1000 Names

Hip-hop is not dead! Well, at least according to duo 1000 Names. The two producers, Casio Blaster and 99 Mistakes from Sofia, Bulgaria, are crusading against the tired, plodding
beast that is today’s commercial hip-hop.

“It’s not dead but it’s not what it used to be. The vibe is different now. It’s much more alive in terms of its elements; it’s much more expressive,” says Casio Blaster. “We’re taking all this bling bling stuff and doing it in a funny way. We’re making childish bling.” A sentiment reflected in their latest record, ‘Toys Room Combat’.

It’s a collection of jaunty, glitchy and playful beats. A happy mix of experimental production and more traditional beat making. “It’s something between dance and head music,” says 99 Mistakes.“We like keeping it strange all the time,” adds Casio Blaster. “We don’t produce a certain style and try to perfect it, we think about it more as art. We’re trying to combine different influences to develop it and not make the same old beats.”

Along with the likes of French beat wizard Fulgeance, 1000 Names are part of an emerging, progressive scene in European hip-hop heavily influenced by detroit legend J Dilla. They’re also a great example of artists emerging from flourishing musical communities linked by technology. “None of this would be happening without the Internet. It would be very hard for us to do this without it. The whole interaction drives everything,” says Casio.

Interesting considering the not so distant political situation in Bulgaria. “For many years Bulgaria was a closed country, there were no shops selling western music here,” says 99 Mistakes. “We were just getting bootleg cassettes. I remember my first tape, it was Beastie Boys on one side and Run DMC on the other.”

Despite these restrictions and the lack of a defined hip-hop scene in Bulgaria, 1000 Names manage to make a unique and creative contribution to the genre. Using one of its staple tools - the MPC sampler - they explore and redefine the obscure and forgotten. “We discovered the MPC by ourselves; there was no one in Sofia really making beats like that,” says Casio. “We sample everything we find interesting. We are really inspired by experimental composers who made commercials in the ’60s and ’70s, people like Raymond Scott. These pieces are full of exciting sounds, full of life. We’re really in love with glitch sounds and toy sounds. We’ve been friends for a long time, we’ve always been interested in more outsider music and we’ve always discovered it together.”

Written By: David Cano