forkcast tracks

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

"Ramona"

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
"Ramona"

[Slumberland]

8
 

On their self-titled debut full-length, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart drove their tunes home with speed and enthusiasm, the 10 short tracks never slowing below mid-tempo. But "Ramona", the B-side to the "Young Adult Friction" single, shows what they can do when shrouded in a light narcotic haze. Here they translate their likable and peppy structures into a song that feels a few steps closer to the street, skipping back beyond those 1980s indie pop influences for something close to the circa-third-album-V.U. source. No big shock that at this tempo singer Kip Berman sounds pretty close to G500-era Dean Wareham; the way he sings "drive away" in the break and then rhymes it with "Chev-ro-let" (kids: a make of automobile once manufactured by General Motors) may have you wondering if someone is heading out to Route 128. You can tell a lot about a band by its B-sides; here, we find that Pains have a lot of good songs up their sleeves, and more possible directions than we realized.

— Mark Richardson

"Surprise Hotel"

Fool's Gold
"Surprise Hotel"

[IAMSOUND]

8

Fool's Gold's repeat-ready single "Surprise Hotel" is a gloriously busy bit of life-affirming Afro-pop that takes no issue with demanding that you take it for a beachside bike ride. The band rotates around Luke Top and Lewis Pesacov and also enlists friends and colleagues that include members of Foreign Born and Glasser. On a self-titled debut brimming with them, "Surprise Hotel" is a whirling dervish of a cut delivered with charm, grace, and maximum two-stepability. Light yet bracing polyrhythms anchor an addictive little high-register guitar line that loops and wiggles on and off the beaten path, perfectly coupled with Afro-funk bass stylings and buttery bilingual coos (yes, Top sings in English and Hebrew). With music this immersed in wide-ranging global and regional influence, you'd fear Fool's Gold's music might come over as empty pastiche, but no worries. Worldly and warm without being cloying, "Surprise Hotel" more than surprises: it prevails.

MP3/Stream:> Fool's Gold: "Surprise Hotel"

— Zach Kelly

"On Fire"

Young Dro
"On Fire"

[Grand Hustle/Atlantic]

7

Young Dro emerged fully-formed, his lyrics a tongue-twisting cavalcade of syllables bouncing back and forth like vocal ping-pong balls, his penchant for seafood and color-wheel raps trendsetting as much as his novel personal style. His debut LP, too, was a mid-decade rap pinnacle; he managed to balance dense lyricism with effortless panache in a way that eludes followers, including his protege Yung L.A. At the same time, Dro's chart success was never guaranteed; "Rubberband Banks" was a hit single, but Dro's persona didn't seem to have made an impression on the wider popular audience; it was just a fun concept with a catchy beat that charmed the zeitgeist. No matter the level of his songs' successes, Dro has always been a rap fan's rapper.

After an underwhelming stopgap mixtape, Dro retained the faithful with the lyrical "Dro Rock Diamonds", a decidedly conservative single; it suggested movement further underground, which might have been creatively rewarding, but also felt a little bit like a disappointing consolodation. "On Fire", the lead single for his upcoming LP P.O.L.O., may not end up climbing the charts, but thankfully it at least feels like he's trying to move beyond the reliable niche rap base, and without sacrificing the nonchalant lyrical prowess of his best work. Sure it's riskier to use Jim Jonsin, one of the genre's least-reliable beatmakers, but in this case the track is a contemporary surge of wistful synths, with the kind of dimension that frees Dro to do what he does best: "paint the Regal grey in March, aqua blue in April," "drop top popular, make it rain on the doppler," "pop ya head open like a Lambourghini door."

