Tag: Frank Ocean

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Music

BADBADNOTGOOD – Kaleidoscope (Kaytranada’s Flip)

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Badbadnotgood just keeps getting better and better. Notorious for their boundary-pushing and genre-fucking ways, these guys are are absolutely killing it these days. Not your typical jazz conservatory grads, this Toronto-based trio (Matthew Tavares on keys, Chester Hansen on bass, and Alexander Sowinski on drums) initially garnered attention with their bad-ass jazz interpretative stylings of some popular hip-hop tracks and they’ve gone on to collaborate with artists such as Ghostface Killah, Tyler the Creator and Frank Ocean just to name a few. They released their third album III earlier this year– their studio work is pretty damn spectacular, but let it be known that their live set is where the real alchemical shit goes down (improvisation, yo)…

BBNG’s sound is impossible to define (duh) but my best attempt right here right now is something along the lines of ‘jazz-informed harmonic bliss infused with experimental hip-hop-y beats with a dash of post-bop electronica and some punk-ass virtuosic fusion vibes’. In other words, there are no words. Only listening to be done.

On that note, BBNG + Kaytranada = magic. Not a remix, but a flip. Pretty aptly named in my opinion.

Categories
Mixtape Music

Et Musique Pour Tous Presents: Les Auteurs — Ashley Jordan Lane

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Whereever you go, there you’ll be.”

My ex-boyfriend’s mom told me that. After four years I was leaving, and this was the message I took with me. After you leave once, it is easier to spot exits in life. Constantly trying to hop to the next place, avoiding the feeling of quicksand in the present time. When you have the urge for change, to travel, to leave, the only thing harder than leaving is staying there. But we do what you are not supposed to do in quicksand, which I gather from Indiana Jones and Blazing Saddles, which is to hold very still. And breath.

This is a mix about travelling. Not “The Best Roadtrip Mix Ever”. This is the short story about the cliffs and valleys of the wanderers.  We are all familiar with the phrase “not all wanderers are lost” and this is the playlist for those wanderers.  They are using looking for someone, generally themselves.

Enjoy the ride.

Bob Dylan-Subterranean Homesick Blues: I digress. This is the perfect roadtrip song. This song should start all of your trips. The roots of the song coming from his Beats influence. The conflict of the straight and square. The contract between what is expected and where you are going.

Parov Stelar – The Sun (Featuring Graham Candy): This track is the moment you are on your first traveller’s high. Either mentally or otherwise. You got your footing in a new place. Confidence has come back to you after fumbling languages, upsidedown maps and seeing the same road twice. Swaying to the heavy base set down by Parov Stelar and the raspy vocals of Graham Candy, you glide.

Joăo Gilberto – Bim Bom: This is a song for landing on your feet. I found this song on an album in the kitchen of the Airbnb I stayed in in Rome. The homeowner left espresso and this CD in the player to listen to. It was warped and scratched as it had been listened to so much. I asked him about the CD when I was checking out which was titled Songs of Brasil. He had always wanted to go to Brazil and live there. He listened to this CD every day. I listented to it every morning and I felt like I was home in his little kitchen with his little espresso maker and this song playing through the little player. The song sounds like the OM sound for travelling. The perfect balance sound. Comfortable on your feet on new soil.

Tom Odell – Another Love (Zwette Edit) : This is a recent release. And the song is a release. Tom Odell has the vocals you want to hear from your lovers and friends. It’s hopeful, dreamy. “And I wanna kiss you, make you feel alright | I’m just so tired to share my nights | I wanna cry and I wanna love | But all my tears have been used up.”  The highlight, the nectars of travelling are the kisses and deep talks with strangers and those intense connections you make quickly and deeply with all of your being. Sharing secrets with people who you will never see again. It is amazing, the secrets you share with strangers you will never see again. This track is for the beer at the bar with your new lovers and friends. For the quick, deep cuts and connections you get on a trip. The ones that leave scars you look at lovingly in a year or five. Still able to taste the memory on your palette.

