SpideR-$tyleZ is a hip-hop artist from New York who recently released his debut album entitled New Years. According to the artist, New Years signifies change. Personal change, changes in the world of hip-hop and art, and changes in society, which consequently will follow. It’s a theme that he seamlessly weaves through the twenty songs using inventive lyrics.
My first thoughts were that this is a long album. Twenty tracks is a lot to get through but after I started listening from beginning to end it felt smooth and wasn’t testing my patience. There were two reasons for this; the stellar production and the diversity within the album. Let’s start with the production, which can compete with any respected hip-hop album. The songs are filled with a rich variety of instrumentation and samples. Synths, horns, drums, guitar and more are pasted throughout the album but one thing remains the same - a nice, thick robust bass. Bass is essential on a hip-hop album and it’s kicking on this album. Out of the twenty songs there were none that felt like duds. The songs are incredibly consistent. That being said there were a couple of notable tracks. The theme of change is present within the first track entitled "Golden Era". He refers to hip-hop artists the were at the height of their popularity during the early 90's such as Cypress Hill, 2pac, Fugees and Master P. The sense of nostalgia will apparent to anyone born before 1981 and how the game has changed. The second track “Civil Service” melds synths and what sounds like wind instruments over some impressive rhymes. It emits a chill, mellow vibe that you can lay back and bob your head to. “New Years” mixes up panning strings with orchestral strings against a deep bass. This is definitely best listened to on a nice pair of headphones. SpideR-$tyleZ sings about revolution which ties into his central theme. Nicely done sir. The longest track on the album entitled “Reinvention” is smooth and implements a number of well-placed samples while “The Big Picture” paints a darker atmosphere. "Reinvention" splices up vocal samples and his lyrics talk about personal growth as well as how we communicate to younger generations. He raps "I think we really need to switch what we say to the kids". "The Big Picture" is a declaration for change in the hip-hop community. He points out the frivolous nature of geographical resentment amongst the factions and that a united front maybe more beneficial to the community. SpideR-$tyleZ lyrical delivery isn’t the fastest around but he has his own sense of style. His biggest asset lies in the words themselves, which are often reflective and intelligent. At times I heard a bit of Eminem in his voice, other times I didn’t. Overall, New Years is good album that was a treat to listen to. Recommended.
Become A Fan
9 Comments
Genres are becoming endangered species as they succumb to the post-modern meltdown, same as everything else, with every band being essentially a genre unto themselves, a confluence of all their ideas, influences and inspirations. And with the increased atomization and the specialization of sub-sub-sub-genres, it'd be easy to think they don't matter anymore.
This simply cannot be true, however, as we live in a time with more and more music being made every second, being passed from hand to mouth to ear. We need a taxonomy to communicate and simply to recommend music we love to our friends and family (which has been the real story, all along). So while genres may be redundant and dismissive, they are also a necessary part of the culture surrounding music. Ordinary Lovers is the solo project of Perth, Australia's David Danzi, who took to working solo after too many flaky band encounters. Speaking about Whatever You Need, Danzi states, "it’s psychedelic! It’s pop! It’s blues! Call it whatever you want." Danzi didn't want to put restrictions on the music before it was created, instead focusing his time on writing songs and lyrics as it should be. What struck me, first and foremost, was the first word in that list, psychedelic. Sure, we all know what it means, automatically calling to mind paisley posters, incense, oil light shows, and of course, drugs. Lots and lots of drugs. When most people think of psychedelic rock, they tend to default to a kind of cartoonish parody of The Doors, The Grateful Dead, maybe Cream or Hendrix - you know the drill. There will be crying, screaming wah solos! There may be funky Farfisa organs, if the band happens to be drawing from Texas psychedelia. There may be loose jamming, some improvisation, an incorporation of non-Western elements. All of which is well and fine, but we must remember the original definition of psychedelic: "of or noting a mental state characterized by a profound sense of intensified sensory perception, sometimes accompanied by severe perceptual distortion and hallucinations and by extreme feelings of either euphoria or despair," as well as "resembling, characteristic of, or reproducing images, sounds, or the like, experienced while in such a state." One wonders how intense and disorienting an experience may be, if you've encountered it a thousand times before. Danzi reminds us with Whatever You Need that while genres may be becoming redundant, they still have power. They still occupy psychic space in our heads, and when you hear those flying wah solos, those burning organs, you might just flashback to a solo liquid light show, some religious experience or another. Things get interesting, however, when Danzi layers and stacks other genre signifiers on top of the psychedelia, like the blurry Hall & Oates synth of "Whatever You Need," over a glammy backbeat that might conjure images of Tom Cruise in Risky Business running the streets with Julian Casablancas only to have the moving sidewalks drop out of your visions with the electric harpsichord of "Lullaby Lazy" and you're suddenly running through a Strawberry Fields British countryside estate, silhouetted by the setting sun, as you sit down to smoke hookah with the Caterpillar and Kevin Ayers.
