Mustard On The Beat Hoe

Mustard on the beat (at) ho(me) non stop. After Reynolds recent posts on all things Ratchet & B I'm on a Mustard bender. Love this one a lot it's got such a great pop chorus with a harp I think. Maybe not for mainstream radio with those lyrics but fuck me it's pop-tastic.

How bout this one?! It sounds like there's a sample of Laika circa Sound Of Satellites in there. Well it's the same keyboard sound/model anyway, last heard in a section of a Peaking Lights track. It wouldn't surprise me if Dijon was fan of either group. They've got more in common than you might think.

Wow DJ Mustard's even made J-Lo sound good. I'm sure she's had other good trax though, none come to mind at this moment.

This is sweet and yet so filthy. "Gettin faded till we trip." Lovin Schoolboy Q's guest spot on this. Best tune of 2014?

Speaking of best tunes of 2014 maybe this has pipped Tinashe at the post. The sound of being wasted/loved up science fiction stylee. Mustard not on this beat hoe.

Aural Splendour....and well I could keep posting Mustard trax all nite because there's way more.

VHS Head

A new VHS Head album Persistence Of Vision is on its way and I'm looking forward to its release. His first record Trademark Ribbons Of Gold was released in 2010 just before I started my blog. I couldn't believe it wasn't all over the Internet and in end of year lists. I guess it didn't fit anywhere in particular. It was 2010 and it didn't fit into its genres of the time like dubstep or whatever else was hip at the time. Its a frantic and experimental album. I understand it was made from samples and snippets of his 80s VHS video collection. In particular VHS Head was fond of the video company logo tunes or as they call them in the biz idents The effect was a bit like having the history of 80s video culture condensed into 64 minutes then thrust at you like an aural assault weapon with barely any time to think. This be not for the faint of heart. It's not unlike something Jon Oswald might get up to but much cooler. It's kinda funky and has an 80s disco vibe with a 2010 flava and I reckon some tunes could even get played out (on the dancefloor). While the sounds aren't arranged in an orderly pastiche 80s fashion, they are meticulously arranged. God knows how long Trademark Ribbons Of Gold took to make but it may be some indication that it's taken VHS Head nearly 5 years to release a new LP. It's A rush for sure and you might recognise bits and pieces here and there, particularly if you loved your 80s VHS trash. Sounds don't really hang around long enough they just fly past you. It does have a nostalgic vibe though. Probably the closest relation to it in current music is the music released on GhostBox (theoretically more than anything). Its retro but its also presented in a futuristic audio blaze. It has become one of my favourite records of the 10s, the 2010s or whatever no one has bothered to name this decade.

I Know nothing about Persistence Of Vision but let's hope
 its just as compelling as Trademark Ribbons Of Gold.

Illmatic - Nas

HIP HOP I IGNORED - PART 1

Illmatic was released in 1994, a particularly fertile year for new music. This is the year two classic trip hop LPs were released Portishead's Dummy and Massive Attack's Protection. Then there were so many UK jungle trax, too numerous to mention. There was also a shitload of British experimental (dare I say Post-Rock before it became a term of derision for American noodling turds) rock happening Laika, Disco Inferno, Bark Psychosis, Stereolab, Pram, Scorn, Flying Saucer Attack, Main and O'rang. Then there was electronic and ambient music Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Vol 2, the Virgin comp Isolationism, Mouse On Mars, Orbital, Autechre, Global Communication's 76.14, Paul Schutze and the list goes on. Nick Cave, Pulp, Boredoms, Peter Jefferies, Polvo, Kristen Hersh and Burzum all released classic records. Then there were the reissues on Blood & Fire Records and Esquival's Space Age Bachelor Pad Music. Plus way way more. Geez that was a good year for music. The two hip hop albums that did get my attention were The Beastie Boys Ill Communication and Snoop's Doggystyle. Along with Illmatic, I also missed Warren G's Regulate.., Jeru The Damaaja's The Sun Rises In The East, Ice Cube, PE and whoever else.

I had already heard Nas albeit without my knowledge on Live At The BBQ, a track from Main Source's classic LP from 91 Breaking Atoms. By the time of Illmatic's release in 94 he was 20 so he'd been a bit of a child prodigy. The line up of producers here was the cream of the 1994 crop. Main Source's Large Prof, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, DJ Premier and LES all had a twiddle of the knobs. This was a new era with the classic old school of PE, NWA etc. and the daisy age fading away and the beginning of Wu Tang Clan's stranglehold in the east and G funks commercial dominance. Nas's timing couldn't have been better, making the LP old school, of its time and somehow timeless all at the same time.

