Month: June 2018

ALEX REVIEWS MUSIC (ARM): KIDS SEE GHOSTS – KIDS SEE GHOSTS | 2018-06-29

Just in case y’all esteemed readers haven’t noticed, I’m having a hell of a lot of fun at this so please excuse me as I continue to productively proliferate the meanders of this site with soon-to-be critically acclaimed featured review of selected popular music being released in 2018 (and beyond). To be completely honest with you, it would be hard to do otherwise, as all of us earthlings get inundated with tidal waves of exceptionally excellent new music as of late, especially more so after the Kanye West-architected five week G.O.O.D. Music label marathon, which began with the impressively astonishing Pusha T release Daytona and culminated just mere days ago, on Friday 22nd June, with the drop of Teyana Taylor’s mild and rather anonymous K.T.S.E. And by the way, who knows what else Ye and his camp have in store for us next, as history taught us numerous times that, albeit them being superior drops of ethereal wisdom, Kanye’s promotional tweets aren’t necessarily the most reliable and validated source to go by. Fun fact: for as strange, surprising, and peculiar as it sounds, this very ARM piece is actually the first official instalment dissecting one of said five album releases, even though multiple associated namedrops and mentions have indeed occurred throughout these very airwaves recently. So, whilst begging the pardon of you all music aficionados for the slightly dislocated delay in putting this one out – as most of you might already be aware of the original release date of this album – without further ado it’s time for a review of Kanye West and Kid Cudi’s new duo self-titled debut, also known as hip-hop supergroup Kids See Ghosts.

Actually, there is in fact some further ado, as I didn’t want to miss my chance to shout-out my man Jason Butler’s latest musical endeavour (of letlive. and The Fever 333 fame), in form of the raunchy and gnarly Pressure Cracks side-project, a punk-hardcore five-piece from Southern California that catapulted itself into the world with its eponymous EP at the end of May. It’s a radically bittersweet, fun, in-your-face, and formative ride through sonic highwaves of meat-and-potatoes hardcore angst, all encapsulated in a handy and modular 15-minute of punk fame journey spanning four tracks. Previewed by the aggressively dope and dynamically excellent “Be a Wolf”, all cuts on the project do bring something valuable to the table, from the break-down-filled electrifying opener “Collages & Collagen”, to the high-speed grit and kinky violence of closing number “No Yourself”, passing through the powerfully entangled and abrasive “Stay Inside, Stay Alive”, which also doubles as one of the few sporadic moments on the record showcasing interesting clean vocals motives by Butler, who I’m sure must’ve not been able to speak for a whole week after recording this EP. Check with your own ears and you’ll know what I mean. If nothing else, it’s a full gust of fresh hardcore breeze for these times, which have so frequently and so intensely been exposed to hip-hop lately that one might not have realized how much the world missed some guitar-driven wall of sounds as well as good old screams and growls. I bet this EP can provide the same service to you, too.

Back to our regularly scheduled programme, which sees Kanye West and long-time protégé/wunderkid Cudi (see what I did there?) dropping one of the most highly-anticipated albums of the year on Friday 8th June – the third in the G.O.O.D. Music series –, synthesised for better of worse into mere seven tracks clocking in at just about 25 minutes (incipit: for those of you late to the party, a while back and amidst the whole MAGA-hat/Trump-endorsement drama, Kanye decided that albums have now just seven tracks, and stuck to this creative formula for his recent outputs, albeit making an exception with the last 8-track Teyana Taylor instalment). The excitement and thrill for this release got further cemented pretty quickly through incredibly positive early reviews of the project – above all a staggering and mega controversial 10/10 score by the Internet’s busiest music nerd Anthony Fantano – as well as all of those bells and whistles surrounding each of these recent Kanye-produced drops, including exclusive listening parties all over the USA, raining from his creative compound-ranch in Wyoming to hip neighbourhoods in Los Angeles. With that being said, my very personal expectations going into this album weren’t exactly sky-high, given the rather disappointing and surprisingly underwhelming ye record that preceded this (both TLOP and Yeezus are miles ahead), coupled with the recent radio silence from Kid Cudi as far as his creative outputs was concerned.

