#my favourite lyrics from ‘When I Think Of You’ from the Trial By Fire album 💛

[lovejustforaday]

2023 Year End List - #5

The Redshift Blues - Dispirited Spirits

Main genres: Art Rock, Progressive Rock, Midwest Emo

A decent sampling of: Space Rock, Post-Rock, Jazz Rock, Math Rock, Experimental Rock

Midwest Emo, and probably just Emo in general, really ain't usually my thing.

There's definitely some good and some great in nearly every scene, but I find this one in general to be saturated with overly indulgent projects that don't add up in the quality factor, and bands that just come off as harsh and grating. There's also a prominent few artists in this scene that give off the kind of Nice Guy™ energy that makes my skin crawl.

So if I'm completely being honest, I really just came across this record by chance, and decided to check it out almost purely because of the spectacularly awesome cover art and the equally awesome record title. To quote anime youtuber Hazel, that shit owns.

Dispirited Spirits is the moniker of Portuguese singer/songwriter/producer Indigo Dias, who was just 19 fricking years old when he made this record, and just typing that sentence out makes my head wanna explode. HOW??? HOOOOOOW???!?!?!?

What's even more, this is frigging fantastic by my own standards, and I'm not even someone who regularly enjoys a whole lot of Emo music. If there's any young newcomer who's gonna take the world of indie rock by storm, then it's gotta be this guy, right? If I was a betting man, I'd be putting my money on Dispirited Spirits.

Case in point, his latest project.

That is to say, The Redshift Blues is a stunning record that captures the awe and the angst of being that diminutive human being, bearing witness to the grandeur of the night sky which acts as the gateway to the unfathomably vast realm outside of our tiny little blue planet. Who needs expensive VR headsets to simulate floating freely through the endless sea of the cosmos, when you can just listen to this record, close your eyes, and get just about as close to the real deal as you're ever gonna have in your lifetime?

This album does a little bit of everything on the nerdier side of modern rock music - mostly a midwest emo/art rock/prog hybrid, with moments of post-rock, jazz-rock, and math rock all thrown in the mix. At the same time, this very much reinvents and kinda defies genre, clearly aiming to be its own singular thing.

Dias takes his lyrical inspiration from various astronomical phenomena on this record, the title itself being clever wordplay for the death of a relationship that invokes the universe's redshift or tendency towards expansion, causing objects to become more distant from each other over time. Some may find this dorky or try-hard or whatever, but I think the execution is mostly brilliant.

Anyhow, let's cut to the chase and hone in on my favourite tracks.

"Nine Clouds" swims through skies of glittering space dust, with gently gliding guitars that resonate in endless ripples through space and time. This track is impeccably cushiony; disorienting in the sense that it's as if I'm turning in random circles as the musical notes twist, soar, and plummet, but all the while I remain perfectly cradled in a bubble of warm nurturing light.

"Bring Down The Sky" is a journey through cosmological purgatory and back, with various trials of harsh emo power chords separated by periods of rest nestled between mellow psychedelic phaser pedals and flourishing harps. Also, kudos to whoever laid down the many different drum patterns on this track - really holds the whole thing together to give it some solid form and muscle.

"Methanol Fire" interpolates a samba-jazz beat into its hard-rocking midwest emo riffs, making it the grooviest and most rhythmic track on an otherwise sometimes very free-form record. Leisurely space jazz atmosphere interchanged with sad boys moshing in the nucleus of a supernova. These two major components blend together so seamlessly in a way I probably wouldn't have otherwise thought was possible.

The titular outro "The Redshift Blues" is hands down the real showstopper here, as well as the emotional lynchpin of the record. This ten minute opus is one part looming space ambience, one part post-rock epic poem, yet another part part solitary acoustic ballad, and one part cinematic orchestral elegy. The moment of that final line of the bridge where Dias utters "I'll find you in the stars" and everything comes forth in this really mind-blowing, unearthly harmonious sound swell - that moment just really gets to me. A simple instance of pure, raw, ephemeral beauty in the midst of a very chaotic composition.

There are a few sparring moments here or there where it meanders or overly indulges itself - mostly on "Saturnine Saturn Dreams" - But overall I'm mostly impressed at how much of this manages to come together in a way that comes off very natural. There's a lot of tight composition that's working over-time to make sure that this maintains its nearly amorphous structure.

So yeah, let me reiterate that I am mostly just mind-blown by this project. Dispirited Spirits is easily one of the most ambitious and unique artists in indie rock to have come onto the scene so far in this new-(ish) decade. The powerful cohesion of this project suggests that it came from an visionary who's far more seasoned than Indigo Dias would reasonably be at his young age.

The Redshift Blues brilliantly conveys the existential dread and angst that arises from existing in a world far larger than you could ever imagine, and how that impacts your ability to ever be fully in control of your life when there are so many external factors involved that are so much larger than you. Ultimately, it's a surrendering of the self to the inevitable impotence of being just one person, yet still the artist manages to find a shimmer of hope and humility in what is truly sublime about this world. That, I think, is the true Redshift Blues.

