May | 2023 | The Answer Is In The Beat

Kool Keith & Haji Outlaw: Keith & Outlaw 7″ single (FCBRV, 2023)

May 31, 2023 at 7:53 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Kool Keith & Haji Outlaw: Keith & Outlaw 7″ single

Preceding an album with Real Bad Man as well as the forthcoming Black Elvis 2, Kool Keith started off the year with this single produced by Chicago’s Haji Outlaw. “Kool Kriminal” is a brief single-verse rhyme with typically sleazy lyrics and cinematic production filled with gunshots and movie dialogue samples, almost feeling more like a skit than a song. “Sporty Nights (Uber Eats)” is the highlight, with a Griselda-ish beat made of choppy soul samples and little else, while Keith comes at you from several different angles with as much energy as he can muster these days. He’s been hit or miss for a long time, even if the hits are astoundingly great, but this is pretty decent. The B-side is just the instrumentals (with the dialogue samples intact), and they function well on their own, but of course they’re best heard with Keith rhyming over them.

Movement 2023, Memorial Day Weekend, Detroit

May 30, 2023 at 10:05 pm | Posted in Movement (DEMF), Photos | Leave a comment

Submerge

I signed the wall at Submerge a decade ago and K-Hand (RIP) signed right above it

Underground Music Academy

Niks

Detroit Techno City

Injured? Call Alieana

Shaun J. Wright

Stacey Hotwaxx Hale

Milan Ariel

Sillygirlcarmen

Akua

TSHA

Moodymann

2Lanes

jugglers

DJ Holographic

Uniiqu3

Mark Broom

Sheefy McFly

Welcome to Techno City

Octave One

Surgeon

hula dancer

Carl Craig & Jon Dixon

Mathew Jonson

Ash Lauryn

Ben UFO

Santonio Echols

Special Request

Cybotron

Scan 7

Suburban Knight

Caribou

Dantiez & Kevin Saunderson

Henry Brooks

Lauren Flax

DJ Seinfeld

Sinistarr

Soundmurderer

Underworld

Multiples (Speedy J & Surgeon)

Pursuit Grooves: 100 Seams (What Rules, 2023)

May 22, 2023 at 9:30 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Pursuit Grooves: 100 Seams

Vanese Smith’s newest release is a tribute to her grandmother, a seamstress, who would have been 100 years old at the time of the album’s production. It thematically resembles Smith’s earlier 91 Fellows release, which, to my ears, completely redefined the concept of dub, to this day I cannot think of any other music that sounds like or captures the same feelings as that record. While that release only sporadically used voices, 100 Seams focuses on spoken poetry, calling back to Smith’s first form of writing before she started emceeing and producing. Lyrics about crafting, creating, and vivid descriptions of materials are scratched turntable-style, making them feel like sonic embroidery. The last PG album, Mo:Delic Island, was accompanied by visual art presenting strange hybrid fantasy creatures, and this one has a more down-to-earth, nostalgic setting for its verbal illustrations. Some tracks have a house thump, but in PG’s own offbeat way, with the kicks bumping up against thumb pianos and slow claps on “Kitty’s Curtain Panels” and “Woven Memories” being more broken and rattling. “Garner” is more on the hypnotic downtempo tip, and “Seams Together” has some dubby echo causing the delicately ticking beats to vibrate.

Reynols: Peloto Cabras Mulusa Olve LP (Calar Music, 2023)

May 21, 2023 at 1:42 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Reynols: Peloto Cabras Mulusa Olve LP

This is the first-time vinyl issue of material originally released on a 1999 cassette. The two 15-minute main tracks are vast, careening, metallic disruptions and vibrations that seem edited down from an endless spell in an echo chamber. “Lavio Peve” is different, more of an early SY drone-disco thing. “Ambres Macia” is an unexpected buzzsaw garage punk blitz that combusts at the end. But the first track especially is just a sprawling, astral travelling wash of sound and it’s worth the journey for this experience.

