WINGED MIGRATION

THE 22 BEST ALBUMS OF 2009

2009-11-21T01:45:00.005-05:00

I ORIGINALLY POSTED THIS ON THE FACEBOOK PAGE FOR DANCE MIX 666. HOWEVER IT IS ALSO HERE FOR CONSUMPTION IN GLORIOUS RED AND GREEN BY REGULAR INTERNET PEOPLE. ENJOY

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I really like the number 22, so today I picked and ordered my 22 favorite albums of 2009. Then I played them on the radio.

During the radio segment, I played a song from each album. It wasn't necessarily the best song from the album. It was just the song I felt would sound good on the radio at the time.

Then I wrote some notes about each album and published them here.

22. Girls – Album

This is a guilty pleasure. Album shouldn’t sound this good. The music itself isn’t particularly visionary. It is simply an album of a young man singing about, well, girls.

This is why Album is fantastic: it’s not about the girls. It’s about the young man: Christopher Owens, who has a wild backstory involving crazy cults, crazy millionaires, and crazy, crazy quantities of drugs. He is a very broken young man, and that, of course, makes for super romantic stuff.

Album is lovely. It’s exactly the Hollywood story we look for. It sounds pretty good too.

Track: Darling

21. Smith Westerns – Smith Westerns

These guys toured with Girls, actually. They are young and make garage rock songs. They have enough garage sensibility to make a good garage album, but also exist in a world that makes the garage thing seem really, really put on. I love this. It’s very cool.

Track: Girl in Love

20. Absu – Absu

I like this album for two reasons: I am a big song title geek, and Absu offers up gems like “Of the Dead Who Never Rest in Their Tombs are the Attendance of Familiar Spirits” and “In the Name of Auebothiabaithobeuee.” The second reason: I like black metal, and this is an excellent, if slightly generic, black metal album.

Track: Ye Uttuku Spells

19. DJ Hell – Teufelswerk

This ambitious release is divided into two discs: “Night” – a collection of party tracks, and “Day” – songs for the morning after. Both sides are good. Hell gets some great vocal contributions from Bryan Ferry and P. Diddy (!!) and crafts some sophisticated and totally danceable tracks around them. (The instrumental tracks bang too.) I like this album for the same reason I like German techno in general: it’s never dumbed down but always rocks it. Teufelswerk keeps it classy and fills dancefloors: a winning combination.

Track: Silver Machine ft. Marsmobil

18. ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead – The Century of Self

I started liking this album a lot more when I stopped comparing it to Source Tags and Codes, an album very hard to measure up to. But it’s still totally comparable to Source Tags, as in: epic, epic, epic. The Century of Self is supremely melodramatic and promises a lot of emotional oomph. It doesn’t hit you quite as hard as it would like to. But for an album that basically tries to hit every dramatic note possible, not reaching those peaks isn’t that big of a deal.

Track: Isis Unveiled

17. Zombie Nation – Zombielicious

Zombie Nation makes the most creative dance music right now. It’s interesting that he’s German, ‘cause his sound, while refined, is anything but minimal. He hits you with every weapon in his arsenal, which doesn’t quite let you get into a rhythm. Zombielicious ends up being an exhilarating dance album with a number of killer cuts.

Track: Mas de Todo

16. The Very Best – Warm Heart of Africa

I still can’t tell whether I like the LP more than the Very Best mixtape of late 2008. I really like the mixtape. But let’s face it – mixtapes are cheap. While it’s totally awesome to hear Esau Mwamwaya flip “Birthday” or that track from “Free Willy,” Warm Heart of Africa is a way better indicator of what’s going to happen with Esau in the future, and that’s something worth knowing. Esau and partners-in-crime Radioclit are visionaries, and something like Warm Heart of Africa is an album that will influence a lot of music to come. Plus, its pop sensibility can’t be questioned – shit is catchy as hell.

Track: Julia

15. DOOM – Born Like This

He’s no longer officially Metal Faced, but the former Zev Love X has become more dark and mysterious with this album, which is some of his best work. Check the cryptic cover art to witness his transformation from a comic-book villain into an ancient, creepy dark force. I always preferred Kool Keith to MF DOOM, mainly because Keith was actually crazy while DOOM seemed to just be putting on a cheap villain schtick. I don’t doubt DOOM is still a schtick. But with the new direction he’s taken on Born Like This, he makes it a lot more convincing.

