November 5th, 2009
The animated video for Air’s “Sing Sang Sung,” inculcated a mild psychedelia via its trippy kaleidoscopic visuals and requisite mushroom imagery, but truthfully the Parisian duo of Godin and Dunckel have never been ones to soundtrack drug binges, instead keeping their eyes firmly focused on crafting Gallic electro lover’s rock (I imagine at this point, Moon Safari has approached Al Green levels of unplanned pregnancies). Wisely, they enlist Black Moth Super Rainbow, the most inadvertently hallucinatory band of the past few years, to lace the remix with off-kilter synths, neurotic fuzz, and the gumby glide that you get when drugs dissolve all tension from your limbs. Dope.
Download:
MP3: Air-”Sing Sang Sung (Black Moth Super Rainbow Remix)”
Posted in Black Moth Super Rainbow | No Comments »
November 5th, 2009
Another post should be up later this afternoon, deadlines and dawdling permitting. In the interim, necessity demands sharing this incredible cut from the ATL’s top-ranking Lonnie Lynn/Rick Bawse impersonater, Sean Falyon. The West Philly-raised Falyon, pairs up with the dependably great Playboy Tre and Scar, to drop an incredibly poignant slice of the Dungeon Family-type Atlanta rap I grew up loving: weary, spiritual affirmations of life in the face of sorrow. A necessary counter-balance to the popular chains and crack rap that has consumed one-dimensional media definitions for most of the decade.
Between Killer Mike, Tre, Pill, BOB, Falyon, and a gang of others Maurice Garland knows more about than me, contemporary Atlanta rap amounts to a lot more than Jeezy, Gucci, Soulja Boy, and D4L. Not to disparage those guys–they exist in a practically different genre altogether. But none have ever hit me as hard as Tre does on this track and throughout his excellent Liquor Store Mascot and Goodbye America mixtapes. Gotty captured it perfectly when he said that what “Tre needs to do is…scribe his autobiography or a few Donald Goines-eque paperbacks. Sure, his words sound melodic when done over music. But there’s a wisdom to his ghetto scriptures… Words that should be shared on a wider level. There’s nothing cryptic or “deep.” It’s the starkness and the way he develops round, dynamic characters in his rhymes… They aren’t heroes, just average cats working their way through the world.”
Wonderful.
Download:
MP3: Sean Falyon ft. Playboy Tre & Scar-”Wonderful Life”
ZIP: Playboy Tre-Liquor Store Mascot (Left-Click)
ZIP: Playboy Tre-Goodbye America
Posted in ATL, Playboy Tre | No Comments »
November 4th, 2009
Javelin, the reigning kings of junk yard pop (not to be confused with The Junk Yard Dog), dropped World Midi Classics Vol. 2 today, which sounds how you might expect: a globe-trotting, crate-digging array of forgotten samples, disembodied vocals, and sounds that lambently glide from African guitar to flamenco. The ideal sort of thing to come out on David Byrne’s Luaka Bop, the label that’s putting out album number two next year (in the interim, the band is releasing a limited edition 12″ on Thrill Jockey this month). As always, the tape sports a seasonal lemonade and sunshine vibe. For the locals, they’re playing the Smell next Thursday. I plan on going and demanding that they show me how to cook up summer in the winter, er fall.
Download:
MP3: Javelin-”World Midi Classics Vol.2″
MP3: Javelin-”Andean Ocean Tape”
Posted in Javelin | No Comments »
November 4th, 2009
In the wake of his full-length Warp debut that dropped last week, Glasgow’s Hudson Mohawke (see here and here) has dropped a pair of mixes to up the promotional ante, popping up halfway through Benji B’s essential BBC1 Xtra show late Sunday night for an interview and an elaborate compilation spanning the entirety of his five-year career, including rare CD-R’s, old tapes, and various esoterica (kilts, Loch Ness references, etc.)
The programme (for British eyes only) should appeal to those looking to know more about the youngest ever winner of the UK DMC championships (at 14 years-old),the origins of the album title Butter (a mixture of Scottish humor and old R&B slang), his first musical love (90s New York hip-hop), and Mohawke’s dreams of working with Jada, Freeway, and Twista. While the collected tracks bear out perhaps the most fully realized statement of the 23-year old’s potential. Also worth checking out is the Q&A/mix Mohawke did for the Fader, that touches upon his musical and aesthetic inspirations and breaks the news that he’s supposedly going to contribute beats to the next Erykah Badu album–to say nothing of his next record title, I Can’t Give It’s Not Butter…Spray.