9/10

Highlights: "The Redshift Blues", "Nine Clouds", "Bring Down The Sky", "Methanol Fire"

#album review #music review #list #aoty #year end list #indie rock #2023 #aoty2023 #indigo dias #dispirited spirits #the redshift blues #midwest emo #art rock #progressive rock

[oops-itssteveperry]

“When I... need you, I just close my eyes and you're... here. Right beside me when I'm lost in... shadows of the memories of you... oh my dear” (X)

#my favourite lyrics from ‘When I Think Of You’ from the Trial By Fire album 💛 #this song was written about a dream Steve had about his mother #I lost someone very close to me and it’s would have been their birthday today #my heart feels a little less broken when I listen to this song #journey #journey band #steve perry #text

[petewentzisblack1312]

thoughts on demigods and american made from the pax am days ep? I was particularly struck by "the lion paws out his teeth so you can love him again" in the former and "I just want my childhood back, I just want my childhood dead" in the latter. although, I always thought patrick was saying childhood dad instead of dead until I looked up the lyrics.

my thoughts on the pax am days ep is that i love it. im a big fan of hardcore, even though the themes are a little scattered i think it works. those are my favourite lyrics on the album i think haha.

demigods feels like it may be asking 'what if the world isnt as bad as we think?' both presenting that idea as naive and as necessary with the line "i am believing their hearts are gold" kind of alluding to that. the line "the lion paws his own teeth out so you can love him now" is a favourite of mine. the meaning is obvious, something or someone thats scary and destructive declawing itself so that its no longer threatening. i think the lines "what if it were all a dream? what if we were demigods? theyd take to our knees, raging at the half of our sins" allude to religion, specifically christianity, and are saying 'what if we were actually in charge instead? what if they were the ones who were begging us for help? what if they were the ones mad at what we got away with". and then the closing lines, "what if we run like the wind/feet are chasing moonlight" which asks, 'what if we try to escape this life for something better'. i like it.

hmmmm i dont wanna rewrite the song line by line like i just did but american made is about blind patriotism and the way times change. "when i was younger i couldnt wait for the days to pass/now i know theyll never last/i just want my childhood back/i just want my childhood dead" is first a wish for simpler times, and then a recognition that times were never simple just because you personally never had to think about it. the lines "all american made/lets see who burns the truest in the flames" is kind of an allusion to the witch trials. like, theyre only truly american if we can prove theyd die in the fire. its a song about growing up and realising theres work to be done, and i think thats cool.

-

consider buying me a ko-fi?

#dils declares #dils dissects #i love hardcore songs except the have like exactly 5 lyrics so its like 'oh yeah its over already' #pax am days #demigods #american made #NEEDS RETOOLING SINCE THE LYRICS WERE STRAIGHT WRONG

[azlyrics85]

The life of Pete Doherty through 10 of his best lyrics

There’s not a whole lot about Pete Doherty that hasn’t been bastardised in a single shape or every other. certainly a controversial discern inside the rock ‘n’ roll scene of the ’00s, one thing that has always been pure approximately Doherty (no, now not that) is his entire immersion in his paintings, specifically the act of writing lyrics. underneath, we’ve picked out ten of our favourites as a reminder that underneath the tabloid headlines, there’s some serious expertise. AZlyrics

