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grimelords · 5 years ago

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So since the last time I posted one of these the entire world has changed dramatically and hopefully 4 hours of music will tide you over in quarantine for a bit longer. Strangely I’ve been busier than ever, and what started as a personal challenge to listen to a new album every day in February turned into me listening to 116 new albums in March and 124 in April. I’ve got a stacked google doc full of star ratings and dates now and it’s really been a lot of fun, I highly recommend trying it yourself. This is my March playlist, because I accidentally took a month off, and I’m thinking of either switching these playlists to weekly to make them a little more digestible or just dropping them whenever. Who knows. Let me know what you think and drop album recommendations in the comments please.

Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0k1JjT8fXcUFO6VpM3kaez?si=gWSv88vdShKSnHhLJ_80pQ

If you’d like to receive these playlists in a more digestible email format, please subscribe to my tinyletter here: http://tinyletter.com/grimelords

On A Slow Boat To China - Bing Crosby & Peggy Lee: Ok first off it’s amazing this song isn’t more racist. I don't remember now how or why I came across this. I think I was just thinking about crooners and how as a genre it's now existed in common popularity as a nostalgic idyll of a mytholigised past far longer than it was ever actually popular which is interesting. The origin of this song, according to wikipedia, is also one of the most 40s ideas I've ever read: "I'd like to get you on a slow boat to China" was a well-known phrase among poker players, referring to a person who lost steadily and handsomely. The idea being that a "slow boat to China" was the longest trip one could imagine. Loesser moved the phrase to a more romantic setting, yet it eventually entered general parlance to mean anything that takes an extremely long time".

Fight Night - Migos: I saw that Offset had some new show on Quibi the extremely fake sounding streaming service and I thought "how did Migos get so world conqueringly large that they get to make 10 minute shows nobody will watch for a $2 billion venture capital funded app that will never make any money?" They seem to have this massive reputation without having much to back it up. The last thing I remember everyone talking about was how Culure II was two hours long in order to game streaming numbers and was simply not good. They seemed to have sort of settled into making background music for scrolling instagram. But then I remembered Fight Night and I thought: "oh wait, that's right, Migos are fucking great". Where their other big hits like Bad And Boujee and Walk It Talk It have this sort of laid back vibe where they've comfortably nailed the formula and relax onto it, Fight Night commands your attention. StackboyTwan killed the beat - it has this propulsive momentum where it feels like it's constantly ramping up, moving up from the sidesick and bassline in the verse, up to the claps on the beat, and the big gang chants on the offbeat once the full instrumentation kicks in - then it just goes around and around and around with the constant bassline the whole tim. It's a perfect all-rise production because it never actually explodes, it's all building tension held down by an unchanging bassline.

Do It Puritan! - El Hombre Trajeado & Sue Tompkins: I am extremely delighted to announce that Sue Tompkins of one of my all time favourite single album bands Life Without Buildings has broken a nearly 20 year musical hiatus to appear on this song by El Hombre Trajeado. It is so nice to hear how her voice has changed and her approach has stayed the same. Her style is so unique and so good and I don't think I'll ever get tired of it.

5 8 6 - New Order: Before 'the incident' I had tickets to see New Order at the end of March and so I embarked on a big listen through of their discography, which has now unfortunately made it feel even worse that live music is cancelled indefinitely.

Oom Sha La La - Haley Heynderickx: First of all I love songs where they talking about how they're writing a song halfway through. And I love songs that seem like a pretty normal singer songwriter indie thing where someone just starts screaming near the end. I love this song. A great staring at the wall and absolutely losing your mind because you haven't done anything with your whole life anthem.

Elektrobank - The Chemical Brothers: Can you believe I've never listening to a full Chemical Brothers album before this month? Can you believe big beat ever went our of style? It feels insane that we ever swapped this sort of energy for the beige algorithm of EDM. I think there's a real triumph in this album, and in this track especially of replicating the live feeling in studio. Giving it this much space to grow and change and get very hairy near the end is amazing, it feels like it was just recorded live.

My Mind's A Ship (That's Going Down) - Katie Pruitt: It feels very rare to me that this sort of extremely smooth Nashville prduction actually makes a song better. It has a habit of strangling the life out of a song and making it blend into a boring paste of soundalikes, but with Katie Pruitt it works amazingly. Her songwriting is so distinct and clear and her voice, especially near the end where it punches hole in the sky, is so strong and so her own that it doesn't need anything else.

Water - Ohmme: "What if Tegan And Sara were a noise band instead?" is a question I didn't know I needed an answer to. I love any band that has the guts to write songs like this that sound like pop from an alternate history, so off kilter and odd and noisy but with this undeniable pop heart that the duo vocals make sound like schoolyard clapping chants remixed by Lightning Bolt.

Lions, Tigers and Bears - SLIFT: A friend put me on to Slift and described them as French King Gizz and really, I'm inclined to agree. This is the traditional long last song at the end of their new album, and as usual I am advocating that every song should be the long last song at the end of the album. I love this style of jam where everyone else goes to space but the rhythm section just digs in and works hard as fuck for ten minutes. Then the whole last 3 minutes of the song are just fat drone riffs. This song's got everything.

The Pines - 070 Shake: This 070 Shake album is unbeleivably good and it warms my heart to see the dark energy of The Pines live on through another century in yet another permutation. I have more to say about it later in the Jackson C Frank version coming up but it feels like this 070 Shake album kind of came and went but I implore you to listen, it’s an aoty contender for sure.

Standing On The Verge Of Getting It On - Funkadelic: If you can stop thinking about the intro, which I certainly can’t (Hey lady won’t you be my dog and I’ll be your tree and you can pee on me.) there is so much goodness in this song. For a while now I’ve been thinking about how, for lack of a better word, ‘positive’ music is consistently underrated in the critical canon. Dance music, disco and funk especially are derided as empty sugar music, while every cookie cutter metal band absolutely demands to be taken seriously. In dance music this manifests as genres like tech house sucking all the fun and individuality out of music until it’s just an endless parade of producers working to a schematic of the barest essentials. It feels like you can’t have fun and be taken seriously at the same time, which feels like an obvious contradiction but shouldn’t be!

Spoils - Dry Cleaning: Dry Cleaning are my Lock Of The Month Band To Watch In The Future Because They’re Gonna Go Off. They have such a great sound and I’m desperate for an album because I just need more. This song absolutely knocked me down when I first heard it. I love any band where it sounds like the singer has just wandered in while the rest of them were rehearsing. There’s a very good talking-songs movement happening in the UK right now between these guys, Do Nothing and Fontaines D.C and i’m excited to see where it progresses. I might put together a playlist a little later to show you what I mean.

As - Stevie Wonder: I finally listened to Songs In The Key Of Life this month, which is an experience I would recommend to everyone. This shit goes for 21 songs over 105 minutes and absolute bangs the whole way. The original release of this album was a double LP plus a 7", which is yet another reason I am grateful for streaming that I don't have to buy a damn box set to hear this thing.

Sleep Now In The Fire - Rage Against The Machine: I am working on a very niche playlist called Songs Where The Guitar Amp Accidentally Picks Up A Nearby Radio Station For A Couple Of Seconds and it's only 3 songs so far. A Man A Plan A Canal Panama by The Fall Of Troy, Melody 4 by Tera Melos and Sleep Now In The Fire by Rage Against The Machine. In every single one of those songs it feels like a critical component even though it's just an accident that's been left in because it sounds good. Here it's the perfect ending as the rage dies down and the commercial world fades back in. Anyway, my other question about this song is about the great Michael Moore directed video where they famously shut down Wall Street for an afternoon. There's a shot of a guy for a second holding a sign that says Donald Trump For President in 1999. Which is odd but not out of the question, he's been famous for a long time and there's always been freaks. My question is why the fuck did he have that sign that day? Was he amongst the Rage Against The Machine Fans that showed up? A counter protestor? Was he, perhaps most chillingly of all, just walking idly around Wall Street with his Donald Trump For President sign like usual and stumbled upon this whole hoo-haa accidentally?

Applause (Purity Ring Remix) - Lady Gaga: Did you fucking know that Purity Ring did a remix of Applause? If there’s something I’d love to know more about and it’s Purity Ring’s forays into pop production. After their first album they did some production for rappers like Danny Brown in the great track 25 Bucks, which is a good fit really - their sound is witch house with the tempo pushed back up, witch house of course just being chopped and screwed reinvented by tumblr users. So it’s a natural fit to take that new perspective back into the world of hip hop. They also did this fantastic remix of Applause after their first album. Then, after their second album they produced 3 songs for Katy Perry’s Witness album, and one Katy Perry song for a Final Fantasy mobile game soundtrack (?) and feel like the long silence and delay between their second and third albums is because of more behind the scenes pop production work - but if that’s true, where is it? Is it, as I suspect, part of my own personal Pepe Silvia, Katy Perry’s scrapped 2019 album that has vanished into thin air? Or is it part of Chromatica? I think Purity Ring have solidified an interesting place in pop, paving the way for Billie Eilish and Kim Petras’ dark anti-pop and so i’m excited to see where they go after this new album now that they’re the architects of the new wave.

React/Revolt - Drahla: The smartest thing you can do is add a saxophone to your band. The whole first half of this song could go for 20 minutes of growling screaming saxophone post-punk and I wouldn't mind. Then when the second half of the song kicks in it's fantastic in the way this whole Drahla album is: it's tight and sprawling post-punk at the same time with a complicated structure that seems to just pile onto itself instead of ever circling back.

And I Was Like - Porridge Radio: I'm seemingly having a real thing this month for songs that open with a bizzare acapella chant. Between this and the Funkadelic one it's a genre I'm very interested in hearing more of. Isaac Newton was a virgin and it's important to recognise that. The thing I love about this song is how it's in 3 distinc sections: Isaac Newton was a virgin, she's a birthday girl in a birthday world, and mum no please it's grunge, and they all feel like the concentrated energy of a 14 year old's thoughts. She sounds like she's almost crying when she sings 'she's a birthday girl in a birthday world'. The concentrated confusing teenaged energy of this song is just overwhelming.

Dirty Mattresses - Mama's Broke: So much of contemporary 'traditional folk' either exists as pure nostalgia music or as music that's trying too hard to be 'authentic' and evoke a mythology of a bygone time, but Mama's Broke manage to make it feel new and modern but honest and authentic at the same time. The super close harmonies and modern approach remind me of House And Land who I also love, but the songwriting is in another class entirely.

Building A House - CHOPCHOP: I don't know if you've ever seen Bad Boy Bubby but CHOPCHOP feels a little like the band that he ends up joining at the end. A musical ensemble built to enable the will of a very strange man. I think the band is from the UK and I'm not sure where the singer is from, but he has this incredible deeply accented voice that brings such a gravity to everything he sings in the way that anyone speaking english as a second language accidentally brings new weight to common turns of phrase.

Universal Soldier - Jay Electronica: It feels fitting, looking back, that Jay Electronica finally released his album right before the world ended. It was literally now or never. Some how Jay-Z is the breakout star of this album for me. He's got some of his best verses in years on here and he's a great opposition to Electronica's flow when they trade verses. I would also, as an aside, like to know the origin of the kids cheering sample throughout this, because it's the same one from AM//Radio by Earl Sweatshirt and Wish You Were Gay by Billie Eilish. So what's that about.

Sticky Hulks - Thee Oh Sees: I've been very slowly getting into Oh Sees and I love them a lot so far. Their unweildy, huge discography spread across a lot of variations of the same name makes digging into them very rewarding as well. There's a great line on their wiki detailing all the times they've changed their name that goes: Orinoka Crash Suite (1997–2003), OCS (2003–2005, 2017), Orange County Sound (2005), The Ohsees (2006), The Oh Sees (2006–2008), Thee Oh Sees (2008–2017), Oh Sees (2017–2019) Osees (2019) to give you some idea of what we're working with here. Basically it's just everything you could want from a pychedelic band like this: a history and discography as shaggy as the songs themselves.

Knife On The Platter - BODEGA: In reading about Bodega I learned that they don't have a drummer in the traditional sense. They have someone credited as a 'stand up percussionist', and in listening back I realised that's they key to the groove in their music. He's not playing a kit he's just slamming at a tom and a snare on a rack, while one of the singers plays hi-hat here and there. So all the drumming has this barebones caveman feel to it and I absolutely love it. The band feels a lot like The Fashion, and that whole mid-2000s dance-punk movement that I've been desparate to come back so naturally I love it a lot.

Against Gravity - Horse Lords: Horse Lords are one of the most incredible bands I've heard in a long time. Somewhere between a more analogue Battles and Laddio Bolocko, they make a kind of churning math-jazz that sounds like huge intersecting squares of rhythm slowly overlapping. It feels like there's an infinite depth in these songs, you can listen and focus on a single instrument and see it shifting in and out of place with everyone else, before you lose it again and it retreats back into the swirling mass.

Plain To See Plainsman - Colter Wall: I've been listening to this Colter Wall album a lot, and it's really beginning to rank among my all time favourites. I grew up around the flattest place in the southern hemisphere, so I love the plains and it's very nice to have a cowboy song I can relate to like that.

The Nail - Sarah Shook & The Disarmers: Sarah Shook has so much character in her voice I completely love it. She is also a fantastic songwriter that manages to make outlaw country punk that sounds authentic and doesn't have the rockabilly posturing that a lot of the genre suffers from.

Inner Reaches 慾望的暗角二 - Gong Gong Gong 工工工: The best thing about Gong Gong Gong is you can listen to this whole song before you realise they don't have a drummer. They're a guitar and bass duo that play and sing with such a layered rhythmic intensity between the two of them that they really don't need one. A drummer would just clutter the space already taken up by their ferocious rhythm.

Country Pie - Bob Dylan: I'm a big fan of Bob Dylan's dumb songs. He has a lot where if it's the first song you ever heard from him you would be mad at whoever told you he was the greatest songwriter to ever live for trying to trick you like this. What I especially love about this song is how abruptly it ends, like dad just came home and everyone panicked cause they're know they're not supposed to be staying up that late.

You Did It Yourself - Arthur Russell: It seems hard to believe that I've only just found out about Arthur Russel. He seems to be a mainstay of Music Guy lists and somehow I've only heard of him this month. I've been obsessing over the Iowa Dream album, which is a compilation of a lot of different (mostly extremely high quality) demos from the late 70s to mid 80s and what really shines through other than the singular strength of his songwriting is how readily and easily he bends from country style folk to romantic piano ballads, to groovy post-punk like this. What I love so much about this song is it's a great lesson in songwriting: sometimes a song can just be a vague review of a middling movie and still have emotional resonance. Incredible. There's a great NPR article about Arthur Russel and the process of assembling half-takes and demos into complete recordings that you should read if you're interested. https://www.npr.org/2019/11/20/779721417/which-arthur-russell-are-we-getting-on-iowa-dream

The Dogs Outside Are Barking - Arthur Russell: I love this song because it's such a perfect distillation of a teenaged moment: trying to find a moment alone with someone when you have no freedom at all to create one. The song cycles through potential situations but leaves the problem unresolved, existing in the moment of nervous romantic tension preceding an unasked question and it's just beautiful.

