The Best Song Wasn't the Single

By Danilo Bortoli, creator of blogs.

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Burial & Four Tet, "Nova"

One of the best 7" of all time is getting a rerelease.

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A The Wire edition from a few months ago ran an extensive piece on Eliane Radigue, a French electronic music experimentalist with a diverse enough background ranging from field recordings to musique concrète. Listening to it for a while and this album, specifically, has caught my eyes and ears.

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It’s been awhile since I last posted something on this blog, probably for a good reason though: this whole time I wasn’t truly inspired to write or simply get metacritical on music, since this blog was originally conceived as a home for my more teleological writing. Maybe this is me just admitting that the best criticism happens alongside curation and taste, which are basically just ways to show to other people some guidance regarding where they should be heading to right now. So, just to keep this blog alive and well and running, here is one of the best songs this year has seen so far. 

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All the other stuff said, this is still a great, really great song after these years.

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NTS Radio has assembled a four-part, 12-hour mix depicting (and detailing) the history of spiritual jazz. The whole thing is incredible, as you can testify here.

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I'm spending this afternoon going back and forth between blogs while trying to reconcile myself with my past, namely what it used to be like writing about music and my experience with art. Now I've stumbled across this old post. And this is something worth remembering.

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Hello

Coming back, I suppose.

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Nite Jewel, “Boo Hoo”

I remember hating Nite Jewel’s last album, released in 2012, since it was steeped in a very particular and prejudicial version of nostalgia. It recalled a specific time and nothing else seemed to matter to her. This is now different in “Boo Hoo”, a more upbeat and pop-oriented track. God may help her now.

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Tim Hecker, “Black Phase”

His best work since Ravedeath, 1972.

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TOYOMU, “I still love K.A.N.Y.E.”

This Bandcamp release by Japanese producer TOYOMU, his own rendition of what he thinks most of Kanye West’s The Life Of Pablo sounds like, has been making the rounds in the interwebs for most of the past two weeks now. Most of the people covering it are celebrating the producer’s boldness and his reasons for doing so -- His motive? TIDAL isn’t available in Japan right now, and since West has made, for a relatively short period of time, TLOP only available for streaming via TIDAL, well, there wasn’t any other way for TOYOMU to listen to the record.

So that is what he did. Again, that is not only a matter of technicality at hand. We can discuss that later. What I think is the greatest and brightest accomplishment here is TOYOMU’s imagination itself. He collected The Life of Pablo’s samples (at the ones made public via the Who Sampled website) and used the Google Translate robot voice in order to parse out the luyrics provided by Genius. It’s an unsettling experiment once you stop to think about it, and not just a form of criticism directed at Kanye West’s way of releasing his music in 2016 (no matter what, a valid topic to be addressed in its own right).

What is left transparent is a desire to know and, in some times, TOYOMU’s reading (in his own mind) of Kanye West’s music is more interesting than the music originally provided (and uptaded many times later). Perhaps that’s because the producer is dealing with the unknown. Perhaps, after all, ignorance is a bliss.

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Rihanna, “Work” (DJDS Edit)

Rihanna’s “Work” is multifaceted and it works (Ha!) in numerous ways. (Believe me, no dramatic reading of the song’s lyrics is ever changing that. At all). This edit by DJDS adds little to the equation and takes absolutely nothing from the track’s original chemistry. It’s a win-win scenario for both parts, it seems.

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Ital Tek, “Cobra”

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This week I wrote about two of my favorite releases that have been popping up recently. I reviewed the great new Charli XCX EP, which has been unfairly tackled as a messy, “abrasive” release (in all the wrong ways possible).

I also talked about the latest FABRICLIVE mix, the one done by Bristol-based duo My Nu Leng. It’s a really great party mix.

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Flirting with destruction.

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All Saints, “One Woman Man”

The definition of perfect pop, this time culled from pain.

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It’s now official: Massive Attack are single-handedly making some of this year’s best and most provoking music videos.

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For Popmatters, I’ve reviewed the great 2016 reissue of New York Noise, one of the greatest no wave/post-punk compilations ever made. It was a pleasure writing this.

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#2

Fandom is, in itself, a depressing act.

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Note to self

#1

The alleged gap between music writing and just downright narcissism grows thinner with each passing day.