FM4 SOUNDPARK ACT OF THE MONTH: MILE & FLIP

Mile & Flip (c) Zoe Goldstein
Mile & Flip (c) Zoe Goldstein

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FM4 Soundpark is a web-platform, community, and radio show for Austrian musicians. Every month, one act is selected to be highlighted both online and on air. Austrian duo Mile & Flip are releasing “No Hard Feelings”, one of the most beautiful rap albums of the year. They are the FM4 Soundpark Act of the month for October.


“Two turntables and a mic” this is a concept that has proven successful in hip-hop since its beginning. This classic combination of MC and DJ entertaining live audiences together has eventually transferred from stages to studios, with the DJ becoming the producer and turntables being traded in for samplers and sequencers.

Legendary duos have emerged this way: Eric B & Rakim, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Reflection Eternal aka Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek, Gang Starr aka DJ Premier & Guru, and many more. Until the end of the 1990s, these duos shaped the genre, but hip hop is a fast-moving business and with the demise of vinyl, DJs increasingly disappeared from the stages.

Nevertheless, the MC and the DJ are still a firmly established part of hip hop culture and proof of the simple means with which music can be transported and an entire genre can embark on a global victory march. Without “Two turntables and a mic”, there would be no Hip Hop as we know it today.

Mile & Flip

The two Austrian musicians Mile & Flip are such a classic duo.

Neither is unknown. Flip, a veteran among Austria’s producers, is appreciated by boom-bap purists and street rap fans alike and is best known for his work as a producer and rapper for Texta. Since the early 1990s, he has been one of the most formative protagonists of the domestic music landscape, releasing almost monthly for years, was and is one of the linchpins of Linz’s Kapu venue, runs his own music studio and founded Tonträger, one of the most important music labels in all things dialect rap. Without Flip, hip hop would be different in Austria. Period.

Video: Mile & Flip feat. Fashawn – Somebody Else

Mile has recently been in the spotlight with his indie/rap band project SHARKTANK. Together with Katrin Paucz and Marco Kleebauer, he has been proving since summer 2020 how easy and fast things can often go when everyone involved is pulling in the same direction and has a common musical vision. Just one year after the formation of the band, they released their joint debut album “Get It Done”, which shows already in the title how quickly and productively they worked together. Mile enjoys the reputation of a fast writer already in his Sharktank times, but also a fast worker in the studio. The spontaneity, the not wanting to be held up for long, become Mile’s trademark.

And it was exactly in this immediate way that Mile & Flip’s first songs together came into being at the end of 2021. Three songs were recorded on the very first day in Linz. Six months, and a handful of sessions later, an album was ready. No Hard Feelings.

Mile & Flip No Hard Feelings (Ink Music)
v(c) Mile & Flip No Hard Feelings (Ink Music)

The two musicians met in 2015 at a performance of Texta in Mile’s hometown Weiz in Styria. During the obligatory freestyle session after the Texta concert, Mile also came on stage and rapped, as we already know it, in English. “A dying sport”, as Flip calls it, because music rapping in English is rarely found and heard in this country.

But it’s not just the language that sets Mile apart from many local rappers. It is this absolute smoothness with which he lays over the beats and – spurred on and motivated by producer Flip – not only raps, but also sings in one or two hooks. And because Mile can use his voice so diversely, there are only a few feature parts on the album. Thus, on “Somebody Else” the Californian rapper Fashawn and on the new single “Pressure” the Upper Austrian singer Siska can be heard. The rest of the album Mile masterfully delivers all by himself.

No Hard Feelings

“No Hard Feelings” has become an extremely homogeneous album. Mile matches the smoothly produced, soulful beats of Flip almost perfectly. This is where you notice the full experience of the producer from Linz, who not only knows exactly which instrumentals fit a rapper like Mile, but also how to get the maximum out of an artist when recording without overproducing. Smooth and confident is how the album turned out. Sympathetic and honest, both musically and in terms of content. Mile raps about mistakes made, apologizes, doesn’t apologize (Cruel Hearted), dedicates a whole (really wonderful) song to his son (Eyerings), holds a gun to his own head when he thinks about the world (Pistol On My Head) and knows that rain and sunshine belong together (Rain Or Sunshine).

Video: Mile & Flip – Pressure feat. SISKA

Rarely do you get to hear such a beautiful rap album. And yes, I said “beautiful”, because that’s exactly what it is and what distinguishes “No Hard Feelings” from so many other albums. And what Flip said: It is the “most soulful Hip Hop album” ever released in Austria. And Flip should know.

Clemens Fantur

Translated from the German original by Itta Francesca Ivellio-Vellin.