Men For Miles - Ought: I love the vocal melody in the verse here so much. Spiking up unnaturally at the end of the lines like a nervous and strange version of The Strokes. Even the way he cramps his words in in the chorus is so good, switching registers randomly like he's impersonating someone else.

Mister Soweto - Lizzy Mercier Descloux: https://pitchfork.com/features/from-the-pitchfork-review/9828-lizzy-mercier-descloux-behind-the-muse/ Pitchfork has a great article about Lizzy Mercier Descloux detailing how she is continually undervalued and underappreciated. I found her though my Discover Weekly and became immediately obsessed with this album - a perfect mix of off-kilter 80s bass and brass that is so colourful and seems to move in a million directions at once like the songs can't even catch up with themselves sometimes. I'm excited to dig into her discography more and try to understand her more because she has a truly unique approach that I can't get enough of.

Sweden - Marilyn Crispell: I've been looking for a while for other pianists of Cecil Taylor's calibre, rare type that it is and I am so glad to have finally found out about Marilyn Crispell. She plays free jazz like Taylor, but in much less percussive and disonnant style. There's a New York Times quote that seems to follow her that says "Hearing Marilyn Crispell play solo piano is like monitoring an active volcano. She is one of a very few pianists who rise to the challenge of free jazz." and it's really very apt. She will move with seemingly no warning at all from mediative, colourful stokes to a mad descent unto uncertainty and beyond, then back again without a moments hesitation. Her music moves like a dream, linking a stream of unlinked images with an ease that only seems incongruous on reflection.

Twins - Gem Club: I have loved this song for a very long time and I come back to it over and over and appreciate it anew. What I appreciate about on listening to it this time is the strangeness of it's structure, following up the verse with an instrumental break, and then a long instrumental intro to the chorus gives it so much space to spread out and breathe, giving the beautiful gravity of the song even more weight. Then after the chorus it moves straight to a bridge and then the intro and first verse again. It's a fantastic song that makes it's small parts so large, where another songwriter or another producer would pare them down.

Grand Central - Paul Cauthen: Something I've learned in listening to a lot of cowboy music is that the number one thing that cowboys hate and fear is getting hanged. They hate it worse than cats hate getting sprayed with water. I found out about Paul Cauthen combing through Colter Wall's similar artists looking for more of this brand of new old fashioned country and I really found it here. Paul Cauthen comes from four generations of preachers and left the church to pursue country music instead, which feels like an extremely old fashioned position to be in here in 2020 but I guess lots of people in Texas still live like that, and thank god they do or we wouldn't have Paul Cauthen's big mournful Elvis voice to sing us songs about the railway.

Serafina - BAMBARA: I love this sort of spoken word leather jacket rock and roll. It's so extremely Cool in an old fashioned way. Like a more rock and roll version of Enablers.

So 4 Real - The Hecks: I love love love this song that sounds like a sped up Prince demo. The strange thinness of the mix and the way the vocals are buried just makes it sound so strange and great, like it was put together on some ancient 4 track recorder that can't handle the pure energy of the song.

In The Pines (Version 2) - Jackson C. Frank: There's a very good 3 hour compilation of Jackson C. Frank recordings that came out a few years called Remastered And Unreleased that I listened through the other day. It's just magnificent. This version of In The Pines is one of my favourite I've ever heard, the mournful vocals coupled with his churning rhythm guitar really brings out the darkness of it in a way I've never heard.

(Tumble) In The Wind (Version 1) - Jackson C. Frank: Another favourite from this compilation that is slightly hard to listen to. I don't know if there's a date on it but I'd guess this was recorded near the end of his life. It is so beautiful, but you can hear in his voice and breathing that he's unwell. In Horseshoe Crabs by Hopalong she sings a story from his perspective this song really seems to fit in the second half of that. "Woke from the dream and I was old / Staring at the ass crack of dawn / Walked these streets up and down / Looking for Paul Simon / All I found was myself, lost in time / I tried singing my songs / But I lost my mind"

Sludge - Squid: I'm thinking of putting together a playlist of all the great Black Midi-adjacent bands I've found out about recently and Squid is at the top of the list. This new breed of art-punk is so fantastic and goes in a million different directions. I'm just so excited it exists.

Straight Shot - Quelle Chris: I love this song and Guns is a phenomenal album but there’s one thing bothering me. The ‘who are you, what are you’ part at the end sounds so incredibly familiar to me and I can’t figure out why. As far as I can tell it’s not a sample, but googling reveals that the english voice on it is fucking James Acaster the standup comedian. So what’s going on? Quelle Chris himself is less than helpful: “Straight Shot is one of those ideas that reached out to me, we got along and I simply showed it around town. The chorus, poem at the end and basic piano progression literally came to me in two separate dreams”. Who knows. Great song though.

Levitation - Dua Lipa: What I really like about this song is that she says sugarboo. This whole album bangs and Dua is really reaping the benefits of being the only pop star with the guts to release an album while everyone’s in lockdown I also have a half-baked theory about the way this song is almost interpolating Blame It On The Boogie in the ‘moonlight, starlight’ part as a sort of aggressive takeover of Michael Jackson’s cancelled legacy. Which is smart really. The same way Taylor Swift is re-recording her albums, let’s just get The Weeknd in the studio for a couple of days and give the world back it’s bangers.

Another Crashed Car - Nine Inch Nails: I am so glad Trent Reznor put out another two volumes of Ghosts. Ghosts I-IV from 2008 seems to have been the bridge from his Nine Inch Nails work to his film score work, and now that he’s had such success with that it’s nice to hear him writing in this style without telling anyone else’s story again. It’s also interesting for him to go back to this project now that Ghosts I-IV has paid dividends in the form of the sample at the centre of Old Town Road but that’s neither here nor there. It’s hard to pick and individual track from these, because they work so effectively as long form albums and not individual tracks, but I chose this one because I put the album on as background ambient while I was doing some boring data entry at work and this track is the point at which I realised I was going out of my mind with stress from doing the simplest tasks because of Trent’s Damned Chords.

Lilacs - Waxahatchee: This is a perfect song. It makes me want to like, draw charts about it and go through it bar by bar to figure out how she did it. It’s perfectly put together. It feels like she uses every trick in the book and it just comes together flawlessly in 3 minutes. Amazing.

Cool Water - Hank Williams: I decided to properly listen to Hank Williams because his shadow stretches over so much of country music, and while a lot of his music really alienated or bored me, and a lot of his songs feel like they would read as novelty songs today (like Hey Good Looking), this is the song that made me understand why he’s so revered.

In My Bones (feat. Kimbra and Tank And The Bangas) - Jacob Collier: Jacob Collier generally irks me. He makes brain music for redditors that lose their mind when someone shows them chord inversions or odd time signatures. Youtubers whose whole personality is ‘y’all heard Giant Steps?’ But he killed it on this song. It’s great despite him. There’s still a lot of corniness to work through, mostly in the big yuck funky lyrics, but structurally it’s a kaleidoscope and a big chunk of its success I’m putting down to Kimbra and Tank who understand that performance is a bigger part of a song than composition in a way Collier maybe doesn’t yet. He can overload the bassline and stop-start the rhythms as much as he likes but without actual personalities driving it it’ll just sound like a Peter Gabriel midi played at 200%.

Earthquake - Graham Central Station: I learned something wonderful in researching this band. The leader, Larry Graham, who was in Sly And The Family Stone is credited with inventing slap bass. He himself refers to the technique as "thumpin' and pluckin' ".

Quand Les Larmes D’un Ange Font Danser La Neige - Melody’s Echo Chamber: Once again furious that I’ve known of Melody’s Echo Chamber for years but never listened to them until now. I have been missing out. This is a perfect sprawling psychedelic jam punctuated with a bizzare cut-up recording about shitting yourself when you die and being declared brain dead in the vatican. It’s got everything. I had to look up who the drummer was on this song because he’s just nailing it, and it turns out it’s Johan Holmegaard from Dungen which is really a perfect fit.

Murder Most Foul - Bob Dylan: I was thinking the other day about how Bob Dylan is doing in quarantine. The man who hasn’t stopped moving his whole life and who’s been on a never ending tour since the 70s is now, I assume, just pacing a hole in a hotel carpet somewhere and jabbering to himself. The strangest part of Bob dropping this 17 minute song about JFK out of nowhere is that he hasn’t put out any original music since 2012. So a gigantic song like this is an even bigger surprise. I, already a huge fan of gigantic songs and Bob Dylan, unsurprisingly love it. I love the slow stirring of the instrumentation, like he hired Dirty Three as a backing band and I love that nearly the entire second half is just listing good songs that he knows. It’s a remarkable song and unlike anything i’ve heard before from Dylan or anyone else. It’s interesting to hear Bob Dylan step into being the great chronicler of the 60s like he’s been told he already was his entire life almost 50 years later, finally accepting the fate foisted on him. The other thing I love about this song is the line when he for some reason praises Lee Harvey Oswald’s shooting “Greatest magic trick ever under the sun / Perfectly executed, skillfully done”

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0k1JjT8fXcUFO6VpM3kaez?si=gWSv88vdShKSnHhLJ_80pQ

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soaptunes · 4 years ago

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Soap’s 2020 AOTY Reviews: JPEGMAFIA - EP!

This EP (!) is really just a collection of all the loose singles Peggy dropped on a roughly monthly basis over the course of 2020. Despite that, and maybe even because of it, it’s still a contender for best rap project of the year.

I feel like I’m getting tired of saying that JPEGMAFIA is one of the most creative artists making experimental hip-hop right now. Even more tired of that appellation is Peggy himself, who on one track here proudly shouts out, “Fuck the underground, I’m going pop.” Of course, on the same song (the raucous, clattering “COVERED IN MONEY!”) he claims he beats his dick when he looks in the mirror and compares his gun to Portia La Rossi’s strap-on, so. Take that as you will.

It’s strange that Peggy’s 2019 album All My Heroes Are Cornballs is over a year old now. That isn’t that long ago, but a lifetime has happened since then, and the thing still sounds more immediate than most projects that dropped this year. The same is true of 2018’s Veteran, but both projects have some songs that fall short. I won’t get specific, this isn’t a review of those albums, but a few tracks on both are experiments that don’t pan out - they get lost in the weeds of harshness and strange samples, they lack strong hooks or funny bars, they follow an obscure groove that’s hard to get a handle on. EP! proves that cut down to its essential moments, a JPEGMAFIA record can be a 25-minute blast.

This is only 8 songs, we can take it track-by-track, which I think we’ll be doing for any EP reviews I do on here.

The first song is “BALD!,” a song that dropped in February, just before the pandemic turned this singles series into a quarantine project. If your first thought is that the beat sounds like something out of an obscure Nintendo racing game, that’s because it is - the main sample here is from Ridge Racer 3D for the 3DS. In pretty much every picture of JPEGMAFIA you can find from before this song’s release, he’s wearing a bandana or sweatband or something around his forehead, but this song literally served as the announcement to his fanbase that he’d shaved his head. This is a fucking hilarious concept for a song to begin with, but the beat is genuinely pretty and Peggy’s flow is merciless. Knocking the breakbeats out from under the synths makes them wash out and sound like the audio equivalent of a shitty screensaver, which I mean in the best way possible.

BEST BAR: “Hairline proof God needs balance, BALD.”

“COVERED IN MONEY!” is a serious contender for song of the year for me. I would absolutely love to watch this guy figure out a beat, because the instrumental on this goes unbelievably hard and simultaneously makes no sense at all. It’s squeaky, stomping, clattering, shambolic, and feels like it’s completely falling apart. Does a beat like this come together in his head first? The drum pattern is borderline nonsensical, did it just come from him messing around in ProTools? I would genuinely love to know, he’s seriously a gifted producer and I wish he’d produce more for other rappers. Somehow Peggy hops into a triplet flow on top of this wonderful mess, the overall impression ending up somewhere in the ballpark of a cartoon character rapping while bouncing on a rusty pogo stick. The man namedrops Ving Rhames, Cannibal Ox, Bernie Mac, and the aforementioned Portia La Rossi all on the same song, and he’s really out for blood on this one, it’s one of his best flows ever. The way he makes the listener wait for the “fuck the underground” line is flawless, he’s slipping between time signatures effortlessly. He does an amazing job of wrangling the herky-jerky rhythms of the beat on the hook, making one of his stickiest choruses yet with the instant-classic line about “borderline dressing in drag.” There’s a beat switch about halfway through the song, which Genius tells me is a second half tilted “The Devil Wears Prada,” but “BALD!” has a lyric about them fucking up his lyrics on Genius, so, you know. It’s not as much fun beat-wise but his bars are just as good, and the song ties up with Peggy repeatedly apologizing and claiming he’s just been “shitted on.” This track is a must-listen, in my opinion, definitely one of the best of the year.

BEST BAR: “I’m covered in money, I’m out for the bag, I flew out the country, borderline dressin’ in drag.”

The sensual R&B of “BODYGUARD!” isn’t a total departure from stuff Peggy has done before - “Jesus Forgive Me, I Am A Thot” had some of those vibes and “Free The Frail” proved that not only can he write a great melodic song, he’s a respectable singer. Bodyguard is Sexy Peggy coming to full fruition though, warm synths draping around soft beats and lyrics that could’ve come out of any 90’s hit. Peggy’s ear for a nice chord progression is evident, and there’s still strange touches like clipped vocals, off-kilter melodies, background chatter, and what sounds like a bicycle chain winding as part of the beat. This one took awhile to grow on me but it definitely did, and it provides a much-needed moment of calm on the EP.

BEST BAR: N/A, but I do like “who’s gonna turn me? Bitches gotta earn me.”

Then comes the remix of “BALD!” with Denzel Curry. The beat kicks in in the same way as it did before, and Peggy’s first verse is identical, but the entire back two-thirds of the song is one furious verse from Denzel. At first, his section gets a more muscular version of the racing game beat, but midway through, Peggy drops the drums out and just lets Denzel do his thing over a skeletal, washed-out instrumental. He spans a wide array of topics, from his stress over violence in his hometown, to loss of touch with his friends, to how cutting his famous dreads let him feel freer and more in control of himself. It’s a very cool verse, and I appreciate him linking it back to the haircut theme in an original way.

BEST BAR: “Dreadlocks had your boy like Sideshow Bob”

“CUTIE PIE!” puts Peggy on a genuine boom-bap beat, with nonstop flexing about his production chops. He gets pretty specific, and the title is apt given how genuinely adorable the sounds on the beat are. This one rolls almost normal for a JPEGMAFIA song, and despite the trove of weird references and the colorful atmosphere, it feels almost like a breakthrough, like he’s being more realistic or candid in his boasting. Like these are genuine points of pride for him and not just braggadocio, you know? Props for the music video here too, it’s definitely one of the best of the bunch. Super distinctive and weird, with Peggy hiding behind cacti and dancing in the middle of the desert with a near-nude woman.

