So it's that time a year again. Time to run down the list of movies I've seen during the year, and yes, it really is just a list. Haven't really been a great movie year if you ask me, but I've seen some good movies (and quite a few bad ones). I think my favourite movies this year was The King's Speech, The Fighter and Snowtown. Worst movie? Too many to even mention I'm afraid, but let's all agree that Knight and Day was really crappy. I will end here with a bit of news. Beginning tomorrow, all movie and tv posts will be on a separate blog. strictly moving pictures is the name, and it will be just that. Hope you will like it.
Adjustment Bureau, The
Adulthood
Another Year Art & Copy
Arthur Attack the Block Battle for Haditha
Battle: Los Angeles Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest
Beginners
Brighton Rock
Bright Young Things
Burke and Hare
Bunraku
Captain America: The First Avenger
Company Men, The
Conan the Barbarian Contagion Cornelis
Cyrus
Day of the Trippids, The
Drive
Dubfiles
Due Date El Espinazo del Diablo
50/50 Fighter, The
Freakonomics George Harrison: Living in the Material World Get Low
Greatest Movie Ever Sold, The
Green Hornet, The
Gränsen Hanna Happy-Go-Lucky Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 He Died with a Felafel in His Hand
Hesher Hævnen
Hobo with a Shotgun
Holy Rollers
I Am Number Four Ides of March, The Infamy Inside Job
In Time Into Eternity Ironclad I rymden finns inga känslor It's All Gone Pete Tong It's Kind of a Funny Story
Kidulthood
Killing Bono
Kill the Irishman King's Speech, The
Knight and Day Κυνόδοντας
La Horde
Le Hérisson Lemmy
Limitless
Lincoln Lawyer, The Maestro Margin Call
Megamind Mega Python vs Gatoroid
Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus
Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus Midnight in Paris
Mr. Nice
Never Let Me Go 127 Hours 180° South
Our Idiot Brother
Paul
Poolboy
Priest
Red Riding Hood Red State
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Shanghai Knights
Somewhere Snowtown
Sorcerer's Apprentice, The Source Code
Stone Stuart: A Life Backwards Submarine
Suicide Girls Must Die! Super Super 8 Surfwise
Take Me Home Tonight
13 This Must Be the Place
Thor
Too Legit: The MC Hammer Story Tree of Life, The Trip, The
Trolljegeren True Grit Tucker & Dale vs Evil Waiting for Superman Way Back, The
Welcome to the Rileys Wilde
World of the Dead: The Zombie Diaries 2 Worried About the Boy
X-Men: First Class
My attempt to capture my 2011 with just 2 videos. You have already seen them posted either here on this blog or on my Facebook page. It might not necessarily be the 2 best songs of the year since such a task would be impossible for me, but it is 2 songs that have become really good friends of mine during the year, and I hope to be able to hang out with them for quite some time.
I was out on a walk when I started to give this a proper listening. And a good one it was, for sure. It took me to places in my mind, long forgotten ones, and to shiny new ones. Isn’t that was good music should do, take you to familiar places, where you feel comfy, and make you want to hear more and maybe explore further? I’m quite sure most of us can agree on that one.
Unfortunately the music also took me to places I wish I never had to experience again. It took me back almost 20 years ago only by putting sampled voices on top of the already beautiful music. Do we have to pass through the whole Enigma business again? It wasn’t any good then and I´m quite positive it never will be. Is it an age thing? Would I like it if I was twenty years old today? No probably not, but then again, it´s a matter of personal taste.
All in all, this entire musical trip made me smile and gave me loads of positive vibes and if it hadn’t been for the Enigma/Era flashbacks, it would have been graded much higher.
Michael's review:
This album couldn't have come at a better time for me. It's the perfect companion on my walks to work everyday. During those 20 minutes, Hectic Zentiths paints the soundscapes that fit the world that I see around me. Snowy, icey and cold. Not that the music is without soul or warmth, far from it. This multi-instrumentalist keep playing up new scenes in my head every single time I listen to it.
Very often I tend to feel that instrumental music feels very empty and without any body to it. Here we however get well thought through productions that keeps it interesting all the way. I love hearing artists that I never heard about before and then end up liking as much as with Hectic Zeniths. It feels personal and intimate at the same time as it at times could work perfectly in a club setting.
This is one of the albums that I have listened to the most lately and, apart from the hideous guitar infected track Who Shot Debris About It? [Interlude 1], it will stay in my headphones for quite some time.
