2016 pt. 12

Audio Push - The Stone Junction [EP]

This fleeting hip-hop forest-footslog forks over its fair share of solid verses+hooks+beats+inflections; which amid the condensed kinda-conceptual venture-flow/occasional compositional curveballs/allegiance to vigor makes for a proficient and pithy project. Personas+motifs ain't particularly distinct, it routinely gratifies but nothin' quite wows, super-chorus of choice is served via Bmacthequeen on "Servin'", too-easy chorus of choice is obv-hit "Vamonos", compositional curveball of choice is when "Hard" goes soft. 6.5/10

The Avalanches - Wildflower

*******HIGHEST RECS*******

///BRAV-FUCKING-O\\\

16 years since they left us and a copious amount of copycats later, this anxiously anticipated followup is less of the wild "what's next?!" ride from their first and more of a strikingly insouciant+sunny daydream; swimmingly fluxing from festival traffic to a bounce-house to the skies to the sea to a bit of the sublime beyond. Whimsy and frolic and psychedelia are in full effect -- and though it's not without its overly mild moments and middling disco-leans, the flow+detail+amazingly affable aura beg for basking; not to mention fashion a universe where getting pulled over with prohibited paraphernalia is nothin' but an amusing aside. Lighter compositions also make room for greater guest utilization: the highlights of which include Danny Brown with his "blunt after blunt after blunt after blunt" and fittingly wacky delivery, Dave Berman "drumming up a little weirdness" for the finale with his soft-spoken and poignant poetry, A.Dd+ killin' the bigots with kindness, and of course Biz Markie with his vociferous appetite and penchant for cereal. 7.5/10

Bleached - Welcome the Worms

*******HIGHEST RECS*******

This group-o-gals make feeling dead and taking risks and "giving in to giving up" sound like a shrugged-off bubblegum jamboree, complete with shady pasts and still-shady presents and scary-looking futures that they're hoping to acknowledge and revel in and confront with the help of bong-rips and engine-revs. Though their sunny Californian complexion and flighty YOLO livin' can lead a listener to play the callow card, the mean pop chops and partiality towards good ol' fashioned rock-n-roll give them an all-too-beckoning bulwark that both palliates their punk and candies their tough. And they don't come up often, but for the record, dumb-ass dudes are dealt with better than Best Coast ever did it -- barring the anonymous hitchhiker recipient, which could be problematic, sure. 7.5/10

Cate Le Bon - Crab Day

*******HIGHEST RECS*******

Always the sucker for Nico mimicry and resourceful rock squads whose instrumental tangle collides contentedly+incorporates marimbas, Cate's temperate quirk and stony absurdities receive oh-so-complementary playful accompaniment: oft-dueling guitar-work that's strung out/scuzzy/squeaky, piano plunks+synth plinks, splashes of sax, deft drumming/percussive etceteras. Drollery from all involved parties charms far more than it chafes, and ramshackle as they may seem there is always a push for the melodically memorable and miraculously accordant. Also subsumes all the angst that comes with being a self-described dirty attic who longs to be a motion picture film and/or bowling ball -- i.e., there is none. 8/10

Dej Loaf - All Jokes Aside

Pleased to be a prosperous bachelorette-boss who's dogged as hell and a bit of a judgmental beef-bringer to boot, she sports a winning 'woah' and a flow not unlike a more-intelligible/self-proving Future; and of course stupidly superb hooks on the regz. Her merging of juvenile sing-song diction and oft-glittery beats with fierce+vulgar bars and vainglory galore can come off conflictive, but the 'tude and talent and production make for some cogent convincers. Quick 2 Condemn: mob-life mockery, blogs, early-morning perc-poppers, pretty much everyone. Consumables Of Choice: chamomile tea, Smacks cereal, salad+wings, side of money. 7/10

