I need a good playlist for reflecting on. Especially when traveling long distances. Music that sounds like Toy Box’s Catahoula.
I know alotta people can’t stand a good kick drum when trying to relax, but I almost need it. There’s a lot of little things in Catahoula that doesn’t make it some basic electronic track. Something you should listen for, for the subtleties. The track has heart, texture. And those vocals chops, woof. Wonder where he got em.
I found out about a new band with some sweet female vocals from the latest live TuneIn sessions and it inspired me to create a playlist (everything inspires me to create a playlist). Or rather finish up a playlist I had been working on for a while, Indie Girl.
All of the women on here are backed by some amount of instrumentalists. In other words, it’s not just some electronic producer behind the boards. Basically, it’s not the usual electronic shit I post.
It starts off with a more jazz jam band kind of feel and gets into indie rock a few songs in. I even put a little punk in there. At least I think it’s punk. I don’t know punk. It finishes off with more of the mellower stuff.
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If you’re someone who manages bands or knows somebody who does, give Cloudsurfing a listen. They’re the band I saw at TuneIn and are in need of a manager, bad.
Yves Klein’s Look has a catchy little chorus. Something worth repeating at a club. Even the Lauren agrees. But it took Nam’pa to wrap it up nicely in a lazer y style of house. +The glistening electro bits is a nice sprinkle on top.
The first time I ran into Madelyn Grant’s name was on Odesza’s Sun Models. I had recently uploaded the track to SoundCloud and she had contacted me about including her name in the title. The only reason I hadn’t in the first place was because they really chopped and skewed her vocals, making her voice barely recognizable. But she was real nice about it and it seemed more than fair.
About two months later and I see Madelyn Grant on FKJ’s Waiting. I didn’t remember she was on Odesza’s track at first, but once I did I was all the more in love. Madelyn has a breathtaking voice, but even better she knows how to use it – a much bigger problem with most vocalists.
Since then Madelyn has collaborated with a favorite of mine, Emancipator. I asked her how she got to collaborate with all these legitimate producers and she said, I sent them my demos.
That’s it. In Odesza’s case they were requesting female vocalists, but the other two she just sent them a sample. That’s all it took. How the fuck does that happen? Oh wait, that doesn’t. Minus with Madelyn.
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I’ve put together a playlist of my favorite songs of her’s as well as another list for producers she should also send her music to. Although, this time I think they should be doing the reaching out.
First it was Doja Cat from LA. Then A-1 from The Bay. Now we’re back down in Los Angeles for Anderson .Paak.
The LA based rapper has a slyer sound than Kendrick and gets together with producers that are just as good. They’re both very good. But I just can’t put to words how much feeling his music gives me when listening to it.
I was actually just listening to a Renman Live episode, I forget who the guest was, but he talks about how being able to describe why you love an artist & song is essential to A&R. Well, I suck at that, but my voice, not my words, express it better. Unfortunately this is a blog, so you wouldn’t know that.
Relax in the House is even chiller to dance to than our Horizontal Disco list, but both can also be used for relaxing too. This however lays off the lyricists and goes for deep, melodic, four on the floor kind of music with short vocal cuts.
If you don’t like house though, I’m not sure you’ll want to chill in your house with this.
When I first saw Bishiclet remixed Janet Jackson, I was like naaahh, he ain’t gonna top his Miguel remix or the other Janet remixes I collected. He did both. Well, this might not have the longevity of his Miguel remix, but we’ll see about that.
His So Excited remix was so unexpected. It’s so hard for any producer to be consistently good, let alone come up with something borderline trendsetting. What he did to Janet’s voice, pitchin em on high like that, is best described as sounding like Yolandi Visser of Die Antwoord, except not having to deal with her rap Ninja.
The first night I had with this, I played it over & over at least a dozen times.
Whatever people want to classify him as, Nujabes has a sentiment of jazz. Our first look at him on here was almost five years back, within the blog’s first few months running, but I’ve known about Nujabes for years before that.
He came out with a few albums in the early 2000’s that were perfectly in tune with my style of hip hop at the time. Hieroglyphics, The Pharcyde, Jurassic 5 type music.
Ever since the blog started in 2009 my taste has gone to a broader base of electronic. But Nujabes was the first electronic producer focusing on the jazzy side of things and taking hooking it up with some complimentary American MCing. And with that Japanese flavor, it made Nujabes stand out just above the best – for me.
You know when you come across a song with so little plays and it’s so well put together you think it’s suspect. Like someone is trying to fuck with you and it’s really some famous band you don’t know about because this is really not your genre.
I still don’t know if Sillyboy is legit, but it don’t matter. ‘On and On’ is all I care about. It’s got the funk in the bass that’s pretty much a requirement of mine in today’s listening with a legitimate voice backed. I haven’t locked down the style in his voice yet, it’s soundin depressingly preachy, but it clashes with the guitar well.
I was talking to my coworkers about the music in my Late Night Jazz list. While it’s definitely not the music of the early turn of last century, it still gives me that feeling of jazz for the evening, unconventional as it may be. It’s all covered in electronic sounds and that’s where our opinions stray.
Same goes with our funk-infused playlist, The Funk Shall Be Within You. It may go off into electro at times, but the feeling of funk is strong throughout and I don’t think any word could describe it better, especially electronic. Other than nufunk or any other made up offshoot, but that’s a whole other debate.