"A Young man a mission to create proper musical work from cut & paste methods at which so many try and fail. (Ak-o) proves that with finesse and taste it CAN be done". This is not us hyping up one of our core artits but Gerald "Jazzman" Short and how can w... e argue on props like that? A 19 year old crate digger from Grimes, Iowa is already a rare species but the way young A-ko flips a sample and makes a bunch of dusty grooves sounding like a real band is truly amazing. Listen to any of his songs and you know the difference between a beat-maker and a song writer. Grimes, Iowa isn't exactly known for it's music scene. 5.399 people call this place home and A-ko doesn't even live in Grimes but a few miles outside where a 26.4k dial-up connection keeps him in touch with the beatmaking world. His favourite hang-out is Soulstrut.com where I spotted his raw talent. Now that A-ko has finished high-school it's time for RJD2 (or your other favourite "instrumental hip-hop" producer) to watch his back because this kid is so fresh and his beats are anything but clean (or cleared). So you better enjoy his DIY funk before he gets famous. One year after his debut 45 A-ko is ready for his first big record. Praised by everybody from "The Fader" to Soulstrut.com for his unique brand of sample-heavy lofi soul, the 18 year old wunderkind starts getting grown and even more funky. "Chicago" on A1 is exactly that: fast, furious and funky. A serious fun track for djs and dancers. Followed by the slow and soulful "Fire", a trip to la la land and heavy on the B3. On the flipside we are bringing back "Soul '69", the hit song from A-ko's 45 single. A-ko has cleaned up the samples here a little bit, which means less static, more bounce but still lofi as hell. "Untitled McDoom'd" is Devil McDoom's take on"Untitled". This is what I call a real remix. The orginal song is still there but it is produced McDoom-style with big drums and filled up with Skandinavian raer. It also happens to be the first remix on MPM. In general I'm a bit tired of remixing and I don't believe in buying name remixes to pimp your records. But in this case A-ko and McDoom didn't tell me about it until I recieved a yousendit link.   海缝 ...