Music for 10/12/20!!! Oz, Batu, Brandon Lucas, Headie One

@@@ Oz: Foot Down (Truth Music, 2020) Line of Best Fit! That’s where I seen this. I can’t find this track on Apple Music, oh wait I just found it so I get to experience this overwrought electro rock biscuit. It’s breathy in the verse til it explodes into a self-empowerment track in the chorus. There’s a tambourine in there for all you tambourine fans out there. She’s putting her foot down, nobody’s gonna hold her big time back. Hence the title foot down. It peaks with some deeply felt woo hoos, not really my cup of tea. I couldn’t make it all the way through the track. Nice sounds, not my thing.

@@@ Brandon Lucas: Got That Hope (Purple Label, 2020) I saw Cornel West boosting this track up on the Twatter. Big Cornel West fan though that doesn’t mean this is a great track. I thought it was going to be a hip hop track but it’s a techno track which I’m happy about. Super pleasantly wide mix with some popping congas and an old school tambourine working over the classic unt tss beat. West comes in and I don’t mean this in a mean way but he sounds as crazy as a three dollar bill. He uses this line that says you don’t let the catastrophe have the last word. The sounds and the mix here are exquisite, very pleasurable to listen to just as sounds. It is a hopeful groove with uplifting sentiments and tasty grooves. I like this much more than I expected.

@@@ Batu: Drip (C.R.E.A.M., 2019) I got to this dance producer via Crack Magazine! You get that menacing chainsaw synth bass opening the track and I gotta see where this gent is from cuz this is not US/UK material. From what I can scrape off the GooglePimp the producer Batu is from the UK and the MC, I see him up on the Insta and whatnot but I can’t find anything revealing his ethnicity and it only matters as he sounds either Eastern European or Turkish or maybe even Middle Eastern. The best sounds here are the hand drum followed by the circular bass loop which drives the tune pretty hard. Agnostic on the MC.

@@@ Headie One: Parlez-Vous Anglais (Sony, 2020) Also off Line of Best fit. UK grime/hip hop, I’m a huge fan, especially of the accents:)!! A couple of MCs anchor this track which sports an uncharacteristically fat bass. One of the MCs demands that all his hoes have matching hands and feet, which I think is standard but I hope he’s not a limbist! Some folks have different limbs and that’s just the way it is. I like the vibes (not the feels but actual vibes) and the rest of the sounds for that matter. The rhyming is all right, I have a bit of trouble decoding what they’re rhyming about and one guys sounds like a dough-y white boy and the black dude sounds like a wannabe Frenchman. I think Headie One might be the wannabe Frenchman. I let the music player roll and he does a Drake kinda thing which is regrettable to think that sound crossed the ocean.

YTD recordings listened to: 784
Good music, not list worthy: 426
Not good music: 333

Best: 4
Honorable Mentions: 5

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, Tiny Bit of Giant’s Blood, Pole, Naeem, Mekons, Santrofi, DJ Nigga Fox, Flor do Toloache, Alexander Hawkins/Tomeka Reid, Shy One, Protomartyr, Nnamdi, Ekiti Sound, Awa Fall, 25,000 Kittens, Anjimile, Superfonicos, Yves Jarvis, Jonsi

Music for 3/9/18!!! Superorganism, Che Lingo, The Low Anthem

@@@ Superorganism: Superorganism (Domino, 2018) I saw this outfit name checked on a Line of Best Fit email.  Although Domino has a reputation for putting out truly weird music, this music has a mainstream accessibility to it.  It is a bit of a sonic collage with a cut and paste feel but it is also very anthem-y and poppy.  There are 8 doofi (the plural of doofus) on the banner of their Apple Music page so this is some sort of collective or self-advertised superorganism.  It’s hipster pop with a pretty low IQ and fairly shallow sentiments.  It’s gonna be huge, people love shallow sentiments!

@@@ Che Lingo: Charisma (TRIP, 2018) I saw this London artist featured on the same Line of Best Fit email.  People are really hyping these garage/grime/hip hop musicians out of the UK but I haven’t been blown away yet.  Not being a dick, I want to dig it.  After a self-motivating spoken word intro it gets into a pretty standard hip hop arrangement — and updated Wu thing to my ears.  Minimalist piano snippet, fat bass, and sparse funky beats.  I’m on the third tune and I can’t really hear anything offered here that would make me attach to this record over an American hip hop record.  He’s got somewhat different lyrics but he’s no Open Mike Eagle!  The sounds are very solid but not super funky.  Also check out J.I.D.’s never to hear what I say.

@@@ The Low Anthem: The Salt Doll went to Measure the Depth of the Sea (Joyful Noise, 2018) Boy these marketing emails really pack the artists in and I saw this record reviewed on the same email that triggered the listens above.  I’ve heard this band before and really liked them so that certainly helps.  It opens up intimately with close up vocals and a wavy keyboard part.  The second tune remains stripped down but with an acoustic guitar instead of keyboards.  Same vocal style.  It’s going for a stripped down epic atmosphere.  I like it all right.

YTD recordings listened to: 133
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 70
Not good music: 60

Best: 2
Honorable Mentions: 3

Possibles: Retox, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, The Ballantynes, Slidhr, The Chewers, Toxic Holocaust, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, Lenguas Largas, The Coral, T.O.M.B., Lozen, Erase Errata, Mastery, Leviathan, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Janelle Monae, Luther Dickinson, Graeme Barrett, Fast Asleep, Goldlink, Cavanaugh, Gentleman Surfer, 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, Magrudergrind, A Tribe Called Quest, Noname, Gouge Away, Klara Lewis, Krullur, The Lowest Form, Hard Proof, Yotoco, Jungle Fire, Sandoz, Oddisee, Forro in the Dark, RAM, Fiver, Dona Onete, Succumb Succumb, Gloom, Priests, Propaganda, This is the Kit, Roberto Gonzalez, Integrity, Tuba Skinny, The Expanders, Irreversible Entanglements, Converge, Open Mike Eagle, Criolo, Billy Strings, Flowers of Sulphur, Melissa Laveaux