Christopher Willits – OPENING

Fresh off the Ghostly label line comes this very ghostly-esque album from multi-talented photography, producer, and musician Christopher Willits, filled with faded, droney, ambient, slow, intertwining harmonies. This is the kind of music that slows you, and everything around you way down. It’s great for the incoming cold weather too. The atmosphere and emotions evoked in “OPENING” are superb. It’s also got an accompanying film which is great to behold. This video is of travels captured over four years in Japan, Thailand, Hawai’i and California by Christopher Willits himself, and is the inspirational source for the music on this album.

“Opening” is easily a front runner for being placed high in 2014 album rankings, at least for me. It meanders through various forms, like the varieties found in nature, from the simple, vast, and seemingly endless, to more complex, intricate, and flowing landscapes. It’s hard to gauge what the focus in each song is, or the album itself, but maybe this is the point, as it is this approach that to me is refreshing, especially in a widely involved and varied genre that seems to have many releases aiming to center on one key element, as opposed to the much larger sphere of things.

As Willits remarks, regarding “OPENING” and the accompanying film,

“There are no actors or dialogue in this film. The audience and their perception is the main character, and everyone’s imagination is going to create some meaning that’s relevant to their own experience. My intention is to create a space where people can open up and expand into, relax and recharge.”…”For me, OPENING is about transformation, the experience of changing oneself to be more of who you know you can be, and, ultimately, the joy that comes with that change.”

This isn’t an album to jam too. I wouldn’t even say this is an album to vibe to. To call it an “experience” is overdone and a characterless way to explain albums like these. Just listen to it. Be amongst it.

– Nick

DJ Quik – “That Getter”

While another Compton-based Producer/Rapper has spent more than the last decade messing around with overpriced headphones and teasing an album that may never come, DJ Quik has quietly been been putting in work that’s flown completely over your head. Quik, now over 20 years deep into the game, is a G Funk pioneer that has had his fingertips printed over dozens of hit records without even getting a fraction of the shine he deserves. It would be foolish to think that a smart man like DJ Quik lacks any sort of self-awareness, so naturally his 2009 collaboration with Death Row legend Kurupt BlaQKout felt like the coming out party of his late-career renaissance. At this point, it’s clear Quik doesn’t give a fuck if you buy his record and he doesn’t give two fucks if you give him the Grammy that he should have gotten by now.

Quik continued this late-career stride with The Book of David, a personal and highly experimental offering complete with dense production and revealing lyrics detailing his role in the rap game, as well as tales of betrayal (and also plenty of the typical funk). What’s interesting about this new record, titled The Midnight Life, is (from what I’ve heard from the released snippits) the fact that Quik seems to be more or less returning to his roots, rather than push his sound further to the left. Just looking a the pen-and-pixel album art evokes memories of Quik is the Name or Way Too Fonky. Does this mean the fire isn’t still lit? Absolutely not. The smart-ass humor is still there, as well as the relevant social commentary. It’s just a sound that Quik is a master of, that he clearly feels like refining even further. “That Getter” details a rapper that isn’t too old, but rather “too funky” and one that noticed “motherfuckers in my neighborhood that grew up to be nothing/I went around the world stuntin/they still there doin nothing”. Stream the first single of Quik’s new album below, and check out some Quik cuts below that.

— Daniel

Fatima Al Qadiri – “Asiatisch”

Born in Senegal, raised in Kuwait, and presently splitting time between London and New York City, Fatima Al Qadiri could be seen as world traveler. Her debut album Asiatisch, being released on Hyperdub, takes the listener to what is described as an “imagined China.” It’s clear from the start it’s a China as taken from the perspective of Western Culture, the sonic explorers  she’s associated herself with, namely labels UNO, Fade to Mind, and Tri-Angle (under her Ayshay alias) as well as bass futurists Nguzunguzu and J-Cush of Lit City Trax, whom Al Qadiri has collaborated with as Future Brown.

Nothing introduces this imagine China better than the opening track “Shanzhai (for Shanzai Biennial).” The song, as the title suggests, was born from working with art collective Shanzai Biennial, but what the title doesn’t tell you is that it’s a muted, a soulful reworking of Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U.” Instead of being kitschy, it comes away hooking you in.