Crush Collision 5/18/23

May 19, 2023 at 9:42 am | Posted in Crush Collision | Leave a comment

10:00 PM Unique 3 ~ Weight For the Bass (Original Dubplate) ~ 33/45 ~ Originator Sound ~ 1990
10:08 PM Afrika Bambaataa ~ Frantic Situation (feat. Shango) [Vocal Version] ~ Looking for the Perfect Beat 1980 – 1985 ~ Tommy Boy Music, LLC ~ 1984
10:12 PM ADULT. ~ Why Always Why ~ Perception Is/as/of Deception ~ Dais Records ~ 2020
10:16 PM AceMo ~ Matrix Acid ~ Ace’s Acid – EP ~ AceMo ~ 2019
10:20 PM Solomon Fesshaye ~ Awake ~ Invisible Hand / Awake – Single ~ Ghostly International ~ 2023
10:23 PM Leon Duncan ~ Ching ~ Fuck a Rosetta Stone For My Brainwaves ~ Hakuna Kulala ~ 2021
10:26 PM The Black Dog ~ Harder Times ~ The Grey Album ~ Dust Science ~ 2023
10:29 PM Jean-Michel Jarre ~ ZEITGEIST ~ OXYMORE ~ Columbia ~ 2022
10:31 PM Clark ~ Roller the Wick ~ 05-10 ~ Warp Records ~ 2005-2010
10:36 PM Scan 7 ~ The Resistance ~ The Resistance – Single ~ Tresor Records ~ 2012
10:39 PM Mike Ellison ~ Covalence (Tech Edit) ~ 12″ ~ Underground Resistance ~2022
10:42 PM 95Bones ~ Reign of Terror (’94 NY Dub) ~ BAM003 – EP ~ Body Action Music ~ 2020
10:48 PM Rezzett ~ Spicy Pipes ~ Meant Like This ~ The Trilogy Tapes ~ 2023
10:52 PM De-Bons-en-Pierre ~ Accidental Surgeries ~ Card Short of a Full Deck – EP ~ Dark Entries ~ 2023
10:56 PM Wavejumpers ~ Decoding the Map ~ Sunken Treasure ~ Underground Resistance ~ 2022
10:59 PM Jon Dixon ~ Porto Mornings ~ Musicality – EP ~ 4EVR 4WRD ~ 2023
11:03 PM Willis Anne ~ Bardo Beat ~ LAN ~ Comfort Zone ~ 2023
11:06 PM Noroi ~ Stay ~ Adrastea – EP ~ SPHERES ~ 2023
11:12 PM Cristian Vogel ~ Fase Montuno ~ Fase Montuno ~ Mille Plateaux ~ 2023
11:17 PM Mano de Fuego ~ Descenso ~ 12″ ~ Underground Resistance ~ 2022
11:21 PM 214 ~ Nocturnal Hikes ~ Si View – EP ~ Cultivated Electronics ~ 2020
11:26 PM salute & Sammy Virji ~ Peach ~ Shield – EP ~ Technicolour ~ 2023
11:30 PM Abrax ~ Intervention ~ Abrax001 – EP ~ ABRAX ~ 2020
11:36 PM DJ TOBZY IMOLE GIWA ~ Gegeta Remix ~ Cruise Beat Album ~ Nyege Nyege Tapes ~ 2022
11:39 PM Suburban Knight ~ Winds of Fear ~ 10″ ~ EPM ~ 2023
11:41 PM Aahan ~ Body Shop ~ Unholy Empire – EP ~ Monnom Black ~ 2021
11:47 PM Black Phuture ~ Communication ~ Unfriendly – EP ~ Motech Records ~ 2002
11:52 PM Addison Groove ~ TeknoJuke ~ Fred Neutron ~ Gutterfunk ~ 2020
11:55 PM Lyra Valenza ~ Joy Divided ~ Low Gear No Pressure ~ Petrola 80 ~ 2023
11:57 PM DJ Travella ~ FL Beat ~ Mr Mixondo ~ Nyege Nyege Tapes ~ 2022

Cheryl E. Leonard & Wobbly: Multiple Park LP (Gilgongo, 2023)

