PLUGGED IN Falside is on the move. |
There's no stopping Provy-based producer Falside the Beatsmith, who just released his most recent "seasonal beat tape," Snare Conditioning, and has plenty more in store by year's end, as he hand-crafts beats for some of the finest local and national indieground wordsmiths.
Kevin Fallon was raised "on a lake in the woods, deep in the sticks of West Greenwich, RI" and broke north to Boston immediately following high school with college aspirations, all the while honing his craft as a "beatsmith," or producer.
"My goals in Boston quickly shifted as things took off in music, and then I hit a few personal speed bumps — both figuratively and literally," Falside recalled when we caught up earlier this week. "I woke up in a local Providence detox, and decided to ultimately make this city my home."
Falside started the seasonally-inspired mixtapes in '09, releasing some serious boom-bap instrumentals along the way, like Cold Feat, Bugs In Ya Teef and one of my favorite albums of '10, Fall, Stand the Fuck Up.
"I started getting more experimental with my approach to promoting and making music, and I wanted to do something consistently dope that would reach far outside the city walls of Providence.
"The seasons generally affect my sound, and I channeled that into instrumental projects and decided to give them away on the internet for free," he said.
"It was a wise move."
Around the same time, Fal connected with venerable PVD rhyme collective Poorly Drawn People and stepped right in as an integral part of the pack, working with PDP's Reason on his solo disc, Landlords & Lullabies. He eventually provided beats and remix services for luminaries like C-Ray Walz, Wiz Kalifa, El Da Sensei, Jeru the Damaja, and Slaine of La Coka Nostra. DJ Premier shouted out his collabo with Emilio Lopez on his web radio show. It's a remarkable resume considering he's not even 23 years old.
"There is always that 'awe factor' when working with legends — I'm not that desensitized yet," said Fal.
"It's crazy, I've been fucking blessed."
The latest seasonal mixes, Beats for Spring and Snare Conditioning, boom with ol-skool swagger and neck-bobbing cuts and beats. Fans of Entroducing-era DJ Shadow will soak up Snare Conditioning's "Alone Together," "Green Tea and Nicotine," "Real G's Rock Tapes" (he's releasing a limited run of Snare cassettes), and the stoned "Stack of Boom Bap."
On the local front, Falside will pair with Juan Deuce (new single "Jimmy Buffet" is stellar) and drop the The Monty Brogan EP featuring Dirty Hank and Reason, and was talking up the forthcoming release with hard-hitting Queens rhymer Action Bronson. The next full-length instrumental album, Creative Capital Beatsmith, is slated for late '11.
And while we nominated him under Best DJ on this year's Best Music Poll ballot (hey, we had to include him on there somewhere), Falside politely clarified, "I prefer the 'beatsmith' or 'producer' title because I rarely get behind the wheels of steel unless I'm sampling."
As for the local wordsmiths hooting and hollering all over the open mic circuit — step your game up. You never know when Falside could be out scouting talent while posted up at the bar pounding beers. His tough-love outlook should not be taken as disrespect, though.
