Like any respected dream or psychedelic band, Tame Impala has plenty of high quality pictures of pastel lighted and reverb soaked live shows. You don't need to use Instagram filters for these.
I didn't want to sound pretentious or incorrect when I described the sonic landscapes of the subject of this Track Genius, Tame Impala, the rock quintet hailing from Perth, Australia . I could go the usual Pitchfork route and grab my big bag of unnecessary adjectives and words like "over-produced" and "dream-pop" that really mean nothing, but we all know I'm better than that (I'm not). Thankfully however, the band did it for me in the soul of conciseness & brevity.
"Tame Impala makes psychedelic hypno-groove melodic rock music"
That's what the band's official website says at least. The description would be perfect, except for the omission of "Incredibly awesome" before it. For indeed, Tame Impala is the beautiful dream-like crossroad where past meets future, and the muses of rock guide you along a vinyl paved road to the top of a cold and windy mountain where the pinnacle of music lies. It is here that Tame Impala exists in an unheard singularity of old and new. Speaking of old, here's a little history on the band.
Tame Impala's aesthetic is a perfect example of what you'll feel when listening to their music.
Tame Impala is the brain-child of lead singer and guitarist Kevin Parker, formed originally in 2004-2005 as a jazzy psychedelic band with drummer Luke Epstein, called The Dee Dee Dums. After a few small awards and local recognition, Epstein left the band, and by late 2007 the band had been renamed to Tame Impala and unveiling of a whole new line-up, including Jay Watson (synth & backing vocals), Julien Barbagallo (drums & backing vocals), and recently Cam Avery (bass) after bassist Dominic Simper parted from the group. After switching up the group dynamic and replacing the two-guitar attack for the more traditional band format, Tame Impala began the nonstop race that is the music game, and they haven't looked back. Signing with Modular Recordings in 2008, the band released a couple of EP's and single's, including their self titled EP that gave but a glimpse of their future brilliance. In 2010, the group released their first album, Innerspeaker, to critical praise and good commercial success. It wasn't even their best effort, yet Tame Impala had already won the hearts of many. What was to come next however, would be something few expected. Releasing their second album, Lonerism, in October of 2012, the critics leveled even more praise, and the people bought even more records. It was easily one of the best albums of 2012, and there were so many great cuts from it, so I had difficulty choosing one song that would summarize the album for anyone still hesitant to give it a listen. However, all the songs are so good and so different, that I realized this wasn't possible, so I ended up picking the song that I've been vibing with the most lately. That would be the infinitely wavy "Apocalypse Dreams".
There's neither an official or fan made video for this song, but I would like to comment on Tame Impala's general aesthetic. Continuing with the psychedelic and vibrant theme, the album & singles artwork for the band, as well as all the media released in general for the group, is the definition of dreamy. Faded with poppy pastels and exploding sharp nostalgia, the beauty of the band extends to their continuity of the sound aligning with the visual. As for the music, it is even more brilliant in every facet. I chose Apocalypse Dreams because of its duality. Beginning with a poppy base melody and a driving drum section, the song continues to be layered with instrumental cues and tempo shifts, sometimes slowing down for a sort of bridge, and then returning to its fast paced dream-rock arpeggio's, as Parker sings about the dream-like apocalypse and making it through life with ambition, and the end of the world. The feeling of despair and loneliness is chilling when superimposed against the heavily dreamy sonic background. The song then slows down for a psychedelic section, where guitar riffs and slides give way to alienating synths and claustrophobic sounds. I wouldn't mind listening to this song as the fiery meteor incinerated my body during the end days, and I definitely don't mind listening to it now. I've barely even begun to describe how wonderfully structured and played this song is, so really it is needed to listen to experience. I'm thinking I'd describe it as "orgasmic" but I also don't want you to stop reading this out of shame. However you'd describe the song and Tame Impala's sound, just don't pass up a chance to listen to them, or this incredible album.
Tame Impala serves up my daily helping of psychedelic life blood, necessary for a balanced diet. Like trap music.
I'd previously written about Parker's work with Melody Prochet on their collaboration, Melody's Echo Chamber, but he has plenty of other projects and collaborations with some great artists. However, where his singular vision truly shines is with Tame Impala, and I hope to see so much more music from them in the future. With their track record, it'll definitely be interesting and fresh.
Non-slave labor waged sugar, locally sourced spices from seasonal gardens, and everything dream-popped. These were the ingredients chosen to create the perfect little girl.
