A super nice set from Reznor and his wife, which you can download their website. Kind of a lo-fi NIN album, obviously with a smooth voice.
MidaZ the Beast – The Life of Grizzly Adams
Love this cat…super slept on. I’ve featured him on here before with the El MidaZ Affair – find that too. You can find either here.
Queens of the Stone Age – Rated R
One of my favorite rock albums ever, but not the best Queens album, if that makes sense. Just giving it some love today, since I’ve been feeling it over the last couple weeks.
I have a lot of music to cover for this week…so I feel I like I need to break up the posts over the course of today and hit you up tomorrow with part dos. I’m going to even do review of things I didn’t like that much, but deserve a mention anyways…because hey…all the music I listen to isn’t the greatest thing to happen since sliced bread in the shape of Jesus or Paul McCartney.
Super dope:
Muhsinah – The Oscillations – Triangle
This is one has been out like a month or more (with the initial leak). I know some people have never heard of her – so I’m giving here some shines. It’s been in rotation a lot in the last couple weeks. Love this chick – always on some ill shit. She just has that right voice….it always sounds good. And she knows exactly what she wants to sound like. The music is nuts, especially the track with Flying Lotus on the boards – dopest track on this album – “Lose My Fuse”
Owen Pallett – Heartland
Dude used be called Final Fantasy, until a wack ass lawsuit forced a name change. I have no idea how to describe this. After finishing the album, it was like I how I felt after listening to Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible – unadulterated elation. It’s a feeling I haven’t had in a while about an album. There is some much going on, with his voice, the strings, and horns….and everything else via the Czech Symphony Orchestra. It’s just a great, unique listen. It’s like a baroque show in 2010. Great album in basically every way….I understand the hype.
Disappointment:
RJD2 – The Colossus
Hmm…right off the bat, its is colossal….it’s definitely a lot more live instrumentation – which I’d normally like, when done well. RJ seems to be flowing full time into the organic textures, versus the sampling. He’s definitely went down the “road less traveled” in certain aspects. He’s gone from underground cat to having one of his tracks as the theme to “Mad Men” (which is a really good show…but still.) I can feel what he’s trying to do here, make something challenge himself and his audience. The first 3-4 tracks get you into a nice groove, but it just kinda falls apart in certain areas, as he tries to cover too much ground. It’s just not very cohesive. Nice collabs with Kenna and Phonte early in the album. If you must have one track, go with “Let There Be Horns.”
Mixtapes and other free shit:
Jay-Z and J Dilla – Dilla vs. Jigga
Straight up dope. Bank! does a good-ass job of matching up the Jay’s lyrics, over Dilla’s beats. It’s almost feels like Jay was in the studio and felt like dropping some verses, just for kicks. I mean…..really it’s just useless to keep going on this – just find it somewhere on the net and download. If you don’t already have it – you can thank us later. Definitely bump-able for a good minute.
MidaZ the Beast – The El MidaZ Affair
To begin with the title is a play on the artist name and the name of the band – old school funk/soul/dope group El Michels Affair (who I will highlight momentarily.) He basically busts over old tracks from the late 60s and 70s. I let a couple people listen to some tracks – and they felt him, but I think they felt something was missing. I think the only thing missing was propper beats, and not some dude rapping over old songs. MidaZ is yet another odd rapper in that he has an East Coast flow…..and he’s from Orlando – yeah Disney World Orlando. Dude is definitely one of the top lyricist currently out right now – no bullshit….sounds a little bit like a combo Black Thought and something else. He tries to fit a LOT in one bar, which increases the degree of difficulty on the following bar, but he always comes through with something crazy. Don’t sleep….find the album (which has a cool ass cover) and prepare to be surprisingly impressed. Dope tracks – Creation, Glaciers of Mic, and Rhyme Show (feat. Vis Major – who is no slouch himself, impressively going bar for bar with MidaZ.)
Nice “by association” pick up:
The El Michels Affair – Sounding Out The City
Ill on that soulful feel – when you feel like an old soul for a moment, this is that album you’d put on. Instrumental funk/soul at its finest really….there just aren’t a lot of bands doing it better right now. You put this on for good friends during some chill time….talking and BS’ing the time or so away….put on another dope album – Enter the 37th Chamber…back to back..and then some Budos Band…..and you’ve got it sewn up for the evening.
Corrosive Material 