New Amerykah Part 2: Return of the Ankh

Erykah Badu released her sixth studio album New Amerykah Part 2: Return of the Ankh earlier this week amid controversy over her latest  video for “Window Seat”. Badu describes the album as the sister to the left side of her brain, an emotional and flowy throwback to the beats and rhymes of Baduizm (I guess she’s leaving the social commentary for her videos). And that is exactly what you get. Unlike New Amerykah Part One (4th World War), Return of the Ankh was recorded with samples and  live instruments, giving the album looser and groovier vibe (it was even described as a glorified mixtape). Production was handled by multiple artists and producers, including Questlove, Madlib, 9th Wonder, and (zombie?) J Dilla among others.

In spite of its variation, the album manages to retain a cohesiveness partially due to the soulful singing and funky beats found throughout. Badu once again uses her voice as a formidable instrument, leaving the lyrics backstage to her genius mixture of everything from belts to whispers. The final song on the album is the perfect example of this: a ten-minute, three part, slightly experimental yet classically Badu masterpiece called “Out My Mind, Just In Time.” Erykah Badu has added yet another great album to an already impressive, if not intimidating, discography. Return of the Ankh is the perfect album to get lost in outside while enjoying this beautiful spring weather.

Umm Hmm – Erykah Badu

Gone Baby, Don’t Be Long – Erykah Badu

Stay cool.

My Propeller

My Propeller, the newest EP from Brit-rock virtuosos the Arctic Monkeys, came out March 23rd on Domino Records. The EP has 4 new tracks, leftovers from the band’s most recent album Humbug produced by Josh Homme (the man/psychopath behind Queens of the Stone Age and Eagles of Death Metal.) The singles ‘My Propeller’ and ‘Dont Forget Whose Legs You’re On’ offer a change of pace from the band’s normally up-beat style by featuring  a darker, almost brooding tone from lead singer Alex Turner. Meanwhile, My Propeller’s other two tracks, ‘The Afternoon’s Hat’ and ‘Joining the Dots’ return to the more formulaic, catchy rock songs that we’ve gotten so used to hearing from these guys. Have a listen

My Propeller – The Arctic Monkeys

The Afternoon’s Hat – The Arctic Monkeys

Fang Island

Fang Island, the latest quintet to emerge from Brooklyn, has just released their debut, self-titled album this past February on Sargent House records. The recommendation comes from this guy who draws a comic, and he thinks it’s easily one of the best albums of the year (so far). The band describes their music as “everyone high-fiving everyone… [the] songs are like the music in your head at that moment when everything feels just right: that first kiss, that high score on the video game, buying your first small nation in cash… you know, good stuff.” Although this music has failed to stir any long lost emotions in my probably black heart, I still think it’s pretty good.

 

Fang Island can initially be quite daunting. After the initial Ratatat-esque intro and soft, harmonized outro of ‘Dream of Dreams’, the album dives into a consistent sound. Anthemic (or at the very least long) guitar riffs mixed with epic harmonizations or chant-like vocals appear on most tracks. The mixture of these, though, can create a pretty intimidating wall of sound. It took me a few tries, but I finally got past this initial sound barrier; now, the more I listen to Fang Island the more I realize how intricate it is, and the more impressed I am by it. Behind the aforementioned initial epic/anthemic/chanting/long veil are snippets of influence from a shopping list of genres from folk to punk, indie-rock to surf-rock to hard-rock, and the list goes on! They retain an emphasis on the guitar for the entire album, but the constant tempo changes (both between, and within) songs makes the album’s progression more interesting. 

Daisy – Fang Island

Fang Island is not background music. There is too much slight variation to have a proper feel for the music without closely listening to it. Impressed as I was, though, I felt that the constant wailing guitar didn’t provide enough substantial variation in the album: it wasn’t until the soothing, slightly synthy Davey Crockett that the album took the chance to relax. ‘Dorian’ wraps up the album with more electronically-influenced sounds (tying the sound back to the beginning, I guess) that don’t really go anywhere, but provide an oddly satisfying conclusion. Fang Island has produced a solid debut album, and I’m excited to see where they’re influenced from, and headed to, next. 

