Afrikan Boy "Lidl"

Since I've been bummed on the new MIA, I found myself going back to "Kala" to see if it's as good of an album as I remembered and yes, it is (especially the first five songs which are freakin' perfect). Listening to "Hussel" got me wondering whatever happened to Afrikan Boy, I really dug him and hoped he'd have an album out. No luck, though his myspace claims something is on the way but the other music doesn't bang like "Lidl" and "Hussel".

Here's the video of his one underground "hit":

M.I.A. just doesn't matter anymore.

So I was listening to "Maya" MIA's new album streaming on her hideously ugly Myspace page the other day and was left rather irritated by the whole affair. This is a hard thing for me to admit because up until recently I'd loved pretty much everything that MIA had put out.

When Diplo posted about much of her sounding like Skinny Puppy I thought that might be cool, it's been a long time since any artist has had an industrial influence. Unfortunately, on listening to the album I hear that Diplo is right, especially on the track "Steppin Out" but it's not "Bites" Puppy or even "Too Dark Park" Puppy it's "Mythmaker" Puppy, which itself sounds like Puppy trying to reinvent themselves as an industrial version of Britney Spears circa "Blackout". So yes, MIA has an industrial edge but it's a sound and fury signifying nothing kind of industrial edge and it never quite gels with the beats. Give me MIA rapping over a "Land of Rape and Honey" Ministry loop and I'd be a happy lad, that is nowhere to be found.

What we do get is the noisy and gross track "Teqkilla" where 35 year-old MIA raps about pot and Tequila, man that's crazy! Well, at least it would be if she Ke$ha's age, instead there's a word we use for adults pretending they're still 17 and that word is pathetic.

The Diplo track "Tell Me Why" sounds like one of those whole world together songs that the "World Cup" would use in advertisements and is a far cry from the screamingly powerful lo-fi globalism of "Bird Flu" and other KALA hits.

"Born Free" (best known for the controversial ginger child killing video that got pulled to the adults only section of Youtube which in turn gave birth to MIA's "you can't silence me" youtube-y cover) is like a low rent "Bambo Banga" sampling Suicide instead of the Modern Lovers and switching the perspective from a person on the street harassing people in their Honda to a spoiled rich person harassing you at a party with stories about how powerful and free they are. Jesus, she's got the spoiled rich person complex as much as the worst conservatives.

Not to say I don't like any of it, "It Takes A Muscle" is a really good Major Lazer song that she sings on. "Space" isn't bad either. "XXXO" is a good lo-fi Lady Gaga-style pop track, though I was unimpressed by the Jay Z remix version. The Sleigh Bells riff on "Meds and Feds" is great, unfortunately the same riff is used to much better effect in the Sleigh Bells own music.

At the end of the day it's no big deal to not like an album. It disappoints me because I'd loved her other two albums so it's a little weird to not be buying this one. Oh well, thanks to her label for posting the album on Youtube so I can now avoid it.

My guess is that this is as big as MIA will ever be, after this she'll be a little toxic and her next album will be a "return to form" that carefully re-makes her in her own old image in an attempt to grasp onto the fans but she'll never again have this big of a mainstream attention grab.

New Music: early '08

I love a new year as there is a special thrill when you first start to fill your playlists up with brand new to '08 music and see what sticks.

Today was a good day as I downloaded the brand new M.I.A. "Paper Planes" E.P. Only listened to it once so far but it's quite good. I'll be downloading the new Goldfrapp single tonight. I've heard it on her Myspace and I'm excited to hear more.

Also I'm in love with the Santogold "Creator/L.E.S. Artistes" (as previously mentioned) and the cover of "Cobrastyle" on the new Robyn E.P. is freakin' fantastic (so fantastic I've listened to it 50 times or so in the past week and a half, yikes!).

Vampire Weekend's album is really good but I've been mostly listening to it on shuffle with other music and I think it'll benefit from isolated listening. In a similar probably better as isolated listening category, The Magnetic Fields "Distortion" is the best MF album since "Get Lost" ("69 Love Songs" for all the critical praise had more misses than hits in my mind whereas everything from "Charm" through "Get Lost" was gold from first to last track).