The idea of the “imagine China” plays out into the next few songs. Where the opening track soundtracks a nice landing into the airport of Asiatisch, the following three songs take you on a hover-taxi ride through the sprawling Utopian cities that inhabit the China of our mind. Ice cold synths in “Szechaun” give way to the sharp percussion and warped vocals of “Wudang.” The end of the first half, “Hainan Island” features skittering percussion, with just enough sadness in every hit.

The second half starts strong with the proto-grime tune “Shenzhen.” The synths have now gone from being ice cold, to completely frozen over. The sparse percussion and subtle vocals dance somewhere in the range of anxiety and paranoia. “Dragon Tattoo” might be the best song on the album, with all the parts previously explored on the albums coming to a head. A rich kick drum and bass, reverberatingbackground vocals, liquid synths, and a subtle gong hit that might be missed. The main vocals are an interpolation of “We Are Siamese” from Lady & the Tramp, and instead of posing it as the stereotypical joke, it’s posed as a menaching R&B jam.

Fatima Al Qadiri’s Asiatisch is released on May 5th Hyperdub Records

Do Androids Dance With Electric Sheep?: An Examination of Music For And By Robots

Recently Squarepusher released an EP called “Music For Robots” on Warp Records. The EP featured typical Squarepusher tropes: frantic breakbeats, virtuoso jazz bass and guitar, and those melancholy chords. What makes this Squarepusher EP so special is that while it was written by Squarepusher, the EP was performed by The Z-Machines, a trio of robots. “Music For Robots” wasn’t just for mechanical men, it was also by them.

By now Squarepusher has said he wanted to challenge the perspective of how we view music with this EP. The idea was that music played by robots could still be emotionally engaging is the idea spurred out of this, but let’s be honest, it still had a human touch. The writing was done by a human, specifically Squarepusher, but played by robots who are essentially giant sequencers. As Squarepusher pointed out in an interview with NPR, it’s not much different than when he used drum machines on his 1997 album Hard Normal Daddy, these drum machines just hit real drums.

Furthering this, the younger generation is presently obsessed with electronic music, which often lacks the traditional instrumentation that gives the “human element” to music. So the real question is why does a distinction matter? Sure, the music you might hear your favorite DJ playing is coming from their laptop or CDJs, but that doesn’t make you any less likely to dance than say a full band running through funk classics.

Consider Tycho for just a second. His last two albums Dive and Awake are sun drenched and sand covered trips to the coastline that evoke more emotions than a bland generic band with your typical bass, guitar, drums setup. So why does Squarepusher feel it necessary to try to make a distinction between music by robots and music by humans? Would it be any different than Tycho programming a drum machine through MIDI because someone doesn’t “actually play” an instrument? While Squarepusher and The Z-Machine’s “Music For Robots” is a fun project, it really isn’t causing waves in a technological generation.

Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks

 

Since their 2009 breakout release Meriweather Post Pavillion, Animal Collective has served as a gateway group to usher casual music listeners into the realm of experimental psychedelic music.  In response to their mainstream success, AC released 2012’s Centipede Hz, which delved straight back into their deeply experimental roots, distressing many of their newfound fans with its inaccessibility.  The digestible melodies and glossy synths of “Meriweather” were replaced by the cacophonous abrasion that one would typically find in their earlier albums.

    Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks serves as a kind of consolation prize for the confused fans lost in AC’s rekindled love affair with deep psychedelia.  Made up of AC founding member Avey Tare, former Dirty Projector Angel Deradoorian, and ex-Ponytail drummer Jeremy Hyman, the group manages to maintain the “poppiness” of Meriweather Post Pavillion while keeping to the experimental tendencies of Avey Tare.  As the name suggests, “Slasher Flicks” draws from the tongue-in-cheek eccentricity of classic cult horror films, harnessing its energy to produce a delightfully fun album.  Despite the accessibility of Enter the Slasher House, the album still has plenty of weird to go around.   Songs like Strange Colores and Little Fang feature alien-like vocal melodies accompanied by relentless synth beats which lock the listener into a hypnotic dancing abstraction.

The greatest challenge Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks faces is defining its identity outside of the context of Animal Collective.  The comparisons between the bands are unavoidable for obvious reasons, but if Enter the Slasher House were experienced without the preconception of an AC piece, it is really quite good.  “Slasher Flicks” succeeds in meeting fans’ expectations while treading some new creative ground on its own.  Enter the Slasher House is out now, stream below and enjoy!

