Lettermans

I'm slowly but surely getting more into this post-Earl lo-fi rap scene... Navy's been dropping a handful of loosies on SoundCloud to get through the quarantine, and this one was my favorite. Like the rest of Navy's stuff, it blurs the line between triumphant and depressed; victorious and dejected. The production features a gorgeous sample flip and some basic drums that never really pick up tempo or volume. It moves at a very leisurely pace, as if Navy were to drag his feet across the track for 3 minutes. His music has an almost Drake-like appeal to it where you know you're clearly listening to a winner, but they've just grown weary and paranoid with along the way... "Who am I kidding cutting through the frigid air / It's Navy Blue, I'm catered to, I made it work / I hate to lose, I made it through with all this hurt".

I found this kid Thomie while digging around on SoundCloud one night, and this mix was my entry point. I'd made a few mixes before myself, and what I always strived to do was something different from the standard 60-minute, 120bpm thumping dance mixes. That's boring. Not fun to make, and even less fun to listen to. I liked this idea of blending together music that wasn't necessarily supposed to be heard side-by-side, and yet still making it work. I think this is the first time I've seen someone else doing the same thing, and the fact that their selection is incredible makes it even better. The whole thing is just really tastefully done. The intro features a little excerpt of a Brian Eno interview where he discusses his unexpected preference for natural tones and textures, which is funny because his career was obviously built on electronic sounds and synth manipulation. What follows the intro is an unbelievably lush mix of ambient, pop, soul, acoustic, and synth music spanning dozens of subgenres and countries in-between. Highlights include Tennis's "Runner" (19:34), Lou Rebecca's "Waiting" (27:25), Scott Gilmore's "Europe" (42:10), and a ton more. There is no tracklist, so yeah, I had to Shazam those. A ton of tracks aren't even Shazam-able. Thomie has some other cool stuff on his SoundCloud too, like a remix of Kanye's "Jesus is Lord", which I thought was an under-appreciated track from Jesus is King, so that was cool to see.

I went to Coachella for the first time last year (2019) and saw a lot of good shows. I was front row for what I think was Aphex Twin's 9th live performance of the decade; I saw Kanye's first-ever public Sunday Service; I saw Yves Tumor while standing in the crowd directly next to Virgil Abloh, who I then watched DJ the very next day. All of these were good experiences, but my favorite set of the weekend was easily Four Tet. They gave him the ideal slot: 7:30pm under the Mojave Tent. It was starting to get darker just as he began his set, and I remember the whole show had an almost film-like arc where the music became a bit more ethereal as the sun slowly set on the festival... There were no lights or anything for his show, either. Kieran literally just had 2 lamps on a standing desk on stage, used to illuminate his decks. Towards the end I remember it being so dark I could hardly see my own hands, and it was then, that Kieran dropped this track. I didn't think it would ever be formally released, but here we are. There was just something really pure about someone on stage in a grey tee shirt, no lights, doing an absolutely no-frills performance and mixing this a capella sample about racism in the 90s. Coachella is obviously a safe haven for hippies and "progressive" types, but his mid-set PSA felt appropriate and borderline required even in 2019.

