Stream of M83's "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming"

I found this link while cruising through the blogosphere and upon first listen I love this album. I wouldn't say I like all the songs individually, but it seems, as is characteristic of Anthony Gonzalez (M83) that the album is more of a project than a collection of songs. His project is to use his expansive sound and despite the title of his LP, make the sound less ethereal (though it is ethereal on some parts, especially at the book ends of the album) and instead create a play on pop-sensibilities, ranging from 80s new wave, to bubblegum shoegaze, to proto-house electronica. And even more so, Gonzalez has risen to involve vocals that are melodic and gracious, defining the tracks more so than his beat work (which I still give a thumbs up). In fact, I would say the songs that don't have a melodic vocal are the ones I like the least (though I must admit I am partial to vocals over instrumentation in general) mainly due to the centrality that these vocals give to his characteristically expansive sound.

More succinctly, this album is awesome. While it is experimental and finely crafted anglicized French-electronica at its best, I love it because it feels like super hero music. I've played the stream a couple times thus far, and it has functioned well as study music, but I have a nagging suspicion that it is save-the-world-because-by-listening-to-this-you-feel-awesome music.


Here's the stream, from Amazon France:
http://www.amazon.fr/gp/entity/M83/B000APTB8M?ie=UTF8&ref_=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1317985230&sr=1-1&ie=UTF8&tag=alternaive-21&linkCode=ur2&camp=1642&creative=19458

and here is a link to one of my favorites "Steve McQueen" (the song title speaking for the feel of the whole album):
http://www.juzp.net/SMaaLXEF7oqvz

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.

Come As You Are

I heard this song the other day and I stopped whatever the hell I was doing and said "My God."

Recently I had been thinking about how my appreciation of Nirvana increased after  I began to appreciate how Kurt Cobain combined gritty lyrics with a strong pop sensibility (with his insistence on melody driving all his songs) and flattening each song with his powerful growl (which often hid the fact that he had great range and vocal sensibility).

Now replace the growl with a soft saccharine voice, the rumbling bass and simplistic pounding drum with an (awesome) electropop beat and slowed down interpretation of the melody, and you get this beautiful song, which not only says a lot about Yuna as an artist but speaks to the power of Cobain as a songwriter and vocalist.


And when you hear this saccharine voice singing "No I don't have a gun," something inside you freezes.

Come As You Are

I heard this song the other day and I stopped whatever the hell I was doing and said "My God."

Recently I had been thinking about how my appreciation of Nirvana increased after  I began to appreciate how Kurt Cobain combined gritty lyrics with a strong pop sensibility (with his insistence on melody driving all his songs) and flattening each song with his powerful growl (which often hid the fact that he had great range and vocal sensibility).

Now replace the growl with a soft saccharine voice, the rumbling bass and simplistic pounding drum with an (awesome) electropop beat and slowed down interpretation of the melody, and you get this beautiful song, which not only says a lot about Yuna as an artist but speaks to the power of Cobain as a songwriter and vocalist.


And when you hear this saccharine voice singing "No I don't have a gun," something inside you freezes.

Amy Winehouse 1983-2011

I'm still grieving the death of Amy Winehouse. I was shaken to the core when I heard the news last Saturday.

I first heard her voice around Christmas time 2006 when I heard "You Know I'm No Good" and I thought, "wow pretty cool." But no hook. Then later the following summer, when most of America did, with "Rehab" on constant rotation on the radio. Still no hook.

Then, the next summer, I heard my friend's Frank CD, and the intro track "Stronger than Me" had me instantly hooked.

Her emotional rawness, her wit, her vocal strength and breathtaking vocal arrangement had me in her grips. I was obsessed since.

That summer, I downloaded (almost) everything Winehouse, and by far "You Sent Me Flying" was my favorite.

It spoke to the fragility of both unrequited love and youth in a way that no one had ever really dealt with. When I think about it, beyond her amazing voice, what I loved was her songwriting talent. Principally, I loved that she decided to write songs in a way that no one else really wrote. Her instrumentation breezed along as her perfectly poetic lyrics about imperfection and observation drove her songs. Finding out later that she mainly wrote the words and vocal arrangements and was assisted with the hip-hop and later soul-based beats, reinforced the fact that Amy's voice (both vocally and lyrically) was the highlight of every song.

