@@@ Sidestepper: Supernatural Love (Real World, 2016). Electro cumbia music that I got to via the weekly reviews at WRIR in Virginia. The first tune is a heavily African number with hand drumming and a vocal chorus. The second number is a breezy Caribbean tune and the third tune, which is the title track stays in a similar place with a laid-back arrangement and that big vocal chorus making a return. It’s all right, I tend to enjoy the hard hitting world music but if you got a drink with an umbrella in it this might work for you.
@@@ North: Light the Way (Prosthetic Records, 2016). A gloom metal banger off an upcoming full bucket coming in mid-March. Opens up groggy with some noodling guitar but it’s an 8 minute banger, and there she is, the crush. The drums are a bit metallic but it’s more of a post-punk, coming down vibe. They do it purdy good with big drums, arpeggiated guitars, and an agonized singer. Around halfway through the tune they get into a crunchy, mathier section before coming out back into the mid tempo stomp. I dig the bass sound especially but the sound of tune overall, but I would point listeners to Kowloon Walled City’s 2015 record, Grievances.
@@@ Fantastic Negrito: Working Poor (Blackball Universe, 2016). A blues inflected mainstream rock single I got to from the Apple Music rock page. A Don Henley 1980’s straight beat with a gravelly singer lamenting gentrification and the destruction of the working class. While I’m entirely with him in his hatred of yuppie scum, a term which regrettably does not appear in this song, the song sounds like it was sculpted for a gentrifier. Straight beat, clean sound, everything in its place. Death to Fascists!!!
@@@ Fhloston Paradigm: Cosmosis Vol. 2 (Hyperdub, 2016). A three song 25 minute EP off the Apple Music electronic page. This first tune features a super skanky hi hat with an undulating bass synth with a smallish keyboard vamp coming up slowly. The tune unwinds slowly over its 9 minute run, but it remains coiled throughout. I’m on the third tune now and he retains the multiple arpeggiated synth sound for all three of these bangers. It’s tense sci-fi electronica.
YTD recordings listened to: 191
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 105
Not good music: 71
Honorable Mentions: 4
Buys: 3
Possibles: Chris McGregor, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Dave Arner Trio, MAKU Soundsystem, Zomby, Retox, 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, T.O.M.B., Fofoulah, Lozen, Erase Errata, Dawn Richard, Mastery, Leviathan, Xibalba, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Akitsa, Janelle Monae, Luther Dickinson, Destruction Unit, Graeme Barrett, Fast Asleep, Goldlink, Cavanaugh, Gentleman Surfer, Satoko Fuji, Mystic Braves, Matt Walker, Divanhana, Troum, Unrestrained, Carrie Rodriguez, Moken
Deep In the Music 