The Doctor Is In

And he has just the cure for all that ails ya: A fuckload of Vitamin Bibio, in a silky smooth lozenge of phat beats. In 2009 the Englishman dropped three albums worth of high quality original tracks and remixes, Vignetting the Compost, Ambivalence Avenue, and The Apple & The Tooth. Oh yeah, and an EP, Ovals and Emeralds. So it was naturally incredible to think that this guy would have the time to make a quality remix on the side, like the mastery he showed in reworking Neon Indian's "Mind, Drips" back in September. He's been really busy, lucky for us. So why get really excited a year after the fact? Because you can never ever tire of this guy? Because I only just listened to The Apple & The Tooth, and the remix of "Fire Ant" (already a super dope track) by Keaver & Brause is just that good? Nah, it's because Bibio is a good doctor, mixing up beat potions for mah brainspace. 

17 Mind, Drips (Bibio Remix) by Popfrenzy 

Bibio - Sugarette by muth

Also, on an unrelated note, Usher's "U Don't Have 2 Call" is a phenomenal Neptunes beat, written by Pharrell, etc. Too good.

PABST BLUE RIBBON

David Lynch (yes, Mulholland Drive, Twin Peaks, "I'll fuck anything that moves" David Lynch) put out an electro single today, which is apparently in support of an upcoming full album. Let that sink in for a bit. The single is unsurprisingly pretty awful - a vocalist who may or may not be Lynch mewls into a vocoder over a "Hey guys, check out this new program called Garage Band!" beat. But it's not like I'm going to get mad at David Lynch for being batshit crazy and weird - that's kind of his raison d'etre (although I wish dude would make a movie again - after 2006's masterful Inland Empire, his only video work has been a moderately intriguing 15-min Dior Commercial with Marion Cotillard).

Good Day Today by threeminutesthirtyseconds

Lynch's odd foray does at least bring to mind another slightly more successful test-tube pop explosion from an unlikely source, Yoko Ono's 1981 foray into disco "Walking on Thin Ice". In fairness, Yoko did have help from a certain genius Beatle collaborator. The track was in fact the last song that John Lennon ever worked on - he was reportedly holding a cassette of the song's demo in his hands when he was shot. It's a fairly haunting final statement, since Lennon's guitar work is so forward-thinking and bizarre, even in the context of a pretty tight dance groove. Watch for the breakdown halfway through the son, where Lennon fits a harshly abrasive guitar vibrato into the beat perfectly - you get the sense that Lennon may well have aged better as a musician than his fellow Beatles did as punk and grunge started to take hold. It's enough to make you look past Yoko's creepy speak-sing (for the most part, anyway).

My Beautiful Light Dark Contorted Indigenous Peruvian Twisted Fantasy

Building off Chomps' excellent idea - I'm curious to see what the SRS dudes think about Kanye's coke-bender magnum-opus freak-out of an album. FEEL FREE TO TYPE IN ALL CAPS IF YOU THINK IT'S NECESSARY!!!!!11111one

(More BZNZ after the jump)

We Are The Dreamers: Hi Tiger's Hide the Drugs

I've been meaning to post about Hi Tiger for a while now, and their sweet debut LP, entitled Hide the Drugs. The group is a NH via Brooklyn based collective, a couple of whom keep a great blog over at My Other Computer is a Sunset. A side project of the guys from Neon Coyote and Chico Love, whose remixes and mixtapes have all been, well, epic bangers, Hi Tiger's album offers danceable beats with fuzzed out lyrics. There's a respectable honesty about these guys, and their music reflects it. The album covers a ton of ground stylistically too, with a surprising psychedelic bent, along with the occasional tropical note. I can't really think of anything more eloquent to say about this album except that it is definitely worth many listens. To that effect, either stream the album over at the group's soundcloud, or nab it here.

10. Prima Donna by Hi Tiger 

5. We Are The Dreamers by Hi Tiger 

LUNICE

I first heard of Lunice from the collab he did with Diplo. Where the two of them outrageously remixed Deerhunter's track Helicopter. Probably my favorite song of the year. From the limited amount of tracks he's released in his young career one thing is apparent. He shit's out bangers and pisses excellent production. He drops his first EP,Stacker Upper sometime in the very near future. HIGHLY anticipated. Nuf said, check it out.

