Now I'm listening to Stereolab's Sound-Dust. From the period where the music critics just collectively stopped giving a crap about Stereolab. This is really good stuff.
Pleasantly shocked to find a copy of Pepe Deluxé's BEATitude at the local used music store. Listening to it, I can recognize a lot of the ingredients that went into Queen of the Wave (AOTY 2012, NEVA 4GET); they're just not mixed quite as well here. The whole thing just feels like a collection of songs, not an album. Good songs, though.
Any groups in particular that you really like? I don't really know much about Bluegrass outside of the few old Bluegrass records my dad had, but I've found that there's some really good music and very talented musicians in Bluegrass.
Not really at all the same genre, but for some reason I think that you would do well to look into 16 Horsepower's work, as well as the frontman's stuff as Wovenhand.
I am glad to have been of help. Meta is more familiar with those projects than I am, but I really like their work.
Speaking ofslightly rootsy things with an interesting twist, Gastr Del Sol's Crookt Crackt Or Fly is easily one of the weirdest records that I have heard in a very long time. It basically alternates between the kind of wilfully sloppy yet deft math-rock that Trumans Water plays as performed almost entirely on acoustic guitars, and something akin to ambient industrial soundscaping with jazz instruments instead of synths, with spurts of distorted electric guitar and fierce drumming in between and more than a slight balladeering vibe.
For other bands in the jazz-meets-bluegrass style but with less prominent drums, you may like Dave Grisman, The Jazz Mandolin Project, or The Absynthe Quintet (their misspelling, not mine).
I freaking love nearly all of 16 Horsepower and Wovenhand's output, but the bluegrass influence varies quite a bit from album to album.
And speaking of Union Station... Alison Krauss recorded an album with Robert Plant, produced by T. Bone "roots-music encyclopedia" Burnett. Behold the majesty.
I'd like to hear more J-pop/anisong make use of chromaticism.
...actually, I'd like to hear a lot of pop make more use of chromaticism.
Not key-change chromaticism. Ornamental and harmonic chromaticism in general.
For starters: * flattened scale degree 6 in major keys, for use in minor iv chords * flattened scale degree 2 in minor or major keys, for Phrygian flavor (in minor) or Neapolitan flavor * raised scale degree 4 in major or minor keys, for that bright shining sunny day feel (major) or a jazzy feel (minor) Sure, these starter ideas could be used cheesily (and they have), but we'll need to have some of this before we get onto some far cooler but more complex ideas, such as: * augmented sixth chords (which can resolve to the dominant or other chords too) * simultaneous leading tone + subtonic * V7 with flattened fifth * V7 with simultaneous flattened and normal fifth * V7 with flattened fifth and simultaneous leading tone + subtonic * a bunch of colorful/expressive ideas that can come out of contrasting major and minor by tonicizing major while in minor or tonicizing minor while in major * a bunch of colorful/expressive ideas that can come out of contrasting the chromatic and dissonant with the diatonic and consonant * using temporary modulations to and from distant keys
For example: the passage from 0:09 to 0:19 in this song (please pardon the Precure vid if you're not into that stuff), "Storm" by Jam Project.
She doesn't get a lot of coverage, again, just because she's not very interesting. Which is sort of a shitty thing to say about a person, and not the type of thing I'd normally say, but in her case it's unfortunately rather true. I'd kind of file her into the same place as Flo Rida and Pitbull, honestly. Functional, but not something I could sit through an album of.
(though I've argued before that Pitbull is a better rapper than people give him credit for, but nevermind that right now)
I say tumblr hates her only because I've seen a number of posts (by which I mean somewhere from 6-10) deriding her apparent racism. She's one of those people who thinks white people are discriminated against in the rap industry, which is probably the only thing she has in common with Haystak.
So, for someone with minimal prior exposure to Swans, is the new album a good entry point?
Yes and no. It is utterly brilliant, but very intense and best experienced in context.
I would suggest The Great Annihilator first, personally.
Dear recommended their drone-popish stuff to me a while ago. This included that album, White Light on the Edge of Infinity, and Love of Life. I enjoy that stuff (plus some of Soundtracks for the Blind) more than what I've heard of their earlier or later output, but I recognize I'm in the minority with that viewpoint.
White people aren't actively discriminated against in the rap industry in a meaningful way, but there is a somewhat uncomfortable tendency among some fans (again, see Tumblr) to get more up in arms about stupid shit that white rappers say than stupid shit that, say, black or Latino rappers say. It's a very 90's attitude that has somehow survived into the present day under the auspices of combating white privilege or whatever and it's honestly really stupid.
So, for someone with minimal prior exposure to Swans, is the new album a good entry point?
Yes and no. It is utterly brilliant, but very intense and best experienced in context.
I would suggest The Great Annihilator first, personally.
Dear recommended their drone-popish stuff to me a while ago. This included that album, White Light on the Edge of Infinity, and Love of Life. I enjoy that stuff (plus some of Soundtracks for the Blind) more than what I've heard of their earlier or later output, but I recognize I'm in the minority with that viewpoint.
