Lav's Music Corner

Was on vacation this week but I'm cooking up plenty of good stuff for the next week, let's do it. 5.  Vanessa  - Midwife If you're familiar with the brooding cloudy slowcore Midwife typically serves up then you basically know what you're getting with Vanessa . Across a full 6-and-a-half minutes Midwife makes use of swaying repetition to slowly weave together an impressively spellbinding cut that will swallow you whole if you give yourself to it.  Listen 4.  Garmonbozia  - Flying Lotus  I think everyone was anticipating a return from Flying Lotus, but I bet most people weren't expecting something like this. He returns by taking over lead vocal duties on a reserved and murky jazz number backed by his usual fluttering electronics. The slow pace and dark demeanor of the song actually plays to his strengths as a vocalist, even if its plodding pace feels a tad dry by FloLo standards.  Listen 3.  Shake It Like A  - Frost Children (feat. Danny Brown)...

Review By Lav: Moor Mother is a Philly-based poet and versatile jazz musician who has spent more than a decade pushing the boundaries of both her songwriting and the often increasingly abstract and experimental sonic palettes she lends it to. I've enjoyed the past two Moor Mother albums quite a bit in particular her 2022 effort JAZZ CODES . But The Great Bailout  might surpass that in terms of both conceptual ambition and sheer intensity.  I would consider this record more sonically experimental than its predecessor, but not because it has more going on. In fact, the album sort of kills with quiet sometimes. Guilty  is a riveting start to the record where Moor Mother teams up with Lonnie Holly who contributes surprisingly eerie vocals to this chillingly minimal instrumental space. I love the fluttering strings that exist in the sucking isolation and how challenging they come off despite how sweet they sound.The repetition of the phrase "did you pay off the trauma" sets up...

Review by Lav: Idles' first two albums get better every time I hear them. They were capable of conjuring a sheer blunt force intensity that felt completely unmatched and I got hooked on the adrenaline rush that came along with listening to their music. It's probably no coincidence that my favorite songs from their following two albums Model Village  and Car Crash , are the ones that most resemble that initial sound. To be fair to the band I don't think their 3rd or 4th albums are bad but too often it felt like their quest to expand their sound came up empty and the best moments saw the band relying on old staples. After coming away from the singles on this record pretty mixed I wasn't really sure what to expect from this new batch of tracks. Unfortunately, even though the potential they always flash is still there, this isn't exactly an improvement from the band. The trio of singles from this record left me pretty confused. Dancer  features James and Nancy from LCD ...

I've had people ask me in the past why some of the biggest rap albums around always get lumped into rapid fire reviews. The main reason is that most of them are supremely boring and trying to conjure full reviews on almost any of them would be impossible. An even better reason is that they are so god damn long it's fucking ridiculous. And unlike some of the good long albums I've covered in recent years so many of these records trail over the same territory over and over. So once again, here are some reviews of big rap albums that I don't have the time or patience to cover in full. INSANO  - Kid Cudi I haven't liked anything Kid Cudi has done in a LONG time. There's a spare track or two off of his 2016 album Passion Pain & Demon Slayin  that I thought were pretty good as well as a few Kids See Ghosts songs I think are okay. But for the most part I haven't come away from a Cudi record with positive feelings since literally the first Man On The Moon . I tho...

Review by Lav: Little Simz has EASILY been one of my favorite artists of the 2020s so far. The intense and lyrically sharp rapper kicked the decade off with her impressive Drop 6  EP which I liked a good bit and landed on my EPs of the year list at the end of 2020. But following that project she kicked it into another gear. In 2021 she dropped her masterpiece Sometimes I Might Be Introvert which would easily land among my favorite albums of the decade so far. She followed it up with the more direct and also pretty impressive No Thank You  just over a year later. Now she's returning to the EP format for a series of shorter songs that see her working out some impressive new directions. The most defining shift on the album is a turn towards darker beats and stiff drum machine. That starts right out of the gate with Mood Swings  which sees Simz matching that sonic palette with a quieter but still intense delivery. It frequently erupts out of that sonic style only to return to...

Review by Lav:  I was pretty damn excited for this album. From his breakthrough around 2015 leading up to his sophomore album i am > i was , 21 Savage underwent one of the greatest and quickest artistic improvements I've ever witnessed in hip hop. That left me pretty excited for what he's gonna do next. While his output in the years since certainly hasn't been bad, he hasn't continued progressing artistically in the way I had hoped. I was really excited to see him cross paths with Metro Boomin for a second time on 2020's Savage Mode II  but the album didn't really live up to the hype I had for it. On the other hand, I was pretty surprised by just how good his collab album with Drake Her Loss  was in 2022.  That led us to american dream , the long-awaited third solo studio album from Savage. The album dropped with no singles and was only announced just a few days before its release. Without much to set expectations for the record in advance, I'll start the...

