2017 in Music

[Manimal]

Okay listened to Wednesday Campanella's Superman.

Add another 9 on my list this is amazing. An absolutely extraordinary release with a set of fantastic electro jams. It sounds so great, I instantly clicked with this album. The bass lines, looping bits, it's all so good and KOM_I is aaamazing. I adore the sound of her voice and her rapping is lovely. This is really great stuff and it just hit the vibe I love so much. I was like nothing will equal kitixxxgaia and yet...this is just as good. just flows so well and every song is consistently great. My word.

[50 Words for Paipis]

I thought you would like that one. The production on it is phenomenal, and yeah, I like KOM_I's voice a lot as well.

Gas– Narkopop

Another great album by Gas, a fusion of orchestral music, ambient, and techno. It's so densely layered. The bass is enveloping. The pieces are differentiated by subtle turns. Narkopop 5 has a reverb-ed out snare drum. 6 begins with several harp tracks layered on top of one another and plinking piano. This release also has a beautiful packaging. It's essential a book, bound and everything, with the CD in a sleeve on the back cover. The booklet is filled with beautiful picture of forests. And the cover art is one of my favorites of this year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsTzcdJDKiI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5tYCsaFNro

Kyo– I Musik

Speaking of ambient records with great album covers, we have Kyo's I Muzik. This record veers more toward the progressive electronic side of ambient. It makes uses of drums and guitars as well. This is another great one and maybe more accessible to people who feel that Narkopop is same-y and want more differences in style. The 11-minute "Urban Tactical" is something, cycling through several long stages.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd8HUvvXbUg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPdRtCJofIw

Jr. Adelberg– It Happens Too Briefly to Know

An interesting record. Midwest emo with ambient and electronic influences. The compositions are usually pretty neat, but the vocals and lyrics are pretty not. Still, I like the sound that this band has got going on and the first couple of tracks are really great. It reminds me of an album from last year, Crying's Beyond the Fleeting Gales in its interesting mix of sounds and video-game-ish atmosphere. Flawed, but still worth listening to.

https://jradelberg.bandcamp.com/album/it-happens-too-briefly-to-know

[Manimal]

New Katy Perry single, "Bon Appetit"

First off I don't want to judge looks but I'm not digging Katy's new style and the single cover for this is absolutely horrific. Anyway, with "Chained To The Rhythm" I was wishing for Katy to go back to the fun personality filled tunes...and that's what "Bon Appetit" is but now I'm like...maybe the other one was better? It's a simple contemporary pop production with incredibly uninteresting keyboards. The verse has some okay sounds rumbling under, similar to the last song, but Katy...hhhm.

It's a tongue in cheek innuendo filled song like "Birthday" with those cheesy lyrics. Katy's vocal is very poor and uninteresting on this track, the melody is super weak as well and in general the song is just flat. It's a silly song that knows it's silly but it lacks fun and...the sound of her vocals is sooo bad in the chorus. For a sex song it's remarkably unsexy. This is next to "This Is How We Do" as Katy's weakest single. I listened to it three times in a row and I don't really need to hear it again.

Then things take a turn for the worst when the rap group Migos joins in for a very uninteresting and overly long verse featuring some T-Pain guy or something, I don't know, Snoop's cameo in "California Gurls" is the only time a rap cameo was good in a Katy tune. I guess this is just how KP4 is gonna be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH9ilfAZHOs

[Manimal]

Thurston Moore, Rock n' Roll Consciousness

You take one half of Sonic Youth and add a quarter of My Bloody Valentine, what do you get? Nothing overly interesting. Thurston's new album features Steve Shelley and Debbie Googe, along with guitarist James Sedward. The songs are long and drawn out jams, it's a varied set and nothing is wrong with the length of the tunes. Lots of slow burning meltdowns, but with steady beats and very controlled noise. James Sedward pulls some fancy tricks and screaming bends in the burn out ending of "Aphrodite". Thurston's guitar attack is the same as ever. Still the album feels passive to me, nothing is overly gripping nor overly trying. Not great not bad.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c0pR02pv9k 

[Manimal]