Two things stand out about Elly Swope's music, under the name Focus! Focus! The first is that Swope recently relocated to Portland, OR after two years of living in and playing out around Los Angeles. It's normally the other way around, where people woodshed and get started in Portland's funky logger town gloom, and eventually picking up stakes for the "big city" where people go to "make it."
Not only does this speak to Portland's shifting culture demanding to be taken seriously on its own merits, rather than as some slacker '90s hippie caricature. It also speaks to real music being made by real musicians, and what we actually need and want (the really real music, and not the airbrushed Hollywood version). Because most of the places with a reputation as cultural movers and shakers - L.A., New York and to some extent Chicago, in the States - all of which are prohibitively expensive, is bad for art. Portland has more of a sleepy, small town vibe, where it is still possible to work a part time job and make it as a creative type (although that will stop being the case if I write too many more of these articles). It has the magic golden ratio formula of a reasonable cost of living, a proliferation of creative individuals and plenty of places to play and practice. Hopefully it works out to Swope's advantage. The other standout detail about Wester Episode.1 is that it's the first volume of a triptych, which will make for one sprawling 14-track opus. Now, I know marketing and PR shouldn't influence the way we think about and hear music, but when I hear "3-part album." I think "ambitious" and my ears are perked. When being constantly bombarded by music every second of the day, these are the little signs and signifiers to let us know to pay attention. Let's call it intuition. So Swope got my attention, right off the bat, with Wester Episode. 1, making me lean into the music and really listen. There is no one set style to Wester Episode. 1, which ranges from piano-driven alt-pop, a la Lady Gaga or Fiona Apple, on the title track opener, to a fast folk fingerpicked guitar on "Water Won't Stop Part 1" to the lush, strobing, hypnotic "Desert Hearts" that builds and builds, cranking up the tension to an almost unbearable degree, gloriously cresting into an artpop backbeat like the best moments of Death Cab For Cutie - the sound of a band locking in, honing in on the rhythm, eyes closed, building the beat, lost in the sway...Music for the faithful, for those that really, truly love rock and roll (and all of its tributaries and offshoots). It's not flashy - it won't win the loudness wars. That's why you have to listen and pay attention. And when you find that tiny, unnameable spark cracking through a song like a rosy sunrise through slatted blinds - well, you sings its praises from the rooftops. You carve it into trees. Everything about Elly Swope's music screams passion and dedication - from travelling back and forth to Santa Monica to track drums at the Art Institute, to every volume of Wester's triptych being bound in re-purposed hardcover books. Even the name itself is a reminder for Swope to remain focused, to believe in her dreams, work hard and never stop trying. This is the music that deserves to be on the radio, so if you're a DJ, spin it! If you're a fan, tell your friends! It is up to us, to stem the tide of glossy, bloated, insincere and manipulative corporate pop.
