Big K.R.I.T, through mix tapes and guests spots, has proven over the last year and a half to be one of the true stars in the rap game, and 2012 should be his biggest year yet. He is releasing his major label (Def Jam) debut Live from the Underground, but first he has one more mix tape in his back pocket. The smooth but rollicking “Boobie Miles” is the first track released from his forthcoming 4Eva NA Day, the follow up to his Return of 4Eva mix tape  from last year.  While his album titles mercilessly slaughter the English language, his beats are syrupy smooth and his rhymes are poignant and hard hitting.  The album cover from the new mix tape does a good job of setting up the conflicting worlds K.R.I.T lives in, with the young man sitting on a ledge, overlooking a rough looking city with a bible on one side and a bottle of liquor on the other.  His music walks the tightrope of “conscious” and “gangster” in a way that he does better than most others in the game, and 2012 should see that style and flow getting into the stereos of many more people.

     -Josh

I don’t know much about Survive, but I have wandered down the ambient wormhole a few times with their new release S000, which is was avaliable in the physical world on a brand new cassette tape (it is now sold out).  The whole release constitutes two tracks, each 20 minutes long, that meander from subdued, lush synth twinkles to a more charging, confident electronic dance arena. While it can be overwhelming to hit play on a 20+ minute track, Survive create more of a 4th dimesion medly that warps through your speakers than one continous, engulfing song. Looking at the groups bandcamp page it appears that they have been doing this for a while, so if S000 is up your alley, check out their back catalog.

Twin Cities upstart rapper MaLLy is dropping a new album this year (no release date yet), and just yesterday on Prefix Magazine he premiered the first single, “Future Classic.” If the first song is any indicator, MaLLy will definitely be in prime form to keep the TC hip hop flame after a banner year in 2011.  Featuring production from Miami producer Rem, “Future Classic” bangs with a heavy electric-guitar sound alongside Mally’s steady flowing lyricism.  The tune seems a bit against the grain as far as the current wave of hip hop goes—it features no hooky melodies, sung choruses, or much in the way of window dressing. Like many rappers of old, Mally focuses his tune on his no-nonsense lyricism. And it’s a choice that works well for him, because the man has got a way with words. Check it out for yourself below.

—Jon Behm

I don’t know all that much about “pan-Asian cultural collective” Yamantaka // Sonic Titan, though I can tell you that their recent YT//ST LP is fast becoming one of my favorite releases of the new year. The band draws inspiration from a huge variety of international influences (including the new-to-me “Iroquois core”) to form a genre of music they call “Noh Wave.” It sounds like Japanese psychedelia and drone plays a huge part in the sound, as well as vibrant elements of metal, noise, and even folk—altogether reminiscent of the last local Boris show in Minneapolis, which featured a poppier sound than that band is predominantly known for. Boris-clones Yamantaka // Sonic Titan are not, however. Yamantaka // Sonic Titan definitely take their sound into places that are uniquely their own. Listen for yourself below and make up your own mind. Hopefully you will come away, like me, crossing your fingers and hoping the band does a national tour (including the Midwest!).

—Jon Behm

I didn’t cover the A$AP Rocky mixtape LiveLoveA$AP at first because it seemed unimpressive and overhyped. But after return visits to the album, I’ve been won over. While the mixtape falls prey to many a rapper’s Achilles Heel (being centered around lazy rhymes that show little more than a young guy being a misogynistic asshole, specifically), the overall product is a winning deal. Especially on the first two tracks of the record (the Clams Casino produced “Palace” and the minor hit “Peso”), I find songs that are texture-rich, in part due to Rocky’s smoky vocals. Continuing his give-it-away mentality, A$AP is back with a new free track called “Celebration,” which is a jubilant and heavy follow-up to LiveLoveA$AP. Peep the lush synths, the shotgun snares, and the surprisingly nimble vocal take by Rocky, who last year signed a multi-million-dollar major label deal. There’s a good chance he’ll blow up and join the likes of Lil’ Wayne as the next big rapper to rise up from the underground, so enjoy his music now while it’s free and still at least partially unadulterated of a major label’ numbing influence and interference.

