this is a mixtape. fresh beats. vintage raps. ill alchemy. fuck what you heard.
and now a word from our sponsors:
Calamus Root Magician is legion. We are the same thing as The Ventolin Abstract and emcee Inkwelle and Against Fidelity. We process samples. We are SP-808 savvy. We have others specialty weapons, also, but Roland is the main sidearm. Sometimes we rap with our mouth. We used to rap with other people, but now we need to work somewhere else, so we rap alone. We used to make physical cd's out of plastic (we didn't make them ourselves . . . we paid other people to buy them for a fraction of the cost from other people who made them--probably poor people or children in export production zones in other so-called developing nations), but then everyone started just downloading their music from the internet, and so even if we reached into our backpack and gave them one for free, they probably wouldn't listen to it because they didn't have a cd player anymore, or they did and they were embarrassed to use it, or they wanted to prove a point, to themselves, us, and society. Or it was because they thought our shit was whack. That's cool--lots of people do. Think the shit is whack. And probably the shit was whack for a while--we didn't know how to use the de-essers and we didn't understand clipping and we didn't have advanced bootlegged technology to assist in the arduous process of editing and sequencing. But now, the shit is hot--part of the reason we stopped being "against fidelity"--and, like most shit, it just keeps piling up. So we put it all up here on this overpriced, bare-bones website so that you could have it for free. Check it out on the ALBUMS page: the last three significant records, plus some gems/scraps from the past and from the circular file.
The yuletide of 2010 saw the release of DREAD CONTENDERS, VOL. 1: The Murthering Stake, a 20-min. remix project dedicated to the sublime career of Joanna Newsom (who in our opinion is tied with Madlib for the title of most relevant popular musician of this millenium . . .). Go cop that shit for free, then bump it while you read The Faerie Queen, Christgau . . .
In June, we dropped DREAD CONTENDERS, VOL. 2: Another Sonic Life, which re-imagines the most excellent canon of Sonic Youth. You probably need this one, too.
Halloween, 2011: DREAD CONTENDERS, VOL 3: Shut Your Eyes and You'll Burst Into Flames. What what.
As for the future, CalRoot plans to raise a child and eventually drop the next non-remix work (don't hold yr Barthes). Plus, the Ink Weasle's got a mixtape brewing somewhere in his hateful gullet, but this is looking like a longshot in this particular moment in our beclouded and tempestuous existence. Check the DISPATCHES page for updates. Until then, there's plenty of soundscape, collage, boom bap, and straight-up nerd chatterbox to keep you distracted. Go ahead and take that shit. Listen to it. To bite a certain odd noggin: We did this for ourselves--still we'll probably say that it's for everybody else.
Peace.
-Calamus Root Magician, Inkwelle the Noonday Kurmudgeon, the Ventolin Abstract, et al.
PS - Calamus Root Magician's name comes from a poem by James Suffern, who is an artist, comrade, and gentleman of the finest calibre. Big big ups for permission to use it.