#J Dilla changed my life

[whataweirdfeeling]

HELLO welcome to WAWF WEDNESDAY your monthly WAWF update [1st Wednesday of each month]

Considering it is now the month of May @whataweirdfeeling favorite short film is at its 6th & final of the ongoing hexalogy that is 'CLAIR' Find out more about the film and check out what else WAWF has been up to and more

Read below to find out what else WAWF has been up to this month

WAWF NEWS: LVL 6

CLAIR is a bi-annual/seasonal short film by our curator @vyngak [Half released Nov 30 & half May 3] based on clairaudience and the paradoxical nature of music and history symbolically repeating itself through quicker stronger and faster natures The path of CLAIR is a journey all told as a true story of real world events intuitively experienced then reimagined in a glamorously exaggerated fictional universe All for the love of music All for the love of art Walk through CLAIR’s plethora of tastes mediums and discoveries Grow with it as it has and will continue to grow with the ever changing universe Watch and listen to each CLAIR on our curators Instagram @vyngak as we approach the official release of clVIr [lvl 6]

WAWF’s CRANKING

Recent: Hyperdrama [Album] - Justice

Bars ~ WE STILL DON’T TRUST YOU [Album] - Future, Cold Visions [Album] - Bladee, The Coldest [Album] - Skilla Baby,

Alt ~ All Born Screaming [Album] - St. Vincent, Teething [Album] - Porij, Your Day Will Come [Album] - Chanel Beads

Smooth ~ PARTYNEXTDOOR 4 [Album] - PARTYNEXTDOOR, Jeremy [Album] - Yung Bleu, Boundaries [Album] - Sinéad Harnett

Lowkey: BRODIE WORLD [Album] - AG CLUB

Bars ~ My Gift To You [Ep] - Hardrock, Molly Santana [Album] - Molly Santana, BORN2BEGREAT [Single] - Untiljapan

Alt ~ Still Corners [Album] - Dream Talk, Save The World [Album] - AceMo, Dennis [Album] - Sega Bodega

Smooth ~ Two Star & The Dream Police [Album] - Mk.gee, Still [Album] Erika de Casier, Fabiana Palladino [Album] - Fabiana Palladino

Still in Rotation: 99.9% [Album] - KAYTRANADA

Bars ~ The Life of Pablo [Album] - Ye, Whole Lotta Red [Album] - Playboi Carti, Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight

Alt ~ The Slow Rush [Album] - Tame Impala, City Club [Album] - The Growlers, Thunder [Single] - Roy Blair

Smooth ~ Blonde [Album] - Frank Ocean, “Awaken, My Love!” [Album] - Childish Gambino, Heaven or Hell [Album] - Don Toliver

Throwback: Kala [Album] - M.I.A.

Bars ~ Stankonia [Album] - OutKast, The Shining [Album] - J Dilla, #1 Girl [Album] - Mindless Behavior

Alt ~ Contra [Album] - Vampire Weekend, The Lumineers [Album] - The Lumineers, Plastic Beach [Album] - Gorillaz

Smooth ~ 4 [Album] - Beyoncé, Corinne Bailey Rae [Album] - Corinne Bailey Rae, Comin' From Where I’m From [Album] - Anthony Hamilton

WAWF’s MAKING

Welcome to #WAWFsmaking where you can check out new @whataweirdfeeling creations or join in on the fun

In honor of the official release of clVIr [lvl 6] this Friday [May 3rd] @whataweirdfeeling wanted to keep it animated with the official release of the new show/mini series we have been working on.. STAY TUNED

Join WAWFie [WAWF internet Explore] on his first adventure! Through 'The Adventures of WAWFie' #WAWF will grow and learn about each and every one of the intricacies the World Wide Web has to offer..through animation of course

See Ep 1 of 'The Adventures of WAWFie' on Instagram @whataweirdfeeling and let us know in the comments where you would like WAWFie to venture in the next episode

WAWF’s Wearing

In honor of 'CLAIR' check out our new @whataweirdfeeling x T33n Ang$t article '#WAWFt33n' styled with some specific editorial T33n Ang$t pieces similar to those of past CLAIR films

Also be sure to check out our new @whataweirdfeeling x Backtracking Film collab drop for WAWF Shop Drop 004 - 'Keep Calm and #WAWF'

Backtracking will be showing May 4th at the Grace St. Theatre

Along with promoting/supporting growing artists like these WAWF magazine pushes fashion culture and much more

Words/Curated by

[broke-bruce-wayne]

Part 2, because apparently tumblr has a limit to how many links you can have in a post. Albums under the cut

Day 101: Broken Machine - Nothing But Thieves (3/5) Day 102: Cheat Codes - Danger Mouse & Black Thought (4.75/5) Day 103: But Here We Are - Foo Fighters (5/5) Day 104: What's Going On - Marvin Gaye (5/5) Day 105: Birdie - Slaughter Beach, Dog (4.5/5) Day 106: Home, Like Noplace Is There - The Hotelier (5/5) Day 107: And In the Darkness, Hearts Aglow - Weyes Blood (4.5/5) Day 108: The Age of Pleasure - Janelle Monae (4/5) Day 109: Rising - Rainbow (4.75/5) Day 110: Wheel - Laura Stevenson (4.25/5) Day 111: Diary - Sunny Day Real Estate (4.75/5) Day 112: Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava - King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (4.5/5) Day 113: The Brightest Day - Origami Angel (4.75/5) Day 114: Disraeli Gears - Cream (4.5/5) Day 115: The New Abnormal - The Strokes (4.75/5) Day 116: Nothing Feels Good - The Promise Ring (4.25/5) Day 117: Unison Life - Brutus (4/5) Day 118: Life Under the Gun - Militarie Gun (4.25/5) Day 119: Remain in Light - Talking Heads (5/5) Day 120: Hozier - Hozier (3.5/5) Day 121: Blossom - Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes (4.25/5) Day 122: The Now Now and Never - What is your Name? (4/5) Day 123: Fountain Baby - Amaarae (4.25/5) Day 124: Souvlaki - Slowdive (3.75/5) Day 125: Astoria - Marianas Trench (3.25/5) Day 126: While of Unsound Mind - Nouns (3.5/5) Day 127: Pity Boy - Mal Blum (4.5/5) Day 128: Bothered/Unbothered - JER (4/5) Day 129: Gag Order - Kesha (4/5) Day 130: DS2 - Future (3.75/5) Day 131: Diamonds and Rust - Joan Baez (4.25/5) Day 132: Live the Dream - Ramshackle Glory (4.75/5) Day 133: The Loser - Gospel (5/5) Day 134: The Ballard of Darren - Blur (4/5) Day 135: In the Court of the Crimson King - King Crimson (4.25/5) Day 136: Goodbye Cool World - Bomb the Music Industry! (4.75/5) Day 137: Mercurial World - Magdalena Bay (4.25/5) Day 138: Expert in a Dying Field - The Beths (5/5) Day 139: The Loveliest Time - Carly Rae Jepsen (5/5) Day 140: Different Class - Pulp (4/5) Day 141: Marquee Moon - Television (5/5) Day 142: Coming Home - Faye Wong (4/5) Day 143: Prince Daddy & the Hyena - Prince Daddy & the Hyena (4.5/5) Day 144: The Whaler - Home Is Where (3.5/5) Day 145: Donuts - J Dilla (3.75/5) Day 146: Knife Man - AJJ (4.25/5) Day 147: Little Girl Blue - Nina Simone (4.25/5) Day 148: Sometimes, Forever - Soccer Mommy (3/5) Day 149: Sundial - Noname (N/A) Day 150: You're Living All Over Me - Dinosaur Jr. (5/5)