Doherty, the son of a army family, grew up inside the uk and Europe’s navy barracks. Floating around the grounds, Doherty discovered solace in the written word and soon commenced composing his personal poetry. At age eleven, he picked up a guitar, and the arena seemed to click on for the clearly charismatic Doherty. attaining 11 GCSE’s with seven at A* showcased that Doherty become a sincerely gifted child. but it might take him assembly his songwriting counterpart for his skills to be surely unearthed.  assembly Carl Barat is absolutely the moment that Doherty’s adventure to stardom commenced. starting off The Libertines in 1997, the band cultivated a guerilla following that only reached mainstream interest with the band’s launch of their 2002 debut, Up The Bracket. regrettably, it become right here that matters started out to awry for the musician as his escalating drug habit had begun to cause rifts within the organization and, particularly, Barat himself. In 2003, Doherty changed into jailed for burgling Barat’s flat; it might begin the chain of activities that could see Doherty yo-yo within the organization alongside swirling heroin and crack dependancy. It marked a unhappy time in British rock music. Doherty turned into in large part championed as one of the greatest songwriters Britain had produced in a generation. not due to the fact Oasis had a band amassed up this type of cultural impact in any such brief time. As Noel Gallagher as soon as placed it: “If Oasis changed into the sound of the council property making a song its coronary heart out, The Libertines had been the tramps behind the dumpster.” The Libertines formally break up after their 2d self-titled album, and Doherty sought pastures new, turning his romantic poetical stylings to a band of his personal, Babyshambles. The organization, nonetheless plagued through Doherty’s drug addiction and now his non-stop positioning inside the tabloid press, as a result of his relationship with twiglet Kate Moss, struggled to in shape the depth of The Libertines upward push to reputation but nonetheless delivered a few classic songs to boot. happily, unlike many others, this story has a satisfied finishing. Doherty quickly found sobriety, in some shape or every other, and has moved to the seaside with his antique buddy Carl Barat. as well as enacting their very own desires of Albion, the duo also got the vintage band returned together and have been relentlessly visiting pre-COVID. The duo even have an idyllic bed and breakfast in Margate called The Albion Rooms, that's a ought to for any fan. That’s all well and appropriate, however the iconic figure of Pete Doherty will always loom largest in his songs. thru his lyrics, Doherty became the archetypal starry-eyed poet, the romantic trapped in a rock celebrity shell, and he converted the British rock scene along with his style. underneath, we’ve got the evidence. Pete Doherty’s 10 satisfactory lyrics: ‘music when The lighting fixtures go out’ “Is it merciless or kind no longer to speak my mind and to misinform you rather than hurt you?” whilst you think about a top notch Pete Doherty lyric, this is likely the primary place you’ll land, so it feels only proper that it must be the first on our list too. A touching refrain built within one of the band’s greater lilting numbers, ‘music when The lighting fixtures exit’ is ready as ordinary a Doherty music as you will locate. Wrapped up in romance and delicately poised for chaos, the song sounds like the type of diatribe one would imagine Lord Byron to have coughed up between bouts of syphilis. It’s a moment at the Libertines LP that stands out for its allure and one track that usually begs for a sing-a-lengthy at live shows. ‘Hooray for the twenty first Century’ “What became of the running elegance?/ Nike Air, Reebok, Adidas/ Scratch playing cards, Pitbulls, ecstasy/ Hooray for the 21st Century” one of the lesser travelled songs from The Libertines lower back catalogue, ‘Hooray For The 21st Century’, is speedy, livid and ferocious in same measure. A scathing indictment of the brand new century and its commercialisation, it once again sees Doherty reminiscent of the past for his emotional grounding and lamenting the future unfurling in the front of him. powerful and specific in its punk delivery, the song is a high-quality second at any Libs stay show due to the fact they hardly ever play it. however, after they do, assume a positive section of diehard fans to lose their cool. It’s a tune that captures Doherty at his incendiary quality. AZlyrics ‘the man Who might Be King’ “I lived my dream today/ I lived it yesterday/ and that i’ll be living yours tomorrow/ Don’t have a look at me that manner” There’s absolute confidence that by the time The Libertines launched their debut album in 2002, rock ‘n’ roll had modified. The Strokes had carved a really perfect storage rock gap for The Libs to fit into neatly, and that they didn’t disappoint, turning into Britain’s answer to the rock revolution. whilst the debut LP is rich with punkified skiffle moments, the follow-up became tons extra numerous and centered at the fame that surrounded them. ‘the person Who might Be King’ is one of the most vitriolic tracks on the report. stimulated by the 1975 movie of the equal call, it sees Doherty and Barat offer up their critiques for the proposed King, “i'd say only one issue: lie, lie, lie, lie, lie”. but the most blistering moment comes within the chorus as Doherty holds a replicate as much as all of these those who looked down on him as a penniless poet and roaming rock famous person. ‘You’re My Waterloo’ “You’ll never fumigate the demons/ regardless of how an awful lot you smoke/ So simply say you like me/ For three precise reasons/ and that i’ll throw you the rope” certainly one of the earlier songs inside the Libertines back catalogue, the tune remained one among their untested demos earlier than they in the end brought a new edition of ‘You’re My Waterloo’ to the band’s modern-day release, 2015’s Anthems for Doomed youth. It’s becoming that the track should land on such a named album, as it is so intrinsically linked to Doherty’s personal youth. continuously shifting and in no way settling down, Doherty struggled to make significant connections early on in his lifestyles; it’s a part of why his and Barat’s relationship turned into so connected to their survival. right here, Doherty uses his own emotions of alienation and casts it via the paradigm of an old piano ballad, the kind you may expect to listen a forlorn lover singing