Digital Good Time: "Bibliophone"

Digital Good Time: "Bibliophone"
(Digital Good Time is a series in which xoxobra focuses on the visual side of music)

There's something very charming about the simplicity of After Effects/Flash animation. Yeah, many a shitty video has been created by many an amateur to the programs, but with a little creativity you can more than compensate for tons of experience and know-how. "Bibliophone", by up-and-coming UK electronica artist Zoon van SnooK does this well. Produced by a start-up UK animation studio called Stanthers Ink (S_Ink), the video uses the beat of the song to cue all of the actions in the video. The inanimate objects falling from the sky start a skittering beat, the higher-pitched synth noises act as voice for the characters, the waves move to the lower-pitched synth, etc. I love the guy on the left, whose smiles and excited facial expressions make it seems like he's just happy to be there.

Cool first effort by these guys, and nice song by Zoon van SnooK. I'll be sure to look out for future efforts.





Links:
Zoon van SnooK
S_Ink

Discovering The Classics: Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous Edition

Discovering The Classics: Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous Edition

Let me be frank: Big L is kind of a dick. I mean, I'm no stranger to hardcore gangsta rap, so I knew what to expect, but damn. Just look at some of the gems of fuckfacery that can be found on this album:

"They wanna know why I'm so fly
A girl asked me for a ring and I put one around her whole eye."

"I be placin' snitches inside lakes and ditches
and if I catch AIDS then I'ma start rapin' bitches."

"They said a real man won't hit a girl
well I ain't real 'cuz I beat bitches up."

"The Big L be lighin' niggas like incense
gettin' men lynched to win tits
I'm killin' infants with ten cents"

"One day we [he and his friend] stuck a dice game on the Ave
and split the cash, then I murdered his ass
and took his half."

What an unimaginable bastard! Luckily, he later offers this accurate self-assessment:

"Yo I admit I admit I'm a sucka, a lowdown, dirty, sneaky, double-crossing, conniving motherfucka."

Joking aside, I know that these lyrics aren't to be taken literally. They're way too far out and macabre on a nearly comic level. But I almost find myself wondering what could've been. Big L is a technically gifted rapper, but on this album that skill is largely spent coming up with clever lines for subject matter that has about as much depth (or less) as what you're average 15-year old wannabe rapper could muster; stringing together phrases and slang just because they sound cool together (the entire album can be summed up in four words: "I will kill you"; or maybe six: "I am capable of killing you"). Such talent wasted; like a highly trained fine artist dedicating himself to furry art.

It's not that I wanted L to go the conscious route (which he actually does on the "Street Struck", whose placement on this album is perplexing, it being a song warning kids about the dangers of romanticizing street life, surrounded by songs that romanticize street life), I just think that L could've covered his "poor and dangerous" lifestyle more interestingly. Even the mighty Rakim's lyrics can be reduced to just constant boasting, but he somehow makes his boasting interesting to listen to, whereas L's killa killa shit can get boring at times. Still, I have to admit that I enjoy this album thoroughly when I'm in the mood for it, even if it does require I turn my brain off beforehand. I have the feeling that had Big L not been killed, Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous wouldn't have been his best (and sole completed) album by far.

This song is classic, though.



"Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous"

Dälek - Gutter Tactics (2009)

Dälek
Gutter Tactics (2009)

Ignore (if you can) the fact that this duo's name has thrust the MC into the forefront. Dälek may be the name of the band and the rapper, but DJ Oktopus' unique production has been the driving force behind their hard-to-place sound in the realm of music, borrowing as much from hip hop as from experimental noise, industrial, shoegaze, drone, and (for this album's title track especially) drone doom metal. In fact, one of the biggest mistakes people make when exploring Dälek is to approach them as a rap group. And while hip hop with a political flare is certainly part of the overall package, one shouldn't go into their albums expecting anything resembling Public Enemy or Dead Prez.

As discussed, production is key with Dälek albums, and with Gutter Tactics, Oktopus gives the most consistent and occasionally brilliant effort he's ever managed. Finding a balance between the harsh noise of Filthy Tongues and Absence, and the softer albeit sometimes uninteresting melodies of Abandoned Language, Gutter Tactics is at times dirty and raw but without being obnoxious, and other times bleak but without ever getting boring. If they hadn't already planned on releasing an instrumental version of this album, they should seriously consider it. It'd arguably be the best instrumental hip hop/post-rock/electronic album in recent memory.

If that's taken as a criticism of the vocals, it pretty much is. Oftentimes muffled, incomprehensible, and buried in the mix, Oktopus' handling of the vocals are easily the weakest part of his effort on Gutter Tactics. It also doesn't help that Dälek seems as if he hasn't cheered up much (though it's difficult to tell for sure; the liner notes don't contain any lyrics), not that anyone should have expected as much, but in keeping with his dire outlook he falls victim to a common failing of political hip hop.