-Denali

 

Leather Corduroys -“Porno Music Vol. II”

Amidst all the internet April Fools’ Day BS and subsequent fallout, Chance The Rapper (or whoever updates his reddit profile) uploaded SaveMoney’s anticipated collaboration between Kami De Chukwu and Joey Purp. None of this seems to be a prank, or maybe this is the point, however the release is indicative of where we’re headed in today’s internet age — especially hip hop music. Whether it’s icons like Beyonce or middle-finger-to-the-industry alternative acts like Death Grips, unconventional/unexpected releases are becoming the norm. Free streams and downloads are now commonplace, and record sales seem to have fallen by the wayside in favor of overall exposure.

SaveMoney is no stranger to this. Chance’s Acid Rap was an official free download, as was Vic Mensa’s INNANETAPE on DatPiff, again representative of the power of internet buzz. The duo that comprises Leather Corduroys get less than a fraction of the shine of Young Money’s general Chance and his doppelgänger Mensa, even though they’ve been rapping for just as long. Some of that makes sense. Chukwu has a funny name, and it’s hard to fathom his intense flow situated beneath the jazzy sun-soaked and sedated vibes of Acid Rap. However we have seen stuff like that out of Joey Purp before on some of his mixtapes, so perhaps it’s only a matter of time and output that SaveMoney as a whole really starts to take off.

Porno Music Vol. II doesn’t exactly sound accessible and it doesn’t have a title that will be pasted all over publications, but regardless there are some great moments here. The intro “Bleed” begins with an emotive piano roll and a deepened/distorted vocal sample that picks up just a bit towards the end. Kami De Chukwu compliments the music with an equally escalating flow. The beat drops and a muted soul sample acts as a bridge towards the next song “Dat Strong”, a grimy anthem of shit-talking and threats.

After an admittedly lukewarm interlude, the rapping starts again on highlight “Nightmare on Chicago Ave”. The synthed-out beat is gloomy and melancholic, and the rhymes are intense gangsta tales of women, drugs and money. “Irie Trill Vibes” closes the brief EP, a trap banger with aggressive yet ultimately monotonous lyrics.

The production on Porno Music Vol. II (especially on the intro and “Nightmare”) is quality. The beats fit the mood of the lyrics, but the interlude and the final track are missteps — albeit missteps that are easily forgiven on a project of this length. Kami De Chukwu outshines Joey Purp more often than not, but the chemistry is apparent. These guys are all still damn young which is nothing new for hip hop music over the last couple of years. Check out the five track EP below.

-Daniel

10 Years Down The Road: Madvillainy

Ten years ago yesterday, one of the most important hip hop records of the 2000s came out. Madvillain, the combination of MF Doom and Madlib, released the fittingly named Madvillainy on Stones Throw Records. Making use of Madlib’s jazzy, crate digging production and Doom’s stream of consciousness rhymes. The album was abstract, broke down the typical format of hip hop songs, and is completely a unique release.

Ten years down the road, the record still sounds fresh, a quality many classics can claim. What makes this a truly special record is that while others have tried to emulate, nothing else comes close to Madvillainy. The blunted raps on Raid, All Caps, and obviously America’s Most Blunted flow well, but the abstractness of Bistro, Curls, and Rhinestone Cowboy also ground the listener into an altered reality.

22 songs in around 45 minutes is strange for any record (save maybe the most hardcore of punks) but does so in the world of hip hop. The record gets to the point, even if you’re not really quite sure what the point was. By today’s standards, even the more underground rap isn’t quite as adventurous and intellectual as Madvillainy.

The record spawned several singles, two remix EPs, one by Koushik, the other by Four Tet, and a re-imagined version by Madlib himself. While the group has only spawned one new song since, promises of a follow up are clouded by the ever mysterious Doom, who is apparently holding the project up. Since then Madlib has released many, many, many albums, while producing for tons of other rappers as well. Doom has released a few albums by himself and with others, but really nothing touches the legacy of Madvillainy. 

