Download King Britt’s Kingstrumentals

King Britt, who you may remember as Silkworm, the man responsible for all those beats behind Digable Planets, has put together a pretty fly mix tape.

It’s called Kingstrumentals, and maybe mix tape isn’t the right way to describe it. Here’s what King had to say about the project:

Sometimes in the studio, I feel I have too many options. Too many software choices, synths, etc. I felt like I needed to go back to the essence of making beats. So I dusted off the MPC2000 and grabbed stacks of wax from my library to make beats. It was such a wonderful feeling to just flip beats again. Wasn’t even thinking of releasing them, just an exercise for my brain.

The fun part was that I only used the floppy drive. Only 12sec of sample time for each joint.

All kicks, snares and sounds are all from records. Mixed raw, right out of the MPC stereo outs. Done in 1 week in April 2009 (one or two oldies thrown in for good measure)

Just some boom bap vibes for all my peeps who just love a good loop…

It’s fun, but those 12 second loops don’t really allow any time for anything to really get going. Also, it’s not like King Britt is laying down something like 15-20 samples per track — more like 5 or 6 that loop and repeat. Still, it’s something very interesting, and some of the mixes he gets going would do well in the grander scheme of something else. Every track has about half a minute where it gels, and would work wonderfully as the hook to a more fully complete tune. Hopefully, someone out there will take this to that next level.

Download Kingstrumentals here. (Sendspace link)