Fast Life (Lunice Remix) by pecachon

STACKER UPPER EP MIX by Lunice 

Couldn't find this one anywhere else so u've gota copy, paste. Sorry for the inconvenience.
http://hypem.com/search/wobble%20remix/1/

TALK IS CHEAP VS ALL DAY

It's a great shame that not many people know about the Mashup masterminds from the ATL known as Ludachrist. Their first mixtape, Bangfest, came out in between the release of Girl Talk's Night Ripper and Feed The Animals and displayed the same kind of creative and tedious arrangement of cut up samples that can create a frenzy on the dance floor. I personally would use parts of Bangfest for my own DJ sets and they always proved to be the most crowd pleasing parts of my set. So I guess its fitting that their new mixtape, Talk Is Cheap, would be released so closely to Girl Talk's super anticipated All Day. Well I finally got to check them both out and unfortunately I'm not too impressed with either album. Of the two I would say All Day is more consistent and Talk is Cheap has more explosive moments but also some not so bright ones. Nasty K suggested that Mashup music today may be played out, which I honestly think is the case. The whole thrill of the prior releases just isn't there. Night Ripper, Feed The Animals and Bangfest were all awesome trips with shocks at every corner but nothing is shocking anymore. My suggestion to you all is to listen to Bangfest if you haven't yet and then check out Talk Is Cheap, it's still a lot fun. I even at times think higher of Bangfest than any Girl Talk album...

Grab Ludachrist's stuff at their website - Worship Ludachrist

Girl Talk does it ALL DAMN DAY

In the interest of keeping srs bznz srsly current, I figured I'd jump on this one the day it dropped. Girl Talk's first album in two years, ALL DAY, is more than an hour of continuous mash-ups of familiar songs. Basically, Greg Gillis is still up to his usual shenanigans.

You can grab ALL DAY for free from Illegal Art (or here if the servers are busy).

While ALL DAY opens a bit lackluster (how can you beat the way "Int'l Players' Anthem" kicks off Feed the Animals?), it quickly hits the usual GT mark. SRS DUDES, I encourage you to highlight your favorite bits in this post. I'll start it here:

CHOMPS: Aphex Twin's "Windowlicker" x Soulja Boy's "Pretty Boy Swag" in the track "Get It Get It" gave me a lil' chub.

RAJ: Mixing Radiohead's "Creep" and ODB's "Shimmy Shimmy Ya" is kind of profound, really - same thing with that gorgeous UGK v. John Lennon outro. Kylie Minogue-Young MC and Portishead-Big Boi also fall into the category of shit that should never work but really, really does. Don't know about the rest of you guys, but I'm enjoying this way more than Feed the Animals. (For the record, Bruce Springsteen vs. N.E.R.D. does NOT work)

NASTY K:All Day is good. Sure. But it seems to lack the spine-tingling, "how the fuck did he know to do that?" moments of Night Ripper or Feed the Animals. Think back to that visionary collision of Notorious B.I.G. and Elton John, or the genuinely moving mashup of "Lollipop" with "Under the Bridge" on the tail-end of Feed the Animals. It's possible that the mashup phenomenon in 2010 is simply played out, and not as revolutionary as it might have been at the end of 2006. Everyone has a computer and can steal the software they need to make this music, resulting in a lot of crappy mashups after Girl Talk's initial success. All Day may not quite equal the punch of the previous two albums, but that said, there are some key moments that speak to Gillis's talents as a pioneer of the genre, and his great musical taste.

I love the highlights Raj suggested, especially the Kylie Minogue bit, but I would add the Twista and U2 moment at the end of "On and On" to my faves. The "Single Ladies" and "Ante Up" mashup in "That's Right" is interesting too, but I'm not sure I wouldn't rather just listen to M.O.P. on their own. In all, a decent listen, and when Girl Talk embarks on his huge tour this fall, I'll probably push and shove to get a better view with all the other sweaty hipsters, but I'm not sure my mind will be as boggled as it was 3 years ago.

TK: Definitely a consistent, well made album that will prove its worth at parties. I second Windowlicker x Pretty Boy Swag and also Paint it Black x Black and Yellow I think is worth mentioning as well. Gregg Gillis should do a Hip Hop side project, I'm interested in what other great things he can do with a sample, perhaps even go back to his Glitch roots and do something with that. If he labels it a side project under a new name I think he wouldn't have the same pressure as releasing a new "Girl Talk" album but with the immediate success of All Day and tours I guess why bother?

B. Parsons:I really expected and hoped that All Day would top Feed the Animals, but it just doesn't. Gillis adds more length to the album but subtracts the madness. I don't wana sound like a hater, it's good, just no FTA or NR. Top 3 "oh shit" moments. B.M.F. x Where's your head at, Paint it Black x Black and Yellow and Possum Kingdom x Get it Ready, Ready x Get Low. In the end it just doesn't flow flawlessly like the prior two albums. Here's to hoping T Bucks is right and he tries a different venture next time around.

only 36 days left

You knew this was coming. For months now, there has been one thing above all others I have been looking forward to. I don't know when it was that I first heard that Daft Punk was doing the score for Tron: Legacy, but I've been on the verge of pissing myself with excitement since. As the trailers and the soundtrack snippets have trickled out, this excitement has been building and increasing exponentially. Now the title track, "Tron Legacy" (presumably playing over the film's end titles) is available for stream over the internets, thanks to none other than Annie Mac, and it delivers in a major way. I promise I'll have some bznz for y'all in the coming days that will be more informative or previously unheard, but for now I just want to revel in the greatness that is Daft Punk + a 100-piece orchestra. Only 36 days until this movie comes out to the appropriately Avatar-ian hype. I just hope I can hold it that long.

