The best songs of 2008 so far

Photo from Corey Meredith Another half-year is through, and I'm feeling pretty hopeful. Thus far, it's been a promising six months with lots of great music originating from all sorts of sources. If you've been willing to put in the effort and diversify your tastes, rich rewards lurk in just about every niche. As this list of song list attests, my ear has been largely tuned to electronic and hip-hop in 2008, both of which are showing encouraging signs of life. Hip-hop in particular is on track to have its best year in a while, with great work coming from all over the map. Since I usually find the second half of the year even stronger, there's good reason to believe 2008 will go down as an excellent and far-flung chapter in the annals. 15) “Golpe de Estado” – Immortal Technique ft. Temperamento and Veneno When Felipe Coronel trills his r's, you can almost feel the venom flecking off his tongue. His rage is so immense, it practically pounds out of the speakers. There's nothing subtle about his delivery or his topics, no room for misunderstanding. This is hip-hop at its most nakedly didactic. It's a protest speech delivered through a megaphone, a punch simultaneously directed to the gut and the brain. Though political rap has largely languished during Immortal Technique's long absence, with "Golpe de Estado," Coronel makes up for lost time. He pronounces every word like it's the last he'll ever get. He doesn't spit fire, he exhales it, incinerating any motherfucker dumb enough to stand in his way. * MP3: "Golpe de Estado" - Immortal Technique ft. Temperamento and Veneno from The 3rd World [Buy it] 14) "Philly Codes" - Nico the Beast ft. Zilla Rocca and 2ew Gunn Ciz Although I recently devoted five fat paragraphs to it, that still wasn't enough to point out everything I like about Nico the Beast's "Philly Codes." For one, I didn't get to mention Alex Wood's limber, spirited production, which gives the track a lot of its momentum. It's a full-bodied beat, loaded up with stirring claps and flourishes, but one that never distracts from the three able rappers. Another feature I didn't mention enough is the chorus, which finds Nico tough and territorial as ever but also allowing a nice touch of sentimentality to peek through. If I had more room, I'd also reiterate in greater depth how powerfully Zilla and 2ew Gunn Ciz rock their verses, but once again, "Philly Codes"'s positives just can't be contained in the space allotted. * MP3: "Philly Codes" - Nico the Beast ft. Zilla Rocca and 2ew Gunn Ciz from No Beast So Fierce [Buy it] * Previously: Home of the cheesesteak, the beef piled sky high 13) "Back It Up" - Feadz ft. Spank Rock * MP3: "Back It Up" - Feadz ft. Spank Rock from Ed Rec Vol. III [Buy it] * Previously: And do that stuff that your mama calls smut 12) "Dirty and Hard" - Djedtronic ft. Spoek Just above everything you need to know about French DJ Djedjotronic's "Dirty and Hard" is right there in the title. It's steered by a messy, grubby groove, the aural equivalent of hangover bedhead. And it bangs reliably under your feet, full of deep bass and slip-and-slide electronics. Add in South African MC Spoek's flow, which is essentially just one long, satisfying hook, and "Dirty and Hard" feels like a dancefloor dream. Because this song's designed to get you grinding and sweating, it'll definitely get you dirty. As for the second part, well, I guess that's up to you. * MP3: "Dirty and Hard" - Djedjtronic ft. Spoek [Visit Djedjtronic] [Visit Spoek] 11) "Hoobity Blah" - El-P "Settle down, skipper, that's so September tenth of you," sneers El-P on the opening track of his tour-only mixtape. He's clearly mocking the fat-headed politicians and pundits who offer similar lines with straight faces, who try sparking culture wars with jihadist zeal. But it's also a middle finger to the rappers who act oblivious and don't speak to their times. In contrast, El-P rhymes like he hasn't slept a wink since that dark morning. He's become our bleary-eyed prophet, our sign-waving James Cole, presaging hell around every corner. It's clear he's been irreparably affected by current events, after seven years still bravely voicing a damage so monstrous and fantastic. * MP3: "Hoobity Blah" - El-P from Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixx2 [Buy other El-P] * Previously: Get it poppin' like epileptics on bubble wrap 10) "Wrestlers" - Hot Chip Although IDM (intelligent dance music) typically refers to such acts as Orbital and Aphex Twin, I think the genre label would fit Hot Chip more aptly. After all, the London quintet is as smart as they are smart-alecky, thumbing their noses and grinning madly through much of Made in the Dark. Their song "Bendable Poseable" is as much about their malleable aesthetic as anything else, and "Wrestlers" is even more on the nose. "Hit you in the sweet spot," Alexis Taylor sings right before the music obliges with a viscerally pleasing riff. Like its subject, "Wrestlers" is all about theatricality, agility, and bouncing goofily from corner to corner. Sure, it's mostly one colossal joke, but under all that showmanship, there's also serious technique on display and even some glimpses of real pain. 9) "Home Life" - Shearwater * Previously: Desert shores and the forest green and a limitless life 8) "Wedding Ring" - J-Direct A delicious slice of hip-hop cheese, "Wedding Ring" finds J-Direct MC Fitzgerald in full loverman mode. "I don't lack lust, that's a cute brunette,/ I'm all over that thing with my wet palate," he croons at a bar like a last-call lothario. But what could be a simple tale of a one-night-stand grows into a terrific dialogue full of intimate details and real-life desires. It gets better and better with every line, reminding me of other great give-and-takes like "I Got A Man" and "You Got Me." It culminates with the perfect chorus, in which Fitzgerald proclaims the cause of his lust: "Your wedding ring keeps turning me on, ah-ah-on ah-ah-on." Paired with Jason Griffin's clever sample of The Flaming Lips' "All You Need Is Now," the song is hilarious, sexy, honest, and most surprisingly, oddly poignant. * MP3: "Wedding Ring" - J-Direct [Buy other J-Direct] 7) "Mecca and the Ox" - Vast Aire ft. Vordul Mega Dueces Wild's main accomplishment is making The Cold Vein look even better by comparison. The first way it does this is by being a mostly mediocre album with mostly mediocre production. But the other way is having "Mecca and the Ox" as its high point, a song that sets up a mini-reunion of heyday Can Ox. Reunited, the pair complements each other with strong back-to-back verses and some sharp rhymes. It's not so much yin and yang, as yang piled on top of more yang, which sounds even better to me. Now if only someone could tell Vast how to spell "deuces." * MP3: "Mecca and the Ox" - Vast Aire ft. Vordul Mega from Dueces Wild [Buy it] 6) "20K Money Making Brothers on the Corner" - Re-Up Gang * MP3: "20K Money Making Brothers on the Corner" - Re-Up Gang from We Got It For Cheap, Vol. 3 [Buy it] 5) "Get Busy" - The Roots ft. Dice Raw, Peedi Crack and DJ Jazzy Jeff Outgunning Jay-Z's "99 Problems," "Get Busy" is the best song Rick Rubin never produced. It's got his trademark boombox thump, that hard rock vibe with the hip-hop attitude. Or as Black Thought puts it, "part Melle Mel, part Van Halen." But The Roots don't stop at mere homage and even with masterful production. Like the overachievers they are, we also get Black Thought and Dice Raw at their most ferocious, some old-school scratch samples from Jazzy Jeff, and best of all, a brilliant verse from Peedi Crack. He's freewheeling and light-hearted where the other two rappers are heavy, proving there's more than one way to kill a killer beat. 4) "Driving Down The Block" (Remix ft. Bun B, Pusha T, and the Cool Kids) - Kidz in the Hall * MP3: "Driving Down The Block" (Remix ft. Bun B, Pusha T, and the Cool Kids) - Kidz in the Hall from The In Crowd [Buy it] * Previously: Crank up my alpine, and my bass crazy kickin' it 3) "Swang on 'Em" - Bun B ft. Lupe Fiasco If the "Drivin' Down The Block" remix is my go-to jam for suburban joyrides, "Swang on 'Em" is my essential song for walking down the street. I know, I know, most people don't need a soundtrack to cross a sidewalk, but it's really their loss. With my oversized headphones draped like earmuffs and my Ray-Bans on, nothing gets my heart rate revving like this pop-rap stunner. From the brassy drumline beat to its bouncy meter, from Bun B's blustery confidence to Lupe Fiasco's stealth-genius guest spot, "Swang on 'Em" has loads of energy to spare. Every time I put it on repeat, it ensures I'll wind up miles from home. * MP3: "Swang on 'Em" - Bun B ft. Lupe Fiasco from II Trill [Buy it] 2) "We're Looking For A Lot of Love" - Hot Chip Hot Chip's always been about modulation, but Made In the Dark finds them slowing their pace more than ever. Four full songs feature their weird take on pop-soul ballads, with "We're Looking For A Lot of Love" being the marvel of the lot. "You see me everywhere," Alexis Taylor sings, somewhere between the Four Tops and Flight of the Conchords. "I see you in my boots and in my hair." That's a bizarre admission for a love song, but the ache in Taylor's voice sells it as eerily true. Lately, it even has me revising my policy on Hot Chip's slower tracks. Whereas I once skipped past them to get to the dance songs, "We're Looking For A Lot of Love" has become the destination I'm racing to reach. * MP3: "We're Looking For A Lot of Love" - Hot Chip from Made In The Dark [Buy it] 1) "Vanished" - Crystal Castles I used to be one of the cynical masses, sneering at remixes as lazy cash-grabs. Tinker slightly with the beat or slap on a few extra verses, and you can stick it on a fifteen-dollar import single. But if I've learned anything from doing this blog (dubious but possible), it's that remixing is just as delicate and vital an art as songwriting. "Vanished" is the perfect example, transforming a decent Van She song into sonic gold. Just by altering the beat and expanding the musical sections, Crystal Castles makes "Vanished" exponentially more gorgeous. Compared to the original, it glitters and swaggers with whole new life. I can't imagine any song sounding better in 2008, but just in case, I'm going to wait for the remix. * MP3: "Vanished" - Crystal Castles from Crystal Castles [Buy it] * Previously: Come see the city with me Up next: The best singles of 2008 so far

