The Music Thread

[Jason Waddell]

Five years ago, I was slumming it in Pittsburgh. My (then) wife and I were using Craigslist to make other couple friends, and we met some couple who was slumming it in some apartment a few blocks away. The guy was a scruffy artistic type, working now as a math teacher but he would disappearevery now and then to do things like play gigs at SXSW. When we left the US, we ended up selling our car to him and his wife.

He told me that he used to be a member of this band, The Dirty Projectors, but had left it before they hit it big. Not that big, I thought, I've never heard of them. I looked them up, but wasn't really feeling their style.

Then, this week, while using the Radio function on Spotify, a song comes on that just knocks me on my ass.

Now I'm totally hooked. Not on the rest of their catalogue, but just this one song. I've been playing it on loop for hours now.

What are you dweebs into these days?

 

[James Stevenson]

I'm into a bit of everything. Rest assured I'll play that song you posted quite soon. Right now Amon Tobin's album "Out From Out Where" is on while I play dota with my bro Jack. I think production wise the album is perfect. otherwise recently I've been checking out Hawkwind and Shadows of Knight, some old rock bands (Hawkwind is space rock, how cool is that), a producer called "Fish" (did a sweet remix of a Kista song, not sure what it's called at the moment), and really loving Trentemoller, The Heliocentrics... ok gotta go, dota game starting

 

[James Stevenson]

That dirty projectors song was sweet! Love the harmony!

 

[FlowerSunRain]

I went into a Walgreens and they were playing Siouxsie and the Banshees,which seemed really out of place but also awesome.

 

[James Stevenson]

This a good thread, we need to keep it going. Right now I'm listening to Floex, who warmed up for Hidden Orchestra last wednesday in London. I also saw Queens of the Stone Age on friday from the back of a stadium, that was sweet. I only know a few of their songs, but being washed away by wave after wave of rock was fun.

 

[Dom Harvey]

I do the same thing: find a new song I like, listen to it a ton, then get burnt out and move on. My music tastes are probably very different from most of yours', but:

Currently enjoying:

I'll also leave this here, perhaps the best song for getting pumped up I've ever heard:

 

[Chris Taylor]

Another Blue Stahli Fan!

Personal Favorite from that kinda style right now:

also anyone who even remotely likes hip hop needs to take a look at Hopsin yesterday:

 

[Dom Harvey]

IMOH 5 is fantastic.

 

[Chris Taylor]

6 is really powerful. The only thing I don't like is the verse at the end where the lines keep repeating "crystal meth" over and over and over.
I think it would have been a much more powerful message if the drug in question had gone unnamed, and the cynic in me kinda wants to believe that verse is in there because of breaking bad.
At the moment there's this weird thought creeping between the lines of like "Man, if only he'd gotten hooked on heroin..."

 

[Jason Waddell]

also anyone who even remotely likes hip hop needs to take a look at Hopsin yesterday:

I'm only tangentially into hiphop, but these were pretty great!

 

[Jason Waddell]

Right now Amon Tobin's album "Out From Out Where" is on while I play dota with my bro Jack. I think production wise the album is perfect.

This seems like a good album to listen to while one is doing other things. Perhaps a bit subdued for my taste, but I'm in the mood for these sorts of albums every now and then.

 

[anotak]

0ut from out where is one of my favorite albums
here's another good amon tobin track

here's some random favorites of mine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Om6f0Mbx5w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa-XyANpPbg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mXezakULBk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiwM77YkDO8

also i make some music its sort of bad but hey if we're talking about music i might as well bring it up
https://soundcloud.com/anotak
most of my stuff is very heavily sample-based but the last 3-4 (the ones listed above ahvb) are mostly synth stuff just because i wanted to do something different. my friend over at http://www.ricedoutrecords.com was supposed to up this like months ago but hes been busy w/ a bunch of irl stuff and he hasnt uploaded any of the releases we got but yeah heres a cohesive EP if you prefer your music in that kind of dosage: http://www.mediafire.com/download/b...o+give+you+chemically+induced+convulsions.zip

i see that past a certain point the forum gives up trying to turn these into youtube tags

 

[James Stevenson]

Amon Tobin is the man. I've heard everything he's done many times, and I think "Slowly" is still my favorite.

I gotta take this thread as an opportunity to bump my favorite album from this year: Den Sorte Skole's "Lektion III". It's free to download in whatever format you want, just head to densorteskole.net if you like anything of this stuff:

The album is seriously diverse. It's absolutely beautiful. If you like any kind of instrumental hiphop/sampling stuff like I do, you should check it out. It really disappointed me at first because, except for Did You Ever, Risen, and Lamuka, the beat never really drops like I was expecting. But I think this is really one of the strengths of the album, it takes a new angle on this sampling lark. On that note the album is entirely samples, taken from something like 300 records.
It's not perfect, I think it's too long (there are some tracks I would straight up cut from the album) and there definitely a couple production choices I would disagree with. That little drum roll thing at the end of Oh Death should be used once. Because they use it like 5 times it jumps out as clearly a sample, while the rest of the album sounds like an original composition.
Anotak, I can see you and I are in the same music scene. All the stuff you posted is my kind of thing. I've been trying to make music too, but I have about half a track finished, and not much else. It's a bit sad considering how long I've been trying, how many records I bought, and this MPD that sits on my bookshelf most weeks.

