Junglepussy is the best young rapper in New York right now. You can keep your A$AP Rockys and your Joey Bada$$es and your Action Bronsons (the 2015 version, anyway). Junglepussy has the easily digestible flow and the endlessly quotable punchlines and the brash flashiness of peak-era Cam'ron ("they all ask for hugs, like I'm the fuckin' Pope"), the bizarrely specific storytelling of Ghostface ("fornicating under my grandmama's rosary"; "got me poppin' on top of that Egyptian cotton"), the 'I know what the fuck I want and I'm gonna get it' attitude of Erykah Badu ("relationships are more than food and lusty interactions, dude"; "if your face ain't a sitting place, fuck up out my face"), and a nice line in rugged ragga patois ("an' ah cah barely stop mi asscheeks dem from clappin'") - which, naturally, is a killer fucking combination. Add to that some truly lovely, luscious beats that explore various different avenues of hip-hop, from big budget late-1990s boom-bap to soothing neo-soul to Timbaland-esque twisted robo-pop to something altogether more intangible (and all courtesy of Shy Guy), and what we have here is easily one of the best hip-hop releases of the year. Seriously, I'd probably only put Kendrick, Ka, Earl, Boosie, and Gibbs above this, which is high praise indeed given the number and quality of hip-hop releases I've heard in 2015. Straight fiyah. _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
Also, the reason I haven't been updating this more is simply because I haven't really been listening to many albums recently (only the Gibbs and Stara Rzeka albums I mentioned earlier in this thread, as well as the new Floating Points and that Junglepussy above). A load of my mates moved out of their house in East London yesterday, and so at the weekend they had one last big party. I came home with a ridiculous hangover and a scrap of paper with the names of the following songs on it:
Junglepussy is the best young rapper in New York right now. You can keep your A$AP Rockys and your Joey Bada$$es and your Action Bronsons (the 2015 version, anyway). Junglepussy has the easily digestible flow and the endlessly quotable punchlines and the brash flashiness of peak-era Cam'ron ("they all ask for hugs, like I'm the fuckin' Pope"), the bizarrely specific storytelling of Ghostface ("fornicating under my grandmama's rosary"; "got me poppin' on top of that Egyptian cotton"), the 'I know what the fuck I want and I'm gonna get it' attitude of Erykah Badu ("relationships are more than food and lusty interactions, dude"; "if your face ain't a sitting place, fuck up out my face"), and a nice line in rugged ragga patois ("an' ah cah barely stop mi asscheeks dem from clappin'") - which, naturally, is a killer fucking combination. Add to that some truly lovely, luscious beats that explore various different avenues of hip-hop, from big budget late-1990s boom-bap to soothing neo-soul to Timbaland-esque twisted robo-pop to something altogether more intangible (and all courtesy of Shy Guy), and what we have here is easily one of the best hip-hop releases of the year. Seriously, I'd probably only put Kendrick, Ka, Earl, Boosie, and Gibbs above this, which is high praise indeed given the number and quality of hip-hop releases I've heard in 2015. Straight fiyah.
mmm yeah actually just streamed this this morning (became really interested after she was featured on the new Le1f, which I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts on), and you definitely hit all the points I was thinking and then some. Dope write-up for a dope album
Varèse's Amériques for the Reagan generation? It might seem like a stretch, but it's that piece which is brought to mind as I listen to this, smoking damn good hashish. Both work as abstract, cluttered, fractured snapshots of New York which are unafraid to sew the literal sounds of the street deep into their fabric, making loving reference to the musical sounds and styles which preceded them but using them as mere soda cans in larger collage sculptures meant to show the ugly, beautiful, human face of metropolitan life. (The memorable siren stabs heard in both give the feeling of claustrophobia, of something vast honing in on us.) Of course, both are essentially about human discovery, but where Varèse is discovering the gripping, frightening power of the new world, the beginning of our now seemingly endless material pursuit, Chuck D is discovering his voice - both literally and figuratively - and its power in a world of violence and police brutality and endless concrete (concrète?) blocks used to house the people the new world attracted and eventually spawned, a lone warrior wading through the apocalypse brought about by our ever wanting more.