Many of her devoted fans believe that her Frank LP was better than her more popular Back to Black LP. And to some degree, I agree with that opinion. I didn't really appreciate Amy until after hearing most of Frank. It may be because Frank relied on a more raw sentiment, with songs like "Fuck Me Pumps" running the show, and gritty hip-hop beats (like using the instrumentation in "Made You Look") cementing this feeling. With Back to Black, Amy was geared towards a more polished, old-time path.

In an interview she stated that she loved the drama of 60s motown. In Back to Black she used the motown model not just in instrumentation and vocal arrangement, but also, in a way, her lyrics. Her songs more succinctly employed her characteristic wit and fragility into a melodic pop-based manner. While palpably less raw in form, in content Amy still shined through with songs like "Just Friends"-

Overall, its hard to say I have a favorite Amy song, and if I could, I would post every song I knew to remember her. In fact, to even attempt to tribute her, in a blog post, or any other means, is quite difficult. But that proves a testament to her and the pricelessness of her work in her short period of time.

Ever since I heard "Stronger than Me" I wanted her to be well, I wanted her to put out more work and I wanted to see her live one day. But for the past few years that never happened, and each headline about her seemed more helpless than the last. I know that many people will remember her for her public fall. But for me, I always have and always will remember her for the joy her music gave me. And I guess death for her, while it may not make her more famous or make her songs sound different, will provide her the peace she looked for in her life.

Many people have commented on the "27" club of incredibly talented musicians who died (under presumably the same circumstances as her, via drugs) at the age of 27, including Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison. It now includes her.

M.I.A. posted a song on SoundCloud called "27" the day after Amy's passing.

On twitter, she wrote: "i recorded this song b4 vickileekx but never put it out. its an unfinished demo...R.I.P.A.M.Y" (To date, I think it is one of M.I.A.'s best songs). And where words fail to properly pay tribute, I think such a beautiful song pays homage to a beautiful voice.

27 by _M_I_A_

No One's Gonna Love You...

No One's Gonna Love You-Cee-Lo Green

I've loved Cee-Lo pre-"Fuck You" and even pre-Gnarls Barkley. He had me at his first single "Closet Freak." Last fall I downloaded The Lady Killer LP and to be honest was not super enthused with it upon first (or second listen). But as time goes on and songs have played on my shuffle, more and more I fall in love with the artistry behind the songs (even if the lyrics aren't as tastey as his prior two solo LPs or Gnarls Barkley LPs). And "No One's Gonna Love You" becomes more of a standout. On a summer afternoon drive, the crispy feel of the production, the faded melodic vocals, the strength of his longer notes grouped with his already rich voice create this audibly tangible feel of the fragility of him singing this song. If I were a song, I'd hope to be this, cracked and beautiful. The antithesis on the emphasis of production being slickly polished.

Robot Koch

Sexy( ) Stinky( )

New Santigold

"People want my power and they want my station"

Go-Santigold ft. Karen O



Words couldn't even describe how excited I was to discover that Santigold was putting out new music later this year.

Her eponymous solo debut that dropped 3 summers ago was like audible magical gold. It really shook me because it combined dancehall and 80s new wave with a splendidly well-executed experimental power and at the same time acknowledging her punk past. Such songs like "Unstoppable" placed this LP in constant rotation for a good 18 months for me-




"Go" seems to accomplish the impossible feat of topping this previous LP with a more electric, melodic, polished and afro-punk feeling and it is very exciting that at least this first glimpse suggests that there is no sophomore slump for this amazing (L.E.S.) artiste(s).

I am also GEEKED that one of my other female vocalists, Karen O., is featured. Doesn't her voice in the bridge sound absolutely electric?
I have feeling that her piece was inspired by such songs like "Dragon Queen", which like most of her oeuvre with Yeah Yeah Yeahs (especially in "It's Blitz") sounds like a powerful current channeled from an iridescent vocal diamond.

