Spy Hop Records

SHR – 001
’09 SPRING SAMPLER

The sampler you’re holding in your hands is a compilation of the artists signed to Spy Hop Records. Spy Hop Records is a teen-run record label located within Spy Hop Productions at 511 West 200 South in Salt Lake City, Utah. Our goal is to create an independent, artist-driven record label that will serve to produce, distribute, and promote unsigned bands in the Salt Lake area. The songs included on this sampler span a number of different genres, from the stylistic phrasing of hip hop maven Malevolent MC’s “Charm Quark” to the vintage rockabilly sounds of Orion Chacon-Hurst’s “Halfway To Hell” and the emotive musical stylings of Sam Burton’s “Sweater.” The Spy Hop Records 2009 Spring Sampler ushers in a new era of blossoming sounds just in time to melt away the winter frost.

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DEFINITION

On his debut album “Definition”, Ian Sanabria, also known as Malevolent MC, makes it clear that although his name is Malevolent, he doesn’t fit this definition. A skilled writer and rapper, Ian possesses a talent for wordy poetry expounding on everything from love and heartbreak to terror and dreams.
Within seconds of the first track, arranged with original beats by Goldbug (Casey Blandford), it’s obvious that these fresh, young artists have done nothing short of create a new genre of music which Ian himself has christened “dub-hop”. While “Definition” contains no samples and steps outside of the traditional kick and snare formula it still remains fluid, urban and true to the roots of hip-hop.
Armed with stanzas like “music is my weapon, microphone is my sword, the ammunition is my sentence, and my strength is my soul”, it’s clear that Malevolent MC is ready to take the music world by storm!

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GOT SENT UP

Sam Burton has a natural sound not just because he’s a young singer songwriter who plays acoustically, but if you close your eyes while listening you can actually feel his passionate vibes pour out of the speaker and fill the room. Sam is the type of troubadour that can pick up an instrument and let his soulful voice tell a story. With high notes, world-weary lyrics and melodies Sam will tap into your love of classic music; for instance throughout “Calling Me Out”, as Burton sings, “…Oh my darling please, if there’s any color left, show it to me,” you can hear the desperation in his voice as if he’s singing directly to his lost love and you happen to be eavesdropping. And, on the title track, “Got Sent Up,” every change in pitch, every frosty shaker rhythm, crisp pluck and smooth strum is heard directly as if Sam was playing for you in his living room. Like a novella, Sam’s songs follow a story with rising action, a climax, and a fall into resolution as they coast you off a shore of uneasy serenity.

Track List:
01. Calling Me Out
02. Got Sent Up
03. (Oh) Baby Please
04. Let’s Drink Some Risky
05. Stay Gone

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EAT & RUN

From track one Eat & Run will get your ears sprung.
An unidentified flying object landing in your eardrum.
From a spaceship to a “Thug in a Pit”
From the first bar they spit, you know their flow will never quit.
Track four is “Mind Pollution,” but its fable is opposite.
Running downtown through tunnels underground Viet Cong watch out for pungy sticks or showers of napalm.
“That ain’t tha ice cream man comin’ that’s sweet ending”
But when everything dies out your overall status will be pending,
Eat & Run, Roe & U.N.I.Verse.All, two unique styles blending.

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FOURIER

“Fourier” is the first step in the songwriting journey of young songwriters Chris Bullock and Christian Butler. At first listen, these teen-age rockers sound like seasoned veterans from another era.
From opening track, “Pseudo Static”, it is apparent that smoky voiced Christian Butler is obsessed with mental illness and insanity. The young songwriter composes lyrics about man-eating rats in “The Gaze” and staring longingly out of the asylum window in “Pontiac.”
Chris Bullock, with his emotive tenor, starts out personal in“The Ballad” with lyrics about a father figure then moves to a bitingly sarcastic remark about the music industry in “The Producer”.
Overall, “Fourier” is a trip down a progressive and
sometimes dark road. It’s quite an impressive first
outing for a group of teens who just met a year previous.