Out Today: Preservation’s Eastern Medicine, Western Illness (Nature Sounds)
East Meets West Along With A Collective Of Hip Hop’s Greatest Lyricists
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DJ/producer Preservation’s new project Eastern Medicine, Western Illness is out today on Nature Sounds.
Preservation’s new LP was inspired by a self-imposed challenge: only craft beats from Chinese-issued vinyl he found in record shops during his three-year stay in Hong Kong. He then assembled an incredible line-up of lyricists to participate: longtime collaborator Ka (Preservation also produced on Ka’s just-released Descendants of Cain), Quelle Chris, Mach-Hommy, Billy Woods, Navy Blue aka Sage Elsesser, Your Old Droog, Roc Marciano, Tree, AG, and Grande Marshall. During his exploration, he met a young rapper from Hong Kong named Young Queenz via a local record shop owner, who kicks off the album with “Dragon Town.” The “Eastern Medicine” is the old Chinese sounds he sourced in solace and turned into the remedy. The “Western Illness” is both the West’s endemic issues and the MC’s ill talents.
Preservation filmed some of his experiences on the streets and in the record shops of Hong Kong while making the album, watch here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs_Wn4aqVBA
This week Preservation released “I-78” featuring Mach-Hommy. Listen to the track, released as an Adult Swim Single: https://www.adultswim.com/music/singles/32
You can order Eastern Medicine, Western Illness here: https://naturesoundsmusic.com/emwi/
Here’s what HYPEBEAST has to say about “I-78”:
“Minimalist production highlights samples from the East with obscure vocal loops, allowing for Mach-Hommy to wax through a heavy static filter. He takes aim at Donald Trump while playing backgammon with powerful Russians, name-drops Thelonious Monk, pausing for maximum effect throughout so you can linger on every word … Interstate-78 connects Mach-Hommy’s native New Jersey through the Holland Tunnel and runs through Eastern Pennsylvania.”
Previous Eastern Medicine, Western Illness singles include “Rose Royce” featuring Quelle Chris and “North Bridge” featuring Navy Blue. In its praise of “North Bridge,” Stereogum said, “Preservation has absorbed all of RZA’s gifts for shaping samples into mythic textures.” Brooklyn Vegan’s own review of “North Bridge” called the new track by “the great underground rap producer” as something that “should appeal to fans of cinematic ‘90s rap.” Watch the “North Bridge” music video via FACT: https://www.factmag.com/2020/05/11/preservation-navy-blue-north-bridge/
Preservation’s two-decade career includes production work for Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def), RZA, GZA, Raekwon, Jim Jarmusch, K’naan, KRS-One, MF Doom, Jean Grae, Aesop Rock and many others. He has toured the globe as Yasiin Bey’s longtime live DJ and shared stages with Robert Glasper, Gil Scott-Heron, Shuggie Otis, Gary Bartz and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. His 2015 album Days with Dr. Yen Lo ranked #9 on Rolling Stone’s Best Hip-Hop Albums of that year, and his productions with Yasiin Bey include a number of tracks on the Grammy-nominated The Ecstatic, True Magic and the remix LP The REcstatic.
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