Aphera Music

The two most musically active members of Radiohead have paired up with one of my favorite rappers to bring you the track “Retarded Fren”. Jonny Greenwood’s involvement seems to be the appropriation of his orchestral work, “Popcorn Superhet Receiver”, which appears to be sampled and elaborated upon by Thom Yorke and rapped over by Doom aka MF Doom aka (with madlib) Madvillain. The track is simple enough and kinda interesting. It seems to be some sort of promotion for some label’s tenth birthday. I dunno the track is good enough to stand alone so I haven’t looked much further into its raison d’etre.

listen to it here

I’ve also included on the playlist my favorite Doom track, “Great Day”, from his classic collaboration with Madlib, Madvillainy, so click the player icon on the right to check it and everything else that we’ve posted out.

Listening to Elliott Smith again is like a deep conversation with an old friend. As one of the first “modern” musicians that I started listening to, along with Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and Eminem, he holds an incredibly dear spot in my heart. Especially  his album Figure 8 which was on repeat through most of middle school and early high school. I’ve included on our playlist an outtake from the album that I recently discovered. Though the title of the album is derived from this song, “Figure 8″, it was not included. Regardless, still embodies the sound and aura of the album [kudos if you recognized it from Schoolhouse Rock].

Next on the playlist I put on another sad song from the album, “Everything Means Nothing to Me”. I’m not in a bad place now but these slow and low songs just feel pretty right right now. Also, Smith’s death was only 8 years and 10 days ago to this day.

listen to the songs by clicking the player image on the right or right here.

I just heard this track on Gilles Peterson’s BBC radio programme (ha) and this track really caught me. The track is a remix of a Lana Del Rey track who apparently is this up and coming female singer/songwriter type. I don’t know much about her but her voice is extremely beautiful and to add to that the song’s lyrics are some of the most sexually charged words I’ve heard. Really loving the setting too. The remixer, Joy Orbison, is another Londoner working in that style called dubstep that I’m loving so much these days. But back to Lana, she’s hot and making good music which is good for everybody.

Lana Del Rey – Video Games (Joy Orbison Remix) by beatsbaby

Aside from right here, I will not mention anymore the long break that apheramusic took because it was inexcusable and silllllly. I feel like I’m starting a new page and I’m also 21 which I’ve been told means something.

I saw James Blake perform twice in the last 4 months. Both times I can safely say my mind was blown. This guy is taking long strides towards a future of musical domination. His new EP, Enough Thunder, does little for me except for this one song but no worries because he’s got a new EP coming out later this year and I’ve heard some of his unreleased songs when he played them live and they kick ass.

I was surprised to hear that James Blake was being called dubstep so I looked up what dubstep meant and I discovered it has a rich history steeped in two step and house and all those weird genres that come from London. Not only that, but I found out that an electronic artist with whose work I am sorta familiar, Burial, is a pioneer of dubstep. funny. Then I found Mount Kimbie, a group loosely associated with Blake, and I heard this song, “50 Mile View” and it blew me away. A lot of richness to their sound – ear candy for anyone with an ear for electronica. A lot of it comes from the way they use reverb to keep sounds lingering; every new sound sits on the residue of the previous blips and synth struts, lingering and fading simultaneously.

Next, Pitchfork just posted a new track by Gonjasufi, everyone’s favorite stoner electronica raspy-voiced psychadelia singer. That’s right kids. Anyway he’s got a new EP coming out or something and again the tracks are produced by my very favorite Flying Lotus. Listen below but first I’m going to express my excitement over the news that Flying Lotus tweeted about his new album, for which he apparently has so much music that he either has to pare it down or make a double album. Now excuse me while I clean up the mess I just left on my keyboard (eww gross).

GONJASUFI – “EATFISH” w: BLU (Produced by Johnson&Johnson) [aif] by Hydroshare.tv

It’s nice to see you guys again, signing off, this is George aka Yurij.

I am trying to decide whether or not I’m offended that Radiohead didn’t flush out the brief The King of Limbs with their subsequent single releases, “The Butcher”, “Supercollider”, and now “Staircase”.  On one hand, plenty of my favorite Radiohead songs reside outside of full-length albums. My favorite Radiohead song, if someone were to point a gun to my head and I had to pick one, is “Polyethylene” on Airbag/How am I Driving EP. But on the other hand, “The Butcher” and company releases make me feel as though The King of Limbs may have been sloppily incomplete. I feel as though The King of Limbs actually provides an excellent scaffold on which to hang the next three songs. If they were all strung together, would The King of Limbs have been a more satisfying product? Why did Radiohead leave them out?