Track: Gazzillion Ear

14. Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport

This is such a directionless album, and I usually hate that. But it works here: Tarot Sport is a great collection of really cool noises. Not necessarily a great Album per se, but how can I complain when this Hour of Sound keeps sounding so fresh!

Track: Phantom Limb

13. YACHT – See Mystery Lights

YACHT is like Tony Yayo: so subversive. Oh, wait.

But really, that first little bit kind of encapsulates YACHT’s weird reality: saying something, realizing it’s wrong, realizing you realized it was wrong all along but said it as a flip, realizing that you kinda meant it, realizing that you don’t really have all of it figure out, and then realizing that you shouldn’t have been asking those questions in the first place. YACHT, moreso on See Mystery Lights than their previous (and also excellent) I Believe in You. Your Magic is Real., plays an excellent post-post-post-post-post-something band. And they make catchy songs too.

Track: Don’t Fear the Darkness

12. Shackleton – Three EPs

Dubstep sometimes bugs me when it’s obviously bored British suburban kids fucking around on their computers in a quest to make THE HEAVIEST MUSIC POSSIBLE. A lot of dubstep bothers me in the same way as a lot of punk and metal does: it’s pointless and doesn’t communicate anything. This is why I love Shackleton; there’s so much soul in his music. Listening to it makes me think of an imaginary movie shot where some guy is standing in some tundra and the camera just keeps zooming out and out and out. When the zoom stops, you get this final view of the guy standing there, a little speck in this daunting and majestic landscape. Shackleton’s music makes you feel small in exactly that way: a little scared, but with the amazing perspective that the world is really big and incredible. Listening to Shackleton, you kind of realize that it’s okay if you don’t really matter. The world keeps going on.

Track: Something Has Got to Give

11. Tombs – Winterhours

Tom Breihan, one of the few Pitchfork writers whose opinion I respect, said something really astute about Winterhours: “Here’s a sensation I don’t get to experience much: hearing a new metal album and wishing the songs were longer.” I still don’t understand why metal bands are so content to let their music sprawl out. I mean, I love Isis, but Aaron Turner is still kind of a metal cliché, all long-haired and beardy. Conversely, the guys in Tombs are all mean muscle. They actually kinda look like skinheads, only not. But you just know they would fully fuck you up after the show if they had the slightest inkling of doing so. Anyways, Winterhours is menacing in the same way these guys are menacing: it’s tightly wound and you just know it can explode and punch you right in the face at any given moment. Intense!

Track: Golden Eyes

10. Fontän – Wintherhwila

Isn’t smooth a state of mind for the beautiful tropical states, not the desolate Scandinavian ones? The world is getting turned upside down these days: the equator produces the fairly aggro sounds of reggaeton, cumbia, and soca, while Gothenburg – Gothenburg?? puts out some of the smoothest music right now. Did you know that Air France, The Tough Alliance, and the Studio are all from the same city of 500,000 people?

Add Fontän to that illustrious list. Wintherwhila is one of the easiest easy-listening albums I have heard in a while. That’s high praise. If you like driving, sunsets, driving into sunsets, or any number of other wonderful and relaxing things, you should listen to this album. But why am I using words like “wonderful,” “easy,” and “relaxing” when I should just stick the one word that describes this album: smooth? Because it so is.

Track: Land of the Dragon

9. Raekwon – Only Built for Cuban Linx Pt. II

The Wu was never more than the sum of its parts. It was just a really mindblowing assembly of talent that put together some strong cuts every now and then. Sure, 36 Chambers is great, and no posse cut can fuck with “Triumph.” But the individual Wu albums: Liquid Swords, Tical, Supreme Clientele, Nigga Please (yes indeed), and, of course, the original Cuban Linx dwarf the group efforts.

