Free Album Highlights Chicago's Burgeoning Music Production Minds

By Katie Karpowicz in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 4, 2014 3:00PM

It's always nice when another city gives props to Chicago's music scene, especially one as larger and culturally thriving as New York city. That's just what occurred last week when NYC-based clothing and streetwear company released Wind Chill: A Chicago Instrumental Experience for free download.

Presented by the folks behind Mishka NYC, the 19-track album is an homage to great producers currently working in our city. Often overlooked in an era of Garage Band and Internet downloads, good production is indeed still the backbone of great music and Wind Chill is a terrific sampling of great Chicago minds as varied as emcee Tree, soul/rock band The O'Mys and DJ/production duo A Billion Young.

"One might agree that Chicago music is at the epicenter of influential output at the moment," Mishka blogger and Wind Chill curator Ben Niespodziany writes on the company's website. "The amount of noise coming out of the Windy City is bordering on infinite. Half a dozen strong projects seem to drop every week. It's overwhelming and beautiful. With this in mind, it's always been my opinion that producers do not receive the amount of shine that they deserve. Without the talented beatsmiths, hip-hop would be damn near nonexistent: a poetry slam, a spoken audio book. No keys, no kicks, no soul."

Though the project is aimed at highlighting hip hop production, you'll hear a great many Chicago sounds from juke to jazz on Wind Chill. It's a delightfully raw collective of music and worth a few listens at your desk.