This is a really cool slab of dub techno, successfully navigating its way through a potentially lifesucking ambient passage in the middle to come out fighting again at the end. It starts very strong indeed, 'Unseen Life' is quick of pace and blends clear, smooth, deep house keys with a gorgeous, floating melodica line and some really cool, subtle, delayed toms to set the vibe for the album, before things get somewhat murkier with the hushed, claustrophobic 'Stateless' and the subtly melodic drone of 'All Me Know the Truth'. Things then threaten to derail with a rather pointless Fennesz rip-off and a slow-burner that follows the same template as the aforementioned 'Stateless' without carrying any of the same power, but 'City Life' brings things back to life with some twinkling mid-range keys, even if it veers a little too close to DeepChord territory to really carve out its own identity. It then ends with 'Blues in Black Ink', arguably the strongest song here (it's between this and 'Unseen Life'), which brings melody back to fore, allowing the album to drift away on pillowy synth lines that recall Harald Grosskopf at his most contemplative. Overall, the record manages to pull off its valleys and peaks sequencing, and works as a whole, even if I feel something more interesting could've been done during the mid-section. However, that's a relatively small part of the album, and the majority of stuff here is fantastic. If it weren't for Acre's Better Strangers, this would easily be the best album I've listened to all day. Highly recommended, could see JoD, sp4cetiger, Puncture Repair, Borejko enjoying this. _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
So this is the first thing I've listened to today that I've actually heard prior to today. It's one of those releases that I keep going back to sporadically, but can't quite make up my mind about. I guess it falls into the same category as Elysia Crampton's American Drift in the way that it feels like a crude collage which takes elements from materials widely considered garish or shallow and mixes them with more (supposedly) interesting sounds, odd synth textures and pieces of field recordings, but I'd also probably put it alongside Rabit's Communion and (especially) M.E.S.H.'s Piteous Gate, in that it takes the rhythms of grime (and I guess some other beat-based genres) and attempts to deconstruct them to some extent, only occasionally using them as originally intended (there's a synth-line during the second half of opener 'Air. Coltan. Carbon. Lithium.' that is undeniably indebted to Wiley). Highlight 'Age of Aquarius' nods towards early UK hardcore and even breakbeat rhythmically, but underneath there's this texture that recalls a shallow stream which kind of removes it from that context and creates this strange juxtaposition of this high-speed, internet-inspired relentlessness and this slow, almost static countryside air, and closer 'Weakness' recalls Burial with its twisted vocal sample, even if it feels intentionally uglier and more self-aware than Burial ever really is. This should probably be on my 2015 chart, but even now I can't really tell how much I'm actually enjoying it, as opposed to just finding it this really interesting thing to ponder. It's really all-over-the-place, and kind-of slapdash, and definitely a product of its time, but I also get the feeling that it's supposed to be all of those things. I dunno, it feels less complete than the aforementioned American Drift, but I definitely recommend it to people who enjoy that record. Fascinating stuff, anyway, and probably the last full-length I'm gonna have time to listen to before my girlfriend gets home. _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
This is just... wow. She's a Norwegian sax player, and the first disc is just her and a pianist and a cellist, and it's like 15 short vignettes that form a much bigger whole, not a whole lot in terms of massively memorable melodies, but lots of little motifs that get part-repeated throughout, and this thrilling, sexy intimacy whereby you can hear every breath, and each one of these pieces are like little crystals. In fact, her own sax is basically a background player for most of this, allowing the other two to do most of the work, until about two thirds of the way through and then she comes through with this beautiful pure tone and yet still maintains restraint even as she pushes her way ever closer to the fore, and it's not even really jazz, it's more like chamber music, and it's kinda lonely but there's always hope and there's always light coming in through the cracks. And then the second disc kicks in and starts off in much the same vain, but slowly all these other instruments start emerging, and by the time we get to 'wildheart' this most definitely is jazz, it's angry at the world and it makes me think of Archie Shepp (except, y'know, less bluesy), but throughout most of the songs here (again, short vignettes that form a whole, often less than two minutes long) there remains that crystalline quality, and that restraint, but there's this longing quality that makes me think of 'Lonely Woman' at times, and then there's this three song section where 'but we did' and 'breathe' are these two beautiful pieces that make me realise that Nils Frahm is like the most boring fucking artist in the world and they sandwich this intense 8-minute freak-out called 'I', and then 'bare blacker rum' could've been on that fantastic Aki Takase La Planete album from last year, and then it all ends with this really intriguing piece that lets me know that the future is going to be fine, and oh my god what the fuck is this amazing album. There's like 35 tracks here, but really it's like two suites that come together to form a larger whole, and it's slight but there's also this bite to it, and I can't stop staring at that girl on the cover. *swoon* _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
To be honest, if you live in the UK chances are you're sick of hearing this, but for those of you who don't reside on these shores, this is my favourite song of the year (although that 'Functions On the Low' beat could be my favourite song of the year every year).