after final time with a gin in hand. It’s a motif that Doherty observed appealing and used all through his career — the crumbling British Empire put through the wringer as a romantic ceremony. ‘Can’t Stand Me Now’ “Cornered the boy kicked out at the sector / the world kicked returned loads fuckin’ tougher now” any other song from The Libertines, there’s little or no to say approximately ‘Can’t Stand Me Now’ that hasn’t already been stated or that the band don’t say of their lyrics. one of the greater specific comeback songs you’ll ever come across, Barat and Doherty element notably the plight in their friendship, with Barat making a song “light arms thru the dark, shattered a lamp and a darkness it cast,” as an instantaneous connection with Doherty’s jail time. equally, Doherty returns fire with “No, you’ve were given it the wrong manner round/ you close up me up and blamed it at the brown,” hinting at Barat’s zero tolerance for Doherty’s antics. however following this line, Doherty furnished lyrics that no longer best showcases his nation of thoughts at the time but exactly why The Libertines discovered an audience: “Cornered the boy, kicked out at the world/ the sector kicked again lots fuckin’ tougher now.” This was why a era connected with Doherty, he became risky and gifted, of route, but he became also achievable and fallible — he was an everyman. ‘Fuck forever’ “So what’s the use among dying and glory/ i will’t inform between dying and glory/ New Labour and Tory/ Purgatory and glad families” With Babyshambles, Doherty had a modern-day path to take. He was not fighting with Barat for lyric area like a 21st century Lennon-McCartney. Now, the singer had unfastened rein to enact his own sound and his own vision. One track that possibly typifies that feeling is ‘Fuck for all time’, which featured on Babysdhambles’ record Down in Albion. by no means one to turn down a combat, Doherty began to politicise his paintings and once again shine a mild on the operating elegance who, in his opinion, have been being royally shafted. but, while our favorite lyrics are far extra widespread, the track’s basis became a wreck-up. The music become an immediate attack on Barat and the affection that changed into now misplaced between them. AZlyrics ‘What A Waster’ “She wakes up within the morning, and writes down all her dreams/ reads like the e book of revelations, or the Beano or the unabridged Ulysses” An avid reader himself, there’s some gravitas to his words on ‘What A Waster’ that may in any other case be misplaced. add to that the extra authenticity Doherty brings to the concept of what a ‘waster’ clearly is, and this track takes on a new stage of realness for the listener. Doherty will become our narrator for this track as he info the trials and tribulations of his lover, singing, “in which does all of the cash move? immediately up her nostril.” soaking wet in punk rhythm and a refusal to slow down, the music is a rebel while performed stay. What possibly lands most poignantly of all is the fact that the song acts as a self-pleasant prophecy. Doherty become poised to be the saviour of British rock track however threw it all away fro narcotics. although, this self-flagellating masterclass remains one of the band’s first-class songs. ‘Time For Heroes’ “we can die in the magnificence we were born, but that’s a category of our very own my love.” Famously inspired by means of the instant Pete Doherty became cracked on the pinnacle by way of rebel police for checking his hair inside the mirrored image of their rebellion shield for the duration of the 2001 might also Day protests, ‘Time For Heroes’ turned into constantly probable to be entrenched in magnificence war. “Did you see the fashionable youngsters within the rebellion? Shovelled up like muck and set the night time on fireplace” sings Doherty with gusto. while the upper class controls the establishment, one aspect the working magnificence has constantly had below its spell is song. It seems only fitting that Doherty have to choose the savage song to make his emotions clear. the whole thing that makes a incredible Libertines track is here. There’s romance, violence and misaligned patriotism all of which makes this tune feel like a William Turner painting being enacted in front of our eyes. The lyric above first-rate encapsulates all of these feelings into one of the maximum sincere lyrics Doherty has ever written. ‘the coolest antique Days’ “if you’ve lost your religion in love and song then the quit gained’t be long” Few lyrics speak as virtually for Doherty’s individual and eventual downfall than the lovely ‘the good vintage Days’. another second in which Barat and Doherty are glad to appearance backwards for their visions of the future, the band sing their hearts out with the permeating idea that once they stop the choral renditions their lives will come to an end. while it is able to appear the type of aspect you’d anticipate scrawled at the lower back of adlescent diaries, there’s a certain grandness to the lyric that still feels actual. even as Doherty and Barat have been satisfied to location themselves at the bottom of London’s underbelly, they had been capable of provide grandiose moments of reflection, too, strong within the knowledge that they’d stand through the sentiment if wishes be. always placing song and art at the leading edge of everything he did, Doherty lived out this lyric time and time again. ‘Albion’ “Down in Albion/ They’re black and blue/ however we don’t talk approximately that/ Are you from ’round here?/ How do you do?/ I’d like to talk about that” whilst the traditional line of “gin in teacups and leave son the lawn” is the lyric without end quoted from this 2006 tune from Babyshambles album Down in Albion, the tune’s commencing strains say a long way greater than that. They provide up a crystalline vision of britain, or Albion, as Doherty refers to it. no longer handiest noting the continuous fistfights that appear to clutter our streets, nor just the stiff upper lip that stops us from talking approximately it but also the want for exchange. missing any robust narrative to the music, Doherty instead offers modern-day Britain vignettes, and it’s a harsh reflection. soaking wet in violence and a refusal to connect, Britain has spent a lot of its glory years as a prisoner of itself, by no means definitely unfurling and evolving. The singer notes that dying and instead attempts to conjure up a brand new land, a new Albion, wherein the beyond is well known, and the destiny welcomed. AZlyrics

