Dear Daft Punk,
Hey guys! You know that song you made for the Tron soundtrack? "Derezzed"? It's pretty good! Thanks for that! And the video for the song is pretty cool too. OK, it's maybe a touch obvious to make Daft Punk have a light-cycle fight, but I like how you worked in some weird Beast Wars jousting shit, so I was sold overall! Just one thing - at the end, when it turns out to be Olivia Wilde who was in one of the suits and that becomes a big ol' attention-grabbing blog-fodder twist? Lame! Seems a little fame-whorey for a band as classy as you guys!*
It wouldn't bother me that much except that another video released today was so much better at using a famous person. Granted, Olivia Wilde is no Snoop Dogg, but Gorillaz found a much better way to use their guest - namely, letting him get super, super high (I know, I know, "let" him - ha!) and then telling him to pretend he's a rapping pirate. And in his presumably highly altered state, Snoop took that dictate very seriously, which makes for an immensely entertaining video - one that alternates between Snoop Dogg making very serious pirate faces and Snoop Dogg seeming to forget where he is at the moment.
All I'm saying is that you should really try to highlight the assets of your guests, like Snoop's drug-addled tomfoolery! In the case of a not-super-talented actress like Olivia Wilde, you kind of went out of your way to hide her main, erm, assets as an actress and then did the lame "It's a famous person" trick! Just some thoughts! Anyway, love you guys! Please make an actual album soon!
Sincerely,
Raj
*Bonus points if it was some kind of convoluted Metroid reference, but still!
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Tracks of the Year: TK
I'm doing the opposite of Raj. I'm posting only electronic/rap.
In place of the guitar sample that loops endlessly on the original, we get those wonderful layers of synths that James Blake has become known for. Some of the synths sound as though they're swooping down on us and crashing like waves and others sound like whispers coming clean with some kind of midnight confession. Mix that with some unusual rhythms and obviously some super low frequency bass and what you get is an awesome sense of atmosphere. Even after so many listens I still find myself lost in this song, hopelessly floating around in it, not that I mind.
Actress - "Maze"
It's hard to pick one song off this album, its seems like Actress is exploring a completely new area of electronic music with each track and it's all so exciting. I picked "Maze" because this one haunted me, pretty much made a comfy place to relax in my subconscious and still hasn't left. It first seemed really dark to me but now I'm not too sure, it's really hard to put a finger on it. I guess its mysterious quality is what I find so appealing. Also, whenever I hear the beeping sound of an ATM, this song immediately starts playing in my head.
Grimes - "My Sister Says The Saddest Things"
Squealing guitar, distorted bass, pretty vocals, thumping percussion, all soaked in reverb. What is this? I don't even...Whatever it is, it's full of energy and just plain fun. Truly progressive music.
Ramadanman - "Glut"
A lot of the artists in the whole "post-dubstep" movement have been tagged "chill" or "atmospheric" and moved a bit away from dance-floor bangers. Ramadanman's music is far from chill but still filled with enough space and atmosphere that he's bunched up with all the other post-dupstep people. Now whether post-dupstep is different from dupstep or just another step in evolution of the genre is a question I honestly don't give a shit about. What I know is Ramadanman makes some bangers. Seamlessly blending b-more club, chicago juke, and dubstep in way that gets everybody moving. Glut in particular is highly addictive. Really looking forward to album releases by him and other similar artist who are taking their time to release full albums like Joy Orbison. Well worth the wait and the singles they release keep me satisfied.
Strong Arm Steady - "Chittlins & Pepsi"
What's a year without Madlib? That is all.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Tracks of the Year - Raj
This week, the SRS dudes will be posting about their favorite tracks of 2010. The SRS BZNZ Top 25 Albums of 2010 will be counting down starting next week.
