reccej

Every so often I clear everything on my iPhone’s playlist in order to try a batch of new music to listen to, and this is me attempting to relay my thoughts on some of the artists. :

Apollo Brown - Clouds:

Beat albums are always kind of a hit or miss affair, and while if done correctly they can have some sort of proper arch to them (Donuts comes to mind immediately), others falter by merely attempting to stick to a theme rather than allowing the selection of beats before them drive the narrative (some of Madlib’s Beat Konducta series falls under this problem). Fortunately, Clouds seems to fall on the side of the former, dishing out groove-after-groove of some of the best post-Dilla soul sampling.

Conclusion: Keep
Notable Songs: “Know the Time,” “The 11th Hour,” “The Baghdad Sun”

Araabmuzik - Electronic Dream:

I’m largely unfamiliar with Araabmuzik’s work with Dipset, aside from a choice instrumental or two, but his live-drumming style gives an organic feel to a genre that is getting increasingly bogged down from overproduction. However, I struggle to say Araabmuzik’s solution is much better, as the sampling in this album/mixtape/whatever
 is pretty subpar, yet I can’t help but enjoy each song. Its nothing tremendously new or revolutionary, but its good tuning out music.

Conclusion: Keep
Notable Songs: “Electronic Dream,” “AT2,” Pretty much every song is similar though

Just finished recording for 3 days straight, gonna do some serious R&R with:

I figured I might as well review these albums I keep buying since I’m listening to them anyway.

I knew nothing of the band, only that their cover was kind of trippy and seeing that they covered a song from 1969 (which I initially misread as the year the album was produced), so imagine my surprise when the first song is a monolithic half-hour of noise accumulated from their live shows.

But maybe that is the best way to begin this album, which can only be described as unrelenting. Ghost seem to storm on with their concepts and push until there is nothing left to be gathered from the remains. The songs accumulate more and more elements until bursting into silence, but what separates them from many other droned out rock groups is how technical it all seems. Its not that Ghost is filling the track with noise as a means to excuse their faults, but rather as a deliberate choice, and when the group ceases its bombardment for the closing “Grisaille,” the beauty of their music can be fully realized.

Its not an album I’ll listen to every day, but that’s unsurprising. If you’re looking to looking to subject yourself to an hour Ghost’s psyched out droning, you’ll find yourself oddly glad you did.

Record shopping has become somewhat of a hobby for me, but it would be too simple to look at it as an old-fashioned iTunes. With the digitalization of, well, damn near everything, the physical aspect of shopping has seem to fall by the wayside (as evidenced by the bankruptcy of Borders, Blockbuster, Tower Records, and probably countless other shops that were probably too small to be noted).

But the biggest draw for record shops isn’t so much a wide variety of goods, but the ability to browse and discover. I love the feeling of walking into a shop with records lining the walls, finding a spot, and beginning to undertake the task of looking at every single record. I love seeing names I’ve never seen before, seeing album covers I never would have found otherwise, and on the occasion that something intrigues me enough, hearing singles or albums I never would’ve considered. Posting on a forum or relying on the infinite wisdom of last.fm or Pandora skims over the artists who never made it, or the ones who were ignored or who simply got lost in the overwhelming sea of music that exists. There’s a feeling of shooting at the hip when at a record shop, ignoring the familiar faces and instead investing time and money into a product that could very well not be worth it (see: most of the 80’s). Often times, the record bought will drag on or have a weak hook, but that’s not what I’m after. I’m after those moments of brilliance that emerge, whether it be the entire song or simply a drum fill with feeling, these moments are irreplaceable.

In addition to these moments of brilliance, there’s also the feeling of holding a record in one’s hand, knowing that at one time or another the artist themselves held it, whether beaming with pride or praying for a hit. We remember physical objects of our past often times more than the data they contained, and I aim to search through these memories.