[positivelyamazonian]

My Lartis playlist (II) - Partnership

Hi pals! Welcome to the second part of my Lartis playlist. :) This time I’m not just bringing rock&metal - which will be always my favourites - but also some other styles I sometimes like to listen.

This time my selection is more focused on a theme we could name just partnership...meaning Lara and Kurtis make a fantastic team, as partners, as cooperating and being amazingly compatible and well-synchronized. In one word: soulmates.

They are not necessarily speaking about love... they speak more about loyalty, trust and friendship. Over all, loyalty. For if there’s one thing we got plenty confirmed in TRAOD, is that they trusted each other as they never had done with anyone before, and it happened in the blink of an eye. They recognized each other as if having spent a life together, so that’s why they made a terrific team immediately.

All these songs, in one way or another, remind me of this feeling.

Two Steps From Hell - Dangerous (Vanquish)

I discovered Two Steps From Hell - a musical project of Thomas Bergersen and Nick Phoenix focused on music for trailers and soundtracks - a year ago and, though not being my particularly style of music, they immediately caught me for its creativity and beauty. A lot of their tracks have inspired my Muse more than once.

Most of their music is just instrumental, but there are some lyrics songs. Dangerous is relatively recent, from their last album Vanquish, and I loved it not just because it’s beautiful - the choirs, damn, again - but damn... the lyrics. The freaking lyrics.

Like the break of the dawn and sun We will rise before you You and I have seen the end Now it's time to show you Your little lies are oil on my skin Your little lies, the oldest of sins You're an angel looking into my eyes I can see you, travel back into time Still they say you hide a devil inside You are dangerous So am I

I love the idea of Lara and Kurtis assessing each other and recognizing each other as dangerous, but potential partners. Like two old souls who were predestined to each other. This song reminds me a lot that feeling... that every step they took in life just lead one to another without no way back. He was meant to her as she was meant to him. So you hear the fire burn? It will call your name Steady rising before the end For the whole tomorrow

And the idea of they live every day as if their last day on Earth, as if there’s no tomorrow. Also the climax at the last part of the song help me to visualize it’s just fate they were meant to we together, despite all the trials and hardships. It speaks to me in a more deep way, if I think of my fanfics...

Like the break of a dawn and sun We will rise...

Epica - Burn To A Cinder (Design Your Universe)

Well, you already know Epica is one of my fav metal bands EVER. Their songs speak more about the good fight, loyalty and self-superation than of love and lust. Epica is about epicness, but also about hope and endurance, to fight to win, to get a better future. 

There are so many songs in Epica and Within Temptation who remind me of this feeling of absolute loyalty and self-sacrifice for each other, but I decided to pick Burn To A Cinder. This song represents for me the reality of living in constant danger and be about to die at any time, but still, the willingness to fight for each other and die for each other if necessary, with no regrets.

I'll never let them stake you down I'll fight to find a way out there It must be hard I'll never let them break you now Keep holding on 

And the frustration if they get separated and left alone in their ordeal...

Why can’t I bleed with you?

Within Temptation - Dark Wings (Mother Earth)

Ok, Within Temptation was compulsory again. This band is pretty much the same as Epica when it comes to feelings and realities transmited by their lyrics, tho the style and the voice is totally different. Sweeter and softer.

I remember Dark Wings was my fav song of their first album Mother Earth, after the amazing Ice Queen of course. It’s the beginning of the band and the music and voice are still undeveloped, a little simple, but the lyrics.... daaaaamn the lyrics are so Lartis.

I like to imagine this song also a dialogue between Lara and Kurtis - again, not a real dialogue, they would not say such things to each other, but rather a exchange of inner feelings, ideas, more than actual words.

I think there’s no need to explain why I find each part suitable for each character to recite.

KURTIS:

Why was I one of the chosen ones? Until the fight I could not see The magic and the strength of my power It was beyond my wildest dreams

Dark wings they are descending See shadows gathering around One by one they are falling Every time they try to strike us down

LARA:

Don't you die on me You haven't made your peace Live life, breathe, breathe!

As they took your soul away The night turned into the day Blinded by your rays of life Give us the strength we needed 

Jacob Groth - Would Anybody Die For Me? (The Girl Who Played With Fire)

Change of style again. This was a song from The Girl Who Played With Fire, the second movie of the amazing trilogy Millennium, after Stieg Larsson’s books featuring one unforgettable character, Lisbeth Salander. 

I loved the song from the first, it’s immensely beautiful. Everything is in the progression. And again, it reminded me of Lartis, particularly the sense of them being soulmates and predestined to each other. Rather, this song would depict how they felt before finding each other: Lara, dead inside after the accident in Egypt, lost, with nothing to make her go on but revenge; Kurtis, pretty much the same. Absolutely lost. Absolutey lonely. Left astray to the deepest despair.

Hear me... hear me now...

Restless souls are left undone

Hearts are burning, unpredictable

Are we sinners, everyone?

Feel the cold, too irresistible

No confessions to be made

Just believing all is unprepared

You won't ever hear me pray, no

Destiny is to be unaware...

And the main question who could pop in their minds. Is there a sense for their current status? Why to be alive, after all? Is anybody caring out there?

... would anybody die for me?

Ah, yes. Someone would.

Damn, I promised to focus only on team, partnership and loyalty, but I think I failed to avoid love. Because if you’re willing to die for your partner... is because you love, right? Even if you’re not still aware of it.

#*drops this here and run* #i'm too emotional right now #songs that speak to my Muse #my lartis playlist #perfect for this OTP #traod #tomb raider #lara croft #kurtis trent #lartis #partners and soulmates #partnership #my otp is perfect #epica #burn to a cinder #two steps from hell #dangerous #jacob groth #would anybody die for me

[airadam]

Episode 125 : The Audacity Of Dope

"In the land of the free, the slaves are still here."

- Jerry Beeks

The grind continues, and as the autumn starts to really draw in, the selection gets you prepared for full hoodie and boot season with some rugged sounds from the old to the new!

A couple of events for you...

The Flyest @ Klondyke Club, Manchester, November 15th - guest starring me on the turntables!