Listen to "Tron Legacy" over at Harder Blogger Faster:
Daft Punk’s Tron Legacy Track Unveiled

Thoughts on Kanye's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

The leak of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is essentially a non-event, since all but two of the album's tracks have already circulated widely in some form (you may be shocked to learn which two tracks are the album's worst!). The main things that are new about the finalized retail product are the tweaks Kanye saw fit to bestow upon his work before unleashing it to the world - and what tweaks they are!

As it turns out, Kanye didn't just pull a "Power" sample from King Crimson - he also jacked their prog-rock spirit of endless overblown ornamentation/wankery. The comically-overadjectivized title is just the start - there are 11 guests on "All of the Lights" (of which the contributions of half are discernible), the otherwise somber confessional rap "Blame Game" includes a capital-W wacky two-minute Chris Rock monologue, and the album version of "Runaway" now includes an outro where Kanye moans unintelligibly into a vocoder for three minutes.

Kanye is hardly a stranger to self-indulgence, as his still-confusing fling with AutoTune illustrated. But the reason that 808's and Heartbreak was, quite improbably, kind of a good album had to do with the exacting rigor he brought to his fundamentally wackadoo idea of becoming a singer - limiting his sonic pallette to an 808, a synth keyboard, and some tribal drums went a long way towards undercutting the album's general insanity. Artistic constraints led, as they often do, to better art (see also: Kanye's brilliant SNL performance last month, which fit music video vision into minimal square footage).

The line going around right now, the germ of which came from the typically bland and lazy Rolling Stone review, is that the Looney Tunes excess and ambition solely for ambition's sake that dominates this album was inevitable from Kanye - that he couldn't have made the album any other way. Which is true in a sense, except that, by pre-releasing these songs, he kind of already did. At the risk of over-analyzing the psychology of someone I do not know, I'd say that Kanye, tentative after a year of public shaming, humbly sought approval with his leaks. Getting it then emboldened him enough to smother said songs with an excess of ridiculous trappings.

Don't get me wrong - grandiose absurdities aside, these are mostly great songs! "Lost in the World" in particular is one of the best things West has ever been involved with, from the inspired flip of Bon Iver to those oh-so-hard snares and the oh-so-harder tribal drum breakdown; "All of the Lights" is as well done as stadium rap gets; Nicki Minaj's verse on "Monster" is still inexplicably jaw-dropping. It's just interesting to see how these songs compare (unfavorably) to their previous incarnations* or to Kanye's "G.O.O.D. Friday" series, all of which were of course conceived and recorded in the space of a week.

Massively talented beat-maker that he is, Kanye managed to create songs in a week (specifically the "Power" remix, "Monster", "Good Friday", "The Joy", "Looking for Trouble", and the "Runaway Love" remix**) that are as good as anything he's done, songs that benefited greatly by being taken out of his hands immediately. There's even a pretty strong argument to be made that the collected series is stronger than the proper album. If I had to guess (and here I go again), I'd say that the constant tinkering seems like a function of low self-confidence more than any kind of perfectionism. How many times do you have to go platinum before you have enough confidence in your beats to leave them alone?

Kanye West - The Joy (feat. Jay-Z, Kid Cudi, prod. by Pete Rock)

*The most egregious example may be when Kanye adds a lounged-up cheesy-guitar-driven section to the rest of the hallucinatory "Devil in a New Dress", just so Rick Ross can spit a characteristically tone-deaf verse completely out of line with Kanye's own heart-on-sleeve sentiments. Furthermore, when has the addition of Rick Ross ever improved anything?

**Yeah, I know, Justin Bieber. But listen to it! It's Kanye fanboy-ing hard on Wu-Tang lore with the Bieber sample as a completely inexplicable hook - an odd attempt to troll preteen girls?

ZZT - Zzafrika

ZZT is Germany's Zombie Nation (of "Kernkraft 400" fame) and Tiga. Their new hotness is off of Turbo Recordings. ZZT worked their electro magic previously with 2008's "The Worm" and 2009's "Lower State of Consciousness". Expect bumping electrohouse with a steady four-to-the-floor beat and Tiga's trademark feminine vocal accouterments. My favorite electro track of 2010 so far!

ZZAfrika by wdpk837fm

Trolling Andy

As "Nasty K" likes to make clear to anyone who will listen, he hates No Age. And so do I. Or, rather, I did, until I heard "Glitter" (off their new album Everything in Between). No Age's strength has always been their ability to craft pretty interesting sonic textures. The problem has been that they don't really do anything with them - texture 1 goes for a while, and then texture 2 goes (but it's a little louder, and the dynamic shift apparently constitutes songwriting).

