@@@ Blawan: Underbelly (XL, 2021) Second track off a 5 track EP that I got to via Crack Magazine, and boy-o homie brings the bass! He just flaps them speakers righ up in yer face. He drops a super hot whistle-y, marimba flavored riff on top of that that is not reggae but it bounces and operates as such. Fuck me I would listen to this shit all ’22 if it’s on offer. This is why I listen to the stuff Crack Magazine recommendations because they have a high hit rate, they don’t just offer up your basic music publicist PR dried biscuits. Sa-weet!!!! I’m checking another track and it’s not quite as hot but it will hot up the place.
@@@ Scratcha DVA: Yardman (DRMTRK, 2021) Another listen off Crack Magazine’s best of 2021 and while it sports a bombastic intro it segues into some UK based toasting dancehall business. I like his flow and the bass sound but where’s my fat beat? Where’s the fat ass beat, it’s just screaming out for it. I’m on the fourth track and it’s a frustrating listen. All the sounds are there and the toasting vibe is there but it doesn’t seem to come together to blow the lid off. I was hoping for something like Mad Ting which folks should check out.
@@@ Spice: Send It Up (VP Music, 2021) A little Beyonce, a bit of Lizzo, and a whole bunch of Nikki Minaj in yer face strong punani style. The arrangements are all electro and it’s all for the dancefloor bangin’. I’m clicking around the tracks for this record called 10, and it’s a lot of female sexuality and a lot of electro dancehall, and I mean a lot. I think I was most drawn in by the track with the video clipped below, though it’s not for the kids and it’s NSFW. Spice is unapologetically out there throwing her punani around and daring folks to step to it.
@@@ Deep Fried Dub & SK Simeon: Waliwo Abakaaba (Dubmission, 2021) Finishing up our Friday with a last listen off this week’s WRIR weekly playlist email. Somebody took a pretty lush drum machine dub arrangement and threw some loverboy African singing over it. It produces a pretty interesting listener experience. There’s a tune and a dubbed out version of the tune but the tune itself has plenty of dub elements. This is not your standard old school Jamaican half gangster dub business, it’s super friendly. I like how the voice and the sounds go together and bring freshness.
Fireboy DML & Oxlade: Sing — some Disney ass piano balladry with an African singer. I made it to 1:58 before I clicked away.
Shae Jacobs: Joko — Nice beat, very clean production. It’s a midtempo dancefloor banger with hype synth sounds celebrating the international booty call anthem.
Efe: Your Body — same formula, midtempo dancefloor banger with smooth smooth sounds.
Yung L: Eve Bounce — a more Caribbean flavored jam and probably the best tune from this quartet of tunes. Nice guitar parts and a J. Balvin smooth/funky beat with throwaway beats.
If I were a skeptical person I might say that the choice of these African tracks as ‘hot’ would be a way to reinforce the current r&b sounds ruling the American charts. See, everybody loves these sounds.
Igorr: Very Noise Off Apple Music’s hot tracks metal section and it opens up quite strangely with a ramped up drum and bass beat, a drummer, some guitar and other mismatched business. A little proggy, a bit cheesy, but definitely an attemp to do something off kilter. Primus shoved a techno dancefloor banger. Wildest track of the day, close but no cigar.
Myrkur: Ella Opens up with soaring female vocals and some fiddle playing. I’m not sure this is going to explode into any sort of skull crushing metal because I’m halfway through and it’s a Lord of the Rings soundtrack we have going here. 2/3s of the way through, i think this is going to snooze all the way through. I guess they have a metal hating metal playlist manager over at the Apple Music. This is tragic, somber cheese. More vocals, more cheese.
YTD recordings listened to: 65
Good music, not list worthy: 36
Not good music: 27
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
@@@ Lana Del Rey: Norman Fucking Rockwell (UMG, 2019) One of my least favorite mainstream musicians; however this record got 4 out 5 stars in the Guardian so I thought I would throw it a listen. My general take on Del Rey is that her music is so slack it makes me feel nappy. If I try to see the appeal of her music it is her jaded female take on life and relationsips and shit. I get that but the first tune feels too long and the slack tempo contributes to that feeling of length. Oh this second one is a slow one too, get the oxy out! I do like some of these lyrics, they cut through the fog of slow tempo, though in truth it is a time honored tradition of faded rock star business to roll in this world weary, cynical manner. The lyrics are the star here and her singing is very good. I’m way less annoyed by this Del Rey business but she’s not really for me.