No wonder 8 Diagrams fell flat: Cuban Linx II was the only way the Wu could truly return to the real Wu form. “New Wu” says it best by letting Ghostface, Rae, and Method Man go their own separate ways: Rae’s all-business menace – “Ski masks is on, g-rags”, Ghostface’s nutso stream-of-consciousness – “Y’all Planet of the Apes standing next to King Kong”, and Meth’s simple material confidence – “Just what the block missing, the two-seater with the top missing”. But make no mistake, this is the Chef’s album, very much a spiritual successor to 1995’s Cuban Linx. It’s cold, gritty, and real – yet with that glorious hint of Mafioso fantasy that made Cuban Linx the force it was.

Track: Canal Street

8. The Field – Yesterday and Today

Before listening to this album, find a really compelling album to stare at. Yesterday and Today is really, really great staring-at-stuff music. Right now, I am staring at this plastic Halloween scythe in our office while listening to “Leave It” and it seems very important.

Track: Leave It

7. Various Artists – 5 Years of Hyperdub

Fuck Warp. I mean, Hudson Mohawke’s cool and all, and super young – so you assume he’ll become this huge superstar later on, which is totally likely, sure. But he’s all they could muster to stay relevant in the UK??? This late??? Seriously, folks, Hyperdub done took over the UK scene, and this comp effectively crowns them champs. You have older tracks like Kode9’s “9 Samurai” up against mind-expanding new tracks like Zomby’s “Kaliko”, and you can’t tell which is newer because they are both way too fresh for you to handle. This comp makes it very clear that Hyperdub is the most forward-thinking label out there right now. I’m just interested in seeing where things go from here.

Track: Joker & Ginz – “Stash”

6. The xx – xx

The xx are four young people singing sweetly and sincerely about love. They might not understand it but they are wise enough to try to understand it while realizing that we never understand it. This quality is rarer than you think.

Track: Shelter

5. The-Dream – Love vs. Money

The-Dream is cool because it’s not like each album sees him evolving, figuring out new unexplored parts of his beautiful psyche. No, he has it all figured out – who else plans a concept album trilogy of love songs??? A trilogy!!! You have no idea how pumped I am for Love King next year. It’s like Love/Hate was like “Yes, mine is a selfish love,” Love vs. Money was like “Damn, was that real love after all?” and I can only guess Love King will be “Fuck this second-guessing shit, I’m the best,” which, of course, The-Dream is.

But Love vs. Money is great partly because of the deep and powerful notes of doubt he hits, like on the two-part “Love vs. Money” suite or album standout “Right Side of My Brain.” Of course, there are blissful moments, like on “Fancy” or “Walking on the Moon,” but they are put in perspective by the rest of the album’s melancholic doubt. Try thinking of Love vs. Money as the Empire Strikes Back of the great Dream trilogy – the one where things don’t end up awesome at the end, but everyone ends up way wiser.

Track: Rockin’ That Shit

4. Subway – Subway II

The album art says it all: these solid wavy lines on a solid-color background. This is how I think of the nine songs on Subway II: solid-colored lines wavering slightly but ultimately going in one direction. Subway II belongs in the MoMA next to Rothko.

Track: Persuasion

3. HEALTH – Get Color

Somehow, HEALTH has made an album as catchy as it is dissonant. And it’s very dissonant. Get Color is one of those landmark albums that unites scenes and brings the underground mainstream. It’s hard to describe. It’s also hard to deny that it will be influential. Cacophony is the future of pop music, and Get Color noisily lets us know.

Track: In Heat

2. Memory Tapes – Seek Magic

I didn’t really get this album at first. I loved the lush disco of Weird Tapes. I loved the dreamy melancholia of Memory Cassette. I loved the subversive post-pop of Hail Social. And I really, really loved the beautifully wistful “Bicycle.” But somehow, Seek Magic didn’t resonate with me the way Dayve Hawk’s other releases did.

Music can sometimes be all about context. Winterhours might not have resonated if I didn’t see the scary motherfuckers in Tombs up close. Wintherhwila might not have resonated if I didn’t listen to “Nightrider” while riding a ghostly overnight bus. Seek Magic was triggered for me by a mysterious love.

Dayve Hawk gets why being sad is beautiful, and he communicates this wonderfully on Seek Magic. Every song has a certain sense of doom, from the hopeful (“Swimming Field”) to the nervous (“Graphics”). You get the sense that he is a man in love with the pain of passion.