Artifacts ft. DJ Mr.Len @ Joshua Brooks, November 30th

Twitter : @airadam13

Playlist/Notes

Royal Flush : Life Is Hard

Royal Flush is known to most for his debut "Ghetto Millionaire" album, but he definitely has had some other solid tracks over the years. While this is on the 2019 release "The Governor", it was first heard on the 2005 "Street Boss" album. The production (don't have credits for this one) is top-notch, with the eerie and dramatic instrumental sounding very noir - a perfect backdrop for Flush's grim Queens thug braggadocio.

[Maxmillion] Panda One : Elaborate (Touch You) (Instrumental)

There's another track on this 2002 12" that has been the favourite for me for a long time, but on a re-visit this month I had to give this beat a little bit of light! The sample it's based around has been used before, but not quite like this - good job by Maxmillion.

Phi Life Cypher : Earth Rulers

One of my favourite rhyme duos with a killer single! DJ Beware put me up on this one back in the day, but I only recently got my own vinyl copy. Si Phili and Life just firehose lyrics right down the DJ Nappa-produced track, in a way any fan of bars has to appreciate. The finishing touches are provided by the dancehall samples, which I think come from recordings of the veteran Earth Ruler sound system - the little one-bar sample that drops in in place of a hook is absolute fire! 

Redlight Boogie ft. DJ Chainsaw : Hands Down

Amsterdam's Redlight Boogie yells, snarls, and spits his way through this cut from the "Dirty Money, Clean Hands" album - abrasive like a sack of Brillo pads. DJ Chainsaw drops in for some cuts at the close, which end up blending over the scratches from... 

Gang Starr : Bad Name

Huge new single which the heavy Hip-Hop listeners will surely have had on repeat the last few weeks! Easily the biggest musical surprise of the last few years has been the news that a new Gang Starr album release is imminent, and that there have been unreleased Guru vocals in the vault all these years. The "Family & Loyalty" single stunned everyone, and this follow-up will keep the buzz going until the LP drops. DJ Premier on production, the late great Guru on the mic - it's what we've been missing.

Bronx Slang : More Grief

It's been great to see Bronx Slang getting momentum up this year off the back of their excellent debut album, and it just so happens that this track that I was planning to play anyway turns out to be their new single! Jerry Beeks gets busy on the mic with the kind of consciousness that a lot of people swear doesn't exist in music these days, while Jadell packs in the funk to complete the soulful stew. Don't sleep!

Jay Dee : Jay Dee #17

Big shout to Iain and Teresa for hooking up a release I needed in my collection - "King of the Beats" by J Dilla! Lots of unreleased beats on this one, as well as a few the hardcore listeners might know. This particular beat bounces along with that characteristic Dilla swing, focusing on the low end for a pleasing groove.

Skyzoo & Pete Rock : Ten Days

If you like Pete Rock beats, you want to get the new "Retropolitan" album - 100% Soul Brother #1, with Brooklyn's Skyzoo helming mic proceedings throughout. This isn't the kind of beat that you automatically associate with Rock, but it just goes to show he can be versatile with it. Skyzoo is on that "get money" talk here, with a hook that conjures up this scene from "Paid In Full". As an aside - I totally forgot that the closing track on this album shares the podcast title, which I've wanted to use with the cover photo for a while!

Black Moon : A Haaa

My goodness, what a wait - sixteen years since the "Total Eclipse" album (2006's "Alter the Chemistry" was dope, but essentially a remix project), but at last Black Moon are back in full effect on "Rise of da Moon"! One of the original Timbs and hoodies crews, this episode wouldn't have been right without them. This tune is short but a banger, with a heavy digital bassline anchoring things while Buckshot showcases the flow and flavour that made him famous. Also check that heavy boom that kicks in between the 1 and 2 beats of each bar!

Black Thought ft. Styles P : Making A Murderer

Devastation from last year's "Streams of Thought, Volume 1" EP. More bars than HMP, more bars than Temple Bar. Black Thought is one of the world's best MCs, who needs no hook and offers no reprieve on his fire first verse. It's a brave man who would get on the mic after him, but Styles P takes the challenge and does himself proud - rising to the occasion. 9th Wonder's instrumental beats you into submission in the best way with the heaviness of the drum track, but it's Thought that holds the murder weapon here.

Children of Zeus : Ghost

CoZ maintained their hot streak of great music with "The Winter Tape", and it's just about the season for those tunes to get a re-airing. Tyler Daly takes sole charge of the vocals for this haunting tale of lost love. 

Vanilla : Sweet Talk

The title track from the last of the soul-inspired beat tape trilogy by this UK producer is a smooth one. Vanilla works a melancholy 70s soul sample, and the drums are suitably subtle so as not to overpower it.

Professor Griff and the Last Asiatic Disciples : The Verdict

This is the first of two tracks from albums that opened up the nineties, just as we start to look towards a new decade. Professor Griff's solo debut album "Pawns in the Game" came during his initial suspension/expulsion, and found him on unfamiliar ground as he was not a rhyme writer by trade. Still, he delivered the rhymes with conviction (no pun intended) on a song that opens with a take on Louis Farrakhan's short play "The Trial", and the rest of the L.A.D come through too. Beat Master Clay D provides the beat, based on a familiar break that never gets old but packed with other samples in a way that is unaffordable in terms of clearance fees these days...

