Concert Reviews : Das Racist

[Relax Tour, Sons of Hermann Hall, 11 p.m.]

Things always seem to get a little weirder around Halloween, and Das Racist’s set at Sons of Hermann Hall was certainly no exception. The Brooklyn based hip-hop group led by Himanshu “Heems” Suri and Victor Vazquez (aka Cool A.D.) and hype man Ashok Kondabolu, or simply “Dap,” delivered a night filled with an impromptu “We are the world!” sing-along, a back to back performance of “Rainbow in the Dark,” multiple punk rock song interludes, and plenty of air horn. DR was all kinds of wasted on stage, but each member somehow delivered their rather intricate verses to perfection. And despite the heavily drugged out ambience, the show was surprisingly high in energy and constantly entertaining.

Most choice outfit: Dap’s Air Force jumpsuit

Number of Presidential Shout outs: one (to Ronald Reagan)

Best between-song stage banter: when the trio chanted, “It’s spooooooky time!” for about five minutes

Number of Guitar Solos played by Heems: at least five

Actual number of guitars on stage: zero– Mr. Suri rocked out during most of the show while air-guitaring on his microphone

Length of set: 43 minutes

Percentage of set accompanied by air horns: 30%

Reviews : Neon Indian : Era Extra

Neon Indian      

Era Extraña

[Static Tongues; 2011] 

 8.0/10 ____________________________________________________________________________________

In 2009, the subgenre frivolously entitled chillwave- think warm, reverb heavy, sample-based music cheaply recorded by male twentysomethings on their laptops- emerged as an interesting, yet questionable, strain of pop music. Critics and listeners groaned and laughed at the genre because of the seriousness its practitioners associated with chillwave. Neon Indian was lumped with a handful of electronic acts into the microgengre, though based on their sunny and lo-fi first LP Psychic Chasms, and equally goofy live show, Neon Indian demonstrate that they are aware of the silliness inherent to chillwave.

Lead man Alan Palomo and co. procured a surprising amount of popularity after the release of Chasms that attracted fans of mainstream indie bands like MGMT and Passion Pit. With the band’s profile raised, Neon Indian’s latest effort, Era Extraña, builds upon the bright, intricate synth arrangements on the first record, but ups the production value in hopes of sustaining and increasing their fan base.

On Extraña, the lyrics are clearer than they were on its predecessor, and the arpeggiated synthesizer instrumental breaks are no longer as indulgent. Along with the immediacy of the record as a whole, the songs themselves are more conventional as well. You can picture a large festival crowd singing along to the wordless chorus on “Hex Girlfriend.” And the upbeat melodicism and fist pumping beat on “Halogen (I Could Be a Shadow)” make for a catchy, life-affirming anthem, despite its lonely lyrical content.

Palomo recorded a majority of the album alone in Helsinki, Finland during the height of winter, and it shows. The theme emptiness is explored on “Halogen. “I could be a shadow/ In the light I'll be behind you.” Longing is another theme present on the album. Palomo describes his discontent for growing up in a time that is aging faster than he is on “Future Sick.”

This record ultimately ditches the nostalgic homespun charm and wit present on Neon Indian’s first LP to focus on more serious subject matter. And while everybody needs to grow up at some point, Neon Indian is best when they are conscious of their juvenility.

Reviews : Big K.R.I.T. : Return of 4eva

Big K.R.I.T.      

Return of 4eva

[self-released; 2011] 

 8.0/10 ___________________________________________________________________________________

Southern rapper/ producer Big K.R.I.T. is incredibly genuine. Upon first listen of his self-released mixtape Krit Wuz Here that came out last year, it is evident the Mississippi native did not enter the rap game in order to become famous or make money like a handful of rappers just starting out, but rather, for his love of crafting soulful, low-riding hip-hop anthems. Following the release, he even went so far as to offer $1000 and a batch of brownies to anyone that could identify every sample on the tape, exhibiting the rapper’s true Southern hospitality. On the new, free mixtape Return of 4Eva, K.R.I.T. reexplores the typical Southern rap motif, consisting of cars and women, that showed up on his first release, but also, takes a portion of the album to reflect upon the poverty and racism that troubles the streets around the country, and the materialism so prevalent in hip-hop today.

