Jam of the Day: Faze Miyake - "Dun Kno"

Sleek, omnious, and foreboding trap-influenced track from up and coming grime producer Faze Miyake.

Album Review: Danny Brown - Old

Danny Brown
Old
Rating: Woof Daddy

Danny Brown's mixtape XXX was a messy record about drug-fueled desperation, and he warned that its follow up Old would only get deeper and more introspective. Split into two parts, Old is basically Brown's mind laid open bare, focusing on his past, present, and future selves, warts and all. Ruminations on his past drug use, dealing, and time in jail share space with more party-fueled, festival ready tracks. Brown shows that he is trying to distance himself from his past yet finds it clouds and colors everything he does. Sometimes he's able to get beyond it and sometimes not, all the while showing he is simply human and doing his best to not make the same mistakes. While this sounds dry on paper, Brown matches his lyrical ruminations with some of the most modern and edgy beats and backing you will hear today. Self-confessed to being influenced by records as diverse as Radiohead's Kid A, Joy Division's Closer, and Love's Forever Changes, Old is a rich, sonic tapestry that unfolds like a kaleidoscope, fractured against itself.

Side A is the more past leaning side of the album, and is the more darker and bleaker side of the record. On the harrowing track "Torture," Brown watches his uncle smoke crack and almost burn his face off,



on the brilliant track "Lonely" he gets more resigned to what seems to be the predestined life of an addict, rapping "So I'm smoking by my lonely/By my goddamn self/I don't need your help homie/Cause don't nobody really know me,"



while Brown hits the bottom on "Clean Up" where he misses texts from his daughter while getting high.



On this half of the record, Brown is his lyrical best, "Wonderbread" turns a trip to the grocery store into a harrowing look at poverty and drug use,



"Gremlins" has Brown being the street savvy wise talker,



and on the Purity Ring assisted track "25 Bucks" Brown's raps about growing up in his drug infested neighborhood merge well with Megan James' more surreal and earthy ruminations.



These tracks lead into the more party-oriented tracks on Side B, showcasing Brown's more extroverted side, with the more haunting tracks from Side A coloring each and every corner. While these tracks seemingly glorify drug use and partying, the fact that you have seen the darkside of what can happen with them tends to shade things a little darker. Of course, these tracks also feature some of the most club and party ready beats on the record, drawing from UK bass, grime, trap, and EDM, utilizing producers as diverse as SKYWLKR, Rustie, and A-Trak. Some of the most frenetic tracks are the skittering and bass heavy "Dip,"



the blistering "Smokin & Drinkin."



and the druggy collaboration with A$AP Rocky, "Kush Coma."



It all comes to a meditative close with the haunting collaboration with Charli XCX, "Float On," with Brown languidly rapping over trill beats.



Old almost feels like Danny Brown doing a career retrospective, as it touches on his many different personalities and styles. In lesser hands, this could be an unholy, unstructured mess, however, Brown is in complete control and expertly guides you through this journey through his mind. It is a relevatory release that demands your attention. It is the best hip-hop record of the year so far.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.

Album Review - DVA: Pretty Ugly

DVA
Pretty Ugly
Rating: Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It

Leon 'Scratcha DVA' Smart is well-known as the former host of Rinse FM's Grimey Breakfast Show and also as a producer in the grime and UK funky genres. Pretty Ugly is his debut full length on the Hyperdub label, and despite his past reputation, the album is not solely a collection of grime and UK funky tracks; instead, it is a surprisingly diverse collection of broken beat tracks that never seems comfortable staying in the same pattern for long. Interestingly, the album seems to show a marked influence from the Flying Lotus Beat Music collective, with a focus on hazy vibes and singularly off-kilter programming. Mixing things up further are the use of multiple vocalists that, despite a bevy of different styles, seem to work well and flow in and out of each other with ease. True to its title, Pretty Ugly enjoys the contrast between the beautiful and harsh; either pushing unsteady, brutish beats against gorgeous vocal melodies or adding incongruous noises to infiltrate an otherwise beautiful keyboard line.

