Music for 7/31/19!!! Dead Horse Beats, Doomsquad, Chance the Rapper

@@@ Dead Horse Beats – Inglaterra (Bastard Jazz) Some electronic music off this week’s CFUV playlist email.  The first tune, the title track, clipped below is a r&b tune.  It’s a drum machine and all synth based, though this might be a drummer, I can’t tell.  To my ears, it’s a white boy soul record with mostly late ’70s/early ’80s soft sounds.  The second tune reveals more of the same and I hazard to say, big shocker, that this record has been mislabelled, it’s an indie electronic soul thing.  Blue eyed Stevie Wonder but a tad softer in the funk department though it dabbles.  I like the arrangements, it’s really well put together, some of the keyboard sounds are a slight negative for me and I’m agnostic on the singer.  More guitars would have pushed it up the list for me.

@@@ Doomsquad – Let Yourself Be Seen (Royal Mountain/Bella Union, 2019)  More off this week’s CFUV playlist email.  Let me GooglePimp this outfit but from the lyrics I’m getting the feeling that this might be a European outfit.  Noop, I’m very wrong, they’re from Toronto and it’s a retro dance thing.  I like some of the sounds (outside of the beats) but I’m not into the singer.  No funk, he’s got a dark disco thing going.  I like the fourth tune best of what I heard, partially because it has a female singer and partially because the sounds work better for me.

@@@ Chance the Rapper: Get a Bag (Chance the Rapper LLC, 2019) #3 on the Apple Music hot tracks section.  It’s an upbeat track about getting a big bag of money.  It’s definitely jam of the summer material but let’s be real, you can’t just get a bag cuz you want a bag.  It don’t work like that even if it’s a party track.  The track is catchy as fuck and I know that most Americans don’t really listen to lyrics so it doesn’t matter if it’s a hook that either makes no sense or is a tad on the offensive side but I would like it better if he wasn’t singing you want a bag and you get a bag.  F’real and I don’t give a fuck if I’m in the minority.

YTD recordings listened to: 390
Good music, not list worthy: 232
Not good music: 136

Best: 0
Honorable Mentions: 0

Possibles: Retox, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, Slidhr, The Chewers, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, The Coral, T.O.M.B., Lozen, Erase Errata, Mastery, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Luther Dickinson, Graeme Barrett, Fast Asleep, Goldlink, Cavanaugh, Satoko Fuji, Moken, Juan Atkins, Lantern, Twin Peaks, Djelimady Tounkara, The Oh Sees, Denny Zeitlin, MILF, Unfun, De La Soul, Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes, Noname, Klara Lewis, Krullur, The Lowest Form, Hard Proof, Yotoco, Jungle Fire, Sandoz, Oddisee, RAM, Fiver, Succumb Succumb, Gloom, Priests, Propaganda, This is the Kit, Roberto Gonzalez, Integrity, Tuba Skinny, The Expanders, Criolo, Billy Strings, Flowers of Sulphur, Portal, Lawaii, Etran De L’Air, Ruby Karinto, Elysia Crampton, Parquet Courts, Moskus, Kendl Winter, Tkay Maidza, Barro, Daniel Khan, Tallawit Timbouctou, Sumac, Tropical Fuck Storm, Harriet Tubman, Ammar 808, Anais Maviel, Chaka Khan, Pom Poko, Fried Egg, Horndal, Wyxz, Tarek Atoui, Hawktail, Saicobab, Shannon and the Clams, General Purv, Shipping News, Big Thief, Emma Louise, Andre Bratten, Nathan Corder/Tom Weeks, Oli XL

Music for 7/30/19!!! Cat in a Bag, Masks, Kevin Gates

@@@ Cat in a Bag: Cat in a Bag (Clean Feed, 2019)  Some ambient tilting jazz out on the Portugese label Clean Feed.  This first track (and it’s a spacious 69 minute record) is slow moving in neither a good or bad way with plenty of snare stick work, cloudy horn blasts and sudden guitar swells of an abstract nature.  The drummer is stealing the show for sure.  From the description at the label website there are two bassists having at it here and the drummer continues to build the energy as the track moves along.  I liked it but skipped ahead to the second song which has much more of a dissatisfied rock tone.  I’m most impressed by the drummer followed by the bass player(s) and I could use some more flash out of the horn and guitar player.  I dig the bridges they’re trying to build with rock and its listeners but I wish I liked the tunes more.

