A.M. 180

even caramel sundaes, pt 2

2009-11-03T19:05:00.001-07:00

Javelin
Andean Ocean Tape
via dollarbinsofthefuture.com

My computer says this mix runs 30 minutes, but it feels like a very long 30 minutes. It will not relieve post-summer blues, but it can make your sadness more meaningful.

****

even caramel sundaes is getting touched

2009-11-03T18:15:00.000-07:00

Fabian - "Heatwave"
(photo, mp3, and quote via someplace much warmer)

Leftovers from a summer that I didn't have.

Please listen with headphones.

. . .

"Sometimes, in the colder months, when we get a bit of a warm spell, its like the sun reaches into everyones' chests and turns on an energy switch. People get a wild look in their eye and crazy things happen. Nights on the town turn into 3am hikes to the Hollywood sign, or sunrise swimming sessions in the Pacific. Romances are born and die in flames in the blink of an eye. This is true in any city."

No.

[pause for sigh]

It's not.

****

"blinking pigs"

2009-10-29T21:15:00.000-06:00

Little Dragon - Blinking Pigs

Yukimi Nagano has a supernatural voice and perfect phrasing. She could sing a song about cows and chickens, and it would be beautiful.

****

Transition, on first listen

2009-10-29T02:50:00.009-06:00

All of my free time is currently being sucked up by GRRM's vampire novel, Fevre Dream, and episodes of "The Wire", which I just started watching due to a massive number of friends' recommendations. Both the book and the show feel somewhat dated in 2009, like how I imagine a fine wine tastes to those who can tell the difference.

But I had to take a quick break to check out Ryan Leslie's newest offering, a sophomore album entitled Transition. Here's a quick run down:

"Never Gonna Break Up"
Perhaps one of the best tracks on the album. The song feels firmly stuck in place, and it's made instantly compelling by virtue of the lush, darkly-lit synth figure that opens the song. Its excessive brooding is what makes it so good. Perfect music for lonely nights wandering through empty hallways.

"Something That I Like" (feat. Pusha T)
Why would Leslie think he needs to rap on a track already featuring one half of the Clipse? I am beyond baffled. Wait. . . Pusha watches "Project Runway"? He doesn't exactly say as much, but if this is true, my masculinity can be validated in so many ways I never imagined.

"Zodiac"
There is some crazy, euphoric, synth-melting stuff going on here. It's overflowing with details, but it's done cleverly, without weighing down the song.

"Is It Real Love?"
I like this one, but it feels a bit by the numbers. That said, Leslie likes to throw in an interesting breakdown or interlude--like he does here--which can redeem the formula.

"Sunday Night"
I fully admit that this one is an acquired taste. But if you liked "Anniversary", which this seems to be riffing off. . . The following deserves quoting:

"Do you know what today is? It's our anniversary /
Got so many flowers-- your living room like a nursery."

Say what? I guess "greenhouse" didn't rhyme with "anniversary".

"You're Not My Girl"
Alex at The Singles Jukebox nailed this one down back in September.

"To the Top"
Like a couple of the productions on Leslie's self titled, which seemed more like filler than prime cuts, this is definitely one of the less-inspired tracks.

"Nothing"
This is a textbook example of Leslie's ability to seemingly pull an idea out of his ass and make it sound good. The electric guitar, which could be ripped from the theme song to so many '80s TV series, definitely steals the show. Nothing says "tasteful experimental R&B" like a guitar solo.

"Guardian Angel"
By far the sappiest moment on the album, but he doesn't rap on the track. So there's that.

"All My Love"
Still don't know about this one. Seems pretty weak. The handclaps are especially awkward.

"I Choose You"
Not much here, either. But it's an appropriately stark and simple conclusion. A fitting "quiet death" for the album.

****

walking up the ramp

2009-10-22T22:45:00.001-06:00

photo by Gagan Mahan

Small Black - Despicable Dogs (Washed Out Remix)

****

...In the dull catalogue of common things.

2009-10-21T18:05:00.000-06:00

Seek Magic is not as cryptic or pretty or as magical as I thought it should be, or imagined it being. Every day I seem to rediscover this irritating fact about life: that what I want is almost never what I'm going to get. When I approach an album with high expectations, so often I expect it to be transcendent right off the bat--that it's just going to explode into my life and be The Greatest Thing Ever.