Look, there's a reason why Public Enemy had Flava Flav. People can only take so much of hearing how fucked up and racist the world is before recoiling. Things aren't perfect by any means, and this type of subject matter shouldn't be ignored, but Dalek feeds it in such heavy doses that it distracts from using their music as a form of escapism. Yes, Dälek, I actually did know who Medgar Evers was (referring to the line "Tell the truth you never knew who Medgar Evers was", stated in one track). He faced a lot of obstacles and was killed trying to give people like you and I more opportunities for a better future, and his goals have since largely been met, so I'm pretty sure he'd scoff at any mention of how bad you have it.


Score: 8.5/10


"Los Macheteros/Spear Of A Nation"


"Gutter Tactics"

Digital Good Time: "Headache"

Digital Good Time: "Headache"

I consider myself fairly aware when it comes to politics and current events, but the conflict between Israel and Palestine makes my head hurt. Every attempt I've made to understand the nuances and complexities have only taken me in circles, so by default I remain neutral and hear both sides of the argument without leaning towards one side or the other.

I am however, down with putting the breaks on senseless violence. So is motion designer Mato Atom, which is why he's created this short video for Amnesty International and DAHRA (Designers Against Human Rights Abuse) that puts a charmingly funny spin on the situation. Featuring an instrumental track from Nine Inch Nails' Ghosts I-IV album, the video personifies two tanks as lovers, who turn a sexual advance into a poignant message.






Links:
Mato Atom
Amnesty International
DAHRA

Post-Wedding Laziness Zwei

Sorry. Still can't find the energy for a proper post. I'm so relieved to be done with wedding planning and I'm enjoying a few days of having absolutely nothing urgent to worry about (except thank you notes; GAH!). Family from both sides have returned to their respective home cities, and while me and the wife enjoyed their company, we're now enjoying the silence. Today, writing will again have to take a backseat to sitting on my ass and doing nothing. I'm sure you understand. Here, though, is the first wedding picture to trickle in. I'll save the rest for Facebook.

(I looked more like a preacher than I meant to look.)




"Ambulance"
(our "wedding song", by TV on the Radio)

Mr. & Mrs.

Welp, tied the ol' knot this weekend. So I think that excuses me from a real post at least for today. I'll just enjoy the moment right now and maybe worry about details later. I was going to post some corny wedding song, and the first thing that came to mind was Jagged Edge's "Meet Me At the Alter". But then I didn't feel like finding the song, so I thought this absurd picture would suffice. Ah, the joy of press photo's:

(Oiled up Jagged Edge sez: "Meet us at the alter")

Ocean - Pantheon of the Lesser (2008)

Ocean
Pantheon of the Lesser (2008)

Ocean's 2005 debut album, Here Where Nothing Grows, was a fantastic display of heavy, bleak, depressing, suffocating, atmospheric doom metal. For 2008's Pantheon of the Lesser, the band have changed their game, giving us two new extended tracks of heavy, bleak, suffocating, depressing, atmospheric doom metal...WITH A FEMALE VOCAL ELEMENT! Whatever. It's not like doom is known for its sea changes (zing!). They have their niche and they're sticking to it.

Even though the band haven't changed by leaps and bounds, the three year gap between the two albums have been largely good to Ocean (not to be confused with Germany's THE Ocean; that band does sludgy prog-metal, this is doom. DUH!). Any band with the skills to make a thirty-five minute track worth repeated listens must be doing something right. "The Beacon" blasts the album open with a heavy drum beat and a stroke of the guitar, and seems to hint at a fast start until that beat is left to linger in the air for several seconds, at once reminding the listener who they are. "Fast start" my ass; Ocean do everything slow.

The song builds, slowly of course, and the growling vocals sound more like the heavy howling winds of a thunderstorm. The song climaxes with the introduction of said female vocal element, at first singing, then screaming as the music begins to envelope her and the listener simultaneously. It's not very unlike the title track on Ancestors' 2008 debut, Neptune With Fire, but the styles are different enough between the two bands to avoid that feeling of déjà vu. After "The Beacon", the main job of the closing track, "Of the Lesser", is to not ruin the momentum; a job that it completes with flying colors, almost to the point of surpassing the excellent opener. At a scant (in comparison) twenty-three minutes, it's leaner on instrumental sections but no less epic in proportion.

For a time, the climax of "Of the Lesser" conveys a feeling of optimism...before punishing the hell out of that nonsense with a series of bass heavy, pummeling drum beats similar to the one that opened the album. "Save the optimism for post-rock bands", they seem to say. "We're all about dooooooom."


