Fluxblog Weekly #254: Cornershop | Denzel Curry | Lil Uzi Vert | John Carroll Kirby | Lil Mosey
March 9th, 2020
The Avenue Jubilee
Cornershop “St. Marie Under Canon”
I’ve always quite liked Cornershop but have the feeling I’m always missing about 25% of their songs in the sense that Tjinder Singh’s music is so heavily coded with shibboleths hyper-specific to Indian culture, British culture, and his own personal canon of music history. Singh’s songs benefit from annotation but succeed just as well on pure sensation, as the best of them are rich with groove and melody, and radiate a warmth somewhat at odds with his often cynical and sarcastic lyrics. “St. Marie Under Canon,” the lead-off song from the band’s first proper album in over a decade, leans hard on the group’s long-established fascination with ’60s psychedelia and early ’70s glam. It feels instantly familiar, but the contrast of the ambling Dylan-esque organ riff and the crashing Iggy-ish urgency of the beat suggests a tension beneath the nostalgic vibes. Singh’s words play off that, juxtaposing prosaic but highly specific imagery with a constant threat of institutionalized violence.
Buy it from Amazon.
March 10th, 2020
The Antidote To Cure My Daily Anecdotes
Denzel Curry “Diet_ – A Colors Show”
Denzel Curry is blessed with a perfect voice for rap – commanding in tone, wildly expressive, convincingly aggressive, crisp diction. He’s very aware of this and knows how to use it well, pulling together tricks accrued from 40 years of rap history, but mainly focused on the 90s. He’s not as overtly retro as a Joey Bada$$ or focused in mimicking one specific rapper like Action Bronson, but he does sound like you could drop him into a lot of classic rap records from the 90s and seamlessly blend in. “Diet_” highlights the most aggro side of his style, with his voice shifting into a full-on holler as he gets worked up through the verses. Kenny Beats’ raw production style seems to egg him on, nudging him towards increased theatricality. The odds are good that Curry is just starting to hit his stride, but if he’s actually reached a peak on his new EP and last year’s Zuu, it’s a higher pinnacle than most ever achieve.
Buy it from Amazon.
March 11th, 2020
Orange Look Like Tang
Lil Uzi Vert “Venetia”
A very large amount of rap is built on the premise of wish fulfillment but with Lil Uzi Vert, the dreams of endless money, flashy clothes, expensive cars, and unlimited sex seem warped and surreal. A lot of it’s in his low-key Afrofuturism, or the way he openly wants to be a cartoon beyond the limitations of reality. But it’s mostly in the extreme elasticity of his voice, which seems to glide through busy melodies and bounce through speedy rhymes with uncommon grace. His style and cadence is unmistakable, and his melodies are as robust as they are eccentric. “Venetia” is pretty much boilerplate on a lyrical level – he’s just boasting about being rich and spending money, you’ve heard it all before – but with the combination his voice and Brandon Finessin’s sparkling synths, you get something magical and effervescent. Maybe it’s the same logic behind the value of the designer clothes he’s singing about in the chorus – OK, sure, they’re just shoes and shirts, but high levels of craft and personal flair can elevate even the most mundane things.
Buy it from Amazon.
March 12th, 2020
How My Day Go
John Carroll Kirby “Blueberry Beads”
“Blueberry Beads” is tightly composed but heavily atmospheric, with John Carroll Kirby leaning hard on sustained piano chords and a constant patter of cymbal hits to evoke a misty haze in the negative space between lower pitched riffs. The feeling of it reminds me a lot of Herbie Hancock on his Sextant record, which aimed for a fusion of spiritual jazz and hard funk. It’s a very cosmic vibe, but there’s also a heavy earthiness to the arrangement, mostly in the way Kirby keeps a very deep and lurching low end. This only ends up exaggerating the brightness of the high notes he plays, so the lead accents pop like lights on a dark skyline.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
Lil Mosey “Blueberry Faygo”
“Blueberry Faygo” sounds about as colorful and fizzy as its title suggests. Lil Mosey’s chorus is so catchy it borders on sounding like a jingle, and Callan’s track has the bright and joyful sound of early Kanye West productions. This largely comes down to Callan’s very clever use of a sped-up sample from Johnny Gill’s early 90s hit “My My My,” which was produced by LA Reid and Babyface. It’s interesting to hear a Babyface track get the “Chipmunk soul” treatment – it’s not tremendously different in effect from a 60s or 70s R&B cut through this filter, but his particular slickness and smooth chords hits differently. The track feels extra breezy.
Buy it from Amazon.