I’m not about to say Seek Magic is an album about mysterious love. It’s an album about a lot of things, and I’d be doing the complex psyche of Hawk an injustice by claiming to know exactly what goes through his head. But while it may not be about mysterious love, it certainly serves as a beautiful soundtrack to the curious moments where we wonder whether or not we’ve found something meaningful.

Track: Plain Material

1. Deastro – Moondagger

Beautiful doubt is a very cool feeling. But there is something else about joy, and that is a feeling that Randolph Chabot, a.k.a. Deastro, knows well.

Chabot is from Detroit; Detroit proper, which is so bombed-out that you can buy a mansion – like, a real mansion – for $10,000. He was brought up homeschooled and religious. He went to college in Minneapolis to become a social worker, but dropped out to pursue music full-time and moved back to Detroit. He has been writing music for ten years and listening to it for three.

He values family, home, and love. He also has an uncanny ability to see the bleak outside world through his kaleidoscopic lenses. So he plays two hundred shows a year, and finds people there who he loves and love him back. His personality is powerful; his band recently left him in the middle of tour to fend for himself (which he did). “I would love to play with them again – if they ever decide to talk to me again,” he tells web mag Brightest Young Things. He really likes kid’s stuff: crayons, Nintendo, and dinosaurs. His previous two musical projects were called Velociraptor and Our Brother the Megazord.

Chabot can exist in his own world because he creates it. He shares it with us every opportunity he gets. Moondagger builds on 2008’s Keepers by creating this glorious pastel dreamworld where good and evil battle forever, but everyone knows good will eventually win. It’s very religious stuff, in a world where Toxie plays the noble hero and Daniel Johnston plays Jesus. And it’s relentlessly optimistic. “I told you, we’re taking our time. I told you, you’re gonna be mine. I told you, we’re gonna be fine. I told you! I told you! I told you! I told you!”

Tracks: Greens, Grays, and Nordics; The Shaded Forests (Gift Giver’s Version)

NOTICE

2009-10-15T01:39:00.004-04:00

EFFORTS ARE BEING SHIFTED TO A WEEKLY RADIO SHOW IN WATERLOO, ONTARIO

ENTITLED "DANCE MIX 666"

LISTEN TO IT AT SOUNDFM.CA FROM 4 TO 6 PM ON FRIDAYS. OR, IF YOU ARE IN THE AREA, YOU CAN TUNE IN AT 100.3 FM.

THERE IS A FACE BOOK PAGE YOU CAN CHECK FOR STUFF THAT WOULD NORMALLY GO ON THIS BLOG. JUST SEARCH DANCE MIX 666. THANK YOU

FALLIN'

2009-09-25T00:10:00.004-04:00

HELLO. PLEASE LISTEN TO THIS TRACK WHEN YOU ARE RIDING A WEIRD TRAIN THROUGH THE WEIRD HOURS OF THE NIGHT. THANK YOU.

WOODEN SHJIPS - FALLIN'

HIP HOUSE POST

2009-09-08T22:32:00.007-04:00

YES WE ARE BACK. INTERVIEW BLITZ COMING MAD SOON. IN THE MEANTIME ENJOY SOME WISDOM ON THE CLUB MUSIC I HAVE BEEN BUMPIN' MOST THIS YEAR: HIP HOUSE.

FACT MAGAZINE'S GREAT LIST OF 20 GREAT HIP HOUSE SONGS. THIS IS AN AMAZING PRIMER

ZONE STYX TRAVELCARD'S LITERATE AND INSIGHTFUL APOLOGY/DISSECTION OF HIP HOUSE

AND HECK HERE ARE SOME TRACKS

SO I ALREADY FEATURED KEVIN SAUNDERSON'S RAP ALIAS REESE ON THIS BLOG. I WILL FEATURE HIM AGAIN. THIS IS SIMPLE AND CLASSIC HIP HOUSE, SLEEK AND FUNKY.

