Earlier this month, Damu the Fudgemunk, a D.C. beatmaker with a growing reputation for producing solid beats, released his newest compilation of instrumentals, Overtime. An excellent combination of jazzy loops and well-programmed drums, Overtime is one of the finest beat compilations I’ve heard since, well, a while.
As the dude at I Bootlegged Your Mum notes, Damu is clearly a cat who has an ear for the unglamorous side of beatmaking: mixing, mastering, eq’ing – whatever you want to call the careful art of blending disparate samples into a single, cohesive auditory fabric. As the Mum author puts it: “[t]hen there are cats like Damu, who just quite simply from the crates to the breaks, the chops to the bass, the booms to the baps – forms a beautiful noise.” And it’s true: Damu’s drums are delightfully crunchy, his samples are nicely chopped; it’s a fantastic stew of Golden Age meets new millennium dopeness.
Even better, Damu is a man of the people, releasing his work for free because he “wants you to hear his music.” What more could you possibly want?
Download Overtime for free here.
