It's been an interesting week thus far with John Coltrane and I've got some thoughts formulating for Sunday. 'A Love Supreme' is an album with four tracks/movements and I thought I would share one of these today. Pt. 2: Resolution has been the section of the record I've been enjoying the most at this point so I thought I would offer it up as this week's video (though to be fair the video is not much of a video); enjoy your listening!
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Sunday, September 22, 2013
'I Feel It All': A Week with Rudimental's 'Home'
There is not much else in this world that I enjoy more than really good electronic music. Whether it's Kraftwerk, Daft Punk, Burial, Aphex Twin, or The Knife, something about electronic music has really always appealed to me. A lot of it may have to do with growing up in Asia in 90's where techno was playing just about everywhere you went. Whether in bowling alleys, malls, markets or taxi cabs, electronic dance music was omnipresent. From my younger years through today, electronic music and I have had an ongoing and burgeoning relationship and I'm always excited to see what is coming down the pipe next as the genre continues to evolve and change.
When I first heard Rudimental's single, Feel the Love (a number 1 hit in the UK) late last year I was immediately hooked and excited for what they might offer next. But life happens and over time I forgot about Feel the Love and their following debut album until the nominees for this year's Mercury Prize were released. Rudimental's debut 'Home' was on the short-list and I thought that now would be a perfect opportunity to give the record a week (and 16 complete listens) of my time.
Rudimental are a drum and bass electronic outfit from London consisting of four members (Piers Agget, Kesi Dryden, Amir Amor, DJ Locksmith) all sharing songwriting/producing duties. They've said in interviews that they want to give anthems to their generation that celebrate who they are and the times they live in. 'Home' lives up to this statement by providing a sort of melting pot of popular trends in both pop and electronic music. Everything from dubstep warbles, to soulful vocals, to ernest lyrics, to group-sing-along chorus, and a reclamation of 90's R&B stylings and melodies can be found on this record. Rudimental wants to cram everything that they love about music onto one record and when it works it truly is a thing of beauty.
Rudimental do a lot of things right on this record. Rock solid production values are found on every track. The bass rumbles and the melodies soar; everything sounds great. Along with grabbing stylistic hints of this and that from popular electronic music, Rudimental brings their own unique flavor by adding horns to many of the tracks. From vocal accompaniment to trumpet solos, horns play a big role in making this record something new; they provide an extra edge to tracks like Feel the Love that really sets them apart. The vocal performances on the record are also excellent without a real misstep in the bunch. 'Home' does a wonderful job of pairing up-and-coming pop vocalists with tracks that really show off their strengths as singers. Rudimental balances all of these elements quite well from track to track, especially considering that this is their debut outing.
Stand-out tracks like Spoons and Baby feature inventive production (with Spoons featuring actual spoons forming the basis of the track), excellent silky-smooth R&B vocals from guest MNEK, and solid songwriting representing what is wonderful about groups like Rudimental. Waiting All Night (also a number 1 single in UK) is another high watermark for me. Its skittering beat and passionate vocals from Ella Eyre energize the track and keep it engaging for five minutes, which is no mean feat. An infectious exuberance permeates these energetic songs and makes them impossible not to enjoy and get caught up in. Rudimental are passionate about their craft and their energy is palpable in these tracks.
As with many records, 'Home' contains a few tracks where the grand synthesis of styles and ideas that Rudimental strives for doesn't quite gel. Hell Could Freeze contains a wonderful chorus, but the rapped verses feel disjointed; almost as though they belong to another song. More Than Anything suffers from a similar problem, its wonderfully-power-ballady-rock-your-socks-off chorus makes the verses that precede and follow seem like a bit of a letdown. While Not Giving In sounds like Rudimental treading water; ticking the boxes and painting-by-numbers but not really capitalizing on some of the ideas or vocal talent present in the song. None of these tracks are bad or even necessarily weak, but Rudimental could have done more with them to give them that extra zing! They could have been essential to the album rather than pleasant scenery along the way.
Needless to say, I'm excited for where Rudimental goes next. 'Home' proves that they have something to say and some exciting ways of saying it. If you have any interest at all in electronic-pop, I highly recommend giving Rudimental a whirl. Hopefully by the time album number two rolls around they will have been able to really pin down what makes them unique in the pop-electronic world (horns, excellent guest vocalists, exuberant production) and play to those strengths. For now we have 'Home', a perfectly delightful debut record that serves up the pop-electronic-R&B goods while showing ample room for growth and exploration in the future. Here's to a long and prosperous future.
