The Quietus - A new rock music and pop culture website

News

LISTEN: James Ferraro New Mixtape
Rory Gibb , December 14th, 2011 08:02

Ex-Skater goes undercover as BEBETUNE$, releases free hip-hop mixtape

Off the back of his recent Far Side Virtual album, which found him shifting his usual murky soundscapes into painfully high, digital definition, James Ferraro has now launched a new pseudonym BEBETUNE$. His first record under that name, a hip-hop/R'n'B mixtape entitled Inhale C-4 $$$$$, is now available to download for free from his new site.

Having listened through it twice this morning already, it's a far less forbidding listen than Far Side Virtual, though it does include many of the same traits - glossy sounds, dense networks of samples and a convincingly web-age sheen. Its beats, though, audibly reference southern hip-hop instrumentals, and the hi-end stammerings on tracks like opener 'Reptile Online' are a little reminiscent of Kuedo's takes on footwork and trap rap. Either way, it's a pretty fascinating new development from an artist always in flux.

Listen out for a remixed take on Gang Gang Dance's 'Glass Jar' and some Odd Future-baiting 'swag' chatter. Keep an eye out for a full interview with Ferraro on the site later this week, where he talks about Far Side Virtual and why Gang Gang Dance created the next 'Just Do It' with Eye Contact's opening slogan "I can hear everything... It's everything time".