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Book A One Way Ticket To Groovesville With Exmag & Branx’s “Intimate Friends Mix” [WRR Premiere]

December 18, 2014 By Tyler Hubin

Both recently featured in our Best Of Lowtemp piece, Exmag and Branx are two of the crown jewels in one of the fastest rising record labels in electronic music. With their live shows comprising a flawless combination of on-the-fly samples and freaky-smooth guitar strumming from Eric Mendelson, Exmag has developed an intense cult-like following everywhere they go.

Branx on the other hand represents a slightly different side of the Lowtemp spectrum. Extremely well produced glitch and future-funk is the standard for the guy, and he’s just beginning to scratch the surface of his potential. Today we’re pleased to welcome in these guys’ latest “Intimate Friends Mix“, a collaborative end of the year mix from both of these genre pushing artists.

As with virtually any combination of artists on Lowtemp, this hour-long collab was set up to be a cohesive meshing of sounds right from the beginning. Appearances in the early going from Lowtemp staples like Russ Liquid and Illumntr are welcome and expected, but the upbeat trap/hip-hop generously thrown in is a great change up; starting you off with some J Dilla and Big Chocolate it’s easy to tell this mix will be keeping you guessing throughout.

The middle half is loaded with beautiful 1970’s roller disco vibes and chilled out, meticulously produced trap courtesy of cutting edge artists like Mr. Carmack, Kaytranada, and Hucci. Going from soothing head nodding funk to surprisingly nice rap which compliments the former perfectly, this is proving to be a lot more of the same. Just some more finely picked tunes from Exmag and Branx (hereby dubbed Branxmag).

Starting at 57:10 with a transition into Lindsay Lowend‘s “Ashtray” that’ll bring a tear to your eye, it seems like they’re showing off as they bring the mix to a close. By now you shouldn’t need any more convincing, but if you’ve yet to see either of these guys live it’s your duty as a fan of good music to jump on it next chance you get. For all of us lucky Basslights attendees the countdown is only nine more days until we see Exmag touch down in The Mothership at Hampton. Branx will be playing The Best Buy Theater on 1/24 taking part in a historic Gramatik two night run, grab your tix here before they sell out. Keep your eyes peeled with these two as we go into 2015, as all signs point to them continuing their paths as flag bearers of the funk.