Little Dragon-Ritual Union (Tensnake Remix)

I have sorta this thing with Swedes, where I essentially classify everything they make as awesome like: Ikea, H&M, Swedish Fish, Lykke Li, Miike Snow. And this song by Little Dragon, remixed by Tensnake, only confirms this love. The beat is sick, the vocals are rich, and the lyrics are haunting; sounds like a win-win to me.

Frank Ocean-"Swim Good"

I recently have been complaining that R&B has been slacking for a long time. While acts like The Weeknd and The-Dream have made breakthroughs through their experimentation with alternative music forms (which validates the post-modernist theory that musical genres are ceasing to exist), I still crave for the good old days of soul, or even the not too distant days of sleek hip-hop beats with soulful vocals over it. Frank Ocean has been surprising me over time, especially since he is associated with Odd Future, a hip-hop collective that is strongly into clashing with and breaking musical barriers. Ocean's "Novacane" was sing-songy but also very non-traditional in its drug references, tongue-in-cheek, and felt Kid Cudi-like (whom I love) and very Odd Future.

Then I heard this:




If genres really are melting away, it is nice to hear Frank Ocean remind us of the vocal stylings and sleek-but-resilient instrumentation that R&B used to, and could still have.