@@@ Masks: In Another Room (Spring Theory, 2019)  I got to this live electronic (oxymoron?) EP via a twat on the Twatter.   The beats have some bounce but it’s a chill-axation situation to be sure.  Definitely for drinks with umbrellas and people who wear pricy scents after they wash their bodies and do their hair.  Freaks.  The second tune, In Another Room, is funkier and I dig it more.  The third tune takes a bit to get going but it does sport a classic unt-sss drum sound with a little tom action and a lot of piano vamping.  I like this all right but it’s mostly for the corporate types who need to keep their hair unmussed.

@@@ Kevin Gates: Facts (Breadwinners Association, 2019)  Some hip hop off the Apple Music hot tracks section.  It opens up with a signature keyboard hook before the trap beats erupt and he gets into his definition of facts which is very interesting considering the Trump/fake news situation.  Gates has a very strong voice, not quite Chuck D but let’s just say it’s the opposite of buttery Drake.  If he has a problem he’s gonna show up strapped.  He does continue to delineate the difference between an authentic or real n*gga and a fake.  The trippy sample/figure is my favorite component of the song.  I like his tone and his rhythmic flow on the mic while I don’t find the lyrics to be particularly catchy.

YTD recordings listened to: 387
Good music, not list worthy: 230
Not good music: 135

Best: 0
Honorable Mentions: 0

Possibles: Retox, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, Slidhr, The Chewers, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, The Coral, T.O.M.B., Lozen, Erase Errata, Mastery, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Luther Dickinson, Graeme Barrett, Fast Asleep, Goldlink, Cavanaugh, Satoko Fuji, Moken, Juan Atkins, Lantern, Twin Peaks, Djelimady Tounkara, The Oh Sees, Denny Zeitlin, MILF, Unfun, De La Soul, Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes, Noname, Klara Lewis, Krullur, The Lowest Form, Hard Proof, Yotoco, Jungle Fire, Sandoz, Oddisee, RAM, Fiver, Succumb Succumb, Gloom, Priests, Propaganda, This is the Kit, Roberto Gonzalez, Integrity, Tuba Skinny, The Expanders, Criolo, Billy Strings, Flowers of Sulphur, Portal, Lawaii, Etran De L’Air, Ruby Karinto, Elysia Crampton, Parquet Courts, Moskus, Kendl Winter, Tkay Maidza, Barro, Daniel Khan, Tallawit Timbouctou, Sumac, Tropical Fuck Storm, Harriet Tubman, Ammar 808, Anais Maviel, Chaka Khan, Pom Poko, Fried Egg, Horndal, Wyxz, Tarek Atoui, Hawktail, Saicobab, Shannon and the Clams, General Purv, Shipping News, Big Thief, Emma Louise, Andre Bratten, Nathan Corder/Tom Weeks, Oli XL

Music for 7/29/19!!! Monotronic, Terrence Day, Rick Ross

@@@ Monotronic: Cyborg Love  (N/A, 2019)  I got to this EDM single via a music publicist.  It is a rare example of an almost equal blend of electronic music and rock elements.  There is a tripped out jammy guitar that goes all the way through the tune that gives it a classic rock feel.  The track builds to a point near the end where the beat is fully unleashed, there is an organ patch that fills a lot of the stereo field and some hand percussion to drive the tune further.  It is supposed to take you places but I’m not sure it did.

@@@ Terrence Dixon: A New Day (Mechancial, 2019)  I got to this house single via a twat on the Twatter.  Beatwise it’s got a variant on classic techno and is spending most of its time on a delayed guitar line that works and bounces over an organ patch that swells up the track and provides contrast to the beat.  I find it a bit odd that there are no diva samples or vocals at all and that the lead is a nerdy, tripped out guitar but in a sense I respect that move.

@@@ Rick Ross: Gold Roses (Epic, 2019)  The #1 track in the hot tracks section of Apple Music and Drake is up on this biscuit.  He comes out first on the mic and Rick Ross must have fetched coffee for the track.  Oh there he is!  I like the sandy tone of his voice, and I super dig the tripped out arrangement of the track.  It’s a mid to slow tempo thing and the lyrics are typically boasting so it’s a mixed bag.  Sonically interesting, lyrically not so much, that’s the theme for a lot of major label business hip hop or not.  When Drake sings the chorus I just crack up when he hits that loverboy nerd pose.  Drake should be a cheese salesman, it’s just ridiculous how he rolls, I don’t understand his stardom at any level.  If people want to get with it that’s their thing but it’s soft cartoon business as far as I’m concerned.

