Songs Cry: RIP Percy Sledge | April 15, 2015 |
Très Boogie: A ’75–’84 French Disco Compilation | April 14, 2015 |
Hate to Say I Told You So: The Grammys Are Designed to Piss Off Kanye | February 12, 2015 |
YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME: Big Sean – “Blessings” | February 3, 2015 |
Jordan Pedersen UGHHHHHHHHHHH Seriously. SERIOUSLY??? Big Sean. BIG SEAN. THE RAP GAME FORREST GUMP. IS MAKING. REALLY GOOD RAP MUSIC. Okay, yes “IDFWU” was great. Call it a fluke. An outlier. Two standard deviations away from the mean. The exception that proves the rule. But “Blessings,” man. “Blessings.” This shit is just *good* full-stop: Big […]
Jordan Pedersen remembers everything about his fazthaaa. More boogie to make an ass out of yourself to on the dance floor. There’s probably a few butt puns in there but I’ll leave it to you to fill in the holes. Favorite Recordings put out an excellent collection of Brazilian disco boogie from 1978-1982 this past December, and now Cultures of […]
Smoking blunts to the face would not make Jordan Pedersen motivated. My favorite instrumentals tend to be the most anxious ones. Clams Casino does bombast exquisitely on “Motivation,” but it’s not Michael Bay, slow-motion bank robbery music. It’s the minute before in the bathroom, with the thief pulling off his balaclava to vomit in the […]
Do it Faster, Baby: Brazilian Disco Boogie Sounds Compilation | December 1, 2014 |
Jordan Pedersen thanks Black Orpheus for introducing bossa nova to America, but thinks it’s a garbage movie. The folks behind Brazilian Disco Boogie Sounds, the new compilation from Favorite Recordings, must have been unbearably bored growing up. “Can’t you fogies speed it up?” they must’ve thought as bossa nova rose to prominence in the 60s and […]
Let’s Push Things Forward: DJ Burn One’s “Highlands” | October 6, 2014 |
Jordan Pedersen is workinonit I don’t envy the instrumentalist. Us writers get all these words to establish a setting, tell a story. But he without words has to tell a story through sound and mood alone. It’s gotta be hard. That’s probably why most producers stick with the same milieu: Blaxploitation, dusty grooves, teased afros […]
A Clown for the Ages: R.I.P. Robin Williams | August 12, 2014 |
Art by Eva Rinaldi Jordan Pedersen wishes he could wish for more wishes. It’s easy to poke fun at Robin Williams in the cold light of adulthood. Robin Williams was not cool. Robin Williams was not distant or ironic. He was the opposite: a human turbine, a supernova of comedic energy. He talked too much. […]