A.M. 180

2010: top 50 songs (10-1)

2011-01-06T23:59:00.000-07:00

| 10| "Off Angles Edges"
Daedelus

| 9| "Lovesick"
Lindstrom & Christabelle

| 8| "Night Crawler"
Nosaj Thing

| 7| "USA Boys"
HEALTH

| 6| "Field"
Mount Kimbie

| 5| "Klavierwerke"
James Blake

| 4| "Michael Knight"
Curren$y

| 3| "Window Seat"
Erykah Badu

| 2| "Odessa"
Caribou

| 1| "Footcrab"
Addison Groove

2010: top 50 songs (20-11)

2011-01-06T23:24:00.001-07:00

| 20| "I'll Quit"
Gigi ft. Owen Pallett

| 19| "Decisions"
How to Dress Well ft. Yuksel Arslan

| 18| "Pressure"
Quadron

| 17| "Heaven's on Fire"
The Radio Dept.

| 16| "Sahara Michael"
Ikonika

| 15| "Helicopter"
Deerhunter

| 14| "So Derobe"
Joy Orbison

| 13| "Candylane"
Gonjasufi

| 12| "Wile Out"
DJ Zinc ft. Ms Dynamite

| 11| "Massive Attack"
Nicki Minaj ft. Sean Garrett

2010: top 50 songs (30-21)

2011-01-06T22:30:00.001-07:00

| 30| "Def Surrounds Us"
DJ Shadow

| 29| "Slowdance"
Matthew Dear

| 28| "Taxi"
Ski Beatz ft. Mos Def & Whosane

| 27| "Nobody Gets Me But You"
Spoon

| 26| "Mad Sax"
Guido

| 25| "F.I.L.A."
The-Dream ft. T.I.

| 24| "She Makes Me Feel Alright"
Freeway & Jake One

| 23| "See Birds (Moon)"
Balam Acab

| 22| "Keep It Going"
Blu ft. U-God

| 21| "ZX81" (Ramadanman Remix)
dBridge

2010: top 50 songs (40-31)

2011-01-06T21:25:00.000-07:00

| 40| "Rose Garden"
Shad

| 39| "Scarface Nigga"
Roc Marciano

| 38| "Cloud Shadow on the Mountain"
Wolf Parade

| 37| "Waterfall"
The Fresh & Onlys

| 36| "I Rep the Dirty South (Dubbel Dutch Remix)"
Parson

| 35| "Couch"
Earl Sweatshirt ft. Ace Creator

| 34| "Sit Down, Man"
Das Racist ft. El-P

| 33| "Chain Swinging"
Gangrene

| 32| "Dollar$ 4 Dope"
Freddie Gibbs

| 31| "Satelllliiiiiteee"
Flying Lotus

2010: top 50 songs (50-41)

2011-01-06T20:32:00.000-07:00

| 50| "Hood Pass Intact"
Dam Funk ft. MC Eiht

| 49| "Our Dreams"
Method Man, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon

| 48| "Butter Knives"
Raekwon

| 47| "Murked"
Alex B

| 46| "Hey Cool Kid"
Cloud Nothings

| 45| "Narrow with the Hall"
Women

| 44| "My Angel Lonely"
Wild Nothing

| 43| "Now You See Me"
Emeralds

| 42| "On a Good Day"
Joanna Newsom

| 41| "Me and the Devil"
Gil Scott-Heron

2:39

2011-01-05T00:11:00.002-07:00

2:39 mix (33 minutes, 24 seconds)

+ download via mediafire

Caribou - "Bowls"

Filastine - "The Sinking Ship"

Curren$y - "Airborne Aquarium"

Bruce Haack - "Snow Job"

D'Angelo - "Left & Right" (Sam Champ remix)

dBridge - "ZX81" (Ramadanman refix)

Fiona Apple - "Why Try to Change Me Now?"

Vincent Gallo - "My Beautiful White Dog"

****

archer on the beach

2010-11-07T18:00:00.003-07:00

\\\

Destroyer - Archer on the Beach (feat. Tim Hecker) (via)

****

painting by Walton Ford

d i s l o c a t i a

2010-10-05T22:30:00.002-06:00

liam singer - "winter weeds"

(via textura)

****

suspended in time

2010-09-30T22:30:00.002-06:00

Mad Sex

2010-09-07T21:30:00.000-06:00

Guido/Jeremih - Mad Sax/Birthday Sex (Venom & Damage Remix)
(via word the cat - Summer 010 Mix)

****

b/w

2010-09-04T15:33:00.000-06:00

b/w mix (35 minutes, 39 seconds)

+ download via mediafire

songs

1. the flamingos :: i only have eyes for you
2. wild nothing :: my angel lonely
3. crystal antlers :: andrew
4. gorillaz :: empire ants (ft. little dragon)
5. janiece myers :: addicted
6. gonjasufi :: duet
7. dick wolf :: consider these waves chilled (altered zones)
8. the heptones :: guiding star
9. james blake :: postpone
10. jeremy jay :: splash
11. quadron :: tone
12. the roots :: wicked ways

>>>

sources

the flamingos, flamingo serenade

wild nothing, gemini

crystal antlers, tentacles

gorillaz, plastic beach

"addicted" from wiley zip files (1-11)

gonjasufi, a sufi and a killer

"consider these waves chilled" courtesy of b. schwartz

the heptones, journey

james blake, cmyk

jeremy jay, splash

quadron, s/t

"wicked ways" from dilla joints (mixtape)

>>>

king sunny ade

2010-08-02T15:30:00.003-06:00

A piece that I wrote about Nigerian Juju legend King Sunny Ade is over at Passion of the Weiss.* It turned out pretty well considering most of the writing I do these days involves drafting memos for the boss and typing emails with the words "please see attached".

Included with the write-up are about 30 minutes of music, so head over there and have a listen.

My father used to bounce me around on his shoulders to KSA when I was a wee lad, and to this day the reaction I have to the music is almost physical. The warm, dusty tones of Yoruba sung in effortless harmony is one of the most beautiful things in the world.

****

*One of my favourite music blogs on the net. I'm still in shock that the authorities are allowing me to contribute to it.

photo by Scott Baker

2010-06-22T20:52:00.005-06:00

Rose Royce - "Love Don't Live Here Anymore"

HEART of the ARK

2010-06-07T19:30:00.002-06:00

Bunny "Rugs" Scott - "What's the Use"

from Lee Perry's Heart of the Ark -- last week's treat on You&Me.

It's a very short LP, with only eight tracks, and it's all gorgeous.

On standout track, "What's the Use", Bunny Scott's ritual meditations on loneliness attain a level of beauty that is difficult to match. If ever there was evidence of joy in misery, this would be it.

echo chamber 4: swimming pool

2010-06-05T22:32:00.001-06:00

Echo Chamber 4: Swimming Pool

(37 minutes, 12 seconds)

::tracklist::

Sensible Nectar - "Deadpan" // Beach House - "Walk In the Park" // Think - "All Wet" // Ring Trick - "Euphio" // 2:54 - "Creeping" // Brian Eno - "By This River" // HEALTH - "Nice Girls" (Little Loud Rmx) // Lorn - "Cherry Moon" // RIZ - "Rock the Bed" // Sensible Nectar - "I'm Going to Make Love to Everything Forever"

download

****

notes:

1) Sensible Nectar tracks courtesy of rainbow bridge recordings.

2) Download free Remainders EP by Ring Trick.

3)::DISCO 2 (not free, but amazing)

4) Echodub Loves Vol. 2 -- free compilation

Love, / I never had it / so good.

2010-05-06T20:45:00.002-06:00

Maximize the volume.

Your laptop speakers will not cut it.

****

in a fistfight with the fog

2010-05-05T22:04:00.003-06:00

Toni Braxton - "You're Making Me High" (siik edit)
from Devil's Pie: Siik Edition Live Mix

Please consider this a subtle reminder of one of the greatest songs of all-time.

If one minute and forty-one seconds of bliss is not enough for you, and you want --need more like this, the rest of the mix is over here.

****

2010-05-04T00:19:00.007-06:00


sprawl(ing)- - spilling over

sleepwalked through stages
tempest-tossed
-- alone

wilding on the phone
killing em
-- all night long

GonjaSufi - "Ancestors"

Lagos Disco Inferno

2010-04-30T21:20:00.001-06:00

(via)

MFB - "Boredom Pain" (preview)

Lagos Disco Inferno (Academy LPs, 2010)

****

seasonal

2010-04-30T02:00:00.009-06:00

10. HEALTH - "usa boys"

I seem to remember these boys being a lot noisier.

9. balam acab - "see birds"

8. tokimonsta - "this world is ours"

Tokimonsta first caught my attention when she went to town on Tweet's "Call Me", but she's chilling on this track, and on her new Cosmic Intoxication EP. It's a restrained, unhurried record that astounds with quiet brilliance.

///

7. inell young - "the next ball game"

Gotta love how saturated this recording sounds, and how the singer's voice just barely stays above the instruments, almost drowning in the crisp drum clatter and horn blasts.

This is whatever the opposite of quiet storm R&B is. The drummer was crazy on this track. (via)

///

6. margaret dygas - "frankly"

****

5. alex b - "murked"

4. nosaj thing - "night crawler"

3. take - "neon beams" (left click)

Much love for the Alpha Pup roster going on over at Passion of the Weiss. Head over there for all your procurement needs.

Pick your poison*: "Neon Beams" has more bounce, "Murked" more pharmaceuticals. Nosaj Thing might be in a league all of his own.

*Or, you know, sample them all.

///

2. robin saville - "an outdoor planetarium" (inch-time remix)

I'll always be a sucker for music with the echoes of Georgio Moroder's work for Hollywood in the 80s. This haunting remix, courtesy of Stefan Panczak aka Inch-time, brings to mind the strangeness of walking through deserted city streets at night. (via)

///

1. wordthecat spring 010 mix: "bees and things and flowers" (tracklist)

Always seasonal and always inspired, the wordthecat blog has another effusive, brilliant, sun-struck mix up for Spring.

rock the boat / work the middle / change positions . . .

