Bring Me The Remix of Zilla Rocca Week 2: Douglas Martin of Fresh Cherries From Yakima:
Entering into week two of Bring Me The Remix of Zilla Rocca (here's week 1), an ongoing series of remixed songs from Zilla Rocca's mixtape Bring Me The Head of Zilla Rocca, our latest entry comes from the musician/writer behind the blog Fresh Cherries From Yakima, Douglas Martin. Even for those of you who don't read his blog, Douglas Martin might be familiar to you as one of the figures in the now-infamous article from the New York Times on "blipsters." About a year after that article ran, Zilla began collaborating on a side project with Martin under the group name 5 O'Clock Shadowboxers. Here's what Zilla had to say about him:
"After being lucky enough to collab with Douglas on our upcoming LP "The Slow Twilight" as the 5 O'Clock Shadowboxers (dropping earrrrly '09 y'all), I wanted my man to get sum on this project!
Douglas is great at creating an atmosphere with each and every one of his beats. His beats are layered and moody -- he's not just a "beatmaker." It challenges you as a writer when he sends out a beat, so I wanted to turn the tables and throw an acapella at him and see what lane he would pick. The beat for his remix of "First Order of Business" is a good idea of what to expect from our project. "
I was pretty excited to hear that Douglas Martin was doing a remix for Zilla, as the beats that he's been putting together for the 5 O'Clock Shadowboxers are unlike just about anything else I've heard in hip hop. While a certain mainstream producer is currently being lauded for his "groundbreaking" collection of autotuned love songs, Martin is one of the few producers I've heard in the past several years that truly has been breaking new ground in the genre. He's been able to mix folk, indie rock and emo melodies together while still staying true to the sound of hip hop, a feat that I was not entirely convinced was possible when I first heard about the project. It may not appeal to, say, the people that are keeping Ron Browz' career going, but for everyone else, Martin's an artist definitely worth keeping an eye on.
Here's his remix of the song First Order of Business, put out under his "producer name" Blurry Drones:
You can listen to some of the music Douglas Martin has put out with his folk band Fresh Cherries From Yakima, as well as find links to download his first two EPs, over at the group's MySpace page. To hear some of the songs from Martin and Zilla Rocca's upcoming collaboration, 5 O'Clock Shadowboxers, stop by Passion of the Weiss and the 5 O'Clock MySpace page. Be sure to check out the song Sharpen Their Teeth while you're over there.
Wow most remixes obviously sound different than the original but this actually sounded like it came from an entirely different genre than Griff's. Both were dope.
And I can't take the heat from the forum215 people so I've switched up the name for all future comments on Zilla songs.
11/24/2008 8:17:55 AM posted by Ill Will
Is the beat on this remix a sample from something or was this straight from fresh cherries? And yo, 5 o'clock shadowboxers is a dope name.
@Will: Ill Will does have a little more street cred than Will I Am. And they apparently banned my ip address over there for some reason, so you're on your own from now on.
That's probably the first time someone's thrown a walkmen track over a hip hop beat. If this is what it will sound like then I'm def interested in hearing whatever you guys put out as the Shadowboxers.
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