Tape noise
Distortion
Punk
Hip hop
Field recordings
DIY
Psychedelic
Lo-fi
Folk music
Drone
Metal
These are just of the few things that you get from Dug Yuck's latest tape Disembowelment of None's. It's not everyone's cup of tea, it might not even be mine from time to time. But it's pure, it's personal and it's all good.
I remember the first time I heard Celsius 7. It was when his track Manners was featured on Bomb Hip Hop Compilation vol 2. I had never heard of him before but that track soon became one of my favourites that year and I remember making sure that it got played on a show dedicated to the best of the year on a local radio show I was part of at the time. After that I didn't hear anything more until Life Well Spent dropped, and the news of it got my quite excited. Don't know what to say about the album though to be honest. The album is filled with so many different styles that it's kind of hard to get a grip on who Celsius 7 really is. You get the b-boy tracks, the songs celebrating the 80's, some Biz Markie flavored stuff, some SD50's sounding tracks, some metal stuff and some classic Cali stuff. It feels like he's trying a bit too much and don't really know which way to go and that makes the whole album feel unfocused. It's a shame since I have the feeling that he could deliver something stronger if he just decided which path to follow.
Babel fish - "is small, yellow, leech-like, and probably the oddest thing in the universe." He might be a bit out of the norm, but that description don't fit in on
Texas finest emcee and producer. After releasing some mindblowing
material these last few years, I felt it was time to catch up with him,
and ask him some questions about music and life.
For most
readers of this blog you're probably a familiar name, but for those who don’t
already know, could you please indulge us.
Babelfishh
(S.Huber) – decorative stamp ditch digger – Texas chew union representative –
country music consultant to the knertz collective – outside artist for
divergent series and the final church, etc. I sleep where I fall and beat
myself up too much. No meat, no form of oppression, a pack of smokes a day;
just generally fighting the good fight until the frontier implodes.
What was it
that drove you into making music? What triggered your creative vain?
I think in
my youth I told myself that art and music was not the thing for me. At some
point I realized that my own personal preference was more important that actual
talent. In the same way that a multitude of artists will put it: once I figured
out that I could create pieces that I personally enjoyed, the downpour of ideas
and creativity flourished. The ever-astonishing guild that surrounds me has
made me what I am and they will continue to round off these corners and mold me
solid.
How would
you describe your music and could you briefly tell us about the music-making
process? -Influences?
Techniques? Purpose? Lyrical inspiration? Etc.
Oh brother;
train wreck. I sacrifice a lot to get the needed annoyances out of me. Craft my
life around the needed free time to toot the remedy flute. I write what I see
and print the moments I can’t help but to juggle about, no matter how many
fucked up cords I’m using or how much background noise litters the air. Ignore
the phone and the doorbell. The nerve to be wildly unkempt on a 4 track or the
same dying software I’ve used for over a decade now.
You seem to
have been quite productive lately with your releases on I Had an AccidentRecords and Mism Records as well as a couple of releases last year. Can you tell us
about your current and upcoming projects and what's the reason that a lot of
your records have ended up on many different labels?
If I had
not been so productive over the last ten years I think I would have lost it by
now. My endless gratitude for the friends that believe in me and help me
release music is uncharted.
As always,
there’s a slew of things on the working wheel: new record with oskar ohlson, 2
goats gloom(FRKSE, dug yuck, myself) releases to hit the turf next year, just
produced an album for papervehicle’s The Beastmaster, and slowly skinning the Evak1&babelfishh skeletons. I’m sure there is others…..
When I
think of Texas and hip hop I have to admit that the kind of names that pop up
in my head are the likes of Geto Boys and DJ Screw. I think it's quite safe to
say that your style differs a lot from them. How has your music been greated
locally?
An
interesting subject that I rarely ponder.
As of the
last 8 months or so, I’ve played every local show as part of a tandem
performance with the mighty Evak1. The two of us have similar ways or digesting
the rigors of a workweek and we’re constantly on the prowl for platforms to
release the fumes in our veins. With that being said, we take on a lot of shows
that turn out to be wonderful and others that are a borderline waste of time.
The raging release of bustling workday misanthropy has always been important to
us; we have no idea how we are truly received out here.
Do you feel
like you're a part of the regular hip hop scene or do you feel like the odd one
out
I don’t
believe that the seam of music listening ears we fall into can be chalked up
into one seam. People who make interesting music attract interesting and rather
indefinable listeners. At least I like to believe that; I think it’s fairly
accurate.
Ever since
your first release your music has had a very lo-fi and rough sound to it. I get
the feeling that you, in many ways, have more in common with punk aesthetics
than with hip hop. Has this type of music had a great impact on you growing up?
