A blog about hip-hop, jazz, punk, psychedelic rock, funk, and whatever other kinds of music I get inspired to write about. There are too many good sounds out there for me to get to them all, but I'm doing my best.
I listened to The Cold
Vein again this morning. Even after listening to it for years, it hasn’t
lost any of its power. It’s an astonishingly great record, one of the best of
the last decade. So when Cannibal Ox announced late last year that they were
finally recording a follow-up after an eleven year hiatus, it was impossible
not to get excited. That is, until El-P made it clear that he wouldn’t be
involved in any way. Vast Aire and Vordul Mega are incredible MCs, but The Cold Vein would not have been the
album it was without El-P’s spooky post-apocalyptic sci-fi beats. In lieu of
El-P, Can Ox hooked up with some guy named Bill Cosmiq, who produced all three
songs on their new Gotham
maxi-single.
On “Gotham (Ox City),” Vordul seems tired, although Vast
Aire doesn’t sound vocally different than he did a decade ago. Vast kicks off
his verse on “Gases in Hell (Inhale),” a solo song billed as a Cannibal Ox
song, with lyrics from “Iron Galaxy,” helpfully reminding everyone that he’s
not the rapper he once was. The weak hook isn’t helping matters either. Weird
references to 30 Rock have replaced Vast’s old comic book fixation. Saying that
he’s bigger than Grizz and Dotcom is nowhere near as cool as saying that he’s
got the stroll of Galactus, now he’s planet swallowing. Vordul is still great
lyrically, but his energy level is painfully low on “Psalm 82.” Bill Cosmiq
beats are pretty good, but El-P’s were so much better that these new songs can’t
help but seem weak by comparison. The cinematic vibe and the palpable paranoia
are gone, replaced with boilerplate (but again, still pretty good) underground
rap beats. If this is what we can expect from the rest of the album, then it’ll
be an unfortunate footnote on their otherwise great career as group.[1]
For comparison, here are some of the highlights from The Cold Vein.
[1] I
can’t emphasize enough that I’m talking about Cannibal Ox as a group rather
than their solo careers. While both put out very good solo debuts, they paled
in comparison to The Cold Vein and
their subsequent output has been forgettable.
After playing most of the instruments himself on his solo
albums, Ty Segall had to assemble a band to bring that material into a live
setting.It took a couple of years, but
that band has finally recorded an album together, and it’s the heaviest album
of Segall’s career.Opening track “Death”
begins with about a minute of feedback before transforming into a Stooges-esque
guitar attack with lyrics about eyes.The album mostly sticks to this heavy proto-metal/space garage vibe for
its runtime, with a few detours, such as “Tell Me What’s Inside Your Heart,”
which is the least noisy track on the album but maintains a tempo fast enough
that the rhythm section begins falling apart to the point where the whole band
has to switch gears and return to a space rock vibe near the end of the song. The album also sports the best cover of “Diddy
Wah Diddy” ever recorded by anyone other than Captain Beefheart.In spite of the general heaviness and the
fuzz drenching the entire album, Segall’s melodic gifts and his skill at
crafting memorable hooks shines through the grit and grime, especially on songs
like the short and punchy “Muscle Man” and the album standout “I Bought My Eyes.”Fittingly, the album ends with the ten minute
“Fuzz War,” which is exactly what the title implies: a battle of feedback,
heavy guitar distortion, and machine gun drums.It’s a fitting way to end an album that seems constantly in danger of going
off the rails.
At this point, it’s impossible to talk about Channel Orange without talking about the
letter he put online right before the album came out.Outing himself as having a sexual orientation
that isn’t straight was incredibly brave in a hip hop/R&B world that’s
known for having problems with hypermasculinity and homophobia.It’s a testament to how great this album is that
it didn’t get completely swallowed up by the subsequent publicity and
hype.
There isn’t really much to say about this album that hasn’t
already been said.It’s been labeled the
most ambitious major label hip hop record in years (which is true), an instant
classic (nope, sorry, that’s an absurd contradiction), and overstuffed with
skits that ruin the momentum of the album (yeah, a little bit).When his previous album Section.80 came out last year, I wasn’t sold on Kendrick or the
rest of his Black Hippy crew.I didn’t
like the beats or the whiny rock hooks very much, and I thought his voice was
obnoxious.Black Hippy has steadily
improved since, with standout releases like Schoolboy Q’s Habits & Contradictions and Ab-Soul’s Control System, and good kid,
m.A.A.d. city is the most consistently great project to come out of Black
Hippy.The album isn’t perfect by any
stretch.“Backseat Freestyle” works
within the context of the album, but it sounds ridiculous and a little stupid
when taken on its own. That Drake verse
on “Poetic Justice” is weak (that Janet Jackson sample must have been about
half of the album’s budget too).Kendrick seems like he’s trying a bit too hard to make a Classic Album.All of these are minor problems, however, and
good kid, m.A.A.d. city positions
Kendrick as one of the most exciting and interesting young rappers of this
era.If nothing else, the huge jump in
quality from Section.80 to this album
would indicate that his next album will be insane if he improves even a little
bit more.
In the fifteen years since Jason Pierce’s masterpiece Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in
Space was released the Spiritualized project has been marked by uneven
albums that don’t match his previous highs (although 2008’s Songs in A&E came closest), and the
band has been frequently derailed by a series of serious illnesses that has
left Pierce hospitalized for much of the last five years.Sweet
Heart Sweet Light, recorded while Pierce was undergoing experimental
chemotherapy for a life-threatening liver disease, finds him in a more positive
and peaceful place than he’s ever been.The themes of death, drugs, God, and redemption remain ever-present, but
the usual Spiritualized subject matter is colored with brighter sonic textures
and more optimistic and uplifting songwriting.
El-P’s first solo album Fantastic
Damage, released in 2002, tapped into the uncertainty and fear of the
immediate aftermath of 9/11 better than nearly any other record, with its
claustrophobic beats and urgent, paranoid lyrics. Ten years later, the United
States is in many ways even worse. Privacy rights have been systematically
dismantled, the economy is in shambles, and spectacularly horrifying acts of
violence have become frequent occurrences. In the midst of all of this, El-P
released his third and possibly best solo album, Cancer 4 Cure, which taps into the tenor of the times just as
effectively as his previous albums have. The world of Cancer 4 Cure is a darker, scarier reflection of our current times,
where there are drones flying over New York City, anyone could be an agent for
some nefarious shadow organization, and each key is tapped to the BPM of the
sirens in the war zone that was once New York. El-P’s beats have become more
robust since his solo debut, with layers upon layers of synths, drum machines,
and samples coming together in a dystopian futuristic soundscape for his
rhymes.
"Request Denied"
"Tougher Colder Killer" (feat. Killer Mike & Despot)