I'm not generally a fan of electronic artists that throw vocalists onto tracks on their albums for some semblance of mainstream appeal. Too often, the tracks come across as someone just coming in late and adding lyrics/vocals to an instrumental track, without there being much of a consensus beforehand. Strangely, on Pretty Ugly the vocal tracks come across better than the instrumentals, the earthiness of the vocals adding a through line for the broken beat compositions. "Just Vybe" features a shuffling, clunky rhythm and burbling bed of electronics as a canvas for Fatima's deep throaty growl,



"Why U Do" mutates a 2 step beat under organ drones and AL's tale of a woman wronged and her man's comeuppance, and most beautifully, Natalie Maddix adds her soulful voice to the woozy, dreamy "Eye Know."



Muhsinah hauntingly sighs over the skittering beats of "33rd Degree," becoming more and more despondent as the track speeds towards its conclusion. Victor Duplaix's vocals push against the stumbling beats and fantasy analog synths of "Madness."



I preferred the vocal tracks, not so much because the instrumentals felt lacking, the vocals just gave a sense of balance and control over the electronics, which sometimes could become oppressive. "Reach The Sun" uses almost 1:30 of its run time on a disjointed/atonal electronic intro before bouncing into a rhythmic fantasy world of blooping keyboards and sampled voices. "Polyphonic Dreams" features pounding beats and swirling analog synths which threaten to derail over glitchy feedback.



The throbbing pulse of "Bare Fuzz" is broken up by warm vibes and looped, almost tribal chanting.



And it all ends with the hauntingly grand "Where I Belong" with droning synth stings and horns, that closes out the album on a slightly funeral tone.



Pretty Ugly is a well-produced, intriguing debut from DVA whose parts are better than the sum of the whole. Ultimately, it feels like a interesting collection of tracks that don't really have any connecting thread. For me, this made for a pleasant listen, but didn't add up to anything more. DVA is always going to put out well-crafted tracks, I am just going to have to wait a little longer for a more cohesive statement from him.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.

Jam of the Day: Little Jinder - "Keep On Dreaming (Starkey Remix)

I love this grime remix of Little Jinder's new track. The drop at the 1:00 mark is killer.

Little Jinder - Keep On Dreaming (Starkey Remix)

Joker: The Vision - Album Review

Joker
The Vision
Rating: Jeez Lady

I seriously don't have a problem with an artist I like becoming popular, or moving to a more "pop" sound. As long as the music is good, I could care less. My problem comes from an artist forsaking everything that made them great in the first place, and making music that they think people want to hear, rather than making music from their heart. Over the past few years, Joker (aka Liam McLean) has released a handful of singles ("Digidesign," "Snake Eater," "Tron") that have pushed the boundaries of dubstep and bass music. There was an outcry from a lot of purists when he signed to 4AD that he would sellout, but the release of first single "The Vision (Let Me Breathe)" implied that these complaints were going to be baseless (no pun intended). The single was a slow building jam of 8 bit squonk and low-end bass that showcased the diva vocals of Jesse Ware.



Had Joker stuck with these instincts, he would have perhaps had one of the top albums of the year. Instead, The Vision is one of the most schizophrenic albums I've heard in awhile. For every banging track, he follows with a limp top of the charts pop fiasco. He lacks trust in himself, and made the album apparently by committee, as if there were notes to put a pop track here, put old track here to not upset the old fans, put this track here which should bridge the two. There is no real "vision" here, only a mishmash/hodgepodge of styles meant to appeal to the broadest spectrum of listeners, and ends up alienating them all.

Not that there aren't tracks to recommend. The aforementioned track with Jesse Ware is brilliant. "Slaughter House (ft. Silas)" is a slinky, dubstep track that has an impassioned vocal from Silas; but has the ironic result of being a track that compares the world of pop music to that of packaged meat, which is what most of the album is.



