RENE NETHERLANDS

Rene Netherlands a.k.a. Guatemala City is part of the Whitehaus crew putting on WEIRDSTOCK next weekend in Cambridge at the YMCA Theatre. I was introduced to his music Thursday at the Whitehaus when Shane put his CD on after hitting a bong a couple times. To my delight, it wasn't the weed that made the tunes so crazy, it was Mr. Netherlands himself. Shane gave me one of his CDs, Starship, to take with me and I blasted it the whole way home.

As far as I could follow, Rene builds massive strings of tape and vinyl samples (peep the strangled "Rescue Me" sample in "Galacticon" below) so that all he's got to do is press the play button. Once the samples start rolling out he puts on his headphones and blasts out drum rhythms over the sonic collage, creating a funky, hip-hop-leaning explosion of hyperactive sound. Think Flying Lotus meets Dan Deacon? It's rare that I hear something this fresh that hits me so hard, so thanks to Shane for hooking me up.

For your listening pleasure, Rene Netherlands:

Rene Netherlands - Galacticon

Rene Netherlands - Coming To Video

Rene Netherlands - Destination Mars