Score: 8.5/10


"Of the Lesser" (excerpt)

What Laura Says on tour

Much to my chagrin, Phoenix isn't a city known for it's bustling local music scene (well, unless you like metalcore, I guess), so when I was introduced to the music of What Laura Says (formerly What Laura Says Thinks and Feels) through a friend of mine, I was probably more surprised than I should have been to find that they were actually good. Like, really good. Good enough for me to actually be proud that they call this city home kinda good. Which was even all the more shocking since I'm typically not into the style of music they play. But their particular brand of indie, roots, and blues rock definitely makes them a band to watch.

Terpsikhore Inc., an independent upstart North Carolina-based label, agrees. The label re-released the band's previously self-released debut album, Thinks & Feels, last August. What Laura Says have also just recently kicked off a nationwide tour with Terpsikhore's flagship band, Annuals, which wraps up before What Laura Says heads to Austin to play the South by Southwest music festival in late-March. Check out the remaining tour dates below. I'm not exaggerating when I say that they put on a live show that should not be missed:


Feb 11 2009 8:00P
SPANISH MOON w/ Annuals & Jessica Lea Mayfield,
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Feb 12 2009 8:00P
WALTER'S ON WASHINGTON w/ Annuals & Jessica Lea Mayfield
Houston, Texas

Feb 13 2009 8:00P
THE PARISH w/ Annuals & Jessica Lea Mayfield,
Austin, Texas

Feb 14 2009 8:00P
PONTIAC GARAGE w/ Annuals & Jessica Lea Mayfield,
Dallas, Texas

Feb 17 2009 8:00P
RHYTHM ROOM w/ Annuals & Jessica Lea Mayfield,
Phoenix, Arizona

Feb 18 2009 8:00P
THE CASBAH w/ Annuals & Jessica Lea Mayfield,
San Diego, California

Feb 19 2009 8:00P
THE TROUBADOUR w/ Annuals & Jessica Lea Mayfield,
West Hollywood, California

Feb 21 2009 8:00P
SLIM'S w/ Annuals & Jessica Lea Mayfield,
San Francisco, California

Feb 23 2009 8:00P
DOUG FIR LOUNGE w/ Annuals & Jessica Lea Mayfield,
Portland, Oregon

Feb 25 2009 8:00P
TBA w/ Annuals & Jessica Lea Mayfield,
Seattle, Washington

Feb 27 2009 8:00P
KILBY COURT w/ Annuals & Jessica Lea Mayfield,
Salt Lake City, Utah

Feb 28 2009 8:00P
HI-DIVE w/ Annuals & Jessica Lea Mayfield,
Denver, Colorado

March 18-21
SXSW
Austin, Texas




"July 23"

Links:
What Laura Says on MySpace
Terpsikhore

Coraline Was Pretty Awesome

Yeah, this isn't a film blog or anything, but I saw Coraline this weekend and felt like I had to share its total awesomeness at least to some degree. For those who don't know the details, it's a stop-motion animation flick based off of a 2002 Niel Gaiman children's book, directed by the guy who did A Nightmare Before Christmas and animated by Laika: an animation studio who's working to advance stop-motion techniques. They've done quite a job on Coraline, but that wouldn't mean much if the film itself wasn't so well adapted. Thankfully, director Henry Selick did an excellent job on that front. And just so I don't abandon the music focus of this blog altogether, the soundtrack, done by French composer Bruno Coulais (of The Chorus fame), will probably be in my collection at some point. Take a look at the preview:





Links:
Laika
Bruno Coulais

Revisited: Converge - Jane Doe (2001)

Revisited: Converge - Jane Doe (2001)
(Revisited is a feature in which I rediscover old albums in my collection and see how my opinions of them have changed. Today, in honor of the albums' recent induction into the Decibel magazine Hall of Fame, I wanted to post an old writing of mine that chronicles my discovery of the metal masterpiece, Jane Doe.)

People hardly ever recommend me any good music. Yeah, I said it! And I'm totally aware of the snobbish tone that such a comment suggests, and sadly I'm half serious. It's hard out there for a snob. I'm not saying people don't try to recommend music to me, nor am I saying I don't appreciate it when they do, but usually I'm already familiar with the names they mention and I either a) already own their albums, b) am planning on getting their albums, or c) have already decided I hate them. I've recommended many an artist to friends and acquaintances only to have them become obsessed with them (oftentimes becoming a bigger fan of the band than I was). I like providing that resource to people. Like a living, breathing Last FM that will read their musical tastes and give them exactly what they've been wanting to hear. But poor old me has to go about it the hard way: scouring, mainly on the internet, for reviews and mp3's, trying to stumble upon a new obsession. And some people may be thinking: well those are people writing those reviews, aren't they? Well, yes, but that's missing the point of what I desire. I want real people. People I know, who are in front of me. People at concerts or at work or at bars or barbecues, with whom I start a conversation about music and they tell me "Hey, you should really check out this band..." and to have that band be new to me, and to be awesome. Such things happen so rarely with me, or anyone, for that matter. One of those times, though, I found out about a little album called Jane Doe.