****

chaos

2010-04-20T11:00:00.003-06:00

A Sufi and A Killer, pt. 1

2010-04-18T17:30:00.003-06:00

The easy way out is to say that A Sufi and A Killer is a strange wonder of an album that evades description, and leave it at that.

Actually, there is no easy way out of this album. My favourite description of the record so far simply hailed it "the new soul"--a beautiful idea, which is pretty vague and nondescript, perhaps even inaccurate, depending on how you look at it. But vague, indeterminate praise, equal parts meaningful and meaningless, seems to suit this particular record.

There's more as more thoughts surface.

****

after_the_smoke

2010-04-12T00:37:00.002-06:00

::tracklist::

After the Smoke - "One In a Million"

Gil Scott Heron - "Where Did the Night Go"

Free the Robots - "Jupiter"

Bonnie & Clyde - "Since You've Gone Away"

Kode9 - "Black Sun"

Al Usher - "Lullaby for Robert" (Prins Thomas Diskomiks)

Groove Armada - "Shameless" (feat. Bryan Ferry)

Killer Mike - "Super Clean, Super Hard" (feat. 8Ball & MJG)

Andreya Triana - "Lost Where I Belong" (Flying Lotus Remix)

Nicole - "Make it Hot"

Noggin Nodders - "Bounce"

>> after the smoke

****

b1beatlewoods002

2010-04-09T19:05:00.001-06:00

How To Dress Well - "Decisions" (feat.Yuksel Arslan)

-- cold, distant lamentations

perfect for a day where the sun didn't break through the clouds once;

snowstorms in April are almost as devastating as these two tracks.

How To Dress Well - "Ready for the World"

freakin' baby yeah

2010-03-29T22:07:00.004-06:00

Lucy Pearl - Dance Tonight (siik remix)

(via)

Siik remakes Lucy Pearl's "Dance Tonight" as a deliciously monotonous, slow-riding jam that would fit comfortably alongside the work of Dãm-Funk, trading in the original's swingbeats and strings for lazy synth figures and a vicious snare that bumps more than it bounces.

The soft-focus/iced-out keys and the slow, heavy beat of the drum machine never quite mesh, instead lazily wheeling around each other. It has the feel of being in a room that's spinning in ultra-slow motion. Dazed, multi-tracked vocals collide and topple over each other without ever throwing the groove.

Bonus:

****

HudMo: slow jams

2010-03-21T19:40:00.001-06:00

This mix of early 90s-era R&B ballads and new jack swing hit the internet on Valentine's Day, but I missed it. But that's okay; we'll listen to it now.

Hudson Mohawke - 60 SlowJams Chapter 3

(via)

::tracklist::

R. Kelly & Public Announcement - "Honey Love"

Christopher Williams - "Every Little Thing U Do"
Keith Sweat - "It Gets Better"
Seduction - "(You're My One and Only) True Love"
??? -
Lorenzo Smith - "Angel"
Surface - "Give Her Your Love"
Karyn White - "The Way I Feel About You"
Angela Winbush - "Treat U Right"
??? -
Lorenzo - "Natasha"

****

Hudson Mohawke - "Freek"
HudMo also dropped this glorious, trunk-rattling remix of "Freek 'N You"--not quite the intergalactic mindfuck that was "Ooops (Oh My)", but more guaranteed to have you breaking out Diary of a Mad Band and scheduling yourself some "alone time".

late night swim

2010-03-20T01:20:00.006-06:00

this one is even more stunning.

****

echo chamber mixtape

2010-03-18T04:18:00.005-06:00

another mixtape.

It's mostly reggae and rocksteady tunes, peppered with some lo-fi R&B and other echoey jams.

I was moved by the raw intensity and intimacy of a lot of these songs, which is why I thought I'd create a special mixtape for them to live in--

a mixtape of reverb-swept recordings, full of desperate, heart-on-sleeve vocals and cavernous drums...

It's a strictly 'headphones only' affair.

Sound good?

Off the top of my head--

thanks to PoW, ear fuzz, moistworks, and thelovejournal for some of these tunes.

::tracklist::

1. The Heptones - "Sea of Love"

2. Slim Smith - "This Feeling"

3. King Tubby - "Stealing"

4. Arthur Russell - "This Is How We Walk on the Moon (rocksteady edit)"

5. Lezli Valentine - "Love On a Two Way Street"

6. Phyllis Dillon - "Perfidia"

7. Nujabes - "World's End Rhapsody"

8. Spirit - "The Other Song"

9 Johnny Osbourne - "Truth & Rights"

10 The Gaylads - "I Need Your Loving"

11 Lee Perry - "Tighten Up"

12 Glasser - "Apply"

13 Jeb Stuart - "Will I Ever Be Free"

15 Arthur Russell - "Get Around to It"

16 Bibio - "Jealous of Roses"

17 Noel Ellis - "Memories"

18 The Supremes - "Where Did Our Love Go? (Quarterbar Redo)"

>> download the complete echo chamber mixtape here.

****

s p o o n / / t r a n s f e r e n c e

2010-03-11T22:50:00.005-07:00

I feel like I should be writing about one of the more upbeat tracks on Spoon's new album--something exciting to kickstart my late entry into Music: 2010 (Is it March already?), but whenever I sit down to write something lately, I seem to be in an exhausted, sorta sentimental mood. Thus, the songs on Transference that I'm feeling the most right now are "Out Go the Lights" and "Nobody Gets Me But You".

Transference is a strangely beautiful follow-up to the band's last full-length, which I recall as being both more extroverted and somewhat more pop-oriented. By contrast, Transference strikes a more meditative note. Its stretches of hypnotic introspection are interrupted by jarring guitar riffs, like how the riled-up and amusingly short "Is Love Forever?" gets sandwiched between "Before Destruction" and "The Mystery Zone". The sequencing gives the whole album a kind of bottled intensity; it's both surprising and sedate at turns. It hangs in an indefinite space, its songs contracting and expanding with each unexpected production flourish, balanced between stasis and progress, and constantly percolating.

****

"She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not"

2010-03-02T15:13:00.000-07:00

Kool G Rap & DJ Polo - "She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not"

Aaliyah - "Choosy Lover (Old School/New School)"

Silkie - "Purple Love"

Carl Carlton - "This Feeling's Rated X-Tra"

****

under my pressure

2010-02-10T23:48:00.003-07:00

Pressure by Quadron from Daniel Kragh-Jacobsen on Vimeo.

(via)

****

done. (my favourite song of 2009)

2010-02-10T23:10:00.001-07:00

Burial & Four Tet - "Moth"

My first response to "Moth" was that it felt emotionally heavy, like it contained the weight of the world, that it had a pervasive sadness that couldn't quite be labelled sadness, that it was like "crushing existential despair packaged in a song." I found myself wishing that I would hear it played sometime in a nightclub at 2 am. So far that wish has gone unfulfilled.

But let's rewind back even further.

Here are two descriptions of Burial's 2007 album, Untrue, that I really like. One reviewer found the experience of listening to the album like being immersed in "half-remembered clips of the tunes you heard on the dancefloor, like the night is continually rewinding then jumping forward. . . ." The other review described Untrue as the "'lost like tears in rain,' dying-android scene from Blade Runner looped for eternity." Both suggest a disorienting déjà vu feeling of repetition and deep sense of loss. This sad feeling of things half-remembered and endlessly repeated carries forward into Burial's collaboration with Four Tet, but whereas Untrue dealt in darkness and felt very much like a nighttime record, "Moth" feels more encompassing--like darkness and light--and somehow more tragic.

When it comes to Four Tet, I generally think of music that is more emotionally static, that uses samples as clean, aseptic elements in an intricate patchwork, songs with a brightly-coloured, often quite busy, compositional feel. Often there is a finite "concreteness" to his songs; they feel like things you could isolate on a giant canvas, take a pencil and ruler, and draw lines around.

Both Burial and Four Tet create music that has a kind of opulence and majesty, but in very different ways. Burial cloaks his music in shadows and fog, but with Four Tet, the edges are clearly-defined. Burial's atmospherics provide expansiveness and Four Tet prevents things from getting too blurred, giving "Moth" a balance and sonic restraint that you don't get from the songs on Untrue. The artists seem to have met each other halfway in that many of the sounds, in particular the drum machine, are muted, like they're being heard through a wall.

"Moth" resists a more detailed description because its creation is still largely a mystery. The 12" that it was released on last year had no liner/production notes and I don't really know who contributed what to it. The little I've written above are my own assumptions, and could very well be wrong.

****

RUNNING IN THE DARK

2010-02-08T23:45:00.006-07:00

Bat For Lashes - "Daniel"
It would make sense if, instead of a song, "Daniel" was a vampire. That would explain the song's hypnotic presence, its eroticism--its cold, dark romance--and why you're powerless to resist it. Singer, Natasha Khan, barely has to whisper the first line and you're already hopelessly trapped in its embrace.

Equal parts dream and mystical invocation, "Daniel" conjures a landscape of ghostly strings and stately synths--elegant (yet melodramatic) and ominous, like the whole thing's been doused in theatrical fog--you can almost hear the whir of the fog machine backstage as it releases billowing cloud after cloud of smoke.

It's fitting, then, that Khan's lyrics are like the description of a dream: At first we're laughing "under wild blue skies", next spirited away in a "golden blue car", before ending up crying in a "goodbye bed", and finally hallucinating in a Wizard of Oz-referencing spinning house. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to imagine Khan penning the words while watching David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. But it's far easier not to discern the lyrics in their entirety, but to let the imagery, and the sound of Khan's voice, wash over you. (i.e. Are those "marble movie skies" or "Marlboro ruby skies"? Does it matter? Can it be both?)