I've picked up the Kanye West remix single for the fabulous track "Stronger" but haven't had the time to listen yet. I like the MGMT "Time to Pretend" EP a whole lot, I should pick up the album. I bought the Britney EP for "Piece of Me" but have to admit that I find it a little tedious. My BS fixation may be on the way out for a season or three. Of course, I've been listening to the rough mix of Todd and my new track "Nihali" a shit ton. I hope the final version sounds as good to others as it does to me.

I'll offer some more in depth reviews for a few of these as I find the time, I just wanted to throw out a lot of my current favorites for folks to mull over.

Ceca v. Britney

Someone commented that Britney Spears has a ways to go in order to catch up to Ceca who I blogged about a few days ago. That got me thinking that perhaps such "antics" aren't so far off the radar from the American pop mainstream. I'm curious to see if the active political revolutionary as pop star takes off in the U.S. In a lot of ways M.I.A. could be seen as the underground acceptance of this idea.

In many ways pop star as terrorist is the natural extension of the pop star as bad girl/boy. As a nation we deep focus in on the artists who are closest to the edge: Britney, Paris, Amy Winehouse, etc. So far the activities have been safe to those outside their immediate circle but what would happen if someone came close to the stars and started to indoctrinate them in an edgy political belief system under the guise of liberation. Would the star lose their luster, would the magazine reading, Entertainment Tonight watching public give up and stop caring about the star or would they start to obsess even further? It's an interesting question as there has yet appeared to be a ceiling on how far public interest towards stars.

Of course we can look at Patty Hearst as a model for this potential revolutionary star archetype. But the question is could a Patty Hearst happen now or are there better societal controls in place to prevent this from happening now? You'd think with the public acceptance of stars as role models for transgressive behavior we would have seen something in the past few decades.

I look at myself and I am immediately drawn to those sorts of figures and yet in my daily life I am peaceful and pacifistic in my intention by and large. Maybe the magnetic pull of this sort of thing would go away very quickly if it were to happen. Maybe the mass psyche is balanced enough that extra outbreaks like that simply are not possible. For the last sentence to make sense you have to view pop stars as a manifestation of mass psyche. I think a valid argument can be made for that idea but frankly I've got to start getting ready for work so that discussion will have to wait.

Be good to each other,

DND

Year End List (part two)

OK, so I thought I'd do my top 10 most played songs of 2007 list today. After each track I've listed the number of plays logged in my home iTunes. Please know my computer died in April so really this is a list from May on.

10. Metro Station "Shake It" (35 listens)
9. M.I.A. "Bamboo Banga" (35 listens)
8. Flunk "Sit Down" (36)
7. Rhianna "Shut Up and Drive" (37)
6. M.I.A. "Hussel" (44)
5. Hana "Ayume" (47)
4. South Rakkas Crew "Test Me Nuh" (51)
3. Ceci Bastida "Ya Me Voy" (59)
2. Mala Rodriguez "Por La Noche" (73)
1. M.I.A. "Paper Planes" (98)

Again, this list isn't really my top 10 favorite songs, just most listened. I don't have time right now for commentary. Maybe later. Enjoy!

Best of the Year Lists (Part One)

Seeing as the end of 2007 is fast approaching I had a crazy and utterly unique concept. Why not compile a series of "best of" lists regarding various stuff that was released and happened over the course of 2007? I know, it's a radical idea but I think it might just catch on!

Over the course of the next few days I'll put together a number of lists and then compile them (along with any changes that have to do with things I forgot) on Jan 1 or 2 depending on how tired I am after the 108 sun salutations I'm doing on the 1st.

First up I thought I'd unveil my top 10 albums of 2007. I'm not going to include re-issues as that's a cheat in my mind. This is a bit harder than it used to be as I tend not to buy albums anymore opting for single and piecemeal tracks (yep, say hello to the iTunes age). Also there's a few albums I suspect I'll like but haven't listened to yet (new Radiohead, new Underworld, etc.) Well, without further ado, here goes.

10. Download "FiXer"
9. Britney Spears "Blackout"
8. Saul Williams "The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust"
7. Nine Inch Nails "Year Zero"
6. LCD Soundsystem "Sound of Silver"
5. Sa Dingding "Alive"
4. Mala Rodriguez "Malamarismo"
3. Burial "Mix Up"
2. South Rakkas Crew "Mix Up"
1. M.I.A. "Kala"

And here's the commentary:

Download "FiXer" Good post ambient techno grooves by cEvin (Skinny Puppy) Key and Phil Western. Don't like it quite as well as their last album 2000's "Effector" as the tracks jump around a little too much for my taste.