“I ain’t rap about dope, nor did I sell it/ I guess the story of a country boy just ain’t compelling,” raps K.R.I.T. on the low-key track “Dreamin’.” Lyrically, Big K.R.I.T. deviates from hip-hop conventions such as rape or drugs, and instead, his lyrical content comes from a place of sincerity, illustrating that he does not pride himself on showing off or being stuck up. He is simply being himself without getting caught up in cliché urban antics. While K.R.I.T.’s iconoclasms are apparent within his rhymes, the production on his tracks is undeniably reminiscent of mid-90’s Southern hip-hop.

On last year’s K.R.I.T. Wuz Here, he firmly established his prowess for crafting warm, sample-laden beats often recalling production comparable to Aquemini-era OutKast or Mississippi rapper David Banner. K.R.I.T. further develops his sound on Return of 4Eva creating an even hazier and more soulful strain of hip-hop evoking nostalgia of the South. “R4 Theme Song” in particular, exhibits this southern comfort rather effortlessly by riding between soul and crunk, and layering vocals on top of one another, all while backed by pounding 808s (808s refers to a particular drum kit on the Roland TR-808, a drum machine manufactured in the eighties that is used heavily in hip-hop ever since it was developed).

Most tracks on 4Eva play out with a laid-back quality, but every now and then, he’ll bring forth something a little harder; like the marching band horn stabs on “Sookie Now” or the wavering siren on the reworked “Country Shit,” a single from K.R.I.T.’s previous release that is amplified even more here. The reworked single features verses by Southern rap veterans Ludacris and Bun B, who sound fresher than they have for quite some time. Even Chamillionaire, a rapper has not been too active since his hit “Ridin’” over five years ago, finds his niche on “Time Machine,” a highlight from the mixtape in which the listener is invited follow K.R.I.T. back though his childhood memories while driving around with his father. Fittingly enough, Return of 4Eva itself provides the perfect background music for cruising around with your friends and the windows rolled down in these coming warm summer months. 

Reviews : The Pains of Being Pure at Heart : Belong

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart      

Belong

[Slumberland; 2011] 

 8.1/10 ___________________________________________________________________________________

In 2009, the Brooklyn heartthrobs The Pains of Being Pure at Heart released their self-titled debut album, reviving the melancholic noise-pop of the late eighties. Amidst the innumerable bands that attempted to romanticize the era, few others were quite a successful as the indie-pop quartet, suggesting that the band appeals to more than just music bloggers and adolescent hipsters. Recently, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart delivered their sophomore effort Belong, a manifestation of those promising speculations suggested by their first album.  

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart is a record that undeniably tried to emulate the pop aesthetics of 80s bands like The Smiths and The Jesus and Mary Chain. A nostalgic album recorded with generous amounts of reverb, the debut seemed to have a homespun sensibility, which is why it was surprising when the band announced that they were recording their sophomore LP with heavy-weight producers like Flood and Alan Moulder (Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins). On Belong, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart bulk up the bedroom sounds on their first album to create a more refined piece of work that nods to the Pumpkins circa 1994.

Belong opens with the title track, and almost immediately, one cannot help but assume that Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan must either adore or completely despise these guys. On “Belong”, lead vocalist Kip Berman conveys the same theme of solitude he explored on their first album, but here, the words are sung over squelching guitars: “I know it is wrong, but we just don’t belong/In their eyes, in the sun, no we just don’t belong.” The band also revisits their coming of age motif and the “pains” associated with adolescence on “The Body”, where Berman sings, “Tell me again what the body’s for/Cause I can’t feel it anymore/I want to hurt like it did before/We shouldn’t sin.”