Let their kingdom come tonight

Shearwater @ Club Lambi, 6-22-08 "Leviathan, Bound" "Century Eyes" * MP3: "Rooks" (Live) - Shearwater from Live on University of Minnesota's Radio K * MP3: "Leviathan, Bound" (Live) - Shearwater from Live from University of Minnesota's Radio K [Buy Rook] (MP3s via The Torture Garden)

Listening booth #38

Photo by opobs * MP3: "No Love" - SoKo [Visit her] * MP3: "Mi Viejo" - Ratatat from LP3 [Preorder it] * MP3: "A Cause Des Garçons" (TEPR Remix) - Yelle [Buy other Yelle] You can check out more of Mike's photography here.

The writing on the wall #35

Montreal edition #9

The writing on the wall #34

Montreal edition #8

Underground legend

A few weeks ago, I was walking around my neighborhood photographing graffiti. In front of the mural I'd planned to shoot, I found a unicyclist doing tricks. He was pulling off some pretty amazing maneuvers, and after I stood there gawking in admiration for a while, we struck up a conversation. Turns out his name is Sam Haber, and he has numerous videos documenting his unicycle acrobatics. Impressively, the movies are almost as good as the moves themselves, sharply filmed, well-edited and exciting to watch. With talent like this, I think it's fair to say Sam Haber isn't just a unique athlete--he's singlehandedly reinventing the wheel. NYC - "Session 1" "Natty Street" "The Triton" "Back in the Game" You can check out more of Sam Haber's work at Uneed Films and his Vimeo channel here.

Desert shores and the forest green and a limitless life

Art by SkyShaper Last year, I wrote about the decline of mystery. It led off a discussion of one of my favorite albums, Van Morrison's Veedon Fleece, but it's also a topic I've been thinking about generally ever since. In this era of accessibility, so few albums are willing to risk being just a little inscrutable. Whatever they have to offer is laid bare on the first few listens, and repeat spins rarely yield anything new. There's no slow bloom of songs unveiling their layers. There's no sense of something lurking beyond the horizon line, just out of reach. That's why I'm so thankful for Shearwater's recently released Rook. In just over thirty-eight minutes, it's an album that feels refreshingly epic. It's not just a collection of songs, but a genuine song-cycle with overarching themes, recurring images, and an arc of moods. It eludes as much as it evokes, often venturing into the realm of myth and allegory. The music is beautifully impressionistic too, rising and ebbing like symphony suites. Lush strings swell into the action, the woodwind sections flutter up weightlessly, and Thor Harris' drumming alternates between urgency and omen. In fact, in spite of the oft-repeated (and deserved) comparisons to Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden, the album Rook reminds me most of is Veedon Fleece itself. Like Van Morrison, lead singer Jonathan Meiburg knows how to wring the most out of his voice's upper range. Like his predecessor, the bulk of his lyrics address the strange, often transformative overlaps between nature and human nature. Both write vividly about anti-heroes, dreamers, and wayfarers, one part Romantic poet for every two parts rock musician. And most significantly of all, both inject serious doses of mysticism and mystery into their works. In a telling tip-off, Meiburg acknowledges the debt by starting "Home Life" with the opening line from Veedon Fleece's "You Don't Pull No Punches, But You Don't Push The River": "When you were a child, you were a tomboy." "Home Life," like Morrison's song, is the longest track and one of the album's key centerpieces. The song opens with a girl looking out of her window, conjuring up the world's possibilities. "You were tracing the lines of the globe with your fingers--/ Cool rivers, white waste, desert shores, and the forest green/ And a limitless life/ In the breath of each tide and the bright mountains rising," Meiburg sings at the threshold of revelation. His voice swims up like plumes of smoke; a gentle dulcimer and shy piano sound perfectly matched together. With every verse, Meiburg expands his scope as the music follows suit. The girl comes of age, witnessing how destructive humanity can be. But in a turn toward the fantastic, she also receives her destiny at a river's edge: "'You are bound to your life like a mother and child,/ You will cling to your life like a suckering vine,/ And like the rest of our kind, you will increase/ And increase past all of our dreaming.'" It sounds hopeful at first, full of bounty and prosperity. But the more I hear it, the more it also takes on sinister connotations--confinement, overgrowth, and, with the vine imagery, expanse at the expense of other life. Even after my fortieth listen, the lines still haven't become any less beguiling or revealing. The only greater mystery is how Shearwater managed to produce songs this thrillingly limitless. * MP3: "Home Life" - Shearwater from Rook [Buy it] * Website: Shearwater

