Holy Other: Advanced Spirituality

I have been meaning to write about Holy Other for quite some time now. His With U EP on Tri-Angle Records has been in heavy rotation for a few months. His  songs suspend time...or at least slow it and space it out into a place where the listener is intensely aware of the moment. They use the dance/bass music template but to opposite ends--instead of making you move, you are lost in one single moment of release.
Holy Other - Yr Love mp3

"Touch" is intensely romantic and creepy and sexy at the same time capturing a sense of intense longing and spinning it into beauty.
Holy Other - Touch mp3

I became aware of Holy Other the way I learn about so many good things: through How to Dress Well. Here's the remix he did of an earlier HTDW song, "Take it On", where he uses the sadness and intensity of the original and turns it in on itself. Like spiraling into a beautiful dark hole.
How to Dress Well - Take It On (Holy Other remix)

Another absolute favorite of mine, Physical Therapy turns an earlier track of theirs "We Over" into 10 epic minutes of beautiful stuttering beats and light house flourishes.
Holy Other - We Over (Physical Therapy extended mix)

A video from a track from With U called "Know Where" was just released. It's a gorgeous and narcotized trip around downtown Philadephia through a malfunctioning videocamera. It plays to the sinister longing inherent in the song, as you trail two ladies who walk (forwards and  backwards) in sync to the beat. The screen wiggles and shimmers in sync with the music and the haze of static mirrors the echoing, spacey sound. Really excellent.


Holy Other - Know Where from @thestankonia on Vimeo.
 
Holy Other also released FOUR free remixes of "Touch" and here they are. The Supreme Cuts one is especially tasty and the Matthewdavid kicks at the end.
Holy Other - Touch (Blood Diamonds remix) 
Holy Other - Touch (Cupp Cave remix)
Holy Other - Touch (Matthewdavid remix)
Holy Other - Touch (Supreme Cuts remix)

You can also get a dark, spacey, soulful mix he made for the excellent website Altered Zones. Which I highly recommend.

The Caretaker: Advanced Age

James Leyland Kirby has been making music under various monikers for quite a while. I first heard of him when he remixed (this is not the one I heard but it is the jam) Aphex Twin as V/VM. That stuff tends to be pretty harsh and I filed it under "cool, but not to listen to very often." However, his work under his own name and The Caretaker is pretty heartbreakingly beautiful. His most recent album An Empty Bliss Beyond This World has been my nightcap for the past week and half. He uses hazy loops from old 78's he's collected over the years of what seem to be ballroom music to construct songs that feel like drifting in a dream. Apparently the whole Caretaker project was inspired by the haunted ballroom scene in The Shining and past releases have had a strong undercurrent of dread. This album deals with the concept of Alzheimer's and tries to recreate and represent the process of memory deterioration through sound. So pieces of songs repeat with varying levels of clarity and echo throughout the album. Song titles too repeat. The interesting thing to me is the lightness of the music here. If you've ever seen someone with Alzheimer's there is a level of whimsy to their experience that comes along with the sadness and loss and Kirby captures it here. Download "Libet's Delay" a track that adds enough echo that it's difficult to distinguish whether the original piano track is of two keys being hit or if its altered to the point that it sounds that way. I imagine gliding down a gorgeous hallway full of smartly dressed dandies.
The Caretaker - Libet's Delay mp3

Stream the whole album below until you get tired of coming of this page every night to listen to it and decide to buy it like I did.
The Caretaker: An Empty Bliss Beyond This World by alteredzones

And check out this unofficial but transfixing video that highlights the echo, repetition and strangeness that Kirby has added to this mundane source material:

The Caretaker - "Bedded Deep In Long Term Memory" (Music Video) from Charles Griffin Gibson on Vimeo.

I hate to say it but Drake is kinda Advanced.

Ok. I admit to thoroughly hating on Drake. "Over" was bad to the point that I couldn't even really enjoy Hype Williams screwed-down dread-psych remix of it "Ooovrr"(mp3). But his two most recent singles that apparently are not from his forthcoming album Take Care are hot and have been on heavy rotation. First he dropped "Dreams Money Can Buy" which finds Drake in a gangster mood, throwing out barbs and brags over a sample of Jai Paul's "BTSU"(mp3).
Drake - Dreams Money Can Buy mp3

Next is "Marvin's Room", a particular is a huge favorite of mine. Drake's vocals in it are so hook filled and the production by Noah "40" Shehib is totally beautiful. And it's kinda fun to sing along with the chorus. For a white boy. Alone in my car. Plus the subject matter is something we can all identify with...calling the person you shouldn't late at night. I'm almost ashamed at how much I honestly connect with the emotions in this song.
Drake - Marvin's Room mp3

Check out the video here. Drake started out on Degrassi so he's flexing well oiled acting chops here. Also the track gets a little screwed-down remix toward the end.