Day 151: The Show - Lucky Tapes (4/5) Day 152: Berlin - Kadavar (4.25/5) Day 153: God's Country - Chat Pile (4.25/5) Day 154: Only Constant - GEL (4/5) Day 155: Forever Changes - Love (4.5/5) Day 156: The Nashville Sound - Jason Isbell (5/5) Day 157: Chemical Miracle - Trophy Eyes (3.25/5) Day 158: God Don't Make Mistakes - Conway the Machine (4.5/5) Day 159: No Joy - Spanish Love Songs (4.25/5) Day 160: Marely Barch - Barely March (4.75/5) Day 161: Sultans of Sentiment - The Van Pelt (4/5) Day 162: Hellmode - Jeff Rosenstock (5/5) Day 163: Enola Gay - Asia Menor (4.75/5) Day 164: 5AM - Amber Run (3/5) Day 165: Re-Animator - Everything Everything (3.75/5) Day 166: Hostile Architecture - Ashenspire (4.25/5) Day 167: Guts - Olivia Rodrigo (3.25/5) Day 168: Either/Or - Elliott Smith (4.25/5) Day 169: Electric Century - Electric Century (2.75/5) Day 170: Orange Rhyming Dictionary - Jets to Brazil (4.75/5) Day 171: God Save the Animals - Alex G (3/5) Day 172: The Land is Inhospitable and So are We - Mitski (4.25/5) Day 173: Aja - Steely Dan (4.75/5) Day 174: Preacher's Daughter - Ethel Cain (3.75/5) Day 175: Boxer - The National (4.5/5) Day 176: Cave World - Viagra Boys (4.75/5) Day 177: Cheap Grills - Sincere Engineer (4.75/5) Day 177 Bonus: Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling - Slaughter Beach, Dog (4.75/5) Day 178: Unknown Pleasures - Joy Division (4.75/5) Day 179: Make Room - Destroy Boys (4.25/5) Day 180: Night Time, My Time - Sky Ferreira (3.75/5) Day 181: Win & Lose - Chinese Football (4.5/5) Day 182: Sit Down for Dinner - Blonde Redhead (3.75/5) Day 183: Hounds of Love - Kate Bush (4.25/5) Day 184: Moveys - Slow Pulp (3.25/5) Day 185: No Division - Hot Water Music (4.5/5) Day 186: Where the Heart Is - Sweet Pill (4.25/5) Day 187: Javelin - Sufjan Stevens (5/5) Day 188: Curtis - Curtis Mayfield (4.75/5) Day 189: Little Oblivions - Julien Baker (3.75/5) Day 190: Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair - La Dispute (5/5) Day 191: We're Not Here to Be Loved - Fleshwater (4.5/5) Day 192: Some of it Was True - The Menzingers (4.25/5) Day 193: Disintegration - The Cure (4.75/5) Day 194: Meth Wax - Meth Wax (4/5) Day 195: Full Collapse - Thursday (4.5/5) Day 196: White Trash Revelry - Adeem the Artist (4.75/5) Day 197: One More Time... - blink 182 (4.75/5) Day 198: Spiderland - Slint (4.5/5)

Day 199: Under Soil and Dirt - The Story So Far (4.5/5) Day 200: Rock 'n' Roll on the New Long March - Cui Jian (4.75/5)

2023 Album a Day Masterpost

I'm going to try and listen to a new (to me) album every day (or at least every weekday), so consider this an open invitation to send me suggestions. Any genre, new or old.

Albums listened to below the cut

Enjoyability in parenthesis

Day 1: you'll be fine - Hot Mulligan (3.5/5) Day 2: Long Lost - Lord Huron (4.5/5) Day 3: Goodnight Paradise - Nightmare Club (4/5) Day 4: SOS - SZA (4.5/5) Day 5: Lies They Tell Our Children - Anti Flag (4/5) Day 6: The Stranger - Billy Joel (3.75/5) Day 7: Battle Born - The Killers (3/5) Day 8: Blue Rev - Alvvays (5/5) Day 9: Rush - M��neskin (2.75/5) Day 10: Axis: Bold as Love - The Jimi Hendrix Experience (4.5/5) Day 11: Rhombithian - Sincere Engineer (4.5/5) Day 12: Reckless - Bryan Adams (4/5) Day 13: Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You - Big Thief (4.75/5) Day 14: Let's Start Here. - Lil Yachty (4.5/5) Day 15: Arthur (or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) - The Kinks (4.5/5) Day 16: Worry. - Jeff Rosenstock (5/5) Day 17: Beat the Champ - The Mountain Goats (4.75/5) Day 18: Ants from Up There - Black Country, New Road (4.5/5) Day 19: Anarchist Gospel - Sunny War (4.25/5) Day 20: Youth of America - Wipers (4.75/5) Day 21: I'm Not Getting Any Taller - Daisy the Great (3/5) Day 22: Future Nostalgia - Dua Lipa (4/5) Day 23: Diaspora Problems - Soul Glo (4.25/5) Day 24: This is Why - Paramore (4/5) Day 25: When the Pawn... - Fiona Apple (4.75/5) Day 26: The Lonesome Crowded West - Modest Mouse (5/5) Day 27: Neveroddoreven - I Monster (4/5) Day 28: Hellfire - black midi (4.75/5) Day 29: Desire Pathway - Screaming Females (4.5/5) Day 30: Sound of Silver - LCD Soundsystem (4/5) Day 31: Let My Children Hear Music - Charles Mingus (4.25/5) Day 32: Dhaani - Strings (4/5) Day 33: Little Green House - Anxious (4.25/5) Day 34: Cracker Island - Gorillaz (3.75/5) Day 35: Flower Boy - Tyler, the Creator (4.5/5) Day 36: The Head and the Heart - The Head and the Heart (4/5) Day 37: Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman (5/5) Day 38: See You in Chemistry - Carly Cosgrove (4.25/5) Day 39: Dogsbody - Model/Actriz (4.25/5) Day 40: Low - David Bowie (4.5/5) Day 41: Little Plastic Castle - Ani DiFranco(4.25/5) Day 42: Shmap'n Shmazz - Cap'n Jazz (4/5) Day 43: 40 oz to Fresno - Joyce Manor (4/5) Day 44: Oh Me Oh My - Lonnie Holley (4.25/5) Day 45: Bridge over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel (4.75/5) Day 46: You're Gonna Miss It All - Modern Baseball (4.5/5) Day 47: Eau de VIXX - VIXX (4/5) Day 48: No Thank You - Little Simz (4.25/5) Day 49: Fantasy - M83 (3.75/5) Day 50: Pet Sounds - The Beach Boys (5/5)

Day 51: Moanin' - Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers (4.5/5) Day 52: Fortress - Miniature Tigers (4/5) Day 53: Sick! - Earl Sweatshirt (4.25/5) Day 54: So Much (for) Stardust - FOB (3/5) Day 54 Bonus: Memento Mori - Depeche Mode (4.25/5) Day 55: Close to the Edge - Yes (5/5) Day 56: Come In - Weatherday (4/5) Day 57: The Moon and Antarctica - Modest Mouse (5/5) Day 58: Baby - Petrol Girls (4.5/5) Day 59: The Record - Boygenius (3.5/5) Day 60: Loveless - My Bloody Valentine (4.75/5) Day 61: Mono - RM (3.75/5) Day 62: Glow On - Turnstile (4.25/5) Day 63: Un Verano sin Ti - Bad Bunny (4.5/5) Day 64: Rat Saw God - Wednesday (4.5/5) Day 65: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco (5/5) Day 66: Rites of Spring - Tiger Really (4/5) Day 67: American Football (1999) - American Football (4.75/5) Day 68: Boat Songs - MJ Lenderman (4.75/5) Day 69: ...So Unknown - Jesus Piece (3.75/5) Day 70: Leviathan - Mastodon (4.75/5) Day 71: Sawayama - Rina Sawayama (4/5) Day 72: Brave Faces, Everyone - Spanish Love Songs (4.75/5) Day 73: Ugly Season - Perfume Genius (3.25/5) Day 74: Fuse - EBTG (3.5/5) Day 75: Horses - Patti Smith (4.5/5) Day 76: Pushing Daisies - Julie (4/5) Day 77: Get In Losers, We're Going to Eternal Damnation -Forests (4.25/5) Day 78: Lucifer on the Sofa - Spoon (3.25/5) Day 79: That! Feels! Good! - Jessie Ware (4.5/5) Day 80: Exile on Main St. - The Rolling Stones (4.5/5) Day 81: Somewhere City - Origami Angel (5/5) Day 82: El Camino - The Black Keys (4/5) Day 83: Skinty Fia - Fontaines D.C. (4.25/5) Day 84: Maps - Billy Woods & Kenny Segal (5/5) Day 85: Blue - Joni Mitchell (4.5/5) Day 86: Relationship of Command - At the Drive-In (5/5) Day 87: 濡れゆ��私小説 - Indigo la End (4.25/5) Day 88: Formentera - Metric (4/5) Day 89: Why Would I Watch - Hot Mulligan (4.75/5) Day 90: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel (4.5/5) Day 91: Chet Baker Sings - Chet Baker (3.25/5) Day 92: Tigers Jaw - Tigers Jaw (4.25/5) Day 93: Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville - Ashley McBryde (4.75/5) Day 94: Seven Psalms - Paul Simon (3.5/5) Day 95: Let It Be - The Replacements (5/5) Day 96: The Weird and Wonderful Marmozets - Marmozets (4.5/5) Day 97: Joy as an Act of Resistance - IDLES (4.5/5) Day 98: Pool Kids - Pool Kids (4/5) Day 99: Scaring the Hoes - JPEGMAFIA x Danny Brown (4.25/5) Day 100: Fishmonger - Underscores (3/5)

[oldinterneticons]

J Dilla Changed My Life

[theartistisreading]

Kameelah Janan Rasheed is reading:

Atlas of Anomalous AI by Ben Vickers & Kenric McDowell

Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence by Kate Crawford

TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information by Erik Davis 

Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm by Dan Charnas 

Dear Science, and Other Stories by Katherine McKittrick 

Poetics of Relation by Edouard Glissant

Conceptualisms: The Anthology of Prose, Poetry, Visual, Found, E- & Hybrid Writing as Contemporary Art by Steve Tomasula 

Sun Ra: The Immeasurable Equation. The collected Poetry and Prose by Hartmut Geerken

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

Oulipo: A Primer of Potential Literature by Warren F. Motte Jr.

