#362 Wax Tailor - Tales of the Forgotten Melodies

Another one from Nicole, though also mentioned by Dave Stout, independently, the same night I first heard it. Odd!

Now we're talking - this is the highlight of the recent crackly instrumental something-hop finds. The more atmospheric bits evoke DJ Shadow, but the feel is something different, with touches of RJD2's rockism, Bonobo's world glances, and plenty of Frontier Psychiatrist's hyper-chopped conversation sample tone poems. Overall, it feels more loosely narrative, with themes bookending the first and last songs, and woven in between, trading Endtroducing's watercolor blobs for something more starkly rendered. It also spends less time wallowing in any particular theme or approach, starting off hazy, then moving into sample driven hip hop production for a couple songs (Where My Heart's At is an unexpected highlight), working across a wide swath of approaches. I dig it 4/5

You might like this if: You like atmospheric, vocal-sample-crammed instrumental hip hop and don't mind if it kicks out of the deep groove to swerve off into flights of fancy from time to time.

#361 Blueprint - Sign Language

Another one from Nicole, listened to in some rare time cranny while I was packing, predated to at least get the month right (written 6/4).

I want to like this, I almost do. It has all the parts, the thin beats, the swooning ambient beats, but there is something in the whole, in the composition, that doesn't quite work. A couple times in the past I was listening to music, and didn't realize for 5 minutes or so that some game I had somewhere in some deep buried browser window tab was also playing music over it. I knew the music was off, that there was something broken in it, but one or the other was tuned down low enough to not quite grab my conscious attention. I then was really retroactively annoyed at the subtle cacophony I'd subjected myself to. This is what this album is like most of the way through.

The vocals kind of float on top, just out of step, in tone or time, and its really a deal breaker. This happens on almost all of the songs, though 6am transcends this to be what I wanted from the rest of the album, with a ramshackle, rolling rhodes just under the surface. But other than that standout track, it is just off. I don't know if it was a conscious choice, or if this guy is just doing something wrong that other artists know to avoid, but I really couldn't listen to this without cringing just a little 2/5

You might like this if: You like downbeat, textured instrumental trip/hip-hop, and aren't bothered by / don't notice whatever subtle shifts ruined it for me.

#360 Big K.R.I.T. - Return of 4eva

On the way back from the cabin album. Another pitchy one! I just needed something new, stat!

This is distinctly from the school of rapping about being a rapper - talking about touring, getting rich, being rich, plus the explorations of regret and fear common in the post Jay-Z rap world. This isn't to dismiss this album. Or, maybe it kind of is. The beats are fine, the rapping is fine, but there's nothing to really hook me in here, nothing to set this apart from a lot of similar albums I've heard. There's no "oh shit!" lines, and maybe that kind of showmanship isn't cool in the hardline rap world, but I like that shit. I don't want it so smooth that it just rides by in the background. It's fine, very fine, very smooth, very skilled even, in its way, but nothing more 3/5

You might like this if: You want some rap for driving around to, or slumming around all night to, something that will bob your head without demanding your attention overmuch.

#359 The Antlers - Burst Apart

From Pitchfork! Haven't done that in about 6 months! A nice one for the final, windy cabin miles.

There's a lot to like here, sounding pretty and ethereal, without being wishy washy to the point of uselessness. Think the best moments on Zooropa, the instrumental interludes on Oh Inverted World, and House of Cards style Radiohead swoop and shimmer.

Radiohead especially comes to mind because of Peter Silberman's crooning, perfect falsetto, which evokes Thom Yorke's finest woven whorls. The music is occasionally a bit Fielding, riding its arpeggios too long and too simply, but it works because of that vocal thread. I don't even believe in singing anymore, but it works here, with just enough otherworldy production and instrumentational flourish at its back 4/5

You might like this if: You like House of Cards style Radiohead, Lemon style U2 or generally want an alluring crystalline thing in your ears.

#358 MF Doom - Operation Doomsday

I've heard just about everything Doom/VV/KG/etc. has done, but never did hear his debut solo album. Weird no? Heard on the way to drop stuff at the parents' cabin.

The whole blueprint for the MF Doom scene is here, with all the (mostly annoying) fantastic four samples, the supervillian theme and the complex, foldedinupon rhymes. Across the board, it isn't as solid as Vaudville Villian, The Mouse and The Mask, or even Mmm Food, but this album does feature some of Doom's fastest, most incendiary rhymes, exploding off the tape where most of his songs smolder. That alone makes it definitively worth hearing, and yet another essential part of his repertoire 4/5

You might like this if: you like Doom. If you like rhymes that run double time and twist wrist and find fun up in they own bum.

#357 Radio Citizen - Berlin Serengeti

In Boston now! Getting caught up on another weeks ago listen. So bad. Another one Nicole rec'd.

This sounds a bit like it should be in the commercial for a Vegas destination, with the slightly exotic strains of flutes and lolling, repetitive basslines and beats, sounding like a waterey Bad Plus. I like the upright bass, generally speaking, and I like these kinds of beats, but it doesn't quite work for me, sounding kind of shrill, and vaguely foreign, without really evoking anything in particular. There's no culture behind it, just the suggestion thereof. There's no something there.