Benji B tracklist below the jump.
Download:
MP3: Hudson Mohawke-”Benji B’s Soulful Beats on BBC1 Xtra ft. Hudson Mohawke (11/1/09)
MP3: Hudson Mohawke-”Fader Mix”
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Posted in Hudson Mohawke, Wonky | 1 Comment »
November 3rd, 2009
Sonic Router, arguably the best blog devoted to dubstep and its tributaries, interviews Mono/Poly about his inspirations (Timbaland, Neptunes, the Thimble), his first time at Low End Theory and his apparent love of metaphysics. They also got him to make a ridiculously good mix featuring himself, Flying Lotus, Gaslamp Killer, and others. If you don’t download, you neither pass go, nor collect $200. In fact, you probably aren’t fit to play the Monopoly game at McDonald’s.
Download:
ZIP: Mono/Poly-Sonic Router Mix (Left-Click)
Posted in Dubstep | No Comments »
November 3rd, 2009
Neither a 650-word review for a general interest publication, nor a discursive blog post making stale jokes about hippies can adequately describe my Festival 8 weekend. Suffice to say, my neurons currently share the consistency of fried squid and I am subject to embarrassing revelations about my newfound ardor for Phish. It’s the sort of thing that needs a minimum 10-page essay, a video accompaniment, and a haiku about Hacksaw Jim Duggan (see above), who never broke character while wearing his costume all weekend long. At 4 a.m. on Saturday night, he could still be found wandering around the parking lot screaming “Hooooo.”
Posting may be a bit light over the next few days as I struggle to re-acclimate to Los Angeles, daylight savings, a slew of looming deadlines, and the ramifications of last weekend. As a man named Ox once said, “everything’s the same, but different.”My review for the Times is up now. At some point, I imagine I will write about it in more depth–but in brief, Phish pulled it off, which is just about the highest praise I can give to a band with the hubris to book the Empire Polo Club for a weekend without any openers or ancillary live entertainment. Below, Phish’s two best songs for people who don’t like Phish. Don’t question my sanity, regardless of how much fun I had this weekend, I still think “Gotta Jibboo” remains the most insipid song ever recorded.
Download:
MP3: Phish-”Bouncing Round the Room (6/7/09)
MP3: Phish-”Fee” (Live Phish 19)
Posted in Phish, LA Times | No Comments »
November 2nd, 2009
Sach O can’t stop partying.
When it came to vocalists, Reggae fans became increasingly open-minded in the 1970’s. From weirdo toasters to Rastafarian firebrands, Jamaican audiences quickly embraced the unique voices that followed Reggae’s creative boom leaving a number of wonderful Rocksteady acts in the dust. Thankfully, not all soul-influenced groups faded into the sunset–many persisted and found success, bridging their earlier romantic approach with the rebellious spirit of the times, resulting in powerful, gospel-like paeans to Jah and sufferer’s odes to Jamaican life. Of these groups, few were as successful as the legendary Heptones whose collaborations with maverick genius Lee “Scratch” Perry stand as some of the finest Jamaican music ever recorded.
Like the Temptations teaming up with Norman Whitfield, The Heptones’ work with Perry is a daring fusion of pure soul and psychedelic weirdness. Known for velvety voices that would have been just as comfortable belting out ballads in Detroit or Memphis as rockers in Kingston, the Heptones weren’t obvious candidates for the Upsetter’s avant-garde production. Thankfully, what could have been a total mess instead feels like the best of both worlds on Party Time!–a record that merges the group’s perfect pitch with Scratch’s bubbling soundscapes.
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Posted in Reggae, Diggin' in the Digital Crates, Sach O | 2 Comments »
October 30th, 2009
Once I saw the video for “Do You Realize,” I was hooked. I copped The Soft Bulletin. I listened compulsively, obsessed with its sparkling, widescreen pop. From there, I ran through the Flaming Lips’ discography: Transmissions From The Satellite Heart and Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots (the Lips were always a covert pop band), Transmissions and Clouds Taste Metallic (filled with brilliant alternate universe top 40 hits–and in the case of “She Don’t Use Jelly,” an actual top 40 Peach Pit hit.) Once you dug through the noise and lyrics about zoo animals and aliens, the tunes were there.
