sean paul - feel alright
first off, i wanna let the world know i was chumped by greensleeves. coolie dance was my first ever riddim lp, could have been a defining moment in my musical life, could have led to dropping all my spare money on these things, but is the best track on there? is it fuck. it's probably not even the fault of greensleeves: s paul is a big shot signed to atlantic, they probably don't want his newest tracks licensed before they've had a chance to release them ("feel alright" sounds like a possible worldwide smash).
but fuck dancehall anyway for making me sound like some whiny dude who's mad cuz they didn't include his favourite bob dylan outtake on some shit! i dunno, it might even be its non-appearance on the album that makes it seem like the definitive coolie dance track. none of the other versions have the addictive doom-chant bass line though; none of them are as lithe and confident (s paul can afford to almost do without that annoying "do it like a genie wind up yourself" refrain); and none of them have s paul himself, who is still inhuman, but of course his ridiculously tight command of every single hook makes me want to be inhuman too.
(lithe isnt quite right actually, nor is sinuous or any other porno-adjective - basically it sounds like a penis; the best penis ever in fact!)
29.9.03
the new dmx album...
...is mad boring, except for the singles and that awesome one with cam'ron ("we go hard", check it!). also it has that stupid sepia photoshop tint on the cover, there's some things that cannot be forgiven! i don't wanna dwell on that however, so here is a reminder of better times in the form of the greatest sticker ever:
...is mad boring, except for the singles and that awesome one with cam'ron ("we go hard", check it!). also it has that stupid sepia photoshop tint on the cover, there's some things that cannot be forgiven! i don't wanna dwell on that however, so here is a reminder of better times in the form of the greatest sticker ever:
27.9.03
liberty x - jumpin'
this is like a three-and-a-half minute attempt to convince the audience that we are listening to a good chorus! like, if you lay it over enough different variations of this mono-chord acoustic jam ("like i love you" completely misunderstood by british people bah!) it will eventually sit well and become memorable; all the toil it took to record the live bits and lx's vocals and make those synth noises will be worth it.
as always i want lx to win because they are fucking cool! i dunno about the first two minutes, i suppose they're good mainly for setting up the massive finale: first the "say uh oh" breakdown with hot synth stabs, then a holly valance pretend dancehall stereo pingpong bit, then the return of the chorus with heavy groove bass (urrr) (lx never sell out by using gross guitars though!), then the chorus with just acoustic guitar, then an even heavier return, and by this time it is reminding me of that rage against the machine song where he's going "fuck you i won't do what you tell me" at the end (incidentally a fave of legendary spizz non-poster and liberty x superfan jack cable).
so sometimes i'm thinking "calm down lx dudes!" and other times i give in and headbop to it. whatever, liberty x's rawness is being loveable and trying too hard, which means they remain raw!
this is like a three-and-a-half minute attempt to convince the audience that we are listening to a good chorus! like, if you lay it over enough different variations of this mono-chord acoustic jam ("like i love you" completely misunderstood by british people bah!) it will eventually sit well and become memorable; all the toil it took to record the live bits and lx's vocals and make those synth noises will be worth it.
as always i want lx to win because they are fucking cool! i dunno about the first two minutes, i suppose they're good mainly for setting up the massive finale: first the "say uh oh" breakdown with hot synth stabs, then a holly valance pretend dancehall stereo pingpong bit, then the return of the chorus with heavy groove bass (urrr) (lx never sell out by using gross guitars though!), then the chorus with just acoustic guitar, then an even heavier return, and by this time it is reminding me of that rage against the machine song where he's going "fuck you i won't do what you tell me" at the end (incidentally a fave of legendary spizz non-poster and liberty x superfan jack cable).
so sometimes i'm thinking "calm down lx dudes!" and other times i give in and headbop to it. whatever, liberty x's rawness is being loveable and trying too hard, which means they remain raw!
26.9.03
snoop dogg/nate dogg/warren g - so fly
they were playing the new snoop rhyming over hits cd in the record shop today. any time between 94 and 98 this would have been the greatest cd ever, just to hear his very particular style over beats that weren't straight west coast. but in 03 snoop and his fans and probably his management have already played these "what if" games, so he's rhymed over timbaland, premier, no limit, fucking everything! guest appearances and films have made me tire of his persona too.
from the brief listen i got he wasn't doing anything funny with other people's songs like g unit do (there was a lame version of "react" which, a year on, sounds like the most annoying beat ever released anyway). so what's the point? well "so fly" uses monica's "so gone" instrumental to amazing better-than-g-funk-era effect. it doesn't sound like a winner immediately but when nate dogg sings "riding in my car/and i'm listening to the radio" it's just like "ahhhhh", you know it all makes sense and everything is right with the world. the rule must be that if you give nate a beautiful heart-breaking beat to sing over he will raise everyone's game because snoop sounds great too!
it is also testament to this enduring beat, which is nearly my favourite of the year but everyone else i know hates. wtf is wrong with you people!
they were playing the new snoop rhyming over hits cd in the record shop today. any time between 94 and 98 this would have been the greatest cd ever, just to hear his very particular style over beats that weren't straight west coast. but in 03 snoop and his fans and probably his management have already played these "what if" games, so he's rhymed over timbaland, premier, no limit, fucking everything! guest appearances and films have made me tire of his persona too.
from the brief listen i got he wasn't doing anything funny with other people's songs like g unit do (there was a lame version of "react" which, a year on, sounds like the most annoying beat ever released anyway). so what's the point? well "so fly" uses monica's "so gone" instrumental to amazing better-than-g-funk-era effect. it doesn't sound like a winner immediately but when nate dogg sings "riding in my car/and i'm listening to the radio" it's just like "ahhhhh", you know it all makes sense and everything is right with the world. the rule must be that if you give nate a beautiful heart-breaking beat to sing over he will raise everyone's game because snoop sounds great too!
it is also testament to this enduring beat, which is nearly my favourite of the year but everyone else i know hates. wtf is wrong with you people!
24.9.03
zane
zane zane zane zane! in july i was cautiously optimistic that zane's giddy rap love would make the evening session hot - well, he still can't make terrible guitar music sound good but a few months later i am still listening. he still rhymes along with every rap song and makes scratching noises and stuff. i think it must be more than just zane though, it feels good to be into a show where i'm not predisposed to like almost all of it (semtex on 1xtra, coming from a fresh ukg mental-beat perspective, probably has the best hiphop show in the uk but it gets boring when you know he's never going to drop some awful dm and jemini clanger to laugh at). it's a nice, safe test of what i can actually stomach hearing right now, and it allows me to lamely theorize on music i don't have a clue about ("yeah man, shuffletech kinda fell off!") by citing one song. so here's the breakdown on zane lowe type music:
guitar stuff- seems to have got even less memorable since i last regularly listened to the session in about 99; the best songs are normally the ones that cross over to daytime radio or mtv anyway, like that muse one with the big synth bassline. or that pretty coral song ("pass it on" ) which was bizzarely the best thing on daytime radio one for a while. the new strokes song is good. the less popular stuff seems more interested in drum patterns and making people dance nowadays but they are terrible at it. i miss when everything was nu metal and punk pop.
dance stuff- new drum+bass is secretly the best thing in music right now! haha fooled you! no, it's aight though, all the dnb played is absolutely huge-sounding and really powerful for the first minute, like it has learnt some kind of lesson from nu metal about being overwhelming and brash and immediate. however, from the point of view of sitting on my fat ass at home, it is completely useless after that one minute (more so than old dnb which had rap samples and nice patterns). i bet new dnb converts are having mental fun in the clubs.
most of the grey area electroclash/house/indie dance songs are really fun, especially the new felix da housekat featuring amazing metal riff and little else.
rap stuff - i mean evening session style rap music! to be fair, this encompasses pretty much everything now, as long as it has something which makes it slightly lame: "milkshake" (evening session dudes love geisha girl r'n'b and funny sounds), "ghetto muzik" (evening session dudes love pretend electro and funny sounds), "cameltoe" (evening session dudes love geisha girl pretend electro and funny sounds), everything by mark ronson (evening session dudes love mop and funny sounds). if you love all that stuff it means you can be an evening session dude like me. there's uk stuff like ty as well, he's always shocking me by being decent. sometimes i suspect that if zane had the chance he would only play the beatnuts because he is plainly one of those dudes who likes them way too much.
he has also dropped "never scared" a few times, i think it's getting a uk release - this is very important and good for anyone selling old dirty south 12s on ebay. it is very important and bad for anyone buying old dirty south 12s on ebay.
