New Music: Prefuse 73

Wow, my blog posts are becoming few and far between--what can I say--the winter makes me lazy. So here's some new Prefuse to check out, from his new disc Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian (huh?) on Warp, due out April 14. If you're into forward-thinking electronic music (does that sound pretentious?) you're probably up on most of the Warp roster, and hopefully Prefuse, too. This new record is leaps and bounds ahead of his last three releases, and I'd say it's amoung his best work--next to 2003's One Word Extinguisher. It sounds like he's been hanging around Gaslamp Killer,(who has a cut named after him on the album)maybe listening to his psych breaks and "out there" mixes, turning up the reverb for the first time. This record is a very entertaining listen, at 29 tracks deep, it covers a lot of territory. Go out and buy the vinyl LP when it drops!

Prefuse 73 - Fountains Of Spring

Check out the Roger Dean style cover art:

Happy Weekend!

You know how John Peel said "Teenage Kicks" was his all-time favorite song? Well, I'd say that this is my all-time favorite indie-pop song. There, I said it.
I guess my last post got me thinking about indie-pop, where what was once a refreshing reaction to the otherwise shitty fodder of the 80s, is now seemingly at an impasse.
I remember buying this Breeders album when I was 11 years old! I got my mom to lend me the cash and dropped $25 on it. This is indie-pop perfection, and it still stands up 16 years later. Enjoy!

New Music: Camera Obscura (Scotland)

Camera Obscura - "My Maudlin Career"

Their new album (also called My Maudlin Career) is due out April 21(US), on their new label 4AD.

Normally I don't get too excited for indie pop these days. That I didn't even bother to check out the Belle & Sebastien BBC Sessions disc from this fall, speaks to my overall boredom with imported twee melodies and overcast-covered lovelorn lyricism. But, this Scottish sextet has me revisiting "Electric Renaissance" and some Shop Assistants shyte, laddie. "My Maudlin Career" is lush and congruent with the Phil Spector/Jesus & Mary Chain sonic assaults of the 60s/80s, but remarkably, the vocals are never buried too deep in the mix to hide the Scottish accent of Tracyanne Campbell's earnest voice. Har voice ayse foackin' gre-ate! (I haven't read Irvine Welsh...is this how he writes??) This is the perfect winter song for those shitty grey, dark-by-five-o'clock days.

www.myspace.com/cameraobscuraband

Happy Weekend!

Pin Ups is pretty shit-tastic, but I can mess with this, for sure. "I Wish You Would" is a song by Billy Boy Arnold, covered here by Bowie, after of course, being covered by The Yardbirds. The YB's version is much cooler, but I like Bowie's greasy glam sheen and coke residue-covered cover too. The "slideshow" is a little hard to watch, so just close your eyes and think of SALAD BOWLS of coke in every fucking room of his house. What a guy. Enjoy!

Dilla's Birthday is today!

The "greatest," "genius," "your favorite producer's favorite producer," J Dilla. Today, February 7th, is his birthday. So help your iTunes navigate to some Detroit realness, in memoriam. I listed a few songs you can download, if your iTunes is lacking in James Yancey beats.

"In The Streets" (from the Jay Love Japan LP, 2008; Operation Unknown). Like a lot of Dilla's stuff, this was released posthumously. It's a highlight from Jay Love Japan; a dark and slow instrumental track. Listen to how he chops the samples: the faint funk-guitar plucks, the fucked up angular vocals and off-beat shaker, tied-together with a highly compressed rim-shot.

"Intro - Alt (instrumental)" (from the Ruff Draft LP, 2003/2007; Mummy/Stones Throw). This brief track slowly crawls along, dressed in a haunting, tremulous sample and teeming drums.

"Anti-American Graffiti" / "Waves" / "Stepson Of The Clapper" (from his masterpiece, Donuts, 2006; Stones Throw). There's really nothing I can really say about Donuts that hasn't already been said. I'd never heard anyone chop samples the way he did on this record--it still fucks with my head after hearing it hundreds of times. It's just an album that I never get tired of.

"Fuck The Police" (from a S/T 12" vinyl single, 2002; Up Above). Subversive! This is a great song about power-abusing Men-in-Blue, aka pigs. The flute sample is neat, and I really like the drum break Dilla chose. He actually could rap, even though most people didn't understand why his delivery was often off-beat.

Finally, this great tribute to Dilla, by the talented and often-compared Flying Lotus. "Fall In Love" (I don't think this ever had an official release, but it's from '06 or '07). Same lush sample that Dilla used for Slum Village. It's a nice tribute.

Dilla could sing too:

New Music: Samiyam (USA) & Lone (UK)

So I have re-discovered new and interesting sounds in hip-hop again, now able to justify standing at a show, watching kids with New Era hats stare at laptop screens while tweaking nobs and bobbing their heads.

There's this huge influx of J Dilla impersonators all flocking to LA, some getting signed to local indies, some to incredible labels like Warp. And across the Atlantic, Glasgow (off all "twee" places) is home to some interesting producers as well (Hudson Mohawke, Rustie). These beatmakers all share the similar Dilla/Madlib-inspired, quantize-neglected, off-beat shuffle of instrumental hip-hop (and they probably smoke a lot of weed, rarely seeing natural light too).

A lot of these sounds fall under the umbrella of Dubstep, but are also IDM, hip-hop and downtempo-ish. Some people have came up with the name "Wonky," to describe this emerging genre--undoubtedly started by some nerdy Brit--I mean, who else would call a genre "wonky?"

I'm really feeling this guy, from LA:

Samiyam.

He has a certain melancholy laced into his beats, and a lot of them are really fucking weird--but he pulls it off well. If you buy his Rap Beats Vol. 1 CD off of his MySpace, apparently he sends them out with random magazine cut-outs for cover art, and hand-draws on them (ed. note: the sushi one is hilarious, see bellow). I guess this proves that beatmakers, although inherently nerdy, are kinda cool. He also has a side project with Flying Lotus called FLYamSAM.

"Return" (from the Return EP, 2008; Hyperdub)



Also, really enjoying the sounds of this dude from the UK:

Lone.

He sounds like what listening to Boards of Canada and Madlib would be like, after popping some Klonopin on a tropical island beach. The drums slide around with the signature off-beatness that is defining this new "wonky" sound, while he picks great melodies to arrange/rearrange. The samples on his Lemurian LP have that indelible "nostalgia" that many people describe BOC with, although Lone is definitely of a hip-hop pedigree.

"Phthlao Blue"(from the Lemurian LP, 2008; Dealmaker)

http://www.myspace.com/lonemusic


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I know this stuff is totally a trend, but it has me less cynical about hip-hop, generally speaking. And it's cool to see the new generation of kids being inspired by the late, great J Dilla.

Labels to watch: Warp, Hyperdub, Werk.
Artists to watch: Burial, Rustie, Flying Lotus, Samiyam, Lone, Lukid, Ras-G, Hudson Mohawke, Zomby.