31.5.02
nelly - "hot in here"
ok i'm with blastmaster kris, this is lazy shit. i can't imagine it was particularly hot in the studio when nelly and the neptunes were cranking out this joyless slop. i mean nelly is genuinely a fucking mystikal-wannabe lightweight! and how i wish the neptunes would just take a long holiday. get off the radio, the three of you!
ok i'm with blastmaster kris, this is lazy shit. i can't imagine it was particularly hot in the studio when nelly and the neptunes were cranking out this joyless slop. i mean nelly is genuinely a fucking mystikal-wannabe lightweight! and how i wish the neptunes would just take a long holiday. get off the radio, the three of you!
28.5.02
i notice while watching janet jackson's top ten videos on mtv base that the basic formula of her tunes has remained incredibly consistent - the beats are always a glossier, over-egged version of whatever the mode is in r'n'b and her melodies are always so sacharine even mya would blush and suggest that perhaps the time had come for hard-edged minimalism. and yet! "that's the way love goes" and "it doesn't matter" (which also has the best video - janet and friends hook up and then decide independently of one another to go dancing on a cybertronik sex-podium in what looks like downtown neo tokyo!) are stone-cold classics when i can handle the gooey gushy vibe. and to be fair i can handle that vibe far too much than is necessarily healthy. also, i had completely forgotten the existence of "i get lonely" which is awesome too!
27.5.02
eminem #1!!!
easily the finest number one of the year, perhaps the only record in the chart that improves when you pay full attention to it (although shakedown holds up surprisingly well! the only problem is finding the edit that's being played on the radio) and my favourite thing with eminem on it since "forgot about dre". a lot has already been said about "without me", so i will just add that the sound of his voice is incredibly exciting and i love it!
other new entries: dj shadow's new one is quite pleasant, but it's quite odd that he even released a single: the dude has the worst grasp of pop dynamics ever!
i heard rhianna's tune was really good, but the clip i just listened to sounded rubbish. will someone be arsed to convince me otherwise? jack cable?
"starbucks" is a fucking terrible attempt to assimilate the blink 182 pop-rush sweet-chorus thing, i suspect because there's very little that's sweet about the leathery-voiced old-man-in-young-boy's-clothes who fronts a.
and all you other new entries throwin shots at the charts, you only get half a sentence - fuck y'all niggas!
(only took me nine months to use that gag!)
easily the finest number one of the year, perhaps the only record in the chart that improves when you pay full attention to it (although shakedown holds up surprisingly well! the only problem is finding the edit that's being played on the radio) and my favourite thing with eminem on it since "forgot about dre". a lot has already been said about "without me", so i will just add that the sound of his voice is incredibly exciting and i love it!
other new entries: dj shadow's new one is quite pleasant, but it's quite odd that he even released a single: the dude has the worst grasp of pop dynamics ever!
i heard rhianna's tune was really good, but the clip i just listened to sounded rubbish. will someone be arsed to convince me otherwise? jack cable?
"starbucks" is a fucking terrible attempt to assimilate the blink 182 pop-rush sweet-chorus thing, i suspect because there's very little that's sweet about the leathery-voiced old-man-in-young-boy's-clothes who fronts a.
and all you other new entries throwin shots at the charts, you only get half a sentence - fuck y'all niggas!
(only took me nine months to use that gag!)
24.5.02
the more obvious reason that party breaks didn't cross over here is they can't get played in britain's generally po-faced hiphop clubs, which cater mainly for those who believe hiphop got better when it evolved away from icky drum machines and started using half second drum hits from grimy fourth-rate jazz-funk fusion songs (thanks a lot dj premier!). it still amazes me how tinny and utterly funk-less most of these tunes sound when played at club volume, which is not an inherently bad thing, it just seems silly to start an entire network of clubs around them.