Even before hearing Seek Magic, I imagined a philosophy or concept behind the music--thinking of it as an attempt to uncover some deep spiritual reality by way of childhood nostalgia-- and despite very much liking this concept that I created in my head, after hearing the album, I can muster little more than ambivalence. For me, this music recalls the soundtracks to animated shorts on PBS that I saw as a kid, or the music that played in Sears or The Bay at those listening stations where you could sample the New Age cds--mind-numbing instrumental fluff with names like "Sounds of Spring" and "African Tapestries". On a one-to-ten scale of extremely boring to exciting, some of that music maybe managed a 'two'.

Seek Magic raises more than a few pleasant memories as well--some of the synthesizer occupies a vague space between the music of Super Metroid and Donkey Kong Country (or, at least, my memories of it)--but overall, the album seems to have hit upon some of the most boring moments of my childhood. Mostly, it reminds me of waiting. Those PBS shorts were the things you had to sit through while you were waiting for your favourite television show to come on again. No kid old enough to understand what they were watching actually liked those things. This was the time when you went back upstairs to refill your cereal bowl with more Froot Loops. "Sounds of Spring" was only slightly less boring than following my mother around the department store while she searched for tea towels or whatever else she was looking for. There are so many other sounds and recollections that I'm not mentioning, but overwhelmingly Seek Magic is comprised of the sounds of seconds becoming minutes and minutes becoming hours, with nothing to show for it. This is not a good feeling. Not really.

I'm telling myself not to romanticize this overall sense of disappointment even as I do it. I remember lazy Saturdays, where the mornings blurred into afternoons and seemed to draw out forever. I remember school days spent at home, sick with the flu, where the most exciting things were a piece of dry toast and the sound of the dishwasher running.

I've listened to Seek Magic three times now beginning-to-end, and I can feel it growing on me, but I'm not sure I want it to.

Memory Tapes - "Green Knight"

Memory Tapes - "Pink Stones"

****

uk funky

2009-10-16T17:25:00.001-06:00

I put Roska's FACT magazine mix on a cd and brought it to work awhile back. I've been playing it steadily for 5 months now, and no one has complained yet. (Because. It's. So. Good.) It gets better each time I hear it. Also, "In Your Handbag" scares off would-be shoplifters.

download here (via sendspace)

tracklist:
01 Magic Touch - Signed & Sealed
02 Afroganic – Embargo (Wookie Mix)
03 Roska - In Your Handbag
04 DJ Naughty - Cheap Talk
05 DJ Mystery - Speechless
06 D-Malice - Dreams Come True
07 MA1 - Give It Up (Roska Remix)
08 DJ Naughty - Trouble’s Back
09 Meleka - Go (Crazy Cousinz Remix)
10 Geeneus - Emotions

****

when climbing

2009-10-15T19:45:00.000-06:00

Most humans can only aspire to the wisdom of the pebble toad. When times get tough, it simply rolls itself into a ball and tumbles down the side of a mountain.

"The toad is so small and light that the forces of impact are too tiny to cause it any harm."

Islands - Everything Is Under Control

****

drift

2009-10-13T19:32:00.001-06:00

Drift out of lane, difficulty making
..turns-
...become c0nfused in regard to signs/signals
....subjective sleepiness, sugar intake

rumble strips

nosaj thing - fog

****

return

2009-10-09T21:30:00.004-06:00

I put together a little mixtape of past favourites in honour of the much-awaited resurrection of Myke Weiskopf's SHORTWAVEMUSIC blog. But first, check the recent and stunning "Ramadan In Dub", recorded via Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

****

d/l separately or grab the zip file and unzip it.

Tracklisting:
1. "...a glimpse of Heaven..." (Time and Freq Unid) - Voice of Russia
2. 11/12/03, 0620 UTC, 5800 kHz - Radio Bulgaria
3. 11885 kHz, 7.3.05 (2353 UTC) - Radio Cairo
4. 9/15/03, 0415 UTC, 7275 kHz - Radio Tunis
5. 9/15/03, 5930 kHz (0145 UTC) - Radio Slovakia International
6. Beautiful Arabic Song - [No Station ID]
7. Dueling XTMRs! #6: Qu'rambient - shortwavemusic.blogspot.com
8. Go!/Let's Go!: 5/22/07, 7425 kHz (0015 UTC) - Radio Tirana
9. Group Chant-Song, African Language - WTJC
10. Mystery Torch Song (Silvestrov: “The Dream”) (5.20.05 - 7440 kHz)- Radio Ukraine International
11. Piano Instrumental - 8/8/2005, 18330 kHz (0139 UTC) - All India Radio
12. Post-Soviet Melancholia, Part IV (Freq/Time Unknown) - [No Station ID]
13. Qu'ran chanting - BSKSA, Saudi Arabia (Riyadh)
14. The Boyband Headphase: 4/21/2007, 12085 kHz (2336 UTC) - Unid (VoA or Voice of Mongolia?)