Master Ace : I Got Ta

When the Juice Crew veteran's name was still spelled this way, the year was 1990, haircuts were angular, and Ace was making his solo debut on the highly regarded "Take A Look Around", from which this track is taken! Mister Cee takes a classic James Brown sample and keeps the Godfather's voice in for Master Ace to work around lyrically as he states his intentions.

Joell Ortiz ft. Jadakiss, Sheek Louch, and Styles P : Put Some Money On It

Second straight tune working a vocal sample into the lyrics - this time, from the 2011 "Free Agent" mixtape with The LOX making a great guest appearance. Straight street bars all the way through, and Sean C and LV with the uptempo soul/funk production for a big win.

Sampa The Great ft. Krown : Time's Up

Massive thanks to Agent J for gifting me this LP! From Zambia via Botswana and Australia comes Sampa, whose new LP "The Return" jumps around stylistically but never lets you forget that this is an MC of quality. She and the featured guest Krown take the machinations of the record industry to task on this one and announce that the clock has run out on their BS. Silentjay's beat starts off centred around those stick hits to remind you of a clock, then brings those lows in to drive it forward. Definitely an album worth a listen!

Boogie Down Productions : Duck Down (Instrumental)

Early 90s ruggedness on this 12" release from the "Sex & Violence" LP. KRS and Pal Joey smack the beat into the drum sampler here, and right at the end you hear the sound effect that plays under one of Hip-Hop's best-remembered calls for a rewind!

Edgar Allen Floe : Arrest The President (Cypher God)

We played the original version of this track to open episode 90, almost three years ago, but I only recently learned that there was a remake! Edgar Allen Floe of the Justus League does a solid job with this, covering similar themes as the original and even borrowing some of the rhyme scheme while switching up the words themselves. The dope beat is pretty much the exact same as the Marley Marl-produced original, bringing that hectic 80s urgency and just begging to be cut up every time. Check out more of Floe's work on the rest of the album, "The Streetwise LP".

Please remember to support the artists you like! The purpose of putting the podcast out and providing the full tracklist is to try and give some light, so do use the songs on each episode as a starting point to search out more material. If you have Spotify in your country it's a great way to explore, but otherwise there's always Youtube and the like. Seeing your favourite artists live is the best way to put money in their pockets, and buy the vinyl/CDs/downloads of the stuff you like the most!

  Check out this episode!

[magneticmaguk]

Noga Erez: ‘I get told by people not to talk about what is happening in Israel’

urveillance states, manipulative media, sexual assault and social media storms – these are natural headlines for any news programme in 2017; less so the themes of an album by a rising pop artist.

For Tel Aviv-based musician Noga Erez, however, songs are her way to “process the issues that bother me about the world”. Her music is clattering, confrontational and takes no prisoners. Dance While You Shoot is an agitated attack on a government that she tells me is becoming “more extreme, more religious, more nationalistic”; a track titled Global Fear speaks for itself. You won’t find Erez writing any straightforward tales of cheating hearts.

“I got a lot of advice not to talk about what’s happening in Israel,” says the 27-year-old, taking off her sunglasses. Her hair is rolled into multiple shapes on her head and, with her structured rain mac made of neon orange mesh, she looks like she’s stepped off the cover of the Face, circa 1998. “People who care about me told me, ‘Listen, don’t go outside and start talking about things,’” she continues. “And for a while I thought, ‘This is what I’m going to do – whenever I’m being asked about it, I will avoid it.’ But I can’t, because the songs are about it. People think it’s brave but I just think it’s… necessary.”

If you take away culture away from places then it doesn’t do good to anyone, it makes that place even worse

Erez is one of Israel’s few breakthrough indie stars, having signed to Berlin label City Slang – home of Caribou and Junior Boys – and one of the country’s most hyped artists (one writer called her “the Israeli answer to a Björk”). Created with her studio partner of four years, Ori Rousso, her debut album, Off the Radar, pairs MIA-style sing-speak and jerky beats with FKA twigs’s cinematic sparseness and an off-beat approach to melody. Some instrumentals have an escapist ebullience about them, all neon sharpie synths and catherine wheels of electronic bloops; others an oppressive, danceable dread. The lyrics are playful yet often oblique – a result, she says, of discovering which English words sound best together rhythmically rather than grammatically. All are burdened, however, by the very relatable feeling “that you can’t really trust the people who are responsible for running your life – your financial life, your security, everything”. At times, Erez sounds like she’s taunting herself, wrestling with that other very relatable feeling: the conscience-scraping guilt of inherited privilege.

“Yeah, I handle guilt on a daily basis,” she says. “Dance While You Shoot is about how can you dance, how can you have fun and live your privileged life when you know that the very existence of your life is something that harms others? I mean, 30 minutes away from where I live extreme things happen on a daily basis. I pay tax to a government that acts in some way [towards that]. Every country in the western world feels that things are happening and the way you live isn’t something to take for granted – but this is near. It’s in your face.”