Natsume Mito, Natsumelo

Right away I knew this was a Yasutaka Nakata production and surely enough, I was right. Natsumelo is straight out of the same school of sound as Perfume and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. It has lots of chiptune sounds, very cheery beats, and in general tight production. Nakata is a total pro, you cannot mistake his work. I do feel this devalues Natsume however. Nakata's style is to mix the voice like another instrument, so instead of upfront vocals Natsume is mixed in smoothly with the rest of the track. However she doesn't quite have the personality of Kyary to punch through nor a gimmick like Perfume. There are plenty great J-Pop melodies and overall it's a solid album. Nothing new, just Yasutaka Nakata doing his thing with a new artist. There are plenty great musical bits here, and Natsume's vocals are just fine. It's slick but lacks a certain...fire.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HjKuk88ESk

[50 Words for Paipis]

PC Music's Month of Mayhem. They're releasing new music everyday in the month of May:
https://twitter.com/pcmus/status/859055077734141952

First single is A.G. Cook's remix Danny L Harle's Me4U. It's pretty neat. I might like it better than the works of either individually.
https://soundcloud.com/pcmus/me4u-a-g-cook-remix/s-MyLsi

Harle heckles it in the comments.

[50 Words for Paipis]

An interesting analysis of DAMN.
http://ambrosiaforheads.com/2017/04/kendrick-lamar-damn-nation-new-album/

I'll have to listen to it in reverse order to see if the theory works.

[Manimal]

I think peeps are overthinking it a bit but that's an interesting thought and something I'll try next listen. Damn feels like the casual album but maybe it isn't like it seems. But man I've sure been loving Love recently, I still feel DNA is the hardest and most slamming track but Love has a great flow and sound. Also really like Yah and Element, which features the most catchy hook. I got Untitled Unmastered today and I thought it was good but certainly felt like a leftover collection. Need to listen again. The CD has no booklet, just a thick cover.

[50 Words for Paipis]

I watched the whole Zane Lowe interview, though, even before reading this, and it did seem like Kendrick meant it to be more than just a casual album. I just assumed there was more detail in the lyrics than people were pointing out. I hadn't considered the actual structure of the album. Given the reverse bit at the end, it's plausible, but I'm not totally convinced yet.

Been digging "GOD." lately. Gotta agree, though, that "LOVE." is the best track.

[50 Words for Paipis]

New Paramore single. I like it even better than "Hard Times." This is going to be a pretty great pop album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw-RPm1uOM4

Also, Wednesday Campanella's video "Ikkyu-san" is pretty great. Visually very colorful, yet urban, but it takes a turn for the dark at the end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyI_xZKisUw

[Manimal]

...and I just pre-ordered the album.

Just did .NMAD ramaL s'kcirdneK

It works for about 11 tracks. There are many times where the album mentions tracks either before or after they happen. So it's cool when things line up here, like Loyalty mentions Humble this time after and Love starts with "love or lust", which the order the tracks now fall in. After going over all these things, Feel pays off better like Kendrick emptied his head and is left that way. It's really more emotional at this spot. Especially after he's said "ain't nobody praying for me" on the other tracks.

Things work nicely until Element, Yah and DNA. That is an ultimate 1-2-3 punch, it doesn't function as nicely like this. But all the other tracks actually do work. Blood thematically makes sense with Kendrick being shot at the end. I don't know how this theory holds up, I was listening closely but...I don't know.

[50 Words for Paipis]

Grizzly Bear has a new single.
http://pitchfork.com/news/50419-listen-to-grizzly-bears-new-song-three-rings/?mbid=homepage-more-latest-and-video
It's neat. Christopher Bear's drumming is as great as ever. I do find it lacks what made their music distinct, but maybe there's a vision for this album that's just as realized.

[Manimal]

Nana Kitade, Violet Blaze

Nana is on her own again for the first time in 8 years with her new album Violet Blaze. In a fitting purple CD case with pictures of Nana decked out in temporary tattoos of butterflies, I certainly didn't know what type of expectations to have for this album. Nana never had a clear musical identity, but she did like to rock and on her previous album Bondage she went mad with some noisy tracks.