Here at SRS BZNZ, we like rap and electronic music. A lot. So much so, in fact, that in our list of the top 25 albums of the year (to be revealed next week!), around 80% of the list falls into those two genres. We're not going to apologize for that, since a) rap and electronic music are so, so good, and b) that list composition has at least something to do with a broader shift towards electronic elements indie music as a whole (even resolute folkie Sufjan Stevens made an electronica album this year!). But since you'll be getting plenty of all that here pretty soon, I've limited this best songs of the year post to other genres of music. Although, for the record, the following songs are so, so good: Kanye West - "Lost in the World", Curren$y - "Michael Knight", Big Boi - "General Patton", Sleigh Bells - "A/B Machines", Joker - "Tron", True Tiger f. P-Money - "Slang Like This".
"Drag the Lake, Charlie" - Drive-By Truckers
What the Drive-By Truckers lack in sonic ambition (they're devotees to the Lynyrd Skynyrd school of meat-and-potatoes three-guitar rock attack), they've always made up for with the soaring lyrical ambition of their albums (this is the band that made Southern Rock Opera, which is what it sounds like and happens to star Skynyrd, the Truckers themselves, segregationist governor George Wallace, and Satan). Their latest album The Big To-Do was a step down from past efforts, but it has a few vicious standouts. "The Wig He Made Her Wear", about the real-life murder of a minister by his wife, is brutally effective in a deadly-solemn kind of way, but I preferred the pitch-black humor of "Drag the Lake, Charlie", which tells the story of an exasperated small-town sheriff investigating a disappearance who's "almost out of Valium/courage and self-respect".
"Eyesore" - Women
Song engineering at its finest, a frothing mix of enough hooks for three or four singles all packed into one gloriously disorienting mixture. I'm going to go ahead and say that the way the song's structure is constantly in a state of weird but alluring flux makes this the indie rock equivalent of the part in "Inception" where Ellen Page learns how to make dreams.
"Born Free" - M.I.A.
Kind of a cheat, I guess, since this is based on a sample , but the feel of this thing is punk all the way. After making Kala, which is still one of my favorite albums of the past decade, M.I.A. has had a pretty rough time of things - her new album is pretty terrible, the New York Times runs hit-job profiles of her, her live shows have become train-wrecks. Even this song isn't untainted - the "provocative" attention-grab video for the song is boneheaded on many, many levels (although very well executed cinematically). But this track still is pretty strong (which may have something to do with its being recorded during the Kala sessions). M.I.A. and punk is, in retrospect, a thoroughly obvious mix and she sounds great sloganeering over those completely-out-of-control drums.
"Good Intentions Paving Company" - Joanna Newsom
Yes, that sometimes-chirpy sometimes-screechy voice of hers can be a problem, and it's basically why I never listened to this album all the way through (I mean, come on, a double album of that voice, too?). But as this song shows, when she reins in her more precious vocal affectations, she can make one hell of a pop song, catchy enough to make you actually want to pay attention to the so-highly-regarded lyrics- which reveals a pretty ingenious in-and-out-of-love story.
"A More Perfect Union" - Titus Andronicus
Bruce Springsteen looms pretty heavily over the indie rock scene nowadays (see: Arcade Fire), but no one this year grappled with The Boss more openly than Titus Andronicus - singer Patrick Stickles literally just announces, mournfully, that "I've destroyed everything that wouldn't make me more like Bruce Springsteen" at one point in the album. The shocking truth, though, is that "A More Perfect Union" is a rock song completely worthy of that legend's legacy. "Tramps like us, baby we were born to die" announces Stickles in the first verse, and off we go into an ambitious mix of punk energy, classic American melodies, and references to everything from Billy Bragg to The Dark Knight (bonus New Englander points for referencing the Fung Wah Bus and the Merritt Parkway). I'll have more to say about the album proper later, but this was undoubtedly its peak.
Here at SRS BZNZ, we like rap and electronic music. A lot. So much so, in fact, that in our list of the top 25 albums of the year (to be revealed next week!), around 80% of the list falls into those two genres. We're not going to apologize for that, since a) rap and electronic music are so, so good, and b) that list composition has at least something to do with a broader shift towards electronic elements indie music as a whole (even resolute folkie Sufjan Stevens made an electronica album this year!). But since you'll be getting plenty of all that here pretty soon, I've limited this best songs of the year post to other genres of music. Although, for the record, the following songs are so, so good: Kanye West - "Lost in the World", Curren$y - "Michael Knight", Big Boi - "General Patton", Sleigh Bells - "A/B Machines", Joker - "Tron", True Tiger f. P-Money - "Slang Like This".