Even so, Erez describes her early years in Tel Aviv as “very average”. She was born just before the start of the Gulf war in a liberal, music-loving home, where she was encouraged to take piano and guitar lessons before studying composition at Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. Her mother writes biographies, her father worked in telecoms and, she adds casually, “fought wars”. Like many Israeli couples, her parents met in the army when they were both doing military service. “It’s really easy, most of the time, to feel like you live in a normal place,” says Erez. “Whatever life you have is the normal life. You need to grow up in order to really understand what’s happening.”

Erez was conscripted herself when she was 18 as a military musician, after an X Factor-style audition for the role. “It’s strange that it still exists because it’s a weird concept, like in the 60s, with pretty, nice-looking singers from the US who would fly to Vietnam to entertain the soldiers,” she says.

It sounds like she got the easy job? “Being a girl really helps,” she laughs. “Being a woman, you’re most likely not to do actual fighting.”

More recently, however, the reality of living in a conflict zone hit closer to home. She remembers when, in 2014, rockets were fired into Tel Aviv. “Alarms would go off and you’d need to go to a shelter and hear a big boom after it,” says Erez. “It took me a year and a half not to freak out every time I heard an alarm. But then it stops. It’s amazing how easily the mind forgets about things and puts them in a drawer. It’s really easy to forget.”

That sort of attitude could be perceived as complacency, and indeed Tel Aviv is often accused of being a cultural bubble of liberal elites, but Erez says her peers are not, on the whole, passive. “People in Tel Aviv are being blamed all the time for being detached from what’s happening. In Hebrew there’s an expression for it: like, beautiful souls, thinking of ideas like hope and peace from afar, and doing art about it, and talking about it in a philosophical way. But I think that people don’t vote because there’s no one to go to. It’s like: ‘How can I vote for someone I don’t trust?’” At the same time, young Israelis on the whole are said to be leaning to the right more than ever. Erez says it’s more complex than that, but that people do feel disillusioned and that the “more extreme” tendencies of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have “a lot to do with why people think that way”.

Working in the creative industries poses a similar kind of uncertainty. “Being an artist in Israel today is not like being an artist in Israel 10 years ago,” says Erez. Israel’s controversial minister of culture, Miri Regev, “is taking serious steps towards the censorship of culture, closing the funds for anyone who talks about something that doesn’t line up with the ideals of the government”, she says. “I’m not afraid in the way of, you know, censorship in Turkey. No one will kill you because of what you’re saying, but you might face some consequences, like people not liking your opinion and then boycotting your music or art.”

Speaking of boycotting, only a few days earlier I’d walked past an old building in central London flypostered with calls for one of Erez’s favourite bands, Radiohead, to cancel their July gig in Tel Aviv. Erez says she sees both sides to such pleas but can’t help but be disappointed. “If you take culture away from places then it doesn’t do good to anyone, it makes that place even worse, because art and culture is the opposition to the political situation,” she says. If anything, she continues, the liberal left needs what positive reinforcement it can get. “Most of the crowd of Radiohead, specifically, are not the people that you want to weaken but you want to make stronger.”

So far, Erez’s country seems to be on her side. In 2016, the Israeli foreign ministry flew Erez to the Rio Olympics to perform as part of an official musical showcase. It certainly hasn’t dampened the potency of her music, either. Erez wrote the song Pity after a high-profile court case for the alleged gang rape of a young woman in a Tel Aviv nightclub in 2015. The incident was filmed – instead of stopped – by onlookers and the resulting footage went viral, shocking Erez “to my bones” and prompting fierce discussion about the normalisation of rape culture. “Everyone became a judge,” says Erez of the furore. “It was a social media trial, and that was one of the things that really disturbed me.” In the end, the accused were found not guilty.

Erez is uncomfortable with being labelled a “protest artist”: she says her songs are more of a “conversation with herself” than overt activism: she is conflicted, trying to figure out her place in the world. But she does see a future where she could turn into a musician with clearer political motives. She admires artists such as PJ Harvey who “never crossed the border to shout out a message that she doesn’t completely understand. Everyone protests about things, everybody has that tool today – we could all just open our mouths and say whatever we want to say.”

It is why, perhaps for now, Erez is particularly careful about speaking generally about the Israel-Palestine divide. “It’s so diverse and split,” she says when asked whether young Israelis differ from previous generations about the conflict. “There is a conflict inside Israel about those things because it’s so complicated.” According to Erez, “there is a lot of empathy for the other side”, but she laments how, when it comes to the Netanyahu administration, “the word ‘peace’ is not brought up any more. ‘Hope’ is something that people are cynical about because people have lost hope.”

If there’s any hope to be found, it could come from among Israel’s small but diverse underground music scene. In Tel Aviv, at venues such as the Block, Jewish and Arab audiences are said to dance together, united by electronic DJs. “It’s all about trying to form a new conversation and trying to be normal,” says Erez. “This is probably the only idea that I believe in now 100% – building communication through normalising the connection. If that’s something that we aim for, I think it could create some change.” Erez says that she hopes one day to collaborate with Palestinian artists but her ambitions are also that of any global pop artist: to break out of her local scene and make her songs “something that people can relate to from different parts of the world. As personal as the music is, it’s as universal as it can be.”

#culture