File under Asheville. And Awesome.

Posted on by Alli Marshall

In case you missed the invites flying around Facebook and the tweets circulating this morning, a group of Asheville-based electronic musicians recently got together and released a 17-track collection titled Asheville Beat Tape Volume 1. Artists include SYS-HEX, TwoFresh, DJ Bowie, Mingle, Marley Carroll and others and can be downloaded for free from Skew Records.

Songs find a delicate balance between downtempo and danceable, with chill, repetitive beats running like a thread throughout. d:Raf’s “Ninja Au Go Go” learns toward world beat with Middle Eastern flavor; DJ Bowie’s “Doin It” is a glitchy, scratchy, celebratory track; Mother Hood (from RBTS WIN) brings an almost disco groove to “Waffle Fryz”; ProFlogik’s “Velvet” lives up to its name with soulful r&b strains and is that a banjo on Wuchinow’s gently rollicking “Tola”?

According to the press release for the album, “The idea for an Asheville Beat Tape came from Nigel One, a long-time DJ and producer who has been involved in Asheville’s electronic music scene since the early 2000s. Soon after joining forces with Skew Records, Nigel decided to spearhead the idea of bringing some of the surrounding talent together to form an Asheville Beat Tape. After a month’s time, Nigel had collected a multitude of tracks from area producers, and brought on Skew producers Peripheral and DM Stair to help artfully and seamlessly arrange the tracks into order. The result is a 45-minute mix of inspiring production and composition styles.”

Man of the artists on Vol. 1 were represented at MoogFest this fall (give the tracks a listen and you’ll see why they were hand-picked for that inaugural electronic music festival). Entries for a forthcoming Vol. 2 are currently being vetted.

Download Asheville Beat Tape here for free. The Vol. 1 track list is:

1. “Could Have Sworn” by SYS-HEX
2. “Nammo” by KimathiM
3. “Mini-Max” by TwoFresh
4. “NewWorld” by Moving Temple
5. “Ninja Au Go Go” by d:Raf
6. “Doin’ It” by Dj Bowie
7. “Radio Mountain” by DM Stair
8. “Waffle Fryz” by Mother Hood
9. “Pyradelic” by Nigel One
10. “Abbrev” by Jables
11. “MPCONE” by Bookworm
12. “Velvet” by ProFlogik
13. “Town To Town” by Mingle
14. “Wave” by P3RIPH3RA
15. “Tola” by Wuchinow
16. “Be Good” by Marley Carroll
17. Shoutro

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About Alli Marshall
Alli Marshall has lived in Asheville for more than 20 years and loves live music, visual art, fiction and friendly dogs. She is the winner of the 2016 Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize and the author of the novel "How to Talk to Rockstars," published by Logosophia Books. Follow me @alli_marshall
View all posts by Alli Marshall →

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2 thoughts on “File under Asheville. And Awesome.”

  1. Moving Temple

    Just a correction, not all of the artist were represented at Moogfest, just for the record(s). Thanks for the great coverage. Skew LOVES Asheville and the Mountain X!

    Andy Askew
    Skew Records

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