June 23rd, 2009
With songs like this, who else could Gothenberg belong to? At this point, only Studio–their fellow brothers in Balearic–can match the dulcet dub disco of Air France. Their ode to their Swedish seaside home is nothing less than magnificent–redolent of sun-singed strolls, fish fries along diamond-laced shorelines, and the benevolence of the warm season. Few names are more apt than Air France–everything they make seems to soar.
Download (Via Gorilla Vs. Bear):
MP3: Air France-”GBG Belongs to Us”
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June 23rd, 2009
There’s no right way to write about your friends’ music. Gush effusively and you look like a fawning cheerleader. Ignore it and you do a disservice to the people that should matter the most. That said–conflict of interest aside–The Slow Twilight is not only one of the finest indie-rap records of recent vintage, but it’s a flat-out great record.
You probably know Zilla Rocca and Douglas Martin from their various blogs, their Clean Guns and Fresh Cherries from Yakima material, and occasional contributions to this website. They’re two of the most uniquely gifted talents I’ve encountered in my nearly four years of blogging, and The Slow Twilight is the finest manifestation yet of their prodigious talents.
In some small way, this site helped incubate The Slow Twilight, and I had the privilege of A&R’ing the project from start-to-finish. I’m still not sure exactly what that title entails, as no money was exchanged, and my entire creative input seemed to consist of little more than, “you need to re-do that hook.” However, I’m proud to have played even a small role in helping bringing this album to life.
Sach O will write a more comprehensive and un-biased review soon. In the meantime, if you’re interested in an excellent album inspired in equal parts by Aesop Rock, the Gza and murky film noirs, I highly recommend downloading The Slow Twlight for free at Zilla Rocca’s Clap Cowards blog or from this link. For those interested, the hyperbolic but sincere one-sheet that I wrote for the album is below the jump.
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June 20th, 2009
A link for those of you who don’t obsessively troll rap blogs. Zeus is already calling it the best release of the year thus far. I haven’t listened yet, but if Wale uses “bojo,” or “trank” to diss other rappers, I’ll de facto concur. The cover is heavy.
ZIP: Wale-Back to the Feature
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June 18th, 2009
Last night, in the midst of Joker’s absolutely brilliant set at the awkwardly named Dubstep at the Roxy, Scion House Party, somewhere between a screwed-up, gonzo version of “I’m So Hood” and kinetic eardrums pop permutations of “Do It” and “Digidesign,” he let loose a wild rendering of Nero’s remix of The Streets’ “Blinded by the Lights.”I recommend that you stop fiddling, and download it immediately (it being the original but still excellent remix.)
Hopefully, by the year 2043, this blog will solely consist of bad jokes about Roman emperors. Septimius Severus, protect your neck.
Download:
MP3: The Streets-”Blinded by the Lights (Nero Remix)“
ZIP: Joker-Purple Wow Sound Mix (Left-Click)
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June 17th, 2009
Regardless of whether or not you think Dilla was the decade’s best beatmaker (my vote goes to Otis Jackson Jr.), it’s difficult to argue that he hasn’t been the most influential. After all, Myspace is stained by thousands of fisher kings sampling 128 KBS MP3’s of The Sylvers, thinking they got souulll. Paul White is not one of them.
Along with fellow Londonite and One Handed Music labelmate, Bullion (post coming eventually), White creates woozy, psychedelic post-Dilla instrumental hip-hop. All amorphous signifiers, sure, but with music this ethereal and gauzy, it’s difficult to go much further than that. It’s gorgeous, stoned, head phone music. I could listen to this stuff all day, but it would get too expensive.