Kaytranada - 99.9%

A qualified and versatile enough house-hop-r&b producer undoubtedly -- exceptional kindler and sparer of guest-extent overkill, however, I've got my doubts. Cuz for a beat-master's beat-boaster bevy there's quite the heap of ho-hum, then there's the many-an instance of unnecessary track-protraction and marring by means of bass muddlement. And the visitors ain't much help neither, oft-opting for the sterile or obnoxious ("The young girls wanna love me long time / But then you gotta listen to 'em talk", laments Phonte). Good for moderate funky groovin' and and occasional instrumental notables, but beyond that perhaps the sampled interviewee within is the most accurate descriptor of its remarkable traits: "..the musicality, meaning the beats, um, you know, from the chords and the bass-lines and, um, the rhythms, uh the you know?" 5/10

Peder Mannerfelt - Controlling Body

Exploiter of euphonious voice-drones and a speech-repeater button, Mannerfelt's yak-mods manage to both spellbind and assault: "Limits to Growth" starts like an art-installation cliche and but literally seems to "cr-cr-create bre-bre-breath" as it builds into the fascinating fixedness of something akin to a cyborg-brought-to-life simulation, "Perspectives" revels in turning "subject" into "sub-ject", "Her Move" gradually dwindles "crucified" into "fine art" into "er", the first one just kinda goes "eeee". For the instrumentals flip-side he's commonly creepin' on the cryptic-electro DL, which makes for some welcome caesural contrast but more-oft tend to drag. See the ender and only the ender if you want your vox non-chopped and vaguely Bjork-ish. 6.5/10

Corinne Bailey Rae - The Heart Speaks in Whispers

The heart speaks in whispers, perhaps; along with many of the tunes presented here -- nothin' wrong with that per se, however too often they simply speak in winces and whimpers. Much of the semi-oomph is stuffed up front and still squats in the sphere of generic, the clubby electro-pop coming off ungainly in the midst of the serenely silky soul and leisurely balladry. The definite highlight/melodically strong+soaring "Stop Where You Are" has the power to make me do just that, the soft stuff can pleasantly befit a mope-n-chill sesh and/or sitting by a window on a rainy Sunday morning -- though by the time the final third's particularly dire drag comes rollin' 'round, it transmits moreso as tepid fodder for mall-store speakers. 5/10

Seratones - Get Gone

When it comes to ruckus-rock that would read well in either a roadside blues-bar full-a boogieing+swaying or a packed-tight garage full-a shoving+sudor, constitutionally they're a bit by-the-numbers -- they get dirty but never filthy in spite of the initial allusion to choking on spit, instances of xtra zing and memorability are seldom compared to ones that kinda just blur on by. But they don't quite tread into Dullsville either, the couple of calm-downs are convincing and exhibit ambidexterity, and if all else fails frontwoman AJ Haynes always manages to grab ears a la bestowal of earnest-n-elastic spunk; or for the calm-downs, a bonus side of comforting coos and good ol' fashioned longing. 6/10

Sturgill Simpson - A Sailor's Guide to Earth

Much of the material between the album-welcoming luscious+heartfelt strings-turned-swagger world-welcoming for his beloved pre-bullfrog progeny and the so-damn-real frantic fuck-the-bullshit finale can feel a bit deficient comparably -- be it the hints of hokey during "as I say" life lectures or simply a propensity for more mid-range temperaments. But his tender+softened hits as hard as/if not harder than his rowdy rocker struttin', world-travel soldier-spins have him reminiscing bout "king cobras fighting in boxing rings" and playing Goldeneye high "on that old 64" but reckoning that it's all a ploy/we're all screwed/fucking off beats participating in war anyway, and when a cover of Nirvana's "In Bloom" creeps in for the centerpiece an eye don't bat -- a selection Simpson apparently hoped to be a "very beautiful and pure homage to Kurt". And yes, mission accomplished. 7/10