Seriously, my girlfriend hates this song because I play it about four times a day. _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
Last record for the day, and another fantastic first listen. This, I believe, is Shape Worship's debut album, and it's ostensibly a post-dubstep concept album about the misplaced residents of London's 20th century regeneration scheme(s), which feels super relevant given the current housing crisis that's gripping the city. It flows like a DJ mix, or perhaps like a sound collage, not short of memorable moments to cling onto (the interlocking melodies of 'Zoned (Hecate)', the heartbreaking testimonies of the victims of housing regeneration on 'Heygate Palimpset', the clipped notes and squiggling melodica-style synth motif that give 'Rentiers Dub' its dub element), and it inhabits that same feeling of metropolitan melancholy that Burial deals in, but feels more tangible, more political, angrier, even given its hushed nature. We get percussive elements of various UK dance movements, but they're muffled and cleverly intertwined with more impressionistic moments and snippets of radio/television interviews, so that they feel more like an ambient pulse than a driving force, even on songs like 'Decanted (Mohir)', which sounds like a long-forgotten jungle track beamed in from an alien pirate radio station. Despite concerning itself with a city known for its endless blocks of concrete and glass, there's something about this record that sounds organic, almost ancient even, especially in moments such as the overlapping, tribal drums of 'An Exemplar', or the aforementioned 'Rentiers Dub', whose ending could practically have been recorded by the ghosts of the tenants it pays tribute to. This is a fully-realised piece whose intricate details I can't wait to pick apart over numerous listens. Very highly recommended, and a brilliant ending to what has been a very productive day's listening. _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
This right here is probably my favourite metal album of the year, a gnarly, knotty record from a bass and drum duo which takes its cues from Lysol-era Melvins, but manages to do something very interesting within that remit. Opener 'Saw the Falling' is sparse, angular, and reliant on the Pixies' famous quiet-LOUD-quiet dynamic, albeit taken to its extreme conclusion. Halfway through, the whole thing gives way to a monster riff that belies the song's previously experimental tendencies, but it still retains an almost math-y sense of timing throughout, even as it builds towards a climax that could be reasonably described as anthemic. 11-minute 'Odic Force' is the album's centrepiece and obvious highlight, and contains perhaps the record's most memorable passage, a series of guttural growls set against an ecomonomic, almost military drum riff, before a bassline straight from the Earth 2 handbook comes and sweeps everything away. Overall, the record is quite dizzying with its stop/start nature, and all of these songs take numerous detours to get from A to B, but that remains the cause regardless - a constant feeling of travelling (exemplified by 'Partaken Incarnate', which starts off at 100mph, but splutters to a halt after a couple of minutes, before slowly building back up into something altogether stranger, with layers of wordless vocals swimming in the background as a series of jagged riffs is launched, one after the other, before the song again picks up the pace, hurtling off like Motorhead on speed into a ghostly pit of squealing, delayed guitar notes). I'm not any kind of expert on metal, and so I often find myself struggling to describe exactly what it is I like about an album, but this is the one I've been returning to most this year, and I continue to find something new every time. Highly recommended. _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
The first half of this album is bright as fuck. Plenty of ADHD, hyperreal production here, but to his credit Le1f never lets himself get drowned out or overwhelmed, playing hopscotch on beats in a way I've never heard him do before, using a nimble flow and a number of genuinely funny quips ("mommy lookin' like she work for the agency, conventional niggas ain't got no identity"; "tellin' me that you like my album but you copped it on torrent") to bend these often cluttered productions to his will. The second half of the album is muddier, definitely evoking the hazy trap of Future but without the same sense of muscular machismo, often feeling more watery whereas Future's songs feel more syrupy. 'Cheap' and 'Taxis' are very poignant, brutally honest but without being pushy in terms of their message, which is impossible to say for 'Tell', easily the worst thing here. Some of the hooks here are brilliant (the 'Say My Name'-aping 'Koi' is the highlight in that sense, but 'Rage' and 'Cheap' also deserve props), and I especially love the moments of contrast that occur in the first half (most brazenly on 'Rage', but also to good effect on 'Umami/Water'). Anyway, this is quite easily the best thing Le1f's done - in fact, it's the first time I've felt that he really feels confident in who he is as an artist - but I tend to feel that the more manic, funn(i)er first half of the album works far more than the more chilled-out second half, even if the latter still contains some brilliant moments. Overall, it's one of the more distinctive records I've heard this year, and it shows significant artistic growth for somebody who previously had seemed somewhat anonymous on record. Cool stuff. _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
Difficult to know what to call this - sound collage, EP, epilogue to I Don't Like Shit... - but it features ten of my favourite minutes of music released all year. It feels more abstract and impressionistic than the album, sharing that same sense of disillusion, but without the heavy, clasutrophobic sense of regret and shame that Earl carries with him throughout the LP, replaced here with resignation (/relief?). It also feels far more improvised, which is to be expected from a piece of music made with no official release in mind. The whole thing definitely has a warmth to it, but it's like the warmth you get from a halogen lamp. That final three and half minutes is just gorgeous, displaying the sort of openness that makes the work of Daniel Johnston so endlessly appealing (hearing Earl rap, "I'm the youngest old man that you know", over a lonely, distorted, tinny synth line is one of the most refreshing moments of the year). I'm holding out hope that Earl tacks this onto the end of the album when the vinyl finally gets issued, but then part of me thinks it should just stand as a YouTube throwaway for anybody who happens to stumble across it and find solace in its blunted arms. _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
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