Music Journal #006

The Gaslamp Killer rarely fails to impress, and he certainly maintains that reputation on his Death Gate EP. He has a penchant for unnerving, strange and threatening sounds and his music carries a sense of mystery along with its heavy presence. Things take a turn for the even weirder when Gonjasufi joins the fray on the second track and later on The Gaslamp Killer shows off some obscure samples to push a space/out-of-this-world vibe to round off a good, solid EP.

The duo of Booka Shade are clearly unafraid to switch things up, starting with house with trance elements and drifting towards techno, minimal and ambient. Many of these elements collide with synergy on Movements, the group's second album. There's a smattering of everything on here - the album starts with minimal tech-house and closes with progressive ambient music which sounds slightly tinged by the world of post-rock. It is the minimal techno tracks that outshine some of the others, with Night Falls and Body Language - Interpretation ready to fit into any set for any dancefloor. The funk-flavoured house of The Birds and the Beats mixes things up nicely, as does its development into the slow-burning interlude At the Window featuring playground samples, choir vocals as well as classical piano. At times the techno pushes a little harder while other times things have an open pop feel. It culminates in a record that still sounds fresh seven years after release, Booka Shade showing that they're pretty damn good at whatever they set out to do.


Kenny Dixon Jr's moniker Moodymann is a living legend throughout modern dance music as well as the Detroit house scene, and there's little reason to wonder why when he has the production quality and high-calibre DJing ability to justify his reputation. I gave the album Silence In The Secret Garden a spin and was far from disappointed. The sheer variety of themes explored on an album that is kept to a simil tone throughout is quite staggering - Moodymann certainly proves he is able to be creative within bounds that he has set himself and can be willful enough to stick within. The record begins by offering us a taste of a little bit of everything, littered with funky bass plucks, skittering hi-hats and playful piano notes to a backdrop of grand strings on Entrance To The Garden. Funk also tinges the pensive Backagain fo the First Timeonemotime?, as well as strange samples such as a baby's cooing and crying. Moodymann does what he does best on Shine with mellow, lounge-like deep house layered with smooth vocal loops and piano stabs while the title track spans many themes, as if it was made of many miniature movements - from a heavy beginning to a shimmering, harmonious delve into jazzy brass instrumentation ending on a darker, techno-synth flavored note. Sweet Yesterday rounds off the album nicely with soothing vocals easing the end of the dance. One thing that makes the record stand out even more is how DJ-like it is. The track selection is beautiful, the ordering impeccable and the seamless transitions between them are astounding. It's a hard thing, making a house album more than a collection of great tracks and building something that excels when being experienced as a whole - but Moodymann ticks all the boxes and makes it look all to easy.

Robin gave me my homework for a radio show we do, in which we give each other new albums to listen to - this week's assignment was Night Piece, by Shugo Tokumaru. I'd no idea about anything to do with it but was instantly put off by the opening track's honest ukulele and typically shaky vocals. I guess that's just what YouTube does to you. Thankfully the album picked up immediately after with the ambling Light Chair and refreshingly atmospheric Lantern on the Water. Soon I was to realise that two salient themes of the record are 'multi-instrumentalism' and vulnerability. At least that's what I took from it, as I couldn't understand the lyrics. The artist flirts with different instruments and new elements on every track, sometimes keeping some variables but changing others and putting different spins on ideas. The folk LP carries a gentle demeanor throughout the majority, thus when the pace was pushed up I did feel quite uneasy. At 25 minutes, the album is quite short but it doesn't feel like it - song structure isn't always traditional and it made for a slightly provoking, thoroughly entertaining, riveting listen.

