Music for 4/15/22!!! Axel Boman, Omar Apollo

@@@ Axel Boman: Luz (Studio Barnhus, 2022) I got to this acid house record via this week’s Pitchfork’s 10 most reviewed records and I do like the opening. It’s doesn’t just jump out with the groove and it feels more arranged and interesting than a lot of house music. The bass sound here deserves some respect as it’s fat and fuzzy and very distinct in its distortion and it’s changing all the time. I know I ran that sentence but meh, it’s my thing I hope the rest of the record can hang with that first tune as it was pretty high end business. The second tune tacks to the groove part of town with the classic beat coming in around 1:20 but offset by some pretty stylish dubwise echoes and an interesting arrangement. I’m on the third track and while I think the first piece is superior to the two that follow, Boman has arranging skills and doesn’t serve up the standard house slab of unt-ss and a little garnish and I appreciate that.

@@@ Omar Apollo: Mr. Neighbor (Warner Brothers, 2022) This is a pop record on a major label so I’m more than a bit suspicious of what might transpire, but so far I dig it. Oh maybe the first short bit was supposed to get my hopes only to smash them on the pop rocks as the second track busts out with the guitar strums. Apollo is working some very stylish vocal melodies and I like some sounds and not others. I read the Apple Music bio for Mr. Apollo and what makes him interesting is his Mexican American heritage and his willingness to attempt to make pop fresh. There aren’t standard pop tracks, better melodies, blends of sounds and also how two of the first four songs are guitar driven or at least guitar featured. It’s sad and heartening at the same time to see the slightest freshening of the pop formula. To see utter copies of old soul songs being trumpeted from the rafters is depressing so while Apollo is not blazing trails here he is mixing up the snow globe.

Music for 7/29/19!!! Monotronic, Terrence Day, Rick Ross

@@@ Monotronic: Cyborg Love  (N/A, 2019)  I got to this EDM single via a music publicist.  It is a rare example of an almost equal blend of electronic music and rock elements.  There is a tripped out jammy guitar that goes all the way through the tune that gives it a classic rock feel.  The track builds to a point near the end where the beat is fully unleashed, there is an organ patch that fills a lot of the stereo field and some hand percussion to drive the tune further.  It is supposed to take you places but I’m not sure it did.

@@@ Terrence Dixon: A New Day (Mechancial, 2019)  I got to this house single via a twat on the Twatter.  Beatwise it’s got a variant on classic techno and is spending most of its time on a delayed guitar line that works and bounces over an organ patch that swells up the track and provides contrast to the beat.  I find it a bit odd that there are no diva samples or vocals at all and that the lead is a nerdy, tripped out guitar but in a sense I respect that move.

@@@ Rick Ross: Gold Roses (Epic, 2019)  The #1 track in the hot tracks section of Apple Music and Drake is up on this biscuit.  He comes out first on the mic and Rick Ross must have fetched coffee for the track.  Oh there he is!  I like the sandy tone of his voice, and I super dig the tripped out arrangement of the track.  It’s a mid to slow tempo thing and the lyrics are typically boasting so it’s a mixed bag.  Sonically interesting, lyrically not so much, that’s the theme for a lot of major label business hip hop or not.  When Drake sings the chorus I just crack up when he hits that loverboy nerd pose.  Drake should be a cheese salesman, it’s just ridiculous how he rolls, I don’t understand his stardom at any level.  If people want to get with it that’s their thing but it’s soft cartoon business as far as I’m concerned.

YTD recordings listened to: 384
Good music, not list worthy: 228
Not good music: 134

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

Active Music Listening Monday August 25, 2014

YTD recordings listened to: 661
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 409
Not good music: 200

Honorable Mentions: 8
Buys: 11

Possibles: Boyd Rivers, Chris McGregor, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Dave Arner Trio, Bill Horist, MAKU Soundsystem, Zomby, Retox, About Group, Jello Biafra, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Kendl Winter, Bone Dance, Defeater, Sidi Toure, Lindi Ortega, Jonwayne, Christian Kjellvander, Okkyung Lee,  The Ballantynes, Debruit and Aljawal, Slidhr, The Whammies, The Chewers, La Misa Negra, Alexander Hawkins, Cheryl Pyle,  Toxic Holocaust, Equal Stones, Comeback Kid, Third Coast Kings, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, Eccodek, Bio Ritmo, Pacifika, Kasai All Stars, Viet Cong, Lenguas Largas, Los Hacheros, Ruthie Foster

@@@ Allah Las: Buffalo Nickel (Innovative Leisure, 2014).  If the Mamas and the Papas had an orgy with the folks in Yo La Tengo their lovechild would sound like this band.  For real.  Lots of vocal harmonies over jangly guitars and straight indie drums.  I like it, not much more to say.

@@@ Moire: Shelter (Werkdiscs, 2014).  Some house music off last week’s All Music weekly email.  The record opens up with a stuttery/cycling beat that’s a variation on the classic club boom/titch.  It’s more like boom-titchy-titchy-titch boom titchy titch handclap.  Sci-fi metallic synth sauce and droplet synths as sweet sprinkles for your earholes.  There’s a trippy, reverbed slow hip hopper in the second tune, but the record is half club, a quarter sci fi, and a quarter funky.

@@@ Wiz Khalifa: Blacc Hollywood (Atlantic, 2014).  You’d have to be livin’ under a rock to not know that the Wizzer has a new record and it’s described as a grab bag of bangers and stoner cuts.  This tune below is much softer than expected — it smells like a teenage suburban drive around tune.  Much more candy cotton than banger yo.  Sounds like the Wizzer is looking to get paid so he can continue to get his party on.  A piquant blend of shopping mall cheese, teenage dumbness, and hip hop potty talk.  You been warned.

@@@ Young Karen: Hearts (Pannonica Records, 2014).  Some Icelandic pop from a publicist email.  Opens up chopped/stuttered and then seques into a pretty nice hip hop beat.  I would say it’s more trip hoppy than poppy.  Pop here in America is different and scary than what other cultures consider pop.