2012 Tunage.

[DISCLAIMER:  This is not a "Best Albums of 2012" list.  Rather a list of my favorite albums of the year.  And it was a lot longer but I've whittled it down substantially.  It was a good year for me.]

Baroness -  Yellow & Green

Baroness became one of my favorite Metal bands when they validated their debut with the beautiful “Blue Album”.  “Yellow & Green” takes the litany of influences to another level, stirring all sorts of ingredients together to make a pretty, if haunting, “metal” album.

Local H -  Hallelujah! I’m a Bum 

Lyrically, musically, and thematically, this is the record Scott Lucas has been itching to make for possibly the entirety of his career.  Hopeful, pessimistic, and very Chicagoan, “I’m A Bum” reaches down into its guts and heart to rip out an outburst of understated political criticism.

Brother Ali -  Mourning In America, Dreaming In Colour

Similar to Local H’s album in many, many ways, Ali returns to the full-length after the all too happy “Us” with a scathing critique of the American political process with one finger always on the button of hope.  Probably the most apt title of the year.

JJ DOOM – Keys To The Kuffs

MF Doom – or whatever he’s calling himself now – collabs with one Jnerio Jarel to present a sound that hearkens back to his Madvillain days with a slight tinge of Electronica to boot.  The bizarre and compelling backstory behind the making of this album, and the themes, is as interesting as the sound it inspired.

El-P – Cancer For Cure 

After yet another five year break between solo records, El-P’s newest album is definitely his most accessible: heavy, catchy, conceptual without being taking it too far.  His production and lyrics are both the stars, with the former tackling complex synth based beats and the latter walking further down the tracks of 21^st Century alienation and paranoia.

P.O.S. – We Don’t Even Live Here

This is the most non-political political album of the last five years.  Though you wouldn’t know it from the reviews, the message is simple: free yourself from a system that doesn’t work for you, doesn’t accept you, or both.  Production and appearances from German techno dudes to Justin Vernon to Ryan Olson keep things very, very interesting.

Aesop Rock – Skelethon 

It took Aesop Rock over a decade to finally trust his chops enough to make an album with all his own beats; the result is the most personalized and soulful record of his career.  His trademark high-concept lyricism is in full effect, but it feels like the imagery and metaphors are pulled straight from the last 5 years of his life.

Flying Lotus – Until The Quiet Comes

Steven Ellison continues his acclaimed, multi-genre discography with a wonderful, mysterious 15 track album grounded in where it came from but still forging ahead without inhibitions of any kind.  The features are spot on with the likes of Thom Yorke and Erykah Badu lending vocals.

Kendrick Lamar – good kid, m.A.A.d city

Mainstream Rap music takes a huge step forward this year with Kendrick’s proper debut LP, a concept album about growing up in Compton under the shadow of previous West Coast Hip-Hop and the underbelly that comes with it, both metaphorically and literally.  The final step in Rap music entering the 21^st Century, and growing up.

Swans – The Seer

There’s a reason why this punk/hardcore/??? band’s 2 hour-ish magnum opus has been making list after list of late… it is one bold, massive, go for the throat piece of work that rewards listeners for repeated listens and just simply getting to the end.  This is what happens when rules and limitations go out the window: the results are often stunning and powerful.

Death Grips – The Money Store/No Love Deep Web

A tie for the most anti-corporate band’s two albums of 2012 because, really, they work in conjunction.  Together, “The Money Store” and “No Love Deep Web” form an admirable and poignant story about the limits of control, capitalism, and the record business in the second decade of the 21^st Century.

Killer Mike – R.A.P. Music

I don’t know about everyone else, but for me there was a fear that El-P’s beats would overshadow the veteran Atlanta rapper’s rhymes on the Adult Swim sponsored “R.A.P. Music”.  That didn’t happen.  As it turns out Killer Mike keeps pace with the heavy, heavy production and maybe even surpasses it.  The best album of his career by far.

