∞ The Brown Noise ∞

All I want is the bass. Dance music, typically referred to nowadays as EDM, is the sound of the moment, and has been since roughly 2008, when Lady Gaga encouraged us to "Just Dance" all our troubles away. Coming at the advent of a major economic disaster, a weird spike in natural disasters, and regurgitated end-times predictions, "Just Dance" was a prophetic and timely single, paving the way for mainstream artists like LMFAO, Alex Clare, and Carly Rae Jepsen, who have ridden electro, dubstep, and house-tinged production, respectfully, to immense success. We're living in high stress times. People want to be told what to do-- they repond to appeals to emotion, rather than logic. They want to expel all their pent-up energy. The DJ gives them the blueprints. Jump, he commands them, and they oblige. Put your hands up, he instructs, and they follow. It's telling that raising one's hands above one's head, one of the most common things a DJ asks a crowd to do, is also what people do when they surrender.

All I want is the bass. Dance music revitalizes us. There have been studies done that say that standing close to a high-powered speaker as music is being played gives us an effect similar to narcotics in our bodies. When you're dancing in a club, and your favorite song comes on, it's like a switch is flicked inside you. Boom, instant endorphin rush, your head starts spinning, colors seem sharper, the room gains weight and all the power of God above is sent hurtling down into your legs and chest. It's all about the drop. That moment when the bass overpowers you, makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, and causes you to feel like you're in an action movie. It's about tension and release. The drop in and of itself is not a new musical idea, but the modern emphasis on a drop, instead of, say, the slow build of a Moby or Chemical Brothers tune, is due to the need to expel all that energy. People work lame 9-to-5s in careers they didn't want for bosses they don't like. They need that moment when the track instructs them to jump a little higher, dance a little harder.

All I want is the bass. Panic City is a 26-year-old joe from San Francisco who is known for his remix work. On his rerubs of tracks like Drake's "Take Care", he never fully releases the tension. It's build-up, build-up, and then more build-up; if anything, his drops just tell you to scream for that release a little harder, lift your hands up a little higher. He understands his audience: They don't just want to get crazy, they need to. The minor-key chord structure, androgynous vocal hook, and pulsating, alarm bell synthesizer at the core of "Miami Bass" isn't about the release associated with the drop, it's about the tension before one even walks through the club's hulking metal doors, and that's why it's so good.

All I want is the bass. All I want is the bass.

Support Panic City by Liking him on Facebook and following him on Soundcloud.

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(Props to the very consistent Surviving The Golden Age for turning me on to this track)

 This interview means a lot to me. Every artist we interview on The Brown Noise is an incredible talent, but Del and I have history-- though he doesn't know it. I've been listening to Del the Funkee Homosapien since my Freshman year of high school. There's something about Del's music that reached me in a way a lot of other hip-hop didn't. I felt like I related to him, just another dude who did whatever he felt like, however he wanted to, with interests that ranged from "uncool" to "downright nerdy". From his cyberpunk hip-hopera Deltron 3030, to his stints guesting on Gorillaz albums and composing music for videogames, Del The Funky Homosapien resists classification. He's too open-minded to be considered a backpacker, but too experimental for the mainstream. Rather, he exists on a plane of artists such as AZ or MF Doom, underground artists with immense cult followings that have followed them throughout multi-decade careers. After a period of inactivity during the most of the 2000s, Del has picked back up right where he left off, releasing new music at a prolific pace, even for hip-hop.

Though he is currently working on the wildly anticipated sequel to Deltron 3030, entitled Deltron Event II, Del has also been hard at work on a project with East Coast beatsmiths Parallel Thought, who themselves have spent a bit of time knocking around the hip-hop underground. That project, Attractive Sin, is a gorgeous return to form that features Del revitalized, rapping harder than he has in years over gorgeous beats that borrow inspiration from both coasts. Del, as well as producers Drum and Knowledge, 2/3rds of Parallel Thought, were kind enough to chat with us about their new album, which hits stores June 19th, 2012. Our chat was long, but it's probably one of the best interviews I've ever done. You're gonna want to read the whole thing.

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THE BROWN NOISE: Drum & Knowledge, how did you link up with Del? What made you guys decide to work together?

