I just wanted to quickly share 4 rap acts that I feel truly embrace every essence of Hip-Hop. While the Hip-Hop radio waves are dominated by rap that is far from authentic, these new cats, one of them getting major label recognition, needless to say keep it real.
Curren$y – Michael Knight
Danny Brown – Monopoly verse on Toca Tuesday Radio Show
(I had to use this freestyle verse because Monopoly is by far my favorite DB track)
A$AP Rocky – Purple Swag
Tyler, the Creator – Yonkers
An amazing experimental film directed by Loretta Fahrenholz, produced by Inka Meissner, and based upon a play by Kathy Acker that I engineered the sound for as well as did sound design and post-production sound for is having its American & New York City premier this Saturday night, November 19th, Midnight, at the Reena Spaulings Fine Art Gallery in Manhattan, 165 East Broadway. This should be a fantastic event, with members of the cast and crew in attendance. Click on the image above for more information, or go to http://reenaspaulings.com/.
Had been hearing her name passed around in the blogger/critic circles, but unfortunately more often than not my listening habits border on lazy, and I don’t actively seek out the newest/hottest buzz bands like I used to. Fortunately, I’ve gotten SiriusXM radio in my new (old) car, and listening to the excellent indie-rock station SiriusXMU introduced me to Lana Del Rey.
I don’t know quite how to describe her. She combines the darkness of Tori Amos with the soul/blues of Erykah Badu, and an undefinable sexiness while still being very frank with her sexuality in her lyrics (see her live performance of the yet-to-be released “Born 2 Die”).
Her only release so far is a double A side 7″, with the tracks “Video Games” and “Blue Jeans”. They’re both amazing, complex while still leaving you humming the tunes, but it’s “Blue Jeans” that really gets me. It has this pop “thump” to it, that makes your body move without it being a dance tune, or a rock tune, or barely a pop tune. On top of this, the video for this track takes a musique concrete approach to its construction, using found video and audio, making an already amazing tune EVEN BETTER.
The internet is just an incredibly wonderful place. It’s just over-abundant with information, and opportunity to gain new knowledge. I’ve been adamantly following the exploits of Ubu Web, a repository for the avant-garde. They also have absolutely roped me back into the Twitter-verse; their Twitter account posts the most informative and interesting bits of media, text, audio, video that is encompassed by the HUGE umbrella of the avant-garde (much farther reaching than you’d expect… I’d like to think that I’m an apt example of in my own tastes).
Please do yourself a favor and check out Ubu Web at ubu.com, and their twitter @ubuweb.
Lastly, the reason which prompted this post: a very interesting article on internet music and its results, written by Ubu Web founder Kenneth Goldsmith. He has seemed to hit the nail on the head when it comes to the new shift in music as a commodity and listening patterns that have resulted in the internet mp3 boom. I’m right there with him. I used to be a record collecting junkie. Couldn’t get enough. But then I had a bit more of a disposable income (the joys of living with your parents). I can’t tell you the last time I bought an album. It was likely because I couldn’t download it. But with this freedom, I feel like I have not only been exposed to more music but have become a BIGGER music fan. Which IMO is much more important.
The Wire Issue # 327: Epiphanies: Kenneth Goldsmith
That being said, please download my music as much as you please; sample it, repurpose it, enjoy it, it’s yours.
This pretty much describes my compositional process:
On Saturday April 02 from 2-4 PM I will be performing two new works-in-progress at the Eyebeam Art+Technology Center as a culmination of the Sound Art class I helped teach for two classes, where members of the class will exhibit their works in an open collaborative gallery environment. See the PERFORMANCE page for more information.
