On this 12-hour mix collection entitled Greatest Hits, Keith Fullerton Whitman takes a foggy, languid trip through his personal history and its relationship to pop music. The process is both simple and unique as the ambient master takes particular songs from his youth and passes them through a series of generators to create airy aural memories – a dense, sprawling nostalgia trip created over ten years of recording and processing.
Remember when Swedish music was mostly smooth and electronic and really good at selling clothes and automobiles? Well, the current crop (Iceage, etc.) is angrier and unafraid to pummel your face. Take "Flesh And Bone" – the new one from Captured Tracks post-punkers Holograms. It's an energetic blast with propulsive rhythm, mountainous guitars and an unrestrained vocal part that encourages that thing where you pump your fist too hard and your beer flies all over someone's girlfriend. Whoops.
On "Numbers On The Boards," Pusha T ups his viciousness over a bed of rumbling, glitchy minimalism cooked up by Kanye West and Don Cannon. It's straight bravado rap – angry, defiant, gracefully lyrical ("I might sell a brick on my birthday/ 36 years of doing dirt like it's Earth Day) and a delightful anecdote to the blasted-out ignorance dominating airwaves right now.
On "Send Them Away," Melbourne five-piece Beaches go on the attack with an army of swirling, trebly guitars and a healthy post-punk attitude. Similar to acts like the jangly Twerps, there's a sense of sun-baked melody backed with the sort of scuzzy, thrashing production that makes me want to listen to this on a dusty cassette in my old Volvo.
Just like Beyoncé before him, Jay-Z returns to the solo game by putting the music industry, media, NBA and US government on notice with the vicious, curmudgeon rap of "Open Letter." Produced in over-night session by Swizz Beatz and Timbaland and rapped just as quickly, Hov responds to recent controversies (Nets ownership! Cuba!) with his trademark icy coolness and a dose of powerful old-man anger.
On "Rushing Toward The Cemetery," Creative Adult slap visceral punk intensity with a deflated, angsty sense of melody. It's music to think to, but really it's music to stew to – a chest-jutting anthem for the march into darkness.
Silky smooth Miguel posed a big, kind-of-gross romantic question last year with "How Many Drinks?," and now he's tapped the talents of fellow 2012 MVP Kendrick Lamar for an official remix. Even though it's 'old,' this could actually surge into Summer Jam territory this year with all its tongue-flicking (shout out, K. Dot) motives.
On "The World Fell," Vâr shoots-out a dusty, pulsating warning for their upcoming No One Dances Quite Like My Brothers LP. Led by the impassioned strain of Loke Rahbek's vocals, this is pure sonic individualism, sounding like a crumbling warehouse that just happens to contain genre guidelines from industrial rock to club electronics. Like any situation, it's the rubble that's interesting.
Spend all winter crippled by shyness and introversion. Then the sun comes out and you brim with (irrational) confidence. On "I Wanna Dance (But I Don't Know How)," NYC rockers SKATERS provide your theme song to letting loose and embracing fear. It's straight-up, bleeding-heart American rock with snotty vocals, dirty clothes, a brash attitude and more than enough pop to score a pool party scene without starting a fight. It's also the A-side to the band's new 7-inch – out now.
Might IV Play be The-Dream's magnum opus? With the record's sultry, slow-burning title track, we're a few steps closer to an answer as our protagonist Terius demands the heavy-petting be skipped for, well, "straight sex." Nope, there's no time to waste with those porcelain floor R Kelly synths, blasts of Prince's pelvic guitar distortion and cascading harmonies that sound like rapidly orbiting planets.
[via Rolling Stone]
