#weekend wind down

[jhamlet]

Weekend Wind Down: Basement Jaxx - Red Alert

I have a fondness for old things made new again this week, clearly. As I was listening to the Chemical Brothers and thinking about how much their sound awakened me to a whole new avenue of music when they hit me with the Block Rockin' Beats. It told me that music didn't have to be bands, it didn't have to be guitars, it didn't have to be rappers and hip-hoppers, it could be a cerebral audio collage born of samplers and synthesizers. That was my late high school, as I sucked in the Chemical Brothers with lesser acts like Fatboy Slim and The Crystal Method. I thought that was how it had to be. It wasn't. In college, I had a roommate who was obsessed with a wholly different set of music. Dance music, trance music, and R&B. Specifically Usher. I shudder still thinking about Usher. It reminds me of how old Usher is considering this was 15 years ago. Anyway, among the music he introduced me to, there were a lot of gems. Basement Jaxx was one of them. They were everything that the Chemical Brothers and their Big Beat brethren weren't. Instead of shocking noise, slamming drums, and synthesizer artillery, Basement Jaxx used a lighter touch. Soulful R&B mixed with remnants of disco and funk into a more natural mixture. Red Alert was the first track of theirs I got to know before moving on to the futuristic, eccentric flavors of Rooty and the elevated pop of Kish Kash. Red Alert is still a classic, though, a song that's timeless in its way of mixing the past and the future into an infectious melody and undercurrent.

[jhamlet]

Weekend Wind Down: Mike Doughty - Tightrope

I talked about Mike Doughty before in the context of my long obsession and then reality check about Soul Coughing and how in many ways I've come to appreciate his more voluminous work as a solo artist for what it is: proof that he was both the driving force behind that group and the only part of it that would help take the music forward into a future that wasn't all manic samples and sound effects. A lot of people didn't like Doughty's first sets of solo records because it reminded them of albums full of "Soundtrack to Mary." To which I say, "What's wrong with that?" All the same, I can see what they're saying. I was always waiting for him to let more of that freak flag fly. It certainly did when I saw him at the 9:30 Club in DC when he ranted out a berserk mashup of "Firetruck" and "It's Raining Men" that was more manic and unhinged than anything I've ever seen a live performer do outside of a Primus show. That time to me arrived with two albums called Yes and Also Yes and then The Flip Is Another Honey. This track, "Tightrope," might be one of my favorite of his entire solo output. It keeps a slow and plodding acoustic riff with some left field keyboard work, an intense chorus, and some sweet hip-hoppish spoken word. It's a toe-tapper that combines Doughty's skills at being melodic, weird, and actually showing he can have a hell of a flow when he wants to.

[shitnevergetsold]

sometimes you just have to put on your trackies have a sneaky afternoon sunday cider and listen to triple j with your mates

[jhamlet]

Weekend Wind Down: Gallant - Learn to Fly

This song was always inspirational, but this Gallant cover of it takes it in a whole new direction. Something about it sounds almost spiritual, with the wispy choral flourishes in the background providing extra colors to this nearly acapella version of the song. Aside from the minimalist drums and a few vocal effects, it's about as organic as it gets. Definitely the best way to do a cover if you're going to do it. Take the words, the basic melody, but change anything and everything else.

[jhamlet]

Weekend Wind Down: Amon Tobin - Hey Blondie

I first encountered Amon Tobin through "Cosmo Retro Intro Outro" - a classic track by any definition that was one of many signaling an evolution in EDM away from the thumping 90s and into something more cerebral and intricate. Of all the times I played Amon Tobin's album Out From Out Where waiting to get to "Cosmo Retro Intro Outro," I never skipped "Hey Blondie." Aside from "The Searchers," another sinister classic from that album, "Hey Blondie" has long been the track that has stuck with me the most. It's smooth tapestry of electric piano, repeating a small riff that should really be tedious by then end but somehow remains beautiful, and all the distorted, warped choral voices that circulate around it has a simple alchemy to it. It has the hard edges of any Amon Tobin track, drums and cymbals sharpened into audio spikes, but there's a smoothness here that makes it feel like a seedy cocktail lounge in space.

Like the track? Then support the artist and buy it wherever you usually do these things. Here’s the Weekend Wind Down playlist. 