KNOWLEDGE:  It was a gradual process.  He guested on both albums we did with Tame One, Ol Jersey Bastard & Acid Tab Vocab.  That led to the four of us recording "Parallel Uni-Verses". While that was being wrapped up, we slowly started work on Attractive Sin, a process that took the better part of two years.  

You’ve collaborated with a lot of diverse artists, including Danny Brown, G-Side, and MF DOOM. What do you tend to look for in an MC? How does a certain style of rapping translate into a great original track or remix? 

Knowledge : Haven’t gotten a chance to work with Danny Brown yet. I would love to, but that was 3:33, who are signed to our label.  As for the other artists, its just a natural selection process of who we like and who would sound good on our production.   

Drum: when we are looking for artist to collab with, first it's talent, then vibe. Doom was an obvious choice for talent, so we reached out to do a record, but we never got to be in the studio with him to build a relationship, which is why we never did anything else with him. G-Side was a stretch from our NY roots, but being that we loved their previous record, and [Parallel Thought emcee/producer] Caness is from G-Side’s home state, Alabama, we were open to it. We sent beats, they came out to NYC for shows, and came to Jersey to our studio, where we got to vibe. So that turned into 5 tracks together, cause the vibe was right. I feel like that's when the best tracks are made, when you get to know people and get comfortable creatively. We are definitely hoping that 3:33 and Danny Brown's vibe turns into more records

"It ain't about me, it's about making the best songs."

What about you, Del? What do you look for in a beat? 

Del: Hmmm...well, skill or talent from the producer is the main thing I'm looking for, of course it gotta be funky at least a lil’ bit. But really I try to be fair with whomever I'm working with, I know people do what they do, so I encourage that usually. It ain't all about me, it's about making the best songs. 

Del, most people know you from your starmaking turn on Gorillaz’ “Clint Eastwood”. You were the first rapper to hop on Gorillaz tracks. Now, everyone from Snoop Dogg to your friends in De La Soul have worked with Gorillaz. How does it feel to be such a trendsetter?

Del: If you feel that it's a big deal, thank you. But honestly, I had the opportunity, took it, it happened the way it happened. The people are the ones who choose who go where, so I can't take credit for that. Once the machine starts getting that big behind you though, shit begins to get a little out of hand, which I don't like. So I tend to shy away from becoming a certain level of superstar because of that.

You guys both collaborated on an album with Tame One, Parallel Uni-verses, earlier last year. How is Attractive Sin different from that album?

Del: Parallel U was Tame's idea, totally, and I just really ran up with him and made it happen. Tame was the brains of that operation. This album was more directed musically by Parallel Thought, and kinda hovered around a particular musical theme. Hard to explain, because it's music, you gotta hear it. 

Knowledge:  Its a small evolution of that project.  For starters, there’s no Tame on the album, its Del solo on all 11 tracks.  Production wise, its a bit more mature sounding,  and we focused our efforts into making Del, a prominent West Coast emcee, sound at home on our East Coast production. 

Drum: we tried to let the production evolve a little more on this album. Parallel Universes was a very consistent, focused sound from front to back. This time, we let songs happen on their on a little more, and used beats that people might not expect to come from us. I think the audience for this record will be a little wider. 

Del, You’re a skateboarder. Skateboarding, though it never used to be the cool thing for rappers to do, has seen some resurgence over the past few years amongst younger rap crews, Odd Future and Ninjasonik to name a few. How do you feel about skateboarding’s regaining popularity? 

Del: First off, I'm not a skater, I just hang with a few and grew up hanging around them and anybody else society called deviant or bad. Now for me, this is back in the early 80's, ok? Rap music was not the shit yet, neither was skating or doin’ stunts on the Mongooses and all that shit, all the staples of kids today was like nerd shit back then. Anime, video games, computer hacking, comic collecting, role playing games...rap music was part of that select few category like those things I mentioned. Basically, you weren't cool if you tried to rap. But the rock/metal kids could feel rap to an extent. The stoners, they were music cats too, so...you know. get in where you fit in. I tended to get along fairly well with everyone, but I kicked it with these kinds of interesting people. None of these thing went anywhere, they just grew bigger, because there was real value to those things, it wasn't just fads.

You also worked as a composer for the Skate 3 videogame. How did you leap into composing?

