Category: Blog

Categories
Playlists

Friday Favorites (8/21)

As a continuation of my biweekly series, Friday Favorites, I’m updating everyone on the best songs I’ve discovered recently. This week I’ve gone genreless and picked songs that truly appealed to me on first listen. Check them out and let me know if you like them!

Obsessed – Wevlth 

Moody electronic to the likes of Crystal Castles with an EDM influence gives this new release interest and appeal – I’m “Obsessed” with it, especially around the three minute mark when the beat starts slowing down. 

Don’t Look At Me – POORSTACY 

Neo-emo rap is not a genre I’ve explored much, but the introduction to it I got by POORSTACY’s energetic beats and melancholic lyricism have led me toward interest in his work and the genre in general. 

Fingerbib – Aphex Twin

Engaging electronic brings this late-90’s track to life. I love the variety in the Aphex Twin discography and can’t stop listening to this happy little song. 

Berlin – Blood Orange

A beautiful creation which mixes the vocals of Blood Orange, Porches, and Ian Isiah. “Angel’s Pulse” is one of my favorite recent albums and Berlin is probably my favorite track on it. 

Sea Sick – binki

An anti-pop love song to get you moving on these slow days. 

As always, you can listen to these songs and more on my Friday Favorites Spotify playlist. 

Thanks for reading. 

– Miranda

Categories
Music News and Interviews

Bossa Nova Delights

If you tune in to 88.1 on Tuesdays right before noon, you may hear the sweet sounds of Stan Getz, João Gilberto, or Antônio Carlos Jobim. I like to end my show on WKNC with a sendoff from one of my favorite genres: bossa nova.

Bossa nova literally translates to “new wave” in Portuguese. Mostly stemming from Rio de Janeiro in the 1950s and 60s, it is a fusion of samba and jazz. The genre is recognized by its steady beats, classical guitar, and light percussion. Popular among the young, growing Brazilian middle class, it gained notability through João Gilberto and his 1958 single “Chega de Saudade,” composed by Antônio Carlos Jobim. The two would later go on to collaborate on several more albums, all laying the foundations for making bossa nova an international genre. Jobim also worked with saxophonist Stan Getz on their most notable album “Getz/Gilberto,” which contains one of the most popular songs of all time, “The Girl from Ipanema.”

Bossa nova also has a really fascinating political history. Under a new military dictatorship in the 1960s, bossa nova was slowly censored and eventually banned. Bossa nova lyrics, which typically focus on light topics such as love and Brazilian beaches, were seen as unfit for the times and therefore left in the past. Out of this social unrest, musicians formed new styles of music that better reflected the feelings of the Brazilian people, most specifically the working classes, based on the sounds of bossa nova, modern rock, and traditional Brazilian music. Some of these include tropicalia and música popular brasileira.

My mom’s side of the family is Brazilian, so I grew up listening to bossa nova. I have fond memories of my grandpa teaching me how to dance while we listened to “Aquarela do Brasil.” It is a comforting sound and something I consider part of my own cultural heritage. If you’re interested in listening, here are some classics for easy listening:

1. Insensatez – Stan Getz & Luiz Bonfá
2. Roda-Viva – Chico Buarque
3. Mas, Que Nada! – Jorge Ben
4. Carta Ao Tom 74 – Vincius de Moraes, Toquinho, & Quarteto Em Cy
5. O Grande Amor – Stan Getz & João Gilberto Quintet
6. Corcovado – Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto, Antônio Carlos Jobim, & João Gilberto
7. Aquarela do Brasil – João Gilberto
8. The Girl from Ipanema – Stan Getz & João Gilberto
9. Chove Chuva – Jorge Ben
10. Chega de Saudade – João Gilberto

All sources for this blog can be found here, here, and here.

Feliz escuta!

