I'd listened to Sigur Rós' music before, and I'd seen them at Bestival 2012 - though that wasn't the greatest of experiences due to the obscenely large crowd's tendency to talk over the delicate music. Thankfully I have a ticket for one of their tour dates but the thing is, I'd never listened to an album of theirs! So I gave Valtari a listen. Sigur Rós create songs that capture brittle moments of beauty, distilling emotional vulnerability and forming progressive, dreamy post-rock ambience. They work their magic well on Valtari, with the first half of the album particularly impressing - at the end of it all, I was left so very drained but with tender happiness that I knew would be hard to hold on to.
Hype Williams' Find Out What Happens When People Stop Being Polite, And Start Gettin' Reel proved to be as adventurous and explosive as the duo's material that came after it. The track 'The Throning' is a piece of individual brilliance. There's something about Inga Copeland's vocals that are hypnotising, and I still can't believe the album began with an auto-tuned crying baby.
Finally, I decided to stick Ab-Soul's Control System on. The first half is quite heavy with features but Ab-Soul does manage to hold his own on the same level as the rest of the Black Hippy crew, namely Kendrick Lamar and Schoolboy Q. The lyricism on the album is quite advanced and makes for an intense listen, as Ab-Soul touches on topics from politics to the social aspects of society, always intelligently, lyrics laden with more intellectual references than the average MC. The features do balance it out and keep things fresh as 'conscious hip-hop' always runs the risk of becoming stale.
Deadmau5's > album title goes here < pretty much cemented my view that I've grown out of his music - I think it's a little lazy at times too. There are a couple of good tracks in there, such as the album opener, but the music never really goes anywhere and there are too many songs that follow the typical structure of Deadmau5's prog-house records. The features, including Gerard Way and Cyprus Hill, were unnecessary and quite simply an embarrassment for all involved.
I got to hear a couple of albums that were purely fun. Celebration Rock does what it says on the tin with Japandroids doing what they do best; Similar to Beach House's Bloom in that they stick to what they know yet make sure they do it well. The joyous energy and sheer enthusiasm the duo emanate seeps through the music. Toddla T's Watch Me Dance was a blast to listen to, so it was time to check the remix album - Watch Me Dance: Agitated By Ross Orton and Pipes, a couple of Toddla T's heroes from his native city Sheffield. The different takes on Toddla's music are commendable though not overly adventurous, with the entire album being given that signature Steel City dancehall/bass vibe. It all sounds deeper and darker than Toddla T's usual stuff and is material made for the dancefloor.
The Cherry Thing is a collaboration between Neneh Cherry and The Thing, wherein the two artists perform covers of a number of songs with the former's singing and the latter's saxophone talents featuring heavily throughout. The songs pay off when listened to, although the music isn't very accessible. Their cover of Madvillain's Accordian does make for a strong highlight, however.
Salem's King Night is an intimidating and intoxicating listen, and is perfectly at home on the Tri Angle label - it sounds like a ruthless, unholy concoction channeling Evian Christ's Kings And Them production (despite being before his time), Oneohtrix Point Never synths and that atmosphere generated by Holy Other. The album was slightly ahead of it's time, something that can be head in the bedroom or the ride, managing to be very volatile yet very rewarding. Hound and Trapdoor are absolute beasts of a beat. I also experienced Lukid's Lonely At The Top, which was filled to the brim with ideas that were never left to simmer for too long - which I appreciated as frequently, bass/hip-hop hybrid music can be extended for no particular reason. I think Lukid's talent lies in making such physically-oriented music, so to speak, induce such a range of feelings. Or at least that's what I think from listening to his latest album.
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