Violet Blaze has no rock at all, it's all electro pop and...it's not great. There is nothing overly interesting, the compositions are so-so, the melodies aren't much, and it's full of ballads. Nana sounds awkward when she sings in English, and while she's always been a catty vocalist, which is a trait I like about her, the way her voice is mixed and layered doesn't sit very well. It's very underwhelming as a whole. The first track "Make Believe" is good, and led me to believe this would be an album full of summer jams! Instead it's just kind of flat.

Gonna watch out before I buy another album with Violet in the title. GARNiDELiA's Violet Cry was similar in it's "meh" status. I wanted Nana to come back strong and make this awesome album, I've seen pictures of her rocking a sticker covered Jazzmaster and she posted a picture of Washing Machine on IG. I was like...no way, she's not gonna...and sure she enough she did not.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgUYNv_Crwk

Slowdive, s/t

Well, it sure sounds like Slowdive. With the intense sadness of their showgaze sound, this album packs the melancholy feels with it's intense textures. "No Longer Making Time" would best highlight the sound, there are soft bits and then an explosive build up. I don't always like the vocals, but their is a very crushing feel to this album that's so easy to get lost in. It's not great all around but it has some highlights.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxwAPBxc0lU

I found this guy on Bandcamp named Barry Goldman. He released a new album called Magnus Bridge today. It was pretty cringy and overall I found it to be lame. Maybe a song or two had some effort, but it was an otherwise poor job with some of the worst bass playing I've ever heard. The mix was complete garbage, the drums where beyond awful and he sang like a complete doofus who picked up a mic for the first time and sang lyrics written on a Subway napkin, implying that much care even went into them. It felt like he was trying to make things sound ironic and goofy when he clearly takes his stupid music very seriously. His one album, Flat as Mantioba, was a lot better but even that had the same issues. But he did make all these Love Live and K-ON references which was cool.

Japanese Breakfast is releasing her first full album in July! Many great songs on Psychopomp and the theme of this one is going to be sci-fi and all. "Soft Sounds From Another Planet", it will be released on my birthday! The first single "Machinist" is decent, has a nice tone and SUNRISE SAX SOLO MY FAVORITE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wujw-FH2Itw

Beach Fossils released another single from the upcoming album. "Down The Line". Once more it's a decent tune, they've polished their sound and in general it's sounding a lot better. This is looking to be a strong album. The comment on this video "This music video looks exactly like what Beach Fossils sounds like?" is too true.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdfjCivNxGY 

[50 Words for Paipis]

PC Music's Month of Mayhem has been interesting so far. They released a remix by Clark, which is surprising because Clark was a big name in 90s and 00s IDM. It's pretty cool:
https://soundcloud.com/pcmus/only-you-clark-remix/s-ECRfx

Also, an EasyFun remix of Janet Jackson's "No Sleeep," which is aight. Not their best by any means.

But the most noteworthy might be the cryptic four track ambient album released today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV7wB5o5ML0

The title of the Youtube video is an upside down 9, but the album title appears in the album's metadata as "version.ii." The comments in the metadata form a stanza:

"sparks in the air tonight
burns red like dynamite
secrets fall from the sky
sets fire to all of your lies
knew I could break from the chains
wash them away in the rain
you thought I could be tamed
all it takes is a flame"

The album seems to have something to do with QT, a singer who released the song "Hey QT," which was a seminal moment for bubblegum bass, featuring production by A. G. Cook and SOPHIE as well as being released on XL Recordings (the record label of Radiohead, Adele, and other big name acts).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MQUleX1PeA

QT is also one of the poster children for PC Music, featuring on several covers for singles, albums, etc. even ones with which she is not otherwise involved. Anyways, this new album's cover is a tiny picture of QT. Also QT has a new series of pictures on her instagram. This indicates a new album, or possibly the release of the Quinn Thomas film. I hear SOPHIE is no longer involved, which makes me sad, but A. G. Cook is more than capable as this ambient version.ii of the album shows. I'm guessing the upside down 9 means whatever it is will be released on the 9th, so I will keep my ears open. Bubblegum bass seems to be keeping strong with Bonito Generation and this.

[Manimal]

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