I've been obsessing over this song recently. It sounds a lot like Basic Channel, who have produced some of my favorite techno of all time.

It starts with a flat-out classic 909 four-to-the-floor kick pattern. The track soon develops this synth stab pattern (probably from a 303) that almost tricks your ears into hearing tonal variation when combined with the 909 kick. Throughout, there are several melodies that are introduced and removed with the striking subtlety that really makes a great minimal techno track.

I'm not sure that too much is known about who the actual producer is since this seems to be a pretty anonymous release. Just listen.

It was a pretty slow year for hip hop. There were some gems in Why?, Badu, GZA, and the late, very fine release ending Q-Tips nine-year drought. But nothing that will go down as a classic (though Badu came close). Last year I heard no fewer than three classic records from Wu-Tang, Dalek, and the truly sublime El-P. Which might be why I find myself coming back to those three albums lately. In particular I'm still awed by El-P's I'll Sleep When You're Dead. Over the past year and half it hasn't lost any of its force and now more than ever I consider it the finest hip hop record since Madvillainy. You almost never hear El-P mentioned in "best rapper alive" discussion, but the more I pull that album apart the more I start to think at the very least there isn't anyone better. And unlike Lil' Wayne (why did I buy that entire album when all I wanted was "A Milli"?), El-P has something to say. I never thought I'd say it, but he's better than Ghostface these days and Jay-Z is still saying the same stuff he's always said. So I'm going to go ahead and call El-P the best rapper alive. And while he's at it he gets to call himself a top producer and the owner of the best indie hip hop label around. So if you only buy one rap album this year, make it one from last year.



*WARNING* This video depicts some pretty intense "interrogation"

So... I'm not going to try to introduce Billy Bragg. I kind of feel like we're al on the same page here and if not, then I think I'll just kindly redirect you here for some background info.

Anyway, "Sulk" is off his '99 album, Reaching to the Converted and is a kind of slightly uptempo, piano-led jam about his partner not having the wherewithal to make an affirmative decision about the status of their relationship. It's lyrically refreshing and oozes frustration with lines like "If you love me, why don't you show it?/If you hate me, why don't you let me know it?/Why don't you just pick up something and throw it?/You just sulk."

I have spent a good amount of time with old Billy Bragg songs; songs with that dusty and desperate guitar sound that amasses into a wave of distortion behind his melodies and political messages. I have not, unfortunately, heard a lot of his more recent stuff ('99 is recent for Bragg). If "Sulk" is any indicator, I've been making a mistake.


Billy Bragg - "Sulk"

I've been on a pretty serious jazz kick lately. I started with what I had on my ipod: Mingus, Parker, Monk, Coltrane, and some of the other usual stuff. Then I started listening to this record I've got by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.

I stumbled on Horace Silver because he played piano with the Jazz Messengers. As I haven't been listening specifically for his playing for too long, I don't have that much to say. I can, at this point, comment on how relaxed his playing sounds. I can tell when people are talented because they'll do incredibly difficult things and they won't just make it seem effortless. They'll make it seem like they might as well be somewhere else. Horace Silver plays like this is just something he's doing for the moment, but he might as well be watching TV because it's so easy.

A while ago I tried to link to the Chromatic's video for "I'm on Fire" and the link didn't work and I died a little. Anyway, that came to mind recently and since the cover is so amazing, I've decided to remedy the situation and post the mp3. The link to the original post is here.

The Chromatics - "I'm On Fire"

My first time listening to "Machine Gun" off Portishead's Third I kept waiting for something to happen, something to fill the icy void between the hammer blows. But Portishead had something else in mind.

On Third Portishead takes you to the boundary where sounds that once pleased the ear begin to sound more and more like malfunctioning machines. And the sound is relentless, with a simple beat that goes on and on without change. That they made great music from these elements is an amazing feat, and the result is a spare, metallic beauty which is both empty and yet abundantly full. Is there room for any other sound in a song like "Machine Gun"?

Cadence Weapon is smart hip-hop with an indie-electronica influence and a narrative flow that is similar in its delivery to someone like Atmosphere. The production lacks a lot of the flash of more commercial stuff, but the beats are clever and efficient and don't sound like a simple 4/4 march underneath some very forgettable scratching. Let's be honest, that shit is tired. Independent hip-hop needs a makeover and I think, with the rise of accessible and cheap production equipment, we'll be seeing increasingly better production on smaller releases as time goes by.

