Fasman’s Finds is our column from Rebecca Fasman (intrepid record nerd, DJ, and curator at the Kinsey Institute) in which she shares what she’s listening to and why.
Artist, rapper, poet, and musician Mykki Blanco released their new album Broken Hearts & Beauty Sleep last week. It is their first album with a record deal, and it reflects the eclectic and wildly talented community of collaborators that Mykki has cultivated over the years. Big Freedia, Jamila Woods, and Kari Faux all appear on the album, among many others.
This album is also kind of a break-up album, and I see a throughline between the various musical genres that Mykki deftly moves through and the various complex emotional states that we go through in a break-up. Happiness and contentment, frustration and anger, loss and sadness all exist in companionship on this record and it’s ultimately cathartic and empowering to listen to in full. The song I chose from this album is the one that I can’t stop listening to; it’s called “It’s Not My Choice” and it features Blood Orange and a summery acid house vibe that I am apparently addicted to.
Fasman’s Finds is our column from Rebecca Fasman (intrepid record nerd, DJ, and curator at the Kinsey Institute) in which she shares what she’s listening to and why.
This week we’re revisiting an oldie but goodie. Summertime is the time for listening to loud music outside (only if it’s good) or, in my case, being held captive inside by a billion cicadas and thinking about what I would listen to if I were outside. For R&B records, there is really only one answer, and that’s Jeremih‘s Late Nights: The Album.
Top to bottom, this album is so good that I can even forgive Jeremih for working with J. Cole. There are a few tracks that are so perfect for those late, slow, warm nights that it’s almost overwhelming. Try listening to “Pass Dat” or “oui” and not picture yourself in a convertible, driving around with your boo and smoking something sweet. The production is also slow and warm, but precise, the sonic equivalent of taking a xanax and drinking a cup of coffee. There is so much to relax into and so much to listen to, once these cicadas go away.
Fasman’s Finds is our column from Rebecca Fasman (intrepid record nerd, DJ, and curator at the Kinsey Institute) in which she shares what she’s listening to and why.
Georgia Anne Muldrow released her most recent album (21st in her incredible catalog), called VWETO III, on May 21st. Georgia said that “VWETO III is intended for movement. It’s to be played when you birth yourself back outside after a long introspective period to get the things you need. It intends for you to be your own superhero and wants to be your theme for power.”
Movement and inertia have both played perhaps outsized roles in our lives in the past 16 months, and coming out of this deeply embodied interplay between inside/outside, stasis/movement is hard. This record, thankfully, is not about movement in a showy or prescribed way – there will probably not be a tik tok dance challenge to come out of any of these tracks (though I am very open to being proved wrong about this!). Instead, this thoughtful, beautiful, rich album wants the listener to determine what movement means to us as individuals and wants to be the soundtrack to our own (re)emergence and power. This, especially after the past 16 months, is such a gift.
Fasman’s Finds is our column from Rebecca Fasman (intrepid record nerd, DJ, and curator at the Kinsey Institute) in which she shares what she’s listening to and why.
THIS IS A PRO-STEELY DAN POST. I truly TRULY do not understand human people with souls who don’t like Steely Dan. WHY DO YOU HATE JOY? Anyways, last week I was in a small weirdly-built house in Michigan and it was fun and yes I micro-dosed and yes we drove around singing this song by Steely Dan which is the best Steely Dan song (I will fight you). I HIGHLY recommend this whole album, which I hadn’t listened to in a while and OH MY GOD is it good, and I especially recommend playing this song very loud with friends in the car driving fast through one-lane roads in a rural part of wherever you are. You’re welcome.
Fasman’s Finds is our column from Rebecca Fasman (intrepid record nerd, DJ, and curator at the Kinsey Institute) in which she shares what she’s listening to and why.
Light in the Attic released a third, weirder, less categorizable compilation in their Japan Archival Series. The series consists of Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980–1990 and Pacific Breeze: Japanese City Pop, AOR & Boogie 1976–1986 (which are both equally perfect in their well-defined scope), and now Somewhere Between: Mutant Pop, Electronic Minimalism & Shadow Sounds of Japan, 1980–1988.
Each track has at least a toe if not a whole foot in at least one different genre, but the end result is something that is so deeply invested in experimentation that it defies labels. It’s refreshing to hear, since we are bombarded with overproduced music that sounds similar across multiple genres. The tracks on this compilation are great and weird and the more you listen the less weird they get and the more you want more.