BEST BAR: “Your beats inaccurate, muddy low end and you over-compressin’, ‘cuz you don’t know what you doin’, so y’all be stackin’ it, don’t know the diff so they just hold and attack it.”

The beat on “THE BENDS!” is almost oppressive, orchestra hits and a glacial pace lending the track a dark atmosphere. Autotune slurs Peggy’s bars, and the lyrics are relentlessly cynical and bleak. His actual political beliefs are obfuscated behind humor like “caught a body in a MAGA hat” as usual, but he ends the song with a breathy “fuck Trump,” so that much is clear. The glowing synth lines under the heavy saw bass give the first verse a cinematic quality, the “fantasies, fantasies, fantasies” line only adding to that. This is one of the briefer cuts, and one of the weaker ones too, but even this one has a ton of personality.

BEST BAR: “Strap on my hip ‘cuz I’m bitter and old, Mountain Dew sippers, they hating the scroll”

“ROUGH 7” is EP!’s only true miss, and it’s definitely not Peggy’s fault. The beat is shadowy and evasive, and his verse is ice-cold, but the featured rapper, Tommy Genesis, kind of flattens the song. Her adlibs are cringe-inducing and her rapping is flat and devoid of personality, she tries to do the emo-rap scream double-track but it doesn’t work with her style, especially since what she’s rapping about isn’t tragic or even sad at all. The track picks up instantly once Peggy comes on, as usual he can slither into the cracks of an unusual beat and inject his cartoonish, acrobatic character into it. This is a topically unremarkable verse by JPEGMAFIA standards, but he leans into the beat’s rhythms like on “COVERED IN MONEY!” and it ends up working out in his favor and restabilizing the song by the close. His dejected “wow.” and “huh.” and “nasty.” adlibs help make it too, it’s really kind of ridiculous to compare his adlibs to Genesis’s.

BEST BAR: “Light a square n*** up like Billie Jean.”

Peggy closes the EP with “living single,” probably the second-best song either. He sings a surprisingly heartfelt interpolation of Mariah Carey’s “Always Be My Baby” as the hook, bringing to mind his has-to-be-heard-to-be-believed cover of “Call Me Maybe.” This beat could pass for vaporwave, its slurred groove and downshifted vocal snippets lending an atmosphere to it like Peggy is sitting outside a club smoking after too much alcohol. The stabbing synth riff that breaks through the fuzz keeps him on his toes and lets him work up a relatively speedy flow over the dazed instrumental. I’m not sure why I rate this one so highly, but the vibes are excellent and this is one of the best verses on the project for sure, it’s another one where he really hooks his flow into the off-kilter lurch of the beat. That may be my favorite thing about him as a rapper, the way he can tie himself to a beat and make sure it’s working for him instead of being outshined by it, even if it’s completely insane.

BEST BAR: “Champagne for the pain and sufferin’, fans same color as voice of Tim Duncan”

Hoo, I wrote a ton about that. Maybe I won’t go track by track for the next EP, this is way too long already. In any case, I think due to its brevity and release method this great little record is going to get passed up on a ton of year-end lists, which is a damn shame. It has easily some of JPEGMAFIA’s best work on it - with no time for filler or botched experiments, Peggy delivered a tight, consistent, outrageously entertaining experimental rap joyride.

#jpegmafia #ep!#ep review #album review #alternative music #indie music #rap #hip hop #experimental rap #experimental hip hop

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youngboy-oldmind · 4 years ago

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ALBUM REVIEW: Late Registration

 “So they asked me…Why you call it Late Registration Ye?/Cause we taking these motherf***ers back to school!”

Hip-hop trail blazer and Chicago legend Mr. Kanye West follows up his status-establishing album The College Dropout with a sophomore project that proves he’s far from a one hit wonder, relishing in his own league of musical production, lyricism, and soul touching artistry.

Overall Thoughts

I mentioned in an earlier post that Late Registration is my favorite album by Kanye, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that I can endlessly rave about it. In 70 minutes, Late Registration(LR) utilizes the perfect number of skits, Grade-A featured verses from Jay-Z, Nas, Lupe, Common, Paul Wall, Cam’Ron, and Consequence, and a stellar instrumentation that combines old-school soul samples and flawless string orchestration. It also doesn’t hurt that film score composer and record producer Jon Brion helped produce some of the best tracks (Gold Digger, Roses, We Major).

Kanye elevated his pen game on this 2005 classic record. Before he made albums, he was already a solid writer and could definitely put together a verse. On LR, he exceeded to a new level, talking about himself, success, survival, while matching the prophetic vibe of “Jesus Walks” on tracks like “Diamonds From Sierra Leone”, “Roses”, and “Crack Music”. On top of these commentary tracks, he produced the tear-jerking track “Hey Mama”, my favorite dedication-to-mother songs in hip hop period.

I should also acknowledge the skits in LR. Through 4 clips, a story unfolds in a fraternity: Broke Phi Broke. In the four skits, they chant their various financial difficulties and struggles with a sense of pride. And in the final skit, we see Kanye get kicked out of the fraternity for being caught having new shoes in his closet. This is not only hilarious, but a clever commentary on his progress/success, and separation from the common plight and status of black men. Also, the topic of the skits excellently transition to the next song. Skit #1 talks about not having gas money, and the next song is “Drive Slow”; Skit #2 just repeats “broke, broke, broke, broke”, and the next two songs are “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” and “We Major”, both thematically about money and success. Skit #3 ends with a joke about not affording Christmas trees and the mother pretending to be one, and the next song is “Hey Mama”. And Skit #4 ends with Kanye being removed from the frat, and the next track is “Gone”. Expert skit placing on his part.

LR is a near perfect album; The “Empire Strikes Back” of hip hop sequels. This project has a song for any mood and definitely makes my top 10 favorite albums.

Album Breakdown

LR can be broken down into five section, each with their own distinct topics and tones, and separated by the four skits. These sections are:

Section 1: The Hits (Wake Up Mr. West) - Heard ‘Em Say, Touch The Sky, Gold Digger Section 2: Introspection (Skit #1) - Drive Slow, My Way Home, Crack Music, Roses, Bring Me Down, Addiction Section 3: Claim to Success (Skit #2) - Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Remix), We Major Section 4: Family Business (Skit #3) - Hey Mama, Celebration Section 5: Late Departure (Skit #4) - Gone, Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Bonus), Late

Section 1- The Hits

This section kicks off the album with bang after bang after bang. West and Adam Levine team up on the opening track “Heard Em Say” to lay down two themes of the album: Everything happens for a reason and nothing in life is guaranteed. He says several times “Nothing’s ever promised tomorrow today” accompanied by Levine’s harmonies that echo simultaneous sadness and hope. West also talks about some of the plagues African Americans, including low wages, AIDS, police harassment, admiration of drug dealers, and the pursuit of money and success. While talking about these inherently depressing topics, there’s a twang of hope and faith; there’s an energy of overcoming those obstacles and maintaining the belief that things will turn out alright.

In a 180 degree flip, the next track “Touch The Sky” completely contrasts the mellow mood of “Heard ‘Em Say”. With exhilarating trumpets sampled from Curtis Mayfield, West and Lupe bring an energy of celebrating success; reminiscing on the where they were before they got to the height they are now. A year before his debut classic Food and Liquor, Lupe spits one of the best verses on the album; matching Kanye’s energy while outshining him with his lyricism.

“Gold Digger”, possibly his most famous song, needs no introduction. This iconic track sampling Ray Charles’ I Got a Woman” is known by deep cut hip hop fans and mainstream fans alike. Jamie Foxx’s vocals on the chorus yelling “I Gotta Leave!” and Kanye’s verses about this girl who only wants him for his money makes an entertaining story but also indicates his new found status. He went from songs about not having money, to songs about dealing with a woman who only want him for his money. Talk about a bragging.

Section 2- Introspection

After two bop tracks we get “Drive Slow”, a track more mellow and laid back than the intro. Through a multitude of car metaphors, Kanye and Paul Wall talk about taking things slow, not to rush things, whether its spending money or sleeping with girls. Generally a middle of the road song for me. Nothing mind blowing but definitely easy to listen to.

In “My Way Home” we get a short, 16-line verse from Chicago all-time great Common, who talks about the struggles of the hood being home. This contrasts the hopeful tone on “Heard Em Say”, introducing a tone of relief he’s out that situation and he’s not going back. Fun fact: this is actually Common’s song that he decided not to add to his album Go!, which is why it just sounds like Common’s song instead of a Kanye song featuring Common. The slowed down samples vocals create a groove that almost makes you forget this is a sad song.

“Crack Music”, one of my favorites, paints an analogy to crack addiction and hip hop, hence the title. The Game brings a unique aggressiveness to the hook, which pairs well with the choir on chorus. However, the final leg of the song introduces an unsettledness: shakiness in the vocals, music freezes, and Malik Yusef delivers a poem that still gives me goosebumps to this day. The voice of legendary Charlie Wilson harmonizes perfectly with the chorus as well.

Next up we hear “Roses”, another instrumental masterpiece with Patti Labelle’s vocals and a Bill Wither’s sample on the chorus. West talks about the hospitalization of his Grandmother and the tightness/unity of his family. I love the quietness that plays during the verses and then the kick of the drums in the chorus. That excellently helps emphasize the intimacy of the situation.

Unfortunately, this leads into “Bring Me Down”, which is my least favorite track. Brandy’s vocals and Jon Brion’s instrumental are perfect, but it seems wasted on West’s verse. It’s disappointing to hear the epic strings and orchestration accompanied by Kanye saying weak lines like “There’ll always be haters, that’s the way it is/Hater n*****s marry hater b**ches and have hater kids” and “Yo girl don’t like me, how long has she been gay/Spanish girls say ‘Yo, no hablo ingles’”. The track honestly would’ve been better as an interlude with just Bandy’s singing, similar to “My Way Home” with just Common. But, the addition of West’s lyrics actually makes the song weaker.

Luckily, the project picks up with “Addiction”. However, I’ll admit I’m not a fan of lyrically. This isn’t a track where West is trying to demonstrate any lyrical expertise, so I’m not expecting a load of double entendres and layered meanings and mind-blowing messages. However, even for a surface level track, hearing him fake-stutter became a little annoying. But I like the topic of the song; him being addicted to all three “money, girls, and weed”. Although the topic and lyricism isn’t unique, it was at least entertaining.

Section 3- Claim to Success

Following the second skit, we get “Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Remix)” with hall of fame rapper Jay-Z. This track is interesting because Kanye and Jay don’t discuss the same topic. Kanye talks about his conflict with buying diamonds, knowing they’re Blood Diamonds and his purchase of them could result in the killing of Africans, of whom he’s a descendant. On the flip side, Jay talks about his label and his success. Although Kanye’s verse has more substance, I think Jay’s verse was better. There’s one particular set of lines I’ve always loved

“This ain’t no tall order, this is nothing to me/ Difficult takes a day, impossible takes a week/I could do this in my sleep/ I sold kilos of coke, I’m guessing I can sell CDs/ I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man /Let me handle my business, damn”

Then we get the top tier track “We Major”, which is the album’s best collaboration up to this point. Jon Brion shines again with the instrumental, creating this epic atmosphere of accomplishments. Really Doe and Tony Williams illuminate the chorus with the vocals, while Kanye comes through with poeticism he hadn’t reached since “Heard ‘Em Say”. I want to add a quote of my favorite part of his verse, but it would be half the verse. And to top that, Nas comes through with an even STRONGER verse, a contender for the best verse on the album, competing with Lupe on “Touch the Sky” and Common on “My Way Home”. And to top THAT off, the last few minutes are basically Jon Brion, Warryn Campbell, and Tony Williams showing off their expertise while Kanye shouts them out, along with The Roc and his label, G.O.O.D. Music. His vocals during this part are echoed so it feels like the listener is at a concert. You could have headphones on in a quiet room and feel like you’re soaring. Easily a top 10 song in West’s career.

Section 4- Family Business

After the height of Diamonds From Sierra Leone and We Major, the record dies down and returns to mellowness, continuing with the heart-string-pulling “Hey Mama”. Here, we get West’s lyricism reminiscent of the College Dropout style. This definitely was a poem or song he’d written prior to this project. As I said earlier, one of my favorite mother-dedicating songs in all of hip hop.

The next song, “Celebration”, is one of my favorites on the album. The lyrics aren’t impressive; West goofily slant rhymes “wild” and “endowed” at one point. He just discusses drinking, girls, and the accidental birth of his kid through a busted condom. However, I believe it’s the placement of the song on the record that makes me love it so much. After hearing the epic-ness of songs like “Touch The Sky”, “Diamonds From Sierra Leone”, and “We Major”, this song feels like an after party. An intimate gathering that allows West and the listener to reflect a little, over another brilliant composition by Jon Brion. And while the verses are nothing to look twice at, the chorus is serene. West’s harmonization with himself improves his voice. And at barely past 3 minutes, the song is short enough where the sub-par lyrics aren’t too distracting.

Section 5- Late Departure

When I first began writing back in middle school, I used to rap to the instrumental for “Gone”. This song is foundational to my hip hop appreciation and extremely underrated. To start, the Otis Redding sample is perfect. Jon Brion again combines his expertise with West to create a beat that evolves as it progresses, increasing in complexity and instrumentation. The verses improve with song as well, Kanye delivering the first and last, while Cam’ron and Consequence deliver excellent verses in the middle. Between Consequence’s verse and Kanye’s final verse, we hear the beat breakdown and evolve even more, building up to a final verse that leaves the listener speechless. West reflects about a multitude topics: being so innovative that his labels won’t approve his ideas, wanting to leave public light, his come up from being broke just wanting to upgrade from his “cheap ass sofa”, leaving his hometown that had nothing to offer him, inspiring new artists, never selling out, and ultimately showing he’s no longer on-call for anybody to use him. He’s established enough to choose his company and produce as he pleases. This is a perfect culmination of the themes throughout the album, and is the perfect closer.

Now, I say that with hesitation because technically there are two more songs on the record: The original “Diamonds From Sierra Leone” without Jay-Z, and “Late”. “Diamonds From Sierra Leone” is an excellent track. Instead of talking about Blood Diamonds or guilt, West talks about his writing process, feeling snubbed from awards, and ultimately himself. Definitely some of his strongest pen game on the album.

“Late” contrasts the previous song with a very calm feeling, possessing a lullaby quality. Here, he drives home the point that he’s going to be late with things he does, tying together the album title and the context of the album’s release, which was released months late. However, the lateness definitely worth the wait. It’s a toss-up between Gone and Late for which I prefer as the better closer. Gone is an epic reflection on the album’s theme and messages, and displays some of the best lyricism on the album. However, Late is a surreal, warm ending that feels like more of a winding-down end. If I HAD to choose, I’d say “Gone”. Because while both are great, I can’t imagine the project without “Gone”, whereas I could see it without “Late”.

Top 3 Songs:

1) Gone 2) We Major 3) Hey Mama

Overall Grade: A

#music review #album review #kanye west #hip hop review #hip-hop

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thebandcampdiaries · 3 years ago

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Black Naga has just dropped the brand new EP, “Permission.”