This song bounces, turn your sub up.

Cadence Weapon - "Real Estate"

Do Make Say Think is a Canadian post-rock instrumental group whose songs have more in common structurally with a band like Mogwai than a group like Broken Social Scene (even the old stuff). But, unlike Mogwai, their atmospheric and flowing sounds rarely come across as tense or explosive, which is not to so they aren't as expressive or can't convey those qualities. The music is alarmingly beautiful, glowing and shimmering and occasionally erupting into triumphant crescendos. It's not that they know how to play their instruments, it's that they know what their instruments are capable of doing and seem unwilling to settle for anything less.

"Outer Inner & Secret" is off the group's 2004 album Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn and it is as remarkable as the rest of the material on this disc. It seems like some music encourages us to be outwardly expressive: dance music that encourages at least a head nod; hard rock that makes people, almost invariably, want to "mosh"; etc. But of course there is so much more that is enjoyed best with time to digest it and the attention to pick up the nuances of the song. So much classical music falls into this category and certainly anything willfully described as atmospheric also has to fit the bill. "Outer Inner & Secret" makes me wish I was traveling and reminds of taking the train from London on my way to see Paris for the first time, traveling alone in early spring when I was 20 and staring out the window, just overwhelmed by the whole experience. For some reason, that seems to be my default traveling memory.

Do Make Say Think - "Outer Inner & Secret"

In the midst of studying for exams I've been working my way through Pitchfork Media's 500 best songs from 1977-2006. Whatever you think about Pitchfork and their power/editorial slant, this is a great collection of music and it's really interesting to hear the evolution of "popular" music over 30 years. You can see the lists here.

I've been meaning to make note of how awesome Jessica Williams is. She's a great pianist and writes some really solid tunes. Her album Songs for a New Century is in my top ten this year. It's all solo recordings, including a really nice prepared piano piece called "Toshiko." All the tunes are original except a version of Sonny Rollins'"A Blessing Disguise." It's really incredible how she can make a slow, Japanese inspired piece for prepared piano swing at just the right moments. She's beyond virtuosity at this point, with playing so confident and natural that it's easy to forget that she's got mad chops and isn't afraid to use them.

Her composing style has always been steeped in classical music, with improvisation flowing out of refined part writing. Here it's no different, with the funny, deceptively mature "Song for my Baby" moving seamlessly flowing from really nice voice leading to bouts of imaginative improvisation.

On top of this fantastic album, I've recently discovered Williams' website, which includes her fantastic music writing. She's got lots to say about pianos and composers and everything else. Including a much better discussion of Songs for a New Century than I've given here.

Sometimes the instruments seem to have a life of their own. I am thinking of certain tracks on Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks, such as “A Simple Twist of Fate” or “You’re a Big Girl.” The musicians play with that spontaneous confidence that comes from extraordinary natural ability combined with long study of the great American (and foreign) folk idioms. Most guitarists are terrified of playing something on an acoustic guitar that demands an instinctual and unplanned response to the other instruments. A few decades ago, before the polish of modern production, it was obvious whether you had it or not.

Here’s an example of the living, breathing sound from the later Dylan album, Oh Mercy, (ironically, one of his more "produced" albums) where the three guitars maintain a tense, lush, and dark atmosphere around the voice:

“What Was It You Wanted”

My Morning Jacket's latest album, Evil Urges, is the strangest album of the year. It's stranger than Max Tundra and it's stranger than Lau Nau and it's stranger than Zach Hill.

I've been championing this band for about eight years and every album I'm confused and amused and delighted. I spent time making out to At Dawn as an undergrad. I cranked It Still Moves while tearing down Florida back roads as a traveling salesman for New College. I actually got to dance to Z. But I don't know what I'm going to do with Evil Urges. The opening track starts out with the best OK Computer music since OK Computer and then abruptly becomes a sex song completely with breathy falsetto and a naive little piano melody tossed around in the synth strings. The next track features pitch perfect 80's synths mixed with 90's clench-jaw vocals. Track three is a synth-pop-Powerman 5000-Danielson Familie song about "peanut butter puddin' suprise." And it just keeps going. There's little in the way of echoy caterwauls or even huge alt country arena rocking guitar solos (though they're here).