YTD recordings listened to: 384
Good music, not list worthy: 228
Not good music: 134

Best: 0
Honorable Mentions: 0

Possibles: Retox, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, Slidhr, The Chewers, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, The Coral, T.O.M.B., Lozen, Erase Errata, Mastery, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Luther Dickinson, Graeme Barrett, Fast Asleep, Goldlink, Cavanaugh, Satoko Fuji, Moken, Juan Atkins, Lantern, Twin Peaks, Djelimady Tounkara, The Oh Sees, Denny Zeitlin, MILF, Unfun, De La Soul, Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes, Noname, Klara Lewis, Krullur, The Lowest Form, Hard Proof, Yotoco, Jungle Fire, Sandoz, Oddisee, RAM, Fiver, Succumb Succumb, Gloom, Priests, Propaganda, This is the Kit, Roberto Gonzalez, Integrity, Tuba Skinny, The Expanders, Criolo, Billy Strings, Flowers of Sulphur, Portal, Lawaii, Etran De L’Air, Ruby Karinto, Elysia Crampton, Parquet Courts, Moskus, Kendl Winter, Tkay Maidza, Barro, Daniel Khan, Tallawit Timbouctou, Sumac, Tropical Fuck Storm, Harriet Tubman, Ammar 808, Anais Maviel, Chaka Khan, Pom Poko, Fried Egg, Horndal, Wyxz, Tarek Atoui, Hawktail, Saicobab, Shannon and the Clams, General Purv, Shipping News, Big Thief, Emma Louise, Andre Bratten, Nathan Corder/Tom Weeks, Oli XL

Music for 7/26/19!!! Indian Summer, The Oh Sees, Them Coulee Boys

@@@ Indian Summer: Woolworm (Numero Group, 2019) This is a 7 minute single I got to via a msuic publicist.  It opens with an old black female singer and they layer some clean indie style guitar beside her before she’s faded out and the band comes in.  There’s a nerdy dude barely audible in the mix speaking poetry, before they hit the ol’ distortion pedals and they get to rockin’!  Either I can’t appreciate the minimalist nature of this or there’s too little here to grasp onto.  Or I’m not in the mood to try to finger what the gent is saying.  I made it 5 minutes.

@@@ The Oh Sees: Smote Reverser (Castle Face, 2019)  A friend and regular reader of this here blog asked me what I thought of this record so I said I would peep it not for him but for me and for everyone out there.  The first tune comes out with a heavy tom rumble and some barely creepy/intimate vocals before they launch into a big fat rocking section.  These guys have the sound of a veteran band, they’re playing is tighter than a welldigger’s ass.  I like this first song as it rocks well, has shades of Radiohead and is not without its charms.  The second tune (clipped below) swirls in more epic classic rock including wee little pubes of Black Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult.  Complete with an organ solo, Deep Purple dudes!  I find this one a bit not to my taste.  I’m agnostic on the worth of classic rock at this point and that’s pretty central to listening to this record as it’s very influenced by mid-70s classic rock.  Gotta give these guys props for playing at this level and going full rock star.

@@@ Them Coulee Boys: Midnight Manifestos (Lohi, 2019)  I got to this pre-release track via a music publicist email.  I’m forced to watch this video, no I’m not as the record is up on Apple Music with the pre-release tracks.  I spelled the band name wrong, idiot!  It’s a poppy alt-country rock kinda thing with a driving bass line, a basket of sweeter guitar sounds (including mandolin).  It’s a solidly pleasant  summer track but I thought there were too many vocal tracks and I coulda used some sort of break/outro change if they’re gonna stick with the classic 4 minute track.  Nice sounds.

YTD recordings listened to: 381
Good music, not list worthy: 226
Not good music: 133

Best: 0
Honorable Mentions: 0

Possibles: Retox, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, Slidhr, The Chewers, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, The Coral, T.O.M.B., Lozen, Erase Errata, Mastery, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Luther Dickinson, Graeme Barrett, Fast Asleep, Goldlink, Cavanaugh, Satoko Fuji, Moken, Juan Atkins, Lantern, Twin Peaks, Djelimady Tounkara, The Oh Sees, Denny Zeitlin, MILF, Unfun, De La Soul, Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes, Noname, Klara Lewis, Krullur, The Lowest Form, Hard Proof, Yotoco, Jungle Fire, Sandoz, Oddisee, RAM, Fiver, Succumb Succumb, Gloom, Priests, Propaganda, This is the Kit, Roberto Gonzalez, Integrity, Tuba Skinny, The Expanders, Criolo, Billy Strings, Flowers of Sulphur, Portal, Lawaii, Etran De L’Air, Ruby Karinto, Elysia Crampton, Parquet Courts, Moskus, Kendl Winter, Tkay Maidza, Barro, Daniel Khan, Tallawit Timbouctou, Sumac, Tropical Fuck Storm, Harriet Tubman, Ammar 808, Anais Maviel, Chaka Khan, Pom Poko, Fried Egg, Horndal, Wyxz, Tarek Atoui, Hawktail, Saicobab, Shannon and the Clams, General Purv, Shipping News, Big Thief, Emma Louise, Andre Bratten, Nathan Corder/Tom Weeks, Oli XL

