Krizz Kaliko - "Son Of Sam" - 2013
Krizz Kaliko's 5th album is a strong one. I would say this is my favorite album of his since the first 2, ("Vitiligo" and "Genius"), and arguably this album is his most complete and 'professional' yet. There isn't very many people with more vocal talent than him in the music industry, and he proves it all over this album. From top notch rap songs with speedy flows and complex lyrics, to straight R&B/pop songs, where he's showing a lot of modern R&B and pop singers how boring they sound compared to someone like him who refuses to follow other people's blueprints when it comes to songwriting. The track sequencing of this album is perfect. The intro is hyped and sets a party type pace immediately, and then goes into some anthem type songs to get people hooked. After the album is about at the halfway point, it goes into a slick R&B mode to simmer things down a little bit, and then there's a few serious rap songs at the end, to show that he's not all party 100% of the time and has a brain in his head. Very few people in music history are capable of the level of versatility he has as an artist. I know I always say stuff like this, but it's a shame that not many people outside of the core Strange Music fanbase know about his genius. He deserves to be one of the biggest stars in music, period. Check out the videos for "Scars" (featuring Tech N9ne), "Schizophrenia", "W.A.N.S. (We All Need Sex)", "Why Me", "Girls Like That" (featuring Bizzy), "Kill For Your Lovin" (featuring Crystal Watson), "Thank God", and "Intro". Also check out "Titties" (featuring Tech N9ne) and "Do You Drink". You can purchase this album here.
Joker - "Sega Joker Drive" - 2013
Joker is a UK artist mainly known for his contributions to the grime and dubstep genres. This is a little EP he did of beats made out of all sounds from Sonic The Hedgehog. All 16-bit sounds, down to the drums, he kept it very true to the sound of the system. This doesn't blow me away, but it definitely is admirable in the fact that you can tell what songs are being sampled, but he arranges them in completely different ways. It also reminds me how many hours I must have logged, playing this game, seeing as how i'm so familiar with the sounds without even knowing it. You can listen to this over at his soundcloud page here.
Crowbar - "Symmetry In Black" - 2014
Crowbar is a sludge metal band hailing from New Orleans that has been around for quite some time. Admittedly, this is my first time checking them out, so I have no basis of comparison to their older albums, but this album definitely rocks. They first got on my radar after seeing their lead man, Kirk Windstein, perform as part of Down. His guitar playing impressed me so much, that I had to see what was up with him, and found out that Crowbar was his main band, where he performs both lead guitar and vocals. I really enjoy this mashing of metal styles they present here. There's plenty of variation of styles from song to song, but also even within certain songs as well. These guys have the ability to go really hard when they want to, but then scale it back and get very melodic at times as well. They keep it both interesting and engaging, and have a depth rarely seen in any genre. Check out the videos for "Walk With Knowledge Wisely" and "Symmetry In White". Also check out "Ageless Decay", "The Taste Of Dying", "A Wealth Of Empathy", and "The Foreboding". You can purchase the album here.
Aliceffekt - "Ten Axitecture" - 2014
Aliceffekt is a Canadian born, Japan based electronic artist that I became acquainted with through his "Dei Dan" album from last year. Something about the sound design and overall feel of that album made it stand out to me when I heard clips of it randomly. This is a 4 song EP that plays out like it's 4 parts of one long piece. The sound is very clear and sparse yet full of sounds. Some of this reminds me slightly of certain material by Culprate or Savant, and also more mellow Aphex Twin stuff. I can see this guy putting out some great albums in the future. You can download or listen to this here.
MC Chris - "Foreverrr" - 2014
MC Chris hit us earlier this year with a double album, clocking in at over 90 minutes. It seems like it would have been better suited to have split this into 2 separate albums, but i'm sure he had his reasons for putting this together the way he did. There's enough Ghostbusters themed songs on here to constitute it's own album, but they are placed in the track sequence interspersed with other songs with other specific themes and the ongoing saga that is the interludes on his albums. These interludes are mostly hilarious, (the outro starts out really strong and then goes on too long, but other than that, these are mostly gold) and I think it's a unique and admirable quality that Chris brings to his albums, where he's made the skits like a soap opera that's spiraled out of control, but they continually reference things that happened within the skits on previous albums to give it all continuity. The production on this one comes off to me a little bit more cheap and cartoony than it has in the past, and it brings down a couple songs a little bit. I am very grateful that he released the acapella versions of all these songs for a remix contest, because i've found I enjoy hearing these lyrics over other beats a lot more. This album is a definite must-have for longtime fans of his, but it's definitely not my favorite album by him. Check out the videos for "Wednesday", "Luigi", and "Discord". Also check out "Let Me In", "Where The Ghosts At?", "58.9", and "Help Wanted". You can purchase this album here.
Nocando - "Tits N Explosions" - 2013
This is the first of 2 recent releases by this Hellfyre Club member and Low End Theory host. The other being the more recent, "Jimmy The Burnout", which I haven't checked out yet. I was looking forward to this, but this was an unfortunate letdown for the most part. There's a few cool tracks here, the standout being the title track album closer, but there's some embarrassingly corny stuff like "All Over A Bitch (AOB)", "No Romance", and "Last But Not Least" (is this a Silkk The Shocker bite? haha). All of these songs have decent production but are plagued by played out concepts and/or repetition to the point of annoyance. The rest of the album is OK to decent, and shows that he's definitely an MC with talent, but maybe just needs to come up with a few more ideas for songs that don't involve recycling 'tried and true' song concepts. Hopefully his newer album fares a little better than this one. Check out the video for "Where's The Money?". Also check out "Tits N Explosions", "No Sweat" (featuring Pigeon John & Cel), and "I Guess So". You can purchase or download this album for free here.
Busdriver - "Perfect Hair" - 2014
This is now Busdriver's 8th (!) album, and the freight train of lyricism that he is shows no signs of slowing down any time soon. On this effort he seems to sound almost more immediate to me, all while still folding his style into a new piece of complex origami, that sounds to me as a long time fan, both quite familiar and new and progressive all at once. I have no idea how a complete foreigner to his style would take this album, but his vocabulary as an MC is probably only matched by Aesop Rock, who actually appears on a track as a guest here, along with Danny Brown over a Jeremiah Jae beat. If that doesn't sound tantalizing, I don't know what does. This album seems more tightly knit, concise, and trimmed of fat, compared to most of his previous albums, especially the couple more recent ones. I can't think of any other rap albums in recent times that blew me away like this has. There seems to be a slight push for more acceptance from outside of his core fanbase within the sound of this album, but he's doing it in a way that doesn't take away from his progressive nature, and this album still comes off as actually being progressive, instead of being an artist that was once progressive finding a comfort zone within the style they created and treading water within that. (recent examples: Aphex Twin and El-P). He finds a unique balance here, and it's one of the more strong albums of his career. Not quite up there with "Road Kill Overcoat" (what I consider his best LP), but reaching for those heights and almost getting there again. It's not for everyone, but if your frequency can get in tune with this, you're in for a treat. Check out the videos for "Ego Death" (featuring Aesop Rock & Danny Brown), "Eat Rich" (this video is super fucking ridiculous and awesome...haha), "Colonize The Moon" (featuring Pegasus Warning), and "Motion Lines". Also check out "Bliss Point", "Can't You Tell I'm A Sociopath" (featuring VerBS), and "Upsweep". You can purchase the album here.
No comments:
Post a Comment