i have once again made a little sixty-minute playlist of some music i've been enjoying lately
there is a version on spotify here, which is probably the easiest to access for most people. but the black star and kyu sakamoto tracks are not on spotify, so you'll have to go forage or find me on soulseek. below are some of my loose thoughts because i want to do more longform writing here.
01 - Lupe Fiasco - Drill Music in Zion (2022) - MS. MURAL
i have to confess, i often don't listen to lyrics and process them as language when i listen to music, it's just kind of a rhythm and diction. (it's part of why i like non-anglophone and non-lyrical music so much.) i'm an easy mark for when people do words very fast in rapid succession in music, it just clicks in my brain in a correct way. that said, i kind of couldn't resist putting this song before an old jazz track, and i really love the way the end of this track and the start of the next one flow together.
that said, i think the tracks on this album with nayirah are absolutely incredible—"seattle" might be my favorite track overall on the album
02 - Sonny Rollins - What’s New! (1962) - If Ever I Would Leave You
so, i've talked about this in a few places but probably not here, an ongoing thing i'm doing is that i'm listening to my entire music library in the order it was released, and along the way i've been grabbing a bunch of other stuff to try and fill in the gaps. i have a lot of jazz now. i was always a person who thought "i like jazz, sometimes" but didn't really have anything more concise than "i REALLY like hard bop"
so, i have a lot of jazz now as i crawled a bunch of like... essentials lists and listened to them to get a sense of what was up with that. it's been a lot of fun! my 60' mixes for the last few months have had a lot of jazz in them, and will continue to see them in varying amounts probably, haha.
which is to say... i did not like sonny rollins when he started coming up in my big playlist. he seemed very... generic? but because of the way i'm listening to this music, i'm kind of hitting the early 60s bossa nova wave all at once across a bunch of artists, and i thought this was a nice take on it. which is to say, he's growing on me. plus, that painting on the cover is so good.
03 - Red Snapper - Everybody Is Somebody (2022) - Detach
more jazz-adjacent stuff, i suppose. something about spooky horns in the fog while a murderman chases you. this whole album was really fun for me, a nice range and some great energy. some other tracks that stood out to me: B Planet, Futurist, Out of Focus, Black Sea
04 - Melt Yourself Down - Pray For Me I Don’t Fit In (2022) - Pray For Me I Don't Fit In
when the horns go? yeah. i like this whole album a lot, and also... that cover art!
05 - Cities Aviv - MAN PLAYS THE HORN (2022) - TIME & TIME
this was my first cities aviv album—i didn't come away from my first listen especially enjoying the verses on this album, but some of the instrumental breaks were great, so i stuck to that
06 - El Ten Eleven - New Year's Eve (2022) - The Time Knife
when the guitar makes those scwombly noises? yeah. it's simply good.
07 - サカナクション - アダプト (2022) - 月の椀
part and parcel with the way i'm listening through my library is that i'm listening to whole albums, so i'm trying to like... de-single-ify my brain and understanding of artists, particularly ones who show up a lot as like singles in op/eds. but i love the bassline and synth in this song.
08 - Black Star - No Fear of Time (2022) - o.G
i am learning about the weird release of this album just now... it's fully possible that i just got lost in the madlib beat.
09 - Mr. Oizo - VOILÀ (2022) - Un Attimo
speaking of madlib(-type) beats...
10 - Vitalic - Dissidænce Episode 2 (2022) - Sirens
i am not a dancer. i am not a person who dances. i couldn't resist moving my body around while listening to this album. the beep boops are good.
11 - 坂本九 - 九ちゃんとパラキン 第３集 (1962) - モデル・ガール
not on the mixtape so much, but i've been listening to this alongside some late-50s stuff like buddy holly/the crickets and ritchie valens. just... fun, poppy? yeah.
12 - of Montreal - Freewave Lucifer fck f^ck fck (2022) - Blab Sabbath Lathe of Maiden
i was listening to this album the other night while falling asleep, and everything was kind of melding and melting together. that was nice. i think the end is a little abrupt, but sometimes that happens.
🔚