Music for 7/25/19!!! Oli XL, Brian Chase, Lung Dart

@@@ Oli XL: Rogue Intruder, Soul Enhancer (Bloom, 2019)  I saw this record namechecked on the Twatter.  Great album title btw.  It opens with a flurry of video game squirts and robot talk before it settles into a space age hip hop/r&b with plenty o’ glitch sauce.  It’s got some vocal samples that get cycled through it and those change the vibe of the track bigly.  I dig the beats on this record and feel that funk-a-fying electronic music is great.  Mr. XL still has plenty of ambient sounds and glitched bits flying around the stereo field but it sit atop the hip hop variant beats.  The third tune, DnL, is interesting with what sounds like somebody writing on a chalk board, some rising in tone synths, and some space age hink/glitch.  The vocal samples keep repeating ‘boring’ and ‘lame’.  There are some really cool moments through the first four songs and it’s on the cusp of being circled back upon.  This fourth tune, Memitic, is heavy, Imma see if I can clip it up for listeners.  Gots it off the GooglePimp, check it, it’s a unique funk.

@@@ Brian Chase: Drums & Drones (Chaikin, 2018)  I got to this drum and electronic record via a gig announcement email at the hoity toity BK club National Sawdust.  This GooglePimp video is from 2013 but it says 2018 on the Apple music release page so who knows?  Google knows best!  Mr. Chase is the drummer for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs who I’m not a super fan of but I thought the idea of making a drone record out of drum sounds is cool.  This first tune, Aum drone, is solid without really captivating me.  The second half is pretty good, I’m digging it.  The pitch on the second track, Drone State of Mind Vol. 1 is higher and though I like what he has going here the sounds is kinda dry and the sounds could use some modulation to them.  Modulation is freely available these days.  Modulation is a dime a dozen.  I like these pieces but I wanted a bit more.

@@@ Lung Dart: As I Lay Drying (Prah, 2016)  I got to this record via a twat on Twatter.  I thought this was going to be more ambient music but this first tune is a slowed down Nick Cave thing.  Super slow and repetitive with a vocal chorus.  I’m hoping the second tune will be more compelling for me but it’s an indie version of soft FM rock.  Errr.  They’ve processed the vocals in the second track (Totem, clipped below) and I like it better but they got one more track to wow me, as if that matters.  The same processing follows in what appears to be a piano instrumental called Please Font Worry.  I like some of the delays but overall I’m a bit unwowed.  Who is better positioned to report on my wow than me?  Nobody.  You might dig the indie weirdness of this.

YTD recordings listened to: 378
Good music, not list worthy: 225
Not good music: 131

Best: 0
Honorable Mentions: 0

Possibles: Retox, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, Slidhr, The Chewers, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, The Coral, T.O.M.B., Lozen, Erase Errata, Mastery, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Luther Dickinson, Graeme Barrett, Fast Asleep, Goldlink, Cavanaugh, Satoko Fuji, Moken, Juan Atkins, Lantern, Twin Peaks, Djelimady Tounkara, The Oh Sees, Denny Zeitlin, MILF, Unfun, De La Soul, Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes, Noname, Klara Lewis, Krullur, The Lowest Form, Hard Proof, Yotoco, Jungle Fire, Sandoz, Oddisee, RAM, Fiver, Succumb Succumb, Gloom, Priests, Propaganda, This is the Kit, Roberto Gonzalez, Integrity, Tuba Skinny, The Expanders, Criolo, Billy Strings, Flowers of Sulphur, Portal, Lawaii, Etran De L’Air, Ruby Karinto, Elysia Crampton, Parquet Courts, Moskus, Kendl Winter, Tkay Maidza, Barro, Daniel Khan, Tallawit Timbouctou, Sumac, Tropical Fuck Storm, Harriet Tubman, Ammar 808, Anais Maviel, Chaka Khan, Pom Poko, Fried Egg, Horndal, Wyxz, Tarek Atoui, Hawktail, Saicobab, Shannon and the Clams, General Purv, Shipping News, Big Thief, Emma Louise, Andre Bratten, Nathan Corder/Tom Weeks, Oli XL

