"Tin Tin" - Curly Castro x Steel Tipped Dove

A superb slice of work from two hard-working innovators, Philly sage Curly Castro and NYC creator Steel Tipped Dove. "Tin Tin" is a dark nightmare ride, a conceptual banger, and a bracing antidote to whatever your day has inflicted upon you thus far. Loud is the ideal dosage.

"Magician in the Mountain" - Louis Mackey

World Around Wednesdays is back.



strangle game changers with cable cords
watch their face blanken straight from beige to orange
with commercial tracks, subversive raps, work my magic in
on dirty mattresses, Merlin’s manuscripts and burnt cadaver’s skin

"The Eighth Tower" - Algorhythms

When I was fresh out of High School, rare books were still hard to find. Jacques Vallee's Passport to Magonia was prohibitively expensive, and his Invisible College was just plain vanished. Now they're both back in mundane paperback print, just in time for a new generation of utterly illiterate iPad mouthbreathers to ignore them.

Even more rare, though, were the Occult tomes that were barely 'in print' to begin with -- one of which was "War in Heaven" by Kyle Griffiths. Thanks to the tireless archival work of the Biblioteca Pleyades, the whole thing is archived online. I tracked down "War in Heaven" at around the same time I finally got ahold of James Shelby Downard's "King Kill 33," which was simply a photocopy of his original typed manuscript, and Kerry Thornley's rambling "Confessions." The Downard turned out to be a disappointment, more poetry than anything else. I'm still thinking over Thornley's book years later. Kyle Griffiths, however, did lasting damage to my psyche.

I could ramble for days, but let's inject some meat solution into the mix:

Chapter Six: In The Eighth Tower (1975), Keel concluded that UFO contact reports had a common origin with certain very intense religious and occult experiences, such as visitations from gods, angels, or demons. He postulated that the cause of all these events is a natural phenomenon, which he names the “Superspectrum.”

Keel’s Superspectrum seems to be based loosely on Jung’s concept that the human race possesses a “collective unconscious,” but he carries the idea much further than Jung did. Jung had conceived of the collective unconscious only as a body of information stored in the subconscious minds of many different individuals that causes all of them to think or behave in similar ways.

Keel carries this concept much further, and postulates that the Superspectrum involves specialized forms of matter and energy unknown to present-day science. He borrows concepts from occultism and coins scientific-sounding new terms to describe them. His Superspectrum simply seems to be another way of saying “influence by spiritual beings and psychic powers.”

However, he doesn’t conclude that the Superspectrum is a being or group of beings, as the occultists usually do with their concepts of gods, demons, and spirits. Instead, it is simply a kind of natural phenomenon with a “computer-like intelligence.”



EELRIJUE is being finalized this month, and all of the themes we baked into that cosmic casserole are coming back to haunt us. I mean that in a perfectly literal sense: our lives are haunted by a cast of characters that is barely even humanoid. Be careful what you make songs about, kids...

"Destroyer of All Things" - FDR

Catabolism. There are not a lot of rap songs about catabolism out there...it just doesn't come up very much. You're soaking in it, though.



As the Kali Yuga inexorably grinds our cultures and accomplishments into dust and blood, FDR has the soundtrack ready for you. Enjoy.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

-- Yeats Daug

#CLASSIC: "The Look" - s. maharba

"In the hold of such events there is little to be said..."



A transmission from another world.

Everything s. maharba has done to date is exceptional, but this is a personal favorite. Beyond dusty, way past melancholy, this is a distilled fist to the heart.

"Night Owls" - FDR prod. Dr. Quandary

This gorgeous Dr. Quandary production has been a big hit, especially with the European rap heads. This is the closing cut from FDR's debut EP, "Fear of Death and the Need for Reproduction," which I have already bloviated about at some length. Gird yourself for more, beginning immediately.

This week the EP got an excellent and insightful review from Alex at The Underground Vault, who cited a certain lack of cohesiveness & thematic consistency to the project. He's hardly the first person to make that point, and yet we find ourselves in a very...Crowleyesque position, as the authors. Bottom line, FDR is not an accessible project, and we are surely guilty of being Willfully Obscure.

Still, making beautifully doomed cult projects -- "cult" is being invoked here in a literal & legal sense -- is the entire reason we started World Around Records in the first place. I am happy to report the next FDR project will do nothing to illuminate our methods and motives. Stay woke.

FDR - "Fear of Death and the Need for Reproduction"

I like working with Godforbid because he is really good at rap and creates terrifyingly fast. It is good to be inspired, it is better to be intimidated. From Alaskan Fishermen cuts to Hump Jones singles to American Style Cardboard, we've covered a lot of ground. This EP is the opening salvo of something bigger and weirder.

"Pedestrian" - Wombaticus Rex

Does the world need another a-capella, spoken-word, free-verse rap-thing? Almost definitely not. That didn't prevent me from making one, however. This is dedicated to the 217.

"Pale White Cutie Pie" - DJ Multiple Sex Partners

Since Sweaty Summer, the Ol' Dirty Russian has been seldom seen. That's probably a good thing in any language. Every year, though, World Around drops a new label compilation -- to the limited and laughable extent that what they do can be considered a "label" at all -- and Ivan Vilavonavich takes a break from his rollercoaster Hollywood life to dust off the MPC 1000 and get to work. The latest sculpture is this "Pale White Cutie Pie" jamalam, presumably inspired by, or dedicated to, Charlotte Stokely.

