| Being independent, you move on your own clock. You see the tedious details and have to be patient. You water a seed every day as opposed to just getting a plant. |
|
 |
 |
| Saba at Lollapalooza, in his hometown Chicago, Aug. 1, 2019. |
| (Erika Goldring/FilmMagic/Getty Images) |
|
|
| quote of the day |
|
| rantnrave:// |
She Gets Paid on Friday
Could there be a better week for BANDCAMP to restart Bandcamp Fridays after taking January off?
No $100 million podcasts. No tech CEOs telling musicians they're managing their careers wrong. About 93 percent of all money spent until midnight Pacific Time tonight going directly to artists and labels. FLACs and WAVs.
Jazz.
Results.
Saba Contains Multitudes
It is indeed Friday, and that means new music from SABA, one of the rising stars of Chicago hip-hop, who really really doesn't want you to hear his third full-length, FEW GOOD THINGS, through the lens of the tragedy that has surrounded him and his Pivot Gang collective in recent years. And there's no reason you should. It's a "warm, rich, and playful" hip-hop album whose slippery percussion breaks and predilection for 7th chords and stacked harmonies gives it a "sunny, 70s feel" (says ROBERT BARRY at Quietus). The lyrics are sometimes sunny and sometimes not. "What it makes clear more than anything," JANAYA GREENE writes in the Chicago Reader, "is his immense love for Chicago and his complicated relationship with the city that helped him blossom." It contains "overlapping moods of jubilance and apprehension," adds Stereogum's PRANAV TREWN. "Let's acknowledge the full spectrum of black emotion," says its maker. "We grieve. And we also celebrate. And we f***... And we are more than one thing all at the same time." Like a stacked harmony. Or the notes of a 7th chord... MITSKI embraces '80s synth pop on LAUREL HELL, her first album in four years and first since she took an extended break from touring and social media to "just learn how to be human again, I think," as she explained recently to the BBC. The album finds the singer/songwriter "settling into her mastery as a champion and interpreter of outsized emotions," NPR Music's Ann Powers writes. It also finds her brushing up against the ghosts of Depeche Mode and Hall & Oates... KORN's Jonathan Davis is "f***ing way happier than I've ever been," and REQUIEM, his band's 14th album, makes room for "moments of hopefulness" between songs like "Hopeless and Beaten" and "Let the Dark Do the Rest," as the Ringer's Justin Sayles puts it. So basically Korn's sunshine pop album. "F***ing A," Davis tells Sayles. "I figured it out. It took 51 years"... TENO AFRIKA, who debuted in 2021 with "Amapiano Selections," an album of instrumentals burrowing beneath the grooves of the South African house style of the album title, mixes the vocals back in on his new mini-album, WHERE YOU ARE. (And let's give a shoutout to DUA LIPA, who has amapiano on her mind in the first issue of her SERVICE95 newsletter, which she launched this week)... Buzzy London post-punk group BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD releases its second album, ANTS FROM UP THERE, just days after singer and co-founder Isaac Wood announced he's leaving because he's "feeling not so great." The band canceled its tour for the album but vowed to continue.
Plus new music from 2 CHAINZ, ANIMAL COLLECTIVE, STRO ELLIOT X JAMES BROWN (DJ/producer/member of the Roots remixes the Godfather of Soul), A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS, CATE LE BON, YEULE, WINNETKA BOWLING LEAGUE, YO GOTTI, YUNG KAYO, the JAZZ BUTCHER (RIP), URGE OVERKILL, MARISSA NADLER, ERIN RAE, MASON JENNINGS, ERIC KRASNO (of Soulive and Lettuce), BITCH, HIPPO CAMPUS, BASTILLE, the REDS PINKS & PURPLES, HOLLIS BROWN (New York band covers the Rolling Stones' "Aftermath" album), DISTRICTS, SILENT SKIES, VORGA, MASS WORSHIP and the JENNIFER LOPEZ-curated soundtrack to "Marry Me."
Rest in Peace
Film music editor KENNETH WANNBERG, who worked with John Williams on more than 50 films including the first six "Star Wars" movies. He also scored several films himself... Jazz guitarist JOE DIORIO, who played with Eddie Harris, Sonny Stitt, Ira Sullivan and others... SISTER JANET MEAD, an Australian nun whose version of "The Lord's Prayer" was a top-five pop hit in the US, Canada and Australia in 1974... Songwriter, producer and label exec MORTY CRAFT, who signed—and dropped—a pre-fame Simon & Garfunkel.
|
| - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
|
|
|
 |
|
theLAnd |
|
| The 110 Greatest L.A. Albums |
| By Jenn Swann, Jeff Weiss, Sean J. O’Connell... |
| From Alice Coltrane to Frank Zappa, these are the albums that have defined, re-imagined and soundtracked life and traffic jams in the city of Angels for the last three quarters of a century. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
JazzTimes |
|
| Chops: The Power of Bandcamp in Jazz |
| By Morgan Enos |
| Bandcamp has become a prime online location for jazzers to sell their wares. Jazz artists and record label executives explain why. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Pitchfork |
|
| Is the CD Revival an Actual Thing? |
| By Marc Hogan |
| Indie record stores and Gen Z listeners attest: In a small but meaningful way, the silver discs are enjoying a cultural renaissance. |
|
|
 |
|
Music Tectonics |
|
| Music Tectonics: Music in Motion: How Web3 Gives Music New Life with Aram Sinnreich |
| By Tristra Newyear Yeager and Aram Sinnreich |
| Professor, author, and musician Aram Sinnreich dives into the world of web3 and digital ownership. Discover how web3 is giving music new life with remix culture, mashups, covers, and fan art. Learn more about the future of AI generated music. How is the blockchain building an ownership hierarchy for consumers? How does music tech influence our aesthetics? |
|
|
|
 |
|
Slate |
|
| Why Spotify Will Win |
| By Dahlia Lithwick |
| The market wants what Rogan is selling, and what Rogan is selling is doubt. |
|
|
| what we're into |
 |
| Music of the day |
| “Come My Way” |
| Saba ft. Krayzie Bone |
| From "Few Good Things." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Music | Media |
|
|
|
|
|
Suggest a link  |
| “REDEF is dedicated to my mother, who nurtured and encouraged my interest in everything and slightly regrets the day she taught me to always ask ‘why?’” |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