REESE - YOU'RE MINE (HIP HOUSE MIX)

SEDUCTION RELEASED A FORGETTABLE 80s DANCE TRACK, "TWO TO MAKE IT RIGHT", THAT MADE THE ROUNDS ON A FEW COMPS. HOWEVER, THE REMASTERED VERSION WITH NEW HIP HOUSE VOCALS MAKES IT PRETTY FIREY. THE 'LOVE BREAK' NEAR THE 2:40 MARK MAKES ME GRIN EVERY TIME I HEAR IT.

SEDUCTION - TWO TO MAKE IT RIGHT (HIP HOUSE MIX)

THE MAGNIFICENT DJ AYRES RELEASED A GREAT HIP HOUSE MIX BACK IN 2004 THAT PULLS A BUNCH OF DIFFERENT SOUNDS UNDER THE HIP HOUSE UMBRELLA; AMONG THEM TRACKS BY QUEEN LATIFAH, MISSY, JOE BUDDEN, AND EVEN GHOSTFACE. HOWEVER, HIS MASHUP OF UNDERAPPRECIATED RAH DIGGA BANGER "PARTY AND BULLSHIT" WITH THE TYREE CLASSIC "ACID CRASH" STANDS OUT. YES, IT'S A MIXTAPE RIP.

DJ AYRES - PARTY AND ACID

YACHT & YACHTLIKE

2009-07-14T01:07:00.007-04:00

I AM A BIG FAN OF YACHT. THEY ARE NOT EVEN TOO CUTESY FOR ME. THEIR NEW SONG, "PSYCHIC CITY" HAS BEEN MAKING MAJOR ROUNDS WITH MAJOR TASTEMAKERS. IT IS CUTE AND CATCHY.

ONE OF THE THINGS I LIKE MOST ABOUT YACHT IS THEIR PROPENSITY TO WRITE SACCHARINE SWEET SONGS WITH VERY SUBTLE UNDERCURRENTS OF DARKNESS AND DANGER. "PSYCHIC CITY" DOES THIS WELL. BUT SOMETIMES, WHEN LISTENING TO YACHT, I DON'T HEAR PAST THE CUTE MELODIES AND SINGING, AND FEEL LIKE I WOULD LIKE SOMETHING MORE OBVIOUSLY DARKER. SO I AM VERY GLAD I DISCOVERED THE FOLLOWING TRACKS.

THE FIRST, "TREE FROG", BY DEASTRO, WAS RELEASED ON ONE OF MY FAVORITE LABELS, GHOSTLY INTERNATIONAL. IT HAS EXTREMELY YACHT-LIKE MELODIES AND SLIGHTLY MELANCHOLY LYRICS. IT IS ALSO A DEPARTURE FROM DEASTRO'S EARLY MATERIAL, AND I AM EXCITED TO HEAR IF HE CONTINUES IN THIS DIRECTION ON HIS NEW LP WHICH I HAVE NOT HEARD YET.

THE SECOND, "BLACK MAGIC" BY MAGIC WANDS, DOES NOT QUITE HAVE THE SOUL OF YACHT'S OR DEASTRO'S TRACKS. IT ACTUALLY FEELS A LITTLE LIKE A CHEAP ATTEMPT TO CASH IN ON THIS YACHT-LIKE SOUND. BUT IT WORKS AS A SONG WHICH IS COOL, WHICH IS A NICE ALTERNATIVE, BECAUSE YACHT IS NOT SUPER COOL.

DOWNLOAD THE MP3 OF:
PSYCHIC CITY
TREE FROG
BLACK MAGIC

HIPNOSIS

2009-07-10T23:50:00.003-04:00

VANGELIS IS PRETTY MUCH A SUPER GENIUS WHO CAN DO NO WRONG. "PULSTAR", BY HIS ITALO-DISCO ALIAS HIPNOSIS, IS A SPOOKY BANGER FROM 1983 WITH POTENTIAL TO DESTROY DANCEFLOORS.

SPLITTING THE 12" WITH "PULSTAR" IS VANGELIS' END TITLE THEME TO BLADE RUNNER! IF YOU ARE NOT FAMILIAR WITH THIS TRACK, IT IS BASICALLY WHAT KAVINSKY ATTEMPTS TO EMULATE.