(at the very top of grime-hop sits jeru the damaja's "come clean" [yes its produced by premier] - the record which i think influenced the last 7-odd years of underground hiphop more than any other [wu tang don't count as much because they're too conceptual and cartoonish]. it's still an excellent and unnerving song and should not be discounted just because dilated peoples liked it. [check them trying to ape it exactly on "work the angles"!])
(at the very top of grime-hop sits jeru the damaja's "come clean" [yes its produced by premier] - the record which i think influenced the last 7-odd years of underground hiphop more than any other [wu tang don't count as much because they're too conceptual and cartoonish]. it's still an excellent and unnerving song and should not be discounted just because dilated peoples liked it. [check them trying to ape it exactly on "work the angles"!])
i wish party breaks records like those released by av8 had become a pop-cult reference point instead of stupid old bootlegs. slapping two whole songs together? that is some dull rockist shit compared to the expert merging of hooks from dozens of recent and past anthems. party breaks had a chance when the shoot tha pump compilation was released a few years ago, hitting around the same time as dj kool's "let me clear my throat". it got some press, but it never found any kind of niche, at least on this side of the pond, perhaps solely because dj kool is so annoying. this is a shame because it means no one ever ever ever talks about this kind of record; sometimes i feel like i imagined the whole genre. (is this how indie fans feel about their favourite crummy band?)
when all the hooks and stolen beats fit, like on "franklinz" by the crooklyn clan or "pimp style" from the new best of buds comp, they satisfy my disturbingly short attention span and confirm the feeling that verses should be discarded from music altogether. why does everything else have to be so boring all the fucking time?
(recent lack of posts on spizzazzz due to a) getting bored of songs while literally in the process of writing about them b) going on a group outing to see the new star wars film (which should obviously have been subtitled yoda vs. dracula) c) setting up time-consuming internet radio station d) with the exception of "without me", all the songs on the radio at the moment are awful considering its nearly june and the summer anthems should be breaking out - pull your finger out someone!)
when all the hooks and stolen beats fit, like on "franklinz" by the crooklyn clan or "pimp style" from the new best of buds comp, they satisfy my disturbingly short attention span and confirm the feeling that verses should be discarded from music altogether. why does everything else have to be so boring all the fucking time?
(recent lack of posts on spizzazzz due to a) getting bored of songs while literally in the process of writing about them b) going on a group outing to see the new star wars film (which should obviously have been subtitled yoda vs. dracula) c) setting up time-consuming internet radio station d) with the exception of "without me", all the songs on the radio at the moment are awful considering its nearly june and the summer anthems should be breaking out - pull your finger out someone!)
23.5.02
20.5.02
yes, official ugliest band in britain liberty x have crashed into number 1 with the least distinguished chart topper since, i don't know, leanne rhymes' "can't fight the moonlight" or maybe that rubbish second hear'say single. (really, i just checked... and what the fuck is rui da silva feat. cassandra - "touch me" and how does it go??). most of the new entries i've barely even heard of, as they're no doubt only popular on commercial radio instead of the station without remorse. i can discern that there's the one with mr shabbz's twin brother ("freak mode" - it's alright ); the one where enrique gets to bed kournikova (pretty good!); the one where pink goes soft rock and admits she's a lesbian or that she cuts herself or something (excellent!); the one where you have to imagine fat joe actually, like, having a sexual relationship with ladies (ewww!); plus some others i suspect are house anthems that arent as good as shakedown. i'm going to download the rammstien tune that went in at number 30 right now!
