@@@ YN Jay: Summer Time (YN/Foundation, 2021) Off a Pitchfork tweet of 5 new albums you should peep so I thusly peep 2 of them on this day of our Lord 2021. I don’t know if this is ironic/satirical or if this is a straight, indie version of trap business. Lots of very explicit sexual scenarios and plenty of gun references. The lyrical content is the main course, the sonic part is mostly interesting for it’s crazy distorted bass sound and minimal beats. I’m having a hard time seeing this as anything more than a bucket of shit talking on a microphone. Not that the MCs are a bucket of shit, the record is a bucket of ‘shit talking’, the shit goes with the word talking not the word bucket. Whew. There doesn’t have to be any higher aspirations to any music, I get that, and I’m also not obligated to like something.
@@@ Surf Gang: Vol. 1 (Surf Gang Records, 2021) More hip hop and it’s more sonically developed and decidedly more left field than that last biscuit. I find the video game feel to the arrangement on this first track pretty interesting. Let’s peep a bit more. More dreamy sounds on top of a pretty fat pounding bass. I’m not sure what (if any) lyrical focus is going on here — that’s not a requirement as just the various energies of the MCs strongly effects the music and perception of it. I like later tunes more, especially the fourth tune ‘Don’t Wanna Wake Up.’
Deep In the Music 