Frank Ocean – Super Rich Kids: Depending on where you go, you will come across the rich kids. We all are when we travel. You save up so you can be stupid. Be reckless. No one is there watching. The freedom to be the new person you want to be. Any status. From anywhere you want. Trying out accents and zip codes and seeing what fits. This is the creation of you for the moment. The confident, newfound you. And Frank Ocean should be on all travelling mixes.

Milky Chance – Stolen Dance (Radio Edit): The thing about wandering is you need to be comfortable with yourself. This is the time you get in to your head. Why did you leave in the first place for? This song from Milky Chance is the song that comes on at the first hard spot of a trip. Knees are scuffed. When you first fall, the contents of what you were caring around with you spills out and you have to pick it all up, one by one and pick yourself up. We need to look at all of this stuff you cary with out and choose to let some things go.

Caribou – I Can’t Do Without You: When wandering, there is a time you will get home sick. You will miss someone or something or familiarity. It is that sinking feeling in your stomach and usually has bad timing. This song. This song has  that feeling. The opening just has the repeating line “I can’t do without you”  which explodes into the  rest of the music and sound. The beginning acting more like that voice in your head. Not able to shake it, just have to let yourself acknowledge that. This track is from the new Caribou album Our Love.

We are not wondering lost forever. We have wander lust, forever.

Categories
Music

Frank Ocean + Mick Jones + Paul Simonon + Diplo – HERO

December 7th, 2008, I was 24 years old living at 1 River Place with my friend Nick, steps from the Hudson river in Manhattan. At the time I was producing a lot of music, in fact that’s all I was doing. That Sunday morning my mind was racing a million miles a minute as usual and the topic of the day was all the great music I was hearing while partying in Brooklyn or with a girl in the West Village or just all the scenes I was in and out of at the moment. I would go to my friends Uptown and they didn’t have a clue what I was talking about, I would go to my friends Downtown and they were no more savvy. Mind you this before streaming music services and all the discovery tools that are common place now. To give you perspective Spotify was announced exactly 3 months earlier on October 7th but it would be a long time before anyone actually started using it. This is before clubs uptown played Dance music etc.

Anyways, I get riled up over things like that man. There were people out there experiencing great things while other weren’t, that shit hit me like a rock. It was an injustice in my mind and I wanted to do something about it. I wanted to level the playing field and so later that day I said fuck it, I’ll start a website to share all the things I get to see in my lucky ass life. I’m big on freedom man, I’m sure all of you have noticed the youthful, rebellious and libertarian undertones of our writing and that’s no coincidence, those values are built-in. “My flag is American…”

The name – Et Musique Pour Tous (And Music For All) is a play on the the last four words of the Pledge of Allegiance – “one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” Musical justice for all, that’s our goddam DNA. Space Age Bachelor Pad Music represents our futuristic interpretation of the world and our rebellion against the matrix but never get it twisted, we’re modernist with deep roots in timeless values.

I turned 30 last week man, wow. I was in Austin for it, cruising up and down Lake Austin with some heavy folks you never heard of. As we rode by the Lakefront mansions sipping champagne and puffing paper planes I had the same feeling in my gut I had that Sunday morning, the need to create something bigger than myself. EMPT continues to be awesome but to be honest it should be more at this point. A person like me needs the right teammates, I need ideas executed while I focus on the big picture. My mind races, that’s just who I am and while I can do a lot, I can’t do it all. Elon Musk thought up the plans for Hyper Loop and because he’s so busy changing the world with Testla & Space X asked others to realize them. I want to have ideas that big, I have ideas that big but I need help. To be honest I haven’t played it right, I haven’t put the right leaders in place and because of that I haven’t been the best leader. You spend too much time around the wrong people, around phonies that don’t run and you start to doubt yourself. At some point you realize you have to be Lebron, go where you can get real help, not just where they want you. That’s a crucial difference for those on the path.