Grimes – Visions

Clair Boucher – better known as Grimes – is a one woman wrecking crew of ethereal, primal, yet futuristic witch house that will bite at your soul while making you want to dance.  “Visions” takes her looping and overlaying style to a whole new degree: at times there are 4 or 5 Clairs singing in conjunction to form 13 fresh and undistinguishable Electro tracks.

Dan Deacon – America

Nowhere else is it more clear that Dan Deacon studied electo-acoustic and computer music composition than on “America”, an album that encompasses everything Dan Deacon does to its absolute best form.  The hearty, thick analog sounds are here, as are the intricately laced runs of synth scales.  Awesome record.

Purity Ring – Shrines

Another Canadian outfit, this time from the East (Montreal), presents to the world a very, very good debut that sparkles and shimmers even amongst a whole lot of good 2012 Electro albums from seasoned veterans of the genre.  Really hope this 21 and 24 year old stay together and keep making music for years to come.

Black Moth Super Rainbow – Cobra Juicy 

I’ve introduced Black Moth Super Rainbow to as many people as I can.  And for good reason, there’s really nothing out there like them… even in a year so influenced by the sound they’ve pioneered.  “Cobra Juicy” sees the band getting a little less dreamy and trippy and a little more dancey.

The Bad Plus – Made Possible      

Why I still haven’t seen the Twin Cities best modern Jazz trio I do not know; but The Bad Plus are players to be reckoned with, each of these guys get a 10 on skill alone.  Which can often overshadow soul, but “Made Possible” serves up both.  And in spirit of democracy ([laughter]) each member gets a chance to write multiple tracks.

Gary Clark, Jr. – Blak and Blu 

This guy keeps getting anointed as some iteration of “best new artist”, which is a little deceptive: he’s been recording officially since 2004.  And there’s lots of bluesmen out there, few invigorate their brand of tunes with such energy and variety.  At least not lately.  But even calling this album “blues” paints it into a corner it doesn’t sit it for too long at a time.

Robert Glasper Experiement – Black Radio   

“Black Radio” is my biggest surprise of the year.  Previously to it I only had briefly heard Glasper’s name barely in passing.  The ringleader and his amazing band though make modern Jazz as cool as any other type of music the kids may or may not be listening to.  It doesn’t hurt that the album features one of the best (and strangest) Nirvana covers I’ve ever heard.

Polica – Give You The Ghost    

Hype can be a bit of a problem sometimes.  This Minneapolis band began garnering hype for their debut long before its release.  Deserved or not… it’s hard to deny the uniqueness of Polica’s sound.  Ryan Olson’s synths and Chaney’s processed vocals over one hell of a rhythm section is, if anything, just damn entertaining to listen to.

How To Destroy Angels -  An omen_EP

As hard as it is for me to include this album due to it feeling like a short and sweet prelude to some other great piece of work further down the line, it’s still the best thing Reznor and co. have done yet.  And I know this might be hard to read, it’s certainly hard to write… I think I like How To Destroy Angels’ sound better than NIN.  Gods forgive me.

A Place To Bury Strangers – Worship

A Place Bury Strangers suffers from that all too often affliction of lavish praise upon debut, only to have those heaping on the praise forget about you and move onto the next hot new band.  It’s a shame because “Worship” takes everything them made them so dangerous before and adds all kinds of new dynamics and layers.

Andrew Bird – Break It Yourself  

I’ve only gotten into Andrew Bird lately and boy is it overwhelming trying to catch up.  His discography, like his arrangements, is fairly daunting.  But with Andrew Bird – and the band he’s assembled for “Break It Yourself”, including a couple of my favorite MN instrumentalists – the amount of work you put in is far surpassed by what you get out of it.

Fiona Apple – The Idler Wheel…    

Fiona Apple remains to this day a curious case of semi-successful independent musicianship.  Not many late 90’s chart toppers are willing to name their newest album using 23 words, or craft the types of songs that appear on “Idler Wheel”.  These are bizarre and quirky tracks, but would you expect or want anything less from her?