Sleeping with the Dictionary by Harryette Mullen

My Emily Dickinson by Susan Howe

Dictee by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha

Freedom Time: The Poetics and Politics of Black Experimental Writing by Anthony Reed 

Crises of the Sentence by Jan Mieszkowski

Track Changes: A Literary History of Word Processing by Matthew G. Kirschenbaum

The Arab Apocalypse by Etel Adnan

Ideal Suggestions: Essays in Divinatory Poetics by Selah Saterstrom

SMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTH OPERATOR opens at the Athenaeum on Sept. 1, 2022. Kameelah will deliver a lecture that night at 5:30pm!

[maravillainc]

j dilla changed my life. 💗✨

[hopetofantasy]

wtFOCK actor Nathan Bouts (22) releases his first hiphop-single: “Music helps me overcome my doubts and fears”

Besides acting, wtFOCK star Nathan Bouts (22), is now aiming his arrows on the world of music. Under the influence of bigger hiphop stars like A Tribe Called Quest and J Dilla, he went to work in his studio with his own beats and lyrics. His first single with music video ‘WATERS’ was released Friday. “I bought my own first drum-computer a while ago and I started fiddling with that in my bedroom.”

Teenagers around Flanders know Nathan Bouts (22) mostly as Jens Stoffels, the somewhat rebellious skater boy from the internet tv series wtFOCK, which is also broadcasted on VIER, VIJF and Telenet. With his fictitious profile Jens as well as his own personal one, the influencer from Antwerp has more than 50.000 followers behind him. Next to wtFOCK and a few minor roles in other Flemish fiction, his focus now entirely lies on making music under the name of NATHAN BOAZ. Nathan has had a relatively busy period behind him. After three seasons of wtFOCK, he and other colleagues filmed themselves during the first lockdown for the spin-off wtFOCKDOWN. In July the shooting of wtFOCK season 4 started, which has been broadcasting in the meantime. Besides that, he still found the time to work on his new music project.

Bedroomproducer “Just like Billie Eilish, I’ve had a certain fan base before I started making music, so that can’t go wrong,” Nathan jokes whilst mocking himself. “I wanted to make music for a while now, but I just never took the time to make it. Namely, I’ve went to the Steinerschool, where music was a large aspect of the education. It was during that time, that I realized I wanted to create something myself one day. Under the influence of American hiphop stars and producers like A Trible Called Quest, J Dilla and Pete Rock - my guru - I’ve bought my first drum-machine and started tampering with it in my bedroom.” “It actually started solely with beats and instrumental songs. But again, under the influence of American oldskool rap and the more recent Kendrick Lamar, I’ve began writing lyrics which I started to sing to my beats.”

Nathan’s loyal followers know for a while that he’s working on a music project. On a good day he has released a clip on social media of him rapping to a beat and relaying the message that he has other aspirations besides acting. “I’ve had been doubting for weeks if it was actually a good idea,” Nathan says, reliving the experience. “That might sound contradictory for an actor on a youth channel with a lot of fans, but I’m actually quite insecure. When I put that clip online, I didn’t check my social media for two days, out of fear of reactions. What if nobody watched it? Or people thought it was shitty? Would I make a fool out of myself? You don’t have to a crybaby about it, I told myself. I took some distance from it and without any expectations, two days later, I went to check if there were any reactions.” “But I could be very pleased. Of course there were a ton of fun reactions by wtFOCK fans,” Nathan smiles. “That’s of course amazing, but I do value the reactions more of the people who know something about music and work with it too. And those were there as well, I’ve gotten a lot of private messages with loving words.” “I’ve got the same expectation for my first single release. Am I scared of the real experts and the hiphop OGs who won’t take me seriously? That they’ll think music is just a commercial vehicle to exploit my fans? They’re allowed to think that, but no, I know what my qualities are. I was intensively working with music befóre wtFOCK, there is no financial strategy behind it, music is truly my passion.” “More than a passion actually, also a way to escape”, Nathan changes tone. “Music can be very emotionally charged and the feelings you get from it, can be overwhelming, even if it is purely instrumental. Doubts and fears, those are feelings I often have to deal with. Is it because of specific experiences in my life? No, not really, I’ve lived a luxury life compared to other people. I think every person has lived through stuff unconsciously, where you can get sad, without truly being able to name those things. Music is in this case the best medicine to get you through it.” Flowjob Despite his doubts and insecurity, Nathan really loves to act, whilst trying to profile himself on social media and was even interviewed by Flo Windey on ‘Flowjob’ on Studio Brussel to talk about sex and relationships. “Of all the things I’ve done publicly, Flowjob has to be the one thing I had to think about for the longest time, and I really would like to state that here”, Nathan emphasizes, “But I simply thought ‘fuck it’, sometimes you have to do stuff you’re scared to do, just out of curiosity to see where you end up. If you consciously don’t do certain things out of fear, you’ll never know what you might have missed. Does it disappoint you? It might, but then you’ll know.” “What kind of reactions do you get if you say things on Studio Brussel, of which you wish your mother doesn’t hear? What do you think? I’ve had my portion of the bizarre requests and sexual messages, from people I know to a whole heap of people I don’t. Especially girls? Yep, but also boys,” Nathan laughs. Exciting “Besides, I’m not the only one in the artistic world who’s reserved in his nature. I think for a lot of actors, musicians and artists their work is some sort of personal remedy to overcome insecurity. I often see the same with my colleagues. The fact that you can hardly earn money with it, especially in times like these, keeps raising those doubts, like a vicious cycle. But that insecurity is kinda thrilling in a some way. I truly wouldn’t want anything else.” The single ‘WATERS’ from NATHAN BOAZ is now available on Spotify and Apple Music via Absender Management in collaboration with Krazee Alley Productions. 

[weekendance]

THE TUESDAY TAPES MARTEDÌ 16 MARZO 2021 ►► MONTHLY MIXTAPE! 1) GEORGE MARTIN & HIS ORCHESTRA > Theme One 2) EUGENE TAMBOURINE > Good Life 3) SOCIAL LOVERS > Love Come Down 4) HERMAN KELLY & LIFE > A Refreshing Love 5) LEROI CONROY > Tiger Trot 6) J DILLA > Workinonit 7) VORGRUPPE > Mensh im Eis 8) RYUICHI SAKAMOTO & KAZUMI WATANABE > I’ll Be There 9) LUCA CARBONI > Mare mare (Black Box mix) 10) ZINC > Amazon 11) SUSAN FASSBENDER > Twilight Café 12) EKAMBI BRILLIANT > Ekila (Nick Xoa edit) 13) DEEP PURPLE > Space Truckin 14) THE SUPREMES > Love Is an Itching in My Heart 15) MARY LOVE > Lay This Burden Down 16) CLASSIX NOUVEAUX > It’s a Dream 17) FRED VENTURA > Imagine (You’ll Never Change Your Mind) 18) PET SHOP BOYS > Heart (acapella) 19) BAKER-GURVITZ ARMY > People 20) THE ALUMINUM GROUP > Worrying Kind (PS: se non visualizzate il widget, lo streaming della puntata è QUI)

[thetuesdaytapes]

THE TUESDAY TAPES MARTEDÌ 16 MARZO 2021 ►► MONTHLY MIXTAPE! 1) GEORGE MARTIN & HIS ORCHESTRA > Theme One 2) EUGENE TAMBOURINE > Good Life 3) SOCIAL LOVERS > Love Come Down 4) HERMAN KELLY & LIFE > A Refreshing Love 5) LEROI CONROY > Tiger Trot 6) J DILLA > Workinonit 7) VORGRUPPE > Mensh im Eis 8) RYUICHI SAKAMOTO & KAZUMI WATANABE > I’ll Be There 9) LUCA CARBONI > Mare mare (Black Box mix) 10) ZINC > Amazon 11) SUSAN FASSBENDER > Twilight Café 12) EKAMBI BRILLIANT > Ekila (Nick Xoa edit) 13) DEEP PURPLE > Space Truckin 14) THE SUPREMES > Love Is an Itching in My Heart 15) MARY LOVE > Lay This Burden Down 16) CLASSIX NOUVEAUX > It’s a Dream 17) FRED VENTURA > Imagine (You’ll Never Change Your Mind) 18) PET SHOP BOYS > Heart (acapella) 19) BAKER-GURVITZ ARMY > People 20) THE ALUMINUM GROUP > Worrying Kind Ascolta su MIXCLOUD Ascolta su SPREAKER Guarda su YOUTUBE

[ntyghe]

Musical Influence in my Life and in My Music

King Krule

If it weren't for my brother handing me King Krule’s debut album six feet beneath the moon for my 14th birthday, I wouldn't be where I am now. King Krule’s music pulled me in from the get go. The second track on the album border lines, I repeated about 20 times before I moved on to anything else. Music to me before was meaningless and I was indulged and almost brainwashed in a way by radio/chart music. This album to me was medicine. It was I was always looking for.

King Krule brought the guitar to life for me. He showed me the wonderful world of major 7th chords which are mostly use in jazz, hence has that jazzy feel. I had just starting using major 7ths while playing the piano and it was something that gave the piano meaning to me.