2016 pt. 11

Katy B - Honey

Katy B as fairly faceless dance-pop-voice reigns over the Katy B with slew of prominent house production at her disposal -- but despite the tangles-of-love/in-the-club thematic banalities and capable-yet-customary delivery, she rarely overbears and is regularly adept and reliable when adapting to late night vibes, summer pop, the boisterous bangers, the slowed-n-sensual. A few killer hooks and revitalization via bicontinental guest-spots and the ability to hold a good long note are always nice too, but lordy does it get fatiguing by the final third or so -- luckily said slew does its best to graciously keep ya groovin' right up to the soothing reward/headphone homage outro. Slew also does its best to rectify the fact that maybe the most curious she gets is when admitting that "anxiety's a bitch, babe." 6/10

Cobalt - Slow Forever

*******HIGHEST RECS*******

///BRAV-FUCKING-O\\\

Dropping the twelve-track double-disc bombshell not as a flow-focused vehicle for some visionary concept, but cuz they simply seem stuffed to the gills with vehemence, vitriol, and riffage. Of course their penchant for patience positively plays its part in this 80+minute pelt-fest as well: severe savagery packs just as much a punch as the extended grooves and exactitude, and for all the snarls and screams and mosh-motivator grunts and double-bass demolitions there's steady+studious buildups+transitions and reprieve in the form of desert-folk forays+an all-too-tru analysis on first-world writer-problemz. Remarkable in its ability to capture the stalked-buffalo beast-whip buried-elephant animalisms they allude to, sure, but more treasured is their exceptional conglomeration of heavy+catchy+curvy with performances that are electrified and invigorating as fuck, frankly. Xtra points upon learning that Erik Wunder plays all instruments on this thing. As in, the guy both ripped those riffs and decimated those drums. A Wunder, indeed. 8.5/10

Dälek - Asphalt For Eden

Heavy-yet-airy hip-hop duo content with a majority of the verses rendered shrouded and/or decimated by the massive murk of comfy+claustrophobic boom-beats and sempiternal shoegaze-squall -- and as adequate as their levelheaded vitality and political proclivity and antique scratch-n-sample choruses are, that murk does make for quite the delightful binder all on its own. Whether its piercing+occupying the skies or emulating slo-mo blacktop-melting summer sultriness, it persistently provides a wide world to be besieged by while retaining a drawing dirtiness throughout. Their faith in said murk certified by lettin' tracks linger and an instrumental inclusion, a nugget of their matters+concerns divulged by a scantily-clad 'terrorism' voice-loop. 7/10

G.L.O.S.S. - Trans Day of Revenge [EP]

Can't claim this ain't unlike a thousand-and-one other hasty hardcore EPs before it, or that the majority of those k+unos will ever see a smidgen of the spotlight these Girls Living Outside Society's Shit have seized from gender-bend topicality and being the prey of some tactless Whirr-hurled scurrilities -- but their ire is formidably tangible and even sanguinary; the downtrodden+rancor-ridden call-to-arms urgent, madcap, and presently pertinent enough to seem pretty much obligatory. And the tunes, right -- five songs, seven minutes, a few shout-along opportunities, succinct shredding -- hasty hardcore linchpins indeed. 7/10

Guided by Voices - Please Be Honest

K. 5/10

Haken - Affinity

After they boot up via ominous .exe file and promptly delve into initiatory off-kilter stiff-chug riffs+emotional falsetto whines, you get the feeling there's some clear-cut cheese in sto fo sho -- an assumption confirmed by the spasmodic 9-minute followup "1985" with its sudden swerve into a sprightly shmup soundtrack from the year in question and all-out beach-biker solo-fuck-wankery. Which winds up precisely the sort of proficient polished-prog-robot+sweetly-silly-jocundity intermingle that keeps me atingle through the inevitable noodling/dragging: sober heavy-lite with transitions aplenty they do fine, but when the soft-n-soaring stuff/fun-n-flashy solos approach stunning they do alot finer. Guest throat Einar Solberg brings a much appreciated and refreshing scream-section to the table, it ends on an empyreal wind-in-your-hair note and .exe reprise/shutdown -- and is there anything more exhilarating than when the sinuous 16-minute centerpiece is succeeded by the almost-hilariously epic-n-tender "Earthrise"? 7/10