Guided By Voices – Let’s Go Eat The Factory

So Guided By Voices released a boatload of music this year: 3 LPs, all featuring 20-ish tracks.  It was a little difficult picking which one.  The other two are good, and GBV is one of those bands whose quality remains very, very consistent.  But “Let’s Go Eat the Factory” saw their return from an almost 10 year hiatus.  And Robert Pollard and co. came back with the hunger of a band in their 20’s.

Matthew Dear – Beams          

Matthew Dear has been making Electronic music for over 10 years, and a lot of it is really good.  But it feels like on “Beams” he finally found his creative sweet spot.  The music is comfortable in its own skin: confident but perhaps a bit shy at the same time.  And this album perhaps has some of the best lyrics of the year.

Blut Aus Nord – 777: Cosmosophy      

This French black metal band (with a German name) ends its “777” trilogy in stunning fashion with an almost ambient take on the genre.  While so many other metal bands, particularly this brand of metal, limit themselves within the confines of what “metal” is, Blut Aus Nord branches out beyond the borders and the results are awe-inspiring, majestic, and very beautiful.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Psychedelic Pill

It’s hard not to applaud the aspirations – or maybe balls – of a record that opens with a half-hour track of 70’s jam band psychedelica about those very days some 40 years ago.  Normally I’m weary of nostalgia in almost all its forms, but “Psychedelic Pill” brings it in droves and you will find yourself thinking, “Damn I wish it was 1972 right now”.

-SonnyW.

/\/\_/\/\_vs_J/\Y.

-  New remix EP!  I’m basically doing here what I tried to to with Biggie, but now I have more tools at my disposal and I don’t suck as much.  I wanted to do another Hip-Hop legend.  Nas was on the list, and is still.  Ironically though, one of the songs on this album is a 2001 track (off The Blueprint) called “The Takeover” in which Jay-Z talks alot shit about both Mob Deep and Nas.  I can’t mess with the original, which is one of Kayne West’s best beats, it manages to sample The Doors and KRS One and David Bowie.  Dang.  Anyways, yeah enjoy.  Most of the tracks are pretty dark besides “H.O.V.A.” which kind of has a dance party vibe, and “Encore” which is sort of a reflective, hopeful sounding song.  Here’s the cover:

There’s still much to be desired with my scratching, but I’m getting better.  Also there should be a guitar solo.  Maybe at the end of HOVA.  Okay I’ll stop.  Here’s the stream:

Okay what the fuck?  Bandcamp has changed since I last used it.  There used to be a drop down menu to embed albums on a variety of sites, including WordPress.  Now they’re only providing embed shortcodes for Tumblr, Twitter, and Google+ (with Facebook being default embed).  Hmm.  Okay, well here’s the damn link cause yeah F this:

http://mildmaynyrd.bandcamp.com/album/vs-j-y

The title of the album is /\/\_/\/\_vs_J/\Y.  Yes, written like that.  Here’s the tracklist:

1. December 4th
2. The Takeover
3. H.O.V.A.
4. Bed-Stuy
5. Can’t Knock The Hustle (feat. Mary J. Blige)
6. Hey Papi (feat. Memphis Bleek)
7. Encore

Thanks!

-Sonny

 

 

 

Dylan At The Xcel, 11/7/12.

Last night I had the opportunity to go and see the legend of Minnesota music legends, the spiritual successor to Woody Guthrie (Arlo not withstanding), Bob Dylan.  Bob Zimmerman.  Robert Milkwood.  Whatever you wanna call him.  He lived up to that status.  His presence was definitely felt from front to back, and he seemed glad to be in his (original) home.