Careful Crosses – Fang Island

Davey Crockett – Fang Island

The Absolute Place (Chris Keating [Yeasayer] Remix) – Fang Island

American Ghetto, as heard by the McGill Ghetto

Portugal. The Man has just released their newest album, American Ghetto, on Equal Vision records, marking the beginning of a North American tour. This LP makes 6 full length albums on top of 5 EPs for the band since 2005, but American Ghetto comes across as little more than an attempt to simply beef up an already stacked discography. Don’t get me wrong, American Ghetto will serve anyone looking for a new Portugal. The Man fix; the album is rife with hazy-jazz guitar-riffs as well as some psychedelic and funky additions. But in terms of evolving their experimental sound, American Ghetto had the potential to be much more innovative. 

It’s important for me to say that I enjoy listening to this album. The lightly-anthemic ‘All My People’ is packed with sweet, layered vocals accompanied by the classicly-smooth guitar riffs we have come to love from Portugal. The Man. In ‘1000 Years’ and ‘Do What We Do’ the band expertly utilizes a psychedelic air to accompany the more classic-rock foundation of the songs. There is no doubt, this is a quality album.

What surprised me, however, was the lack of real risks that Portugal. The Man took, especially as this album is will be accompanied by a tour. There is little new experimentation here, and to me, this album sounds like a continuation of The Satanic Satanist mixed with a heavy influence from their ’07 EP It’s Complicated Being a Wizard, and little more. Granted, there is a lot of pressure on ‘experimental’ bands to produce new, innovative sounds for us greedy listeners, but it seems that a band like Portugal. The Man (who clearly have great music oozing from their fingertips, as is evidenced from their impressive doscog) should be up to the task. With more than one LP a year since 2005, I think that expecting something new from the band is not asking too much. 

Something else that should be noted is that this album was released to the press, stores, and fans all at the same time, something that rarely occurs in today’s music scene.

Plastic Beach

Animated British rock band The Gorillaz will release their 3rd studio album, Plastic Beach, tomorrow, March 8th. On this album, the Gorillaz treat their listeners to a musical tour of Plastic Beach, the band’s animated hideaway. This tour kicks off with a grand orchestral introduction that gives way to a mellow bassline and the smooth voice of none other than Snoop Dogg himself inviting us to the island, on the aptly named track: ‘Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach.’ Our tour then moves into more hip hop and… The Lebanese National Orchestra for Oriental Arab Music?

Orchestral Hip-Hop is not the only strange fusion of genres that the Gorillaz come up with, however. Damon Albern, the band’s founder (you may also know him from Blur and The Good, the Bad and the Queen) brought an impressive amount of creativity to this album; the band took chances with their sounds and came out with a lot to be proud of. It’s refreshing to see a band go their own way for once rather than following an old formula for success. Often bands with established reputations will put record sales over real musical innovation, releasing albums with the same basic sound because they think that’s what their fans want to hear. This is most definitely not the case with Plastic Beach.

The list of collaborators on the album is as diverse as it is impressive. Along with Snoop Dogg, Mick Jones and Paul Simonon of the Clash reunite on the album’s title track, and they’re joined by the likes of Lou Reed, De la Soul, Mos Def…and those are just a few.  When was the last time you heard a list like that working together on the same album? Not only that, but the Gorillaz make the most of their guest performer’s talent by catering to their natural style, fusing their personal sound with the dreamy, glitchy vision of Albern.

Here’s a small preview of the album and the first video, ‘Stylo.’ I wonder what they did to piss off Bruce Willis so badly…

Stylo Ft. Bobby Womack & Mos Def- Gorillaz

Plastic Beach Ft. Mick Jones and Paul Simonon- Gorillaz

Stylo (Alex Metric Remix)- Gorillaz

All Hour’s Old Blood replaced with more than O.N.E. Synth

We first heard the name and music of Yeasayer as tracks from their debut album All Hour Cymbals ripped around the internet fueled by the growing blogosphere back in 2007. Well, the Brooklyn based trio are back with a new album and  a whole new sound. Aside from the more professional and clean sound of Odd Blood (officially released yesterday, but leaked way back in October), this new album will no doubt treat Yeasayer fans to a quick head-scratch or brow-furrow (maybe even both) as they wonder whether they had picked up the right album. That electro-pop oozing into your ears is the new sound of Yeasayer. 