James K - PET

Inaugural demands for kowtow fall kinda flat when it yields to disregardable drafty driftin' and glitchin', and even through the generally angelic vocal-soars and mysterious misty-dream tranquility and occasional peppy pop pulses it's that same drafty driftin' that ends up prime deterrent. Too floaty for fun, too airy to care, too illegible to assume there's a whole lot to care about anyway, too sleepy to ever really "sokit to me". ~*~meh~*~

Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool

*******HIGHEST RECS*******

Delicate+divine+creeping+cryptic in a way only this band can do, an atmospheric+"rock band"+electronic+strings-n-piano commixture savviness few could claim -- in what tends to be procedure, the words wielded within Yorke's yakkin' aren't nearly as necessary as his fragile-gone-broken delivery in itself and the falsetto moanings/murmurs/mantras. And while a witch-wither opener teases at some semblance of liveliness, it's the frequently-following subtleties and sorrow and textures that find 'em fertile as fuck; them getting their kraut on during "Ful Stop" perhaps being the kinda-peppy still-exceptional exception. Stunner of a soft soundscape it may be, it's also overall a bit too subdued+shadowy for its own good: but if a track like "Daydreaming" doesn't trap ya in its gloomy grasp, terminator "True Love Waits" is there a-waitin'. 7.5/10

Omar-S - The Best!

Total traditionalist house down to a T -- the mid-pace no-frills dance-or-nah manner of which doesn't conform to the consummate cockiness of the album title nor the exclamatory eccentricities of the song titles, but is sturdy+simmering+sagacious for days; and considering the platform, sufficiently sundry. Also true to house ritual, just about every piece is overlong; and guest-voice bestowals are a toss-up: "Seen Was Set" a narrated standout surge of bittersweet club-nostalgia that truly sets the 'seen' of a Detroit dance floor and its devotees circa 1988, "Ah'Revolution" a long-winded and dare I say even embarrassing ad-lib with hand-drum backin' to boot, finale dyad featuring Diviniti and John F.M. both prosaic but pleasant. 6.5/10

Andy Stott - Too Many Voices

Semi-intriguing skewed electro that fiddles in both the weird and the genteel, the overblown deformities and the airy twinkles, the disquieting and the quiet -- and as semi-intriguing skewed electro oft-tends to, the bulk of it feels bumbling, cobbled together with its stitches showing, going out of its way to evade the groove. Sections of stimulation seem lost in all this staggering+stagnation and any sense of solid connectivity is out the window, pitch-shifts encumber far more than they enhance, and those huntin' for plenteous melodies should go hunt elsewhere. Just in case you were curious, no there isn't too many voices; an adequate amount actually -- but in concurrence with the "tunes", they don't really accomplish much. 5.5/10

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Robbie Fulks - Upland Stories 6.5/10

Kowton - Utility 6/10

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - Ears 6.5/10

summer car screamer classics

2016 pt.10

Bombino - Azel

This Tuareg axe-slinger and concomitant squad have their formula and they're stickin' to it: acoustic+electric high-string-centric bustle+sputter, rigorous handclaps, dynamic drumming, set-in-stone song-structures that synthesize jocund hippie-jam fiesta and mesmeric world-music grooves. High spirits and breezy virtuosity help annul any apprehensions about a language barrier, and either way his singflections and intermittent quavery party-chirps are quite the charismatic components in themselves. Stylistic redundancy does reveal itself rather rapidly, however -- enchanting and easeful as they may be, I can't help but find myself achin' for some expansion. 6.5/10

Bookworms - Xenophobe

For those who like their techno deep, rigid, and unnecessarily time-consuming; stiffen up, grab a book, and hop on in. It's stellar, sure, modestly motley, highly hypnotic, some of the grooves convey emotion here and there, it references partly-privy skate slang -- but the passages of extra-monotony paired with kinda-all of these track lengths push entrancing to encroaching, intriguing to 'so what else is going on?'. Standout "You Say So" is a cute+pestersome peculiarity, which at just under 6 minutes is nearly the shortest of 'em all and feels like a flittin' ditty squished between 10-and-18-minute monsters. The shortest being the title-track finale, which just resigns to a blah-blah ambient blob. Makes sense for a Xenophobe I s'pose. Kinda. 5.5/10