They say that one shall be best pleased when her expectations aren’t disproportionately high or shooting for the moon, and this I feel is exactly what happened with this record, as overall it’s quite literally an impressive and thorough artistic endeavour, ranging from off-the-wall experimentation and never-heard-before Kanye (“Feel the Love”), to precious, sensitive, gorgeous white gloved sampling (“Cudi Montage”). Right off the bat, one has to recognise and acknowledge Kid Cudi’s standout contributions to the overall aesthetic of this project, which for a great part could be reduced to his much-acclaimed and welcomed-back “humming” style of singing, but that in reality reaches out to so much more, adding a special je ne sais quoi, a triumphant coolness without even trying. Whilst opener “Feel the Love” is appointed with setting the record straight (another pun intended…), making way to a kickstarting palette of aggressive experimentation and welcoming back good ol’ Pusha T taking care of the main bars, it’s Cudi’s brilliant verse on “Fire” (“It’s so many days I prayed to God / All this pain, I couldn’t seem to find a way / On a mission livin’, carry on / Got my family, I’m seein’ through by the days / Never late, pull up a seat and come grab a plate / Check the date, let ’em hate“) that lends this project the feeling of an instant classic. Elsewhere, “Reborn” at number five (a good one, but largely overstaying its welcome) is a song very much up Kid Cudi’s alley, whereby the Cleveland, Ohio prodigy goes to dominate the melodic delivery and firmly grabs the rhythmic steering wheel, only to leave a smaller intermezzo to Kanye in the first half.

Track number three “4th Dimension” is a genius piece of patchwork by Ye, sampling an old jazzy refrain by Louis Prima that flows into a groovy and very tongue-in-cheek two and a half minutes stunner (“It feels so good, it should cost / Bought her alligator, I ain’t talkin’ Lacoste / Made me say, “Ugh, uh” / Like a mix of Master P and Rick Ross (uh, uh) / She seem to make me always feel like a boss (uh, uh) / She said I’m in the wrong hole, I said I’m lost (uh, uh)“), becoming a work of art that also best exemplifies how well Kanye and Cudi build on each other’s strengths, as if Kids See Ghosts had been a thing for decades and this was their watertight winning formula. Moving on, “Freeee (Ghost Town, Pt. 2)” displays an extremely interesting vibe with a grungy aesthetic almost bordering something that could’ve come out of a modern alternative rock production, with a stomping and captivating drum work glueing together some of the most gorgeous vocal harmonies the rap mainstream might have seen in a while.

Similarly – albeit overall coming across a little bland and too predictable – the self-titled track at number six offers, among other things, a chilling and almost Michael Jackson-esque harmonisation passage at 3:22, that suddenly opens up the whole track making it breathe and exhale a perfect ending climax. Last, but definitely not least, album wrapper “Cudi Montage” is close to pure Kids See Ghost perfection, the kind of song you’d play to an alien coming to visit planet earth asking what modern day rap should and ought to sound like. Sampling none other than Kurt Cobain off his posthumous Montage of Heck record, the cut carries a haunting and steely guitar lick progressing over a syncopated drum machine, accompanied by dark and caustic bars by Cudi first and then Kanye (perhaps their respective best verses on the whole album), flowing into a superbly liberating and outstanding self-help chorus.

Every streaming service and user music library will have this album categorised under the rap/hip-hop genre, and rightfully so, but when looking at it – or rather, listening to it – the elements that leave the strongest marks are actually found outside the typical hip-hop starter guide; like the wonderful singing melodies by both Ye and Cudi, the boundary-pushing genre-blending sampling experimentation, the sharp and witty lyrical content, or again Kanye and Kid Cudi’s innate ability to sound so well-oiled and complementary to one another. It’s thus virtually impossible to pigeonhole this project within specific genre/trend/mood tags, precisely because it’s so eclectic and charismatic, revealing previously undisclosed and different sonic elements with every new listen. Finally, another positive spillover effect projected to stem from this significant effort by the duo is the probable revival of the much-polarising and incredibly rich Kid Cudi catalogue, with many listeners likely to go back and revisit some of his older material, reinvigorated by his excellent humming form on this Kids See Ghosts LP. The same could certainly be said for Kanye West and his old repertoire, although in his case it does feel like there shouldn’t be any need whatsoever to do so, given that he took up this type of task completely on his own, a couple months back, as he started to hysterically generate buzz, controversy, and anticipation surrounding his whole private and artistic persona by heavily employing this generation’s favourite micro-messaging tool for single white males: Twitter. Please don’t @ me.

