Fluxblog #287: Live Music / 1966 Survey | James Blake • Moodymann • Róisín Murphy
Two new playlists this week!
Live Music For A Time Without Stages is a collection of live recordings spanning genres and generations, including many beloved classics alongside some intriguing covers and deep cuts. I think this one is a lot of fun, but also a little poignant given that it will still be some time before we can safely go back to seeing shows. I highly recommend turning on crossfading settings for this one, it will play much smoother. [Apple / Spotify]
The 1966 Survey Mix picks up where I left off with the 1960s series, covering a wide range of the music released in that year. As you can expect with this series, it's a lot of foundational music – it's peak Motown, peak British Invasion, the glory days of ska. [Apple / Spotify]
October 19th, 2020 3:21pm
Better Than I Ever Remember
James Blake “Do You Ever”
It’s been interesting hearing James Blake evolve over the past decade from a mostly instrumental electronic musician with buried R&B tendencies into a more of an actual R&B artist with the aesthetics of an instrumental electronic musician. These days he’s somewhere at the center of that spectrum and it really works for him – he sounds like he’s fully comfortable as himself now, and it’s a sound that conveys equal parts sensuality and introversion. “Do You Ever,” like a lot of Blake’s best material, focuses in on the aspects of being vulnerable and intimate that hit the raw nerves of insecurity and doubt. He’s singing about a relationship that now, with some hindsight, was a lot better than he thought it was at the time. He gets anxious with the question of whether or not they think of him still, and maybe if they think of him fondly too. He sounds a little desperate and needy, but in a very relatable way – he’s looking for validation, not just for his past self but for his indulgence in this nostalgia.
Buy it from Amazon.
October 21st, 2020
You Got Me Back In Church
Moodymann “Do Wrong”
Moodymann is best known for making soulful house music, and the majority of his excellent new record Taken Away is in that lane, at least in terms of bpm rates. “Do Wrong” goes another way, framing its often spiteful breakup lyrics with a humid funk groove and snippets from Al Green’s “Love and Forgiveness” that provide both atmosphere and bitter irony. It’s a thick and swampy song with a rhythm that seems to bop up and down, and at some points sounds as though it’s sinking down below its implied surface. There’s an evil vibe to this song, but as much as the lyrics address someone else, the darkness of it feels more like it’s directed inwards. It’s like that great Carrie Fisher quote: “Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.”
Buy it from Bandcamp.
October 23rd, 2020
Never Had A Broken Heart
Róisín Murphy “Incapable”
The character in “Incapable” is reckoning with her life and asking herself if she’s incapable of love, and while she seems proud to have never had a broken heart it’s also clear she’s beginning to realize that being so protective of herself has cheated her of bigger, deeper feelings and connections to other people. The music plays out like a slow epiphany with Richard Barratt’s keyboard grooves starting off with a hesitant orbit around the beat, but gradually growing more urgent and the track gets more dense with sounds. It’s a brilliant concept for an icy disco number – it seems like the perfect setting for this type of person, and the momentum of it suggests the drama of a real-time epiphany.
Buy it from Amazon.