 

Music for 7/24/19!!! Lisel, Guitar Wolf, Necking

@@@ Lisel: Ciphers (Luminelle, 2019)  I got to this pre release single from an indie hipster twat on the Twatter.  She is a classical singer and a producer as well so I’m guessing it’s gonna wash out as a New Age-y kinda thing.  And right on time!  Big soaring female vocals, a bit of a pipe organ typa patch and a simple drum beat that sounds like a piston engine with a reverse sound popped in there for hipness.  It’s well executed as an arrangement but the multi-layered thing does make me yearn for a new pair of underwear and a gin and tonic.  It’s quite upper crusty in its assumptions.  Upper as in angel choir.  This is good music to walk through a European painting gallery.

@@@ Guitar Wolf: Love & Jett (Third Man, 2019)  I got to this release via the charts at Vancouver’s CFUV.  I haven’t peeped any Third Man business for a while so it’s good to see what rock star Jack has been up to.  Crushed up (compression wise) garage punk.  The singer has a whole barely distinguishable thing going on which is fine.  The guitars are distorted both in the recording and compressed so much they hurt my ears a bit.  Thus far I’m not getting a shot of excitement from the songs themselves though the energy of the mix and the music is quite high.  The second track, Sex Jaguar, comes out with the same thrash punk drumming and full on band sound.  I appreciate the aggressiveness of the music but the singer sounds more than a bit like the village idiot.  I’m not a huge Ramones fan but I would take that over this.

@@@ Necking – Cut Your Teeth (Mint) Also off this week’s CFUV playlist email.  It’s #1 in the loud section and it doesn’t look like a metal video so I’m guessing we’re in punkland.  Oh my Nirvana feels right out of the gate.  A sort of grinding punk riff, some bouncy bass actions.  It’s a female singer and she’s on about a dishonorable gent in her bedroom and she does an above average Sleater Kinney impersonation without the full molten female meltdown that is Sleater Kinney.  You got a big mouth, you know that?  It is rocking while being very accessible at the same time, you can never underestimate the impact of uptempo energy.  A bunch of the Breeders, some Sleater Kinney, it’s like that.  I can see a lot people digging this formula.  I could use just a scooch more original sound to it myself as such close copies don’t work for me.

YTD recordings listened to: 375
Good music, not list worthy: 224
Not good music: 130

Best: 0
Honorable Mentions: 0

Possibles: Retox, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, Slidhr, The Chewers, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, The Coral, T.O.M.B., Lozen, Erase Errata, Mastery, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Luther Dickinson, Graeme Barrett, Fast Asleep, Goldlink, Cavanaugh, Satoko Fuji, Moken, Juan Atkins, Lantern, Twin Peaks, Djelimady Tounkara, The Oh Sees, Denny Zeitlin, MILF, Unfun, De La Soul, Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes, Noname, Klara Lewis, Krullur, The Lowest Form, Hard Proof, Yotoco, Jungle Fire, Sandoz, Oddisee, RAM, Fiver, Succumb Succumb, Gloom, Priests, Propaganda, This is the Kit, Roberto Gonzalez, Integrity, Tuba Skinny, The Expanders, Criolo, Billy Strings, Flowers of Sulphur, Portal, Lawaii, Etran De L’Air, Ruby Karinto, Elysia Crampton, Parquet Courts, Moskus, Kendl Winter, Tkay Maidza, Barro, Daniel Khan, Tallawit Timbouctou, Sumac, Tropical Fuck Storm, Harriet Tubman, Ammar 808, Anais Maviel, Chaka Khan, Pom Poko, Fried Egg, Horndal, Wyxz, Tarek Atoui, Hawktail, Saicobab, Shannon and the Clams, General Purv, Shipping News, Big Thief, Emma Louise, Andre Bratten, Nathan Corder/Tom Weeks

Music for 7/23/19!! MUNA, Goldlink, Taylor Hollingsworth

@@@ MUNA: Number One Fan (RCA, 2019) Second to last track off the trash Guardian songs of the summer list.  I didn’t know it was a trash list going in but it has not put any tracks on my summer ’19 playlist.  This one’s for the gloomy, sad rockers out there pining for some ’80s sounds and an ultraharmonized chorus with big synths comin’ at ya.  It’s got some super hip synth bass sounds, the beats not so much.  The singer is all right and the lyrics are all right.  To me this is white Prince and if you can surf over and rock 1999 I don’t know why you wouldn’t.  The playing and the songs and the performances are much more interesting.

