I love to discover new, interesting music from the mass of sonic samples sent to me. I Had U Ken EP by an Italian guy called Grillo is such a gem. Great instrumental hip hop, mutant beatz, 8-bit extravaganza contained in 30 minutes divided into 10 tracks. EP was released on 1 September 2010 and can be downloaded for free via bandcamp. It is a kind of tribute to "the all American awesomeness of Street Fighter’s Ken Masters" :)) I always had a weak spot for chip tunes and 8-bit, videogame samples and Grillo delivers them en masse. His beatz move my body and soul and make it really hard to seat on my ass at work. The higlights are TaDaDa, Online Saltiness and Krazy Kicks series. Doktor Krank highly recommends this quality release!
Here is a word from the author himself:
Angry lo fi synth lines buzz along with deep, stilted beats in I Had U Ken, Grillo’s tribute to the all american awesomeness of Street Fighter’s Ken Masters. Videogame samples and xbox live scrubs spouting profanity during online play adorn the shorter tracks, while Ken’s own in game voice is autotuned and vocoded to sing along in TaDaDa, feeling like drunken yodeling on acid. There’s also a chiptune remake of the original street fighter 2 ken theme, a nice trip down memory lane before the dark, dubby and moody Thunder Kick closes out the record with its menacing guitar riff.
A few months ago I've covered on my blog a great Oscillations Compilation by Jus Like Music and Apple Juice Break featuring a track by Grillo. Quite a nice track, but his current release shows a real progress his music made since that time.
Fronting The Weekend by grillo