This is Nozinja's debut LP, and at first glance he may seem like a welcome new face in a cool new genre but in actuality the guy's been working behind the scenes for the popularization of this South African genre (Shangaan Electro if you were wondering) since it's inception in the mid 2000s. I don't profess expertise in the broad history of South African music, though I do know a thing to two about chill-vibed EDM and I quite like marimbas so that's gotta count for something right?
Shangaan electro is pretty straightforward as far as I can tell; it has its foundation in various forms of traditional Shangaan music (I'm uncertain of the specifics. Ask mecca I suppose) but re-formated to exist alongside dance-music conventions (and I think various semi-diluted forms of dub to an extent?) In any case it's basically just all kinds of limb-shaking grooves from multiple continents culminating into something really wonderful.
I don't know if this is simply the piece of Shangaan electro that appeals most to my annoyingly westernized mindset or if it actually just is the best, but it's certainly made the biggest impression on me during my vast (see: past 4 days, also see: "cursory") exploration of the genre, because even though this thing's got marimbas out the wazoo and just copious African vibes abound, the language of dance is universal (When people talk about African music it's something of a knee-jerk reaction for us over in white-world to exoticize the concept in our minds, but honestly 90% of what's here would totally fly in a club setting, or at the very least at some beachside party). Particularly universal is this brand of deliciously energetic dance I might add; the bpm's pumped up all over any number of sonically varied rhythmic foundations that seem to happily and easily bounce across all kinds of quirky midi staccatos, MANY MARIMBAS, and dope keyboard loops, and again, African vibes (and also again, go to mecca for specifics. He knows shit.)
The chill groove of tropical house meets the frantic energy of footwork meets all the marimbas your heart could ever desire. Mad fun. Go listen.
new name for the log. Not sure how I didn't think of this reference the first time around
Anyway, was out doing this and that with family and/or friends for the past few days so almost all my listening has been social listening of partial albums at best, so here's just a brief montage of how my listening went these past few days
Thy Catafalque pisses me off. He's really fucking talented in so many different areas, but sometimes he feels like he has to prove that fact in its entirety within the course of a single album, and greatly varying degrees of success. Pretty much every Thy Catafalque album, even the ones I overall really really like, are hugely unpredictable, and not always in a good way. His stylistic changes from various forms of prog rock/metal, BM, folk(ish) bits, electronic tinkerings, and just general avant-garde metal sonic exploration, feel at best part of some kind overarching mood throughout the album, and at worst it makes any one album feel like a clusterfuck of just a few too many ideas, with only a few really explored to their fullest and best extent. So really I had no idea what to expect going into a new album from this Hungarian one-man-band of crazy, but probably the last thing I expected was an album that was more or less just steadily very good, sure maybe without any of the really-high-highs that make some of his earlier less consistent albums into something still pretty great, but with almost no real lows so to speak (and thank god he goes easy on the midi fuckery this time around). This may not be Thy Catafalque's best album but it is certainly his most consistent to date, and at this point is probably the one I am most likely to still be playing in its entirety a few years from now. Very solid album that explores all the vast territory one expects from this dude but never falls too far out of its own grasp even at its most wild, and it can get pretty wild.
(sorry my writing muscles haven't been feeling too great lately. may add to this later)
hi guys! So I'm feeling a lot better now, but still kinda in recovery mode so I'll be resting a lot but hey I can look at computer screens again so that's good
Anyway, the other day Gowi and I were talking about the various forms of dumb but way fun party rap across the country. Over here in the bay we got hyphy (<3), New Orleans has Bounce, the south in general has crunk, and then Florida has Miami bass. I got to thinking, I love a good deal of hyphy, I've heard some super fun bounce, and there's even a bit of crunk I tend to dig (albeit mostly by Three 6 Mafia), but can the genre that spawned 2 Live Crew have any redeeming factors? And that's when I remembered, I hadn't thought of this in ages, but a friend of mine had a comp from one of the big Miami bass labels that I barely remember except for one fucking incredible R&B crossover song that I couldn't for the life of me recall the name of, so I began digging, and lo and behold, I found not just the single but the entire comp still lying there on my old hard drive
The album opens with a short bouncy track from some dude named Edward J, and he makes it pretty damn clear that this is strictly party music. The beat is basically a repetitive vocal loop and lotsa kick drums and snares, over which Edward J does some weirdly accented delivery that's half party rap and half whatever the guy in the beginning of this song is doing. This sounds terrible on paper but honestly it doesn't take itself even remotely seriously and the beat is actually pretty fun, and really this track just kinda functions as a longish introduction track anyway, but what it leads into is solid gold
This was the track, the one I was struggling to remember, "My Boo" by Ghost Town DJs. I don't care how many shitty porn-rap singles 2 Live Crew managed to shit out, this thing makes all of miami bass worth the effort. Really this feels far more like a contemporary R&B song than a product of miami bass, but the structure of the beat and really the overall production of the track is uniquely of the genre, and leaves me wondering why there aren't more songs featuring what might be one of the most perfectly melodic/sexy/earnest/summery R&B hooks over the standard 808s and low-frequency percussion of miami bass, because this honestly might be the single most perfect summer song ever (and fuck I shoulda nominated it for that tourney). There's no rapping here, but even without that, again the production is distinctly miami bass, but the actual "feel" of the song steps so far out of the booty-shaking vibe of the broader extent of the genre (instead going for more of a smooth soulful one) that it honestly stands on its own as being something a product of the genre but still existing fairly outside (and well above) of its peers, even in the context of this comp. At this point I didn't really care what came next, because finding even one perfect song makes it worthwhile. So I braced myself for some dumb party rap, which I kinda got, but somehow that was hardly a bad thing.
