#E L U C I D

[newplaces2drown]

Armand Hammer - Shrines

Signed by billy woods and E L U C I D

[3-tearz]

[aholefilledwithtwigs]

So the new single from E L U C I D is amazing

but some level of whiplash that it’s on Fat Possum which sent me down a rabbithole bc my last encounter with FP is when they were part of Epitaph in the late 90s around the same time they also randomly put out Mule Variations by Tom Waits

[mirrorbreaks]

been listening to a lot of billy woods recently

[late-night-programming]

Armand Hammer - We Buy Diabetic Test Strips

[thegothicarchitecture]

Track Reviews (Aug 22 -> 29)

Best

Armand Hammer, billy woods, E L U C I D, JPEGMAFIA - Woke Up and Asked Siri How I'm Gonna Die

As somebody who enjoys JPEGMAFIA's production immensely this song is an absolute treat. JPEGMAFIA handles production while E L U C I D and billy woods take the center stage with lyrics and delivery.

The highlight here is billy woods' verse, which has some clever wordplay involving steak and raw meat and some equally inventive rhyme-schemes (e.g. "brain fog" and "chainsaw"). However, billy's verse is as descriptive and immersive as it is technically advanced (reminiscent of his work on Maps earlier this year), and this alone sets him apart from other rappers who only focus on technical ability. Good shit.

Meh

Earl Sweatshirt, MIKE - Sentry

Earl Sweatshirt comes back with a pretty standard song aping the minimalist charm of Some Rap Songs and Feet of Clay. The Alchemist beat contains a stripped down, repetitive loop not dissimilar to that on Shattered Dreams, but Earl's pen game leaves a lot of room for improvement.

I say this as a fervent Earl Sweatshirt defender, who loved every album and EP up through Feet of Clay, but his underwhelming return with SICK! left a bad taste in my mouth. Maybe I began noticing the cracks in his facade, as his esoteric style of rapping and the symbolism in his lyrics started to feel more lazy than despondent and reflective.

MIKE's verse felt more substantive upon the first few listens, but between the two rappers there are very few quotables or memorable moments on this cut. The full project has been released as an NFT, which also isn't the best look in 2023. Still I'll save my judgement until I hear the project in its entirety.

Jake the Underdog, Glitch Gum - FRIEND REQUEST

Glitch Gum's style of hyperpop infused pop punk is beginning to sound less novel and cutting edge and more like a rehash of 2000s pop punk. This song would fit snugly on an early Wonder Years record, as the synth lead and power chord guitar riffs are as saccharine as anything you'd hear off of Get Stoked on It!

If Glitch Gum wants to work within the confines of the genre that's not a bad idea on paper, I absolutely adore the Get Up Kids and Motion City Soundtrack and they have somewhat similar styles. The distinction for me is that Justin Pierre and Matt Pryor are much better lyricists. The nasal vocal affectation used and the cheeky lyrics consisting solely of video game references do absolutely nothing for me on this song. Maybe it'll do more for you.

Worst

N/A

[sinceileftyoublog]

billy woods & Kenny Segal Album Review: Maps

(Backwoodz Studioz)

BY JORDAN MAINZER

The prolific billy woods’ second album with beat mastermind Kenny Segal is centered around touring, inspired by the idea that the road--or the lack of home--is, in itself, home. On Maps, places where people reside are as constantly changing as the landscapes that pass as you’re on the highway. It’s the perfect fodder for woods’ neuroses and pessimism, the low thoughts that occur when you have too much time on your hands but still can’t make sense of your surroundings. He’s constantly searching for stimuli--weed, food, drinks--to distract himself from the human condition. Like the titular “Houdini”, Woods escapes, even if temporarily.

Segal’s hazy production is, often by way of contrast, the perfect complement to woods’ spirals, and the two work beautifully in tandem. Segal interpolates gorgeous strummed guitars and Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good” as woods looks at the birds, sun, and breeze on “Soft Landing”, lamenting that their magnificence doesn’t match his own mood. He’s more straightforward on the beat-switching “Babylon By Bus”, distilling his ethos into a declaration that, “People don’t want the truth, they want me to tell ‘em grandma went to heaven.” It often feels like he’s playing tug of war with himself, on one side his perceptions--feeling pastoral dread on the devastating “Agriculture”--and on the other, the objective, bleak truths of the world, from colonialism to police brutality. The two sides, along with Segal’s intelligent contributions, come to a head on “The Layover”, a paranoia-addled tale of no fly lists and surveillance. “Finally got it to where lies is the truth and the truth is a ruse,” woods raps over a piano line, the song sporting an ever-steady groove as if to emphasize the eternal nature of his internal struggle.