****

4/3

2010-02-04T22:41:00.001-07:00

Mos Def - "History" (feat. Talib Kweli)

"History" might not be the most technically-stunning track on Mos Def's flawless pièce de résistance, but it's hands-down the most joyful. It also feels like the most relaxed and effortless moment on the album, beginning with Mos Def waxing philosophical about predestiny, before launching into an affectionate, sunbathed synopsis of his past.

Fellow Black Star emcee, Talib Kweli, romanticizes his birth, in the first two bars of his verse, with sweeping breviloquence:

I was born in the decade of decadence,
Where they worship what they have;
 Ford was president, do the math.
The war was ended
When the North Vietnamese
Stormed the city of Saigon; 
We was like "Bye", we was gone;
Let bygones be bygones.

Kweli tackles his verse with his characteristic easy-going lope, speeding up and slowing down, somehow--miraculously--finding all the time he needs to navigate multisyllabic internal rhyme schemes.

Dilla Dilla Dilla.

If "History" was the only song on The Ecstatic, the album would still deserve its name, and most of that euphoria is a function of J. Dilla's production. The elemental, barely-contained emotion bursting from the track is 90% Dilla. The late producer's sauntering bass and lonely snare are lessons in restraint; his effervescent orchestral flourishes are applied sparingly. But the honey-thick icing on the cake: the sped-up soul vocals that adorn the track's negative space, showering it in cherry blossoms and warm sunlight.

Phoenix - "Lisztomania"

For the love of "Lisztomania", please see the Summer of 2009.

*****

6/5

2010-02-04T00:32:00.004-07:00

Lindstrøm & Christabelle - "Baby Can't Stop (Aeroplane Remix)"

The original is MJ-certified fire, and Aeroplane's remix burns even hotter, like an incandescent blue flame in zero gravity. The Belgian hotshot duo responsible for my favourite song of 2008 turn "Baby Can't Stop" into an hallucinatory epic, immersing Lindstrøm's rhapsodic disco stomp in an oscillating mass of spaced-out, pitch-bending synthesizers, chromatic scales and arpeggios. Christabelle's seductive, scattershot vocals orbit it all, sounding like a dazed Siren caught in the track's gravitational pull.

Destroyer - "Bay of Pigs"

After Destroyer's Rubies and Trouble in Dreams--the laid-back reverie of "Rubies", or the chaotic sprawl of "Shooting Rockets" (and its Swan Lake doppelganger) come to mind--this 14-minute "ambient disco" composition could easily be regarded as a natural progression for Dan Bejar. It's a pleasant surprise, and another consummate masterpiece.

Thematically, the song doesn't stray far from Bejar's now-familiar, drunken mysticism--"Bay of Pigs" is a continuation of his seafaring odyssey in pursuit of "the world's inutterable secret."

*****

10 BRICKS

2010-02-02T22:57:00.003-07:00

Raekwon - "10 Bricks" (feat. Cappadonna & Ghostface)

In the opening verse of "10 Bricks", Raekwon spins a tale of crime so convoluted and overrun with life that it has a kind of montage effect, with times and places running together and--even more surreal--a sense of characters disappearing into others. I don't think there is another rapper that can create depth to a story and reveal so little while suggesting so much quite like Rae can. Most of the details are left to our imaginations, Rae presenting us with haunting flashes of people and settings before obscuring them with further bits of disconnected history, or seemingly mundane tangents--women in see-through lingerie, a leather-and-matching-sweater outfit, etc.

It has a strangely powerful effect: we don't know where we are, or who we're talking about, so we imagine ourselves everywhere, and one character becomes the next. I wonder, for example, what the link is between the girl from Africa with the "pretty smile, nine teeth," and the woman who just "threw the rifle in her mouth and said 'good evening'" two bars before. It's never clear whether Rae is piling on more backstory, playing God, or both; we expect characters to die, but we don't expect them to come back.

****

I feel like I should say something about Cappa's and Ghost's verses--as great as they are, they can't help but pale a bit in comparison to Rae's cinematic opener. Cappa's verse feels distinctly linear following up The Chef, but it doesn't disappoint, Cappa's slurred rasp giving his rhymes a slow-burning intensity. Rae's might be the track's most enigmatic verse, but Ghost is an enigma himself. . . as usual, he doesn't appear to be trying all that hard even though he's consistently brilliant. He makes the banal interesting. His verse is a bunch of anecdotal one-liners delivered in a manic, sainted, stream-of-consciousness; its seemingly random construction and the rapper's immaculate, breathless flow defies comprehension.

More on Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. . . Pt. II here.

*****

#8

2010-01-28T21:15:00.003-07:00

Dirty Projectors - "Stillness Is the Move"

"Stillness Is the Move" feels almost too coherent for a Dirty Projectors song. These guys are now rocking breathless, multi-tracked R&B vocals, a verse-chorus arrangement, fully-formed sentences (actual lyrics!), and a bunch of other things that one would associate with pop songwriting? That's. . . just. . . so. . . weird! (Funny when generating lyrics from an Excel spreadsheet moves your band further into pop territory instead of further away. Of course, I'm presuming that the band hasn't been using Excel all along. (By the way, it seems rather monstrous to associate the cutting-edge of pop music with Microsoft Excel--but we're getting off topic here.))

Whereas most Dirty Projectors songs tend towards multiple personality disorder, this is one of the first tracks I've heard from the band that has contented itself with basically doing one thing very well. It begs the question: Why settle on doing one thing well, when you've proven you can do four things well all at the same time? (i.e. "Jolly Jolly Jolly Ego" ) Isn't that like regressing? Well, normally I'd say yes, but in the case of "Stillness Is the Move", it's just fucking catchy--an impressive feat since it also sounds completely original. The Dirty Projectors' typically abstract, sometimes-orchestral-sometimes-beat-centred/de-centred approach has resulted in some great songs over the years, but none have been quite this much fun.

****

#9

2010-01-27T19:59:00.002-07:00

DOOM - "Gazzillion Ear"

MF Doom to just DOOM is a fitting transformation. Born Like This features some of the most grinding, pessimistic songs of Daniel Dumile's career. The unearthed Dilla beats that comprise "Gazzillion Ear" are dead, hollow things--the grey, funeral organs of "Dig It" in particular sound like they've already started to decompose--repurposed by Dumile in such a joyless, monochromatic way that it still makes me draw in my breath every time I hear the track. The cold functionality with which the song shifts into its Midnight Express phase, with little more than a pause, is shocking, like the beats were crudely stitched together. A sense of malevolence and emptiness casts a dismal shadow over the song, but it's also grotesquely wonderful.

Dumile's oblique rhymes and self-mythologizing are, as always--and thankfully--difficult to make sense of; for DOOM, lucidity would be a weakness. I have no doubt in my mind that the "verses" of "Gazzillion Ear"--a relentless stream of precise, evocative imagery--rank among his very best; every phrase that leaves his mouth is fascinating. But while Dumile is at the top of his game, there is nothing here to suggest that he is aware of the track's brilliance, which makes it somewhat of a bitter triumph. He sounds like someone just going through the motions, dispassionate, unhappy and altogether unimpressed with himself.

****

#10 [top songs of 2009]

2010-01-26T22:36:00.003-07:00

DJ Quik & Kurupt - "Hey Playa! (Moroccan Blues)"
"Hey Playa! (Moroccan Blues)" defies the notion that there are limits to how big a song can get before it collapses under the weight of its elements. It's a song that is bigger than I previously even thought possible. Its ferocious, bursting-at-the-seams production pose something of a challenge for the uninitiated, and it's maybe a difficult song to love on first listen; I just remember a disorienting sense of "what the hell is going on here?" the first time I heard it. But its brilliance is revealed with each successive listen as you start to hear how all the pieces fit together.

There's a reason why maximalism isn't the favoured approach of most producers: it's almost impossible to do well. By all rights this should be a chaotic monstrosity. Yet, somehow, I'm faced with a mind-blowing, revelatory masterpiece--"Hey! Playa!" is hip hop re-imagined in a way that's not just masterful, but completely without precedent.

****

top 30 songs (#30-21)

2010-01-15T19:54:00.004-07:00

speeding things up here...

Islands - "Tender Torture"

“Tender Torture” has this whole wish-fulfillment/denial thing going on. The melody is written in sections, any of which could be great songs on their own, and the band's strategy is to run with a particular riff or chord progression until you desperately want to hear it again, and then of course shift into something else, which ends up being even better. Thorburn's writing has never been more refined, or his peculiar style as perfectly envisioned, as it is here. (i.e. "I was a windblown, cast-down, carved-out watermelon without you in my arms.") It's an incredibly effective, and affecting, love song that rivals some of the best ever written.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - "Gentle Sons"

I don't care that I've heard something like this before (Hey! It's another song indebted to "Be My Baby"and sweet, canonical 80s bands), or that its verses have little use beyond framing its epic chorus, when the chorus is so beautifully fucking focused on catharsis--so utterly hellbent on making me feel emotion. Listen to it, develop a dependency, listen to it on repeat for 3 hours. Listen to it all day Saturday and for 5 hours on Sunday.

Sondre Lerche - "I Guess It's Gonna Rain Today"

"I Guess..." is your perfect Last-Song-On-a-Mixtape song. You'll want something elegant, relaxed--distinct (and refreshing!), but comfortable--something with all of its idiosyncracies balanced by familiarity. Something that's impossible not to like. Preferably something with strings and a horn section. Something a bit melancholy, but not too sad; happy, but not too happy. It should be a song that feels fully realized; its end should come with a sense of finality. It should leave things up in the air.

