The Bookery - Notebook Noise (dhoby-ghaut 1973 redo)

Notebook Noise cashed in on the iconic artwork of 2012’s release Strange Tongue that featured front man Thaddeus James riding the neck of a giraffe. He used the momentum from music blog posts and released Strange Tongue's acapellas and instrumentals as: The Giraffter Party Acapellas & Instrumentals. The online response from producers remixing the acapellas was far greater than Thaddeus could’ve ever anticipated. Remixes have been coming in from all over the planet on a regular basis. A solid representation of this response can be seen on the final installment of the Strange Tongue trilogy: Giraffter Hours. Graphic artist Joe Sampson did an amazing job on all three album covers. And of course the trilogy is free and features production from John Gray aka Johnny Cosmic 

Thaddeus James has also released #PhenomenalCake. It’s not quite an album, but bigger than an EP and in the style of a mixtape. Instrumentals for the project were selected from Soundcloud and Bandcamp. #PhenomenalCake features a two track intro by Burt The Turtle. He raps into a tin can and loves a turtle named Ruby. The remaining 7 tracks play out like a soundtrack to a party at the turtle's lake house. When Thaddeus wasn’t writing as a turtle or rapping as himself about cake, he was also rapping about breast milk and being too old to yolo. Long time collaborator Asa Phelps continues to send instrumentals and Thaddeus is writing as quickly as Asa is sending them. The collection of tracks between the two will be released under the title Shits Creek. Expect to hear the introspective, soul-searching rhymes you’ve grown to love from Notebook Noise. Thaddeus has also teamed up with Polish based record label Awesome Music Place to put out an EP and has worked as a writer for the label as well penning a song for Kaja Czulewicz.  There is also a new project in the works between Thaddeus James and Vin Rizzo aka Rizzly Bear on production. 

The group has come a long way from Snares, Hooks and RhymeBooks, the debut that landed them on URB’s Next 1000 list back in 2008. The guys followed that up with 2009’s Debonair Wit, which earned them ‘leak of the week’ accolades from ThePier.org for the song “The Art of Throwing ft. Knowledgeborn07”. In February 2010 Notebook Noise started officially playing live and by October they had landed on WGN for a morning spot promoting the event Fashion Mash that took place at Double Door and Flat Iron Art Institute. With the release of 2012’s Strange Tongue; Notebook Noise was featured on several music blogs and even some food blogs for the daddy/daughter duet Cookies ft. LULUTRON.  Releasing the acapellas has even gotten Thaddeus’ vocals mashed up with Polish emcees and an emcee from Japan and many others. You can even catch some kids from the UK skateboarding on youtube to NN instrumentals. Here’s to the future. 

All music can be downloaded for free at www.notebooknoise.com  

Sampling records from all over the planet  


The Bookery - Notebook Noise (dhoby-ghaut 1973 redo)

neil-bearden