Historical retrospectives are funny things. When eyes and ears turn back on an era, there tends to be a rosy light around them, like viewing the past through a stained glass, kaleidoscope funhouse mirror.
Ferndale, Michigan's The Camoufleurs might have named their record 1980 after the first year of the 8th decade of the 20th century, but sonically this is pastiche, not an attempt at re-creation. This is immediately evident with the album opener the eponymous "1980;" While I may not yet have learned to speak, I can pretty much assure you, at that time, nobody was blending Springsteen-style roots rock with throbbing kraut-rock minimalism (only the true underground heads would've known who Neu! was, at that point, and Bowie's Heroes was only three years old). The Camoufleurs also claim country royalty and Phil Spector's wall of sound as influences as can be heard to wonderful effect on "Broken Shoe," which would've been entirely anti-thema to 1980. At that time, it was full steam ahead, towards the future, with the nascent futurism of new wave and synthpop. Anything old was dead, man; more passé than goose liver pate. And while we admire the '80s futurism and optimism, and are really, really thankful that Depeche Mode experimented with making snare sounds out of scissors, while cosmic warriors played with their synths and created new age, let us not forget that many of the mainstream striations of popular music in the 1980s was really, really god-awful, no matter how many resurgences and revivals and marketing campaigns try and convince us otherwise. But blend that futurism with some classic songwriting - think Dusty Springfield's Dusty In Memphis or Mazzy Star's So Tonight That I Might See, for a more recent example. The pop strictures - the charging guitars, the memorable hooks, the synth tags - make this music stick in your craw, leaving you humming for days, while more experimental fare might just dribble out of your ears. But it's still unique, personal, distinctive...it's a really excellent hybrid of pop and experimentation that I highly recommend.
Casey Porter aka The Casey Porter Project may be only twenty-three years old but he has a good amount of musical talent. His second release Leavin' The Harbor is an eclectic pop album that fuses electronic and organic elements. Leavin' The Harbor is a full sounding record and I mean that in a good way. The sound feels huge even though he doesn’t pack in too many elements. I think a lot of this can be credited to the fact that Porter went to audio engineering school. Leavin' The Harbor is a complete DIY effort and one of the best sounding I have heard in recent memory.
The EP starts with a quick introduction appropriately called “introduction.” It’s a field recording of waves and birds and melds with warm pads. I was actually quite relaxed by the piece although it’s not indicative of anything else moving forward. “Seize The Day” is the first fleshed out song. It starts with electronic percussion and synths. Once the verse hits Porter manipulated his voice with auto-tune. It’s not subtle. As the song progresses instrumentation drops off and comes back in. The song never really feels like it explodes. “Leavin' The Harbor” sounds a bit like “American Woman.” The song was decent but there wasn’t much variation and there isn’t much of a hook either. He recovers a bit with “Come With Me (To The Top).” There is a bit of a Pink Floyd vibe here that comes together with the lead guitar and organ. As with some of the other songs his vocals are very sparse and not an integral part of the song. The highlight of the EP is “I've Got Her On My Mind.” Porter sings a bit more than normal but still not quite as much as I had hoped for. Nevertheless the song is good. He closes with “Courage” which is the most melancholy yet hopeful song of the batch. Porter has great ideas and some of them pan out well. I can’t help but think that Porter’s best work lies ahead. That being said, there are some inspired moments to enjoy here.
Become A Fan
If you are into power pop then you will wait to listen to the recent self-titled EP Punch Punch Kick from Punch Punch Kick. My first thoughts were that they sound like a combination of Weezer and Fountain of Wayne. These also happened to be my last thoughts. As far as power pop goes this is more or less the genre perfected. The production, hooks and everything else can’t be denied.