A$AP Rocky- Celebration

—Josh

Seven-plus minutes of restrained and clustered disco from Ital, one of the many talented artists circling the Not Not Fun imprint 100% Silk. This hazy dance track is the opening song on the forthcoming LP, Hive Mind, which finds the one-man band (Daniel Martin McCormack) moving his talents to the Planet Mu label. Not sure what the rest of the album will entail, but if it is as combustible and tightly crafted as the lead single, it’s going to be a crucial album of 2012.

—Josh

I am all for cover songs of classic tracks, especially mining rich material the Jesus and Mary Chain’s fuzzed-out pop. It’s cool to hear that the blog Just Like Honey solicited eight bands to cover the classic J&MC track of the same name—giving all of the proceeds to breast cancer research. The full story of why the site is doing this fundraiser can be found HERE, along with more information about the bands taking part. The only group I know of from the list are the Athens, Greece buzz band Keep Shelly in Athens, whom we’ve written about before at Reviler. Lucky for us, the song they’re using to preview the collection is KSiA’s cover, which is unsurprisingly a delicate, lush, and pretty take on the track. Listen to the song below and support this great cause via the cover LP’s bandcamp page.

—Josh

It was reported recently that Neil Young & Crazy Horse were back together and working on a pair of new albums. Now there is a 37-minute-long clip that has been posted to Young’s website without much explanation. “Horse Back” (as it’s referred to in the credits) is a newly recorded jam between Neil and Crazy Horse made up of some older material and a video mysteriously panning around studio equipment. Around the 19-minute mark, however, the meandering jam turns into the classic “Cortez The Killer” with Neil and the band sounding as solid as ever. While it’s not much indication of what they’re recording, “Horse Back” is a cool little glimpse into a hopefully triumphant return.

Listen at NeilYoung.com

Tri Angle had a pretty impressive year in 2011, with standout releases from Clams Casino, Holy Other, Balam Acab, and others, leading to high expectations for 2012. The first sounds I’ve heard from the label this year is the abrasive “Scarletta,” a single from new signee Vessel. While it doesn’t stray from electronic oeuvre of Tri Angle’s previous releases, it forgoes the hypnotic R&B that seems to be the label’s MO.

Vessel – Scarletta by TriAngleRecords

There’s really no reason to be surprised anymore by anything released by the cosmic weirdos The Flaming Lips. The band—joined by Erykah Badu, Siri, and Biz Markie—recorded the track “Now I Understand” with characteristically lush instrumentation . . . only to release it being played backwards. It’s only available to stream for one week, so soak it up you dirty hippies, because soon it will be gone. As the Lips note on the soundcloud page for the track, “Life is beautiful. Music gets you high.”

So . . . we’re a little late to this one, but just in case you missed it, Lucy Michelle & the Velvet Lapelles sent a dispatch from their Brooklyn recording studio in the video above, and offer a new song below. Huzzah!

Take it from a recovering post-rock fanatic: Plodding military drums, walls of sound, and cathartic crescendos are orgasmic, musical crack. Although it’s getting harder and harder to get a fix as the classic form of the genre fades out of fashion, we’ve still got a scrappy gang of got-it-when-you-need-it epiphany-dealers just around the corner. Canyons of Static, a Milwaukee-based instrumental rock quintet, is one of the last stalwarts of the brand of post-rock popularized by Explosions in the Sky and This Will Destroy You, among others. But unlike their peers, Canyons of Static incorporate (somehow) both the brooding low-end-foliage of shoegaze and carefree jubilation of freakout.

Farewell Shadows, the group’s fourth full-length, comes out tomorrow on German label Oxide Tones. Take a listen to the 8-minute “Take Heart” below, and grab some more information HERE.

—Will Wlizlo (@willwlizlo)