I’ll preface this by admitting my ignorance as to who Lucretio And Francesco Devincenti are, or what they’ve done previously. I’ll also say that “Tempesta Di Valvole” means nothing to me – it translates into Storm Valves but again, even in English, it means nothing to me. I think the record label is new as I’ve not heard of it (PicNic34, anyone?)
However, Lucretio And Francesco Devincenti have exercised their good taste and asked for a Vladislav Delay remix on the newest release! Bravo!
I don’t fuck around
The track is more beat driven than anything I’ve heard from Vladislav Delay, but it’s difficult to gather much from a 1:45 sample.
Things have been a little quiet from Vladislav since the release of the amazing “Visa”, so this is quite a good way to end the drought.
Really looking forward to this one, should be out January. And with fortune on our side, we may be seeing the emergence of another little interesting record label! Good times!
Bowie has now released the first single and opening track of his new album “Backstair”.
Instead of being the shining post-post rock nu-skool Bowie we expected on “The Next Day” we’re treated to a 10 minute long, “Loving the Alien vs. Station to Station” masterpiece.
Not only is this quite an unexpected departure from the previous four or five most modern Bowie albums, it also happens to be so good and so interesting that it has rendered the rest of my music collection largely irrelevant.
Blackstar Cover Art
Opening with an Arabian feeling chord progression with double speed, stepped drum patterns (entirely acoustic to my ears), ritualistic chanting, all of which is delivered with a sense of bravado that no one else can come close to replicating. The drums slowly dissipate into nothing and the track comes crawling to a halt somewhere around the halfway point. Out of the abyss emerges a 4/4 swaggering funk(?) track, crystallizing and pulling the veil from our eyes. It’s confusing, but quite possibly the most interesting twist I’ve heard in donkey’s.
I wish I could say more, but my brain is yet to fully comprehend what it has seen. Watch the video, it’s great.
The death of Major Tom, in the most fitting, most bizarre character send off possible.
NB: A strange side note here, but to me, the track has a very close resemblance to the Underworld track Banstyle/Sappys Curry. I’ll do a blow-by-blow comparison one day.
Clipse / Re-up Gang have always released the best mixtapes, and more recently the mixtapes have utterly eclipsed the albums. Clipse “Numb It Down” is a fine example of that.
There is no, and there never shall be a better mixtape than “Road To Till The Casket Drops”. The crowning achievement of which is “Numb It Down”, a re-edit of Lupe’s forgettable “Dumb It Down”.
Ferrik44 Review
Five years ago, Youtube user Ferrik44 took the words out of my mouth and distilled them into a five word sentence fragment with crystal clarity. I can’t add anything. This is 911 murda shit.
Clipse “Numb It Down”
Feel this, I’m fearless, now hear this
Tackled it after Lupe killed it,
Push Ton the last son of Mildred,
Stumbled upon the rock like a pilgrim.
Made money, money made power
Unstepped on as it came off the Mayflower.
I come from graffiti’d halls,
Now the X marks the spot on my graffiti walls,
Statuettes X’d eyes on those graffiti dolls,
Ghetto Bitches ask why – I say it’s just because.
The double entendres remind you of Andre 3K,
Make you spin it back like a DJ,
This track feeling like it’s D-day,
Fucking with P it might be D-day,
My heroin lines like checking out at BJ’s.
Skeezy fucker, R.A. the Rugged Man was a staple of mine during the mid to late 90’s. Releasing raw, filthy shit sporadically for two decades now, countless legal issues and mental health problems (both of which I’m glad to hear he overcame).
His latest album “Legends Never Die” is fairly horrible. Bland uninteresting production, bullshit ‘technical’ rhyming with no soul. To me, it’s the sound of a rapper trying to make money.
I told him this, and he promptly blocked me on Twitter.
R.A. the Rugged Man being a pussy
Now, I wasn’t throwing shade for no reason (yes, I said it), but I loved R.A. and his crazy as fuck music, and it pains me to hear the fucking Garageband Studio™ bullshit he’s putting out now. And I find it even more distressing that he seems to believe in it.
So for old time’s sake, here’s a verse taken from “Sandman Exclusive All-Star Freestyle” titled “Hated By Everyone Freestyle”.
Listen to those authentic MPC beats, the bullshit nonsense spouted by R.A., and the whole vibe. It’s fucking great. Remember him for what he was, not what he became.
In reference to an older post (Bob Marley Sun Is Shining Controversy) which was viewed by around 11 people, I thought I would fragment and reduce my audience even more by continuing to delve further into non-issues that only interest me.
Browsing iTunes because I’m bored shitless and it’s a long weekend, and because I don’t really understand iTunes (as a man with 200 LPs and 200GiB of flac files, it’s not terribly useful to me). However, because I’m on a big Bandcamp tip (check it) I thought I would dip my toe in. You know, checking for bonus tracks, iTunes exclusive stuff etc.
What do i find? Another fucking weird, possibly unlicensed, Sun Is Shining Remix.
Bob Marley vs. Funkstar De Luxe “Sun Is Shining (Weird Fucking iTunes Mix)”
What’s so strange about this one? Well, it’s a near perfect facsimile of the original Funkstar De Luxe radio edit. It even appears to be an official Edel release on iTunes, but I can’t see how. It’s the same arrangement as the original radio edit but the drums are different, the keys are different, the synth chords are different (and too resonant), and the vocal take is shocking horrible. It sounds like record label either could no longer use the rights to the original mix, or lost the original take. But in that case, why couldn’t they just use a pre mastered take from a CD? Or make an entirely different mix?
This blows my mind. It’s bloody awful.
The mix is all wrong, it’s amateurish, at best. The guitar is in the wrong key and makes me want to tear my ears out. The vocal sounds like a drunk karaoke effort and is plagued with sibilance and other artefacts. I’m not even sure it is Bob Marley, but if it’s not, why didn’t they use a different take? Or totally re-record? The drums, oh man, the drums. Great composition, dreadful execution. They sounds like someone browsing a sample CD from 2000 and work as a great example of “how not to use a compressor and EQ).
Compare for yourself:
Bob Marley vs. Funkstar De Luxe – Sun Is Shining (Radio De Luxe Edit)
Bob Marley vs. Funkstar De Luxe – Sun Is Shining (Weird Fucking iTunes Mix)
I’ve said it before, but why? Why does this exist? Who said “We need another mix of this, just like the original, only worse in every conceivable way”. Why?!
When will this madness end? Will I be finding different mixes of this fucking song my whole life? Is that it, is that my purpose? At least now, I’m sure there can’t be any more. This is it, the last of the shit, as bad as it gets…
Bob Marley vs. Funkstar De Luxe “Sun Is Shining 15th Anniversary Remixes”
It’s at this point I realise two things. I don’t like Bob Marley. I don’t like Funkstar De Luxe.
Just in case anyone has missed it, High Priest of the Anti-Pop Consortium AKA Hprizm has been, for the last few months, releasing fire on bandcamp.
It’s all instrumental, noodling beats and odd-looping samples – exactly what you’d expect from HP.
The latest release “Ornate Coldtrain”, ALL CAPS, is a darker, sketchy piece. Bits and pieces approach and unusually constructed. Jumbled. All the tracks are snipped tight, none of them allowed to progress passed the four-minute mark. Africa meets NYC.
Hprizm “Digital Aura”
My favourite release so far is “Digital Aura”. Shorter and beatier than anything else listed, it kills it with the old MPC magic (it’s probably fuckin’ Ableton) and a sample selection unearthed from 1950. The artwork is awesome too.
