Tinges of Soul

Here are some tracks with definite soul/blues/R&B vibes, but expressed in very understated fashion. I would not hazard to call these artists "soul" artists, as each of them cherry-picks and blends multiple musical influences silkily together. However, there are tinges of soul imbued in their work, and what gorgeous tinges they are. These four selections are downplayed and smooth, with very minimal “band” sounds about them. Just vocals, maybe some bass or piano, and very balanced drums carry the songs lightly and completely. Sparse, simple, subtle, nuanced--lovely on all fronts. Hope they relax you a bit.

Amy Winehouse--Despite her tabloid exploits, I hope she resurfaces soon and doesn't abandon her voice. She has fantastic range and isn't shy about jazzing up, or bluesing down, her unique music.



Norah Jones--What a smoky-smooth lounge voice. Very sexy, powerfully shy, and under amazing control. Her lyrics always impress, as well. I hope she sings forever.



Sara Bareilles--Her first album was wonderful. Though most of her songs are more boisterous than this, she can be downright goosebump-inducing. "Gravity" is another great track, but that's a little too loud for this post (go find it later).



Röyksopp--This Norwegian group is known for its electronic/techno grooves but, like the artists above, incorporates multiple genre sounds to create tracks that skirt basic labeling. "Sparks" is feather-down soft; a perfect closer.



--The Last Moslow

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Toy Music

A couple bands I've been watching, and I figure that this would be a great time to bring them up. These two bands are unique for the fact that they both use toys to make music. One band plays on a toy pianos, toy xylophones, toy guitars, toy trumpets, and the other band plays on circuit bent toys to make music.
If you don't know what circuit bending is, there is a DVD made entirely showing how it works and what it does. DJ Daedelus, glitchcore musician using samples of music from the 20's and early jazz, show us what circuit bending is here. Yes, it does seem a bit strange, but when done right, really resembles something like Drum'n'Bass music, or even Drill'n'Bass music.

First, lets go with the more contemporary sounding toy band, Pianosaurus . It is just plain upbeat sounding music. It has such a unique flair to it given it's coming from the rock'n'roll of the 80's and coming from toy instruments. Almost seems a bit of an offspring between Barenaked Ladies, They Might Be Giants, and Jimmy Buffet. Check it out:

Barbie - Pianosaurus

(A Funny thing Happened on the...

The other band is truly unique. Creating circuit bent instruments from a demonic looking barbie doll, a broken speak'n'spell, and even a truly unique instrument made from telescopes converting the light waves from certain stars into audible sound waves.
If you haven't heard of them by now, you really should just given their truly unique instruments. The band is Modified Toy Orchestra. Just like Pianosaurus, their music is very upbeat and happy, but in it's own unique way.
Modified Toy Orchestra - Grand Occasion


Modified Toy Orchestra - Freeno and Olaf


Ah, such fun music. Both bands proving that with a little ingenuity, you don't have to buy the best instruments on the market. You can make great music on cheap toys, and a creative mind.
-Minimal foX

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Whales & The Fertile Crescent

They Might Be Giants and Modest Mouse are two alternative bands who still manage to keep afloat quite nicely. TMBG employs quirky lyrics and rhymes, and have recently dived into music for children with very fun results. MM is steadfastly doing what it's always done: alternavating. I'm not a gushing fan for either band--some of their songs are too vocally strange for me--but if I'm in the right mood, this pair consistently offers dozens of songs (has for a decade-or-so now) with mind-sticking melodies. So if you haven't yet been introduced, here's your chance!

First up is "The Mesopotamians" followed by "King Rat," which was directed by Heath Ledger. Yes-- THAT Heath Ledger. (Just as a precautionary measure, the "King Rat" video takes a startling turn half-way through, the effects of which may honestly rattle or disturb. You've been advised).








--The Last Moslow

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Danger!

Danger is a France-based dj who has been steadily gaining a global popularity.
His music is licensed by an indie label and as of January 25th, has a new album out on vinyl.
The music he's been trying to imitate and pay respect to is that of 16-bit video game music, the style is also referenced in his promotional videos for the album.
I recommend you give him a listen.

