Frequent Binary Star collaborator, this is rap in roughly the same vein, though coming out more sedated, with some of the same levels of insane rhyming knots found on Waterworld/Masters of the Universe.
The main problem is the production, which is bare bones stone soup spare, adding a bit of headbobbery, but really no emotional depth, no tonal resonance. There's only so much you can do with repeated, open, jazzy basslines and some synthy snare taps.
Plus, as with so many rap albums, it overstays its welcome. At an hour of largely samey raps, this isn't something I'm ever listen to straight though ever again, which is kind of a deal breaker 3/5
Thursday, July 19, 2012
#529 Big K.R.I.T and Grillade - The 'Wuz Here' Sessions
A fabulously rich, soulful litte slice of hip hop. Full of rock guitars, R&B bass, and whipcrack rhymes, dripping with regret and pathos, this is an example of this proggy rap movement where trying and caring are acceptable, where being personal and bombastic and artful are welcomed alongside a tough guy delivery.
You can't just make sensitive rap. It doesn't work. What you can do is come out armored with weak points. Call it turtle rap, where the exposing of the underbelly means all the more when it feels like an aberration.
This works especially well because its just the four songs: this would be exhuasting as a full-length, but as it is the sentiment is deliciously tragic in its transience.
Solid.
4/5
You can't just make sensitive rap. It doesn't work. What you can do is come out armored with weak points. Call it turtle rap, where the exposing of the underbelly means all the more when it feels like an aberration.
This works especially well because its just the four songs: this would be exhuasting as a full-length, but as it is the sentiment is deliciously tragic in its transience.
Solid.
4/5
#528 Signal Path - MIXTAEP
Some remixes and violent twistings of some already pretty adventurous music. This is up there with early prefuse, squarepusher, and boards of canada in terms of balancing headbobbery with "wtf is this" factor. Every song rides a groove while blasting it apart, leaving divots in the wake. Keep an eye on these guys 4/5
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
#527 Bangkok Impact - Traveller
Oh god, I'm officially exactly 100 reviews behind. Double super speed time!
Accordingly, I can muster up anything to say about this, and I'm not going to force it. Vaguely Krautey, vaguely housey, vaguely trancy techno with spacy, slow moves, loops on loops, building little by little nothing jarring to break you out of whatever groove you're supposed to be riding. Just not the kind of music I have any particular use for, completely forgettable, all sounding roughly the same as itself. Maybe if I did more drugs 2.5/5
Accordingly, I can muster up anything to say about this, and I'm not going to force it. Vaguely Krautey, vaguely housey, vaguely trancy techno with spacy, slow moves, loops on loops, building little by little nothing jarring to break you out of whatever groove you're supposed to be riding. Just not the kind of music I have any particular use for, completely forgettable, all sounding roughly the same as itself. Maybe if I did more drugs 2.5/5
Monday, July 16, 2012
#526b The Frogs - Bananimals
Bananimals is a logical next step from It's Only Right and Natural: still catchy, still lo-fi, still surprising, still awfully enjoyable for how uncomfortable it is. The homoeroticism hangs around, but we're a degree away. This isn't an album about gayness anymore, its an album about being The Frogs, complete with a (strangely touching) screed against the muzik biz, a biting embodiment of those who couldn't handle IORaN (u bastards), and yes, some new angles on being young and horny and gay.
The lack of full-throated, full-throttle focus prevents Bananimals from reaching its predecessor's classic status, but its the best followup The Frogs could have possibly made, honoring and expanding and perverting their legacy along the way 4/5
The lack of full-throated, full-throttle focus prevents Bananimals from reaching its predecessor's classic status, but its the best followup The Frogs could have possibly made, honoring and expanding and perverting their legacy along the way 4/5
#526a Frank Ocean - Channel Orange
A damn smooth R&B album, slipping by like silk, nearly unnoticed, appreciated subliminally, like the most sultry Stevie Wonder. The fact Ocean's voice evoke's Wonder's doesn't hurt. And again, like the best of Stevie's stuff, the production's funky and sharp, full of atmosphere, with perfect album-level flow, with social commentary grand and personal alike.
But its all almost too smooth: the heavy subject matter lost in the folds, demanding careful listening while lulling you into sleep, time dilating in the microscopic gaps between tracks. A potentially brilliant album that's hard to appreciate fully, and I'm still working on it 3.5/5
But its all almost too smooth: the heavy subject matter lost in the folds, demanding careful listening while lulling you into sleep, time dilating in the microscopic gaps between tracks. A potentially brilliant album that's hard to appreciate fully, and I'm still working on it 3.5/5
Friday, July 13, 2012
#526 Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music
Killer Mike got his start working with Outkast, and it shows: this is muscular, surging Southern rap, the beats huge bass and percussive, the rhyming sharp and hard. In fact a lot harder, huger, more aggressive than Outkast was on anything other than B.O.B. and Gasoline, its Godzilla stomping Atlanta. And its good, the rapping is goddamn good.
By the end it gets a bit exhausting, but if you're in the market for some Biggie-big, Big-Boi-hard rhymes this is about as good as you're gonna find 4/5
By the end it gets a bit exhausting, but if you're in the market for some Biggie-big, Big-Boi-hard rhymes this is about as good as you're gonna find 4/5
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