ASM (A State of Mind), the international hip hop collective composed by Green T, FP, and Rhino is launching a new project in collaboration with CMR (Chinese Man Records) called “Origin & Juice” to combine their love for music, food, and natural wine.
The project comes in the form of a 6-part video and single series, in which each episode explores a different country to celebrate its natural winemakers, culinary traditions, and musical history reinterpreted in ASM’s unique ultra-lyrical boom bap style.
The culmination of the series is an EP release of the 6 tracks in digital format and in an exclusive bundle containing vinyl EP and 6 bottles of natural wine curated by ASM.
Dumplings: A hypnotic vibraphone channeled into an unapologetically straight-up hip hop context, both deep and rugged and bright and jazzed-out. Lyrically, this is for the babies, or dumplings, who are inheriting a flawed planet full of beauty and wonder.
For this episode, ASM explores the tastes and sounds of the Czech Republic with the track “Dumplings”, based on a twinkling jazz sample from Emil Viklický and SHQ. The result is a hypnotic joint with a deep and rugged groove for the next generation of humans on earth, aka the dumplings. The wine pairing comes courtesy of Bohemian natural wine king Milan Nestarec, known for his radical experimental juice, and Green-T gets busy in the kitchen with his interpretation of a traditional goulash with Carlsbad bread dumplings.
Tapass: A soulful neck-snapping Fender Rhodes jam with warm rolling sub bass, off-kilter J Dilla type drums, and a lonely rusty trumpet weaving through the tapestry. Stylistically, think A Tribe Called Quest meets D’Angelo. Lyrically, this one is dedicated to the beauty of the feminine divine, with ASM spinning food metaphors into visions of the tastiest of worldy treats.
Origin & Juice – Episode 3: ASM takes us on a journey through the sounds and tastes of Spain, centred around the soulful Dilla-esque joint “Tapass”, based on a sample from La Revolució by Spanish jazz composer Rafael Escote. The track is paired with legendary natural wines of Partida Creus from Catalunya and some tapas dishes that are fun and easy, but packed full of vibrant smoky flavors, courtesy of Green T.
Efcharisto: A dirty driving psychedelic guitar anchors this energetic and funked-out joint that will spare no neck joints this side of the Acropolis. Rhino provides the sonic playground, and FP and Green leave flame-scorched earth in their wake. Badass sure shot banger.
In this round of Origin & Juice, ASM takes on an excursion to Greece. The track at the centre of the episode is the psyched-out reinterpretation of Greek Folk classic “Karagouna” by Mimis Plessas & Orbiters, as reinterpreted by ASM into the gritty funk jam “Efcharisto”. In the bottles and glasses is the sensational juice of Ktima Ligas using indigenous Greek grape varietals and low-intervention winemaking principles. ASM accompanies the sounds and juice with classic grilled souvlaki, bright greek salad, and freshly baked fluffy pitas. The primal force of the flame lays the guiding thread.
Give a Schnitz: A melancholic and reflective jazzed-out hip hop joint with wistful horns and a recurring cut from the late great MF DOOM. FP and Green bounce back and forth painting a path from the past to the present with swaggering nonchalance. To not give a damn feels so good.
With the single Pork Belly, ASM is back in their storytelling zone, which has been a hallmark of their repertoire since The Jade Amulet. The narrative spun here is based on true events one summer evening during their high school years – A quintessential hip hop kid tale involving spray cans, bags of weed, too many beers, and a spin in Green’s first whip that ends in drama. A mystical driving bassline underwrites this deep cerebral head-nodder.
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