Originally Paul Dateh was only supposed to be a violinist. Beginning his violin studies at the age of four, it seemed that Dateh’s future in the classical industry was set in stone. But, on his first day at The University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, Dateh suddenly dropped his major in Violin Performance and enrolled in the Jazz Studies program instead. The move shocked his colleagues as it was hard to understand why anyone would walk away from fourteen years of classical training to begin learning an entirely new music discipline. But, Dateh knew that he wanted to be more than just a classical musician; his goal was to become a musician, in every possible way.

Hip Hop Violin feat. Inka One -Paul Dateh

Today, as a singer, an award-winning songwriter, and an instrumentalist, it would appear that Dateh is on track to achieving his goal. His work can be heard on releases by various artists within both mainstream and underground hip hop circles, and he can currently be seen performing throughout the United States and the world.

Dan le sac Vs. Scroobius Pip are an unusual mix of spoken word and electronica with a unique sound on the indie scene. Both members are soloists outside of this duo. Scroobius Pip produces some fluent verse and dan le sac has a real knack for mixing up beats. (see Fixed and Thou Shalt Always Flatten Beats on his myspace) They released their first album Angles in May 2008 featuring 12 interesting tracks, Angles, the track is definitely worth listening to a few times to get the full story. 

Sigur Rós are one of those bands that have been around for about a decade, are known around the world, and yet are hard to find out about. The Icelandic, ambient rock band have produced five full length albums so far between 1997 and 2008 as well as Rímur and Hvarf/Heim. Although few tracks are in English, a lot of them aren’t in true Icelandic either but in a term they coined called Hopelandic. This involves non-sense words and Jónsi Birgisson’s voice is used as an instrument in itself more than anything else. Another interesting instrumental direction is Jónsi’s use of a violin bow on electric guitar to create a warm background drone which really adds depth to their ethereal sound. Sigur Rós released a DVD called Heima (home) in 2007 which followed them on their free, homecoming, alfresco tour around Iceland. It features some amazing footage and is worth getting a copy of it albeit a bit dear.

PartyShank, a mash-up between Christopher Shank’s ‘I Will Shank You For A Penny’ and Howard P. Sausage’s ‘Party Sausage’ are a British ToyStep/Jungle duo. The newer stuff is more electro/punk and isn’t really all that great but the older tracks are still knocking around on the internet and LimeWire and are well worth checking out. If you’re looking for a new sound, some tracks to try and find are:

Hammertiming
I Wanna Go Second
Penis Vs. Vagina
Gary
Untiltied (without the vocals)

“I am the brown-skinned blue prince to re-rinse reality outta rain puddles like forefathers before me.”

Inua Ellams is a London based poet and a member of the poet collective A Poem In Between People. He has produced a number of tracks so far, the most notable being ‘Thirteen Fairy Negro Tales’ which later went on to become a book featuring what the title would suggest. It’s worth a read if you get the chance and it’s only £4 on Amazon. This is spokenword at it’s best and it’s well worth checking out if you’re new to the genre as well as Musa Okwonga, another member of A Poem In Between People.

“I spun 13 fairy Negro tales that night.
Weighed them on illogic sales
that tipped the balance
and formed an alliance
with my version of the truth,
I uprooted reality and substituted
for another that had more humanity;
thinking that if I thought hard enough
I’d make it real.”

Inua Ellams http://www.myspace.com/phaze05