HIPNOSIS - PULSTAR
VANGELIS - BLADE RUNNER (END TITLE)

COSMIC KEYS TO MY CREATIONS AND TIMES

2009-07-09T23:59:00.005-04:00

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PILL

2009-07-06T18:45:00.008-04:00

so much melodrama in the rap game. i feel that many, if not most, rappers are trying way too hard to prove shit. with laid back swagger becoming an increasingly rare commodity, it is very refreshing to hear a great new mixtape: PILL'S 4180: the prescription, that exemplifies the forgotten art of bragging without sounding whiny.

pill is a fun rapper who doesn't make party rap, and that makes me glad - party rap started to really annoy me around when i heard "PARTY WORKS" on benzi's NEW DEAL mixtape. (truth be told, i love "party works", but it was a major 'ok, that's enough' track for me.) instead, pill raps about the hustle, but not in the obsessive, sometimes whiny, way that clipse, jeezy, and juelz do it. there is no way any of the above could drop as good a coke-rap over "single ladies" as pill does on "blow".

he also has the ability to wax lyrical, and it makes for a really nice balance on the mixtape. the quick 'coldest story ever told' he drops over "heartless" is a nice teaser of his storytelling abilities, which get a better showcase on "it ain't eane gotta be like dis".

if you are not sold on pill yet, watch his video for "trap goin' ham" - it's kind of documentary-meets-music-video. maurice garland has an incredible firsthand account of the video shoot on his blog.

oh, and there is a great beat repertoire on 4180 - from "single ladies" and "jumpin' out the window" to "nike boots" and "drivin' down the block" - and a bunch of great stuff i've never heard before, too. "bunkin" is especially monumental. more rappers need to get on the 'boing' sound effect.

here is a link to the mixtape! download the whole thing!

pill - 4180: the prescription

MEMORY TAPES!!!!!!!!

2009-07-05T23:00:00.007-04:00

LET THE EXCLAMATION MARKS SHOW HOW MUCH I LOVE THE MYSTERIOUS FORCE BEHIND HAIL SOCIAL, WEIRD TAPES, MEMORY CASSETTE, AND NOW THE REFINED AND MAGICAL MEMORY TAPES. WISTFUL MODERN ENNUI HAS BEEN ONE OF MY FAVORITE FEELINGS OF THE PAST YEAR, AND THE MUSIC MADE BY THIS BEING DOES AN ABSOLUTELY TRILL JOB OF CONJURING THESE FEELINGS UP.

I AM VERY EXCITED TO HEAR THAT A MEMORY TAPES LP IS SOON APPROACHING. I WAS ALSO VERY EXCITED TO HEAR "BICYCLE", THE LEAD SINGLE OFF THIS UPCOMING LP. IT IS NOT A PERFECT SONG BUT IT IS CLOSE. IT ALSO MARKS A REMARKABLE PROGRESSION FROM THE INCONSISTENT HAIL SOCIAL TO NOW, COMBINING THE BEST ELEMENTS OF MEMORY CASSETTE AND WEIRD TAPES TO MAKE A RELATIVELY POLISHED PIECE. I AM VERY, VERY, VERY EXCITED TO HEAR WHAT IS TO COME ON THE MEMORY TAPES LP.

YOU CAN DOWNLOAD "BICYCLE" BELOW, OR YOU CAN DOWNLOAD IT WITH THE DISCOGRAPHY OF WEIRD TAPES AND MEMORY CASSETTE AT THE WEIRD TAPES BLOG.

MEMORY TAPES - BICYCLE

ANDREW W.K.

2009-06-30T00:10:00.002-04:00

A FEW WEEKS AGO I HAD THE IMMENSE PLEASURE OF INTERVIEWING SUPER ROCK STAR ANDREW W.K. HE IS A RADIANT AND AMAZING PERSON EVEN OVER THE PHONE. WE TALKED ABOUT A LOT OF INTERESTING STUFF LIKE THE SUPERNATURAL, SELF DISCOVERY, AND THE ROLE OF MUSIC IN THE GREAT ACT OF BEING A PERSON IN THE WORLD.