My cousin who I was with hit it right on the head when he said, “he’s no nostalgia act, is he?”.  Suffice it to say after having trouble getting to our seats on the floor due to sheer volume of people, I think the entire row ahead of us emptied after about 3 songs.  It went from claustrophobic feeling to just plain bare.  I should make it clear that I was told (“warned” seems like too strong of language) what a modern Bob Dylan show was going to be like from several people before going.  I knew what I was in for; that being said, I honestly think I still would have the same reaction had I not been aware of the style in which Dylan and his always marvelous backing band present some of the best songs of the 20th Century.  I would.  Cause I was fairly baffled when I heard people complaining about it for the first time, it seemed a little unjustified.  Here’s the deal: none of the songs are very recognizable, especially to an untrained ear (musically, that is).  Sure… if you know the lyrics to Bob Dylan songs you’ll figure it out, or if you can recognize a key instantly you definitely will.  But if you have neither of things you damn well better be going into the venue with an open mind or you will be disappointed.  From the look if it, this happens at his shows with some regularity.  Which is such a shame.  If you do go in with an open mind, you concede to him that he’s the artist and you’re the patron, you will be in for a very memorable experience.

This was the first time I had seen him, so this could be all in my head… but he felt particularly loose last night.  Spry I would even say.  There were numerous times where he was playing the piano, getting more fidgety and fidgety until he finally had to pop up off his bench, grab a harmonica and walk to the front of the stage to jam.  Indeed some of the best moments of the night were songs that Bob was not playing an instrument during, waltzing around the stage and pointing at his metaphors and imagery before delving into another harmonica solo.  Now I know where Craig Finn gets his swagger from.  His voice was surprisingly good.  Again though, I’m well aware of how his voice has changed with 50 some odd years of cigarettes and red wine under the weight of being “a generation’s spokesperson”.  That kind of thing has got to wear on you.  Like the song rearrangements though, if you think his voice is gonna sound the way it does in the 60s or 70s, you will be dissatisfied.  But I thought he sounded great, and dare I say a little bit cooler with the now trademark rasp.  On “Tangled Up In Blue” for example, the long drawn-out words before the chorus hits he didn’t attempt, but he hit the chorus notes pretty well.  But he’s a story teller; he’s at his best when he’s rambling on about Highway 61 or not fitting into anywhere you go.  “Ballad of A Thin Man” was one of my highlights of the night: the band played a pretty heavy version of the song and Bob seemed to really be feeling the lyrics (this was one of the songs he walked around to).  That song — an indictment of the establishment from a confused anti-hero who, no matter what he does (including read all of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s books) cannot seem to become accepted by society — ironically probably feels as personal to him in 2012 as it did in 1965.  Add to that the irony of some people wanting to hear that song the way it sounded in 1965, and thinking this old version of Dylan is just too weird to enjoy, and you’ve got accidental (or perhaps intentional) brilliance.

Before the single-song encore of “Blowin’ In The Wind” (a version I didn’t even recognize initially), Dylan and co. played two of his most famous songs back to back: “Like A Rolling Stone” and “All Along The Watchtower”.  It was a great one-two punch.  I had heard previously a version of “Like A Rolling Stone” from earlier this year (I think from Europe gig?), so that song wasn’t too much of a surprise.  And actually they don’t change it all that much, not comparatively to some of the other material.  But the rendition “All Along The Watchtower” was amazing.  Carefree, bluesy, even with a little snarl and attitude for good measure.

This may have been my last chance to see Dylan, and boy am I glad I did.  He’s easily one of the greatest song writers — or maybe poets — of all time.

-Sonny

Two New Releases and Improving Reality.

-  Warren Ellis at a conference on “how to improve reality” (I might have to sample this for a song…):

-  I finally got through Neil Young and Crazy Horse‘ new album “Psychadelic Pill“.

I think I would need to listen to the album again in its entirety — which is a quite a job — to really say how much I like or dislike like it.  So I’m categorizing this under the “upon first listen” thoughts.  Which can, and do, change.  I’ve been up to date with Neil Young’s modern material since 2003′s “Greendale”, having listened to all his albums since then.  And I like most of them.  Fork In The Road was probably the weakest of the batch, followed by the ground shaking Le Noise (which, in a strange bit of artistic freedom, featured little to no percussion).  So new Neil Young, or old for that matter, is nothing new to me.  Hearing him with Crazy Horse in the world of cellphones and private space companies, however, is.  Turns out Americana was just rehearsal for the big dance.  They’re really bringing out the big (epic, long, operatic, etc) guns for this album.  And that world of cell phones and nano-tech is not something Mr. Young wants to be a part of; he sings on the 30 minute opener, “When you hear my song now, you only get 5 percent, you used to get it all… I’m driftin’ back”.  The instrumentation is a little nostalgic too, with the band hearkening back to their 70′s days of drawn-out freeform jams, mic’ed 30-watt amps, and that vinyl, analog sound.  It feels good on the ears (even if it feels a little strange when just a few years ago Young made an album about retro-fitting his classic car(s) with enough modern tech to free them from gasoline), and it’s sometimes nice to hear the legends crave the old days.

