Elite Beat

fIREHOSE, “Sometimes”

I know I bang on the drum every time fIREHOSE comes up, but I don’t care: it’s such a shame that people didn’t seem to give them a fair shake after the Minutemen. This is such a good tune! This album is really good (If’n)! fIREHOSE’s first three albums are all flat-out great.

Mogwai, “Heard About You Last Night”

Compare this to the Radiohead track from yesterday. Yeah, both contemplative, almost meditative. Plenty of space in both compositions. But this one feels like it has a point, like it’s going somewhere, not just an unfocused noodle.

Squarepusher, “Come On My Selector”

Early Squarepusher is very much drum ’n’ bass, albeit pretty frantic even for a genre known for punishing tempos. Squarepusher is still primarily cutting up the Amen break for the drums, for instance. You can hear his bass playing front and center here, of course, and it’s great despite being firmly in a genre. This EP, Big Loada, would kind of mark the last of the pure drum ’n’ bass, as the next album found him heading in a much more marked fusion direciton.