Del: The idea came to me thru them, actually. A cat up there named Sean, he's the one who plugged me, he heard my Funkman LP and I guess thought that I had the musical skill needed and the flavor to be able to swing it. He knew that I was lookin’ to get into that as well. So he was a tremendous help, let me say that off the back. Can't thank him enough, he was very patient, showed me what was needed as far as the scoring of a game, brought me back when I got frustrated, a real cool dude. So big up to Sean, he really looked out. About scoring in general: I make compositions here in my lab, sometimes real intricate compositions, that really have no place to go as far as my audience in hip-hop. I feel, anyway. Maybe I'm wrong, but the audience seems for the most part stuck on a certain "golden age" sound, so I just got stacks of stuff here sitting. I've studied scoring to a degree, and that seems the most logical step for a lot of my music to be aimed towards. It's all about getting it to the people who would appreciate it.

You both have been in the hip-hop trenches for awhile, and have seen the state of the art form change over the years. How do you two feel about the current state of hip-hop? What are the young artists that you guys enjoy?

Del: Let's see, Stahhr, Iamsu!, Ransom, Childish Gambino, Homeboy Sandman, Pimpin Young, Troy Ave., GURP CITY (that's my homie, Z-Man), Hopie, Vado, Roc Marciano, man too many to name, I be forgetting...so many good things be coming out weekly. Oh, Chuwee too, I fucks with him too...

Drum: the fact that anyone can record and put a record on the Internet means two things to me. 1) a lot of music that sucks gets put out there and it makes finding good music a little more frustrating 2) talented artists that aren't the norm can get the exposure that they deserve. To me, Danny Brown is a good example of someone that the "industry" didn't get a few years ago. But when you let him connect directly with fans, they see his talent. That's the good side of hip-hop now. People are more open minded when a label isn't. And people like Chief Keef...That's the bad side.  Just cause he shoots a bunch of videos and put shit online and gets views, good or bad, labels respond to that hoping it’ll bring them money. That's the bad side. I'm not feeling his shit. Curren$y, Big K.R.I.T., Action Bronson, Joey Bada$$, Jon Conor, thats more of the good side I'm feeling. 

Drum & Knowledge, you two started Parallel Thought around a decade ago. How does it feel to be celebrating 10 years in the game?

Knowledge:  Its feels great. We were really happy to celebrate it by doing that Eccentric Breaks & Beats II album for the Numero Group last year.  Moving forward, we are going to focus on more projects within our crew rather than outside collaborations.  A month after the Del album we are releasing a instrumental album, "Art Of Sound", which is a collaboration with Caness ( MC/Producer) who is the third member of the group.  He is also releasing his debut EP, Articulation, and we have another project with Alabama based Gene called Ride With Southern Child, which is also coming out around that time.  Then in the Fall we are releasing the new 3:33 full length In The Middle Of Infinity.  Next year our official debut, Sick With the Art, should finally be out, along with Gene's debut and our album with Swave Sevah, Hell Up In Harlem, which has been done for ages.   

Drum: We've put in a lot of work obviously. It feels good because honestly, every record we do, we grow. So although some people get poppin’ faster, I feel their music hasn't matured and found its grove yet. So it feels great to be getting attention, now that we've found our groove and gotten comfortable with it. Our discography over 10 years is something to be proud of, and I can't wait for the next 10. 

How do you guys produce your music? Do you work mostly with analog equipment, or are you partial to Ableton and Logic?

Del: I now work a lot with hardware, but it always ends up on the Mac. That's where the actual production takes place, the pre-production is on the hardware. Ableton Live is my DAW of choice, because you can do it all on there and it's great for sound design, meaning that I can take a sampled sound source and create anything from that. It's not so static as it used to be. If I'm really composing, then Live is the obvious choice for me, along with Native Instrument plugins. I also use key apps for the iPad as well.

Knowledge:  It’s a mix of analog and digital.  We don’t work with Ableton or Logic.  It’s a combination of the MPC2000XL and Protools. 

Drum: Everything we do goes through some piece of analog gear. That's a sound you can't fake, and it's an important part of hip hop. Once we get the sounds we want, everything goes into Pro Tools. I've been engineering for 10 years as well, so thats my most comfortable medium to work with.  

How has modern computer-based production changed the way you’ve made music since the ‘90s?