I love King Krule’s ecstatic and the picture he paints with his music. From melancholic jazz undertones to punky up beat swell but always with a common theme, jazzy undertones. I think u will see from my selection of artists that you know I adore jazz chords.

King Krule writes under lots of different genres and i mean lots. From jazz to hip-hop to downtempo to punk this man can do it all.

Favourite songs and albums by King Krule

Albums

6 feet Beneath the Moon

The Ooz 

Songs

Czech one

Neptune Estate

J Dilla

J Dilla is a hero to many people evidence shown by countless people wearing t-shirts called J Dilla Changed my life!

J Dilla is a hip-hop legend his emotion is felt in everyone snare every kick every sampled note. The character he put into his drums is unmatchable. His attention to deal was impeccable but this biggest thing of all was the feeling he put in. He can make you question your whole life with just a 4 bar instrumental loop. 

What I take away from him the most is his drive and love for music as even on his death bed he was still making music. To him making music was his medicine it was his escape from the hospital room, his escape from life. 

Favourite songs and albums 

Albums

Batch 1997 

Vol 2 Vintage 2 

Songs

Common - Nag Champa [Afrodisiac for the World] (Instrumental)

Track 4- (Another Batch)

Slum village-players 

Little Brother-Black Star (Prod by J Dilla) 

Track 14- Batch (1997)

Lute-Still slummin’ (Prod by J dilla) 

Don’t Cry 

DD.021-(Dilla Delights Vol 1)

[dustedmagazine]

The Oneness of Juju — African Rhythms 1970-1982 (Strut)

African Rhythms by Oneness of Juju

African Rhythms surveys the genre-spanning career of James “Plunky” Branch, an activist bandleader who soaked up Afro-beat, free-jazz, funk and soul influences, sweetened them with an infusion of commercially viable R&B, won the admiration of Ornette Coleman and Sun Ra and provided remixing fodder for a generation of African-American hip hop artists, most prominently J. Dilla. These 24 tracks span distinct phases of Branch’s work, from his politically-charged West Coast-based collaborations with the black poet Roach Om (“No Name #3 / Love Is… / My N*gg*r & Me”) and South African jazz artist Ndikho Xaba (“Freedom Fighter”) to his relationship with Strata East records (who also recorded Gil Scott-Heron), to his long partnership with the Black Fire label, to his forays into disco (“Every Way But Loose”). 

There are even a few previously unreleased tracks: an alternate version of the jazz-flute space opera “Bootsie’s Lament,” a couple of scorching chant-and-percussion interludes and a beautifully trippy, jazz-fusion cut called “West Wind.” A long, fascinating interview/essay by the journalist and DJ Chris Menist ties Branch’s journey together as it winds from San Francisco’s jazz lofts to Richmond, Virginia’s civil rights awakening.  

The compilation takes its name from the Oneness of Juju’s best-known track, “African Rhythms,” originally released in 1975 on Black Fire. It’s an incendiary anthem, paced by intricate polyrhythmic percussion and filled out with squalling sax (Branch himself) and the rubbery hedonism of bass (that’s Branch’s brother and frequent collaborator Muzi Branch, who also painted most of Oneness’ album covers). The vocals, led by Eka-Ete Jackie Lewis, soar and swoop in triumph, part American gospel and soul, part Afro-beat chant.  The song took on a life of its own, first as the bumper music for Howard University’s WHUR Radio’s news program, the Daily Drum, later among DJs and rap producers, including Dilla and J. Cole.  

Branch mixed the austere with the pop, enlivening political argument with buoyant dance rhythms, interjecting cerebral free-jazz intervals into body-moving grooves. His earlier work, for the jazz collective Strata East, leaned heavily into afro-beat, as in the multi-layered percussive onslaught “Nairobi Chants,” where abstract squalls of sax howl and blurt over a mesh of hand-drums, shakers, timbales and vibraphone. During a sojourn in New York City, Branch rubbed shoulders with jazz greats like Sun Ra and Ornette Coleman. But as Branch settled into his hometown of Richmond, Virginia, he felt the need to popularize his sound. “Being based in Richmond began to affect our music because there was not a large market for avant-garde African music there. We had to play music that people could relate to. And for me, the music that I was playing all along was always blues-based. It was a natural progression. If we put a backbeat to the Afro-Cuban rhythms, people in Richmond could be drawn into it and it didn’t really change anything about our message,” he told Menist in the liner essay.

“Every Way But Loose” probably best exemplifies this new, hedonistic style. It rolls and swaggers like Funkadelic and you not only can, but practically must dance to it. Sure, it’s bolstered by rattling, African-flavored percussion and wild trills of sax, but the uplift and trippy spiritualism, the restless experimentation, the cerebral inquiry of much of the rest of Oneness’ output is almost entirely missing.

You’ve got to admire Branch’s ability to swing out in lots of directions, communicating a positive, political message while getting the people on their feet, driving the groove while leaving room for more demanding forms of jazz, weaving still unfamiliar strains of African music into an all-American dance party. This expansive compilation puts all the pieces into context and traces a sweeping American narrative of roots and assimilation, art and commerce, experiment and familiarity. Fascinating stuff.

Jennifer Kelly

[blackkudos]

Raphael Saadiq

Raphael Saadiq (born Charles Ray Wiggins; May 14, 1966) is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He rose to fame as a member of the multiplatinum group Tony! Toni! Toné! In addition to his solo and group career, he has also produced songs for such artists as Joss Stone, D'Angelo, TLC, En Vogue, Kelis, Mary J. Blige, Ledisi, Whitney Houston, Solange Knowles and John Legend.

He and D'Angelo were occasional members of The Ummah, a music production collective, composed of members Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad of A Tribe Called Quest, and J Dilla of the Detroit-based group Slum Village. He is a co-founder of independent video game developer IllFonic, which developed Friday the 13th: The Game.

Saadiq's critically acclaimed album The Way I See It, released on September 16, 2008, featuring artists Stevie Wonder, Joss Stone, and Jay-Z, received three Grammy Award nominations. His fourth studio album, Stone Rollin', was released on March 25, 2011. For the album, Saadiq worked with steel guitarist Robert Randolph; former Earth, Wind & Fire keyboardist Larry Dunn; Swedish-Japanese indie rock singer Yukimi Nagano (of Little Dragon fame); funk artist Larry Graham (on the bonus song "Perfect Storm") and Taura 'Aura Jackson' Stinson.

Music critic Robert Christgau has called Saadiq the "preeminent R&B artist of the '90s".

Early life

Saadiq was born in Oakland, California, the second-youngest of 14 siblings. His early life was marked by tragedy; he experienced the deaths of several of his siblings as a young child. When Saadiq was seven years old, one brother was murdered. One of his brothers overdosed on heroin and another committed suicide because he was unable to deal with his addiction to the drug. His sister died as a result of a car crash during a police chase in a residential neighborhood. Saadiq states that he does not want his music to be reflective of the tragedies he experienced, saying that "And through all of that I was makin' records, but it wasn't comin' out in the music. I did it to kinda show people you can have some real tough things happen in your life, but you don't have to wear it on your sleeve."

He has been playing the bass guitar since the age of six, and first began singing at age nine in a local gospel group. At the age of 12, he joined a group called "The Gospel Humminbirds". In 1984, shortly before his 18th birthday, Saadiq heard about tryouts in San Francisco for Sheila E.'s backing band on Prince's Parade Tour. At the audition, he chose the name "Raphael", and had difficulty remembering to respond to the name when he heard that he got the part to play bass in the band. He says of the experience, "Next thing I was in Tokyo, in a stadium, singin' Erotic City. We were in huge venues with the biggest sound systems in the world; all these roadies throwin' me basses, and a bunch of models hangin' round Prince to party. For almost two years. That was my university."

Career

1987–1999: Tony! Toni! Toné! and The Ummah

After returning to Oakland from touring with Prince, Saadiq began his professional career as the lead vocalist and bassist in the rhythm and blues and dance trio Tony! Toni! Toné! He used the name Raphael Wiggins while in Tony! Toni! Toné!, along with his brother Dwayne Wiggins, and his cousin Timothy Christian. In the mid-1990s, he adopted the last name Saadiq, which means "man of his word" in Arabic. His change of surname led many to speculate that he had converted to Islam at that point; in reality, Saadiq is not a Muslim, but rather just liked the way "Saadiq" sounded and changed his last name simply to distinguish himself from and avoid potential confusion with his brother, Dwayne Wiggins. As he confirmed by telling noted R&B writer Pete Lewis of the award-winning 'Blues & Soul' in May 2009, "I just wanted to have my own identity!"

In 1995, Saadiq had his biggest solo hit to date, when "Ask of You", featured on the Higher Learning Soundtrack peaked at #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the R&B chart. In 1995, Saadiq produced and performed on Otis & Shug's debut album, We Can Do Whatever.

Tony! Toni! Toné! would become major R&B superstars throughout the late 1980s and 1990s. However, after the 1996 album entitled House of Music failed to duplicate the group's previous success, Tony! Toni! Toné! went their separate ways in 1997.

