There's this huge influx of J Dilla impersonators all flocking to LA, some getting signed to local indies, some to incredible labels like Warp. And across the Atlantic, Glasgow (off all "twee" places) is home to some interesting producers as well (Hudson Mohawke, Rustie). These beatmakers all share the similar Dilla/Madlib-inspired, quantize-neglected, off-beat shuffle of instrumental hip-hop (and they probably smoke a lot of weed, rarely seeing natural light too).
A lot of these sounds fall under the umbrella of Dubstep, but are also IDM, hip-hop and downtempo-ish. Some people have came up with the name "Wonky," to describe this emerging genre--undoubtedly started by some nerdy Brit--I mean, who else would call a genre "wonky?"
I'm really feeling this guy, from LA:
Samiyam.He has a certain melancholy laced into his beats, and a lot of them are really fucking weird--but he pulls it off well. If you buy his Rap Beats Vol. 1 CD off of his MySpace, apparently he sends them out with random magazine cut-outs for cover art, and hand-draws on them (ed. note: the sushi one is hilarious, see bellow). I guess this proves that beatmakers, although inherently nerdy, are kinda cool. He also has a side project with Flying Lotus called FLYamSAM.
"Return" (from the Return EP, 2008; Hyperdub)
Also, really enjoying the sounds of this dude from the UK:
Lone.He sounds like what listening to Boards of Canada and Madlib would be like, after popping some Klonopin on a tropical island beach. The drums slide around with the signature off-beatness that is defining this new "wonky" sound, while he picks great melodies to arrange/rearrange. The samples on his Lemurian LP have that indelible "nostalgia" that many people describe BOC with, although Lone is definitely of a hip-hop pedigree.
"Phthlao Blue"(from the Lemurian LP, 2008; Dealmaker)
http://www.myspace.com/lonemusic
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I know this stuff is totally a trend, but it has me less cynical about hip-hop, generally speaking. And it's cool to see the new generation of kids being inspired by the late, great J Dilla.
Labels to watch: Warp, Hyperdub, Werk.
Artists to watch: Burial, Rustie, Flying Lotus, Samiyam, Lone, Lukid, Ras-G, Hudson Mohawke, Zomby.