THE INTERVIEW IS HOSTED BY MY FRIEND MATT SHIMMER ON HIS EXCELLENT WEBSITE INDIEVILLE. READ IT HERE!

ARABOLOGY

2009-06-29T22:06:00.001-04:00

AN EARLIER POST ON Y.A.S. MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEARED AND I DO NOT WANT TO WRITE IT UP AGAIN IN ITS ENTIRETY. HERE'S POINT FORM

Y.A.S. IS THE PAIRING OF ARAB/EURO SUPER PRODUCER MIRWAIS AND LEBANESE STAR YASMINE HAMDAN
THEY RELEASED A GREAT COVER OF "STAYING ALIVE" LAST YEAR WHICH HAS AN INCREDIBLE VIDEO
THEIR NEW ALBUM IS CALLED ARABOLOGY AND IS MEANT TO BE A KIND OF CROSSOVER PROJECT TO EXPOSE ARABIC ELECTRO POP TO WESTERN AUDIENCES

AND HERE ARE MP3S

"AZZA", A SLOW DANCEFLOOR BURNER WITH A FOOTSTOMPIN' BEAT
"A MAN", A SIZZLING SLEEK PIECE THAT DELICIOUSLY CHANNELS EARLY-MILLENNIUM ELECTONICA
A FELIX DA HOUSECAT REMIX OF CRAFTSMANLIKE LEAD SINGLE "GET IT RIGHT"

SUMMER HAZE

2009-06-29T02:50:00.001-04:00

HI, COMPUTER ISSUES FORCED A HIATUS, DURING WHICH I BASKED IN MAGICAL SUMMER.

WHILE THERE ARE FREQUENT INSTANCES OF JOY TO BE FOUND, IT IS TRULY A SEASON OF BLISS. MOMENTS OF LOSING SELF IN BLUE SKY ECLIPSE THE GLOW OF HUMAN PHOTOSYNTHESIS. THIS MIX IS FOR SUCH TRANSCENDENT MOMENTS

TRACKLIST
1. au - summerheat
2. mv & ee - sunshine girl
3. faust - it's a bit of a pain
4. can - sing swan song
5. tim hecker - borderlands
6. popul vuh - aguirre i (l'acrime di rei)
7. emeralds - up in the air
8. bibio - top soil
9. aphex twin - matchsticks
10. gates of heaven - aquifer
11. flying saucer attack - in the light of time
12. hush arbors - the forest we've been
13. pelican - pulse

DOWNLOAD

NEW FAVORITE SONG

2009-06-12T14:26:00.001-04:00

SERIOUSLY THIS IS LIKE LISTENING TO QUICKSILVER. THE NEW TRACK FROM CEREBRAL MOTHERFUCKERS BURIAL AND FOUR TET.

I FIND BOTH OF THEM TO BE A LITTLE HIT-OR-MISS, FOUR TET ESPECIALLY. EVERYTHING ECSTATIC WAS PRETTY DISAPPOINTING TO ME, AND HIS STEVE REID PROJECT WAS A LITTLE TOO FREEFORM FOR MY POP SENSIBILITIES, AT LEAST WHEN I SAW THEM A COUPLE YEARS AGO.

BUT HOLY CRUD IS THIS SONG EVER A GINORMOUS HIT

BURIAL AND FOUR TET - MOTH

COOL VIDEO TOO

YEAHHHHHHHHH

2009-06-12T02:49:00.001-04:00

SHORT AND SWEET

GONNA POST SOME DETROIT TECHNO I HAVE BEEN DIGGING LATELY

EXCLUSIVELY FUNKY SHIT

REESE (KEVIN SAUNDERSON) - ROCK TO THE BEAT

AUX 88 - SONIC BOOM

DREXCIYA - DEPRESSURIZATION

MONSTER ISLAND CZARS

2009-06-10T00:00:00.001-04:00

MF DOOM has got to be one of the most overlooked producers in hip-hop, as his awesome lyricism generally overshadows his production efforts, which is kind of a shame. he must have dilla quantities of untapped beats floating around.

