#allegrasbeats

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You Don’t Get me High Anymore - Phantogram 

I remember the first time I heard ‘When I’m Small’ from Phantogram’s first LP in a surf video some friends of mine made, the second the synthed-out guitars came in strong I knew it was love. It was one of those tracks that instantly gave you the feeling I’m sure the artists were going for. It’s effortlessly effective. It’s heavy and serene with lyrics I’m sure we can all relate to. You can dance to it and you can lay out on the beach and tan to it. A song with a dual vibe such as this is a rare and glorious find.

The electronic rock family tree is an intimidating one: first it was Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails, then Daft Punk, MGMT, Devo, LCD Soundsystem, just to name a few. Today’s stars include Tame Impala, Foster the People, and now Phantogram. They’ve been around since 2007 and have released 3 albums since (Night Life and When I’m Small’s Eyelid Moves being my favorites), but it feels as though they’ve finally received the attention they deserve with their newest single that premiered on Beats 1, ‘You Don’t Get Me High Anymore.’ It came with the announcement of their new album titled “Three”, which drops September 16, 2016. If the whole record is as good as the single I’m confident they’ll get their own branch up on that tree. This track hit me the same way ‘When I’m Small’ did, it’s filled with the same rapturous versatility that won my heart in 2010. It’s those guitars that get me. This song is a banger and a ballad; a love note to the once exciting someone who’s spark has gone stale.

This song gets me high that’s for sure.

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Glowed Up ft. Anderson Paak - Kaytranada

Montreal's Kaytranada released 99.9%, his second LP, after massive buzz and praise for his various remixes and singles released throughout the past few years; notable remixes being Janet Jackson's If, Snakeship's On & On, and Missy Elliot's Sock it 2 Me. I recognize Kaytranada the instant I hear his drums, their enticing grove that leads his moody production, on top of their crisp mixing in contrast with his infamous smoothly-mixed vocals makes for a style that stands out.

He has often voiced his frustration on Twitter for feeling trapped within the relentless EDM bubble, telling all the disappointed festival attendees that a Kaytranada set isn't going to just be an assembly line of bangers. You can definitely dance to his tracks but they're quite different from the American conception of EDM. In a genre where drums are most commonly used as just big pounds of nothing but bass, a dominating and dynamic drum line will be the paramount piece of his sound. Listen to 99.9% and you'll know what I'm talking about.

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Wolves - Kanye West 

The Life of Pablo does what Kanye seems to obsess over and belt aloud to every crowd he can step in front of, change the paradigm - in this case however it’s Kanye’s own paradigm that he changed. 

Previous records of his have always seemed to every so slightly seep to the surface and into discernable view suddenly and with great artistic fervor. The title, art direction, track list, and features/producers would all seem to come from no where and slap you in the face with only rumors to prepare yourself. TLOP was the antithesis of this; Pablo was everything else before it was Pablo. 

You know this though, anyone with internet knows and has most likely read over and over about the messy transpiration of TLOP, so I’ll get into what really matters. 

The perfected and crisp version of TLOP on Apple Music (my preferred streaming platform) is best listened to first in one sitting because of its fast-paced flow that can so easily confuse listeners if taken to seriously. You can hear the fun Kanye had while making this album, there’s a much more spontaneous and playful feeling to the track list. His previous albums were extremely serious in content and structure. TLOP is also the finger in the ant-trail in its lack of a clear idea or statement, something extremely obvious in the lovesick brooding of 808′s and Heartbreaks apologetic nature of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and the rebellious tone of Yeezus. TLOP is varied in its ideas, meanings, and message, which makes it so inviting and irresistible. Try listening to Ultralight Beams Without smiling or crying, Father Stretch My Hands Part 1&2 without wanting to get out of your chair and dance, or even 

Wolves is my favorite song on the album. Every time I hear it I feel every little the hairs on my skin rise above the goosebumps. The eerie yet maternal wail of the leading synth beautifully guides the melody that Vic Mensa and Sia hitch a ride on, adding to its haunting bite as they sing about fear and a lost love. 

PS: Listen to the Apple Music version of Wolves, the Sia x Mensa version is much better. Sorry Frank. 

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Modern Soul - James Blake 

My love for James Blake seems to grow fonder as each night comes and goes through this dark tender trek of painful patience. As I see it, the wait for Blake’s second LP has become a long and desolate dark train ride; every fleeting moment spent passing through a brightly lit tunnel, which so harshly contrasts the undisturbed night, illumines my car for an exhilarating few moments. I swear I’ve reached the station. Sadly, as quickly as the tunnel comes it goes, and the black-hued train car slugs on, and on, and on…

“Modern Soul” is the newest tunnel of light. Take me home James. 

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Discipline - Club Cheval 

Discipline, the second single from the French group Club cheval, has me even more thrilled for the beginning of next year as I eagerly await the release of their debut LP, out on Bromance Records. 

