RJD2 - The Colossus . You may have heard RJD2's beats before, but didn't know it. One of his signature beats, Ghostwriter, has been used for several commercials and showcases his mastery of the art of the hip-hop sampling. The song ebbs, drops, and peaks while utilizing a highly complex drum sample. It never bores, and continually seeks to intrigue.

After producing mostly instrumental albums and for noted underground legends such as Blueprint, he started to gradually move away from movie score tunes such as The Horror and into darker, more introspective tunes that featured his singing voice. Although I personally prefer his strictly instrumental work, The Colossus does a good job of balancing brooding beats with thankfully muted singing and head-knockin', triumphant tunes such as "Let There Be Horns:"

I love this track because of its visual imagery: notice how the middle of the track contains a furious drum sample which has a distinctive Cuban Jazz flavor. The "interlude" of the track even sprinkles some electric guitar amid trumpet blasts, and smoothly connects the song toward its ultimately thrilling conclusion.

Sound Tribe Sector 9 - Artifact . Sound Tribe Sector 9's sound often defies definition - it combines so many different types of music together that they can only be fully described by emotions. "Better Day" is spaced out, mellow, and mysterious, with frequent electronic references and a beautiful singer sparsely lending her talents to fleshing out the track. "Somesing" contains some elements of drum and bass along with electronica, but its musical structure is so organic and complex that it's hard to pinpoint where one genre's influence begins and where another ends. Wikipedia has even mentioned that this song has a composition similar to classical music.. although I can't tell. What I do know, however, is that this album is NOT boring, unique, and worth a listen.

Oh No - The Ethiopium . As star producers come and go, Oh No has been in the background laboriously perfecting and mastering his craft of sampling, beat-making, and mixing. The result? The Ethiopium is a funky tour de force of two minute sound bites: a throwback to the old days of producing beat tapes and passing them around your peers, hoping that one of them will find a beat hot enough to rap over. Not content to use guitars, keyboards, and violins in his beats, Oh No taps into the musical tapestry of the music of Ethiopia with traditional Ethiopian instruments and sensibilities, such as the deftly placed chanting in "The Pain" and his creative use of instruments such as the krar. Taking J. Dilla's style of bite sized, dynamic beats, each track gives you a taste, establishes a theme, then abruptly stops and leaves you wanting more.

Lately I've been listening to many albums which are entirely instrumental, and do not contain any lyrics. However, all of the albums I've listened have strong hip-hop influences, and also borrow elements from jazz, trip-hop, and other related genres. I find it amazing that producers can have such a vast amount of skill with a wide variety of instruments, in which they use to convey a huge range of emotions. Not only that, but these songs often retain the ability for a rapper to easily rap their lines over the music due to their bass hits and melodic structure.

Here are some recent highlights, with some quick thoughts that don't quite constitute a full review:

Blockhead - Music by Cavelight. During my recent travels to the trip-hop and instrumental scenes, I stumbled onto Blockhead's offerings. His debut album Music by Cavelight is a medley of haunting and unique instruments with a distinctive hip-hop flavor.

Nomak - Muziq and Foto. Nomak is a little known, Japanese hip-hop producer who has been garnering praise worldwide (especially in Eastern European countries). He makes strong use of instrumentation such as piano chords and violins to produce spiritual and calming beats which seem to shimmer in your head as your listen to them. Muziq and Foto often takes advantage of lacing three or four separate melodies on top of each other to create a strong harmonious effect, such as Wind Beat and Ample Energy (two of my favorite songs in the album).

Uyama Hiroto - A Son of the Sun. Uyama Hiroto is another Japanese hip-hop producer, on Nujabes' label no less. Artistically, it is a bit similar to Nomak and Nujabes' hip-hop beats, but Hiroto refines some elements in this album that clearly showcases his own unique talents. Strong jazz influences are seen throughout the album, as well as hip-hop influences. For example, the lead track "81summer" contains strong swing and cool jazz influences when you listen to the piano fill in the notes between bass hits. The voice that can be subtlety heard in the background is a skillful use of sampling, which makes the voice more of an instrument than for any vocal purpose. Lastly, the violin can be heard riding the beat, much as a rapper would flow along with the melodies presented in the song.