10.5.02
krs one vs. nelly
the least dangerous beef in hiphop history? i'm embarrassed for them already, especially after reading krs one's lengthy press release - the dude talks too much! beware his "atomically charged, lyrically activated emcee bomb"! but shudder as you remember he hasn't put out a truly great song since "sound of da police". and cringe when you recall him courting the charts with the utterly abysmal "step into a world" (i haven't forgotten the puff daddy remix either!). i doubt nelly is capable of reaching the same highs or lows, and in fact exists in such a different world to krs that it's hard to understand why he rose to this half-arsed challenge. nelly dude, you don't have to prove your hardcore credentials, we love yourinoffensive brand of sing-song rap thugged-out battle rhymes!
the least dangerous beef in hiphop history? i'm embarrassed for them already, especially after reading krs one's lengthy press release - the dude talks too much! beware his "atomically charged, lyrically activated emcee bomb"! but shudder as you remember he hasn't put out a truly great song since "sound of da police". and cringe when you recall him courting the charts with the utterly abysmal "step into a world" (i haven't forgotten the puff daddy remix either!). i doubt nelly is capable of reaching the same highs or lows, and in fact exists in such a different world to krs that it's hard to understand why he rose to this half-arsed challenge. nelly dude, you don't have to prove your hardcore credentials, we love your
9.5.02
after much soul-searching, spizzazzz has collectively decided that ms dynamite's "it takes more" (and in turn, her new r'n'b direction) are in fact a good thing. the space between blu cantrell and sunshine anderson in the whiny soul market is surely a mere sliver, but we're positive that dynamite is the lady to fill that space. plus: a) she looks really cool and not-like-craig david-at-all on the cover of dazed+confused; b) maybe this means lady stush will stick to ukg!
on the subject of "always on time", radio 1 (the station without remorse) plays it several times a day/hour still, but has given hardly any support to timo maas! hence "shifter" sinking without trace. i suspect this is mostly because it sounds quite similar to the playlisted ukg remix of usher's (not very good!) "u turn", but also i can imagine that nobody wants another dance-superstar-with-guest-vocals considering the way the shit brothers have abused this position by employing oasis dude and verve dude over the last few years. (there's a song on the timo album featuring finley quaye that i'm too afraid to even download.)
8.5.02
ashanti-fied
yes, it's one nation under irv gotti as murder inc's latest star has mysteriously charmed the fuck out of the american charts with her blander-than-bland voice and strangely catch-less melodies. i can't find it in my heart to dislike "foolish" or "what's luv?", but when ja rule himself is involved, it turns odious. "always on time" is an odd throwback to the days of "crossover" rap, where polite synths must chime over an equally polite beat, and the heartfelt chorus must be repeated far too many times, so ja can deliver his tired selection of rhyme pattern tics (ok, this might apply to most rappers but ja rule's are more annoying!) and ghetto-sensitive stance.
all this despite [insertdozensofr'n'brapsingleshere] having proved there's no need to compromise (innovative sonics or hardcore-ness) to sell tons of records. this is somewhat true of all three singles, and it's rendered explicit by using biggie's "one more chance" beat on "foolish" - that was big's last attempt to seduce an even wider demographic before every sensible person realized tougher club hits ("hypnotize"!) could do well enough anyway. to my ears, murder inc are making a calculated attempt to appeal to an audience larger even than the 3 or 4 million that most highly visible rappers can sell; that's fine by me, but do they have to go about it in such a boring way?
(nb: "one more chance" is still wicked)
yes, it's one nation under irv gotti as murder inc's latest star has mysteriously charmed the fuck out of the american charts with her blander-than-bland voice and strangely catch-less melodies. i can't find it in my heart to dislike "foolish" or "what's luv?", but when ja rule himself is involved, it turns odious. "always on time" is an odd throwback to the days of "crossover" rap, where polite synths must chime over an equally polite beat, and the heartfelt chorus must be repeated far too many times, so ja can deliver his tired selection of rhyme pattern tics (ok, this might apply to most rappers but ja rule's are more annoying!) and ghetto-sensitive stance.
all this despite [insertdozensofr'n'brapsingleshere] having proved there's no need to compromise (innovative sonics or hardcore-ness) to sell tons of records. this is somewhat true of all three singles, and it's rendered explicit by using biggie's "one more chance" beat on "foolish" - that was big's last attempt to seduce an even wider demographic before every sensible person realized tougher club hits ("hypnotize"!) could do well enough anyway. to my ears, murder inc are making a calculated attempt to appeal to an audience larger even than the 3 or 4 million that most highly visible rappers can sell; that's fine by me, but do they have to go about it in such a boring way?
