Oh. Hey. It's been a while, I know. You've grown out/shaved the beard, I've quit/taken up smoking, and neither of us has found the time/put in an adequate amount of effort to really keep this relationship going. But what say we put all that behind us, eh?
Now I know it's been an exciting week for music, what with The Weeknd finally dropping their long-awaited mixtape Echoes of Silence (review pending), the emergence of a new Skrillex EP (review here), and Nicki Minaj spewing her bubblegum-pink wrath all over some poor, unfortunate soul. But we're gonna ignore all that for now.
Let me introduce y'all to Ryan Chapin Mach. In addition to being both a gentleman and a scholar (as well as a classmate of mine at the nation's 5th-druggiest college), he also manages to hold his own rather well as a producer-songwriter. His Bandcamp is littered with a veritable bevy of tracks from this past year – mostly lo-fi, Casio-driven laptop-pop (fatwa pending for the amount of hyphens I just used) – but lest you lose your way in the waiting labyrinth of strange and exotic photographs, allow me to provide you with a guide of sorts, in the form of a few highlights and favorites.
Now be nice and shake hands.
The Hors D'Oeuvres: hopefully all the proof you'll need to agree that this kid crafts a hook like no other. Stuck in my head by the second listen.
The Main Course: after a seemingly disconnected stream of individual tracks, it seems the man saw fit to put together an EP, and man am I glad he did. A pleasantly diverse release, featuring everything from reverb-drenched surf pop a la Best Coast to more stripped-down, acoustic fare.
The Dessert: .............well, as far as culinary metaphors go, this would be like following steak and potatoes with a chocolate-covered hand grenade. But while this track might match that jarring combination in sheer dissonance and explosivity, I find its distorted, auto-tuned chaos to be quite delectable.
Seconds: turns out he does "dark" quite well, I couldn't help but come back for more. Really dig the beat on this one.
The Midnight Snack: a slower, muddier, more emotional cut for those lonely late-night jaunts to yr common area's fridge. Maybe those lax bros left some pizza in the–dammit, they ate all of it. Selfish bastards. See if I ever come to one of their stupid games again.
Just decided to throw together a little post of where I've been at recently, vibe-wise. Gotta maintain some semblance of activity on this blog, right?
Enjoy!
Unison - Bjork
From 2001's Vespertine. Yeah, Bjork's weird as all hell, but she's also proven one of the most creative, imaginative artists of the 21st century and a pioneer of personal and emotional electronic music. Read up on this lady; her influence permeates everything you love, from Baths to Radiohead.
Beck - Get Real Paid
From an underrated 1999 LP called Midnite Vultures. I consistently rank Beck among my absolute favorite musicians of all time. He pretty much just does what he wants (like make an album of soul and R&B experiments right on the heels of a folky one, right on the heels of one produced by the Dust Brothers...), and IT'S ALWAYS GOOD. Like here, he somehow managed to turn Kraftwerk-y techno-pop into some weird funked-out gangsta shit. If that doesn't constitute an astronomical level of swag, I don't know what does.
Seasons (Purpp Cobain Lean House Edit) - Six Foe Lean House is basically chopped and screwed house music. Real chilled out, slowed-down vibes for those winter nights spent sipping lean and zonin'. Check out a mix of the stuff HERE.
A jam from the masters. Tribe can do no wrong, especially when the man behind the decks is none other than the legendary J. Dilla. This beat breaks necks.
A cut from Analog Worms Attack, another example of why 1999 was cooler than you. While this track is actually far from monophonic **pushes glasses up nose**, it still packs quite a dark, funky wallop. Patkins will like this. Copped from Apes With Barrels, who love Oizo with all their hearts.
We have finally been granted an official video from one of our favorite albums of the year, Bad Vibes: a haunted, hallucinatory, Halloween-ready trip through the woods, directed and edited by the man himself: Henry Laufer, alias Shlohmo.
An unsettling enigma from beginning to end (not unlike its musical source material), this video does an excellent job of showcasing Laufer's tact in visual storytelling: nothing is explicated, no answers await the perplexed viewer when they reach the end of this dark journey – only elusive images of windows and silhouettes, like distant memories briefly flitting in and out of our consciousness as we are dragged through the dim forest...
You gotta check out Bad Vibes if you haven't heard it yet. Shlohmo's making some really beautiful sounds right now, and we can't wait for what comes next (dance music, apparently).
New Teebs track being passed around in honor of his upcoming release on Brainfeeder, Collections 01. On some real ethereal shit, gotta love what this dude does with samples.
