Paces Lift and Ben Bounce - Tropikoro. Download [TROPICAL BEATS / INSTRUMENTAL HIP HOP]

2nd album by beat-battle competitors turned collaborators.

Original artwork, illustration and painting by Stevie Anderson.
Mastered by Barry Corliss at Master Works.
Liner notes by Blake Gillespie.

Paces Lift & Ben Bounce "Tropikoro" (WXTM-004) The lost art of the sample-based album lives on through producers Paces Lift and Ben Bounce. In 2014, the two traded spaghetti western beats on the high noon duel of Quick Trigger. If Quick Trigger was a western manifest, then follow-up Tropikoro is the tradesmen hitting the high seas for distant islands across the Pacific. Tropikoro is another funky, cinematic score immersing the listener in the international grooves of Pacific Southeast. Psychedelia and Tropicalia collide across Tropikoro for an escapist record in which every cut is a new stamp in the passport. Few operate in their terrain and Paces Lift and Ben Bounce have concocted a beat record style all their own with Tropikoro. The movement feels organic, the samples seamless, as the two producers’ techniques bond together. Born of a beatmaking challenge to make 30 beats in 30 days, a tradition the two producers have participated in since before Quick Trigger, Tropikoro’s thematics lean on psych and tropical records only to be discovered in International vinyl bins. Both producers bring deep crates to the project, to a point that even the sharpest ear for obscura can’t place these samples. The albums beat suites vibrate with continuous transformations that keep the listener alarmed and attentive. On “Crossing” a transaction goes awry, the ordeal feels lamented by vocal sample, and the sonic shifts maintain the drama. While “Hector By The Lake” sounds like Hector only participates in devious acts best scored on a psych-organ by the shore. There’s always a criminal element in the narratives these producers weave, in this case “Pocket Full Of Diamonds” is a jewel heist. By closer “The Great Phantasmo” the collective are getting lost in the market crowd, drifting into back alleys and slipping the authorities. - Blake Gillespie