It's not my favorite My Morning Jacket album, but it's still better than most of what I've heard this year. It all works and there's a surprise around every track. If this music weren't so deceptively difficult and just so strange these guys would have the greatest album of 1985. The band has reinvented itself just like they do on every album. It's not for everyone, but it's so far removed from what the kids are slamming to these days that you can't help but listen.

I don't really know what to say about this one. It is a short, sloppy bar-pop-punk song from a small Chicago band that is not breaking any new ground but is proficient and consistent. The vocals are charming but limited (charmingly). It's a fun song and I'm in finals, so I need as much fun as possible.

Bonus points awarded for: pushing the outer limits of your vocal range without cracking or sounding strained.

Extra bonus points for: throwing in some octaves in the solo and not sounding like you're in a hardcore band.

Mexican Cheerleader - "Run And Tell All Your Friends"

... and I'm back to drinking coffee. I tried the switch to tea and it was nice and calming and healthy, but finals are here and, well, let's not beat around the bush. I can be a bit intense sometimes and I want my caffeinated beverage to keep pace. This works pretty well for me because I'm also on a huge Hour of the Wolf kick and they have at least two songs solely about drinking coffee and "fuck[ing] shit up."

I got really into Hour of the Wolf before I came to law school. I got ahold of their Power Of The Wolf E.P. and loved it. It had this raw, Misfits-y vibe to it that clearly drew on things like Black Flag and early hardcore but failed to sound dated or, worse yet, like a bunch of kids trying to bring it back to the good old days. If I see another 17 year old wearing a leather jacket with a giant Crass or Exploited patch on the back of it, my fucking head is going to explode.

Anyway, Hour of the Wolf are from Arizona and they don't tour very much, certainly not to somewhere as far as Chicago. The E.P. was great, but they fell off my radar. They played Fest this year and were thus one of the bands I had to see. I didn't know what to expect because, like I said, I had only seen one or two pictures of them playing live and I had only heard seven of their songs. I was hoping for a stage dive or two, which I thought would be pretty cool, if not standard for most Fest bands.

The band took the stage with a sense of determination about them, like they had just come back from a really intense huddle. The singer started growling into the microphone about how he felt good and how he did a rain dance out back, which was funny but more in an awkward, what the hell is he talking about way. They seemed like they were putting in some effort, but everyone was just kind of confused. Then the singer and drummer got half naked. Then the bassist got down to his underwear and ultimately played in the nude, at one point throwing his sweaty underpants into the pit. Shit got crazy. The singer started slamming the microphone into his forehead at every available moment, trying to draw blood, to which he succeeded. He climbed rafters and hung upside down, pulled on the overhead lights, and taunted the crowd about their clothing and sense of self-satisfaction. He took a half-full garbage can and threw it into the pit; garbage and trash juice flew everywhere. It was foul. The venue had smelled like cigarette smoke and B.O. beforehand, trash water wasn't necessary. But the crowd was into it. People did stage dives and flips and just generally lost their shit. If the band was trying to evoke a reaction, they succeeded, and if they were trying to see how people reacted outside of their comfort zone, then I think they should be pleasantly surprised. It was one of the more intense sets I've ever seen; their singer pacing around the stage and shouting like a feral animal or, presumably, Henry Rollins from his Black Flag days.

It is very easy to listen to punk rock and hardcore and forget where it came from. These things can become so sterile in your room or on your iPod. It is music and thus it is art and there is no wrong way to experience it, but hardcore and punk rock are, by and large, reactionary genres. Punk formed as an alternative to the prevailing styles and politics of the late 70's (in both England and the US) and hardcore followed suit, except this time as a reaction to the decadence and class-tension of the Reagan years. These styles evolved into what they are now not necessarily because it sounded cool, but because it was reflective of how people felt and because something as fast and loud and, well, as militant as Minor Threat stood in stark contrast to prevailing norms.

There are important stylistic qualities in both genres, but at the end of the day, if someone doesn't put some force behind what they are doing - if they can't convey a sense of urgency and emotion - then it doesn't really hit home, no matter how many BPMs the drummer is cruising at.

Anyway, I am obsessed with this band and, although this wasn't the track that drew me in, lately I have been particularly obsessed with this song.

Hour of the Wolf - "Overload"