Metal Lungies

Tiger’s Milk Records is part of a Peruvian restaurant in London called Ceviche and they messed around and dropped this amazing compilation of Peruvian rarities. I’m going to defer to their description because they use a lot of words I don’t understand. Listen and feel alive.

Tiger’s Milk Records presents PERU MARAVILLOSO, the result of many years obsessively collecting Peruvian music: it’s in our blood. With a focus on ‘60s and ‘70s Latin and tropical music, this debut album features a selection of vintage cuts and unknown treasures from one of Peru’s most exciting musical eras. The vast majority of these songs were only ever pressed once on vinyl and have remained unreleased since.
Whilst recognising the music of cumbia, guaracha and the electric sound of chicha, PERU MARAVILLOSO owes as much to soul-jazz, Latin-jazz, rock and psychedelia as it does to the traditional styles of Andean, Peruvian criollo and Latin music that dominated the cultural backdrop of Peru during this era.

Not gonna lie, I’ve never paid much attention to Nocando, Open Mike Eagle, Busdriver, and their Los Angeles ilk. But their collective Hellfyre Club compilation Dorner vs. Tookie surprised me with one of my favorite tracks of last year. “Fabian Cortez” by Rheteric Ramirez and Nocando is a strange animal. The track has a creeping stillness to it and Rheteric and Nocan spit the goofiest shit-talk this side of Kool Keith. What you get is a psychedelic trip grounded by resounding Max B shout-outs.

Perera Elsewhere’s Everlast LP was good for these two ethereal mindfucks. Listen to them until your consciousness escapes your body and then listen to her mix for The Fader below as well.

In October, Coca-Cola commissioned fashion designer Darren Romanelli (DRx) to make “a capsule collection of pieced-together retro Coke clothing found at flea markets and in vintage stores around the world.” Still with me? They also tapped Alchemist to make this track to with it, in which Al flips vintage Coke jingles and in the process, shames every producer currently working. Here’s hoping that Alchemist gets more corporate gigs in 2014. FreeCreditReport.com could use some heat.

Details are scant on this gentleman’s SoundCloud page, so I asked him to tell me more about this track. His response:

‘spek
seent this bitch on okcupid ‘right,
her name was ralph. and I like that. bitch wita androgynous nam n shit ‘right.
she had this link on her page to some shit i never heard on heard island,
but i fux. so Im like fuckit am just show hoe what it is ‘right..
I recorded that shit straight off youtube and made this fucking thing
‘course I ended up making this with the rob way joint. cuz it was the only thing i could think of when i heard that link she had up. I fuck with rob. he ill
so I’s like listening to rob and like then I like just thought yo we ralph today. so I freak the rob shit. I’m a freak tho ho, ‘fuck yeah’ heard mountain. recorded myself speaking. that’s my real voice too. #nofilter
I make rob ralph
and i just sat the link she had on the beginning of the joint. made them shits one. procreation
now when I’m with the homies i be like goin to the bodega by the igloo palace’n shit and I be like, yo you ralph ho’? and my man tell me if he need some shit like a snickers ice cream or a bag of tea
ralph is when you got everything you need. see yo, you wanna be ralph but you are human and fallible forever in an ever changing eternal realm of eternal hunger. sharks swimmers 2014

and it just kind of went on like that. Then he said,

if you prefer a less colorful response that doesn’t come from my asshole, feel free to let me know

I did not follow up.

Shout out to rappers who aren’t friends with Gwyneth Paltrow. Don’t Drink The Kool Aid was one of my favorite rap albums of 2013 for its casual vibe. It’s like the kids banging on the desks grew up and got jobs, but kept the same fun, scrappy approach to rap but now with a worldly sense of humor and better beats. If you’re pressed for time, check out track 15, “Wootie” — I’m still parsing Cavalier’s verse three months later.

Baltimore beats: producer MoGiLLah serves a beat tape that veers from chaotic to smooth and back again with fresh ideas the whole way through. Shades of J Dilla. A personal favorite is “Sound Garden” which sparkles but cuts and loops on some hip-hop shit.

Dear Readers,

The decline in activity on Metal Lungies of late can be ascribed to the personal trials and tribulations our staff faced this year. You might not always realize it, but DJ01, Meaghatron, and I are human beings as much as we are music bloggers with cool Internet handles – and every once in a while, being told to go fuck ourselves because we didn’t like a Wiz Khalifa verse can really sting.

But that is no excuse for neglecting our duty to you, the dear reader. Instead, please find our specific excuses for neglecting our duty below.

• DJ01 told anyone who would listen at last year’s Christmas party that Metal Lungies was about to have a monster year. That spirit carried us until January 15th when he dashed out of his office to tell us Bed Bath and Beyond had dropped their plans to sponsor the Beat Drop and we would be footing the bill for 10,000 Metal Lungies non-stick cookware sets (DM me if you want one of these shits). Needless to say, DJ01 was in no mood to blog about fucking Cheez N Dope 2 or whatever for a while after that (no disrespect to Project Pat).
• Meaghatron didn’t fare much better as a design intern for Kanye West’s creative something-something DONDA. Her ambitions and portfolio fell by the wayside when she found out her job was mainly stalking Fendi and Louis Vuitton execs and trying to force on them manilla envelopes full of Kanye’s design documents. Once, while being hauled out of an office by security, one of the envelopes fell open and she saw a colored-pencil sketch of Kim Kardashian styled as Cleopatra giving birth to her and Kanye’s baby on board the Millennium Falcon. She says her three writing credits on Yeezus were little consolation.
• Me? I’m not gonna lie, I hit the bottle pretty hard when they shut down Google Reader. I would wake up, catch an episode of Fresh Prince of Bel Air at 9:30, and then just start drinking. My moment of clarity came when I was at a Migos concert at The Westway and I projectile vomited onto someone (it might have been Troy Ave, I’m not sure what he looks like) partway through screaming the “Versace” hook.

I tell you all of that to tell you this: the Lungies are back like cooked crack. We have a new design that makes other rap blogs look like trash and we a have a backlog of music to share with you that would make Funkmaster Flex bomb the city back to the stone age. We promise to make updates as often as our personal lives/substance abuse problems allow.

We are, sincerely yours,
The Metal Lungies staff

We’ve been waiting on pins and needles for a new track from Beat Drop alum Chromeo since they teased us back in November with Sexy Socialite and, duh, they’re starting 2014 out strong by teaming up with another one of our favorites: Toro Y Moi. Come Alive stays true to Chromeo’s funk roots with Chaz Bundick’s vocals adding an extra layer of awesome. Can they just team up and create a super band already?

Chromeo has mentioned that on the forthcoming White Women there will be appearances from Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig, LCD Soundsystem’s Pat Mahoney, and Solange Knowles. Needless to say… we’re excited.

Check out Come Alive below: