ROYCE - TUFF LOVE CD
April 20, 2006 by Jeff

ROYCE ""TUFF LOVE"" CD

Available May 16, 2006

Were it possible for a record to push itself off its belly and walk the earth, TUFF LOVE would be roaming alleys and dirt lots of Chicago on legs gilded in heartbreak. This is no chamber music album. TUFF LOVE is the undeniably infectious second full-length release from Royce.

Ruthless rhythm and backyard beats weave between intuitive, heart tugging ballads. Subtle, alluring vocals sit atop warm, glowing bass and percussive tremors signature to Royce's rumble and snap sound.

Once again, the bands' own DJ WhiteLightning has produced and engineered a record that slips from track to track like a slab of butter on a hot griddle. Also, in the company of Galapagos4 staples Qwel, Meaty Ogre, Offwhyte, Mestizo and Robust, TUFF LOVE seamlessly shape shifts with every listen, revealing an arsenal of Chicago flavor.

Continued success of their first release, "Subtleties of the Game" in addition to tours with Galapagos4 in Europe and the U.S., Royce has harvested fresh fuel for their sound. The quartet returned to the studio producing a record that captures the heart of growing up in the Windy City and reflects the bittersweet human experience at large.

Amidst this alchemy of sound called TUFF LOVE, Royce continues to carve out its niche in popular music.

"Chicago's Royce is the live band for all the hyper-electric record collectors out there, solemn heads that dig on blues, psyche, prog and hip-hop." URB

"Evoking a combination of Sam Prekop of The Sea and Cake and Chris Martin of Coldplay. . .disco-era beats. . hallmarks of the Isley Brothers or Can." Chicago Tribune

"Royce trudges through all the boring, arcane bits…crafting something more sublime." The Wire

"a band woven so intricately into Chicago's hip-hop scene that it requires attention." Chicago Sun-Times

Royce ""Tuff Love"" tracklist:
1 Tuff Love
2 Ebbs and Flows
(feat. Mestizo & Offwhyte)
3 Ginelle
4 Milwaukee
5 Girls on Bikes (feat. Robust)
6 Vladimir
7 Ocean Summer Mist
(feat. Dreas)
8 Slip Away
9 Big Tears
10 Cigarettes and Cisco
11 Moment to Moments
12 City Heat
(feat Qwel and Meaty Ogre)

The rest of 2006....
Hellsent ""Rainwater""
DJ OM's ""Reaheated Naan 'N Curry""
Qwel & Meaty Ogre ""Freezerburner""
Offwhyte ""Mainstay""
Rift Napalm... ?

added by: Jeff

Denizen Kane - Tree City Legends Vol. II: My Bootleg Life
November 7, 2005 by Jeff

New release from Galapagos4:
Denizen Kane "Tree City Legends Vol. II: My Bootleg Life" CD
Release date: 12/06/2005

Recorded over a year and a half span, Denizen Kane presents his brand new work "Tree City Legends: Vol. II". This album is the sound of an on-the-run poet throwing pages over his shoulder. Subtitled "My Bootleg Life", this long-awaited second installment bloomed in bursts of spontaneity.

Denizen Kane is a poet and musician born and raised in Tree City. He is one of the founders of spoken word quartet I Was Born With Two Tongues and also performed on three seasons of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry Jam. In 2000 Denizen co-founded Typical Cats, a Chicago based hip hop collective who have released two LPs through indie imprint Galapagos4. Kane made his mark as a solo artist in 2002, with an EP entitled "Tree City Legends". His newest LP, "Tree City Legends Volume 2", furthers his reputation as a precocious lyricist, style innovator, and great storyteller-in-the-making.

"Lost," an elegiac ode to memory, sprang out of producer Alo’s sweeping string-centered beat. A whirlwind session with Mestizo, Chicago graff heavyweight Dymz, SF’s Olive Green collective and a scorching Kip Killagain beat yielded the anthemic "Patriot Act." Other compositions such as "Killa Killa" (a tube amp banger produced by Maker) were captured in notebooks between New York and Tokyo. New school rally-rockers like "Amerika Dub" (featuring Chicago’s Avery R. Young’s cataclysmic vocals) are the sounds of urban explosion, new protest music. Amidst the passion, Kane does not forget the quieter hushed moments. With acoustic guitar as the backbone, "When I see Him," is a song that solemnly reflects on fragments of emotion.

A record of a year in tumult - the world spins out of orbit, the body counts rise, the underground is restless... Welcome back to Tree City.

Kane has toured from New York to Tokyo to Los Angeles, and performed with such underground luminaries as the Visionaries, Living Legends, and J-Live. He continues to create, experiment, build, and break away. Tree City Legends Never Die.

added by: Jeff

New Qwel and Jackson Jones - Dark Day
September 30, 2005 by Jefe

Qwel and Jackson Jones ~ Dark Day
G40037 - release date October 11, 2005

In Qwel’s highly awaited fourth solo release, "Dark Day", Qwel explores the notion that he who does not know his history is condemned to repeat it. Jackson Jones sets the melancholy charcoal canvases as Qwel exposes the blueprint for the modern day Tower of Babel. The album starts headlong with a piece resembling an Edgar Allen Poe dialogue between the ladder builder on the Tower of Babel and Nimrod. Halfway through his endeavor he realizes the ramifications of the work of his hands, and in an attempt to topple the tower he ascends to the top and leaps off...into a mass of people...waiting for his job.

