Pretty Lights has done it again. This track is a seamless integration of three bands that we wouldn’t normally lump together. Our favorite element is the use of Radiohead’s Everything in its Right Place but then you have to give some credit to Nirvana’s vocals from All Apologies and just as we’re making our minds we begin to get spine tingles from Nine Inch Nails’ Closer. This mash up is definitely not a dance number (although that makes sense considering the bands used to make this song) but it kind of hits you on another level.
ML Note: We’ve invited Meg, a friend of ML to liven things up around these parts. ML has always dabbled in stuff that isn’t just the rappity raps and Meg will lead the charge in getting ML readers hip to all sorts of new things. Be on the lookout for her proper introduction tomorrow. Lastly, don’t confuse Meg with MegH, who turned out to be ML’s own Detox of sorts after such a buzzworthy entrance.
Two weekends ago at The Metro in Chicago, Princeton served as the calm between two explosive acts and thank god someone had the foresight to set it up that way. DAAN, the first opening act, was a barrage of over the top homoerotic theatrics that didn’t help their music in the least. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for theatrics, but I found it physically impossible to give the music its fair share of attention when I had a gyrating crotch (covered in god knows what) 3 inches from my face. It was simply performance art gone horribly wrong.
When Princeton finally took to the stage the whole audience seemed to breathe a sigh of relief; normal boys doing normal things with instruments. They started off their set with two groove-inducing numbers that got the entire crowd dancing. It was great to see how their sound has evolved since the release of Cocoon of Love. They’ve moved from following in the footsteps of Vampire Weekend and Ra Ra Riot and are blazing a trail of their own. This clearly seemed like a conscious move for them when a girl in the crowd kept screaming “PLAY SHOUT IT OUT!!” (the quintessential crowd pleaser from Cocoon of Love) and frontman Jesse just jokingly replied with “you’re not invited to any more shows”. Princeton played their entire set with humble earnestness that made you feel like you were watching your close friends play. They have something special and I would be surprised if they didn’t blow up even more in the indie scene in the months to come. Hopefully with their next album Princeton can finally make the jump from opener to headliner. They obviously have a fan base and they aren’t lacking in talent so I find it confusing that even now, two years after Cocoon of Love was released, they’re still an opening band.
Although I think Princeton would serve well as a headliner, they did a fantastic job setting the stage for CSS. CSS proved to be a completely energetic show where I found it hard not to dance while trying to photograph the band. They played crowd favorites from their last album, Donkey, and also a few tracks from their upcoming album La Liberacion. Judging by the teaser they gave the crowd of the album dropping in August it’s going to be just as good if not better than Donkey. Lovefoxxx (is that not the coolest stage name?) had people losing themselves in dance in the crowd and it was clear that everyone in the venue only had eyes for her. She sat on my shoulders for a hot second, I’ve never felt so privileged to literally act as a piece of furniture. They closed out their set with a three song encore consisting of two older songs and one brand new which they engineered well and served as the perfect ending to the night.
Drum Talking is the distinct sound of a specific musical segment of a remote part of the world, recontextualized as dope beats. Mo Kolours worked the Sega music (no blue hedgehog) of his native Mauritius into funky beats worthy of the Beat Konducta. “8 Hours” in particular is disarmingly funky. Mo uses mostly handclaps and exotic, natural-sounding drums to avoid the synthetic feeling of garden variety beats. Mo further distinguishes himself by adding a layer of ghostly singing, which combined with the minimal drums, really distinguishes him from other artists. It beats the shit out of watching National Geographic.
Baroque meets dub on The Bug’s remix of The Kills’ “Satellite.” Epic intonations to fill an arena. Or a cathedral. Watch the video for the original below.
Perhaps the coolest project to come out of the LA beat scene is A Sufi and a Killer, Gonjasufi’s 2010 psychedelic masterstroke. Gonja, likely noticing a drought of screechy sepia-tinged moaning, posted “Bury Me” on MySpace. Listen at your own risk. This track is fucking haunted.
While watching the ongoing Coachella stream this weekend I came across a dope promo video for the festival that feature Hip Hop head & Funkateer Dave 1 (1/2 of Chromeo), and Creative legend Eric Haze (I pray own an album with his art work). They both share candid reflections on their careers, especially worth hearing is Dave1 talk hip-hop, which a lot of people seem to overlook.
You can catch Dave 1 jam out when Chromeo performs later today on the official Coachella stream on youtube (8:35pm PST/11:35EST), If you haven’t seen them live I implore you to check it out.
We tapped a lot of people to talk about their favorite beats for last year’s colossal year-end Beat Drop, but I was especially excited to get Paul White’s picks. The largely overlooked British Dilla disciple was sure to pick something mind-blowing. His five picks were Georgia Anne Muldrow’s “Language of the Flame,” a vinyl-only Madlib Medicine Show beat that we couldn’t even find, a funky offering from the Dilla Donut Shop EP, and two unreleased tracks that Alex Chase of One-Handed Music was nice enough to provide.
Of the two unreleased tracks, “Syncro System” by Mo Kolours was the one that piqued my curiosity. The half-Mauritian singer/percussionist has a tropical, handmade funk. His debut release EP1: Drum Talking draws upon the the sega music of Mauritius and the single “Biddies” matches garbled chants with a soothing bassline and Kolours’ airy singing. Listen and escape your modern life for a few minutes.
I’m still taking baby steps with this dubstep stuff, but I dig this. Lex NV (whoever that is) uses disembodied voices and an ambient orchestra to create an epic beat that’s more accessible than some harsher, mechanical sounding stuff.
SXSW Music 2011 was such a craze that I’m still recovering from pure exhaustion, combine that with a mean head cold I caught, and I’ve been slumbering like a hibernating bear. Fear not though, the grand ol recap should be hitting your face in the next few days. In the meantime, check out the instagram photos I snapped, and you may have missed from the ML twitter feed.