Hudson Mohawke - "Gluetooth"

A minor masterpiece of beat making. (He has others.) I say minor not to indicate its scale--"Gluetooth" is an absurdly flamboyant behemoth of a song-- but because it's destined to be a footnote in what will hopefully be a long, ridiculous (some might say glorious) succession of records filled with whatever it is that HudMo is doing here. In other words: as great as this is, I'm expecting much better to come.

Jessica 6 - "Good To Go"

The band formerly know as Deep Red, now Jessica 6, were all involved in some way with Hercules & Love Affair. Their sound is... gayer? --in the best sense of the word. Current trends suggest they are not bound for fame, but I for one will be checking out their album when it drops this year. This could be an unreleased track, or possibly a b-side to the band's incredible, campy (read: classy) single "Fun Girl" (Re: the video--They just don't make 'em like this anymore). In minimalist and seemingly effortless fashion, "Good to Go" out-sleazes and out-funks the competition. I talked about it over here, back in March 09.

Atlas Sound - "Kid Klimax"

Cover me in cold light

Wake up with a sore throat

A sore throat

Drive your car to work

Down gray highways isolate

Your pain

Your pain

You will grow to be

Untouched, unphased

By the light that changed

By the way things change

You will grow to me

Detached in the mirror

Oh my god

Oh my god

Oh my god

Oh my god

Oh my god

Oh my god

Oh my god

Oh my god

I imagine it's easy to listen to a song like “Kid Klimax” and assume that it's intended to be miserable and depressing. But I think there's something empowering in its succinct expression of existential tragedy. There's a simple beauty to the way the mundane bleeds into the transcendent, and how its subject of detachment echoes the way the song splits apart to create an aural mise en abyme effect. The familiar sound of the recording, the creeping pace, and the suffocating introspection that characterize most Atlas Sound material are all there, but "Kid Klimax" impresses with an unusual elegance.

Mayer Hawthorne & the County - "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out"

More classicist than retro-ist, Hawthorne is both a gifted songwriter and a cruel thief. He's stolen some poor girl's heart and trampled it in sweet, sweet song. "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out" is endlessly amusing because while it's incredibly funny and cruel, it somehow never comes across as a joke. That's an impressive (and devious) accomplishment in of itself, but Hawthorne also seems to be in possession of an immaculate falsetto previously belonging to one Smokey Robinson. Somebody stop this guy.

Ne-Yo - "I Don't Care"

Another addition to my list of Us-Against-the-World jams, currently keeping company with Masta Ace and Jean Grae's "Hold U", and Cassie and The-Dream's more recent "Keep On Lovin' Me". It's debatable, but "I Don't Care" might be the best of them.

Most pop songsmiths write a catchy hook and think they're done for the day, but one hook isn't good enough for Ne-Yo. As evidenced by "I Don't Care", hooks must be layered over more hooks. The chorus can't just be infectious; it has to be all the elements of the song coming together to become a living, breathing thing. And it has to come off as the easiest thing ever. (Browse through You Tube and try to find a bad song.) He didn't even release this shit.

let...them...hate...if....they.....wanna

Blaq Poet - "Ain't Nuttin' Changed"

Nothing more should need to be said about the producer, but a quick look at the disparate pieces used to create this beat is additional proof of genius. I'm not an "anti-Akon" (I confess an unhealthy love for "Smack That"), but his heavily-processed vocals have never struck me as particularly soulful (no matter how many Asian and white boys tell me otherwise). That said, Blaq Poet's "Ain't Nuttin' Changed" demonstrates that DJ Premier is still the exception to every rule. I also have love for this because its Four Tops sampling makes it a distant cousin to one of my favourite songs of all-time.

Fever Ray - "Concrete Walls"

The Fever Ray album is a strange beast, unsettling for the way it juxtaposes its mood of isolation with the use of pitch-shifted vocals to create different characters, thus suggesting a kind of internal dialogue. This multiplicity of personalities originating from the same person would be disturbing enough, but the album also has the exploratory feel of someone dipping into their subconscious to see what dark things are dredged up. Much of it feels channelled rather than consciously written. This perception likely has very little to do with how the album came into being, but it's the sense that one takes away from it nonetheless.

"Concrete Walls" is a mystery--full of meaning, but providing no answers to what that meaning is. There is little use in trying to "review" it. (I talked about it over here awhile back.) In my experience, it's songs like "Concrete Walls" that shake me the most, because while I've been able to connect to them, I'm unable to describe what exactly the connection is. Something about it feels true to me, but I can't explain it; it's truth that sits on the edge of my memory, just slightly beyond my reach, and I can't pull it into the rational circle of my mind and express what it is in words.

Whatever it is, it's constantly in my periphery no matter where I look. It's rather disturbing to think about something that you can't actually think about (and to me that's being able to put it into language)--and I often tell myself that whatever I'm feeling doesn't really exist. But then a "Concrete Walls" comes along, and that something makes itself known--looming in the shadows, eminently, immeasurably real . . . and I can't seem to grasp it.

****

top 30 songs (part 5)

2010-01-11T20:35:00.006-07:00

Four Tet - "Love Cry"

One of the many elements that makes "Love Cry" so interesting is the gorgeous, high-frequency noise that appears in its opening seconds and becomes the heart and guts of the track--more central to the song than even the 4/4 beat. Since I don't understand what these noises are, allow me to be vague and metaphysical: Like analog signals appearing from the digital ether, the best way I can describe them is if there was an old, dial-up modem only capable of producing heavenly sounds.

I also wrote about "Love Cry" over here, back in November.

Javelin - "Vibrationz"

It's hard to believe this song came out in 2009. Forgetting this fact, if a fellow music nerd told me it had been their favourite song for three decades, I would have believed them.

King Midas Sound - "Cool Out"

"beats be shiver in the belly of the night" …music that infiltrates your body as pure, white tendrils of smoke and turns you to ash from the inside out.

Ever since hearing "Cool Out", I have been unable to recall a song more menacing, or imagine how a song could be more uncompromising in its worship of death, destruction and forgetfulness. The ultimate "get down" music.

****

top 30 songs (part 4)

2010-01-07T19:40:00.003-07:00

El Perro Del Mar - "Change of Heart"

I would be remiss not to mention (again) the haunting percussion. The drums are pushed into the foreground, which is a strange choice for such ethereal music, but it works to highlight the sad monotony of the lyrics and melody. "Change of Heart" is a song with no real beginning or end; it fades in as if picking up from a previous verse, and it fades out without any resolution. We get a couple minutes into the song, and words are already being replaced with sighs.

Mono/Poly - "Beatles Bitch"

There's room to breathe beneath its black tide, but just barely. "Beatles Bitch" begins with a low end that's so thick it's close to impenetrable, but Mono/Poly finds space to sneak in--among other things--a dark, winding synth-line reminiscent of Bladerunner or Midnight Express, and tops the whole thing off with flashing neon lights.

Lil' Wayne - "Yes" (feat. Pharrell)

Completely ridiculous and positively ecstatic. I mentally remixed this shit, and it's just me on the beat going: yes. yes. yes. yes. fuck yes.

****

Never thought the sun would be like this... (top 30 songs pt. 3)

2009-12-29T19:30:00.003-07:00

If I had to pick just two songs that soundtracked my summer this year, Ryan Leslie's "Quicksand" and Neon Indian's "Deadbeat Summer" might be the front runners.* Lovesick and sunstroked, respectively, both tracks are dizzying and romantic, and despite being musically quite different, both effuse a similar mix of joy and ambivalence. Ambivalence because, in the one, love is a trap that hooks you and pulls you in half against your will, and in the other, fever and loss of consciousness are just a few sun-baked minutes away.

Both songs revel in too much of a good thing, capturing the moment before things head south--before the hangover, the heartbreak, and the disenchantment of waking up on the beach with a sunburn.

Ryan Leslie - "Quicksand"

Neon Indian - "Deadbeat Summer"

*I've mentioned "Quicksand" previously, in my review of Ryan Leslie back in August.

****

top 30 songs (pt. 2)

2009-12-26T21:08:00.001-07:00

It wasn't the greatest year for Cassie. There were naked photos, a weirdly shaved head, the commercial failure of a bunch of singles, and most tragically, she ended her musical collaboration with Ryan Leslie. In the meantime, Leslie has put out two good albums in the span of a year, while Electro Love, Cassie's long-awaited follow up to her debut, remains on the Bad Boy back burner.

Cassie - "Must Be Love" (feat. Diddy)

The problem with “Must Be Love” is immediately obvious--a “kiss of death” guest star that clearly shouldn't be rapping on anything anymore.

I guess it's a testament to the strength of the track, or my personal obsessions, that even compromised by a Diddy guest spot, Cassie's “Must Be Love” is still one of my favourite songs of the year. Like with her previous hit, “Me & U”, it thrives on simplicity, the back-and-forth sway of languid guitars and a paralysis-inducing bell chime paralleling the song's theme of uncertainty and conflicting desire. Cassie's voice is a combination of barely-there lightness and pure, sugary sweetness--in this respect it's a lot like Janet Jackson's; it needs room to breathe--and, more importantly, production that doesn't drown it out. “Must Be Love” gets this formula right, doing more with less; simple choices, like a pop-and-hiss vinyl record effect add dreamy atmosphere but keep the production feeling understated.

*****

top 30 songs (part 1)

2009-12-21T19:11:00.002-07:00

Perhaps 2009 was a strange year in music, or maybe it's just me. My year-end lists are always fundamentally subjective, with little concern for critical consensus or cultural impact, yet at the end of 2008 (and 2007 and 2006) there were still a handful of artists and songs that to me seemed obvious choices. This year, nothing seemed obvious. This is probably reflected in the songs on this list. I also think it's my best list so far, but of course I would think that.

I spent the first half of 2009 working harder and more hours than I have in a long time, and the rest sleepwalking through a haze of mostly reggae, 90s hip hop/R&B, and various other dance musics--basically a slave to anything that made rhythm its central objective. (I know this impacted the song choices as well.) As my life started to drift out of balance, I slowly lost my patience for anything that didn't have a pulse. Since July, I've been hopelessly trying to catch up, both with my personal life, and with all the music that I'd missed.

