Well our week got off to a late and rough start but we’re fully back into the groove today. Yay us. One of the things helping us find our funky footing again is this banger from Baltimore singer, songwriter, rapper, DJ, and producer, Abby T. Why did we list so much of her resume’ on our notoriously short and sweet blog? Well, because all of those skills are on display in “Want It All” and each one is done with complete mastery. Switching from singing to rapping effortlessly and stylishly over one of those beats that is so simple yet so flawless that it instantly has you bobbing your head. Production flourishes making each section of the song distinct while still feeling natural is the icing on the cake. This is, as they used to say, that good shit.
Friday 5×5
Friday 5×5 is our segment where we give you five new tracks to check out and give ourselves the challenge of describing said tracks in only five words.
Friday? More like Friyay amiright? It’s been a long week round these parts and we’re ready to wrap it up with five tunes so good they do the heavy lifting. Letting us kick our feet up and go ahhhhhhh. Thanks Paul Bäcklin, Gillian Stone, Awon, Peaceful Faces and Throne Of Iron for doing all the hard work. Employees of the month, all of ya.
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Friday 5×5
Friday 5×5 is our segment where we give you five new tracks to check out and give ourselves the challenge of describing said tracks in only five words.
Oh look it’s Friday once again and we’re almost out of our weekly word data plan! Must conserve words! Lucky for us and you these songs are so good they don’t need much from us to hype them up. Check out the self-hyping songs from Alffa, Girl As Wave, Oliver Marson, YUNGMORPHEUS and Ricky Gourmet.
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Week Starter – Sly5thAve & JSWISS
Week Starter is our Monday column where we give you a new song to help you get on out of bed & help you power on through the working week.
This week we want to start you off with the inventive hip-hop / funk jam that is “Somebody’s Got To Do It” by Sly5thAve & JSWISS. Hitting like an update on The Roots classic of the same name, this new track gives us a stripped down beat where the groove lives in the breaths between each beat and guitar riff. It’s a smoothed out stop / start rhythm that lets JSWISS shine with a flow that sounds both laid back and confident at the same time. It’s a different type of hip-hop jam than you’re probably used to – jazzier, a more esoteric head nodder – but one you need to hear. Once you do you’ll be hitting the replay no doubt.
Friday 5×5
Once again it’s time to microdose those reviews and let the music speak for itself. Five tracks so good we only need to drop five words to accentuate them. Check out the latest from vern matz, Markus Nikolaus, Sista Bossen, Brandon Isaac & Free Mind and fearofmakingout.
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The Midweekly – NNAMDÏ
The Midweekly is our column from Mike Jeffers; lead singer of Chicago punk stalwarts SCRAM, music junkie and all around righteous dude.
The title makes a good suggestion especially after this topsy turvy record gets your head spinning. Please Have A Seat is the fifth and latest release from Chicago based NNAMDÏ. Just when you think you might have the sound of this multi-instrumentalist singer pinned down, he flips the table. Starting off with bright but mournful guitar, which leads to techno beats, and eventually somehow prog riffs, these tracks of avant pop are masterfully crafted. Yes, as mentioned earlier, multi-instrumentalist, he’s playing everything, and handling the programming aspects which mix in nicely with the guitars and acoustic drums. There’s vulnerability in lyrics dealing with remorse and fear, playfulness about superficiality and greed, and just down right quirkiness about life. The vocals are layered, filtered, and auto tuned to the nth degree, but never lose the beauty of the melody, or the flow of the rap. Please stay seated, you’re going to wanna concentrate on this one.
Week Starter – Sachee
Just because the weather is cooling down doesn’t mean the music has to. “Django/Brando” by Sachee, an international collective featuring members from the Netherlands, Belgium, Scotland and USA, is so hot that we’re pretty sure it’ll defrost your car windows in the morning if you play it loud enough. Working it like Anderson Paak jamming with Fantastic Negrito it’s funky, sultry and straddles the line between throw back and contemporary. Few songs can shift between multiple vocalists rapping and singing and have it all feel like one delicious flow as this one does. Take this energy into your week and keep it in your hip pocket for a little extra strut.
Tuesday Tip-Off: Maffmatix & Ill Bill
One of the coolest things about hip-hop is how easily you can mix variable elements for wildly differing results. Not just what the producer samples and how they stitch it together, but also the combination of different producers with different emcees nudging both into new territory. Take for example producer / rapper Maffmatix and legendary emcee Ill Bill. Both had separate releases just a few months ago back in July that are distinctly different from their new collaboration “Grime Time.” Ill Bill’s July release had a horror rap vibe running through it and Maffmatix’s had a smoothed out jazzy style complete with crooned chorus. With “Grime Time” we see each take several steps toward one another for fantastic results. Maffmatix puts a little grit (and yes, grime) on his delivery and Ill Bill comes across as almost playful rapping over a beat that is reminiscent of something Danger Mouse would do for MF Doom. It’s a balance that works well and makes this track one of our most replayed of the week.
Tuesday Tip-Off: Jesswar
With a simple but swaggery piano over beats loop, “Hefty” by Jesswar lives up to its title. This is a big attitude song but subtly so, with Jesswar matching the mood with a flow that is more confident than challenging and more factual than boastful. When you’re a real bad ass, you don’t need to talk about it much, you simply are. Coming from a mixtape, its understandable that the song clocks in at only two minutes, but we can’t help but wish it was longer. This is a bounce we want to stay in until our neck muscles ache from the head nodding.
Friday 5×5
You know the drill, five songs so good they don’t need us boring and blabbing about them. We keep it succinct and let the music do the talking on these stand out tracks from Kowloon, Dome Dwellers, Killer Bee, Kevin George and Sharkorama.
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