The artist’s style can best be described as rooted in R&B. However; Black Naga is inspired by a diverse variety of genres and artists. Instead of focusing on the limitations of just one style, Black Naga has infused its distinctive sound with a summery vibe that is infectious, powerful, and memorable. That’s what truly stands out about this creative and visionary artist. Black Naga is able to explore different soundscapes and lyrical ideas without being stuck in just one genre. This means that “Permission” is a colorful, free, and open EP that has something for everyone. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Black Naga understands the importance of inclusiveness. Black Naga aims to use songwriting as a force of good, creating content that anybody can relate to. For this reason, this artist tends to avoid using pronouns in the music so that the lyrics are open to interpretation for anyone, and the audience can really feel a sense of belonging.

Black Naga draws inspiration from timeless artists who never limit themselves to other people’s expectations. Experimental and brave acts like Prince, Michael Jackson, and Kid Kudi are just some of the artists who inspire Black Naga. However, on this brand new project, the artist is influenced by Miguel, Kelis, and Bad Bunny, among many others. Let’s face it, we’ve been through quite a harrowing past year, and we all need a little bit of a fresh break. Hopefully, this is the summer we can all look forward to a bit more color and fun. The sunny vibe of this release actually feels like a perfect fit for this particular occasion, and it sets the bar higher with a diverse sound that feels very catchy but also artistically compelling. What makes this release quite special is that it serves as a great example of what this artist can accomplish. The sheer scope of the creativity that fuels this release is remarkably broad, a testament to the fact that the artist managed to really explore new avenues and avoid getting stuck in a comfort zone. Musically, this release is daring and original but also catchy and timeless, being easy to relate to and immediately charming for the audience. The seven studio tracks on this album are incredibly diverse, and each song has something special to offer.

The title track kicks off with a multi-layered audio-scape that immediately captures the listener’s attention. Then, Black Naga’s inviting and expressive vocals come in after the introduction to hook the listener in further. The hook is an earworm, and it’s so catchy that you’ll be singing it long after the track stops. This would be perfect for a summer playlist, ideal for road trips and beach parties. Even though there is a summer vibe, there is also a darker atmosphere that gives the song its unique edge. The song has a deep groove with a bit of a Latin / Syncopated influence, which makes this number a perfect opener for the album. This release actually makes me think of artists such as Pharrell (especially the golden age / early 2000s era)

“BOOM BOOM” follows the strong opening with a more laid-back approach. In this song, Black Naga showcases their vocal abilities with a fluid lyrical flow. This is definitely one of the highlights on the record. This track features some dub/dancehall influences and a really laid-back groove, which offers a different texture to the album. If you are looking for a special song to chill out to, this is the one.

“TOOTSIE ROLL” featuring Melanin Munroe takes the record in a completely new direction, with a fun and flirty rap song reminiscent of Lil Wayne. This release actually hits hard with a trap-infused beat. The melodic lines are simple and cinematic, perfectly blending in with the extra-deep 808 basses. There is room for something a bit more melodic on “Strip (Dimelo). This track is dance-driven, kind of in the vein of the title track, but definitely going even deeper in terms of bass and groove. This song will not be out of place blasted loudly in a club, and the emotional response is just as deep as the grooves. The next song, “You’re Mine,” seems to continue along the same line, bringing a lot of energy but also ramping up the intensity of the atmospheric songs that drive this release. This is one of the most unique songs on the record as the artist reveals an introspective and poetic side. The song opens with a captivating beat that carries the energy throughout the entire number, giving weight to the lyrical composition.

The last original song on this release, Namaste, has a really cool trap vibe as well. I love the hi-hat arrangement especially, which brings so much flow to the track. I also enjoy the fact that the background sounds have a bit more of a lo-fi twist, making the sound of this release all the more memorable and utterly unique indeed. Last but definitely not least, the album comes to a close with a remixed version of the first track, Permission, featuring Kweeng Doll.

In addition to being an artist and songwriter, Black Naga is also a keen music industry entrepreneur. Black Naga recently launched a new music group named Live More Music Group. The goal of this endeavor is to focus on new talents and help emerging artists find a new audience and spread the word about their music.

Don’t miss out on Black Naga’s fresh and innovative sound. Check out “Permission” on your preferred online platform.

https://linktr.ee/TheBlackNaga

Follow the artist on their socials @Theblacknaga to stay tuned for upcoming collaborations, releases, live gigs, and more!

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playitbyear-laz · 4 years ago

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Well, here we are with the first playlist/newsletter of 2021, and damn, what a start to the year we’ve had. Just last week, the US faced the hugely unsettling event at the Capitol & the COVID situation in LA has gotten so bad, it’s become even less safe to see my friends, even if it's on some chill shit.

Like many of you probably, I’m over it. After doing some journaling, I realized the continued and collective trauma of recent times had yet again taken a toll on my mental health, to the point where I lacked the energy & focus to engage with my usual stay-at-home activities. I found myself unmotivated to do much else besides mindlessly scrolling the internet (mainly on social media), which worsened my experience rather than inspiring it.

The phrase ‘protect your energy’ can get pretty overused IMO, but during this time, it couldn’t ring more true. The difference between ‘doing’ and ‘being’ has become increasingly blurred with the internet, but understanding the distinction between the two is everything. These times make it easy to feel like we’re helpless -- like there isn’t much we can do, but when you zoom out a little bit and simply ‘be’ with what’s in front of you, you realize there’s plenty to get done. For me, ‘doing’ with what I have means actively working to improve the relationships with the people I live with, working on my passion projects, making some extra $$, and learning to give myself space to enjoy new things (TV or Video Games rarely keep my attention as I prefer spending my extra time hanging out with people, but I’m slowly learning to surrender to these activities lol).

Earlier this week, I posted an article by Carmody entitled ‘Grief in a Grieving World,’ which explores the effects of trauma. In it, it's explained that whether it happens at an individual or a collective level, the shared result is a disassociation from the things you identify with (whether it’s your workplace, the people you hang out with, your daily habits, etc.,). While much easier said than done, living in your experience as presently as possible allows you to realize that the universe is much bigger than your grief, which I recognize can seem pretty dismissive, but is something I actively try to find peace with because I’m realizing -- grief is just a part of life.

Lastly, when I conceptualized this bi-weekly playlist/newsletter, I really didn’t have the intention to get so deep with it, but the events of the past year made it difficult for me to avoid. As we approach the 1 year anniversary of PLAY IT BY EAR, I know I sound like a broken record here, but I’m so grateful for those of you who’ve been supporting it, especially those who read these newsletters all the way through. It’s been the best outlet for me to cope with my thoughts this past year and to not feel like I’m going crazy, so thank you.

Praying for more peace & more blessings for all of us, this year and always.

PLAY IT BY EAR 025

curated by laz

Link to all platforms HERE.

Rolling Sun/In The Night - Djavan Guy, Jiji Stfelix

WHERE: Found out about Djavan Guy through the homie Max Moor, who’s featured on the track ‘Rollin’

WHY: Djavan Guy is a Neo-Soul/R&B artist, but this particular track feels like it rides the edge of electronic pop, which is a genre I absolutely loved during my festival days (think Odesza, Louis The Child, Big Wild, etc.,). Super ‘in your feels’ type of music, which I often crave these days since we’ve lost our live music experiences ):

IN THE AIR - Destin Conrad

WHERE: Destin Conrad is actually an old Vine star but has been releasing some amazing R&B over the past couple of years. My old manager Drake put this track on my radar.

WHY: The song feels like it would’ve gone crazy during peak Soundcloud Era (when tracks like Don’t - Bryson Tiller & Too Deep - dvsn were popping off). I almost see it like ‘toxic relationship’ type R&B but SO necessary to bump to at times.

Ain’t No Way - Aretha Franklin

WHERE: Another one off my friend Sophie’s SouLegends playlist (yes Sophie, if you’re reading this, I still listen to it regularly!!)

WHY: Just a beautiful example of what Aretha does best -- write music that showcases her vocal (& lyrical) power!

If You Wanna (Gianna Brezzo Remix) - J. Lamotta

WHERE: Another one I’ve seen posted from a couple different people.

WHY: J. Lamotta’s silky smooth voice paired with the production on this remix reminds me so much of Sade. Original version is amazing too, but damn, I love this one SO much. Also, I need to tap back into Jakarta Records (her label) because I remember finding sooo much fire back in the day off their old mixtapes.

Privacy - tyler coolidge, Joyce Wrice

WHERE: I feel like I’ve known Tyler for years because of his connection to a lot of my homies from the bay and also cuz his tweets be crazy (in the best way possible). N8 on the coverart for this one as well!

WHY: The groove on this track is ADDICTIVE. When people ask, “what’s your favorite type of music” this is def the type of shit I’d direct them towards.

Smile - Conor Albert, Alice Auer

WHERE: While listening to Mac Ayres new album, I was blown away by the production on the track ‘Nothing Else’ (reminds me of a Justin Timberlake/ Timbaland beat) & found Conor Albert.

WHY: Production & lyrics, and also the fact that Alice Auer is an incredible jazz vocalist that I discovered through Conor Albert’s music.

Sudden Death - Quelle Chris, Chris Keys

WHERE: n/a

WHY: I think it's tight how understated the vocals are in comparison to the rest of the mix, but come through just enough for you to hear & feel them. Lyrically, the track explores the realization that life is flawed, but not allowing that fact to define the entirety of the experience.

It must not seem like sudden death It must feel like much time is left So first times first comes second best Just get the most from what is less

Millenium - Mood

WHERE: Shared by esta a while back.

WHY: Another great one to listen to if you’re in a reflective mood. The hook is infectious and Hi-Tek made a perfect beat. Dilla actually referenced this track to make ‘Climax’ for Slum Village (used the same sample ‘Clair de Lune - Isao Tomita).

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clearhologrampainter · 4 years ago

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Home Lovers Do - Home - HOME LOVERS DO

"Love Is A House" is a 1987 tune by American R&B bunch Force M.D.'s. Delivered on the band's Touch and Go collection, the single was the gathering's third top ten hit on the Billboards Black Singles diagram, and their best on that graph topping at number one for about fourteen days, in the late spring of 1987. "Love Is A House" was likewise the gathering's second and last Hot 100 delivery, cresting at number seventy-eight. Home Lovers do

The House of Love are an English elective musical gang, framed in London in 1986 by vocalist lyricist guitarist Guy Chadwick and prime supporter and lead guitarist Terry Bickers. They rose to unmistakable quality in 1987 with their first single "Beam On", delivered on the autonomous name Creation. The next year, the band delivered their widely praised eponymous presentation collection and assembled their standing throughout the following barely any years through resulting discharges, steady visiting and the help of English press. They marked with Fontana Records in 1989 and met business accomplishment in 1990 with their subsequent self-named collection, which topped at number 8 in the UK collections graph. Their third collection, Babe Rainbow, was well met by the pundits in 1992 and furthermore arrived at the best 40 in the UK.

The House of Love are most popular for their itemized hallucinogenic guitar sound and for different singles, for example, "Christine" and "Wreck the Heart". In the US, the melodies "I Don't Know Why I Love You", "Marble" and "You Don't Understand" were additionally famous on elective stone radio broadcasts, separately arriving at number two, number five and number nine on the Billboard Modern Rock outline. The House of Love disbanded in 1993. Following a rest of 10 years, they changed in 2003 with Bickers, who had performed on their two first collections. They have been refered to as an impact by shoegazing groups Slowdive and Ride.

The House of Love were shaped in 1986 in Camberwell, London by previous Kingdoms artist and guitarist Guy Chadwick: he had been enlivened to begin another band subsequent to seeing the Jesus and Mary Chain in show at London's Electric Ballroom. He composed another tune called "Christine", which gave him thoughts for additional advancement: "The possibility of the sound of the gathering and what sort of performers to search for... female vocals... a decent interpretation of the Velvets' sonics... furthermore, obviously the image." Chadwick collaborated with an old companion – drummer Pete Evans – and enrolled the remainder of the underlying House of Love setup by means of an advert in Melody Maker. This united a global band of London-conceived lead guitarist Terry Bickers (ex-Colenso Parade), German cadence guitarist/co-vocalist Andrea Heukamp and bass player Chris Groothuizen (from New Zealand). Chadwick picked to name his new band The House of Love after Anaïs Nin's book A Spy in the House of Love. There was an impressive age differential in the band: Chadwick, at this point matured 30, was almost ten years more established than Terry Bickers.

Marking to Creation Records, The House of Love delivered their presentation single "Radiate On" in May 1987 and visited with Felt and Zodiac Mindwarp. During the last 50% of 1987, the band kept on visiting: a third on the bill setting at a show at the Town and Country Club was generally acclaimed in the press and persuaded Creation Records to make them record, "Christine" – which would not be delivered as a solitary before mid-1988. "Christine" was likewise the remainder of the band's chronicles to highlight Andrea Heukamp as a full part: having gotten worn out on visiting, she quit the band toward the finish of 1987.

In spite of the fact that the split was neighborly, Chadwick would later remark "Losing Andrea Heukamp was a huge, huge blow for me: I loved her voice and I loved her playing, she was effectively as significant as Pete, Terry or Chris." Heukamp showed up in the gathering shot utilized for the front of the band's initially long-structure discharge – a 1987 Germany-just accumulation of the early accounts, eight melodies all of which she had played on. This record was untitled separated from the band name and was therefore known as The House of Love or casually as The German Album. Heukamp's part from The House of Love would not be outright, as she would return as a studio visitor on a portion of the band's ensuing collections.

Following Heukamp's flight, The House of Love started chipping away at their introduction collection. The account meetings were finished in a little more than seven days, yet the blending meetings – supposedly fuelled by bountiful utilization of LSD – demonstrated more dangerous, with maker Pat Collier managing the last blend after differences inside the band. The collection was gone before by the arrival of "Christine" as a solitary in May 1988, which arrived at No. 1 in the autonomous charts. Later in May, the presentation collection was delivered. Similarly as with The German Album, the collection did not have a conventional title anyplace on the sleeve, and accordingly turned out to be commonly known as The House of Love. An independent single, "Crush The Heart", was in the long run casted a ballot single of the year in DJ John Peel's Festive Fifty.

Following the achievement of the main collection which bested the outside the box outlines in Europe, the band selected to sign to Fontana Records (and Polygram in the US), with Creation name head Alan McGee proceeding for some time as director. Unfavorably, at this point the band's medication use had started to raise significantly further, as had interior issues with inner selves and dissension.

The primary House of Love discharge on the Fontana mark was the single "Never", which was given against the band's wishes, and slowed down external the Top 40. During summer 1989, The House of Love played seven days in length residency at the I.C.A in London, changing their sets and highlighting support groups as different as Pere Ubu, Stone Roses and the Rainbirds.