I’ve always
been on some Minor Threat to Mobb Deep to Gehenna to Swordplay to Tommy Wright III to Infest type shit. Switching the musical styles up but keeping it similar
in some odd blend. I’d say the ideas that engulf the punk sub-culture have
always resonated with me more deeply though. It took me years to fully grasp it
and it’s stronger than ever at this point rather than when I was growing up.
Do you have
any musical memories that you’d like to share with us that has meant a lot to
you?
On tour in Portland Oregon I saw the ghost of
Jim Croce in a pirate themed strip club. This event took place years after he
died. The following morning I awoke in a crowded hotel room next to Lewee Regal--half-naked with a freshly cut head of wounds and hideously wild hair. He
was just lying on the covers as I was resting underneath…bodies scattered
everywhere….as he climbed under the covers in total slumber…I climbed out of
them. This was just a mere amount of hours after I first heard that Rodney Dangerfield died. I’m not really sure how much this random stretch of events
meant to me. Haha, it all gets catalogued somewhere though.
What are you up to when you're not living your rap life? The daily
blue-collar work whistle in a small cowboy meth town. Showering metal sparks
and the birth of a lot of my writing steam. I just plow through the day(s) with
hopes of coming home and working on the things that keep my half-sane
throughout the slim amount of energy left.
As we're
getting near the end of yet another year, what have been your favourite records
of 2011?
This year I
really did not listen to many new albums, mostly older stuff and unreleased
songs from the homies I can think of a
few newer things though.
Obsessed
with raccoons and baseball. Stay home until the walls wear me thin. Do what I
feel and keep the majority of strong opinions to myself. Sit by the trains with
a few cans instead of going to work on occasion. Four hours of sleep, coffee,
and busy hands. I’ll keep you in close
word until the bookshelf tips forward on itself. Lots of shouts to a lot
people…all my friends slay shit.
Oh, I’m
submitting a song I wrote and recorded during the same time I was mulling over
these questions. I think it hatched out of all of this. It’s random and
exclusive to this blog for now. I might drop it on a tape at some point, fuck,
who knows. Thank you very very much for inviting me to do this.
Album of the year. Not always easy to pick out one specific record from the immense amount of music released during the course of a whole year. But this year the decision was an easy one for me. Ever since I first heard it back in April I've been in love with it. A Band of Buriers consists of James P Honey and Jamie Romain and they are creating some of the most beautiful music that I ever heard. The closest way to describe the sound is alternative folk rap and it is simply the soundtrack of my year. The mix of styles work perfectly together, and no matter if James is singing or rapping, his voice and lyrics hit my heart every time. And this is a really unique album in that sense that even if I could just listen to the vocals, or just the beautiful music created on guitar and cello by James and Jamie, I would be more than satisfied because it all speaks to me on so many levels. And them coming together is a true match made in heaven and I will follow these guys wherever they go in the future. Another great example how decorative stamp killed it in 2011!
I asked James about his personal musical highlight of the year, and here's what he haid to say:
My musical event of the year has been and ongoing one... to watch the
label that Reindeer and I started innocently back in 2008 grow and
continue to grow. The releases this year have been sensational and their
is so much more to come. Reindeer has taken the rudder and steered the
ship in to golden sun kissed waters... Decorative Stamp is smashing
it...
I am well aware that the official release of this album was at the end of 2010, but honestly, I don't care. I got my hands on it at the beginning of the year so that's why it ends up on this year's list. And just so you know, it would easily have fitted on last year's list too. Hell, if you had put both years lists together it would still have been at the absolute top. But enough of that now. Hearing Brad Hamers rap is always a treat for my ears. If I would make a top 5 list of my all time favourite lyricists Brad would be one of them without a doubt. Ever since I first heard him as a part of Phlegm I've been a big fan of his music. Since then he has released music together with Big Pauper under the name Two Ton Sloth (who early readers of this blog might remember from the compilation Du Ska Inte Tro Det Blir Sommar which I put together back in 2007) and two great solo albums. His last one Ligature came out in 2007. This follow up to that album has been a long time in the waiting, but it has been worth the wait. His melancholy lo-fi productions create images in front of my eyes and take me on a ride to another place. And
on top of that we have his amazing lyrics. Brad Hamers is one of the
few artists that I like to have the lyrics in front of me at the same
time as I listen. In that way I don't risk missing out on any of the
beautiful poetry that he layers upon the tracks. Post No Dreams
is a wonderful piece of art, plain and simple.