1999–2004: Lucy Pearl and first string of solo albums

In 1999, Saadiq's next big project became the R&B supergroup Lucy Pearl. He recorded the self-titled album with Dawn Robinson (En Vogue) and Ali Shaheed Muhammad (A Tribe Called Quest). The group only lasted for one album.

Also in 1999, he collaborated with rapper Q-Tip on the single "Get Involved", from the animated television series The PJs. It samples The Intruders' 1973 song "I'll Always Love My Mama" and charted at number 21 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks.

His 2000 song collaboration "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" won D'Angelo a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance; it was also nominated for Grammy Award for Best R&B Song. The song was ranked #4 on Rolling Stone's "End of Year Critics & Readers Poll" of the top singles of 2000. D'Angelo's album Voodoo won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Album at the 2001 Grammy Awards.

In 2002, Saadiq founded his own record label, Pookie Entertainment. Among the artists on the label are Joi and Truth Hurts. In 2002, he released his first solo album Instant Vintage, which earned him three Grammy Award nominations in addition to another two Grammy nominations for his writing work on “Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop)” the following year. He released a two-disc live album All the Hits at the House of Blues in 2003, and his second studio album Ray Ray in 2004, both on Pookie Entertainment.

2004–2010: Expanded output and second string of albums

In 2004, Saadiq produced a remix of the song "Crooked Nigga Too" by Tupac Shakur which is featured on the album Loyal to the Game. Other artists he has collaborated with include Whitney Houston, Mary J. Blige, The Isley Brothers, A Tribe Called Quest, Teedra Moses, The Roots, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Macy Gray, Angie Stone, Snoop Dogg, Mac Dre, Devin the Dude, DJ Quik, Kelis, Q-Tip, Lil' Skeeter, Ludacris, The Bee Gees, Musiq Soulchild, Jaguar Wright, Chanté Moore, Lionel Richie, Marcus Miller, Noel Gourdin, Nappy Roots, Calvin Richardson, T-Boz from TLC, Jody Watley, Floetry, Leela James, Amp Fiddler, John Legend, Joss Stone, Young Bellz, Anthony Hamilton, Babyface, Ledisi, Goapele, Ghostface Killah, —Ginuwine, The Grouch Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind & Fire, Bilal, Chali 2na, Larry Graham, Luniz as well as many others. In 2007, Saadiq produced Introducing Joss Stone, the third album of British soul singer Joss Stone. According to J. Gabriel Boylan of The New York Observer, "he's produced artists including Macy Gray, the Roots, D'Angelo, John Legend, Whitney Houston, Mary J. Blige, and more. With all of them he's pushed a classic aesthetic, heavy on organic sounds and light on studio magic, deeply indebted to the past and distrustful of easy formulas."

Saadiq's third solo album, The Way I See It, released on Columbia Records on September 16, 2008, available in a collector's edition box set of 7" 45 rpm singles as well as on traditional CD, was critically well-received, made several critics' 2008 best albums lists, and garnered three Grammy nominations including Best R&B Performance by a Duo Or Group With Vocals (for "Never Give You Up", featuring Stevie Wonder & CJ Hilton); Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance (for "Love That Girl") and Best R&B Album for The Way I See It. Music from The Way I See It was featured in the following motion pictures: Madea Goes To Jail, Bride Wars, Cadillac Records, Secret Life of Bees, In Fighting (Rogue), and It's Complicated.

Touring with a nine piece band, Saadiq hit the 2009 summer music festival circuit with performances at Bonnaroo, Hollywood Bowl, Outside Lands, Pori Jazz, Stockholm Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz, Essence Music Festival, Summer Spirit Festival, and Nice Jazz Festival, Bumbershoot Music Festival and Austin City Limits. Saadiq has been touring Europe extensively, and held a five-night residency at the House of Blues in Tokyo, Japan, in June 2009. In 2008, Saadiq formed a new label called Velma Records, a place where he promises "people can express themselves like I did with The Way I See It... where they can dream something up and just go with it".

He produced songs for LeToya Luckett's forthcoming second album Lady Love, released August 2009. In 2009, Saadiq produced "Please Stay" and "Love Never Changes" for Ledisi's August 2009 release "Turn Me Loose". Saadiq also was the executive producer for an emerging group called Tha Boogie. Tha Boogie's first EP was released on iTunes and is titled Love Tha Boogie, Vol. 1 (Steal This Sh*t).

In 2009, Saadiq announced his video game development company called IllFonic. The first video game in development by IllFonic is titled Ghetto Golf, with an expected release late in 2010. In 2009, Saadiq teamed up Bentley Kyle Evans, Jeff Franklin, Martin Lawrence, and Trenten Gumbs to create a new sitcom called Love That Girl! starring Tatyana Ali. Raphael is an executive producer and composer for Love That Girl!. The show airs on TV One and debuted on January 19, 2010. That same year, Saadiq performed The Spinners hit "It's A Shame" in a legendary Levi's commercial and sang as part of the chorus in the 2010 remake of "We Are the World" for Haiti.

2011–present: Stone Rollin'

In 2011, Saadiq was the guitarist/bandleader for the group backing Mick Jagger for Jagger's tribute performance of the Solomon Burke R&B classic, "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" at the 53rd Grammy Awards in Los Angeles and on CBS. The band that accompanied the performance was Saadiq's touring band called Stone Rollin. In 2011 he and his band performed as the ESPY's house band for the night, where he performed his latest compositions.

Saadiq's 2011 album Stone Rollin' was released to great critical acclaim. "He's always had a boyish enthusiasm for performing, and a flexible, naturally joyous voice that suggests a young Stevie Wonder," wrote Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune, "but with his latest album, Saadiq finds a new gear. The album and his current tour demonstrate that there's a big difference between retro and classic, and the artist consistently finds himself on the right side of that divide." Kot ranked the album number seven in his year-end list, in which he dubbed it Saadiq's "finest achievement" and stated, "He's always written songs steeped in soul and R&B, but now he gives them a progressive edge with roaming bass lines and haunted keyboard textures. He's no longer a retro stylist – he's writing new classics." Critic Jim Derogatis called it "a stone cold gas of a party disc."

In fall 2011, he performed on the fourth results show of Dancing with the Stars season 13. In December 2011, he performed a cover compilation of several Neil Diamond songs at the Kennedy Center Honors award ceremony.

In 2012 he signed a deal with Toyota to do a TV commercial for the Toyota Prius. In 2013 Raphael partnered with Bay Area/ Atlanta Production company EL Seven Entertainment/ Republic Records and new R&B Superstar Adrian Marcel and released his 1st promotional mixtape "Raphael Saadiq Presents Adrian Marcel 7 Days of Weak".

Saadiq is a featured bass guitar player on Elton John's 2013 album, The Diving Board.

In 2016 he executive produced Solange Knowles album, A Seat At The Table which debuted at #1 on music charts in the United States. He also guest starred in Luke Cage, where he performs his songs "Good Man" and "Angel" at Harlem's Paradise.

In 2017 he appeared in the award-winning documentary film The American Epic Sessions, directed by Bernard MacMahon, where he recorded the Memphis Jug Band’s 1928 song “Stealin’ Stealin’” live on the restored first electrical sound recording system from the 1920s. Of recording on the system he said, “it’s amazing to just look at how it’s built, you know just look at the machine itself. It just has this like magical sound the way that it’s built. It’s true. It’s just the truest sound you could ever get.”

In 2017, Saadiq collaborated with Mary J. Blige as a songwriter for the movie Mudbound (2017), for which they both received Academy Award nominations for Best Original Song.

In 2018, he produced the John Legend holiday themed album, A Legendary Christmas.

During the 2020 coronavirus pandemic he released a song on his website called Rony! Roni! Roné!”

Discography

Studio albums

Instant Vintage (2002)

Ray Ray (2004)

The Way I See It (2008)

Stone Rollin' (2011)

Jimmy Lee (2019)

with Tony! Toni! Toné!

Who? (1988)

The Revival (1990)

Sons of Soul (1993)

House of Music (1996)

with Lucy Pearl

Lucy Pearl (2000)

[adevotedappraisal]

The Carter Trilogy, part three of five

4:44: And you stare blankly into space, thinking about all the time you wasted on all this basic shit

During Fade to Black, the documentary following Jay Zs 2003 farewell performance for a short-lived retirement from rap, this curious thing happens. Between the setups for the performance at Madison Square Garden, and Jay traversing the country to nest with hit producer after producer, a scene appears of Jay, presumably at his Roc-a-Fella records headquarters, asking, actually beseeching, the motley crew of executives, rappers and goons to prod him to talk about the negative effects of drugs and guns in a song, being that he had glamourized them over the course of six or so albums by that point. No resolution to change course was made at that meeting, but the look of Jay Z in that scene was riveting.  He looked like a man that wanted some kind, aged woman to hold his face in her hands and tell him to follow his heart.  Instead he was surrounded by men only concerned with the bottom line, men he personally chose.  “If that’s what they want to hear, then they buy it,” one says.