Del: Not much, it's always been futuristic since the creation of hip-hop. Technology just makes the process easier and more efficient. The same technical concepts are built upon. So if you know how to program a beat, then it's the same process, just really more to the point now. For instance, instead of spending days to dissect drum breaks you now have apps like Recycle that will beat slice for you. It's not cheating- you still have to guide these tools, they won't do the work or create dopeness for you.

What are some dream collaborations, rappers or artists that you’d love to produce for?

Knowledge : Ka, Roc Marciano , Can Ox, Big Juss, Black Thought, Wu-Tang.  And more than anything I want to finish this album with Breeze Brewin, hes easily in my top 5! 

Drum : Pharoahe Monch, Busta Rhymes, Q-Tip, Andre 3000, Mos Def, Danny Brown, Ghostface.

"Everybody picks up on their own personal favorite aspect of the game, and then that's what they focus on. It's all good, I welcome creative output no matter what it is."

Del, on a lot of your most recent releases, you’ve eschewed guest verses, which are a notable part of hip-hop culture. What’s the reasoning behind that? 

Del: It's not on purpose: it just so happens that I'm a loner and I'm alone most of the time. So by default, it's just me to the head. I'm not against guest spots, or more like collabing with people, and I actually do it whenever I get the chance to. But as far as my own projects, I just work fast maybe. I like to just get shit done, adding more vocal spots just makes the process more unpredictable and longer to finish. So don't get me wrong, it's not that I think I'm too good for that, not at all. I just really be by myself a lot, so it is what it is.

One label I feel that you’re unfairly tagged with, especially by a lot of your fans, is that of “backpacker rap” or “real hip-hop”. In interviews, you’ve claimed to be a fan of everyone from Kanye West to 50 Cent, and that your fans would probably throw shade at these artists because they’re not underground.  Why do you think people are still stuck in that sort of mentality?

Del: It's comfortable. It's easy. It's familiar. It's extremely hard for most people to accept change. Or to let go of things. When we feel like something is "ours", we tend to really hold tight to it. Now my thing I got a problem with is this: I don't feel like half of these cats even really KNOW hip-hop, truly. If they did, they would be waaaay more accepting. Take the south for instance. So many cats hate on the south, but their music is basically that OG NYC shit, but on steroids. They mastered those 808s, man. But it reminds you about what was so dope about that era.Everybody picks up on their own personal favorite aspect of the game, and then that's what they focus on. It's all good, I welcome creative output no matter what it is.

You, Dan the Automator, and Kid Koala are currently working on the new Deltron album. How ready for the public is Deltron Event II? 

Del: It is in the bag, fini. Dan is just adding his production magic now, securing guest spots, leaping through legal bullshit...shit is nice though, if y'all liked the first one, you'll love this one, it's along the same vein but more detailed.

In a recent interview with the blog Guestlisted, you’ve said of the album, “It’s weird because that first record was pretty huge, you know, but we don’t know what we’re gonna do with this next one because the industry’s kinda fucked up now. We don’t know how we’re gonna release it yet, but that’s cool.” Do you still feel that way? What label is the Deltron record going to be put out on?

Del: I have no idea. I pretty much let Dan handle all of that. Honestly, I trust that he can secure whatever is best for it at the moment, between him and Domino, shout out to Dom one time. He's the secret member of Deltron 3030.

"This one I took the time to get more detailed with the underlying theme. Which is: Man fucked up, went too far, deal with it."

What can you tell us about how the new Deltron record will sound? Will it follow the narrative structure of the first one?

Del: Music is abstract, so everyone has their own interpretation of how it sounds to them, so explaining it would be kinda, uh, inaccurate. Yes it has the same narrative flow as the first, it's a bit more grounded, less tech jargon for the sake of using it, more concentration on some form of underlying point to it all. First LP was more of a futuristic freestyle event. This one I took the time to get a bit more detailed with the underlying theme. Which is: Man fucked up, went too far, deal with it. Back to square one, and all the different things that go along with that. Cyberpunkish, I guess. 

One thing that rappers are either very good at or very bad at is creating skits. The skits on Deltron 3030 were hilarious, and featured artists like Damon Albarn and MC Paul Barman. What goes into creating a great skit? How long does it take to write?