DJ butter

Categories
Weekly Charts

Daytime Charts 8/18

Artist Record Label
1 NYALLAH Reflections [EP] Self-Released
2 ILLUMINATI HOTTIESFREE I.H.: This Is Not The One You’ve Been Waiting For Self-Released
3 JUNIOR MESA “Losing My Grip” b/w “Creep” [Single] Nice Life
4 EVE OWEN Don’t Let The Ink Dry 37d03d
5 EX NORWEGIAN Hue Spotting Beyond Before
6 MELODY Teacher’s Pet [EP] Self-Released
7 LIME CORDIALE 14 Steps To A Better You Chugg/London Cowboys
8 BECCA MANCARI The Greatest Part Captured Tracks
9 IGGY T AND THE CRAZYMAKERS Just Can’t Get Enough Underground Sun
10 CIRCULATORY SYSTEM Circulatory System Elephant 6
11 BABA ALI This House [EP] 30th Century
12 LADY LEGS Off Days Communicating Vessels
13 YUMI ZOUMA Truth Or Consequences Polyvinyl
14 JACK COLWELL SWANDREAM Self-Released
15 ST SOUTH Get Well Soon Nettwerk
16 BUGS Self Help Self-Released
17 EDITH FROST Nothing Comes Around Drag City
18 AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT, THE Hollywood Park Rounder/Concord
19 BRUNO MAJOR To Let A Good Thing Die Harbour
20 DISQ Collector Saddle Creek
21 BINKI “Heybb!” [Single] Fader
22 VLOSSOM My Friend [EP] Etc Etc
23 LOVE FAME TRAGEDY Wherever I Go, I Want To Leave Good Soldier/AWAL
24 CARMANAH “As I See You” [Single] Self-Released
25 SIMEN LYNGROTH Muse Self-Released
26 DENISON WITMER American Foursquare Asthmatic Kitty
27 KHRUANGBIN Mordechai Dead Oceans/Secretly Group
28 SLOW LEAVES Shelf Life Self-Released
29 NICK PIUNTI AND THE COMPLICATED MEN Downtime Jem
30 ALAE “Summer Thing” [Single] Anti Gravity 

TOP ADDS
1 DOUBLE GRAVE Goodbye Nowhere! Forged Artifacts
2 BETHS, THE Jump Rope Gazers Carpark
3 FONTAINES DCA Hero’s Death Partisan
4 LOMELDA"Wonder" [Single] Double Double Whammy
5 ILLUMINATI HOTTIESFREE I.H.: This Is Not The One You’ve Been Waiting For Self-Released
6 BECCA MANCARI The Greatest Part Captured Tracks
7 NYALLAH Reflections [EP] Self-Released
8 EX NORWEGIAN Hue Spotting Beyond Before
9 LIME CORDIALE 14 Steps To A Better You Chugg/London Cowboys
10 EVE OWEN Don’t Let The Ink Dry 37d03d

Categories
Weekly Charts

Chainsaw Charts 8/18

Artist Record Label
1 IN HEARTS WAKE Kaliyuga UNFD
2 FIT FOR A KING “Locked (In My Head)” [Single ]Solid State
3 DISAVOWED Revocation Of The Fallen Brutal Mind
4 UPON A BURNING BODY Built From War [EP] Seek & Strike
5 INGESTED Where Only Gods May Tread Unique Leader
6 WITHIN DESTRUCTION Yōkai Ultra Heavy
7 ACACIA STRAIN, THE Slow Decay Rise
8 DAWN OF ASHES The Antinomian Artoffact
9 BURY TOMORROW Cannibal Sony
10 LAMB OF GOD Lamb Of God Epic

Categories
Weekly Charts

Underground Charts 8/18

Artist Record Label
1 STEVE LACY N Side 3qtr
2 KENT JAMZ In Search Of RCA
3 ETHEREAL"Yeh!“ [Single] Easy
4 SHIVUM SHARMA "Diamond” [Single] Self-Released
5 DEANTE’ HITCHCOCK “How TF (ft. 6LACK)” [Single] ByStorm Entertainment
6 BBY KODIE Satisfaction Self-Released
7 JPEGMAFIA DOTS FREESTYLE REMIX (Ft. Buzzy Lee, Abdu Ali) EQT
8 NESS HEADS “Pull Me Up” [Single] Ness Heads
9 YOUNG THUG Surf (ft. Gunna) 300 Entertainment
10 SUPA BWE “PROBLEM / FUEL” [Single] Freddy Got Magic

Categories
Classic Album Review

Classic Review: Black Messiah by D’Angelo and the Vanguard

The music of singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer D’angelo is like fine wine – it only gets better with time. With two Grammy wins and two classic albums – Brown Sugar and Voodoo – under his belt by the year 2001, he set the bar pretty high for himself. This, combined with the unease of his growing popularity as a sex symbol, led him to take an extended break from recording.

He would not return from this hiatus until 2014, this time backed by a dedicated band called the Vanguard. Black Messiah represents a slight departure from Brown Sugar and Voodoo’s R&B and Neo-soul sensibilities: while those elements are still present, D’angelo also incorporated elements of funk, rock, and psychedelia to create a genre-defying experience.

