To say that this month is exhausting is an understatement. Perhaps on the upside, this is strictly physiological, as my workload was doubled (even tripled at times) for the entire month and now it’s over and next week, things will resume to normal. I cannot contain my happiness. I’m just glad that the stress didn’t really take a toll on my body, and if there’s anything to thank for that, it’s because of the constant stream of support from my friends (how I just want to hug each and everyone of you – eagerly) and finding ways of not to exacerbate the strain in my brain by just eating loads of sugary food, subs, and just yesterday, I had five plates’ worth of breakfast (no shame).
But more than that, it’s music. Most of the time, friends and music go hand in hand, whether or not I go to gigs (where we are able to personally exchange new tracks and mush and gush over the latest release by this or that artist), we do so online. Sometimes, I go on an incessant rant how I want to perfect my playlist this month just so I won’t break down. Without me intending it, I leaned towards SoundCloud (more than usual) and Majestic Casual’s YouTube channel, daily recommendations from various music websites, and links sent by friends over Facebook. Safe to say, I breezed through this month when it comes to music.
The songs listed below are the best ones I’ve heard this month. There sure are plenty of others not included here, but that’s just my bum memory failing me right now. Most of these were released during the latter part of June, excluding some of the live performances of new songs from my favorite local bands. These are largely laidback; none of the heavy, alternative rock music for now (I was really gunning for less adrenaline, stress deterrent sort of music). Enjoy.
‘Surf’ – Donnie Trumpet and The Social Experiment
The album was dropped on May 29, but I wasn’t able to dissect this properly, not that it needed a complex assessment to begin with. Not to imply that it was shallow, but with Chance The Rapper (forgive me for putting emphasis on him) taking a step back on his solo endeavors, but focusing more on his collective of jazzy, brassy, and groovy colleagues does say a lot about his character not just as a musician, but as a whole. Focusing on his musicianship, on the other hand, brings out the best of his capabilities, which ripple throughout this collaboration, with other like-minded artists like Towkio (who also released his .wav Theory album a month prior) and Vic Mensa. Favorite cuts are ‘Caretaker’, ‘Wanna Be Cool’, ‘Warm Enough’, and the feel-good – both aurally and visually – ‘Sunday Candy’.
‘Clay’ – HANA
Vouched by Lana Del Rey and Grimes (which is how I found out about her), this song has been on a perpetual loop since the day I listened to it, to the point of convincing my friends to listen to her. With a combination of supple and saccharine vocals tendered against a hook-ridden synth pop arrangement, you’ll see why it’s not hard to listen to it over and over again.
‘100’ – Drake and The Game
The phrase, ‘multi-layered artists’ (last heard from Drake’s ad for Sprite’s “Obey Your Thirst” campaign), or even just the word ‘artist’ itself seems to be rather thrown around loosely these days, and people are almost always referencing to the legends from the past century. Any claim that a person alive today who has made an overwhelming impact on music and arts as a whole is perpetually questioned, especially when it comes to hiphop and rap music. Ironically, the social and political relevance of artists to herald change, not just as benchmarks of success and beyond their celebrity status, is important to us all and the current conditions that we live in. Post-To Pimp A Butterfly’s effect, which pushes not just the hiphop ante, but artistry in general, we need more songs that entrenches truth, fame, and trust – essentially, life itself, stripped and bare to its core.
via Revolt TV
‘Love Of My Life’ (Picnic Opus) – Erykah Badu and The Roots
Seeing both those names in a Pitchfork article two days ago immediately prompted me to abandon my pancakes for a while and savor every moment of this video – all 17 minutes of it – whether it’s Her OG-ness Miss Badu rolling around on a Phunkee Duck; YG, Freeway, and The Lox sharing the stage; or a medley of hiphop classics including the Roots’ “Act Too (Love of My Life)”, Grandmaster Flash’s “The Message”, Wu-Tang Clan’s “C.R.E.A.M.”, Kanye West’s “Gold Digger”, Nas’ “Made You Look” Beanie Sigel and Freeway’s “Roc the Mic”, the Lox’s “Money, Power, Respect” – it’s just a glorious performance that makes my heart swell with joy.
‘No Sleeep’ – Janet Jackson
Seven years is too long a time, so when word got out that Janet Jackson was releasing new music, there’s a collective heave that echoed online, awaiting for the follow-up to 2008’s electronic-heavy Discipline. Her latest single, the languidly sultry ‘No Sleeep’ (I’m not sure what’s the story behind the three e’s, not that it’s the focal point) that echoes her early work, most prominently, 1997’s The Velvet Rope, a sexual awakening of all sorts and salaciously empowering for women everywhere. It embraces every inch of pleasure and yearning, the connection between carnal and cerebral, furtively arousing (complementing the idea of insomnia) the senses in a graceful, inimitable fashion of which she was known for.
‘Secret Affair’ and ‘Girl’ (f/ Kaytranada) – The Internet
I’m not sure whether it’s simply coincidental, but I firmly believe that these two songs are well-connected to each other. The former is a broody, bass-heavy number that’s part accusatory, part inauspiciously coddling; whereas the latter tones down, but with added sparse airiness in it. Lyrics-wise, it’s assuring and affirming, as if the diminished self-worth absent in ‘Secret Affair’ reemerges in ‘Girl’.
Maybe the two songs are entirely different in context when it was conceptualized, but it’s just interesting to listen to them back to back and piecing them together. Regardless, the production is consistently good. My only nitpick though is that, it sounds too complacent that in the long term,it might be vapid if the group capitalizes solely on Syd’s voice (though effortlessly effectual) as forefront and not as an adjunctive element to the wholeness of their sound.