— David Drake

Monday, July 6, 2009

"Coat of Arms"

Nosaj Thing
"Coat of Arms"

[Alpha Pup]

8
 

As with fellow California-based beatmaker Flying Lotus, Jason Cheung, aka Nosaj Thing, makes music that thrives on tension between unity and fragmentation. On "Coat of Arms", from his excellent new album Drift, which also gave us the very different "Light #2", Cheung takes ethereal vocals that sound ready to soundtrack a film's half-remembered flashback and chops them up into small pieces. The voices are packed like ball bearings around the surging beats, smoothing over the rough edges and facilitating a sense of forward motion, but the menacing groove never allows a sense of passive nostalgia is to take over. Instead, "Coat of Arms" bears in on you, the dense grind of the bass vibrating your temples (headphones are a must, by the way), pushing into the physical realm a feeling that otherwise exists only in a daydream. UK's Pariah achieved a similar effect with the recent "Detroit Falls", but "Coat of Arms" also has an appealing unfinished feel, like a circle drawn 3/4 of the way that allows your mind to fill in the ghosted line.

— Mark Richardson

"I Will Come Back"

Holy Ghost!
"I Will Come Back"

[DFA]

7

New York-bred duo Holy Ghost! have a knack for picking and choosing among regional flavors to arrive at something fresh. On "I Will Come Back", their new single for the Mountain Dew-affiliated Green Label Sound, Chicago house rubs shoulders with trendy Italo-disco footnotes, both held hostage by Human League-cribbing vocal constructions and a chorus that glances at late-70s Philly soul. In direct contrast to those heavily processed synthetic harpsichords and spaced-out blips and bloops, "I Will Come Back" is about as far from a haunted house affair as you can get, owing a great deal more to the Pointer Sisters than Prinzhorn Dance School. Still, it makes sense that Holy Ghost! first came to notice under the umbrella of James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy-- from the inspired employment of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus to the diehard appreciation for their crate-digging forbearers, "I Will Come Back" has a reverence for the past but also looks forward, and is above all unfailingly fun. As the DFA roster gets increasingly varied, it's awesome to hear stuff that still references all those geeky, old-school talking points.

MP3:> Holy Ghost!: "I Will Come Back"

— Zach Kelly

"Buzzin'"

Benga
"Buzzin'"

[Tempa]

6

Of the many offshoots an ever-evolving dubstep scene possesses Benga must occupy the energized, tech-y, club-ready end-- the opposite to the likes of Burial. The beauty is it is ever-changing; nothing stands still in this scene. And when Benga's Coki collaboration "Night" achieved chart success and thusly blew one form of the genre into the public domain, it never seemed fit that he should stick.

Well, no such luck. "Buzzin'" is a similar arrangement to "Night"-- practically identical, in fact. "Buzzin'', as per the title, breathes with insatiable domineering energy that with long, elasticized synth "pow" shots (doubled-up to create the hook) and ape-size single note bass line demands attention. The sub bass as the powerhouse of the piece only ceases when stripped back to its tight, digitalized percussive patterns that whisper in comparison, meaning the low-end gets maximum effect on re-entry. Sound familiar? As dub fans would expect from Benga, this release is toweringly huge on the sound system and in a mix will get mad props in a basement somewhere in South West London. Considering his past influence, it would always be tempting to lavish this release with similar affection. However as a single, Benga's latest effort shows little variation in form-- no envelope pushing here.

Stream:> Benga: "Buzzin'"

— Richard Armitage

Thursday, July 2, 2009

"Got Nuffin"

Spoon
"Got Nuffin"

[Merge]

7

After breaking Billboard's Top 10, huffing and puffing all over "Saturday Night Live", and turning the most people around on their least straight album, Spoon are no longer underdogs. Sorry, indie dudes brushing your Telephono LPs. So what's a Britt Daniel to do without all that (spectacular and mesmerizing and cryptic) carping? Now that they have everything-- loyal fans, biased critics, their own freakin' summer festival-- are we really supposed to believe Spoon got nothing?

Gratefully, no. "I got nothing to lose but darkness and shadows," snarls Daniel. "Got nothing to lose but emptiness and hang-ups." He's snarling because he sounds great snarling, but this is vintage bait-and-switch angst; "Got Nuffin" is fucked-up and feel-good motorik all about being content with one's share. Friends, more-than-friends, the rest.