The Breakdown:
Stand-Outs: Feel the Love, Spoons, Baby, Waiting All Night
Let-Downs: Hell Could Freeze, Not Giving In
Rating: 8/10
Up Next: I'm diving this week into another genre that I've never really (seriously) given the time of day: jazz (expect, you know, when eating at Panera). I thought I would select what is widely regarded to be one of the best jazz albums of all time: John Coltrane's 1965 LP 'A Love Supreme'.
When I first heard Rudimental's single, Feel the Love (a number 1 hit in the UK) late last year I was immediately hooked and excited for what they might offer next. But life happens and over time I forgot about Feel the Love and their following debut album until the nominees for this year's Mercury Prize were released. Rudimental's debut 'Home' was on the short-list and I thought that now would be a perfect opportunity to give the record a week (and 16 complete listens) of my time.
Rudimental are a drum and bass electronic outfit from London consisting of four members (Piers Agget, Kesi Dryden, Amir Amor, DJ Locksmith) all sharing songwriting/producing duties. They've said in interviews that they want to give anthems to their generation that celebrate who they are and the times they live in. 'Home' lives up to this statement by providing a sort of melting pot of popular trends in both pop and electronic music. Everything from dubstep warbles, to soulful vocals, to ernest lyrics, to group-sing-along chorus, and a reclamation of 90's R&B stylings and melodies can be found on this record. Rudimental wants to cram everything that they love about music onto one record and when it works it truly is a thing of beauty.
Rudimental do a lot of things right on this record. Rock solid production values are found on every track. The bass rumbles and the melodies soar; everything sounds great. Along with grabbing stylistic hints of this and that from popular electronic music, Rudimental brings their own unique flavor by adding horns to many of the tracks. From vocal accompaniment to trumpet solos, horns play a big role in making this record something new; they provide an extra edge to tracks like Feel the Love that really sets them apart. The vocal performances on the record are also excellent without a real misstep in the bunch. 'Home' does a wonderful job of pairing up-and-coming pop vocalists with tracks that really show off their strengths as singers. Rudimental balances all of these elements quite well from track to track, especially considering that this is their debut outing.
Stand-out tracks like Spoons and Baby feature inventive production (with Spoons featuring actual spoons forming the basis of the track), excellent silky-smooth R&B vocals from guest MNEK, and solid songwriting representing what is wonderful about groups like Rudimental. Waiting All Night (also a number 1 single in UK) is another high watermark for me. Its skittering beat and passionate vocals from Ella Eyre energize the track and keep it engaging for five minutes, which is no mean feat. An infectious exuberance permeates these energetic songs and makes them impossible not to enjoy and get caught up in. Rudimental are passionate about their craft and their energy is palpable in these tracks.
As with many records, 'Home' contains a few tracks where the grand synthesis of styles and ideas that Rudimental strives for doesn't quite gel. Hell Could Freeze contains a wonderful chorus, but the rapped verses feel disjointed; almost as though they belong to another song. More Than Anything suffers from a similar problem, its wonderfully-power-ballady-rock-your-socks-off chorus makes the verses that precede and follow seem like a bit of a letdown. While Not Giving In sounds like Rudimental treading water; ticking the boxes and painting-by-numbers but not really capitalizing on some of the ideas or vocal talent present in the song. None of these tracks are bad or even necessarily weak, but Rudimental could have done more with them to give them that extra zing! They could have been essential to the album rather than pleasant scenery along the way.
Needless to say, I'm excited for where Rudimental goes next. 'Home' proves that they have something to say and some exciting ways of saying it. If you have any interest at all in electronic-pop, I highly recommend giving Rudimental a whirl. Hopefully by the time album number two rolls around they will have been able to really pin down what makes them unique in the pop-electronic world (horns, excellent guest vocalists, exuberant production) and play to those strengths. For now we have 'Home', a perfectly delightful debut record that serves up the pop-electronic-R&B goods while showing ample room for growth and exploration in the future. Here's to a long and prosperous future.
The Breakdown:
Stand-Outs: Feel the Love, Spoons, Baby, Waiting All Night
Let-Downs: Hell Could Freeze, Not Giving In
Rating: 8/10
Up Next: I'm diving this week into another genre that I've never really (seriously) given the time of day: jazz (expect, you know, when eating at Panera). I thought I would select what is widely regarded to be one of the best jazz albums of all time: John Coltrane's 1965 LP 'A Love Supreme'.
Friday, September 20, 2013
Off the Record: London Grammar
Though Rudimental has been keeping me occupied this week, I have also been throughly enjoying London Grammar's debut album 'If You Wait.' It reminds me a lot of The xx mixed with a little more piano, strings, and absolutely gorgeous vocals from Hannah Ried. It's a quiet record full of beautiful moments and spacious instrumentation. Anyhow, I'm really digging it so I thought I would share one of my favorite tracks from the record today. Enjoy!:
See you Sunday with Rudimental!