Some might consider this type of music a bit of a guilty pleasure. It might not be something you will find a thirty five-year-old guy blasting out of his car but I guarantee he will be listening to it on headphones. The songs are like bursts of energy that are highly addictive. Sure it might be overly poppy for some but I’ll take it. The band consisting of Phil McDonald (vocals/guitar), Chris Miranda (guitar/vocals), Ryan Malloy (bass/vocals) and Reade Pryor (drums) have some innate chemistry. The band is a tight unit always playing in the pocket and supporting the betterment of the song. They are all about concise bursts of sound that are pure ear candy. The EP kicks off with “What The Kids Don’t Know.” They transform from sounding like Weezer on the verse to Fountains Of Wayne during the chorus. Despite the comparisons the song can stand on its own as a Punch Punch Kick original. Although most of the songs could be a “single” I think “Seventeen” might be the most single worthy. The riffs and overall structure is something you could easily hear blasting across the FM airwaves. The truth is if you like the first two songs I have little doubt you will be enjoying “Not My Problem,” “Bad Dream” and “Someone Else.” There aren’t many surprises on this EP but as I mentioned if you are a fan of powerpop this is your ticket.
One thing is clear from the start of Pittsburgh singer songwriter moniker Shay’s debut solo album Love Letters, and that is that she has a very beautiful voice and a talent for using it to the best of her abilities over mostly ghostly acoustic guitar and electronic elements. Before embarking on a solo career Shay sang and played guitar in the now disbanded Lushwell & Dawn Canon.
Love Letters is exactly what one might expect of an album named Love Letters. Here Shay presents eight songs about relationships, generally ones that are over, are on their way to being over, or from the perspective of someone looking back on the relationship with a fresh perspective on why it ended. I like the concept Shay has going with the electronic acoustic situation going on, an aspect I find very different from many singer songwriters working today. And in the lyric department Shay shines as well, with slyly written lyrics that make you think. Take the opening track called “Leash of Me” on which Shay sings in her breathy slowly spoken voice, “You wanted only to support a half-lit bride/ Is it your occupation to glaze the rib aside? /You’re surely not the Leash of Me/ He, he/ Police your hands, baby/ He, he.” She definitely gives the listener a lot to ponder here. Though I don’t want to rule out the fact that the musical aspects of Shay’s songs are not important as she does have some very good instrumental arrangements, like on the track “Lessons of Love” which has a nice alt-blues and country style tone going on, and just the slightest hint of brass that whispers along in the background. There are times when Love Letters drags though, like on the longish “Thank the Academy” and then there is the completely out of place concept that is “Manifesto,” which is a woman talking, her voice lowered by computer manipulation. Shay makes up with it though on the album’s best track “Ugly Things,” which has the feeling of a slow dirge, as does the hopeful closer “Silver Lining.” Singer songwriters seem to come out of the woodwork all the time and many of them end up sounding like caricatures of one another. This hasn’t happened to Shay thankfully, and I think a large part of that has to do with her combination of lyrics, vocals and chosen instruments. Though not everything she tries to do always work for her, when things do work they are strikingly good to hear.
Seattle's The Freehands might consider themselves garage rock, but that's like saying The Pixies are an arena rock band, or Lou Barlow's Sebadoh is just a pop singer/songwriter. Yes, these things may be technically true, but it ignores the subversion and deconstruction that makes these bands special.
There Could Be Mistakes is The Freehands' most ambitious work to date, following several short EPs a few years ago. The Freehands is comprised of humble elements, made up only of Rick Baker's guitar and Chris Reisinger's drums. Their sound, predominantly, is made up of thin and spindly guitars, over Reisinger's bare bones but oh-so-danceable rhythms. They describe their sound as "garage rock, with a hint of something more." The something more is a kind of post-punk psychedelia - think early The Cure, like “Boys Don't Cry” or "Killing An Arab;" Sebadoh's Bakesale, amalgamating pathos and pop sensibilities; as well as Lou Barlow's dayjob, Dinosaur Jr. There Could Be Mistakes is poppy garage rock, viewed through a drug-addled lens of smeary emotions. It bears the plastic tang of '90s 8-track indie rock, which, as everyone knows, was indie rock's height, so this alone is a worthy endorsement, especially if you've burned out your Liz Phair and Elliott Smith records. I don't know what it is, but Seattle-ites just know how to do garage rock. Maybe it's the confluence of working class and avant-garde artsy-ness, as the Pacific Northwest is a bit of both. In the case of There Could Be Mistakes, it makes for strong, catchy songwriting, but with a weird and emotional subtext, which invites multiple listening.
