November 2nd, 2009
Sach O can’t stop partying.
When it came to vocalists, Reggae fans became increasingly open-minded in the 1970’s. From weirdo toasters to Rastafarian firebrands, Jamaican audiences quickly embraced the unique voices that followed Reggae’s creative boom leaving a number of wonderful Rocksteady acts in the dust. Thankfully, not all soul-influenced groups faded into the sunset–many persisted and found success, bridging their earlier romantic approach with the rebellious spirit of the times, resulting in powerful, gospel-like paeans to Jah and sufferer’s odes to Jamaican life. Of these groups, few were as successful as the legendary Heptones whose collaborations with maverick genius Lee “Scratch” Perry stand as some of the finest Jamaican music ever recorded.
Like the Temptations teaming up with Norman Whitfield, The Heptones’ work with Perry is a daring fusion of pure soul and psychedelic weirdness. Known for velvety voices that would have been just as comfortable belting out ballads in Detroit or Memphis as rockers in Kingston, the Heptones weren’t obvious candidates for the Upsetter’s avant-garde production. Thankfully, what could have been a total mess instead feels like the best of both worlds on Party Time!–a record that merges the group’s perfect pitch with Scratch’s bubbling soundscapes.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Reggae, Diggin' in the Digital Crates, Sach O | 2 Comments »
October 20th, 2009
With Jeff holding down all things Low End and Brainfeeder, I’ve quietly become obsessed with the work of Dayve Hawk AKA Memory Tapes AKA Memory Cassette AKA Weird Tapes AKA Dangerdoom (err…). Madlibesque affinity for alter-egos aside, Hawk’s take on dream-pop defies the reductive signifiers foisted on the latest batch of indie-influenced electronic musicians (or is it electronic-influenced indie musicians?) Forgoing obvious nostalgia, summery vibes and all things “chill”, Walk Me Home stands out for its refusal to conform to the elements that have ”Glo-fi” pegged as the next trip-Hop: a musical genre lauded by taste-makers one minute and mocked the next. Merging the scrappy fidelity of early techno, sounds and chords of cheap synthesized movie scores and all-out fun of Acid House, the track makes a strong case for continuing to listen now that the leaves are falling and beach parties have made way for Haunted Houses.
Download:
MP3: Memory Tapes - Walk Me home [Via Z-Share]
Posted in Memory Tapes, Sach O | No Comments »
October 17th, 2009
I don’t think one ever needs an excuse to post an Al Green song, but just in case: it’s Saturday morning. There. Music nerds take note: Howard Grimes’ drumming flips from a syncopated break on the intro to a driving soul beat in the verses and back to a slow-and-low breakdown for the choruses. Who says Soul musicians can’t get their prog on?
Download:
MP3: Al Green - Stay with me Forever
Posted in Sach O | 3 Comments »
October 13th, 2009
Sach O never joined the Psychic Friends Network.
Paper Mache
Dionne Warwick built her career by flipping the conventions of easy listening and infusing them with soul and passion but it’s still shocking to hear her weary, resigned kiss-off to the 60’s consumer culture she was supposed to embody. While the hippies were raging from the outside, Dionne takes an insider’s look at modern culture’s failure to offer anything of substance to the people whose lives it was supposed to enrich. Years after punk dulled our ears to the electric guitar, it’s still shocking to hear this kind of stuff over xylophones and accordions.
Wives and Lovers
Opening with off-kilter ¾ jazz drumming, “Wives and Lovers” is Dionne getting to play bad girl, threatening a housewife that she’ll steal her man right from under her. On one hand, the whole thing feels like a period piece to modern ears but on the other, just how many R&B singers are singing about the exact same thing with a few extra slang words in 2009?
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Diggin' in the Digital Crates, Sach O | No Comments »
October 12th, 2009
Sach O would have totally hit that back in the 60’s.
