Mark Kolezek & Jimmy LaValle - Perils From the Sea

Somehow the Wonder of Life Prevails - Mark Kolezek & Jimmy LaValle

Long song. Listen if you get a chance.

Really highlights both Kolezek's strengths and weaknesses. Opens very strong, and you should at least listen up until the first chorus.

Soft spoken folkster Mark Kolezek has returned once again to serve up interesting stories and soulful musical memoirs, but this time he's teamed up with Jimmy LaValle (of a band called The Album Leaf) to create an album with a twist - Folk-Electronica. While bizarre it might sound, it works. I know, I'm confused too.

I'm always a little half and half with Mark Kolezek. On one hand he's brilliant at telling stories and always has been - Gustavo, What Happened to My Brother, Somehow the Wonder of Life Prevails are three shining examples from the record. He's got a habit of making these strange stories from his life seem human, beautiful, highlighting the damage that the subject of his songs has suffered and the way it moved him.

Problem is though, his lyrics are simple, his rhyming ability is weak in places, and the songs he spends talking about his travel damage the record by creating uninspiring tales of how he's been to all over the world and can't create a human emotion from the trip, the absolute polar opposite of the songs he spends talking about people he knows. I swear to god, if I have to hear him sing about Copenhagen one more time, I'm going to go Dutch on his ass. Whatever that means.

Now the interesting and somewhat ground-breaking aspect of the album comes from the usage of electronic music to back Kolezek instead of his usual guitar, which is a folk standard. This hasn't really been done to the length of a whole album before but it works. It's simple, but beautiful.

I can't help but think, however, that it could have been done better. They've definitely broken ground with the combination but the music might be a little too simple and Kolezek's writing trailed off in places. Watch this album though. I guarantee this is going to set a little guy somewhere up to big things. Get on it.

Run the Jewels

Came across this album the other day whilst looking for new music and only once I’d hit the website was it that I realised that Killer Mike, responsible for making R.A.P. Music last year (pretty sure I reviewed it? Was AWESOME) had teamed up with producer EL-P in order to make a new, free to download boom rap record. I was in rap heaven. Completely stoked. On top of this the album was fantastic, which is why I’m reviewing it. Free amazing rap record? People NEED to know.

Now there’s multiple reasons this album works. I like to think of Killer Mike as Kanye for people who don’t listen to Kanye. Killer Mike is about delivering heavy raps with a strong sound behind him. He's got a way of handling lyrics which has a certain cleverness that GZA knew how to exploit, and that's  the how and when of it - he knows the exact thing to say at the exact time, in the exact way. It makes him sound louder than he really is.

EL-P's contribution - the music - is full on. Big beats. Really big beats. My bass speaker was pumping out elephant footsteps and my housemates were loving it. The rest of the music was really different from what I expected from any sort of rap record. It was more, I dunno, trance? Very electro, focused on good synths and not so much what you’d expect from your typical rap album which usually relies on instruments and samples. This almost seems like the antithesis of the surge of club-hop that artists like Dizzy Rascal (and unfortunately, Roots Manuva too. Way to sell out.) have been putting out lately. As in Run The Jewels isn’t terrible and a fucking insult to music. Quite the opposite.

Anyway, here’s a link to it. You're 20 something and poor. Just do it.

http://foolsgoldrecs.com/runthejewels/ 

Finally! Updates.

Before you dig in, two things.

First - this blog is a pain in the ass to format. If I get back into doing it seriously, I'm going to consider trying wordpress or some other crap. I'll bring over all the old reviews, for sure.

Second - These last six reviews are oldddd. I chalked them up at work but my busy schedule* prevented me from posting them. Added bonus for this? I've got post scripts on some of them to let you know if the album is still good or not after listening to it a couple of times. Boom.









*thinking up of dumb ideas for T.V. Shows such as Crime Dog (copyright TB 2013).

Raekwon - Only Built for Cuban Linx (feat Ghostface Killah)

Rainy Dayz - Raekwon ft. Ghostface Killah/Blue Raspberry

Freakin tune! Check those beats. Ghostface's opening lines pretty much highlight my point as to why he works so well on this album.

I want to preface this review by saying that there’s also a bit in here about ‘Cuban Linx 2’, the follow up to this album, and how I’m interpreting the importance of the interplay between good MCs and producers. Let’s have a chat if you’ve got any ideas or think I’m full of shit.

I’ve been getting into a big Wu-Tang hip-hop phase lately and my adventures have taken my ears down some new and exciting avenues. So far I’ve gone through Enter the Wu-Tang, Wu-Tang Forever, GZA’s Liquid Swords, Ghostface’s most recent 12 reasons to die, half way through Ghostface’s Supreme Clientele and got through Only Built 4 Cuban Linx pt.2… along with this album.

Now before I started listening to it, I read that it received rave reviews, and was comparatable to GZA’s Liquid Swords as a strong competitor for one of the greatest Wu-Tang solo efforts, if not hip-hop albums of the 90s. A lot of reviewers, magazines and the like will confirm this, both reviews that were contemporary to the album’s release and several retrospective reviews.

But shit man, I don’t know! I really don’t know.

Honestly, a lot of what I found good on this album came from Ghostface’s work on the album. Every song where he featured, every line he spat, absolute gold. Now there’s a lot of his input, he’s a major collaborator on the album, but I think it fell a little bit short compared to the rest of the Wu-Tang stuff I’ve been hearing.

