Four Minutes Of Solitude.

Like everyone else, I get songs stuck in my head for days/weeks at a time. Every now and then I'll get an extremely annoying earworm* that's somehow managed to lodge itself into my brain, but usually they're tracks that I actually like. Not that I've been feeling particularly emo or anything lately, but Skream's first single "Where You Should Be" (from his second album Outside The Box) has been on repeat in my dome for weeks.

Here's a radio rip of the track:


Weeks, I tell you! -- and for good reason. The production is a thing of beauty. And although it's not normally my thing, I give the robotic voice manipulation a thumbs up. It gives the song a cold, plaintive sensibility that's perfect for the subject matter. Like DJ Annie Mac quipped at the end of the clip, this joint makes you want to break up with your significant other just so you can have a reason to listen to this song! While I probably wouldn't advise that course of action, I see what she's getting at.

To summarize: My ears are loving this. Okay so: Lyrics follow for those who want to sing along.

It keeps me awake ...

How can I feel good about this life I'm livin'
When you're not here right beside me
Not here where you should be
Sometimes it feels like I might as well
Just turn around and give in
'Cause you're not here where you should be
Not here right beside me

These lonely days
Turn into lonely nights
Everything's upside down
And I've lost the will to fight
You say you have to leave
And won't even tell me why
You took my hopes and dreams
And left me alone to cry

I stare at the phone hoping that you might call
Wondering who you've been seein'
And tryin' to make sense of it all
They say my heart will grow stronger
Ahead of me all of these years
But right now it's hard to believe as
I lie in my empty bed drowning in tears

Can't say I've never felt this way after a relationship, so the song definitely connected on that level. Okay so yeah, a little emo, but it's done tastefully and with top-notch electronic instrumentation *wipes mascara* On another note, I'm pretty amped about the direction Skream is taking the dubstep genre. I'm eager to hear what Outside The Box sounds like, as well as his group project with Magnetic Man. It's a good time for electronic music, yo.

*Yeah yeah I know: Her songs are catchy! And yes, I'd dance to some of them. Doesn't make them any less annoying :)

Heavy Rotation 006: Esthero | Breath From Another.

Yeah. I know this album came out in 1998. I copped it a year later -- and Breath From Another has the unique distinction as being one of the very few albums to truly remain in heavy rotation in my headphones for over a decade. (In fact, I'm listening to it as I write this entry.) I knew basically nothing about Esthero at the time I bought the CD, but:

1. I was in the mood for more trip-hop/"electronica," being on that Sneaker Pimps/Mono/Hooverphonic tip back then; and
   
   
2. I absolutely loved the album cover design, minimalist as it was. It's gorgeous:

Something about this jewel of an album just succeeds in holding up over time and refuses to sound dated. I really wouldn't classify Breath From Another as a "trip-hop" record; the overall mixture ends up being much more than that. Borrowing influences from a myriad of genres, Esthero never overindulges, but uses them more like vitamin supplements for her own style of music. The tracks flow together without blurring into each other, possessing different moods and emotions, and giving you an oddly satisfying sense of completeness after the last song. The result is that I can play Breath From Another from beginning to end each and every time I cue it up, with zero skips. That being said, I can't say that I have any favorite songs on the album; it's clichéd, but to me, having a favorite would mean neglecting the other tracks. With this LP, that's not going to happen.


Check back with me in 2020. I guarantee you this'll still be getting major spins out of my speakers.

Heavy Rotation 004: Rontronik | Radio:Rontronik Broadcast 1 (Permanent Midnight).

You know that time of night when it's too way late and way too early at the same time?  Like around 3:30-4:00am and you don't know whether to throw in the towel or just stick it out and catch the dawn suicidal-vampire style, and there's that irritatingly eerie silence that's just begging to be crushed out with a precise, fine-tuned mixture of ear candy?  That was last weekend for me.  Owing to my weekend rotation, I stayed in like a good little boy and, having nothing better to do, dug around in my exponentially-growing collection of music blogs for something to soothe the nocturnal quiet and please my soul.

Good news, My Peoples.  I found a gem.