See you Sunday with Rudimental!
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
'Feel the Love' & 'Waiting All Night'...
Good times this week with Rudimental's 'Home'. I thought today I would share two singles from the album that I have really been enjoying; both with pretty excellent videos. First, Feel the Love:
And here is Waiting All Night:
And here is Waiting All Night:
Sunday, September 15, 2013
'Fairies Wear Boots, You Gotta Believe Me': A Week with 'Paranoid'
Heavy Metal is a genre that I struggle with. It is a genre, try as I might, that has never really clicked for me. And I've tried; on multiple occasions with multiple albums and I feel like I'm always missing something. Most of time it is the vocals, but weird and unique vocals in other genres don't usually prove as much of stumbling block to me as they tend to in metal. I'll pick up an album, try to like it, fail, and end up frustrated yet again. But I firmly believe that somewhere inside me lives a long-haired, axe wielding, blood-spattered, Nordic-named creature that really wants to like heavy metal. Really really. I have plenty of intelligent, well-spoken, and charismatic friends who will sing metal's praises all the live long day so there has to be something there, right? So I have once again decided to give the genre another shot and I thought that I would ease into it this time with one of the first releases dubbed as 'heavy metal': Black Sabbath's 1970 LP 'Paranoid'.
The first thing that struck me during my inaugural listen was how fresh this record still sounds. Despite being released 43 years ago (and only 7 months after their debut album), the guitars still crunch, the bass still rumbles, and the drums are still crisp. Everything sounds great and not at all dated. Though it may be more similar in many ways to the blues-heavy rock of Led Zeppelin than to what comes to mind when you think of heavy metal, it rocks pretty hard; even today (especially when I think about it in the context of its own release). Quickly looking through some of top 25 hits of 1970 gives you a glimpse of how different a trail Black Sabbath was blazing: Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water, Carpenter's (They Long to Be) Close to You, B.J. Thomas' Rain Drops Keep Falling on My Head, Jackson 5's I'll Be There, and so on. Looking at 'Paranoid' in view of the music that was around at the time really helped me to appreciate that what these four lads (Geezer Butler - bass & lyrics, Tony Iommi - guitar, Bill Ward - drums, and Ozzy Osbourne - vocals ) were doing was pretty bold and unique; not to mention totally rocking.
It all starts with a loud droning guitar strum. Drums and bass enter, followed shortly thereafter by a wailing air raid siren. The sound builds, then quickly drops out with two loud strokes of Iommi's guitar (Da-dun!) and Ozzy sings, "Generals gathered in their masses, Just like witches at black masses, Evil minds that plot destruction, Sorcerers of death's construction" and we're off. War Pigs (originally also the album's title) serves as the perfect opener to 'Paranoid'. Setting the tone both sonically and lyrical, it gets the album going in a grand fashion and begins the flawless (and perfectly paced) first side of this record. The song, Paranoid, comes in after the eight minutes of War Pigs and with its quick pace, heavy riff, and 3 minute run time serves as the perfect counterpart to the album opener. Planet Caravan arrives and slows things way down with a blurry psychedelic vocal filter on Ozzy's singing, bongos, and blues-y solo from Iommi. Iron Man then revs it back up with it's inescapable, wonderfully lumbering, guitar riff. Everything on this first side works so well together and each song is sequenced so perfectly that the first 20 minutes of the record flew by for me. With every listen, I found myself wanting to go back and listen to things that I hadn't caught the first time: the weird woop-woop-woop guitar delay sound on Planet Caravan or Geezer Butler's incredible bass work on Iron Man. Above all, they are just great tunes to get lost in, fist-pump to, and sing along with.
The goodness continues on the second side of the record with Electric Funeral and Hand of Doom; both serving up engaging riffs and melodies, and appropriately dour, war-horror filled lyrics as well as interesting time signature changes. And it all ends with the gloriously epic (and epic-ly titled) Fairies Wear Boots, which serves as a perfect summation of the album. It has it all. The classic riffs, great drum and bass work, strong singing from Ozzy, and one of the best choruses ever: "Fairies wear boots and you gotta believe me; Yeah, I saw it, I saw it, I tell you no lies". It rocks. And it's safe to say after a week and 14 listens, it is my favorite track on the LP. The only hitch on the record is Rat Salad, and it's a fairly inconsequential hitch. I'll get this out there now, and I apologize to all the drummers who might be reading this: I'm not huge on drum solos. In a live setting, I can understand them being awesome, tubular, and totally sweet but, on records, I rarely enjoy them. I'm sorry. And most of Rat Salad is a drum solo. It's not a bad one and the track is only 2 and half minutes long so it's gone quickly, but it doesn't really add anything to the record for me. Whenever I arrived at the track in my listening I couldn't wait for it to be done with so I could get on to the goodies in Fairies Wear Boots.
