Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Tokyo Dawn is back
The legendary free content german label Tokyo Dawn Records are back. And because we have been such nice children they have thrown in a special treat for us. The 2003 LP Practice avoiding mistakes is now available as a free download. The album is oozing with the laid back quality of trippy Hip Hop beats. Personal favorites are the chilly track from The Groove Guerrillas That day and the Krii remix treatment of the classic Pimp Knowledgy.
There's also Opossum sporting Too Late featuering the sweet vocals of Missamadina. Anthony Baggette treats us to two tracks, most notewortly being Summer in the hood; this feels like the season this album is made for. Carefree warm days out in the open. But until the day that summer comes, why not invoke the spirit of the season with these 20 tracks?
Friday, February 13, 2009
808s & Heartbreak
The blog of Suecae Sounds takes a break from the ordinary and would like to present a guest-review of the Kanye West album 808s & Heartbreak. Written by dear friend Danni Naeill.
... 808 & Heartbreak is a new offering by by the very popular rapper Kanye West. Thus you automatically expect the typical hip-hop with beats, samples, a lead rapper, the hired (female) singer...
No. No.
On his previous album Graduation, Kanye made a cover of Daft Punk's excellent Harder, better, faster, stronger, named Stronger, lending a lot of electro/techno from the French duo. Here is the result.
808 stands for the classic Roland TR-808 drum machine which he apparently loves. (we all do! / suecae) Heartbreak for the death of his mother and divorce from his fiancée. These two words truly reflect and represent the mood of the album: artificial drum beats, strings, the auto-tune voice instead of fluent rap, all blended with tragic lyrics of loneliness, loss, love, misery and heartbreak.
As an hip-hop album, it is very far from the typical hip-hop, so at first it renders me perplexed and slightly disappointed, though still intrigued enough to continue to listen. It seemed so bare, virtually empty and all too tragic. (Normally, I'm not very fond of sad and tragic stories and music, in stark contrast to those pathetic music journalists, who enjoy and find delight in other peoples' suffering!)
Then I tried again and instead I found a fragile, strong and heartbroken album, desperate in all its loneliness and desperate to find solid ground once more.
"Chased the good life all my life long / Look back on my life and my life all gone / Where did I go wrong"
I assert this is one of the top albums of 2008, with fantastic tracks like RoboCop, Paranoid, Welcome to Heartbreak and Street Lights.
It didn't prove itself fully until my grandmother died in early 2009. Then I truly understood all that sincere sorrow, thick sadness expressed in clinging words, those monotonous cry-like beats... Gone is the usually (over)confident, strong and outspoken Kanye, it is replaced with someone slightly more humble and fragile, ready to admit he isn't "all that".
Just like me, he's a mere mortal in a world of life and death.
... 808 & Heartbreak is a new offering by by the very popular rapper Kanye West. Thus you automatically expect the typical hip-hop with beats, samples, a lead rapper, the hired (female) singer...
No. No.
On his previous album Graduation, Kanye made a cover of Daft Punk's excellent Harder, better, faster, stronger, named Stronger, lending a lot of electro/techno from the French duo. Here is the result.
808 stands for the classic Roland TR-808 drum machine which he apparently loves. (we all do! / suecae) Heartbreak for the death of his mother and divorce from his fiancée. These two words truly reflect and represent the mood of the album: artificial drum beats, strings, the auto-tune voice instead of fluent rap, all blended with tragic lyrics of loneliness, loss, love, misery and heartbreak.
As an hip-hop album, it is very far from the typical hip-hop, so at first it renders me perplexed and slightly disappointed, though still intrigued enough to continue to listen. It seemed so bare, virtually empty and all too tragic. (Normally, I'm not very fond of sad and tragic stories and music, in stark contrast to those pathetic music journalists, who enjoy and find delight in other peoples' suffering!)
Then I tried again and instead I found a fragile, strong and heartbroken album, desperate in all its loneliness and desperate to find solid ground once more.
"Chased the good life all my life long / Look back on my life and my life all gone / Where did I go wrong"
I assert this is one of the top albums of 2008, with fantastic tracks like RoboCop, Paranoid, Welcome to Heartbreak and Street Lights.
It didn't prove itself fully until my grandmother died in early 2009. Then I truly understood all that sincere sorrow, thick sadness expressed in clinging words, those monotonous cry-like beats... Gone is the usually (over)confident, strong and outspoken Kanye, it is replaced with someone slightly more humble and fragile, ready to admit he isn't "all that".
Just like me, he's a mere mortal in a world of life and death.
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Feel the Phlow
I love to find out new music. I love to share music with people I appreciate. Recently I found out Phlow magazine which keeps it's eye out on the ever growing net-label scene. So I thought: why not pass it on to the people who may stumble across this blog? Phlow is quite eclectic in it's choices and recommendations and seem to be all over the place stylistically. This gives them an edge. The most important thing is that they are good.
They also have a raffle fo the artist He Can Jog's CD Middlemarch. An album that I hope to win. Behind He Can Jog is Eric Schoster and produces something called fractal Folk. Never heard that one before; which makes this all the more exiting.
Another mp3 and music related blog I would like to recomend is Aurgasm. They explain their mission with the following words: "We scout out music you've never heard and deliver only the finest. Expect music curiously different, yet simply enjoyable". I found out about the two lovely artists Cour de Pirate (curious and fragile french pop) and Lily Frost (swing-jazz) trough Aurgasm; something that I am grateful for.
Last but definetly not least comes the mp3-blog Palmsout Sounds. They have dedicated much focus lately on electronic dance music of all kinds and flavours. Sometimes Hip Hop. Often they host tracks by various artists and DJ mixes that you get to download for free. They recently ran into some minor trouble due to copyright issues because they publish bootleg remixes, but I have the feeling that they will come out swinging!
There are of course more to mention. But these will do for now.
They also have a raffle fo the artist He Can Jog's CD Middlemarch. An album that I hope to win. Behind He Can Jog is Eric Schoster and produces something called fractal Folk. Never heard that one before; which makes this all the more exiting.
Another mp3 and music related blog I would like to recomend is Aurgasm. They explain their mission with the following words: "We scout out music you've never heard and deliver only the finest. Expect music curiously different, yet simply enjoyable". I found out about the two lovely artists Cour de Pirate (curious and fragile french pop) and Lily Frost (swing-jazz) trough Aurgasm; something that I am grateful for.
Last but definetly not least comes the mp3-blog Palmsout Sounds. They have dedicated much focus lately on electronic dance music of all kinds and flavours. Sometimes Hip Hop. Often they host tracks by various artists and DJ mixes that you get to download for free. They recently ran into some minor trouble due to copyright issues because they publish bootleg remixes, but I have the feeling that they will come out swinging!
There are of course more to mention. But these will do for now.
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