White Light and The Great Annihilator are basically perfect, and Love of Life contains several of my favourite later tracks of theirs, including one of the best love songs out there, period ("Her").
For what it's worth, I second your recommendation to Meta for the first Swans album he should listen to.
The Great Annhilator has both the intensity of their industrial stuff and the tenderness of their drone-pop stuff. It makes for a pretty nicely unique combination in their discography.
It depends on if you agree with the thesis you're positing - I prefer to think of All Delighted People or even the lunacy of Silver and Gold in those terms, although "Age of Adz", "I Want To Be Well" and "The Impossible Soul" are indeed glorious - but yes, in a way that is correct. To understand what importance To Be Kind has in Swans' discography, you should be familiar with their last studio and live albums before first dissolving (Soundtracks for the Blind and Swans Are Dead) as well as with the albums that immediately preceded it (The Seer and, to a lesser extent, the two-disc version of My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky - which, incidentally, takes its title from a song that ended up on To Be Kind). It is a very ambitious, very powerful album.
Speaking of bluegrass, the prior weekend I picked up In Sacred Trust by Hobart Smith (published by Smithsonian Folkways). Finally got around to listening to it now. It's old-time music (i.e. not bluegrass per se, but the American folk tradition that bluegrass evolved directly from) and nice stuff. Solo banjo, solo guitar, solo fiddle, and so on.
White people aren't actively discriminated against in the rap industry in a meaningful way, but there is a somewhat uncomfortable tendency among some fans (again, see Tumblr) to get more up in arms about stupid shit that white rappers say than stupid shit that, say, black or Latino rappers say. It's a very 90's attitude that has somehow survived into the present day under the auspices of combating white privilege or whatever and it's honestly really stupid.
White rappers being under greater scrutiny makes perfect sense to me, but maybe I am too far deep into the issue to have a proper perspective on it. Though I will say that white rappers tend to sometimes get treated....oddly, by hip-hop press. Like that one time when that interviewer kept trying to get Yelawolf to say the n word.
So, I'm currently listening to "Body & Blood" from clipping.'s new LP, and... yeah, damn. Not sure that I've heard anyone tackle the "black widow" serial killer theme from that particular angle, and Daveed Diggs' flow has improved pretty significantly. "Work Work" is also really fun, although not *quite* on the same level.
Comments
destroy_all_music_critics.exe
^ I have a hard time finding any of their albums that aren't Queen of the Wave.
^^ Depends on whether you listen to modern reggae.
Also, have you ever listened to any of Bela Fleck's stuff? If you haven't, I think you might his music enjoyable.
I freaking love nearly all of 16 Horsepower and Wovenhand's output, but the bluegrass influence varies quite a bit from album to album.
And speaking of Union Station... Alison Krauss recorded an album with Robert Plant, produced by T. Bone "roots-music encyclopedia" Burnett. Behold the majesty.
...actually, I'd like to hear a lot of pop make more use of chromaticism.
Not key-change chromaticism. Ornamental and harmonic chromaticism in general.
For starters:
* flattened scale degree 6 in major keys, for use in minor iv chords
* flattened scale degree 2 in minor or major keys, for Phrygian flavor (in minor) or Neapolitan flavor
* raised scale degree 4 in major or minor keys, for that bright shining sunny day feel (major) or a jazzy feel (minor)
Sure, these starter ideas could be used cheesily (and they have), but we'll need to have some of this before we get onto some far cooler but more complex ideas, such as:
* augmented sixth chords (which can resolve to the dominant or other chords too)
* simultaneous leading tone + subtonic
* V7 with flattened fifth
* V7 with simultaneous flattened and normal fifth
* V7 with flattened fifth and simultaneous leading tone + subtonic
* a bunch of colorful/expressive ideas that can come out of contrasting major and minor by tonicizing major while in minor or tonicizing minor while in major
* a bunch of colorful/expressive ideas that can come out of contrasting the chromatic and dissonant with the diatonic and consonant
* using temporary modulations to and from distant keys
For example: the passage from 0:09 to 0:19 in this song (please pardon the Precure vid if you're not into that stuff), "Storm" by Jam Project.
Also, found out recently that both Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert both came out as gay publicly recently, which I did not now until a few days ago.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-c1-gay-heavy-metal-20140508-story.html#page=1
Apparently she's one of those people tumblr hates, idk. She provides some needed mixing up to Ariana Grande's "Problem", but that's about all.
EDIT: Although she's only featured in the second song.
(though I've argued before that Pitbull is a better rapper than people give him credit for, but nevermind that right now)
I say tumblr hates her only because I've seen a number of posts (by which I mean somewhere from 6-10) deriding her apparent racism. She's one of those people who thinks white people are discriminated against in the rap industry, which is probably the only thing she has in common with Haystak.
Apparently it is not.
I don't have the video on hand though so I may be misremembering.
> 49 keys
> 88 keys in the picture
wut