Fluxblog #267: Fusion 70-75 playlist | Freddie Gibbs/Alchemist | Terrace Martin | Run the Jewels | Beauty Pill
This week's playlist is Fusion and Fusions: 1970-1975, a collection of songs exploring the intersections of funk, jazz, psychedelia, progressive rock, and R&B in the early to mid-'70s. In a lot of ways it's about the immediate aftermath of Miles Davis' work developing fusion starting with Bitches Brew in 1970.
June 11th, 2020
See The Old Me
Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist featuring Tyler the Creator “Something to Rap About”
The Alchemist’s arrangement for “Something to Rap About” reshapes David T. Walker’s smooth and elegant instrumental “On Love” into something that sounds even more sleek and luxurious, or as Tyler the Creator describes it as he enters the track, “this sounds like the boat I haven’t bought yet.” Both Tyler and Freddie Gibbs take the relaxed, dreamy, and opulent tone of the music as a starting point for exploring the idea of success, with Gibbs focusing mainly on the economic pitfalls of actually having money and just wanting to “live to 93 and see the old me” and Tyler writing about dealing with other people’s resentment of his achievements. The latter rapper’s raspy monotone contrasts nicely with Walker’s crisp chords, and it’s hard not to be charmed by the bit at the end where he boasts about getting the verse down in one take but apologizes for mispronouncing Mykonos.
Buy it from Amazon.
June 10th, 2020
The Vision Is Horrid
Terrace Martin featuring Denzel Curry, Kamasi Washington, G Perico, & Daylyt “Pig Feet”
Terrace Martin packs a lot into just over three minutes with “Pig Feet” – radio drama, nods to jazz and fusion, dive-bombing guitars, rapid-fire raps from Denzel Curry and Daylyt that sound as thought they’re charging at the heavy drums rather than riding the flow of the beat. It’s dense but incredibly focused and direct, laying out the immediate aftermath of racist police brutality in the skit sequences and the ongoing psychological impact of this being a day-to-day reality in Curry and Daylyt’s verses. Curry thrives on tracks that allow him to be forceful and bold, and on this one his words pop off with a righteous indignation that gives voice to rage while Kamasi Washington’s sax articulates mourning and despair in contrast. Daylyt’s verse is more nimble and wordy like Inspectah Deck or Talib Kweli in their ’90s prime, and pushes through the pain towards a defiant optimism by the end of the track.
Buy it from Amazon.
June 9th, 2020
Posing On Your Dollar
Run the Jewels featuring Pharrell and Zack de la Rocha “JU$T”
The best posse cuts make the most of contrasting the voices of every rapper on the track, the way RZA deliberately constructed Wu-Tang songs around vocal timbres like they were instruments in a band. “JU$T” pulls this off beautifully by approaching the same lyric – “look at all these slave masters posing on your dollar” – from three different angles with escalating intensity. Pharrell lays things out in his hook with a cool-headed logic, presenting every “respectable” path towards class mobility as simply buying into the oppressive capitalism of those in power. His voice, always so smooth and chill, sugars the pill a bit, whereas Killer Mike repeats the refrain without diluting the bitterness even a bit. And then when Zach de la Rocha finishes the chorus, it all tips over into vicious unrestrained fury and disgust. It’s a little bit like the galaxy brain meme.
The first two times you hear de la Rocha on the track it’s like a warning, and when he shows up for a full verse at the end his tone shifts expectations. He’s not doing his tension-to-scream move here, but rather adapting his intense presence to the minimalism of the track. He’s a voice of moral clarity expressing uncertainty about the immediate future, sure that something is about to blow up but wary about expecting the sort of revolution he wants. He’s concerned about half-measures – “how can we be the peace when the beast gonna reach for the worst?” – and skeptical of how much anyone is willing to fight. And in the end, he’s cynical about every movement just being turned into a sellable aesthetic, which is something he knows all too well from his career: “The breath in me is weaponry, but for you, it’s just money.”
Buy it from Run the Jewels.
June 8th, 2020
Another Human Interest Story
Beauty Pill “Tattooed Love Boys”
This is one of the most inventive covers I’ve heard in ages. Chad Clark keeps the core of The Pretenders’ song while completely reimagining its arrangement, starting with trading out the original’s incessant nervous shake for a more graceful but dazed tone. He keeps James Honeyman-Scott’s chimey lead guitar part, but whereas the original only foregrounds it towards the end, the Beauty Pill centers it. (I wouldn’t be surprised if the reason this cover exists is because Clark just wanted to explore the possibilities of that melodic motif.) The tension and clatter of the source material is in this version, but it comes out sounding more sparkly and lovely, and Clark’s vocal comes across as sort of wistful and reflective. That’s the key thing, really – even though Chrissie Hynde’s lyrics were always in the past tense, the music made the awkward and scary moments she was describing feel very urgent and present tense. Clark embraces that past tense, sounding a lot more nostalgic than shaken.
Buy it from Bandcamp.