Following "My Boo" is "Thyou" by Zoe, which is undeniable bouncy and party-oriented (with lyrics about sex and the acquisition thereof), but even behind the 100% party-ready kicks characterizing the beat, it's actually a little weird, which is actually something of a revelation. The beat includes this kind of static chatter over the synth sounds that appear intermittently throughout the track, and it almost sounds like record static but it's distinctly rhythmic, and sure it's not like it dominates the track or anything but it's kinda cool that it's even there.
This transitions into a few inoffensive but ultimately forgettable tracks that could still probably fly on a dance-floor, before hitting a short transition of basically pure bass (of the 808 variety) right before we get launched into the anthemic "Kootchie Kuterz", which is fucking stupid, and I love it. It's fun, summery, uptempo rhythms bouncing all over the place, and the lyrics are dumb as it gets, perfect for partying like a moron, which is really what this music is designed for, so really, mission accomplished.
It's somewhat downhill from there, with a collection of party tracks that range from "kinda makes me wanna move" to again, ultimately forgettable. But for better or for worse it's kind of an early glimpse at where the dancier side of hip-hop would be headed for the next little while, and even outside of the flawless "My Boo" and the pretty great "Kootchie Kuterz", it definitely has some redeeming moments, albeit fewer and further between as the album progresses, but it never quite descends into the valley of absolute laughable shit that I kinda expected. I just listened to an album of Miami bass and it was pretty damn good.
Even disregarding the highlights, this is way better than anything I expected from this genre, and without disregarding the highlights, tbh this comp is worth it just for "My Boo" alone, which is a perfect song if I've ever heard one
fun fact: since this review this album has become a 5 star listen for me and I've grown to appreciate the booty-shaking glory of miami bass. Hooray for personal growth
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I've never been in love with Blackalicious. I do like Blazing Arrow, I love the positive vibe of the whole thing and even though I never really have much of an urge to listen to the whole thing I will play a favorite track here and there, and they're clearly some very talented musicians, they just don't vibe with me as much as a lot of their contemporaries. I'll take Latyrx any day. So after finding 2005's The Craft largely a bore, I didn't expect much here, and I was pleasantly surprised. Technically these two are as sharp as they've ever been, effortlessly stringing together syllabically (is that a word?) complex, thoughtful conscious rhymes atop beats that essentially boil down to some distorted bouncy funky synths. Conscious hip-hop you can dance to, and just as feel-good as these guys have ever been while rarely descending into cornball territory (such is the fate for a lot of "positive" hip-hop).
Gift of Gab's specialty was and continues to be conscious tracks ranging from introspective to almost party-oriented, but here he dabbles in storytelling early on, which fantastically suits the timbre of his voice somehow while he spins a together a cautionary tale of the dangerous of street life that comes across as a less try-hard (and actually good) version of Immortal Technique's "Dance With the Devil" bullshit. And when he gets back to what he does more often (the conscious shit), it's as good as I've ever heard. Soulful production over which Gab delivers humble thoughts of valuing the now, facing hardships, and loving one another, stuff your mom always told you about, except he makes it sound actually pretty dope, probably because he's just being him, without any condescension or claims of moral superiority, and of course, it doesn't hurt that he's accompanied by some of Chief Xcel's funkiest and most soulful production, at times rivaling that of Blazing Arrow.
In what has been a magnificent year for hip-hop of all kinds, sure maybe I'll take quite a few of this year's gems from the realm of sad-person trap-rap and introspective Hellfyre abstraction over Imani, but it feels great to have an album this thoughtful and groovy to show up in the middle of it all, and I think I can safely say I'll be revisiting it very soon at least a few times.
At first this seems to just be Lubomyr Melnyk doing what he does best, which could never be a bad thing. His unique brand of constant fluctuating waves of subtly varying piano textures is minimalist beauty of the most delicate variety, but here we see him taking a more impressionistic approach than he has in the past. Keeping with the theme suggested by the title of the album, Melnyk's piano work, which has always felt "fluid" in its own way, truly evokes images of flowing water and the quiet beauty they represent.