-  Then you’ve got Kendrick Lamar’s debut full-length which deserves most of the credit it’s getting.

This is probably the strongest Rap debut we’ve had in some time.  I use the term “Rap” deliberately.  The production is rock solid, rarely missing the mark.  And the slate of producers, besides perhaps Just Blaze, are a little bit off-kilter compared to the sometimes predictable melody makers of 21st Century mainstream Hip-Hop.  I always like Pharrell’s beats, and I almost wish he’d do an entire album for a guy like Kendrick.  And what of Kendrick himself?  He lives up to the hype.  Well, most of it.  A lot of the these lines are really thought provoking, more than what Top 40 Rap was giving us in the hey-day of materialism Rap, when the illustrious 50 Cent album “Get Rich or Die Tryin’” was the big anticipated album of the moment.  Those days are gone, thank God.  And Kendrick Lamar, along with a whole slew of new-ish rappers, are taking mainstream Rap into the 21st Century (finally) with equal parts style and substance.  It’s nice to see.  What this album is not, is “Illmatic”.  This is not an “instant classic”.  It might become a classic one day, but it’s not instant.  In fact, Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City might suffer a little bit from Dark Knight syndrome: levels of anticipation so off the charts there’s absolutely no way it can live up them.  Which is too bad.  This album isn’t breaking down any walls, it’s not shattering the paradigm Rap music exists in as it stands, but it is solid.  And it’s the best mainstream Rap has been (w/ a few notable exceptions) in quite some time.

-Sonny

We Don’t Even Live Here.

Much like this summer’s anticipated Cancer 4 Cure from El-P, the next step in P.O.S.’ discography is probably the most accessible release of his career.  But (also, like El-P) he manages to accomplish this without sacrificing any of his personal and artistic flavors: the DIY aesthetic, the percussive tones, the clever but understated wordplay… it all remains.  In fact, this might be the album that is most representative of him.  Every little moment, hit, lyric, it all breathes P.O.S.  That’s not to say he’s not breaking any new ground here.  If you haven’t heard, this album is (mostly) Electro inspired; producers like Ryan Olson, Patric Russel, and even some German dudes have cooked up some tasty synths and E-progressions for a dance party behind an abandoned factory somewhere in the future.  On some of the later tracks the combination of this new Electronic sound and the percussive drum hits I alluded to earlier is really where the album shines: carelessly treading new ground without reservation or fear of reprisal.  In fact, it’s almost daring you to not like it and turn it off.  The second half — with the exception of the catchy as hell “Get Down” featuring Mictlan; which feels like the first half — is ALL up this alley, specifically “All Of It” and “Piano Hits”.  One of my biggest gripes in fact is that I would have liked to have heard more of these tracks drag on longer.  With lyrics or instrumentally, particularly the last song, it would have been nice to hear these songs themselves explored a bit more the same way the initial sound was to begin with.  But let me go back to the first half, like I said it’s catchier than shit.  “Bumper” the opener is a charming knocker with live drums and possibly the catchiest synth on the disc.  Following that “Fuck Your Stuff” and “Where We Land” are impossible not to sing along to, the latter featuring a very cool appearance from Justin Vernon.  By the time a pair of head-nodders come around the corner, you’re ready to give your voice a break anyhow; and you do, letting appearances by Astronautalis and Sims shine.  Then there’s a mid-point, almost devoid of drums of any kind (“Lock-Picks, Knives, Bricks, and Bats”)… before cruising through about 4 or 5 tracks like nothing that’s ever been done on a Hip-Hop album before.  In this sense, the album is structured very cleverly.  It brings you in with some amount of charm, then gives you a little break before delving into the weird shit.  Lyrically the album tackles 21st Century alienation through freeing yourself from the system in which that alienation exists.  “Want to be happy?  Don’t even live within their system”.  The title of the album sums it up pretty well.  When it’s finishing up and he’s saying, “That misstep, that’s mine.  That rough wake, that’s mine.  This might be it.  This might be it.”, you get the sense that if we lived in his world — totally free — he might still have tribulations and struggles and real problems, but at least they will be his and his alone.