Del: Ask Dan, but I bet a lot of that was just free flowing. Letting cats do what they do and he just records/documents the moments. So it probably seems like a bigger deal than what it really is. Some cats, like Paul, are just naturally really funny cats. Paul is one of my favorite cats, actually, I love Paul. He's real funny.

Who won the rap battle in Deltron 3030?

Del: Hahahahahahaha, If I recall, I think it was me, dude from the other planet got housed in some really nasty way...on the real though, I'm at it so hard with the music, I really don't concentrate on things that are that long ago. I don't know why: maybe I'm just obsessive about composing musical pieces. 

What have you two been listening to lately outside of hip-hop?

Knowledge: Demdike Stare, Black Rain, Raime, Zomby, Chromatics & the Symmetry Drive OST Johhny Jewel has been on quite a run this year, Personal Space Compilation. Kuedo, David Axelrod, Tangerine Dream , Vangelis too much to name. and these new 3:33 albums

Drum: Bury Your Dead (old albums), Full Blown Caos, Underoath, Every Time I Die, God Forbid.

How do you feel about Lil B?

Knowledge: Not a fan .

Drum: I just don't get it... his hustle I can respect, I guess, but I just don't get the music.

Del: I love Lil' B, he's tight to me. I'll admit I didn't get it at first. But then I started seeing cats like 9th Wonder cosign him and shit, and I'm like, huh? There gotta be more to this cat then. I was right. He's actually dumb creative. And he CAN rap in the conventional vein, but he's moved beyond conventional. Now, the goin’ dumb shit he do, that's a Bay Area thing so if you ain't from here you may not get the shit. But that's just street comedy, stress relievers. Yeah it's rude as hell, but hey, it is what it is.

What is one book that everybody should read?

Del: "Looking Out For No.1" by Robert J. Ringer.

Lastly, what is your favorite David Bowie album?

Drum & Knowledge: we can’t pick a favorite because we aren;t too familiar with his full lengths, but Rod Stewart loves the Hamptons.

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Support Del The Funky Homosapien and Parallel Thought by purchasing their new album, Attractive Sin, via Amazon.

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Jhameel has been on an absolute tear lately.  After filming excellent videos for the three best songs in his WAVES series, he found himself featured on Hoodie Allen's All American EP, which shot to #1 on the iTunes digital chart. With the spotlight on the young singer/songwriter newly intensified, Jhameel has fired the first shot from a salvo of new tunes that he has dubbed the Are You Free song series.

"Are You Free" is certainly a departure from WAVES, which, as he explained in our interview with him a few months back, was about clean lines and minimalist songwriting. While Pop music has seemingly picked up Jhameel's desire for elegant simplicity, with artists like Gotye and Damien Rice crafting chart hits out of sparse, woodsy guitar picking, Jhameel remains experimental, pushing the boundary of what exactly constitutes a Jhameel song. Torrents of swirling SAW synths surround "Are You Free" along with muffled bugle blasts, and, of course, Jhameel's voice at the eye of the storm, laced equally with joy and doubt.

Though the track itself sounds bright enough to make you want to shield your eyes, the lyrics are some of Jhameel's darkest yet, likely prompted by both the difficulty of making it as a musician in our currently struggling economy and the death of his grandmother last February. Though undoubtably facing immense pressure, it seems that this added weight on his shoulders has had positive side-effects: It's pushed him to create one of the best songs of his fledgling career. Listen to it below.

Support Jhameel by downloading his new single, "Are You Free", gratis at his website.

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Part of the reason why so many people loved Miguel's "Quickie" last year was because it sounded like nothing else on R&B radio at the moment. Sinewy reggae-light guitar quivers, billowing clouds of bass, and Miguel cooing some grown-man ish on top of it all; it sounded sexy, mature, alien. When you look at some of his radio competitors, it's easy to see why Miguel comes out on top (no pun intended). Besides the instrumental, which was the auditory equivalent of diving onto a bed strewn with rose petals, it was Miguel's attitude, not only about himself, but towards his girl. He came off as cool, suave, and sophisticated, sure, but he also sounded like he'd actually done this before. Miguel sings like he knows what his girls like, and where they like it, and most importantly, why. He's deservedly self-assured, and that self-assurance is only amplified by the beautiful production.

