ALARM's 50 Favorite Albums of 2012

ALARM’s 50 Favorite Albums of 2012

Another year, another torrential downpour of albums across our desks. As always, we encountered way too much amazing music, from Meshuggah to The Mars Volta, Converge, Killer Mike, P.O.S, and many more.

The Groove Seeker: Freestyle Fellowship’s The Promise

On a biweekly basis, The Groove Seeker goes in search of killer grooves across rock, funk, hip hop, soul, electronic music, jazz, fusion, and more.

Freestyle Fellowship: The Promise Freestyle Fellowship: The Promise (Decon, 10/18/11)

Freestyle Fellowship: “Step 2 the Side”

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After two decades and three LPs under its belt, the Freestyle Fellowship has turned into one of the longest-running hip-hop crews with the release of its latest record, The Promise. Previously the vision of innovative new-school rhyming in what seems like the old Wild West of hip hop, the Fellowship embodies the progressive early-’90s West Coast movement when hip-hop culture wasn’t an international trend, and when nation-conscious raps imbibed a certain sense of freedom and lyrical style reigned supreme.

But it’s been quite some time since those open-mic nights at the Good Life Café in South Central Los Angeles, where the Freestyle Fellowship, like many others (Chali 2na, Cut Chemist), got their start. Comprised of Aceyalone, Myka 9, PEACE, Self Jupiter, and producer J Sumbi, the Fellowship maintains a relevant influence as one of the initiators of jazz-rooted hip hop, aimed to challenge the art form with new approaches to rhyme, rhythm, and meter. Along with East Coast counterparts such as A Tribe Called Quest, Digable Planets, and Gang Starr, the Freestyle Fellowship filled a niche between commercialized radio rap and hardcore gangster rap, elevating the game with highly intellectual and esoteric prose.

100 Unheralded Albums from 2010

Among the thousands of under-appreciated or under-publicized albums that were released in 2010, hundreds became our favorites and were presented in ALARM and on AlarmPress.com. Of those, we pared down to 100 outstanding releases, leaving no genre unexplored in our list of this year’s overlooked gems.