#and the fact that he never responded back to pusha t… like what kind of line of thinking even is this and they’re supposed to be some of

[tariah23]

He’s such a loser bro

[dustedmagazine]

Broken bodies all the time: Ian Mathers’ year in review

Photo by Paul Husband

Since, let’s say, September, I’ve seen an increasing number of comments from people amazed at just how bloody long 2018 has been, pointing out that events that seem much further back (tide pods! an Olympics! that one political thing in the US, you know, the thing that feels like it was a decade ago!) actually happened this year. I’m no more immune to that kind of horrified, exhilarated realization than any of my friends and loved ones, but I also have a personal one that I can’t believe had fallen so far off my radar that I wasn’t originally conscious of it when I was trying to sum up my year for Dusted.

This past January I went and had surgery to remove a “grapefruit-sized” chondrosarcoma and a section of the three ribs on my left side where it had grown. Other than a noticeable lump in my chest there’d been no other symptoms, one surgery (and about 6 weeks off of work, with pay thankfully) dealt with it cleanly, at least according to the follow-up scans I’ve had and will have twice-yearly until 2022 or so. If you have to get surgery-necessitating cancer, basically, mine was just about the best-case scenario you could hope for (especially here in Canada, where I didn’t have to worry about bankruptcy as a result of medical costs). I don’t want to, and haven’t, made this entire essay about My Cancer Experience (in no small part both because I did have it relatively easy enough that I routinely feel guilty expecting any sort of accommodation for it, even when I was still very much knocked out by the surgery I’d had, and because when everyone wants to know about it you quickly realize it’s kind of boring to talk about), but it does strike that it’d be almost disingenuous to talk about my experience of 2018 without mentioning it. I did allude to it in passing in my 2017 essay here (as well as my wife’s diagnosis of a chronic autoimmune illness, something that honestly effects our day to day lives a lot more), but that was pre-surgery so I was too superstitious to give it a name in such a public forum. Now, when people who know me mention it, I almost have to remind myself that the scariest medical experience of my life to date happened not that long ago.  

I’ve been thinking about it a bit more since reading on Bandcamp Daily that, while Low didn’t really make this part of the narrative around Double Negative when it was being released, about eight months of that album’s gestation happened after Alan Sparhawk had a ski injury involving broken ribs and punctured lungs, and that the recovery process was arduous and involved a lot of prolonged pain. And that got me thinking about context. There are positive and welcomed uses of context, of course; personally, to take a few examples from this year, I think both Leverage Models’ Whites and Zeal & Ardor’s Stranger Fruit are great albums that only gain from some of the context around their creations. But, crucially, it seems the creators involved agree with me, which is why that context is presented up-front in the material around those albums. It’s different when it’s something that, while you might acknowledge its real effects (as Alan does above), you suspect people will blow out of proportion to make the only important fact surrounding what you’ve made. It got me thinking about my own resistance to people - people who love and care about me! - ascribing aspects of my behaviour or actions to the cancer and/or the surgery (and it definitely did have some effects… to take a pretty surface-level one I listened to a lot more records in 2018 than I did in 2017, but didn’t write quite as much). It got me thinking about David Bowie not wanting his last record to be received, at least initially, as his last record.  

And while Alan doesn’t make a big deal of it in that piece, I can see why he might want people to absorb the startling, abrasively gorgeous Double Negative (along with Whites, which I could describe in very similar terms, my favourite/most important record of 2018) on its own terms rather than our narrative-seeking minds possibly turning it into being just ‘about’ his injury (and, not incidentally, wiping out the contributions of the others who worked on the album). Those listeners who did find themselves responding to the record probably wouldn’t be changed that much by the extra information, but goodness knows that every piece of art that gets released has to deal with some dumb, reductive takes, and how would it feel to have those responses taking on (and inflating the importance of) something so personal and literally painful?  