Here I am though, 30. I’m hard on myself because I’m swinging for the fences but I have a lot to be proud of man. I started this thing with nothing! I mean nothing man and nobody helped me till way after it was going. I’m a hard man to please though and I haven’t been happy as of late, that’s just being real with you. Sometimes people see folks like us and want us contained, a piece of art in their private collection, keep us in a controlled environment, in mental cuffs but I’m not a damn lawyer, like all the models say I ain’t no wifey! You know what I am?

Me, I’m a creator, thrill is to make it up
The rules I break got me a place up on the radar…”

That’s how I got on the damn map and that’s how I’m going to stay there. I’m 30 man so now we run harder than ever. Now I don’t listen anymore, now I trust my gut, I break rules and surround myself with unique thinkers. To all those who believe in me this is what I need from you –

I need you to be clever, Bean. I need you to think of solutions to problems we haven’t seen yet. I want you to try things that no one has ever tried because they’re absolutely stupid. – Enders Game

From now on I only follow fearless, beautiful expression. I create, I never have and will NEVER follow the set path, I’ll literally imagine it and make it up like I always have. Now we ditch the fakes, phonies & wannabes. All the kids that came to EMPT to run, here we go…

What you say?! You need a hero?!

Frank Ocean + Mick Jones + Paul Simonon + Diplo – HERO

Categories
Mash-Ups Music

The Hood Internet – Pyramidspeak (Purity Ring x Frank Ocean)

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The first time I listened to Channel Orange, I knew that Frank Ocean was three levels ahead of his contemporaries. The whole work blew me away. It was enthralling. Each track deserves its own recognition and praise, but “Pyramids” is what “Back to Black” was for Amy Winehouse. Pure, raw artistry. It’s a true gem of a track and one hell of a story. It’s Ocean’s opus, really, and his production skills are on fire. The moment the chimes and rocking beat drop out and in drops a huge filthy synth melody is his shining star. I remember hearing it for the first time and immediately stopping what I was doing, threw my hands up and screamed “Yass honey yass!” That moment — those brief ten seconds are what sold me on Frank Ocean.

I’ve spent a good couple of months searching, waiting, hoping for a remix of “Pyramids” to surface. There were a couple, but they never really worked with those ten seconds, the one part that mattered to me. It’s such a unique and unexpected moment that Ocean was smart to ruin too much of a good thing and continue it through the whole ten minutes, but it also had such potential for a remix. And just as I was about throw up my hands (for a different reason now) and resign my hope Chicago based duo, The Hood Internet, drops this heavy hitter in my lap and twirl away (well, at least I imagine they’d twirl away).

This track is op-u-lence (say that while clapping on each syllable  please). I doubted the title, but right out of the gate comes Ocean’s brightest moment guns hot. In a way only The Hood Internet can do, Purity Ring’s hauntingly dark “Belispeak” jives with Ocean’s powerhouse beat. Megan James’ ethereal voice floats as the music pounds through us. I’ve always thought there was something sexy about the dissonance of the melody James sings. I can’t place my finger on the word, but I’ve always pictured a Lolita-looking twentysomething girl teasing someone over her sunglasses. I digress. The two worlds of Ocean and Purity Ring merge so elegantly that you’d think it was the original version. They sound made for each other. It’s a perfect sonic marriage.

What’s so solid about this track is The Hood Internet’s approach to the mash-up. We all know that putting a bunch of tracks together that have a relatively similar beat works (those year end pop mixes, anyone?), but it’s to hear something like this.  This mash-up is only two tracks, one instrumental and the other vocal layered on top of one another. They work in harmony like a soul mates. It’s something that only The Hood Internet can do; something like proving you don’t need fifteen tracks to make an incredible mash-up.

The Hood Internet – Pyramidspeak (Purity Ring x Frank Ocean)

Categories
Music Remixes

Frank Ocean – Thinkin Bout You (Ryan Hemsworth Bootleg)

Do you not think so far ahead?

