STAYING FRESH Deuce and Fal. |
Juan Deuce and Falside continue to put in some serious work. Their hip-hop partnership is in full bloom, with Juan's effervescent and charismatic flow cruising alongside Fal's spiked rhythms. Their 2012 collaborative debut EP The Mechanics caught the ear of Sage Francis, founder of Strange Famous Records, which wisely scooped up distribution rights. Both artists have been kicking around long before The Mechanics, though, and keep cranking out choice solo platters and mixtapes.
I recently bumped into Kevin Fallon, aka Falside the Beatsmith, deep in the bowels of West Warwick, who served a friendly reminder regarding both his newest beat platter East Toast, as well as Juan's No Sweat mixtape. Both discs are available for $14.99 exclusively through SFR (strangefamousrecords.com), along with a handful of promo goodies (including the fresh and official No Sweat headband!).
Falside's East Toast follows a string of "seasonal beattapes" the young-gun producer/mixologist has dropped over the past couple of years. The album "serves as another high-definition display of the young producer's ever-growing versatility," reads the press release, from "the deep shit to the feel-good shit," Falside whips up a fury behind the boards on the stoned bangers "White Noise," "Billy Idol," and "No Shit." He has a knack for pressure-cooking cavernous beats and seemingly random samples (DJ Shadow meets Prince Paul?) into a flavorful stew for the stoned.
Rich Abbruzzese, aka Juan Deuce, exudes a confident, larger-than-life persona (and shit-eating grin) across No Sweat. His entire catalog is worth perusing, dating back to his 2007 debut, Troubled Man (also look up 2010's Juance Upon a Time ASAP). Falside produced the opening cut, "The Draft," as well as "People" with special guest Romen Rok, which landed a Song of the Year nom in our 2012 B Music poll. Jaysonic jumps in the booth on "Menahan," and Jon Hope joins the fray on the standout "Show Me Love." Additional production includes Fonzi Wells and Fakts One on the boards. Juan Deuce can do no wrong — this guy is the real fucking deal.
Instead of the standard Q&A, the duo enlisted Mr. Francis as special guest interviewer/moderator. Oh shit. So here it is, completely unedited and highly entertaining, as expected. Extended thanks to Sage, Fal, and Juan. Check it out and hit up strangefamousrecords.com for all things Juan Deuce and Falside.
SAGE: I hate asking basic background questions, but I've known you guys for a couple years now and I still have no idea how or when you guys originally met. I don't think you guys come from the same town, so how did this union originally happen?
FALSIDE: We went to the same high school. I was the resident beat-boxer for gym ciphers and we were often in detention together, causing a ruckus. We started working on tunes after he graduated, my senior year.
JUAN: I linked with Fal through mutual parties after high school. We immediately remembered each other from school. We made around eight songs (some were put out, the others never made it off the hard drive). Fal left for Boston right after he graduated high school. We rarely spoke until we reunited around July/August 2010. The first track we collaborated on was "Mechanics," and we haven't stopped working since.