Until The Quiet Comes/America.

Flying Lotus – Until The Quiet Comes

I’m giving this a second full listen right now.  I had heard the whole thing a few weeks back through the NPR full album stream, then bits and pieces sporadically after that.  I still need to get a hard copy of this from my local record shop next time I get there.  It’s definitely worth owning.  That should give a pretty good indication of how I feel about it, but let me elaborate eh?  I own 1983 and Cosmogramma on vinyl, they each get quite a few spins when I’m mixing things in my basement.  I do not own a hard copy — only digital — of Los Angeles.  I will not mention who Steve Ellison is related to, that’s getting repetitive and tedious.  However I will say that the free flowing nature of Jazz certainly existed in his previous work, peaking with his last album (2010′s Cosmogramma).  Until The Quiet Comes is more accessible than that album, but it is not any less artistic and that free flowing vibe hasn’t gone away.  It’s just been refined.  Refined to the point where it feels like this guy could keep up this pace — putting out very high quality LPs every two years — for decades to come.  He knows what he does, and he does it well.  The features here are done brilliantly, as each very distinct voice (Thom Yorke to Niki Randa) approaches singing on a Flying Lotus track the same way: their voice is just one of the instruments, one of the many layers, present on the track and album.  They are not there to make a song stick in your head, or to be the star of any one moment.  They are a small piece to the very complex puzzles this guy creates.  And they treat their job(s) as such.  Just like the songs are pieces to the album as a whole, and the album as a whole is a piece to the discography as a whole.  Layers built on top of layers creating sediment for new layers.

Dan Deacon – America

I heard this for the first time a couple days ago but have been wanting to check it out since I heard Dan Deacon would be releasing a new album this year.  Right off the bat this album will knock you on your ass.  And you will only want to make it louder… and louder.  Then that opening track (“Guilford Avenue Bridge”) will settle down a bit, and your stereo or headphones will still be cranked, which means you will hear all the little complexities of the quiet parts before diving into the very catchy second track.  The whole of America is setup this way, calculated and structured so cleverly that by a third of the way through you will realize nothing is accidental.  It’s a little strange to review and listen to these two albums back to back, in fact.  They are stark opposites: one a premeditated, structured work and the other a free-form, loose album.  This can be most easily explained and attributed to each person’s background.  Dan Deacon went to school for composing.  On top of that he also has composed numerous film scores and has even made modern classical music.  On this album he really shows off his chops, his knowledge of scales and progressions… programmed into a laptop or analog synth the way a composer laid out sheet music for a 64-piece orchestra in the 1700s.  “Pretty Boy” shows this off immensely.  But before you know it you’re knee deep in heavy, and I mean heavy, synths that get you turning up your stereo for a second time.  Once the “USA I-IV” series of tracks comes knocking on your door you will surely agree that this guy is a modern day American composer first and foremost.  This is his best work.

-Sonny

Hills Run Red.