Jogger - "Nice Tights" (Nosaj Thing Remix)

Nosaj Thing seems a perfect soundtrack for a life out of balance, and as good a place as any to start.* Jason Chung's strange pseudo-hip hop exists in a space between genres--not quite hip hop, not electro, not dubstep, not ambient or techno. It incorporates elements of glitch hop, but never comes across as “glitchy”. Instead, there's an immaculate, haunting quality to everything Nosaj Thing touches. Bizarre, but never gimmicky, his songs combine unnatural electronic textures with brooding sadness, resulting in works of horror and beauty, like Frankenstein's Monster re-imagined as music. His remix of Jogger's “Nice Tights” (the original can be heard here) renders the song almost unrecognizable, steeping it in eerie video game nostalgia, suitable for navigating 2-D mansions outfitted with lava pits and spiked ceilings. It's dark and disorienting, and seduces with a grace that is odd for music that relies so heavily on an 8-bit synthesizer.

*Drift was one of the few albums that I spent considerable time with this year, but picking a single track from it to include on my top 30 list seemed wrong somehow.

****

TOP 30 SONGS of 2009

2009-12-17T08:00:00.004-07:00

In keeping with the last three years, here's my year-end list of 30 songs. I will be doing write-ups for each of them over the next couple of weeks. Click on the images to read the write-ups.

Download all the songs separately, or in a .rar file here.

****

****

Touch of Evil

2009-12-15T18:50:00.001-07:00

King Midas Sound - Darlin'

"Darlin" is a prophecy of loneliness, and quite possibly madness--a parting gift to the woman who poisoned the singer's heart with tainted love. The prognosis is. . . not good. King Midas Sound find beauty and cold satisfaction in returning the favour--pumping carbon monoxide through your speakers. Not "misty-eyed take-me-back begging"*, only mutually-assured destruction.

Some sections of Robinson's mantra are barely audible through the London fog of the production, words surfacing from the murk in a stream of consciousness, but most of it is startlingly direct: "Do you need me? You don't. Please take me back. You won't."

* An otherwise excellent review. I also found this list of Waiting For You's inspirations/influences pretty enlightening.

****

Quadron - Buster Keaton

2009-12-10T00:25:00.005-07:00

Quadron - "Buster Keaton"

These two are an electronic soul outfit from Denmark that, I expect, are too good for bloggers to ignore much longer. This track somehow comes across as both incredibly lush and pared down to its bare essentials--with an oddly aseptic feel that brings to mind some of Matthew Herbert's music.

It's casually gorgeous, with clipped horns, and hummingbird vocals arranged around a kick drum that quietly thumps and detonates like the famous heartbeat to "Be My Baby". The duo toss in a Shangri-Las-inspired spoken-word interlude, as well.

. . .this track comes via one of my new go-to blogs. Props to cmehr (who should really just start his/her own blog)--Stalking, um I mean "following", like-minded people on Hype Machine is making the music discovery process a bit easier.

www.myspace.com/quadronquadron

****

Fuck Buttons

2009-12-10T00:00:00.001-07:00

Fuck Buttons - "Surf Solar"

Never paid much attention to Fuck Buttons before this. If you have a cold, "Surf Solar" will decongest you. Headphones are necessary.

Listen and be healed.

****

amor(ph)ous

2009-12-09T20:16:00.003-07:00

It's hard to pick just one of these, so you get both of them.

Jesse Boykins III - AmorUs (MeLo-X Mix)
Jesse Boykins III - Amorous (AFTA-1 LOVE MIX)

MeLo-X brings the buzzy synth and heavy bass, but the ambient keys and muted, drum-machine shuffle of AFTA-1's remix might take the cake. Both contain piano chords that dissipate into fog, and beats that occupy an indefinite space between stasis and collapse.

She was amorous, motherfuckers. (via)

****

At the park or at the pier

2009-11-20T18:43:00.006-07:00

Nosaj Thing - "Wandering Star/Coat of Arms"
(via Low End Theory Podcast, Episode IV)

I'm heading off to Vancouver. I will be back in a week or so.

****

GHOST OF A CHANCE

2009-11-19T18:19:00.004-07:00

Turboweekend - "Sweet Jezebel"

sleeping sickness
         sleeping pills
   sleeping beauty

. . .

More on this song and Turboweekend's Ghost of a Chance LP over here.

late summer jams

2009-11-17T18:43:00.001-07:00

Outdoor Miners - "Turn You Into Glue"
It's a bit late to be making additions to my list of melancholy summer jams, so this will just have to settle for being a charming and bittersweet pop tune.

Here's a couple others:

Irma Thomas - "Cry On"
Phoenix - "Rome" (Neighbors Remix w/Devendra Banhart)

****

21

2009-11-13T19:47:00.003-07:00

Fever Ray - "Concrete Walls"

My favourite thing on the Fever Ray album are the streaks of numbed synthesizer that snake through the above track and fade off into its oppressive blackness. The multi-tracked vocals contain all the tenderness of an iceberg; however, the mournful bits of synth zero in on a sense of romance and deep sadness, and wrest it to the surface.

****

finally got my head right

2009-11-12T23:20:00.003-07:00

Fever Ray - "Stranger Than Kindness"
(originally by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds)

****

543

2009-11-11T17:30:00.002-07:00

Four Tet - Love Cry

This track might lack some of the magic of Four Tet's record with Burial ("Moth" being my current favourite track of 2009) , but it's still bordering perfection. It has the same panoptic vision, ambiguous climax--Is it the sweet build-up and convergence of the cut-up R&B vocals? or the stillness of the bass throb that follows?--and lack of resolution that made the Burial collab so brilliant. It's music that embraces you, but feels sad and cold and distant. In nine minutes, Four Tet gives you everything you could want in a track like this, and still leaves you feeling deeply unsatisfied.

even caramel sundaes, pt 2

2009-11-03T19:05:00.001-07:00

Javelin
Andean Ocean Tape
via dollarbinsofthefuture.com

My computer says this mix runs 30 minutes, but it feels like a very long 30 minutes. It will not relieve post-summer blues, but it can make your sadness more meaningful.

****

even caramel sundaes is getting touched

2009-11-03T18:15:00.001-07:00

Fabian - "Heatwave"
(photo, mp3, and quote via someplace much warmer)

Leftovers from a summer that I didn't have.

Please listen with headphones.

. . .

"Sometimes, in the colder months, when we get a bit of a warm spell, its like the sun reaches into everyones' chests and turns on an energy switch. People get a wild look in their eye and crazy things happen. Nights on the town turn into 3am hikes to the Hollywood sign, or sunrise swimming sessions in the Pacific. Romances are born and die in flames in the blink of an eye. This is true in any city."

No.

[pause for sigh]

It's not.

****

"blinking pigs"

2009-10-29T21:15:00.001-06:00

Little Dragon - Blinking Pigs

Yukimi Nagano has a supernatural voice and perfect phrasing. She could sing a song about cows and chickens, and it would be beautiful.

****

Transition, on first listen

2009-10-29T02:50:00.010-06:00

All of my free time is currently being sucked up by GRRM's vampire novel, Fevre Dream, and episodes of "The Wire", which I just started watching due to a massive number of friends' recommendations. Both the book and the show feel somewhat dated in 2009, like how I imagine a fine wine tastes to those who can tell the difference.

But I had to take a quick break to check out Ryan Leslie's newest offering, a sophomore album entitled Transition. Here's a quick run down:

"Never Gonna Break Up"
Perhaps one of the best tracks on the album. The song feels firmly stuck in place, and it's made instantly compelling by virtue of the lush, darkly-lit synth figure that opens the song. Its excessive brooding is what makes it so good. Perfect music for lonely nights wandering through empty hallways.

"Something That I Like" (feat. Pusha T)
Why would Leslie think he needs to rap on a track already featuring one half of the Clipse? I am beyond baffled. Wait. . . Pusha watches "Project Runway"? He doesn't exactly say as much, but if this is true, my masculinity can be validated in so many ways I never imagined.

"Zodiac"
There is some crazy, euphoric, synth-melting stuff going on here. It's overflowing with details, but it's done cleverly, without weighing down the song.

"Is It Real Love?"
I like this one, but it feels a bit by the numbers. That said, Leslie likes to throw in an interesting breakdown or interlude--like he does here--which can redeem the formula.

"Sunday Night"
I fully admit that this one is an acquired taste. But if you liked "Anniversary", which this seems to be riffing off. . . The following deserves quoting:

"Do you know what today is? It's our anniversary /
Got so many flowers-- your living room like a nursery."

Say what? I guess "greenhouse" didn't rhyme with "anniversary".

"You're Not My Girl"
Alex at The Singles Jukebox nailed this one down back in September.

"To the Top"
Like a couple of the productions on Leslie's self titled, which seemed more like filler than prime cuts, this is definitely one of the less-inspired tracks.

"Nothing"
This is a textbook example of Leslie's ability to seemingly pull an idea out of his ass and make it sound good. The electric guitar, which could be ripped from the theme song to so many '80s TV series, definitely steals the show. Nothing says "tasteful experimental R&B" like a guitar solo.

"Guardian Angel"
By far the sappiest moment on the album, but he doesn't rap on the track. So there's that.

"All My Love"
Still don't know about this one. Seems pretty weak. The handclaps are especially awkward.

"I Choose You"
Not much here, either. But it's an appropriately stark and simple conclusion. A fitting "quiet death" for the album.