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Catchy Machinima Beats

Machinima--the capturing of video game footage to create films--has stayed pretty popular these past few years. One current series is called "Phil" by Black Light Productions, and the group who writes music for the episodes is "Hypothesis." These guys have a very wide range of styles, but these two tracks are some of their smoothest, catchiest creations (most of their songs are loops). I highly suggest searching for "Phil" on YouTube, as it is silly fun, but also so you can hear their stuff and download their entire first season soundtrack, gratis.





--The Last Moslow

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New Meets Old, The New Genre: Two Examples

Genre are starting to more and more become undefined. It's getting closer to the point where R&B meets hip-hop meets pop meets classical meets rock.
Two examples of this genre breaking artists:
BT is an electronica artist. He did most of his work with House/in the greater idea "Techno" music. However, after most of his work was stolen, he worked on something quite amazing. True U-Ziq, Aphex Twin, and Venetian Snares did highlight how easily classical goes hand-in-hand with electronic, glitch-styled music. However, BT's album This Binary Universe did something amazing. Ideas of breaking notes down to hundredths, working with computer coding, synths, and 100 piece orchestras was so well conceived, his love of math being infused in his music doing wonders, it was no wonder why he got such great critic reception. I usually listen to the album once a month. I have it on my personal top 20 albums you absolutely must know. His work successfully launched the patented rhythmic BT style glitch pattern, reminiscent (and programmed in this track) of the chaos of a rainfall, but with an underlying pattern. Not only are his glitch style beats something quite wonderful, but how they so easily fall in from an orchestra, to jazz, to electronica, in one song, almost seamlessly, are just beautiful.
BT - Dynamic Symmetry



Mayer Hawthorne started his career as a joke, quite literally. He though that R&B styled Motown was going to be a farce, and jokingly approached Stones Throw records with a couple tracks. What was next, well, a new wave of Motown. But it's not quite Motown, but yet it's also not quite R&B now is it? Peanut Butter Wolf was confused at the tracks, not knowing if it were re-edits, old tracks but remastered, or what he was listening to. Mayer was signed, but only if he released original material. But before he knew it, Mayer Hawthorne was publishing not only new tracks, but newer versions of old Motown tracks. However he incorporates many R&B tricks through the ages to his work. The flutes and bass are a reminder of the funky side of R&B, but the vocals just scream Motown. Well listen for yourself!

Prelude - Mayer Hawthorne

Just Ain't Gonna Work Out - Ma...

Maybe So, Maybe No - Mayer Haw...

I Wish It Would Rain - Mayer H...

As said, it's easy to see where Peanut Butter Wolf was confused. Maybe So, Maybe No is a redone track originally done by The New Holidays back in 1969. Even more amazing is that Hawthorne never had any vocal training, it's just his up and go, first time to a microphone. I look forward to more of his work.

-Minimal foX, confused about Genre.

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Miss Mae's Many Modes

Vanessa-Mae's been around for a long time. She's a classically trained concert violinist who still receives criticism for stepping through borderlands that classically trained violinists are not supposed to tour. She writes her own music, performs fantastic covers of century-old classical masterworks, and endeavors into country, jazz, hip-hop, rock, and others. Her style can be a bit showy, a bit hyperbolic freelancer, but regardless she has enormous talent, and unfortunately continues to be slighted by "purist" musical types. Despite these senile outcries, worldwide she's proven that violins can take part in crafting hits, and that stifling musical categories can't restrain creative mixtures. Hope you like her work.





--The Last Moslow

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Charitable Swamp King Resuscitates Pop

From the festering mire of modern music, the shallow, excrement-laden pools of Soulja Boy and Diddy, rises a savior, a transformer, a mud-molder of cacophony into delectible, blooming, bobbing-head beats.

All right, so this amalgamation is pretty mainstream, but hear me out. DJ Earworm does the impossible here, kiddos. By combining all Top 25 Billboard Hits of 2009 into one 5-minute video, he single-handedly makes them worth listening to. To be fair, some of these songs are moderately decent on their own merits. However, most are pretty, pretty trashheaps. Still, the sum of their parts when lovingly Frankensteined is something to embrace, even if you do hate Miley. I dare you not to feel happy listening to this. Go on. Click it.



Told you. Check out DJ Earworm's 2007 and 2008 fusions on his site, djearworm.com.

--The Last Moslow

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Thanks

Before reading this entry, please hit play on the track below.



To the viewers reading this blog, thanks! Heh, we're trying to get it off the ground, but we NEED more writers, and we NEED help advertising.

