Animals Have Feelings’ third and latest single is a shuffling and kaleidoscopic collaboration with Earl Sweatshirt “Mirror” that also features a surreal array of obscure 60s psych rock and 70s soul samples paired with boom-bap beats paired with Earl Sweatshirt dexterous inner and out rhymes — some dealing with issues of identity vs. how others perceive you and more.
Tag: Flying Lotus
Live Footage: Samiyam at Stones Throw’s Dungeon Sessions
Detroit-born, Los Angeles-based producer Sam Baker, best known under the moniker Samiyam can trace the moment his musical career truly started in earnest to when he was at a Detroit strip club Platinum, where he encountered a self-described […]
Detroit-born, Los Angeles-based producer Sam Baker, best known under the moniker Samiyam can trace the moment his musical career truly started in earnest to when he was at a Detroit strip club Platinum, where he encountered a self-described fan of his, who told him that he needed to take his music more seriously. At the time, Baker was among a group of post-J. Dilla Donuts producers, who focused on instrumental work, rather than the traditional emcee/producer collaborations — and he was circulating beat tapes among local crew in Michigan and through zip files to friends on the web. Eventually, many of those Donuts-inspired producers, including Baker began relocating to Los Angeles and were created a scene around the Low End Theory in East Los Angeles.
As a part of East Los Angeles’ burgeoning producer and artist scene, Baker wound up meeting Flying Lotus, who quickly signed Baker to his Brainfeeder Records and then released the Detroit-born producer’s first two albums, 2008’s Rap Beats Vol. 1 (which was coincidentally, Brainfeeder’s first release) and 2011’s Sam Baker’s Album. 2013 was a big year for Baker as he released his third album Wish You Were Here and did production work for Earl Sweatshirt, Captain Murphy (the alter-ego of the aforementioned Flying Lotus) and Pharoahe Monch.
Animals Have Feelings is his Stone Throw Records debut, and as Baker explains in press notes, he considers the effort a creative sequel to Rap Beats Vol. 1. “Animals has roots in beats made around the time of Vol. 1, and the new stuff on the record has some of the same sound.” And as a result the material on the album is mostly instrumental, beat-driven hip-hop mixed with a few rap tracks he did with a few emcees, who are his few yet frequent collaborators — Earl Sweatshirt, Action Bronson, Jeremiah Jae and Oliver the 2nd.
Two singles from the album were recently released –“Mr. Wonderful” a collaboration with Action Bronson, that has Bronson rhyming and crooning over boom-bap beats and flashes of synth in a song that channels Raekwon‘s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx; and “Dartgun,” an instrumental track consisting of layers of buzzing synths, boom bap drum programming which channels the legendary and beloved work of J. Dill and of Dam-Funk — while evoking a singular, funky vision.
New Video: The Brooding Sounds and Visuals of Vienna’s Hearts Hearts
Comprised of David Österle, Daniel Hämmerle, Johannes Mandorfer and Peter Paul Aufreiter, the Vienna, Austria-based quartet Hearts Hearts specialize in a brooding slow-burning, elegiac sound that meshes elements of classical music and contemporary electro pop in a way that […]
21 year-old Paris-based, French-Brazilian singer/songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Yndi Ferreira is the creative mastermind behind indie electro pop project Dream Koala, a project that Ferriera started back in 2012. Interestingly, Ferreira developed a reputation of his production style as he quickly became a go-to remixer, remixing the work of Angel Haze, The 1975, BANKS and others — and as an artist, his debut single “We Can’t Be Friends” caught the attention of renowned acts including Fabolous, Doja Cat and the aforementioned BANKS.
Building on an increasing buzz around him, Ferreira released the critically applauded Odyssey EP and Earth. Home. Destroyed. EP which were informed by a variety of Ferreira’s influences including Flying Lotus, My Bloody Valentine, Radiohead, contemporary R&B which gave the material a spectral, shoegazer-like, introspective feel, along the lines of Beacon‘s For Now and The Ways We Separate while thematically exploring Afrofuturism and sci-fi.
