@@@ mxmtoon: 1,2 (AWAL, 2020) The first three listens of the day are from last week’s Line of Best fit email. I’ve heard mxmtoon as well as Khruangbin who have also been getting a pretty good push from the music press pimpers. This is complex pop with above average IQ but it’s still pop at its core. I thought this was an acoustic guitar version of a tune previously released but I’m clicking through the series of singles she has released this year and I don’t see another version of this track. This is sweet and it pushes my ears to the maximum allowable sweetness that won’t trigger a Stalinist denunciation. The ambiance and spaciousness of the track certainly makes the sweetness work as there’s something else to listen to. It’s a love tune and she’s super psyched to find somebody and you know the rest….
@@@ Dream Wife: So When You Gonna…. (Lucky Number, 2020) All gal punk rock trio bringing an energetic art school punk flow to your earholes. They rock a standard simmer then explode formula that does its thing beneath the vocal hook ‘so when you gonna kiss me?’ Obviously this is personal preference but I’m not feeling the singer and I want the band to blaze more. I dig a bunch of the guitar playing and I like the drummer. I didn’t make it to the end of the track, she got too annoying and art school punky for my taste.
@@@ Khruangbin: Pelota (Dead Oceans, 2020) I dig these guys but I think this is an example of taking something good and spinning it as better than it is. And the indie pimps are guilty of doing this quite often. Talented folks get lifted into genius territory. Khruangbin does a blend of indie vibes and world music feels and it’s a great idea, but the energy is too indie for me — now I don’t know if regular readers have peeped it but if they rocked an old school Hector Lavoe flow I would straight up shit my pants. Some rhythmic energy and shit. If it was more urgent and more rhythmic I would be all over this like a white man on rice and I do love rice. I get that folks are free to dig the ongoing slackness here but it leaves me wanting more.
@@@ A Guy Called Gerald: So Many Dreams (Juicebox, 1995) I saw this seminal drum ‘n bass producer on a bandcamp playlist put together by the drummer of Big Thief. Oy what a mouthful! This is an almost 7 minute banger that kicks off his essential album on Apple Music. This track is more polyrhythmic with better beats than a lot of the drum ‘n bass I’ve heard. A female singer drops in once in a while with a small chunk of vocalizing. My favorite element here is what sounds like a gourd drum with a super organic rattle to it. I don’t know if it’s a drum machine created sound to it but I dig that and the ebb and flow of rhythms that course through the song.
YTD recordings listened to: 528
Good music, not list worthy: 267
Not good music: 232
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, Tarek Atoui, Saicobab, General Purv, Shipping News, Big Thief, Mariachi El Bronx, Pour Me a Grog, Sudan Archives, Lakou Mizik, Moodymann, Pharmakon, Alefa Madagascar, Janjao, Luge, Wiki, Mick Jenkins, Jeremiah Jae, Fera, Gambian Griot Kora Duets, Drama, Beatrice Dillon, Mass Worship, mmmonika, Les Deuxluxes, Tony Allen, Fra Fra, Nihiloxica, Hailu Mergia, Pokey LaFarge, Nico Gomez, Nohe and Sus Santos, schroothoop, Tiny Bit of Giant’s Blood, Pole, Naeem, Mekons, Santrofi
Deep In the Music 