Stream: Yeasayer, “Ambling Alp” (DJ/Rupture Remix)
- story Sam Hockley-Smith
- photo Guy Martin (F49)
Last week Yeasayer officially released sophomore album single “Ambling Alp,” and today DJ/Rupture’s version popped up on the internet in what feels like record turnaround time. The remix makes sense too: live, Yeasayer have always approached a more intense club thump, and Rupture furthers that idea, pushing “Ambling Alp” from spacey inspiration into deep bass tones and manipulated vocals. Both versions are great, it just depends if you want to feel happy about the world or like you’ve been swimming in thick mud for a couple hours. Stream it over at Stereogum.
Javelin, World MIDI Classics Volume 2
- story Sam Hockley-Smith
This is all hypothetical, but we imagine the dudes of Javelin don’t ever leave their apartment, instead just listen to records without ever putting them back in their sleeves, recording 20 second snippets and then throwing that all together into one mp3. Nothing sticks around long enough to make a strong impression, but this also isn’t some Girl Talk memory bait either. Instead it’s just Nerds Being Nerds And Sharing It, also known as exactly why we got into this shit in the first place.
Download: Javelin, World MIDI Classics Volume 2 (via P4K)
Video: Tanlines, “Game Two”
- story Sam Hockley-Smith
Wave of the future! Tanlines just released a song that was recorded on an iPhone accompanied by a video made with Google Earth. We just watched it three times trying to figure out how they made what sounds like Gregorian chants in the middle of an all night Euro-rave at a Polish club into exactly what we want to hear at any given moment during the day.
Pill, “Hear Somebody Comin” MP3
- story Sam Hockley-Smith
Toward the end of “Hear Somebody Comin,” Pill stops his Kool G Rap-esque flow to breathe heavily before launching right back in, and the whole time it sounds like he’s having fun. All we can ask is: is anyone out there still complaining that hip-hop is dead? Any dinosaur rap backpackers lamenting a dearth of lyricism? What’s up with that? What are you listening to?
Download: Pill, “Hear Somebody Comin”
Mannie Fresh, “Like a Boss” MP3
- story Sam Hockley-Smith
- photo Jonathan Mannion (F34)
Mannie Fresh hasn’t exactly been blowing our minds recently, but that doesn’t mean we won’t keep a vigilant ear on everything he does just in case. Now he’s back with “Like a Boss,” which, based on name alone, you’d expect to be another version of “Real Big,” (also known as one of the most fun songs ever in the history of recorded music), but is instead an occasionally self-deprecating career retrospective for Fresh.
Download: Mannie Fresh, “Like a Boss” (via BLVD ST)
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posted on Nov 4, 2009 in MP3 / STREAMS tags
Video: Freddie Gibbs f. Pill, “Womb 2 the Tomb”
- story Sam Hockley-Smith
There have been some excellent arguments for a full-on collab album between two of our favorite working rappers Freddie Gibbs and Pill, and this video for “Womb 2 the Tomb” (which comes from Gibbs’ most recent mixtape), is just another reason to lock them in a studio together. They could be rapping about the phone book, and as long as it was delivered with Gibbs’ ominous control and Pill’s completely off the rails rasp, we’d be into it.
Small Black, “Kings of Animals” MP3
- story Sam Hockley-Smith
Who knew Small Black had some drunken at Christmastime spirit in their music? On “Kings of Animals” which comes from their new 7-inch, the band gets wistful in that one-last-drink-at-the-bar-and-then-I-swear-I’m-going-to-spend-time-with-my-family way. But mainly it’s just Small Black doing what they are really good at, which is creating warm songs around cold electronics and woozy vocals. This song is maybe about animals, but it might as well be about every 4am walk home we’ve ever had.
Download: Small Black, “Kings of Animals” (via Transparent)
Birds & Batteries, “Sneaky Times” MP3
- story Sam Hockley-Smith
What if John Carpenter kept up on new music? He’d be like, Why do all these bands play the keyboard like me but with the VHS tracking all fucked up and wobbly? And no one would be able to answer him with anything else except to let him know that it sounds awesome. This Birds & Batteries song is like watching Halloween on a bunch of cough syrup and then having a dizzy and slowed dance party at the end—it’s wildly unsettling and makes us feel kind of nauseous in a good way.
Download: Birds & Batteries, “Sneaky Times”
Woodsman, “Dikembe Mutombo” Mp3
- story Sam Hockley-Smith
It must be pretty fun to be an instrumental band. You can just name your songs whatever you feel like and go nuts. Woodsman did that with “Dikembe Mutombo,” which as far as we know has very little to do with basketball or being from the Congo. But that’s okay! Instead it’s a whirlwind of guitars clamped down by constant drumroll. Maybe they’re hoping to soundtrack the next big, dramatic and inspiring sports movie, or maybe they all just got really stoned and inspired by tall dudes. You can grab Woodsman’s new album digitally on Mexican Summer right now.
Download: Woodsman, “Dikembe Mutombo” (via Weekly Tape Deck)
Premiere: Ryan Leslie, Transition Album Stream
- story Sam Hockley-Smith
- photo Annie Tritt (F55 outtake)
It seems like just yesterday that Ryan Leslie was sitting on a massive pile of breezy hits, trying to get them out to the world. Honestly, it was not actually that long ago, but even so, we’re totally okay with Leslie dropping a whole other record, and even more okay with imeem providing an album stream for us. First listen through has Leslie taking an even more grown and sexy route this time around. There is a song called—get ready—”SUNDAY NIGHT” about hanging out with your significant other at home and listening to records. And how he could probably do that forever. And how that’s all he wants to do. Sounds relaxing. Mainly though, this is an album of light jams that are pretty much telling us that, even when times are bad, at least we have this kinda dorky dude writing music to make us feel pretty good.