So anyone remember JoJo? She was tiny and ridiculous and sassy and awesome. So much R&B flavor in such a little white girl. So she came back and is a bigger little white girl now. She cover's "Marvin's Room" and adds all kinds of crazy. She's talking about some pretty dirty stuff: Adderall, dude's being inside of girls--all grown up!!! It's all pretty silly. Check it out here:
JoJo - Marvin's Room (Can't Do Better) mp3

How to Dress Well: So much fashion advice

How to Dress Well just dropped ANOTHER NEW SONG in video format from the sessions that produced his new Just Once EP. ADVANCED gets pretty excited about any new How to Dress Well and Mr. Krell does not disappoint once again. Check out "Cold Nights" below. It's hard for me to write anything about his songs right off-the-bat. They have subtle melodies that grow on me with time. Suffice it to say that HTDW pretty much kills it everytime. And is my favorite artist currently. So I'm digging this. The live drums in particular are hot. It's nice to hear him without the lo-fi effects. But I'm kind of looking forward to a return to more electronic production like he showcased in his amazing d'Eon - Transparency (How to Dress Well Rework) mp3 or in his guest spot with Active Child. He apparently has a remix of Holy Other in the works that I'm pretty excited about, too...anyhow this is currently on repeat.

Clams Casino: Wizards are Advanced. In Wizardry

Adult Swim keeps it poppin' so hard these days. Their weekly singles program is great, offering free songs from ADVANCED fav's like How to Dress Well, Active Child,Ford & Lopatin (I liked them a lot better when they were Games but that's another post entirely) and now Clams Casino! You can read tons more about the artists and get lots of downloads and streams from the links above (so much Clams Casino and How to Dress Well, in particular,here at ADVANCED). The new single "Wizard" has everything we love about Clams Casino: a dope laid back beat, plenty of little pretty details and woozy melodic synths. This time the synthesizer sounds have a triumphant prog/metal sound, which may explain the title.You can get it and all the singles from Adult swim here. Stream "Wizard" below.




The Clams man has still been busy producing beats for rappers. He seems to have songs coming out with every indie hip-hop star on the scene today. This one with ASAP Rocky is getting some airplay around the old ADVANCED homestead and has hooks galore.
ASAP Rocky - Wassup (prod. Clams Casino)

Lil' B has been a huge supporter and key to Clams Casino's success and here he pays Lil' B by lacing him with a beat that samples "Cry Little Sister" of  The Lost Boys fame. If you were anything like me, this song was big in your childhood so it's a pleasure to hear it used here and is another of example of Clams particular version of genius.
Lil' B - Unchain Me (prod. Clams Casino)

Rimar: Advanced Smoothies

So Rimar just popped onto my radar and I am so grateful. Bandcamp is amazing in that it gives so many musicians an opportunity to get there stuff out to the public. Too much good music available for virtually nothing. Anyhow. Rimar apparently is a producer who makes chilled-out r&b/soul/disco influenced electronic music that is so good it has PRETTY MUCH HIJACKED my stereo. He has two albums and a dope remix of Mario's (now classic) "Let Me Love You", all available for little or no money here. His latest album Higher Ground (free here) is chock full of music perfect for summer. From the old-school snap and funky vocals of the title track, which has a vibe similar to Prince or early MJ, to the Nas sampling "Beginners" you will not be disappointed.

o F F: Advanced Emotional

I had to use the full word in the title rather than "emo" but in a way some of the new-school R&B coming out these days is very much in the same spirit of that largely horrible music from about 10 years ago. However this time the emotions seem real and exposed rather than shouted at the world narcissistically. And that is real triumph; to make music about true emotions, but to do so in a format where it is divorced from an individuals experience and can become universal. I've posted about  o F F before and I'm a fan. His style of  intensely spacey, echoed, and autotuned vocals carry a gorgeous sadness. On this new collaborative single with Gr†llGr†ll, Emodancers, they add slow but steady slo-mo rave beats and synths to create an atmosphere that reminds me of M83. I appreciate the honesty and love that exists in their music and I'm really looking forward to hearing more from these budding artists. Check out all of o F F's stuff here. Beautiful music for a few dollars. Such a fair exchange.



Also check (and download) this remix by Slowdancer which slows and spaces everything even more. So beautiful.

o F F / GR†LLGR†LL . HAPPYFACED (SLOWDANCER MIX) by o F F

Finally. Probably my favorite. A totally rad techno remix by Mascara. The 90's San Francisco rave visuals up the nostalgia AND the psychedelia of the song. Next levels.