2018 also potentially sees a bigger and less personal loss of context in the music/music criticism world, though. As much as I will maintain all day every day that the more consensus you get when it comes to things like records of the year the more boring you intrinsically have to get, I still felt an absence knowing that the Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics poll was going to vanish with the Voice itself. The interesting thing about every year’s poll was almost never the top ten most acclaimed albums and singles (not necessarily a shot at the quality of that music, just that we’d all been talking about them all year; inevitably, they were all very known quantities), it was seeing what had placed in the lower reaches of the standings, digging around in the votes of friends and colleagues, tracing odd connections and seeing how your own lesser-known favourites were regarded, if at all, by the larger group. And even more than that, I’d argue, what was fascinating and valuable about Pazz & Jop was the way it functioned as a kind of historical record, so that you could look back at a year from decades past and see, not what were the best or even longest-lasting records from that year but what the people who were engaged in listening to and thinking and writing about music thought was important and engaging. I say “potentially,” though, because I had just enough time to realize I was mourning an institution I’d kind of taken for granted (and to be fair, again, each year’s findings at the top seem kind of ploddingly obvious at the time) when I got a new ballot. It looks like some sort of continuation is happening, although only time will tell if this is a genuine resurrection or a last gasp.  

Either way, I haven’t yet tried to narrow things down to lists of 10 (and given that there’s still over 10 hours of music left in my playlist of 2018 releases I haven’t gotten to yet), so here is 25 of the records I’ll be thinking about as I try to figure that ballot out, strictly in order of when I added them to my list, with links to the ones I’ve written about on Dusted. (I didn’t have as much time to go over reissues as I’d like, but probably my favourite was the gorgeous one of the overlooked late Bark Psychosis album ///Codename: Dustsucker, which I reviewed here.) 

Xylouris White - Mother

Mesarthim - The Density Parameter

V/A - Black Panther: The Album

Well Yells - Skunk

Tangents - New Bodies

Tracyanne & Danny - s/t

Tove Styrke - Sway

Wand - Perfume

The Armed - Only Love

Low - Double Negative

Let’s Eat Grandma - I’m All Ears

Obnox - Templo Del Sonido

Nadja - Sonnborner

Pusha T - DAYTONA

No Age - Snares Like a Haircut

Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit

Chelsea Jade - Personal Best

Leverage Models - Whites

Aidan Baker - Deer Park

Robyn - Honey

Efrim Menuck - Pissing Stars

U.S. Girls - In a Poem Unlimited

Andrew Bayer - In My Last Life

Abul Mogard - Above All Dreams

DenMother - Past Life

And I can’t manage one of these every year, but this was an awfully good year for the EP, so here’s a top five: 

EMA - Outtakes From Exile EP

Underworld & Iggy Pop - Teatime Dub Encounters EP

IN / VIA - Treading Water EP

Protomartyr - Consolation EP

Hatchie - Sugar & Spice EP

[investmart007]

NEW YORK | Month after diss track, Drake emerges unfazed with new album

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/F6yerk

NEW YORK | Month after diss track, Drake emerges unfazed with new album

NEW YORK— A month ago, Drake’s world was crumbling. Now, he’s untouchable.

Pusha T’s infamous diss track — where he was in full investigative journalist mode, divulging new information about Drake while also shading his mother, father and bestie — hit Drake hard. Drake’s reply — well, lack thereof, marked a low for the rapper-singer, who had surprised music fans when won his rap beef with Meek Mill in 2015.

But Drake, who has been criticized by some as too commercial and too soft, is back on top seemingly unfazed. And those fans who enjoyed the revelations in Pusha T’s “The Story of Adidon” are likely listening to “Scorpion,” the highly anticipated, 25-track album by pop music’s No. 1 player released Friday.

“It’s not going to hurt him,” Carl Chery, Spotify’s creative director for urban music, said of the diss track. “If Drake comes out with his new single, you’re not going to listen to it? Everyone is going to run and play it. And it’s going to become an Instagram caption.”

