Objektiv One
Objektiv One makes sick mashups. He's got the mentality of an old school crate-digger. He's mean on the MPC. And he is a great designer.
Watch him rock the MPC:
Objektiv One makes sick mashups. He's got the mentality of an old school crate-digger. He's mean on the MPC. And he is a great designer.
Watch him rock the MPC:
The National & The Radio Dept.
Not too often do I post indie rock. When I first attended college, I was obsessed with the genre. I read Pitchfork religiously. I was downloading at least 4 albums a day. I can't even remember the names of half the bands I listened to during that period, which really says something.
When young people want to dance nowadays, they listen to hip-hop or house. And now many of them, when they want to relax, listen to rock! Rock used to be the raucous party music, but now it seems sedate, and pleasantly so.
The National feat. Sufjan Stevens - Afraid Of Everyone
The Radio Dept. - Heaven's On Fire
I Love Bill Evans
artwork by brad howe
Bill Evans is the poet of jazz pianists. His style is not only beautiful, it invites introspection. His slumped over posture on the piano, head down, evokes to us a depressed genius battling his demons with heroin, cigarettes, and music. But his music evokes to us ourselves.
My favorite thing to do on a Saturday morning is drink coffee, read a few poems, and listen to Bill.
The thoughtfulness, and the pain, that Bill Evans put into his music is evident by listening to just the first few bars of any Bill Evans ballad. So it's no surprise that it's also interesting to read what Evans himself wrote in the linear notes to Kind of Blue.
There is a Japanese visual art in which the artist is forced to be spontaneous. He must paint on a thin stretched parchment with a special brush and black water paint in such a way that an unnatural or interrupted stroke will destroy the line or break through the parchment. Erasures or changes are impossible. These artists must practice a particular discipline, that of allowing the idea to express itself in communication with their hands in such a direct way that deliberation cannot interfere.
The resulting pictures lack the complex composition and textures of ordinary painting, but it is said that those who see well find something captured that escapes explanation.
This conviction that direct deed is the most meaningful reflections, I believe, has prompted the evolution of the extremely severe and unique disciplines of the jazz or improvising musician.
Group improvisation is a further challenge. Aside from the weighty technical problem of collective coherent thinking, there is the very human, even social need for sympathy from all members to bend for the common result. This most difficult problem, I think, is beautifully met and solved on this recording.
As the painter needs his framework of parchment, the improvising musical group needs its framework in time,. Miles Davis presents here frameworks which are exquisite in their simplicity and yet contain all that is necessary to stimulate performance with sure reference to the primary conception.
Miles conceived these settings only hours before the recording dates and arrived with sketches which indicated to the group what was to be played. Therefore, you will hear something close to pure spontaneity in these performances. The group had never played these pieces prior to the recordings and I think without exception the first complete performance of each was a "take."
Now for a taste ...
Bill Evans - Waltz In B Minor
(Perhaps my favorite Bill Evans composition.)
My Foolish Heart:
Blue In Green:
Download Blue In Green via Mediafire
Wale - Pretty Girls (Remix) (feat. Chris Brown & Fabolous)
This new remix of Wale's Pretty Girls is hot. Chris Brown and Fabolous are admittedly pretty wack, but when Chris starts going off about Leonardo da Vinci, Aristotle, and plus-sized models, it's almost enough to forgive him for beating the shit of out Rhianna. (Kidding!)
Wale - Pretty Girls (Remix) (feat. Chris Brown & Fabolous)
Nas & Damian Marley - As We Enter
The Nas & Damian Marley collab album is out today. (April 20th)
It's smart for Nas to collab. His output after Illmatic has been famously irregular in terms of quality. And after selling out on his last album -- he wanted to call it "Nigger" but record execs informed him his album wouldn't sell at Wal Mart, what the fuck was he thinking, was he on drugs, etc... -- collabing with someone who sure seems "authentic" is smart.
I haven't heard the album yet, and I don't have high hopes for it, but I like "As We Enter" a lot. The energy exchanged between the two is a nice touch.
Nas & Damian Marley - As We Enter
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