"Drag the Lake, Charlie" - Drive-By Truckers
What the Drive-By Truckers lack in sonic ambition (they're devotees to the Lynyrd Skynyrd school of meat-and-potatoes three-guitar rock attack), they've always made up for with the soaring lyrical ambition of their albums (this is the band that made Southern Rock Opera, which is what it sounds like and happens to star Skynyrd, the Truckers themselves, segregationist governor George Wallace, and Satan). Their latest album The Big To-Do was a step down from past efforts, but it has a few vicious standouts. "The Wig He Made Her Wear", about the real-life murder of a minister by his wife, is brutally effective in a deadly-solemn kind of way, but I preferred the pitch-black humor of "Drag the Lake, Charlie", which tells the story of an exasperated small-town sheriff investigating a disappearance who's "almost out of Valium/courage and self-respect".
"Eyesore" - Women
Song engineering at its finest, a frothing mix of enough hooks for three or four singles all packed into one gloriously disorienting mixture. I'm going to go ahead and say that the way the song's structure is constantly in a state of weird but alluring flux makes this the indie rock equivalent of the part in "Inception" where Ellen Page learns how to make dreams.
"Born Free" - M.I.A.
Kind of a cheat, I guess, since this is based on a sample , but the feel of this thing is punk all the way. After making Kala, which is still one of my favorite albums of the past decade, M.I.A. has had a pretty rough time of things - her new album is pretty terrible, the New York Times runs hit-job profiles of her, her live shows have become train-wrecks. Even this song isn't untainted - the "provocative" attention-grab video for the song is boneheaded on many, many levels (although very well executed cinematically). But this track still is pretty strong (which may have something to do with its being recorded during the Kala sessions). M.I.A. and punk is, in retrospect, a thoroughly obvious mix and she sounds great sloganeering over those completely-out-of-control drums.
"Good Intentions Paving Company" - Joanna Newsom
Yes, that sometimes-chirpy sometimes-screechy voice of hers can be a problem, and it's basically why I never listened to this album all the way through (I mean, come on, a double album of that voice, too?). But as this song shows, when she reins in her more precious vocal affectations, she can make one hell of a pop song, catchy enough to make you actually want to pay attention to the so-highly-regarded lyrics- which reveals a pretty ingenious in-and-out-of-love story.
"A More Perfect Union" - Titus Andronicus
Bruce Springsteen looms pretty heavily over the indie rock scene nowadays (see: Arcade Fire), but no one this year grappled with The Boss more openly than Titus Andronicus - singer Patrick Stickles literally just announces, mournfully, that "I've destroyed everything that wouldn't make me more like Bruce Springsteen" at one point in the album. The shocking truth, though, is that "A More Perfect Union" is a rock song completely worthy of that legend's legacy. "Tramps like us, baby we were born to die" announces Stickles in the first verse, and off we go into an ambitious mix of punk energy, classic American melodies, and references to everything from Billy Bragg to The Dark Knight (bonus New Englander points for referencing the Fung Wah Bus and the Merritt Parkway). I'll have more to say about the album proper later, but this was undoubtedly its peak.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
I Promise I'll Stop Soon...
But I just can't get enough of this bedroom electronica phase I've been stuck in, hypnotized by these downtempo chilled out beats ideal for, well, chillin' out. We BZNZmen have been hard at work this week preparing our Best of 2010 features, and I desperately wanted to include Los Angeles producer Baths, but he just missed the cut for my top 10. His July release Cerulean on Anticon is a pretty album, slotting in somewhere along the Brainfeeder/Ghostly International continuum of electronica artists (Teebs and Mux Mool readily come to mind).