Video Tuesday #54

"Hit and Red" Ghislain Poirier "Tell Me" Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings "Hey Ladies" Beastie Boys "Mirando" Ratatat "Another Day" Jamie Lidell "Ladies of the World" Flight of the Conchords

The writing on the wall #33

Montreal edition #7 * Previously: The writing on the wall #22 * Previously: The writing on the wall #21 * Previously: The writing on the wall #20 * Previously: The writing on the wall #19 * Previously: The writing on the wall #18 * Previously: The writing on the wall #17

Still I walk in darkness

Photo by Emiliano Stefanelli The first thing you'll probably notice about Daniel Clay is his voice. Crisp and smoky, it has a richness reminiscent of other folk singers like Danny Schmidt or Horse Feathers' Justin Ringle. Throughout The Protestant, it also sounds assured and unwavering, a transmission of the faithful. But on Clay's collection of railyard ballads and backroad hymns, all kinds of doubts sneak in even as his register rises. In the most startling example, he sings, "Though I claim your name, I curse it every day." Though that should sound like blasphemy, Clay's earthy timbre somehow still sells it as devotional. Those lines comes from "You Prepare My Way," the best example of Clay's mission. It treats religion not as some paint-by-numbers salvation, but a path equally fraught with challenge and reward. Casting himself as a wayward follower, Clay thoughtfully explores the many contradictions embedded in modern belief. But like his choir-boy delivery, the structure he uses to do this is both surprisingly traditional and thematically ingenious. Guided by a simple guitar strum and a recurring melody, every lyric connects to the next like a psalm or a scripture. His opening verse, "Though I walk in darkness, I will fear no evil.../ Though I fear no evil, I still cry and tremble.../ Though I cry and tremble, I refuse your comfort.../ Though I refuse your comfort, still I claim your name," is an especially poignant look at the contours of faith. It's important to remember the second meaning of "protestant" when listening to this album: one who protests. Before Protestantism became the dominant Christian body, it was an alternative, a reformation to the bloat and corruption of Catholicism. Today, in the age of megachurches and million-dollar televangelists, Clay seems to again be advocating a return to deeper, more meaningful purpose. On his most overt confession, the closer "Zion," he sings, "I can see no difference between Christians and consumers,/ I can tell no difference between the preachers and public officials,/ I can see no difference the Bibles and billboards.../ I can tell no difference between my neighborhood and the kingdom." Even at his most critical, he sounds reverent and hopeful that things will change for the better. Whether or not we ascend to heaven, he seems to say, the meek have a lot of work to take up here and now. * MP3: "You Prepare My Way" - Daniel Clay from The Protestant * MP3: "Zion" - Daniel Clay from The Protestant [Buy it] * Website: Daniel Clay * MySpace: Daniel Clay

