@@@ Takayuki Shiraishi: Background Music (N/A, 2019) I got to this pioneering Japanese no wave music via an email about a reissue from the website/record store Stranded. This record is not up on the Apple Music so we’re going to have to base our review on a somewhat rando tune off GoogleTube. It opens up with a straight rock beat and a meandering synth sound over standard no wave simple electric bass. It’s cool but I’m not feeling the feeling of a classic record quite yet. I guess the hook is the electronic sounds over the kraut rock rhythm section. A cloudy blast here, a weird blade runner-y type floater over there. I’ve come to realize that something might have been revolutionary at one time and then it may sound pretty standard much later after its impact has been absorbed and replicated. That could be the case here. The energy is tight, the sounds are good, but it sounds familiar to today’s ears.
@@@ Pet Fangs: Problems (Pet Fangs, 2019) I got to this New Orleans garage pop ‘funkadelic’ single via a music publicist. It’s full on rooted in ’80s sounds, yikes! It’s a slow funk with some funky elements though the beat is not the funkiest element here. Ooh, after starting slowly, the beat pops up into a dancehall flavor with a falsetto and the funk flavors are rising. He loves whoever because they’re crazy, so I get that and it’s a comprehensible vocal hook. I like some of the sounds but I coulda used more dancehall beat and less of the classic boom bap. More energy, more fire. What do they say in Hong Kong — add oil!
@@@ French Montana: Writing on the Wall (Epic, 2019) A hip hop superstar combo track with Post Malone and Cardi B up in the track. I get that tons of folks love the Post Malone but I think he’s soft like three ply toilet paper and everytime he hits the mic I get that soft gangsta Drake feeling. The vocal hook is ‘You see the writing on the Wall, hold on to me and I will hold y’all.’ Hmmmm…..sound a bit disposable. The tune is about (I think) an illicit, down low relationship but we’re at word salad level here or a notch above. The main musical component is a piano chord progression with each chord hitting and sustaining. I find it weighs down the track but that’s me. This seem thrown together in a hurry.
YTD recordings listened to: 511
Good music, not list worthy: 308
Not good music: 170
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, Buzzherd, Logistic Slaughter, The Muslims, Tobe Nwigwe, Saint Abdullah, Bug Martin, Kaleta and the Super Yamba Band, Toko Telo, Brittany Howard, The Garifuna Collective, Mariachi El Bronx
Deep In the Music 