It was only a matter of time before somebody else married Miguel's cavalier confidence with a bed of dusty dub, and One Room has stepped up to the plate. One Room are singer-songwriter Samuel and rapper Chris P., an NYC-based duo signed to the incredibly consistent Heavy Roc Music. Like Miguel, they aren't newbies to sex talk, and grab influences from both the indie underground and radio R&B. Instead of just picking up where Miguel left off, however, One Room steeps their music in a swirling vortex of new influences. Memories of restless nights spent in Lower East Side apartments, listening to Billy Holiday on an old, broken clock radio, and shades of The Weeknd's romanticized party life and codeine-abuse color "Tip Toe", already one of my favorite singles of the year. There's something to be said for the way Chris half-whispers to his partner- "scream cuz you can't talk", "look at me before you close your eyes"- while anecdotally noting that there's "nails down my back like I'm a piece of furniture". He knows that he's good at this, but is also nice enough to stay until the morning. 

That's not even mentioning the production. There are duppies living in this beat. Toeing the line that separates trip-hop and ambient jazz, moans and cries from an anonymous, is-it-sampled woman whisper throughout the beat. The densely reverbed siren at the beginning of the track provides a incredibly sumptuous backdrop to the song, grounding it in a speficic locality, a locality where people live and love amid constant street crime. It's a neat touch that proves that not only does One Room think about the needs of his conquests, but about the environments in which said conquests take place. Nothing in this track is haphazardly jammed-in. It is the sound of an immaculate, carefully articulated construction.

Believe me when I say that this group is about to be a very big deal.

Support One Room by following him on Soundcloud and on Twitter.

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*AIRHORN* *AIRHORN* *AIRHORN*

Y'all ain't ready for this one. TNGHT is a supergroup composed of The Brown Noise's favorite glitch-hop wizard, Hudson Mohawke, and up-and-coming hyphy warlock Lunice. They join forces at SXSW this year to cast a potent and powerful spell over Austin's dancefloors, and now, they turn their unblinking eye over the rest of the globe. "Bugg'n" grabs what appears to be a highly mangled sample of The East Flatbush Project's legendary "Tried By 12'" and submerged it in a boiling pool of sticky black bass. Trap drums ferociously skitter about, as gooey synthlines--Yo, hold on a sec. Is there a baby in the club? Woah, I think there is! That baby is up there on the decks with HudMo and Lunice, making it's own drops and chopping up it's voice! That's just the type of magic these guys create when they work together. The trap goes ham, the dancefloor goes wild, and babies unlock a prodigious talent for creating the hooks to genre-crossing bangers. 

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One of my readers hipped me to this super-fresh jam from Michigan folk artist Nathan K., and after spending a few minutes listening to it, I realized that my foot was tapping to the beat. When you listen to new music, you should always trust your foot; it's not smart enough to lie. Just try tapping it along to a bad song, and feel how forced the gesture is. So when I found myself tapping merrily along to the Detroit-based Nathan K.'s lazy afternoon musings, I knew that I had to post it. I asked her where she had found this pearl, and she told me that he opened for Chris Bathgate, who was featured on our list of The 25 Best Albums of 2011. Woah. That's a seal of approval if I've ever heard one. So, my readers like Nathan K., Chris Bathgate likes him too, and my foot makes three. The only thing left to do was to find out who the heck Nathan K. was.

Turns out that he's been making music for a little bit, releasing his first album, Newspapers & Prayers on his Bandcamp back in 2010. I took a listen to it; and it was alright, but nothing special. "Leave Them", however, is special. You remember Giles Corey, right? Okay, invert the color palette on his music and you have Nathan K. They have similar voices, utilize the same weapon of choice, an acoustic guitar, and both artists have lyrics that are at times heavily allegorical, and in the next stanza, simple and direct. Nathan K., though, has a much sunnier outlook on life, and his message and music are much easier to digest. Take "Leave Them", for example. Instead of wallow in the depression of his young adult life, a la Gils Corey, Nathan encourages you to leave those memories right where they are. It's a simple yet potent reminded that the present is a gift to be cherished, and that meandering guitar melody, gently bobbing along like a lure cast from a fishing rod, certainly helps his case. Life is short. You should spend it listening to tunes like this. 

P.S. Shouts out to Joyce. Thanks for showing me this.