Then, there’s a moment on the album he traversed the country for, 2003s The Black Album, on the song “Moment of Clarity,” where he says the lines “truthfully I’d rather rhyme like Common Sense, but I did five mil, and I ain’t rhyme like Common since,” once again exposing some type of urge to, I don’t know, tell the world the tumbling and uncovered things washing around in his soul that sounded like the hot whiskey that sloshed around in Nina Simone’s voice, or like Un’s voice that night he was stabbed, or like that trembling awe in Donny Hathaway’s voice when he let go and sang about being free, or that sounded like his wife’s flat voice as she stared blankly into space over the phone.  Well that urge, that curiosity, to step outside of the celebrity version that one constructs to present to the world, is found on 4:44.

A stark, bracing look at the life of Shawn Carter, rife with intimacy and triumph are found across these songs, some which show a Jay Z in charge, advising and boasting, and another set of songs that deconstruct the myth of the Rap star at the same time.  

Opener “Kill Jay Z” is a series of clear-eyed, accusatory, second person couplets over a panicked muffle of a beat.  Confessionals and invective pushed together into lines, not only in the famous Kanye “20 mill” line but also in “you stabbed Un over some records, your excuse was he was talking too reckless,” and “you got people you love you sold drugs to, you got high on the life, that shit drugged you.”  It’s the type of shit men say into the shower in tortured litanies the afternoon after a late night bender, a shocking look at a man without his crown coming to terms with himself. The lines come off as strips of ego, revealing a man as used to failing as he is to winning.

Then there is the centerpiece and title track, which along with Cardi Bs “Bodak Yellow,” was one of the best songs a New York rapper released that year, a track that marries captivating lyrics over an equally striking beat.  

He uses his voice in subtle ways now, to express shaded emotions, like in “Adnis,” from the set of throwaways-for-a-reason extra CD tracks, where he confesses about his father “you couldn’t kick the habit, wished you had said something,” and over that whinnying vocal sample and those somber piano chords I try to imagine the advice a drug dealer might give to a parent that uses, the karmic kindness he might have met him with.

And on “Legacy” he is limber and reflective, on a coolly lazy chop of some drums and that Donnie Hathaway voice sample I told you about, sounding like Train of Thought-era Talib Kweli.  Rapping again about his father, or Father, he says, “I studied muslims, bhuddas and Christians, I was running from him, but he was giving me wisdom.”  

First the beat, a joyous chop of some modern Blue Eyed soul from Britain, the swooping runs and hot yelps of the singer swirling into a deep groove, a masterful manufacturing of voice and instrumental bombast that recalls the great beats of J Dilla’s rhythmic juggling of Luther Vandross’ voice in “Airworks,” and Just Blaze’s arresting rendering of Gladys Knights voice on Freeway’s “When They Remember.”  The song, and all production here, is handled by Chicago producer No I.D.  

He came up producing the first three Common albums with the same multi-bar looping of sounds, with the Common songs focusing on the bassline and guitar of jazz and funk records.  But with Jay, his beats has its main characteristics coming from the chopping of the piano, the voice and the soft harmonies of Soul songs, and this song it is said, was done after No I.D. sent him the beat and song to listen to, with Jay listening and then later waking at the titular time to compose and spew his guts out about his marriage and behavior.  

Now whether that story is true, or whether it is true for marketing purposes, is immaterial, because the truth and the purported truth both resulted in this resolute, unflinched honesty, these lyrics cutting into not only the mirrored scales of celebrity drama, but into the dermis and flesh of relationships themselves. “I said ‘don’t embarrass me’ instead of ‘be mine,’ that was my proposal for us to go steady,” he says, the admission of a man on top of the Rap world at the start of the millenium, from when he was cocksure and unsure at the same time.  

Later, he talks of stillborns, then threesomes and then there is the crushing observation “your eyes leave with the soul that your body once housed,” and then he ends a verse with the prayer of husbands in the quote “I stew over, what if, you over, my shit?”

This is an examination of the parts of a man when he was broken and flailing for control, the myth deflated into an approachable Clark Kent of a rapper, and broken down even more until the mask goes away, until the acknowledgement that Santa Claus is fake, until what results is an aesthetic of honesty, a veteran giving a seamless performance of realness.

There of course is still Jay’s expected brand of braggadocio, the songs that make up the mythical Jay, and that creates the tension of this album. “Smile” finds Jay and his mother rising above their adversaries of career and sexuality over a sweet sampling of a Stevie Wonder classic. “Aw you thought I was washed/ I’m at the cleaners, laundering dirty money, like the teamsters,” he boasts. There’s “Bam” with Junior Gong, where he is at his most alert and violent, surrounded by an angelic cloud of Sister Nancys echoing through the reggae strut.  With “Marcy Me,” the rapper is at the top of his powers, each line filled with double entendres and agile flows, the song resonant and dense enough to be the type of track found on a late-nineties DJ Clue tape, and then it starts slowing down and expanding into an epic sprawl, the voices of yesteryear stretched, echoed.

This look at the man behind the throne is what gives a lot of 4:44 its social and emotional push forward.  As time has passed though, we see that the album that came with building-spanning pomp and mysterious advertisements, is in reality an insular record, with wisened words cosseted in beats with warm, swirling harmonies.   What the Brooklyn, N.Y. rapper manages to do is produce a solid album, not about relishing in cash, money and hoes, but about a life in the wake of those excesses, and about the barbed reckoning in the heart of marriages necessary for them to beat again.  I don’t think Jay is haunted by his searching questions from that moment in the documentary.  And I don’t think he gets up at four-something in the morning anymore either.

But there’s something that stops me from just calling 4:44 a new classic and an epic comeback like others did upon release.  It’s just that, well, I wish this album swung for the fences more. There’s a ton of great album tracks dealing with the knotted distemper of love and of life, but only “4:44” and “Marcy Me” even try to whip any of this up into a frenzy, and I think that is because other than the tangled root of Frank Ocean in “Caught in Their Eyes” and the thick chants of “Bam,” there isn’t much in the way of choruses here.

There is a hermetic groove here, the songs that Jay picked for NoI.D. to chop up included a number of warm Soul records from the seventies. The songs are turned inward most lines, causing him to employ more relaxed tones in his voice, like his drugged, mocking confessions on the foggy “Moonlight.” This works well for some songs to play after some fine Common or Talib Kweli joints, but Jay Z, and his voice, are at their best when they are on top of the world, not coiled and engaging in self-flagellation.

[wmua-amherst]

Album Review: Jaime by Brittany Howard

by Alex MacLean

It’s rare to hear a record so brimming with life and creative energy as this one, at least for me. The kind of work that reminds you of the power music can have; paradigm-shifting, life-sustaining stuff. If you've heard the Alabama Shakes, you've heard this artist’s voice and her songwriting, but Jaime, her first release under her own name, feels like something else entirely.  While the Shakes are firmly a guitar band devoted to rock music, Howard's approach is more varied on this one, with jazz and soul creating the backdrop for idiosyncratic arrangements that don’t really sound like much else now. It is an experimental, soul-searching album that is joyous, adventurous, tragic and romantic, concerned with mining the past for a blueprint on how to move forward and always do better. 

This unique and eclectic approach makes itself apparent from the first track, the funky and political “History Repeats.”  This track is followed by a pair of love songs, “He Loves Me,” and “Georgia.” The former is a stomping, swaggering gospel song devoted to God, the only man who loves Howard unconditionally even when she’s “smoking blunts...drinking too much,” and just doing what she wants. At first it seemed to be a romantic sentiment, but the song is intermittently interrupted by samples of a preacher’s impassioned sermon. The latter finds Howard expressing desire for a woman named Georgia to notice her. She wants so badly for her “to know what [she] means when [she] says hello.” It starts from a quiet place with stuttered hi-hats and Howard singing falsetto, but eventually the crush blooms, and the song blasts off from an organ break into a coda of laser-like sustained guitar. Other highlights include the stunning “13th Century Metal,” which rides a “Funky Drummer”-like groove and an ancient-sounding keyboard into oblivion as Howard repeats a number of powerful mantras: “We are all brothers and sisters,” “My spirit will never be stomped out,” “Give in to love.” The song swells and swerves in and out of dissonance, inviting choirs of saxophones and other voices to join in. 

The ninth track, “Goat Head,” brings the pace of the record to a halt, in the most stunning way. The song delves into Howard’s personal history and identity, detailing a hate crime her family experienced in her childhood, and the negative and inaccurate impressions foisted on her as the child of a black man and a white woman in small-town Alabama; choice line: “See I’m black, I’m not white / but I’m that, nah nah I’m this, right?” The song also strips back a lot of instrumentation and low end, opting for a minimal, airy trap-style beat with a chopped-up piano loop. This lets the lyrics, and Howard, speak for themselves without the possibility of her message being misconstrued. 