Of course, and perhaps thankfully, it’s not all dark, and Maps wouldn’t be a great album without some fun. Segal’s production from track to track feels like a road trip, passing the aux cord between friends with related, but unique tastes, the piano-looped “Rapper Weed” followed by limber free jazz bop “Blue Smoke”, the industrial “Year Zero” by the gentle, lilting “Hangman”. The guest verses include woods’ usual jaunts with Armand Hammer bandmate E L U C I D, and an unexpectedly soulful chorus from Future Islands’ Sam Herring on “FaceTime”. Yet, it’s Quelle Chris and Danny Brown that steal the show, boastful, hilarious, and intense in what ironically brings moments of levity to the record. Chris brags on “Soundcheck” that he’s so good the audio engineer should have to pay for a ticket, while Brown hasn’t sounded this manically dialed in since Atrocity Exhibition. Of course, woods himself shines alongside them, as plainspoken in his sorrow that his “taxes pay police brutality settlements” as he is uproariously confident in the adage that “You can’t fix stupid.” That Maps is filled with more than just variance, references within references, synaptic, weed-influenced connections among society’s ills, is a feature, not a bug. 

woods’ modes of thought all seem to be influenced by death, the lurking presence of it, the survivor’s guilt he feels, that his son, too, will die one day. “No need to ask who sent you, it was always just a question of when,” he raps on “Hangman”, accepting even a premature fate. It’s a desolate attitude, sure, but it’s ultimately an acceptance of the chaos of the world, one that allows him to seek out and enjoy expensive Vietnamese food and cocktails even when their very existence is a product of a losing class and racial struggle. “Death in a top hat dance a jig in the street / Don't get it twisted boy, the city wicked, it'll crush you with its feet,” woods raps on “NYC Tapwater”. With Segal behind him and a Mezcal Negroni in hand, Maps is the sound of woods dancing back.

[cbcruk]

E L U C I D - THE WORLD IS DOG

[thedigitalcrates]

BP Infinite Drop "We Out of Here" with E L U C I D and Gudda Vell

BP Infinite enlists E L U C I D and Gudda Vell on “We Out of Here,” the grimy new single off the producer’s upcoming album, Kill or Be Killed. BP summoned some dark forces with his instro, which blends chilling piano and haunting vocals. It must have inspired his collaborators, who bless the track with slick wordplay and verbal throat chops for the competition. “We Out of Here” is available now…

[pisswizrd]

wild dogs, fresh wounds and old scars

[3-tearz]

Armand Hammer

[daiguit91]

Top 50 discos favoritos del 2023: 10 - 1

Por fin, los 10 discos que a mi consideración, fueron los mejores y que mas disfrute durante todo el año.

Espero les haya gustado la lista y de ser posible, que hayan descubierto cosas nuevas.

Felices fiestas a todos y por un 2024 mejor que el 2023.

10.- Kelela - Raven 

Alternative R&B, Electronic Breakbeat, UK Bass, Ambient, Ambient Pop, Downtempo

9.- Armand Hammer - We Buy Diabetic Test Strips

Experimental Hip Hop, Abstract Hip Hop, East Coast Hip Hop Drumless, Industrial Hip Hop, Conscious Hip Hop, Cloud Rap, Political Hip Hop, Jazz Rap

8.- Liturgy - 93696 

Avant-Garde Metal, Black Metal Totalism, Glitch, Chamber Music, Progressive Metal, Choral

7.- The National - Laugh Track 

Indie Rock, Chamber Pop Post-Punk Revival, Indietronica

6.- Sprain - The Lamb as Effigy

Experimental Rock, Post-Rock, Noise Rock Drone, Post-Hardcore, No Wave, Noise, Totalism, Neoclassical Darkwave, Experimental

5.- Ok Goodnight - The Fox and the Bird

Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock Djent, Art Rock, Alternative Metal

4.- KNOWER - Knower Forever 

Synth Funk, Jazz-Funk Nu Jazz, Art Pop, Jazzstep, Jazz Fusion

3.- Sufjan Stevens - Javelin

Indie Folk, Singer-Songwriter, Chamber Folk Folktronica

Shit Talk es la soty.

2.- Lankum - False Lankum

Irish Folk Music, Avant-Folk Drone, Neofolk

1.- Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want to Turn Into You

Art Pop, Alt-Pop, Electronic Downtempo, UK Garage

[room-temperature-meatbag]

New Armand Hammer album is, unsurprisingly, amazing ❤️

[idiotcoward]

Trauma Mic - Armand Hammer & Pink Siifu

Holy fuck

This is nothing like the rest of Armand Hammer’s music and it absolutely blew me away. New single dropped today and I’m on my fourth or so listen just trying to get all the info I can. Basically fucking check it out. It’s like spacey hard industrial almost. Nuts nuts nuts.