BEATS with Dan Rule
Published: Music Australia Guide #76, May 2010.
Flying Lotus
Cosmogramma
*****
Venturing to describe what goes down during Cosmogramma – the extraordinary third album record from young Los Angeles producer Flying Lotus – is a challenge in itself. Resonances of hip hop, IDM and brutal, sub-bass dubstep are loosened, fragmented and liquefied; mazes of stuttering rhythmic and melodic intricacies melt into buttery soul and tangential free jazz. Lotus’s cousin Ravi Coltrane chimes in on saxophone; harpist Rebekah Raff adds rare orchestral flourish; Sa-Ra prodigy Thundercat defies physics on bass; Thom Yorke’s wraithlike vocal tranquilly ebbs and flows. It’s remarkable. This is cosmic future noise with a divine ear for black music’s rich and varied past.
Warp/Inertia
Caribou
Swim
****1/2
Canadia’s Dan Snaith has explored countless musical terrains over his decade-long career. Where his early outings as Manitoba ventured into minimalist folktronica, his work has as Caribou has explored an increasingly vibrant strain of pop-psychedelia. Fifth album Swim shifts course almost completely, with Snaith ushering his once bountiful vistas into intricate, precisely phrased, melancholic dance music. Suffice to say, he pulls it off remarkably. The beauty is in the tonal detail here, with Snaith fashioning stunningly realised, hazily emotive songs into understated techno and house arrangements. Meek, Arthur Russell-like vocals and all, Swim shows just what dance music is capable of in the right hands.
City Slang/Shock
Erykah Badu
New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh
****
America’s queen of neo-soul Erykah Badu loosens the reigns a little on the second instalment of her New Amerykah series. Following 2008’s brilliantly tense, outwardly challenging and socially engaged 4th World War, Return of the Ankh is like a cool summer’s breeze. This is all about arrangement and groove, melody and resonance. The pared back hook and lilting vocal of lead single Window Seat make for one of Badu’s most gorgeous moments since 1997’s Baduism. Cuts like the Dilla-produced Umm Hmm and the lush, supple boom bap and of Fall in Love, meanwhile, are reminders of Badu’s sexy, sophisticated mastery of the art.
Motown/Universal
Meth/Ghost/Rae
Wu-Massacre
***1/2
Wu-Massacre is the latest in a string of recent Clan related recordings and projects. Coming off the back of Rae’s masterful Cuban Linx sequel, this no-filler affair makes for something of rarity in a hip hop game: a tight, razor-sharp record comprising a mere 12 joints. That said, there’s plenty of gold here, with arguably the Wu’s most charismatic trio of MCs clearly enjoying each other’s company over a suite of maximal, brass-stabbed cuts from Mathematics, Digem, BT and RZA. While it all feels a little rushed and unpolished, Wu-Massacre’s rawness is almost part of its appeal. Playful, gritty, at times even hilarious, it shows three eminent rappers spitting verses straight off the cuff.
DefJam/Universal
K-OS
Yes!
***1/2
Canadian rapper, vocalist and producer K-OS is a cultural pillager in the truest sense of the term. The Toronto and Trinidad-raised artist’s vibrant new record Yes! bubbles and boils in a sea of recognisable genres, lyrical reference, samples and appropriations, never hanging around too long to become full-blown pastiche. It’s a fascination approach, which sees him visit rolling southern rap on tracks like Zambony, jangling pop on Burning Bridges, plus various golden era and rap-rock mash-ups. Such unyielding genre flipping does leave Yes! feeling a little disorientated at times, but K-OS’s curious vision and engaging voice remain strong enough to hold this disparate bunch of tunes together.
Crown Loyalist/Shock
