UNC's Beat Making Lab release new track + featured on State of Things

2012 was an incredibly exciting year in the triangle, but one of the things that I was the most enthralled with was without a doubt the Beat Making Lab run by Pierce Freelon of The Beast and Stephen Levitin, better known as Apple Juice Kid.  The Beat Making Lab is based out of a Chapel Hill classroom but swiftly expanded its reach worldwide, traveling most recently to the Democratic Republic of Congo and currently working on a trip to Panama.  While the first semester of this class resulted in a stellar mixtape called "Tarheel Tracks", a mix that consisted of students sampling local acts like The Love Language, I Was Totally Destroying It, and even Anthony Hamilton, the resulting tunes from the DRC project have already begun to seep out and prove to be even more enthralling than their last output.

Stephen and Pierce were on WUNC's The State of Things on Thursday and previewed a few tracks from the DRC's lab, one of which they released as a free download, "Cho Cho Cho".  Stephen and Pierce also spoke on the possibility of a Triangle community lab as well as a future open source software for beat making.

All eyes should be on this Beat Making Lab, they're doing fantastic things for the music community not only within our great state but across the globe.  They're bringing 21st century music production to folks that would otherwise have little to no access to these resources, it's a task that isn't easily tackled but these two are working wonders.  "Cho Cho Cho" forays into EDM territory while incorporating hip-hop sentiments infused with world music stylings of syncopated rhythms and anthemic melodies.  Check out "Cho Cho Cho" below and listen to their full State of Things interview here