New Bugseed: Goldfish EP

Last year, American rapper Wiz Khalifa released a mixtape called Taylor Allderdice, featuring a song called “Nameless.” It featured very minimal, very lovely production, credited to a clothing store in Los Angeles. This would be nothing of note…and something Make Believe Melodies would never ever care about…if that lovely little beat hadn’t actually been made by Tokyo’s Bugseed, one of the bigger names in Japan’s underground hip-hop beatmaking scene. It was an all-around dumb situation, because even though the song in question appeared on a free mixtape, Khalifa was at his commercial peak around this time (dude has fallen a bit since) and even a sliver of attention thrown Bugseed’s way would have been great.

“Feel free to use these beats on your mix and spread this album if you like!” goes the text for Bugseed’s newest album Goldfish, which, well, give the dude credit at least if you decide to. His latest set of beats is him operating in his strongest zone, an area of where he remains a touch above most of his peers here in Japan – creating jazzy, relatively minimal beats that would sound at home on an early ’90s rap album (or, like, a new Q-Tip album). Expect lots of sax blurts (like almost every song here), loungy piano (check laid-back opener “Beneath The Sea” for that one especially) and skittery drum (highlighted by “Boogie”). Oh and also that sorta sounds like fiddle on the brief-but-charming “Sleep Walk.” Listen below, or get it here…and give the man the credit he deserves!