Dorisburg - Irrbloss

********HIGHEST RECS*******

The bassy base-beats are as deep+stark as they can get whilst remaining understated yet routinely have a buoyancy to 'em, the sounds-besides are winningly vibrant+varied for understated too -- finespun percussive add-ons, some vintage-synth ooze, scratches/ticks/bloops/blips, semblance of melody here, epic-n-exotic foggy flute work there. Exceptionally treads the line between entrancing and engaging; and for restrained rigid-robot techno it goes alotta places, doesn't get too tautologous, and can swap out wondrous for wacky no probz. Considering the paucity of personality and mucho machinery, pretty generous. 8/10

Glitterbust - Glitterbust

Amps hazily hum, amps squeal a bit, guitars lackadaisically strummed, guitars sporadically poked -- the dearth of cohesion during these dubious meander-jams is one thing, but truly dumbfounding is the deficiency of just about any form of fruition. Might make for a dece atmospheric smog to wallow in if it wasn't so bunglin' and draggin', and oh right those infrequent vocals: refer to what the amps do again and toss in some vacantly-stated poetry. ~*~meh~*~

Tim Hecker - Love Streams

While the floaty flow and sinister-shroud/cozy-heaven conjugality are fairly fetching, so much of it is a flustered clutter of non-action and nonsense. Which is sorta-kinda worth wading in for when the sublime church-choir vox loom or the glitches rip on through to the other side. An appealing atmosphere as far as minced-up synth-somethings and meandering go, but some cohesion is cool too tho. 5.5/10

Terrace Martin - Velvet Portraits

Prominent Pimped-Butterfly producer puts together a hybrid hodgepodge of r&b-jazz-soul-funk: roughly in that order when it comes to genre-tilt with a modicum of hip-hop/electro-dream extract, boasts a laundry list of erudite guest features, and smoothly interlaces instrumentals with the non-. And considering its 14-track tally/nearly 70 minutes/inordinate collaborating, caliber and consistency really run rampant -- many lay it down so smooth-n-mellow as to epitomize 'chill' or driving into a Cali sunset, some superbly scratch that itch to get up and get down, others revel in nowhere-to-go jam-outs and fat-n-farty bass blurts. But, er, that nearly 70 minutes tho, that much-appreciated stylistic traditionalism at times translating to starched and slack. See the ender-revision of Kendrick's "Mortal Man" for an extended example of artfully fusing past+present, see nondescript-yet-empathetic lyrics for themes passable in the past but prosaic in the present: coming together now, being together forever, waiting for someone to come back, funking you up, etc. 6/10

Kevin Morby - Singing Saw

Morby's well-promulgated Dylanflection doesn't carry over word-wise, prompting his sorta-sagely demeanor to come off rickety, nebulous; and perhaps the least felicitous for sorta-sageness, pedestrian. Not so much to become bothersome, but rather kinda conducive to further savoring the substantial deployment of a femme-vox triad and the oft-lovely instrumental implementation. Slow-n-sparse strings-toting echo-folk suits him fine, but the doses of behavioral breakouts are vital: psych+dub fuzz and piano-trance amid mountaineering and singing saws cutting down trees, actual singing saws weepin' and wailin', a sexy sax slink-in during "Destroyer", the oh-so-essential dirty rosy medial romp of "Dorothy". Would be good to see his singing become as seductive as all the saws-n-stuff tho. 7/10

Nisennenmondai - #N/A

///BRAV-FUCKING-O\\\

I adore+applaud their scarily-strict minimalist chug-offs of ticks-n-bumps-n-squeaks -- enough to shrug off the exhaustion they inflict and restrictions they require, even enough to kinda-tolerate the ceaseless+colorless grime-churn gyrating through the entirety of a 16-minute slow-build beast also known as "#2". With post-production peppering in light-fare muffled-mystery noise and panning/echo-psych shenanigans, this 3-piece "rock" outfit comes on more like a sole neurotic techno techie with a drum-kit -- and as much as caution and rigor and endurance are their bread and knife and butter, they oft-manage to project a sense of perkiness; the unshakable tension-upkeep that never-ever lets loose helping stamp out sterility while keeping the listener perpetually on edge to boot. Also keen at keeping the listener's brain feeling something akin to an overworked assembly belt. 7/10