Most of the songs here aren't that different from things you might hear coming from producers like Bibio, or even more experimental outfits like The Books, but for a debut from a 21 year old guy, it is a confident statement. As a nice addition, every so often Baths (the stage name of Will Wiesenfeld) will throw in vocals that sound the way you wish Passion Pit sounded. While that guy screeches along on some of the more grating ballads Passion Pit made, Wiesenfeld's falsetto works nicely with the piano loops on "You're My Excuse to Travel" or "Hall" and his voice lends gravitas to tracks like "Plea". "Indoorsy" makes for a track that Of Montreal wishes they could have recorded, which despite the title takes on almost cosmic space with its glitches and fuzz.
Not everything on Cerulean is quite so melancholy or textbook glitchy, with album high points "Aminals" sounding like a competent Bibio knockoff sure to get your head nodding. All in all, a solid album, and with all the buzz about Baths's live shows (he was one of Pitchfork's darlings at CMJ this year), I'm excited to see him headline a tour with Braids and Star Slinger, coming through Chi-town in February.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Azari & III
Toronto electronic music duo, Dinamo Azari and Alixander III, with a keen eye for making bumping house, very reminiscent of classic Chicago house. They released their new track and its various electro remixes (featuring Nicolas Jaar, Prince Language, CFCF, and Renaissance Man) via Scion A/V last month. I would suggest you get familiar...
Below, two delicious tracks of theirs; the second: a remix by fellow electro auteur Tensnake
AZARI & III - HUNGRY FOR THE POWER by future classic
Azari & III - Reckless With Your Love by ricotavares
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Dados Negros
That’s Spanish for Black Dice. If you type Dados Negros into google, you find what is not the Black Dice I’m referring to, but rather "Adrian y los dados negros". Venture for yourself. Black Dice hasn’t really been in the news recently, except for a single show in Brooklyn that I missed, but I just feel like dropping some praise for the boys. What started out as a hardcore slam-dance crew, to long-form epic electro-noise jams, to gradually more structured, almost pop-ish noise, to songs called “Ultra Vomit Craze,” these boys have been some of my faves for awhile now. Not straightforwardly accessible, but enough reminiscent of aspects of hip-hop beats, exciting peaks and lows, and some of the best transitions in any songs I’ve ever heard, make Black Dice consistently played on my apple computers products. Keep your eyes out, it’s been over a year since Repo dropped, Eric Copeland’s dropped some mean tracks as of late, so something is hopefully on the horizon. Go grab all of their music that you can via your illegal downloading means, or head over to pawtracks.com or amazon or whatever. Be sure to use above-average headphones and turn it reaaaallllll loud.:
The transition just before the minute mark. MMmmMmmMmmmm
This might be the best youtube video i've ever seen.
FUN!
I've heard horror stories from unsuspecting Animal Collective fans after hearing Black Dice open during the MPP tours. "they were annoying and made me want to shove rocks into my ears." "Not long after opening act Black Dice took the stage, the room sounded like it was going to break apart. Several people actually grimaced and shook their heads as the band let loose song a frantic barrage of sounds." "yeah, i couldn't wait for black dice to be done with their set."
I can understand why people wouldn't like them, but there's a soft spot in my heart. And seeing them live was pretty incredible, all I remember was seeing Raj intermittently and being really, really sweaty afterwards.
Love,
Jesse
Also, go check out Bjorn Copeland's artwork, some rad collages & sculptures up there.
The transition just before the minute mark. MMmmMmmMmmmm
This might be the best youtube video i've ever seen.
FUN!
I've heard horror stories from unsuspecting Animal Collective fans after hearing Black Dice open during the MPP tours. "they were annoying and made me want to shove rocks into my ears." "Not long after opening act Black Dice took the stage, the room sounded like it was going to break apart. Several people actually grimaced and shook their heads as the band let loose song a frantic barrage of sounds." "yeah, i couldn't wait for black dice to be done with their set."
I can understand why people wouldn't like them, but there's a soft spot in my heart. And seeing them live was pretty incredible, all I remember was seeing Raj intermittently and being really, really sweaty afterwards.
Love,
Jesse
Also, go check out Bjorn Copeland's artwork, some rad collages & sculptures up there.
Odd Future
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)