When asked about his own musical reflections of the past year, this is what he had to say:
To be honest with you…I feel pretty disconnected from what’s been
happening in music this year…I guess I’ve just been busy working on my
own projects…and unfortunately haven’t had the time to discover much…
But let’s see..as far as what I have heard this year…I am digging on:
the new Tom Waits – Bad As Me (as well as Big Pauper’s remix tape..Broke As Me)
of course Big Pauper’s long awaited – Beyond My Means LP ..(and Big
Pauper has also been doing a lot of amazing things with video this year:
http://bigpauper.virb.com/) Bill Callahan – Apocalypse (especially the track: Riding For The Feeling)
the new 13&God – Own Your Ghost
I love the song Virus off the new Bjork LP
I’m also loving the solo tracks by Nick Zamutto (of The Books) that I’ve heard…particularly: YAY and Idiom Wind…can’t wait to hear the
full-length..
I’m really digging on everything Walter Gross is
doing…(his video work is dope too!)..and his ectoplasmic podcasts get a
lot of play over here while I’m collaging...especially #2…which is where I discovered another new artist I’m really feeling: The Savage Young Taterbug…dope shit! …hmm what else…well I know this record dropped last
year..but I’ve gotten into it a lot more as of late..Xiu Xiu – Dead God I
Hate Myself…(Xiu Xiu is still my favorite ish I think)….I’m also
looking forward to hearing the new Kate Bush record.. I think it just
dropped…
I recently got my hands on some live recordings of Godspeed! You Black Emperor’s last tour..with some new songs!.....
I was feeling Death Grips a bit…
And Beck’s Record Club – Songs Of Leonard Cohen.
...I feel like I’m missing some stuff…but there’s a taste…
When it comes to hip hop, the best is usually when both the emcee and the producer deliver and together creates something special. Remove the lyricist and the pressure upon the producer at once gets bigger. Without lyrics he has to paint soundscapes and create moods that tells the stories the emcee usually help out with. Very often it doesn't quite work out and the music just sounds flat and one dimensional. But whenever the producer manages to to everything right, many times the result is better than the majority of rhyme filled music out there. Few people master this better than AbSUrd. His debut album Close to Distantly manages to paint so many beautiful pictures that you just want to come back to it time after time. The record is about 50 percent instrumental and it's perfect music all the way through it. Never ones do I miss hearing vocals on those tracks. And when he brings in guests to rhyme on them he has picked some of the finest out there. Ceschi, bleubird, babelfishh and James P Honey are just a few of them, and they all come up with some amazing stuff. And if mattr. was my favourite producer of 2010, that title this year goes to AbSUrd. I've also heard that he's currently working on a new album with one of my favourite emcees, and I can't wait to hear it!
Astronautalis. After releasing some good records throughout the years, 2011 became the year when he took that extra step up the ladder when he released This is Our Science on Fake Four Inc. And I'm really happy for the extra attention that he got this year because he deserves it. This album is a perfect showcase of the width of his talent. There is a mixed bag of styles and themes on it, but it all fits perfectly together and it's one of those albums that I listen to on a weekly basis ever since its release. This is Our Science is without a doubt the finest album released on Fake Four Inc. this year, and that is no mean feat.
Sometimes when you review a record you quite easily find the words to explain what you think of the album. Sometimes you just more or less get overwhelmed by the pure beauty of the music you're listening to, and all words in the world just feels like it will cheapen the experience that you just had. Amidst the Grease and Chaos is such an album. Ever since it came out I've been in love with it, and the crazy geniuses behind iron filings and sellotape have definitely made 2011 a much better year just by creating this album. So I will leave it like this and let the music speak for itself. Do yourself a favour. Listen to it from the beginning to the end in one go. It'll blow you away.
This was probably one of the biggest surprises for me this year. I used to really like Digable Planets back in the days, but that group and it's members disappeared to the back of my mind and I haven't thought the least bit about what they are up to nowadays. And then this album popped up. Butterfly from Digable Planets returns as Shabazz Palaces and give us one of the most interesting hip hop records in quite a while. I admit that I totally missed out on the two EP's he'd previously released so I was really taken by surprise. Take one part Dead Prez and one part Flying Lotus and you're coming quite close to the sound of Black Up. It's one of those records that actually manages to feel futuristic and classic at the same time. Jazz for the space age.
I first heard this album back in April and knew as soon as I'd listened to it that I would get to return to it now for the countdown of the best albums of 2011. There is something quite magical about the combination of doseone, Jel, Marcus Acher and Dax Pierson. It's like putting together some of the best indie pop out there with one of the finest emcees out there and the result is 13&God. Their debut album 13&God came out 6 years ago. I just hope we don't have to wait 6 more years to hear the follow up to Own Your Ghost. Music don't really get much better than this.