The album begins with the splendid trippy funk beats of The Genesis and Nas is introduced and then it's quickly into the creepin intensity of NY State Of Mind. This tune travels the decay of the NewYork underbelly with drugs, guns, crime and violence. This journey through urban hell is state of the art 94 hip hop where "The city never sleeps, it full of villains and creeps.". Life's a Bitch is a glorious ode to hedonism that features AZ guesting on vocals. This backing track is so fucking smooth with its Gap Band sample and a trumpet comin on like something from Miles Davis's Big Fun. The World Is Yours features, apart from the the usual peerless rhymes, some awesome scratching. Halftime closes side one with its mentions of Jackson 5 and watching Chips (hey I used to love that show, even had Chips pyjamas). His rhymes are astonishing as is the backing trak with its dubby horn samples floating in and out of the mix like puffs of smoke.

Side two or 41st Side South starts with Memory Lane and it's a Premier production containing a Rueben Wilson sample of We're In Love. Choice turntablism blends perfectly with this sweet soul jazz jam. One Love be a daisy age throwback and that ain't no bad thing here. This is a message to his incarcerated bros that's grasping for optimism amongst the darkness and the rhymes keep flowing like nothing before. Large Prof gives One Time 4 Your Mind  a sweet minimal mellow vibe to show off Nas's def rhymes. Represent is another snapshot of a day in the life in the projects of New York, the every day crime and casual violence of it all. Premier gives this track hypnotic psych beats that you'd be happy to keep listening to for an hour. This is the trippiest of hop. It ain't Hard To Tell closes out the album with MJ and Kool & The Gang samples. The dub inflected beatz are a heavenly haze.

At one stage on Illmatic Nas claims he has so many rhymes and its hard to disagree, they just flow and wash over you. You catch new snippets each time you listen. You could listen to this album a hundred times and still not know all the words. This is part of its charm, longevity and timelessness I guess. Illmatic only goes for 40 minutes thus there is no time to really get sick of it. Other artists at the time should have taken note of his quality control. Cds gave rise to too much wasted time and filler. Ironman by Ghostface Killah is a favourite of mine but a minute or two of editing may have had everyone thinking that was the best rap LP of all time but Illmatic is the one most often quoted as that. With a few more listens I might be sayin the same thing but probably not. He's just not mad, smooth, funny or charismatic enough for me. I would however love to hear an instrumental or dub version of Illmatic, that'd be wicked. I haven't heard other Nas records but I feel Illmatic maybe similar to Tricky's Maxinquaye. They were both debuts and both considered masterpieces. So how do you top that? Retire after your first record? Then tour it live 20 years later? That would have been cool. Rappers gotta eat though and apparently he's put out some other good records but Illmatic was always there to haunt him. Luckily now he can tour it for the 20th anniversary and probably make a small fortune. Nobody back then would have dreamt of this concept, let alone it being quite viable and even almost credible.

Sonic Youth - Gila Monster Jamboree

Just discovered this on the youtubes, how excitement! Wicked soundz & Visionz from Sonic Youth in the Mojave Desert in 1985. Bad Moon Rising tunes. Bob Bert on drums. Lee wears orange jumper and sings Death Valley 69. Intense Kim with Michael Jackson Sticker on her bass guitar. Thurston reads one track's lyrics from a notebook! 40 minutes of glorious cacophonous sonic sculpture man. The sound of the late 20th century. Check it out!

Hip Hop I Ignored - An Introduction

Hip Hop goes retromania.

I've decided to do a little feature series along the lines of my Glaring Omissions series that I did about classic Australian albums that didn't make it into the greatest Australian albums book or The Age Newspaper's 50 best Australian albums list. This is going to be a bit different though. I once heard of a feature where they gave a bunch of rap guys a bunch of classic country albums to review or was it vice versa? It's a great concept either way. So with rap & hip hop never never being my main source of listening it should make this series slightly interesting. Being a bit of a dilettante sometimes leads you, due to financial and time constraints, to miss certain things and sometimes even massive pop cultural events. You can't be into everything.  So I'm gonna do 5 legendary, classic or canonical  Hip Hop LPs that I missed. There ain't gonna be any Wu Tang, PE, Beasties, Snoop, Diamond & The Psychotic Neurotics, De La Soul, Showbiz & AG, Tribe, Ice-T, Missy, Main Source, NWA, Pete Rock & CL Smooth etc. here as I caught them at the time. But there will be some massive surprises that I missed. I never got into Tupac & Biggie and really thought hip hop had run its course by the turn of the millennium despite now diggin some occasional current shit by Dj Mustard, Kanye, Raven Felix, Kendrick Lamar and Schoolboy Q. Is this shit a last gasp or a Renaissance? I do think there is some future life in that interzone between rap and R&B and all the micro-genres inbetween. Time will tell I guess. There will be no Aussie hip hop either as I'd rather listen to Andre Reiu than that shit! I guess this whole concept started to ferment inside my brain after watching Jimmy Fallon the other night where he introduced Nas who is now doing 20th anniversary concerts of his apparent classic Illmatic from 1994. So he's going to be first. Some consider this record the best rap has to offer. So I'm rather looking forward to it. I'm not even sure I know any of the tunes....I'll get back to you soon with the first instalment of Hip Hop I Ignored.

