Anatolian Rock Revival Project

A couple of years ago a friend of mine linked me a playlist on Spotify that’s called Anatolian Rock Revival Project and the description of the playlist is as follows: ”An art project dedicated to bringing non-mainstream pieces from Turkish Rock History (1964-1980) into the light with unique artworks.”. Neither my friend or i speak any turkish, but you don’t need to speak turkish or understand the lyrics to be able to enjoy the purity of the music. However it sure would be fun to understand the lyrics to the songs, alas i’m not sure if i would enjoy the tracks in the same capacity – since rock music from this era in the western world, with lyrics that i understand, sometimes are quite cheesy.

There’s something so wild and excellent about the music, since i can’t comment on the lyrics, the statement before connects to the instrumental parts of the songs, aswell as the singing – because you can get a feel for the lyrics from the voice and emotion of the singer.
However, the instrumentals are so good, there’s just something about that old, raw rock music that really connects back to the time when it was produced. Most of the other rock music that most of us westeners has enjoyed stems from the western part of the world, yet somehow some of the songs in this playlist sounds so similiar to the western counterparts. However, the Anatolian Rock Music from this era also brings in instruments that wasn’t being used in the western counterparts of the music from the same era, since it connects to the more classical and ”folky” music from the Anatolian region, aswell as other elements, of course.

You somehow always fall back into what you’ve grown up listening to, and i assume that the same applies to the rock music in this playlist. You see that in a lot of music, that you implement sounds that comes from the folk music from the region that your roots stem from.

As i’ve been listening through several of these Anatolian rock-playlists during the years i’ve noticed that a few of the songs has been sampled in new and modern music, which is rather fun! I think that speaks volumes for atleast the instrumentals from this region during this era – that rock music from the 60s to the 80s, in the Anatolian region gets sampled into newly produced music. One of the artists that i’ve been listening to a lot before i discovered the Anatolian Rock Revival Project is the rapper Action Bronson – so, figure my surprise when i recognized some instrumentals and some hooks from the Anatolian music, as it turns out that Action Bronson seems to rather heavily sample from these old Anatolian Rock songs. I really enjoy that, it gives people the chance and possibility to broaden whatever music they listen to, as they subconsciously gets introduced to other sorts of music, as they get sampled into different kind of genres of music.

This playlist is something i often find myself wander back into, and i feel that i both listen to it actively, but also keep it in the backround sometimes as it’s so very easy to listen to, in my opinion. I hope that you’ll give the Anatolian Rock Revival Project a chance. I give it my stamp of approval.

Until next time, take care.
SLQT

Lice – Aesop Rock – Homeboy Sandman

Some weeks ago i saw Aesop Rock posting in social media, linking a new single called Catfish. It was released under the collaborative title of Lice, which is Aesop Rock and Homeboy Sandman. I’ve since before known that they’ve done projects together, but i haven’t really listened to anything by Homeboy Sandman. I really enjoyed the new single, Catfish, and i enjoyed the symmetry of the collaboration of Aesop and Homeboy Sandman – they bounce off of eachother in a unique way that empowers their respective verses on the track.

A while later i saw that Aesop posted on social media that he was releasing 3 EPs/Albums under the collaborative project named Lice over the next three coming weeks. This amped me up, i love new releases from Aesop. He rarely misses, and i really enjoyed Catfish. Homeboy Sandman pleasently surprised me with his bars, and i will surely pay him more attention in the future.

Today the first EP, Lice (Spotify-link), dropped on streaming platforms – and firstly it confused me, as i expected it to show up under ”Newest releases”, but instead it showed up as published in 2015. However after some digging it turned out that this EP was released back in 2015, but haven’t been on any streaming platforms (except Youtube, since its debut. This somehow flew above my head.

Lice is a solid EP, it consists of five tracks, that span over 17 minutes and 17 seconds and features a Fort Minor remix. Aesop and Homeboy Sandman bounces off of eachother during most of the songs and the songs differ in style. I must say that Environmental Studies easily is my favourite track of this EP. I think i will dive deeper into why that is, in another post in the future.