Let the listing begin. In the first and smallest year-end list I publish I take a look at the tiny projects that were packed full of good songs. While this list lacks some of the stunning high-end releases of previous years, it's a very deep well full of versatile and compelling projects.  These are my 10 favorite EPs of 2023. Enjoy <3 10. Jlin - Perspective  EP Kicking off the list we have Jlin's pseudo-return to dropping new music with this Pulitzer Prize For Music finalist Perspective . After being originally composed three years ago the material was re-recorded by Jlin and finally made it to the public, which I'm very grateful for. Despite moments that feel undersold relative to her normal textural bliss, there is ton of magnetic and distinctive electronic music present throughout this project. Jlin continues to have a sound that is not only easy to identify but easy to love.  Listen To: Derivative , Paradigm 9. Softcult - See You In The Dark  EP Canadian duo ...

Panopticon is a Kentucky-based black metal project spearheaded by Austin Lunn. The band drew critical acclaim for its combination of the brutality of black metal with the sounds and occasionally even the themes of Appalachian folk music. After operating on a particularly prolific schedule early in its career, Panopticon has slowed down in recent years though Rime  is the 10th album from the project. Review by Lav: I still have a ton of fondness for the era that's considered Panopticon's classic period. The stretch of albums from Kentucky  to Road To The North  still sounds incredibly impressive, unique, and creative even in hindsight. Though there was only one album between that and 2021's And Again Into The Light  it represented a six-year gap in releases I really loved. But after hearing Again  my interest in the band was revitalized in a big way and I was excited to see where they went next.  The Rime Of Memory  sees Panopticon at its most chilling....

5.  Petroleum  - Yard Act While I came away from the first Yard Act album pretty mixed something tells me I'm going to like the follow-up a lot more. The singles have seen the band leaning into their grooviest eccentricities and the results are post-punk that fringes on danceability in the way very few bands can achieve. This may not be the most bombastic or infectious of the songs but I still like it quite a bit.  Listen 4.  Tunnel Lights  - Chelsea Wolfe While this track may not blow me away in quite the same way Chelsea's past two tracks have it still has everything I would want in one of her songs. From the spacious percussion marked by booming distorted drums to her haunting voice wrapping itself around mystical fairy tale refrains it's all still so compelling.  Listen 3.  The Fight  - Future Islands The most reserved single from Future Islands' new era might be its best moment yet. It has the patience to squeeze every moment of somber drama ...

Each of these artists fit the "hyperpop" label to VERY different degrees. But I want to cover all of them before the year is out so lets get to it.  Perfect Picture  - Hannah Diamond Hannah Diamond is perhaps the member of PC Music's inner circle that feels the most equipped to transcend hyperpop to something resembling genuine stardom. While she's flirted with it in the past, it also feels like she's never had her definitive moment. That's not to say I didn't enjoy her 2019 album Reflections , it just felt like it came late to the party to capitalize on the legitimate hype swirling around the distinct hyperpop sound it dabbles in. With the label itself now formally coming to an end, this feels like a potential swan song for one of the definitive acts to shine the brightest. It got off to a pretty great start too. I absolutely love the lead single Affirmations  which sees Hannah at her peak pop instincts crafting a song that is both bubbly and fun but subt...

Andre 3000 is famous, quite obviously, for being a rapper. The ATL legend served as one half of Outkast one of the best and most influential rap groups of all time. But since the pair called it quits between them Andre has been remarkably quite musically only making a handful of appearances in the nearly 20 years since. Though he is surprising fans with his long-awaited debut solo album its definitely not the album that many fans were hoping for. New Blue Sun  is a long and very indulgent ambient jazz album which prominently features Andre playing flute alongside a variety of expansive and occasionally quite minimal compositions.  Read More:  I had a lot of thoughts on this album before I even got the chance to hear it. Unlike a lot of the more idiotic rap fans online I don't hold any resentment against Andre for going in this direction artistically as he's always been very clear with fans on where their expectations for a new album should actually be set. But as someone ...

We're getting to that point in the year where I'm just trying to make every recap count as much as possible. Here are the loose collection of albums I've assembled to cover under the broadest possible umbrella of electronica.  Bolted  - Forest Swords Forest Swords is the kind of musical project you don't easily forget. So even though it's been a full 6 years since the last proper studio album from FS, the distinctive brand of dark electronica with the occasional naturalistic field recording style mixed in still feels both instantly recognizable and artistically engaging. Though the album came out at a busy time for new reviews I still listened to it right away and I've had a lot of time to sit with it. Much of that comes from realizing just how good all of the album's singles really are. Tracks like the records first two songs Munitions  and Butterfly Effect  did win me over when I first heard them but the eerie, textured sonic anguish they both manage to ac...

Danny Brown is a Detroit rapper who broke through with a confrontational and cartoonish style more than a decade ago. In the years since, he's become an experimental rap staple releasing numerous highly acclaimed albums, most notably his experimental rap opus Atrocity Exhibition  in 2016. Earlier this year he teamed up with fellow beloved underground rapper JPEGMAFIA for a fan-favorite collab album called Scaring The Hoes .  Review by Lav:  If Scaring The Hoes  sees Danny Brown following some of his most bombastic and experimental sonic instincts, then Quaranta  all about his most introspective and self-reflective thematic ambitions. On this album Danny is not only embracing the role of experimental rap mainstay, but also the role of experimental rap veteran. Across the album he doesn't just meditate on lessons he's learned, but share that wisdom and perspective with anybody that chooses to listen.  That didn't really seem like the case with the lead single...