The chronicle and blending of the band's next collection (and first for Fontana) was plagued with issues. The musicians were occupied by debauchery, self image and hesitation, experiencing four distinct makers and various studios. The pressure of Fontana's business desires were likewise having an impact. In 2005, Chadwick recalled that "the person who marked us (Dave Bates) had marked Def Leppard and Tears for Fears so he had a ton of clout. He demanded assembling us with makers who were clearly off-base for us. He was totally uninterested in whatever didn't have a gigantic theme in it. He needed hits, fundamentally. He likewise requested a heap of remixes that we hadn't approved and we totally loathed."

A lot later, Chadwick was to view marking with Fontana as the most exceedingly terrible error in the band's vocation. At that point, Terry Bickers was of this assessment as of now. Having consistently been discontent with the ramifications of the Fontana arrangement, and now feeling legitimized in his apprehensions, he started to withdraw into uneasiness and medications, inevitably surrendering to hyper depression. By this time, Chadwick's own duties and outside weights – fuelled by his developing medication and liquor propensity – would transform him into what he would later depicted as "(a) beast. A pleasant beast, some of the time, however a beast none the less." Before any longer, Chadwick and Bickers were done conversing with each other.

The following House of Love single, "I Don't Know Why I Love You", was delivered in November 1989 however slowed down at number 41 in the graphs notwithstanding being Radio 1's Single of the Week. A sixty or more date UK visit was set for the year's end, with a significant press covering and public consideration, yet this would end up being the straw that broke the camel's back for the band's underlying arrangement. In 2005 Bickers remembered "After our first collection it was hyper. An exemplary instance of a lot of too early. We required a break... We had gone through eighteen months in the studio recording our subsequent collection. All that we created got dismissed and we were toward the finish of our ropes. At that point when we got the last track down they said 'Right, presently off you go on visit'. It was a formula for disaster."

A home, or home, is a space utilized as a perpetual or semi-lasting habitation for an individual, gathering or family. It is a completely or semi shielded space and can have both inside and outside viewpoints to it. Homes give protected spaces to case rooms, where homegrown action can be performed, for example, resting, getting ready food, eating and cleanliness just as giving spaces to work and recreation, for example, far off working, contemplating and playing. Actual types of homes can be static, for example, a house or a loft, portable, for example, a houseboat, trailer or yurt or computerized, for example, virtual space. The part of 'home' can be considered across scales, from the miniature size displaying the most cozy spaces of the individual dwelling and direct encompassing zone to the large scale size of the geographic zone, for example, town, town, city, nation or planet.

A guideline of protected law in numerous nations, identified with the privilege to security revered in article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the sacredness of the home as a person's place of sanctuary and shelter.

The idea of 'home' has been explored and speculated across disciplines - points going from home, the inside, the mind, liminal space, challenged space to sexual orientation and legislative issues. Such points can be found in the works of Gaston Bachelard, Jean Baudrillard, Mrs Isabella Beeton, Pierre Bourdieu, Beatriz Colomina, Le Corbusier, Mary Douglas, Diana Fuss, Dolores Hayden, Martin Heidegger, Henri Lefebvre, Edith Wharton among numerous others. Discussions of home can assist better with comprehension and challenge view of self and the augmentation of self.

Spots of habitation don't really correspond with relationship to the home; the home comprises of an actual space just as an enthusiastic and mental relationship, where memory, solace, action and commonality are a portion of the numerous significant components in the development of home. Amongst being a space of homegrown action the home in the 21st century has appropriated new implications with the promotion

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jafreitag · 5 years ago

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31 Days of Dead 2019 | Day 29: Rare and Different Tunes

December 29

Rare and Different Tunes

I thought it would be fun to present a collection of songs composed by Robert Hunter that were either rarely or never performed live. Since it would take too long to write-up each of these songs, I simply listed some brief stats taken from DeadBase XI (1999) along with additional information where it seemed warranted.

Mason’s Children (12.28.69 – Miami Pop Festival, International Speedway • Hollywood, FL) – A Hunter/Garcia song about Altamont that was written and recorded for Workingman’s Dead, but left off the album. A studio outtake was included on the So Many Roads box set in 1999. Debut – 12/19/69. Last played – 2/28/70. Total performances – 18

Till The Morning Comes (10.31.70 – SUNY-Stony Brook • Stony Brook, NY) – A Hunter/Garcia song that appears on American Beauty. Debut – 9/18/70. Last played – 12/26/70. Total performances – 5

Clementine (1.23.68 – Eagles Auditorium • Seattle, WA) – A Lesh/Hunter song written in 1968 during the recording of Anthem of the Sun, but never released. Debut – 1/20/68. Last played – 1/26/69. Total performances – 3 (does not includes 2 instrumental versions). Read more about it here: http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2009/08/clementine.html

Rosemary (12.7.68 – Bellarmine College • Louisville, KY) – A Hunter/Garcia song that appears on Aoxomoxoa. Debut/Last Played – 12/7/69. Total performances – 1. Read more about it here: https://www.dead.net/features/greatest-stories-ever-told/greatest-stories-ever-told-rosemary

What’s Become Of The Baby? (1969 – Aoxomoxoa Outtakes) – A Hunter/Garcia song that appears on Aoxomoxoa. Debut/Last Played – 4/26/69 (Dick’s Picks Vol. 26). Total performances – 1

The Barbed Wire Whipping Party (1969 – Aoxomoxoa Outtakes) – Written and recorded for Aoxomoxoa, but not released and never performed live. Robert Hunter is a significant participant on the recording. It was considered for inclusion on the So Many Roads box set and as a bonus track for the Aoxomoxoa remix, but was supposedly vetoed “in no uncertain terms” by Hunter. He provided a clue as to why he may have done that during his solo acoustic performance at the Museum of History & Industry on June 11, 2003, and I hope/pray that he does not rise from the grave to haunt me for including it in this project:

“The barbed wire whipping party in the razor blade forest” – That was my addition to Aoxomoxoa but when I listened to it (I suppose you all have heard tapes of it by now) I decided it was blasphemy and I wasn’t sure I wanted to live with it for the rest of my life, so I decided it shouldn’t go on. That was when they realized I was a chicken and a coward and I couldn’t be in the band. “Here, Hunter, take a pencil, you asshole. You realize how good that is?” Hey man, I could have been the next Kurt Cobain. ‘The other day I went to Mars and talked to God. And he told me to tell you to hang tight and not worry. The solution to everything is death.’ I mean, would you want that on your conscience for the flower-power generation, man? No, no. I mean, it’s true in its own way, but … well the part about going to Mars is true, the rest of it’s not.

Let Me Sing Your Blues Away (9.11.73 – William & Mary College Hall • Williamsburg, VA) – The only Hunter/Godchaux collaboration and the only song where Keith sings the lead vocals. Appears on Wake of the Flood. Debut – 9/8/73. Last played – 9/21/73. Total performances – 6

France (1.8.78 – Shakedown Street Rehearsal) – “France” is the second track on the Dead’s 1978 studio album, Shakedown Street. It has the great distinction of topping Rolling Stone magazine’s list of 22 Terrible Songs by Great Artists. The review is priceless: “Jerry Garcia’s Spanish-tinged acoustic guitar can’t rescue this yacht-rock tune.” Bob Weir’s comments are equally as good: “This may be the worst song the Grateful Dead ever recorded….I didn’t actually write that one – it just sort of happened. But it sure as hell didn’t happen right.” The rest of the band must have agreed because the song was never performed live. Robert Hunter wrote the song’s lyrics, while Mickey Hart wrote the music, with Weir wrapping up the final arrangement. The original conception of the song was very different from the final product. In the book Box of Rain, Hunter says: ” ‘France’ was written to tapes of a joyous afternoon Latin jam at Mickey Hart’s ranch. It originally contained 13 verses(!), which were eventually paired down to 4 when the Dead recorded the song. Can I make a confession? I like it. Flame away!

If I Had The World To Give (8.30.78 – Red Rocks Amphitheatre • Morrison, CO) – A Hunter/Garcia song that appears on Shakedown Street. Debut – 8/30/78. Last played – 11/20/78. Total performances – 3

Believe It Or Not (7.17.88 – Greek Theatre, University of California • Berkeley, CA) – A song that was written and recorded for Built To Last but never released until a studio outtake was included on the So Many Roads box set in 1999. Debut – 6/23/88. Last played – 3/22/90. Total performances – 7

MediaFire:

Mason’s Children (12.28.69) – http://www.mediafire.com/file/edbwxmqdqrmxhmc/71_Mason%2527s_Children_%252812.28.69_-_Miami_Pop_Festival%252C_International_Speedway_%25E2%2580%25A2_Hollywood%252C_FL%2529.mp3/file

Till The Morning Comes (10.31.70) – http://www.mediafire.com/file/zrtl3kpxsn2eq6b/72_Till_The_Morning_Comes_%252810.31.70_-_SUNY-Stony_Brook_%25E2%2580%25A2_Stony_Brook%252C_NY%2529.mp3/file

Clementine (1.23.68) – http://www.mediafire.com/file/sevp4r3nipmh5xi/73_Clementine_%25281.23.68_-_Eagles_Auditorium_%25E2%2580%25A2_Seattle%252C_WA%2529.mp3/file

Rosemary (12.7.68) – http://www.mediafire.com/file/h49i1hpr9rsy7n1/74_Rosemary_%252812.7.68_-_Bellarmine_College_%25E2%2580%25A2_Louisville%252C_KY%2529.mp3/file

What’s Become Of The Baby? (Aoxomoxoa Outtake)– http://www.mediafire.com/file/ozorext3oaxy106/75_What%2527s_Become_Of_The_Baby__%25281969_-_Aoxomoxoa_Outtakes%2529.mp3/file

Hunter’s Stage Banter about The Barbed Wire Whipping Party (6.11.03) – http://www.mediafire.com/file/44icul9i4626s60/76_Hunter%2527s_Stage_Banter_about_The_Barbed_Wire_Whipping_Party_%2528Robert_Hunter_Solo_Acoustic_-_6.11.03_%25E2%2580%25A2_Museum_of_History_%2526_Industry%2529.mp3/file

The Barbed Wire Whipping Party (Aoxomoxoa Outtake)– http://www.mediafire.com/file/94ogs34qdpscxhd/77_The_Barbed_Wire_Whipping_Party_%25281969_-_Aoxomoxoa_Outtakes%2529.mp3/file

Let Me Sing Your Blues Away (9.11.73) – http://www.mediafire.com/file/a6z1m2pfjq177ov/78_Let_Me_Sing_Your_Blues_Away_%25289.11.73_-_William_%2526_Mary_College_Hall_%25E2%2580%25A2_Williamsburg%252C_VA%2529.mp3/file

France (1.8.78 – Shakedown Street Rehearsal)– http://www.mediafire.com/file/taup2wow6s8natz/79_France_%25281.8.78_-_Shakedown_Street_Rehearsal%2529.mp3/file

If I Had The World To Give (8.30.78) – http://www.mediafire.com/file/z32zrcmjxm3mwmw/80_If_I_Had_The_World_To_Give_%25288.30.78_-_Red_Rocks_Amphitheatre_%25E2%2580%25A2_Morrison%252C_CO%2529.mp3/file

Believe It Or Not (7.17.88) – http://www.mediafire.com/file/olzsm3abuq9cqmc/81_Believe_It_Or_Not_%25287.17.88_-_Greek_Theatre%252C_University_of_California_%25E2%2580%25A2_Berkeley%252C_CA%2529.mp3/file

Live Music Archive:

Mason’s Children (12.28.69) – https://archive.org/details/gd1969-12-28.sbd.gmb.96578.flac16

Till The Morning Comes (10.31.70) – http://archive.org/details/gd1970-10-31.122042.sbd.deluca.Digitalrbb.miller.flac1648

Clementine (1.23.68) – https://archive.org/details/gd1968-01-23.sbd.miller.97343.sbeok.flac16

Rosemary (12.7.68) – https://archive.org/details/gd1968-12-07.sbd.miller.88674.sbeok.flac16

What’s Become Of The Baby? (Aoxomoxoa Outtake)– https://archive.org/details/gd69-xx-xx.sbd.dodd.16760.sbeok.shnf

Hunter’s Stage Banter about The Barbed Wire Whipping Party (6.11.03) – https://archive.org/details/rh2003-06-11.sbd.126772/rh03-06-11d1t05.shn

The Barbed Wire Whipping Party (Aoxomoxoa Outtake)– https://archive.org/details/gd69-xx-xx.sbd.dodd.16760.sbeok.shnf

Let Me Sing Your Blues Away (9.11.73) – https://archive.org/details/gd1973-09-11.113051.sbd.GoodBear.flac16

France (1.8.78 – Shakedown Street Rehearsal)– https://archive.org/details/gd78-08-XX.sbd.wiley.11692.sbeok.shnf

If I Had The World To Give (8.30.78) – https://archive.org/details/gd1978-08-30.s2.sbd.miller.110151.flac16/gd78-08-30d3t02.flac

Believe It Or Not (7.17.88) – https://archive.org/details/gd1988-07-17.sbd.miller.87752.sbeok.flac16

Relisten:

Mason’s Children (12.28.69) – https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1969/12/28/masons-children?source=88157

Till The Morning Comes (10.31.70) – https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1970/10/31/till-the-morning-comes?source=88605

Clementine (1.23.68) – https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1968/01/23/clementine?source=87899

Rosemary (12.7.68) – https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1968/12/07/rosemary?source=87778

What’s Become Of The Baby? (Aoxomoxoa Outtake)– N/A

Hunter’s Stage Banter about The Barbed Wire Whipping Party (6.11.03) – https://relisten.net/robert-hunter/2003/06/11/whats-become-of-the-baby-outtake-stage-chatter-shady-grove?source=193396

The Barbed Wire Whipping Party (Aoxomoxoa Outtake) – N/A

Let Me Sing Your Blues Away (9.11.73) – https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1973/09/11/let-me-sing-your-blues-away?source=90229

France (1.8.78 – Shakedown Street Rehearsal) – N/A

If I Had The World To Give (8.30.78) – https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1978/08/30/if-i-had-the-world-to-give?source=91305

Believe It Or Not (7.17.88) – https://relisten.net/grateful-dead/1988/07/17/19-believe-it-or-not?source=124330

#rareanddifferenttunes #masonschildren #12281969 #tilthemorningcomes #10311970 #celemtine #01231968 #rosemary #12071968 #whatsbecomeofthebaby #barbedwirewhippingparty #aoxomoxoaouttakes #letmesingyourbluesaway #09111973 #france #studiorehearsal #ifihadtheworldtogive #08301978 #believeitornot #07171988 #gratefuldead #roberthunter #jerrygarcia #bobweir #phillesh #billkreutzmann #mickeyhart #pigpen #tomconstanten #keithgodchaux #donnagodchaux #brentmydland #brucehornsby #vincewelnick #31daysofdead #linernotesmusicblog

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deadcactuswalking · 5 years ago

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 13th October 2019

This was a pretty important week, as while we only had around four debuts, there’s finally some more shake-up in the top 20, which had been pretty stagnant for a while, and two new arrivals entering directly in the top 20 so without further ado, let’s review the charts.