Fuck me, I'm stoned. This album is dope. _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
Just spent some time updating my 2015 chart, which you can check out over there. 21 new entries and 1 re-entry. As always recommendations are encouraged, either in the comment section or in this thread. Whilst I was updating, I was listening to the new Junglepussy again. Seriously dope shit. _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
This has been on my radar for a while, and I've fallen asleep with it on a few times, but I haven't actually given it a focused, turned-on listen, so whilst I'm off work sick I decided now would be a good time. I'm actually just finishing up the second of two back-to-back listens, and I have to say that this is marvellous. It reminds me of those Friedman & Liebezeit collaborations, except less meandering and more catchy, with a real tribal, communal feel, but also lots of beautiful little moments that kind of come unexpectedly from nowhere ('Of Day' sounds like autumn leaves swirling in the wind). The mixture of longer pieces and shorter pieces also means that the album has this really cool pacing to it - two longer songs open it up, 'By Way of Odessa' (which is this slowly unfurling piece that is built around this stoic bass motif and brings in all these cool little electric guitar whispers that sound like Fela Kuti coming through in dribs and drabs on a dodgy radio, which also occurs later on the title track to an even more obvious extent) and 'Lore' (which begins as a gorgeous harmonium drone before evolving into something far more dubby, with all these wind chime-esque strings occasionally creeping in, and a memorable acoustic bassline), and then there's a series of shorter songs which all have a separate identity but never really stray too far from the mood of the album, and then it finishes with another couple of longer numbers ('Spiral Up' is definitely the muddiest song on the record - it feels like a tribal jazz take on a sea shanty), with the beautiful 'The Ladder' recalling 'By Way of Odessa' and finishing up the album much as it starts, with a hypnotic, repetitive, almost underwater sounding bass and percussion piece upon which all this other lovely stuff is slowly and sparingly placed atop (more harmonium and strings, by the sound of things). But yeah, the whole thing is just really calming and makes me think of light refracting in windows in the early morning when lovely rainbow patterns appear on the carpet and the whole house is quiet. Good shit. _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
Got to admit that I'm actually slightly disappointed this first listen, but it's certainly interesting enough to ensure that I'll be returning. Leigh plays solo pedal steel and sings (a spindly voice that recalls traditional British female folkies), and occasionally the effect is stunning (as on the deconstructed noise-blues dirge 'All that Heaven Allows', or the swirling, droning closer 'Fairfield Fantasy'), but all too often these songs feel as though they don't really go anywhere (despite being the album's shortest song by quite a distance, the acapella 'Passionate Reluctance' is one of the most patience-trying, downright exhausting things I've listened to all year, whilst I wrongly expected the abrasive stabs of distortion that power 'The Return' to perhaps vary in texture at some point over the course of seven minutes), and the album feels deliberately opaque, or as though I'm being held at arm's length and not allowed to actually step inside and learn anything about its creator. As I said, I'll definitely be returning to this one when I'm in a different state of mind, but I feel as though there's something missing here. _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
A very welcome recommendation from Geevy, this is a new album released on long-running dubstep label Tectonic. Got to say, I really loved it on first listen. It's glitchy, melancholy grime that sounds like it's been crawling through a gutter, or glued to endless video games in a dingy, unclean bedroom. It gives off a sense of childlike industrialism, evoking Tonka Trucks crashing into shit in Toys 'R' Us aisles. Lots of pastel-coloured ghost synths and distorted pinball percussion (drums here often land an awkward split-second after you expect them to, helping to cultivate a spontaneous vibe that really helps the album's cause, and the percussion is generally quite tinny throughout, but with a rough edge, as though it's been sanded down until it's a wafer-thin splinter of its original self), and 'Spiral' has a tribal funky house element, employing what sound like steel pans muffled by towels to help build the album's catchiest percussion track. There's lots going on, but it never feels cluttered, with Acre always more tempted to substitute than continually layer, and it almost sounds at times (especially on tracks like 'Ophelia') like Kassem Mosse if he'd grown up on Wiley, giving off that same vibe of something being twisted subtly into a new shape while retaining everything that made the original so distinctive, especially moments like the syrupy, falling-backwards wordless vocals of 'Don't Talk'. It's abrasive but not unwelcoming, and certainly not as angry as somebody like of Rabit (although 'Tarantula', with its synths that sound like an old ferry creaking as it turns, could be a close cousin of some of the tracks on Communion). 'Holding Hands' harks back to 2006-era dubstep, when everything was deliberately dark and minimal, rebounding between wordless pirate radio ragga exclamations and glossy 2-step vocal snippets, in a tribute that wouldn't have sounded out of place on Four Tet's Beautiful Rewind, the glitchy, haunted harmonium synths of 'Dek U' recall the longing, droning background gurgles of Broadcast's Tender Buttons, and album highlight 'Always Crashing' has the same naive melodic charm that made Ruff Sqwad's more romantic material so appealing. The final track is simultaneously a banger and a heartbreaker, too. Really great stuff, and expect it to land high up on my 2015 chart after a few more listens. Nice one Geevy. _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
I vaguely remember listening to a Food album a few years back (Quiet Inlet?) and thinking it was pretty good, and since they're playing in Birmingham soon I figured I should check out the new one. Not gonna lie, this has been a pretty casual listen, just sort of letting it all wash over me. Not a huge amount to distinguish between tracks (they largely feature dominant drum patterns that really push the songs forward, often locking into a quietly danceable groove, some longing saxophone playing, and odd bits of electronic scribbling to pad things out), but there was this one really nice synth arpeggio towards the beginning of the record that stood out, and then things got a bit more dynamic towards the end ('The Grain Mill' features this skittering beat that could be mistaken for ambient juke, and on the last track the saxophone gets louder than at any other time on the record). Overall it employs quite a dusty, heavy atmosphere, and I'll definitely be coming back to it. _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
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