@@@ GoldLink: U Say (RCA, 2019). The Guardian article claims this tune was written with warmer weather in mind.  I’ve heard a fair amount of GoldLink and I like his microphonic style though I’ve never heard that track that pushes him up to where I see J.I.D. for example.  The track has a fair amount of slink to it, downright not hip hop and more r&b with rhymes.  I do like that one syllable vocal sample that keeps pushing through the mix, and I do like the beats and bass a whole bunch.  It’s a good track but not my jam of the summer.  Thus far Nikki Minaj is winning it with Megatron but she could easily be dethroned.

@@@ Taylor Hollingsworth: Tap Dancing Daddy (Flower Moon Records, 2019)  I got to this record via a music publicist.  It’s alt country and mainstream at the same time as mainstream country music has become Bon Jovi with a cowboy hat.  A pleasantly nasal voice, simple country shuffle beat, and at least two arpeggiated electric guitars.  It is both a happy song and a bittersweet one at the same time.  It’s got the bounce of an upbeat tune but the vocal melody is a bit melancholy as well as a few of the guitars.  In my opinion it’s a tad long at 5 minutes but if you’re into it then well, you’re gonna be into the 5 minutes.

YTD recordings listened to: 372
Good music, not list worthy: 222
Not good music: 129

Best: 0
Honorable Mentions: 0

Possibles: Retox, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, Slidhr, The Chewers, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, The Coral, T.O.M.B., Lozen, Erase Errata, Mastery, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Luther Dickinson, Graeme Barrett, Fast Asleep, Goldlink, Cavanaugh, Satoko Fuji, Moken, Juan Atkins, Lantern, Twin Peaks, Djelimady Tounkara, The Oh Sees, Denny Zeitlin, MILF, Unfun, De La Soul, Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes, Noname, Klara Lewis, Krullur, The Lowest Form, Hard Proof, Yotoco, Jungle Fire, Sandoz, Oddisee, RAM, Fiver, Succumb Succumb, Gloom, Priests, Propaganda, This is the Kit, Roberto Gonzalez, Integrity, Tuba Skinny, The Expanders, Criolo, Billy Strings, Flowers of Sulphur, Portal, Lawaii, Etran De L’Air, Ruby Karinto, Elysia Crampton, Parquet Courts, Moskus, Kendl Winter, Tkay Maidza, Barro, Daniel Khan, Tallawit Timbouctou, Sumac, Tropical Fuck Storm, Harriet Tubman, Ammar 808, Anais Maviel, Chaka Khan, Pom Poko, Fried Egg, Horndal, Wyxz, Tarek Atoui, Hawktail, Saicobab, Shannon and the Clams, General Purv, Shipping News, Big Thief, Emma Louise, Andre Bratten, Nathan Corder/Tom Weeks

 

Music for 7/22/19!!! Seratones, Rafael Anton Irisarri, Carly Rae Jepsen

@@@ Seratones: Power (New West, 2019)  I dug these guys’ last record without it making my list.  I thought they could move away from the polished business and get into some dirty shit.  They go for a strong rhythm section right out of the gate with this pre-release single but then they wussed out on the guitar and washed it out with an ’80s chorus/flange sound and a synth.   The female singer (seen below) has a big ass voice but personally I don’t think this is the best way to showcase it.  If they went for a White Stripes kind of vibe I think they would get a lot of love.  This is a mixed bag of rock and mainstream sounds that sorta cancel each other out.  She’s an old school blues belter, they should go with it.  Just my dumbass opinion.

@@@ Rafael Anton Irisarri: Solastagia (In Room 40, 2019) I got to this ambient artist via a shout out on the Twatter.  This record was released at the end of June and it’s a big baby, weighing in at 87 minutes.  I don’t think I will hang for the full show but it’s opening in a big cloudy ambient manner.  Get out the good headphones the clouds is rolling in!  The second tune (clipped below) is similar but it consists a bit more of shorter pulsating waves rather than long cloudy tones.  It also has a skeletal melody but there is plenty of air still whooshing through.  I like the balance and the tones in this tune a bit better.  The third tune is better still and I’m mostly mesmerized by it.  There’s some crunchy staticky bits in there and the ascending tones give it, oh my there’s more than a few crunchy bits it’s raining crunchy bits, that’s nice, nice contrast.

