Back around march, el-p put out a long-anticipated 3rd album, and i’ve been sleeping on that shit for three months. Shame on me! I finally picked it up this last week, and my mind is officially blown. A lot of mc/producers claim to be “pushing boundaries”, but mr. jaime meline, aka el-producto is one of the few actually doing just that. It’s a toss-up which is deeper, the beats or the rhymes. The complex grooves reveal something new upon each repeated listen, and el-p’s lyrics are equally compelling, albeit a bit cryptic. The record features some cool cameos from the likes of cedric (the mars volta), chan marshall (cat power), and fellow def-juxer aesop rock. Underground hip-hop’s been in a lethargic state for the last year or so. The aptly-titled “i’ll sleep when you’re dead” was just the jolt it’s been needing. learn from my mistakes… buy this now!
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Do you:
1) like dark sunglasses?
2) like lots of reverb? like, a lot.
3) recognize that jesus & marychain, slowdive, and my bloody valentine are musical gods?
If so, read on.
Sometimes, you just don’t want to listen to music that’s about the state of the world, social change, and the pressures of life in modern times. That’s when you need to be carried away on great washes of noise, ponder loves (past & present), and get lost in a sound that only gets better the louder you turn it up. You need a band like ceremony.
Admittedly, i know very little about ceremony. And god knows i’ve looked. Their myspace page reveals very little about them other than that they hail from fredricksburg, virginia. They may (or may not) bear a connection with fellow spacerockers skywave. I’ve solicited cd’s from them for airplay at kxlu, but they seem totally disinterested in self-promotion. Apparently, they’re perfectly content to play as loudly and fuzzily (huh?) as they can. And i will just have to be content to love them for it.
New releases 6.12.07:
Nothing terribly exciting coming out this week. a couple re-releases for the bongos and sonic youth. There’s datarock, if new wave-style kitsch pop is your thing. And there’s queens of the stone age, which i couldn’t be more ambivalent about. Go buy a kyuss record instead.
As always, i invite you to tune into my radio show every monday 10a-2p on kxlu 88.9fm in los angeles or www.kxlu.com everywhere else. I’ll treat ya right.