After five years and 37 volumes of the netBloc series, I think it’s fair to say that blocSonic has turned on more than a few people to the netaudio culture. From the beginning, that was precisely why I began the series. I strive to make each volume eclectic and packed with information about each track. Combine that with the professionally designed art & PDF and what you’re left with is a compilation that serves as a great way to catch up on what’s been happening in netaudio culture.

Of course, if you’re new to netaudio, it’s also a great way to introduce you to that very culture. Is this the first netBloc release you’ve come to check out? If so, I welcome you. When you’re done enjoying “netBloc Vol. 37: FIVE”, please check out the other 36 volumes!

Thanks, also, to all of you who continue to return to blocSonic to enjoy this series! It’s certainly a pleasure to be able to turn you on to incredible, INDEPENDENT music.

Remember… everything we release is cool to share! Always keep the music moving… share it… blog it… podcast it! If you’re in radio… support independent music and broadcast it!

Cheers to the next five years!

Grab it here!

It’s hard to believe that January is almost done and it’s already that time for us to wrap up MUTE month. It seems like it went way too quickly! No worries though, we end it with a tremendous new EP produced by UNknown (Formula). At times dark and other times introspective, yet all the while “UNkilling Time” is absorbing. As with all of what you heard by MUTE this month, this is music for the discriminating listener. Don’t say I didn’t warn you if you’re unable to stop listening.

I can’t thank Tha Silent Partner and UNknown enough for the amount of work they put in to make MUTE month go off without a hitch! I sure hope that this isn’t the last we hear from MUTE here at blocSonic!

Once more, I thank YOU too! I sincerely hope you enjoyed MUTE month as much as I have. It’s always a pleasure to be able to share great music. Remember… everything we release is cool to share! Always keep the music moving… share it… blog it… podcast it! If you’re in radio… support independent music and broadcast it!

One last note: Check out the interview with blocSonic’s Founder/Curator Mike Gregoire on the latest Music Manumit podcast!

Grab it here!

What’s good y’all? I hope you’ve been enjoying the releases that we’ve been dropping on you this month. Here we go again with another one! With “Pavement Politics, Vol. 2 (Sidestreets & Alleys)”, MUTE month returns with a fury. Five years in the making, Tha Silent Partner and UNknown (Formula) return with the proper follow up to their 2007 release “Pavement Politics, Vol. 1”, which you got to enjoy last week in all its remastered glory! Take another journey with MUTE… let the beats and rhythms move you. Word.

Thank you once again for your downloading & listening! Remember… everything we release is cool to share! Always keep the music moving… share it… blog it… podcast it! If you’re in radio… support independent music and broadcast it!

Grab it here!

If you’ve been following what we do for long enough, you might have first heard MUTE’s “Is It Too Late For US All” when it made an appearance on “netBloc Vol. 15: this album won’t eat your gas money” back in mid-2008. A little over a year later, we brought you the great release by one half of MUTE… UNknown aka Formula’s “The Overcast Project” and then a little under another year, the other half of MUTE… Tha Silent Partner made his blocSonic release debut with “Tha Complete Platters Sessions XE” and it’s two singles “P Pulsar” and “Starksy”. As you see, MUTE has long been part of the blocSonic story and with MUTE month the connection grows. After what has been a long gestation period, I’m very happy to present to you this remastered re-release of what I consider to be a netaudio classic! I hope you enjoy it and the bonus disc of previously unreleased goodies from the “Pavement Politics, Vol. 1” sessions.

Thanks once again for your interest in the art we present to you. Remember… everything we release is cool to share! Always keep the music moving… share it… blog it… podcast it! If you’re in radio… support independent music and broadcast it!

Grab it here!

Did you know that on January 16th, blocSonic will be 5 years old? Can you believe that it’s already been five years since we first released our premiere netBloc volume? To commemorate this, we’ve made January 2012, MUTE month and we’re packing the month with free releases!

So who is MUTE, you ask? MUTE is a project by Tha Silent Partner and Unknown (aka Formula). A project begun back in 2007 when they released their incredible collection “Pavement Politics, Vol. 1”. There’s never been a follow up release, but now they’re back in a big way! First with this one, “10 A.M.”, then an Xtended Edition re-release of Pavement Politics with a 2nd disc of bonus material on January 17th, next will be the proper follow-up to “Pavement Politics” on January 24th and finally on January 31st will be “UNkilling Time”!

If that’s not enough for you, in the midst of all the MUTE, on the 27th, we’ve got the 37th volume of our netBloc series!

Thanks again for listening! We hope you enjoy the tasty audio bits we’ve got for you. Remember… everything we release is cool to share! Always keep the music moving… share it… blog it… podcast it!

Grab it here!

Can you believe that we’re approaching our fifth year of bringing you only the best music from netlabel and netaudio culture?!? It’s been an amazing five years and I thank you for continuing to listen. Over the years, blocSonic has become more than a tastemaker. We’ve grown and expanded into releasing our own quality releases. However we grow and develop in the future, our commitment to continued support of netaudio via our netBloc series is stronger than ever. With this, our 36th volume in the series, we’re committing to one annual year-end netBloc that shines the spotlight on ONE netlabel. This year we’re bringing you a collection of fire from the extensive Dusted Wax Kingdom archives! Over the years of bringing you these netBlocs, there are a few netlabels who have become staples of the compilation series. More recently, DWK has become one of these favorites. Though, their catalog is extensive enough that many gems just haven’t received the shine they deserve. So here you have a collection of 15 tracks that present to you a good representation of the Dusted Wax Kingdom sound. Thanks to label head Dimitar for making the experience of compiling this collection a great one! Thanks to all artists of the DWK roster for doing what you do and sharing your art with the world. You all & everyone in the netaudio culture make music intriguing again.