Although it has been floating around for some time now, I only just got around to listening to Odd Blood, and was quite surprised. I had heard this album described as more modern and digital than All Hour Cymbals, but hadn’t realized the extent to which this modernity had infiltrated the Yeasayer sound. Replacing the minimal, yet intricate and interesting percussion beats are static drum machines. The harmonization found in almost every song from All Hour Cymbals has been replaced with vocals dominated by a singular, sometimes digitally altered, voice. Rhythms created with intertwining guitar, piano, and random other instruments (which kept the sound of All Hour Cymbals interesting and innovative) have been replaced with effects-laden, blooping keyboards and synthesizers up the wazoo. Odd Blood sounds more like an electro-pop album than any sort of experimental or indie-rock style that Yeasayer had come to be associated with (a sound the band describes as “Middle Eastern-psych-snap-gospel”). But that just might have been exactly what Yeasayer had been aiming for. In an interview with the New York Times, band member Chris Keating described the creative process for Odd Blood: “It was only natural to find the specific elements, the defining elements, of the last record and to eliminate those and create holes. Then you had to fill those holes in with other stuff that we like, which is a lot of electronic, dance-inspired production and cool synthetic tones that haven’t been heard before.” 

Ambling Alp – Yeasayer

Love Me Girl – Yeasayer

Tightrope – Yeasayer

Despite these electronically-filled holes, Yeasayer manages to maintain certain elements of their sound from All Hour Cymbals. Structurally, “Waiting for Summer” and “Love Me Girl” are very similar, despite outwardly sounding so different (though the ‘build up’ of “Love Me Girl” turns out to be more exciting and fulfilling). And, although produced on a drum machine, the intricacies of the beats on tracks like “O.N.E.” and “Strange Reunions” are quite reminiscent of those from their debut. The more I listen to Odd Blood, the more Yeasayer I hear creep through, and the more the album grows on me.

Ambling Alp (Alan Wilkis Remix) – Yeasayer

O.N.E. (XXXChange Remix) – Yeasayer

Dub Love. See you at Emalkay tonight! Emalkay is stuck in NYC!! No show tonight. Koi says they will reschedule. 

Romance is Boring

If you’re a fan of Los Campesinos!, then you know that their style is difficult to put your finger on. They manage to blend catchy singsong melodies with brilliantly unintelligible lyrics, all the while keeping a more raw edge than your average pop band. In their newest album Romance is Boring, they expertly showcase how much they’ve grown as musicians since their first release. This is pretty impressive considering that their first album, Hold On Now Youngster…, came out just under 2 years ago. These kids from Wales seem to be machines, releasing another album with all new material every few months. Hold On Now Youngster… came out in February of 2008, and their second album, We Are Beautiful, We are Doomed, was released in November of the same year. Romance is Boring is their newest project, it came out on January 26th.

Their music features many layers of keyboards, guitars, strings, percussion and catchy choruses, but in this album they all seem to work together in a new way. Their songs feature so many things going on at once that the listener feels as though the song will erupt into chaos at any moment, yet they always manage to bring it together into a strong harmony just in time. In this album they show a more mature approach, still loud and extravagant, yet somehow more under control. The album ranges from frenetic strumming (“Plan A”) to melodic chords (“Who Fell Asleep In”) and poppy ballads (“These are Listed Buildings”) and covers a lot in between as well. Indie rock can be fairly mundane these days, but Los Campesionos! bring a new sound and a new edge to the genre that we find infinitely refreshing. Enjoy some of the new tunes.

Los Campesinos! – There are Listed Buildings

Los Campesinos! – Straight in at 101

As well as a few of our favorites from their past 2 albums.

Los Campesinos! – You! Me! Dancing!