Schoolboy Q's 2014 track Studio is the biz.

Gira & Cyrus

I listened to the Swans new 2 hour epic album last week To Be Kind. Initial response is its not as good as The Seer their previous 2 hour opus but still plenty of laughs to be had. Some epic journeys into sound ie the 34 minute Bring The Sun/Toussaint l'ouverture really brings the noise and is worth the price of admission alone. I even thought a bit of (proto)grunge was creepin in on one or two tracks, you know, like Helmet-esque riffs and Scratch Acid type of cacophony. Sure those groups were probably influenced by the Swans. Anyway those particular trax just didn't seem as classy as Swans of old. Actually in my wife's car the other day Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus came on the radio and gave me the same kind of sonic pummelling thrills I expect of Swans. Does this render Gira and crew redundant? Strange days indeed!

Pseudo Echo

Pseudo Echo have joined in the retromania and have a new album out. Will I listen to it? Probably not. I only ever had that first LP Autumnal Park taped off someone. There weren't that many memorable tracks really. I wonder if it's a return to their more electronic/new romantic days or their later more rockified funk sound that gave them their transglobal hit, their cover version of, Funky Town?

I always liked this tune Don't Go from 1985. Had the 7" I do believe. Still sounds alright I reckon. They were a bit more talented and original than say I dunno Geisha. I remember seeing one them at Melbourne's Queen Vic Market in like 86 and thinking that was something but also thinking he's just a guy in the street like the rest of us.

Liked the goth/post punk type guitar in this one from 84 and those keyboards ofcourse. Funny 80s videos eh?

More Soundtrack Gold

Shogun Assassin OST (1980) - Mark Lindsay & W Michael Lewis
Came across this on the interweb and thought 'What's that something to do with Quentin Tarrantino...yeah maybe...no Liquid Swords!' Of course Liquid Swords is the Genius/GZA hip hop masterpiece from 1995 that I've discussed before on this here blog. It's possibly the greatest hip hop LP of them all in my book. A big part of Liquid Swords appeal is the twisted music's strange one of a kind vibe as well as the brilliant lyrics, phrasing, beats etc. And a big part of Liquid Swords eerie vibe is the sampling of this Shogun Assassin soundtrack. I'm not usually a tracker of samples, you know a trainspotter, but sometimes sampled songs end up in your collection via different routes. Curtis Mayfield & Liquid Liquid turned up many years later (after being sampled by Ice-T and Grandmaster Flash respectively) when I discovered those artists records. I do have The Winstons version of Amen, Brother on a compilation from whence the Amen break was torn out and I often think 'Why these few seconds of drummage?' Anyway listening to Lindsay & Lewis's soundtrack it's impossible not to think of Liquid Swords. This is the sample stain right? Was that a derogatory term though? I can't remember. Whatever, this soundtrack will always be tied to Genius/GZA in my brain & eardrums. Having said that Shogun Assassin is excellent and I am fairly certain I would love it if I'd not heard or even disliked Liquid Swords. Who are Lindsay an Lewis?? They don't sound particularly Japanese do they? I believe they must be Western ring ins for the dubbed/re-soundtracked English speaking version of this film. They've created some synthy goodness on this record and some unique atmospheres not attained by anyone previously or since. This OST will appeal to 70s analogue synth fiends and the electronic soundtrack headz out there (aren't they one and the same?). One wonders whether the eastern motifs used on a couple of tracks would be considered cheesy, crass or even offensive by the Japanese. Who knows? Who cares? This is the biz.

Un'Ombra Nell'Ombra OST (1979) - Stelvio Cipriani
Still in the field of electronic soundtracks from the late 70s early 80s. I just can't seem to get enough of this stuff. Never seen the film but this is one hell of a soundtrack that I've recently tracked down in digital form. This is the 7th Cipriani soundtrack to cross my path. There's only something like another 200 to go, shit I better not get too obsessed with him. Some of Cipriani's classics include Whirlpool, Gli Orrori Del Castello Di Norimberga and his collaboration with Goblin that seems to be very underrated Solamente Nero but this tops all of those. This is a horror score and all I can find out about it is that it was composed by Cipriani and Goblin's Claudio Simonetti plays synthesiser on it. This isn't as funky, beat driven, easy or symphonic as other Cipriani OSTs. It's a minimal synth prog record with suspenseful bass along with some added clanks and textures. It turns out this was recorded in 1977 but the movie remained unreleased until 79. This places the recording around the same time as the Goblin classic soundtrack to Suspiria and I've gotta say it has a similar vibe but way more stripped back. Un'Ombra Nell'Ombra is one of the best records Claudio Simonetti has played on.  This is another Goblin missing link along with Solamente Nero that may have passed many of you by. Now I'm wondering if Cipriani did any other recordings with Goblin members because if they're anything like this we have to hear them.