Brand new video from Little Eskimo Jesus. Amazing music once again from mattr. and Ira Lee, and I can't wait for the follow up to last year's Never Trust the People.
This was one album that really blew me away with it's simplicity. I have liked what Serengeti have done earlier with Polyphonic, but this is one another level all together. With help from Yoni Wolf and Advance Base, we are served an album filled with strange characters, dark humour, great melodies and a broad variety of stories. The thing however that I like the most about this album is how good it makes me feel everytime I listen. Whenever the opening song Tracks starts playing in my headphone I smile. Because then I know that I'm in for a 31 minutes of the best music around at the moment. Yet another feather in the hat this year for anticon.
When asked what his personal best musical moment of the year was, Serengeti said:
"Going on the WHY? tour. Great venues, great folk to travel with and great fans. It was special to play with Doug McDiarmid."
These last few years I have noticed that I have started to listen to more and more instrumental records. Not only because I getting growingly tired of listen to the same old kind of rhymes time after time, but also because as long as people like Alias is out there, you don't really need emcees. Ever since the beginnings of anticon he has constantly shined. I know a lot of people miss the good old days when he didn't just produce amazing songs but also was a first class emcee. I can agree with that, some of that label's finest moments are the early stuff from him. But the thing that makes me feel satisfied and content is that he has gone from strength to strength ever since. No matter if he's producing beats for people like Sage Francis, bleubird or B. Dolan, or releasing superb albums together with his brother Ehren or Tarsier, he constantly keeps evolving. And his latest release Fever Dream is just yet another example that when it comes to producing, few people can even come close to Brendon Whitney.
Time again then for a double review. Haven't heard of it? Well, simply put me and my friend Jessika picks a record to review. We listen to the music and write our reviews independently of each other in order to get two opinions about the same album.
Michael's review:
A Loud Heart is the collaboration between the emcee and poet Guante and singer/songwriter Claire Taubenhaus. Right at once it's obvious that we're dealing with a very talented emcee in Guante. Confident on the mic, relevant lyrics and a nice flow. He reminds me quite a lot of Kristoff Krane, but not in a copycat way. He definitely have own thing going, and I like it. I have to say thay I really like the voice of Claire too. Strong, clear and and the same time warm. The five track EP deals with very personal and strong subjects with love as its foundation. I personally keep coming back to Ember, a track about the struggle against alcohol abuse. It's lyrics is very straight on and honest, and I like it. There is however something about all this that don't quite work for me. Like I said I really like listening to both artists, and I will make sure to keep my eyes open for them in the future. They do not however work well together if you ask me. It's difficult to say exactly what it is, but it clashes too much to be good in my ears. I like the idea behind it, but probably this was a project that looked better on paper than in reality. It might also be nice live, but on record it falls kind of flat. With that being said, I'm very happy that there are people out there who dares to try something a bit different, and it was really nice to hear a record without a single beat on it.
Jessika's review:
The very first thing that strikes me when I
start my listening is the fact that these two people really know what they are
doing. A Loud Heart's Claire Taubenhaus voice is very good. She has a refreshingly
clean voice and it is so nice to hear a girl sing without any wailing or making
other strange noises in an attempt to be different. In my opinion there is a
lack of simplicity nowadays.
Guante made me happy when I realized that I
could actually hear what he was on about. What surprises me when I´m introduced
to hip hop is that it is rare that you hear clearly what they have to say, which surprises me because I thought that
what they had to say, was as important as the music or even more. Being a Swede and English not being my native
tongue, might have something to do with it. Anyway, thanks Guante for thinking
about us less fortunate.
Ok, back to the serious business. I like these
two talents as I said, but I´m not so sure about them two working together.I think the reason why I don´t like it so
much is that they are way too sweet in this constellationand that makes it boring after a
while. On
a wholethey seem like a cute couple singing
about love and life struggles in general. We have heard this before haven´t
we?? Without ever have heard them before I think I`d prefer listening to them
on their own.So, too much sweetness is
the reason why I only give them a 2, 5 out of 5.
This album was a real surprise to me when it came out. I had heard a bit of both Virtue and DJ Emoh Betta before, but the main reason I decided to pick it up was that the album got released on Milled Pavement. And boy was I glad that I did! What is really surprising is how they got the album to feel so focused considering that the production task was handed out to a bunch of different producer. But they really managed to make something that I would like to call a emo head nodder that I keep coming back to all the time. People keep saying that hip hop is dead. Well, not as long as these guys are around.
