The third single from Full Tote Odds upcoming album Place Your Bets (out November 16th) is Call It A Night. Following the immediate success of first single Southern Wind, and second single What’s Going Down,Call It A Night is no exception to the solid song writing and catchy hooks demonstrated in FTO’s previous releases.
One of the first tracks finished for the album, Call It A Night is produced by beat-master Debate, known to FTO from his work on various Train Of Thought albums and the Levelheaded solo LP.
“We wanted to reflect on our life journey and the problems we faced growing up. Not that we had particularly hard journeys, we just battled with the same stuff all kids do. We wanted to keep this introspective reflection as a positive thing, and the truth is that our lives have all worked out pretty good. The chorus line “leave with a grin when I call it a night” means that you need to be content with wherever you get to in life.” - Full Tote Odds
Full Tote Odds are Levelheaded, Slats, Eslev, DJ Hacksaw and Ross Read. These five boys from the Adelaide hills have crossed paths in the music world for over fifteen years. Mates since the first year of High School, Slats, Levelheaded & DJ Hacksaw were members of the Blackwood Hip Hop group Train Of Thought.
Under that name they released a highly acclaimed Demo (2002) and a hit debut album Moving Heads (2004). The Moving Heads LP was released through Obese Records and featured two other emerging Adelaide acts inHilltop Hoodsand Funkoars. The album sky-rocketed Train Of Thought to national recognition in the local Hip Hop scene.
Their left wing political track Counter-war Terrorism appeared on the international compilation Peace Not War alongside marquee artists such as Jurassic 5, Michael Franti and Lyrics Born. In the meantime, Eslev was developing and honing his own musical abilities. A man of many talents, he was also a member of Adelaide metal band Likamiza and worked on several Hip-Hop projects through the mid 2000s. Also passionate with the acoustic guitar he has done work with various artists including Purpose, by incorporating the acoustic sound into production. Working closely with Debate and Ross Read he began producing the sound for the upcoming release.
In 2009, Levelheaded released his debut solo album, The Spice Of Life. Eslev and Slats featured heavily as guests on the album along with Trials land Reason. They became an important part of the live show and travelled extensively as the album tour reached Melbourne, Geelong, Hobart, Adelaide, Loxton and Berri. Levelheaded supported west coast heavyweight Xzibit and Spit Syndicate in 2010 as well as playing to a packed crowd in Mt Hotham.
Ross Read is an integral part of the FTO project and has been working in the music industry for over 15 years. The quality of this product is largely due to his high level of technical knowledge, creativity and attention to detail. He has been honing his craft through many years of experience as a musician, producer and sound engineer and is now using these skills to take FTO to the next level.
Full Tote Odds is about five musicians combining their abilities to focus on one project. It is about musical diversity, as much as it is about pure Hip Hop. With the help of esteemed music director PJ Murton and creative director Darren Lock, the FTO team has spent 2 years intricately crafting their LP titled Place Your Bets. The release is due out with Obese Records autumn 2012!
Vinyl Villains consist of Train Of Thought members Hacksaw & Debate. Hacksaw has been honing his skills on the decks since the mid 90′s and Debate started producing beats around the same time. Both attended Blackwood High and shared a passion for Hip Hop which has never waned.
In Early 2000 Debate approached Hacksaw to join his group then called Exhilation the group would eventually consist of 5 members and become known as Train Of Thought. In The Mid 2000′s members of Train Of Thought decided to pursue different interests in life but Hacksaw & Debate kept doing their thing and featured on many guest spots with their cuts and/or production.
During this period Debate started the production company Train Of Thought Productions which would provide support to artists who roll under the Train Of Thought banner. With the return of LevelHeaded to the scene in 2009 Hacksaw & Debate provided Cuts & Production for the whole of LevelHeaded’s album title Spice Of Life.
At this time Hacksaw & Debate decided to form Vinyl Villains. The concept behind the Vinyl Villains is Debate will provide all the production and Hacksaw will provide all the Cuts and they will invite artists from around Australia to spit/MC over the tracks they create and occasionally Debate will grace the Mic.
The Vinyl Villains first LP was due for release in early 2011 but due to their commitments providing production and cuts for other groups the Vinyl Villains LP was put on the back burner until now! The Villains will be dropping a Mixtape in January 2012 closely followed by their Debut full Length LP. The Mixtape and LP feature’s a massive guest list of artists from all over Australia. The Villains make real hip hop music and have been making real hip hop for 15 years plus.
Artists the Villains have been involved with for either production and/or cuts include: Hilltop Hoods, Funkoars, After Hours, Pagan Elypsis, Mase N Mattic, Reason, Dialectrix, Bias B, Purpose, Prime, Iron Braydz (UK), AJ Mayhew (UK) and many more.
Full Tote Odds – Back In Action (Official Vinyl Villains Remix) Featuring in order of appearance: Judo, Eslev, Motive, Purpose, Levelheaded, Slats, Pohetikut & Debate. Cuts by Hacksaw Produced & Mixed by Debate for Train Of Thought Productions.