Don't Touch That Stereo Part I

Millie & Andrea - Drop The Vowels (2014)
This is one of the dudes from Demdike Stare and some other bloke. For some reason I'm really enjoying this record which I didn't really expect to. I don't think anything much new is happening here. There a bit of post dubstep, some gamelan vibes, isolationist type ambience, a dose of Basic Channel, hardcore continuum styles, drum & bass pops its head up, tech-house (that was a thing wasn't it for a minute there in the 90s?) and I dunno it's all a bit zombie rave (that should so be a genre). Not really hands up in the air more like your arms fall off as you try to raise them above your waste. Is it undeconstructed or reconstuctured deconstruction or constructed unreconstruction? More to the point does anyone give a shit at this point? More nails in the coffin for rave in the best possible sense.

Clouds - Ghost System Rave (2013)
A bit late on this one. Ghost System Rave was only hipped to me in early January by Reynolds via Energy Flash. This is far and away the best album I missed last year, the only other contender being Holden's The Inheritors. It most certainly would have made my top 9. As far as album titles that describe their contents go this is perfection. Whilst the ingredients suggest the 90s, something pulls this away from mere retro-activity. Perhaps Future 1 is the only exception to that rule here as it soundz like an obscure 91 grimey 'ardcore gem that Blog To The Old Skool might have dug up. Ghost System Rave is not just techno micro-genres revisited. Its like you're hearing an early 90s rave through a ghost's ears. You feel like you've heard it before but you haven't, not like this. This is a delightfully askew musical experience. It sounds/feels like you've already dropped the drugs and you're occupying an inbetween dimension. This is an incredible musical achievement. Rave from the otherside. We just had Zombie Rave and now this is Ghost Rave.

True Detective - Part One

Smokin Rust

I think I've just watched the TV event of 2014. True Detective sounded boring to me and the poster was hardly sellin it to me either. It was only after watching Dallas Buyers Club (inspirational renegade movie in the vein of Milk & Erin Brockovich where Matthew McConaughey put in a sterling performance), that I became sufficiently motivated to finally watch True Detective. This show is pretty much a philosophical debate thinly disguised as a Cop Buddy/Southern Gothic Horror drama.

There's a fair bit of "I'm Marlon Brando!" "No, I'm Marlon Brando!" where the two leads McConaughey and Woody Harrelson try to out mumble one another. Talk about actors pushing each other to new heights; they both put in outstanding, career-best performances. The script is dense, funny, thought provoking and unlike anything I've seen or heard on TV recently. There's a definite southern Twin Peaks vibe happening here as the show opens with a dead girl in the middle of nowhere, followed by the ensuing murder investigation. Not to mention diaries and esoteric/occult themes. The academics and theorists must be loving it, as I can see a million essays on what the true meaning of all the chit chat between the two leads really means. Which philosophy wins and who do you side with, etc. Nihilism, existentialism, religion, atheism, some cosmic supernatural shit and everything inbetween all get a look in. I'm still getting my head around the flurry of concepts thrust at me during the eight, hour long, episodes. Oh and apart from all that, it's a really bloody intense, scary and thrilling show.

Watching Breaking Bad you could basically ignore any subtext and just dig on the propulsive, event-laden, minimal plot - which I think I did. That show for me was ultimately pure visceral entertainment in excellis possibly never to be rivalled. True detective sets out to make you think from the minute it starts but this doesn't detract from the unfolding dramatic plot. For those of you feeling bereft after the conclusion of Breaking Bad you will be able to find some solace here in True Detective, particularly around episodes three, four and five where it rivals the predecessor's edge of your seat thrills. Other parallels can be drawn here particularly with Bryan Cranston and Matthew McConaughey both transforming themselves into actors beyond what we could have ever imagined them becoming. Sure, now I look back at Malcolm In The Middle and realise that maybe Hal was genius too but I don't think I'll be going back to How to Lose a Guy In 10 Days and thinking similar things of McConaughey's performance. Then again I've been reliably told he has been building up to this since 2011 with his previous six films. This is all a moot point, as they are now the two best actors of their generation and seemingly peerless.