“Scorpion,” which features songs with Jay-Z and a previously unreleased Michael Jackson track, includes the massive No. 1 hits “God’s Plan” and “Nice for What.” It’s expected to debut at No. 1, and it was already heavily trending on social media ahead of its release. Over the last few weeks, Drake memes were also trending, but it wasn’t advance publicity he would have hoped for. Instead, the rapper — derided for being too sensitive by some hip-hop heads — was being roasted after the release of “The Story of Addison,” which besides going for the jugular lyrically, also featured as its cover a photo of Drake in blackface (which the rapper explained was a publicity shot from his acting days from a project about the difficulties black actors face).

Pusha T started the beef with a line in his recently released album “Daytona,” and Drake responded with a whole track of digs in the song “Duppy Freestyle.” It seemed he won the battle until Pusha T released his track — and Drake went silent.

Damien Scott, Complex’s editor-in-chief and vice president of content and development, said that he thought Drake might have gone back in the studio to re-record “Scorpion” following Pusha T’s shocking revelation that Drake was a father (“A baby’s involved, it’s deeper than rap/We talkin’ character, let me keep with the facts/You are hiding a child, let that boy come home”).

“I think that the diss had an effect on him personally and as an artist,” said Scott, who said the song wouldn’t put a dent in Drake’s professional career. “He’s never been in this space before. He’s never been on his left foot before and I don’t think he knows what that’s like.”

Scott may have been right. For the first time Drake addresses his son in a song, rapping on “Emotionless”: “I wasn’t hiding my kid from the world, I was hiding the world from my kid.” On the closing track “March 14,” he raps about being a single father and says: “She’s not my lover like Billie Jean, but the kid is mine.”

For another artist, a diss track so heavy might have hurt their career — but not for Drake.

“He can still put this (album) out and get so much love in the midst of all of this other drama that’s happening,” said Cori Murray, entertainer director at Essence magazine. “He’s still beloved.”

The Grammy winner has been on a white-hot streak since he jumped from the acting world onto the music scene as both a rapper and singer in 2009, releasing hit after hit, multiplatinum albums and collaborations with everyone from Rihanna to Romeo Santos. His sound has evolved over the years to incorporate not just rap and R&B but pop, dancehall and African music.

“I call Drake the No. 1 pop star because of the type of music he makes. And I don’t mean that in a derogatory sense. I legitimately think he’s pop music in the way that Michael Jackson and Madonna were pop music, in the sense that they take all these influences and all these genres and use themselves as a filter through which they’re distilled into something brand new,” Scott said. Murray agreed.

“Because of Drake I learned about WizKid. Because of Drake I learned about Black Coffee,” Murray said of the Nigerian singer who appeared on Drake’s hit “One Dance” and the South African DJ who performs around the world. “He’s introducing you to something (new) … so why not give him his credit for introducing us to someone we may not have known about?”

Chery said Drake’s ever-changing sound has kept him consistent — with fans and on the pop charts.

“You have to change with the times, and he’s done that,” said Chery, referencing that Drake’s recent collaborations include Migos and rising rapper Lil Baby. “I think he just really has his finger on the pulse of what’s happening. And he knows when it’s appropriate for him to jump on something and kind of incorporate it in his game plan.”

“He’s like become a tastemaker in a sense,” Chery added.

By MESFIN FEKADU ,  Associated Press

[investmart007]

NEW YORK | Month after diss track, Drake emerges unfazed with new album

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/F6yerk

NEW YORK | Month after diss track, Drake emerges unfazed with new album

NEW YORK— A month ago, Drake’s world was crumbling. Now, he’s untouchable.

Pusha T’s infamous diss track — where he was in full investigative journalist mode, divulging new information about Drake while also shading his mother, father and bestie — hit Drake hard. Drake’s reply — well, lack thereof, marked a low for the rapper-singer, who had surprised music fans when won his rap beef with Meek Mill in 2015.