My new record is finally up and available!  It is my third full-length under the Mild Maynyrdguise, and I’m very proud of it.  Again, it’s called “Hills Run Red” (which is the name of one of the first spaghetti westerns, but I liked the “red” theme too).  I had been chronicling my process of concepting and creating it on this blog, but you probably didn’t see that… and I’m really awful at trying to describe it, so I’ll let the other guys in Black Lantern Music sell the concept for me:

“I know what you’re thinking, there’s not enough Wild West themed narrative sample based electronica concept albums that are as I just described but manage at the same time to not be cheesy in any way. Well the ever adventurous Mild Maynyrd, who hails from the other side of the pond so is very possibly a cattle rustling gunslinger himself (though I couldn’t confirm either way as I value my life), has cooked up ‘Hills Run Red’ for Black Lantern Music to remedy this! Its a peach, its a trip, and it tells a ripping yarn too.”

I thought that was pretty funny.  Anyways, yeah it’s a bit of a risk.  Of course.  Just trusting that people have enough patience to get through one track (they’re each longer than 16 minutes) is itself a risk.  But hey, I’m super proud of this thing and I think it’s very unique.  Though I know I can still do better.  This is the cover:

Here’s the embed:

It can be streamed for free, or bought for the price of a Gatorade here:  Mild Maynyrd Bandcamp

Thank you.

-Sonny

July Listening Habits.

Some new releases that have caught my eye, in the midst of finishing up my own music:

Baroness – Yellow & Green

As a fan of this band’s previous work, I had a feeling where Yellow & Green was headed.  Even parts of Blue, the band’s last album (2009), speak in a more ambient or reflective light than with a tear-your-face-off approach.  That is both amplified and extended throughout this album.  In many instances it is downright beautiful: waves of sound that tap into a kinds of genres, mixed beautifully, presented to your ears with care and grace.  That isn’t to say that Yellow & Green gets heavy at times, it does.  The downtunes are still there — however open-tunings are perhaps more prevalent — to rattle your speakers and ear drums.  Impressively so, this is done without loads and loads of overdrive or a subtraction of mids… or any other of the tricks metal bands/producers use to forge a heavier sound.  In fact, the producer John Congleton should get a decent amount of credit here.  For keeping his presence only shaded in the background, yet still flexing his production muscles enough to channel such an expansive, genre-less sound.  This is album that deserves trying, no matter who you are.

A Place To Bury Strangers – Worship

Worship is, by comparison, a much darker and desperate sounding album.  And, unlike Yellow & Green, the band is narrowing down their sound rather than expanding it.  In A Place To Bury Strangers case this works.  Very well.  Previously they had been known as a wall-of-sound, throw everything you got into the pot three-piece, who’s brand of noise was cathartic if not a little bit overwhelming.  It is a breath of fresh air to hear them strip down their sound.  I could be exaggerating a bit however, because of the band’s history: the noises and feedback and ultra-stereo ticks did make their way onto this record.  It’s just that now they’re being used as instruments themselves, rather than layers behind the “real” instruments.  And they cut in and out, they aren’t a constant.  The result is the band’s best sound studio work in their short career, a new path in the direction they were already heading.  Refined and subtle (if that word exists in Noise-Rock), with the power and hunger of their previous records.

Ravi Coltrane – Spirit Fiction

This is Ravi Coltrane’s first record to be released on the famous “Blue Note” label.  It happens to be one of those cases where the history, the elegance, of the record company seemed to inform the work itself.  In a good way.  Spirit Fiction is — as AllMusic put it — Ravi’s most cerebral and avant-garde record of his career.  In the Jazz world, typically those two things counteract one another… let me explain.  The thought that seemed to be poured into every song is immense.  This is smart, sophisticated Jazz that strikes with precision.  Carefully planned and always thinking five steps ahead.  Now, sometimes that sort of thing can lead to an emotion-less, stale type of academic music without soul.  Somehow this doesn’t happen on this album.  The experimentation, the improvisation, the raw emotion through notation, it remains.  Even with all it’s brains, it remains.  Also, kudos to the recording technique.  Ravi recorded each track with two separate backing bands and they mixed them together.  Brilliant.

-Sonny

Skelethon.

2012 is turning out to be quote the year for me in terms of music.  Not only are some of my more anticipated albums of the last few years getting released, they’re all living up to and/or outdoing expectations I’ve put on their shoulders.  I got really into Aesop Rock during high school, and I’m turning into an old bastard now, so that feels like ages ago.  But in terms of all his albums over the years, it feels like this one in particular is all-out Aesop: in all its fractured-thought glory.

