Me Down,” where he lets the sample ride a little bit on the intro to give the listener a hint of what’s to come.

At times he samples famous, well-known songs, but these sample sources are reimagined in satisfying and creative ways. “We Almost Lost Detroit” and “My Spine” are two such examples.

This album has high reply value and serves as a nice precursor to Brown’s extensive resume of collaborative albums and instrumental projects. It’s only available on Bandcamp so you’ll have to go to their app or website to check it out.

Revisiting my favorite beat tapes/instrumental albums renews my appreciation for past releases and rekindles my desire to continue to explore new ones. I’m grateful I’ve had the opportunity to enjoy so many instrumental hip-hop projects in my lifetime. I can’t wait to listen to more.

'Waterworld' by Dean Evans

A beautiful, ahead-of-its-time video game score on the verge of turning 30.

Gino Sorcinelli

Oct 02, 2024

I love learning about and listening to video game scores. I feel like they’re a kindred spirit to beat tapes and instrumental hip-hop. I’ve written about the genre of video game music a few times before for Micro-Chop. Check the links below for some of my previous work on the topic.

“The 'Addams Family Values' OST for Super Nintendo Slaps” (2021)
“Rap Samples and Unexpected Replays in Video Game Scores” (2020)
“Sampling and Replaying Video Game Scores” (2020)

A favorite of mine is the 1995 Waterwold score that composer Dean Evans crafted. Though the movie was a flop of epic proportions and the Ocean Software game did not fare well, Evans handled the Super Nintendo music beautifully.

The track “Map” is a personal favorite. It’s tough to assign this to one specific genre of music. I’d say your best bet is to just listen to it. As one YouTube commenter said, “The music in water world had no business being THIS good.”

Evans himself uploaded a full, uncut, 36-minute and 35-second version of the score on YouTube that includes unused songs. I love it when musicians take to YouTube to upload their catalogs and/or their preferred versions of albums and songs. It feels like they’re taking back some control of their creations when they do this.

If you dig video game music, I recommend giving Evans’ channel a look. You can find uploads of several of his games for Super Nintendo and other systems. The music for The Flinstones and other games also sounds great.

If you’re into the music I’ve shared here or have recommendations for Super Nintendo or other systems feel free to drop me a line in the comments. I’ll be in touch again soon.

30 Beatmaking Videos

Some of my favorites, from Rhythm Roulette video game flips to dusty SP-1200 disks.

Gino Sorcinelli

Oct 02, 2024

I love beatmaking videos. Early YouTube entries in the genre from 10-15 years ago were a huge influence on my writing and the creation of Micro-Chop. If I’m ever feeling creative stagnation I can watch an old favorite and get gives me a much-needed dose of inspiration.

I’m all about sharing the good stuff, so I compiled 30 beatmaking videos into one YouTube playlist a few years back. I’ll highlight a few of my personal favorites below. Tap into the full playlist here.

Rhythm Roulette: Oh No (2014) - Oh No seems like a super cool, down-to-earth guy. We’ve chatted a few times through social media over the years and I’d love to interview him one day. In this very memorable edition of the famed Rhythm Roulette series Oh No makes beats out of some used Nintendo 64 games. Video games and beatmaking seem to go hand-in-hand (Oh No himself said this in a 2005 Red Bull Academy interview) and this video does a great job of capturing the symbiotic relationship.

House Shoes Presents: Nameless - Rainbow Read (2013) - Veteran producer Nameless has an impeccable ear for creative sample flips. For his track “Rainbow Read” he employs the memorable theme song from a beloved children’s TV show as his sample source. The result is an unforgettable beat - one you can watch him make from scratch in the video below. This beat floored me the first time I listened to it and I’m always awed by how outside-the-box and well-constructed it is.

Rhythm Roulette: Wondagurl | Mass Appeal (2016) - I loved Wondagurl’s episode of Rhythm Roulette and the beat created by the end was a staple for me in the early days of Micro-Chop. It’s still up on SoundCloud if you want to peep it.

It’s mesmerizing watching her take the samples from the records she picked and distorting them into something beautiful and unrecognizable. I tried my hand at FL Studio several times over the years and have always sucked it. Producers who can do so much with the program make me shake my head in wonder.

Grap Luva - 7 Minutes of Sound - SP1200 Beats @redefrecords (2010) - This is on the Mount Rushmore of beatmaking videos for me. The story goes that Grap Luva wasn’t able to set up his SP-1200 to record beats back in 2010, so he reached out to his friend and fellow producer Damu The Fudgemunk. Damu let Grap use his 1200 to play beats off of his old disks so he could record them to CD. To me, this video is the perfect encapsulation of authentic, creative, and raw hip-hop. Grap hasn’t made new music since 1999 but people still pine for his production. If you watch this video you’ll understand why.

Drop a line in the comments and let me know what you think of the 30-video YouTube playlist and the videos I highlighted. I’ll be in touch again soon.

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