But Drake, who has been criticized by some as too commercial and too soft, is back on top seemingly unfazed. And those fans who enjoyed the revelations in Pusha T’s “The Story of Adidon” are likely listening to “Scorpion,” the highly anticipated, 25-track album by pop music’s No. 1 player released Friday.

“It’s not going to hurt him,” Carl Chery, Spotify’s creative director for urban music, said of the diss track. “If Drake comes out with his new single, you’re not going to listen to it? Everyone is going to run and play it. And it’s going to become an Instagram caption.”

“Scorpion,” which features songs with Jay-Z and a previously unreleased Michael Jackson track, includes the massive No. 1 hits “God’s Plan” and “Nice for What.” It’s expected to debut at No. 1, and it was already heavily trending on social media ahead of its release. Over the last few weeks, Drake memes were also trending, but it wasn’t advance publicity he would have hoped for. Instead, the rapper — derided for being too sensitive by some hip-hop heads — was being roasted after the release of “The Story of Addison,” which besides going for the jugular lyrically, also featured as its cover a photo of Drake in blackface (which the rapper explained was a publicity shot from his acting days from a project about the difficulties black actors face).

Pusha T started the beef with a line in his recently released album “Daytona,” and Drake responded with a whole track of digs in the song “Duppy Freestyle.” It seemed he won the battle until Pusha T released his track — and Drake went silent.

Damien Scott, Complex’s editor-in-chief and vice president of content and development, said that he thought Drake might have gone back in the studio to re-record “Scorpion” following Pusha T’s shocking revelation that Drake was a father (“A baby’s involved, it’s deeper than rap/We talkin’ character, let me keep with the facts/You are hiding a child, let that boy come home”).

“I think that the diss had an effect on him personally and as an artist,” said Scott, who said the song wouldn’t put a dent in Drake’s professional career. “He’s never been in this space before. He’s never been on his left foot before and I don’t think he knows what that’s like.”

Scott may have been right. For the first time Drake addresses his son in a song, rapping on “Emotionless”: “I wasn’t hiding my kid from the world, I was hiding the world from my kid.” On the closing track “March 14,” he raps about being a single father and says: “She’s not my lover like Billie Jean, but the kid is mine.”

For another artist, a diss track so heavy might have hurt their career — but not for Drake.

“He can still put this (album) out and get so much love in the midst of all of this other drama that’s happening,” said Cori Murray, entertainer director at Essence magazine. “He’s still beloved.”

The Grammy winner has been on a white-hot streak since he jumped from the acting world onto the music scene as both a rapper and singer in 2009, releasing hit after hit, multiplatinum albums and collaborations with everyone from Rihanna to Romeo Santos. His sound has evolved over the years to incorporate not just rap and R&B but pop, dancehall and African music.

“I call Drake the No. 1 pop star because of the type of music he makes. And I don’t mean that in a derogatory sense. I legitimately think he’s pop music in the way that Michael Jackson and Madonna were pop music, in the sense that they take all these influences and all these genres and use themselves as a filter through which they’re distilled into something brand new,” Scott said. Murray agreed.

“Because of Drake I learned about WizKid. Because of Drake I learned about Black Coffee,” Murray said of the Nigerian singer who appeared on Drake’s hit “One Dance” and the South African DJ who performs around the world. “He’s introducing you to something (new) … so why not give him his credit for introducing us to someone we may not have known about?”

Chery said Drake’s ever-changing sound has kept him consistent — with fans and on the pop charts.

“You have to change with the times, and he’s done that,” said Chery, referencing that Drake’s recent collaborations include Migos and rising rapper Lil Baby. “I think he just really has his finger on the pulse of what’s happening. And he knows when it’s appropriate for him to jump on something and kind of incorporate it in his game plan.”

“He’s like become a tastemaker in a sense,” Chery added.

By MESFIN FEKADU ,  Associated Press