album review: frank ocean. channel orange. 10 july 2012. mercury records
(buy here)

Anybody who has clocked my new ‘best of 2012 so far’ thing over on the right will already know this is going to be a positive review. Actually, anybody who has even a passing interest in music will know this is going to be a positive review because over the past week or so Channel Orange has been on the receiving end of pretty much endless critical acclaim. Quite rightly too. Forget all the controversy over the timing of the release being brought forward, boycotts from some record stores and everything else surrounding Frank Ocean at the moment. This is a fucking great album.

It is the quality of the songs that make a record, and this is made from those of the highest quality. There is variation and skill throughout. ‘Thinkin Bout You’ showcases his vocal range, ‘Sierra Leone’ his lyrical mastery and ‘Super Rich Kids’ his humour. It can be easy to get bored listening to so much of today’s generic r&B, but Ocean doesn’t give us a chance to let our mind wander once. You can find yourself listening to every single lyric or having it soundtrack your day as you go about your business.

It seems I’m getting excited and giving high ratings to an awful lot of albums this year, but when they’re of this quality can you blame me? I love this album.

9.5

#hiphopjuly is going very well, thanks for asking. I had a bit of a quiet day yesterday as I saw Twin Shadow in the evening (who was fucking unreal by the way), but was back on it today properly. At the end of the week I’ll post something about my week or some shit. I’m sure nobody is interested in even that, let alone a daily digest of what I’ve been listening to.

In the meantime let’s share some music. One of the great things about hip hop is the seemingly endless supply of free mixtapes. There is something new every day to download, and that’s what I’ve been doing. Three of the most recent are available for you right now. Childish Gambino’s is the highlight. The multi-talented Donald Glover’s offering gives us choice tracks featuring RZA, Danny Brown and Tina Fey among others. Yes. Tina Fey. You can grab it here.

Theophilus London is still striving for something to match his early mixtapes after the disappointment of debut long player Timez Are Weird These Days. Rose Island is by no means perfect but is certainly a step in the right direction. Guests include A$AP Rocky, Blood Orange and the awesome Lunice. Get this one it here.

Finally we have Tyler, The Creator. Odd Future have been in the news a lot this week after Frank Ocean’s declaration that he is in love with another man. As brave as I think Ocean has been, and glad I am that he has come out, I think it’s a real shame that it is still such a shock and seen as such big news these days. I would have liked to think we live in a time when a rapper can come out and not lose a ton of fans straight away. Apparently not. Still, it’s those idiots that are losing out. Anyway, back on topic and Tyler has a follow up to last year’s Summer Camp mix. He’s going under the moniker Dj Stank Daddy again (thanks spikeus). Obviously. There’s an awful lot of non-hip hop here and the name of the genre that Tyler has given it is probably the best description – fucking awesome. Download here.

What are the chances? WHAT ARE THE CHANCES? It’s the month I decide to dedicate to hip hop and sockformation uber-favourites Summer Camp tease us with another track before the release next week of their Always EP. What makes this amazing is that it features a verse from Jet Age of Tomorrow founder and Odd Future member Hal Williams. Therefore this automatically qualifies for #hiphopjuly. Listen to it below and then order the EP. I bought mine from this link right here because I wanted it on vinyl, but if you want to give me 3% or something feel free to click on one of the album covers to your right and search for it on Amazon.

album review: death grips. the money store. 21 april 2012. columbia
(buy here)

I’m still not sure how this #hiphopjuly thing is going to translate onto the blog, but why not start things off with an album review? Okay, so it came out a couple of months ago but I only got round to listening to it all the way through yesterday. Death Grips aren’t totally new to me by any means. I’m a fan of last year’s mixtape Exmilitary and have properly rinsed the video to ‘Double Helix’ from this album on youtube.

The Money Store is the band’s first album proper. 13-tracks deep and with a follow already slated for release later this year, I believe the word ‘prolific’ is suitable. Fortunately the quantity is not at the expense of quality. ‘Double Helix’ is one of the tracks of the year so far. It’s the perfect example of vocalist Stefan Burnett’s shout and the evil that seems to run through the record. Beats are distorted. Words intelligible. You basically have no idea what the fuck is happening. And it’s brilliant for it. By the time you reach superb closer ‘Hacker’ you’re exhausted and feel in desperate need of a bath.