Become A Fan
Thick Brown Fur started back in 2004 by Josh Iverson (guitar/vocals) and Neal Maccarone (drums/ vocals). They recruited Nick Steranko (bass/vocals). In 2008 the band basically broke up and went on a seven-year hiatus until they dusted off their guitars, drums and bass and decided to go back at it in 2014. The band got back to business and completed a ten-song album entitled Flakes.
The album contains unpretentious garage/surf rock that doesn’t take a whole lot of effort to enjoy. Flakes is an incredibly consistent album when it comes to song quality and overall feel. The songs seem relaxed and loose and the band seems like they are having a genuinely good time. I have to say that Flakes sounds good for a complete DIY effort. The guitars have a nice mid-range, the bass is clearly audible and the drums sound good too. I especially enjoyed the way the vocals were treated. They are covered in a slightly dirty distortion, which adds a bit of grit. The band starts with “Thick Brown Surf,” which as you may have guessed is a surf song. It’s a predictable but fun song. There aren’t any vocals besides a couple of sporadic shouts. “California” is under two minutes but packs in a lot if infectious melodies within that time while “If” has some effective vocal harmonies by the lead singer. The band continues to deliver with “Experience,” “Chokehold” and “Hang It Up.” In fact there really aren't any stinkers in the batch. Ten songs may seem like a lot these days but the album goes by fast because the majority of them are under the three-minute mark. Thick Brown Fur isn’t reaching to be anything it’s not. The three-piece seems comfortable playing delightful songs that are undeniably poppy. If you enjoy bands like Vampire Weekend and The Shins these guys should float your boat. Check it out.
Braddock Station Garrison doesn’t waste any time getting back to work after last year’s release High Water. The four-piece band from Washington D.C. hit the studio and recorded another eight songs. With a new bassist on board and rekindled energy they are going to drop A Hint of Recognition on the 19th of April.
A Hint of Recognition further solidifies Braddock Station Garrison as a very capable rock band that can deliver the goods. The songs are no-frills pop/rock that is catchy and often memorable. One of the reasons for this is because of the lead singer Steve Schillinger who has a unique voice that you don’t hear every day. He has a slight southern country twang where at times you can hear a tinge of Elvis. It’s those moments where he exaggerates his voice. The album starts off strong with “Forgotten Teenage Dream.” It’s an upbeat song revolving around power chords and a walking bass line. A bit of punk, a bit of rock and it works. The band rides a similar wave with “She’s Too Cool.” It’s certainly a catchy tune. “Lies” doesn’t rock quite as hard but relies on one of the most recognizable chord progressions in rock history. It’s a nice change of pace but the band can’t resist staying off the distortion pedals the whole time. The band breaks out a knee stomper with some attitude entitled “Cindy.” It’s a solid bar song that is fit for a night of drinking and danger. The highlight of the album is arguably “Never In Danger.” It reminded me of a song you would hear during a montage in a ‘80s movie. Braddock Station Garrison isn’t doing anything that hasn’t been done before. The music isn't the most technically impressive thing I have heard but they can definitely churn out a solid tune. There is enough diversity here to keep you engaged. Recommended.
|
Critique/insightWe are dedicated to informing the public about the different types of independent music that is available for your listening pleasure as well as giving the artist a professional critique from a seasoned music geek. We critique a wide variety of niche genres like experimental, IDM, electronic, ambient, shoegaze and much more.
Are you one of our faithful visitors who enjoys our website? Like us on Facebook
Archives
May 2024
|