Black Messiah has the listener’s head bobbing from the start with “Ain’t That Easy”, one of my personal favorites. It builds a Questlove-inspired groove with slightly swung drums and a distorted guitar, leaving room for the transcendent harmonies that D’Angelo is so well known for. The chorus marks the entrance of another guitar track as well as a bass, and it is here that the song’s groove is fully realized.

I cannot talk about Black Messiah without praising “Really Love”, the track that won him a Grammy for Best R&B Song in 2016. It opens with a string section, slowly growing in volume and urgency, joined by a lone spanish guitar. The point at which the rest of the band comes in to create a laid-back, intimate groove is the point at which, as a listener, my soul leaves my body.

D’Angelo’s uncompromising approach to his craft resulted in a modern classic that is refreshingly unconcerned with the conventions of genre and style. It is both comfortably loose and surgically precise, playfully jovial and deadly serious, disarmingly intimate and profoundly universal. In short, Black Messiah is a masterpiece. I recommend this album to fans of Prince, Erykah Badu, and Lauryn Hill.

Favorite tracks: Ain’t That Easy, Sugah Daddy, Really Love, Till It’s Done (Tutu), Betray My Heart, The Door

– DJ Mango 

Categories
Music News and Interviews

Creativity in Quarantine

Quarantine got you down? Join the club.

We’re all dealing with our newfound solitude differently. Some make sourdough, some go on long walks, some spend hours in front of their Zoom camera, trying to stay undistracted during online classes (me).

As a designer and artist, I’ve found it really hard to stay motivated over these past five months. I have had crazy bursts of creativity where I’ll spend all day working on a piece, followed by weeks of not even wanting to pick up my sketchbook. Considering freelancing has been my only source of income this summer, it’s been stressful to keep up a consistent schedule amidst feelings of impending virus doom.

I came to the realization that it’s perfectly okay to feel overwhelmed and unmotivated right now. Staying creative in isolation can act as both a way of coping and a burden. Because of this, I also have enormous respect and appreciation for the artists who ARE producing great work despite the circumstances.

Here are some of the highlights from my quarantine playlist, all released this year:

1. Flatbush Zombies: now, more than ever – EP, Afterlife – Single 

Both of these pieces are amazing reflections of the Black Lives Matter movement. They are incredibly powerful and I 10/10 recommend.

2. EARTHGANG: Powered Up – Single, End of Daze (feat. Spillage Village, Jurdan Bryant, Mereba, & Hollywood JB) – Single

End of Daze is perhaps one of my favorite songs right now. A really stand-out lyric that captures this year in a nutshell is “Mask on, mask off/ face the future/ like high noon.”

3. Khruangbin: Moredechai – Album

Mordechai has given me a break from the craziness of the world and a nice background sound to relax too. They are the ultimate masters of smooth tunes.

4. Orions Belte: 600m per minute – EP

Though only comprised of three songs, they’re all equally tranquil instrumentals played by the same band that released “Joe Frazier” in 2018.

5. Thundercat: It Is What It Is – Album

I would like to say that it is absolutely insane that this album came out four months ago; it feels like two years have gone by since April. Nevertheless, Thundercat is at it again with his bass skills.

6. Mike Moon: Radnotsad – Song from jopippin’s album “Digital Native”, Wild West (feat. Renzo Suburbn)

Mike Moon, Renzo Sububn, and jopippin are all Raleigh locals! Otherwise known as being some of the members of Dotwav Media, their unique rap-punk style is fantastic. Vocalist Mike Moon in particular has a real great sound to his solo work.

 Peace,

DJ butter

Categories
New Album Review

Album Review: Every Bad by Porridge radio

Music billed as “the sound of our particular moment in time” can feel a little gimmicky, but Porridge Radio aren’t chasing trends, trends are catching up to them. The rest of the world is now just as bitter and disillusioned as Porridge Radio, and they have decided that this moment belongs to them alone. Seriously, lead singer Dana Margolin went into a NME interview and said “I’ve always known that we’re the best band on earth.”

If that claim makes them sound a little full of themselves, it’s not entirely unjustified. The album is built off a pretty traditional post punk formula, but it never feels like a throwback. The aggressive dour guitar tones, repetitive song structures, and wounded sarcasm call back to bands like Public Image Ltd, Pere Ube, and, of course, Joy Division. However the sound of the band takes a lot of risks as well, incorporating heavier noise-influenced passages and more memorable melodies.