Slated for a December 4 release, Ferreira’s soon-to-be released EP Exodus will reportedly continue thematically where the critically acclaimed Earth. Home. Destroyed. left off while cementing his reputation for crafting moody, spectral electro pop that seamlessly meshes elements of contemporary R&B, bass-heavy electronica and soft rock. “Dimension Sleeper,” Exodus‘ first single (and EP opener, by the way) pairs layers of slowly cascading synths, dub-inspired tweeter and woofer rocker bass fed through gentle washes of reverb and skittering drum programming with Ferreira’s plaintive and ethereal vocals in a song that evokes both the sensation of weightlessness and of wisps of smoke curling and rising heavenward before dissipating. And although possessing a retro-futuristic sound that would clearly sound at home in the early 80s, at the core of the song is a delicate and ancient ache that’s haunting and unsettling.
While playing this song I thought of the song’s narrator in a dying spaceship traveling through the cosmos, and the entire time the narrator is haunted by the lingering and inescapable ghost of a departed lover.
Daniel Cartisano is a Sydney, Australia-based electronic music artist, producer and vocalist, and his solo recording project MK Grands draws from a diverse array of influences including Tom Waits, Arca, Bon Iver, and Flying Lotus, and in a relatively short period Cartisano has received praise and attention nationally and internationally through features on Triple J‘s Unearthed, HillyDilly, French publications Teez FM and Pause Musicale and GQ Magazine UK among others for a icy and broodingly atmospheric pop sound.
Building on the national and international buzz that he has already received, Cartisano will be releasing an EP at some point in the near future — but in the meantime, his latest single “Hold You Down,” is a sparse track that pairs ominously swirling and icy synths, glitchy beats and Cartisano’s plaintive falsetto as the song slowly builds up with a layer of cascading synths that appear towards the song’s last 45 seconds or so.
The song is centered around the deeply conflicting and intense feelings shared by two people, who are trying to leave each other after being together for a considerable period of time. In other words, it captures the strange push and pull sensation of desire, longing, revulsion and contempt that can frequently come about in long-term relationships. But at the core of the song is the sense that it comes from a deeply personal experience — one that’s paradoxically almost universal for anyone, who’s been in a long-term relationship.
New Audio: Introducing Belgian Quintet STUFF. and Their Funky, Hip-Hop Take on Jazz Fusion
STUFF. is a Belgian-based quintet who have received attention across their native Belgium and the European Union for a sound that possesses elements of hip-hop, jazz, jazz fusion and funk. And as a result of […]
Over the last couple of years, Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner has seen his profile grow both nationally and internationally. As a bassist, Bruner effortlessly manages a propulsive, throbbing, sensual funk and a delicate, passionate sensitivity in […]
With the release of his previous four albums, 1983 (2006), Los Angeles (2008), Cosmogramma (2010), and Until the Quiet Comes (2012), the Los Angeles-based producer, electronic music artist, and emcee Flying Lotus has won critical acclaim for his genre-defying work. And his forthcoming […]
With the release of his previous four albums, 1983 (2006), Los Angeles (2008), Cosmogramma (2010), and Until the Quiet Comes (2012), the Los Angeles-based producer, electronic music artist, and emcee Flying Lotus has won critical acclaim for his genre-defying work. And his forthcoming […]
https://myspace.com/play/video/thundercat-evangelion-we-ll-die-109499274-112170973 Thundercat “Evangelion / We’ll Die” from Thundercat on Myspace. Over the years, there have been a long line of incredible electric bass virtuosos, who can walk the tightrope of playing with a propulsive, throbbing […]
Album Reviews: Dream Koala’s Odyssey EP and Hookworms’ Pearl Mystic
Dream Koala Odyssey EP Release Date: October 1, 2013 Growing up in Paris to Brazilian parents, the now 19 year-old Yndi Ferreira quickly taught himself to play guitar and sing by ear, and he began […]
Growing up in Paris to Brazilian parents, the now 19 year old Yndi Ferreira quickly taught himself to play guitar and sing by ear, and he began playing in various bands during his very early […]
http://www.nbc.com/assets/video/widget/widget.html?vid=n41394 Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner is the latest in a long run of funky bass playing virtuosos, and earlier this year, he released his latest effort, Apocalypse, which was produced by Flying Lotus to critical praise as it offers listeners a […]
Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner is the latest in a long run of funky bass playing virtuosos, and earlier this year, he released his latest effort, Apocalypse, which was produced by Flying Lotus to critical praise as it offers […]