Kanye West - 808s & Heartbreak (2008)

"Taking a sample, looping it and doing all that 'throw your hands up in the sky' thing has become such a cliché. Hip-hop is over for me."-Kanye West

Although not West’s best album, 808s and Heartbreak is the most creative and interesting side project that I have ever heard come out of any Hip-Hop producer. And I am not going to even front about it. You either are completely in love with it, or you HATE IT.Here are the reasons you should not hate it:

1) Auto-tune:

Please don’t give me that bullshit that auto-tune is played out. Just because Lil’ Wayne likes to use it in the studio when he is fried on cough syrup, and T-Pain likes to use it doesn’t mean auto-tune is played out. Turn off the radio, and the problem of auto-tune playing out is solved.

2)The New York Times says "Mr. West can’t sing, and it is that weakness for which this album will ultimately be remembered”

This album is oozing with musicianship. A lot of the verses and choruses he uses on this album explain the hardship of getting out a relationship and the auto-tune makes up for him not being able to sing.

Here are reasons you should love it:

1)Drums:

The Drums on every single track is amazing. A lot of people use the TR-808 Roland drum machine. Hip-Hop producers, techno junkies, ect. Kanye West has managed to make them sound tribal, and has given them a natural vibe which I haven’t heard in anybody’s work, possibly other than Timberland. Good ass Drums.

2) It’s different:

Yeah it’s not the Kanye we all know that speeds up soul samples makes songs like” Through the Wire” and “Crack Music”, but this album is different, and is a fresh new sound. A musician is always changing. I’ve seen it in Coldplay, the Beatles, and even in Bob Dylan. And this change is for the good. Hearing a musician evolve through music is probably one of the things I like about music. Kanye is a musician. A talented one at that. It’s heard throughout this album.

Yeah, I’ll stop ranting now and give you guys the final word. Do you love it or hate it?

Gang Starr - Step In The Arena (1991)

I have a problem with a lot of rap albums, none of the songs feel like they were made to be put on the same album. Too often rap albums sound like greatest hits albums. It's not a deal breaker but I'd rather not get that feeling when I listen to music. Many artists avoid that problem by adding some loose narrative (Deltron 3030 and Disposable Arts come to mind), others just write songs that sound good together. Gang Starr took the latter to new a level with Step In The Arena.

Every song is apart of a greater whole, married to the themes present throughout the album. Guru brings lyrical diversity with no shortage of rap braggadocio while DJ Premier made sure every track was scratched to hell and back. It was unprecedented 17 years ago and 17 years later it's unrivaled. It's no wonder why IGN called it the number 1 rap album.

Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=KHM2TG7T

Play Auditorium

I like seeing music and gaming come together beyond the scope of Fisher Price guitars and drums. That's why I'm posting about Auditorium. If you're even remotely interested in gaming or music you should be playing this demo right now. If I said more the experience would be ruined; wear headphones and enjoy the game.

http://www.playauditorium.com/#index

The Dø - A Mouthful (2008)

Genre: Indie Pop|Folk Pop

This is one of my favourite albums to come out this year. I don't feel like writing a complete review, so here are some snippets of Nick Southall's review on Drowned in Sound:

"First things first. The Dø are a Franco-Finnish duo comprised of Dan Levy and Olivia B. Merilahti. The band name is drawn from the initials of their first names. Their MySpace page lists their influences as “Bela Bartok, Jimi Hendrix, Thelonious Monk, Ella Fitzgerald, Nico, Igor Stravinsky, The Who, Bird, The Last Poets, Coltrane, Björk, Monte !, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Mingus, Eminem, The WuTangClan, Lauryn Hill, Betty Davis, Queen, The Beatles, Tom Waits, Art Pepper, Toumast, Frank Zappa, Young marble giants, Duke Ellington, The White Stripes , Peaches, Michael Jackson, BECK, Joanna Newsom, Patti Smith.”

"Above and beyond that impressively eclectic list, The Dø sound, at various points, like a female Eminem backed by a brass band, like The Cardigans stripped to nothing but a jazzy guitar strum and a sexy whisper, like ‘Iko Iko’ by The Dixie Cups re-imagined by Pingu, like Moldy Peaches with a hint of continental sophistication, like ‘The Block Party’ by Lisa Left-Eye Lopez if she’d grown up listening to Pavement, like PJ Harvey on the moon, and like Os Mutantes at their most chilled-out."

"The secret of The Dø’s success, apart from the fact that Olivia B. Merilahti is a stupidly gifted, idiosyncratic and sexy singer more talented at imitating vocal ticks than Rory Bremner, is probably the fact that Dan Levy is a (not so) secret jazzer; there’s a musical dexterity and ability running through A Mouthful which makes them stand out from the crowd. (Not that their milieu is exactly laden with contemporaries.) What this means is that every one of the 15 songs here is interesting in one way or another; compositionally, texturally, rhythmically, emotionally, or any one of a myriad of other ways."

"A Mouthful is a resolutely pop album, in the old-fashioned sense; eclectic, characterful, audacious, addictive and irresistibly sexy in a sophisticated yet irreverent fashion. I’ve not heard anything like it in a long, long time, which is an enormous shame. Awesome."

Tracklist:

1. Playground Hustle - 2:55
2. At Last ! - 4:09 *
   
3. On My Shoulders - 5:21 *
   
4. Song for Lovers - 2:24
5. The Bridge is Broken - 4:42
6. Stay (Just a Little Bit More) - 3:06
7. Unissasi Laulelet - 2:19
8. Tammie - 3:15 *
   
9. Queen Dot Kong - 3:14
10. Coda - 1:57
11. Searching Gold - 5:10
12. When Was I Last Home? - 3:34
13. Travel Light - 4:02
14. Aha - 4:19
15. In My Box - 1:48

NOTE: Tracks with an * are highlights.

Get it here

First Post

All I ever do these days is listen to music, so I thought I'd share my music through a blog.
I'm gonna see if I can get some friends onboard as well, since they listen to different music.
Music to come.