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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