I see myself as a big Aesop Rock fan, and somehow i’ve completely missed this EP – maybe, and probably, because it hasn’t been on Spotify since before today. This means that this is a completely new release for me, and for that i am grateful. For others that have enjoyed, consumed and devoured Lice before, this release probably comes as a ease of life release, as it makes listening to the EP, easier than on YouTube.

I don’t know if the other two EPs also has been released before, and that they’ve flew over my head, or not. However, i am eagerly awaiting the release of them.

Until next time, take care.
SLQT.

200822 – The Hives – Live

This will be a brief review from saturday when The Hives played a live show in central Stockholm.

Last week Stockholms kulturfestival (Stockholm festival of Culture), took place over several days within the central parts of Stockholm. There were live concerts, standup comedy, food trucks, beer tents and everything imaginable that falls under the ”culture umbrella”. And the beauty of the whole festival is that it’s free of admission.

I saw The Hives at Bråvalla 2014, and i consider that the best live performance i’ve ever been to, they put on a show like no one else does. So, when i saw that The Hives would play a free show in Stockholm i convinced a couple of friends that we should attend.

The scene was put up at Gustav Adolfs torg, right next to Kungsträdgården, in front of the Opera and inbetween The royal castle and The Parliament. About as a central of a location you can have in Stockholm. The Hives is rather interesting because they’re big in Sweden, but a million times bigger abroad, than at home.

They played a very Hive-esque set, fast paced songs, with showmanship inbetween the songs, and during the songs. The whole band is very fun to watch, as it seems as they have a good time performing. And Howlin’ Pelle might just be the most charismatic front man in the music scene.

The Hives performed all their biggest hits and it was very good. They had an encore. The show featured a lot of the same things that i partook in when i saw The Hives perform in 2014, so their performance is very tight, as they’ve perfected it over several years of performing.

I recommend anyone that has the possibility to watch The Hives perform, to take the possibility as they put on a show like no one else does. It’s very fun. I have a hard time scoring this set, but i’d give it a steady 8/10.

Until next time, take care.
SLQT.

The Weeknd – Dawn FM.

I have a friend that listen to a lot of new music and releases, every year he publishes a list of albums and artist, with a simplistic overview of the score that he gave the release. This has inspired me to try and do the same, but also try to write more here.

This weekend i listened to the new release called Dawn FM from the canadian phenomenon called The Weeknd. This is his tenth album and i believe that there are few who have missed his rise to stardom and fame. During earlier album he’s done collaborations with giants such as Daft Punk, Lana Del Rey, Kendrick Lamar, Ed Sheeran and Drake, to name a few. Giants within the business and musical sphere.

I will state that The Weeknd isn’t one of my favorites, and i rarely listen to him on purpose as his music isn’t for me. I have tried, because i don’t believe in writing any artist off, without listening to them and forming my own opinion on their work. However The Weeknd isn’t for me. However, with that in mind i listened to The new album, Dawn FM, by The Weeknd.

The Dawn FM concept runs through this album like water and it really tries to conceptualize something but it doesn’t go the whole way. The obvious concept that this album tries to connect to is the FM part of the album title. The album has soundbites that could be used on a real radio show, and there’s even a segment with a fake commercial – however, does anyone want this? Every day we’re constantly bombarded with messages from persons and business the second we jump into the car, to when we go down in the subway, to when we watch TV, or try to watch a video on YouTube. Especially in a time where atleast i, do what i can, to get away from commercials and advertisement, i do not want to hear it blown in, inside of an album. It made me think of the first of second season of Donald Glovers show Atlanta, where they had the concept of a fake tv show, within the show, filled with very well produced, but fake commercials.

