Flying Lotus, Deftones, Coyote Clean Up, Thee Oh Sees
I hope you guys are ready for a very mixed bag of tunes today, time to open up your minds and expand your horizons. I usually try to relate the tracks posted each time, but I’ll just admit now that they have no relation to each other whatsoever. Even still, it should serve as a challenge to those of you who answer the question of what music you listen to with, “oh I listen to everything.”
Flying Lotus – Do The Astral Plane – Cosmogramma
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Most people who know about are already well-aware of his newly released album, Cosmogramma, which came out on Warp last week. For those of you who don’t know of Steven Ellison’s music, or if you’ve heard a few tracks or heard about this new release coming out, now is the time to check this cat out…his new album is garnering glowing reviews, which cite the frenetic mixture of forward-thinking takes on jazz, hip hop, IDM, and beyond. Not only does it do for hip hop now in 2010 what his previous album, Los Angeles, did in 2008 in a still-forming post-Dilla landscape, but it has advanced now into a realm that is entirely Flying Lotus, and now in a new zone that few of his contemporaries will catch up to immediately. Give this album a dedicated listen and prepare to embark on a journey that may affect you like Kid A, One Word Extinguisher, or Past is Present did when you first listened to them.
Deftones – Risk – Diamond Eyes
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Although I certainly don’t exhibit it as much anymore, have been a favorite band of mine since I was 11. Those who read more deeply into my work may have noticed where I derive the pseudonym HeadUp or h34dup from– that’s right, the track on Around the Fur. I’ve always respected this band’s insistance on doing their own thing, it’s not metal, it’s this sort of avant post-nu-metal, but it incorporates more Sade and Duran Duran than say, well…all the other nu-metal crap I used to listen to in HS but can’t even remember the names of. Their design direction is also generally very good, definitely an early inspiration to my own work. I picked this track specifically because it seems to incorporate a lot of old school Deftones, the new album doesn’t charge in any new directions, it’s much the same, but fans will definitely dig.
The Big Pink – Tonight (Coyote Clean Up Dirty Dub) – 4AD Music Sampler
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Switching gears completely, I posted up what sounding like a completely unknown, undiscovered bit of talent, curiously named . Well, I caught wind of 4AD‘s new free summer compilation, which features one of my favorite spring tunes this year– Round and Round by Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, and lo and behold, there is a remix from the aforementioned Coyote. This original track, by (what a cool name…sike!) has some surprisingly decent vocals, “Cleaned Up” with cold, mechanical, resonance, and a moody synth backing. I don’t know if I think of summer when I hear this track, maybe those chilly nights before it starts to get comfortable at night in the summer, but I definitely like what I’m hearing from Coyote Clean Up.
UPDATE: if you’re digging this CCU sound, there’s an equally dope, FREE track on 2010 CE, an upcoming compilation from Deathbomb Arc. Very rowdy label comin out of Burbank, California check it out.
Thee Oh Sees – Block of Ice – The Master’s Bedroom is Worth Spending A Night In
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A couple weeks ago, Ben Saginaw, one of my favorite (whose work is pictured above), brother of Zach / Shigeto, and the man behind ‘s wild cover art, came to chill in NYC. I think in many ways, he encompasses the kind of artist that sits in complete contrast with many of those spoiled rich art school kids we always hear about– he is endlessly active in Ann Arbor’s art scene, most notably as co-creator of the annual late-July music & art festival Forth From Its Hinges. Perhaps it’s got something to do with his heavy coffee intake, but then again, even that is an aspect of life he has chosen to act upon and explore, with . Anyway, he and I were cruising around Manhattan later in the day with this specific mix of this amazing lo-fi post garage/surf punk track from stuck in our heads. I actually don’t like the album version nearly as much, this music video version is ridiculously chilled out. Chilled out to the point of laziness, anything but perfect, but undeniably appealing nonetheless.
Thee Oh Sees – Block of Ice (video)
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