I’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and I hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

KIDS SEE GHOSTS

KIDS SEE GHOSTS

2018, Getting Out Our Dreams II, LLC

https://shop.umusic.ca/artist.html?a=kids_see_ghosts

KIDS SEE GHOSTS

ALEX REVIEWS MUSIC (ARM): A$AP ROCKY – TESTING | 2018-06-10

Yeezy season is not only approaching, but is in full-floating production and execution mode at this very minute, with a one-two-three G.O.O.D. Music-projects released Friday after Friday across May and June, packaged and delivered to us all mere mortals in form of excellent 7-track albums by Pusha T (Daytona), Kanye West (ye), as well as the most recent Ye and Kid Cudi’s hip-hop duo Kids See Ghosts eponymous debut record. In parallel, a mildly progressively heating Southern European late Spring period brought yours truly to the mighty international (but actually very British) fashion show that is Barcelona’s Primavera Sound. Whilst live music was nonchalantly put to the side in favour of Instagram selfies and enhanced drug use, I did manage to find some of the hidden stages and check out astonishing and enthralling live performances by artists such as the garçon Tyler, The Creator, baroque rock and roll monsieurs Arctic Monkeys, mega cat Thundercat, dangerously honest hood minstrel Vince Staples, and Swiss black metal primordial chanters Zeal & Ardor. Most importantly though, and way more prominently tied to the present music review piece, I got to catch the closing headline bill set by New York rapper A$AP Rocky, which followed the release of the A$AP Mob member’s third studio album Testing mere days before on 25th May. These two events combined made for quite the relevant alignment between Lord Flacko’s artistic manifestation and myself, so much so that it officially triggered an ARM alert and so here we are taking a closer scrutiny of this star-studded and featured record.

Quite similarly to what the preconditions were going into ARM’s recent effort on J. Cole’s last LP KOD, there is a little PSA/full disclosure statement that needs to be outlined, so as to better contextualise the present review of Testing: I secretly never liked A$AP Rocky and everything he represented, and almost never listened to anything coming from him nor A$AP Mob to be completely honest. After all, I come from a completely different background involving primarily alternative rock, hardcore, and punk, so I guess this mustn’t come as an unbelievable surprise. With that being said, as trap and cloud rap started to steal rock’s scene, both at live gigs’ mosh pits and in the charts, I too inevitably got caught in the current mainstream hip-hop fever, up to a point where now some of my favourite artists are prima donna MCs. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s delve into Rocky’s new studio LP, released under RCA Records and composed of 15 tracks, for almost 55 minutes of running time made of freshly baked new material. For Testing, the Harlem rapper-producer lined up a wealth of collaborators and contributors, ranging from the aforementioned Kid Cudi to Frank Ocean, to Skepta and Snoop Dogg. But spoiler alert, no one truly ever managed to take the full spotlight away from Rocky on this one, as he finds himself venturing into vastly experimental fields of industrial-trap hip-hop, while at the same time distilling pure moments of superior melodic craft.

The otherworldly and subterranean bass frequencies accompanying savage and fiery opener “Distorted Records” are something very rarely heard on mainstream projects, yet A$AP Rocky manages to pull it off in a very slick and contextual manner, whereby the inherent nature of the cut couldn’t be better epitomised by the literal name of the song. Such an opening high-note is well maintained throughout track number two, the album’s lead single “A$AP Forever“, sampling Moby’s pop crown jewel “Porcelain” and pairing a tastily belligerent flow with aspirational and tongue-in-cheeky bars (“I put A$AP on my tat / I put New York on the map / I put the gang on the flames / They gon’ remember the name“). “Tony Tone” at number three is a definite grower that showcases one of Rocky’s standout solo performances on this project, firing an abrasive warped groove filled with hooky sections and leveraging repetitions to make its way into the listeners’ psyches. The 101 on contemporary mumble rap/trap that follows, “Fukk Sleep”, enlisting the help of an extinguished FKA twigs, fails to leave a proper permanent mark, both as a standalone cut and as when placed in context with the full album, ending up being a pretty forgettable track overall. Second single “Praise the Lord (Da Shine)” featuring British grime don Skepta closes the first third of Testing with what seems like a fairly safe choice, both collaboration-wise and with respect to greater melody and harmonic textures, wrapping up an album section that promised so much after its first two teasers but that actually faded a little bit in quality as the tracklist progressed.

Sadly, “CALLDROPS” at number six does nothing in the way of uplifting the downward momentum of the album at this point, boldly continuing a pretty irritating trend pertaining to mainstream hip-hop records consisting of randomly including (real or staged) phone voicemail messages and turning them into actual tracks through a dubious genius spark of inspiration, not even remotely tied to the growing instinct of strategically increasing the number of album tracks so as to leverage modern streaming payout rate counts by dominant services like Spotify and Apple Music. Fortunately, the excellently produced and experimental “Buck Shots” delivers one of the highest and most fortunate moments on the album, driven by addictive and fun lyrical motifs (“Homeboy you ain’t know (ends where they buck shot) / Had a bitch suckin’ on a lollipop at the bus stop / Green Glock, red Glock (buck shot) / They ain’t really ready for me when I— (buck shot) / They ain’t really ready for me when I— (buck shot)”) as well as fitting beat switches and in-composition transitions that make the song go by in two shakes. The following set of three tracks (“Guns N Butter”, “Brotha Man”, and “OG Beeper”) ascribe some confusion and surging anonymity to the record’s mid-section that not even some A-list credited and uncredited collabs (Juicy J, French Montana, Snoop Dogg) are able to salvage, only for said clumsiness to be overcome by another fantastic cut in the form of the beautifully harmonised and sung ballad  “Kids Turned Out Fine” (admittedly Rocky’s favourite song off Testing).