Top 10

Still at the top for its second week this week is “Dance Monkey” by Tones and I, also entering at #96 in the US, which is expected as I’ve been predicting a crossover for weeks, but I did not expect this to be such a global hit in all honesty, mostly since the song felt too low-key to just not be a European indie fluke hit. I suppose I really have no idea what becomes a hit or not in 2019.

Our first new arrival is at number-two, with Travis Scott’s lead-off single, “HIGHEST IN THE ROOM”. The song debuted at #1 in the US, but here it’s just barely been kept at the runner-up spot, and I don’t mind either way, because while “Dance Monkey” may be a lot more distinct, both of the songs are very middling in terms of quality. This is Scott’s ninth ever UK Top 40 hit, sixth Top 20 and his third Top 10 hit. In fact, its debut at #2 made it trump “Zeze” with Kodak Black and Offset (peaked at #7) as Travis Scott’s highest-peaking song in the UK. How on Earth it did that is for me to talk about later, so for now let’s move on, as I don’t see this sticking.

Since there are no massively dramatic changes in the top 10 other than the debut of “HIGHEST IN THE ROOM”, most songs here are just down one space, including “Ride It” by Regard featuring Jay Sean to number-three.

AJ Tracey’s “Ladbroke Grove” is also down one spot this week to number-four.

Interestingly, up one position this week is “Circles” by Post Malone, which I’m going to say now, will become a #1 hit near Christmas if not sooner.

Kygo and the late Whitney Houston continue the trend of brief descent as “Higher Love” is down a spot to number-six.

Joel Corry’s “Sorry” featuring uncredited vocals from Hayley Mays hasn’t moved since last week at number-seven.

Up six spaces from last week and entering the top 10 for the first time is “Outnumbered” by Dermot Kennedy at number-eight, becoming Kennedy’s first top 10 hit and this success should have been obvious from the start of its chart run, although personally I’m not a fan.

Dominic Fike’s “3 Nights” is down a spot to number-nine.

And finally, rounding off the top 10 are Young T & Bugsey featuring Aitch with “Strike a Pose”, also falling a singular space this week.

Climbers

Our climbers here are pretty sparse, mostly affecting songs that debuted last week. Aitch gets his fifth UK Top 20 hit as “Buss Down” featuring ZieZie (It’s his first) is up five to #20 thanks to the release of the video. Outside of the top 20, “South of the Border” by Ed Sheeran featuring Camila Cabello and Cardi B experiences a pretty uncommon climb of 16 spaces to #24 off of the debut, although that doesn’t mean it’s of any quality, of course, as this is probably the worst song on the tone-deaf Ed Sheeran collaborations project. Hopping off of that success is Camila Cabello’s solo work, as for whatever reason, “Liar” is up eight positions to #27 this week. Also increasing off of its debut last week is “Turn Me On” by Riton, Oliver Heldens and Vula, moving up eight spaces to #29, and that’s all.

Fallers

While we had some pretty big climbers, they really do not compare with the impact of the fallers this week, with enough quantity but the songs themselves are genuine smash hits for the most part, although I still feel like we could have easily had some more notable drops here. “Bruises” by Lewis Capaldi is down five to #16 off of the re-entry, “Taste (Make it Shake)” by Aitch suffers streaming cuts (see: dumb UK chart rules that admittedly keep the chart constantly fluctuating and interesting) down a whopping 22 spaces, landing at #26, “Senorita” by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello is down six to #30, “Beautiful People” by Ed Sheeran featuring Khalid is thankfully down six to #34, “Playing for Keeps” by D-Block Europe featuring Dave has floundered entirely off of the debut, down 16 spaces to #37, and finally, “Harder” by Jax Jones featuring Bebe Rexha is down seven spots to #39.

Dropouts & Returning Entries

It seems like for a while, we’ll just have Post Malone songs dropping out and exchanging themselves for... other Post Malone songs. This week, “Goodbyes” featuring Young Thug dropped out from #23 and “Sunflower” with Swae Lee from the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse soundtrack dropped out from #31, in exchange for other Post Malone songs outside of the top 40 to re-enter (“Take What You Want” and “Saint-Tropez”). Other drop-outs include “Nookie” by D-Block Europe featuring Lil Baby out from #30 and “boyfriend” by Social House featuring Ariana Grande out from #34, but there are no returning entries (in the top 40), so it’s time to talk about the new arrivals.

NEW ARRIVALS

#38 – “Graveyard” – Halsey

Produced by Jon Bellion, Ojivolta, Louis Bell and the Monsters and the Strangerz – Peaked at #11 in Belgium and #44 in the US

Halsey’s album release has been pretty messy but to be fair to her and her team, I’d have no idea what to do after how globally massive “Without Me” was, as I don’t think Halsey would have wanted to continue down an R&B-pop lane... and clearly, she didn’t, as her next single, released months after, was “Nightmare”, a pop punk belter that pretty much nobody liked and it underperformed heavily, which is unfortunate as I actually quite enjoyed that song. Now Halsey’s back with a safer, more accessible single from her upcoming album Manic, set to release in 2020, and promoted by a livestream of her painting the album cover, for whatever reason, and, well, we’ll see how it holds up to her hit singles from other album eras, including “New Americana” and... “Bad at Love”... okay, so if this isn’t terrible, I’m marking a pretty great improvement on Halsey’s part. Regardless, this is her eighth UK Top 40 hit and... why does this need seven writers again? Five of those writers are confirmed producers, but Halsey and her co-writers seem to be out to damage her singer-songwriter/indie queen image, signifying perhaps that this new album will be more of a traditional pop record. Okay, I’m not going to lie, I’m pretending to be interested in whatever Halsey’s doing, I’m just excited to listen to this because I love Jon Bellion. I always forget he exists, but whenever he produces a new single or comes out with a fantastic album out of nowhere like last year’s Glory Sound Prep, I’m pleasantly surprised. You can definitely tell “Graveyard” is a Bellion production, albeit it does feel his maximalist style has been watered-down to fit Halsey’s cynical songwriting. The sweet guitar is definitely reminiscent of Bellion, but it’s chopped in an EDM-like fashion, and the bouncy synths are actually pretty cute surrounding Halsey’s... well, they sure are vocals. The tropical percussion sounds pretty cheap and the loop ends abruptly, with the vocals and synths occasionally clipping in the mix, which doesn’t really make much sense here, and in the chorus, Halsey punches in a line so blatantly that it is a painful, slightly off-beat jerk towards the next line. It’s probably the most incompetent production I’ve ever heard on a Halsey song, which is surprising for a song with five producers. You’d think someone noticed that during the process but that happens not to be the case... but it’s in the chorus, guys! Surely, you’d want the hook to not sound awkward and have, you know, any impact. It’s not a bad song, and it’s not like I had that high expectations, but somehow I’m still disappointed. Bellion can do better. Not sure about the other six songwriters, though.

Also, that bridge is absolutely pathetic, like come on, you didn’t even try.

#25 – “Playing Games” – Summer Walker

Extended version features Bryson Tiller – Produced by London on tha Track – Peaked at #16 in the US

Bryson Tiller isn’t credited on any of the British chart info, but his extended version is what’s getting the most plays, his verse is in the music video, Wikipedia credits him and the album adding this extended remix with Bryson Tiller is the only reason it’s even close to this high so let’s talk about Summer Walker. I mean, yeah, I like SZA too. Summer Walker to me seems like the amalgamation of all of the better female R&B singers to come before her that are in her same lane, in fact, some of the males as well. She’s like Khalid had a child with Jhené Aiko out of wedlock, but Jhene wants a DNA test as that child might have actually been with the Weeknd or another suspected dad, 6LACK. I don’t usually mind Summer Walker but I’m just frustrated with her. Ever since her debut mixtape Last Day of Summer dropped, I have been waiting for a single from her that doesn’t completely flout her talent, but it has yet to come, and when I like a song from her, it’s mostly because it has a sweet guest spot from someone else who knows how to play to their strengths, like Usher who has a placement on “Come Thru”, which probably should have been the lead single if I’m honest. Over It, Summer Walker’s debut album, was released last week to a lot of success, especially in the US, where it had the biggest ever streaming week for a female R&B project, and it featured an extended version of an already incredibly disappointing single released after she picked up a lot of traction with “Girls Need Love”, propelled by a Drake remix (It’s probably one of Summer’s best songs). “Playing Games” is one of the worst songs I think I have ever heard that reached the US Top 20, but it’s December in two months. List season is very much upon us. I don’t want to waste my energy. This will definitely still get Worst of the Week, but I don’t want to talk about it and spoil anything for the Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 2019 list, as this will be pretty high on it.

#19 – “10,000 Hours” – Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber

Produced by Dan Smyers – Peaked at #2 in Canada and #4 in the US

Country music doesn’t appear on the UK charts often, it really doesn’t, but it’s had a pretty great year in terms of popularity, with so many of these random country songs that would have never peaked at higher than #30 in any other year are getting in the top 20, to the point where I’m worried I’ll have to start educating myself on the genre in case there’s ever a British country boom. “Whiskey Glasses” by Morgan Wallen, “The Git Up” by Blanco Brown, “God’s Country” by Blake Shelton, “Beer Never Broke My Heart” by Luke Combs, just to name a few. Is “Old Town Road” a product of this sudden surge in country’s popularity or is it a catalyst? I’ll leave that to thinkpieces and video essays to find out because I don’t care and I don’t know a damn thing about country, I just know I love this song, and I can’t exactly figure out why. Dan + Shay are a country music duo and arguably the biggest country band right now, with massive sleeper hits like “Speechless” and especially “Tequila” which was on the Hot 100 for about a year if not more yet it never peaked higher than #21, still making the Year-End top 40 for 2018, and I didn’t mind that song either but mostly because it was very far away from what I felt was actually country... it’s safe to say that “Tequila” now sounds like it comes straight from Roger Miller because “10,000 Hours” is about as country as strawberry ice cream is healthy. I mean, it has the right components to fill that quota, but it does not make use of them in a way that fulfils the criteria, and more often than not, completely dismisses them to focus on quality. This is basically a boy band song. It starts with a lush guitar sprinkled over a barely audible drowned-out drum break, with Dan and/or Shay singing in their traditional high-pitched tone with a pretty much non-existent country twang through a pretty quick first verse. Once that chorus hits, I fell in love with this song. It’s so cheesy, it’s so melodramatic, yet it works incredibly well because it feels like a genuine declaration of love and dedication towards each artists’ respective wives, and yes, you could say that it’s corny or saccharine, and I’d fully agree with you, but that’s why it’s worth listening to. Dan’s voice especially sounds pretty great for this type of song, and the vocalising in the post-chorus is pretty sweet, though I expected it to either run into Justin’s verse a bit more fluidly or go off into a bridge on its own, but it never really does, which is disappointing. Justin’s verse, as most of his verses are nowadays, is hilarious, with a punch-in that sounds like a line was completely replaced with the “Did you get your middle name from your grandma?” line, which has an oddly creepy inflection that is not helped by Justin’s huskier Auto-Tuned drawl, but his cooing and harmonisations otherwise work, especially in the pre-chorus. I also love how the drums come in for the chorus. The bridge is great on its own (albeit slightly awkward, which has its charm), but I’d appreciate it being expanded and having more harmony with Dan + Shay and Justin. Dan shines especially in the final chorus though, and the song ends with just a bunch of vocal riffing, which is pretty fitting for what’s essentially a wedding song. I love this song, but that might just be because it’s essentially a Christmas song in spirit and a Backstreet Boys song in execution. Oh, and did you know this is the most-streamed country song ever? That’s pretty crazy.

#2 – “HIGHEST IN THE ROOM” – Travis Scott

Produced by OZ, Nik D and Mike Dean - Peaked at #1 in the US

I have spent hours trying to find out why “HIGHEST IN THE ROOM” by Travis Scott debuted at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. I listened the song once and was perplexed. Okay, first of all, let’s talk about the song, it’s not bad at all, in fact, I’d argue it’s pretty decent. I like the eerie vocal sample with a pretty speedy Latin guitar. Travis doesn’t say anything of interest and his oddly-mixed ad-libs are pretty fun, especially in the chorus, but it does seem a tad rushed overall. The verses and chorus very smoothly transition to each other, but the mixing is really shoddy at times, I feel like it’s mostly bass mastering that make this hard to listen to. It also has a pretty odd falsetto part at the end, but the outro is probably the best part of the song, with the pretty epic distorted synth layers and aggressive drums just piling on top of each other, with lyrics that are incomprehensible on top of them. So why is this #1 on the Hot 100? Well, okay, so let’s go through each idea.

The outro’s lyrics are incomprehensible, and Travis himself sold merch that claimed the outro was not for “decoding” and he told his fans to “just vibe”. Surely, that made some people that wouldn’t normally listen pretty curious. Rap Genius transcribers would have tried to listen to that outro and hence the song on loop for hours, just for Travis to literally delete it and annotate the outro saying that there shouldn’t be any lyrics or decoding, pretty much confirming that he’s saying nonsense words.

The song is about Travis’ ex-fiancé Kylie Jenner, who had reportedly separated two days prior to the release of the single. Kylie Jenner also promoted the single when playing a demo of the song in an April video about some kind of eyebrow product. There’s a lot of drama to unfold there and Travis does briefly mention Kylie, not by name, in lyrics. Kylie would later be seen at a party with Tyga.

From May to August, Travis teased the song several times by playing it at live shows. There was originally going to be a Lil Baby feature that was played at an August show.

Travis released an incredibly wacky, funny music video with a lot of vivid colours and interesting concepts to accompany the single release.

Travis released merch bundles where you could buy a digital single for free essentially if you buy a hoodie or something, most of the clothing having direct relations to the song and its lyrics. There were also several different physical versions released, including a CD, vinyl record and cassette tape. These bundles and merch are probably the reason it debuted so high all things considered, but do physical merch sales really drive a song to #1? Travis does not have near enough a pull in the UK to get a top 10 hit on his own, so I imagine the physical sales really drove this up to the #2 spot, as well as the merch bundles. This means that Travis now has a second #1 in the US to his name pretty much purely because of merchandise. It did not have radio support at all despite monstrous streaming and without the merch and physical sales, it would have debuted in the top 10 easily, top five probably, but definitely would not have dethroned the much more stable and balanced song in all platforms, “Truth Hurts” by Lizzo. Also, I know there are a lot of Travis Scott fans and they are all very dedicated people, but even they can tell this was probably made in a day, right? It’s just “BUTTERFLY EFFECT” again, but it’s not even by the same producer, so Murda Beatz pretty much had his beat ripped off for some throwaway single that somehow got to #1. Surely, to buy a physical copy, you need to care enough about the song. The music video was pretty great, fair enough, and Kardashian drama does bring a lot of publicity, but I do not see how in any way this song is captivating enough to be documented as a #1 debut. The song had essentially been leaked in its entirety – plus a Lil Baby verse that could have made it even bigger – at live shows. You have to be interested in the song enough to care about the lyrics, and I can’t find anything here that resonates. Billboard’s merch rules need some re-evaluation, man. It’s an okay song though, pretty disposable.