@@@ Carly Rae Jepsen: Want You in My Room (Interscope, 2019). One of the last tunes I’m gonna peep from the Guardian’s best songs of the room.  If girly Taylor Swift had a lovebaby with early Madonna it might sound a lot like this.  It’s a booty anthem covered in bubblegum and ’80s sounds.  She’s pushing the boundaries of breathy singing and there are most definitely a ton of vocal tracks on this record, including a vocal synth.  It’s so manicured it does make its booty anthem aspirations less hot.  I guess the debate here is what is the right amount of sound to have in this tune.  I would make the argument that this is a tad over the top, but others including the Apple Music blurb have it as joyous and euphoric.  Nobody is ever going to win this argument so let’s not have it.  If it’s supposed to be a sexy tune how sexy does she sound and does it work?  I say not very sexy and it works against itself.

YTD recordings listened to: 369
Good music, not list worthy: 220
Not good music: 127

Best: 0
Honorable Mentions: 0

Possibles: Retox, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, Slidhr, The Chewers, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, The Coral, T.O.M.B., Lozen, Erase Errata, Mastery, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Luther Dickinson, Graeme Barrett, Fast Asleep, Goldlink, Cavanaugh, Satoko Fuji, Moken, Juan Atkins, Lantern, Twin Peaks, Djelimady Tounkara, The Oh Sees, Denny Zeitlin, MILF, Unfun, De La Soul, Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes, Noname, Klara Lewis, Krullur, The Lowest Form, Hard Proof, Yotoco, Jungle Fire, Sandoz, Oddisee, RAM, Fiver, Succumb Succumb, Gloom, Priests, Propaganda, This is the Kit, Roberto Gonzalez, Integrity, Tuba Skinny, The Expanders, Criolo, Billy Strings, Flowers of Sulphur, Portal, Lawaii, Etran De L’Air, Ruby Karinto, Elysia Crampton, Parquet Courts, Moskus, Kendl Winter, Tkay Maidza, Barro, Daniel Khan, Tallawit Timbouctou, Sumac, Tropical Fuck Storm, Harriet Tubman, Ammar 808, Anais Maviel, Chaka Khan, Pom Poko, Fried Egg, Horndal, Wyxz, Tarek Atoui, Hawktail, Saicobab, Shannon and the Clams, General Purv, Shipping News, Big Thief, Emma Louise, Andre Bratten, Nathan Corder/Tom Weeks

Music for 7/20/19!!! KinZie, Viagra Boys

@@@ KinZie: Dead Eyes (Self-released, 2019)  I got to this rock record via a music publicist email.  These guys hail from the fine state of Alabama — say hi to Roy Moore for me, I love that horny Christian dude, he’s awesome.  This is some old school R.E.M. style indie guitar music.  It’s got a bit of firehose mixed in there as well.  The record hasn’t been compressed a bunch so it could use a little volume to get that rocking vibe over to the listener’s ears more clearly.  It’s not really a style I can get excited about much anymore but it’s awfully difficult to shit on the singer as he’s just so earnest in his delivery.  I’m on the third song and Imma gonna tip now as I’ve seen this show and this is a show for other folks.

@@@ Viagra Boys: Street Worms (Year0001, 2018)  Trashy glam punk from the Line of Best Fit weekly email.  It’s part Prodigy and a dollop of Nine Inch Nails without the synth.  This first tune, Down in the Basement, is high energy with a quasi ranting singer who I kinda dig, a distorted bass and a blasting chorus when it hits.  It does straddle both straight rock and punk and it would be better served it was one or the other.  If it was some super dirty punk I could get with it more as I love that filth.

YTD recordings listened to: 366
Good music, not list worthy: 218
Not good music: 126