Anomie Bell

If you want to massage your ears with some grumbling bass under the soothing husky voice of a sexy woman, this is a decent place to begin.

Washed Out NPR Full Album Stream

John Mayer, and most people listening to music post 1975, predicted that in the future most of the music we would listen to would predominately come from machines.

Well the future is here.

Washed Out is an artist near and dear to my heart, for introducing Chillwave, but also for doing an excellently skillful and futuristic job of intergrating voice and beat and machine. It didn't even occur to me,  though, that he had yet to release a full length album; his EPs being satisfying onto themselves.

But not only has SubPop snatched him up (score), but NPR (the prior target practice of Republican deficit reduction) has graciously provided a full album stream of the album that officially drops next Tuesday July 12th.

You can listen here:
http://www.npr.org/2011/06/22/137340922/first-listen-washed-out-within-and-without


But here are some notables:

Echoes-



Before-


You and I (the effects and ending to this is just angelic)-




Upon listening to this stream I got a markedly more polished feel to this LP than the endearingly bombastic previous songs. But as I listened further along, I did not feel less joy. Instead (as the cover art may suggest), the previous works were the awesome first few getting-to-know-you dates. The LP is when he puts the moves on us and makes passionate love to our ears.

Digging in the mines of my memory

"And I got a little money where the safe is. For my babies's babies's babies. Babies, babies, babies. Babies, babies, baby!"

There was a prolific period of my career as a music fan when I had to listen to every song Lil Wayne rap recorded post Tha Carter I

This was one of them-




"He's Fred, I'm Barney, welcome to bedrock. Rock? Rock. Yep, rock. Then I get's to rollin'"

Around hearing "Gettin It" I became a little obsessed with the Cool Kids, and had to hear everything they did (a quest that was well worth it).

Among the memorable discoveries-

Sometimes Certain Songs Come To Save You From the Doldrums of Banal Living

Have you heard the new Lykke Li album? You probably have, because you probably know some member of the Lykke Li cult strong arming you into listening into everything she does (i.e. me). This song, "I Follow Rivers" is among my favorite songs on this charming album (only probably beat by "Youth Knows No Pain"). But when I heard this remix of it, I was floored that Lykke Li could even sound better. (Sure, I've heard remixes of her songs, but usually the original beats them. This one, however, took the cake). I've played this several times and can now attest that it has lifted me from my depression of still not being able to become a ghost writer for Weezy. It's songs like these that remind me of the lovely things in life, like awesome songs being turned into more awesome remixes.




p.s., speaking of awesome new music, have you heard the new stuff from Toro Y Moi? Not to sound like a blind Pitchfork follower, by listing two of the 3 recent picks for best new music, but Toro y Moi's transition from chillwave (which he did beautifully) to electro-funk (which he does brilliantly) is wonderful in a world where consistency leads to boringness and experimentation can fall flat. I also can't stop playing these two tracks.






Hugs, Lattes, Long Islands and Kisses,
Ashley

Which is tbe better MJ Cover?

or




I've had this question on my mind for a while now, but I figure now that it's a new year, I should have it settled. The forces of sweet, electro-heavy indie funk/soul (either stripped down as chill wave, in option one, or stripped down layered machinery, as in option two) both seem to suit the late king well. While these covers apparently came out pre-MJ's death, I fittingly didn't discover them until a few months after he passed. And moreover, in anticipation of both of these band's new albums in the next year these songs have made frequent appearances lately on my itunes.
Either way, as a tribute, consolation or reminder of MJ or as just solid electro-indie songs, they both seem to do the job.

Thoughts?

Oh and again HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR :)
-Ashley

le-Hiboo

It has been a while since I posted last. Excuse the hiatus. I'm sure you all missed my posts sooo much. =p Anyway, Ashley has inspired me to begin posting a bit again, so here it goes. Ready....

Over the last couple years, I have seen the birth of several efforts to invite music artists to perform live to record in interesting spaces including bathrooms, taxi cars, staircases, swimming pools, as well as more conventional locations. I love these projects like LiveDaily and Black Cab, just to name a couple. Today I came across another one of these projects done by le-Hiboo, a French group that I haven't actually found much info about. They have a great variety of artists, though many are French, and there are artists of many styles. The camera work is beautiful, and the artists perform in all sorts of different spaces, including the swimming pool I mentioned earlier. I will just leave you with a couple samples that I really love, and shut up now.