The latter record also doubles as introduction to the last third of the album, and boy oh boy, was this worth the wait as well as a couple bumpy and subpar listens on the way of getting here. Every single track wrapping up this project in its latter section is a spectacular, handsomely crafted trap gem in its own peculiar way: from the dreamy, cloudy, chorus-y, and gigantically bigger-than-life “Hun43rd” (where I’ll go as far to say it might be one of the best songs this rap genre has seen in recent memory), to the introspective and fully confessional sentimental opus “Changes” (look out for the staggering beat/mood switch at 2:55 on this one), passing through the social critique and cathartic, punching lyricism of “Black Tux, White Collar” (“I say motherfuck you ni**as for the hate that you investin’ (yeah) / Fuck police cause he probably wanna arrest me (check it out) / Fuck the prison system, this injustice was ingestive (slatt) / All black tuxes, get the white collars jealous like / All my role models either dead or in the pen’ / I had no choice to be the ni**a that I am / Stuck with bros, stuck the code (yeah) / ‘Cede emblem on the fender (yeah)“).

The Frank Ocean-featured “Purity” acts as emblematic curtains close to the 15-track Testing in form of a gently guitar-picking lick leading A$AP Rocky’s growling distorted vocals, before making way to some of the best rapping and flow Ocean has shown in a while, taking up much of the song’s compositional and delivery substance pushing Rocky (and rap goddess Lauryn Hill, who’s featured in multiple spots on this cut) to taking care of vocal harmonising in the background. To be fair, such laid-back, supporting role of Rocky is not representative of the best material found on this album, whereby overall, the sensation is rather that the tracks stuffed with notable third-party features overshadowing Lord Flacko end up leaving something to be wished for (see particularly “Fukk Sleep”, “Praise the Lord [Da Shine]”, and “Brotha Man”). Contrarily, this album leaves its strongest marks and is at its most convincing precisely in those moments and situations where the perception is that A$AP Rocky is fully and wholly himself, for good and bad, in all his flaws, excellences, and vulnerabilities (case in point, the visceral “Distorted Records”, or the gorgeous “Buck Shots”, or again the album’s best four minutes with “Hun43rd”). J. Cole has recently demonstrated how even huge mainstream rappers can put out a whole record without a single external collab – albeit with mixed success – and now that I’m thinking about it, by naming this album Testing Rocky perhaps wasn’t actually hinting at its sonic and thematic experimentation, but he rather wanted us listeners to test out his individual artistic craftsmanship finding its qualitative peak, at the same time creating a legitimate precedent for what could grow into an actual, truly solo LP as its next big follow-up.

I’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and I hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

A$AP ROCKY

TESTING

2018, RCA Records

http://www.asapmob.com

asap-rocky-testing

NOTES FROM BARCELONA: CAPÍTULO ONCE – NASTY UPLOAD | 2018-06-07

Find here a Public Service Announcement relating to the present blogpiece.

———- NFB

Summer festivals are slowly but surely starting to appear around Europe, as the premiere annual season for open air gatherings kicks off its dances, to the appreciation of many music fans. Needless to say, Barcelona isn’t standing still, as outdoor gigs take over the urban cultural spotlight throughout May, June, and July.

In fact, our last instalment visited one of Catalonia’s largest annual musical events, Guitar BCN, which stretches over an impressive six months. Meanwhile, the second weekend of a very pleasant month of May saw the first edition of a brand new independent punk rock event taking the streets of Poblenou, a neighbourhood we’ve also already explored.

Appropriately named Poblenou Goes Punk, the debut of this all-Catalan free festival took place on Saturday 12 May at the Casal de Joves Can Ricart, a charity space right in the heart of the post-industrial district. It’s yet another great DIY initiative stemming from this productive musical hub, and the hope is for it to continue to evolve with new editions and creative discoveries in the years to come.

In this regard, a few of the bands booked on the Poblenou Goes Punk line-up have already generated quite some buzz in the regional punk scene, leaving us mouthwatering for more. They are very much worth delving into – we recommend you check out the Terrassian The Ramones-meet-Beach Boys Panellet and festival headliners The Demencials.