Liner notes:
(gauze)(Brian Eno)(pop) (rush of strings and feedback, concert amidst explosions/beatboxing percussive sounds)(scuttling noises) (more obtrusive interference, coughing, sputtering) (atmospheric electricity)

coming home from the wake

2009-10-08T18:30:00.003-06:00

Shirley & Dolly Collins - Nellie the Milkmaid

a few thoughts:

1) There is something in the way Shirley Collins sings this song--or maybe in the song itself--that is incredibly dispassionate. Collins narrates the song not-so-much coldly; rather it's the warmth and sense of fun that disturbs. It's as if she is a puppeteer, making everything unfold, as if all she would have to do to stop the unfortunate proceedings is say "Nellie, stop!", but instead is all smiles and 'too-ra-loos'. But, of course, this is a traditional song, and Collins is simply following the script--no more to blame for what happens than we are.

Like most traditional songs, this has withstood the test of time because it says something of value about the human condition. In other words, it's not going to have a "happy ending", or even an ending, per se. It's a song that ends as soon as it begins: of course it's inevitable that Nellie would fuck Roger, get pregnant, and in all likelihood, doom herself to a life of incredible hardship. This sense of finality is heightened by the fact that Nellie is returning from a death ceremony, and by the way the song weaves inwards on itself with the last line of the final verse.

Shirley Collins' sister, Dolly Collins, was gifted with the portative organ. Her playing, along with a harpsichord, adds an elegance to the danse macabre of a life.

2) Roger, you fucker.

****

dying in canada

2009-10-08T18:20:00.005-06:00

this here comic reminded me of this psychotic break/song that soul-sides posted awhile back:

Gloria Ann Taylor - "World That's Not Real"
It's fitting that it sounds like reality and the world of dreams colliding.

Gloria Ann Taylor - "Love Is a Hurting Thing"
There's also this bizarre disco re-working of "Love Is A Hurting Thing" with oddly double-tracked kick drum. It's like there's a dance party going on and you can hear the beat of different music playing in another room, and the songs sort of combine into a single disorienting song. Maybe it's an early attempt at a mash-up before there were such things as mash-ups. A proto mash-up?

****

She's a fox now.

2009-10-07T17:35:00.000-06:00

smoke

     smoke

   smoke...

she's got something that (lord knows)
drive me out my m- m- mind

Jimi Hendrix & Lonnie Youngblood - "She's A Fox"

****

my old, familiar friend

2009-09-30T17:40:00.002-06:00

Brendan Benson - "Garbage Day"
Brendan Benson - "Poised and Ready"
My Old, Familiar Friend (2009)

Cynicism and humour are the icing on the Brendan Benson cake. A little energy is nice, too. The songs on his 4th album succeed and fail by these standards, a mix of high-energy, rollicking power-pop unfortunately tempered with sappy (albeit competently executed) soft rock ballads that range between excusable genre exercises and the unbearably insipid.

We'll just talk about the stuff I like here, and leave you to excuse and/or condemn the rest on your own terms.

It's been six years since Lapalco, but 1st single "A Whole Lot Better" captures basically the same sounds as that album, without diminished returns. "Feel Like Taking You Home" contains the schizophrenic chorus: "I feel like taking you home / I feel like being alone", the song's refusal to recognize these as opposing tendencies being half its charm. A couple songs later, Benson lays into the chunky guitar and synthesizer hook of "Poised and Ready" like he's the successor to the empire of Elvis Costello, and is 98% convincing. Follow-up track, "Don't Wanna Talk" is as radio-friendly a song as he's ever written. By all rights, it should be a hit.

When things slow down, they also start to fall apart. The one exception would be "Garbage Day", infused with a Motown backbeat, and detailing the singer's self-conscious attempts to salvage a relationship that belongs in the trash. I'm helpless against lines like:

"If she throws her heart away, I'll be there on Garbage Day
To sift through what's left I guess ...
And I don't mind if all the neighbours can see me."

