As promised, the Seattle trio of Thomas Gray, Pearl Dragon, and Gajamagic dropped off their Champagne Mixtape this morning. The five tracks aside from the intro are a mix of old and new. "Cave Singer Pop Rocks" is the trio's extended rendition of "Soda & Pop Rocks" (off Private Party) that Gajamagic places over new mellow beat. The same story with "Playground Swine" which is "Swine" over a new beat, but as far as I can tell, the other three tracks are brand stanking new.
"Skhigh Rockets" is the group's rendition of "Afternoon Delight" and "Champagne Lyons" doesn't see any rapping until 2:00 in and is really a showcase for Gajamagic's production (as is most of the project if you factor in that its mostly remixes of old material). "Today Was A Bad Day" is an obvious reversal of the Ice Cube song (And it's ironic, the Thunder beat the Lakers after they traded the SuperSonics) that would work better over a different instrumental.
It's a project that sounds completely different through headphones rather than on the shitty horrific slightly-less-than-desirable quality of my MacBook's sound system. Still, it doesn't quite reach the quality of Champagne's other releases. Because of their experimental sound, Champagne can be hit or miss, with either classic northwest songs or tracks that don't quite get there. This project is really too short to ever really get there (though "Skhigh Rockets" comes pretty damn close). It doesn't have the same kick as "Soda & Pop Rocks" or endearing feeling of "The Breaks."
To tell the truth, this isn't exactly what I was expecting when Champagne said they were dropping a mixtape. I generally expect a mixtape to be at least 10 tracks instead of what barely qualifies as an EP, but I'm not going to complain about new (free) music. It's still worth the price of admission and if you're a fan of Seattle music, it's worth the download.
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