So, what is this blog about? Well, unlike other music blogs, this is just about the music itself. It's about the knowledge of how the music got here, songs that are good AND bad, and more importantly, this blog DOESN'T TELL YOU WHAT TO LISTEN TO! It just finds music. All genre. All music. We dig so you don't have to, and we try to mix it up so you can find something you may like, and something you may not like. We don't try to rate music on a scale, or tell you what the BEST NEW HITS are. We just dig, and tell you about it. We tell you what flows, and what may not. But it's still music, and that's all were about.
We need writers who can unbiasedly find music and post about it. It doesn't need to be the next big hit! It just needs to be music.

If you're reading this, I appreciate it. I hope you can appreciate what is starting to go on here, and I ask you keep following through the rocky road we'll have ahead before we can really get this off the ground. It's still in it's early production phase, but it's going to take off soon. Maybe not publicly, and maybe not have a huge fanbase, but it's going to take off soon, and I ask that you tag along for the ride.

Again, thanks.
-Minimal foX of GSSE Studios.

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The Calming Storm

South Carolina has two callings to me. One is rather personal, and the other is the music scene that has come out of there. My goodness, has avant garde noise rock never been cooler than these past couple of years in college rock, and my has most of the best of it come out of SC. Dream rock, as it's been dubbed, has also taken a major play in the UK too, just look at the band Glasvegas.
I can only describe it as something new that feels like it was old. You'll understand after a couple songs:

Toro Y Moi - Timed Pleasure

Washed Out - New Theory


Neon Indian - Deadbeat Summer



Wavves - Cool Jumper

The music reflects the lifestyle, no? Brings to mind surfing, the beach scene, skate boarding, and just rebelling around and the calm nights afterward.
-Minimal foX

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My Flag Boy Told Your Flag Boy Imma Set Your Flag On Fire!

Ah, a song about rivalry. Jock-a-mo or Iko Iko is a classic song, originating in New Orleans about rivalries. Though the song did have racist implications, it still is pretty damn catchy and pretty damn dancable. So, why not thank Philadelphia based DJ Diplo for giving it some base and clubbing it up?

(Almost original artist)Dixie Cups - Iko Iko


Diplo Remix - Iko Iko (Is the first few minutes, then it goes into the next song on the album)

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Dirty, dirty, DIRTY, hip-hop.

I do say, if there's been one thing that's gotten me through nights where only me and my thoughts are left to stir alone, it has to be dirty hip-hop. No, I don't mean lyric wise dirty. I mean... well, just the grit of it. How dirty can you make a song, and no one seems to do it better than Flying Lotus and SAMiYAM. And when they team up... it's just wonderful and everything else melts away, no?
It can be dirty and relaxed too, which is what is great about Flying Lotus. And it can be dirty and upbeat, which is great about SAMiYAM.
So, here's a couple songs to pick out. Trust me, you'll WANT TO DOWNLOAD THEM!!!

(Collaboration of SAMiYAM and Flying Lotus)
FLYamSAM - Princess Toadstool

(The link takes you to a site to download song, site is safe, but just an F.Y.I.)
SAMiYAM - Falafel Cannon

Flying Lotus - Sketchbook and Lets Fall In Love (J-Dilla Tribute)




-Minimal foX

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4 Rap Songs That'll NEVER See Manistream Radio

Keep an open mind, and your soul and mind will never eat the same meal twice.
So just because its rap doesn't mean you need to dismiss it, ok?
That being said, lyricism is an important part of hip-hop. The poetry and meaning of the words sometimes carries a song greatly.. But it's not just the words that are important, but the flow of them with the production and beat. So here are four examples of rap songs you'll never hear on mainstream radio that just flow like water over slick rocks. Ok, so they don't flow that well, but never-the-less they still flow better than most mainstream, hiccuping rap songs.

Jay Electronica - Exhibit C

Very dilla-esque. But if you ever wondered if someone was going to hit it as big as Nas did, here's a runner up. The lyrics just flow to the beat, and the production in a whole is just an example of what over the top hipop can make. A wonderbeat and almost seamless lyricism. Note the almost. Just feels a bit rough around the edges with the beat and flow, no?

MF Doom - Rhinestone Cowboy

MF Doom what can we say. Crisp lyrics with much deeper meaning than you know. Overly comedic too, with lyrics such as "Got more soul than a sock with a hole." The flow of it is a bit rough as well, but stays solid and smooths itself out after a couple shaking verses.

