Philip Grass Onit

Came across some genre-bending beats that any electronic fan will appreciate it. They're from Portland-based duo Philip Grass (aka Burton Schaber and Ben Durfee) and fall in the realm of "gritty forest beat" and "emo juke." No idea really what that means, so let's hear it in their words:

 "This was one of the first songs that we made collaboratively. We had been working independently for some time so coming together on this track produced a lot of energy, which we think this song typifies. It was an attempt to blend a lot of different kinds of sounds together, so sonically, it's a bit of a collage."

A collage indeed. I'm really digging how well the raw and distorted vocals grind up against the heavy synth FX. This definitely characterizes gritty, underground hip-hop smashed with futuristic electronic.

This track comes off the first vinyl release curated by Dropping Gems, a label/collective in the Pacific Northwest founded by Aaron Meola. They're also the same people behind recent Indie Shuffle favorite Natasha Kmeto. Only good stuff coming from them so far.

Gems Drops Three, the previously mentioned vinyl, will be out on April 16, 2013. Until then, stay on top of Dropping Gems via Facebook and SoundCloud. Highly recommend listening to Gumar and His Magical Midi Band's "Sliding Down Rainbows" if you dig this fx+drums+distortion stuff. I've also heard whispers of a Jason Burns Kmeto remix. Keep your eyes peeled and ears open...