Best: 0
Honorable Mentions: 0

Possibles: Retox, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, Slidhr, The Chewers, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, The Coral, T.O.M.B., Lozen, Erase Errata, Mastery, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Luther Dickinson, Graeme Barrett, Fast Asleep, Goldlink, Cavanaugh, Satoko Fuji, Moken, Juan Atkins, Lantern, Twin Peaks, Djelimady Tounkara, The Oh Sees, Denny Zeitlin, MILF, Unfun, De La Soul, Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes, Noname, Klara Lewis, Krullur, The Lowest Form, Hard Proof, Yotoco, Jungle Fire, Sandoz, Oddisee, RAM, Fiver, Succumb Succumb, Gloom, Priests, Propaganda, This is the Kit, Roberto Gonzalez, Integrity, Tuba Skinny, The Expanders, Criolo, Billy Strings, Flowers of Sulphur, Portal, Lawaii, Etran De L’Air, Ruby Karinto, Elysia Crampton, Parquet Courts, Moskus, Kendl Winter, Tkay Maidza, Barro, Daniel Khan, Tallawit Timbouctou, Sumac, Tropical Fuck Storm, Harriet Tubman, Ammar 808, Anais Maviel, Chaka Khan, Pom Poko, Fried Egg, Horndal, Wyxz, Tarek Atoui, Hawktail, Saicobab, Shannon and the Clams, General Purv, Shipping News, Big Thief, Emma Louise, Andre Bratten, Nathan Corder/Tom Weeks

Music for 7/19/19!!! Okan, The Vicious Cycles, Full of Hell

@@@ Okan: Mas Que Nada (Self-released, 2019) I saw a gig announcement for this female, world music plus other sounds outfit.  I’m thinking I would call this smooth Latin jazz with two lush sounding females (pictured below I hope)  singing together.   Sung in Spanish with percussion accompanying a kit drummer it’s the full celebration of Latin jazz.  Big energetic piano song right in the middle of the track.  Big electric guitar solo after that and I like that less than the piano.  Oh there’s a very catchy violin/fiddle part that emerges during the bass solo, that’s stylish.  Then back into the vocal section to wrap up the track.  Maximum high end Latin feels here.

 

 

 

@@@ The Vicious Cycles – Motorcycho (Pirates Press)  I got to this record off the loud section at CFUV out in Vancouver.  I don’t know why it’s Motorcycho and not Motorpsycho, I guess for shits and giggles.  This is gonna be a white trash hoe down and I’m looking forward to it as the first track, Hot Dogs in the City, doesn’t offer a vegan hot dog as an option but I can forgive that.  Big ass vocal hooks, plenty of punk-a-billy guitar riffage and party track sing a longs.  They sure picked the right time to release this record as it’s got summer written all over it.  I liked the opener a whole lot, the second and third tunes dip a bit before the horns come in on the fourth track.  These guys are an invitation to load up on cheap beer and floaties.

 

@@@ Full Of Hell – Weeping Choir (Relapse)  Thrashing right out of the gate I got to this via the loud section at CFUV out in Vancouver.  This first tune has a methed out, over the top with energy and it does bang its head on the proverbial wall bigly.  Singing includes shredded orc voice as well as weird ass whooping caveman.  The second tune blasts off at an even higher tempo and this is punishing staticky metal.  Wow.  Good thing this tune is 1 minute long, otherwise I would be concerned for the drummer.  The fourth tune Rainbow Coil emphasizes the noisiness that is embedded in the previous three more metal tunes.  I like some rack up in my metal for sure.  This could qualify as a cathartic type of music and help you get some ill feelings out of your body and into the world.

 

 

YTD recordings listened to: 364
Good music, not list worthy: 216
Not good music: 126

Best: 0
Honorable Mentions: 0

Possibles: Retox, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, Slidhr, The Chewers, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, The Coral, T.O.M.B., Lozen, Erase Errata, Mastery, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Luther Dickinson, Graeme Barrett, Fast Asleep, Goldlink, Cavanaugh, Satoko Fuji, Moken, Juan Atkins, Lantern, Twin Peaks, Djelimady Tounkara, The Oh Sees, Denny Zeitlin, MILF, Unfun, De La Soul, Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes, Noname, Klara Lewis, Krullur, The Lowest Form, Hard Proof, Yotoco, Jungle Fire, Sandoz, Oddisee, RAM, Fiver, Succumb Succumb, Gloom, Priests, Propaganda, This is the Kit, Roberto Gonzalez, Integrity, Tuba Skinny, The Expanders, Criolo, Billy Strings, Flowers of Sulphur, Portal, Lawaii, Etran De L’Air, Ruby Karinto, Elysia Crampton, Parquet Courts, Moskus, Kendl Winter, Tkay Maidza, Barro, Daniel Khan, Tallawit Timbouctou, Sumac, Tropical Fuck Storm, Harriet Tubman, Ammar 808, Anais Maviel, Chaka Khan, Pom Poko, Fried Egg, Horndal, Wyxz, Tarek Atoui, Hawktail, Saicobab, Shannon and the Clams, General Purv, Shipping News, Big Thief, Emma Louise, Andre Bratten, Nathan Corder/Tom Weeks