Wu-Massacre

Holding your breath for a hip hop release is likely to kill you. So while I'm certainly excited about the prospect of this hydra-headed Wu project featuring Method Man, Ghostface Killah, and Raekwon, I certainly wasn't going to get my hopes up too high. But now comes word that Wu-Massacure is actually going to happen. In fact, it's going to happen on March 30, courtesy of Def Jam. And, to make it even better, the album art is aggressively awesome.

Take a peek at the album by sampling "Meth vs Chef Part 2," a sequel 15 years in the making. The song, while not perfect (the song abruptly ends and a ludicrously stoned Meth cracks yo mama jokes) , is just one more instance of the admirable work ethic of the Clan. Raekwon, in particular, continues to add to his revitalized career by continuing to sound as hungry as he did on the second verse of "Bring Da Ruckus." I would love to announce 10 months from now that Raekwon was involved with the best hip hop album of the year for the second year in a row. I'm holding my breath . . .

(More) New RXRY

The awesome folks over at BEKO have just released a digital single by RXRY. With each release, RXRY's music is getting more substantial, more structured. On the a-side, we have "Frlrn Bralb," a song built around a crispy beat and a stuttering sweep. The song is more dramatic and more nuanced than anything we've seen before. The tension builds because of an almost imperceptible pulse of bass and a digital peel that sounds like a phone call that needs to be answered. The b-side, "Bsyldr Hykrs," strikes an interesting balance between pastel synth lines and a fat bass notes that hold down the low end of the mix. "Bsyldr Hykrs" is not without its charms, but its "Frlrn Bralb" that steals the show.

Please go support BEKO and RXRY by grabbing the digital single right here.

No Joy

mp3: No Joy "No Joy"

In 1994, one of the songs I listened to most was Smashing Pumpkins' "Plume" from the b-sides compilation Pisces Iscariot (some of which holds up pretty well, by the way). Besides the intergalactic guitar solos, I loved how the relentlessly heaviness the main riff still managed to sound fluid and flexible. When I came across No Joy a couple of week ago, I was reminded of "Plume" because the two songs they've posted to their Bandcamp site manage the same trick. The self-titled song (?) "No Joy" surges with riffage that doesn't pummel the listener so much as lull them into some kind of guitar trance. Since the vocals, buried under a mountain a distortion and cymbals crashes, are almost incidental, the draw of the song is the hypnotic quality of the music.

Pill Wonder - Jungle/Surf

mp3: Pill Wonder "Gone to the Market"

The unstoppable Underwater Peoples has announced that Pill Wonder will release the band's debut album, Jungle/Surf. You can order the album here, and expect it to ship on/around February 28th. To give you a little taste of the album, I've posted the excellent "Gone to the Market." I think that the sunny good vibrations of the song are a good indicator of the album's direction and feel. You can also enjoy the trippy mirror play of "Wishing Whale" here.

World Sick

In internet time, I'm pretty late on this one (four day weekend in the mountains). If, for some reason, you haven't grabbed this one yet, slap down your email address in the field below to receive Broken Social Scene's new song from the forthcoming Forgiveness Rock Record, which is out May 4th on Arts & Crafts. The song doesn't stake out any new territory for the band, but it is an amorphous beast of a song. If "World Sick" is in any way indicative of the new album, then I think we're going to have another great BSS album before spring even starts.

How to Dress Well

mp3: How to Dress Well "My Body"
mp3: How to Dress Well "Ready for the World"

How to Dress Well is a new but absurdly prolific project between a dude in Brooklyn and a dude in Köln. Together, these guys are making the among the most exciting R&B in the world. And in the past couple of months, they have quietly dropped six (6!!) EPs, all of which you can grab for free over at their blog.

They have described themselves as a lo-fi Shai. It's a really accurate and appropriate description: HTDW swaddles his silky falsetto in reverb and tape hiss and paper thin drum machines. But unlike Shai (and H-Town and Boyz-2-Men), HDTW has removed all the scented candles and sweaty chests and hyperbolic declarations of love from contemporary R&B. In their place, we get a mysterious crooner who sounds as dark and remote as the music. While the vocals are stunning (the guys sounds remarkably like Justin Vernon), the music marks another salvo for avant-garde R&B. Between Bon Iver and The XX, R&B is taking a healthy turn toward the interesting again. As long as D'Angelo is wrapped up with his complicated demons, we've got How to Dress Well's avant-garde R&B to keep us warm.

I cannot recommend How to Dress Well enough. I'm very excited to see more from these guys. They have another (!) EP coming out next week. Please go support them here.