It's no longer mid-summer (or mid-year) but that doesn't mean that it's time to crawl under 12 blankets and hygge Old Enough (or some other Japanese program on Netflix a friend recommended to you... Terrace House?). No, there are still plenty of warm weather days ahead of us this year and even more great records to spin while soaking up all that natural UV treatment. Because this is a blog, where I write about music, here is a short list of music I've been enjoying this summer (so far!). I've been in a pretty chill mode this year so it's mostly hip-hop and pop music. This is a heads-up for those of you who dig that sort of thing. If you like other stuff, there is other stuff too. Hopefully, you find something you can groove on. If not, don't tell me. I will take it very personally.
Fly Anakin - Frank (Lex Records)
Frank is the debut solo excursion from Richmond hip-hop artist and Jedi-level language arts warrior, Fly Anakin. If I had to describe the theme of this debut, it would be fidelity- staying true to who you are, where you came from, and being honest with yourself about what you want to do with your life. Might sound simple, but its implications are profound. Fly continues to have a very slick and sharp flow on Frank, which remains deftly eloquent even when shifting into high gear, a talent for elocution and street heated, personal prose that thrives amongst a colorful backdrop of '70s hustler soundtracks and moody soulful beats as comfortably as a peacock wears the train of his feathers. Frank is a forceful exercise in keeping it real.
Taut and groovy guitar jazz for the night owl in you. Ghosted is the product of a collaboration between Australian guitarist Oren Ambarchi, bassist Johan Berthling, and Norwegian bone-rattler Andreas Werliin. The four-track album presents nearly forty minutes worth of subdued, street-lamp illuminated, vespertine patterns of repetitious impressionism. It is a perfect album for when the night has surrounded you, and you've settled in the cool mist and cleansing glow of the moon. It is at this time that you may become energized by the equinoctial rhythms of a trio in tune with the hidden illustriousness of the nocturnal world. Everything old will seem new in the low light sounds that this ensemble emits, and everything new will soon fit you like a glove.
Sweet Pill - Where the Heart Is (Topshelf Records)
Chicago rapper and producer 'Kechi tells you all you need to know about his latest album on the opening track of his LP 'Kechi Tunez when he says, "I guess the whole idea is being in tune with myself." If this doesn't resonate with you, then I'm not sure why you're reading this blog. 'Kechi is figuring out what he is capable of and following the beat of his own drummer. Which is pretty much what I am doing with this blog as well... although I have to admit that 'Kechi's efforts are producing something quite a bit more impressive. 'Kechi has a secure and untaxing but slippery flow that is easy to get caught up in and his beats have a golden-era R&B glint to their reverent, lively pulse that is half spiritual, half blockbusting heat. If I have one complaint, it's that 'Kechi is too modest about what he's accomplished on this record.
Chelsea Jade - Soft Spot (Carpark Records)
Chelsea Jade performs bright and boiling pop and R'nB that leans into the minimalistic and understated. In most places on Soft Spot there isn't much more than a beat and her voice, and it doesn't need to be more. Her voice kisses your ears like the gust of a whispering sigh on the silken funk, pillow-talk slink of "Optimist," while a little later, she sends you rolling like a disco ball into a soccer net with the neon-upgraded, bass-loaded sweep of the neo-soul revival "Good Taste." This whole album is very easy to get lost in and will stick with me for a long while after the last note has dispersed into the air. Soft Spot makes for a smooth landing but a lasting impression.
Into the Red - Velocity (Self-Released)
Pill Super - Ghost Reel (Self-Released)
McCall - ...to be a dream... (Self Released)
Sweet Pill - Where the Heart Is (Topshelf Records)
It's always a good sign when you can easily pick up on a band's inspirations, even when their sound is nothing like any of the bands that they remind you of. New Jersey's Sweet Pill happens to be just such a group. On their album, Where the Heart is, you will encounter some brash jangle guitars ala Tigers Jaw and some composed fury in the vein of Circa Survive, but the performances are far from a derivative of the two. Instead, the band's sound will hit you like a sandbag full of memories- soft and forceful, polished and resilient, going off like a grenade full of skeleton keys that opens all the doors in the cluttered gangway of your mind; letting all the feelings you've forgotten or put away flood out in a singular breach of catharsis. Singer Zayna Youssef's voice is supple and impervious, sounding like Frances Quinlan at her best on a bad day, and Sean McCall's guitar work possesses an ambient and catchy kind of antagonism that can't be resisted, only negotiated with. Where the Heart is will get you in the feels whether you're ready for it, or not.
