February 2013 Hotlist Week 2

Puscifer - "Donkey Punch The Night EP" 2013

A small new offering from Maynard James Keenan that is actually the best non-album thing he's put out under the Puscifer moniker. It's 2 new songs, 2 covers, and then a remix each of them for a total of 8 tracks. The weakest track on here is the very straight up cover of "Bohemian Rhapsody", which still really isn't all that bad, but it is still too close to the original for me. I'd rather just listen to Queen. Out of the new songs, "Breathe" is pretty cool, but "Dear Brother" is superb, and already one of my favorite Puscifer songs. The thing that also sets this apart from previous EP's and remix albums by Puscifer, is that he actually hired some people that sound good to do the remixes this time. Usually it's a bunch of people i've never heard of ruining the songs, but Sonnio did an awesome job remixing "Bohemian Rhapsody". It sounds like something Balam Acab or Clams Casino would make, using certain lines from the song to create an entirely new song. This Denton remix of "Dear Brother" is pretty cool too. Also check the cover of Accept's "Balls To The Wall".

Illum Sphere - "Boiler Room Manchester Art Gallery" 2012

This is a pretty decent DJ set for the first 2/3's of it. I like the way he slowly builds it up and then lets people have it. The reason i'll probably never listen to this mix again is because it is plagued by the MC talking too much over the music. The last third of the mix is also plagued by him doing the "bring it back" rewind thing during every single song. It's annoying. check out the video footage of the entire set here.

To All My Friends - "Ride With Me" 2012

This is a pleasant sounding album. A female singer and instruments include the accordion and xylophones. Right up my alley. My only issues with this album and group is that they're not treading any new water. I could be listening to Au Revoir Simone and wouldn't even know because they sound so similar. Still, I like all the songs, and don't fast forward any, which is hard to say about any album. I would recommend this to anyone who likes stuff like Cat Power and doesn't know what bands to look for next. Check out "Mountain Song", which is the only song up on youtube, or listen to the entire album from the band's website. My favorite track is probably "Spinner"

Oh No - "Disrupted Ads" 2013

Yet another dope new offering from Oh No. This one is a combination of songs with rap vocals and instrumental, Donut style beats. The underlying theme on this one seems to be samples from old tobacco commercials. There is absolutely nothing weak on this album at all. Every beat is straight bangin. Just a stellar album. Not very many people in hip hop are on his beatmaking level right now. Check out the video for "Jones's" featuring M.E.D. and Blu. Also check "Cleansing", "Animals" featuring Chali 2na and Roc C, "Improvement" featuring Georgia Anne Muldrow and Declaime and "Creepers". Just check the whole album.

High Contrast - "The Road Goes On Forever EP" 2012

This is some light electronic music that works good for background music, but there's nothing particularly interesting about it to me. Check out "Emotional Vampire (NHS Mix)", "Strutter (NHS Mix), and the title track, which is an electronic cover of The Who's "Baba O'Reilly". WTF?

Captain Murphy - "Duality" 2012

So it has since been revealed that the true identity of Captain Murphy is actually Flying Lotus. He said this alter ego is his way of getting out all the dark thoughts that his and all human minds have, no matter how good of a person you are, which I thought was an interesting excuse to just rap about anything. This album definitely BANGS. Some of the beats are very Madlib and Oh No-like, and others are more electronic sounding, but none of them are weak at all. Really stellar production here, but with the names attached to it (Flying Lotus, TNGHT, Teebs, Madlib, Just Blaze, Samiyam, Jeremiah Jae), that was expected. His rhyming is cool sounding but nothing special. He sounds like he listens to a lot of Odd Future and Das Racist. The interludes with all the samples about cults are pretty funny too. This project is a great exercise in character branding, with all the artwork and visuals that go along with the music on the internet. Check out "Shake Weight", "The Prisoner", "The Killing Joke", "The Ritual", and "Mighty Morphin Foreskin".

Todd Edwards - "Searching EP"

Blind download that ended up slightly boring to me. Some pretty average house music that still makes for some decent background music. The sounds are soft yet flat, it's kinda different for music that sounds like this. I like it, but I don't want to hear too much of that sound all at once. Just small doses. Check out his Soundcloud page, because none of the songs from this EP are up anywhere to listen online that I can find. My favorite track is the title track.

Gregory Pepper & His Problems - "Escape From Crystal Skull Mountain" 2012

This album straight blew me away. I had heard a few songs by Gregory Pepper, and I thought they were cool and all, but did not prepare me for how awesome this album is. This is the type of album that might be hailed as a classic in the future. Elements of it remind me of Why?, They Might Be Giants, and Islands, but there's also hints of The Beatles and The Beach Boys style classic rock, and also a little pop punk thrown in as well. The sound quality and instrumentation are superb sounding. I had always thought he was a lo-fi artist for some reason. This is the type of album that needs to be getting a major label type push for how good yet unknown it is. Check out these videos for "Born To Die", "At Least (I'm Not A Musician)" and "Breathe In", but really this is an album that was meant to be heard straight through.

David Ramos - "Sento La Tua Mancanza" 2012

It's interesting to me that after all these years, the influence of what Why? and Dose One did back in the clouddead days casts a huge shadow on modern music. I mean, I was enthralled with that stuff back then, but I felt like I was one of the only ones out there listening to music like that in the late 90's and early 2000's. If the Gregory Pepper album I just reviewed above is the hi-fi, big production version of this influence, David Ramos and his brother Ceschi are the lo-fi version. This album is one of the most emotional and personal pieces of music i've ever encountered in my entire life, and it must be really hard for him to perform these songs live. This makes Eels' "Electro-Shock Blues" seem like baby stuff, and that's a pretty sad and personal album. So be prepared for that, but this album is remarkably good. I would also recommend this album to people who are into Astronautalis and don't know where to look next, although I think this makes his material seem corny. I can't stress enough how great this album is. Check out "Digital Memory", "Hollow Days", "Tommy Flew", "Still There", "Find Heaven", and "Forgotten Dance". This is another one that seems like it was meant to be heard all the way through.

Riff Raff - "The Golden Alien" 2012

Checked this out to see what all the hype is about. Riff Raff is a really weird artist. He definitely has talent, and I could even see him making huge hit pop singles at some point. Right now it seems like he's more into making Based type music where it sounds like he records 6 songs a day and releases them all. So some of them turn out pretty cool and other sound horribly misguided or just plain bad. His whole image is just kinda funny to me too. It's like he's making fun of himself but he doesn't completely admit that's what he's doing, walking some weird line between comedy and music. Check out "Bat Phone", "Rice Out" (WTF?), and "Rabies".