Album Reviews: December 2014 Week 3

DJ Earl - "Afrika Tek EP" - 2014

This has been a busy year for Chicago's DJ Earl, and this is one of several releases he put out. I will admit that this particular one isn't my favorite of his. 3 of these 4 tracks seem kind of average compared to his strongest material, but it's not weak at all either. The highlight of this EP for me is the track "Modulator". It's one of those songs that is straddling a few different sub-genres to create a new unique sound, and i'd like to hear more tracks in this style. You can listen to a short preview mix of these songs here. You can purchase this album here.

Flying Lotus - "You're Dead" - 2014

The trajectory of Flying Lotus' popularity within the 'normal accepted mainstream music world' is an odd one to me. 6 years ago, when he was making much more accessible sounding electronic music, he was more of an underground phenomenon that was a hard sell for people who listen to 'normal' music. Now that he's basically transformed into a progressive jazz artist with this album, his album has ended up on a lot of mainstream end of the year best-of lists. But the same people who write these lists and are showing this new found interest in him, are to me, the same type of people who say stuff like "ewwww" and "gross" when people play jazz in front of them. It's just funny/weird. I can't picture any of those people actually bumping this album, but I could picture them getting down to some of his older material now that legions of copycats have made his style seem not so leftfield anymore. It's just very interesting to me that his weirdest album is the one with the most high profile collaborations (Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, Herbie Hancock), and is getting the most shine. As far as my opinion on this album goes, I hate to say it, but this falls in the category of albums that I really want to like more than I actually like it, in terms of how often I actually am in the mood to listen to music like this. What him and Thundercat (it seems like he's on almost every song) have done here is quite admirable from a technical standpoint. They made an extremely psychedelic, progressive jazz album, with a couple rap and electronic songs thrown in to make it slightly more palatable for the masses, but even those songs are not what the average music listener would be looking for from those genres, which is a good thing. I just don't find myself geekin to listen to this one, like I did with all of his previous releases, but I will admit that the album before this one took a good 3 months to really bore it's way into my brain, and now it's arguably my favorite LP by him, so maybe time will tell with this one also. The concept of this album is so right up my alley, the journey to death and the soundtrack for it. The mixing on this album sounds phenomenal on my headphones. Every noise within the songs sounds so crisp and well placed. The way the songs are sequenced is very loose and fast paced. This album was obviously designed to be listened to all the way through, as a full LP, but i've noticed that if you shuffle the track order, it still all sounds really well sequenced. Something about the way the tracks begin and end makes it all cohesive. This IS easily one of the better albums of the year for sure, i'm just perplexed that THIS is the album that's getting him noticed on a larger scale. Maybe there's more jazz appreciators out there than I give credit for. Or maybe mainstream people are so starved for good new rappers that are marketed to them, that just the thought of an overrated but still decent MC like Kendrick Lamar making an appearance is a big deal to them. Who knows? Check out the videos for "Never Catch Me" (featuring Kendrick Lamar) and "Ready Err Not". I can't find any individual song clips, but you can listen to the full album here. You can purchase this album here.

Antemasque - "Antemasque" - 2014

I had explained this in more detail a few weeks ago when I reviewed the Mars Volta B-Sides album and the Bosnian Rainbows album, but Antemasque is more or less the resurrected version of The Mars Volta under a new name. They parted ways for probably not even a full year, and then reunited under this new name with the same drummer, but with Flea as their bass player this time. Compared to Mars Volta, this album has more 'traditional' songwriting structures and Cedric's singing style is more aligned with how he used to sound in At The Drive In. If this excites you, you should definitely check this album out now. I much prefer Mars Volta over At The Drive In, so this album is a mixed bag for me. It's incredibly well done, especially considering how quickly this must have been written and recorded. These guys are world class musicians all the way, and not many people could put out an album of this caliber that fast. All that being said, this album is not as thrilling to me as most Mars Volta albums are, but I do appreciate the change of pace, as it is proof that they can 'play the game' and make a 'normal' album any time they want to, and were just choosing not to until now. Check out "4AM", "Hangin In The Lurch", "People Forget", "Drown All Your Witches", "Ride Like The Devil's Son", and "Providence". You can purchase this album here.

Primus - "Primus & The Chocolate Factory with The Fungi Ensemble" - 2014

So, Les Claypool and company have decided to take on Willy Wonka for their latest project. The results are both predictable and enjoyable. This album basically sounds exactly like I thought it would in my head, and sometimes there's nothing wrong with that. Les' style is well suited for these songs, and as an added bonus touch, original drummer Tim Alexander is back in the group, and doesn't play an actual drum kit on this entire album. He is credited with "percussion" and articles I read about the recording of this album said that he put together his own rig out of household items and made drum noises that way. It definitely adds to the technical prowess of this album and also childlike nature of the songs themselves. Everyone already knows these songs, so it's not like this is going to blow anyone away, but it's always nice when talented musicians take a simple concept and execute it well. Just like the real Willy Wonka, they have placed 5 "golden tickets" in the form of yellow vinyls accompanied by the certificate of authenticity, which will grant the owners free admission to any Primus show ever, not to mention having one of the more rare pieces of vinyl in history. So far, I believe only 2 of these golden tickets have been found. I ended up with a nice chocolate brown copy when I opened mine up. Here is a playlist where you can listen to the entire album here. You can purchase this album here.

The Flaming Lips - "With A Little Help From My Fwends" - 2014

Review 2 cover albums in a row? Why not?..... This is The Flaming Lips' take on The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album, and boy is this one a doozy. I had the rare opportunity to see one of these songs performed live at First Avenue a few months ago, and damn did it sound good. It was really one of those "Holy shit!" moments in my concert going life, where I was seeing, hearing, and feeling things i've never encountered before, and they were somehow able to do that through covering a Beatles song i've heard 8 billion times. That takes talent, in my opinion. What they have done with this album is make it into a TRULY psychedelic experience. This isn't some straight edge person's idea of what people want to hear while on psychedelics, this is what you actually want to hear while on psychedelics. What they've done to the sound design and structure of all the songs is also pretty much what psychedelic drugs do to human brains. Almost nothing is predictable, and the most odd things are distorted or brought to the forefront of the mix, but yet everything still seems like it's all in the right place and orchestrated perfectly. They took what I would call the Handsome Boy Modeling School approach to this, and have different weird guests collaborating with them on each song, and none of them sound out of place at all. The first time I listened to this album, it sounded almost too odd and out of place to be something I would listen to regularly, but once my ears had been broken in like a catcher's mitt, this album just sounds luscious and delightful. Not in a million years did I expect to enjoy this as much as I do. Check out the video for "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" (featuring Miley Cyrus & Moby). You can listen to the full album here. You can purchase this album here.