Maybe it's because Britt is buddies with Deerhunter's Bradford Cox and this single was recorded with Deerhunter sound man Nicolas Vernhes at adopted Deerhunter lair Rare Book Room in Brooklyn...but it's hard to ignore the initial similarities between "Got Nuffin" and the shoegaze revivalists' most popular song, "Nothing Ever Happened". Then again, maybe it's because both tracks reference the great negation something heavy. But whereas Deerhunter's "nothing" is just that, Spoon's "nuffin " is the opposite-- nearly everything we know and love about these fitted shirts goes by in another bristling four-minute chunk. Nothing looks good on them.

— Ryan Dombal

"Summertime Clothes (Zomby's Analog Lego Mix)"

Animal Collective
"Summertime Clothes (Zomby's Analog Lego Mix)"

[Domino]

6

For a guy who famously declared, "Fuck Mixing, Let's Dance" on his celebrated hardcore-and-jungle-meets-dubstep LP Where Were U in '92?, there isn't a whole lot of dancing going on in Zomby's tech-y remake of Animal Collective's infectious "Summertime Clothes". Included on a recent 12" alongside reworkings by DâM-Funk and Leon Day, the reclusive Zomby sets aside his rave-ier tendencies in favor of a stripped-down, 8-bit deconstruction that feels almost overly deliberate. A reverb-y vocal loop built from a portion of the original verse opens the track, which sort of runs in place before a clunky beat drops a minute or so later. From there, you'd expect the thing to lift off, but it remains earthbound, exploring video-game raygun squiggles with some success but lacking the upbeat (and, well, fun) qualities of the original (and DâM-Funk's crispy electro-funk remix, for that matter). In the end, Zomby's "Summertime Clothes" is more interesting than it is celebratory, a curious museum piece to inspect and appreciate from afar rather than get down and dirty with.

— Joe Colly

"Deja"

Helado Negro
"Deja"

[Asthmatic Kitty]

6

This is exactly how I want John Hillcoat's big screen adaptation of The Road to sound: ominous, mysterious, and familiar all at once. Helado Negro (for those who don't habla Español, that's "Black Ice Cream"-- a terrific and fitting handle) is the solo venture from Roberto Carlos Lange, a Guillermo Scott Herren (Prefuse 73) collaborator. "Deja" probably owes something to the darker, folkier apparitions of Lange's own Ecuadorian ancestry, especially compared to the Prefuse-approved loops and samples that dominate most of his forthcoming debut Awe Owe. Lange crafts this dark hymn out of sparse handclaps, shuddering acoustic strums, and church bell-mimicking piano thuds that essentially go for the creep-out jugular. But what registers most deliberately are the unmistakable spiritual undertones that re-define "Deja" as a sacred and solemn plea, evoking visions of haunted, old-world religious fervor. It isn't a surprise that Lange claims to feel most comfortable working alongside visual artists, as repeat plays of "Deja" prove to be only as good as the accompanying movie playing in your head. So if you need a hand, a haggard Viggo Mortensen stalking a post-apocalyptic wasteland should work just fine.

— Zach Kelly

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

"I Became a Prostitute"

The Twilight Sad
"I Became a Prostitute"

[FatCat]

7

Twilight Sad songs have always seemed to teeter on the brink of broader appeal-- probably because a fair number of their influences, U2 and My Bloody Valentine chief among them, reside on the more melodic and, some might say, commercial end of the guitar-rock spectrum. But if they truly aim for something universal, their dissonance-ravaged guitar tones frequently object. Yet it's precisely the conflicted nature of their songs, the tension between commercial impulse and arty recalcitrance, that provides the drama. "I Became a Prostitute", rather than making good on its title's threat, plays like a sly acknowledgement of the internal discord. Erupting with a massive, sky-scraping roar of feedback, the song quickly pulls back, ceding the spotlight to James Graham's vocals. For the most part, "Prostitute" is content to vacillate back and forth between the urgent opening gambit and the more sinister verses. But it's the closing stretch that shows the strain, with guitarist Andy MacFarlane taking the central hook and twisting it into a series of unrecognizable shapes. The song doesn't end so much as drop off, but true to form, they never let it break.

Stream:> The Twilight Sad: "I Became a Prostitute"

— Jonathan Garrett

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