It is the fate of every self-conscious hipster since time immemorial. It is the burden we must carry. A pain so Sisyphean yet intrinsic to the artisanal craft of musical hipsterism, that the only way to quell the bleeding heart of its occurrence, is to pretend that it didn't even happen in the first place. To ignore the glory that is placed upon the falsified discoveries of Christopher Columbus, for the humble and solemn knowledge that he is the Leif Erickson of lightly blogged about music, and had been privy to this untamed landscape far before the masses of Spaniards had descended upon it, destroying it with their ignorance. The Moirai had sewn the ancient scrawling's into his locally sourced hemp pullover, but even with that warning, he did not know that the anguish would be so severe. When a man finds a song that few other have, it is like eyeing the tangible love that emanates from the fresh, rosy cheeked face of a newborn first son. It is a beautiful feeling, with nary a comparative. Yet, as with any craft of hipsterism, it can be destroyed so easily, as the plebeians come foaming at the mouth in their hordes to ravage the once secret village, and make tons of shitty remixes on their Mac's with Fruity Loops, with an added terribly tempo-shifted Wiz Khalifa verse, once they catch wind that the song exists. What can one do, but move along, and try to shield their eyes from the madness... The shrill and whirling violin chords come in and snap the hipster back into reality. He is laying half naked on his bed, laptop covering his long-neglected crotch, and the heat radiation egressing from it ensure that it will stay that way.
What I'm trying to say in layman's terms is, could I be any more pretentious, AND that I heard this song a long time ago, and I told all my friends to listen to it, and they didn't, and now it's going to be famous, and they're all going to come to me and tell me they heard this song and that I should step my music game up. It is a normal occurrence, and one that, as I said, destroys the fabric of a hipster's heart, though they'd never admit it. It is intrinsic to the label as can be. A heavy heart indeed. Let me explain.
Reverb soaked, pastel hazed, dream pop act. I have never heard this before.
The Chromatics are an electronic music band formed in 2001 and hailing from Portland, Oregon, home of dying hipsters, seasonal foodstuffs, and crippling depression. The band consists of Ruth Radelet (vocals/synthesizer),
Adam Miller (guitar/vocoder), Nat Walker (drums/synthesizer), and Johnny Jewel (producer, multi-instrumentalist). I took that from Wikipedia and there's nothing you can do about it, bitch. According to the world's largest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet, the band originally featured a trademark sound indebted to punk rock and lo-fi, but after numerous lineup changes, which left guitarist Adam Miller as the sole original member, the band began releasing material on the Italians Do It Better record label in 2007 with a more dream-pop oriented sound that kept the lo-fi roots, but eschewed the punk for a more contemporary and sensual sonic landscape (we use big words that mean nothing here). They've got a couple of EP's and 4 albums as a whole, as well as assorted singles scattered throughout their career, and the band's music has even been featured on films like Drive and Taken, as well as shows like Gossip Girl (which is actually quality television. No. Seriously...). They've got a lot of great, and even semi-popular records that I could have written about, but my favorite, and the topic of this particular Track Genius post, is the song "Cherry".
So technically this isn't the official music video for the song, this one is, but it is probably the best visualization for it, as beautiful hipsters run around in a vintage black and white film filter, while they enjoy life over bubbly pop music, escaping from the existential dread and relationship oriented heartbreak that they give to each other. In reality, it's a commercial for fucking jeans. But you wouldn't really be able to tell that by yourself, and it's directed by hipster-girl heartthrob James Franco (just check any pubescent teenage girl's Tumblr for proof) for the terribly named "Seven For All Mankind Jeans" brand, the "leader in premium denim". What that really means is that they have a product called "Paxtyn Tapered Skinny in Washed Out Destroyed" jeans for $218.00 American dollars. Naw son. Not about that life, at all. Regardless of the message to buy overpriced, already used jeans (notice how they don't even try to hide that fact, since "washed out & destroyed" is literally in the title of the fucking product) the music video is quite good. I wouldn't expect anything less from a company that gave a ton of money, artistic free reign, and a camera to James Franco, who was probably ondimethyltryptamine when shooting this. As for the song, what we're really here for, it is really good. It's got all the trappings of a dream-pop rock song, with the a groovy and repetitive baseline, crescendoing snare pattern, and aerated synth stylings. Lest we forget the reverb soaked vocals of lead singer
Ruth Radelet, the lyrics bring about an ominous sexuality when coupled with the video, but that probably should have been obvious with the title of the song. It's about love and heartbreak and longing, as most things in this life are, but it still sounds fresh, which, most things in this life are not *I clench the unbalanced sawed off between my weakly muscular legs, barrel facing toward my head, big toe on the trigger, continuing to type on my computer*.
