Producer Preservation's 'Eastern Medicine, Western Illness' Is A Love Letter to Hong Kong's Vinyl Shops

Producer and DJ Preservation has released his new full-length LP Eastern Medicine, Western Illness composed entirely from obscure vinyl samples that he found during his three years of searching through record stores in Hong Kong. The producer has had a wide-spanning two decades in the music world, crafting experimental and lucid instrumentals for Yassin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def), RZA, GZA, MF DOOM and so many others. On his latest record, Preservation once again showcases his outstanding curation abilities, tapping some of the game’s most talented veteran and up-and-coming lyricists. He even showcased some of Hong Kong’s local hip-hop talent, introducing Young Queenz to an entirely new audience.

Preservation’s self-imposed challenge of only creating beats from Chinese-issued records resulted in something singularly his own. On “North Bridge”, Navy Blue (known for his other creative and athletic endeavors as Sage Elsesser) brings his ever-growing introspection and wisdom to backing instrumentation fitting for a Quentin Tarantino soundtrack.

“Rose Royce” enlists Quelle Chris, fresh off his fantastic Innocent Country 2 project. The hypnotic loop lets him wax poetic and showcase his lyrical dexterity. It’s the way that Preservation melds his production to perfectly fit his collaborators for concise and cohesive tracks that makes this album so special. He rounded out the series of singles with the Adult Swim collaborative “I-78” with mysterious New Jersey rapper Mach-Hommy with obscure Eastern-centric vocal loops and premium verses delivered through radio static.

Check out Preservation’s brief documentary of traveling through Hong Kong above and stream his new project below. In more music updates, check out HYPEBEAST’s latest Best New Tracks installment featuring this album, Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist’s Alfredo and a new record from rising Brooklyn talent Medhane.