9

If you follow me on any social network, you’ll probably know by now that I am planning on concentrating on listening to hip hop throughout July. I have called this #hiphopjuly because it sort of sounds like Naughty By Nature’s classic ‘Hip Hop Hooray’. Sort of. It starts today and I’m underway. I don’t know how this is going to pan out yet, but I suppose the plan is to listen to shit loads. Make a note of everything I listen to and then write some sort of commentary about what I enjoyed and didn’t enjoy every day (probably not every day if I’m honest).

Why am I doing this? I don’t really know. I grew up with hip hop. At school I listened to a lot of NWA, perhaps because they swore a lot. I painted the Onyx face on the back of my art folder. Onyx were my favourites. Eminem was big in my world while I was at uni, and I started to listen back to the older school stuff as well. De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest, Jungle Brothers. They were regulars on my Discman. I then got very into alternative hip hop. I still listen to a lot of Del the Funky Homosapian, Dr Octagon, Handsome Boy Modelling School et al. Anything that Dan the Automator is involved in. Deltron 3030 is one of my all time favourite albums, representing hip hop amongst Silent Alarm, Moon Safari and Low.

I’ve asked for some tips on Twitter and Facebook and now have a mighty long list to get through. If you have anything you’d like to put forward please let me know via one of those sites. The hashtag is #hiphopjuly as you may have realised.

Although I will be 99% concentrating on hip hop, I can’t do nothing but. Partly because I’m seeing Twin Shadow on Wednesday. Partly because I haven’t listened to the new Metric album yet. Partly because I’m addicted to the Drive soundtrack at the moment. Rest assured though, this site will see a lot of hip hop. To show I’m serious, I’ve even changed my Twitter avatar for the month.

Next month I’m putting in a concerted effort to listen to more Hip Hop. I am calling it #hiphopjuly. If you want to know the sort of stuff you should be recommending me look no further than this track. I mentioned Oddience a couple of weeks ago when I posted about PRJCTS because they share a member in Eddington. This is equally good and I am going to play both groups to death next month.

Over the past few weeks the excellent Bad Panda Records have been sending some tracks by Indian Wells into my SoundCloud dropbox. I’ve listened to them, I’ve liked them, I haven’t really thought much more about them. Then a set of eight tracks drops in. Wow. Hearing all the tracks together is a whole other ball game.

The term ‘ball game’ is a very relevant, if accidental, comment. The album Night Drop is a trippy, chilled out collection of music sampling and inspired by tennis. That may sound a little strange but the Italian producer had created something takes you far away from the speed and power of the sport, but at the same time refers back to it throughout. You can hear the entire thing below and you can get a special limited signed and numbered cd here. Recommended in a big way.

I’m going to do some proper posts tomorrow I promise, but for now I have to post this. Put aside that it seems to have been filmed in Instagram for a second and concentrate on the fact that A$AP Rocky is playing JFK. Yeah. Fucking awesome. This is like the US equivalent of Tulisa and Daz Sampson playing Maggie & Dennis Thatcher. Imagine if that ever happened. Amazing.

Considering I’ve been off work this week, I’ve been mighty lazy with posts. I blame the internet connection being shit at my parents’ place in Suffolk. Anyway, here’s something well worth mentioning. The second single from Theme Park’s forthcoming debut album is out on 13th August and this is the video. ‘Jamaica’ is a very laid back track, which could hardly go under any name other than that of a Caribbean island. Not only is it lovely, but it’s going to make them a shit load of cash as well because it’ll be soundtracking everything this summer. In fact, here’s a prediction for you. This will be the song that 4music / T4 use on their annual summer advert.

Coming straight out of musical hotbed High Wycombe, Coastal Cities are making some great guitar music that is impossible not to love. As with so many bands these days, they’ve grown up with impeccable taste listening to Joy Division and The Smiths, and more recently Foals. On initial listens it may seem like this is simple everyday indie-pop, but as you explore them further you’ll pick up the on complex math-rock that shows the talent they possess.

You can listen to the excellent ‘Relief’ below, or head here and download it onto your very own listening device for free.