Again, the basslines and beats are decent, and Black Forest is a driving highlight, but they somehow don't amount to much, and I'm left wanting 2.5/5.

You might like this if: You're looking for something groovy, slinky, and cool, with a bit of a ragged anachronistic edge.

#356 Blockhead - Downtown Science

God! Have been crazy with moving. Actually listened to this a week or two ago but have been blitzed. The project breaks down. But it will be back! This was one Nicole recommended when I was in SF.

This is an album of instrumental hip hop in the vein of DJ Shadow - it doesn't quite get that timeless ethereal passage into your brain that Endtroducing does, and it lacks some of Private Press's energy, but it comes closer than most everything else out there.

The finest moments are actually the less Shadowesque ones, with some quirky sample collages from the School of Handsome Modeling Boys, and some great RJD2 moments of outright rockism (the Art of Walking, the perfect, doubletime climax of Expiration date. It isn't quite rocking enough to get my blood pumping, and it doesn't quite get in my soul like Endtroducing, but its a perfectly enjoyable listen, with some good swerves along the way, and its found its way into my playlist surprisingly often so far 4/5

You might like this if: you like your instrumental hip hop a bit more Organ Donor than Long Stem, if you're willing to sacrifice some soul for a bit of toe.

#355 VA - Top of the Stax: Volume 2

Heard volume 1 (#353) - might as well try more.

This is roughly more of the same, though I didn't find this collection quite as exciting, nor as lovingly curated. Also, the overall tone seems to have moved in a direction I didn't like, focusing on a slower, smoother sound, with more strings and syrupy horns, with more lovesick loss than jealous rage. If you want your man/woman, fight for him/her! Take a hint from some of those people on the last volume, some of which were you.

The change isn't overly surprising - this collection drew from the later end of the label's output, and that was maybe just the way things were headed. But its not the side of the first volume I wanted to hear more of. There's some inventive highlights, like the stomping, Go-Team-Predicting, Soul Finger, and the Midnight Vultures sleaze of Whatcha See if Whatcha Get, but it's a net loss.

Not bad, and a good second lesson on the label's history, but I'm going to have to get pretty bored with Volume 1 before I start putting this on instead 3/5

You might like this if: You prefer smooth Hayesian Soul over hot Mayfieldian Superfly. Otherwise, start with Volume 1 and head here when you need another dose.

#354 Handsome Boy Modeling School - So How's Your Girl

This was on some kind of hip-hop list, and they seemed to keep coming up, so I checked them out. I also had fond / confused memories of watching them open for Radiohead, an act seemingly designed to make fun of performative DJing, with Paul and Dan traipsing around and taking pictures of eachother while records played.

This is a duby, heavy, hazy, scattered, dense hip hop production record. Think DJ Shadow if there was more actual rapping on top, and if there was more noise and buzzy, reverbed long-note bass underneath. Or Paul's Boutique, if the whole thing was darker, heavier and less fun. Its pretty interesting, featuring some nice verses from the likes of Del and El-P, and some wild beasties-like sampling.

But its also kind of unlistenable, with so many drones, twinkling noises, and bass releases ringing behind everything, it kind of gives me a headache. I don't know if its something they were going for, but every throbs and shines and tumor pulses, making everything so heavy.

I just don't think I want to listen to it anymore: more respect than enjoyment 3/5

You might like this if: You like adventurous instrumental-sounding-hip-hop-except-with-rapping, and don't mind a lot of dubby, reverbey bass underneath everything.

#353a VA - Top of the Stax Vol 1.

Now I have to resort to the compilation section of the allmusic guide. Diminishing returns. This one played on the way back from SF, from the start of the bay bridge to some little rest stop dallop just as the 5 starts up. Note: waaaay behind on this, and low on albums - in the middle of the Boston move.

This really is a good compilation: totally listenable, smooth and exciting at turns, providing a really nice overview of the music and themes of the label and the times. It's also really expertly curated, coming across as a wry meditation on love, frustration, loss and jealousy. Consider this sequence, starting at track 5:
5. A song about loving a man, and threatening another woman to stay away.
6. A song about being the other woman, and accepting it, but finding a desperate solace in demanding that there be no other-other-woman
7. A song about how a man should stay with a woman, even if he doesn't love her, as a matter of practicality.
8. A song about the stupid stuff love makes you do
9. A song of regret about not being the kind of man a man should be to his lover
10. A song taking the piss out of the idea of a man who thinks he's so very special

There's countless themes, overlapping and interplaying in that sequence alone. We see both sides of the "other woman" situation, we see the mindset of the cheating man, we see how love is a matter of foolishness and folly in ways good and bad, we see weighty pathos knocked against dismissive jibing. In short, this isn't just a by-the-numbers run through the Stax record company's output, its an attempt to explore the themes of the funky, prickly, lovesick R&B that is at its heart.

On the actual music side, you mostly know the sound: great bass, simple beats, excellent vocal delivery - you might know Mr. Big Stuff, Sitting by the Dock of the Bay and the theme from Shaft, and those are reasonable touchstones.

This was perfect for my drive, and totally good hangout music - great stuff 4.5/5

You might like this if: You're looking for something groovy to have on, with a bit of a brash, rough edge to it, and lovelorn valleys. You're looking for a crash course in some of the best R&B and soul of the 60's and 70's.