First few listens of ‘XIX’ and those Angela McCluskey vocals are the only thing I wanna talk about. Yet like so many other distinct vocalists, they’re so hard to put into words. What I will say is that Paper Diamond & Christian Rich matched her sound right with one cosmically-rich beat. Plus that future soul theme doesn’t hurt, love me some skewed up vocals.
One thing I am questioning is how much Angela’s voice feels drowned out at times. But to its credit, it can be done well, and actually has been specifically with Paper Diamond. But who knows for now, it’s hard if not impossible to fully digest a song in less than 24 hours.
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Paper Diamond hops on as another Weeknd remixer and remakes “Same Old Song” with finely cut bass that rolls over those signature Weeknd vocals. Wasn’t all that much of a fan of the original, but Paper Diamond throws in that mind-numbing bass that gets me every.damn.time.
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Dubstep remixes were dominated by b.e.a.utiful vocals this year…. Or maybe it’s just I’m obsessed with these beauts mixed with dirty, dirtay dubstep. Either way, this style has ruled SNG for the last half of the year and hope it rules for many months into next.
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Of course I found out about Paper Diamond with my utter obsession with all things Pretty Lights. At first I wasn’t too impressed with his music, I think I expected the holy ghost to pop out or something, he did just get signed to the best label alive!, but after a few steps in I realized he wasn’t just some Pretty Lights clone. He brings something different to the label, a certain madness that music’s progressing into (well, some of it).
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Pushed play on this and damn. did. it. roll. This is my Paper Diamond tipping point – I’m in, I’m gonna be all up on every release of his. And now I truly see why Pretty Lights signed Alex B.
What makes this so goddamn grand is that heavy buzzing bass threaded through those vocals, oh, so well. I was a little skeptical of Drake/Lil’ Wayne being sampled, but I’m starting to understand I’m not a fan of their music, but I LOVE when they’re RMX’d.
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In for some more glitchy/choppy breakbeats by Paper Diamond. I gotta say, “Electric Smile” is one of his best so far – seems to keep me more in tuned than a lot of his tracks off Levitate. Wish there were some dirty pop samples put in, but sometimes it’s good to keep those out (for integrity’s sake).
Make sure to check out my post of Paper Tiger’s Levitate on SFCritic.
[audio:Electric-Smile.mp3|titles=Electric Smile]