Gold Soundz No. 1 (or, a Survey of the Summer)
by Sebastian Cruz, Staff Writer
Hi, I’m Sebastian, and I listen to too much music. If you need help understanding what I mean by this, imagine that I am a baby. Not just that, I am a stupid little baby rolling around in my own filth, eating what I can and chundering up what I can’t. I am filled with a bevy of unidentified postpartum diseases. Watch me as I wet myself. Wah-wah.
As a result of this, my tolerance for new music, whether just new or just discovered, is preternaturally generous. All of these .wav’s and .mp3’s sitting in my local files marinating in dust, are my anchors to the world. But what's the good of my obsession if I cannot use it for good? Consider this a new part of my rehabilitation/reintegration into society, a bi-weekly roundup of musics to be stoically celebrated, softly reviled or otherwise discussed.
With this out of the way, I can answer your most pressing question: how was my summer? Oh so busy, dear readers, as I was up to my arms in sleepaway summer camp joy, sweat sliding all around my insides, commanding my platoons of fifth graders with aplomb. The works! And in my god-given respite, when I slip away to the noodly, cradling arms of my Apple Earbuds Classic, I found room for the hottest drops of the season.
Now, I am not above what I am: a music dork with terrifying abandon. As such, my taste skews critic-baity, or in less charitable terms, Pitchfork-foddery new hotness that impresses the publications. It’s all my speed, man. That being said, I have assuredly overlooked many summer releases (some very intentionally), so if any of my takes irk you feverishly, try to find and replace, in your mind, an appropriate analogue for the desired album. Or spam the editor with requests for Justin Bieber’s SWAG and its deeply-felt companion piece SWAG II. Anything is appreciated.
On with the tunes!
Nourished by Time - The Passionate Ones
Hot off the heels of his Oberlin debut that I’m very sure he’s still relishing in (no really), Marcus Brown’s Nourished by Time project is the kind of chimeric pop music we all deserve. Perhaps in the spirit of the times, Brown smooths out his bubbly hypnagogia with something a little softer, but no less urgent. A bleary treatise on trying to stay vibrant (or at least sane) under the stultifying conditions of late capitalism, Brown is never heavy-handed nor pissing in the wind.
Recommended if you’re… A Marxist with a hate-boner for the Top 40.
Listen to: “BABY BABY”
Quadeca - Vanisher, Horizon Scraper
For the sin of starting off as a YouTube rapper, Quadeca will undoubtedly go to hell. But for being a multi-genre polyglot with ambitions perhaps even greater than his talent, he’ll definitely get complementary cucumber water in the waiting room of purgatory. Zing! Consider this a sample of my inner turmoil, dear readers, since I cannot gauge how about it this guy is. As it relates to Vanisher, Quad’s approach to songwriting and composition is unfathomably impressive, technically astute and almost completely devoid of subtlety. He hasn’t quite mastered not mixing every song into a big soupy sea of embellishments. However, white boy did clinch Danny Brown to be the giant basilisk that eventually kills him at the end of the (very by-the-books) story. Hats off to the hyperonline.
Recommended if you’re… Daydrunk, and/or mourning something that doesn’t matter.
Listen to: “GODSTAINED”
Clipse - Let God Sort Em Out
Why is this album so good? Perhaps it was that prophetic perfect storm: Pusha T resting on his laurels as the no. 1 unfuckwithable emcee of his ilk, (né No) Malice finding God and quitting music altogether, Pharrell Williams just doing whatever the fuck he wants and releasing an auto-biopic in which he stars as a real actual LEGO guy (seriously, what the hell, man?). The features are big, Push & Malice are yet again getting combative when, at this point, taking shots at other rappers has proven to provide diminishing returns for all, and the KAWS-brand album art expresses less than nothing. Is it ridiculous for me to say that this sounds like hip-hop’s future? As in these three artists sat down and prescriptively imagined what a “futuristic”-sounding hip-hop album should sound like? Who gives a fuck. Beats go crazy, bars for days, Kendrick Lamar Tyler the Creator Nas and everyone’s mother wahey.