*Track will be featured on the upcoming Vinyl Villains Mixtape*
Full Tote Odds are the latest in a long line of successful hip hop artists produced by the Adelaide Hills. The first single from their forthcoming album Place Your Bets, Southern Wind is a heartfelt hip hop ballad layered with rich piano, splashes of live drums and twists of strings and guitar.
Echoing through the tale of a fractured, flawed relationship is an aching, bittersweet refrain sung by the sultry Taylor Jones. The progress of an inevitable decline and vicious decay of something that was once so beautiful into a blurred, bleak disfunction is captured expertly by MCs Slats, Levelheaded and Eslev. The tragic choices of two desolate, desperately unhappy people curl through a hopeful, funk bubbling beat with heartstring plucks, on course to impact where everything is destroyed. The crisp, perfectly modulated mixing and live instrumentation adds an extra maturity to an already wise, knowing track.
Having established themselves in the local hip hop scene as members of the group Train of Thought, Slats, Levelheaded and DJ Hacksaw have already tasted fame: being recognised as an Australian Next Crop artist in 2004 and appearing on Triple J’s Home and Hosed show with Robbie Buck. Their track Counterwar Terrorism also featured on the international Peace Not War Compilation.
In 2009, they added Eslev to the team – who holds down the production and arrangement of the single and the majority of the upcoming album. With the inclusion of sound engineer and audio veteran Ross Read, Full Tote Odds are set to release their first album in mid-2012.
The iTunes-only single is accompanied by a film clip directed by Richard Coburn, known for his work for the Hilltop Hoods, including their recent zombie tribute, Parade of the Dead. This is the whole package, and Full Tote Odds are ready to grab you by the wrist and tumble with you into the Southern Wind.
From the hills of Mt Hotham to the streets of Melbourne City; from a sold out show with the Funkoars to your best mates backyard; from party raps to lyrical wisdom, City Wide Krew are about to become the one hip hop group you wished you’d heard of first.
Originally a duo consisting of Fusion MC and Sammy Rocswell, City Wide Krew (aptly named, due to Fusion’s home in Melbourne and Rocswell residence in Geelong) overcame geographical distance through a mutual love of listening to and making hip hop music. Long trips down the Geelong freeway become rigueur de jour as the group embarked on the embryonic stages of their recorded career, sparking what would soon become a lifelong love of writing and performing hip hop music.
The group in its current guise was spawned during a fated trip to Amsterdam in 2007, when emcees Fusion and Rocswell joined up with Kaydel and Mutley, coming together as a collective for the very first time. After a night of hip hop, Heineken and herb, the boys formed City Wide Krew with the primary aim of bringing Australian hip hop music back to its essence – this would be hip hop music of the people, by the people, for the people…to coin a phrase. Inspired by the early music of Lyrical Commission, Bias B and Hilltop Hoods, but schooled on a heady blend of Led Zeppelin, Dire Straits, Black Sabbath and Sam Cooke, City Wide Krew create music that is grounded in traditional hip hop sensibility, but flecked with the divergence of Rock n Roll, Soul and Reggae. The result in a sound that is musically intricate, yet universally accessible. In 2009 DJ/Producer Pyrex One joined the group completing the final piece of the band’s puzzle.
Initially gaining notoriety for their energetic live shows, City Wide Krew quickly found themselves supporting some of Australian hip hop’s biggest names; sharing the stage with the likes of Phrase, Funkoars, Ash Grunwald, Illy, Terra Firma, Mantra and Low Budget. Not ones to rest on their laurels however, 2009 saw City Wide’s first foray into the studio, with their ‘ode to travelling’ On The Push receiving national airplay on Triple J’s Hip Hop show.
In 2010 City Wide Krew are set to release their debut EP The Garden State through Red Fox Records (more on Red Fox Records below). Executive produced by Matik (Pez, Bliss N Eso, The Herd, Seth Sentry) and featuring production from Simplex (Obese Records), Motley (Dynamite MC, Bliss N Eso) and Pyrex One, The Garden State traverses the musical landscape, creating a style and sound that is unprecedented for a debut release. As always, lyrically, the EP is infused with wit, probing insight and a very healthy dose of City Wide humour.
In a little under four years, City Wide Krew has gone from relative unknowns to playing sold-out shows with the Funkoars and receiving national airplay on Triple J. It has been a meteoric rise in a cut-throat hip hop market and one that doesn’t look like abating. With the boys setting the hip hop agenda in 2011, don’t let us be the ones that said, I told you so.
Red Fox Records Red Fox Records is a Melbourne based, independent record label, dedicated to unearthing and establishing Australia’s next wave of local hip hop talent. Established in 2009, Red Fox Records was created to provide an outlet for emerging and niche independent artists and to give rise to an alternate voice in local hip hop music. In accordance with the labels core aim of fostering new talent and only signing artists that adhere to the labels’ easy-going, no ‘bullshit’ values, Red Fox’s initial signings were up-and-coming local hip hop collective, Citywide Krew (Melbourne) and emerging Certified Wise MC, LevelHeaded (South Australia). With the crew putting the finishing touches on their brand new fox-hole and with two new releases slated for later this year, Red Fox Records is set to stalk your speakers soon.
This is the title track off the Levelheaded album The Spice Of Life (2009) remixed by DJ Pyrex from City Wide Krew.