When it comes to pop music idolatry and indie cred name-dropping, composer Burt Bacharach, lyricist Hal David and singer Dionne Warwick are simultaneously too conservative and too radical to get theirs. They didn’t rock the pop world like The Beatles, waste-away in an acid fueled nightmare like Brian Wilson or produce the Ramones at gunpoint like Phil Spector; so for second-generation flower children and fist-shaking punks, the trio weren’t the first choice in the stylistic-revival lottery. Taken on their own terms however, the Bacharach/David/Warwick alliance was remarkably prescient: their producer-singer format would go on to become the de-facto standard in black pop and their chamber music orchestration would find a home with everyone from twee kids to psychedelic soul artists. Or put another way: how many groups do YOU know that can claim influence on Timbaland and Aaliyah, Belle & Sebastian, Isaac Hayes AND Stevie Wonder in equal measure? These days, Bacharach and David get occasional props, be it Austin Powers shout-outs or band nerds conspiring to bring back string sections but truthfully, they would just be a forgotten (if remarkably talented) 60’s songwriting team if it weren’t for their secret weapon: Dionne Warwick.
Paving the way for every black vocalist who’s tried her hand at the pop charts, a quick look at Warwick’s career reads like a how-to guide to contemporary success. She couldn’t belt them out like Aretha or play teenager like Dianna but Dionne’s take on swinging-sixties pop was equal parts seduction and heartbreak. Combined with her image as a sophisticated black woman, that seduction was something that couldn’t be discounted in an era where inter-racial relationships were still verboten. Before James Brown came out and said that he was black and proud, Warwick was making strides for racial equality by being the sultriest singer on the pop charts, race be damned. Whitney, Mariah and Beyonce all owe their stardom to the post Brill-building pop that Warwick recorded with her producers.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Diggin' in the Digital Crates, Sach O | 6 Comments »
October 2nd, 2009
I’ve been vaguely obsessed wit this song for the past few days. While the E6 collective were too-often deified (and later written off) as 60’s revivalists, their best work managed to transcend their Wilson/Lennon/McCartney fetishes to reach altogether weirder and more experimental territory. “Black Foliage Animation” from which California Demise originates is the perfect example: a sprawling 27 track opus full of noise collages, brilliant pop songs and subtle recurring themes; it defies conscious understanding (and review) working best on a primordial level, preferably one reached through copious drug use.
A decade’s end list’s worth of bands have consciously tried to “advance pop music” in the 00’s but the results have often been forced or uninteresting for anyone without horn-rimmed glasses. The Olivias somehow managed to make music far weirder than the average Art-history degree toting New York band while somehow keeping things inviting and tuneful. Placed smack-dab in the middle of their most daunting album, California demise starts off as a riffy Horse-with-no-name aping strummer before exploding into a fuzzed out acid-fueled Southern-Gothic poem about pyromaniac saints and nocturnal angels. There are horns, guitar solos and the best use of an accordion this decade by a non-Colin Meloy affiliated band. And that’s before the disorienting breakdown, return to the original melody and intentional digital skip (can you catch it?).
Download:
MP3: Olivia Tremor Control - California Demise
Posted in Elephant 6, Sach O | No Comments »
September 29th, 2009
Possibly my favorite Ghostface track of all time. “In the Rain (Wise)” first appeared on the Canadian edition of Supreme Clientele and I’ve always thought of it as part of that classic. The is the joint where Ghost perfected that “rhyme all over a soul song” idea that’s become a signature part of his style, absolutely BODYING the Dramatics’ psychedelic soul classic ”In the Rain”. Building on the original’s theme of heartbreak, Ghost pens a heart-wrenching dedication to a friend/mentor delivered in the kind of dusted-New York 5%er poetry that arguably made him the best writer of his era. But the miraculous part is the flow: Ghost spits so vivid that even if you’d never heard rap before, the urgency and pain in his voice paint the whole picture. This is the morning after “Impossible”.
Download:
MP3: Ghostface Killah - Wise (In the Rain)
Posted in Sach O | 5 Comments »
September 28th, 2009
Sach O’s R&B dick is on Thursdays (II).
