Birthday Blog

You know what's a bit weird?  When Google knows it's your birthday and they customise their search page illustration into birthday cakes for you!  I thought it was a coincidence and got quite excited, but then found it's just Google's  most basic data-mining -- I probably told them my birthday myself.

Anyway, I'm clearing things up today, a few things, a few tabs off my Chrome basically -- tunes I've had open for ages that I'll now blog and then close, satisfied.  I had an open tab with the new Missy Elliott track but already closed it as I wasn't too impressed.  I was a big fan back in the day, and the track is by no means bad, and I'm glad she's back but... it didn't really catch me like some of her stuff from the past.  I'm hoping there are other new tracks that are better but I do wonder as I'm sure she'll have been advised to kick off with her best stuff.

Ok, most recent open tab is C. Duncan, a RadMac fave, and I do really like the single they keep playing.  The other stuff I'm listening to right now is quite good too, but not as good as this is:


Another track I've got up, which has been up for ages, is by the late artist who went by the name of Muslimgauze.  Now, I first came across this chap ages ago, in the early days of Napster and Limewire.  I'd search for Muslim stuff on those (yeah, bit weird really, this was when I was living on my own and went through a slightly more religious phase which culminated in me becoming the president of the graduate Muslim association on campus, to chortles from old friends -- but I digress...) and he'd keep coming up.  I looked into him a bit back then, pre-Wikipedia, and found out he was an Englishman with an interest in, or sympathies with, the Muslim world, particularly Palestine.  The titles were a bit of a giveaway, they were very intriguing, but the music was always lyricless so it was hard to really know what he wanted to get across.  He'd already passed away back then.  You can easily find more info on him now, but here's a track I stumbled across on FACT.  The story goes it's from the pre-rave era, which puts Muslimgauze way ahead of his time.  Mash'Allah.  Oh, the Soundcloud version is actually a back-to-back with another track by a different artist -- Muslimgauze is up first.


Now a track that's also been up for ages -- in fact it's the first tab open in me browser.  Wiley x Zomby:

That basmati rice line would make a great t-shirt.

odd past

Not as impressive as I first thought

I'm in the midst of listening to a profound mix by Squarepusher.  I'm about halfway through and a distinct theme has emerged, a theme so specific that it's given me new appreciation for the art of DJing and the selector in particular.  The sheer musical research and knowledge that Squarepusher must have is quite amazing.  What's the big deal? you're probably wondering.  Well this mix focuses on a very specific genre of music.  You could call it early rap, but that wouldn't be specific enough.  You could call it early UK rap, but that still wouldn't be specific enough.  You'd have to go with early UK rap with a positive message and then you'd pretty much get there.  Every record so far is an amalgam of sampled beats, housey sounds, and strangely positive rapping!  Topics range from racial unity to standing up to the police to putting down drugs.  It's just so... strange!  Who on earth knew there were so many early UK rap songs that focused on these topics?  And who has access to them all, now, 25 or so years later?!  Squarepusher, that's who, and I must salute him.  Oh balls.  I just looked at the FACT mag page where this mix is hosted and realised that all the tracks are either by Shut Up and Dance or the Ragga Twins.  So basically he could have a couple of best ofs and that'd be that.  Oh well.  

Floating on NPR

 

Happy that spring is finally here in DC but I've been laid-low by a combination of hay fever and some sort of illness.  Hard to tell one from the other, but I do know that my head feels verrrryyy heavy, and everything aches.  Not nice, but NPR's got a couple of first listens up that I'm enjoying in my sickly state.  First up, an album by West Coast producer Teebs.  Found this to be really mellow music while I sat in my office and tried to will the pain away (and also read the paper).  Click here to see if it's still on NPR.

Next, a new East Coast rap group that I'm listening to right now.  It'll take a more in-depth listen for me to really decide how I feel about this but the fact that King Krule is on the album is a plus point.  Check out Ratking here.  They're on XL Recordings.  That makes sense.

While I'm at it, I may as well drop in something about a new mix up at Fact by Damon Albarn.  First mix I've ever heard by him and I must say I found it rather pleasant.  Not sure about the Tupac track but other than that, nice.  Can't embed so go here.

How to

I sometimes get turned off by electronic music when it hits me that the tune I'm listening to could've been banged out in five minutes on a laptop.  There's good and bad electronic music, and it's not always possible to tell what's throwaway and what an artist really put a lot of effort into.  With the massive proliferation of digital tracks I'm sure that some of what we hear online was put together really quickly from some bog-standard samples.  I came across a couple of videos that, in their own way, attest to this.  One is obviously facetious, the other is more telling though.  The latter is of an artist called Huxley who's been challenged by Factmag to put a tune together in ten minutes or less, and he basically manages it.  He's definitely got skill and talent, and I'm by no means arguing that anyone could do what he does.  But there is also, I think, a meaningful difference between being able to put a house track together in a few minutes and really putting together something unique and musical that's worth going out and obtaining.  And not just obtaining, but that's worth spending your time on, and that doesn't have that cheap almost plasticky feel to it. I can't really define what that feeling is, but I think I hear it sometimes and it's definitely a turn-off.





Here's a real Deadboy track and, to me, it sounds like something that a lot of time, thought, and effort has been put into.  I hope I'm right:



Sidenote:  Noticing that a lot of "comedy" videos on youstube are basically repeating the same old traits, including the Deadboy video that starts this post.  It's getting old!  

Icelandic Hi-Tech Soul

GusGus! Remember them? Polyesterday? A great track from yesteryear and then the band kind of -- went away. But not really, I just didn't hear about them. Turns out they've been signed to German dance music label Kompakt for a bit and are about to come out with a new album ('Arabian Horse'). I wouldn't really care except the track I've heard from the album is grrrreat! Smooth sexy vocal house, as good as their old stuff but with a better beat. I lowe it! Check it below.

GusGus - Over

I really really hope they come and do some live stuff now, cos if half their new stuff is as good as this track they will be amazing.

In other news, James Blake is going on tour again. I hope I get to the tickets before the scalpers this time.