Vektor - Terminal Redux

*******HIGHEST RECS*******

Just for disclosure, yeah I skipped out on that whole story-concept thing: chiefly cuz sci-fi sagas, especially in album form, aren't really my bag/who has the time?; but particularly because the poundage and propulsion of this shrill-hawk snarlin' light-speed rip-roarin' technical precision-fest is sustenance enough to make a tale all-too-ignorable if you so choose. Not too long after they give in to a track-4 interlude is approximately when things begin to blur a bit, but even then it's quite the on-the-ball blur -- the birr alone is a furious force to be reckoned with, the cohesion still ceaseless, the catchiness still convincing, their prog never usurping their thrash. A track-8 pedestal-o-granules brings 'em back to top form and paves the way for some unforeseen cleans and the epic/even soulful 13-minute ender they deserve. And I get restricting the fantastic femme-vox to the bookended charging+recharging of voids, but ooo it would've been nice to see that wealth get spread. Some contrast for the fury, ya know? 8/10

Youth Code - Commitment to Complications

Though it'd be nice to see the vox fixate on variance as half-much as they do malignity, the agonized she+he venom-spitting sprinkled with samplings of antisocial sentiments are frequently vehement and dare I say deliciously diabolical. For industria-beats so mechanical+aggressive+minatory they'd sound at home on the killing floor of a futuristic terrorist compound, suitable supplements indeed. Not to say it's absolute thickheaded carnage -- floating-ghost-synths help channel celestiality, plenty of intricacies and subtleties are there for the pickin', they're not opposed to churnin' out some catchy+melodic, and occasional plunges into slowed-down sparsity grant the listener some breathing room while our vocalists get their decrepit-elder on. Pretty positive that a gagged woman is getting whipped at one point, though. 7/10

leet trax 2016 2/4

Amnesia Scanner - "AS Want It"

Amon Amarth - "One Thousand Burning Arrows"

Anohni - "Execution"

Babyfather - "The Realness"

Bent Shapes - "What We Do is Public"

Beyonce - "Sorry"

Bleached - "Sour Candy"

The Body - "Starving Deserter"

Boliden - "Boundaries"

Bookworms - "You Say So"

Bullion - "Get to the Heart of It"

Cate Le Bon - "We Might Revolve"

Chance the Rapper - "No Problem" (ft. 2 Chainz & Lil Wayne)

Cobalt - "Ruiner"

Dalek - "Masked Laughter (Nothing's Left)"

DJ Katapila - "Nkran Dokunu"

DJWWWW - "Sampling"

Dorisburg - "Votiv"

Drake - "Feel No Ways"

dvsn - "Do It Well"

Eskimeaux - "Power"

Frankie Cosmos - "Embody"

Robbie Fulks - "Baby Rocked Her Dolly"

Laura Gibson - "Empire Builder" 

Into It. Over It. - "Adult Contempt"

Kamaiyah - "Swing My Way"

Matt Karmil - "Freeform"

Ray Lamontagne - "Homecoming"

Lucius - "Gone Insane"

M83 - "For the Kids" (ft. Susanne Sundfor)

Moonsorrow - "Mimisbrunn"

Kevin Morby - "Dorothy"

Parquet Courts - "One Man, No City"

Radiohead - "Daydreaming"

The Range - "Skeptical"

Teen Suicide - "Living Proof"

The Thermals - "If We Don't Die Today"

Vektor - "LCD (Liquid Crystal Disease)"

Leon Vynehall - "Kiburu's"

Weezer - "L.A. Girlz"

White Lung - "Below"

Wussy - "Majestic-12"

Youth Code - "Glass Spitter"