Ultimately, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart have not created an album about maturation, nor have they deserted the innocence of their previous work; they have simply produced a record that builds upon their first effort and displays the New York four-piece’s more developed sense of songwriting. In a recent interview with the online music publication Pitchfork Media, Berman discussed their new sound. “We wanted the songs to exist in an immediate and instinctual place. The album sounds like we're taking away what we were hiding behind before.” And, while Belong feels somewhat distant from their previous work, it is also incredibly homogenous. This record will certainly appeal to the kids that fell in love with the band two years ago, and, thanks to big-budget producers Flood and Alan Moulder, the album is sure to appeal to a much larger audience as well.

Beaches - "Don't Get Any Ideas"

I recently finished up a rather spacey r&b track.

Check it out below. 

Don't Get Any Ideas by nickdas

Music : Hooray For Earth - "Sails"

The New York via Boston four-piece Hooray For Earth recently released this single from their upcoming album True Loves, which comes out early May. 

Listen to the song below. 

Music : Wavves - "Horse Shoes"

Wavves' Nathan Williams just posted this new song on his blog.

Check it out.

MP3: Wavves: "Horse Shoes"

Reviews : James Blake : James Blake

James Blake

James Blake

[A&M/ Atlas; 2011]

8.9/10.0









__________________________________________________________________________________

London producer and songwriter James Blake gathered immense acclaim during 2010 through the release of his three excellent EPs: The Bells Sketch, CMYK, and Klavierwerke. On these releases, the electronic prodigy displayed his creativity and talent for composing unconventional pop music. The material on the EPs rarely resembles any other contemporary music, though it has been coerced under the genre of dubstep because of Blake’s use of signature sounds of the movement: vocal samples that have been altered past the point of recognition, funky synths, and syncopated, hip-hop-based rhythms. Instead of creating a follow-up to his collection of EPs, Blake’s new self-entitled record refocuses his attention and experiments with his own vocal melodies and arrangements to produce an album that truly showcases why Blake is one of the most distinct and promising electronic acts today.

The album opens with “Unluck,” a minimal track that builds over itself, gradually adding layers of electronic organs over an erratic beat in-step to Blake’s heavily auto-tuned vocals. Here, we get the first of Blake’s vocal style in which he samples and manipulates his vocals. They sound fragmented, haunted, and fittingly off-beat with the music, reminiscent of Burial’s groundbreaking dub release, Untrue. And yet, the London producer manages to deliver them drenched with a sense of soulfulness and melancholy. This is an amazing feat considering the fact that there is typically very little room for raw emotion within the pristine world of digital music, but with his surprisingly organic production throughout the record, Blake proves that even electronic music can convey soul amongst the cold, stark superficiality of computer age production.

After the turbulence of the opening track, the record continues with a more vocally straightforward song, “The Wilhelm Scream,” displaying Blake’s precision and restraint in production and composition.  Often, Blake’s inherent lyrical minimalism causes his repeated words to become maxims, allowing certain phrases to act as an endless chorus throughout the entirety of a song. On “Wilhelm Scream,” he repeatedly sings,” I don’t know about my dreams/ I don’t know about my dreaming anymore/ all that I know is I’m falling, falling, falling.” His words eventually becoming meaningless as the song progresses becoming warped under a haze of white-noise distortion and pounding bass. Blake produces similar effects on “I Never Learnt to Share,” as he establishes the track with empty space and vocal harmonies continually crying, “My brother and my sisters don’t speak to me/But I don’t blame them.” Gradually, over the midst of vocal repetition, the song crescendos into a wobbly, funked-out banger, covering an immense amount of ground in under just five minutes.

The LP’s finest moment arrives when Blake reworks his own version of Feist’s “Limit to Your Love.” The cover is the most immediate and traditional track on the album, though it represents the essence of Blake’s minimal songwriting. On the track, James sets his vocals as the centerpiece next to only a simple piano melody, a beat, and a rattling sub bass. His use of silence after each verse creates a sense tension, forcing the listener to crave the next sound to come. Through Blake’s routine production, he turns Feist’s upbeat song into something far more tense and austere.