And on a less exciting note, it's likely that I'll be reducing my posting to more like once a week from now until the new year...unfortunately (for you dear readers), I've been cast in a production of "Hamlet," and as one can imagine, rehearsing for that is gonna take up a shitton of my (previously free) time. So hopefully patkins will be able to pick up my copious slack. Though it's also possible that I'll still manage to post more than him.
I download a lot of music. So not all of it gets the listening attention it deserves, at least not immediately. But a select few of this past week's acquisitions managed to catch my ear, so here they are. Mostly chill/trip/downtempo electronica. Might try to make this "random batch" format a regular (weekly?) thing.
Man, do I love Gold Panda. He consistently puts out the most gorgeous, lush, beautiful productions. I've been listening to his album Lucky Shiner a lot lately. Peaking Lights throw in some reverb-washed vocals and dubbed-out experimental vibes on this stellar remix.
Chrome Sparks is the drummer for Stepdad, one of the most exciting synthpop acts around nowadays. He's also in the business of producing delicate, intricate electronic pop musics. Go grab his My <3 EP for FREE (though you can pay if you'd like), you won't regret it.
D33J posted this to his facebook on a while back. Shameless boner jam, but it's got that tripped-out sex-in-space kind of vibe, which we here at CC are kind of into.
Unbeknownst to most of y'all, I occasionally try my hand at making music. Mostly psychedelic ambient stuff for the time being, but I'm working on more beat-oriented things nowadays (even the occasional trip-pop track). Give me a Listen / Like / Follow if you dig!
~ ~ ~ ADDENDUM TO THE BONUS ~ ~ ~ One of our favorite producers, Asura, just did an XLR8R podcast. You have no excuses.
So I really hate to do another one of those manic fanboy posts but one of our favorite bands just remixed one of our other favorite bands and it sounds fucking awesome.
The serene, dreamlike wonderland that was the centerpiece of Native Speaker just climbed on board a hyper-glitched noise-techno spaceship, captained by none other than Born Gold (who were no strangers to remixes when they called themselves Gobble Gobble) that takes Braids vocalist Raphaelle Standell-Preston's ethereal vocals and chops them up with a kaleidoscopic–but no less psychedelic–finesse. The overall style actually reminds me a lot of some of Asura's remixes on Unreleasables.
Go buy Native Speaker. It's an incredibly beautiful album.
Then go get Born Gold's album Bodysongs for FREE. It's some of the most forward-thinking and experimental music I've ever heard, and it's catchy-ass dance-pop to boot.
THIS DUDE IS ONE OF MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE BEAT PRODUCERS. GO GRAB DAYPASS, OR NOMAPS IF YOU WANT A LITTLE MORE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK. BUT SERIOUSLY, PEEP THIS DUDE'S WARES
SOME REALLY NEAT EXPERIMENTAL ELECTRONIC SHIT FROM THE DUDE WHO CO-PRODUCED THE DIRTY PROJECTORS' BITTE ORCA. REALLY DIGGIN HIS STUFF LATELY, GRAB THIS MIX HE DID FOR ALTERED ZONES IF YOU DIG
Levert - Davis Serengeti (left-field rap shit) dropped mad rhymes on some matthewdavid (experimental/ambient/beat shit) tracks, and you can get a whole album of this awesomeness for a mere $7. I suggest you do, if you consider yourself a connoisseur of the strange like ourselves...
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.
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.
Zack Sekoff is a 15-year old producer from Los Angeles, California, whose dream is to play Low End Theory before he's 18, which may not be a wholly unreasonable feat if he keeps pumping out shit like this. His sound's certainly got some room to grow, but then again I wasn't remixing Bilal at 15.
Now I can't say he's my favorite lyricist (yet), but any high schooler who's on a Brainfeeder tip and writes lines like "doin big things / Nicki Minaj's ass" is good in my book. Keep your eyes on this kid.
Sorry I'm posting so incessantly. Patkins is AWOL so I'm basically the blog for now, and that doesn't mean that we should lower our productivity.
There's a new James Blake track in circulation. I'm really digging this song, that groove at the end reminds me a bit of "The Zone" by future-rnb champions The Weeknd and Drake. Really impressive shit.
Found this over at Live For The Funk, who we are (okay, who I am) currently nuts about. They have their finger on some of the most exciting sounds of the moment, and I seriously recommend that you "follow" their twitter and/or "like" their facebook page as you see fit. Or at least just go over and browse for a little, you will come away with some badass new music.