Mr. J Medeiros - Constance

Yes, if you were curious this was about human trafficking. Yes, if you were wondering J Medeiros is a christian rapper. Getting this out of the way, the lyricism here seems much better than most mainstream rap. Why? Simple. The attempt to create an environment/scene using lyrics. That's why it was picked.


Busdriver and Pigeon John on a Daedelus song - Something Bells

Not only is the background instrumentation just simply amazing for a hip-hop song, changing up so much more often than the average song, but the competing rappers over it, both rapping about love, are very talented. Not simply because of the unique rhymes here, or because of how much Busdriver can fit into one line, but just how well it seems to par up to the track, which is easily a standalone instrumental. How the lyricism here just fits into the track so very well.

-Minimal foX (Now why are the Black Eyed Peas so popular??)

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Alternative/Country band Roman Candle

So, country, just like rap, is often claimed to be hated and is greatly overlooked. The music itself inspires an entire culture in itself. Many country bands have teamed up with Rap artists, almost seemingly all at once right after Snoop Dogg's infamous country album. In fact, both genres of music have gone into great detail of making songs about substance abuse, women, and money. However, there are many artists that have seemingly kept to a different style of country.
After alternative rock music took a good stand in the U.S., thanks partially to bands such as R.E.M. and Evlis Costello, country started exploring those roots too. Going from a folk/grassroots heritage, country eventually found it self becoming on par with rock 'n roll. Sometimes the songs a bit more sadder or happier, almost analogous to the pop music at the time, country started finding it's own foundation within music culture.
But on occasion it's nice to unwind to good alternative country bands. Band Roman Candle takes the same direction Train did, (and if you don't remember Train too well, Drops of Jupiter should ring a bell to you when it took the pop charts by storm). Now if you're more familiar with modern alternative country music, there's good chance you've more recently heard of Roman Candle last year. But their first cd The Wee Hours Revue is a good listen. Very reminiscent of Train indeed. Can almost hear She's On Fire being crafted from this band.

First song of the album, and one of the better ones on it, Something Left To Say

Something Left to Say - Roman ...

If you like that, take a look out for more music by Roman Candle.

-Minimal (Country-esque) foX

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Nothing Musical Here...

Well, not yet. I'll post music and other such music-related things here very infrequently. Hope you sort off like them in a "Just Friends" way. Bai-bai.

FACT: Moslows are highly endangered. Please be delicate.

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Múm- I'm 9 Today

I'm 9 Today - Múm

Fun little song by icelandic group Múm. Somewhat childish, but that doesn't seem to clash with the IDM/Glitch-beat style.
-Minimal foX

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Aphex Twin - Une Femme N'est Pas Un Homme

A very fun song from Richard, Aka The Aphex Twin, AKA AFX, AKA... well you get the idea. This song comes in particular from the album 26 Remixes For Cash, and well, as Aphex Twin legend has it, you can never really hear the original song in the remixes. Aphex Twin is resoundingly known for submitting remixes that are actually original pieces as his own little joke to the world of music. That being the case I do rather like this one much.



Here's the original song for comparison, by The Beatniks (You can hear some parts of the remix in it, but truthfully, it seems more like a completely different song that happened to hit the same chords.)



The entire Aphex Twin album is nice to listen to. Remixes of Titanic songs and an interesting take on David Bowie's song Heroes. But all in all the album is just what it's entitled 26 Remixes Made to make a bit of Cash. Though, as stated before, the work here is phenomenal enough to really be considered post-modern new material rather than remixes. But check it out.

-Minimal foX

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Note written in "Sweet Disposition"

Four words: Temper Trap, Famous Song



Strangely hasn't hit the charts in the U.S. at all...

-Minimal foX

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Note to make you scream, "Give It To Me"

Timbaland! What can I say about you? You're a good beat crafter when you want to be. Other times, you're a can of old soda. No sizzle or pop, just kind of stagnant. With that said, I do believe your best hit had to be this one:

Give It To Me (Album Version (...

Oh Timbaland, where did you run to?
-Minimal foX

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Note to look "Up"

Australian DJ, Pogo, has made a song entirely out of samples from the movie up.



Rather cute I think. Clever idea too.

-Minimal Fox (in Durango CO, where internet is shoddy)

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