Recommended if you’re… Literally fifty years old and listening to nothing but Mobb Deep.
Listen to: “Chains & Whips”
Alt-Country Hat Trick
(Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band - New Threats from the Soul
Greg Freeman - Burnover
Hayden Pedigo - I’ll Be Waving as You Drive Away)
Don’t get cute, now. It’s been almost exactly one year since MJ Lenderman released Manning Fireworks, a piece of music that’s all but begging to be imitated, worshipped, or all else reviled because of its nauseating simplicity. People seemed to have gotten their fill, yet evidently, bands and related artists haven’t. All three of these releases are really worth your time even if Lenderman completely puts you off of the sad-sack songwriter gimmick he makes sound so effortless. Ryan Davis goes jammy, psychedelic and even sadder; Greg Freeman goes loud, clean and even funnier; Hayden Pedigo shoves the simpleton language games out of the way and delivers rustic solitude by way of fingerstyle guitar and beds of synthesized goodness. Now get out there and feel BAD, why dontcha!
Recommended if you’re… Losing out on all of your best years at all times in your life.
Listen to: “New Threats from the Soul”, “Salesman”, “Smoked”
Water From Your Eyes - It’s a Beautiful Place
If you’re a stupid little baby like me, you’ve probably heard all of the indie rock you can stand, the kind of indie rock you’d be able to recommend if you could remember any of it. My beloved indies, I adore you so, but I cannot stomach it any longer, for I have found THE indie rock release of this decade. The hallmarks are hallmarking about—especially the kind of tech-overload disaffection that musicians have finally begun exploring. What’s so wonderful about this release is that they hardly stick to one sound for very long, so if they irk you, at least they’ll be irking you in new clothes. It’s also under a half hour and contains seven actual choice cuts out of the ten. Great stuff.
Recommended if you’re… Scrolling on Twitter while reading this right now.
Listen to: “Playing Classics”
Dijon - Baby
I don’t really have enough sex to listen to this album. Granted, I also don’t have enough children to listen to this album either. That being said, this album is so sexy and strange it’s unbelievable. This dude has been a clarion presence in modern music since the audiovisual treat that is Absolutely. Announced a week prior to its release, Baby is truly that dense body of work only someone like Dijon can make, i.e., a sonic glutton who can synthesize glitchy-pop, guitar atmospherics, and a gooey melty production-sheen in order to create a lot of songs about fucking (rest in peace/eat shit, Steve Albini) and marital devotion. Even Justin Bieber knows Dijon is the total package. Hell, he should have featured on Baby rather than the other way around.
Recommended if you’re… At that point in your marriage where you can still bone and feel good about yourselves.
Listen to: “Another Baby!”
Earl Sweatshirt - Live Laugh Love
Do you ever feel like Lebron James? Do you ever feel like Lebron James, smiling through it all, because you just can’t believe that this is your life? Mr. Sweatshirt has taken James’s tack—perhaps not unintentionally, given the bevy of b-ball references he scatters through this thing—with nothing but aplomb. This guy fucking loves to rap, over production that buoys his energy lavishly, lovingly, perfectly. He makes it very plain that this battle is neither soft-fought nor even over. But look at him go, man. It’s infectious.
Recommended if you’re… That one stoner friend who isn’t going to make it.
Listen to: “Live”
Great Disappointment Hat Trick
(shame - Cutthroat
Big Thief - Double Infinity
Alex G - Headlights)
I’m not mad, just disappointed, and for artists I normally love, that’s unforgivable. They oughta make a tenth ring of hell. In any case, those being cast down into the fiery depths are artists and bands that I know can do better. Big Thief and shame are two flavors of turgidity; Big Thief’s do-nothing quasi-psychedelic jams for your least interesting lesbian friend aren’t liable to start any fires, and shame’s version of jock rock cannot be good for the mental state. I must have listened to the Alex G album too, except that in my recollection, all I can hear are the faint sounds of wind chimes and twittering birds. It must have sounded like something.
Recommended if you’re… Already a fan with very low standards. Optionally, gay.
Listen to: Anything else.