Basia Bulmat. She is fantastic.

HibOO d'Live : Basia Bulat "The Shore"

and these guys, Local Natives.

HibOO d'Live : Local Natives "Wide eyes"

Yeasayer (Sunrise &Rome)

They say crazy people are drawn to music because it soothes them. Well I think I'm really drawn to Yeasayer because they successfully embed crazy into odd melodic and catchy music. This is what I'm enjoying now, and I hope you guys enjoy it too.

-Ashley

From All Hour Cymbals (their debut)

From Odd Blood (their most recent album)

Memory Tapes-Bicycle

5 and a half months after graduation, I still find myself sometimes riding the chill wave.
I hope that you guys are too.

-Ashley

Seba Jun aka Nujabes, Rest in Peace

photo by yosuke moriya. kamakura, summer 2009

Some of you may have heard that Jun Seba aka Nujabes died last month in a car crash. When I first heard this news, via text by Jeff in the early morning, i couldn't accept the reality of it. hours later, i look up the news, and confirm that indeed nujabes had been in a fatal car accident. i never knew i could be so sad to have to say goodbye to someone who i had never met. nujabes really reached out to his audience, to me, through his music, and put his soul into his work. In commemoration, i just wanted to share a bit of my experience with nujabes and the memories he has left with me.

I was introduced to Nujabes toward the end of 04' by a cherished friend, and have brought his music everywhere with me since. I was a sophomore then. I had just spent the previous year bouncing all around the hip hop scene in Washington State, neglecting my academics. I ended up doing poorly in school, so my mother decided she would start staying at home and watch over me. It was pretty hard for me to find my movements so limited, but i found myself lots of books, video games, cartoons, and music kept me entertained for the most part during my house arrest, and I got my first taste of Nujabes. this was the song that got me to start saying "chill" all the time.

Aruarian Dance - Nujabes - Departure


I did some quick research and found out the song was from an OST for an anime, Samurai Champloo. Some key words in the description of this anime include Samurais, breakdancing, and hip hop. What more could a high school boy ask for? So I pull up the first episode, and this is what I saw.

Battlecry - Nujabes (feat. Shing02) - Departure


I was already drooling before the episode started. I absolutely love all the music that is used in the series, and after some more digging, discovered a couple other artists who nujabes worked with, fat jon, tsutchie, and most notably Shing02, the MC in the video above. It was 2004, so I had a few years of nujabes releases to catch up on. I started looking at some earlier albums, and found that in before doing Battlecry for Samurai Champloo, Shingo02 and Nujabes also collaborated on a series called luv sic. Here's part 1&2:



These were on Hydeout Productions 1st Collection.

I also found he produced a mixtape, ristorante mixtape, of some really amazing artists. Here are a few artists I ended up looking into and continue listening to and enjoying today.

Wolf Drawn - Emancipator - Soon It Will Be Cold Enough


Choking You - Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher
[Scott Herran aka Prefuse 73 just put out a new project under the name Risil]


Make You Feel That Way - Blackalicious - Ristorante Mixtape


Tricky Tricky - Royksopp (So & So Remix) - Junior


There are many other amazing artists on this mix. Check it out if youre feelin it. The following year, he released an absolutely amazing album, a common favorite amongst many. You might imagine just how geeked I was when I saw luv sic pt 3 on the tracklist.

luv sic. pt 3 - Nujabes (feat. Shing02) - Modal Soul


This is my favorite beat in the luv sic series. and i relaly dig all of Shing02's verses. If you listen to anything in this post, you should listen to this trilogy. Anyway, I know, I cheated and skipped the first track....but I went back! Here's what I found.

Here is probably the most universally enjoyed track in my own experience. Probably was the most common first track I play for people when introducing nujabes.

Feather - Nujabes (feat. Cise Star and Akin from Cyne) - Modal Soul


The most amazing thing about this album for me was that it inspired me to look into the MCs on his label, and some of their work that nujabes produced under his own label, Hydeout Productions.

