Another quick update for you all. Day 4 is drawing to an end and it’s been the easiest day so far, purely because I’ve managed to keep myself fairly occupied. The nights are hardest though as that was when I usually tweet a lot and it made me realise just how lonely I am without it. I think I’ve texted four people tonight just to get some form of social engagement. Unfortunately, some of my best friends live quite far away and I don’t drive, so I can’t just randomly go to them so technology really is the only way to keep in touch. On the plus side, I bought some more memory for my laptop and once that comes and it’s installed, I can finish off this new track I’m doing. Trying out a new style for a subsequent release, more towards Flying Lotus, Wax Tailor and the like as opposed to J Dilla, Pete Rock and ATCQ. Once I’ve done enough, I might post a snippet on my Soundcloud.
Onto our feature presentation. Today, I made my way through four albums, two from artists I’d slept on and two from guys who released new material in 2011 but I hadn’t got round to listening to. They were:
- Sam Baker’s Album – Samiyam
- Butter – Hudson Mohawke
- NoYork! – Blu
- The Golden Age of Apocalypse – Thundercat
First up this morning was Samiyam’s latest album Sam Baker’s Album. I’ve been a fan of his music since I heard Moon Shoes on YouTube a few years back (after hearing a FlyLo track no less). Eventually, I gave Rap Beats Vol. 1 a listen and thoroughly enjoyed the 8-bit hip hop vibe so I was expecting more of the same for his next album, and he didn’t disappoint. It starts slowly with the opening track Escape but begins to pick up with the classic 80s funk-infused Bedtime. Without a doubt though, my favourite track early on had to be Already, just for the four-chord progression and percussive beat. It would have been amazing if it had been extended to more than the loop but with these kinds of tracks, less is more. The good thing about this album is it never lulls you into a false sense of security, sound wise. It doesn’t tail off into mediocrity but instead sparks your interest just when you think you’re getting comfortable with what you’re hearing, which means you should be taking notice. If you like off kilter beats to the sound of the Atari/NES generation, you might like this one. 4/5
Up next was Hudson Mohawke’s debut LP Butter. Now, I admit I haven’t been a massive fan of his work from the tracks I have heard. Not to say he wasn’t a good producer, I just couldn’t get into his music. Despite this, I decided to give him a full listen via this album so I had something substantial to judge him on. I think it’s fair to say I was pleasantly surprised. The opening track was somewhat weak for me as I felt myself wondering when the beat was going to drop and it never really came. Eventually, things really began to kick off with 3.30 and continued from there as I began to bop my head to the beats. Again, much like Samiyam and everyone of that ilk, his beats are unconventional and “out of time” but some how move something within you that seems just right. I might have made that sound like love making which it isn’t but it’s definitely unique without being different for the sake of it. 4/5
Third album of the day came in the form of Blu’s NoYork!, an album I had wanted to hear for a while, but with the number of albums I had sifted through for my albums of 2011 list, it got left behind. Needless to say, I was hooked from the first two tracks (produced by Flying Lotus, unsurprisingly) and felt that this would be a good new direction for Blu to go in. However something strange happened on the third track. I heard a beat I had grown used to purely as an instrumental. It was none other than Samiyam’s Moon Shoes (entitled Never Be The Same) and it unnerved me a little as I had grown so accustomed to hearing it without vocals over it. I let it go but as the album went on, it felt a bit disjointed with the mix of abstract beats from the FlyLo school of production mixed with the more “conventional” kind of sound from Madlib’s production (not to say he is conventional in ANY way, nor that I prefer conventional). There were a lot of guest stars on this LP but it didn’t seem to spoil the broth as it were. Seemed like an album of two halves but two good halves on their own merit. 3.5/5
Final album of the day was The Golden Age of Apocalypse by Thundercat. For anyone who isn’t aware of Thundercat (or Stephen Brunner as he is known by the government) he’s played bass for US band Suicidal Tendencies, Sa-Ra Creative Partners and Flying Lotus (on Cosmogramma). So you’ll never guess who helped him produce the album? Unlike the other three, this wasn’t isn’t as glitchy as the others, relying on smooth instrumentation with a dash of that FlyLo sound you all love so much. I really enjoyed this album as it sounded like what would happen if some of the jazz greats were cryogenically frozen back in their heydays and thawed out in the 80s, frozen again and thawed out once more in 2011 to show us what they had learnt. Great jazz, soul, funk, 70s everything feel and great production. 4.5/5
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