Rontronik (website, blog) is an NYC-based "digital DJ/producer/sound designer" well-versed in the arts of IDM (intelligence dance music).  Since I really can't describe it too well myself, Wikipedia informs us that the genre

is influenced by a wide range of musical styles particularly electronic dance music such as Detroit Techno. Stylistically, IDM tends to rely upon individualistic experimentation rather than on a particular set of musical characteristics. The range of post-techno styles to emerge in the early 1990s were described variously as art techno, ambient techno, intelligent techno, and electronica.

Vague enough for you?  Yeah I couldn't really wrap my head around that either, but mainly 'cause it was like 4:12 in the morning.  But I digress.

Rontronik describes his particular flavor of music as abstract electronica.  To get a taste, download and immerse yourself in Radio Rontronik: Broadcast 1 (Permanent Midnight), a mixtape that I can only describe as a glitchy, aggressive cat-walk down a humid city block clogged with steamy taxis, uninhibited bar-hoppers, pseudo-hipsters and people in dirty hoodies who try to cram neon-splashed afterparty flyers down your gullet. It's "dark and dubstep tinged with a few surprises thrown in, Rontronik style."  The dubstep is actually what caught my eye/ear, and this joint definitely does not disappoint.



The wobbly, funky-ass dubstep remix of Sister Nancy's "Bam Bam" is fire!  Needless to say, silence was effectively vanquished in my humble home and before I knew it, it was daytime.  Fuuuuuck.

"Sound designer"?  I'd have to agree a hundred-plus percent.  Cop this.

1.5 Sapphire & Tonics.

50% orange juice + 50% ginger ale = effervescent goodness

I don't know why I never thought of drinking this combo before.  It's basically a non-alcoholic mimosa, and it's tasty as hell.  No more shall I drink OJ at home without the bubbles to go with it.

During a lull at the hospital yesterday, a classmate and I got to talking about our weekend plans.  This is my weekend to work CT transport at the hospital so I'd stay in for the night¹, but she had plans to go out with a mutual friend who's coming to town.  Talk inevitably turned to bar/club-hopping and drinking, and to the fact that my alcohol tolerance has gone waaaaay down. Since I moved back to the Midwest, I don't really drink with any kind of regularity anymore.  In fact, the last time I went out, I felt tipsy after only 1.5 Sapphire and tonics.  And I barely finished the second glass.  Weak sauce!

Actually, I would have said that of myself ten years ago, when I was going out several times a week and in my drinking prime.  Obviously I've slowed down since then, especially since the allure of the club scene has dulled over the years, and recently I reached the conclusion that -- real talk -- it's not as much fun to drink as it used to be.

I never liked hangovers anyway (who does?), and it's hard to forget the feeling of dread each time I hovered over a toilet waiting to taste my drinks again on the way back up.  Granted, I've only thrown up from alcohol a handful of times ever, but I wouldn't want to do it again.  If I'm gonna do the Technicolor yawn, it better be for something worth it, like from a crazy bad reaction to shrooms or salvia or something².

Anyway, I'm just lucky the people I've had the pleasure of drinking with back in the day weren't into shaming, or else I would've sworn off alcohol long ago after inevitably waking up to find myself duct-taped to the hood of a minivan with male genitalia and racial slurs scribbled artfully on my face.  But the drinking experiences were fun while it lasted.  Besides I don't think my body can handle it anymore³. At this point, my hangovers would probably last the whole day at the rate that I'm (not) drinking.

Anyway, all you binge drinkers keep doing you.  I'll toast up a glass or two, but after that I'll be content to be an amused bystander as you go about your hilarious drunken shenanigans.  I'll be aight. Besides, I got my fantastic non-alcoholic mimosa.  Bottoms up.

On a completely unrelated note, St. Germain's Tourist is auditory silk.  Listen to the album.  Your ears will thank you.

¹But then again, what else is new?
²Not that I've experienced this, though ...
³My old-man excuse.  Now get off my lawn!

Heavy Rotation 002: The Glitch Mob | Crush Mode.

Can I get a late pass?