The album sprawls for a lengthy 18 tracks and a lot of it is good, well produced and full of interesting lyrical themes, other featured Wu-Tang artists and was considered ground-breaking at the time, but I can’t enjoy Raekwon’s rapping as much as other Wu-Tang artists. I think he’s good at what he does, but half the brilliance of the other Wu-Tang artists comes from the fact that they work really well with each-other, but above all with RZA’s heavy drum and smooth sampling approach to production. Maybe what really got me here is the length of the album – 18 tracks is difficult to sling while keeping fresh and original, and while the start and the finish of the album has some solid tracks, there’s a bit in the middle that I couldn’t enjoy. I also wasn’t too sure that ‘Can it be all so simple’ really needed that remix.

That said, there’s some tracks where it all works really well. Incarcerated Scarfaces is a smooth track and Raekwon hit the nail on the head with that one. Rainy Dayz is well produced, catchy as hell and Ghostface’s opening rap is smoothly delivered. There’s a reason this album is considered a classic, I just don’t believe it’s on the same level as Liquid Swords.

Now that said, go check out Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2. It was actually a really good, albeit different (thanks to the difference in 90s and late 2000s production) album. What’s more, Rae’s rapping is way easier to get, either he’s learned out to enunciate or the production was so well done that it made him more audible than this album. Maybe both! Sadly though, not a lot of people heard the album and while critically it deserves the praise it got, Hip-hop has taken an ugly turn in the space between the release of both albums meaning it got largely ignored.

American Football - Self Titled LP

American Football - Never Meant

Sigh.

Mike Kinsella of Capt’n Jazz fame went on after the band dissolved and created American Football, an indie/Midwest emo band which featured floaty guitars, songs about goodbye and odd drumming rhythms. They only released an album and an EP (as far as I know?), both of which were self titled. This review concerns the album, one that’s slowly crawling in as a standout and a favourite in my books.

The album is a healthy crossover of intricate guitar work exhibitioned by acoustic folk artists such as Elliot Smith, mixed with indie-rock band ethic, the strange rhythms similar to unwound in a way. Kinsella’s voice isn’t about yelling as it was with cap’n jazz, but more about floating smoothly over the rest of the song, creating an effect that has been described as ‘ethereal’ by other listeners.

The album sticks close to a single style and doesn’t really change around much from track to track, although the songs are pretty varied in terms of timing. there’s short and catchy songs such as ‘Honestly’ or drawn out tracks such as ‘Leave Home’, a build-up of layered guitar and drumming. As far as song structure goes, it’s all very aesthetically pleasing, calm, and fresh – a brilliant sound that should be replicated but may have gone unheard by many. Give this album a listen if you’re into calmer music and I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

GZA/The Genius - Liquid Swords (WU-TANG!)

GZA - Living in the World Today
So hard to pick a favourite. This might be it if not just for the awesome bassey production.

So recently I’ve found out that one of the most fun practices in my life involved cooking up dinner whilst listening to Enter the Wu-Tang. Maybe that’s a reflection on how boring things have gotten in my life the moment, or more so a reflection on what my weird idea of fun is. As a result of this, I decided I’d get into a few more Wu-Tang hip hop records, the best of these so far being GZA’s Liquid Swords.

I did a bit of homework before I listened to it. People were saying it was a contender for one of the best hip-hop albums of all time, and I didn’t quite realise what that meant until I’d listened to it. This album was way ahead of its time, and despite hip-hop not being my main calling, I’ve got an appreciation of this which is throwing it up as one of the best albums I’ve listened to. RZA’s production fluctuated from that gangsta beat style he nailed on Enter the Wu-Tang, to a dark, heavy groove. GZA’s rhymes highlight why he’s called The Genius, his lyrical style shows a certain cleverness that put him a cut above other lyricists of the time. Besides this, I think all the members of the Wu-Tang Clan were featured in some capacity on the album with especially commendable input from Ghostface Killah on 4th chamber and Method Man on Shadowboxin. This still keeps the feel of a Wu-Tang album while being a little bit heavier, due to the nature of the production.

This album is filled front to back with solid hip-hop songs. Not a single skippable track. Like I said, even if you aren’t into hip-hop, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to get into this. It’s good, sometimes gritty but always awesome. GET INTO IT!

P.s.

So yeah, this might be my favourite hip-hop album ever. GZA might be my favourite Wu-Tang member because of it after RZA, who is probably my new-found god of producing. Guy knows how to fucking work *with* the music, not just alongside it.

Iceage - You're Nothing

Iceage - Morals

Piano? Punk bridge? It can be done - and how!

Ok, first impression I got from this was that it was tuneless wailing over over-fuzzed punk instrumentals, you know, the vibe you get from bands who you don’t believe have a fucking clue what they’re doing. Then I got about 8 minutes into the album and it began blowing my mind.

There’s a stack of catchy, well written songs here with intense drumming and unique riffwork. The vocals are rarely in tune which ends up complementing most of the songs in its own weird style, kind of in the same way that hardcore punk vocals help the music out by being its own instrument. You don’t believe me – and it’s hard to explain, but it works. Like maple syrup and bacon (kinda sorta). There’s a real energy to it that’s signature of punk rock but the sound divorces itself from the normal groundwork by the unconventional use of the fuzzed out guitar and the weird wailing, and this is where it’s strength lies. It’s got a strong feel of originality to it, and it doesn’t allow itself to stagnate and become repetitive.

They’re also clever enough to mix a couple of different styles into the album as well. The track - Awake has a rock and roll bridging riff near to the end, Ecstasy has it’s own mix of noise-rock instrument work with snappy drums and Morals, my personal favourite track, mixes a piano build-up with a furious punk chorus.

Honestly a lot of people are dissing on it because some of the guitar is indecipherable at stages. This is a great album for noise-rock enthusiasts and indie punks alike. Give it a go. Three or four tracks in and I promise you’ll love it.

P.s.

So once again, this is an old review I failed to publish earlier. What I'd like to say is that I still give this album a spin, if only for Morals. there's some decent stuff here, but Morals is just a standout.