Current Listening: Leif: Little Bit Cover: Palms Out

Experience the sonic wonders of a man called Leif

There I was on the brink of bigging up Kraftwerk's seminal 1974 LP "Autobahn" as the next post on TI when what popped up in my email box? Why, nothing but the first byte from my last post begging for some new kids to forward me their material. Meet Leif. I knew he was right when I saw the cute little graphic treatment of his image with his mouth cut out as a blank space. The idea would make a fantastic "album cover" image. His peers include Kudu, Gang Gang Dance and Santagold. As Leif's Myspace space breaks it down:

"1 part African-American. 1 part Cherokee. 2 parts Senegalese.All parts young and vicious tropical punk, Leif is from Times Square, NYC. Inspired by flashing corporate billboards, welfare checks, and gendered children's toys, he's been making different forms of sonic havoc (among other creative mediums) that have seen a bit of internet notoriety. He's recently played with acts such as RJD2, Flosstradamus, Mapei, Scottie B & Plus Move."

Leif's sonic style is very...thunderous. It hovers between vintage hip-hop and early 90's dance music (I won't kick up a storm and call it "house"). Leif loves his percussion, his cut and paste loops and a little bit of Jamaican dancehall foghorn blasts (you'd have to visit deep Flatbush to understand). I love the sexy little croak of his vocal tone too. Viva Tropical Punk! Speaking of which I owe you some pics of the mad Jamaican kids of last Christmas no? Stay tuned.