I stumbled onto The Glitch Mob by happy accident a couple weeks ago, via a software-related question in Ask Metafilter (kinda like Yahoo Answers, only a hundred times less ignorant). I'd only heard about "glitch" in passing, and knew that it was a subgenre of electronica, but had never took it upon myself to explore and listen to any of it.

Unsurprisingly, there are several types of glitch, the most interesting to me being "glitch hop" which is:

... marked by the DSP laden sonic tapestry and twitchiness of glitch with a more hip-hop style framework. The beat tends to follow hip-hop's break-derived conventions, falling into a range between 85-100 bpm. Instead of using just traditional drum kits, glitch hop's "nerdified drums" are augmented with clicks, bent circuits, and sometimes the cut up vocals of the MC.

Whoa, okay. It sounded like an interesting mash-up of stuff that I already liked. Since I was in the mood to try out some new sounds anyway, curiosity found me on The Glitch Mob's website downloading their free mixtape, Crush Mode.



Soooo I think I've found my new Friday/Saturday night soundtrack for the next month. Not for the faint of heart or eardrum, this album taunts -- no, dares -- you not to blast it. Over the course of twelve seamlessly-blended tracks, Crush Mode smashes your senses with a barrage of aggressive bangers that wouldn't seem out of place in some underground nightclub movie scene. Not that this is trendy hipster music -- these joints bleed a combo of testosterone and vodka, and I'm pretty sure they would probably complement your choice of uppers for the night quite nicely.

But even without a little baggie of amphetamines, the album does its job like a champ. Be forewarned: These are bass-heavy automatic headnodders tailor-made for pre-funking at home, and close-quarter bouncing in the whip on the way to the spot to get your drunken pop-lock on. Cop this music, because Crush Mode does just that: It kicks you in the grill, spikes your drink and frankly, doesn't give a damn. The funny thing is, you'll be saying hell yeah right along with it.

Jelly Beans, Dream Pop & Trumpets.

Gah, studying cross-sectional anatomy of the pelvis is crazy. I've been trying to make sense out of images that look like this:


The thing looks like a terrain map from some reject 8-bit Nintendo game.

While I can identify the larger, more obvious parts, I have a bit of trouble with the blood vessels that course throughout our bodies. How am I supposed to differentiate between the femoral veins and arteries if they look like someone smashed together a couple of jelly beans and smeared them across a tabletop?

Anyway I soothe my frustration and confusion with music. There's been debate and research on whether listening to tunes helps or hinders the learning process, but I'm convinced that pleasant background sound has had positive effects on my study sessions. (It definitely hasn't hurt.) I usually throw on some Miles Davis in the background -- Relaxin' and Kind Of Blue, along with some other select albums, have been in serious rotation over the last year -- and it helps me focus on the subject matter at hand. I don't know, something about the natural improvisational quality of jazz transforms my brain into a sponge and I find myself very receptive to new information.

Once in a while I pipe some new sounds through the speakers for some variety. Although I've been a fan of the "downtempo" subgenre of electronic music for years, lately I've been listening to M83 for a refreshing auditory change. They're commonly classified as "dream pop" or "shoegaze", which Wikipedia defines as having

"two distorted rhythm guitars [that] are played together to give an amorphous quality to the sound. Although lead guitar riffs were often present, they were not the central focus of most shoegazing songs.

Vocals are typically subdued in volume and tone, but underneath the layers of guitars is generally a strong sense of melody. However, lyrics are not emphasized; vocals are often treated as an additional instrument. While the genres which influenced shoegazing often used drum machines, shoegazing more often features live drumming."

Saturdays=Youth, M83's latest offering, is an awesome listen all the way through, and more than suits my needs for interesting background study music. Granted I keep the volume relatively low to keep from actively paying attention, but the songs on the album serve as a nice complement to the material in my textbooks. One particular track, "We Own The Sky," is a favorite. The band is actually accepting YouTube submissions from fans who want to interpret the song, and the winning video will be played on PitchforkTV later this year. I like this submission:


Go hipsters go!

A far cry from Miles' smooth trumpet, to be sure, but just as stimulating to my mind. And just maybe it'll help me distinguish jelly beans from arteries.