It has been a while since we’ve heard a new solo track from Hudson Mohawke, as he’s spent most of 2012 producing for others and working with Lunice as TNGHT. This short bit of “Tingle” isn’t exactly the new HudMo track we expected though and is actually an old, unfinished jawn. It really fits into the TNGHT canon moreso than HudMo’s solo discography anyways. Regardless, the track features some fancy turntable work (possibly by Gaslamp Killer) and enough sub bass to sufficiently rattle your molars. Stream below.
Nicolas Jaar once said “it’s bass that makes everything sad” when asked what the saddest sound on earth was. He went on to explain that he utilizes basslines in his remix work to bring a certain amount of heartache to poppy vocals and to be honest with you, I thought he was full of shit. how could the backbone of funk be inherently sad? It seemed unfathomable to me. That was until I listened to Jaar’s remix of Chet Faker’s “Terms And Conditions. And then listened to it again. And then again a dozen or so more times. Jaar has also often referred to himself as an architect filling space with sound, and his debut album Space Is Only Noise is a thorough exploration of that concept. His remix work is where he designs the club from the ground up though.
While he’s known for playing extremely slow sets, remixes of Architecture In Helsinki and Azari and III see Jaar working within a loose House template. “Terms And Conditions” almost reaches 140 BPM, representing some of his fastest work to date, but retains the sedentary nature that permeates much of Space Is Only Noise. The first two minutes of the remix revolve around warbling ambient noises, gradually percolating percussion and chants of “it’s not the money” enter the framework. The emotional weight of the track isn’t fully realized until the kick comes in though. At that point, there’s no more dillydallying and a real sense of despair takes over. Unlike many songs that attempt to grasp inert sadness, “Terms And Conditions” doesn’t suck the energy out of the room as much as it propels it in a more desolate direction. If you don’t believe, then listen for yourself.
First off, shouts out to Boo. Portland’s own Eprom, owner of one of the year’s wonkiest tracks and an impressive debut album, launched “Hurricane” on his Soundcloud earlier. The track packs is punctuated by blown out synths and is downright foreboding. As of now, Eprom has only uploading a short slip, but look out for the full version in the near future and stream below.
Freddie Gibbs has never been one to hold back from telling his tale, both in interviews and in his music. From his days robbing trains to his flawless post-being dropped from Interscope string of releases, the Gary, Indiana MC has been honest to the core. Keepin’ it real has been out of vogue for a while, but there isn’t a better way to describe Gangsta Gibbs. Baby Face Killa is Gibbs’ latest mixtape and includes a menagerie of guests new and old. DJ Drama probably chose a few of them, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, although I can’t really imagine Gibbs working with Kirko Bangz without being cajoled into it. All Drama (see what I did there) aside, Spaceghostpurrp and Krayzie Bone trading paranoiac verses on “Kush Cloud”, Z-Ro assisting in some car fetish rap and Young Jeezy groveling certainly add a few extra dimensions to the tape. Of course, Gibbs doesn’t get drowned out by all of the gusts, managing to touch on everyman rap tropes, both new and old with unabated confidence. The hood is still fucked up and Gibbs still bangs, but now he’s doing it with a more diverse sound palette. What more can you ask for?
In my expert opinion, three songs have touched on pop perfection this year (so far): Frank Ocean’s “Thinkin Bout You”, Miguel’s “Adorn” and AlunaGeorge’s “Your Drums, Your Love”. It’s no surprise that each one of these has been remixes countless times, with very mixed results. “Your Drums, Your Love” is the most recent of the three and has already seen the release of an official remix EP featuring Lil Silva and Duke Dumont, as well as numerous unofficial remixes. Unfortunately for all the rest of you producers, Friendly Fires have entered the building. Clear your palm pilots, surround yourself in cushy pillows and let this track envelop you. The Aluna/Aaliyah comparisons are no accident and Friendly Fires don’t miss a beat. This is pop music transcending pop music. Stream below.
I’ve always been a fan of the “slow and sexy wins the race” epithet with regards to club music. Ratcheting up the tempo is always fun of course, but outside of the R&B realm, good slow jams are few and far between. I’d like to think that Star Slinger shares the same epithet. With Teki Latex (of Sound Pellegrino Thermal Team) in tow, Slinger lays down some rump shaking action that would make Papa Juvenile proud. While most producers attempt to make that ass drop, Teki and Slinger just ask the women in the club to “make that cootie grind right in front of my face”. Is that too much to ask? Stream “Ladies In The Back” below and look out for the vinyl in the near future.
Will Wiesenfield aka Baths has carved out a unique place in the bass music world, one in which pop song writing exists. Damn good pop song writing at that. Geotic is Wiesenfield’s ambiant side-project and it’s a damn good side-project. With one very solid album as Geotic under his belt, the project actually shares a lot of the same features as Baths. Beatific piano and field recordings are common in both for example. Geotic represents the simplified, boiled down version of Wiesenfield’s vision and it is oh so beautiful. Stream new Geotic song “Forest Floor”, featuring M. Luna, below and grab the MP3 here.