(nb: "one more chance" is still wicked)
4.5.02
2.5.02
some mixtapes i downloaded with new broadband power:
the avalanches - gimix + breezeblock mix
gimix is the avalanches proper album with all the more anonymous bits replaced by huge pop classics like "girls just wanna have fun" and "got your money". it would be fair to say the avalanches are only interested in conveying two moods (already one more than prime fu manchu, and thus, one too many) - one is a sweet, almost sickly sentimental summers past thing (lots of phasing and swirling and evocative field recording sounds all over the mix, which is a slightly lame device for making it flow seamlessly, unless perhaps they're trying to recreate how these songs sound in their brains when filtered through images, smells, sounds, etc of sunshine and good times and hazy memory [this is also lame!]) and the other one is kind-of similar but with amazing b-lines.
the breezeblock mix is less manipulative in every sense as it's performed live on three or four decks with no stupid effects. they have good taste - more odb (this time it's "brooklyn zoo", which reminded me that it's my favourite ever wu solo single), "let's get butt naked and fuck", "the next episode", "bellbottoms", "if you want me to stay", lots of jackson five, some good stuff that i hadn't heard before, plus obligatory cruddy funk shit that can fill out any eclectic party mix. i think i prefer this one.
dj rectangle - r rated + vinyl kombat + rollin' deep + planet of the tapes + deadly needles
"yo this is ice cube from the westside connection, dj rectangle kick that shit - ya don't stop till the panties drop". i can't decide if rectangle works his mixes so it all comes out as g-funk, or whether he's proving that all good post 80s hiphop is g-funk. i originally heard r rated when i was very young on a crappy cassette; i would call it a pretty big influence on what i listen to, and still my favourite amongst his ridiculous body of work - a bunch of circa-1995 hiphop classics, some famous ("i got 5 on it", "mcs act like they don't know") and some unfairly forgotten (masta ace's astonishing "sittin' on chrome"), united mainly by heavy basslines that demand a physical reaction, expertly mixed at one continuous, obsessive tempo. sometimes he'll drop a catchy scratch routine over the beats and often he'll weave acappelas and instrumentals all over the place. he has repeated this formula exactly on all subsequent mixes, which means its possible to scientifically rate a year in rap music from a rectangle mix alone. (95, 96 and 99 are the best years!) i want a car just to play these mixes in it.
dj vlad - dancehall murda mixtape 2
i think this is a couple of years old but i can't be sure as my dancehall experience is limited to the occasional club night and chris goldfinger. conclusions: quality of riddims can take a while to discern. roots-style club tracks often rubbish. reggae version of craig david's "walking away" hard to extinguish from brain. this is pretty good since i can't find any brand new dancehall mixes.
soulwax - 2manydjs + hang the dj
do soulwax see a really obvious link between emerging nu-electropop scene and bootleg scene? it doesn't strike me as obvious, but it certainly all hangs together well and the tracks sound good on these mixes; more so than anything from those scenes i've heard unmixed. 2manydjs is the real proper-release deal, but hang the dj is two whole hours from radio 1 unhindered by copyright laws. it's sprawling and unpredictable and even though it's another computer-edited set, it's not oppressive like gimix is in trying to tame every track to meet whatever mood the dj is itching to convey, since the modus operandi seems to be: make the heard-everything, cynical-fuck listener grin with childish delight. (way closer to rectangle actually, but i think if i was trying to dance to this i might find it too contrived.) this is really, really good headphone shit for walking, at least until it becomes less surprising in a couple of weeks - i'm scared the magic will quickly wear off and i will find it annoying. anyway, obvious best bit: van halen's "eruption" segueing transcendentally into "superheroes" by daft punk. my goodness!