Toro y Moi
Everything I know about Chaz Bundick’s projects – whether as Toro y Moi or Les Sins – is almost moot after I listened to these latest releases. Although I wouldn’t say that he’s treading different waters now, he’s definitely straying (or maybe transitioning or morphing into an altogether different sound, not sure) from the recently released What For? and if anything, sounds more like 2013’s Anything In Return. But, as Pitchfork’s Ian Cohen pointed out, to call it a return to his roots is “accurate and fairly misleading.” It seems like, we’re all under the allusion of something because of our failed attempts to pinpoint what exactly is now happening with Toro y Moi, although I can’t say for sure if that’s a bad thing.
These two tracks are definitely not what I expect from him. It sounds like a hybrid of what he’s previously done as Toro y Moi and has been injected with a low-key electronic approach from his Les Sins catalogue. I’m still kinda confused.
‘On Top’ – Marc E. Bassy
You read it from Kendrick Lamar himself.
‘Can’t Let You’ – Chasley Lussier
Sensual and playful R&B will never ever be dated. Whether it’s borrowing from the golden era of the late ’80s and the entire ’90s, its modern-day sound has never been truly compromised, only perpetuated. Dripping with incontrovertible suave and kink, the production’s proclivity towards sex is equal parts tasteful (Rhye) and salacious (R. Kelly), one that can easily rank among the harbinger of foreplay, Miguel and The Weeknd.
Just saying.
‘Torment’ – Spooky Black
This track feels like its forged out of Full Crate and Mar’s ‘Man x Woman’, Vic Mensa’s ‘Down On My Luck’, and Sampha’s ‘Indecision’, an archetype of all the aforementioned songs’ elements. It is somewhat chilling whenever I listen to ‘Torment’, how strangely familiar it sounds, like it has no attempt to impress, but just to comfortably fit in among the things that already caught your attention and just sit at the back of your mind.
Tom Misch
His music is the epitome of my fondness for Majestic Casual. He has this way of effectively fusing traditional instruments with electronic music, ensuring that beyond the skittering beats, coy synths, and catchy hooks, there’s still an affectionate quality that simmers just enough on the surface and not buried beneath layers of mechanical work. It’s comparatively similar to a feeling of surrendering yourself to a soft mattress or couch, the cold wind softly billowing in the open space you’re about to fall asleep on, and just dream.
‘Songs To Make Up To’ – Ta-Ku
Easily interchangeable with a fair suggested title, Songs To Make Out To, Ta-Ku’s follow-up to Songs To Break Up To can be addressed as a culmination of all the unresolved feelings, a closure of sort.
I’m sorry if I will be technical in this, but as I noticed with the artwork on its predecessor, which are filled with flower buds, the latest offering’s artwork features flowers in full bloom, which, to my interpretation, means that the relationship is in upswing, but it gives me an impression that it may or may not be the same person he’s involved with before, but a new one. I may be reading to much into it, but it’s just too lovely not to have a beautiful meaning behind it.
I don’t want to pick bones here, but I’m rather disappointed that the bonus track, ‘Down For You’ which features Alina Baraz on vocals, is only available on Spotify.
The reason why I’m bummed is that this girl’s voice is so ethereal, so sinfully sweet that you can almost taste it – just not on the album available on iTunes and Bandcamp.
‘Slow’ – Jensen and the Flips
Denoting the title for their newest single, the accompanying visuals for Jensen and the Flips’ ‘Slow’ is a playful interpretation on the song, a sequence of takes featuring the member slapping each other, batting fruits, Pete Townshend-ing an acoustic guitar, and frolicking around in slow motion, among other things.
I’m not sure what it is with things shot five, ten times slower that appeal to us or why we derive satisfaction from watching it. But bottomline is, there’s nothing to overthink here, but just have fun watching and shimmying to it.
You can download the song for free on Amplify.ph.
‘Last Kiss’ – OverDoz. f/ Pharrell Williams
Ever prolific and stunningly stellar, His Coolness Pharrell Williams lent a hand to Los Angeles four-piece rap collective, OverDoz. for their cheeky and funky, ’90s-style hiphop and R&B jam, ‘Last Kiss’.
Let me just briefly touch on the topic of collectives, especially now that Odd Future has inadvertently split. OFWGKTA is arguably the most popular collective from the West Coast. Top Dawg Entertainment’s Black Hippy, on the other hand, obliterates everyone within a far-reaching radius, period. There’s also East Coast’s Pro Era, A$AP Mob, Flatbush Zombies, and many others. All of these collectives and groups bring something distinctly different to the table, a thriving tradition from the days of Wu-Tang Clan and G.O.O.D Music, among others. But it was only this week that I heard of OverDoz, which reminds me quite vividly of the now-defunct Odd Future.
The song and video has Pharrell all over it, accompanied with a motley of bright colors, and Kent Jamz’s vocals vaguely reminds me of Kendrick Lamar’s – organic California hiphop sound at best.
‘The Beyond/Where The Giant Roams EP’ – Thundercat
Massively haunting and erudite even at its wordless moments, Thundercat’s EP is soulfully rich and an impressive display of skill – not that he still needs to prove it. I wish I can articulate everything I feel about this, but then I’m afraid that my words will fall short. I refuse to take anything away from this brilliant album and only wish that you can understand why it has a profound effect on me.
BONUS:
‘Lane Switch (prod. RASCAL)’ – Little Simz
Don’t sleep on this kid.
DECIBAWL 
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