My apologies on being AWOL from this URL for the past month and change, hopefully you’ll hear a thing or two about what I’ve been working on recently in the next few months.
Anyways, full disclosure, barring possibly my middle school obsession with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, James Blake is the most influential musician to ever reach my eardrums. I keep coming back to his work. Thus, I was tickled pink to find that he released a single and b-side under the old Harmonimix moniker (he released these with rapper Trim, who I won’t focus on here, but still deserves a lot of recognition for his vocal contributions). If I may, I’m gonna take the opportunity to say a few things about JB, his new tune, and how he has changed the way I think about music.
Music these days seems to be splintering into a camp making tunes meant for big speakers and disorienting dancefloors and one making the tunes you wake up to, walk around to, and fall asleep to at night. Although this is far more of a spectrum than a dichotomy, it is difficult for a musician to place him or herself firmly in both of these camps.
Although he isn’t the only one to do so (cough cough Mount Kimbie, Disclosure, Probably Countless Unheard But Incredibly Talented Producers Toiling In The Depths Of Soundcloud), James Blake has created a characteristic sound that feels equally at home in your laptop speakers/headphones and the most absurd soundsystem at a festival headline stage. I’ve spent a lot of time dissecting the music he makes, so oblige me sharing a few of the observations I’ve made.
Confidence Boost (which you oughtta be listening to by now via the attached youtube video) opens with reverb-soaked drums that possess two important qualities: they are both ambiguous and engaging. The sound is amorphous, but nuanced, as bursts of condensed white noise that will continue permeate the song flit among the cloudy drums. Suddenly, Trim’s voice comes to your attention. “Look”.
James Blake is a student of pop music as well as an accomplished practitioner of sound design. This double degree manifests itself in how well his music translates to different contexts. I have spent days slaving over logic pro as well as enjoying music as a casual listener, and both of these sensibilities are appeased with the opening of “Confidence Boost”. All of a sudden, the soundscape is subjected to a sort of vaccuum. Only the clearest, most salient elements remain, and sitting directly in the center of the mix is a rather unprocessed human voice. Like much of Blake’s vocal work, Trim’s lyrics speak to a personal pain that has a universally applicable quality. JB keeps the voice a lucid center of the piece, but by adding pitch shifted wisps and subtle manipulations of timing, the lyricist becomes less any particular person and more a unorganized chorus of empathetic listeners. The third time around, the vocal has sunk into a cacophony of emotion and energy that gradually recedes, leaving the listener with one last clear “strike a pose”. A similar balancing act of vocal and feeling-soaked instrumental made me tear up while listening to the Wilhelm Scream live, and it works again.
As far as Blake’s work with the instrumental, if I told you everything I wanted to about how perfect I think the construction is, how finely tuned and polished each element is, how well all the elements complement each other, how the arrangement manages to be utterly left field and yet as familiar and listenable to the acclimated listener to any pop song, this article would move just way too far into tl;dr status. Instead I’ll tell you this. I don’t think I would even listen for qualities like this in music if it wasn’t for James Blake’s pop tunes drawing me into their complexities.
Thank you for reading this far, I’ll leave you with this. One time I smoked way too much DMT, thought I was developing rapid onset multiple personality disorder, and felt like the world was closing in around me. Then all of sudden, inexplicably, the opening chords to the Wilhelm Scream started playing in my mental stereo and the psychedelic purgatory quickly faded into a warm light blue color, and after about a minute of the song playing out in my imagination, I opened my eyes and everything was fine. Why this happened is beyond me but what i do know is this: I’ve listened to James Blake’s album enough that I could basically recited the Wilhelm Scream to myself, arrangement and all, while utterly incapacitated, and just the thought of that song was one of the most incredible musical moments I’ve ever had.
Straight out of Manchester’s famed independent rock scene, Egyptian Hip Hop have all of the technical skill of a band like Grizzly Bear mixed with a youthful brashness you rarely find anymore in the “indie” realm. There newest effort, “Yoro Diallo”, is full of funky basslines and tight, inspired harmonies. It’s good to have the Mancunians back in proper form. The track is the second single off of the band’s upcoming album, Good Don’t Sleep, dropping October 22 on R&S. In case you were wondering, Yoro Diallo was a Malian musician. Stream below.
And another Lianne La Havas remix rolls through. By my official (unoffical) count, La Havas is the most remixed songstress of 2012. At this point, you should know that Ryan Hemsworth is one of our favorites and a true Astral Plane-ian. Hemsworth drenches “Ages” into synth molasses here, giving it a n incandescent vibe. Unlike most, Hemsworth’s use of video game samples and 8-bit sounds avoids sounding nostalgic and/or corny in a way that I can’t put my finger on. Dude just manages to rise above with every original and remix he’s done to this point. Head over to Earmilk to stream and download the remix.
The Astral Plane 