From The Soft Bulletin on, Wayne Coyne’s writing turned inwards, and the band started structuring their songs around their studio capabilities, as opposed to what worked live. Despite their stellar live shows, the Lips had become masterful studio outfit, with guitars beginning to disappear from their records. By Yoshimi, the Lips’ conception of the studio as instrument became readily apparent. Despite its reputation as a retread, At War With The Mystics, showed the Lips’ willingness to experiment with more overt prog influences, including suite-like song structures that included bizarre musical movements. Unfortunately, the song writing was largely weak, with the songs themselves bludgeoned by David Fridmann’s gaudy production, rendering the songs more interesting for their sonic dressings than lyrics or melodies.
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Posted in Flaming Lips, Aaron Matthews | 2 Comments »
October 29th, 2009
Robot Koch. The name sounds like a concept album Lupe Fiasco would conceive were he ever dropped from Atlantic and sent down to Triple A to rap for the label of choice for late-period Mobb Deep side-projects (I refuse to call it E1-it’s not a vegetable juice blend, it’s a record label). Straight out of Berlin, the android born Robert Koch, is slated to drop his first solo full-length, Death Star Droid, following his work in “critically acclaimed band Jahcoozi and post rock/hiphop outfit The Tape vs RQM” (his hyperbole, not mine.)
Originally a hardcore drummer who incubated a love of hip-hop the proper way (via Enter the 36 Chambers), the traces of Koch’s percussionist roots loom large on Death Star, with that rugged boom-bap clap blending nicely with the wobbly dubstep textures and squealing synth lines. Think a Teutonic Nosaj Thing or Hudson Mohawke if he preferred frankfurters to haggis. Koch has already received endorsements from Gaslamp Killer, Mary Anne Hobbs, and Modeselektor. Recently, Flying Lotus asking him to drop a Brainfeeder Podcast, where Koch featured some righteous Fela Kuti and rare jazz cuts, showing off the eclecticism of his bag of tricks. Follow his advice and don’t sleep, Koch is probably the best robot since Japanese Robot Santa Claus.
Download:
MP3: Robot Koch-”Robots Don’t Sleep Mix” (Left-Click)
MP3: Robot Koch-”Death Star Droid”
MP3: Robot Koch-”Brainfeeder Mix”
Posted in Robot Koch, Dubstep | 1 Comment »
October 28th, 2009
During Dam-Funk’s takeover of Benji B’s BBC 1Xtra program this week, the latter told the Leimert Park -based funk pharaoh how much sense his music makes in Los Angeles, describing it as the ideal driving music–a simple but accurate observation. Dam’s slinky, swaying sunshine funk combines his 80s inspirations (Slave, Aurra, early Prince) with the 40’s and Four-Four grooves of West Coast gangsta rap. After all, this is a man who spent a sizable chunk of the 90s playing key boards on Westside Connection and MC Eiht records (on a tangentially related note, there is never a bad time to watch the “Straight Up Menace” video.)
In the midst of promoting the 2-CD release of the excellent Toeachizown, which finally dropped last Tuesday (the full 5-LP boxed set won’t hit stores until late December/Early January), Dam’s been busy, with his Benji B appearance essential for anyone interested in learning more about the man behind the funk (he was also apparently on the I Got the Hook-Up Soundtrack), plus the chance to hear some jams from his new record, some largely unheard CD-R cuts, and esoteric cuts from artists that no one other than Dam and Peanut Butter Wolf are probably familiar with. To add to the haul, Dam also just dropped a new free mixtape featuring tracks from Nite Jewel, Mono/Poly, and another array of obscure old-school funk and R&B jams. You want the funk, you need the funk, you gotta have the funk.
Download:
ZIP: Dam-Funk on Deviation/Soulful Beats with Benji B (10/25/09) (Left-Click)
MP3: Dam-Funk-Beautiful Music 4 Beautiful People Mixtape
MP3: Dam-Funk-”Hood Pass Intact”
MP3: Dam-Funk-”The Sky is Ours”
MP3: Dam-Funk-”Love is Here 2Nite”
Posted in Dam-Funk, Stones Throw | 8 Comments »
