Quasimoto, “Don’t Blink”

Quasimoto is one of Madlib’s many aliases, and probably the most unhinged of his various projects. The production in particular is spastic, with sounds popping in and out in unpredictable ways, giving the proceedings a lurching feel that is diquieting. Combine that with his disaffected, helium-accented flow, and it’s just a very strange record. Really good, though.

Tortoise, “Spiderwebbed”

The first Tortoise record is a landmark in post-rock, representing an approach to making music with guitars and drums that would help inspire lots of following bands. I don’t think it’s their best record, but it’s excellent stuff, and it’s easy to see why this album got people excited.

Ulthar, “Undying Spear”

Ulthar are a blackened death metal band from Oakland who have two records out so far. They’re apparently Lovecraftian, but I’d have to read their lyrics to hear that. I’m never really sure how I feel about blackened death (in this case, it’s mostly the vocals that are blackened more than anything), I think I generally prefer the two styles separate.

The Midnight Hour, “Gate 54”

The Midnight Hour is Adrian Younge (who had scored a bunch of things and has also worked with a bunch of folks, we’ve seen his work with Ghostface Killah on here) and Ali Shaheed Muhammad (from A Tribe Called Quest), putting together a jazz/hip-hop hybrid. As you’d expect from that pedigree, it’s outstanding stuff. Younge and Muhammad both are multi-instrumentalists, and combined with their immense compositional talents, you’ve got amazing stuff.

Less Than Jake, “Automatic”

As the majors decided that ska, and especially ska-punk, was Really Hot, a bunch of bands signed contracts even though it probably didn’t make a ton of sense. But, honestly, Less Than Jake wasn’t a bad bet by the labels. There’s enough catchiness in their songs that you could see Green Day’s audience becoming interested, and ska was also pretty trendy. It made some sense, and given that there were some pretty huge hits from similar bands, there’s no reason one of those couldn’t have been LTJ. But, it didn’t quite work out, so only two records came out on Capitol Records before they moved back to smaller labels. Good record, though.

The Safety Fire, “Mouth of Swords”

Mouth of swords. Arms of pikes. Feet of daggers. Butt of warhammers.

Couch Slut, “All The Way Down”

We’re big Couch Slut fans here at Five Songs. The torch of grimy NYC noise rock is ably carried forward by this band, who cheerfully (?) make their music as grim and churning as they can. But it’s not artless filth, there’s an intentionality to the noise that charms me. Charms me? Well, I’ll go with it.

Slimm Calhoun, “This Young G”

As you can probably hear, Slimm Calhoun is an OutKast protégé, famous for his guest spots with them. He did eventually release an album on their label, The Skinny, which is a decent record. If you really enjoy Stankonia-era OutKast (and you should!), this is a good listen.

Ennio Morricone, “The Mission”

Enjoy!

Noname, “Regal”

Always a treat for Noname to pop up! That flip when the verse starts is a delight, and her flow here is absolutely perfect. And those jazz/funk drums? Mmmm, just a banger all around.

Can, “Mother Upduff”

I still kind of lament Unlimited Edition being the first record I ever heard from Can. It’s so scattered, as befits an outtake compilation, that it’s hard to really appreciate it without the context of already loving the band. I decided to just ignore Can for another couple decades at that point, and I could have been listening to them that whole time. Big mistake!

Knxwledge, “kometostai.aintreallynootherwaytoputitro”

Yes, I copied and pasted that from Plex. I ain’t typin’ all that!

Nine Inch Nails, “Just Like You Imagined”

I think I’ve blathered on about The Fragile before, so you can hit up the tags over there and do some spelunking. Or not! But, the novel (?) observation I can make is that as time goes on, this album gets better to me relative to his other work, and at this point, I think it might be his best album. Or my favorite, anyway. Same thing!

Boris, “Flower Sun Rain”

This is apparently a cover, which I hadn’t really realized before. Smile, the album that opens with this song, is on the more accessible end of Boris’s work. There are plenty of vocals on the record, plenty of things that are recognizable melodies, and generally not as much of the harsh noise. That’s not to say that it’s easy listening or anything, just that in the context of their career, it’s pretty approchable.

Amon Tobin, “Back From Space”

The album opener to Out From Out Where, this record had the enviable task of following up the magnificent Supermodified. To Tobin’s credit, he didn’t really try and make Superdupermodified or whatever, he just continued evolving on his own path. This record moves a little bit away from the frantic excess of the previous, a little more towards orchestration, and just ends up full of cool textures.

Modest Mouse, “Tundra/Desert”

Before what I consider their breakthrough, The Lonesome Crowded West, Modest Mouse was making jagged, interesting music that sometimes was too much of a mess to really be great. But, I have to say, the older I get, the more I appreciate the early stuff. This is from Interstate 8, released in 1996, which is an “EP” because it’s just five new studio tracks. But, there are also six live tracks, so it’s also kind of a full album’s worth of music. Anyway, if you haven’t really listened to their pre-fame catalog, it’s worth your time.