DOWNLOAD: D'Angelo - Untitled (How Does it Feel) (L-Vis 1990's Own Way Edit)
We try not to be utter fanboys, but when we heard L-Vis 1990 had re-envisioned D’Angelo’s classic R&B sexfest “Untitled (How Does It Feel),” forever imprinted into our virgin minds by a video our mom banned us from ever, ever watching, we got downright giddy. See, we really like L-Vis too, having once danced off a pound of flesh to his ripping live show in a Chinatown banquet hall. Between bouts of house, hard techno and truly disturbing hip-hop, we got wild enough to start losing layers, and as the place was plushly carpeted, we tossed our shoes. When we hit up the Night Slugs don, he admitted that he too had gone barefoot in the melee that night, and the whole reason he edited “Untitled” was because he was so excited at D’s return to music, that the power of smooth compelled him to pay his respects. And so, it turns out that we are all just fanboys, and we should admit it, and then dive together into the beautiful, bare house edit that lies below.
PREMIERE: Active Child - Johnny Belinda (White Arrows Remix)
A bit of beautiful stutter on this fine day by the golden-piped Active Child on “Johnny Belinda,” yet another hymn of awe-inspiring bliss-pop from the choirboy formally known as Pat Grossi. It’s yearning, boyish, and now, markedly dancier by the intrusion of remixers/tropical psych rockers White Arrows. This track projects a future strain of R&B so good, we’re looking forward to our next heartbreak. Until then, we’ll moon over Active Child’s You Are All I See, and reminisce.
DOWNLOAD: Azealia Banks - NEEDSUMLUV
If you've been following the Azealia Banks odyssey, you had to assume that she would continue throwing curve balls. This new one, "NEEDSUMLUV" as produced by one of our favorite electronic musicians Machinedrum, has a strange, off-kilter R&B bounce that seems both worldly and intimate. There's not much rapping here, but the groove is certainly catchy enough for repeated spins.
DOWNLOAD: Active Child - Playing House (Houses Remix)
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He may have emerged at the same time as the chillwave/glo-fi set, but Active Child was always slightly apart from the likes of Washed Out and Neon Indian, really. It's weird, but the scene his voice feels most at home in has kind of blossomed around his already considerable presence—unintentional acolytes like The Weeknd and How To Dress Well creating a backdrop of tortured, bedroom R&B for him to slot into as easy as a drawer slots into a flatpack Ikea chest. The latter's voice features here (How To Dress Well's, not Ikea furniture's) but really the friends Pat Grossi's made recently could never have been found in any way other than an unintentional one. They may all sound pretty alike, but god do they sound lonely, too. So lonely. Be Pat's friend and pick up this remix of his "Playing House" by Houses.
Active Child - Playing House (Houses Remix)
DOWNLOAD: Unknown Mortal Orchestra – How Can U Luv Me
It’s a classic Prince move to downplay a song’s seriousness by using half-words to spell out the title (“I Would Die 4 U,” “Nothing Compares 2 U,” “Take Me With U,” etc.), so the spelling of this track by the fairly mysterious Unknown Mortal Orchestra (their relative anonymity is evidenced in the above photo) should offer you a preliminary cue of what’s really going on here. They recently signed to Fat Possum, who will release their debut in June. Of course, the Prince influence extends beyond spelling. “How Can U Luv Me” is a gem of vintage R&B, sung in a sleazy falsetto with a production that seems to materialize straight out of a cloud of pot smoke, recalling not only the early bedroom recordings of the aforementioned, but also his predecessor George Clinton. There is also a bass solo.
Unknown Mortal Orchestra - How Can U Luv Me?
DOWNLOAD: Charles Bradley - The World (Is Going Up In Flames)
Charles Bradley is 62 years old, and No Time For Dreaming, out Tuesday on Daptone, is his debut album. Unbelievable that it's taken this long, because Bradley is an incredible singer, with a voice as warm, fragile, and brittle as fallen leaves. He belts his vocals, but firmly within their limitations, which prevent him from delving into the sonorous theatrics that blemish some contemporary R&B singers. On "The World (Is Going Up In Flames)," the music, provided by the Menahan Street Band, is pure Daptone vintage, chalky guitars scraping against asphalt drums and a swinging, melancholic piano riff underpinning boiling horns. As can be extracted from the title, the subject matter is apocalyptic, but it's not preachy or didactic. Instead, it's an aged man sweetly disconcerted by a chaotic world, with beautifully funky music lifting otherwise dour spirits.
Charles Bradley - The World (Is Going Up In Flames)
DOWNLOAD: Visions Of Trees Vs. TLC - NO FLAG NO SCRUBS
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In the UK we have this guy called David Attenborough who really loves animals. When I was a kid, I always used to get my mum to record his TV programmes for me to watch when I got home from school the next day. Primarily, this was because I was a bit lonely as a child. Not many other kids in my class spent their time watching documentaries about urban foxes or pondlife, but it turns out that Joni and Sarah from Visions Of Trees thought he'd make a pretty cool uncle too. Their music sounds like it was made by people who used to be lonely kids, and this mash-up of their "No Flag" with TLC's "No Scrubs" spins in its own lightheaded sound world, dry ice R&B blissfully adrift from daily concerns.
Visions Of Trees Vs. TLC - NO FLAG NO SCRUBS
PREMIERE: Georgia Anne Muldrow - fOnkRocker
Having released somewhere near a dozen albums under various guises over the last half-decade, Georgia Anne Muldrow continues her restless and invariably noteworthy career with the release of an all-instrumental album, VWETO, on Mello Music. Muldrow's blend of hip-hop, funk, R&B, and rock can often be heady music, with short, abstract tracks often sidling against longer vamps. But her stock of oddly compelling sounds, which includes her own voice, always keeps you interested. Recalling such funk-rock hallmarks as Funkadelic and '70s Miles Davis without sounding like an imitation of either, "fOnkRocker" reinforces Muldrow's distinctive imprint on R&B's increasingly strange trajectory. VWETO will be released exclusively through iTunes tomorrow before seeing a wider physical and digital release in January.
Georgia Anne Muldrow - fOnkRocker