there are other kinds of music, some of them even played by zane, but i can't be bothered with them.
zane zane zane zane! in july i was cautiously optimistic that zane's giddy rap love would make the evening session hot - well, he still can't make terrible guitar music sound good but a few months later i am still listening. he still rhymes along with every rap song and makes scratching noises and stuff. i think it must be more than just zane though, it feels good to be into a show where i'm not predisposed to like almost all of it (semtex on 1xtra, coming from a fresh ukg mental-beat perspective, probably has the best hiphop show in the uk but it gets boring when you know he's never going to drop some awful dm and jemini clanger to laugh at). it's a nice, safe test of what i can actually stomach hearing right now, and it allows me to lamely theorize on music i don't have a clue about ("yeah man, shuffletech kinda fell off!") by citing one song. so here's the breakdown on zane lowe type music:
guitar stuff- seems to have got even less memorable since i last regularly listened to the session in about 99; the best songs are normally the ones that cross over to daytime radio or mtv anyway, like that muse one with the big synth bassline. or that pretty coral song ("pass it on" ) which was bizzarely the best thing on daytime radio one for a while. the new strokes song is good. the less popular stuff seems more interested in drum patterns and making people dance nowadays but they are terrible at it. i miss when everything was nu metal and punk pop.
dance stuff- new drum+bass is secretly the best thing in music right now! haha fooled you! no, it's aight though, all the dnb played is absolutely huge-sounding and really powerful for the first minute, like it has learnt some kind of lesson from nu metal about being overwhelming and brash and immediate. however, from the point of view of sitting on my fat ass at home, it is completely useless after that one minute (more so than old dnb which had rap samples and nice patterns). i bet new dnb converts are having mental fun in the clubs.
most of the grey area electroclash/house/indie dance songs are really fun, especially the new felix da housekat featuring amazing metal riff and little else.
rap stuff - i mean evening session style rap music! to be fair, this encompasses pretty much everything now, as long as it has something which makes it slightly lame: "milkshake" (evening session dudes love geisha girl r'n'b and funny sounds), "ghetto muzik" (evening session dudes love pretend electro and funny sounds), "cameltoe" (evening session dudes love geisha girl pretend electro and funny sounds), everything by mark ronson (evening session dudes love mop and funny sounds). if you love all that stuff it means you can be an evening session dude like me. there's uk stuff like ty as well, he's always shocking me by being decent. sometimes i suspect that if zane had the chance he would only play the beatnuts because he is plainly one of those dudes who likes them way too much.
he has also dropped "never scared" a few times, i think it's getting a uk release - this is very important and good for anyone selling old dirty south 12s on ebay. it is very important and bad for anyone buying old dirty south 12s on ebay.
there are other kinds of music, some of them even played by zane, but i can't be bothered with them.
7.9.03
ashanti - rock wit u (remix)
it grafts in the obvious m jackson song but to dwell on that would be to miss the point (even if it does end up sounding a lot like that dizzy crystal backdrop + michael's shy dark eyelashes in the video which is incidentally one of my favourite videos ever). instead think of how the too bright too open synth beams are shining into the really huge dilated pupils you can tell ashanti must have (yeah, she does sound a bit insane), or how cute the pan pipe interlude is in the midst of all that yearning! i just found out ashanti was born only 3 days before me... i am totally feeling her madness.
[post video hits viewing edit: it turns out that my favourite video should be the video for 'rock with you' but is instead the video for 'don't stop til you get enough' which is a good song and everything but not the right one in my head]
and i remember there being more green in it!
it grafts in the obvious m jackson song but to dwell on that would be to miss the point (even if it does end up sounding a lot like that dizzy crystal backdrop + michael's shy dark eyelashes in the video which is incidentally one of my favourite videos ever). instead think of how the too bright too open synth beams are shining into the really huge dilated pupils you can tell ashanti must have (yeah, she does sound a bit insane), or how cute the pan pipe interlude is in the midst of all that yearning! i just found out ashanti was born only 3 days before me... i am totally feeling her madness.
[post video hits viewing edit: it turns out that my favourite video should be the video for 'rock with you' but is instead the video for 'don't stop til you get enough' which is a good song and everything but not the right one in my head]
and i remember there being more green in it!