Coming off an incredibly successful collection of acclaimed EPs, James Blake further evaluates the use of space and silence to establish mood, creating a hauntingly soulful record that invites the listener in leaving them craving more and more as James Blake progresses. As Blake puts out more new material, is evident that he is at the top of his game and no on else is making music quite like him. And if this record is any indication, it is safe to say that the young London musician is going to have quite the year in 2011.

Music : Tyler, the Creator Remixes Lykke Li

NME recently posted this unexpected remix of Lykke Li's "I Follow Rivers" by Odd Future mastermind Tyler, The Creator. Check it out below.

MP3: Lykke Li: "I Follow Rivers (Tyler, the Creator Mix)"

Also, revisit the original

 

Music : The Go! Team - "Apollo Throwdown (Star Slinger Remix)"

There's no questioning UK producer Darren Williams, aka Star Slinger, and his staggering ability to handle and reshape a sample, especially the noisy, horn-bumping new track by the Brighton-based sextet, The Go! Team. He transforms the party-pop playfulness of original into a downtempo bobber that displays Williams' expansive understanding of cadence and how sounds should fall after one another, a quality most producers and remixers typically take for granted.

MP3: The Go! Team: "Apollo Throwdown (Star Slinger Remix)"

Video : Toro y Moi - "New Beat"

Here’s the OFFICIAL video for Toro y Moi’s “New Beat,” directed by Scott Ross. Stream Chad's sophomore album Underneath the Pine in its entirety here.

Reviews : Tanlines : Volume On

 

 Tanlines

 Volume On 
  [self released; 2010]
  7.8/10.0 

__________________________________________________________________________________________

It’s a funny thing when artists form new a group; often, a musician who forms new band tends to fall back on previous work, though this is not the case with production team Tanlines. The Brooklyn-based duo, Eric Emm and Jesse Cohen, emerge from their rock band origins to create Balearic synth-pop predominately influenced by over-produced dance music from the 1980’s and 90’s and pop music from cultures around the world.

Like a number of contemporary independent artists, Tanlines straddles the line between pop and dance music, yet they lean towards the former to create their own sound with melodies backed by synthesizers, airy guitars, and African-inspired percussion. Their latest release, Volume Up, is a compilation that contains all of the tracks from their EP, Settings, released earlier this year. It also has several remixes and a few unreleased gems as well.

The album contains two disks. The first is divided equally between instrumental tracks and tracks in which Emm attempts vocals. Emm is not a trained vocalist, and it clearly shows on this record, but his no-frills harmonies are trying to capture a mood, rather than attain the centerpiece of the music. On the dance party-ready “Real Life,” Emm repeats the chorus, “It was a past life thing, It wasn’t anything at all,” revealing that not everything can last, a facet of, well, real life. Midway through the first disk, True Panther label mate Glasser accompanies the bubbly “Z” to provide even more buoyancy on a song whose new-wave guitars and drum-machine rhythms would not seem out of place on a Talking Heads record.

While every recording on Volume Up is distinct, “Policy of Trust” and “S.A.W.” are the evident highlights of the compilation. On these tracks, Emm and Cohen most channel their love for early 90’s dance music and transcend their influence into something remarkable. Though among these standouts, the second disk of the album, comprised of entirely of remixes, tends to lose me, particularly on “Iced Coffee (club mix)”and the acoustic version of “Real Life,” which does not translate as well opposed to when composed through computers.

On Volume Up, Tanlines produce a seemingly perfect end-of-the-year compilation that further reinforces why they are a rising band to watch for in the coming year. And while the majority of readers might feel apprehensive about approaching an artist that has never appeared on the radio, I urge you all to go out and purchase this record because, honestly, I can't think of a more appropriate album to compliment your travels to whatever tropical destination you might be headed to over the coming winter break.