Let's be honest... this is probably album of the year. No one is topping this in the next 8 months. Since I first caught wind of his music on the 2017 PAN compilation, Mono No Aware, Yves has been arguably the most difficult artist to grasp, label, define, confine, or control in any sense of the word. He is totally amorphous. When you think you've got him figured out, he shows an entirely new dimension that you never knew was within him. He deliberately obfuscates pretty much all physical or autobiographical information you could ascertain from him outside of his music; when performing live, he literally renders himself as a silhouette in a cowboy hat: an amalgamation of contradictions. And to me, the novelty of this whole Yves Tumor "project" is rooted in contradiction. Tumor is black, non-binary, sexually fluid, and almost completely absent from the public sphere, and yet, he's an undisputed commercial rock star, arguably one of this generation's best album artists, and surely one of the most emphatic live performers we've seen. What makes this crazy is that he hasn't even given us much to see. And let's not forget the reason we're even discussing him: The music... the music is just undeniably good. Unpredictable as ever, Heaven to a Tortured Mind is essentially a stadium rock album, channeling Shoegaze, Britpop, Krautrock, and psychedelic rock all at once. Again, these weren't even reference points for him prior to this album. He has pulled this out of thin air. Two years ago people were comparing him to Brian Eno, and now it's Prince. Both comparisons are warranted. The intro here, "Gospel For A New Century", features one of the most satisfying basslines I've ever heard. "Kerosene" is just a strikingly beautiful duet; his attention to song structure really comes to the fore here with an almost window-shattering guitar solo somehow slotting into the middle. Like his previous album, there is a "middle stretch" that serves as the album's climax. Here, we get "Romanticist" into "Dream Palette" and then "Super Stars". The first 38 seconds of "Dream Palette" build tension with literal fireworks leading up to arguably the album's finest moment. And then there's "Super Stars," which sways back and forth like the hands of the imaginary stadiums he's filling. It's a shame he hasn't filled any yet, but more than any album this year, Heaven to a Tortured Mind deserves to be heard by an audience of 60,000, minimum.

There's some music that just feels so near and dear to me before I even give it that many spins... I think it's because you can tell when an artists loves music as much as you do, and even more so when they love the same artists, genres, albums, whatever. That's why I love Madlib. When Madlib chooses to sample a track, it almost feels like an homage to the musical forefathers that came before him, even if he pulled their music out of a dusty crate for less than a dollar. The lineage of music that Madlib draws from on this record just feels so deliberate, and I appreciate every decision at every turn. That little horn sample that skips across "Microphone Mathematics" moves with so much swagger. "MHB's" sounds like the opening of heaven's gates. The David Axelrod sample on "Return of the Loop Digga" is shamelessly identifiable, but who cares, because does Madlib really need the credibility as a crate digger? Earlier on the track he hilariously sons a record store owner for having a weak collection: "Would you happen to have any uhh... Stanley Cowell? Like 1970s stuff...? Oh you haven't heard of him?... Nah?... Aight man." His commitment to resurfacing music that he loves, regardless of it's geography, era, or popularity is just so pure, and I think that's what draws me to his music. I don't even think he makes it a point to show that he loves music. He just does, and we get to watch.

One of my friends has been trying to put me onto this whole sad boy rap circuit for a while now. The stars of the show are Earl, MIKE, Mavi, Navy Blue, Standing on the Corner, Medhane, and a couple more guys I'm surely missing. I was apprehensive to give the whole scene a chance, because I feel like the older you get, the more you really have to muster up the energy for "sad" music. I was obviously wrong for having believed that, and I was even more wrong for mislabeling their whole movement as "sad". These guys aren't sad; they're just tired. Their music is basically about self-actualization, much like the 2015 album that sparked this whole thing: Earl's sophomore LP, IDLSIDGO. It's music that's relatable by design, but in a way that's just more piercing and vulnerable than you'd expect. Navy, on "Stranger" spells it out: "Fightin' by the lead / Had to tighten up the leash .... / Keep on trekkin' 'til the goal is in reach." They sound exhausted. Young, but definitely weathered. The production styles show that their ears are definitely beyond their years too. The texture of "Walk With Me" is surely a Dilla reference; "Affirmation #1" feels like a dejected Late Registration B-side. At the same time there's some outrageously forward-looking stuff. That beat on "Whispers"? Son... I'm running out of room for that.

