Look at the Numbers! 567, 898, 545!

cappablack - 5th dimension (anti-imperialism disco). Any song that starts out with a Cube sample is automatically going to pique my interest. That it turns out to be a japanese minimal hip hop crew that also samples Mos Def and lays down casio tones doesn't hurt either.

This track comes off of ~scape record's five-year anniversary collection: but then again [Buy It]. Rather than follow any formulas like other compilations on the label, it's simply 15 unreleased tracks from their strongest artists. Most of the tracks were made especially for the comp.

crackhaus - brithday bangers and mash. Despite the german name, crackhaus are actually from Canada. They offer up five minutes of dub, sampling at least six tracks from the ~scape back catalogue that I can count, but probably loads more. It starts out with a dusty little riddim intro and then leads into some nasty sine-wave bass, house keys type stuff. Things never get too crazy, but it's a solid head-nodder, as is most everything on the ~scape label.

Usually these types of comps aren't worth a whole lot -- they usually just collect already-released tracks, or weak b-sides-- but this is some next level stuff. Like, if the comp is this good, the regular label output has to be downright stellar. Let's hear it for Germany keeping it crazy real these days.