From Abel Tesafaye's most recent mixtape, Thursday, which impressed me so much that a month later I still plan to review it. But I always say that, don't I? Better stop making all these lil posts and get my longform on.
I'll confess, I've been sleepin on this dude. Or half-awake, rather: I've actually been listening to his music for a while now, as he's a member of L.A.'s WEDIDIT Collective (whom we follow pretty devotedly). But for whatever reason, most likely my distraction with various other sounds, I never really had that "a-ha!" moment.
Until the other day. I put on my headphones for the walk to my 9am class, played this jam, and boom:
The name's apt–this is a deep tune. But that swaggy little eighth-note figure is what really got me. And I'd never really noticed the vocals before: ghostly, reverb-washed melodies floating like clouds over an ocean of liquid obsidian.
Many of his tunes evoke a similar vibe: deep, calming, trippy, and chilled-out all at once. He's also a genre-bender, which is nice–his productions incorporate every imaginable influence from experimental Low End Theory beat shit to R&B to hip-hop to whatever the fuck Baths and Gold Panda are...there's even some motherfucking chillwave in there.
And yet, from these seemingly disparate genres, he manages to pull together the most gorgeous, ethereal, and serene sound.
So in case you didn't figure this out already, the general aim of this post is to get you into D33J. Here's some shit that might help:
A remix of a remix, actually–San Diego's Lotide takes D33J's woozy, chilled-out flip of the Postal Service's "Sleeping In" and sends it into another dimension of experimental beat heaven.
Then there's this mix he did for Live For The Funk (one of my absolute favorite blogs nowadays), which may be one of the best artist mixes I've heard in quite some time. Seriously. Absolutely beautiful track selection, an incredibly deep/chill aesthetic vibe, and with killer transitions to boot! You need this mix.
Cecil Frena's future-apocalypto-pop project Born Gold (until now known as Gobble Gobble) just released another track from their debut LP, Bodysongs, which comes out in little more than a week (Sept. 20) via Hovercraft (their collective with Purity Ring and Kuhrye-oo) and Crash Symbols. I preordered that shit on vinyl, so I'm lucky enough to be downloading the mp3's as we speak. That means a review is coming, so GET READY.
*ahem.*
For fans of "Lawn Knives," arguably their "hit" thus far, "Decimate Everything" is gonna sound pretty familiar. It's in a similar tonality, at a similar tempo, and even the wordless croon of the hook isn't all that different. But there's a hell of a lot more intricacy to the production on this one, and it incorporates some really neat switches between dancey techno and two-steppy half-time.
So you get the point. Get the track, go preorder the vinyl if you can't wait two weeks for the mp3's (you now get an instant download if you grab the wax) and accept Born Gold as your new deity. Or just "like" them on Facebook.
Love this one. Dark, deep, and driving, with more than a sprinkling of house influence. Who cares if "Decimate Everything" sounds like "Lawn Knives," they've never done ANYTHING like this track. Alabaster Bodyworlds - Born Gold
Updated take on some classic Gbl.
(( also, you can now like Crustacean Cognition on Facebook! GO DO THAT SHIT!! ))
If you're sleepin, these guys are arguably at the forefront of the Los Angeles avant-rap scene. Nocando is the Low End Theory resident MC, and Busdriver's been doing his (weird/brilliant/hyper-eloquent) thing for years now.
They've got an album, 10 Haters, which drops on August 23rd via Nocando's Hellfyre Club. And it's got a guest list that rivals Dark Twisted Fantasy's in its breadth (and pure, unadulterated swag). For example, this jam's on a Nosaj Thing beat:
And here's a track with Nocando's Hellfyre cohort, Open Mike Eagle:
And then, if you're willing to swap websites for a second, they've even got a jam featuring none other than Del Tha Funkee Homosapien (who KILLS his verse), over some Shlohmo shit. You can stream it HERE.
You can download two tracks for free HERE (click the little 'down' arrows)
BONUS: the official, Busdriver-penned press quote announcing their inception:
"The evening has imploded on itself. And there you are fending against rabid conversationalists and an unmarked decibel that has torn into your very being. Your significant other's sweaty lower back is clinging to the lacquer brassieres of the morally bankrupt. What was your wallet is now a mound of putty with a hot coal burning at its center. How did this happen? Why is the emergency exit a hulking neon-lined vagina daring you to pass through it? And how did the DJ download your most cherished memories onto his Serato set-up, then blend them seamlessly into a Glitch Mob outtake? Flash Bang Grenada is how."