That could be because Aesop made ALL the music on this album, which certainly helps.  And if a rapper is capable of it, that is something I strongly recommend.  Some of my favorite rappers make their own beats.  It brings a sense of unity you don’t really get unless you have an incredibly strong working and personal relationship with your producer/DJ (Eyedea & Abilities, for example).  Aesop’s beats are easily the best I’ve heard from him on this disc.  He starts by sampling a friend’s indie-rock band, rolls through a beautiful piano sequence on “Cycles to Gehenna” (under heavy snares), and brings the heavy synths on “Zero Dark Thirty”.  By the time the bells intertwine with the Electro-based beat on “Fryerstarter” you feel the musical cohesiveness.  Which is only the 5^th track.

It makes me feel like the guy should just make instrumental break beat records.  He’s good.

And how about those fractured, mind-fucking rhymes he’s known for anyhow?  Well, they are refined in a way that, if you try hard enough, makes sense on “Skelethon”.  A little background information and context helps: in several interviews Aesop has talk about how this album was made during a rough couple of years.  He got divorced, he’s dealt with the deaths of several people very close to him, and has gone through an existential questioning of his art.  When he says, “P.S. I wrote this on a self-destructing memo” I believe him.  And, in one of the few features, Kimya Dawson sings, “And they called to let you know your friend’s dead in a box”.  But the totality of “Skelethon”s lyrical content is not depressing.  If anything, it’s affirming.  At least it was for Aesop making it.  I think that’s the idea.  For those willing to hang onto the words, and make their own thoughts from the head-splitting runs of words, this album is as rewarding lyrically as any other Aesop Rock, perhaps even more so.

One of my other more anticipated releases of the year was “Cancer For Cure”, which I love.  But where CFC feels like a welcome addition to the unreal, albeit short, discography of El-P already in place, “Skelethon” feels like a redefinition of Aesop Rock.  Like he’s turning a new leaf artistically, finally feeling all-out comfort with who he is as an artist.  And I think a big part of that is the fact that he’s doing all the music.  Either way, it’s wonderful to hear.  I think this is the best record he’s ever made.

-Sonny

Chopping (umm… Sampling) Exercise.

-  I’m a member of Blueprint’s online community/message board over at Printmatic.net.  I joined when he decided to start a forum exclusively for producers, to discuss equipment, technical aspects of hard and software, and everything production related.  Well, someone started a brilliant and challenging thread for the board where you post what you could muster up from a straight-forward challenge: cut-up a song into samples, rearrange it without adding anything or supplementing it in any way, and try to make a new song/beat out of it.  It’s a great exercise in sampling, because without the ability to look ahead to the FX chain or the hits or soft-synths you’re going to add, it forces you to think exclusively in that particular song’s terms… and as a result you get a little better at sampling.

Sampling sounds so fucking easy.  It really does.  Well, let me tell you, it really is not.  It is a fine art.  Sure there are lazy ways to do it, just looping a measure of a song without cutting it up at all, but even that takes a bit of skill.  Anyways, I saw this and took it as a challenge considering the guys who had posted, including Blueprint, are way better samplers than I am.  I come from the school of instrumentation.  So I went digging through my records.  I was originally going to do an Earth, Wind, and Fire song from 1978, but opted for something a little more down-tempo and Jazzy since the previous entries were funky as hell.  Which brought me to my newest Sun Ra album, also from the late 70′s, called “Lanquidity”.  This is the title track, and the first song on the record.  I probably would have went farther with this, but the idea was to keep your sample to around a minute long.  This is what I came up with:

Again, nothing great on it’s own.  And clearly I took those snares from the track itself.  But like I said, for anyone looking to get into sampling, or get better at it, this a great exercise in the art itself.  It will keep you on your toes and force you to get more creative with your chopping (where and how and when), and also how you’re presenting and arranging each part.

-Sonny