Jaime is so engaging because Howard is so confident as a songwriter and her band is so talented that she is able to essentially throw out the rulebook on making records. Not that there is one, but a lot of deviations from pop song form and production unequivocally make for a singular and more compelling pop record. Speaking of the band, Robert Glasper guests on keys and Nate Smith plays drums on most tracks here. Smith may not be a name you know, but it should be, because his performances on this album are the source of much of these songs’  power. The drum sound is heavily compressed and distorted in many songs, pushed to the foreground of the mix. This would seem like the “wrong” thing to do to a lot of mix engineers, if you’re trying to get a clean and clear drum sound, but it brings raw power and heft to Smith’s precise yet relaxed timekeeping; it makes the effortless cool of playing just behind the beat a key feature of these songs, just like J Dilla’s unquantized MPC drums were as they changed the face of music back in the 1990s. 

Jaime above all, rewards repeat listens. Every song has something ot offer; after many listens just sort of tuning out those that weren’t my favorite tracks, the magic of “Short and Sweet” became apparent, it does so much with just a sparse acoustic guitar instrumental and Howard’s impassioned vocals. It is definitely an album worth going back to if you missed it when it first came out.

Jaime is out now on ATO Records

[djfreedomlives]

We still love this mix by our resident DJ Freedom!! Reposted from @djfreedomlives NEW MIX ALERT!! DJ Freedom | Soulanta Spring Vibes 2020 (Tues Mar 31 2020) Neo soul, rare grooves and soulful R&B! 🎩🎵👣💙 01 Tom Misch Feat De La Soul | It Runs Through Me 02 Adele | Cold Shoulder (FreeMix) 03 4hero | Look Inside (FreeEdit) 04 Q-Tip Feat Amanda Diva | Manwomanboogie 05 Mr Scruff | Come On Grandad 06 Dwele | The Sun (Dwele Remix) 07 Stevie Wonder | You And I (Stereo Remix) 08 Kaytranada Feat Kali Uchis | 10 Percent  09 Basecamp | ESC {Swindail Remix) 10 Eric Lau Feat Rachel | Here 11 Slakah The Beatchild Feat Glenn Lewis | Number One Feat MJ Butterflies 12 Sade | Kiss Of Life (Kaytranada Remix) 13 Kaytranada | It Was Meant 2 B 14 Jill Scott | Lovely Day 15 Dwele X Marvin Gaye | Come Go With Me (The Untitled Groove) 16 Amale Feat Musiq Soulchild | Half Of It  17 Jadakiss Feat John Legend | I Know 18 June Marieezy | Fly (FKJ Remix) 19 Jamiroquai | Virtual Insanity) (Salaam Remix) 20 Soulpersona & Princess Freesia | You Do Me (Soulpersona Taster Edit) 21 Lloyd Banks x Jadakiss | No One (Inst) 22 Celeste | Lately (Freedom's Soul Edit) 23 Masego Feat SiR | Old Age  24 Crossroads Feat Teisha Marie | Ain't Nobody Like You (Soulpersona Raregroove x FreeEdit 25 Mos Def | Respiration (Inst) 26 Shirley Bassey Light My Fire (Reflex Revision) 27 Musiq Soulchild & J Dilla | Dewitt 4 Dilla 28 Tom Misch | Come Back B/W  Michael Jackson Human Nature 29 Nuwamba | Forever  30 Dionne Warwick | Move Me No Mountain (Soulpersona Remix) 31 Slakah The Beatchild | Miscommunication  32 Change | Hit Or Miss 33 Ybn Cordae Feat Anderson.Paak | Rnp  34 Emotions Feat Jimmy Ruffin | As Long As I Got You 35 Leon Ware Feat Carl Hudson | Rocking You Eternally (ReWork) 36 Linn & Freddy Feat Peter Linde | Let Me Talk To You Baby  37 Slum Village Get Dis Money 38 Kehlani Feat Keyshia Cole | All Me  39 Robin Thicke | Lost Without You (Rhythm & Soul Remix) 40 Leroy Hutson | Lucky Fellow (Soulpersona Edit) 🎩🎵👣💙 MixCloud.com/MixToGo | @DJFreedomLives + @OfficialSoulanta + @TheOriginalMixToGo + @TheSouthernEmpire 🎩🎵👣💙 #NeoSoul #rnb #soul #nujazz #acidjazz #mixshow #onlineradio #remixes (at Brooklyn, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBcG_U1hR3M/?igshid=amy5fflkop9f

[rainydawgradioblog]

Rainy Dawg Radio’s Best of the 2010s!

ALBUMS

Palberta - Bye Bye Berta

Palberta is a band that somehow manages to scratch almost every musical itch I have. Nowhere else have I heard a band successfully hold three part harmonies over squeaky atonal guitar riffs and abstract drum thrashing. Although I wouldn’t categorize them as twee, noise rock, post-punk, indie pop, no-wave, or any other genre name for that matter, they distill everything I love from all these types of music and mush it into something beautifully stinky. In my eyes, their 2017 album Bye Bye Berta stands as the definitive statement of what Palberta’s all about. With 20 tracks clocking in at under half an hour, the album wastes no time on filler. Skronky punk riffs burst apart at the seams and a sweet little lo-fi love song comes out of the wreckage, only to be replaced by an abstract tape sample collage. The band also has an incomparable mastery over lyricism, as evidenced by such classics as Finish My Bread (Finish my finish my finish my bread, finish my finish my finish my bread, etc…) and Trick Ya (HEY! Don’t trick me, I’m gonna trick you! HEY! Don’t trick me, I’m gonna trick you!). Highlights include the endearingly ramshackle and stupid pretty “Honey, Baby” and their cover of “Stayin’ Alive” (Jenny’s eating burgers and everybody’s shakin’ and stayin’ alive!)

- Elliott Hansen

Alex G - DSU

Shit if you know me you know I live for that sad bastard indie music. That’s exactly what DSU does best. Probably my most played record of the 2010s, this album’s lo-fi indie rock overfloweth. The opener, After Ur Gone, is on the noisier side of the album’s spectrum along with the squealing guitar of Axesteel and Icehead (peep the scream vocals in his live performances), while songs like the instrumental Skipper exemplify why Frank Ocean tapped Alex for the Self Control riff on Blonde. The emotional core of the record, Sorry, gets right back to the Elliott Smith comparisons that we know and love: lyrics of trauma, drugs and apologies included. My favorite song is Harvey; it smacks me right in the younger brother emo spot, with “run my hands through his short black hair I say / ‘I love you Harvey I don’t care’”. While not as chaotic as House of Sugar, twangy as Rocket, or psychedelic as Beach Music, this record is Alex G comfort music at its finest.

- Max Bryla

Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma

Picture this: J Dilla, Madlib, and Aphex Twin all come together to create an album with little more than some old Coltrane records and an original Xbox at their disposal. The end result is like a trip through the universe. Yet the album comes from the mind of a single individual, who sits in the cockpit with a mischievous grin on his face: Steven Ellison, known professionally as Flying Lotus. The opening track, ‘Clock Catcher’, feels like Ellison slamming his foot onto the ignition so hard that it snaps out of place, shooting into the heavens at the speed of light before the listener can even strap in. Whirling through the stars, the rest of the album is the journey home from the expanse, often melancholic, often wondrous, always changing. From the punchy, off-kilter rhythms of tracks like ‘Nose Art’ and ‘Computer Face//Pure Being’ to the fat synth melodies of ‘Dance of the Pseudo Nymph’, ‘Recoiled’, and ‘Do The Astral Plane’, Flylo is always striking the listener from a different sonic vantage point. You can tell he’s having the time of his life with each of these songs, wanting to share every bit of it with our eardrums. After countless listens, I’m still finding new things about this album to appreciate. A complete masterpiece of cosmic epiphany fuel.

- Trey Marez

Ott. - Fairchildren

People throw so much music at me. And I remember this album was recommended to me back in high school, and I listened to it for the first time in zero-th period -- I think it was someone who went by the name “phryk” on IRC. And dang, it’s still such a good album! In what sense? It’s so well-mixed; that’s the first part. Secondly, it is just a wonderful listening experience from start to finish. If you need a good album of reggae, dub, electronic, here it is. One thing you shouldn’t do with this album: use it to test out speakers at Goodwill. The bass of this album was so good that I bought home a pair of speakers that turned out to be so bad.

- Koi Nil

Car Seat Headrest - Twin Fantasy

Bandcamp has been known for hosting some of our wildest dreams this decade, and when 2011 lobbed William Toledo’s first rendition of Twin Fantasy down my ears my life changed. Emotions are crushed to death in the back of parking lots, the lo-est of fi’s, and lyrics that trigger far and melancholy memories of the early 2010 zeitgeist swarmed with insecurity and Skype calls. The album is Toledo’s first cohesive piece, finally creating work with developed central themes, dedicating the first concept album of his life to falling in and consequently out of love. The album speaks as a mirror to itself, reflecting Will’s own joy and confusion towards falling conservatively and completely in love, until the sobering downward spiral back into isolation. I was only eleven when I let the album own me completely, and am only nineteen as I hold onto it for dear life. Twin Fantasy was never a perfect album, and Toledo recognized this as he re-released Twin Fantasy (Face to Face) in 2018, reinventing the album’s sound with a much higher fidelity, lyrical updates, and redone instrumentals that turn the original into an overture or prologue to be enjoyed separately for more context. Searing solos, cute doo-wop moments, sentimental lyrics, slap-happy drums, fish wearing business suits, dogs, coming out over Skype, smoking, not smoking, nice shoulders, waitresses, the Bible, the ghost of Mary Shelley’s frankenstein, cursive, they might be giant’s rip offs, not knowing SHIT about girls, stealing alcohol from our grandparents and grandparents, bruised shins, cults, fish, getting the spins, and being really really really sensitive to the sunlight. I’d fight for this album, listening to “Cute Thing” as I get RKO’d. Take the time to enjoy the ride, I wouldn’t miss it for the world. (It technically used to be a gay furry album, but now it’s techincally a straight trans furry album.)

