DJ Premier is one of the best to ever do it, and Daily Operation captures him near the top of his form. His beats are spare but bracing, with everything having a purpose, which is to hit hard. Guru is similarly direct, without a lot of embellishment, leading to a record that sounds almost businesslike. That’s not a complaint or anything, it’s nice to hear something that takes itself seriously and has the chops to back it up.
[Read More]Hi Hell, I’m Dad.
It’s difficult to overstate how much this album sounded like the future when it came out. And while it sort of does represent a path not taken in hip-hop, at least by the mainstream, I suppose it did eventually find full flower with El-P’s work with Run the Jewels.
Mi Vida Local, Atmosphere’s 2018 record, continues their pattern of staying in the realm of the personal. Slug continues to mostly contemplate and explore his life in his lyrics. Supporting that, Ant’s production relies more and more on live instrumentation, giving again a more organic feel to things. It’s a decent album, but I’m not sure it stands out from their other 2010s work.
[Read More]It’s Megan’s birthday! Happy birthday! I picked a keyword today, can you figure it out?
The opening track of V, which I like a lot. This track in particular has a lot of classic rock vibes going, which go well with that big, brassy horn part.
I adored the first Beautiful South record (Welcome To The Beautiful South), and was kind of disappointed with the followup (Choke). There just weren’t as many transcendent moments, there weren’t as many of the really acid moments in the lyrics, and it felt kind of rushed out. When 0898 Beautiful South came out, I was happy to hear it was closer to the first album. It’s still not quite as good, but it’s close, and it’s my second favorite album from them.
[Read More]Did you know that you needed hyperpop covers of They Might Be Giants songs? I didn’t, until I heard this this EP. And I realized, yes, I very much needed hyperpop covers of TMBG songs.
I was just saying Nitzer Ebb hadn’t aged particularly well to a buddy yesterday! And, you know, it hasn’t particularly. But again, this is part of the whole thing where industrial dance also was just endlessly remixed and re-released, which didn’t help anything. Although there is one remix of “Lightning Man” (on ONE of the multiple singles for that song) that I remember as absolutely ripping. However, I lost that EP, and I haven’t listened to it in ages and had kind of forgotten it until now. I could still pull up the riff from it in my head though.
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