Lubomyr Melnyk wrote:
The greatest of all miracles in the universe is Water. It is also, I believe, the rarest of all physical things in the universe. Water is the most magical and the most mysterious of all things we know! And so I dedicate this album to the Rivers and Streams of this world – in gratitude for their Beauty
It's a sentiment that could have easily come across as hokey in the hands of a less talented musician and composer, but under the guidance of Melnyk's mastery, he translates his abstract adoration for this elusive miracle of the natural world into something very tangible. As Melnyk's fingers flow across the length of his piano, the ebb and flow of these pieces played "in the continuous mode" reminds one of the changes in pace, both subtle and dramatic, across the length of a river, with Melnyk's gradual and seamless transitions across varying repetitive patters matching the eddies and changing currents therein. While always thematically and tonally linked by this overarching concept of the natural magic of water, there's a fair amount of sonic territory found here; one of the amazing things about Melynk is that even within his very niche style of playing, he finds room for all kinds of sonic invention, while still remaining true to the style of post-minimalist continuous playing that makes Melnyk Melnyk.
It's not just Rivers and Streams here. It's oceans, lakes, ponds, even rain. This is Melnyk's ode to the beauty of water, to its mystique, to how it moves across the Earth, to how it makes us intuitively feel. These are abstract concepts of natural beauty with which artists across all mediums have long wrestled, with a basic desire to translate their majesty so as to give them physical form in their art. A handful of these artists have truly succeeded in not only representing the beauty that they find in the water, but in making us feel it too. I think I can safely consider Melnyk among this handful of artists. A fine work of delicate impressionist minimalism.
Am I the only one around here who actually thinks Infinity Frequencies are pretty fucking great?!JohnGoodman.jpg
...well? C'mon guys they're pretty cool...
For some reason it really gets on my nerves when people say things along the lines of "man I really don't like this genre but this artist is an exception". Probably because I always associate the rhetoric with rock fans telling me how Macklemore is their exception into the world of hip-hop, so I sincerely apologize to any and all vaporwave aficionados if it appears that Infinity Frequencies are my Macklemore.
It's true, I just don't love vaporwave. I can groove to bits of future funk while it's on, but I never really find myself with an urge to put it on again, and I spin stuff riddled with vaporwave influences all the time (occasionally even going as far as Chuck Person), but the vast majority of what I've heard from the genre just does very little for me (and no I'm not just talking about Macintosh Plus). That said, I do find the aesthetic really interesting, but it always find it leaving me feeling like I'm missing something and that it's my fault I don't like the music and then I go look at SuedeSwede's chart and cry at my inadequacy.
ANYWAY, in comes Infinity Frequencies, and everything I've always wanted from vaporwave is realized. This is music that either takes place in space or deep underwater, and cycles through the minimalist tones and re-purposed elevator tunes characteristic of vaporwave but makes them darker and eerier, and makes the DJ Screw influence over the development genre readily more apparent, and it's all the better off from it. Arguably the work of Infinity Frequencies is just as much repetitive ambient chopped n screwed instrumentals as it is vaporwave; it certainly has more in common with Blue Sky Black Death's recent ventures into chopped n screwed sister albums that it does with Yung Bae or Blank Banshee anyhow. This separation of Infinity Frequencies from their peers is further augmented by intermittent influence from the atmospheres (and occasionally the rhythmic tendencies) of classic future garage (which just so happens to be my jam.)
Infinity Frequencies are masters of creating a kind of understated tension in their repetitions, employing a kind of muffled lo-fi sound in lieu of the straight-up pitch-shifting and tempo adjusting that defines a lot of the genre. There was a fair amount of dropped vocals a la Screw throughout last year's excellent Computer Decay, but here they refine their approach; if anything is pitched downward here, it's done ever so slightly, making even the most seemingly serene of tracks come across as just a little "off", teetering just on the edge of the uncanny valley, enough to keep you interested but not enough to completely alienate you; again, it's all about maintaining an unbreakable sort of tension until the listener starts to feel like each of these tiny little vignettes of shadowed sound is trying to whisper something significant to you, but every venture to find out the specific nature of their secrets always leaves more questions than answers, and I think sooner or later, you stop looking for answers, and just relish in the mystique of these unknowable questions. You are a guest in their world, and nothing makes perfect sense here and everything is very dark, but remains ultimately fascinating, and even simply enjoyable in some wonderfully warped way.
Many fans of last year's Computer Decay (myself among them) described the album as something akin to vaporwave underwater. Well, if Computer Decay is underwater vaporwave, then Into The Light (which sounds nothing like its deceptively sunny title btw) is vaporwave noir, carrying all the enticingly macabre mystique suggested therein
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