The production and the sound quality of the album is very good, and the instrumentals for some of the songs are stunning and beautiful. This is the redeeming quailty of this album, however not without some criticism. A couple of months ago i read the book Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures by Mark Fisher, and since then i’ve been thinking about the concept of nostalgia and how rarely anything ”new” is published. That often the thing that is ”new” is just an old thing or concept, put in a new suit. I had the same feeling when i listened to An evening with Silk Sonic by Silk Sonic (Bruno Mars & Anderson .Paak), it’s so flirty with the funk and the disco, but it sounds better, it’s too polished, it doesn’t feel alive, or real. It’s so clearly a product that took an old concept, in this case, genre of music, and refined it with modern tools – however in the proccess, the soul within it died a bit.
I had the same feeling with Dawn FM, it’s extremely well produced and the melodies, the instrumentals and the sound is so good, but it doesn’t make me feel anything other than: ”hey, this sounds good.”.

And to the last part of this text, and what to me is the weakest part of this album.
Unfortunatley the weakest part of this album is The Weeknd himself, or atleast his singing. I’ve been watching Seinfeld lately, for the first time, and there’s the same case there, that Seinfeld himself is the weakest link of the show. This album sounds like nothing new, it feels like i’ve already heard the lyrics in his other albums, years ago.

As for some end disussion i’d like to point out that the quality of the production is stunning, yet rather lifeless, the commercials inside of the album wasn’t for me, i have however read that people have been enjoying that element. The lyrics and the singing from The Weeknd himself is the weakest link in this album, but as i mentioned in the beginning of the text, i am not a fan of his, and i want to be as transparent as possible. The Weeknd is one of our biggest artists and acts right now and his songs has been streamed hundreds of millions of times.
This album is a product that is very well put together, it’s excellent for commerce and if seen as a product, it’s good. But seen as an album with conceptual ideas, it’s not good.

Dawn FM by The Weeknd can be found on every streaming platform, and wherever you buy your music.

The weakest link of this review might be me, myself and i.

Until next time, take care.
SLQT.

New releases.

The other week we had many new releases from big artists, and as always smaller acts. However the bigger the release seems to be, the bigger the performing artist, the bigger the drum and PR around the release. When it in face should be the smaller acts that gets written about. This inquiry from me will be hypocritical since i am going to write about one of the bigger releases.

The week of releases i am thinking about is the week where Kanye West released Donda, Drake released Certified Lover Boy and Iron Maiden released Senjutsu. The smaller release that i was hinting towards in the beginning of the paragraph is Space Werewolves Will Be the End of Us All by Blockhead.

I’ve given them all a listen, however, i have very different feelings toward them all, apart from Kanye & Drake. I can’t, i was able to listen to like four or five songs from their respective albums. I’ve never been a fan of Drake, he has a couple of songs that i’ve had on repeat and that follows onto every newly created playlist on Spotify, but overall i find Drakes music rather bland.

What to say about Kanye? I don’t know.
I really enjoyed The Life of Pablo and i strongly feel like that’s the last good album Kanye has released alone and under his own name. I do however think that the KIDS SEE GHOSTS project he did together with Kid Cudi was fresh and intresting. I felt a bit let down by Donda because of the route Kanye’s been taking these last years doesn’t please me and my taste. I prefer when his album contains rap with some chorus, and not like it’s been on these last releases, chorus with some rap. I don’t want artists to be stagnant and get stuck in whatever they’re doing, i love when they try different things that might push the artform forward, and i believe that is what Kanye’s doing – he’s trying, and that, i appreciate greatly. I value his work and what he’s trying to accomplish, and i believe that something amazing will come out of it, however, Donda, isn’t that, for me. Compared to Kanye, i feel that Drake has become stagnant in his style, it works, he sells and streams a lot, but it is no longer appealing to me.

