Techno Nonsense: Stones Throw

I started this column last year but any recent input has been massively lacking. The feature started off highlighting electronic music labels that were either doing big things at that time or labels that should just be known due to their impact on music. I suppose this one falls into both categories.

Occasionally, music labels become synonymous with an individual scene or genre, probably the most famous example of this being Motown in the 1960’s. These days, with the almost negligible price of production software and the ease at which music can be spread around the world, few labels ever get chance to develop such a standing. Stones Throw is a label which has done just that. Heralding from Los Angeles, with close links to Brainfeeder, Stones Throw has become home to some of the most creative and influential hip-hop artists of the past decade. The label itself was set up by Peanut Butter Wolf, a DJ and crate-digger from California, whose love for vinyl is reflected by the label’s policy of releasing music on big slabs of black plastic (usually accompanied by wonderful artwork).

Home to some of the most creative and influential hip-hop artists

J Rocc, Aloe Blacc and, recently, Dâm Funk have all put out records on the imprint, showing the increasing diversity championed by the label; instrumental hip-hop, soul and modern funk all being covered. Yet it is the work of the late J Dilla and the vast output of Madlib in his many guises that really defines the sound that Stones Throw is famous for: beats so smooth and inventive that the use of an MC is simply unnecessary. That’s not to say you won’t hear any rapping on Stones Throw’s releases; take Madlib’s recent collaboration with Freddie Gibbs on the wonderful Thuggin’ EP for example. However, for me at least, it’s always the instrumental work that really shines through. It’s hard to exaggerate the influence this label has had and still does have on so much of electronic music today; James Blake’s most recent EP samples a record put out by Stones Throw in 2000 while Donuts and Madvillainy, by J Dilla and Madlib (in conjuction with MF Doom) respectively, are constantly cited as two of the best hip-hop albums of the last decade.

And so normally at the end of this column I give some tips to get you started exploring the labels I feature. This time though I think it’d be fitting to tell y’all to just come down to Scala this Sunday (5th Feb) instead. A tribute night to the incredible J Dilla is being held to raise awareness and money for the fight against Dilla’s killer: a blood disease called Lupus. There simply won’t be a better showcase of what Stones Throw is all about.