May 17, 2023 at 5:28 pm | Posted in Reviews | 1 Comment

Cheryl E. Leonard & Wobbly: Multiple Park LP

This electroacoustic collaboration demonstrates how the natural world and technology respond to each other. Cheryl E. Leonard’s instruments use bones, shells, sticks, and other found materials, and Wobbly has extensively explored machine listening generated music on his Monitress releases. Most of these pieces were recorded live on Over the Edge, Negativland’s long-running radio show currently hosted by Wobbly. “Bowed Spine” seems to be constructed from the instruments on the album’s cover, with lots of extended scraping and bowing noises enhanced by far-out electronic treatments. “Icicle Tracking” is a lot easier on the ears, with dripping icicles and flowing water put through an electronic filter so that they seem like they could be generated by synths, but also clearly sound like their source material. “Ostrasidian” uses, rocks, shells, fish vertebrae, chopsticks, and marbles, beginning with a lot of thick, rolling motions and eventually lifting into surreal sound-spaces when the electronics kick in. “Multiple Park” is a half-real, half-imagined flock of birds and swarm of bees flying through a constantly morphing environment, sonically traveling through fields, forests, industrial landscapes, and high tides alike. Somehow a trace of a dub bassline echoes before the record draws to a close.

Shalom: Sublimation (Saddle Creek, 2023)

May 10, 2023 at 7:24 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Shalom: Sublimation

So this album grabbed my attention because the artist went to Rutgers, I’m guessing far after I left New Brunswick. She even samples an NJ Transit train announcement at one point during the album, right before a song called “Train Station”, so for that reason the album connected with me in a similar way that the book The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao did. Musically, it’s hook-heavy alternative pop and indie rock with contemporary production (by Ryan Hemsworth) and direct lyrics about anxiety, pressure, and existential crisis. A lot of these songs seem to express the desire to be someone else, yet also seek validation at the same time (on the deceptively upbeat “Happenstance”). The middle of the album seems to concentrate on songs about missing someone, loss, heartache. “Bodies” contains the line “send me to the broken person repair shop”, and in “Lighter”, the album’s standout, she pleads “take off this weight please make me lighter”.

The Creative Technology Consortium: Panoramic Coloursound (Dark Entries, 2023)

May 7, 2023 at 6:29 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

The Creative Technology Consortium: Panoramic Colorsound

The 300th release on Dark Entries is by a Chicago trio closely related to the supergroup Mutant Beat Dance, sharing 2 of its members (Melvin Oliphant aka Traxx and Jason Letkiewicz aka Steve Summers; Beau Wanzer is absent, Andrew Bisenius is present). Much like the Mutant Beat Dance albums, this is a gigantic sprawling beast that takes up multiple pieces of vinyl and runs through ideas pulling from multiple genres. The first track, “A Retro Vice”, has bouncing beats and Italo basslines, as well as police sirens in the background, the type that make you assume they’re actually coming from outside your window in the distance. There’s other tracks halfway between club jams and ’80s cop show soundtracks, but then there’s the Fripp-like guitars and slowly rolling landscape of “Beautifully Polluted Sunset”. “Complicity in the City” is like “Ghost Rider” sprinting sideways, and “Catastrophe” has buzzing electro-industrial vibes, but a lot of this is darker, prowling down the alley music. “High Altitude Meditation” is a trippy new age reflection that seems perfectly placed right around the middle of the album. “Nyte Sequence” has an upbeat rhythm that seems like it could launch into any number of ’80s synth pop hits, yet it just seems to race right past all of those shop fronts and follow its own intuition. “The Descent” is far from a typical, formulaic club cut, but it has an addictive synth sequence holding it in place along with electronic hand percussion beats, giving it a sense of propulsion and elevation without the need of a kick drum.