We regret to inform you that GOBBLE GOBBLE, one of our favorite bands here at Crustacean Cognition, is no more. Kind of.
To quote Gbl hivemind Cecil Frena: "We have been slowly coaxing this caterpillar into a butterfly with our fists. Check it out, girl-- a new face to fit both our past to date and the futuresex we are slowly growing into. Stand before a mirror, hold your palm over your right eye, and repeat Born Gold six times."
So we are now quite pleased to inform you that GOBBLE GOBBLE have been ressurected as BORN GOLD! You can get all the old Gbl releases (for FREE, mind you!) over at their old tumblr, you can get TOUR DATES (!!) at their website, and you can check out this revamp of an old Gbl favorite of mine right here:
The original is from their first (and only) proper album, Neon Graveyard. While I love the original's melancholy murk and distortion, this version glitters with a bit more hi-fi. It seems to draw primarily from their live performance of the song, or so I gleaned from the last few times I've seen them.
Anyways, go "Like" or "Follow" or "Bookmark" all of the relevant pages at their website, and if you're as die-hard a fan as us, you'll pre-order their debut LP, Bodysongs, on Hovercraft/Crash Symbols. It's looking like 50% classic Gbl and 50% new shit, so I'm super excited (and wondering if the old tracks will come similarly revamped...). Comes out officially on 9/20, though if you pre-order you get the mp3s on 9/9! They're currently out-selling Bon Iver, Washed Out, and Panda Bear, which is pretty fkn boss. Tracklist and Album Art below:
01. Lawn Knives
02. End of Days
03. Decimate Everything
04. Morning Bath
05. Boring Horror
06. Wombstone
07. Wrinklecarver
08. Eat Sun, Son
09. Alabaster Bodyworlds
10. Early Birthday Pre-order Bodysongs from Insound!!
Non-album track! Total jam. Incorporates a lot of house elements, interestingly, and of course it manages to be both creepy and catchy at the same time.
So the Hit + Run Crew are a screenprinting and art outfit that fuck with all the trippy electronic/hip-hop/beat shit we love so dearly (we have 84 posts tagged with that label so far...swag), and they put on a SWEET show at the Echoplex last week. They did free, live screenprinting in the venue:
their mobile screenprinting setup: multiple screens on a rotating base. photocredit patkins
and we showed up early enough for free t-shirts and Jonwayne (!!!) mixes. Patkins and I (as well as our friend Azad, the Dr. Gonzo to our Hunter S. Thompson) were in attendance. Here's my recap of the night, with relevant tracks interspersed throughout. The night opened up with the Dirty Bandits. They were solid, and a welcome surprise given their status as a drums-bass-guitar-vox band at a show full of laptop artists. Go check out their facebook, they've posted some tunes there. I may do more research on them, they were quite good.
After them came none other than the savior of my weeknights from 8p-10p P.S.T., KCRW's own Garth Trinidad. He had some technical difficulties at first (he was going all vinyl, though, so we forgive him), but once he got going he played a set of really interesting, eclectic house tracks, followed by a solid hip-hop set, which the crowd really got into (he even played Wu-Tang). He's probably one of the most influential music promoters in my life, as he provided my homework soundtrack for the entirety of senior year, and if you're ever listening to the radio late at night, during his show or not, tune into KCRW. Their late-night DJ's play really awesome shit, stuff you never hear on radio. Then after his set, they announced that Blu, arguably one of the bigger names on the bill (and the explanation for why this was such a die-hard hip-hop crowd) would not be showing up. The crowd was visibly displeased, but most of them stuck around as far as I could tell. Though the next act was hardly straight-forward hip-hop...Mono/Poly makes some fucked up shit. He has a very FlyLo-esque blend of trip-hop, dubstep, and jazz elements in his work, resulting in these incredibly trippy, heavy productions that boggle and delight. He's actually on FlyLo's label, Brainfeeder, and you should get his recent EP, Manifestations, HERE. One of my favorite joints of the year so far, from one of the scene's most underrated producers (imo).
Glow - Mono/Poly [removed] Then, again shifting the focus from laptops and mixers to good old-fashioned instruments, Sun Araw played a set of hypnotic, layered, noise-drenched psychedelia. It was a bit loud for patkins, Azad, and much of the crowd, but I got really into it (it helped that I had been making psychedelic noise music with a friend lately, so I was sort of already in the mindset). Go check them out, I really dug them and will DEFINITELY be researching them, probably with a post in mind.
