Damn. It’s been nearly a month without posting. Poor form. And this isn’t even a real post. This is more of a justification that I am indeed listening to music still. I just can’t figure out what to write about. So instead, I’m going to offer up a selection of the many treasures I have been devouring of late.
Frightened Rabbit, harking from Wales and one of my favourite indie bands running around, have released a new album of recent, which had me much excited. Their last album arrived at my ears at a time when I probably could have used more cheerful music but I thrashed it until the mp3′s wore away. The bitter result of a horrid break up, it reeked of pain, rancour and sadness… and I loved every moment of it. The new album is growing on me after two listens so far, but the broken heartedness seems to have faded away.
Due to forcing myself (or more to the point, being forced as a result of my ready admittance of ignorance) to read Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, I’ve gained a slight obsession with Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights. There’s something about her extreme soprano wailing that lifts me, lets me crash and then throws me around again. Plus it makes me want to break out into her strange arm throwing dance in the red dress video and I don’t even like Heathcliff or Catherine as characters. Heathcliff, It’s me, Cathy, I’m coming home now. It will get stuck in your head.
Hip hop wise, I’ve been revisiting old Def Jux records and am re-in love with Cannibal Ox – The Cold Vein. The now defunct duo of Vast Aire and Vordul Mega released the Cold Vein back in 2001 (produced by El P) and its abstract hip hop was well received by most critics, especially those versed in the underground scene. Musically it’s dense and abrasive (something I am indeed partial to) and lyrically, it is verging on genius… especially tracks such as ‘The F Word’, ‘Pigeon’ (these rags-to-riches words will break bones/Like the assassination of two birds with one stone/That’s why I don’t associate with bird brains with their beaks in the air/Pelicans with wide jaws yap names for fish heads/You’ll get tossed in the flames/Where some archaeologist will find your skeletal frame) and ‘Battle for Asgard’ .
The other day I stumbled across Bigg Jus’s song – Illustrations of Hieronymus Bosch – from the album Poor People’s Day. I hadn’t realised he’d put an album since Black Mamba Serums. This track is a furious indictment of US policy circa 2006 and post 9/11 world on Mush records and on first listen, the album is incredible. Check it out.
DJ/Rupture’s album ‘uproot’ is also getting a lot of listens. And I just discovered I can stream his radio show on WCMU (I think that’s right) which would be well worth listening to. Uproot’s mix of dubstep, ragga and hip hop becomes addictive quickly, as it slides across tracks seamlessly, and I’m finding the tracks that I like least are still growing on me.
One of the finest albums, though definitely not to everyone’s tastes, that I’ve heard in a long time is Fuck Button’s Tarot Sport, a frenetic, pulsing mix of post rock, drone, and I suppose, trance (though I’m not to knowledgable on trance’s style). I’ve been regularly visiting this album since summer last year and I find that it’s incredibly hard to remove once caught up into the steady beat, swirling keyboards. Hailing from Bristol, these guys are putting out some of the best music out there.
Finally, I found Amethyst Rock Star by Saul Williams hiding away in my hard drive, which I hadn’t listened to since my iPod died. This album, like the artist, is drastically underappreciated. Lyrically, it is perfect. Resting somewhere between hip hop and spoken word, Saul spits themes of manhood, life, responsibility, love, hope, god, race with an intelligence that few people could. If you’ve never heard of him, I urge you to pick up an album and listen to it – brace yourself for abrasion but endure it – and if you can’t endure that then search youtube for his spoken word or amazon for his books or just watch ‘Slam’. The man is one of our few modern-day geniuses.
Go on. Listen. I dare you. Dance. Make love. Read books. Read Poetry. Read Plays. Let it all consume you. And above all, wear headphones.
