The Weeknd - Initiation

Really trip new joint from The Weeknd. "The Morning" this ain't.

Initiation - The Weeknd


Hot on the heels of Thursday's brilliant experimentations with genre and sonic atmosphere, it looks like Abel Tesfaye & co. are looking ever forward. There's shit going down here production-wise that blows my mind.

And yet, miraculously, the song itself still manages to give you just "What You Need" (sorry) – a dark, driving, chopped up beat; an eerie vocal melody, distorted and pitch-shifted to hell and back; then, of course, there's Tesfaye's trademark lyrical menace.

The content is familiar, to say the least: some poor girl gets sucked into a dark underground world of sex, drugs, and fame, where power games and depraved hedonism are the norm. But with every track the Weeknd put out, the menace of Tesfaye's lyrics seems to be reflected more and more in the sonic atmosphere of the songs themselves, and I'll be bold to say that this might be the most beautifully paranoid and dramatic track they've put out so far. You actually feel scared listening to it, and I feel that most music doesn't do that nearly enough nowadays.

Keep your eyes on the OVOXO, kids. Toronto's doing seriously big things right now, and Drake's new album has the Weekend all over it.

Go get Thursday and House of Balloons for FREE. Best decision you'll make today.

Lobster out.

~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . B O N U S . S W A G . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

Beautiful collab from two UK electronica legends, Burial and Massive Attack (pre-order the vinyl HERE because there will be no digital release), slated for an October 17th release. Found this over at Live For The Funk.

Sky Raper (Shlohmo Remix) - Comfort Fit

An old Shlohmo track I dug up, show the boy some love and go buy Bad Vibes (which I'll be reviewing shortly)

Nope - CBG (Chill Black Guys)

And finally, on an entirely different note, some swagged-out L.A. shit I found over at WEDIDIT. For anyone who would prefer the party in this video over one of the Weeknd's typical jaunts.

EXCITING SHIT

1) NEW BATHS REMIX!!! DOWNLOAD IT!!!

An Old Photo of Your New Lover (Baths Remix) by The One AM Radio

Also exciting: he's touring as his ambient sideproject Geotic, with this dude (The One AM Radio) and none other than JIMMY MOTHERFUCKING TAMBORELLO (aka Dntel, aka James Figurine, aka 50% of The Postal Service). If I could see that lineup live, I would. But I'm not gonna be able to. So you guys have to for me, k?

GET DEM TOUR DATES

2) NEW SHLOHMO REMIX

Shell of Light (Shlohmo Remix) - Burial by shlohmo

And it's of fucking Burial, no less. Download it HERE. And get ready for his upcoming LP Bad Vibes, dropping in less than a month on Friends of Friends.

As you can tell, I'm giddy as fuck about this post, cuz these guys are probably my two most absolutely favorite artists of the past year or so. Hopefully you'll share in my enthusiasm when you hear dem trackz.

Lobster out.

{ { EDIT EDIT MOTHERFUCKING EDIT: } }
3) MOAR SHLOHMO REMIXEZ

Marvin's Room (Shlohmo's thru tha floor remix) - Drake by shlohmo

dude just sent drake into space. and the weeknd reposted it, which is kinda cool considering that drake fucks with them. I'm telling you, man. shlohmo is the shit. #badvibes

DOWNLOAD THAT SHIT

New Weeknd

More baller shit from the elusive production duo and their badass singer. Sounds a bit like an outtake from House of Balloons, but with some distinctly new and exciting sounds in the mix (DEM SNARES).

Make sure to grab the aforementioned tape for free HERE, and get pumped for their upcoming tape, Thursday. Perhaps to be released tomorrow (i.e., 6/16)? They've been dropping warnings lately...

Lobster out.

BONUS/EDIT/PS:

THIS BLOG AIN'T DYING ON MY WATCH

Yeah, I know. We suck. I was just on break for two weeks and didn't post shit (though to be fair I was sick and had slow internets). Patkins is currently on break, and although he's been doing better than me lately in terms of posting, he's also nowhere to be found. So now that I'm back at school, my illness has actually gotten worse, which means I have time...and good internet...and not much else to do. Reading for class? Pshaw.

These are things that you should download without hesitation. Their creators have given them away for free, so you should take advantage of these legal gifts. All fantastic.

1) Jonwayne - Remixes Are Things

Collection of mainstream rap remixes by LA beathead jonwayne, who's a dude to look out for this year. The rappers he chose are pretty much the polar opposites of blogosphere favorites OFWGKTA, seeing as they all mention Gucci at least once, I think, but jonwayne knows how to tailor his production to the individual rapper in every case, and the results run the gamut from ridiculous swagger (cf. his take on Gucci Mane's "My Chain") to sinister minimalist grooves (cf. his take on Drake's "Over"). The download includes some brief-but-on-point musings on remixing, as well as a bonus track with verses by the young wayniac himself, and he is not to be missed in that field either:

what's in a number anyways, except the data?
I'm tired of this life, been playin it since the beta,
I've found every glitch, I've found every niche that I belong to...

...get this.

2) The Weeknd - House of Balloons

Shlohmo posted this tape to his facebook page the other day. It's also been tweeted by Drake, who hails from the same city (Toronto) as Future-R&B producer/singer/songwriter(s?) The Weeknd. Dunno much about him/them, seeing as his/their tumblr is mostly just filled with tracks and black-and-white photos of chicks (mostly unclothed ones). But that makes perfect sense: this tape is a boner jam masterwork. It's R&B at heart, but the sonics are equal parts dubstep, hip-hop, electro, chillwave, and Low End Theory...hence why I dubbed it "Future" RnB, a label I've heard used only once before, regarding LandLord. The Weeknd is just as worthy of it, as you can tell from the following examples:

The Weeknd - High For This by The_Weeknd

The Weeknd - The Morning by The_Weeknd

...get this tape. Never heard anything quite like it...and it's damn cool.

3) Shlohmo - Places (Chopped And Screwed Remix)

Another gift from Shlohmo. This time actually made by him, in celebration of the explosive success of his recently-released EP, Places. Incredibly smooth sounds, all self-produced, no samples. This is a remix of the title track that feels like its been submerged in molasses, but it's still the shit. You can grab the original track at Pitchfork for a free taste of the EP, which you can (and should...it's cheap) buy HERE via iTunes.

Basically, if you possess the mere capacity to download these gems you should. They're all fantastic. And if you don't, this past hour and a half has been wasted. Godspeed.

Lobster out.