Never being one to turn down a music recommendation from an unfamiliar artist, I borrowed Jane Doe from a friend and listened to it as soon as I got home. First impression: "HOLY SHIT!". It was pretty intense, about three quiet moments on the entire thing (and two of them were the two verses of "Hell To Pay"). I couldn't see myself listening to such screaming and nonsense for any extended period of time. Still, I thought the band was decent, and I thanked my friend for the recommendation and gave him his album back.

Long story short: A year passed. I kept thinking about it. Eventually bought my own copy. Became one of my favorite albums of all time.

The very thing that kept me from really getting into the album in the first place was the exact thing that I came to respect about it: that overwhelming intensity, consistent throughout. And it wasn't just noise for the sake of noise. It was the good noise. The songs were good. Everything flowed cohesively and worked so well together as an album. And it's meant to be listened to just like that: as an album, not for just one or two specific songs. I find myself at a loss to describe the actual sound, that towering wall of sound that crumbles and buries the listener for 45 minutes. I hate using words like "punishing", but dammit, it's a good fit here.

What I've come to realize over the years is that Converge have something that other, similar bands don't have. The fact that I'm not at all a fan of metalcore and consider them to be one of my favorite bands, and this album to be one of my favorite albums, speaks to how effectively they do what they do. Many of the recommendations I have gotten from people were for other bands that are like Converge, but they never really captured my attention the same way. They couldn't control their chaos the same way. They were too much where Converge were just right. Converge know what they hell they're doing. And that had never been more obvious than on this masterpiece.



"Thaw"

Links:
Converge Cult
Myspace

Buraka Som Sistema - Black Diamond (2008)

Buraka Som Sistema
Black Diamond (2008)

It's probably foolish to debate how much attention this album would've gotten had M.I.A. not been on the lead single, "Sounds of Kuduro", so I won't spend too much time dwelling on the hypothetical. But the fact that people have actually heard of Buraka Som Sistema can probably thank she of the hottest single of 2008 (only the Amish have not heard "Paper Planes" by this point). Otherwise, this band would've likely remained unknown outside of their territory except by the most astute hipsters, who surely would've used it to throw in the faces of the less aware ("Yeah, M.I.A.'s okay, but I like Buraka Som Sistema's style better").

As the lead single suggests, Buraka Som Sistema specialize in a style of music called Kuduro, born in Angola and popular in Portugal and surrounding areas. You'd be forgiven for never having heard of it, but save yourself the trip to Wikipedia: there's very little to distinguish Kuduro from most other forms of high-BPM electronic music. It's rhythmic, danceable rave-style music, and I'm willing to wager that 4 out of 5 listeners can't tell the difference between Kuduro and any other forms of rhythmic, danceable rave-style music. You could note Kuduro's mild African flavor and the political nature of its lyrics (if any), but you'd more or less be splitting hairs.

Like most rave-style music, Black Diamond comes dangerously close to overwhelming listeners with the beat. The album starts off strong, with the aforementioned "Sounds of Kuduro" as well as "Kalemba (Wegue Wegue)" providing early highlights, but midway through the album it all starts to get tiring, and not necessarily because of a drop in song quality. The album is actually pretty consistent, but with this style of music, rigid consistency often leads to boredom.

Thank goodness, then, for "New Africas Pt. 1 and 2", which comes out of nowhere and gives Black Diamond a much needed change of pace; slowing things down before introducing a dark, brooding, dub-style beat. The two parts of the song only play for about a combined six minutes, but it's more than enough time to save this album from the mediocrity that it had been driving toward.

Buraka Som Sistema is unlikely to follow in M.I.A.'s footsteps in terms of popularity, but a follow up album that improves upon what they've done on Black Diamond may give them a legitimate shot.


Score: 7/10


"Kalemba (Wegue Wegue)"


"New Africas pt. 2"

Digital Good Time: "Night of the Living Dope"

Digital Good Time: "Night of the Living Dope"
(Digital Good Time is a feature in which xoxobra focuses on the visual side of music)

I like this song. It's really quick and energetic and enjoyable even though the lyrics are your typical party-rap fare that basically breaks down to "I like to have sex". Still, the video is perfectly fitted for the song: quick, energetic, and a little ridiculous. Directed by the up-and-coming Lance Drake, the video thrives on randomness: animated eyes composited onto Curtain's face, blatant smoke machine abuse, skittering dropped-frame playback, the crazy moving cutouts with the echo ghosting effect, the mirrored duplicates, etc. It seems the idea was to throw in as many tricks as possible within two minutes but somehow it still works. It's constantly moving, and the cuts often synch with the beat. It also helps that the film quality is great with excellent contrast and lighting. Check it:



Links:
Curt@!n$
Lance Drake