P.P.S. You know any music that you want covered that I haven't gotten around to yet? Shoot an email over to thebrownnoiseblog@gmail.com, or leave a shout in the comments section. 

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I'll get it out of the way right now-- I'm not really big on virtuosity. I've never really been impressed by soaring broadway voices, extraoridnarily nimble piano playing, or Yngwie Malmsteen's existence. It probably has to do with the fact that I never really had the dedication to get good at any of the various instruments I've tried over my life, and somehow, this manifested as jealousy thinly disguised as a blasé attitude towards anybody who was clearly better than me. It also has a little bit to do with the fact that although  Malsteem is skilled at the guitar, he seems to have sacrificed his soul in exchange for speed. Compositions by artists who are typically advertised as virtusos typically end up as the auditory equivalent of button-mashing in video games. There's no songcraft or emotion, the songs are just empty.

As I've grown older, I've tended to discard this mentality on a case-by-case basis. Sure, I still tend to prefer the rough and ragged voice of someone like Willis Earl Beal over, say, R. Kelly, but I'll admit it, Kells has something special. The same goes for someone like James Blackshaw. Long-recognized as one of the preeminent fingerpickers of his generation, Blackshaw certainly knows how to play the guitar at the fretboard-burning velocity of your average shredder. What separates Blackshaw, just like R. Kelly, is his superior songcraft, ably wringing emotion out of every pull-off, bend, and hammer-on. He never flexes; Each note belongs where it is in the composition, and never feels jammed-in or showy. I've never heard a 12-string played with such respect for the instrument.

On his newest album, Love is the Plan, the Plan is Death, Blackshaw falls back from his famous 12-string, playing with the earthier, more humble 6-string. The result is an album that feels even more intimate and personal than anything released since his definitive work, 2006's O True Believers. Notes twist and turn inside a sprawling desert of tone, occasionally coming across an oasis of glockenspiels, piano pyramids, and even, for the first time, a vocalist, on "And I Have Come Across This Place by Lost Ways". The real highlight, though, is that gorgeous title track. Blackshaw's guitar sounds like it's been left lying out in the sun, and he plays the instrument with a melancholy air that only hints at the travesty that he's attempting to illustrate. It's almost like he's comiserating with his instrument, with the piano occasionally stopping by to offer moral support. The end result is one of the most potent and touching instrumental tracks of the year, and he accomplishes this without any overwhelming crescendos or quiet-loud dynamic changes, which is an impressive feat in itself. For that alone, this would get my pass, but the music is just so incredibly good that I would urge anybody who has ever heard an acoustic guitar to give this album a spin. I don't always listen to guitar virtusos...but when I do, I prefer James Blackshaw.

Support James Blackshaw and purchase his new album Love is the Plan, the Plan is Death via Barnes & Noble.

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MCA was my favorite Beastie Boy because I could tell apart his voice from everyone else. This was critical. Back in the days when I was a teenager, I used to bump the Beastie Boys constantly in-between classes, on those huge, goofy headphones I would to wear around my neck, thinking that I looked like a DJ. My friends and I would ride around town with Check Your Head bumping out of the trunk, and argue about which rapper in which crew was the greatest of them all. Clearly, Q-Tip was superior to Phife, Posdnous was not only complicated, but technically superior to Trugoy and Maseo, and nobody in the Ultramagnetic MCs could even touch Kool Keith. Then, the subject would inevitably turn to The Beastie Boys, and here, we were split. Ahmeer preferred the wild style of Mike D, while Jordan and Josh, the guitarists, were all about Ad Rock. I held my ground with MCA, and they never understood. They thought his energy was too low compared to the rest of the group, and I countered by saying that his contributions as a bassist on tunes like "Gratitude", not to mention his skill as a director for the group's music videos (under his alias of Nathaniel Hornblower), separated him from the rest. Sure, those were all important things, but the real reason I preferred him was because of his voice, a lower, more menacing style of speaking than Mike D or Ad Rock's scrappy attacks. D and Ad Rock always sounded incredibly similar, and I could never tell them apart until much later in life. MCA, however, was unique. he had a way of speaking that put weight behind his lyrics. He sounded like he was articulating each word as it was coming out of his mouth, like he was thinking carefully about all the MCs he would have to mow down like the lawn before he decided to talk trash on wax. 