Home of the cheesesteak, the beef piled sky high

Photo by pwbaker Rap is about place, pure and simple. More than any other musical genre I can think of--more than blues, more than jazz, more than country--it absorbs and documents the world around it. You can find that geography in sound, from the manic loopiness of Yay Area hyphy to the languid drawl of Houston's Chopped and Screwed to the hybrid house-thump of Baltimore's club scene. Even more likely though, you'll hear rappers flaunting their hometowns in their lyrics like they were sitting members of the Chamber of Commerce. It's not just a point of pride however; because rap is so often rooted in autobiographical nostalgia, the cities aren't just settings for stories but become full-on characters themselves. Think how impossible it would be to disassociate Nas from "coming outta Queensbridge," the Roots and their Illadelph half-lives, or Lil Wayne and his "lost city of New Or-leans." Kanye West even literally personalizes his city's streets on "Homecoming," rapping: "I met this girl when I was three years old/ And what I love most, she had so much soul/ She said, 'Excuse me little homie, I know you don't know me,/ But my name is Windy, and I like to blow trees.'/ And from that point, I never blow her off." But more often, you discover the smells, sounds and sights in the sharp details rappers convey, such as Talib Kweli's iconic offering on Black Star's "Definition": "Brooklyn, New York City, where they paint murals of Biggie/ In cash we trust 'cause it's ghetto-fabulous, life look pretty/ What a pity, blunts is still fifty cents, it's intense/ Tree scents is dominant, can't be covered with incense." "Philly Codes," off of Nico the Beast's new solo album, No Beast So Fierce, is another potent example of civic boasting at its best. In keeping with the brotherly love theme, Clean Guns' Nico gets assists from fellow residents 2ew Gunn Ciz and Zilla Rocca, to rep his South Philly stomping grounds. 2ew Gunn Ciz wastes no time on his guest spot, laying out his intentions with this really smart pronoucement: "If it ain't the P on the fitted, you get it in the flow/ I paint my city's pictures like I'm Vincent Van Gogh/ So I don't make albums, I create a art show." Zilla also rocks his time on the mic, delivering one of his very best efforts to date. It's hard to isolate just a few good lines, but his observation, "City sleepin', row homes, phone lines squeezin',/ After twelve, you'll find a parking spot the same time you find Jesus" is especially precise and terrific. Lines like that also help reveal just why hometown hip-hop is so often so well-done. Because rap can veer too abstract, vague or general, speaking about specific streets and specific eras forces rappers to get particular. It enables them to tell vivid, memorable stories using all the information they intimately know. Consider this part of Nico's verse, where the toughness he generally brags about in the chorus gets a closer look: "Men will respect you here/ Eventual death is here/ Sent to the resting plot, what you expect to hear?/ The mayor is crooked too/ And he does a look at you, like, 'Where the fuck you from?'/ Maybe they'll take your jewels." With just that brief section, he provides a pretty deep characterization of Philly--everyone, it seems, from the underclass to the top officials, has to hustle to get by here. That weird complexity is another reason that hometown hip-hop is worth hearing. In one breath, a rapper indicts his city for its shortcomings and failings, while in the very next, pledges his proud allegiance. But it also rings true, capturing the uneasy process of coming-of-age and staying alive in some of America's roughest urban centers. When Nico observes, "Heart of the city: strong,/ Dark and it's shitty, y'all/ The projects here are pretty raw./ The jungle is hot and waiting/ And tenants are not complacent/ Our menace an occupation/ Awaiting the population," he's evoking all the tough experiences that have brought him this far. You can hear the weight of knowledge but also the profound admiration in every line he spits. That South Philly has shaped so much of his character is clear, but the fact that he, along with Zilla Rocca and 2ew Gunn Ciz, imbues Philly with so much character is the real tribute. * MP3: "Philly Codes" - Nico the Beast ft. Zilla Rocca and 2ew Gunn Ciz from No Beast So Fierce [Buy it] * MySpace: Nico the Beast * Previously: 2-1-5, prepare for glory * Previously: Regarded as great: Clean Guns MP3s * Previously: Good, clean fun: Clean Guns MP3s

Video Tuesday #53

"The Rip" Portishead "I'm Good, I'm Gone" Lykke Li "Council Estate" Tricky "Hummingbird" Caribou "Lay and Love" Bonnie "Prince" Billy "Toejam" (NSFW, sort of) The BPA ft. David Byrne and Dizzee Rascal

Listening booth #37

Drawing by Jason Das * MP3: "Bump" (JAPATTACK! Big Time Remix) - Spank Rock from GET REAL PHILLY NOW: Remixtape Volume 1 [Download the mix] [Visit JAPATTACK!] * MP3: "Summertime Runaway" - Mas y Mas [Buy other Mas y Mas] * MP3: "Our Time" (Tom Neville Remix) - Ocelot from Scion CD Sampler 21: IHEARTCOMIX Remixed - Franki Chan Mixtape [Download the mix] [Visit Ocelot] Check out more great art by Jason Das at Gas Water Nothing.

The writing on the wall #32