ISSUE #20
2017-2019
by Against All Logic (A.A.L.)
Against All Logic's latest LP is the soundtrack of a dystopian warehouse rave where everyone is moving, and you're unable to tell whether your clothes are drenched with your own sweat or someone else's.
I know we wrote about AAL's single last week (and also picked his last A.A.L. album as one of our top 50 albums of the last decade), but holy shit, we were not expecting a whole album to drop so suddenly. It’s the perfect follow-up to the soul and funk-inspired sounds of 2012-2017, in the sense that it takes those inspirations and replaces them with straight-up electro-futurstic beats and samples. It’s music of the future, and way ahead of its time. It’s incredible.
The first track, Fantasy, perfectly encapsulates my obsession with Nicolas Jaar and everything he creates. "Stay on my mind" and "I think about you all the time," repeats the vocal sample as deep, crackling bass and a downtempo beat drive this smooth track into fruition. Punctuated by Jaar's signature abstract and decontextualized samples reminiscent of scratches, or audio feedback, the track is accessible, and really fun to shake your ass to while at the club or in your living room.
If Loving You Is Wrong starts off with a haunting, discordant bass line. Minimal in execution, but very much deliberate in tone, and intent. About two and a half minutes in is when the song truly takes form as the high pitched synths and HEAVY beat and bass come into the fray. It's a short-lived outro, but damn does it hit the spot.
Then there's With An Addict: a 7 minute metamorphosis of intricate breakbeats into a beautifully melodic downtempo dream land that is inherently thought-provoking. It's a breezy walk home after a late night out. The fog is pouring in from the bay while the subsequent diffusion of the lights emanating from the street lamps guide you home. You look around at the surrounding buildings. The windows are black mirrors. No sign of life. A sense of loneliness kisses you on the forehead before the urge to dance the rest of the way home takes hold of you. No one's watching.
If You Can't Do It Good, Do It Hard is an anthem that will be played at nightclubs throughout the inevitable dystopian landscape that awaits us in the near future. This track was made to sweat to. From the pounding bass drum, to the jittery, robotic synths-- this track is the perfect precursor to the rest of the album's orgy of frantic, high-energy techno, trance and avant-garde. Then, finally, the album comes to a close with the dream that is You (forever). It’s a concoction of ambience, texture, and experimentation that cement Nicolas Jaar as one of the musical geniuses of this generation.
It's only Februrary and so far, 2020 has been absolutely overflowing with musical genius. And 2017-2019 is no exception. We can only hope Nicolas Jaar announces a tour soon because you know we are going to be there. No questions about it.
Have a great weekend. Stay weird.
💎 Mando
Texas Sun
by Leon Bridges and Khruangbin
It’s a historic New Music Friday - two rising talents from Texas have combined their disparate sounds, genre falling away awed and confused. As the smooth soul of Leon Bridges melts over the Thai funk of Khruangbin, southern heat and exotic breezes mingle in an ephemeral, beautiful moment on a lonely strip of road somewhere in the southwest.
When the eponymous single from this 4-track EP dropped at the end of last year, I heard multiple people describe the melancholy, twanging song as “the collaboration the world didn’t know it needed.” This feels especially apt now that the full EP is available - these artists are both rightfully beloved but operate on fundamentally different emotional channels, which makes the sonic alchemy of Texas Sun all the more enjoyable.
Khruangbin. Image courtesy of the band.
Psychedelic, instrumental and deeply groove-oriented, Khruangbin (Thai for Airplane) is a 3-piece out of Houston featuring Laura Lee on bass, Mark Speer on guitar and Donald “DJ” Johnson on drums. Their formation and sonic maturation is an interesting story in its own right, and well worth reading into - Speer toured with with electronic act Yppah in support of Bonobo in 2010, bringing Laura Lee on for bass duties after teaching her the instrument himself. After the tour the duo continued making music together, bringing DJ into the fold and taking huge doses of international inspiration from Thailand to Afghanistan and beyond. Their playlists on Spotify are one of the best outlets to new and exotic music, and we highly recommend you peruse.
Leon Bridges. Image courtesy of Orlando Weekly.
Also hailing from Houston, Todd Michael “Leon” Bridges came up on endless open mics, his soulful voice and simple guitar playing eventually catching the attention of Columbia Records. His 2015 album Coming Home has been called “a transmission straight from the heart,” and rose to be nominated for Best R&B Album at the 58th Grammys. His minimal, emotive take on soul and R&B has paved the way to success for multiple albums, but I don’t think anyone expected a detour into the cinematic, psychedelic collaboration we’ve been blessed with today.
Texas Sun only runs 20 minutes, but it grabs your mood and does not let go. Khruangbin do what they do best, lending atmosphere, space and wandering melody as a cinematic backdrop to Leon’s golden vocals, smoothly gliding in and out of the spotlight to trade with melancholic guitar solos on Conversion and funky, dub-influenced textures on C-Side. Midnight plays like an upbeat ballad, full of warm breezes and backseat romance. The title track is all sunset road trip, gratuitous slide guitar splaying color across a sky so wide it threatens to break as Leon strains against it.
This release is an incredible fusion of Texas talent, bridging genre and uniting fanbases under a flowing, multicolor banner that brings the best of Americana to the table alongside influences from far afield. Give it a listen and let us know what you think - we’ll be here bumping it when you come back.
Thanks for reading,
♥ Zach