The track I’ve selected, Area by Neo Museum, has a goth-y dark synth austerity that I can’t stop listening to.
Fasman’s Finds is our column from Rebecca Fasman (intrepid record nerd, DJ, and curator at the Kinsey Institute) in which she shares what she’s listening to and why.
Tierra Whack is a rapper from Philadelphia whose 2018 album Whack World is a masterpiece and if it’s not in your regular rotation, it should be. Her new single “Link” came out recently and the song and associated video are all about connection, something we (maybe I am projecting) all need more than ever right now. The video was made with LEGO, and Tierra Whack worked with public school students in Philly to help make the video. The lightness of the song, the ease, fun, and sweetness of the video makes me both wistful for past times and hopeful for future ones, which is a feeling I haven’t felt in a while.
Fasman’s Finds is our column from Rebecca Fasman (intrepid record nerd, DJ, and curator at the Kinsey Institute) in which she shares what she’s listening to and why.
Now that it’s spring, I want to listen to music that’s lighter, that makes me move, that makes me want to be outside, that reminds me of having a body and being part of larger ecosystems. I’ve been listening to Everything You Heard Is True by Odunsi (The Engine). It’s a synth-y, percussive, spacey RnB album and I can’t get enough of it right now.
Odunsi is really good at creating space on a track – some of the percussive elements sound like breath (you can hear it clearly in Shuga Rush but really it’s throughout the whole album), and there’s welcome space between the exhalations. In a season of rebirth and rediscovery, it’s refreshing for breath and the body to be so present on an album.
Fasman’s Finds is our column from Rebecca Fasman (intrepid record nerd, DJ, and curator at the Kinsey Institute) in which she shares what she’s listening to and why.
Short and sweet this week! Everything that Analog Africa puts out is pretty incredible and this most recent release, Edo Funk Explosion Vol 1, is no exception. You will be moving and shaking from beginning to end. The vibes are right, the season is right, go get your life right and buy this.
Fasman’s Finds is our column from Rebecca Fasman (intrepid record nerd, DJ, and curator at the Kinsey Institute) in which she shares what she’s listening to and why.
It’s been a little over a year of Covid-19 lockdowns. A year of sickness and fear and death and not having access to the ways we usually deal with those things. I’ve been particularly tired/overtaxed this past week, and don’t want to listen to anything with words, or anything fast, or anything that has a traditional song structure. And so I’ve been dipping into one of my favorite albums of all time, Hiroshi Yoshimura‘s Music for Nine Postcards. This album is from 1982, and Hiroshi wrote it to correspond to 9 windows at the Hara Museum in Tokyo, where the album was first played in person.
There is something so special to the iterative concept of this album; Yoshimura is the center, and as his views change, so do his moods, moving from melancholy to sweet, humble to excited, desirous to content. Though it all, he demonstrates such consideration, care, and love for this space, both architectural space and the sonic space he creates. I can’t say enough good things about all of Yoshimura’s work, but as this is the first album I heard of his, this holds a special place in my heart/brain/body. Hope it will in yours too.
Fasman’s Finds is our column from Rebecca Fasman (intrepid record nerd, DJ, and curator at the Kinsey Institute) in which she shares what she’s listening to and why.
Here are two things I love: hip hop and award shows. I am deeply invested in the former, and unbelievably embarrassed by the latter. But there I was, watching the Grammy’s, which were oddly not a complete train wreck like usual, and almost crying with joy when Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B performed together. I spent the next few days listening to some of my most favorite women rappers (and also occasionally thinking/laughing about Ben Shapiro committing the biggest and most hilarious self-own when he said that he thinks a WAP would constitute a medical condition).
I want to highlight a gem from Shawnna, a Chicago MC who was signed to Ludacris’ label and put out her album Block Music in 2006. Her most well-known song is “Gettin’ Some”, which you can listen to below, but I also highly recommend “Hit the Back/Slide In”. And, while we’re talking recommendations, it’s always a good time to revisit Gangsta Boo, Trina, MC Lyte, Remy Ma, Khia, Foxy Brown, Lil’ Kim, and all the other talented women who paved the way for Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B to make the world a better, wetter place.