Dana Gavanski - When It Comes (Flemish Eye)
There is something about '60s baroque pop that continues to be irrepressible. Year after year, artists revive its hazy focus, jutting rhythms and whistful singing- frolicking in the fountain of Aquarius to taste the fruits and youthful optimism of a prior generation. On her second album, When It Comes, Dana Gavanski has emerged from this pool of inspiration like a vision of Venus in a petticoat and high-waisted slacks, calling out in a siren's coo that weaves its way down the coastline like a psychedelic sidewinder. The wavering whipple of farfisa-like prog chords waltz with sax and strings in the wrinkled undertow of "The Day Unfolds," and "I Kiss The Night" slivers the dam between a piano concerto and sleepy daydream gush. Dana seems to be taking every opportunity to play with her voice and enjoy the feeling of it rising through her body- it is a wonderful feeling to share with her audience, seeing as she lost the use of it during the recording of the album due to an illness. Triumphing in recovery, the roguish scamper of her performance is unassailable and delightful.
Tha God Fahim - Six Ring Champ (Nature Sounds)
Acid Coco - Camino Al Mar (El Palmas Music)
Fuera De Sektor - El Mundo Sigue (La Vida Es Un Mus Discos)
Ben Shemie - Desiderata (Joyful Noise & Backward Music)
This album was a bit of a shock to me when I first heard it. Ben Shemie of SUUNS's solo album Desiderata was presented to me as a dystopian, synth-based and sci-fi-inspired concept album- a description that shrieks Carpenter OST knock-off as loudly as an ambulance-siren blaring, and engulfed in flames-toppling off the roof of a parking garage. Not the case for Desiderata, as it turns out. Instead, Ben's use of synths is that of a partisan duelist, playing an environmental foil to insurgent string arrangments (courtesy of the Molinari String Quartet) to transmit pinning codas via a relay of electro-pop soul. The lyrics and their delivery are particularly interesting and literate, proceeding as clear-sighted and warmly calm; they read like the euphemistic dialectic of an anonymous neural-net diarist, whose decrypted digital scripts describe the dreams and deathless endurance that stoke a fire in his chest, a blaze that powers the machinery of his heart and soul, and protects him against the battering blizzard of a heartless world. It's fiction, of course, but it imitates life in a manner that leaves a chill running down my spine... or is it that life has come to imitate the dark art we once used to satirize it? It's becoming increasingly hard to tell. We are all children, lost in the ruins of one of Orwell's dreams.
Tha God Fahim - Six Ring Champ (Nature Sounds)
Tha God Fahim is having a blast on Six Ring Champ. The LP was produced by himself, Camoflauge Monk, Nicholas Craven, and Thrasherwulf, but they all seem to approach the album with a unity of intention- namely, to give Fahim the setting he needs to be his most grandiose self. Layering striding gangster flick basslines, hidden-lair horn trills, and the groan of lethargic burlesque house strings, amongst other b-movie backing-track mainstays, these fat and greasy beats enable Fahim to keep his direct and steady flow, nimble and on the balls of its feet, allowing him to glide around your ears like a boxer on figure skates, hitting you with a right hook on one side and then a slicing crescent kick on the other. Fahim is a cut-up with some sick skills and he deserves all six of those rings he is boasting about.
Acid Coco - Camino Al Mar (El Palmas Music)
I think what works for me about Acid Coco's Camino Al Mar is how easy it is to enjoy. Whenever I throw it on, I lose a full thirty minutes of my day just grooving on it. The group combines various forms of Columbian folk and dance (primarily cumbia) with electro-pop influences without managing to feel cliched or derivative. Instead, their blended sound is smooth and gratifying, possessed of a rhythmic vibrancy, spiked by mousseux guitars and damp earthen textures. A wonderful collection of tactile sounds bathed in a sweat of satisfaction and the scents of the night and the sea.
