Big Pauper


Update. "AT THE MOVIES VOL. 1" IS FREE AT SIX TON ARMOR!
Update "BEYOND MY MEANS" IS NOW ON CASSETTE, VINYL & DIGITAL!
Big Pauper (formerly known as Panzah Zandahz) is an acclaimed (ex) mash-up artist, electronic/psychedelic hip hop producer, circuit bent visual artist and founder of the abstract hip-hop label Token Recluse Recordings.
Big Pauper was born in the Mountains of northern New Hampshire where he was raised by wolves and educated by fascists with a sick sad nationalist agenda. Any attempt to express himself creatively was thwarted by the conservative and backwards thinking of the art-hating tyrants who forced long division down his throat. It was at this time that Pauper went in to hiding under a staircase with a Casio keyboard and a little ghettoblaster recording his first albums under the name Squidmaster: The First Master of Rap & Vitamin X (Age 8-10). Pauper credits his Gemini Belt Drive turntables and Lineartech mixer (a christmas gift at age 12 from loving wolf parents) as being the liberation army that freed him from the psychic wasteland of northern new hampshire. After relocating to Upstate New York in 2000 Pauper established himself as "Panzah Zandahz," a hungry force within the Albany hip hop scene. It is here that Pauper went on to obtain the title of "Best DJ Upstate NY 2004" (Metroland weekly), found the instrumental hip hop label Token Recluse (inspired by his PCM 518 counter-parts) and find himself selected to attend the Red Bull Music Academy in Rome, Italy alongside Cut Chemist, Bernard Purdie & Senior Coconut (2004).
Under Token Recluse "Panzah Zandahz" released an assortment of DJ break records, singles and unauthorized remix albums including the over hyped and now-very-dated internet smash hit "Me & THIS Army: Radiohead Remixed & Mashed Up by PZ" (2005) which was downloaded an estimated 3 million times (thanks to the good folks at Boing Boing and AtEase Web). After an unauthorized remix tribute to his long-time hero, Beck Hanson, "Panzah Zandahz" moved away from the mash-up scene and in to a collaborative project with NY based spoken word artist Brad Hamers as the production half of "Two Ton Sloth" (2007).
2 Two Ton Sloth albums and a small series of European tours later we find Big Pauper living in Portland, OR, having finished his debut solo release for CIS, "Beyond My Means." Six years in the making (Chinese Democracy style), this LP combines Pauper's love of B-movies, dusty ambient noise scapes & recent work with the Folktek electronic instrument collective in to a 45 minute magnum opus of soot, samples & synths. Check it out in the store and be sure to check out the FREE EP, "Cops Eat Flowers," available now from this very web site.
Consequence of Sound
"..remix king."
SYFFAL | 9/10 Cops Eat Flowers
"..tell me it isn't exactly what instrumental hip hop should sound like?"
Gimme Tinnitus
"..producing some of our favorite instrumental hip hop of recent memory."
RCRD LBL | Beyond My Means
"A little jazzy, a little psychedelic, with electronic and synth elements and obscure film clips dotted throughout, it's much more Tribe meets The Books than amphetamine-addled top 40 mash up."
Mixtape Muse | Beyond My Means
"It all ends with a man saying, “This nightmare is over,” and, by the end, you certainly feel like this was less an album and more an inspiring experience – or an honest journey through this world."
Buzzine Music | Beyond My Means
"There’s a pioneering spirit and a sense of exploration that others will most likely emulate, knowing that the territory isn’t entirely uncharted because Big Pauper got there first."
Mixtape Muse
"Big Pauper is like the avant-garde version of Girl Talk, turning an eclectic mix of media into a unified, harmonious whole."
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