Edit: Loving Hopsin's flow. He reminds me of Eminem back when Eminem was amazing. Not into either of their beats though.

 

[Jason Waddell]

Do any of you use Spotify? I'd be interested in seeing some of your playlists, since the playlist sharing is pretty convenient.

 

[Dom Harvey]

The monthly listening cap is really awkward. I'll see if I can dig up some old playlists.

 

[Jason Waddell]

Yeah, I pay for Premium so I can play music from my phone while driving, which has rescued me from the radio.

 

[James Stevenson]

I have an account but I don't really use it. Here's my attempt to get my iTunes main playlist online: http://grooveshark.com/#!/playlist/The Triumphant Return To Earth/92866647. there's a few songs that Grooveshark doesn't have (they have a shocking selection of DJ Krush, my gosh ach what a disaster). Also I update this playlist all the time but I'll probably forget about it on Grooveshark.
edit: Also missing is this great Blockhead song, which I don't want anyone to miss out on:

 

[Chris Taylor]

Man I keep forgetting to check out Jedi Mind Tricks. Also spot on description of Hopsin James
More of a songza guy myself, but my own persistent music library is rather small, so it's nice for discovery

 

[Jason Waddell]

also i make some music its sort of bad but hey if we're talking about music i might as well bring it up
https://soundcloud.com/anotak

Ah, cool, your shit's very Aphex Twin-y. Or maybe you sampled from Aphex Twin along the way? Either way it's giving me that vibe and I really like it. It's also neat to listen to music so raw, that you know not many other people have encountered before.

 

[Jason Waddell]

Normally I get impatient listening to new music, and hop around or go back to my stuff, but I just demolished your whole Soundcloud page (anotak) without clicking around or away once.

 

[James Stevenson]

Just got back from a gig these guys did in London tonight. They were sweet! Pretty sure El-P was wasted, but they killed it anyway. Killer Mike raps like such a badass, but somehow he seems like one nice muthafucka. A massive hugable black guy with a nice smile who can rap .

 

[anotak]

Ah, cool, your shit's very Aphex Twin-y. Or maybe you sampled from Aphex Twin along the way? Either way it's giving me that vibe and I really like it. It's also neat to listen to music so raw, that you know not many other people have encountered before.

he's was a pretty big influence on my stuff early on. i've been at this for about 10 years so ive had a lot of changes in my influences and stuff. i have sampled him once or twice but i chop almost everything up into pieces so it wouldnt exactly sound like the type of music its sampling. i can't think of a particular time that used aphex in those tracks though. thanks for listening!

i need to catch up to listening everything that's been linked in here.

I've been trying to make music too, but I have about half a track finished, and not much else. It's a bit sad considering how long I've been trying, how many records I bought, and this MPD that sits on my bookshelf most weeks.

honestly its a lot of effort for not a whole lot of payoff unless you want/manage to make a career out of it. i do it mostly for myself.
dont be afraid to make bad music because you are new just make things, technique comes with time. or with talent for those lucky people but i certainly am not one of them. its more worth it to just go make music. you need to be able to make into something you can just do for fun or emotional release. if you cant do that, i would say its not worth it, you won't get anything out of it. though to be fair i've never messed with or tried to do live stuff. also its impossible to tell if anyone likes your music or not because a lot of times they will just say they like it to be polite.

and yeah i love run the jewels. also the only amon tobin thing i didnt like is the 2nd two fingers album, i felt like it was much worse than the first one. otherwise amon tobin is one of my favorites, i love his stuff

 

[Jason Waddell]

It turns out there's a lot of good hiphop that I know absolutely nothing about.

The little "bup bop" background in the Jedi Mind Tricks track was pretty great.

 

[James Stevenson]

and yeah i love run the jewels. also the only amon tobin thing i didnt like is the 2nd two fingers album, i felt like it was much worse than the first one. otherwise amon tobin is one of my favorites, i love his stuff

Yeah I'm not so hot on the Two Fingers stuff. I like a small selection of songs from them (Straw Men and Razorback and not much else). I wasn't too hot on ISAM either, but there's still some good stuff going on there.
As for the making music, that sounds like good advice. Part of my problem is I'm trying 100% sampling. I have many may samples I've recorded, but for the most part they suck. There's only like 3 or 4 samples I've recorded that make me want to make music. When I get into a sampling mood I listen through tons of records. But then I hardly find anything good, and the music is awful. It's a very draining experience. This one time I hit a whole stack of bad reggae records. That was depressing.

 

[HannesVersmissen]

currently going good on this again

and this struck me as being perfectly in one of my tastes