some of them turn up on his work for the monster island czars, the only crew DOOM rolled with after KMD. notably, mf grimm, with whom DOOM has beefed in the past, raps as jet-jaguar with M.I.C. on their one and only LP, (so far; there are rumblings of a second coming this year) escape from monsta island, he produced 6 of the 20 tracks. 2 of them got copped by his pal ghostface on fishscale*.

escape from monsta island, at times, seems like a weak wu-tang impression. jackin' asian genre flicks from the 70s? check. menacing abstract rhymes? check. song titles like "poizon windz" and "gunz n swordz" that could have been on any wu album? triple check check. for the record, most of the M.I.C. crew shows up on the better known DOOM (as king geedorah) solo project, take me to your leader, which is a way better cut, displaying a bit more than the wu-impression on escape from monsta island.

regardless, there are still some strong tracks on the album, even if it's marred by too many dopey stream-of-consciousness rapid-fire flows.

"became a monsta" is produced by x-ray, not DOOM. it's still a hot track. download here

"make it squash" is one of DOOM's messier beats, but it works with the lo-fi Czars to become a goofy, fun track. download here

"comin at you" displays DOOM's versatility as a producer. reminds me of the stuff that james pants is putting out on stones throw right now, and that's good. download here

* if you're curious, "1,2... 1,2" got turned into a wu-tang reunion on "9 milli bros", and the "scientific civilization" skit became ghostface's "jellyfish".

THE DE ANGELIS BROTHERS

2009-06-03T23:04:00.001-04:00

MUCH LIKE WESTERN AUDIENCES' KNOWLEDGE OF THE SPAGHETTI WESTERN RARELY EXTENDS PAST SERGIO LEONE, WESTERN AUDIENCES' KNOWLEDGE OF ITALIAN FILM SOUNDTRACKS RARELY EXTENDS PAST ENNIO MORRICONE, AND PERHAPS GOBLIN.

THIS IS A PITY. THERE ARE PLENTY OF GOOD SOUNDTRACKS TO GIALLO AND SPAGHETTI WESTERN FLICKS. MANY OF THEM ARE COMPOSED BY THE PROLIFIC AND LURID DE ANGELIS BROTHERS.

KEOMA IS A LURID FILM WITH A LURID SOUNDTRACK. APPARENTLY THE DIALOGUE AND PLOT WAS LARGELY IMPROVISED. IT LOOKS BEAUTIFUL AND FEATURES SURPRISINGLY MOVING DRAMA.

THE THEME TO KEOMA IS FEATURED VERY PROMINENTLY IN THE FILM, AND HAS RECEIVED EXTREMELY MIXED REVIEWS. IT CAN BE INTERPRETED AS BEING "A LITTLE MUCH." I THINK IT IS FANTASTIC.

DOWNLOAD KEOMA THEME HERE

MANNAJA IS NOT QUITE AS POWERFUL AS KEOMA. COMPARED TO KEOMA, IT FEELS A LITTLE MORE LIKE A GENRE FLICK. KEOMA FEELS MORE LIKE A VIVID DREAM. THE DE ANGELIS PRODUCED SOUNDTRACK STILL CONTAINS SOME SUPERB CUTS.

I WON'T POST THE THEME; IT'S TOO SIMILAR TO THE KEOMA THEME AND LACKING MUCH OF KEOMA'S PUNCH. INSTEAD, I'LL POST A COUPLE OF MINOR CUTS.

THE FIRST IS "SNAKE". I DON'T REALLY KNOW WHAT TO SAY ABOUT THIS SONG.

JUST DOWNLOAD IT, HERE

THE SECOND IS "THE KIDNAPPING", WHICH IS PRETTY SPOOKY AND ATMOSPHERIC.

DOWNLOAD IT HERE

HI

2009-06-03T02:29:00.001-04:00

THIS IS THE FIRST POST ON WINGED MIGRATION. IT CONTAINS A GREAT LITTLE TRACK FROM A MAURICE FULTON SIDE PROJECT.

MAURICE FULTON IS A COOL AND WEIRD MYSTERY GENIUS WHO MADE A LOT OF DISCONCERTING DANCE TRACKS. "I HATE YOU" IS NOT A DANCE TRACK UNLESS YOU ARE A SUCKY DANCER. IT'S STILL PRETTY GREAT.

I HATE YOU HERE