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As instrumental HipHop albums seem to be at an all-time high, ranging from so called lo-fi aesthetics to progressive sounds with electronic vibe, one of Austrian HipHop’s godfathers and OGs on the boards has finally dropped an instrumental album on his own. The title “Experiences“ has been chosen not without reason as it both reflects the personal experiences the artist has gone through in his 25 years plus career but also hint the influences and musical aspects that went into this album. Flip has tried to give insight into his musical influences that began in the 80ies with groups like Public Enemy or EPMD into the 90ies era with sounds ranging from Native Tongue territory to a DJ Premier or Pete Rock or the DITC producers, when he started making beats on his own for his rap group Texta. You can hear links to other production wizards like J Dilla, Hi-Tec or Madlib that changed the sampling techniques post 2000 with albums like Donuts, Hi-teknology or Madvillain. So yes, „Experiences“ is sample-based but further developed by Flip with original basslines, keys, guitar riffs played by the producer himself.
The final result though is not just a simple look back into the golden era but more a retro-futuristic approach that Flip tried to execute within those sixteen compositions.
Additional scratches and vocal chops add more flavor to the tracks and as one song flows with ease into the next one, this makes „Experiences“ an experience for the listener, too. While a lot of HipHop instrumental albums just let some loops run for two minutes, Flip took a more ambitious approach where continued listening to the album will reveal new details and musical ideas every time.
Another fact that won ìt go unnoticed is the heavy punch of the drums which is due to the usage of old samplers like the legendary SP-1200, the ASR-10 or the MPC2000XL that Flip is still using, blending it though with the power of modern soft and hardware.
So put your headphones on take a trip through Flip ìs musical mind.
About Flip:
FLIP, born as Philipp Kroll in 1973 in Linz, is an Austrian rapper, producer and DJ, who is active since the early 90ies in the local HipHop scene.
Around 1991 he started making cassette loops at home but he really began producing 1993 when together with other 3 MC ìs the rap group TEXTA was founded. Since then TEXTA has had enormous impact on the Austrian HipHop scene, dropping classic albums since 1995 that also had success in Germany and Switzerland. They won the Austrian music award AMADEUS in 2009 and have played nearly 1000 shows from Austria to Senegal or Kenia.
FLIP also runs the Austrian rap label TONTRAEGER RECORDS who put out more than 50 releases of Austrian Rap since 1998. In 2009 he produced the album „Rotwild“ for german female MC FIVA to great success. His first and only solo rap album „Umberto Ghetto“ was released in 2010, where he did all production and scratches himself too. In 2011 and 2013 he released two albums with fellow Rapper Average called „Tuesday Classics“, where they redid lots of US rap classics in german that fell on great response even worldwide.
His debut producer album „Reflections“ was released on the US HipHop label Ill Adrenaline Records in 2015 which featured Artists like Killah Priest, Edo G, Kev Brown, Guilty Simpson, AG, Elzhi, Phat Kat etc. In 2018 he produced the album „Love Is Cursed“ for Atlanta based rapper HEEM STOGIED and was named one of the top producers of 2018 by the American HipHop blog Insomniac Magazine.
For 2020 he also has further projects in the pipeline, among them a successor to his producer album “Reflections“, a collage EP with Boston rap legend EDO G, new works with Texta and other works. |
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