As I got older, the influence of MCA upon myself began to resonate beyond the incredible records that he put out. When I decided to go to college, I visited several schools for overnight visits and to take tours around their campus. One of the freshmen who was leading us pointed to a large, decrepit dorm, and said, "You see that building? In the early '80s, MCA Adam Yauch from the Beastie Boys climbed up onto the roof and threw a flaming mattress off the top. That's why we're not allowed to go on the roofs anymore." I decided this was a good a reason as any to matriculate there, and that institution, Bard College, became my alma mater. As a freshman, I made plans with friends to form a punk band, just as the Beasties had done during their 18th years. Then I heard Ill Communication, and listened to Yauch instruct me on how to scratch a record on "Alright Hear This". I bought two turntables and a mixer the next day. "Bodhisattva Vow" didn't convince me to become a Buddhist, but it convinced me to try and take my own faith more seriously. If somebody as cool as MCA could live the life he's lived and practice Buddhism devoutly, I thought, then I could at least try to go to temple on the weekends. Like MCA, I was interested in cinema, and one of my film professors eventually went on to direct a film, the critically acclaimed Wendy and Lucy, releasing it on Yauch's Oscilloscope Laboratories imprint. That was MCA: a reckless partygoer at one moment, and a deeply spiritual artist at the next. He didn't have to fund independent films out of his own pocket, but he did, because he genuinely wanted to promote indie talent. The same goes with his speech at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards. When he accepted the Vanguard award, in addition to shouting out Chuck D and the progenitors of the Beasties' style, Adam Yauch spoke about the need for nonviolent conflict resolution and an end to racism against Arab-Americans. "Most people from the Middle East are not terrorists," Yauch proclaimed, three years before 9/11. He didn't have to do that, but he knew that dropping knowledge on the people was more important than some shiny metal astronaut. Fuck Posdnous, Adam Yauch was complicated.

I never had the privilege of meeting MCA, but his boundless enthusiasm for life and deep well of spiritual knowledge touched my soul, as he touched many others. Many of us in the online music community have fond words regarding Mr. Yauch, but, as always, others will try and take advantage of his tragic passing at age 47 and use the opportunity to dance on his grave. As the media and countless others inevitably attempt to distort his legacy, let's remember Adam Yauch as not only a boundary-pushing musician that created some seminal works of art and made out with Madonna at her sexual prime, but as a humanitarian, a father, and as an all-around good guy. Rest in peace.

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"It's not supposed to be super conceptual or anything. Just a cool album of nighttime grass thoughts." Such is how Keith Freund of the husband-and-wife duo Trouble Books describe their new album, Concenating Fields, which has been out since Tuesday. I've spent a little time with this record, and yes, it is absolutely a cool album, perfectly suited for warm nights spent out in your backyard, the public park, or a pastoral log cabin.  Reminiscient of the arpeggiated space gurgles of Emeralds, with an organic The XX stew served piping hot on the side, Trouble Books recontextualizes shoegaze with slower BPMs and a grander sense of purpose. On standout track "Lurk Underneath", Guitars sound like synthesizers and synthesizers sound like guitars. The synthscape is incredibly well realized, while at the same time, paying homage to the stretched-out minimalism of experimentalists like Phillip Glass or Odd Nosdam. Each sonic texture creates a visual in your mind: burbling synth lines trickle down an earthy bed of guitars, while a ghostly choir echoes in the breeze.

The extraordinary ease at which this album creates beautiful mental imagery may have something to due with the influence of visual artists Bridget Riley, Sol LeWitt, and Joseph Albers' works on Trouble Books' creative process, which Freund and his wife Linda Lejsovka claim to have spent hours poring over. It's cute to imagine the two nestled together on a couch, flipping through art books while guitar picks and keyboards lay strewn about across the floor, trying to find inspiration for their sound. It makes sense, however, that they would seek out visual artists as muses for this project. Trouble Books' music is too carefree to be called folk, but too vivid and lively to be called ambient. Instead, they simply attempt to create the most pensive, yet sanguine, music possible, culled from the softest and most easily digestible sounds known to man. It works.

Support Trouble Books by purchasing their new album, Concenating Fields, in Vinyl/MP3 via the Bark and Hiss store.

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