But, lo and behold, the band has now decided that they aren't too cool for regular song structure. Bridges! Choruses! Verses! Evidence that No Age have actually thought about how to fit their array of cool sounds into an audience-pleasing framework instead of just vomiting out doodles onto record! And it's actually pleasurable to hear those cool sounds - an opening glam-rock drum-stomp (is the title a homage to famed pedophile Gary?), the interplay of squalling guitars and mellow bass - when the song that contains them involves more than grinding repetition. It's enough to make this one-time hater want to listen to the whole album.

You're my boy Blue

When you bump a track and it immediately puts you in a better place, A+. This is the first time I've come across this artist but am not suprised to read that he fux wit' Rustie and Hudson Mohawke. Definitley hearing the similarities with this fingerlickingood banger(1 minute 50.) Salva resides in San Fran and drops his fourth album Feb 2011. If it's anything like "Blue"(don't know if I needed quotes for that) then yeehaw.
Blue by SALVA
Speaking of Rustie.
Rustie - Neko by FBi Radio
Off his new EP, Sunburst.

Oh Jamelia, you've got to go away

So Caribou rules. This is known. The multi-talented Dan Snaith, the man behind the Caribou project has two recent records that were both amongst the best in the year of their release, with the huge record Andorra, and the more recent Swim, full of innovative gems front to back. It should seem natural then that a man who plays as many instruments as Dan Snaith, and has a project with such variety both within and between records should release a remix record with some pretty diverse influences. Needless to say the much maligned format of the remix album rarely yields a product that is better than the original, often seeming like a cash grab in between albums with uneven results. Swim Remixes is no different, living up to the uneven expectations with contributions from all over the spectrum, like dubstep princess Ikonika's remix of "Leave House" to the "Kaili" remix from former Caribou tourmates Fuck Buttons. But arguably the most successful re-imagining goes to the remix from London producer Gold Panda, who's melancholy, plodding beatwork on "Jamelia" sets Snaith's pained vocals in sharper contrast. The ponderous regularity of the beat, punctured by a pained violin in between gives Snaith's vocals the space, before crashing in on them with layered synths. Gone is the looping snare and atmospheric feel of the original with this punchy, nostalgia-filled rework. Gold Panda's Lucky Shiner was released to critical acclaim just last month, and this remix is a sign of good things to come.

Jamelia (Gold Panda Remix) by Caribouband 

Blu - Keep it Going (prod. by Flying Lotus)

With the impending release of Kanye's new album, Weezy's recent release from Riker's, and T.I.'s hilarious release of an apology single right before his return to jail, the question on every rap fan's mind has to be: what is the worst member of the Wu-Tang Clan up to?

As it turns out, U-God has once again inexplicably found himself associated with mind-blowing talent - in this case, Flying Lotus and Blu. This may not seem like the most natural combo, since FlyLo's ultra-ornate beats would be intimidating even to the most dexterous rappers and Blu's entire body of work is an equally difficult drug-haze mumble (not unlike Raekwon's inner monologue on "Pyrex Vision" from Only Built for Cuban Linx II).

But the beat here is as stripped down as anything Lotus has done, traditional boom bap at punishingly distorted gain levels (Sleigh Bells sort of comes to mind), and Blu's hypnotic ramblings float over it quite nicely (plus major bonus points for the Roddy Piper reference). U-God delivers the five-word hook he's allowed pretty well too, I guess.

BLOOD DIAMONDS

Vancouver isn't exactly the place you expect bright tropical music to come from but thats exactly what Blood Diamonds is providing for all you baby heads searching for a little warmth. It's uplifting pop music with tropical riddims and lets not forget about though pretty pitch-shiffting, cut-up vocals that make you feel like you're floating. Needless to say, prepare for this stuff to manifest itself in your head and just linger.

Blood Diamonds - Heart by adeline_bids

Aries by BloodDiamonds

There are two kinds of people in the world

"...those who know about Die Antwoord, and those who are about to find out," boasts the South African rap-rave crew on their awesome website. And by the looks of things, they aren't far off. Their "Zef Side" and "Enter the Ninja" music videos hit the web last winter, and they've already landed a deal with Interscope and had two (count 'em, two!) world tours.

Lucky for us, the fame hasn't gone to their heads. Their recent EVIL BOY, a collaboration with Diplo and a Xhosa rapper named Wanga, is just as wack-ass and filthy as their debuts. Plus penises.

Die Antwoord is going somewhere, and I'mma be watching the whole way through.

BONUS: These guys have great taste in pop culture and music. Here's a little tidbit they posted on facebook: Lil Boosie - "We Out Chea"