Fish lens for my real friends & lens fish for my fish friends.
So, why did I end up posting about this song instead of all the other Track Genius posts I had been writing? It's simple. The hipster inside of me came raging out when I heard today that a favorite rapper of mine, Schoolboy Q, would be sampling the track wholeheartedly on a record off his upcoming album "Oxymoron". The video for "Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe" by Schoolboy Q's label-mate Kendrick Lamar dropped today, and a secret Director's Cut of the video, ends with a snippet from the untitled track. You can peep it at 5:05, but you should probably watch the whole video since Kendrick Lamar and this song are both awesome.
So, why did I start such a fuss at the beginning of this post? Well, I told everyone to listen to this song a long time ago! Hell, near when it came out actually, and up until now I've been telling people to check it out. I can tell the Schoolboy Q song is gonna be a hit and a summer radio smash, what with the catchy Chromatics melody and Q's inexplicable charm and uncanny ear for making awesome pop-rap tracks. I may sound incredibly bitchy (I do sound incredibly bitchy*), but I'm actually quite glad both this song and Schoolboy Q are going to get a lot more exposure when Oxymoron comes out. Big ups to everyone. Because remember Track Genius readers, what few of you there are. We're about love here. YUNG PEEPLE MUSIC YO! That's all I really have to say about my crippling hipsterism (can one really be a hipster if they are self-aware or does that defy ironic labeling?) and my love for this track. You can check out more from the Chromatics on their Facebook, Soundcloud, Label Page, or, as always, on Pitchfork.
As always, please share, enjoy, and spread the love. Peace.
A good picture that isn't by Terry Richardson. I'm feeling good today.
The art of sample flipping has always been an important part of hip-hop culture and music (Reminder that KRS-One never shuts up). From the early days of Marley Marl working for every big MC, to the genre defining eclectic sampling and musical styles of J Dilla & DJ Shadow, to the modern soul, funk, rock, and everything in-between sampling styles of Kanye West & Just Blaze, hip-hop production has evolved and has had more important names than most anything in music. Nowadays , thanks to Nas' Illmatic, we're accustomed to a full roster of hitmakers, from The Neptunes funkadelic inspired pop-opuses to the ethereal dream-trap soundscapes of Clams Casino, a varied group of producers on one artists album has become a staple in rap music. Besides, nobody wants their album to sound samey, so it's important to utilize a full roster of sonic styles so an MC can functionally emote his #COKEDREAMS on a grandiose Lex Luger beat, and then smoothly transition to musing over the one that got away over a sex soaked sob-fest Noah "40" Shebib instrumental. However, there was a time that a producer and MC duo were common, nay, expected, as the likes of DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince (now known by his government name "Will Smith") and No I.D & Common Sense were making songs exclusively together. The intrinsic bond between DJ/producer and MC changed when Illmatic came out, and a full roster of producers became a mainstay in hip-hop. If that's good or bad is your decision, and it's not like there aren't a veritable number of producer and rapper duos these days, because there are, but it's definitely not like it used to be. Before this post becomes a vague cover for me trying to let people know how much I know about hip-hop and a list of my favorite producers thinly veiled in a badly written post on hip-hop production, lets make a mediocre segue to the real reason for this post.
MellowHype has a cool group name and come from a cool clique (Odd Future). They also have a high definition picture that is again, not by Terry Richardson. Life is good.
MellowHype is a Los Angeles, California hip-hop duo made up of rapper Hodgy Beats & producer Left Brain. They are, of course, individual artists as well, hailing from the infamous Odd Future collective, comprising of the likes of Tyler, The Creator, Frank Ocean, Earl Sweatshirt, and the aforementioned 2 artists. Left Brain was one of the principle producers for Odd Future and Hodgy was one of the principle MC's, so it only made sense for them to team up. They came to prominence when Odd Future blew up, and got some buzz with Odd Future's staple "dark-toned so we labeled it horrorcore" tracks like "64" and "CopKiller (feat. Earl Sweatshirt)". The duo continues to release music, already 2 mixtapes & an album deep, with a new album coming soon (check out their latest track). They also have a tendency to take 2 words that should be separate and keep them capitalized, whilst still making them one word. Edgy stuff. One of my personal favorite songs comes from their 2nd mixtape, BlackenedWhite, and it's a track called Loco.