I certainly feel that with the most recent release of “Staircase”, Radiohead is beginning to create a story of rhythms. A sort of “new sound” that I don’t think we all caught onto given the brevity of The King of Limbs. After its 40 minutes, I think we all read just a few pages out of their entire book. But now, I like playing “Staircase” back to back with “Butcher” and creating an almost Animal Collective-like musical trance. Some “thing” is emerging.

Who knows? Radiohead may be making it about the experience… handing out sequels to the trilogy rather than dumping everything on us at once. Or maybe, Thom is simply playing around; take a look at the video below, he certainly looks like he’s having fun.

This is a song by Bilal called “Levels”. The particular mix that I added to our playlist is a done by Flying Lotus and it’s brilliant. The song just builds and builds and the climax isn’t even overblown – just perfect.

Click Here to open the playlist and listen.

Here’s the original mix with video  directed by Flying Lotus.

Bilal ”Levels” from flying lotus on Vimeo.

Disappointed by the lack of musically promising releases this spring, I’m pigeonholed to focus my attention on the scarce quality releases. Here are two:

Tomboy Panda Bear

I was initially turned off by this seemingly repetitive underdeveloped album. At least in comparison to Noah’s contribution to Animal Collective, Tomboy comes off sounding like what it literally is: Animal Collective stripped of everyone except Panda Bear. However, I returned to this album, attempting to appreciate something I may have missed. I wrote off everything until Sheherezade – the fourth to last song. From then on, the album becomes more delicately refined. It’s true that throughout, the album is full of layers, psychedelics, and beautifully orchestrated sounds. However, in comparison to Animal Collective they add up to no more than drawn out ideas. Whatever the case, this is still an enjoyable listen.
Panda Bear – Tomboy by In House Press

Burst Apart The Antlers

I have less to say here because I just started listening to the entire album yesterday. The sound palette ranges from Radiohead to new wave, post-punk rock. As usual, Silberman’s voice is both showcased and integrated to function as an instrument of emotion and music. Stream the album over at NPR

http://www.npr.org/2011/04/24/135572911/first-listen-the-antlers-burst-apart#playlist

With our horrendous track record for regularity, I don’t doubt that many of you readers are like, “How I gonna hear about new music if George and Larissa are so irregular.” My solution, BBC Radio 1 host Gilles Peterson. He’s part DJ, part record collector, part record label owner, and simply the most knowledgeable man I’ve ever heard speak about music. His radio program airs weekly and can be streamed from his site here. It’s nice to be able to tune in and be completely engaged for a full two hours in music that I’ve never heard but thoroughly enjoy afterwards. I’ve discovered a whole ton of new music because of this guy and I’d love to share some of it with you.

Firstly, Little Dragon. Remember that chick that sings in “Empire Ants” from Gorillaz’s Plastic Beach? Yeah neither did I but this is her band and now that I know they’re capable of putting out songs as fresh and groovy as this I’ll be sure to keep them on lock. The track, “Nightlight”, is from their new album coming out in June.
Next is the Stepkids. Their track, “La La”, is the catchiest thing on this side of 60s pop throwback futuremusicIdon’tknowwhereI’mgoingwiththis… Anyway Gilles showed me this one too and I instantly fell in love with the catchy catchy chorus, where Mama and Papa-esque vocals sing the namesake “la la’s.”
The Stepkids ‘La La’ (Stones Throw) by cmjct
So remember kids: Gilles Peterson. He’s as solid as a high fiber diet and sure to keep you, or your listening habits, regular.

Oh hey!

PMA was spot on in point out the Radiohead influence in The Antler’s recently released singles. In fact the influence is so strong that “Parentheses” could be an early version of Radiohead’s “Up On the Ladder” from In Rainbows 2. The same distorted guitar motif sweeps under a pitchy, whiny, thom-like vocal line and minimalist drum work (but a steady beat) gives the song a slow, chugging along tempo. I wonder if the Antlers were aware of the similarity not just to Radiohead but to “Up On the Ladder” specifically? George once wrote a song that sounds so much like “India Rubber” that I thought he was writing a cover – he, however, had no idea that the resemblance was so obvious.

That being said, I don’t hold anything against “Parentheses” for sounding just like a Radiohead song. I mean it detracts for the “originality” of The Antlers, but the song sounds great. Many people have tried to sound like Radiohead and failed. It’s no easy thing to do – otherwise everybody would be doing it right?

“Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out” doesn’t give us enough lyrical clues as to what it may be about. Something about bad decisions, blacking out, and teeth falling out. However, the music, whatever the subject, is just as inspired as it was in Hospice – their album about dying from cancer. Silberman is the master of straining his voice just enough to make us hear the struggle. Rather than sounding strained however, his voice and his music create an airy drama.

If this is a little preview of what may make up the rest of their upcoming album, Burst Apart, I am extremely excited! Their album comes out May 10th. Listen to their new single HERE