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Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 6:03 pm Posts: 9359 Location: Washington State
that's funny because I only found it this year. it's better for finding things because if you find it, it's actually there vs. a torrent where you have to wait, and maybe it'll download/maybe it won't? and all that crap.
_________________ "The fatal flaw of all revolutionaries is that they know how to tear things down but don't have a f**king clue about how to build anything."
Toronto bassist Rob Clutton is releasing a new album in collaboration with saxophone player Tony Malaby, called Offering. It's out December 2 on Clutton's Snailbongbong label. Track 5, "Refuge," is currently up for streaming.
Joined: Tue September 24, 2013 5:56 pm Posts: 47182 Location: In the oatmeal aisle wearing a Shellac shirt
Jammer XCI wrote:
The "new" Gang Starr album is fucking awesome.
Still need to listen to the new DJ Shadow and Cattle Decapitation and that'll probably be a wrap for the year/decade.
I loved what I heard of the Gang Starr albums, like three tracks that were all terrific.
That Shadow instrumental disc is...frustrating. Not the tired explorations of TLYKTB, but nowhere near as thrilling as TMWF. Some good experiments, but also some annoying and/or boring stuff. Haven't listened to the rap album yet.
Joined: Tue September 24, 2013 5:56 pm Posts: 47182 Location: In the oatmeal aisle wearing a Shellac shirt
tragabigzanda wrote:
Jammer XCI wrote:
The "new" Gang Starr album is fucking awesome.
Still need to listen to the new DJ Shadow and Cattle Decapitation and that'll probably be a wrap for the year/decade.
I loved what I heard of the Gang Starr albums, like three tracks that were all terrific.
That Shadow instrumental disc is...frustrating. Not the tired explorations of TLYKTB, but nowhere near as thrilling as TMWF. Some good experiments, but also some annoying and/or boring stuff. Haven't listened to the rap album yet.
Coming back to this, been listening again today.
As a longtime, often frustrated Shadow fan, The Pathetic Age instrumental record falls somewhere in the middle. My ranking:
Endtroducing... --------- Psyence Fiction (as UNKLE) The Mountain Will Fall Preemptive Strike The Private Press --------- Funky Skunk (mix album) --------- Our Pathetic Age --------- Brainfreeze (Live mix album) Product Placement (Live mix album) --------- The Outsider The Less You Know, The Better
Shadow's strength has always been in setting a mood, and pacing things out. That his first few releases were built largely on downtempo songs over and above 8 minutes long is no small feat -- they were breathtaking despite their plodding nature!
His experiments away from the turntable and sample-centric sounds of his earlier releases has mostly been lacking. Apart from a couple songs, The Outsider was an awful experiment in a weird sub-genre of rap music that Shadow obviously loved, but that longtime Shadow fans didn't seem to get on board with. The Funky Skunk mix was much more enjoyable nod to the rap that he was digging at the time, taking then-popular dirty south/crunk raps and putting them on top of old school funk breaks and moody synth beats.
I still don't know what to make of The Less You Know, The Better. Somewhere between a revisit of the sounds that brought him success and an attempt at looking forward, the whole thing felt more like an exercise in "what ifs" than anything actually enjoyable. It was also the first time he approached his sample-based instrumental music in shorter chunks, with songs living more within the 3-4 minute mark. It wasn't a good fit, and the tracks are either tired facsimiles of work he'd done better elsewhere, or experiments that don't really land with any weight (I'm looking at you, punk rock-sampling "Border Crossing").
The run of sub-par material from 2006-2016 is what made The Mountain Will Fall so surprising. Here all his prior experiments seemed to coalesce into something dramatic, regaining the cinematic feel of his earlier material with his new experimentation with synths, old-school drum machines, and shorter song structures. The whole album feels like a whole, and no track is dispensable.
So it's a bummer that the instrumental side of Our Pathetic Age feels like a complete retread of that album, with only a few thrills. The first three tracks feels like Mountain outtakes that should have stayed on the cutting room floor. "Beauty, Power, Motion..." attempts a pivot towards jazz, and winds up sounding like an R2D2 b-side.
Finally, the fifth track "Juggernaut" stands out for being fun, even if it's not doing anything new. And then "Firestorm" is the album highlight for me: It's Shadow's first 100% orchestral track, and it's awesome. My assumption is that he programmed everything digitally, then just had the computer spit out the sheet music and had an orchestra play it (yes they can do that now). I'd gladly take an entire album of DJ Shadow orchestral songs just like this!
The next few tracks are fine-yet-boring revisits of the sort of stuff he was doing on The Private Press. The final two tracks, "My Lonely Room" and "We Are Always Alone" stand out as some of the stronger material on the album, but they come way too late in the game to make me want to revisit them again.
It's interesting to me that he hasn't attempted to connect with any of the Brainfeeder crew. They're pushing the boundaries of instrumental hiphop these days, and I'd like to think Shadow could turn out some great work with FlyLo, Thundercat, etc. Alas, he seems content to keep spinning his wheels the way he's always done it: at his own pace, without any care for what others may get from the experience.
This feels like an album made for him rather than for the fans. Maybe the rap side is much stronger?
Joined: Thu February 02, 2017 10:39 am Posts: 5626 Location: Most likely at the office...
This is a bit of a surprise fave album for me this year as, whilst I like some pop, its not usually something that I seek out. Thelma Plum is an indigenous Australian lass who has released a cracker of a debut this year, 'Better in Blak'. I think that RM's usual suspects when it comes to fem vox pop will enjoy this too. The album complete is a treat, here's the title track:
After selling out their career-spanning compilation Capsule Losing Contact earlier this year, Duster have announced that they're releasing a new album on December 13, titled Duster. Opener and lead single, "Copernicus Crater" is up on streaming services, including the Youtube video below:
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