[jhamlet]

Weekend Wind Down: Ornette Coleman - Lonely Woman

I'm a closet jazzbo. It's a not-so-secret shame. I was reminded of that when I saw that Ornette Coleman passed away. Some of my unhealthy obsession with jazz seems embarrassing in retrospect. My most confounding nerdy pleasure was the old school math rock feel of it, with the complex musical theory and organized chaos behind it. It's obvious ancestor was free jazz, which Ornette Coleman basically invented. Beyond the "time no changes" ideals of Miles Davis' Second Quintet, Ornette believed that improvisation was still fake, not extreme enough. Having a prescribed set of changes to him was just as bad as writing out his solos ahead of time. He opted for a chaos more pure. And the fact that he performed with a man, Don Cherry, who made the pocket trumpet (yes, the pocket trumpet is a real thing and it's sort of awesome) an actual fiery blaster of madness, helped him out. Ornette Coleman did a lot in his career, a lot that helped make jam bands possible (dubious) and John Coltrane's later career possible (wonderful until dubious). I often wonder if people like Ornette and their disregard for keys, chords, and all the usual musical trimming also helped make things like hip hop and EDM possible. Almost that a non-musician could walk in there and just purely express themselves over rhythm at a primal level. I hear that in this song. "Lonely Woman" starts with a chilling bassline, then a horny wail that could be anything from sorrow to a rallying cry. It's stuck with me every time I've heard of it. It's not exactly relaxing, but it's not disturbing either. It is, as the small handful of jazz tracks that have stuck with me over the almost thousands I have in my library, cathartic on a purely emotional level. The rattling drums and minimal touches of piano only added to the blooming sonic palette. Are Ornette's other songs as good? Probably not. But now that he's left us, he deserves to be remembered. And this track is to my mind the best to remember him by.

Like the track? Support the artist and buy it wherever you do such things. Oh, and here’s the Weekend Wind Down playlist. 

[jhamlet]

Weekend Wind Down: Shamir - In for the Kill I'm a sucker for any track with lots of horns (synthetic or natural, I honestly love both), especially when they take those horns and do crazy things with them a. When I heard the hornline from "In for the Kill" and how it starts on-beat and then gets jumbled as it goes, turning damn near symphonic by the end, I was instantly won over. Or I would've been if it hadn't been for the throttling synth bass, electric piano, guitar, and sly vocals and lyrics from Shamir that had already snatched my attention far before I even got to that hornline. It's a slab of funky R&B that's deadly intoxicating and precisely chill, at least as chill as a song called "In for the Kill" can be.

[jhamlet]

Weekend Wind Down: Snoop Dogg - So Many Pros Another Snoop Dogg "reinvention?" I have that same reaction I usually do. It's one part internal groaning about how many times this is going to happen and another part braced excitement. Sure, there have been misfires. This is practically right on the heels of Snoop Lion. Then there was his grand R&B/auto-tune experiments on Ego Trippin', also not in the particularly distant past. There are lots of groaners in his discography. But let's remember who we're talking about. Some part of me just has an unconscious, pavlovian reaction to that voice. I can't help but smile as soon as I hear it, no matter how it's been manipulated or reconfigured to fit the track and the style at hand. If Snoop is anything he's versatile. It would be too grand to call him David Bowie-like, but he's not far off in terms of his ability to mold his voice and musical sensibilities to an increasingly different and shifting sonic palette. The he teamed up with Pharrell. There couldn't be a person in the entire musical landscape that I have more mixed feelings for. Going into what I feel about Captain Smoky the Bear Hat would fill pages, and this isn't about him. It's about how Snoop teamed up with him. When I started the track, there was some of the auto-tune, but Snoop has clearly learned more from his tinkering with R&B and auto-tune before, and even from the questionable antics of Snoop Lion. There's a smooth musicality to his voice here that's maybe always existed deep down, but it's polished and filtered into a funky, dancy track that's playful and flirty. This is an older Snoop with nothing to prove, and if you don't believe it? He's that winner. You need to go and ask somebody. The backing vocals, the smooth shuffling guitar, even point to the fact that Pharrell has learned a few tricks from his time with Daft Punk and become an even more polished version of himself. It's a collaboration that plays to both of their strengths, and makes me feel like this might be the best moment for Snoop since Tha Blue Carpet Treatment (and who didn't love the random E-40 and hyphy thrown in that one?) This track pulls off that rare feet of washing the stress of the week away and folding you into the groove of what will happen next.