"My Trance Girl" is classic Joker, with ping-pong like synths and crisp programming underlying the deep basslines.



"The Milky Way" is a slippery grime/dubstep track, with sparkling synths, and a memorable melody.



And of course, the old single "Tron" would be a standout on any record. Its inclusion, however, is puzzling considering none of his other previous tracks are included.



But the rest of the album falters under too many no-name vocal collaborations that are more retro feeling than forward thinking. And quite frankly, several of the tracks are complete embarrassments. "On My Mind (ft. William Cartwright)" feels like a Tinie Tempah leftover crossed with the exact synth-line from Justin Timberlake's "My Love."



Two tracks with Buggsy, "Lost" and "Back in the Days," are forgettable grime tracks that would have been fresh back in 2008. And the instrumental track "Level 6 (Interlude)" practically sounds like 10 presets on a Target bought Casio keyboard. At least the closing track, "Electric Sea (ft. Jay Wilcox)" takes the album out on a better note; a pleasant piece of pop/rap that could have been a more interesting avenue for him to follow.



The Vision was one of my most highly anticipated albums of the year. Sadly, it falls far short of my expectations. Joker still has the chops to be a world class artist, however, he needs to have more focus, and make music for himself and not for some focus group. I don't feel this is Joker album. While there are hints and elements of him here, there is too much studio gloss and polish that has erased any trace of the real Joker.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and peaks one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.

Terror Danjah: Undeniable

Terror Danjah
Undeniable
Rating: Grrrr

One of the godfathers of grime, Terror Danjah has been making music for over 10 years but has yet to release a full length album (which seems to be a badge of honor for those in the electronic music field these days).  After releasing many singles over the years on the Planet Mu label, Terror Danjah debuts his first full length Undeniable on the stalwart dubstep label Hyberdub.  I was a bit skeptical at first, seeing as most of the non-traditional dubstep artists that have released albums on Hyperdub have completely changed tracks and released music not in keeping with the reasons why I liked them in the first place.  Some have led to very pleasant surprises, as in Darkstar's switch to dense, layered synthpop, and others have led to severe disappointment, such as Ikonika's neutered house/dubstep tracks.  Terror Danjah thankfully falls into the surprise category, delivering a release bursting at the seams with different styles, yet sounding distinctly like himself.

Probably the biggest surprise is Danjah's reliance on singers/rappers for the album.  In the past, he has primarily been an instrumental artist, letting his tracks ride by dense with noise and intricate background sounds.  What's amazing here is how well the vocal contributions work in the context of his soundscapes.  Whether it be the opening hip-hop rap of "Grand Opening" featuring rapper Dream Mclean, or the grime meets acid tracks of "This Year" with D.O.K., Mz. Bratt and Griminal,



the electro whip lash of "Breaking Bad" with Baby Face Jay, or even the almost modern R&B of "All I Wanna" with Lauren Mason, each adds to the track rather than being a distraction.



Of course, Terror Danjah doesn't forgo the instrumentals he is known for.  He looks back into the past and provides a modern take on acid house with the whiplash beats and synths of "Acid."



Provides a more melodic take on dubstep/house with the wobbly bass and frenetic programming of "Bruzin V.I.P."



And puts together one of my favorite tracks of the year, "S.O.S.," that is frustrating in its genius; propelling the 8 + minute track with a minimal drum track and almost water torture precise synth stabs.  Just when you can't take the onslaught of electronics anymore, he brings it down to earth with a heavenly deep house coda.



I'm sure grime, house, and dubstep purists will balk at this album seeing as it strays all over the map.  But I believe if he had stuck to one style throughout Undeniable, it would have blunted its profound impact.   The range he shows and willingness to step outside his comfort zone is laudable, and the fact that he masters each style illuminates his brilliance.  On the basis of Undeniable, here is hoping more artists are willing to change things up for the better.

Rating Guide

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top albums of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and peaks one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been trimmed or polished.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.