Show #671 – 5/7/23

May 7, 2023 at 2:28 am | Posted in The Answer Is In The Beat | Leave a comment

12:00 AM Purelink ~ Earth To ~ To / Deep ~ NAFF ~ 2023
12:06 AM Robert Fripp ~ 1984 (Single Edit) ~ Let the Power Fall (remastered) ~ Discipline Global Media ~ 1981
12:10 AM The Chameleons ~ Up the Down Escalator ~ 12″ ~ Statik ~ 1983
12:14 AM Cardiacs ~ R.E.S. ~ A Little Man and a House and the Whole World Window ~ The Alphabet Business Concern ~ 1988
12:20 AM Desire Marea ~ Mfula ~ On the Romance of Being ~ Mute ~ 2023
12:24 AM Lonnie Liston Smith, Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad ~ Gratitude ~ Lonnie Liston Smith JID017 ~ Jazz Is Dead ~ 2023
12:27 AM Beverly Glenn-Copeland ~ Ghost House ~ Beverly Glenn-Copeland ~ Transgressive ~ 1971
12:35 AM Sverre Knut Johansen ~ METAHUMAN (feat. Ståle Storløkken) ~ Metahuman ~ Spotted Peccary ~ 2022
12:39 AM Nabihah Iqbal ~ A Tender Victory ~ DREAMER ~ Ninja Tune ~ 2023
12:43 AM Melati ESP ~ DI ATAS ~ hipernatural ~ Carpark Records ~ 2023
12:47 AM Braids ~ Evolution ~ Euphoric Recall ~ Secret City Records ~ 2023
12:50 AM Arlo Parks ~ Blades ~ My Soft Machine ~ Transgressive ~ 2023
12:54 AM Yaeji ~ Done (Let’s Get It) ~ With A Hammer ~ XL Recordings ~ 2023
12:56 AM Fire-Toolz ~ Soaked: Another Name for Everything ~ I am upset because I see something that is not there. ~ Hausu Mountain ~ 2023
1:00 AM Astrobrite ~ Orange Creamsickle ~ Still In A Dream: A Story Of Shoegaze 1988-1995 ~ Cherry Red Records ~ 2016
1:05 AM Airiel ~ In Your Room ~ Winks & Kisses: Melted EP ~ Clairecords ~ 2004
1:15 AM Everything But the Girl ~ On My Mind ~ Pillows And Prayers: Cherry Red Records 1981-1984 (40th Anniversary Edition) ~ Cherry Red Records ~ 1982
1:18 AM Me:You ~ Sun Zsu ~ Field Tapes in Der Trash ~ American Dreams Records ~ 2023
1:20 AM upsammy ~ Asphalt Flows ~ Germ in a Population of Buildings ~ PAN ~ 2023
1:24 AM Fashion Flesh ~ Rubber Mountain ~ Rubber Mountain ~ Black Lodge ~ 2023
1:32 AM V/Vm ~ Symmetric ~ AuralOffalWaffleTenPintsOfBitterAndABagOfPorkScratchings ~ V/Vm Test Records ~ 1999
1:36 AM Troikastra ~ Brief Sojourn Into a Side Alley ~ It’s the Door with the Little Stairs ~ Castor & Pollux ~ 2023
1:42 AM Kid Koala ~ Rise Of The Tardigrades ~ Creatures of the Late Afternoon ~ Envision Records ~ 2023
1:47 AM Kristina Warren ~ Slip Jigs ~ New Suns ~ Bandcamp ~ 2023
1:54 AM Deutsche Wertarbeit ~ Deutscher Wald ~ Deutsche Wertarbeit ~ Bureau B ~ 1981

Kristina Warren: New Suns (self-released, 2023)

May 6, 2023 at 4:17 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Kristina Warren: New Suns

Kristina Warren’s latest is a short album of Octavia Butler-inspired ARP 2500 synth pieces. “Simple Oankali Greeting” is about communication via direct sensation, and its slowly unfolding layers feel like a divine initiation. “Cipher Braid” has crunchier, more industrial textures and feels both like a procession and a slow diffusion. “Unakite Pool” is a slow but steady sequence of immersive bass frequencies, eventually crawling upward until it’s beaming from a mountaintop. “Slip Jigs” is a surprisingly playful robo-waltz which makes a crooked ascent to an unspeakable level of beauty.

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The Answer Is In The Beat