the avalanches - gimix + breezeblock mix
gimix is the avalanches proper album with all the more anonymous bits replaced by huge pop classics like "girls just wanna have fun" and "got your money". it would be fair to say the avalanches are only interested in conveying two moods (already one more than prime fu manchu, and thus, one too many) - one is a sweet, almost sickly sentimental summers past thing (lots of phasing and swirling and evocative field recording sounds all over the mix, which is a slightly lame device for making it flow seamlessly, unless perhaps they're trying to recreate how these songs sound in their brains when filtered through images, smells, sounds, etc of sunshine and good times and hazy memory [this is also lame!]) and the other one is kind-of similar but with amazing b-lines.
the breezeblock mix is less manipulative in every sense as it's performed live on three or four decks with no stupid effects. they have good taste - more odb (this time it's "brooklyn zoo", which reminded me that it's my favourite ever wu solo single), "let's get butt naked and fuck", "the next episode", "bellbottoms", "if you want me to stay", lots of jackson five, some good stuff that i hadn't heard before, plus obligatory cruddy funk shit that can fill out any eclectic party mix. i think i prefer this one.
dj rectangle - r rated + vinyl kombat + rollin' deep + planet of the tapes + deadly needles
"yo this is ice cube from the westside connection, dj rectangle kick that shit - ya don't stop till the panties drop". i can't decide if rectangle works his mixes so it all comes out as g-funk, or whether he's proving that all good post 80s hiphop is g-funk. i originally heard r rated when i was very young on a crappy cassette; i would call it a pretty big influence on what i listen to, and still my favourite amongst his ridiculous body of work - a bunch of circa-1995 hiphop classics, some famous ("i got 5 on it", "mcs act like they don't know") and some unfairly forgotten (masta ace's astonishing "sittin' on chrome"), united mainly by heavy basslines that demand a physical reaction, expertly mixed at one continuous, obsessive tempo. sometimes he'll drop a catchy scratch routine over the beats and often he'll weave acappelas and instrumentals all over the place. he has repeated this formula exactly on all subsequent mixes, which means its possible to scientifically rate a year in rap music from a rectangle mix alone. (95, 96 and 99 are the best years!) i want a car just to play these mixes in it.
dj vlad - dancehall murda mixtape 2
i think this is a couple of years old but i can't be sure as my dancehall experience is limited to the occasional club night and chris goldfinger. conclusions: quality of riddims can take a while to discern. roots-style club tracks often rubbish. reggae version of craig david's "walking away" hard to extinguish from brain. this is pretty good since i can't find any brand new dancehall mixes.
soulwax - 2manydjs + hang the dj
do soulwax see a really obvious link between emerging nu-electropop scene and bootleg scene? it doesn't strike me as obvious, but it certainly all hangs together well and the tracks sound good on these mixes; more so than anything from those scenes i've heard unmixed. 2manydjs is the real proper-release deal, but hang the dj is two whole hours from radio 1 unhindered by copyright laws. it's sprawling and unpredictable and even though it's another computer-edited set, it's not oppressive like gimix is in trying to tame every track to meet whatever mood the dj is itching to convey, since the modus operandi seems to be: make the heard-everything, cynical-fuck listener grin with childish delight. (way closer to rectangle actually, but i think if i was trying to dance to this i might find it too contrived.) this is really, really good headphone shit for walking, at least until it becomes less surprising in a couple of weeks - i'm scared the magic will quickly wear off and i will find it annoying. anyway, obvious best bit: van halen's "eruption" segueing transcendentally into "superheroes" by daft punk. my goodness!
1.5.02
what the fuck happened to fu manchu? they've all cut their hair (one of them is bald!?) and now they play their riffs in a higher and infinitely shitter octave. ugh. i will try and forget seeing them like this by playing the all-killer heavy pop classic "eatin' dust" ep.
(spizzazzz is now broadband-powered, thanks bt openworld of woe!)
(spizzazzz is now broadband-powered, thanks bt openworld of woe!)
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