Limited Edition Deluxe CD Packs / Digital • 3/12
Now available in the SM shop, expected ship date mid-March.
JAY3M: SLAP! is the new album from Oakland, CA producer, DJ & MC Joe Hardy, best known under the pseudonym Joe Mousepad.
We first crossed paths with Joe Mousepad, around 2008-9-10 or so. Those years can be a bit blurry, a lot was happening. Joe, and the guys from The Understudies Crew and Ear Peace Records, would pop up on the same lineups from time to time and we all always dug what each other were doing. He was one of the first people we saw using real time vocal effects on stage. Always handy with, and early to the party on a variety of tech odds and ends, Mousepad was among the first people we knew using the Teenage Engineering OP-1 as well as the PO-128 & 133 – not to mention his quiet proficiency on the classic SP-404 and a variety of Akai’s MPC drum machine/samplers.
A memorable bill we all shared at the time was Endless Canvas‘ SPECIAL DELIVERY 2012, a mega 3-floor art show, assembled in an abandoned ink factory near Oakland, CA, with music by Joe, Durazzo, Gee., CTZN, notpo3, Sean E Depp, JB Nimble, Cyberclops, Manifest707, Edgewize and others. (Short film about that here)
Years later, around 2017-18 we reconnected through mutual friend Jeep Ward, better known as DJ HALO (long time Fake Four Inc label manager, who’d collaborated with CTZN a couple years earlier on tracks for thegoodnews.). The meet would lead to a year+ residency between Joe, DJ HALO, CTZN & Edgewize, at the now-shuttered Oakland venue ‘The Rock Steady’. You could say those months together DJing, spinning demos, beats and unreleased gems from everyones private collections, would plant the seeds for Mousepad’s first record with Study Music Group .
SLAP! is the first in his JAY3M series, which serves as a vessel for instrumental explorations of varying shapes and sizes. His first proper release since 2017’s Play/Rec, comes in at a comfortably filling serving of eight tracks. Each with their own individual flavor, taking equal inspiration from both sample and synth, from boom bap, to chillout, synth wave, to trap and back again. The standout recurring element here, on a track to track basis, the thing that ties it all together and carries the vibe along nicely is SLAP!’s precision tuned drum work. Not your average loops or break beats. The programing and arrangement of Hardy’s drums on ‘JAY3M’ are top-notch, and serve as a perfectly constructed backbone for a collection that should play comfortably alongside any of your favorites from the stoney LA beat scene.
For the art direction on SLAP!, Mousepad tapped artist & designer Diego Guzman, aka @Diego_TheMaker. Guzman also shines here, with his mixed-media designs pulling inspiration and elements from a combination of vintage cartoons, iconography and spray cans – bridging the aesthetics of street art, graffiti & collaging with the ethos of fine art and print making, producing pieces that could just as easily live on the wall of your favorite gallery.
A limited pressing of deluxe SLAP! CDs are available for the highest fidelity listening experience. We know streaming platforms’ audio quality isn’t always coming in as lossless as some would prefer, so these ought to do the trick for any audiophiles out there.
Presented in a mini-LP style sleeve, with full color design and disc face, stuffed with liner notes, two bonus mini-prints from designer Diego Guzman, and a sticker pack including JAY3M, Joe Mousepad and Study Music Group designs.
SLAP! is now available to order direct from SM here.
Streaming & Digital out everywhere 3/12
Listen to the premier of ‘Cloud City’ over on Study Music Podcasts
Follow: IG @jmousepad • Twitter @joemousepad
Study Music Group 