Britney Spears "Blackout" Great production by Danja (Timbaland lite) makes the album sound like a mutant R&B Faint fronted by a 2020 female robot. People complain that Britney doesn't sound human on this album but that's what makes it so good. A complete analysis of the sexual gender bending politics of the pitch shifted voice in "Freakshow" could fill a small book.

Saul Williams "The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust" Produced by Trent "Nine Inch Nails" Reznor this album is a great hip hop/industrial crossover album that is available free on Williams' site. Sometimes sounds a little too NINny for its own good but there are amazing moments including the cover of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and the creep out zone of "Ritual"

Nine Inch Nails "Year Zero" A real return to form. Tracks like "Capital G" are great pop cuts with others like "Vessel" being as interestingly strange as anything TrentMan has done in ages. It got a lot of play around my place right when it came out though I'll confess it gets put in more sparingly as the year goes on. Pretty sure it'll warrent plenty of future re-visits though.

LCD Soundsystem "Sound of Silver" Like "Year Zero" this got more listens early in the year than late but the humanized electronics are great though sometimes the vocals are a little too post-ironic for their own good. Would probably be lower on the list if it weren't for the amazing and heartfelt track "Someone Great" which genuinely spoke to me after Matt Zaun passed away. One of the most honest songs about the death of a friend that I've heard.

Sa Dingding "Alive" Roger from Magus turned me onto this one. Imperial Chinese vocals with a world techno beat. Lyrics in Chinese, Hindi, Tibetan and self-created languages. The first four cuts are perfection, the rest of the album varies a bit but the first four more than make up for any of the weaker cuts. I'm excited to hear more crossover Chinese music as there's a certain sound in Chinese vocal music that I don't hear anywhere else.

Mala Rodriguez "Malamarismo" Hispanic female hip hop artist. "Por La Noche" got constant play and the album has been revisited numerous times. Mala's voice has a forceful sexy desperation that drives me fucking crazy and the beats are solid and sticky. Probably the sexiest album of the year for me. "Volvere" just came on shuffle play as I write this and it sums up well what makes me love this album so much. Mala's voice layered multiple times (the way she plays off different vocal tracks is great stuff) , mid-tempo stoned groove, lazy horns and an amazing overall vibe.

Burial "Untrue" I'd never heard of dubstep before I heard about this album on Pitchfork and I haven't tracked anything else down in the genre yet, I'm taking my time drinking the album in. It sounds like Rapoon remixing Massive Attack. Great dubby pop voices over the top of spacious beats and melting electronic music and drones. Yummy. Sounds really good listened to all the way through and is great music for night driving, reading and staring out bus windows. "In McDonalds" has been making regular appearances in my yoga mixes these days. Great vibe for savasana.

South Rakkas Crew "Mix Up" This is a blast of pure joy thrown in a blender with a banana. Squelchy, gameboy rocking, maximalistic dancehall reggae freakout music that makes me smile even when I'm in a bad mood. A short album but every track is a keeper. "Test Me Nuh" is so goddamn good that there ought to be a law. Superfast vocals with a heavy beat that sounds like it came out of "Beers Steers Queers" era Revolting Cocks and then a saxaphone riff that is a revelation to me. Not a lot of press on this one but after enjoying the Crew's remixes of Beck and MIA I bought it on a whim and was floored.

MIA "Kala" OK, so the album is as consistant as "Arular" but damn, when it's good it is so fucking good that I want to scream out. "Paper Planes" is my song of the year (that list to come), the very african approach taken towards drums in tracks like "Hussel" "Birdflu" and "Boys" is unlike anything I've heard before, Maya's vocals are excellent fun and MIA continues to have a lot of fun playing with outside perception towards her both in the album and in the press. Afrikan Boy's rap in "Hussel" is fantastic and the remix of "Paper Planes" with him and Rye Rye kicks ass too. Oh yeah "The Turn" featuring production by DJ Blaqstarr is a stoned out of its gouard masterpiece (though "World Town" which samples Blaqstarr doesn't fare so well and is a constant skipper in my book). I realize this review is pure fanboy gushing but the album deserves it.

This makes me happy

Here's my favorite and most listened to song of '07, it's my current ringtone and everytime I hear it I feel a lift. Hurray for M.I.A.