the rave revue

Lazer Theme - Major Lazor ft. Future Trouble

This is my second post from the concept collaboration Major Lazer - Guns Don’t Kill People…Lazers Do.  The album is dance-driven throughout, and I could easily see any of them heating things up.  I learned from some research that “Major Lazer” is a fictional vigilante zombie warrior.  Check out the animated videos on YouTube.

You’ll Go Crazy - Santigold and Young Jeezy, produced by Mike Cash

“Southerngold” is Mike Cash’s remixes featuring madame de rigueur, Santigold, with Dirty South classics.  Like all of these post-Dangermouse mash-ups, some of it really works, and some of it misses.  I like “Shawty is Starstruck” - the industrial Santigold sound puts a lot of edge on an otherwise buttery two-chord feel good jam.  Cop the mixtape at Get Right Music.

The Go Crazy remix swaps out the somewhat repetitive horn loop (not as irritating as Hova’s mega-flop, Show Me What You Got, but in the same vein) for more intricate and percussive texture.  Even Santigold’s “go ahead” is more meter than melody.  Jeezy on it again: I’m emotional, I hug the block/I’m so emotional, I love my glock.

Jay-Z - D.O.A. (Death of Autotune)

get your chain tooken, I may do it myself - I’m so Brooklyn.
I know we facing a recession, but the music y’all making going make it the great depression

Hova’s back with an indictment of the autotune rap scene, which he hands out with the familiar gravitas.  The off-beat “aws” are a somewhat uncharacteristic feature, but then again he seems to be increasingly interested in pushing rap past what is comfortable and known.  “Brooklyn Go Hard” had a similarly heavy but simple instrumental, but the beat here hearkens to some of the American Gangster work: 70s bass line, driving percussion, straightforward guitar lick.  The hey hey hey goodbyes are on point.

Feist - My Moon, My Man (Toy Selectah rmx)

I snagged this one off of a blog called Mad Decent, which is worth cruising if you’re on the hunt for something to dance to.  I like the subtle layering of the Feist vocals.  In her solo work, it often feels like her voice is going to collapse into itself, which is effective in summoning a kind of fragile pathos.  Toy Selectah recasts the voice in a different mold: eery, difficult to place, and somehow insistent.

The album has a couple other gems, including an uptempo-cum-chopped and screwed remix of “A Milli.”  Check it out here.

Major Lazer ft. Santigold and Mr. Lexx - Hold the Line

Pretty dope “surf-rock meets riddim” track.  Something about that metallic timbre in both MIA and Brooklyn’s Santigold makes them the it girls for hooks these days.  This one came my way via Mad Decent, a really good source for a more dance-oriented listener.

Outkast - Da Art of Storytellin’ Part IV

I’ve been blasting this Outkast track on and off for over a year now, and am still just spellbound by 3 stacks’ word play prowess.  Give it a few spins and get to know the lyrics, and then realize how sporadically the rhythms runs.  Notice as well the deep gasps of air sucked in between lines: Andre 3000 always brings that other level type of passion.

She said “Why you in the club you don’t make it precipitate/You know, make it rain when you could make it thunderstorm?”/I’m like “Why?/The world needs sun/The hood needs funds/There’s a war going on and half the battle is guns/How dare I throw it on floor/When people are poor”/So I write like Edgar Allen to restore/Got a cord - umblilical/Attached to a place that can’t afford no - landscapin/or window-drapin/This old lady told me if I ain’t got something good say ‘nathan’/That’s why I don’t talk much/I swear I don’t cost much/to pay attention to me/I tell it like it is then I tell it how it could be”

Like Jay-Z, the boys from Outkast have grown to men.  They’ve kept much of their youthful identities in tact (they’re still rock stars after all), but have graduated to somewhat more mature conflicts.  Dre worries about staying in touch with his roots, maintaining the creativity that put him where he finds himself today.  Big Boi on the other hand has somewhat more material concerns, stemming as usual from baby mama drama.  What I find exciting about a track like “Da Art” is that it pays homage to the storytelling roots of rap, but translates it into the more industrialized medium that we know today.