Conclusion

I’m not as angry at “HIGHEST IN THE ROOM” as it looks, the song’s tolerable, so Travis Scott isn’t even getting a Dishonourable Mention, in fact the Best and Worst of the Week fall out easily. Summer Walker and I guess Bryson Tiller get Worst of the Week for “Playing Games” (More on that song in a couple months) and Best of the Week goes to Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber for “10,000 Hours”, which is a really stupid song but it’s so fun. Follow me on Twitter @cactusinthebank for more musical ramblings and I’ll see you next week!

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downbeatz · 6 years ago

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MICO(JungleMico Project) - Viewing & Freedom

Introducing a brand new studio album, filled with experimental music and unique creative ideas.

MICO(JungleMico Project) is a well-known drummer and electronic musician based in China. His style is very organic direct, and he has a really unique vision: combining the appeal of electronic music with the warmth of what makes sound truly “human” and one-of-a-kind. In other words, this is humanistic electronic music, a term coined by the artist himself!

Over time, MICO has indeed developed a really distinctive sound, which combines many genres and influences under one roof. MICO is a diverse and insightful musician, whose songs are inspired by many different styles. He has a passion for keeping his tracks free and easy to relate to, with many beautiful colors and gripping melodies.

MICO recently published a brand new project, “Viewing & Freedom,” which features 9 new song.

These tunes are really impressive, standing out as a perfect example of what it’s like to produce great music that defies the barriers between genres, making for a really diverse and personable twist. Keep reading to learn more about each song on this record!

Viewing & Freedom.

The first song on this release is particularly inspiring because it combines traditional sounding Chinese melodies with big electronic atmospheres and even hints of dubstep and other heavier genres in the electronic music domain.

Inner Peace Dancing.

This is a playful and impactful song with a steady beat that immediately makes your body move. Flirting with EDM and club music, this track has a simple, yet immediately gripping melody, which adds something different to the sound of this release. As the main melody kicks in and the beat goes off, the energy absolutely massive. The best thing about this song is how MICO managed to combine two sides of his creativity on this track. On one hand, his compositions have a lot of depth and textures. On the other, the production is modern, clear and punchy, with ties to modern electronic music in the most traditional sense.

Roaming in Miao Village (feat. Aaron Spears)

This song is a very textural track, which flirts with trip-hop and other cool influences. Fans of bands like Massive Attack or Bjork are definitely going to enjoy the unique vibe of this release. MICO’s drumming is truly on point on this one as well!

The Journey 2018

This catchy song combines a steady beat with some atmospheric flanging effects, adding a lot of depth to the groove. This is a simple song at the start, but the arrangement becomes increasingly more progressive and experimental, coming up with different tones and influences.

Bright way (feat. KAWA).

This track has a lot of great background textures and atmospheres, but it also boasts one of the most energetic arrangements on the entire record. I love the rhythm of the drums and how they create a thick, dance floor friendly atmosphere. The vocals are also amazing, as well as the brass section.

Roaming 4 - - - China Rolling

This track has a very spiritual vibe, kicking off with a powerfully emotional chant, and progressively introducing different elements, leading to a classic EDM vibe, but with a special flavor. On the beat, I really love the depths of the clap, and the cool reverb tones that really make the whole song sound gigantic.

Night Walk In Brooklyn (feat MC Messy & Thomas Vent)

With this collaboration, MICO was able to add even more layers to this amazing album. This time, he explored a more edgy, darker tone, which still retains a lot of appeal.

Ultimately, one of the most distinctive traits of these songs is certainly the energy and the drive that fuels the performance of the artist. The vocals feel very animated and spontaneous, an obvious sign that this performer is actually genuinely connecting with his lyrics, in a much deeper way. This isn’t just a puppet singer popping out catchy hooks: there is a deeper concept behind the songwriting, which really adds weight to the mix.

Delingha (feat. Jiangshan).

This beautiful collaboration with Jiangshan is probably one of the most laid-back songs on the album. The vocals are big and touching, and the drums go from sparse, to exciting, adding a lot of dimensionality to the album.

China Rolling (Remix feat. Viktor Jazokov)

At last, the album comes to a close with an amazing remix of one of the catchiest songs on this release, China Rolling! This is a happy, colorful and energetic tune with a lot of air!

In conclusion, this is a really amazing electronic project, and you’ll definitely enjoy its broad scope and amazing creative range!

Find out more about MICO, and do not miss out on “Release” and other projects from this talented artist.

https://soundcloud.com/junglemicoproject/albums https://soundcloud.com/junglemicoproject

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abstractanalogue · 5 years ago

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Art of Algebra: Album review & interview

Art of Algebra self-titled album (2019)

This is the debut album of a talented young Dublin based producer named David Hallinan. The music is electronic, rich in detail and very much provides a widescreen experience for the listener. For me its sounds conjure film-like images of dark and possibly quite sinister places. I can hear the influence of artists such as Massive Attack and Boards of Canada but I mention these just to give you a small idea of what to expect or just check out video linked below. There are loads of sounds which I haven't quite heard before as well, such as the horn like samples on the slow, relentless and always forward moving 'Mask My Movement' (the first single/lead track). I like the disembodied vocal samples, snippets of backing singers or did he just get somebody to sing in the studio and somehow make it sound like another layer of found sound?

A few more which really stood out for me were tracks such as ‘The Devils in the Gin’, which is very hypnotic indeed and ‘Helena’ has a homemade feel and is very moody (again is that a real snare drum or a sample?). ‘Maasai’ is more warm with darkened grooves and somehow feels tightly wound. ‘Stay’ is slow, more expansive and has more great female vocal snatches. ‘Lo’ is deep, more ambient and quite desolate sounding. ‘Indigo’ is quite sparse and meditative to some degree. All eleven tracks have something about them and really work together as an album and experience. Hopefully this is an artist who will get a chance to develop their sound over a number of releases and time.

You can sample and download the album from this Bandcamp link (there will also be a vinyl edition too). I’ve kept this review short so David can do the talking below.

youtube

Q: When did you first start to make your own music, what drew you to the electronic genre? What age are you now?

A: I really began the process of producing music in earnest while living in France back in 2010. I'd always been a bassist in bands up until that point, but my housemate in Paris had a full rig with a mixing desk, Logic Pro, Ableton and some keys all set up and ready to go, so it was ideal to just dive in and get lost in the production process. I returned to Ireland in 2011 and made music in a variety of different styles for several years, usually involving a guitar, but never published anything. Then in December 2015, just a week after I handed in my PhD thesis, I bought a Moog Sub 37. I became completely engrossed in playing the synthesizer and didn't make physical contact with my guitar for the next two years. Before I knew it I ended up with this Art of Algebra album.

Q: I think I can hear influences such as Massive Attack and Boards of Canada in your album. When did you become aware of these artists, through internet, friends etc? How does your generation discover music these days.

A: You're absolutely right in recognising influence from the likes of Massive Attack and Boards of Canada. I've been listening to artists in the ambient IDM / downtempo / trip-hop styles since my teens. When I was in secondary school I used to stay awake and listen to Donal Dineen's Here Comes the Night show on Today FM. That was my first real in-road to electronica. I used to leave on a cassette tape recording the show because I couldn't stay awake any longer. That way I could go back and listen to whatever I missed the next day. I still have a full box of those cassettes. I also remember that my eldest sister Lisa had a lot of electronica on CD that I could get my hands on at a young age.

As for how my generation discovers music, I'm 35 now so I'm probably just about old enough to say I lived through the cassette era, the CD era, the Napster era and the streaming era. I think that the internet has become by far the most important avenue to discover new music today, but the festival circuit is also very important.

Q: How important is it to have something on vinyl or is digital and a web presence potentially enough to make an impact and go from there. Will your album be on any physical formats?

A: I actually don't own much vinyl, only a few very special records or things that friends I know have released. I would like to have more but I've always prioritised buying musical instruments or production gear. Even right now I could name at least ten bits of production hardware that I really want and that's always gonna be my priority. That said, I think the vinyl renaissance is a beautiful thing. Most people aren't music producers. If you're a listener or a DJ, buy vinyl. I have boxes and boxes full of CDs that aren't worth a damn. At least vinyl hold their value.

As for the online domain and streaming services, I think that the debate about the financial aspects of the streaming service phenomenon is way off-target. The move towards streaming music hasn't been driven by corporate entities such as Spotify. Its been driven by technological change. Don't blame Spotify, blame Steve Jobs. In fact, don't blame anyone at all. However, I do think that there's a real need to discuss how the music streaming service playing field may be an uneven one. People are gradually coming around to the idea that Facebook and Twitter are distorting politics. Not enough has been said about how music streaming platforms may be distorting the way in which people discover and listen to music.

My album will be available on vinyl. It's currently in the latter stages of being pressed.

Q: What gear do you use (hardware or software or both) and why? Do you DJ as well or just play live?

A: When I perform live I use a Moog Sub 37, an Allen & Heath Xone 43 mixer, an MPC Live and some effects pedals as my setup. As far as production is concerned, I use all of the above as well as Ableton, samples that I make or source online, and some drumming woods.

I'm not a DJ, but I have remixed tracks in the past.

Q: Do you feel there is a sense of the history of Irish electronic music within the Irish electronic community, would the current generation be aware of groups such as Decal and Ambulance or going further back, Roger Doyle for example?

A: Absolutely not. A majority of people on the scene now would probably take it for granted that there was no such thing as Irish electronica in the 90s or before. A lot of stuff that came out of Ireland in the distant past may not have made the transition to Spotify or other paid streaming platforms, and so many younger listeners are unlikely to be aware of them. Very few would appreciate that Decal emerged at more or less the same moment as Aphex Twin.

Q: What is the electronic scene like in Dublin and Ireland in general. Is it difficult to get established and make a living (like always). Are there many opportunities for gigs, is there a strong sense of a community of like minded people getting together to start clubs, labels etc to help each other out?

A: As someone who is very much at the starting gate I can testify that people are generally supportive, but of course it's a challenge to get established in such a way that you can really reach a wide audience.

Once you consider how expensive the city is and the fact of just how much money you need to spend just to put out music and perform, the very notion of making a living as an electronic music artist in Dublin is laughable. But then again most are not in it for the money. Neither am I.

Q: I imagine that finding/developing your own signature sound from deep within your being is the most crucial thing to discover when making and sharing your own music, how close do you think you are to that or what do you think about this? Like when people hear Aphex Twin and instantly know who it must be. It's a hard and difficult thing to do for sure but is it more important and easier these days perhaps just to fit into a genre?

A: The goal of finding my own original and distinctive sound is absolutely paramount. If you listen to my album you'll notice that there is a mix of different forms and styles in there – trip-hop, dark ambient, downtempo, minimalist soundscapes and even ambient techno. But there is a common stylistic thread throughout, which stems from the voice of the synth, the choice of samples and the approach to production. That common thread is my signature sound, if that makes sense. I feel as though I've just begun the process of defining that sound, and it'll continue to evolve. You're right that things would probably be easier if you commit to a single style or genre.

Q: What are your ambitions for your music career?

A: To give people the kind of feeling I've felt in the past when I'd discovered some underground release that I enjoyed.

Q: What advice would you give now to someone just starting out, even though you are just releasing your debut yourself?

A: Focus on your music. My impression is that the narrative in the music industry at the moment has become all about marketing strategies, social media and personal branding etc. When you're starting out it can seem as though those are the things you need to get right in order to succeed. While that may often be true in practice, it shouldn't be the case. Musicians make music. Marketing and your personal image should really be of secondary importance.

Stephen Rennicks

#art of algebra

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meingenious · 5 years ago

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Asha Bhosle Birthday Explicit: 10 Timeless Primary Bollywood Songs That We Love As Millennials

http://www.digitalmarketingbyrohit.com/?p=2805 Asha Bhosle Birthday Explicit: 10 Timeless Primary Bollywood Songs That We Love As Millennials - http://www.digitalmarketingbyrohit.com/?p=2805 Every time one listens to Asha Bhosle, one can’t help nevertheless be enchanted. For a millennial, like me, who pines over primary Hindi songs from the yesteryears, it’s like travelling to a whole new world filled with novelty and old-world attraction. The rockstar diva that she is, Asha Bhosle has an unprecedentedly gifted voice. The way in which by which that the exuberant singer can combine into assorted genres and moods seamlessly is just distinctive. Proudly holding a mind-boggling entry throughout the Guinness Book Of World Knowledge for recording a whopping 11,000 songs in 20 fully completely different languages, Asha Bhosle has given the Hindi film enterprise a repertoire of peppy numbers. And whereas most singers in the meanwhile have bracketed themselves in a safe zone and tend to tread solely in that path, Asha Bhosle is a trailblazer. Whenever you ask me if there is a voice throughout the youthful know-how that resonates collectively together with her, I’d say, “Are you mad?” On account of, personally I don’t assume that anyone throughout the crop has managed to appreciate the rhythmic flexibility and adaptability that Asha Bhosle revels in. Bollywood may very well be so colourless with out her! As a result of the evergreen star turns a 12 months ‘youthful,’ in the meanwhile, now now we have catalogued ten of her legendary pop songs that had been meant to be a seamless in every millennial playlist! Piya Tu Ab Toh Aaja Movie: Caravan (1971) | Music: R.D. Burman Critically, can any karaoke get collectively be often called over with out not lower than as quickly as making an attempt this monitor? Bollywood hasn’t had a further seductive and dramatic monitor than this one ever since. Explicit level out to R.D. Burman who fuels life into this monitor alongside along with his rugged chants “Monica, Oh my darling!” Dum Maaro Dum Movie: Hare Rama Hare Krishna (1971) | Music: Rahul Dev Burman In a time when refined lovey-dovey songs had been in, ‘Dum Maaro Dum’ emerged as a full-blown explosion! Thus, it turned the anthem of the budding Indian hipsters. And the lyrics are so relatable even in the meanwhile, they merely hit dwelling every time I be all ears to this monitor! Chura Lia Hai Tumne Movie: Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973) | Music: R.D. Burman If there could also be one monitor that I hum every single day of my life, it is this one. The endearing enchantment that it has merely can’t be put into phrases. And gosh, these opening guitar notes are soul-touching! ‘Chura Lia Hai Tumne’ might be essentially the most romantic monitor of the century, interval! Jawaani Jaaneman Movie: Namak Halaal (1982) | Music: Bappi Lahiri Being an ardent Asha Bhosle fan, her filmography tells me that she excels throughout the disco model. She has obtained the correct cadence and glamour that she is going to vocalize just so fully! Moreover, Bappi Lahiri and Asha Bhosle make a deadly combo! ‘Tis grooviest retro monitor ever! Raat Akeli Hai Movie: Jewel Thief (1967) | Music: Sachin Dev Burman The gradual, refined seduction and drunkenness throughout the singer’s voice throughout the monitor’s hook always get me! Moreover, the wondrous saxophone and harmonica musical notes set the mood of the monitor good. It’s as if the singer has lived the lyrics, and he or she is enacting them in her singing talents. ‘Raat Akeli Hai’ is legit ear candy! Hungama Ho Gaya Movie: Anhonee (1973) | Music: Laxmikant-Pyarelal I obtained’t be incorrect if I acknowledged that this monitor stays to be the fad in the meanwhile! No marvel the makers of 2014’s Queen picked it up and remixed it. Even so, nothing can ever match as a lot as playfulness and candour that Asha Bhosle has been blessed with! Undoubtedly the correct membership monitor ever, genuine or remix! Ye Mera Dil Movie: Don (1978) | Music: Kalyanji Anandji Whenever you didn’t already know, ‘Ye Mera Dil’ has been utilized by The Black Eyed Peas for his or her hit monitor, ‘Don’t Phunk With My Coronary coronary heart’ (2015) and as well as coated by Sunidhi Chauhan throughout the 2006 Shah Rukh Khan-starrer 2006 Don. Info aside, Asha Bhosle was always a crooning glory of Helen’s dances, akin to on this one. O Meri Jaan Maine Kaha Movie: The Put together (1970) | Music: R.D. Burman Solely Asha Bhosle could have dropped at quite a bit glitz and sizzle proper right into a monitor. The jerky twists and turns and high-pitched notes that the singer pulls off on this merchandise amount add as a lot as the final wacky actually really feel. ‘O Meri Jaan Maine Kaha’ could be considerably necessary on account of it was the first monitor that Asha Bhosle and R.D. Burman recorded collectively, and boy, they made the proper duets! Le Gayi Le Gayi Movie: Dil Toh Pagal Hai (1997) | Music: Preeti Uttam Singh I can’t begin to elucidate how quite a bit I’ve danced to this monitor! ‘Le Gayi Le Gayi’ was my full childhood! Have you learnt that this very catchy monitor was to be sung by Lata Mangeshkar nevertheless ultimately, went to Asha Bhosle! It went on to be a smash that 12 months and I can’t agree further! Raat Shabnami Album: Jaanam Samjha Karo (1997) | Label: Frequent Music India Pvt. Ltd. Most 90s kids have listened to ‘Raat Shabnami’ first-handedly on the TV. Indie albums once more then had been an element and music buffs took delight to be all ears to their favourite retro artists in a brand-new mild. I really feel this monitor is among the many first electro-pop experiences that the Indian viewers had. With developments throughout the music manufacturing know-how in that interval, the quintessential singer had her private magical contact in order so as to add to it! Rightly famed for her soprano voice, the Padma Vibhushan awardee singer celebrates her 86th birthday in the meanwhile, nonetheless its easy to miss the amount. In her career spanning six a few years, Asha Bhosle has given Bollywood quite a few memorable songs which have been etched in our hearts and minds eternally. Her voice has aged like good wine. And truly, how superior it may very well be to have her age backwards, on account of that will merely suggest many further years of primary, timeless music! Provide hyperlink JOIN DIPLOMA IN DIGITAL MARKETING https://www.ingeniousacademy.in/digital-marketing-classes-aurangabad-digital-marketing-course/