This month we made it to a highly-anticipated Friday night gig by Madrid-based up-and-coming punk rockers Los Nastys. Playing the flashy and stylish Poble Espanyol de Montjuïc nightclub venue Sala Upload on 18 May, the four-piece presented their new garage studio album ‘Música Para El Amor y La Guerra’ – out on their hometown imprint El Volcán Música last March – as part of a smaller Spanish tour.

Sala Upload was one of the few outstanding clubs on our list hosting underground live music in town, so the headlining gig by these Madrileños felt like the perfect occasion to go check it out first hand. The 500m2 multi-purpose venue sits on top of stunning mount Montjuïc, west of the main city center, as part of the Poble Espanyol open-air architectural museum, which recreates traditional Spanish villages through hundreds of building replicas.

Those of you unfamiliar with Los Nastys should know that they come from very much the same Madrid garage-punk revival scene of groups like Hinds, who are currently turning a lot of heads in the music industry. This group of punk rockers has been quite productive for the better part of the past five years, and is composed of brothers Luis and Fran Basilio (vocals and guitars), bassist Omar Montalvo, and Argentinian drummer Luli Acosta Quintas.

The band have released ten different efforts between singles, EPs, and albums. Their latest LP follows their 2016 surf rock full-length project ‘Noche de Fantasmas con Los Nastys’. They are generally known for their playful, slackerish, fuzzy, noisy, and lo-fi interpretation of modern garage-filled punk rock. For their headlining gig, Los Nastys chose to be accompanied by charismatic and controversial Barcelonian trap rapper Cecilio.G.

The support act-headliner pairing was without a doubt an interesting choice on the promoters’ side, and this appeared to be clear right from the initial moments of the show, with a huge scene and aesthetics cross-over, mixing young trappy kids embracing rap with streams of hipster-looking alternative wannabes.

While Cecilio.G’s set might not necessarily be of interest to our readers, it’s nonetheless worth noting how the Barcelona native’s opening show – started with significant delay – was actually quite ‘punk’ indeed, with the cloud-rap MC delivering a raucous and abrasive vocal performance over potent gnarly and splashy hi-hat beats, as well as a good chunk of the audience enjoying their moshing rituals over his tunes.

In a weird way, Cecilio.G as the opening act turned out to be a fitting premise to the main course, eagerly awaited by a half-empty Sala Upload main room, perhaps dissuaded from reaching an indoor space atop of a hill outside of town by an otherwise warm and pleasant Friday night. Yet, for those who were there, the vibe and atmosphere was thrilling and electric enough, as the four nicely-dressed members of Los Nastys took to the stage at around 11pm.

The punk rockers seemed at home from the very first notes – both artistically, as they connected so well with the fans in the audience, and physically, as they championed the restricted Sala Upload stage as if it were their usual practice space. Notwithstanding the long-lasting rivalry that still exists between Madrid and the Catalan metropolis, the youngsters tried to convey the impression of playing a hometown show, spearheaded by the humble and passionate guitarwork of the Basilio bros and their full, riveting delivery.

However, the overall reception of Los Nastys’s live performance revealed a somewhat subpar sound and aesthetic, barking a little too much up the noisy and overly reverbered/delayed tree. Song sections were at times unrecognisable, disguised as coarse lo-fi frying sonic mantels, infecting guitars and main vocals especially. Surprisingly enough, the Madrid quartet were at their best when hitting really hard, both instrumentally and vocally, with a special mention to bassist Omar’s outstanding job on background vocals.

Sala Upload’s amplification system and the general stepped layout of the main room didn’t help with transmitting a more distilled sound to the audience. To be fair, it didn’t appear very remediable at source, even though some might view this as a conscious stylistic choice. Yet for this night, it felt a bit too far-fetched to consider it as such, with Los Nastys’ entertainment saved by their passionate and energetic presence as musicians on stage, as well as their clever mix of faster, punchier cuts and slower ballads.

All things considered, this evening at Sala Upload represented a timely concert, simultaneously hip-hop and sub-culture, raw and authentic, transcending styles and scenes. It proved that open air events aren’t the only thing worth attending for live music fans in the summer festivals season.

Fins la pròxima vegada!

———- NFB

Still, I’d urge you all to check out the source feature article directly on Punktastic too, as it’s wonderfully wrapped in shiny and fancy designs as well as relevant music discovery embeds that massively elevate the final product. More generally, go show them some love and explore all the incredible articles and reviews they publish, as it’s by far a much better site than this one and you won’t be disappointed.

I’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and I hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

LosNastys_Upload