Home Sweet Home - Substantial - To This Union a Son was Born


Bullshit As Usual - Pase Rock - Bullshit As Usual


The second semester my senior year in high school was a really insane time in my life. I had run away from home, slept in the streets of seattle, started getting my rejections and acceptances to colleges, dated my only true high school sweetheart and got dumped within a few months. My life was quite a rollercoaster. Some time amidst all this, I picked up Hydeout Productions 2nd Collection. There were some real gems here...

Winter Lane (Remix) - Nujabes - Hydeout Productions 2nd Collection
[The original is on Modal Soul Classics]


This song leaves me feeling very nostalgic and blue. Many of nujabes's music does this to me, and i love it.

After Hanabi (Listen to my Beat) - Nujabes


I brought all these tracks to Duke with me, and when people would chill in my room, i would just bump nujabes all the time. Soon, many of my friends were hooked too. By next semester, I had a friend telling me his brother was bumpin nujabes in a cafe in Boston and spreading his name. Everyone had their own favorites too. I still remember Martin pointing out this beauty for me. In the anime, it's used in episode 11, my favorite episode. i know, i'm corny.
Counting Stars - Nujabes


I didn't expect that so many people i would meet during that year would dig nujabes with such enthusiasm. for all of freshman year, my closest of friends and some more took nujabes everywhere with us, and rocked his tracks hard. In our rooms, in the showers, outside on the blackwell bench, wherever. Ananth and I even carried him on our phones. I still walk past some friends who will brighten up as they see me and say "i'm listening to nujabes right now!" And i still have people asking me "Who's this? This is really good!" and proceed to ask me to spell out his name for them.

For a while, basically sophomore year, I started getting into a lot of different music, largely introduced to me through friends here. I started getting to lots of indie, electronic, dance, and jazz music, thanks to some good friends like Pronoy and Serena who introduced some really great artists to me. Then, that summer I was spent my time in Durham with a friend of mine, Pilnik aka Big Bear, when nujabes released a new album! But we'll come back to that in a moment. I found some refreshed interest in nujabes and started digging around nujabes's collaborators, and found some amazing things. I learned that Cise Star, one of the MCs on feather, had done some work with another label, Project Moonscircle. Everything about this label is pretty effing amazing and epic.

Glen Porter and Robot Koch are both downtempo hip hop artists. I love how both of them develop the their songs throughout both these tracks. Robot Koch also does some really great dub work. 40 winks is another hip hop artist with some of the slickest beats i have ever heard.

Um - Glen Porter - Silent in Truth


101 - Robot Koch


Wizardry - 40 winks - The Lucid Effect


Last semester, I picked up the latest album released by Nujabes that I have, released in 09'. The title of the album is a pretty accurate description of what goes on here. I'll leave you with one last track from this compilation.

Departure - Akira Kosemura - Mellow Beats, Friend's & Lovers


arigato seba-san.

Blu - Silent

I dreamed of this last november. sometimes it's nice to be blue, especially having room to breathe.

The Black Seeds-Sometimes Enough

The Black Seeds are a reggae band from New Zealand. I discovered them about 6 years or so ago by chance when I turned to the "World" music show on a local college station. Since then I never have heard anything from them, or even have met anyone who knows of them really, even though they're one of the biggest acts in NZ. Thus, I want to share the cult love of this group. They're absolutely amazing and their sound is so refreshing and chill to hear.

Before I let y'all click, I think its important to understand how difficult how hard it was to pick one Black Seeds song for y'all to sample. All their beats are good stuff. And though they expand beyond the reggae roots repetoire, they follow in the tradition's deep and inspirational lyricism. I absolutely love their Keep on Pushing and Into the Dojo efforts (the latter of which this song is off of). But the Keep on Pushing LP was so popular that it spawned a "Pushed" remix album, where there are remixes of the songs on the Keep on Pushing album. I encourage you to listen to that if you can find it. If not you're more then welcome to ask me about it. But below is the single to the Into the Dojo album. I know you'll love it.

-Ashley