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thesinglesjukebox · 5 years ago

Video

youtube

AVICII - HEAVEN

[3.43]

Finding it hard to believe...

Alex Clifton: The thing I always liked about Avicii's production is that it shimmered -- I can't think of any other artist who managed to make music sound so starry-eyed. Avicii was also responsible for turning Chris Martin's voice into something that you could hear at a club (I guess you could theoretically have a DJ play "The Scientist" but it would get weird). I'm not sure if this was Avicii's best work but it's still got the lightness and brightness that I always associated with his music, which always stood out in contrast with some of the bass-heavy EDM. I'm really sad he's gone and we won't get more songs like this, but I'm thankful for all he gave us while he was here. [6]

Will Adams: EDM isn't known for subtlety, but even then there's a particular "oof" to hearing Chris Martin (sounding a lot worse than usual) repeat "I think I just died" three times each chorus. It's especially strange given the previous Tim single was already saddled with the context -- I suppose this is meant to sound uplifting? It actually does in parts, namely when Martin isn't singing; the second drop midway through the song recaptures Bergling at his most euphoric. That is, or should be, his legacy: dance music that you can't help but raise your arms to, unafraid of leaning into cheesiness. "Heaven" only makes it partway there. [5]

Iain Mew: This sounds half-finished, presumably because it is. Much of it is scaffold, the setting for more detailed uplift to be placed, and it can't stand up to the weight of a song, never mind the weight of all the extra context tugging on the repeated "I think I just died." Nothing does well from its present state, but Chris Martin's thin and cut-up vocal suffers worst. Given neither sufficient support nor space for any emotions to breathe, he is, like the song, left in uncomfortable limbo. [2]

Alfred Soto: To dismiss this prayer is churlish, and Chris Martin sounds at home on tracks that play like remixes of themselves, but the keyboard arpeggios and Martin's mushmouthed attempt at dignity are so pro forma that they underscore the averageness of the late Avicii's legacy. Festival-aimed electro pop uplift should sound like transcendence. [3]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: Well, at least it's better than "A Sky Full of Stars," the previous Avicii and Chris Martin collaboration. Martin's nasally voice still sounds unfittingly sloppy though, its monotonous tone imbuing the song with a terrible drabness. The instrumental passage reveals how anthemic this isn't, and the stock EDM synths and house piano chords can't make this feel the least bit chipper; they feel like a coat of bright paint on a landfill. [2]

Scott Mildenhall: On "A Sky Full of Stars", Avicii and Chris Martin made for perfect partners. With its focus on piano and guitar, it sounds as much a Coldplay song as an Avicii one, the key-banging and Martin's banging-on completely congruent. But faced with more fiddly synths, he's less at home. Still a more refined, distinctive and recognisable legman than his brothers John and Sam, he nevertheless lacks the space to thrive, somewhat weighing down an otherwise ascendant production. [6]

Katherine St Asaph: Biographical criticism is, as ever, risky. A posthumous album is not a suicide note, nor usually an intentional statement like Blackstar; and even if Tim was the latter, "Heaven" dates back to 2015. But that doesn't mean I didn't stop cold when I heard "Levels," with its deployment of that particular Etta James sample (full of "sometimes," "never felt before," sounding forlorn amid the cheer) in that particular isolation from that particular person. And it definitely doesn't mean I can hear the chorus "I think I just died and went to heaven" without thinking the obvious next thought. "Heaven" was not intended as a tribute, but if it didn't become one upon release, it became one once it was chosen as the single. Which makes the astonishingly awful Chris Martin vocal the equivalent of drunkenly rambling through a funeral speech, the thin arrangement the equivalent of holding that funeral on Playmobil furniture, and the lyric so saccharine it becomes bleak. Presumably Tim Bergling was fine with "Heaven" in 2015 -- the Spin profile says "completed," not "recorded" -- but it's harder to imagine him being fine with it years later, harder still to imagine him able to stomach hearing it. And however small that chance is, or however projection-based, it's still enough to make me unable. This should not have been released. [0]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

#Avicii #Chris Martin #EDM #pop #music #music review #writing

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airadam · 6 years ago

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Episode 117 : Rockin' Steady

"...and though the flag been tattered and beaten..."

- General Steele

The short month of the year puts a little pressure on the recording schedule, but the show is here on time for you as always. Once again, we feature the sounds of J Dilla, Big Pun, and Big L, alongside plenty of other great stuff - and we keep the same speed going all the way through the mix!

Shows coming up;

Sadat X & El Da Sensei @ Joshua Brooks, March 20th

GZA @ Gorilla, Manchester, April 9th

Twitter : @airadam13

Playlist/Notes

EPMD ft. KRS-ONE : Run It

We start the episode with an all-NYC, all-uppercase collaboration from the "We Mean Business" LP, the seventh in EPMD's industrially-titled discography. A nod to LL on the hook, stick-up business over an Erick Sermon beat (of course), with KRS playing clean-up man flawlessly. Favourite part of the verse - real 'G's do indeed want to stay at home and read the paper.

Jay Dee : Another Batch - 11

One of a bunch of late-90s Dilla beats that got leaked onto the internet back in the day, this one smacks along with a bassline that comes through like a funky duck! I don't know if anyone ever rhymed on this, but I can imagine someone like De La doing great things with it.

Chuck D ft. Jahi : BOT

I don't know if it was intentional, but this track seems to call back to two tracks from the legendary "...Nation of Millions..." album; "She Watch Channel Zero?" ("she looking at the screen more than talking to me") and also "Night of the Living Baseheads" ("battery on low, look like fiends with a Jones"). Chuck D might have been one of the very first in Hip-Hop to catch onto the Internet, but the elder statesman sees the BS it's brought us as well! He combines here with the lead MC in the group known as "PE 2.0" to get it all off his chest, and he's got plenty more to say on the new "Celebration Of Ignorance" album.

Black Thought : 9th vs. Thought

No-one can accuse Black Thought of not being a team player, with it taking until 2018 before we saw a solo release from him, the "Streams of Thought Vol.1" EP. 9th Wonder was the producer for the project, and on this track he gets headline billing. Fans of top-flight lyricism are in for a treat here, as the MC of choice for many MCs shows his skill level in a major way.

Boot Camp Clik : World Wide

Serious track from the Brooklyn stalwarts, uniting on 2006's "The Last Stand". I absolutely love General Steele's opening verse, from which this month's epigram is taken, and then it's followed with the late, great Sean P just thugging it all the way out on the second verse! They go out of the immediate crew for production, tapping up Large Professor for a head-nodding beat that easily could have made for a fire single. Not the best-known tune maybe, but a tune that is big by nature!

Big L : Don't Front (Freestyle)

Short and powerful like a shot of rum, this is a concise taste of Big L's legendary freestyle aggression over a smooth 90s beat from Diamond's "You Can't Front".

Slum Village : Go Ladies (Instrumental)

One of my favourite Dilla beats easily, as heard on the "Fantastic, Vol.2" album, flipping a well-known 80s soul sample and somehow making it even better than you could have imagined. It's only when you listen back to what else was coming out around that time you can hear how much of a shock to the system a laid-back groove like this was.

Donnie : Cloud 9 (Spinna Mix)

If you enjoy soulful music, Donnie's 2002 debut "The Colored Section" should definitely be in your collection. "Cloud 9" was one of the standouts, and DJ Spinna puts some extra bump into it on this remix, which is on a nice 12" release. His bass style is so distinctive, and with so much of the beat being in the lower frequency range, it leaves plenty of room for Donnie's masterful vocals!

Foreign Exchange : Hustle, Hustle

There are plenty of great tracks on "Connected", the debut Foreign Exchange album, and I was sure I'd already played this - glad to find out I hadn't, as it was the perfect fit for this slot! Nicolay's beat is smooth on that kind of early-2000s, neo-soulish vibe, and then you have lyrical treats coming from every angle. Quartermaine and C.A.L.I.B.E.R spit bars about trying to get ahead in the world, and Phonte comes in beautifully on the hook, in a fairly early demonstration of his singing talent. I don't blame you if you find yourself humming this one on the way to work.

Kev Brown : Hold Fast

One of the great bassline masters in Hip-Hop, Kev Brown certainly put Landover (MD) on the map with his top-quality "I Do What I Do" album. He's just as solid on the mic, and takes the reins alone on this track from the second half of the LP. Scratches are credited to DJ PMD, who is not Parrish Smith, but in fact Peter Rosenberg (who hails from the same area) under his original DJ name!

Jermaine Dupri ft. Snoop Dogg, Warren G, and R.O.C : Protectors of 1472

Unless there's some other, non-publicised significance to the number 1472, the "Life In 1472" album has one of the most contrived titles of all time! I don't actually have the album, but this DJ Premier-produced cut is on a compilation of his rarer/lesser-known cuts. I cut this one fairly short, as I think you get the best of it in a compact dose - the last verse is by far the longest, but Snoop towards the front is the clear headliner.

J Dilla : Won't Do (Instrumental)

Classic Dilla from towards the end, based around the "Footsteps In The Dark" drums, with fragments of the vocal yelling out for help along the way. The vocal version is on "The Shining" LP, but for this instrumental, you may need to pick up the 7" boxset of the album (or the MP3 version), which contains instrumentals for every track!

Sadat X ft. Timmy Hunter : Neva

The three-bar loop makes mixing a bit tricky, but I really wanted to play this one! Sadat looks back over his life and career, and celebrates his own effort and self-belief - justifiably so. Diamond D provides the beat, as he does all the way through the "Sum Of A Man" album. It's been a long road since that first LP with Brand Nubian, but Sadat is still travelling it, and for that we should be thankful :)

Dabrye ft. Jay Dee and Phat Kat : Game Over

That beat will definitely do things on a big sound system. Sparse, menacing, insistent. Ann Arbor's Dabrye takes no prisoners on the production, and then pulls in his fellow Michiganders Jay Dee and Phat Kat, who just spit raw Detroit flames in the space the beat leaves! The 2006 "Two/Three" album is one for anyone who likes the more angular, awkward, and aggressive style of production.

Clear Soul Forces : Continue?

I've been saving the combination of this and "Game Over" for ages :) CSF's 2013 "Gold PP7s" is an essential album for anyone who thinks they don't make MCs like they used to - it should give you faith for the future! I can't even keep up with all the gaming, comic, and anime references that they just firehose you with, but the spirit is undeniable. Ilajide's videogame-styled beat bumps hard, and overall this is just one of those tracks I can't see any reason for anyone not to love!

C2C ft. Tigerstyle, Netik, Rafik, Vajra, Kentaro : Le Banquet

Here we have an all-star lineup of scratch DJs, liquefying their crossfaders one after another as the featured instrumentalists on this track from the "Tetra" album. If you listen closely, there are actually some quotes from "Game Over" in the mix - they sound like vocoded re-records, but they could well be heavily-manipulated samples...

J Dilla : Dillatronic 09

One more Dilla instrumental as we come towards the end, this time taken from the "Dillatronic" collection of beats, a posthumous collection of 41 pieces - many very short - from the MPC of the man himself.

Noreaga ft. Nature, Big Pun, Cam'ron, Jadakiss, and Styles P : Banned From TV

Late 90s thug styles, and the kind of triumphant sound that either had to start or finish the episode. Nature was the original guest on here, but while almost everyone else was invited on, Big Pun bullied his way onto the track! While everybody comes off, the true gems on this tune are towards the front - Nature's memorable opening line, and Pun's devastating verse. The Swizz Beatz production is a perfect snapshot of the keyboard-based beats of the era - the "horns" should be corny, but somehow they work in context, and the kick/basstone combo bangs! Classic Berra-ism from Nore on the last verse too - if it's with tomato juice, then it can't be Hennessy straight...

Please remember to support the artists you like! The purpose of putting the podcast out and providing the full tracklist is to try and give some light, so do use the songs on each episode as a starting point to search out more material. If you have Spotify in your country it's a great way to explore, but otherwise there's always Youtube and the like. Seeing your favourite artists live is the best way to put money in their pockets, and buy the vinyl/CDs/downloads of the stuff you like the most!

Check out this episode!

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