News: RJD2 Shares Details On New Hip-Hop Album, Collaboration With STS
–Written by Kevin Madert
Philadelphia-based instrumental hip-hop guru RJD2 is at it again: the long-time DJ/producer confirmed to Rolling Stone yesterday a new album is on the way. Out May 5th, STS x RJD2 will be a collaborative effort featuring rapper and fellow Philadelphian (Philadelphite?) STS. RJD2 describes the album as “soulful, honest hip-hop music,” and lauds STS for having “a way with words, and his own fully developed style…he’s one of my favorite rappers to make waves in the last three to four years.”
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News: Trip Hop Remix of Brand New’s ‘The Devil and God’
First off, I want to apologize to you, dear readers, for I have made a grievous oversight earlier this year. On the list of things we care about at this blog, Brand New and trip hop are both very very high up on the list. And while we, apparently, aren’t the only ones to take this stance, Simple Mind, a Boston based producer, decided to take this fascination to the next level, and marry the two into a truly remarkable remix project.
Frequencies of 2014: Mix
–Words and list by Kevin Madert
This is another installment in the “Frequencies of” series. The music that got to me most in 2014 – that got my head nodding, that sent goosebumps prickling across my skin, that had me screaming at the top of my lungs – placed in a handful of semi-specific categories (for organizational purposes more than anything else). Am I telling you these are the best things released all year? Certainly not. Am I telling you they’re all great, and suggesting you check them out in order to grasp a more complete picture of the year in music? Absolutely.
Phaeleh – Slumber Sessions
Recorded as an installment in I-D’s “Slumber Sessions” series, this mix exists not only as a hauntingly beautiful piece of art but also as an ambient background piece, intended to be listened to as one zones out and drifts off to sleep. Phaeleh, as a master of such sounds, constructs an eclectic and meandering mix, often comprised of wholly ambient tracks and dipping at times into little more than droning notes and hushed sound effects. In his own words, “in some ways you can think of it as a soundtrack to a dream…I wanted it to be able to exist in the background, without focus, whilst at the same time having elements of detail and beauty scattered amongst the layers of sound unraveling as the mix progresses.” In the process, he created perhaps the best mix of 2014 – a definite must-hear.
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Frequency Of The Week No. 4: Derlee
-Written by Kevin Madert
My experiences with Bandcamp have been somewhat of a mixed bag. It’s a fantastic place for independent labels, low-key artists and bedroom producers to share their work, yet much like Soundcloud your music exploration can quickly derail into a black hole of falsely advertised accounts and underwhelming tunes. If you stay focused and go in with a plan you can find some really neat stuff, and that’s how I came across this week’s FotW: Derlee.
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Weekend Wind-Down No. 2: Piano-Driven Tracks
-Words and list by Michael Hogan
Musically, I’m a sucker for two things: songs in 6/8 – widely agreed upon as the most epic time signature ever – and a good piano-driven track. Pianos add a certain degree of weight to a song, transforming the latent emotion contained within and allowing it to resonate in sparse, clear, reverby notes. A good piano part can work wonders on a song; give it a swing, drive it forward, or provide the perfect amount of melancholy as each note rings away into nothingness.
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