****

walking up the ramp

2009-10-22T22:45:00.002-06:00

photo by Gagan Mahan

Small Black - Despicable Dogs (Washed Out Remix)

****

uk funky

2009-10-16T17:25:00.001-06:00

I put Roska's FACT magazine mix on a cd and brought it to work awhile back. I've been playing it steadily for 5 months now, and no one has complained yet. (Because. It's. So. Good.) It gets better each time I hear it. Also, "In Your Handbag" scares off would-be shoplifters.

download here (via sendspace)

tracklist:
01 Magic Touch - Signed & Sealed
02 Afroganic – Embargo (Wookie Mix)
03 Roska - In Your Handbag
04 DJ Naughty - Cheap Talk
05 DJ Mystery - Speechless
06 D-Malice - Dreams Come True
07 MA1 - Give It Up (Roska Remix)
08 DJ Naughty - Trouble’s Back
09 Meleka - Go (Crazy Cousinz Remix)
10 Geeneus - Emotions

****

when climbing

2009-10-15T19:45:00.001-06:00

Most humans can only aspire to the wisdom of the pebble toad. When times get tough, it simply rolls itself into a ball and tumbles down the side of a mountain.

"The toad is so small and light that the forces of impact are too tiny to cause it any harm."

Islands - Everything Is Under Control

****

drift

2009-10-13T19:32:00.002-06:00

Drift out of lane, difficulty making
..turns-
...become c0nfused in regard to signs/signals
....subjective sleepiness, sugar intake

rumble strips

nosaj thing - fog

****

return

2009-10-09T21:30:00.004-06:00

I put together a little mixtape of past favourites in honour of the much-awaited resurrection of Myke Weiskopf's SHORTWAVEMUSIC blog. But first, check the recent and stunning "Ramadan In Dub", recorded via Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

****

d/l separately or grab the zip file and unzip it.

Tracklisting:
1. "...a glimpse of Heaven..." (Time and Freq Unid) - Voice of Russia
2. 11/12/03, 0620 UTC, 5800 kHz - Radio Bulgaria
3. 11885 kHz, 7.3.05 (2353 UTC) - Radio Cairo
4. 9/15/03, 0415 UTC, 7275 kHz - Radio Tunis
5. 9/15/03, 5930 kHz (0145 UTC) - Radio Slovakia International
6. Beautiful Arabic Song - [No Station ID]
7. Dueling XTMRs! #6: Qu'rambient - shortwavemusic.blogspot.com
8. Go!/Let's Go!: 5/22/07, 7425 kHz (0015 UTC) - Radio Tirana
9. Group Chant-Song, African Language - WTJC
10. Mystery Torch Song (Silvestrov: “The Dream”) (5.20.05 - 7440 kHz)- Radio Ukraine International
11. Piano Instrumental - 8/8/2005, 18330 kHz (0139 UTC) - All India Radio
12. Post-Soviet Melancholia, Part IV (Freq/Time Unknown) - [No Station ID]
13. Qu'ran chanting - BSKSA, Saudi Arabia (Riyadh)
14. The Boyband Headphase: 4/21/2007, 12085 kHz (2336 UTC) - Unid (VoA or Voice of Mongolia?)

Liner notes:
(gauze)(Brian Eno)(pop) (rush of strings and feedback, concert amidst explosions/beatboxing percussive sounds)(scuttling noises) (more obtrusive interference, coughing, sputtering) (atmospheric electricity)

dying in canada

2009-10-08T18:20:00.006-06:00

this here comic reminded me of this psychotic break/song that soul-sides posted awhile back:

Gloria Ann Taylor - "World That's Not Real"
It's fitting that it sounds like reality and the world of dreams colliding.

Gloria Ann Taylor - "Love Is a Hurting Thing"
There's also this bizarre disco re-working of "Love Is A Hurting Thing" with oddly double-tracked kick drum. It's like there's a dance party going on and you can hear the beat of different music playing in another room, and the songs sort of combine into a single disorienting song. Maybe it's an early attempt at a mash-up before there were such things as mash-ups. A proto mash-up?

****

She's a fox now.

2009-10-07T17:35:00.001-06:00

smoke

    smoke

  smoke...

she's got something that (lord knows)
drive me out my m- m- mind

Jimi Hendrix & Lonnie Youngblood - "She's A Fox"

****

noel ellis : self-titled

2009-09-29T18:30:00.003-06:00

Noel Ellis - "To Hail Salassie"

Noel Ellis - "Stop Your Fighting"

Noel Ellis, son of revered ska/rocksteady superstar Alton Ellis, made one album, which was put out by Toronto's Summer Records in 1983. It's a stunning collection of songs but very few people heard it, so Light In The Attic re-released it back in 2006 as part of their Jamaica to Toronto series. Included with the reissue is a gorgeous 16 pages of liner notes detailing the history of the album.

Ellis' back-story, as told in the liner notes, is that he grew up in Kingston until the age of thirteen, when his family relocated to Canada. After being uprooted from Jamaica, Ellis was abandoned by his father, who left to pursue his career in England, where there was a bigger market for reggae music.

Fast-forward to the mid-70s. By now a sizable, underground reggae scene had formed in Toronto, and Ellis continued his reggae education with music by artists like Burning Spear and The Heptones, whose records were now found in West Indian record shops. The songs on his self-titled album were recorded in 1979, at maverick producer Jerry Brown's Summer Studio--sort of Toronto's equivalent of Lee Perry's Black Ark.

I first came across Noel Ellis a year ago, via Jamaica to Toronto: Soul Funk & Reggae 1967-1974. His song, "Memories", was one of the highlights of that compilation. I saw a used copy of his album at Listen Records last week, and decided to pick it up, just on the chance that some good stuff would be there. At the very least, I would have a copy of "Memories", which I saw was the final track on the album. I played the record at work yesterday, listening to it in a state of dismay, as it was better than anything I could have imagined. Then I got it home, did a little research, and discovered that it's basically a forgotten classic. Whoever gave this up: You're a fool. But thank you. (I hope it was because you already have it on vinyl.)

The six songs on the album all appear in extended dub versions ranging between 6-7 minutes each, so there's plenty of music here, despite the short track listing. Any reservations you might have about a roots reggae album from Toronto should be settled with a glance at the players on the album: dudes like Jackie Mittoo, Johnny Osbourne, and Willi Williams.

Ellis' vocal style throughout is all about restraint, singing with a heartbreaking monotone combined with minor melodic changes. There is no respite from the crippling introspection of opening track, "To Hail Salassie". Brown's production catches up words and melodies and instruments and places them in a limbo where they never reach their destination--so that the destination becomes unclear--like water swirling around a drain, but never going down. This is the sound of reggae estranged from its homeland, ethereal music that is yearning for permanence.

"Stop Your Fighting" follows suit with an initial surge of keyboards before dropping into an echo-ey cavern, Ellis' despairing voice fading into the ether of the heavily dubbed production. Melancholy, anti-war pleas recall The Heptones work with Lee Perry. Ellis also seems to have taken The Heptones' austere approach to melody, providing just enough to sustain the tracks, singing with so few notes sometimes that the vocal arrangments might as well be mantras. Despite its clear influences, it's obvious from beginning to end that these songs were not recorded anywhere near the Black Ark. These songs don't feel like classic Jamaican reggae, but they don't sound derivative, either. I suspect the album's status as a cult classic had a lot to do with this unique sound.

"Rocking Universally", was a minor hit back when it was first released. It's the most upbeat moment on the album--a playful, rub-a-dub track on par with Lee Perry's "Dread At The Mantrols", and was the only song on this album to rock dance floors outside of Toronto. But really, every song here is a highlight. Jackie Mittoo's keys bounce along contentedly on "Marcus Garvey", while Ellis sings in circles, trapped between past and future. On "Dance With Me", Ellis' voice can turn lines like "Dance with me / The way you move turn me on" into existential tragedy. The track is maybe the most devastating on the album. Dance? More like curl up into a ball and weep for days.

Anyone remotely interested in roots reggae should be heading over to Light In The Attic Records and buying this album right now. I normally refrain from telling readers to "buy buy buy!" but this is one of the few cases where it would be absurd not to.

****

pigeons, pelicans, peachfuzz

2009-09-22T23:58:00.009-06:00

Kmd - Peachfuzz

your eye too fast

2009-09-16T00:29:00.001-06:00

Sticky feat. Lady Chann - Your Eye Too Fast

It takes approximately 2 minutes to realize how deadly this is.

I'm trying to imagine hearing it in the club. Would you dance, or just be confused?

"Either you're good, or you're bad. . ."

2009-09-10T23:35:00.007-06:00

You can’t go to Raekwon The Chef.

Rae has to come to you. (You waited three years; you can wait a few more minutes.) First we must wade into the swampy darkness and psychotropic vapours of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Pt. 2's opening credit sequence.

Act I, scene one. “Return of the North Star” -- Old man Papa Wu, perhaps delusional, is visited by the ghost of Raekwon, and spouts Pythian babble about good and evil and prophecies of wealth. We fade to the dimly lit confines of a secret room with only an ancient cassette deck, inexplicably playing Wu background noise for what must be over a decade. We find ourselves standing knee-deep in a placid lake. It’s night, and grey smoke hovers above the surface of the water, obscuring our vision. This is the place. The "House of Flying Daggers" is not a house.

Still, Rae lurks in the shadows. He sends a fire-breathing dragon in the form of Inspectah Deck to occupy us for a verse.... So it’s in the thick of things, as our anticipation reaches the breaking point, that Rae finally appears from out of the smoke and flames, flanked by the Wu-Tang armies. A disorienting battle in water and fire ensues. At some point we will be hit with the sudden realization that we are, in fact, dying. In retrospect, it was probably Ghostface who killed us, in one of his moments of insane bloodlust. Rae wouldn’t kill us, would he? We ponder this, and in the final moment before unconsciousness, an absurd thought pushes its way into our mind: But Rae doesn’t have his money yet. We do not know why this should matter to us now, or why it gives us that strange feeling in the pit of our stomach. We need more time to unravel this mysterious thought. Oh, right: we’re dying. We sink under the dark waters into a gorgeous underworld.