I’ve been listening to Blockhead on and off for a couple of years, i discovered him through the discovery of Aesop Rock. I read somewhere that they went to school together and through that they started to make music. Periodically i’ve been more into Aesop than Blockhead, and for periods it’s been swapped.
With that background, i’ve been listening to snippets and stuff that Blockheads been releasing for this new album, leading up to its actual release. I have a softspot for electronic artists that actually release albums. It usually tend to feel like there’s releases of singles and EPs, but rarely albums. I think that Space Werewolves Will Be the End of Us All is very well worth a listen. Blockheads style of producing and putting songs together is very well done and overall i find that this is a good album that i will be rotating for a while.

The last, but not the least.
Senjutsu by Iron Maiden. I must admit, when i saw the name of the upcoming album, i was skeptic. I felt from the name that the old rockers were trying to be woke. However, i was very wrong, and i was floored by this album. I’ve had it on repeat since release, and it keeps on growing on me. It’s full of that classic imagery that you find in Iron Maiden lyrics and i feel like that the sound that they’ve found their way back to a sound that resembles the sound of older albums. I know, this sounds hypocritical of me to say, but an Iron Maiden-album sounding like an Iron Maiden-album will always be the best sounding Iron Maiden album. Senjutsu for me is a strong contender for the best album of the year so far, and i think, and i recommend you to listen to it!

I’ve been walking a lot over the summer, i got a good application on the phone for tracking steps, so i can easily get oversight of my progress. Since May, and 4 months ahead, a couple of days ago, i registred my 750km (465 miles) in four months of walking. It feels good, and it feels like an accomplishment.

I also feel like i should adress the fact that i haven’t finished listening to the new Kanye and Drake album and the fact that i give my opinions on them here. I will finish them, and i will listen through them thoroughly and i might write something about them in the future.

Until next time, take care.

SLQT.

Brightest Star Tonight – Daedelus.

In an effort to try and work around this whole feeling of music being lackluster, i’ve tried to listen to some new music. And on fridays Spotify updates their Release Radar-playlist. If you’re unaware of the Release Radar-playlist, in it’s essential its a playlist that automatically once a week updates with new releases from artist that you’ve previously listened to, or that Spotify choses for you! I try and listen to it atleast once every week, with some reservation.
One of the songs i got on the Release Radar-playlist this week was Brightest Star Tonight by Daedelus. I stumbled upon him a while ago when i was researching who made the original song, that is sampled in Accordion by Madlib and the now late MF DOOM in their duo project Madvillainy. And i learned that the sample is from the track Experience by Daedelus. I got impressed and i liked the sound, so i kept Daedelus in my rotation!

I fell for the sound of Brightest Star Tonight, it’s so soft and somewhat comforting, it almost resembles somekind of lo-fi, and it sounds much different from songs like Experience, albeit, be it, these songs do have many years between them.
Daedelus keeps on impressing me, and i recommend that you give him a listen, and his now song, Brightest Star Tonight that is out today (26/2-2021) on all platforms where you can experience music – i assume. Atleast, i’ve seen that it’s available on Spotify and Youtube.

Other honorable mentions from this weeks Release Radar:
This is love – demo – PJ Harvey
Another World – Kimchii Remix – Rebecca & Fiona, Kimchii.
TOXIC – Pussy Riot, Dorian Electra.
The Princess and the Clock – Kero Kero Bonito.

Also, i’ve been thinking about writing about books i read. Nothing’s decided and time will tell.

Until next time, take care.

SLQT.

Songs For The Deaf by Queens of the Stone Age.

Howdy.

By the title of the text you might’ve figured out what the subject of todays text will be, and if you’ve guessed Songs For The Deaf by Queens of the Stone Age, you are indeed, correct. Excellently guessed.

When i was in high school i started to get into music, like a lot of people do. You’re growing up and you’re exploring your own taste in music. My high school years correlated perfectly with the emo music wave and my music taste had evolved in that direction for a while, but the emo wave made the evolution go way faster. These last couple of weeks music hasn’t had the same taste and i guess it’s just one of those lows that eventually will return to your regular taste. However, this has made it difficult to find music to listen to, and i felt like i only listen to the same kind of songs all the time, something that i know isn’t true, but the feeling is hard to beat. The other week i read about some french study, and im paraphrasing here, said that the music you listen to when you were around 14 years old is the music that has the biggest impact on yourself and your future music taste.
With this study in my head i started to go back to what i listened to when i was around 14-15 and it was a lot of emo, a lot of postpunk and similar things – and i must admit, it still sounds great. However i assume that there’s a big portion of nostalgia affecting the feeling towards the music.