Word to Vault 46.

Algorhythms: Deluxe Edition - THE TURQUOISE TAPE

EELRIJUE is coming. To celebrate, Algorhythms has remastered their eponymous debut EP, along with several salient singles, to create The Turquoise Tape. If you're not into rap cassettes, no worries: you can get this digitally, too, in all the multifarious formats that Bandcamp provides. A great soundtrack for Tulpa creation, egregore binding, or just general experimentation with Solomon's Lesser Key.

"Live From Vermontistan" - Wombaticus Rex

Fresh produce from the Green Mountains. This was mixed and recorded at Burke by the NEK legend Walter Westinghouse. Just ripping through my catalog with Louis Mackey assisting. We had a great time with good people and questionable substances.



If you're digging this, you will almost definitely enjoy "Fear of Death and the Need for Reproduction."

"Galaxy in Niafunke" - Algorhythms

Fresh desert blues from Algorhythms. "Galaxy in Niafunke" is clearly channeling Mali, and this short "benediction" is just the beginning, with an album on the way and several more singles to come.

every last molecule making up my blood and bones
was busy being something else less than 12 months ago
every last atom that exists in your brain
came vast distances though black, infinite space
every last bad decision we made, it had it be done
it's tragic, it's dumb, but that's just what gravity does

#DAUG - "Breakup Music" - Humpasaur Jones

Finally. Yes. Breakup Music dropped on Labor Day 2013. We are hugely relieved to have this done, and pretty damn proud of it, too. Album is free, or feel free to donate some money for the World Around cause. We always like that.



See Also: Potholes coverage & Answering Questions about Breakup Music.

Dr. Quandary - "Can't Go On Without You"

In the past 48 hours, Dr. Quandary pulled two surprise moves: he formally resigned from World Around Records, and he dropped this hypnotic gem, Can't Go On Without You. Clearly we can expect something fierce & new from this free agent before the year is out. This cat was a hard worker and a smooth manager and WE SALUTE YOU #DAUG.

Algorhythms - "Open Ended"

A track that should have been released ages ago finally sees the light of day: "Open Ended," the first track off a long lost Algorhythms album. Dr. Quandary on the beats.

Man Mantis - "Red Dragonfly"

Dark visions and future funk. This treatment by Joe Ramos enhances the track with some nightmare techno-shamanism. (The incarnation of Man Mantis who makes a cameo here has since been replaced by the 2012 mutation.)

Check out Cities Without Houses and stay tuned for way more Man Mantis material this summer.

Oneiric Field Mandala - Dr. Quandary

Raw, dark, psychedelic boom bap that draws from African deserts and Indian cities in equal measure. I fucking loved this track.



Dr. Quandary is, of course, a founder of World Around Records and an instrumental artist with serious bona fides for 2012. If you're digging this, his debut album is highly recommended: Beyond All Spheres of Force and Matter.

We Are World Around, Vol. 2

#WHALAM the 2012 compilation from World Around Records dropped at prime time this evening. Free download.

Humpasaur Jones - "Funeral Groupies"

Lyrics videos don't have to suck. Dig it.

Download the original track via Bandcamp.

Humpasaur Jones - "2011 Anthembanger"

Last day that we can promote this. Big thanks to @SoundsCustom for a great year.



what kind of half-assed last laugh circus is that?
stumbling home, drunk and alone, purple and black
woke up soaked in blood, open cuts
swollen up, still drunk and my throat is numb, YUP
I got a broken a mic and motherfucking dumb name
and she's a trophy wife with a custom mustang
and if you think I got no chance at all
you can lick my itching hot romantic balls
what's that? you're thug rap? is that so, buttercup?
keep your flaps closed and your asshole buttoned up
still hustling beats and quality tracks
fuck it, it's nothing unique but it's all that we have
writers block is bullshit, I force it out
beat five pages from a dead horses mouth
if I eat my own flesh and speak to the dead
then exactly what the fuck am I competing against?
and can I build a machine to kill major labels
when I'm still waiting tables too filthy to clean?
relax with weed heads and some quality pot
I mean the kind that re-sets your biological clock
came up with these sentences I wanted to drop
it's not a deep message, just a possible thought
...you bought them fame, then watched them rot away
now kids are robbing graves and THAT SHIT IS NOT OKAY
but fuck it, man...I don't even trust my fans
cuz I do rock, and you treat me like a Tupac cover band
show respect cuz I'm known for broken necks
like, I might be stoned, let me grab this microphone and _____
but that was cocky of me...see, it's opposite week
and I'm actually a sensitive and conscious emcee
from Vermont and I'm free of STD's and college degrees
left a condom or three inside your Moms but it's PEACE
I got a broken mic and motherfucking dumb name
and she's a trophy wife with a custom mustang
and if you think I got no chance at all
you can lick my itching hot...

...and that's positive feedback
naked hippie chicks burning bras in a weed patch
most dudes would be afraid of REAL nudity
a bunch of virgin minds in gated communities
shocker, I know: Hump Jones, cocky and stoned
like "Your whole city sucks and I just wanna go home"
head banging, bloody forehead at the chess game
and checkmate your left brain in less than ten plays
run around hunting down girls in town...
and tell 'em we're representing for the WORLD AROUND
just kidding...you're all failures with dumb women
and my new stuff is too much for only one listen