****

noel ellis : self-titled

2009-09-29T18:30:00.002-06:00

Noel Ellis - "To Hail Salassie"

Noel Ellis - "Stop Your Fighting"

Noel Ellis, son of revered ska/rocksteady superstar Alton Ellis, made one album, which was put out by Toronto's Summer Records in 1983. It's a stunning collection of songs but very few people heard it, so Light In The Attic re-released it back in 2006 as part of their Jamaica to Toronto series. Included with the reissue is a gorgeous 16 pages of liner notes detailing the history of the album.

Ellis' back-story, as told in the liner notes, is that he grew up in Kingston until the age of thirteen, when his family relocated to Canada. After being uprooted from Jamaica, Ellis was abandoned by his father, who left to pursue his career in England, where there was a bigger market for reggae music.

Fast-forward to the mid-70s. By now a sizable, underground reggae scene had formed in Toronto, and Ellis continued his reggae education with music by artists like Burning Spear and The Heptones, whose records were now found in West Indian record shops. The songs on his self-titled album were recorded in 1979, at maverick producer Jerry Brown's Summer Studio--sort of Toronto's equivalent of Lee Perry's Black Ark.

I first came across Noel Ellis a year ago, via Jamaica to Toronto: Soul Funk & Reggae 1967-1974. His song, "Memories", was one of the highlights of that compilation. I saw a used copy of his album at Listen Records last week, and decided to pick it up, just on the chance that some good stuff would be there. At the very least, I would have a copy of "Memories", which I saw was the final track on the album. I played the record at work yesterday, listening to it in a state of dismay, as it was better than anything I could have imagined. Then I got it home, did a little research, and discovered that it's basically a forgotten classic. Whoever gave this up: You're a fool. But thank you. (I hope it was because you already have it on vinyl.)

The six songs on the album all appear in extended dub versions ranging between 6-7 minutes each, so there's plenty of music here, despite the short track listing. Any reservations you might have about a roots reggae album from Toronto should be settled with a glance at the players on the album: dudes like Jackie Mittoo, Johnny Osbourne, and Willi Williams.

Ellis' vocal style throughout is all about restraint, singing with a heartbreaking monotone combined with minor melodic changes. There is no respite from the crippling introspection of opening track, "To Hail Salassie". Brown's production catches up words and melodies and instruments and places them in a limbo where they never reach their destination--so that the destination becomes unclear--like water swirling around a drain, but never going down. This is the sound of reggae estranged from its homeland, ethereal music that is yearning for permanence.

"Stop Your Fighting" follows suit with an initial surge of keyboards before dropping into an echo-ey cavern, Ellis' despairing voice fading into the ether of the heavily dubbed production. Melancholy, anti-war pleas recall The Heptones work with Lee Perry. Ellis also seems to have taken The Heptones' austere approach to melody, providing just enough to sustain the tracks, singing with so few notes sometimes that the vocal arrangments might as well be mantras. Despite its clear influences, it's obvious from beginning to end that these songs were not recorded anywhere near the Black Ark. These songs don't feel like classic Jamaican reggae, but they don't sound derivative, either. I suspect the album's status as a cult classic had a lot to do with this unique sound.

"Rocking Universally", was a minor hit back when it was first released. It's the most upbeat moment on the album--a playful, rub-a-dub track on par with Lee Perry's "Dread At The Mantrols", and was the only song on this album to rock dance floors outside of Toronto. But really, every song here is a highlight. Jackie Mittoo's keys bounce along contentedly on "Marcus Garvey", while Ellis sings in circles, trapped between past and future. On "Dance With Me", Ellis' voice can turn lines like "Dance with me / The way you move turn me on" into existential tragedy. The track is maybe the most devastating on the album. Dance? More like curl up into a ball and weep for days.

Anyone remotely interested in roots reggae should be heading over to Light In The Attic Records and buying this album right now. I normally refrain from telling readers to "buy buy buy!" but this is one of the few cases where it would be absurd not to.

****

dig potatoes, pick tomatoes

2009-09-28T20:55:00.001-06:00

Fucking wind.

Only my music can keep me warm now.

Junior Walker & the All-Stars - "Shotgun"

****

"Why didn't you know that?"