If you think about it, Raekwon The Chef and Ghostface Killah just dropped a bizarro-world Speakerboxxx/Love Below on us highlighting the extremes of their respective personalities. While Rae spent the past few years crafting the thuggish if reflective narratives of Cuban Linx II, Ghost has been working on “his R&B album”– a purportedly more mature offering that he’s been hinting at ever since the promo run for Pretty Toney. The timing couldn’t have been better. While The Big Doe Rehab featured its share of highlights, it was also the first Ghostface album to feel like…just another Ghostface album. A well-versed fan of Dennis Coles is well aware of the man’s ear for classic soul and R&B guest spots and a return to the knowledge kicked earlier in Ghost’s career could be invigorating after a few years of crack rap. However, the same prospect of an R&B album also raises the specter of 14 “Back like that’s”: compromised label-pleasing songs that do more to highlight Def Jam’s R&B roster than Ghostface’s talent behind the mic. So what do we get, dope or dog food?
A little of both. As a whole, The Wizard of Poetry succeeds but it’s also impossible to listen to without the nagging doubt that it was compromised by poor A&Ring and industry constraints. The emceeing is never at fault and Ghost nails practically every verse on the album with the incredibly raunchy Stapleton Sex and the classic long-form storytelling rhyme on Guesthouse alone proving that he’s still the most consistently excellent MC in his age group. When paired with the right singer and hook such as Raheem DeVaughn on “Do Over,” a brilliant slice of soul that should have gotten the 7+ minute extended Isaac Hayes treatment, Ghost’s emotional rhymes mesh perfectly with the guest vocals making it clear that he’s just as adept on smooth tip as he is bagging crack with Rae. But while the rhymes remain stellar and the highlights rank with Ghost’s best, the proceedings are occasionally derailed by cheap production and budget-brand crooners.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Sach O | 13 Comments »
September 17th, 2009
Sach O could out smoke this guy.
Kid CuDi is a hipster.
That’s not a diss: Midwestern kid feels alienated and misunderstood in Ohio, moves to New York, works shitty jobs in trendy stores, discovers electro, falls in with the right crowd and somehow lands a career making music for other tasteless, badly dressed wannabe artists. Is that not the subculture’s collective dream short of a trust fund and herpes? CuDi’s whole narrative (and he’s all about the narrative) can be told without even mentioning rap music, which is probably why there’s so little of it on Man on the Moon. G.O.O.D Music aren’t trying to sell you a rapper, they’re promoting a black, male, Lady Gaga with self-esteem issues.
That alone isn’t the problem. If anything, Kanye West already proved that this very concept could somehow work on 808’s and Heartbreak, which CuDi contributed to. The difference is that Kanye had three smash hits and years of experience under his belt before attempting a vanity project of this scale. CuDi has a mixtape with a sort-of-dope single whose house remix went viral. Yes folks, it seems we’ve traded in bloated, repetitive southern gangsta rap for even more bloated, pretentious crooning over synthesizers. I take back all previous enthusiasm for Hip-Hop’s future and will now assume the fetal position clutching my copy of Illmatic.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Reviews, Sach O | 13 Comments »
September 14th, 2009
Sach O’s an old Mafia Don from back when.
“10 Bricks”
66. We already touched on “10 Bricks,” but it’s worth restating that this is easily one of the album’s highlights.
“The Fat Lady Sings”
67. If this album has one major fault it’s that it’s exhausting. A track like “The Fat Lady Sings” would have thrilled on the first half, much like “Baggin Crack” or “Canal Street” but by now it feels a little redundant. The original Cuban Linx already tips the scales at 18 tracks, this one’s 24 if you count the bonus joints.
68. What the hell is the background beat in the opening skit? And why didn’t they rap over it?
69. This skit sets up the song perfectly, in fact it’s almost as interesting as the song itself despite the flimsy Jamaican antagonist.
70. Despite a rather average beat, this is one of Rae’s more vivid rhymes on the album. Kind of works as CL2’s “Spot Rusherz”.
71. Gillette Soldier! Shorty hit the neck!
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Sach O | 12 Comments »