Foals are still a sort-of novelty to me - I only listened to Total Live Forever and Antidotes (in that order) in 2012 and fell in love with the albums, particularly the former. I got to catch them live at Queens Social Club, Sheffield in November of that year and, despite not being a fan as long as most others, I still eagerly anticipated their third LP, Holy Fire. I'll say it right now, the album is a disappointment. It's also a good album. It starts off really well with the progressive and unwavering Prelude, into the heavier Inhaler and then into My Number - a catchy, groovy and oh-so-indie jam that has enough texture, enough potential and so many great things going on in its various layers to easily justify its proclamation as the best song on the album. I'd heard all these before, however, so here on out it was time to get into the meat of the release. Instead of further expanding upon the boundaries of the band, the next few tracks saw them step back a little. In fact, the album as a whole did. There were interesting ideas a-plenty, and Yannis' vocals have certainly improved to a very impressive level, but more often than not Foals seemed to fall back into a more general, broad and quite frankly more bland groove. There are good tracks in here - namely Milk & Black Spiders, Providence and Late Night, but there was too much 'good', and not enough 'great'. To me, it seems like Foals opted to shy away from the things that made their previous albums so excellent - I don't advocate against bands moving in new directions at all, far from it - but this time the risk fell flat. Perhaps it will be a grower, though for now I remain let-down. It just wasn't as good as I'd hoped.
On a side note: Adore the album artwork orchestrated by Leif Podhajsky, who has also recently done stuff for the likes of Bonobo and Tame Impala. The original photo (above) is by Thomas Nebbia.

Hailing from the UK, Hyperdub trio LV released Sebenza as the fruits of their ventures to South Africa. The culture leaves more than a distinct imprint on the album - it's more of a collaboration with South African MCs than an LV album flavoured with Africa and featuring lyricists. The beats don't sound ready to stand up on their own and far too often for my liking act as merely a platform for the vocal artists. I say artists, but the record for me was essentially the Okmalumkoolkat show - he features on the title track and around half of the album. I found myself loving and hating his performance - at times his delivery is creative and unorthodox,  playful and witty lyrics enhancing the album at its best moments, but at times being somewhat cringe-worthy. Ruffest and Spoek Mathambo don't really put a foot wrong, however they seem to take far less risks and as a result are much less memorable for it - particularly the former, despite appearing on double the number of tracks the latter has.

Inc. consist of brothers Andrew and Daniel Aged, who come from LA. Their first full-length release comes from 4AD, one of the more well-know independent record labels, renowned for the wide embrace of genres. I'd heard the track 5 Days in advance of their album, no world, a few months ago and the refined take on contemporary R'n'B provided the basis for my hype around this album's release. It can be hard to stand out in this post-world of post-internet, post-Weeknd, post-dubstep and post-all-sorts-of-other-things, but for me, Inc. managed to do that because they are not trying to be anything. The album is completely honest and earnest as well as able to boast quality production alongside sweet, sultry and suitably hazy vocals - bringing in elements of electronica, soul, funk and jazz in new forms. Highlights included the opener, the place, as well as the interlude, your tears, and potential single angel. The album does not push anything forward, which is a slight disappointment - what it does do, however, is provide the perfect listen, a worthy amalgamation of all the best modern R'n'B has to offer. I certainly hope Inc. take more steps forward with the next release but until then, I am hugely pleased with what they've accomplished and can confirm that the ever-controversial Inc. label-mate Zomby's preaching on Twitter about how good Inc. are is completely justified.

The Magnetic Fields. 69 Love Songs. Glancing over the tracklist - consisting of, yep, sixty-nine love songs, was somewhat daunting as I prepared to listen to it. In the end it took me two sessions to plough through it. I say plough because at times it definitely took some effort listening to. It's not surprising that things began to feel claustrophobic after a while and sometimes the album was grating. Regardless, it was a good album. Thankfully the tracks were written in jest as parodies to parry traditional and stereotypical love songs - lyrically, instrumentally and structurally. Even the opening track's ukelele didn't rub me the wrong way thanks to the hilarious vocal delivery. Particular highlights on the triple-CD-marathon-album with a length that could rival a Lil B mixtape were The Cactus Where Your Heart Should Be, Washington D.C. and Papa Was A Rodeo. They were quite endearing, although there was the occasional track that never quite pulled its jokes off effectively. It was certainly a hit-and-miss listen, and I don't think I'd come back to most of it. Still, it was a good album, and at its best, on Love Is Like Jazz, it manages to be laugh-out-loud hilarious, where all the right boxes are ticked just at the right time.