With this in mind i started to think about an episode of the podcast called Strong Songs that disected the song No one knows by Queens of the Stone Age, that i listened to this summer.
I somehow totally looked past Queens of the Stone Age while growing up, even though it would’ve fitted me perfectly during high school, and Songs for the Deaf was released, so there’s nothing that really stopped me, except the fact that i probably just didn’t stumble upon it. The evolving of the Internet and programs such as Spotify sure has made it easier to find music. Anyway, back to the album. The first album by QOTSA that i remember listening to was when they released …Like Clockwork and that didn’t really speak to me at that time, however it does now. It wasn’t until later when i started to go through their older discography like Songs for the Deaf and Era Vulgaris it clicked for me. And over the years i fell deeper in love with QOTSA, however, i am not a hard core fan of theirs, i just know that whenever my taste for music gets a bit duller – i can always go to Era Vulgaris and Songs for the Deaf and have an excellent listening experience.

I think that Songs for the Deaf is absolutley excellently produced and the sound, the voices, the instruments, all together works so well and that is what makes Songs for the Deaf one of my favourite albums of all times.

I hope you have a fantastic weekend.

Until next time, take care.

SLQT

Spirit World Field Guide by Aesop Rock.

”Hello from the Spirit World
My days here have been as rewarding as they are troublesome
And often dangerous.”

Such is the opening lines of the newest release from Aesop Rock, Spirit World Field Guide. I wrote about the first two singles in an earlier post and finally, today, friday the 13th year 2020, the album was released. There was a leak online but i decided that i didn’t want to listen to it before the actual release dropped, so i waited. However since there was a global midnight release as soon as it hit midnight it meant that here in Europe i managed to listen to it once before i went to sleep.
I’ve listened to the album four times in total, and i really do enjoy it, i find it to be one of his best releases ever, if not even the best. I have to admit, i am a sucker for Aesop Rock and his music, so, this text will be biased, very much so.

This is clearly a concept album, and i love the idea of concept albums, some are great and some not – but the idea behind concept albums intrigue me. As Rhymesayers said in their release post, they called the tracks chapters, rather than tracks, and as speculation pointed to, aswell as the name of the album, this is a field guide to the spirit world of Aesops fantasy. The first chapter of the album is called Hello From The Spirit World and this chapter is very important to listen to, if you want to understand the concept running through the album. The chapters are stand alone, and works by themselves since they are tracks – but to get the whole experience from the chapters this first chapter gives us the premises that this field guide is built upon.

I’ve listened to this album from start to finish and on shuffle. I think that everyone that wants to listen to this album should start with listening to it in order the first time, and after that you can shuffle it. I’m very bad at this, but it is something that i’ve been trying hard to change in my later years – and i feel that the first time you experience and album, it should probably be intended the way the author (artist) wanted it. Since this is a concept album and a field guide, you probably will, i know i did, draw parallels to literature – and you wouldn’t read the book from the middle the first time you read it. That you can do when you’ve experienced the conceptual art.

However, i do wish to point out that this is not a difficult album to listen to. Conceptual albums, and literature and anything that’s conceptual has gotten a rumour about it that it’s difficult and complex to understand – this is not. I mean, it’s a Aesop Rock album, so it will be filled with complex lyrics that got metaphores within the metaphores, but that’s just Aesop Rock. I believe that if you’re new to Aesop Rock this album is as good a starting point as any other of his albums.