Steve Arrington x Dam-Funk: Ohio is Advanced

Dam-Funk (pronounced "Dame-Funk") has been involved in making music for quite a while playing as a session musician on rap records (Master P's I Got the Hook-Up being among them!) but truly burst onto the scene a few years ago with his multi-part album Toeachizown. That album was HEAVILY influenced by 80's g-funk like the legendary Ohio band Zapp & Roger (who revolutionized electro, and dance music in general by being among the first to use the vocoder and electronic beats), but was almost post-funk. It modernized the sound, keeping in the funk but elevating the beauty of the actual sounds being produced. Time has allowed for a re-evaluation of sound fascism (to paraphrase Oneohtrix Point Never) in so many realms. And the vintage equipment Dam-Funk uses produces gorgeous sounds. Deep, plush, shimmering, squirming sounds. Funk divorced of the "funky" trappings that an endless parade of images of bell-bottoms, afros and platform shoes has imposed on our brains. Still,this stuff makes me want to cruise the strip at like 15 mph!

Dam-Funk - Toeachizown (D-F's theme) mp3

Dam-Funk - In Flight mp3

Now Dam-Funk is working with Steve Arrington who is the former front man of Slave, (also from Ohio) the classic funk band of the 70's and 80's. Steve seems to have gotten older and put on a little weight and lost the jheri curl but has kept the slithering, shifting, soulful funk vocal skills. I honestly had heard very little of Slave before this...but I may have to go check some out because these two songs are the JAM. "Going Hard" (now available as a 12" single) especially has been on repeat for a whole day. Literally. And "I Be Trippin'" is quickly rising to meet it. I have never been a huge funk fan. I mean Funkadelic's "Can You Get to That?" (mp3) is one of my favorite songs of ALL TIME, and Shuggie Otis' Inspiration Information is really excellent, but beyond that I have found a lot of it not to my liking. But Toeachizown really turned my head and has opened me up to what is truly one of the formative and most organic electronic musics out there. I love when a musician lets me hear a genre I previously couldn't dig. It's one of the most enjoyable things I experience as a listener. He is producing a whole album for Steve Arrington and I really can't wait. Arrington's vocals are so tight and full of joyous detail. The overdubs of "yeah," "business," and "going hard" alone are so fun I can't stand it, and Dam's production is gorgeous and impeccable. Do yourself a favor and let the funk in.

Steve Arrington x Dam Funk - Goin' Hard by stonesthrow

Steve Arrington x Dam-Funk - I Be Trippin' mp3

Advanced Birdwatching: Balam Acab

I've been a Balam Acab fan for awhile now. His See Birds EP last year was beautiful with rich samples and deep bass. His music never really felt like "Witch-House" (perhaps the least apt genre name ever...very little Witchyness (do witches like bass? Burial? DJ Screw?) and certainly no House music in sight) with it's emphasis on melody and gauzy textures. It always had a warm melancholy that upended the genre standard of dread/haunting. These ghosts seem pretty friendly. From what I've heard of his new album Wander/Wonder (being released Sept. 9th), it seems to pull back even further from the genre standards with some of the most lovely cartoon fieldmouse-style crooning you'll ever care to hear dueting with the low moans that have always been there. Hauntingly gorgeous...not haunting scary.

Check out two tracks from his debut EP and see what all the hype is about.
Balam Acab - "See Birds" (Moon) mp3
Balam Acab - "Big Boy" mp3

And here's a remix of "See Birds" by ADVANCED superfavorite Physical Therapy who adds some insane Gloria Estefan/Miami Sound Machine vibes that seem really unlikely but are so rad.
Balam Acab - "See Birds" (Physical Therapy Southern Migration Remix) mp3

Now you are ready to hear the new stuff. The first two singles from WANDER/WONDER are available below. One to download and one to stream. September 9 is a day to look forward to.
Balam Acab - "Oh Why" mp3

BALAM ACAB - Apart by TriAngleRecords

Dude knows a lot more than just How to Dress Well

Tom Krell is a straight genius. I haven't loved someone's music this much in a long, long time. As How to Dress Well he pretty much pioneered the new/indie R&B movement. But his style is so unique, personal and idiosyncratic that his music will last long after the craze. His voice is almost angelic and his vocal lines are complex, full of nuance and detail. Usually they are cloaked in a ghostly haze and weave in and out of static-laden soundscapes that add layers of  beauty. But on the 12th he's releasing the Just Once EP which briefly abandons the lo-fi sonics for gorgeous clean production and utilizes orchestral rather than electronic instrumentation. This is a stunning EP and further displays Krell's talent and voice. He reworks three songs from his instant classic Love Remains: "Suicide Dream 1" (see the amazing video here), "Suicide Dream 2" (mp3) and "Decisions" (mp3) and adds the all new "Suicide Dream 3". The originals are some of my very favorites but I am loving the orchestral versions just as much. They expand the songs in different directions. On both a sonic and a spiritual level Krell's vocals are SO brave and exposed. "Suicide Dream 3" is a memorial to a friend he lost late last year and you can hear the mourning and acceptance in his falsetto. I would kill to be able to express my humanity with the courage and beauty that he does in these songs. Listen to the new track AND watch the video for "Decisions" and hear the man talk about his work below, and BUY THE ALBUM!. The leaked versions do not come anywhere close to the pure luminosity of the real productions.