2009-09-28T20:00:00.004-06:00

Patrick Wolf - "The Sun is Often Out"
The Bachelor (2009)

The sun is often out. The sentiment seems trite, but it's not. Even while you are going through the most intense personal tragedy, the rest of world goes on. The sun continues to shine.

At first, the chorus at the end seemed to me a bit too melodramatic. But it expresses exactly the right thing. It's not so much that you are insignificant in the grand scheme of things then it's that there is no grand scheme of things.

The world doesn't ever stop for us. Yet, everyday, we act out our lives as if it does, because the fantasy that we are all plugged into some great narrative keeps us from going insane.

****

logos

2009-09-23T21:53:00.011-06:00

Atlas Sound - Quick Canal (feat. Laetitia Sadier)
Logos (2009)

I was not expecting to hear a woman's voice on this album. Bradford Cox has expressed his admiration for Stereolab before, so it's not a surprise that he would record a song with them. Still, I'm not sure it fits.

On first listen, having guests on an Atlas Sound album seems very wrong. Everything we have heard up to now has suggested that Atlas Sound was a solitary endeavour. Even if we ignore all the free downloads released since, last year's Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel was enough to establish what seemed a pretty implacable 'Atlas Sound' aesthetic. It's not a stretch to say that collaboration is anathema to everything that has given the music its power thus far. "Quick Canal", supremely gorgeous as it is, cuts Logos in half like an intermission.

"Walkabout" (the Noah Lennox song) feels the most out of place--and too permanent, somehow. I prefer the transience of the rest of the album, to be honest. What does Logos have going for it if not transience? It achieves a kind of perfection, without anything sticking out from the rest. There are a hundred memorable moments, but none of the songs are memorable.

Maybe "Walkabout" and "Quick Canal" will cohere with the rest of Logos with repeat listens. But as of now it sounds a lot like an Atlas Sound album with an Animal Collective song and a Deerhunter/Stereolab collab thrown into the mix.

****

pigeons, pelicans, peachfuzz

2009-09-22T23:58:00.009-06:00

Kmd - Peachfuzz

Gossip - Music For Men

2009-09-18T16:45:00.004-06:00

Music for Men falls back on the familiar a little too often, and the tone and subject matter for most of Gossip's songs doesn't exactly change from their last album. A few of these songs are shameless retreads. Ditto uses rain as a metaphor for impending break up, (ie. "Soon it's gonna rain"), a few too many times. A few of these songs are overwrought (even by Gossip standards), and a few are just not that fun. So that leaves approximately three songs that would make my personal playlist. Lucky that they're pretty amazing.

"8th Wonder" is stripped down to just guitar and drums, yet seems to attack from all sides. It's also got the best vocal hook on the album, and a fury that's hard to imagine until you actually hear it, sorta like what You're A Woman, I'm a Machine would have sounded like condensed into three minutes. I think you're supposed to listen to it really loud.

"Love Long Distance" is just a really fun disco jam--featuring verses that kill with sublimated desire and spine-tingling synth stabs, and a pump-it-up chorus that's retro and silly in a completely unironic way.

"For Keeps" shows off Beth Ditto's vocals, the range of which you don't hear on fiery tracks like "Standing In the Way of Control". It might seem like hyperbole to say it, but Ditto is basically as good as Diana Ross. People just haven't figured it out quite yet. "Upside Down" would have been right at home on Music for Men, and in all honesty, Ditto probably would have sung it better.

****

your eye too fast

2009-09-16T00:29:00.000-06:00

Sticky feat. Lady Chann - Your Eye Too Fast

It takes approximately 2 minutes to realize how deadly this is.

I'm trying to imagine hearing it in the club. Would you dance, or just be confused?

Balf Quarry

2009-09-14T22:00:00.001-06:00

a short walk through the Magik Markers album

****

"Risperdal" or "Don't Talk In Your Sleep", which is more sick? This makes me want to break out the Stooges and bliss the fuck out. It's impossible to ignore how great the lyrics are on these two tracks.

"Jerks"
Not feeling this one.

"Psychosomatic"
It's just a bit ridiculous what the band is doing here. It doesn't kick, nor is it catchy. The lyrics aren't as adept here, either, which is distracting me from everything else.

"7/23"
Brilliant. Are those vocal harmonies that I hear? This is lovely and echo-ey, with ever-so-gentle, washed-out keyboard tones. It's so organic. . . . wait, is there acoustic guitar strumming going on here?