Another appeal, aside from the overall sound, comes from the vocals. Margolin’s voice could hardly be described as beautiful, but she exudes the kind of self-assured, yet depressive swagger usually only rewarded in male alt-rock stars. Her lyrics repeat often, going into dark spirals, but the sheer intensity of her performances keep the music from getting stale.

The album isn’t a joyous experience, but if you need a intensely cathartic outlet for some negative emotions (And don’t we all right about now?) then I would highly recommend this album.

-Adrian F

Categories
New Album Review

The Prelude EP Review

My favorites: Not Alright, At My Worst
Listen if you like: Khalid, Mac Ayres, Arin Ray 

The new Pink Sweat$ EP, called The Prelude, showcases six tracks by this upcoming R&B artist most known for the release of his single “Honesty” which has more than a hundred million plays on Spotify. However, the track “17” from the new EP has already surpassed those numbers. Pink Sweat$, also known as David Bowden, has yet to release his debut album but has gained popularity in R&B/pop circles for his singles and EPs. This EP is no exception, with a masterful blend of popular cotton-candy beats, soulful vocals, and emotionally vulnerable lyrics.

The album artwork for the EP greatly reflects the whole vibe of the album: happy and bright. On the surface, every song has a playful melody and instrumentation. Easily you could picture all of these songs on a top-100s chart, alongside Bowden’s past works. Penetrating into the lyrics and meaning behind the songs gives a deeper look at the emotion housed in the artist’s music. The tracks have beautiful lines like “We’ll be dancing the same groove / When we are ninety-two, the same as seventeen.” His track that delves deepest into emotions is “Not Alright,” which focuses on the treatment of Black Americans and the emotion following the death of George Floyd. 

This EP reminded me of some of the popular works by Khalid and Arin Ray, if you enjoy those I recommend giving this a listen. There is clearly an influence of contemporary R&B, pop, and soul music infused into this work. Most of the tracks utilize guitar, very simple beats, and rely heavily on the artist’s vocal talent. 

Give it a listen and let me know what you think!

– Miranda

Categories
Music News and Interviews

Kanye West Alignment Chart

Are you a Kanye West fan that also likes Dungeons and Dragons? If so, welcome to the club – there’s several of us! Below is my take on 9 Kanye albums according to the DnD alignment system:

Jesus is King (Lawful Good)​: This album represents Kanye at his most (self) righteous. Every year marks the emergence of a new Kanye, and in 2019 he announced he was committed to rapping for God and God only. Perhaps it was an early onset of the manic episode fueling his 2020 presidential run, but I believe his intentions were pure on Jesus is King.

Graduation (Neutral Good)​: On this album, Kanye spends more time celebrating his achievements than criticizing the establishment. For this reason, Graduation is aligned with Good without any leanings towards law nor chaos.

ye (Chaotic Good)​: In my opinion, ye represents Kanye at his most vulnerable, and it is undoubtedly chaotic. This album ranges from the manic highs on “Ghost Town” to introspective lows on “I Thought About Killing You”. All of this paints a vivid picture of Kanye as a highly flawed superstar who, deep down, still has a lot of heart.

Kids See Ghosts (Lawful Neutral)​: With tracks like “Kids See Ghosts” and “Reborn”, KSG is one of Kanye’s most meditative projects, and balances the forces of good and evil.
808s & Heartbreak (True Neutral)​: By far Kanye’s most depressing work. There is no preoccupation with good nor evil, law nor chaos on 808s – just heartbreak.

The Life of Pablo (Chaotic Neutral)​: As the album that Kanye famously released multiple times, it’s easy to see that TLOP is chaotic. It also has a healthy balance of good (“Ultralight Beam”, “Real Friends”) and evil (“Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1”, “Freestyle 4”) that cancel out for a neutral alignment.

Watch the Throne (Lawful Evil)​: The power trip that gave us My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is still evident of 2011’s Watch the Throne with Jay-Z. This album is all about being at the top and staying there by any means necessary.
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (Neutral Evil)​: MBDTF oozes decadence and indulgence. If this album were a period in Roman History, it would be the late period. Songs like “Hell Of A Life” and “POWER” exemplify why this album aligns with Neutral Evil.

Yeezus (Chaotic Evil):​ Yeezus found Kanye at the height of his God complex – case in point: “I Am A God”. Furthermore, the jagged, industrial production throughout lends itself to the chaotic alignment.

That’s it! What do you think of my Kanye West alignment chart? What do you agree with? What would you change?

– DJ Mango