YTD recordings listened to: 816
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 502
Not good music: 256
Honorable Mentions: 10
Buys: 14
Possibles: Boyd Rivers, Chris McGregor, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Dave Arner Trio, Bill Horist, MAKU Soundsystem, Zomby, Retox, About Group, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Kendl Winter, Bone Dance, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, The Ballantynes, Debruit and Aljawal, Slidhr, The Whammies, The Chewers, La Misa Negra, Alexander Hawkins, Cheryl Pyle, Toxic Holocaust, Equal Stones, Comeback Kid, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, Bio Ritmo, Lenguas Largas, Vessel. Khun Narin, Orlando Julius, Doug Seegers, Shakey Graves, Jungle Fire
@@@ Sandflower: Do Whatchu Wanna? (Not sure, 2014). An mainstream electro-biscuit by a model hottie with a medium pottie piehole. West Coast stutter beats, some club synth burbles and a plethora of low IQ party lyrics. Shiny and brash and cliche. The promo email mentions the words ‘cutting edge’ when discussing this artist. Maybe they meant to type ‘cutting the edge of your wrist’ whilst listening to this because that’s what I contemplated as the stupid washed over me.
@@@ Jessie Ware: 12 (Demo) (Not sure, 2014). Some new style r&b-tronica I got to via Sunset in the Rearview Mirror. Surprisingly restrained — she doesn’t sound like she’s about to cream her panties, she’s just singing. Minimalist arrangement, mostly synths and a guitar plinkle and finger snapping drum machine beat. I thought this was gonna be a total biscuit but this is actually a pretty good example of its genre.
@@@ Deers: Demo (Mermaid Ave, 2014). Some strum-di-dum guitar indie with super old school inspired girl group vocals. There’s only two tunes up on the Beats so it’s a quickie. The vocals are melodic and forward, they’re definitely the main attraction. The first tune, Bamboo, has a nice stick on snare beat to go with the rest. The second tune, Trippy Gum, is dirgier and a bit less melodic but still strum-di-dum.
@@@ Sam Amidon: Lily-O (Nonesuch, 2014). Regular readers know that I love Nonesuch releases as much as a cat loves slightly turned milk. Their records are custom mixed and mastered for white people. Let’s not hold that against Mr. Amidon who has a pleasant, slightly gravelly voice to go with his banjo playing. He does a mostly folk thing, oh no this second tune is getting into a epic rock kind of thing — sort of a redneck Pearl Jam thing. Let’s move to another tune — this third one, Blue Mountains, has more of the pretty and meaningful formula. Speaking of production trickery I would pay $50 if they spliced the sound of a couple of dogs fucking into this third tune. Sparse and unreverbed works better for me, but maybe Amidon will float yer boat.
@@@ Dark Blue: Pure Reality (Jade Tree, 2014). A local supertrio from Philly I got to via a music publicist email. Opens up midtempo pop crunchy with some nice guitar tones heavy on the reverb. Classic guitar, bass, drums and uh oh, a low Nick Cave goth voice — warning flags for me as that’s not my favorite singing style. Oh nice, the guitar distortion is sloppin’ all over the place, sweet. It’s okay, not my cup of singing but maybe for you?
The Cross Pollinator 