"State Number"
This sounds like a piano dirge played on an empty stage. The wind adds to the theatrical element. Elisa Ambrogio seems to be aware of this, as she mentions pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

"The Ricecar of Dr. Clara Haber" and "The Lighter Side of...Hippies"
These two raise an important question: How many songs are actually here? These two obviously don't count. If "Ricecar" was supposed to be taken seriously, it wouldn't be called "Ricecar". "Hippies" is barely intelligible, and not in an interesting way.

"Ohio R./Live/Hoosier"
I keep wanting this one to go further with the melody. I understand this is a band that makes drone its mandate, but those ear-baiting "Ooh ooh ooh"s at the end of each line suggest that this could have been so much better.

"Shells"
I'm sort of ambivalent about this one. On the one hand, it has this eerie "Lady in the Radiator" quality that I like. On the other hand, it's ten minutes long, making it the least accessible track on the album.

****

"Either you're good, or you're bad. . ."

2009-09-10T23:35:00.006-06:00

You can’t go to Raekwon The Chef.

Rae has to come to you. (You waited three years; you can wait a few more minutes.) First we must wade into the swampy darkness and psychotropic vapours of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Pt. 2's opening credit sequence.

Act I, scene one. “Return of the North Star” -- Old man Papa Wu, perhaps delusional, is visited by the ghost of Raekwon, and spouts Pythian babble about good and evil and prophecies of wealth. We fade to the dimly lit confines of a secret room with only an ancient cassette deck, inexplicably playing Wu background noise for what must be over a decade. We find ourselves standing knee-deep in a placid lake. It’s night, and grey smoke hovers above the surface of the water, obscuring our vision. This is the place. The "House of Flying Daggers" is not a house.

Still, Rae lurks in the shadows. He sends a fire-breathing dragon in the form of Inspectah Deck to occupy us for a verse.... So it’s in the thick of things, as our anticipation reaches the breaking point, that Rae finally appears from out of the smoke and flames, flanked by the Wu-Tang armies. A disorienting battle in water and fire ensues. At some point we will be hit with the sudden realization that we are, in fact, dying. In retrospect, it was probably Ghostface who killed us, in one of his moments of insane bloodlust. Rae wouldn’t kill us, would he? We ponder this, and in the final moment before unconsciousness, an absurd thought pushes its way into our mind: But Rae doesn’t have his money yet. We do not know why this should matter to us now, or why it gives us that strange feeling in the pit of our stomach. We need more time to unravel this mysterious thought. Oh, right: we’re dying. We sink under the dark waters into a gorgeous underworld.

We swim with the fishes.

"Sonny's Missing" and "Pyrex Vision" are revelatory; they answer none of our questions.

Maybe we’re not dead. Maybe we are just sleeping?

We can hear voices in the other room. Everything is vague: Someone’s dead, but it’s not us. We need to wake up.

*****

So far so good. “Cold Outside” is nightmarish, the grotesquely looped horn sample equally horrifying and addictive. Suga Bang Bang’s vocals on the chorus are delivered with a monotonous emphasis that grates in the best way possible, lending the track a suitable harshness. We’re all glad RZA and Rae kissed and made up (or, more likely, RZA gave Rae a much-needed spanking and he fell into line). Either way, it’s nice to see that RZA was not, in fact, banned from the album. “Black Mozart” isn’t a standout, but it’s good. RZA’s deranged vocal on the outro is fun. The Chef kills his verse on “Gihad”, delivering one of my favourite opening lines on the album. No matter how many times I am subjected to it, I will never get used to Ghostface rapping about his dick. A narrative involving Ghost getting caught fucking his son’s pregnant girlfriend would be ridiculously funny if it wasn’t so ridiculously gross. I realize this is Ghost’s intended effect. Rae and Ghost are even better when they’re trading bars on bromantic street tale, “Penitentiary”. Yes, Rae and Ghost are adorable together. I can’t deny it. There are so many lines here that made me crack a smile

*****

"New Wu" is soooo good, but I could do without having to hear Method Man's "tell a friend..." hook on the chorus, which becomes incessant after the first time. It's too bad, because other than that, the track is transcendent. I don't need to be told to throw my "W" up more than once, thank you very much. "Baggin Crack" could have been left off the album. It's mercifully short, though, and it's a testament to the album's quality that even the less interesting tracks on OB4CL2 could not actually be said to be bad.