Los Campesinos! – Ways to Make it Through the Wall

One Life Stand

British electropop stars Hot Chip are set to release their new album One Life Stand on February 8th, but thanks to the internet, we got it a little bit early. Compared to their previous LPs, One Life Stand is a more mellow and basic approach to the Hot Chip sound. This time around, they rely heavily on house-y synthesizers and keyboard effects for the rhythm rather  than their usual (and to me, more interesting) intricate percussion beats. One Life Stand sounds like a melting pot of pop, house, microbeats and acoustic mumblings, all wrapped in the motif of love that permeates the majority of the album’s tracks. With the momentum that Hot Chip has gathered over the past six years, it seems almost out of character for their newest album to be so minimalistic and lackluster. Reverting to old techniques mixed with a more sensitive and relaxed attitude, One Life Stand falls behind both Coming on Strong (2004) and The Warning (2006). The album boasts few singles with the potential for hits and overall lacks the weirdly-cool Hot Chip style we’ve grown accustomed to.

What we found most disappointing, however, is that the band did not take advantage of the success of Made in the Dark (2008), (in which indie-pop love ballads popped up amongst the other almost unrelated sounding songs, ranging from upbeat pop to low key vocal-heavy tracks), by following it up with a major album. The hits from Made in the Dark taunted those of us waiting for the next upbeat and danceable album, but instead we listened as Hot Chip took their great ballads, slowed them down, added synthesizers and called it a day. From Hot Chip, the kings of bearable pop music, we expected more.

But don’t take our word for it. Check out a few of the new tracks.

Hand Me Down Your Love – Hot Chip

I Feel Better – Hot Chip

And since we still can’t stop raving about Friday’s Igloofest dubstep extravaganza (we almost wrote the entire post in caps we loved it so much), here’s some Emalkay to get you pumped for next Wednesday at Koi Lounge!

Critical Hit – Emalkay [from the upcoming Scion Sampler #28: Dub Police]

When I Look at You (Sduk Remix) – Emalkay

Sun to Me (Emalkay Remix) – Faithless

Peace

The Clipse come clean

Till The Casket Drops, the newest album from renowned hip-hop duo The Clipse, gives us a reflective and brutally honest look at life (and death) in the slums of Virginia Beach. Malice and Pusha T use this album to try to clear their conscience and sound off about almost 20 years of rapping while at the same time admitting their crimes and even asking God for forgiveness. “Freedom” kicks off the album by telling the listener not only how much the brothers have given to their music, but also how much it has taken from them. “With every line written, all I have given/ music’s been nothing more than a self-made prison. I’m taking inmate losses at the hands of this one/ my pen’s been the poison to family and friendships.”

“Never Will it Stop,” their arrogant yet honest anthem about making it off the corner and into the lap of luxury by any means necessary, is a testament to the drive and determination the two had to make a better life for themselves, even if that meant dealing coke. True fans of hip-hop will love not only the great substance of the tracks, but also the subtle word play and signature flow that we have come to expect from The Clipse. Till the Casket Drops, unlike most recent hip-hop albums, will hook you from the first track and keep your head nodding all the way through. If you haven’t already, pick this one up.

The Clipse – Freedom

The Clipse – Never Will it Stop

Bonus track from their 2006 album, Hell Hath No Fury

The Clipse – Keys Open Doors

“All apologies, I bear the cross I wear the blame / we in the same group but I don’t share my brother’s pain / not to confuse, I was sentimental all the same / I just don’t feel nothin’, I’m numbed by the will to gain.”

The Colossus

RJD2 is back on the map with his new album The Colossus, released earlier this week. Marking nearly a decade of work, The Colossus incorporates the many styles that RJD2 has rocked over the years, from the funky (sometimes even soulful) sound of Dead Ringer to his less-appreciated foray into the singer/songwriter role heard on The Third Hand. Although not his best work, the high points of the album (“Games You Can Win”, “A Spaceship for Now”, “The Stranger”) prove that RJ still has what it takes to crank out awesome tracks.

Games You Can Win (feat. Kenna) – RJD2

The Stranger – RJD2

And for those who have rocked with RJ since the Y2K bug failed to take down the internet and the world, here’s a couple throw backs to the good old days:

Stoop Rap by Double Trouble – RJD2

Sisters and Brothers by Jed Clampett – RJD2

In other news, Igloofest was ridiculous last night. More to come on that front soon.