Influenced by Uruguayan punk bands like Traidores, Fuera De Sektor have whipped up a four-round fight titled El Mundo Sigue. The band has a distinctly hooky new wave style, with a deathly edge, favoring guitar work that minces through the mix with a menacing metallic glare. The two things that jump out at me the most on this release are the vocalist's fluid acidic sneer and the way the guitars cut through the songs like scissors through spandex. The elements of the band's sound have a pin and pin-cushion relationship, where some parts feel like they can be molded in your hand while others are seemingly designed to puncture your palm like a skewer through a ripe grapefruit. The dichotomy is dangerously alluring and I'm not scared to concede that it's got its hooks into me.
'Kechi - 'Kechi Tunez (OJUBA Music)
Into the Red - Velocity (Self-Released)
In the Red tapped out this past July but not before releasing the Velocity EP. While primarily a vintage-sounding alternative rock group with twinkle-core tendencies, In the Red could smoothly shift gears to accommodate any introspective terrain a song might call for. Opener "Sunsets on Mars" is tinted with shades of Smith-ian longing while awash in a dreamy sadness, while "Reaching for the Rope" rides a sly skyrocketing vocal arch and a major-key guitar lift to soar into the glow of an arena-sized spotlight. A little later, the band loosens up for a robust power-pop romp titled "Neptune's Shore," encircling its buzz-bomb riffs with a golden haze of psych-pop shimmer. All good things must come to an end and In the Red are retiring before any signs of rust form on their chassis. You have to respect the choice to hang it up when they're in peak performance mode. Shows a lot of guts.
Caden Marchese of American slowcore band American Grandma has a supple and spry new electronic album under the name Pill Super, an album which he dubs Ghost Reel. Going in, I was definitely expecting a more subdued experience, but was delighted to be inundated with a resonating flow of pulsing, lustrous sonic cannonade instead. These tracks really move! Especially the twinkling, cascading extravasation of "At Last," the leap-frogging croak of "Under the Span," and the pattering, ring-riding, dream pool diver "Steam One." I dig the new age vibes and tranquility cultivated on the comforting spirit-signal ringlet "When You See It" too. I really hope to hear more from this project soon, but there is so much happening on Ghost Reel that there might not be enough leftovers to patch together a sequel for a while. I guess we'll just have to wait and see with our fingers crossed.
exciting!!excellent!! - tysm!!!!!! (Lonely Ghost Records)
exciting!!excellent!! second EP tysm!!! is more of what I've grown to appreciate about the project. Enthusiastic declarations of introspective self-recognition backed by dynamic and catchy Little Sound DJ powered Game Boy electronics that resemble renditions of Tiger Jaw and Brave Little Abacus unlocked with the help of a GameGenie designed by Elaiza Santos. And like its predecessor (debut EP i feel like i deserve to feel like this forever and i will), it is an incredibly cozy listen. I feel like I could lounge around in tysm!!!'s sound card cush forever; eating snacks under a pile of blankets, playing Spyro while thinking about life in general, or better yet, thinking about nothing at all. tysm!!! takes me to a place I don't want to leave and that's one of the things I really appreciate about it.
Megamall - Escape From Lizard City (Fanta Records)
It's Vancouver's Megamall vs the radioactive kaiju that dwells in the underwater vault of your mind on their latest EP Escape From Lizard City! Inspired by the works of author Tom Robbins, the album does battle with elephantine expressions of firebreathing egotism and other green-eyed no-goodniks while fashioning out some uncommonly good pop-centric alternative rock. At this point, I'd say Megamall is a model-vintage variant of the Pixies, harnessing Joey Santiago's chattering surf-riffage and Black Francis's wailing, half-whispered ululates to stir a slightly sweetened Bully-esque bob and a dodgy Dilly Dally dipped dose of an Eros-elevating intoxicant that will instigate a twitterpated flight into a credulous swoon and twelve floors of graduated epiphany. Also, the songs are catchy as fuck.
Ellevator - The Words You Spoke Still Move Me (Arts & Crafts)
Big hooks and even bigger choruses coming out of Ontario these days thanks to Ellevator. Their debut LP, The Words You Spoke Still Move Me has the confident push and dingy, sweat-smeared panache of Metric, coupled with the naive crush-carnival bow of one of Carly Rae Jepsen's more rock-out-loud moments. Classic, new romantic zeal and post-garage revival pressurized pop-valiance, generating a hardboiled party catalyst with a gooey sweet interior. The vocals have a slight, damp, dirt-warn twang to them that helps them sound all the more angelic for their evident humanity, and the guitars shift and splinter in raining fragments of light like sunbeams catching a prism as it falls to the floor. Fantastic stuff all around.