A film about Northwest hip-hop from

Dear Thad

Hmmm... There's not a lot of information about this project in the museum encyclopedia. We'd love your help! TOWN LOVE is maintained by an awesome community of passionate volunteers who keep it all up to date.

Do you know something about the history of this record? Do you have a favorite lyric or a favorite memory? Send us an email on why this is one of the great hip-hop albums from the Northwest. Thanks!

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A film about Northwest hip-hop from

Alchemy Union 4: Gaia

Alchemy Union produce these absolutely killer mix compilation CDs, like AU 4: Gaia, pictured here. They are intimidatingly good. This one explores themes related to climate change. Track two, Alden Lightning‘s enviro-anthem title track, produced by Vaughn, has bass drums pounding down like hydro-fluorocarbons. She sings, “I don’t know why you think this will end well for you.” Some tracks are gorgeously, technically precise, Gershwin… or Classical-even. A few tracks in, your speakers are transformed into tin cans, while Araless raps, “We Can’t See” with verses about all the discarded plastic bottles in the ocean. And moments later, during Carter Wilson‘s “Present Tense,” you’re involuntarily snapping your fingers, and singing along that we’re all “trying to do the right thing.” Mixes like this remind me of the wealth of talent in this city. And damn, this is definitely the place where you’ll find it.

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A film about Northwest hip-hop from

Sand Clemente, WA

I first met Thad Wenatchee and the FFU crew a few weeks ago at Channel Fest, an event at Fred Wildlife celebrating local record labels. (They were, surprisingly, the only ones selling any hip-hop.) Thad sold me a copy of his 2014 instrumental beat tape, Sand Clemente, WA. Google tells me this is not a real place, but this record renders it completely: I imagine a seaside village somewhere along the coast near Moclips, remote. Mournful saxophones haunt like distant nautical horns, drums crash with the repetitive ebb and flow of ocean waves. This is the soundtrack of a languid, calm place, full of longing.

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A film about Northwest hip-hop from

terra galactica

There are moments in terra galactica, a 2014 release from local artist Kelly Castle Scott, that are reminiscent of motivational hypnosis cassettes, her disembodied tones floating above environmental noise. Songs take you on a journey and you find yourself somewhere, uncertain quite how you arrived there. Pulling from a wide and eclectic range of styles and influences–jazz, chill-out electronica, spoken word, and rap–this is ambient psychedelia for a new millennium. Production is courtesy of FFU alumni and local beatmaker Thad Wenatchee.

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