Artist: Jay Kubes
Album: Moondog
Location: Kingsport, USA
Genres: Instrumental Hip Hop, Glitch Hop, SP-404 Scene
Year Released: 2015
Date Re-Found / Posted: 2023-08-18
Format(s) Released: Bandcamp
Explanation:
Jay Kubes was a beatmaker and producer out of Kingsport, Tennessee. He came up in the early 2010s as a member of the Inkiscape collective (alongside Uncle Tairy, Lucid Optics, Airospace, and more). If you were following Tairy Hesticles or were constantly digging for backpacker stuff in the early 2010s there is a good chance you had heard of his work.
I was one of those people and back then added a bunch of his stuff to RYM. He had tons of tapes, was pioneering a very 'crunchy' sound, must have been active on the SP-404 forums because a lot of his beats were also very glitchy.
A lot of his tapes also had this similar, washed-out, highly saturated picture that almost looked like the deep-fried memes one would see years later.
His production style fascinated me, and while he didn’t really bring that energy to rappers, but when it came to beats, he was really unique.
I put his stuff off, intending to listen to it eventually and then, upon checking again it was all gone. Dude deleted everything with no explanation. It's the same deal as the last post. Guy just dipped with no explanation. His work is still in a few places where he couldn't take down. Various SoundCloud tracks, YouTube uploads, his old twitter account is still up but hasn't tweeted in over 10 years. Guy just vanished.
To this day I don't know where he's gone.
I've managed to track down a few of his tapes, this one included. This tape is supposedly made of only Moondog features, though listening I don't recognize it. As I wrote earlier, his style is very 'crunchy', very 'glitchy' so he's able to warp these samples beyond recognition.
Listening now I still believe he has his own style. Can't really think of many producers that are able to make beats like this. He has no qualms about sound quality or mixing and uses it to his advantage creating really wonky and glitched sounds.
Even within Inkiscape he was in a league of his own. The other producers had their own styles, and none really got close to what he could do with a sample.
The only people I can really compare him to are the people on the SP-404 forums, but even then, those guys have way glitchier beats than this. It's a strange sound Kubes had.
Reasons for Disappearance: He deleted all his work and vanished from the internet. Like last week's post, Kubes never had a huge fan base so when his work disappeared nobody really took note. I assume this happened in around 2018 but even then, I don't fully know. I had him on a backlog but didn't get around to it in time.
I managed to recover Moondog myself, obtaining untagged files. For this download I have also included his '12 Monkeys' tape. It's not very long so enjoy it as a bonus. It has a notable vaporwave feel as opposed to his glitchy, rough beats.
Download: aHR0cHM6Ly9tZWdhLm56L2ZpbGUvclFZSFhBSUQjOU92WEJkWUpNNkw1N0FKV0gtSWZaSzliYzFYSFJON0pLeHZiVHotYXNaSQ==
Password: moondogtape
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