While this music video isn't official, it is awesome, and therefore I will comment on it. It seems like, to me at least, there's been some sort of trend with pairing classic American images with dark music, and vice versa, ever since that game Fallout 3 came out. I'm sure people had done it before, but I feel like it really took off when the game let you blow up radioactive super mutants with laser guns made of scrap metal whilst listening to "Way Back Home" by Bob Crosby. That's just my theory though. Regardless of where it started, this video plays with the idea well, as a classic 50's clip of a group of misfits riding their bikes through the suburbs while wearing monkey masks accompanies the song. The juxtaposition of the dark tones of the song, and the complementary French soul sampling, make the video and song have some sort of perfect ironic synergy, a word only used by businessmen who have no idea what it means (this video is it). With the aforementioned sampling, LeftBrain chose to go with Chanson D'un Jour D'hiver by 70's French jazz fusion band Cortex off their 1975 album Troupeau Bleu. Strangely enough, this was first sampled in 2009 by none other than... Rick Ross??? Yes, Rick Ross' own hip-hop group, Triple C's, which included Ross, Gunplay, Torch & Young Breed, sampled the record on a song called "Diamonds & Maybachs Pt. 2 (feat. Suede Royale)" produced by Delando "Mitrxxx the Mad Scientist" Morrow. In classic Rick Ross fashion, it was totally overblown and the sample was drowned out in an incredible amount of overproduction (a term that people at Pitchfork use like businessmen use "synergy"). Nobody except Ross & Gunplay would go on to do anything in hip-hop music, but the sample lived on in many iterations, from MellowHype using it in Loco, to Smoke DZA, Logic & Curren$y all sampling it on tracks of their own. Each had their own twist on it, but it was done best, and grimiest, by MellowHype. The soulful sample is accompanied by a drawn out and ominous bass and the looped piano chord. The child-like singing and piano arpeggio climax as a bass groove plays off into the repeat of the beat, and the snares & claps continue in beautiful monotony. Hodgy Beats spits a modern fairy-tale fantasy about wilding out with Black Panther Party members, and a second verse of braggadocio that employs a drawn out metaphor that incorporates narcissistic wordplay with various condiments. As the track fades and the sample is left to stand on it's own, an air of creepiness comes over the listener. It's an awesome track from MellowHype, and one that didn't get enough attention. I'd argue its even one of the best songs in all of Odd Future's stable of great tracks. Those are for another Track Genius though.
Totally forgot that Odd Future did a shoot with Terry Richardson. Goddamnit Terry. Foiled again.
MellowHype continues to make good songs and collaborate with Odd Future on each artists solo projects, and they plan to release a new project by the end of 2013. Here's to hoping we here more from the smoked out MC/producer duo that hail from sunny California, but make some of the darkest music around.
As always, please share, enjoy, and spread the love. Peace.
This was the
only high quality picture I could find of Freeway. You see kids, back in
the early 2000's, High Definition was still a Shootyz Groove album, and just like old pictures, it did not age well.
Damn fam... Welcome back to Track Genius. Let's get the bullshit out
the way, feel me? I've brought you all here to reminisce. To put on your
rose tinted glasses, and gently slide into your nostalgia pants, to
come with me on a journey back to the early and mid 2000's. The years
when Rocafella Records ruled the world. The records, the movies, and
most of all, the artists. The greatest CEO of all time, Dame Dash,
oversaw the likes of Jay-Z, Kanye West, Cam'rom & Dipset, Beanie
Sigel, Memphis Bleek, and last but not least, one of Philly's finest,
Freeway. This was the gully nigga, bearded Philly Akki, west
Philadelphia born and raised rapper who stole "Freeway" Ricky Ross'
nickname before fake thug rap extraordinaire Rick Ross even did. Freeway
was way ahead of the game in that sense. Along with all the
aforementioned artists, Rocafella oversaw an omniscient steel grip over
street culture and hip-hop music. It was indescribably awesome. Now we
have Macklemore. Regardless, the Roc was in the building, from releases
like The Dynasty to Streets is Watching (album AND movie homie), Dame
Dash and crew held it down, and the most under appreciated guy on the
roster was always the bearded Santa himself.
