A Jacksonville Beatmaker Traverses the Globe

by jon bosworth
With a name like Batsauce, you know to expect something different, but his latest project isn’t otherworldly. It’s ultra-worldly.
If you are a local music buff, you may have heard of Heavenly Noise. The duo was a musical husband and wife collaboration between a guy that calls himself Batsauce (his real name is Britt) and his wife Daisey. Batsauce focuses largely on creating the beats and enhancing them with samples and programming while Daisey sings through her radiant smile.
Speaking of her smile, if you follow the local hip-hop scene in Jacksonville, you have almost certainly heard of The Smile Rays. Smile Rays are Daisey and Batsauce when accompanied by Therapy (of the ABs). Therapy and Batsauce make the beats, and Daisey and Therapy handle the microphone. The result is a transcendent sort of hip-hop that hardcore hip-hop fans can appreciate right alongside people who don’t have a penchant for the genre (check them out at smilerays.com).
You haven’t seen either of these groups playing around town in the last year because Batsauce and Daisey are currently living in Berlin, Germany. Although catching a show might not be as easy as being at Starlite on the right night anymore, you can still keep up with this talented duo through their respective websites (daisey.com and batsauce.com).
Batsauce recently completed a full-length album that shows just how much his musical awareness has evolved with his global travels. While making his way to Germany, Batsauce traveled through Asia, Africa and South America. Along the way he made particular notice of the rhythms and melodies that bubble through these very different geographic areas. In his most recent instrumental project, The Gypsy Diaries, Batsauce has captured this international variety and translated it into an incredible album that allows anyone with a love for contemporary hip-hop or world music a window into the world that Batsauce has seen through his own ears.
The best part? The whole album is available for free online at spooney.net/gypsy_diaries. There are lots of free albums online, but few will get as much play in your car or home as Gypsy Diaries. It is a truly remarkable creation and works in almost any environment, from the car to the gym.
The album consists of 21 tracks. Eight are inspired by Latin America, seven by Asia and six by Africa. Each track is a short but savory morsel of culture dropped together into a musical stew that is as engaging and moving as any indie hip-hop. Take this journey with Batsauce and follow the album like a story without words, or just throw it on as background at a party, it is sure to get guests asking. Even if one track strikes you as invasive or too strange, it’ll be over before you know it. These tracks are all short and sweet. They get straight to their point and don’t labor it too long.
The engaging ‘Language Lessons’ is inspired by African beats. It features some African vocal samples with a big drum sound. But it doesn’t feel as centuries old as those elements are, because it is nuanced by the new discotheque culture in the modern-day Africa. And the whole track is only fifty-one seconds. The following track, ‘Harvest’, is also from Africa, but is completely different, featuring a woodsy acoustic guitar track. But Batsauce drops in a beat that makes the tune work in any environment. You can almost picture him discovering a sound or a rhythm, and then embracing it as he walks through it. He brings you right along.
Hear the parades and the thump thump beat of Brazil in ‘Go,’ or follow this album into the busy streets of Asia in ‘Trainwreck.’ Throughout the album you get the sense that you’re tuning a radio through some of the oldest cultures in known history. But you aren’t discovering old continents, this album brings you to the modern places. These places haven’t lost their identity to contemporary culture, the contemporary incarnations of these cultures have simply lifted their traditions to a new place. A place Batsauce captures in Gypsy Diaries in a way that brings you along on the exotic travels we aren’t all able to enjoy. Download it for free and get ready to embark on your own journey to faraway places.