- Cooper Houston

Sabaton - The Last Stand

Sabaton is every history teachers dream band. These Swedish power metallers educate the listener about the history of war by discussing various battles, conflicts, and figures. They do this through anthemic choruses, riffs that make your fist pump, and oddly enough synths that work surprisingly well. Since history interests me and I really like metal, Sabaton was pretty much made for me. This album will always have a soft spot in my heart and evoke fond memories as it was one of the first CDs I picked up after getting my license back in 2016. As I gained more independence and freedom as I approached adulthood, this was my soundtrack. This album lived in my CD player during this time as I listened to it over and over again, never once losing its replayability. Ranging from the American battalion that got lost in the Argonne Forest during WWI to Allied and Axis forces joining together to fight at the end of WWII, this album tells of various historical last stands. While this is certainly isn’t the best metal release of the decade, it’s still an extremely solid album. In this case, the sentimentality plays a larger role than anything. While it may not be found on any “Best Album of the Decade” lists, Sabaton’s The Last Stand will always hold a place in my heart and in my car’s CD player.

- Jack Irwin

CONCERTS

07/20/19: What the Heck? Fest @ Croatian Club, Anacortes, WA

Choosing a single favorite concert from the entire past decade seemed insurmountable until I decided to define it by the overall experience rather than exclusively the music. This past summer, I was lucky enough to be one out of barely over a hundred people at the first What the Heck? Fest in 8 years. The festival took place annually from 2001 to 2011, featuring PNW indie legends, K records icons, and all manner of dorky indie folk kids. WTH laid dormant until this past spring, when Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie) announced its return along with the revival of his long-dead initial moniker, the Microphones. I made the trip up from Seattle alone by train and bus, spent a little while wandering Anacortes (the Business was closed :( ) and made my way to the repurposed church which houses the Unknown and the Croatian Club. I ended up seated a few feet from Calvin Johnson in one direction and Kimya Dawson in another. I felt a little out of place at times, like a stranger in the middle of a 90s indie family reunion, but the atmosphere remained consistently welcoming. D+ opened the show, fronted by Bret Lunsford (formerly of Beat Happening), the founder and main organizer of WTH, and backed by Phil Elverum and Karl Blau, who played their own sets later in the night. K Records mainstays Lois and Mecca Normal were on next, delivering stripped down, socially-driven whisper punk/indie pop. Karl Blau led an outdoor sing-along and covered a Pounding Serfs song, who played the next set (their first in [a lot of?] years) for a total of two renditions of “Slightly Salted,” a song I could have listened to in every set that night. Phil hopped back onstage again alongside Lee Baggett to back Kyle Field from Little Wings, an indie-folk favorite of mine, with rambly half-nonsensical lyrics and plenty of soft strummed warm twangly guitars. Black Belt Eagle Scout delivered (comparatively) heavier sounds, coupling slow, soft sung melodies with fuzzed out shoegaze tones, building tension until the Microphones (Phil backed by Kyle, Karl, Lee and keyboardist Nicholas Krgovich) came out for the final set of the night. They opened with what I interpret as a 25-minute rendition of the then-unreleased Belief, which was later shortened to 7 and a half minutes as the opener to the new Mount Eerie record, Lost Wisdom pt. 2. Phil then played a handful of old Microphones tracks alone, including a version of The Glow pt. 2’s title track with reworked lyrics, as well as its closer, My Warm Blood, excerpts from the final Microphones album (confusingly titled Mount Eerie), and what I believe to be another unreleased song. I left with the most limited merch I’ve ever managed to snag: one of two Ziploc bags of lettuce with “the Microphones” and a small K records logo sharpied on the front. I felt bad eating my merch, but it sustained me through the cold Anacortes night as I wandered to and from poorly lit parks, killing time until my 4AM bus back to Seattle.

- Elliott Hansen

03/09/19: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (Solo) @ Vermillion Gallery, Seattle WA

Was really not sure what to expect from this one going in, but CYHSY’s s/t from 2005 has always been one of my favorite records. I hadn’t ever been to Vermillion in Capitol Hill, but it was hosting CYHSY on a “living room tour”, where Alec Ournsworth (vox, guitar, harmonica[!]) hit tiny spaces around the country. Vermillion sat 40 at most, and I got to check out some cool local art in the space as well. Alec’s trademark voice that (according to p4k) sounds “as if someone were pressing his vocal cords to a fret board and bending them” which is pretty damn accurate. Amongst CYHSY’s greatest hits (In This Home On Ice and Cool Goddess in particular), he also covered Pixies and Tom Waits through lively and exciting banter. Great dude, great music, great venue. My favorite of the 2010’s for sure.

- Max Bryla

11/14/18: Milo @ Vera Project, Seattle, WA

Milo, and the ruby yacht house band are poetic alchemists that constantly dish out hefty servings of succulent syllables with each new release. Kenny Segal who does the beats for a few of Milo’s songs (and other hip hop artists) opened by transporting the crowd into the ethereal realm with a few classics from his album: happy little trees. Once Kenny Segal finished, Milo accompanied by the ruby yacht house band jumped on stage. I was close enough that I could make out Milo’s squirtle tattoo on his bicep and waited for his vivid and veracious vocabulary to leave me in a state of decapitation. Crispy, potato chip like static (a Milo-live signature) was consumed ferociously by the crowd as he hit us with one banger after another. About halfway through the set Milo dropped the mic and went off stage into the back room. The ruby yacht house band was left Milo-less; their beat lingering in the air, festering with each hit of the snare. Milo returned a while later, wielding a pair of tap dancing shoes in one hand and a ukulele in the other. He put on the tap dancing shoes on stage, everyone in the audience screaming with his return. Donned with the tap dancing shoes and positioning his ukulele on his chest; he began to dance. Holy shit he was good too. Strumming the uke and tap dancing away I was utterly mesmerized. My eyes glued to his performance. Suddenly, as if stricken by some divine intervention, Milo seized the ukulele by the neck and smashed it against the ground, splintering into a thousand pieces. After his destructive fit, he picked the microphone back up and whispered into it emotionlessly: “Think about that”. I did. The whole experience was transcendental and instantly triumphed as my greatest concert of the decade. You KNOW I snagged a sliver of uke on my way out.

- Rocky Schaefer

08/07/17: Metallica @ CenturyLink Field, Seattle, WA

While Metallica has had its ups and downs throughout their career, they do one thing well, and that is putting on a damn good live show. Metallica built the best line-up I have ever seen, given the popularity of the bands they chose. With them they took Avenged Sevenfold, who I greatly dislike but are still a huge band, and Gojira, one of the best modern death metal bands on the scene. The sheer size of this concert was absolutely and extremely inspiring as Metallica was able to fill up CenturyLink Field, a venue usually reserved for pop artists who draw in thousands of attendees. The amount of people that attended signaled to me that metal is far from dead. While this tour was in support of their newest album Hardwired to Self Destruct, Metallica made sure to incorporate classics into their setlist including “Seek and Destroy,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” and “Battery.” James, Robert, Kirk, and Lars delivered a killer concert will tight playing and outstanding individual performances. Being able to see my music hero, James Hetfield, play live was truly a special experience. The one thing that stood out during the performance were the visuals. Each song had a unique and individual video effect on the large screens behind the band which made each song special and memorable it its own way. While I wasn’t close to the stage by any means, the crowd interaction created a unique experience that made me feel much closer than I really was. This concert wasn’t just a concert, but also a life-changing experience. Seeing the band that truly got me into metal, the thing that I rest my individuality on, is something that defined the decade for me and will live with me forever.

- Jack Irwin

SONGS

“You Are Here” - Yo La Tengo

This one I don't think I can fully explain. By miles, this is my most played song of all time. It is the opener of Yo La Tengo’s 15th album, There’s A Riot Going On. The album, and song, starts with the meditative synth line that builds into a pulsing rhythm over the course of the first minute. The rhythm maintains through the rest of the song, as casual guitar strumming is added and another synth that doesn’t sound all that dissimilar to Jonny Greenwood’s Ondes Martenot. My favorite part of the song, though, are the drum fills of the latter half: they crash and roll like the ocean. With or without the title of the song, the audio conveys a degree of presentness and contentedness that I haven’t been able to find elsewhere quite yet. I’d recommend it.