Coming up
in the battle rap scene in west Philly, Freeway was discovered by fellow
future Rocafella compatriot Beanie Sigel, and given a feature on
1-900-HUSTLER off of The Dynasty: Roc La Familia album with Jay-Z,
Memphis Bleek, and the Broad Street Bully himself. In 2003, Freeway
released his debut album "Philadelphia Freeway" with production by the 3
modern legends, Just Blaze, Bink!, and Kanye West. It also had features
from his aforementioned fellow Roc members, as well as heavyweights
like Nate Dogg, Nelly, Snoop Dogg, Faith Evans, and Mariah Carey. Why
was Mariah Carey on a Freeway album, and how many strings did Jay-Z have
to pull to get that done, and how do you go from having Mariah Carey
& Jay-Z featured at the same damn time on one of your tracks to
being completely irrelevant? These are all good questions, and highlight
the fall of Rocafella well, but that's a story for another day. For the
time being, Freeway had dropped an awesome album, and if you're one of
the people who write for Complex, a bona fide classic. There were some
dope cuts from the album, like club that pays off the health inspector
to not fail the yearly examination/street anthem "Flipside (feat. Peedi
Crakk)", but the undisputed best cut off of the album is what we're here
for. This that mean grimey shit, that shit you can feel in your bones.
That true hip-hop for the people, that kinda record that makes you wanna
put on a ski mask and fuckin rob a nigga for his OG Jordan III's b.
This that real shit. This is "What We Do (feat. Jay-Z & Beanie
Sigel)".
As usual, let's touch on this video. This was revolutionary for a couple
of reasons. When you first see Jay lean into Freeway's ear and
whisper "Keep goin'" after he's just finished rappity rapping 300 bars
of street documentary magic, you finally realize what it's like to go
from boy to man. After that, Jay comes in with a much tighter flow, and
when he spits "So I move key's, you can call me the piano man" for a
beautiful fleeting moments there is an actual piano on the dock. The
masterfully congruent sensory barrage, the first of which is being taken
aback by the hotness of that line, and secondly coupled by the visual
cue of the piano to reinforce that, can only be described as life
changing. This visual toughness couldn't be achieved without an equally
dope song however, as the Roc triumvirate comes correct on the mic.
Freeway's verse begins the song with what feels like 1,000,000 bars of
fire, as if Free was urgently writing his version of Mein Kampf with a
Just Blaze beat as his canvas. After hearing the adrenaline filled
realness of Freeway's verse, Jay-Z comes in with a quick 12 bar, smooth
as ever. You can barely even notice that he tapers off in his drug talk
at the end of the verse because "B. Sige in the third lane" enters, and
delivers an equally fine verse. The great thing about this track is that
everyone says something significant, and it's just on bars on bars. As
for the production, it's a Just Blaze banger, and those are always
classic. With a looped and pitch shifted sample from Creative Source's
"I Just Can't See Myself Without You" and trademark heavy Just Blaze
drums, backed by an ominous and strange violin leftover from the sample
that somehow works, this beat is another soul-sampling street banger
from the house of production that The Roc built. And that's what they did.
There aren't any pictures of Freeway that look like they weren't shot by
DMX when he first learned what a camera was, or won't disintegrate your
retina with their terrible pre-2007 quality, so here's a nice little
blueprint of an actual Freeway (Get it? Freeway. Blueprint. Disregard
the fact that he wasn't even on that album while I go hang myself).
More than anything, this track makes me nostalgic for the days of non-internet rappers and the Dynasty of Rocafella Records. Now the only artist there are Jay-Z, Kanye, and for some reason Jadakiss. The label is sitll around in spirit as Roc Nation though, with Jay-Z as president. Instead of rappers the roster includes such talented musicians such as Willow Smith and Rita Ora. J Cole and J Electronica are signed to the label as well but the former gets no marketing push and the latter won't release his fucking album in the first place. Time truly is the great equalizer, and as the wounds from the disbanding of Roc-A-Fella heal and the people involved settle into their new paths, it's just nice to look back at where we were and where we are now. Things like this make a couple years feel like ages ago. In an age of looking forward, it's difficult to look back whilst grasping the actions of our forefathers, but like the song says, it's just what we do.
As always, please share, enjoy, and spread the love. Peace.