The album is very well made. I’ve seen discussions online about mastering and sound levels and equalizer options being off. But i don’t hear it. I’ve listened to this album on three different setups, a pair of in ears, a pair of studio headphones and a regular speaker setup. The difference is that, the better the speaker/headphones you listen to, the better it will sound. I don’t believe the problem is mastering here, i believe the problem is that people listen to it with different audio setups and that’s what makes the difference – atleast that’s my point of view on the reported issues.

To round things off:
This album will roll steady on Spotify for me, i’ve been finding new chapters (tracks) that stick out every time that i’ve listened through it so far. However i am really feeling Crystal Sword, Jumping Coffin and Coveralls.

You can find the album at places that you find music. I hope you give it a listen this weekend.

Until next time, take care.

SLQT.

”Might be a trap, shit, it’s probably a trap
Might be a possum in the trash
It’s probably a trap”

Andre 3000 and Rick Rubin in Conversation.

The other day i stumbled across the podcast called Broken Record on Youtube and the episode is called Andre 3000 and Rick Rubin in Coversation and it is just what it sounds like. It’s a conversation between Andre 3000 and Rick Rubin. They chat about music, influences, health and similar things. It’s very, very intresting. I’ve listened to a lot of OutKast and see Andre as one of my big heroes in life and i’ve, and im sure you have, listened to a lot of albums that Rick Rubin has produced. They are both very articulate and understanding towards each other, and the conversation flows like a river – it’s very soothing to listen to. They raise a lot of intresting topics and gave me some new aspects and thoughts on things. I decided to listen to this podcast on Spotify, so, that i could listen to it while on a walk.
I recommend that you check it out, it’s about an hour, and i don’t think that you’ll regret it.

Until next time, take care.

SLQT.

Spirit World Field Guide by Aesop Rock.

The 13th of November 2020 Aesop Rock releases his new album that’s been named Spirit World Field Guide and as before Aesop Rock is still on the Rhymesayers label.
So far two singles from the upcoming album has been released: The Gates and Pizza Alley. The latter one has stirred up some controversies online partly because people has linked it to some absurd and insane conspiracy theories that wander around social media like a ghoul. Apart from this controversy the other outcry i’ve seen online, about this song, is the mixing. I do not understand what they’re on about, i must admit. But i, on the other hand, really like the sound and i always assume that the released version of a song is the way it’s supposed to sound. And i feel like redacting and updating versions of album, like Kanye West did with Saint Pablo, just makes it hard to keep up with how an album sounds and it gives you this incentive to keep on coming back, just because you cannot be sure if the albums been changed or not. However, back to Aesop.

With these things out of our way, we’ll carry on with this text. From what Rhymesayers write on their website about this upcoming album it’s easy to get the feeling that this is a concept album of sorts that connect to literature. The album is called Spirit World Field Guide which implies that this indeed is a field guide to help us navigate the Spirit World of Aesops imagination. The 21 tracks on the album is referred to as chapters, again tying the knot of this being some kind of literature.
From the sounds of the singles we’ve heard so far, this gives me the feel like it’s tied to some 80s dungeons and dragons-fantasy, The spirit world. The track list really do enforce the feeling of this being 21 chapters that stand alone in themselves, but together they tie this field guide together.

The Gates was the first single that was released from the upcoming album. It appeals to me, i am a sucker for tracks that goes hard. And the beat together with the bass in this track holds hand and makes this slap hard. Pizza Alley has this underlying vibe that makes you a bit uneasy and it feels eerie. And how the sounds in the song switches it makes the feeling that we’re out on a DND-mission hard to ignore. Especially with the other clues we’ve gotten in form of the name of the album and the literature comparision with the tracks named as chapters. The sound of these two tracks differ a lot from each other and i have a feeling that we’ll get 21 tracks that sound very different.

I am truly looking forward to this album and to see what Aesop Rock has managed to pull together this time. I am also very much looking forward to see what lyrical masterpiece Aesop Rock has managed to do this time. As mentioned before, the album drops the 13th of November and will (hopefully) be available on all the regular places you find music.
I will, surely, write something about the album when it’s out.

Until next time, take care.

SLQT.