Thanks again to our listeners! Remember… everything we release is cool to share! Always keep the music moving… share it… blog it… podcast it! If you’re in radio… support independent music and broadcast it! HAPPY NEW YEAR! Be safe.

Grab it here!

As the internet has increasingly become part of all our lives, an intellectual shift has been occurring. As this shift progresses, more of us are seeing the need for less limitations in many areas. In the early years of this shift, an “open-source” software movement took hold and hasn’t abated. Further along, this idea of “open” content expanded to all types of media — visual, sonic, textual… you name it… Creative Commons licensing filled the need and continues to grow in popularity and use.

When you think about it, it really isn’t a stretch to think that this idea of “open” would move into the real world… into our everyday lives on profound levels. Wikileaks is an example of how “open” can deeply affect the world. It seems that the more we move toward open information/content, the more violent the opposition is. The Occupy movement is seeing this play out right now with a coordinated effort by militarized police forces in major cities throughout the country.

So how does the Occupy movement relate to the “open” movement? Well, is this idea of “open” really new? No… it’s a new form of an old idea. It’s what American democracy was supposedly based on… an open government… a government for the people… by the people. The idea of Public Domain is not a new one. This idea of “open” has got the world thinking about their governments and how open they really are. Inequality is at the heart of why the Occupy movement is occurring… it’s also at the heart of institutions, corporations and government which function closed or in secret as their modus operandi. The same inequality that spawned the Occupy movement is what spawned the need for “open” content. When music is released with a copyleft license that allows for sharing and sometimes even derivatives, that is a political action, whether the artist or label thinks it is or not. When artists and labels release Creative Commons/copyleft music, they are “Occupying Music”. They are choosing to side with independence and fostering true creativity. What some people get hung up on with the open movement is the idea that it’s FREE vs. COMMERCIAL… those aren’t the sides… the sides are BIG BUSINESS CONTROL vs. INDIVIDUAL CONTROL. At least that’s how I see things.

Thanks once again for downloading and listening! We’ve got a selection of 13 tracks from the world of netaudio. Two of them are previews of 2012 blocSonic releases. I hope you enjoy this carefully crafted selection! Remember… everything we release is cool to share! Always keep the music moving… share it… blog it… podcast it! If you’re in radio… support independent music and broadcast it!

Grab it here!

Yeah y’all… here’s more of that NYC BOOM BAP for you to bump! “Case Closed” features two cuts from the album “Renaissance 2011”, a couple single only tracks. Also, quite a few remixers turned out for this… FunkMasterMash (a fresh producer who you can find doing his thing on SoundCloud)… C-Doc (the award-winning Public Enemy producer delivered a bangin’ remix with a bit of a Pete Rock vibe)… Zengineers (old friends of blocSonic who’ve been on featured on our netBloc series as well as frequently remix for us, this time around they delivered TWO)… V-Man (also known as Virtu-oso, another old friend of blocSonic who’s also been featured on our netBloc series and delivered two fresh remixes)… and finally DrTechnical aka Lyndon Scarfe (you might remember him from the great remixes he created for Liam Stewart’s “Bird of Prey” maxbloc).

Thanks to all involved… Luck, the producers and the remixers for making another great blocSonic release happen! Let’s all continue to do great things in 2012!

Thanks as always goes out to you, the listener… your support of what we do makes us strive to make blocSonic better all the time. Remember… everything we release is cool to share! Always keep the music moving… share it… blog it… podcast it! If you’re in radio… support independent music and broadcast it!

Grab it here!

From day one, blocSonic has been about shining the light on the best of what the world of netaudio has to offer… BADLUCK’s Renaissance 2011 is no different. It’s some of that real & raw NYC, boom-bap hip-hop!

BADLUCK made his blocSonic debut back in 2009 as one half of Luck & Ripps. Back then, with their great release The Catastrophic Connection (Produced by Uh-Oh Productions, then known as Catastrophe), you were introduced to their fusion of the classic boom-bap sound with a modern edge. Consider Renaissance 2011 a continuation of that aesthetic with a bit of a rawer vibe.

This is straight up NEW YORK hip-hop for true heads. Don’t sleep.

Thanks again for downloading and listening! Remember… everything we release is cool to share! Always keep the music moving… share it… blog it… podcast it! If you’re in radio… support independent music and broadcast it!

Grab it here!

Before Garmisch released their debut album via blocSonic.com in 2010, they released two great EPs via the now defunct netlabel “Go! Jukebox”, “Black Paint EP” and “The Münich EP”. What you’ll find in this great Xtended Edition release are those two EPs, for the first time available in a lossless audio format! You’ll also find a few extra goodies… a cover of the Pet Shop Boys’ “Rent” (which was previously only released via the official Garmisch website), a couple remixes of tracks from that EP era and their complete debut album remixed! Remixes by award winning Public Enemy producer C-Doc, Tha Silent Partner, CM aka Creative, Tobybear and Subroute Roots! Whether you’re a new fan or a completist… this collection of great Garmisch tracks is a must have! If you haven’t checked out their other blocSonic releases… be sure to do so at Garmisch’s artist page.

Thanks to the remixers who helped make this unique release happen! Thanks again for downloading and listening! Remember… everything we release is cool to share! Always keep the music moving… share it… blog it… podcast it! If you’re in radio… support independent music and broadcast it!

Grab it here!