Please don't take it lightly when I say that this might be my favorite Omar S song... Omar was basically my foundation in house music. The Best! was one of those very, very special albums in my life that introduced me to a world of music I never knew existed. This track, "Second Life," is arguably the centerpiece of his new album, You Want, and yeah, it delivers. The song is almost deliberately corny in topic: A club-going girl's life is crumbling due to her partying habits, and yet she just can't stay off the dance floor. Omar, who isn't exactly known for his vocals, kicks off the track by belting out a hilarious a capella performance to tell the story. By the time the bassline starts thumping, it becomes clear that Omar isn't here to help this poor girl... he is enabling her problem. At about 2:13, these keys come in and sit just behind his vocals, and it's subtle, but it's these little details that make the track so unbelievably good to me. The climax of the song is stretched into a 2-3 minute ordeal where it becomes unclear how many more ways he can bend the synth before the song snaps. It's aggressive, funny, and melodic in a way that only Detroit house can be, and that only Omar S can do. Oh, and the video is an instant classic. Probably my favorite of 2020.

Overgrown was my introduction to James Blake. I was late, and even when I started listening, it took a while for me to appreciate his whole... uhhh... dynamism. He would have these really interesting drum patterns that technically labeled his music as dubstep (not what you think) or even garage, but then there were obviously his vocal and acoustic piano performances that layered over top. Beyond the music, there were interviews where he would shoutout rappers, and they (read: Kanye) would even show love back. He was all over the place, but when he brought his influences together in a way that made sense, it was straight explosive. I went digging through my iTunes last weekend and revisited "Every Day I Ran," a bonus track from the album. I've had it on repeat since, and yet, every listen feels like hearing it for the first time. The song starts with a Big Boi a capella sample and pretty much maintains that air of unpredictability throughout. At about the 1:02 mark there's this synth that he brings in... and it just stays... and believe me, you never want it to leave. You'd think that a warped Southern rap sample over synthy, atmospheric production would be the type of stuff you'd find in the Yung Lean-influenced depths of SoundCloud, but somehow Blake makes it work.

I discovered Yussef Dayes a couple years ago as one half of Peckham-based Jazz duo Yussef Kamaal (the other half being multi-instrumentalist Kamaal Williams). As a group, I thought their music was "cool" but also kinda sterile and inoffensive, almost designed to slot into those "chill lo-fi instrumental study music" playlists. It was alright, but just not my thing. So, when I saw that Yussef was doing a joint album with Tom Misch, I thought it would be a good chance to hear him play in a totally new, presumably more vibrant context. "What Kinda Music" is the first single off their namesake album, and I think they've definitely got one here... At first I thought it was weird to credit a drummer so prominently on a pop record, but it's mixed in a way that makes Yussef's drums the single most piercing layer of sound; when he really gets going, you can physically feel it in your ears. The production in general also just feels expensive... The string orchestra that comes in around ~2:49 brings a sweeping movement that might've been pulled straight from one of Radiohead's In Rainbows sessions. Tom's vocals aren't bad too, yeah? If this is the general palette they're running with, and if Tom continues to try his hand at being Thom, I definitely won't be mad at it.

When I was in the 5th grade I had some cousins from Iran move in with me and my immediate family, and with them, they brought a ton of euro-trash techno music that all the Persian kids were up on in 2005. That was my introduction to electronic music. I'm not gonna lie, I was into it, and I still have some of those Tiesto mixes from way back. They're still good! Nonetheless, there was a stretch from about 2009 to 2017 where I didn't even touch anything electronic in the slightest. But then I spent a good 5 months in London... bro... London... it wasn't until I came back that the digging began. One of the dance records that I'd saved the following summer was George Fitzgerald's Fading Love. It somehow stayed out of my rotation for 3 years, but I finally got around to it and... it's incredible. Normally I'd scoff at this sort of vocal-heavy, pop-y, almost Scandinavian-sounding dance music, but track after track, it manages to win me over despite itself. The pulse on "Full Circle" is just undeniable. That synth on "Knife to the Heart" is more like a tractor beam. At under 40 min, the pacing is almost flawless, and yet, on some listens it's taken me over 2 hours to get through because of tracks I just couldn't let finish. One of the most universally accessible dance records I've ever heard. Guaranteed to get a room moving.