now playing: Ta-Ku - September 4th
Thank you, thank you, you're welcome. I would love me for writing this, too. I've wanted to write about Ta-Ku for a long time and now I just decided to go for it. Why? Because there's something very special about his beats that makes me go ooooohh, aaahhh and do funny faces. (You know the funk face, right? I do that a lot.)
The official mini biography says: Recent (2008) Redbull Music Academy participant, Reggie ‘Ta Ku’ Matthews, has gone from strength to strength and has released a plethora of beat tapes and with releases set to drop in 2011 via PaperChain (Austraila) Darker Than Wax (Singapore) & Faces Records (Paris), this future beat maker has alot more coming and many more releases to unleash. Inspired from the likes of Dilla, Hazel, Onra, Fs Green, B.Bravo & Diabiase, he has produced beats internationally for artists like Cyhi The Prynce (G.O.O.D Music), John Robinson, Raashan Ahmad, Outasight, Kid Daytona, Phil Ade, Rakaa (Dilated Peoples) and more.
So, Ta-Ku is an Australian sample based producer, a lover of soul music and an extremely prolific man. During 2011 he's given out at least 5 releases full of dope beats plus many many more tracks in his soundcloud. In general, his music has and is spread over the internet since he's released on many different labels and put his tracks to many different websites, so I'm trying to do you a favor here and have as much information on the same page as possible. Let's go.
Kicking it off with the Lonely Stranger, a Kris Mars album produced by Ta-Ku. It was a free release when it first came out in February 2010.
Next up, BD3: Battle Beats. "My hometown had its 3rd annual Beat Battle. BEATDOWN 3. 16 beatmakers in one spot - they all had absolute fire! Was fortunate to take home the win for the 3rd time! Here are all the beats used for the night." I must say that this is one of Ta-Ku's best albums from a dancer point of view. Dope ass beats.
October 2010 gave out a tribute to a legend. TRIBUTE : Dilla is a compilation of the beats Ta-Ku had made during the past years and that were influenced by the late beat master. I'm glad that one of my current favorite producers' favorite producer is my favorite producer. (Miserable sense of humor, I know... Sorreee.)
In November 2010 Ta-Ku and Roughsoul made an album together under the name LoveChild. Synth You've Been Gone is an ode to the synthesizer and it has a great vibe straight from the 80's.
An interesting add to the discography is a Moovmnt exclusive (you all know moovmnt.com and if you don't, you should), a collaboration with Miles Bonny. It's called Down to Earth Club Music and I actually just downloaded it, too, and cannot wait to listen to it.
The first release that I actually got to know was 24. It came out on April 1st on Soulection. It is a free release but 100 % of all donations go directly to Japan. The artist describes the album like this: "This '24' Beat Tape is a testament to the technology age we live in. Being a big fan of SOULECTION it was crazy to think I could make a beat one night and 2 hours later, email it straight to Joe Kay for it to be played to the world that very same day. Inspired by Joe's fine selection of music - I decided to see how many beats I could bump out and polish in a 24 hour period."
On April 10th, only about a week after the release of 24, Ta-Ku gave out his Day And Night EP. The album is "To commemorate the release of the 'Day & Night 577' collaboration between New Balance & Highs & Lows." Each track represents either day or night vibes.
Scraps came out on May 31st. In Ta-Ku's own words, it is "a bunch of old scrappy beats gathering dust on my PC. Soul & Electronic joints." At least music bloggers have been thankful and happy about those "scrappy" beats but also contrary opinions have been presented. Yes, some of them aren't maybe the best thing he's given out, but I think dope is still dope.
One of the newest releases from him in my library is KT. Different websites give different release dates and I'm not sure which one I should believe. The record label's (Darker Than Wax) facebook site says April 1st but multiple bloggers have written about the end of May or beginning of June. Who knows. Anyway, it's a really nice EP. I like the slightly cinematic and emotional vibe that the four tracks have. KT is dedicated to a very special person in his life and it offers a raw an atmospheric glimpse into his world.
The next project was September. It says on Ta-Ku's soundcloud that "I will be making a beat a day in September 2011 and uploading here. Take a listen." Well, there weren't beats for all days but let's forgive him because the 13 finished beats are goooood, and it was this album that gave me the last kick to start writing. Anyone who is able to produce with this tempo deserves to be mentioned somewhere and anyone who produces this fast and this well definitely deserves to be blogged about. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that speed makes a good producer. But the combination of quality and amount of beats that Ta-Ku has is pretty incredible to me.
Project Mooncircle & Finest Ego have teamed up to establish a fresh new 12” producer series, entitled “Faces”. On every edition, you will find two different producers. Respectively, each producer will have their own record-side and unique cover artwork by the aspring LNY, known for his surrealistic portraits, blending humans and animals. The very first installment of the “Faces” series will feature Pavel Dovgal & Ta-Ku.
Coming from backgrounds which could not possibly be any more different these two artists share a common connection through their relentless work-ethic and individualistic creative approach to making music. They have been fighting for international recognition with their extravagant beats.
The latest release came out yesterday, the 5th of December 2011. I believe Late NYC will create a buzz in the blogosphere since I've already spotted it on several sites I follow. The album is a preparation for the next LP coming out early 2012, and Late NYC captures Ta-ku's down time while in New York and is pretty much a story for his trip earlier this year.
So, quite a lot of music, huh? And there's more to come. I don't even need to say that keep the name in mind because he will take care of that aspect himself. There's no way that you could forget someone who's pumping out good music like a machine.