We swim with the fishes.

"Sonny's Missing" and "Pyrex Vision" are revelatory; they answer none of our questions.

Maybe we’re not dead. Maybe we are just sleeping?

We can hear voices in the other room. Everything is vague: Someone’s dead, but it’s not us. We need to wake up.

*****

So far so good. “Cold Outside” is nightmarish, the grotesquely looped horn sample equally horrifying and addictive. Suga Bang Bang’s vocals on the chorus are delivered with a monotonous emphasis that grates in the best way possible, lending the track a suitable harshness. We’re all glad RZA and Rae kissed and made up (or, more likely, RZA gave Rae a much-needed spanking and he fell into line). Either way, it’s nice to see that RZA was not, in fact, banned from the album. “Black Mozart” isn’t a standout, but it’s good. RZA’s deranged vocal on the outro is fun. The Chef kills his verse on “Gihad”, delivering one of my favourite opening lines on the album. No matter how many times I am subjected to it, I will never get used to Ghostface rapping about his dick. A narrative involving Ghost getting caught fucking his son’s pregnant girlfriend would be ridiculously funny if it wasn’t so ridiculously gross. I realize this is Ghost’s intended effect. Rae and Ghost are even better when they’re trading bars on bromantic street tale, “Penitentiary”. Yes, Rae and Ghost are adorable together. I can’t deny it. There are so many lines here that made me crack a smile

*****

"New Wu" is soooo good, but I could do without having to hear Method Man's "tell a friend..." hook on the chorus, which becomes incessant after the first time. It's too bad, because other than that, the track is transcendent. I don't need to be told to throw my "W" up more than once, thank you very much. "Baggin Crack" could have been left off the album. It's mercifully short, though, and it's a testament to the album's quality that even the less interesting tracks on OB4CL2 could not actually be said to be bad.

I thought "Surgical Gloves" was the shit the first time I heard it. Now, I'm not so sure. Rae doesn't come as hard here--or burn as bright--as he does on other tracks. Sometime around the mid-point he says something along the lines of: "Ha ha! Adios ‘mios" and his laugh sounds more like a yawn. Likewise, I could take or leave "Broken Safety", though it's nice to hear Jada cough up the dust coating his lungs and kill it for a change of pace. Somewhere around here is where I start to feel the length of the album. It's hard to get excited by the high-octane, yet sort of middling, "Canal Street", when the last couple tracks were trying to put me asleep. I also don't need another ODB tribute track. Sorry, I don't. And we’ve heard this Dilla before.

Rae tosses us a much-needed lightning bolt with “10 Bricks”, the closest the album comes to unadulterated perfection. Its greatness cannot be overstated. Basically, from this point on, OB4CL2 is a marathon of amazing track after track right to the finish. In a perfect world, all these could be singles, excepting maybe Rae’s grimly dispassionate short story, “Fat Lady Sings”, which is perhaps too left-field and sinister for mass consumption. Dre-produced “Catalina” cloaks things bleak and depressing in the guise of triumphant romanticism, Rae’s fractured narratives not so much celebrating the hustle as highlighting the hopelessness, if not stupidity, of the goals that inspire the lifestyle. It turns out, contrary to popular belief, soul-crushing crime is not the most fun method of accumulating wealth.

*****

“We Will Rob You” explicitly positions itself as a throwback, with Slick Rick providing the intro. Somehow it achieves a tone that’s reverent and self-mocking at the same time. “About Me” is more tell-tale Dre. As is usually the case, the best things about Dre’s beat are not immediately apparent: the piano keys quietly cascading in the background, the half-second of absolute silence after each clap of the drum machine. Busta might not be at the top of his game anymore, but he gets off at least one jaw-dropping line about counterfeit rappers thinking they’re kings. “Mean Streets” is not as good as Scorsese, but it leaves an impression. Suga Bang Bang is back and delivers a hook possibly even more demented than the last. The Chef unwinds his rhymes with slow, intimidating precision. Inspectah raps instinctively, climbing the beat like a ladder. Ghost does his best to appear a loose cannon—playing Johnny Boy to Raekwon’s Charlie.

The last hurrah of “Kiss the Ring” hails the imminent end of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Pt 2. How many times we come back to this album remains to be seen. Will people play it alongside part 1, as if it’s the classic album’s second disc, like Rae seems to have intended? I gather that this album was so anticipated by the elusive “hardcore Wu fans” that if Rae delivered anything less than greatness, it would have been a disappointment. I wouldn’t label myself a hardcore fan, but I was looking forward to hearing how it would turn out. I won’t engage in any overly sentimental toasts or salutes to the Wu, but I will say that it’s impressive and admirable in all the ways that could place it among the best rap albums of the year. It’s not a perfect album, by any means, but its close enough to satisfy my expectations. The Chef did a good job.

Raekwon - House of Flying Daggers (feat. Inspectah Deck, Ghostface, Method Man)

Raekwon - 10 Bricks (feat. Cappadonna & Ghostface)

****

Trouble In Dreams (Or: How To Cross An Ocean On Morpheus)

2009-09-09T23:59:00.006-06:00

Destroyer - "Libby's First Sunrise"

via morpheus-sailing:

As this trip winds down, I will try to provide a summary of what the standard daily routine looks like onboard.
This may seem overly simplistic, however, please understand that we have spent considerable time discussing this and we believe it to be an accurate representation.
Here we go....
1) Standard Routine
- Sleep
- Stand your watch
- Eat
- Read
2) Repeat step 1 three times
3) Throw a fishing lure overboard with a disgusted look
4) Cocktail Hour - discuss some random topic in excruciating detail
5) Repeat all above until you arrive at your destination
- JG

a r c h i v e s

2009-09-08T22:11:00.001-06:00

I'm just getting around to check out the first installment of Neil Young's epic Archives box set. Sifting through all the unreleased material for a few gems, if there are gems to be had. . . .

I remain cautiously hopeful.

In the meantime, my favourite tracks from the newly-remastered After the Gold Rush:

Neil Young - "Southern Man"
Neil Young - "I Believe In You"

****

cloudbusting

2009-09-07T23:15:00.001-06:00

Wild Nothing - "Cloudbusting"
(via GvB)

gah! this is gorgeous.

more tragedy

2009-09-03T18:03:00.004-06:00

via wikipedia:

The Tragic mulatto is a stereotypical fictional character that appeared in American literature during the 19th and 20th centuries. The "tragic mulatto" is an archetypical mixed race person, who is assumed to be sad or even suicidal because he/she fails to completely fit in the "white world" or the "black world".

As a certifiable tragic mulatto, I feel I'm qualified to say: 'Aren't we all?'

These Days It Comes And Goes. . .

2009-09-02T16:50:00.006-06:00

Phoenix - "Lisztomania"

The perfect song to soundtrack the tragedy that is The End of Summer Break. I've yet to find a music blogger who doesn't have at least a tiny soft spot for Phoenix. Even those bloggers who generally steer clear of indie rock seem to like them; there's just something about them that makes us weak at the knees. That their songs are catchy enough to rival anything that has ever played on mainstream radio certainly helps widen their appeal.

As music bloggers continue to roll out their "best of the decade" lists I expect that Phoenix's "Lisztomania" might get passed over in favour of some of the band's bigger hits: "If I Ever Feel Better", or "Too Young" perhaps. This would be unfortunate.

These French guys have plenty of ridiculously charming, well-executed pop tunes to their name, and on the surface "Lisztomania" might seem to be more of the same. But I dug a little deeper (read: listened to it on repeat for a day), and discovered it's more sustained in its tragic romanticism than anything else they've ever recorded. That's my way of saying it's better.

"Lisztomania"'s inevitable sudden ending is an emotional sucker-punch to the gut--among the most depressing things to be heard in music this year. But it's also among the happiest.

****

Remember When Busta Rhymes Prophesied That The World Would End In The Year 2000?

2009-09-01T16:45:00.008-06:00

Well, that never happened. Then again, Busta also promised to "King Kong all niggas like gorilla monsoon." Presumably, that's when Busta raps so hard that primates rain down from the sky to crush his enemies. Maybe he was just using his creative license.

Why am I revisiting an album from 13 years ago? In a fit of sentimentality, maybe stupidity, I recently paid money for a bunch of old albums that I've always wanted to own. I realize this is the age of mp3s, but I don't care. The first time I heard The Coming, it was on loan from the Edmonton Public Library circa 1997, and I was way too immature to absorb all its greatness. While I recall quoting the album's hilarious "It was a dark night" spoken-word intro to my fellow pre-pubescent friends, I didn't recall the album being this good. Today, while I was working in theory, I was actually listening to this classic album, trying to take it all in.

Let's get started with the ruckus, motherfuckers, shall we?

Opening track: "Do My Thing" – wherein Busta requests entry into the homes of weak-ass emcees and inflicts punishment on them with a whip. Personally, If I saw Busta standing on my doorstep, looking like he does on the cover of The Coming, there is about a zero percent chance in hell that I'd be letting that scary motherfucker in. But that's just me.

The funny thing is, this is Busta at his most subdued. The screwy hook of “Do My Thing” is sedate compared to what follows. On "Everything Remains Raw", Busta brings the ruckus, and he's no longer asking for permission. Easy Mo Bee's chillled beat is pretty much perfect, so smooth that it can hypnotize even while Busta's voice inflicts multiple stab wounds to your ears.

Next, Busta and protégé, Rampage, trade bars on the ecstatic party track, "Abandon Ship", wielding a clever stream of absurd similes that could make The Clipse hang their heads in shame. From the get go, Busta informs lesser rappers that he always rolls through the forest "like a brontosaurus", which might actually be the best way to conceptualize his unorthodox flow. Busta's rhymes are the sonic equivalent of seeing a dinosaur fly past you through the trees, leaving you wondering: "Did that actually just happen?"