My few (and very minor) gripes aside, my week with 'Paranoid' was one definitely not wasted. Sometimes it's just nice to listen to record with heavy guitar, booming bass and riffs you can just sink your teeth into. I talked about a "pop sweet spot" last week and this week 'Paranoid' alternatively hit the rocking out-epic fantasies-head banging in my car-Vikings will always be totally awesome "sweet-spot". Even with lyrics of doom-and-gloom, Black Sabbath serve up a memorable and even fun journey full of amazing songs. This is Heavy Metal that I can get behind and thoroughly enjoy... this was not hard work.
Up Next: I thought I would bring it back to the present for this week and look at a record that has been widely acclaimed , widely popular (in the UK at least) and was just short-listed for the Mercury Prize; plus it's one I've been wanting to sink my teeth into for a while now, Rudimental's debut album 'Home'. Plus, anthemic, R&B-infused, drum & bass club-bangerz should prove a nice transition from Sabbath, yes? Hooray! Here's a taste of what is in store.
Also, to any metal-heads out there, what do you suggest I try next?
The first thing that struck me during my inaugural listen was how fresh this record still sounds. Despite being released 43 years ago (and only 7 months after their debut album), the guitars still crunch, the bass still rumbles, and the drums are still crisp. Everything sounds great and not at all dated. Though it may be more similar in many ways to the blues-heavy rock of Led Zeppelin than to what comes to mind when you think of heavy metal, it rocks pretty hard; even today (especially when I think about it in the context of its own release). Quickly looking through some of top 25 hits of 1970 gives you a glimpse of how different a trail Black Sabbath was blazing: Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water, Carpenter's (They Long to Be) Close to You, B.J. Thomas' Rain Drops Keep Falling on My Head, Jackson 5's I'll Be There, and so on. Looking at 'Paranoid' in view of the music that was around at the time really helped me to appreciate that what these four lads (Geezer Butler - bass & lyrics, Tony Iommi - guitar, Bill Ward - drums, and Ozzy Osbourne - vocals ) were doing was pretty bold and unique; not to mention totally rocking.
It all starts with a loud droning guitar strum. Drums and bass enter, followed shortly thereafter by a wailing air raid siren. The sound builds, then quickly drops out with two loud strokes of Iommi's guitar (Da-dun!) and Ozzy sings, "Generals gathered in their masses, Just like witches at black masses, Evil minds that plot destruction, Sorcerers of death's construction" and we're off. War Pigs (originally also the album's title) serves as the perfect opener to 'Paranoid'. Setting the tone both sonically and lyrical, it gets the album going in a grand fashion and begins the flawless (and perfectly paced) first side of this record. The song, Paranoid, comes in after the eight minutes of War Pigs and with its quick pace, heavy riff, and 3 minute run time serves as the perfect counterpart to the album opener. Planet Caravan arrives and slows things way down with a blurry psychedelic vocal filter on Ozzy's singing, bongos, and blues-y solo from Iommi. Iron Man then revs it back up with it's inescapable, wonderfully lumbering, guitar riff. Everything on this first side works so well together and each song is sequenced so perfectly that the first 20 minutes of the record flew by for me. With every listen, I found myself wanting to go back and listen to things that I hadn't caught the first time: the weird woop-woop-woop guitar delay sound on Planet Caravan or Geezer Butler's incredible bass work on Iron Man. Above all, they are just great tunes to get lost in, fist-pump to, and sing along with.
My few (and very minor) gripes aside, my week with 'Paranoid' was one definitely not wasted. Sometimes it's just nice to listen to record with heavy guitar, booming bass and riffs you can just sink your teeth into. I talked about a "pop sweet spot" last week and this week 'Paranoid' alternatively hit the rocking out-epic fantasies-head banging in my car-Vikings will always be totally awesome "sweet-spot". Even with lyrics of doom-and-gloom, Black Sabbath serve up a memorable and even fun journey full of amazing songs. This is Heavy Metal that I can get behind and thoroughly enjoy... this was not hard work.
Up Next: I thought I would bring it back to the present for this week and look at a record that has been widely acclaimed , widely popular (in the UK at least) and was just short-listed for the Mercury Prize; plus it's one I've been wanting to sink my teeth into for a while now, Rudimental's debut album 'Home'. Plus, anthemic, R&B-infused, drum & bass club-bangerz should prove a nice transition from Sabbath, yes? Hooray! Here's a taste of what is in store.
Also, to any metal-heads out there, what do you suggest I try next?
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