Tag: new music friday

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30Hz Recommended Music

30Hz New Music Radar 3/3/17: Methyl Ethel – Everything Is Forgotten

30hz new music radar

 

Woke up today. To everything gray. And all that I saw just kept going on and on.

-Guster

 

What a weird day. Thwarted attempt to be productive followed by another thwarted attempt. Had a tremendous banter going with the guy at Goodwill that almost fell over when I handed him my old boat anchor receiver. Road closed. Road closed. Errands finally done, I journeyed to the coffee shop and in order to embrace the chaos I ordered a latte. The barista wanted to check my temperature. In all the years I’ve known this guy I’ve never ordered a drink with milk other than a cortado.

Stranger things.

Here’s some music.

 

30Hz Playlist on Spotify: Every New Music Radar Recommendation.

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30Hz New Music Radar: Methyl Ethel – Everything is Forgotten

methyl ethel everything is forgottenA thing I regret from 2016: not fully embracing Methyl Ethel.

This dream-pop substrate filters all manner of music through the smooth as a river pebbles delivery. A glimpse of grunge here. A trickle of shoegaze there. Psych-rock hidden behind salmon. What’s with the river analogy anyway?

At times reminiscent of the MGMT transition record that should have happened between Oracular Spectacular and Congratulations. Sneaky Tame Impala. Less trippy than Floyd. And especially Laser Floyd, which by the way should be viewed sober and maybe not at all. Just a public service announcement.

Dream-pop is not a dirty word. Great dream-pop transcends. It elevates and upflits, shepherds us through the days that we can’t go straight to 2:00am with whiskey and Tom Waits. Methyl Ethel has released two damn fine albums in two years, and it’s time to jump on the bandwagon before your Grouplove-liking work acquaintance starts asking if you’ve heard “Ethel Methyl” cuz they’re “pretty solid.”

 

 

Sample tracks: Ubu, Femme Maison/One Man House, Weeds Through the Rind

Buy Everything Is Forgotten on Amazon

Buy the Limited Edition Purple Vinyl from 4AD

 

 

Also highly recommended this week:

 

Meursault – I Will Kill Again

Strings-loving Scottish indie-folkers with a 16-bit past.


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Chicano Batman – Freedom is Free

Latin psych-funkers prepare to do battle against the forces of single-minded focus.

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30Hz New Music Radar 2/24/17: Stormzy – Gang Signs & Prayer

30hz new music radar

Welcome to February 24th. It’s 76 degrees here in Pittsburgh. Everyone thinks its spring and that just means that when it snows again — and it will snow again — they’ll all be in super duper bad moods. I prefer not to get too high or too low about this weather stuff. Either way I’ll still drink my iced americano because I refuse to let the bastards get me down. 

I’ve been waiting for that first top-notch rap or hip-hop album of 2017. Celebrate good times; that record has arrived… in what has turned into a surprising week for new music.

 

30Hz Playlist on Spotify: Every New Music Radar Recommendation.

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30Hz New Music Radar: Stormzy – Gang Signs & Prayer

stormzy gang signs & prayerStraight out of the UK grime circuit dominated of late by Skepta, Stormzy first made a name for himself with his “Wicked Skengman” series of freestyle tapes in 2014. Gang Signs & Prayer represents Stormzy’s first full-length LP.

I’m not going to pretend to be an expert in UK rap/hip-hop. Beyond my appreciation for Skepta and the occasional track from Dizzee Rascal, my grime experience allows me license (licence?) to identify grime (I know grime when I hear it!) but not dissect the genre specifics with any confidence. So let’s all learn something together.

Grime originated in London during the early 2000’s — a combination of UK electronic music and hip-hop. The sub-genre also borrows liberally from dancehall and reggae. The most identifiable characteristic of grime is hyperactive, syncopated breakbeats, generally 130-140 bpm. Lyrics depict gritty inner-city life. The casual listener will note a rather standard emcee cadence and those aforementioned roots in UK electronic music, specifically breakbeat, drum & bass, and jungle. #TheMoreYouKnow

I normally stumble on modern rap/hip-hop artists when they go slow jam. Stormzy manages to hold my attention even when the bpm’s drop. “Cigarettes & Cush,” as one example of a slow-burner that still hits. Gang Signs & Prayer lacks not for thumpers. A Junkaroo parade strolls through the studio during “Cold,” and “Big For Your Boots” will challenge your speakers with some low-end Gregorian chants laced behind Stormzy’s rapidfire lyricism.

 

Sample tracks: Big For Your Boots, Mr. Skeng, 100 Bags

Buy Gang Signs & Prayer on Amazon

 

 

 

Also highly recommended this week:

 

Vagabon – Infinite Worlds

A deft tightrope strung between brash art-pop and dream-pop.

vagabon infinite worlds
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Hippo Campus – Landmark

Minneapolis indie-rock quartet that’s drawing legitimate Vampire Weekend comparisons.

hippo campus landmark

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Thundercat – Drunk

Neo-soul by way of Frank Zappa.

thundercat drunk

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30Hz Recommended Music

30Hz New Music Radar 2/17/17: Maggie Rogers – Now That the Light is Fading EP

30hz new music radar

Welcome to February 17th. It’s pretty much President’s Day Eve already. If hearing President’s Day Eve doesn’t feel sobering, I congratulate you on being a stone-cold rock in a hail-storm. But about the music. 

 

I’m scrapped for time, but seeing as how I’m trying to be consistent in recommending top-notch tunes week after week after week I can’t take Week 4 off. Maybe Week 12 but not Week 4. Especially considering that I’ve spent most of the day with headphones in my ears and half-listening to everyone around me. It would be a disservice to everyone I’ve ignored today if I didn’t post my new release findings.

As always, music fans, share good music. It’s one of our few pure joys, a renewable resource of life blood and energy. Music, you guys. #NotSoDeepThoughts

 

30Hz Playlist on Spotify: Every New Music Radar Recommendation.

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30Hz New Music Radar: Maggie Rogers – Now That the Light is Fading EP

Maggie Rogers teased us last year with the song “Alaska.” Just the one song. Something to whet our whistles. And just like that first sip of whiskey, we shuddered. Not the bad kind of shudder. The good kind. The kind that just gets us acquainted with this new, bold flavor. But that’s all we had — that first sip.

Today, Maggie Rogers released an LP. So it’s not a full glass; it’s a larger sample. A fingerfull, perhaps. And it’s as good as we hoped. Her bio suggests a merging of folk, dance, pop, whatever. These bios don’t do anyone justice. Maggie Rogers has soul. No. She has SOUL. Singer/songwriters more often than not could be lumped into categories like “pleasant” or “cloying” or “annoying.” It’s all too easy to dismiss their output as ephemeral twee. Not so with Maggie Rogers. Unless I’m unfairly falling over myself about five tracks, Maggie Rogers is one of the most exciting young artists in music.

Legend has it that Maggie Rogers wrote her breakout hit “Alaska” about a hiking trip in college with Pharrell Williams… in under 15 minutes. Legend also has it that Pharrell was moved to tears after first hearing the track. Those legends are tricky things.

Let’s boil Maggie Rogers down. She’s a banjo-laced electro-soulstress and you should listen to everything she’s ever released, which will take you all of 17 minutes.

Sample tracks: All of them.

Buy Now That The Light Is Fading on Amazon

 

 

 

Also highly recommended this week:

 

Middle Kids – s/t LP

Orchestral Aussie indie-pop

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Ryan Adams – Prisoner

Prolific singer-songwriter’s best collection since Heartbreaker.

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Molly Burch – Please Be Mine

Jazz-fueled smoky-voiced indie-pop vocalist.