In many years retrospect, hit single "Woo Ha!! Got You All in Check" is far from the best track on the album, or even the catchiest for that matter, but it's impossible not to crack a smile while hearing the ridiculously celebratory chorus and bumping bassline. It's the sort of song that inspires house parties. People will throw a party just so that they can play shit like this.

My favourite thing about Busta: Despite all his idiosyncrasies, Busta will always impress with his versatility, possessing the ability to effortlessly match his flow to the styles of other emcees. Like when Busta comes down from crazy town to chill and smoke a blunt with Q-Tip on the delicious "Ill Vibe". Tip's beat anesthetizes with frosty doorbell chimes and muted security alarms, while the two exchange banter on the chorus, and it feels like the most natural thing ever.

Alternately, "Still Shining" reveals Busta at his most unhinged. The label got the single material locked down with "Woo Ha!!" and R&B jam "It's a Party", so they let Busta go to town on this one. The chorus: "Rawr rawr rawr! / I told my dragon / 'Baby, stop whining.' / I see my influence still shining." The idea of Busta keeping a pet dragon is actually kinda cute. Which brings us to Busta's greatest asset. Even when taking to account his ferociousness and formidable talent, he's just really adorable. You can't help but love him.

The album's intro and outro bookend it with apocalyptic prophesies of Hell, complete with demonic laughter and a gothic choir chanting in Latin (personally, I will always think of the Sephiroth theme from FFVII) . . . . Yes, some bad taste is involved. Yes, the "evil" stuff is mostly unnecessary, perhaps even a weakness. But at the end of the day, it's all the framework for a good party: basically, The Coming is Busta's "Rocky Horror Picture Show".

Busta Rhymes - Abandon Ship (feat Rampage The Last Boy Scout)
Busta Rhymes - Ill Vibe (feat. Q-Tip)

****

BACKSEAT

2009-08-31T20:25:00.001-06:00

Nina Simone - Don't Take All Night
Nina Simone - Chauffeur

. . . because Simone is the queen of the double entendre.

****

Love Is Here, Now You're Gone

2009-08-28T15:43:00.002-06:00

El Perro Del Mar - "Change of Heart"

It might be the only good song on the Love Is Not Pop EP, but it's really good.

"Change of Heart", maybe El Perro Del Mar's most compelling work to date, embraces the loneliness of wide open spaces, where previous El Perro tracks expressed solitude with borderline claustrophobic arrangements.

Second to El Perro's always-gorgeous vocals, the percussion is perhaps the best thing happening on the track; the barely-there shimmer of an open high-hat, and slow-motion drum fills, are proof that some songs are recorded with more love than others.

Der amerikanische Soldat (1970)

2009-08-27T19:04:00.000-06:00

directed by Reiner Werner Fassbinder

the second coming of DESTROYER

2009-08-26T20:30:00.003-06:00

I

I have always sought to bring my mind close to the mind of
Indian and Japanese poets, old women in Connacht, mediums
in Soho, lay brothers whom I imagine dreaming in some
mediaeval monastery the dreams of their village, learned
authors who refer all to antiquity; to immerse it in the
general mind where that mind is scarce separable from what
we have begun to call "the subconscious"; to liberate it
from all that comes of councils and committees, from the
world as it is seen from universities or from populous towns;
and that I might so believe I have murmured evocations and
frequented mediums, delighted in all that displayed great
problems through sensuous images, or exciting phrases,
accepting from abstract schools but a few technical words
that are so old they seem but broken architraves fallen amid
bramble and grass, and have put myself to school where all
things are seen: A Tenedo tacitae per amica silentia lunae.

~W.B. Yeats, Per Amica Silentia Lunae (1917)

Destroyer - "Bay of Pigs"

****

"can't believe that i'm stuck. . ."

2009-08-26T01:15:00.001-06:00

Falling further down the rabbit hole.

Already eight months into 2009, Ryan Leslie's self titled is basically the only 2009 album that I've listened to more than once or twice. It is contemporary R&B. It is very. . . mainstream.

A number of reviews have praised the album's production, which is not undeserved. The songs on the album are bright and rich, without ever sounding overproduced, and the melodies hit all the right spots. Mostly the production follows a fairly standard post-Neptunes formula--not exactly original, though Leslie does it better than most. But I think the place he shines the most is in the actual songwriting. The writing on the album is suited to the beats in a way you don't hear when Cassie is breathing on the mic, or when Beyoncé is smothering one of his tracks.** It combines his production skills with songwriting that feels more considered, with more depth, than his previous work, making the beats (whether they're great, or simply passable) resonate that extra bit.

The album stacks the two big singles at the beginning, which works fine since much of the non-single material on the album turns out to be stronger. "Diamond Girl" opens with the absurd sexual metaphor: “I'm gonna take you ten rounds like a boxer, baby” and proceeds to dazzle with a beat that sounds like bling. Next single, "Addiction", hypnotizes with minor-key synth arpeggios, and hollowed-out, zombified beats. The spell gets interrupted momentarily by a regrettable few bars of Fabulous spitting corny, pop-culture references. Fabulous seems to think that since Kanye gets praise when delivering lines this weak, that he should be able to get away with it, too. I think not.

The third single from the album, “How It Was Supposed to Be” is oddly subdued, opening with one of those anthemic ‘let’s get amped’ synth figures that are so ridiculously popular now, but opting to build tension in a circular fashion, instead of going for the easy payoff at the chorus. In any other pop/r&b single, we would get some kind of catharsis. But there are no explosions or glitter--just a synth hook that repeats over and over until it’s forced to fade out.

"You're Fly" and "Just Right" end up being the weaker tracks, containing similar mistakes. Both feature cheesy, neo-soul backing vocals that feel like an afterthought. Leslie's attempts at rapping don’t help his case either, but "You're Fly" fairs a little better than the latter, if only due to its charming sentimentality, which makes it somewhat likable, if unimpressive. The unimaginative "Just Right", which essentially retreads the sentiments of “Diamond Girl”, is the only track on the album that is pretty much unsalvageable, with lyrics that suggest it should have been an instrumental.

On a more positive note, sandwiched between the weaklings are two of the best tracks on the album. The tightly-constructed “Quicksand", perhaps Leslie’s finest moment, contains just enough lovesick spirit and clever production flourishes to play like a modern update on Smokey Robinson’s “You Really Got a Hold On Me”. And despite containing probably the most tired song concept on the album, the flawless “Valentine" manages to reference all the good parts of 90s R&B. In a bit of not-so-smooth misdirection, instead of telling his girl all the things that make her amazing, he opts to tell her all the things he doesn't have to tell her. ("I don't have to say you're beautiful. . . . I don't have to say you run the show.")

Leslie’s lyrics tend towards these sort of roundabout come-ons, which are perfect not just for their absurdity, but how they cleverly reveal a subtext to these little romantic exchanges. A simple statement like “I like you” becomes three times more coy and convoluted: “I was hoping you’d notice the way I like to have you around.” Leslie plays the role of the fool in love very well--sometimes callous, but always likable--able to balance being smug one moment, and completely desperate for the girl the next.

Another highlight, “I-R-I-N-A”, takes the album’s sexual frustration up a notch, with its surprisingly heartfelt ode to a girl who being around is “easy like a Sunday”. Except she doesn’t speak English, which, I suppose, severely hampers Leslie’s attempts to put the moves on her.

Final track, "Gibberish" (the title hints at its lyrical content) is simultaneously the most and least ambitious track on the album. Your enjoyment of it will mostly hinge on whether you fall into a rarefied category of pop/r&b fans that believe emotional depth can be conveyed via auto-tune.

Ryan Leslie - "Quicksand"

Ryan Leslie - "How It Was Supposed to Be"

**On a side note: I just discovered this track "Hot 2Nite" from 2004, wherein New Edition (who knew they were still around?) sabotaged one of Leslie's beats with their exceptionally stale lyrics.

never find another love as good as this

2009-05-27T17:23:00.001-06:00

Somethin' For the People - "My Love Is the SHHH!"
The Dove Shack - "Summertime in the LBC"
Aaliyah - "Back and Forth"

some classic stuff.
". . . don't stop get it get it."

2009-05-08T00:08:00.007-06:00

Burial & Four Tet - "Moth"
. . . dance music at its most sublimely tragic. It's like crushing existential despair packaged in a song.

leafy thing

2009-04-29T20:50:00.004-06:00

Psychedelic Horseshit - Tropical Vision (edit)

One last final hurrah from Sunshine and Grease, before they, presumably, call it quits. Get the complete mix over here.

2009-04-27T23:48:00.006-06:00

Method Man & Redman - Dangerous MCs
Blackout 2 (2009)

I swear this song samples one of those squeaky tire swings that you used to be able to find in most playgrounds. Now those things were dangerous.

Nina Simone: "Spring Is Here"

2009-04-23T23:15:00.003-06:00

Nina Simone - "Spring Is Here"

I've been holding off on this one for a long time, waiting for the appropriate season to post it.

Simone's version of "Spring Is Here" (originally performed by Frank Sinatra, I believe) is one of my favourite recordings ever. It's mostly a simple, muted piano, with some rustling percussion, and Simone's intimate vocals. And yet the recording has this warm, fuzzy, almost-echoing quality that envelops the listener.

Simone is clearly aware of the song's melodrama, as she revels in it, singing each note in the most perfectly tragic way possible, yet carefully denying the song any sort of catharsis that could cheapen it. When she sings "no desire, no ambition is me" it's heartbreaking in a way that can bring a tear to your eye and make you smile at the same time.

An uplifting string section floats out of the background at this point, but fortunately it's not enough to rescue the song from Simone's epic depression.

it sounds best close to your ears

2008-04-17T20:50:00.004-06:00

Sweet sweet sweet sweet
Fire in the street