Halfa 2008
posted by Luis on July 25, 2008alright… short n sweet, this’ll be…
songs on constant replay, january-june 2008:
busta rhymes – don’t touch me – it’s good to hear busta having what sounds like FUN after who knows how long (a decade?) the lame thug persona he’s been cultivating for years now doesn’t fit the character we all fell in love with throughout the 90s- that rambunctious, goofy, lovable MC going nuts over some some appropriately nutty beats (gimme some more, dangerous, put your hands where my eyes could see, woo-hah… the list goes on). dunno what his new album’ll sound like, but this track gives me great hope…
prgz – bama gettin’ money (diplo remix) – this is SUCH a reply to three 6 mafia’s “stay fly”! love it! extra points for flipping bad 80s cheese (wham!) into something so menacing.
good dubstep tracks:
silkie – sky’s the limit
headhunter – horny teen
skream – tek-a-pill
most dubstep still sucks, and whatever promise it held three years ago has been rendered obsolete by a conveyor belt stream of wobbly, faux-ragga, cheap-thrill bullshit. but these three! silkie has the EEEEEEPIC synths, headhunter the sleaze, and skream the zombie vibe.
duke dumont – almost all he’s done – he’s one of a small handful of producers making *QUALITY* XXXXXX house (don’t know what it’s called anymore, don’t care) that everyone loves so much nowadays. the trick is, his glitches and edits and whatever other elements he uses actually PROPEL his songs, not just attempt vainly at giving the beat a “hard, distorted” feel. his take on debbie deb’s “when i hear music” is the definitive one, “lean and bounce” achieves the gritty texture everyone’s failed at, and the remix of missy’s “we run this” sounds riotous. awesome!
kanye west – flashing lights (video; first version) – why was there a second version made? was there not enough appreciation for the cinematically mesmerizing accompaniment to one of last year’s best songs? did we need some corny, forced, tremendously clichéd new york sob story instead? blah.
bun b – you’re everything – it has a crazy jodeci sample and that buzzsaw bass (trae – cadillac!!!) that i canNOT resist.
special mention:
sometime before summer last year, i came upon a bangladesh-produced track called “amilly” starring then-unknown (and now completely vanished?) rapper charlie mackenroe. the minimal, massive boom-clack beat was one of the year’s very best, though i forgot to mention it in december. this year, the beat was given to lil’ wayne (it’s “a milli” now), but you know what? the charlie mackenroe version was better! lil’ wayne’s stream-of-consciousness flow is all diminishing returns on this monster of a thumper, and even though this mackenroe guy was a no-mark, at least he gave his version a chorus, shitty as it was. anyway, helluva beat. oh, and there’re an endless pile of freestyles over this beat by a bunch of people now… they all stink!
from the top of mt. fuji, even though that lake makes it look like i’m at surface level…
sets on constant replay, january-june 2008
dj clever – offshore records mix – may – bless offshore records! makes you wish it was 1997, when dnb was the truth.
diplo – mad decent worldwide radio #27 – diplo’s often most on point in off-the-cuff sets like these, truly the sign of a great dj.
PRGz – Bama Gettin Money (Diplo Remix)
ghislain poirier – bring the fire – a ghislain poirier set is always gold before even listening.
dj wonder – april 1xtra dubstep mix – GOOD dubstep, no wobbly inanity, great selection, great sequencing… what a relief!
joker – skream stella sessions mix, may 2008 – the only other good dubstep mix so far this year.
and the very best of the last six months…
two entries!
godDAMN, what a tune. i was gonna lump it with the other dubstep tracks i mentioned above, but… godDAMN, what a tune! this has it all. in a perfect world, this would be the worldwide summer anthem.
2) RUSTIE!!!
his showcase mix on mary anne hobbs’ radio1 show last april was a revelation in the way few things are nowadays, primarily because rustie has accomplished what is perhaps the most virtuous musical feat of all: culling your influences and morphing them into something unique, distinct, and wholly original. we can talk about how rustie employs a bit of dubstep here, hip-hop there, rnb here and such, but NOBODY sounds like HIM. he’s in a league of his own, he’s amazing, and he’s destined for greatness.
rustie on mary anne hobbs’ 1xtra show – april 23rd, 2008
rustie & hudson mohawk – 4AM drunken mix
rustie – gutterish mix
everything on this list is easily googleable!
see you in december!
PS- you know what song SUCKS?! Estelle – American Boy. WHAT THE FFFFFF!?! TRASH!!!! <!– @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } –>
JAY: THIS IS FOR YOU. AND FOR YOU, TOO, CHARLY!
Well, Jay… I dunno what I could say about my experience in Japan thus far that wouldn’t make me feel “grandiloquent,” full of hot air, and/or pseudo-…deep/pseudo-intellectual. I thought long and hard about what to say concerning my conclusions and impressions up till now, and… I think I got it. Here it goes:
Barring differences in history, food, language, television programs, clothing, sensibilities in the country’s art, the weather, music, writing, technology, and yadda yadda yadda, whatever other cultural/geographic/etc. facet you can think of,… people are people, no matter where, no matter what. In the end, sincerity, courtesy, honesty, common sense, and generosity are all that matter, and all one needs to make shit work. I guess that makes me sound like some grandpa or something, but really, beyond the “wow, the food is so different” and “ooh, eastern and western approaches to xxx are so contrasting! How interesting!” and such that come with a new country, especially one renowned for being so highly isolated and insular, even today, being good to people is life’s cardinal rule. The more I understand the language, the more I realize that everyonr I listen to is expressing the same exact sentiments as any other human being I’ve ever known. We’re all human, we’re all the same, despite different approaches to art, comedy, certain mannerisms, expressions, etc. etc. etc.
Well, there you have it! I dunno it it makes much sense, or if it’s at all what you expected, but that’s the best I can do. If I wrote any more, I think my ideas would spiral into complete incomprehensibility.
Shut Up you American Boy
by shut up