@@@ Alicai Harley: Rushing (Warner, 2019) Listed as pop on Apple Music but described as hot dancehall in the Line of Best Fit email we are here to clear the air. What the fuck is this? I guess it’s both as she hits the dancehall groove and toasting but with a plethora of pop sounds. Somebody took the classic dancehall beat and snuck a few trap hats in there and some updated pop synth sounds as well. By the end of the tune it’s a tapestry of vocal tracks which I always find a bit lazy. I say hit the mic and dig that groove deep instead of piling the vocals on.
@@@ Raphael Saddiq: Jimmy Lee (Sony, 2019) Off last week’s All Music notable release email. I know this musician gets lots of love from r&b fans but I’ve never heard the track that brought the love forth from me. This is a serious record about the death of this musician’s brother from a drug overdose back in the day. This first tune is a blend of r&b and a little rock. I like the album’s aspirations but I didn’t love the first track. The second track, So Ready, evokes a Michael Jackson funk with a poppin’ fresh bassline and fingersnaps. I’m on the third track now, This World is Drunk. I like the sounds and Saddiq is a talented musician but I don’t really feel his tunes. It’s not working for me though I get he’s got skills and folks love him.
YTD recordings listened to: 454
Good music, not list worthy: 276
Not good music: 153
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
@@@ Madd Again!: Maddting Vol. 1 (Swing Ting, 2015). Super new school dancehall music out of Jamaica. As I pointed out this weekend regarding the Owiny Sigoma record that I put up as a funky drum machine practitioner these guys take electronic elements and swing the fuck out of them. You tight jean white hipster kiddies should peep it and get some funk on. The synth bass they have reverbed and pumping underneath these beats is pretty slick shit. I hope they don’t sag after this first tune. So far so good on this second tune, Duggu. If these guys are smoking weed, which I believe they just might be from these lyrics they are definitely following that with multiple shots of caffeine. There are multiple references to the UK so I think these guys are either emigres or Jamaica via the UK. I’m gonna swing back to this record and check it out when I have more time.
@@@ Emily Earle: Red Rose (Not sure, 2015). A new age/country mash biscuit I got to via a music publicist. Earle has a beautiful voice and it’s ensconced in a cheese biscuit of meaningful piano cheese, acoustic guitar plink cheese, and even string flourish cheese. I’ll stop now.
@@@ Radio Free Honduras: Radio Free Honduras (Self-released?, 2015). It’s not Latin rock per se as the guitar is nylon string, but the first tune Vengan Vengan is a uptempo with a thick bass pulse, minimalist horns and a husky singer. I like the electric organ tucked in the back of the second tune Solo Sin Tu Amor as well as the mariachi like horn line. I like the third tune Morena the best of what I heard with a sweet vocal melody, upbeat drumming and strumming and the same pushing bass.
@@@ London Souls: When I’m With You (Feel Music, 2015). A tune I got to via a music publicist. It’s a rock duo, guitars and drums, well I hear a bass so that’s out the window. It’s more Alex Chilton than White Stripes and the hook is catchy as fuck. Throw a little shred in there, ya fuckers. The outro starts to juke and jump around but there is no guitar shred to be had here. Bitches.
YTD recordings listened to: 730
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 419
Not good music: 254
Honorable Mentions: 20
Buys: 11
Possibles: Chris McGregor, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Dave Arner Trio, MAKU Soundsystem, Zomby, Retox, About Group, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Bone Dance, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, The Ballantynes, Debruit, Slidhr, The Whammies, The Chewers, Alexander Hawkins, Toxic Holocaust, Equal Stones, Comeback Kid, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, Lenguas Largas, The Coral, Spacesuits, T.O.M.B., Fofoulah, Lozen, Erase Errata, Mohamed Abozekry, Dawn Richard, Leo Welch, Mastery, Leviathan, Xibalba, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Ellen Jewell, Akitsa, Richard Thompson, Jeremy Pinnell, Pat Thomas, Janelle Monae, The Alchemist, Luther Dickinson, Andra Day, Frog Eyes, Ruby Amanfu, Quarter Street, Madd Again!
A very sweet reggae dancehall record out of London sporting multiple MCs/toasters/singers, a thick rhythm section and a strong combination of toughness and tenderness.
Deep In the Music 