Comments

That's the face of the killer in him (well, at least half of it).
This is great! If all the collaborations are on this level it will be another unmissable Lopatin release,
:( Wait a second. Oh, I see, you're trying to say that this is not Fight Bite because this really is Natasha Khan! Right!? :{ D
This is great! Love the decadently dark eroticism of his music. Every time any of his Black City tracks played in a party one could feel things heating up (or maybe it was just me, or pure coincidence, I don't know).
I agree with you so much on this. Since I started reading music related blogs and "criticism" of popular music i've been baffled at the level of indifference critics show: a) towards music theory and the possibility of -kind of- objective elements to ground their judgments (which are -to the dismay of many- utterly subjective, hence the logical impossibility of "grading" records). b) towards a real questioning of what criticism mean (or may mean) in the context of popular music. Certainly you wouldn't want to judge it based on its complexity because, let's be honest, what passes for avant-garde in popular music would make composers from 100 years ago laugh. What makes good popular music is a great question that a lot of people seems to take for granted. , not everyone is as imaginative and cultured as to make a beautiful interpretation of the elements contained -and surrounding- a cultural document, so even if you can look at the album cover, read the lyrics and find the ethnicity of an artist in Wikipedia, that doesn't mean that you will automatically come up with a strong interpretation (maybe you, commentateur extraordinaire djfreshié, can, but a lot of other people can't or won't). So, I don't agree with you on that. Please note that I absolutely dislike this "deconstruction" and, like the other ones, I think it forces the inclusion of typical cultural criticism concepts in contexts that didn't require it. The Grimes article and the reference to gender theory (which, in my opinion, is by itself kind of bland and naive, but that's another story) was based on the factor that Grimes is a woman and tried to justify its inclusion by mentioning some *very* contingent factors to build its case. It's like if I watched a Skrillex interview and then, since Skrillex speaks, I were to use Wittgenstein and Lacan (#whythefucknot) to interpret the jouissance in his discourse and the language games he is playing [?]. In the 90s, there was such a trend of ultra-theoretical, banal essays coming out of american universities that a "post-modern essay generator" was created in 1996 by a linguist at Monash University. Post-modern essays fresh from the oven. It is a true beauty! Check it out at: http://www.elsewhere.org/pomo/ Obviously there are still great cultural criticism essays being written but -as it happens with actually worthwhile contemporary art- its reputation gets diluted with all the happily hyped shit that's floating around.
Good for her, although I'm sorry for the backlash it will create in her "good-thinking" audience. She was smart enough to not pick a side, however, almost anything that could be interpreted to be an attack to Israel is easily labeled as anti-semitism. Yeah, eff religion and all that, but this is really -and it always has been- a political problem.
The things you can accomplish with a prudent and precise Rhodes arrangement and an adequate voice... great.
Well, at least he liked it. Is he usually that supportive of the guest artists? Also, ouch @ 4:05.
How I enjoyed that first EP. This guy and Holy Other are awesome. Hell, anything Tri Angle puts out is solid gold.
In all fairness, she also got Dennis Hopper with that [and he is dead!] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeWUXV89w0g
Do djfreshie and theduchessofthomyorke count as bands? 'cause if they do...
Aw man. This site just keeps getting worse and worse... Why the snub to djfreshie? He's given us consistently great -and memorable- releases all year long. He deserved the first prize, hands down... I guess he wasn't "fresh" enough (see what i did there?). Andy Johnson was just an end of the year sensation. Just because he got a lot (109) of great reviews does it mean he's the best? You guys really buy all the hype... I'm just gonna tell you one thing Andy Johnson: remember James Blake.
Keith Rowe Fred Frith Bill Orcutt Fennesz Also, not trying to be rude, but everyone saying that Hendrix is an incomprehensible choice are trying too hard.
I'm not getting too worked up or putting misplaced anger my friend. I think I exposed a scenario and argued with my "flawed" logic. The only "emotional" part is evident, so please don't dissect my emotions and do as Nietzsche: argue against arguments, not people. Also, I perceive as flawed and incredibly naive every vision that reduces what is clearly a systemic problem to just a couple decisions or persons (Bush was the bad guy, going to war was the huge error, corporations are evil, etc). We should all be looking at the very ground which allows and incites such epiphenomena to occur, which is our current economic system. As for "people are naturally greedy..." i would watch out for that proverbial weasel word: "naturally". Just read Foucault to convince yourself of the absolute vacuity -and ideological use- of that word. All this talk about being born with a fixed degree of intelligence and not having control over it is plain baloney. You know Aristotle said that black people were "naturally" limited in intelligence and were near to being beasts, so it followed that they should necessarily be under the dominion of a "really" intelligent human being. "That's the way things are... life's not fair" the ol' Aristotle said. We should all be very careful with what we say as we risk to being accomplices with causes we surely don't want anything to do with. I absolutely refuse your advise of not getting too worked up about things. That is the way to go if one wants to actually accomplish something (cfr. the exhumations of spanish victims of Franquism, the trial of argentinian militia, Romanian revolution, etc, etc). Anyways, cheers and hope I didn't offend you :D
So you are for wealth disparity? The excessive wealth disparity evidenced by these people has no excuse. Let's say Kanye works 365 days 10 hours a day. He cashes 5 million dollar a year (and I'm being magnanimous with his working schedule). A guy works at a farm/construction earning minimum wage 12 hours for 365 a day, yearly income is $31,755. Kanye makes 157 times more money than the farmer. If said farmer wasn't american the difference would be MUCH bigger (e.g., for the same amount of time a mexican farmer would earn $1565). No system that allows such catastrophic gaps between people can be, in principle, fair or just. It simply can't. The consequence of thinking that way would be, in the end, that people are poor because they want to, because they don't "try hard enough", because they are lazy, because they don't "create stuff". There's no "fair" way of making money in a world where a LOT of people can't aspire to a dignified existence because of some people making shitloads of money. Take a look OUTSIDE of America and you will see people working their fucking asses of just to survive, that is, just to make it so they are alive the next day to go to work. Can you even imagine living like that? Can you imagine a world where more than half of the people living in it are in precisely that situation? No need to close your eyes; just open them wide. I generally try to be very courteous here but... fuck your apology, fuck your naïveté. I feel so ashamed of myself and of everyone not doing MORE to stop this. We have nothing to discuss. Every second passes and a opportunity to rise up against this is missed. These kids have risen. Let them rise and let them be realists and demand the impossible.
Man, that sound like a Tyra Banks comment . People, it seems, are complaining about her being a product and your advise for her is to behave in a more product-like manner?
This sounds like my band! Yes, we're THAT* good. * "It’s maybe the best thing done by anyone, ever". Truly immortal words by Lou Reed. Wikiquote material, ladies and gentlemen.
Moogfest is a killer. I mean, I want you to look at their lineup and tell me what more could you want. The best festival of the year according to my tastes. I wish I could go...
I always end not liking 80% of the stuff on these lists, but they sure are a great way to discover some exciting new projects. Even if I find only one artist I really end up liking, this list will be a much appreciated effort. It was only through last year's list that I found about the existence of Oneohtrix Point Never (embarassing, I know) and boy did they blew me away. Thanks Stereogum!