‘Cause I’ve been thinkin bout forever.

No, I don’t like you, I just thought you were cool enough to kick it.

Got a beach house I could sell you in Idaho since you think I don’t think I love you

I just thought you were cute, that’s why I kissed you.”

Welcome to Thursday. For some it’s the beginning of the weekend and for others it’s that tease of a day before 5 PM on Friday. Either way, we’re all pretty much thinking about the weekend. What am I going to do? Are there any good parties? Maybe I should just stay in and keep it chill. Whatever. You do you! No matter what you feel like doing, keep Frank Ocean at your disposal. Today we’re bringing back a summer track that’s just as fresh as it was back in July when we brought you the spellbinding original.

Ryan Hemsworth, the Canadian producer/writer/blogger has put his touch on Ocean’s opus and it’s simply bliss on this Thursday.  Listening to both the original and Hemsworth’s versions, I’ve found little difference between the two. That, however, was just a surface observation. Listening to the track a second, third, and then fourth time I heard all the nuances that makes Hemsworth a producer to keep your eyes on (aside from his pretty looks). He takes the original R&B inflections and transforms them into an atmospheric bump that goes down smooth in the ears as it levitates the sonic senses. Listen closely and you’ll hear muted keyboard chords bouncing in the background while an 808 bumps through a white-noise filter and space-age synths. Ocean’s voice melts into the production. Hemsworth compliments him by tracing his vocal steps with a production that follows the melody.

This track’s got me thinking about the nature of remixes. I, for one, am an avid hunter for the next best remix. I often hear a song and think, “Imagine the remixes that’ll come from this track!” Yet, with Frank Ocean I never thought that and when I saw that some existed I grew a little cynical. Is nothing sacred anymore? Hemsworth, however, has proved that a track can be remixed and still maintain the original’s integrity. There isn’t a competition of whose version is better. Each are the Frank Ocean we brought you in July, but today we bring you Frank Ocean in space.

Get up, get down, chill, grind, escape, whatever to this track. It’s hypnotic beat is enough to induce a mid-day trance that’ll tie you over for the next 48 hours.

Frank Ocean – Thinkin Bout You (Ryan Hemsworth Bootleg)

Categories
Music

Frank Ocean – Thinkin Bout You

 

It’s Thursday and I honestly cannot stop listening to this song. All the buzz around Frank Ocean recently has definitely happened for a good reason, at least musically. On a more general note, I’ve been hearing and talking a lot about these buzz artists lately, whether it’s at work or with friends, but it’s got me thinking about how much we feed into buzz and hype. It really plays into our rules of life in terms of what we expect from people, whether they are musicians or artists, or actually family and friends within our own communities and worlds. What do we expect from each other? The line between praise and hype is fine, and it’s always an important line to keep in mind.

As someone who has a deep-rooted love and appreciation for all things R&B, I found this entire album to remarkable. For this track in particular, I was happy to find the lyrical work absolutely flawless. Sensitive but genuine and easy to relate to. The tune itself is one that feels familiar but unique, especially as the falsetto enters. But the first verse was what had me hooked.

A tornado flew around my room before you came
Excuse the mess it made
It usually doesn’t rain in Southern California much
Like Arizona
My eyes don’t shed tears but boy they pour when I’m
Thinkin bout you
(Ooh no no no)
I been thinkin bout you.”

I’m fascinated by these lyrics and this song. I write poetry for fun and I love the use of earthly elements to relay a message about a human emotion. The two are comprised of different elements, but all the more similar. A tornado is such an uncontrollable force of nature, and so are the emotions of a human who has wallowed in the post-relationship seemingly apocalyptic days to follow. It’s such a real metaphor to throw into the equation.

The question of this song: “Or do you not think so far ahead?” is such a quintessential Thursday question. Are you thinking about the weekend yet?

Frank Ocean – Thinkin Bout You

Categories
Music

Frank Ocean – Novacane

If you don’t know by now…

Frank Ocean – Novacane