"Dark Day" combines philanthropic introspection of "If It Ain’t Been In A Pawn Shop, Then It Can’t Play The Blues" with the zeal and fervor of "The Rubber Duckie Experiment". It explores the aspects of humanity that are growing to destroy us, such as greedy politicians, the world dying to unite, self loathing, selfishness, medicated compassion, lack of accountability, etc. In a world recently fueled by the trend of superficial love the technological tower is under way.

It’s not only an exploration in topic and execution, but even more so musically. Simply put, "Dark Day" sounds like David Bowie and Beethoven collaborated on an SP1200 in an analog studio with the bombardier from the Enola Gay playing the drums. Overall Dark Day is a masterpiece lyrically, sonically, visually, prophetically, and therapeutically. Music to help the wait in line; music to whelp the hate in line.

"They knew not what they were building, but where they were building. Higher. To the heavens. All men united in nothingness." - Qwel

added by: Jefe

Coming soon from Galapagos4: Stick Figures CD
September 13, 2005 by Jeff

Coming soon from Galapagos4!
Stick Figures CD
September 27, 2005

In a world overwhelmed with Las Vegas-like neon and more glitter than gold, the Stick Figures hardly find it surprising that a lot of the underground’s recent existing music is flashy and overbearing, just for the sake of being flashy and overbearing. Artists are trying to do too much, and failing miserably. One whack at the roots equals a thousand at the branches.

Stick Figures represent the underdog in all of us. A worthy voice for the voiceless, fed up thinkers, a breath of freshness through the smoke and mirrors of mediocrity. Prolyphic, who was introduced to the world via production and guest vocals on Robust's internationally acclaimed debut "Potholes In Our Molecules" (Galapagos4 2004) as well as his own solo "An Alarm Clock Set For 9:01" (Duck Soup 2004) is sure to be announced to the forefront of underground lyricists world wide. Coupled with seasoned lyricist and pillar of unbridled honesty, Robust, the Sticks form our fiery "F that!!!" to the conformed, stale mold which threatens to destroy our culture and soul.

Stick Figures, as characters in an artwork, are a joke amongst artists. It's child's play; anyone could draw a seemingly simple circle for a head, and five rudimentary lines for the body. But it goes much, much deeper than that. The stick figure represents the complexities of life in a simple way, so that everyone can understand (i.e.: hieroglyphics, cave drawings). BREAKING IT DOWN, not cluttering it up. Lacking only the flashiness that is used to impress the viewer, but distracts them from the real story being told, Robust and Prolyphic profess that a snake rattles from the back but strikes from the front.

Robust and Prolyphic teamed up as Stick Figures to bring back the age old unappreciated art of keeping it raw, simple and to the point... so they made a simple, raw HIP-HOP album that went straight to the point. Going to the bare bone of it all, the roots, with no make up or fancy dress cover ups, and giving it out raw to the people and what you have when its all said is done is a stick figure. No smoke and mirrors.

To combat a world overcompensating for psychological short comings, Stick Figures emerge simply as those two skinny mother fuckers with big heads and deservedly so, as all shall soon see.

added by: Jeff

Outerlimitz - Suicide Prevention
August 20, 2005 by Jefe

That’s RIGHT! The time is now... pre-order the new Outerlimitz "Suicide Prevention" CD from the G4 product page and receive a FREE OL BONUS CD, "Lost Prevention: Unreleased & B-Sides" with 13 extra tracks! Pre-orders begin shipping next Monday August 22nd!

Outerlimitz "Suicide Prevention" CD
Release date: August 30, 2005

"Suicide Prevention", the first official release from Chicago’s own OuterLimitz. The collective masterfully constructed a sound that transcends the traditional "boom boom bap, tick tick tick snare" format. Where others have boasted "unique", OuterLimitz delivers. Silence’s production has confronted the monotonous headlong, leaving no room for excuses, just rhyme and reason. Recycled song structure has been replaced with stunning soundscapes and passionate deliveries. The energy brought forth from this talented trio is something that hip hop has been missing. OuterLimitz is a return to the originality and fire that both hip hop and the thinking world have been dying for.

The flawlessly designed production serves as the perfect canvass for the emcees to topple topics ranging the complete spectrum of consciousness. OuterLimitz is hip hop’s wake up call, the much needed challenge to not only think outside of your box, but to be outside of your box. OuterLimitz.

Qwa, He.llsent and Silence bring change. And since anything that doesn’t change is dead.... Are you ready for a world where death doesn’t exist?

Welcome to the OuterLimitz.

Recorded and conceptualized over the last year and a half, this project will open doors for themselves and other like-minded individuals. OuterLimitz is known for their work on Chicago’s Frontline Records as a crew and as solo artists, and have toured the US extensively with acts such as Typical Cats, Living Legends and Visionaries. Qwa (aka Qwazaar) is also a member of Typical Cats, whose 2 releases on Galapagos4 have been certified as underground classics. He also released a solo album, "Walk Thru Walls", in 2001.

Album to be released on Galapagos4, August 30 2005

Mixed by The Grouch from Living Legends

Mastered by Evren Goknar @ Capitol Records Mastering

"Packaged In Plastic" b/w "Hypnotic" 12" dropping mid-August on Galapagos4

"Suicide Prevention" CD dropping August 30 on Galapagos4

added by: Jefe