@@@ Jordan Rakei: The Flood (Ninja Tune, 2021) Off this week’s Line of Best fit email. I dig the Ninja Tune imprint and this is the last track on a record entitled ‘What We Call Life’ which is not a title I love. Rakei is a white person and he comes in with a classi blue eyed soul vocal tone. There are a lot of modulating/vibrational sounds in the mix as wells as a bassoon. A beat with a proggy bassline comes in and it settles into more of a standard tune. As it throws aside sounds in favor of an arrangement I like the tune less, it gets a bit pretentious. I’m not sure I’m the best candidate for uplifting sounds and intentions, well I know I’m skeptical and I’m not easily uplifted. Production is super clean, arrangement is full and vibrant, singing is solid, I just don’t feel it. Maybe other folks would feel differently.
@@@ Meadow Meadow: Silhouettes (Practice Music, 2021) The opening track of an EP as well as the title track. It’s a literate indie male singer with a fair amount of electro components and detuned/processed guitars which I find a drag. The guitars that is. The processing lifts and gives way to a strum and it’s a wide open mix combo platter. Some synths out on the sides, some strummed acoustic guitars. I’m having a tough time telling if it’s a drummer that’s had his beats processed or a drum machine. I think it’s a drummer. It’s all right, if you like the singer you can get into this. I’m into the singer in places and while I appreciate the arrangement, it moves about without becoming frantic, overall I’m pretty agnostic on the results. Lots of indie folks appear to be mixing electronic elements into their non electro music and I’m into that.
Deep In the Music 