Music of the... since whenever I posted one last?

For a while there, I was doing one of these every week - and in a perfect world, I'd love to continue that tradition... but as we all know, its not a perfect world. :)

There have been a ton of releases since I last posted about them, but these are some of the things in heavy rotation for me recently:

First and foremost, I seriously can't get enough of this Eskmo LP on Ninja Tune. Bloody hell. I mean, its like nothing I've ever heard, and I'm all about it. (As I post this, the tune "My Gears Are Starting To Tremble" is on - LOVE IT, but too short a song, in my opinion)

If you're not familiar, Eskmo is the moniker of San Franciscan Brendan Angelides, who has released for Warp Records and Project Mu before being signed to Ninja Tune for the release of his self-titled debut LP. The album's bpm is about 85% "dubstep" (in that the beats are in the 70/140 range), with some ventures into "hip-hop's" 80-100 bpm territory.

One of the two major things that separates Eskmo's music from the norm is his extremely original percussion sounds; consisting of a combination of organic and syntheitic sounds, both glitched-out and straightforward... but the defining difference for me is Brendan's vocals. His voice is a bit creepy but still inviting, and have this ability to invoke a very emotional response without being typically cheesy. The lyrics are "abstract," but in as much that they are able to have their meanings taken differently, depending on the listener (and mood thereof, for that matter).

This one is going down as one of my picks for Album of the Year, without question.
Eskmo - Official Site

I've also been listening a lot to the album from Shobaleader One, "d'Demonstrator," which is out now on Warp Records.

Shobaleader One is a new musical venture from the production genius Tom Jenkinson aka Squarepusher. Shobaleader One is a band, but not your average band by any means. Tom puts it best in his explaination of the band here, and pretty much says it all with that little Q&A, so I won't go too much into the details.

Not surprisingly, I'm not as into the single as the rest of the LP, but I'm always excited for a new Squarepusher release, and this one came out of nowhere as well as being something completely different from his usual output, so it was a great surprise.
Shobaleader One - Official Site

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Ram Records head honcho Andy C's newest entry in the Nightlife mix series. Nightlife 5 is absolutely stupendous. They don't call him "The Executioner" for no reason. Seriously, Andy? 35+ tracks on one mix CD? And a whole second mix to boot?? LEGEND. For real. If you're a DnB fan, and one, if not all, of Andy's mixes aren't in your collection, I don't know what you're doing.
Andy C on Discogs

Ok. That's all for now... I really shouldn't be blogging from work (shhh - don't tell anyone!), so I'm off to pretend to do something productive.

 

 

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Laughed my ass off

Came across this online.

Initially, it made me laugh my ass off, but I don't think there was any reason for it to go on for so long.
A verse, maybe two, but a full-length song? Might be a little much.

[possibly NSFW due to language]

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Eminem to appear on 60 Minutes.

This video is just one of the reasons he's friggin awesome.

I'm actually looking forward to watching this interview... and I haven't watched an episode of 60 Minutes in, well, I've never watched an episode.

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A Musical Dilemma

A recent conversation with an old friend - someone who is deeply embedded in the electronic music scene - got me thinking about our (read: everyone's) tastes in music, and how they evolve as time goes by.

He mentioned that he had recently been into a specific genre of EDM, but his tastes were pulling him away from it; he just couldn't get into it so much now as he did in past months/years. This was definitely not a foreign concept to me, as I’ve gone through plenty of these phases before. Hell, there have been times that music in general has just been something I couldn’t find the right “groove” in anymore… granted, it never takes me long to get right back in, but its happened.

The strange thing (as far as I was concerned) was that the music he was no longer “feeling” was a genre of EDM that I feel is as healthy as its been in years: enormous diversity, new upcoming producers willing to try something new, and a shift in where the more “mainstream” output of the genre is headed.

He said he felt it was a tempo thing… which made me question if it might simply be overload. I mean, this is a guy who works with producers and DJs day in and day out, and I’m just thinking it’s the static BPM that he’s listening to that might be the culprit.

I wonder sometimes if we overload our ears with one specific genre of music, and that’s where these ‘genre funks’ come from. As I’ve said plenty of times before, I’m a total drum & bass fanatic. There’s something about that 170-180 bpm tempo that just speaks to me… but in the same breath, I listen to absolutely anything and everything, and try to make it a point to not over-do it with the dnb, making sure I have a varied diet of music in my day-to-day.

I’m interested because I definitely don’t want to see him walk away from what he does, but I also want him to see how healthy this form of music is, and how its evolution is opening doors to new fans and new directions for the music. I also understand the need to branch out and see (hear) what else is out there – especially with EDM in general being in such a great place right now, both musically and culturally.

Is this something that happens to you as well? Do you get genre overload? Is there a way you’ve found to snap yourself out of it, or is it just a matter of going through these phases to eventually come back to a genre that might have been “on the outs” for you?

Hit me up on Twitter or comment here with your thoughts. I’m very interested to know what others think about this “phenomenon,” and how they’ve overcome the same challenges when it comes to our musical tastes.

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