Tirzah – “No Romance”

Boy, does KZUU have a great new track for you. Assistant music director, Erin, has been jamming to this for two straight days now and is excited to share Tirzah’s new soulful pop song “No Romance”. This is the title track off of her upcoming EP [via Greco-Roman] which is set to release on April 21st, so mark your calendars. Micachu will be producing the beats and Tirzah on vocals to make what they describe as an “emo” 5-track EP.

Stream “No Romance” for days down below.

You can buy Tirzah’s previous EP here.

Freddie Gibbs/Madlib — “Real”

“Real”, an immediate highlight off the long-awaited and excellent Freddie Gibbs/Madlib collaboration (cocaine) Piñata, is a track that should remind hip hop fans of around a decade ago when Clipse had a fire lit under them after it took Jive four years to release their masterpiece Hell Hath No Fury. Gibbs infamously split from Young Jeezy’s CTE label in 2012 after only a year and obviously things weren’t left on good terms. It still isn’t totally clear what caused the separation, but it’s easy to infer based on Freddie Gibbs’ lack of overall commercial appeal. Just like when Clipse split from Jive for the same reasons, Freddie Gibbs’ poor experience with big-label music has only led to more quality subject matter.

Freddie Gibbs is so likable because he’s spent his career flexing a lot of diversity in the production department. The strictly gangster rapper never moves very far from his Midwest-boxframe Cadillac formula, and while it’s true he’s most comfortable in the chopped and screwed trap lane, he’s worked with plenty of different types of producers. See the Statik Selektah collab if you wanna hear what I’m talking about, but this Madlib project demonstrates this to the furthest extreme. Madlib is at the very least, not the guy you would think of to lay the gangsta blueprint. But again, it works because Gibbs has a hell of a lot of skill and what’s so cool about “Real” is we’re seeing him detail some pretty specific ideas.

The first verse is vintage Gibbs, and it establishes Freddie’s credibility as someone who “niggas heard of, and now all the sudden they back to thuggin” over fast-pased and buzzing Madlib production. The beat changes a minute in, and the bpm slows down so we can pay closer attention to Freddie’s story with Jeezy. He’s pissed at someone he once looked up to, and threatens to “expose you to those that don’t know you”. Rick Ross said that he’s “scared to drop a diss record” and Gibbs take a dozen or so shots at Young Jeezy’s character. In the end, Freddie Gibbs loses nothing and it’s Jeezy in fact that lost a “rare breed” and he’ll never again find “a bad guy like this that don’t produce nothing but evil seeds.”

Stream “Real” below.

http://www.audiomack.com/song/dj-arabmixtapes/real

 – Daniel 

Sudanim – “The Link EP”

Grime, mostly of the instrumental variety, had a hell of a year in 2013. With releases from the likes of Slackk, Logos, Visionist, Murlo, Rabit, Filter Dread, Mssingno, Dark0, and many more, the distinctly UK sound returned to critical acclaim in the wake of the dubstep explosion. Besides just being active and exciting, grime producers fired shots at one another with a very public and prolific battle of war dubs.

Aside from the clash of producers, one label seemed to stand above the rest in grime: Her Records. The label displayed some of the best forward thinking grime and bass music and is based out of South London.

Off the accolades of label co-head of Her Records Miss Modular’s Reflector Pack / Cruzer Edge EP comes Her Records first release of the year with the other co-head Sudanim’s The Link EP. With everything expected, this five track EP is full of the metallic bass, off kilter eski-beats and punishing synths. The opening track, and title track, “The Link” opens like a hip hop beat out of hell, with punishing kicks, erratic percussion, reverb heavy vocal samples and all nasty synth stabs.The second track “Midrift” is just as great, built off airy and playful synths. A Neana mix at the end of the EP turns “Midrift” into a nice 4/4 banger with paranoid synths and schizophrenic vocal samples. “Lightmare”, the third track, opens softly until descending into an arpeggio of rain drop synths and detuned toms. Big and punishing, this seems to be the highlight of the EP, being suitable for the Night Slugs and Fade To Mind camp, with a noticeable nod to Jam City and Girl Unit. “The Thirst” suitably rounds out the original mixes, and sounds almost like what would happen if you ran a trap song through a grime filter then let Kode9 turn it into something suitable for his ever experimental label, Hyperdub.

Be sure to check out Sudamin’s new EP, The Link EP above, and get your hands on the name your price HERVOL002, a compilation from the label, below.