Yourstru.ly Presents: How To Dress Well "Decisions" from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

Here are a couple of recent live performances from Brussels to check out...if, like me, you just can't get enough. Truly lovely.



Here he mixes R. Kelly's "I Wish" (a song I totally missed before but now is my jam...thanks HTDW) with his "Ready for the World"(mp3). And it's awesome.

Active Child: Advanced Active Adult

So the Adult Swim Singles Program has keeps coming through. With tracks from great artists like Ford & Lopatin, Best Coast, Mastadon, How to Dress Well and now Active Child, someone over there knows what they are doing. "Hanging On" continues in the same seductive indie loverman vibe of "Playing House" the awesome first single from his new album You Are All I See that featured How to Dress Well. That song and this are awesome new school R&B with beautiful vocals and sweet, clean electronic production. Active Child has a gorgeous voice that trails into the ether before soaring into the skies over harp hooks and stuttering beats. I'm really looking forward to the album. Listen below. Download all the singles here.

Tradvanced Party!

Ok. Get ready to have your mind blown. AraabMuzik is just the tip of the iceberg. The Harlem based rap crew the Diplomats have been putting out Dipset Trance Party mixes since last year. Araabmuzik is just one of the producers on these mixtapes. The other musicians are killing it in much the same fashion with cheaply produced, low-tech, trashy, AMAZING sounding tracks that take the cheesiest of trance music, chop it and put some seriously hard beats behind it. The devil-may-care, chintzy nature of the songs mirror the aesthetic of the Dips MC's (Cam'ron, Juelz Santana, Hell Rell, Jim Jones, JR Writer etc) where incredible talent and skill is simply thrown out as if they could really care less. The results are the same: sometimes terrible, but more often than not, riveting and innovative in a way that "classier" more "progressive" musicians simply can't keep up with. These guys don't have any hang-ups about being tasteful and they pair that up with the crazy swagger to make bad things sound great. Here are just two of the cuts from the mix.  You can get the whole thing (and the previous two Trance Party mixes) here. Pretty much every song on there is awesome. My only complaint is that the tracks are too short and they don't actually mix...just fade out and then the next one. But when they sound this good it's hard to complain.

Anabolic - "Calling Your Name" mp3

M1n3field - "I'm Not God" mp3

Radiohead: In case you missed it

Radiohead are amazing. Even the King of Limbs was excellent. If it had been released by any other band it would have been hailed as a masterpiece...but they have set the bar pretty high for the themselves. Anyhow they are now releasing a series of limited edition 12" remix singles from the album. The first features remixes from Caribou (formerly Manitoba...if anyone remembers now...he did some pretty dope 2-step garage tracks right before he got all melodic) and ADVANCED fav Jacques Greene. Check them both out below. They are being released today...and I would guess the vinyl is already all snapped up...digital is always available though.

Hype Williams: Advanced Hype

Hype Williams have been a favorite of mine for a minute. They are allegedly a duo from London...but there are rumors that that the duo of  Inga Copeland (get an amazing solo song here) and Roy Blunt are not actually the people making the music. It may be one person...or a collective...my guess is that it's them...they are just fronting. They have a habit of covering already ghostly R&B tracks and upping the spacey-ness, alienation and bass. I love their music and aesthetic. They combine elements of the current bass culture with 80's synth music, dub reggae, and the DIY lo-fi culture of classic 90's indie rock to make something truly unique.

This is their cover of Sade's "The Sweetest Taboo" (renamed as "The Throning") and it has been one of my top ten favorites for quite a long time on the ipod. I love the beautiful, lonesome sadness the bring out in it. Also the BASS is amazing and when the glass-ringing noise drops in it gives me goosebumps.

Hype Williams--"The Throning" mp3

They are releasing a new EP on Hyperdub, Which is pretty much THE label for the best in London's bass scene, called Kelly Price W8 Gain Vol. II. Check out a track below where they cover Odyssey's "Who", a forgotten soul jem from Motown's failed Mo-West label in the 1970's. They twist it into a spare 80's dub fest with hazy vocals. So good. I also don't really think it's live. Tricksy.

Hype Williams--"Warlord II (Odyssey) live" mp3