Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Lil B - Dior Paint

Lil B transcends any criticism. He really is doing something completely different from anyone in music ever. Dior Paint really is one of the most beautiful albums I've heard in a long time.
This is not a rap album, this is not an ambient album, this is just Lil B "The BasedGOD" in his most pure form, talking and singing like some black Allen Ginsberg with face tattoos. You can't help but admire his willingness to share himself in the most pure, unfiltered form. This is as intimate and confessional as hip hop can get. Imagine if Bon Iver had given out his ex-girlfriend's address on the track and admitted to masturbating to her pictures on the internet-that sort of intimate/confessional sounding.
Sometimes B's tracks sound like cheap L.A. M83 in the best way ("Float"), and sometimes like Steve Reich on downers falling down on a piano warping himself in and out of the song ("I'm Just a Scarecrow"), but most of the time you don't know what to think, but all I know is it hits me in the fucking heart when he starts singing in his cracked, broken voice on "My Hart Stops". This is the secret Blue album in his huge catalog and philosophy of music, and anti-autotune rap, this is anti-masculinity rap, this is real fucking music and people need to recognize it.
P.S. Link below courtesy of and originally posted by Lil B himself. Swag.


http://limelinx.com/files/1b7117ecdf02bfbafd50b5f4063427b4

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Black Dice - Beaches and Canyons


Horrible bliss. If you're afraid of the ocean you'll get it, and if you like warm music you might get it, too. Black Dice has been cranking out very musical noise for a while now, but nothing has topped this album for me.
I see it like this, right at sunset everything looks sun baked, and orange and beautiful, right? However, night is approaching and all the beasts are howling and hungry. All they want to do is rip you limb from limb, but right now they are just yawning and making there cute, early-morning noises. Anyways, there is a horror there, an insurmountable amount of horror in the pretty warmth of twilight.
Or you could be out in the ocean, kicking it Kenny Chesney style when dusk comes around. The ocean is an extremely deep blue, and the sky reflects so beautifully in it, but once dark comes around you are sitting on top of 50 feet or pure black mystery. Anything could really be under your feet, and the slightest rush of wind could throw you off of your impenetrable fortress of fiberglass into the ocean. And the ocean wants you tonight.
It is a classic in the cannon of noise, and it is an impeccable album. Link in comments.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Tim Hecker - Haunt Me, Haunt Me, Do It Again


Tim Hecker has gone many places in his career, but this is my favorite. Extremely sparse, extremely dark, and all it does is make you bury your head in your hands and think. This album was exactly what I wanted to hear when I first heard it a couple years ago, and my opinion of it still has not changed. Haunt Me, Haunt Me, Do It Again has not aged a bit since its been released, and is still as vital an entry in the development of wordless music as it could ever be. More people will be hearing him due to Ravedeath, 1972, and you can't truly get that album until you hear this one (you shouldn't be allowed to buy it OR listen to it, got it?).
This album is an abandoned gas station in the middle of nowhere secluded by fog and filth and you are the only person in miles. There is no escape, especially when you are bound by headphones.
That is my interpretation anyways. This is dark ambient for people who can't take the brunt of noise or black metal. Enjoy. Link in comments.

Half Japanese - 1/2 Gentlemen/ Not Beasts


Half Japanese were right there when musical recording became something you could enjoy from the comfort of your bedroom. During the dawn of cassette sharing they were there, and they were as ballsy if not more ballsy than anyone else around. Seriously somewhere between This Heat and Teenage Jesus with Bruce Springsteen covers. The band includes the musical savant Jad Fair (who later went on to write one of the greatest/most simple songs of all time in my opinion) and his brother. All un-tuned guitars, dirty drums, tape loops, and saxophone.
When I say un-tuned, I mean it. Jad Fair said, "the only chord I need to know is the one in between my guitar and my amp." I think he can support that logic with this evidence.
Absolutely impeccable long-ass sprawling album. Prepare to be impressed. Link in comments.

Kemet Crew-Champion Jungle Sound


Do you hate obnoxious dance music?
Do you hate ragga vocals?
Well you might like this, because I hated both of those things until my mind was opened to Jungle and I like the shit out of this album. It is like the band in the film of High Fidelity. Remember how they kicked ass, but should have sucked because they looked like they were in the Kidz Bop version of The Offspring? WELL, this is a mindfuck of a genre and an album to get into in the same realm of The Kinky Wizards. The 90s nostalgia is fully flared right now for me, and this just wants me to wear some Doc Martens and hack some computers. Enjoy, link in the comments.