Check and download the first Full Tote Odds drop Step Up below. Full Tote Odds consist of: Levelheaded(Train Of Thought) – Emcee Slats (Train Of Thought) – Emcee Eslev – Emcee Hacksaw (Train Of Thought) – DJ Debate (Train Of Thought) – Producer
The track Step Up is written by Slats, Levelheaded and Eslev, cuts by Hacksaw, produced by Debate. The track is mixed by R. Read and mastered by N. Clark at Disk Edits. Recored at the Slab.Cover design byDarren Lock Design. More free goodies to come…
Levelheaded has released his debut solo LP The Spice Of Life for a free download after facing massive distro problems. The closure of Amphead late last year, saw him lose over 1000 CD’s and countless sales. Levelheaded had this to say about the unfortunate situation:
What up crew, cheers to everyone that got into my latest venture, came out and supported the shows or partied with us over the last 6 months….
For those that don’t know…. I am a member of Adelaide group called Train Of Thought, but just dropped a solo LP last year. Here is the album for FREE….. Just click on the link on this page or head to LEVELHEADED.COM.AU for the album download with a PDF of all CD artwork and a bonus secret track.
‘The Spice of Life’ was release last July on Amphead distribution, who then folded in September 2009… Good choice for record label I know…. Anyway, after 2 months of frustrating phone calls and emails, us ‘artists’ were told that some big wigs in the company know as The Orchard out of New York decided to shut down the Australasian division of their record company (Amphead). I was sent an email the other day saying that there was basically fuck all chance of getting any money from physical and digital sales and to retrieve my cds (1000) from the warehouse, it would cost me $200 an hour for two workers to go down and look for them and there was no guarantee of finding anything….
Obese has picked up the distribution side of things which is awesome but for those who don’t buy music anymore……
Please download it and have a listen! It was a labor of love for 3 years spent driving back to Adelaide from where my job took me in the Riverland (Near Mildura) and it was a fucking big effort to make….
Cheers, and fuck the corporations….
If you dig the album after downloading it (as we did, allaussie hip hop review here), you can pick up hard copy versions at any place you get your usual Obese releases.
With the closure of Amphead Distro late last year, our man Levelheaded had been left out in the cold. Levs has now decided to sell his CD The Spice Of Life through his website here. He has also dropped the price to a mere $10, which is crazy. If you haven’t already, check out the review we did recently here. This was easily one of the top albums for 2009, and for $10 it’s an absolute steal. The Spice Of Life features appearances form Trials, Eslev, Slats, Reason, Sydetrak, and Headlock plus and appearance by Adelaide heavy metal band 8th Degree.Levs has recently posted this kick ass video on YouTube to promote the album and we think it’s a cracker.
Thanks go out to all of those who entered the MC Pressure’s Drunken Lamb comp. The response was overwhelming, and the competition is now closed. allaussie hip hop are now undertaking the huge task that it is, sorting through all of the entries and coming up with a decisive winner.
The winner will take home, Levelheaded’s new release The Spice Of Life and also Horrorshows – Inside Story, they will also receive an allaussie hip hop pack; which includes some dope aussie hip hop posters and also the rare allaussie hip hop bumper sticker. Stay tuned next week as we launch the next artist recipe and comp.
Richard Kingsmill from Triple J will countdown the Top 10 albums of the year voted by you on the final ever ‘2009’ on December 13. He will also be going through his Top 10 album list and maybe contacting you to talk about the albums you’ve loved from this year.
To vote all you have to do is submit you selection online via the website below. To make it easier for everyone out there we have narrowed the list down to as many ‘aussie hip hop’ releases only.
Please note Chasm and Vida Sunshyne’s release Move is incorrectly labeled as ‘Sunshine’ on the voting website.
2009 has been another huge year for music! And as we’ve done for many years, we want to know what your favourite albums of the year have been.
Sit down, go through all of those albums you’ve devoured from this year; think about all of the feature albums you’ve heard over the past twelve months on triple j; think about what everyone has nominated in their own lists; then really rack your brains and try to put together a list of albums that YOU rate as your Top 10 albums of the year.
We also want you to tell us what your musical highlight of the year was and why.
The (edited) List
Astronomy Class – Pursuit Of Happiness
Bias B – Aerosol Era
Cross Bred Mongrels – Certified Wise
Chasm & Vida-Sunshyne – Move
Delta – The Second Story
Downsyde – All City
Diafrix – Concrete Jungle
Fluent Form – The Furnace
Gully Platoon – The Great Divide
Hilltop Hoods – State Of The Art
Headstrong Company – Self Titled
Horrorshow – Inside Story
Illy – Long Story Short
Killaqueenz – Sistarhood
Lazy Grey – The Soundtrack
Levelheaded – The Spice Of Life
Low Budget – Laserdisc
Mata & Must – Paradox Of Minds
MC Requiem – Grassroots Anarchy
Phatchance – Inkstains
Phrase – Clockwork
Snob Scrilla – Day One
Thundamentals – Sleeping On Your Style
That’s Them – Stay Up
True Live – Found Lost
Urthboy – Spitshine