I thought "Surgical Gloves" was the shit the first time I heard it. Now, I'm not so sure. Rae doesn't come as hard here--or burn as bright--as he does on other tracks. Sometime around the mid-point he says something along the lines of: "Ha ha! Adios ‘mios" and his laugh sounds more like a yawn. Likewise, I could take or leave "Broken Safety", though it's nice to hear Jada cough up the dust coating his lungs and kill it for a change of pace. Somewhere around here is where I start to feel the length of the album. It's hard to get excited by the high-octane, yet sort of middling, "Canal Street", when the last couple tracks were trying to put me asleep. I also don't need another ODB tribute track. Sorry, I don't. And we’ve heard this Dilla before.

Rae tosses us a much-needed lightning bolt with “10 Bricks”, the closest the album comes to unadulterated perfection. Its greatness cannot be overstated. Basically, from this point on, OB4CL2 is a marathon of amazing track after track right to the finish. In a perfect world, all these could be singles, excepting maybe Rae’s grimly dispassionate short story, “Fat Lady Sings”, which is perhaps too left-field and sinister for mass consumption. Dre-produced “Catalina” cloaks things bleak and depressing in the guise of triumphant romanticism, Rae’s fractured narratives not so much celebrating the hustle as highlighting the hopelessness, if not stupidity, of the goals that inspire the lifestyle. It turns out, contrary to popular belief, soul-crushing crime is not the most fun method of accumulating wealth.

*****

“We Will Rob You” explicitly positions itself as a throwback, with Slick Rick providing the intro. Somehow it achieves a tone that’s reverent and self-mocking at the same time. “About Me” is more tell-tale Dre. As is usually the case, the best things about Dre’s beat are not immediately apparent: the piano keys quietly cascading in the background, the half-second of absolute silence after each clap of the drum machine. Busta might not be at the top of his game anymore, but he gets off at least one jaw-dropping line about counterfeit rappers thinking they’re kings. “Mean Streets” is not as good as Scorsese, but it leaves an impression. Suga Bang Bang is back and delivers a hook possibly even more demented than the last. The Chef unwinds his rhymes with slow, intimidating precision. Inspectah raps instinctively, climbing the beat like a ladder. Ghost does his best to appear a loose cannon—playing Johnny Boy to Raekwon’s Charlie.

The last hurrah of “Kiss the Ring” hails the imminent end of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Pt 2. How many times we come back to this album remains to be seen. Will people play it alongside part 1, as if it’s the classic album’s second disc, like Rae seems to have intended? I gather that this album was so anticipated by the elusive “hardcore Wu fans” that if Rae delivered anything less than greatness, it would have been a disappointment. I wouldn’t label myself a hardcore fan, but I was looking forward to hearing how it would turn out. I won’t engage in any overly sentimental toasts or salutes to the Wu, but I will say that it’s impressive and admirable in all the ways that could place it among the best rap albums of the year. It’s not a perfect album, by any means, but its close enough to satisfy my expectations. The Chef did a good job.

Raekwon - House of Flying Daggers (feat. Inspectah Deck, Ghostface, Method Man)

Raekwon - 10 Bricks (feat. Cappadonna & Ghostface)

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Trouble In Dreams (Or: How To Cross An Ocean On Morpheus)

2009-09-09T23:59:00.005-06:00

Destroyer - "Libby's First Sunrise"

via morpheus-sailing:

As this trip winds down, I will try to provide a summary of what the standard daily routine looks like onboard.
This may seem overly simplistic, however, please understand that we have spent considerable time discussing this and we believe it to be an accurate representation.
Here we go....
1) Standard Routine
- Sleep
- Stand your watch
- Eat
- Read
2) Repeat step 1 three times
3) Throw a fishing lure overboard with a disgusted look
4) Cocktail Hour - discuss some random topic in excruciating detail
5) Repeat all above until you arrive at your destination
- JG

a r c h i v e s

2009-09-08T22:11:00.000-06:00

I'm just getting around to check out the first installment of Neil Young's epic Archives box set. Sifting through all the unreleased material for a few gems, if there are gems to be had. . . .

I remain cautiously hopeful.

In the meantime, my favourite tracks from the newly-remastered After the Gold Rush:

Neil Young - "Southern Man"
Neil Young - "I Believe In You"

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