Author Archives: Mark McNulty

[Hip Hop] MOORS – King

Posted by Mark McNulty - November 29, 2016

“There’s a young man named ‘King’, petrified fields smell of evaporated blood, bullet shells as rocks,” begins Keith Stanfield on “King”, the most recent single from Long Angeles duo MOORS. The poetic rapper and actor who co-stars in Donald Glover’s television show “Atlanta” is half of the musical project MOORS. The other half, Hrishikesh Hirway, founder of songwriter’s podcast Song Exploder, supplies the soundscape on King” with a tense, militant-moving beat.

Keith Stanfield told us he finds inspiration in the poetry of Edgar Allen Poe, Langston Hughes, and Johnny Cash. Like these men, Stanfield records his thoughts with adept poetic maneuvering and a split-open, raw delivery. The song deals with distress, disaster and development within the artist’s life, and by proxy strikes a nerve deep within the consciousness of American history.

Stanfield’s internal and double rhymes strike hard and fast. He describes a past where he would “run with the goons subtle and smooth / Untouchable troop / Gutter platoon.” A history of violence left the singer with a plagued mind and vacant soul, and after growing through a history of violence the lines of morality become blurry and even non-existent. The young King asserts the gold within his inner self, which he will continue to manifest and bring forth amidst a harsh reality in which forces of evil are arrayed against him. Among such pressure, “don’t be surprised when I don’t know how to act,” Stanfield asserts. With “nothing to lose” a “thug on the loose” is “bringing a truth back”. The rapper’s literary prowess continues to shine through with double-entendre’s like “fuck a copper we goin’ platinum”. Though the truth of self-empowerment and self-knowledge runs through the lyrics, it’s a dark and at times despairing poetic picture which Stanfield paints on “King”. More than anything else, it’s an honest picture – of his life and the lives of others who struggle through oppression both physical and emotional, whether originating from the penal system or from one’s own harsh memories.

The assertion of self-worth within “King”, the reminder to find the gold inside yourself, is potent and timely. It’s some of the most striking work yet from a group named after the powerful African Muslim empire of the Middle Ages. We look forward to more material from this exceptionally creative pair of artists.

Hip/Hop

[Experimental] G Jones – Pull Up

Posted by Mark McNulty - November 28, 2016

G JONES
PULL UP

Download

Greg Jones aka G Jones has been an undisputed innovator in electronic music for years now, the champion young gladiator in the arena of filthy, hard-edged sound design, with ever-evolving new expressions of the mind-melting, cathartic bass drop. His production pace is also prolific. It seems every time he performs he’s debuting new singles and collabs, and now he’s dropped “Pull Up”, the first single from his upcoming Visions EP.

Jones’ sound has always evolved at a rate which can be hard to follow. Fans barely get accustomed to one incredible style before the artist moves on to his next manifestation, and some of the stylistic innovations he’s made in the past are now passed over in his new productions. “Pull Up”, for example, lacks the head-nod drums (“trap” beats to some) and the long-sustained synth lines of his earlier work. The track starts with an archetypal faux-dance synthesizer that’s soon interrupted by slashes of razor sharp, two-ton heavy snyths, bounced back and force with a Jamaican voice hollering “Pull Up”, and a mash of hi-hats, 8-bit beeps, and huge variety of seemingly random percussive sounds. What has never left, and will continue to define G Jones music for many ears, are the enormous, meticulously-crafted kicks and experimental snare sounds that anchor “Pull Up”.

This new single confirms what many who’ve been attending Greg’s shows for months already know, that the producer is moving into ever more abstract territory, away from clean beats a la Bassnectar, and more towards the fringes of experimental bass music a la EPROM. “Pull Up” comes ahead of Greg’s Visions Tour, which commences in January and will absolutely barnstorm clubs with support from legends like UK bass pioneer Plastician, and The Widdler.

Alex Clare – Tell Me What You Need (Tropics Remix) [TMN PREMIERE]

Posted by Mark McNulty - November 24, 2016

Tropics has spent years writing intelligent ideas and trying and tinkering with sound to express them, from early acid-jazz experiments to more recent original like the astonishingly avant-garde “Home and Conscience”. After all his development and genre-blending work, Ward strikes a strong, original balance of elements on this remix of Alex Clare’s “Tell Me What You Need.”

Here Tropics aka Chris Ward creates a soundscape that is emotionally ambiguous but full of delightful sonic flourishes. We loved Ward’s introduction of his own voice into his composition last year, and we love his ability to fold Clare’s bold croon into the smooth fabric of this new advanced production. The complex beat almost manages to divert attention from the starry vocals – no small task. The organic instrumentation which Tropics introduced on last year’s “Rapture” makes this remix so pleasurable, particular the skipping drum beat, crisp cymbal strokes and the minimal, echoing guitar pluck which play off each other for a polyrhythmic effect. The acoustic material blends soft and smooth with the synthesizers that Tropics and admirers of his music have always been so fond of.

