“In The Rotation” - May Edition
Rap
Jev.
With some rappers, you just know they got it. Jev. is a straight up rap killer, comparable to the likes of Joey Bada$$ and JID. It makes sense then, that he dubs and presents himself as the “black samurai.” on the cover of his first album the color grey. Overall, it's a pretty polished project with “where’s the confetti.”, “and then i got revenge.” and “freedom or fame ?” as the standout tracks.
You see a different side of the rapper on his second album, when angels cry. Packed with gospel notes and carefully selected samples, the project reflects Jev.’s venture into a deeper sense of creative freedom. With less to prove this time around, tracks like “WINGS IN THE SKY.” and “WIPE MY TEARS.” reveal some unexpected, but pleasantly surprising, moments of vulnerability. The contrary lies in the songs “ALICE.” and “FAMOUS.” - reminding everyone that his killer attitude hasn’t gone anywhere.
House
Bunt
I got the chance to see Bunt at the start of the month in what turned out to be the perfect setting to hear him live. On the same stage he shared with Xandra and SidePiece that day at Knoxville’s Thaw Out Music Festival, Bunt played his set while festival lights dotted up the gray sky and rain fell at a slant. Experiencing Bunt’s tracks with that backdrop surely made up for the puddles in my shoes and chattering teeth.
Levi Wijk, age 30 from Stuttgart, Germany, has leveled up from his electronic folk, Avicii-inspired days to his modern style. I’d call it “hyper-psych house”, but I’ve also seen “stutter house” mentioned online. Regardless of the genre label, these tracks are filled with energy, distorted effects, and color (“Bunt” means “colorful” in German). His three biggest hits “Clouds”, “Trippin” and “Lose It All (I Don’t Wanna)” were electric to hear live. Over the course of the show, he also dropped in some remixes of Fred Again’s “Delilah” and Temper Trap’s “Sweet Disposition” that kept the crowd engaged. Check out his soundcloud for all these tracks and even a M83 or Billie Eilish remix by him.
Indie
Maribou State
Read that again. It’s Maribou with an “r” not Malibou with an “l” - a mistake I make everytime I go to look the UK lads up. I’ve struggled to find a proper place for the duo in my laundry list of playlists. Most of their tracks have an upbeat, “housed up” version of Khruangbin to them. I welcome this sound from the group, it is in between the two trends and exists in its own right. On the other hand, when vocal collaborators appear on a Maribou State song, these start sounding more like pop songs for a summer night with the windows down and stars out. Off their newest album “Hallucinating Love”, you will get this type of vibe.
Regardless of what end of the musical spectrum the group chooses to lean towards, the magic is in the details. Pick apart some of these beats and you will notice just how many faint sounds/tweaks are thrown in. For example, listen to “Eko’s” and notice each distortion/variation in the song. Without being overly complex, they come up with a multitude of riffs/accents off the main melody or rhythm that makes for some damn good production in the end.
tUnE-yArDs
This group has an odd name, which you will come to find to be completely indicative of their sound. If ADHD had a soundtrack, Oakland natives Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner have somehow found it. That is the simplest way to describe their catalogue, coming from a writer with an undiagnosed version of the superpower. Don’t let this group’s experimentation scare you away - trust me, you will get it soon enough if you stick with it. They have a groove for everyone.
Equal parts industrial, experimental, and sophisticated the tUnE-yArDs will have you wanting more of whatever it is they have created. It’s like the duo took all these musical scraps and pieced them together into a some sort of broken whole. A big reason why it works is because of Merrill Garbus’ free-ranging vocals. Garbus will find her way to one vocal pocket that works for the moment, then back out to push the melodic boundaries with some improvisational singing once again.
The progression on “Heartbreak” and “Powa” are two of my favorites from the group, along with the entirety of their 2011 album W H O K I L L. Sidenote, their track “Water Fountain” was a part of the FIFA 15 soundtrack - this brought back some good memories immediately.
Sun Room
Great summer music here, especially if you’re into surfer rock. “Sol de Sur” and “Clementine” are great examples of this band in their prime, playing off of some sunkissed guitar riffs that will put you in a summer daze. After a while, though, that surf rock can definitely get old, unless you’re on a beach all day with a cooler of coronas next to you. Luckily, the “Outta Their Minds” EP brings forth a different style. I like to think that the punk style presented on this EP is what happens late at night when all the surfers at the beach party decide to turn it up a notch. It probably ends up like that bonfire fight scene in OuterBanks.