Club cheval is a four-man faction with a belief and talent in producing sound so clean it shines in a stunning and simple delivery of music, effortlessly elating its listeners. In a scene that is currently crowded with mass overproduction and superfluity, Cc has crafted two singles for 2015 that have given me hope for an LP that will follow the valuable ideas of making the most out of the least in production. Music has always sounded best when stripped of all that is necessary, and as the unfortunate fad of congested noises plagues more and more of popular electronic music, Club cheval has soothed my sorrows with these two confidently clear singles that have blown most of the music I’ve heard this fall clean out of the water. 

A single off an upcoming LP is meant to give listeners a powerful taste, a strong message or idea of what it to be expected from their full length body of work. However with From the Basement to the Roof being a sedate ride to bliss, and Discipline being an uplifting hymn sure to lift spirits, their forthcoming album is sure to be an eclectic collection of pure production that will do no less than genuinely make you feel good. 

Stay tuned folks. 

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Canal St - A$AP Rocky 

Rocky’s second LP, AT.LONG.LAST.A$AP, stands far away from his previous, very critically appraised freshman LP, LONG.LIVE.A$AP. Even the title gives evidence to his new mindset. He has indeed caught the attention of the world, and proven with this album that A$AP Rocky isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. 

This LP is slow-burning, moody, sometimes hard, and even trippy, clear that psychedelics are of heavy influence, hence the lead single’s title L$D. The idea of coping and memory is very apparent on this album and has a much heavier feel than his previous LP. It’s dedicated to A$AP Yams, Rocky’s extremely close friend and collaborator who died earlier this year, whose death brought Rocky to cope using such trippers. He also mentions psychedelic/euphoric music helped him heal as time rolled on after Yam’s death and he continued to produce. That hallucinatory vibe so vital for him personally obviously translated into the sound of A.L.L.A, as the LP as a whole does feel very chromatic yet pacifying. 

Overall, I adore this album. I still can’t decide whether or not I like it better than its predecessor, because that album was almost perfect in my eyes. I think LONG.LIVE.A$AP was more forgiving and offered an easy listen, where this album asks for more, and I think, slowly, I’m giving into it. 

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Fading - Shlohmo 

Shlohmo’s most recent LP, Dark Red, came out a little while ago and I was beyond excited for it to see the light of day. Shlohmo’s production has always had sedative effects on me no other artist provides, making it like sweet crack. Ever since my cousin showed me The Way You Do, which she states is one of her favorite songs of all time, I was fascinated by Shlohmo. The unique cadence of his music, something you need to experience in order to understand. My cousin’s intro also brought me to learn more about his accomplished WeDidIt Label and the LA beat scene (Low End Theory being the birth place of a new genre of electronic music with Flying Lotus, Gaslamp Killer, Nosaj Thing, Shlohmo, and more as its current posterchilds), which is filled with so much notable content and talent that I’m not even gonna attempt to explain it in this post, but will definitely write about in the near future since I am uber inspired by the LA beat scene and its members. I also was born, raised and reside in LA, so its close to my heart. 

Anyways, it has taken me some time to reflect on Dark Red because upon the first listen, I have to admit, I felt a sense of suffocation by its complexity and the lack of a clear single, something you don’t find often within an hour long LP. I felt like it was definitely an album that needed marinating and multiple listens in order to be fully understood. I needed to delve deeper than usual in order to feel confident writing about it. I listened to Dark Red every night before I fell asleep for a week straight. It is beautiful, morose, rhythmic yet offbeat, vast, and feels as if it completely wraps you around in its melody. What I love most about Dark Red is that it is clearly an album with emotion at its helm. Shlohmo didn’t give a fuck about radio play. There’s not even a whisper of a vocal and, like I said earlier, no clear single, which I personally find really honorable in an industry that currently feels so fueled by money. I think Dark Red is a passage through a mind (your mind even), and as I lay in bed each night, losing myself its all consuming production which completely occupies your entire headspace, I realized that this album changes with the feelings of your day that follow you into bed. A different emotion and experience surfaces with each new mindset present as you enter its tracklist. If you know what I mean. 

My favorites are Emerge from Smoke, Ditch, Fading, and Remains. But seriously, I recommend you digest this album as I did. alone in your room with the lights killed. 

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The New International Sound Pt. II - Gener8ion + M.I.A.

Gener8ion, Surkin’s new project, released a single with M.I.A. off his EP, which holds the same title as the single. My friends, it is perfect. Not only is the video completely badass and dynamic, with 36,000 individuals fighting in flawless synchrony at the largest fighting school in China, but I want to listen to the song itself on repeat until I die. Surkin has taken a perfectly edgy turn with this new project, and the first Gener8ion EP, under Bromance, is as equally impressive as this single, so seriously go listen to it. The punchy drum line and industrial synths accompanied with M.I.A.’s hard cut voice just make for such a jam, I can’t even adequately describe its charm to do it any justice. So again, LISTEN. 

Fuck I just love Bromance so much. They do no wrong.