(( a collab track with Matthewdavid, who DESTROYED Low End Theory last night. This one's a bit more improvised and freeform than the stuff they played at the Echoplex, but it's still quite reminiscent of their sound...and TRIPPY ))
Suddenly we switched technology AGAIN, this time to Jonwayne and his mighty little SP-404. He took that little metal box and brought the fucking house down, launching bomb after bomb at us from his arsenal of neck-snapping, heavy, swagger-up-the-wazoo beats. This being my second time seeing him, I can now safely say he's one of my favorite beat scene artists to see live, he just destroyed the crowd and had the MOST ridiculous energy. He dropped a mixture of his own absurdly awesome productions, and even FREESTYLED (see photo below).
(( from More Throwaways, which you can get for free HERE. One of the weirdest beats I've ever heard, but it DESTROYS on a proper system ))
the man freestyles. photocredit patkins
Anyways, Jonwayne is the shit. Get Bowser now from Alpha Pup, you will NOT regret that purchase.
Then another guy had volunteered to take Blu's spot, but we decided to dip. Also missed Elos, unfortunately, but we'd already had quite the night. One of the more eclectic shows I've been to, and I had a complete and utter blast at it. Really awesome music, solid crowd, plus I got a badass T-shirt and mix CD (by Jonwayne himself, which you can buy HERE if you'd like to just get the distilled atmosphere of this concert in one mix).
Support Hit + Run HERE, or by liking them on Facebook! I certainly did, after that tight of a show. Keep yr eyes open, they do shit around LA all the time.
Altered Zonesis a mega-blog of sorts. According to their about page, it acts as an international conglomerate of 15 different music sites/blogs/labels, with an emphasis on "the proliferation of home-recorded sounds, small-scale releases, and pockets of underground activity all over the world." Notable contributors (i.e. you may have heard of them) include:
In short: vibes galore. Such an incredible spectrum of music. ((disclaimer:)) I'm recommending these guys with the caveat that I download only maybe 50% of what they post; much of it isn't all that accessible (to me, at least). However, there are really some wonderful gems on there, so here's some stuff to preview before you zip over and CHECK EM OUT...maybe bookmark them if you're looking for a new blog to read. They post TONS of stuff.
Distorted garage rock from a band with the coolest name ever, Bass Drum of Death. Badass song with great vibes, kinda like a pissed off/indie-punk take on surf rock.
More indie stuff, this time it's 50's pop drowned in reverb, with lyrics like "walking down the street/I wanna kill everyone I see." Love this song. Shimmering Stars ftw.
Sumsun is a name I need to check out. He's on matthewdavid's Leaving Records label, and unsurprisingly the two seem to share a lot of similarities. But this track has a sort of funky, tropical brightness that distinguishes his sound. There's a lot of noise for your ears to sift through in this track, but if you're patient it's quite a rewarding listen...and once the beat comes in you should be sold. Really cool beat/experimental stuff.
Synthpop, kinda chillwavey but with a wicked 80's beat and a super happy/poppy vibe...wait, chillwave already has that...GOD DAMMIT, IT'S CHILLWAVE. BUT IT'S STILL GREAT. Blast this and dance with a smile on your face.
no zip cuz my internet sucks at home. but yay for finals being over!
Alright, let's be straight here. This is a music blog. We share music. Sometimes by giving it away for free. But we try to maintain some sense of ethics while doing so.
Music posted here is for promotional purposes only. If you have any copyright-related objections please comment or report or whatever and we'll take down the offending link.
On music submissions: email links n shit to dr.dr.musics@gmail.com or shnaily@gmail.com
Oh. Hey. It's been a while, I know. You've grown out/shaved the beard, I've quit/taken up smoking, and neither of us has found the time/put in an adequate amount of effort to really keep this relationship going. But what say we put all that behind us, eh?
Let me introduce y'all to Ryan Chapin Mach. In addition to being both a gentleman and a scholar (as well as a classmate of mine at the nation's 5th-druggiest college), he also manages to hold his own rather well as a producer-songwriter. His Bandcamp is littered with a veritable bevy of tracks from this past year – mostly lo-fi, Casio-driven laptop-pop (fatwa pending for the amount of hyphens I just used) – but lest you lose your way in the waiting labyrinth of strange and exotic photographs, allow me to provide you with a guide of sorts, in the form of a few highlights and favorites.