For an artist who has never stayed in the same sonic space for too long, Tropics has moved again to beautiful new surroundings with this fresh remix.

[Electronic] Nocturnal Status & Dillard – Death Stroke

Posted by Mark McNulty - November 21, 2016

Nocturnal Status & Dillard
Death Stroke

Buy

Fresh from the onomatopoetically named Whump Collective comes a masterfully deep and diverse single, “Death Stroke”, composed by Nocturnal Status and Dillard. “Death Stroke” is highly danceable, with a deceptively smooth and steppin’ beat riding over sub-flexing background bass. There’s innumerable sonic snippets and details in the track. They flutter in and out with varying impact, until becoming more apparent when the sub bass drops out. All elements come together cohesively, which is no easy task. As the track moves along, a vocal sample is choked and manipulated, and some particularly industrial whumps, assumedly from Dillard, take center stage before the act is through.

Clearly some skillful sound design went into this number. Both artists traffic in inordinate amounts of bass and glitch, and can create contemplative chill music as well as chest-thumping bass jams. “Death Stroke” has a great balance of both styles. A free download is available here.

[Electronic] Rain and Flashing Lights – Tunnel

Posted by Mark McNulty - November 17, 2016

ONMZUSS026: Rain and Flashing Lights
Tunnel

Buy

Rain and Flashing Lights is such a visual phrase – a simple pairing of nouns which sounds like the title of a song or poem and conjures a sight most of us have seen, especially urbanites. Fitting, then, that Rain and Flashing Lights is a young producer and Ableton-head from Brooklyn whose latest single “Tunnel” on Onamazu is an audio visual escapade.

Three bright notes anchor the song. They form a simple but attractively familiar melody, the type which would grab your attention at the mysterious but hopeful beginning of a quality movie trailer about AI. If you listen close enough, you may hear the natural sound sample in the back (hint: it’s an integral part of Brooklyn and almost any huge city), just before a raw collage of glitches and unorthodox DnB percussion drops in hard. The melody is riffed and varied upon with a nice, ethereal synthesizer pad, and soon a bassline of the grimier variety peeks in, creating a uniquely pleasant juxtaposition of sound. It’s all rushing to a head until it ends, like leaving a tunnel.

“Tunnel” is the 26th track from the always-expanding Onamazu Single Series. Onamazu always utilizes resplendent visual accompaniment for their releases, and this single features art from Kylie Tseng. Grab a free download here.

[Album Review] Uyama Hiroto – Freeform Jazz

Posted by Mark McNulty - November 16, 2016

Sometimes an album catches you off guard, rising from nowhere and roaring into your ears with new sounds and ideas. Such an album grows on you over time, and eventually can reorient what music and sounds you thought you liked. Freeform Jazz, released on November 1 by Japanese producer and multi-instrumentalist Uyama Hiroto for Roph Recordings, is such an album. Emotionally rich, culturally diverse, and technically brilliant, it’s the artist’s third full-length release, his first since 2014’s Freedom of the Son, and it appeared with little to no fanfare or publicity in the United States.

Little information exists about Uyama Hiroto online, but he could first be heard playing the saxophone and clarinet in the music of deceased Japanese beat legend Nujabes, whose blend of jazz and hip hop was known for its technical precision, immaculate sampling, diversity of influence and melancholic vibe. Though Nujabes, real name Seba Jun, passed away in 2010, Uyama Hiroto has been driving forward the Japanese jazz/hip-hop sound and style, which itself has roots far deeper than Nujabes. Hiroto’s prior releases are excellent, but they don’t stray too far from Nujabes’ work. Now, high artistic risk pays off with a high reward on Freeform Jazz, which elevates his own sound and the Japanese jazz style to even higher ground.

The beautiful artwork on the album’s cover is representative of the musical elements which make the album so magical. First, like the painting, the music is rooted (although not exclusively) in prior Japanese musical tradition. Pentatonic scales and warm, emotive piano phrasing saturate the record, and recalls the work of 1970’s-1980’s jazz piano player Ryo Fukui. Constant melodies from the xylophone mix with the piano to establish a backdrop which sounds the way a Japanese maple garden looks in the autumn. This wash of colorful sound can be most clearly heard on “Yamato Damasii”.

’Yamato Damasii’

Buy

The album’s cover has a certain liquidity to it, a fluid rearrangement of the traditional horseman image which looks as if it’s being reflected in water. Similarly, Hiroto filters his acoustic material ever so delicately, resulting in music which sometimes sounds like its being played in a glass of water. Listen to “Skipper” for that effect exemplified.
Continue reading →