Stream The Strange Dreams of Paul White
Download:
MP3: Paul White-”Cheese Special and a Draw”
ZIP: Paul White-Dazed and Confused Beat Tape (Left-Click)
ZIP: Paul White-15 Minute Mixon M.A. Hobbs (BBC)
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June 14th, 2009
A few years back, when Stylus stalked the land of the living, a small core of our writers banded around Souvenir’s brilliant, 64–a Stereolab meets Fujiya & Miyagi, meets Annie amalgam of surf guitars, chromatic keyboards, and sultry vocals. Or Little Boots, before Victoria Hesketh was a gleam in Atlantic Records’ coffers. The ever-discerning Dom Passantino, even wrote a Stylus Recommends review of the record, which finished in my 2007 top 20.
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June 6th, 2009
With Kurupt and Quik’s BlaQKout rightfully eliciting praise from most corners of the Internet, there’s a timeliness to “Kurupted,” K-Dot’s Young Gotti homage. While the Compton rapper has yet to crack the NMC circuit like his brethren Glasses Malone, Nipsey Hussle, and Jay Rock, he’s reportedly got the streets and suits buzzing, with rumors of an imminent deal and prominent ghost-writing gigs.
“Kurupted” explains why–three-minutes of staccato and snarl reminiscent of “What Would U Do” era, Ricardo Brown. You probably haven’t heard of K-Dot yet. You probably will hear a lot more.
And in case you forgot…
Download:
MP3: K-Dot-”Kurupted”
MP3: Jay Rock ft. K-Dot.-”Ridah Music”
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June 1st, 2009
There are two kinds of drift. Blurry aimless float, or ethereal, blissful buoyancy. The 24-year old born Jason Chung opts for the latter, with his white widow smoke beats, recorded under the Nosaj Thing alias, honed in the Low End Theory laboratory.
Drift, his full-length debut on Daddy Kev’s Alpha Pup records isn’t just a startlingly good first effort, it’s startlingly good. Proof that legalizing medical marijuana was the best thing to happen to the city’s beat scene since the invention of the MPC. If you like Flying Lotus, Burial, Joker, Prefuse 73, Boards of Canada, etc….
See also Chris Martins’ LA Weekly profile.
Buy: Nosaj Thing–Drift
Download:
MP3: Nosaj Thing-”Coat of Arms”
MP3: Nosaj Thing-”Aquarium”
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May 31st, 2009
Were this a truly inspired collection, Mike Love would’ve embraced his Beach Boys nomenclature, and forced the rappers in question to rhyme over “Surfin’ Safari,” “Surfin U-S-A,” and “Be True to Your School,” to say nothing of the 2Pac contrast implied in “I Get Around.”
Still, the Chicago hip-hop radio staple did rap nostalgists a great service by unleashing this must-download compilation of freestyles from Kanye, Common, Juvenile, Q-Tip, Pun, Outkast, Busta, et. al. Impromptu sessions that hearken back to the days when “freestyles” were actually free-styled. Of course, Fat Joe is spitting writtens, but it’s not like he actually wrote them himself, so there’s that.
Download:
MP3: Big Boi-”Outkast Freestyle”
MP3: Big Pun/Fat Joe-”Freestyle”
ZIP: Download: Mike Love Presents - The Best of Bad Boy Radio Freestyles (1997-2007) (Left-Click)
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May 27th, 2009
I’ll take the new Caetano Veloso record over the new Bob Dylan any day. Maybe it’s because I have no idea what he’s saying. For all I know, this could be a concept album about McDonald’s cutting down the rain forest. Or the Brazilian Relapse. Kevin Elliot speaks Portugese and he likes it. I trust him. He says it’s a “Sunday afternoon, slight buzz, with all the windows open,” type record. I trust that. It’s a Wednesday night and my windows are sealed shut. The buzz is more than slight. This a very good album.
If I were a doctor, I would prescribe this to Nene Hilario as consolation for the loss. Even though as we speak, Birdman is making him a Game 6 “pump-up mixtape” consisting of only Lil Wayne and Birdman’s Like Father, Like Son and Staind.
Download:
MP3: Caetano Veloso-”Tarado Ni Voce”
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