Fluxblog Weekly #39: Little Shalimar, Ty Segall, Space Captain, Bullion, Rihanna
January 25th, 2016
Now You Ain’t Having It
Little Shalimar featuring Killer Mike, Bun B, and Cuz Lightyear “Savage Habits”
In the Pitchfork review of the Rubble Kings soundtrack, Jonah Bromwich says that this song “doesn’t quite pound in the way you might hope” for a track featuring both Killer Mike and Bun B. I think I know what Bromwich is getting at, but at the same time I’m pretty sure “Savage Habits” is a better song than the sort of generic banger one “might hope” for. Little Shalimar’s arrangement gives Killer Mike and Bun B plenty of space for some prime alpha male chest-thumping, but offsets that with a strange looped sample – I think it’s a violin? – that induces a sick, paranoid feeling. That trilling sound just kinda gnaws at you, and while it doesn’t undermine the vocal performances, it does contrast sharply in a way that subverts the toxic masculinity on display. The sung chorus retains some of the aggression but amps up the melancholy, shifting away from the intimidating style of Mike and Bun for something more obviously tragic.
Get it for free from the Adult Swim site.
January 26th, 2016
Put It In The Machine That Fits
Ty Segall “Emotional Mugger/Leopard Priestess”
This song is like a sculpture carved out of a big block of midrange, with jagged chunks of treble jutting out in all directions. This is about as menacing as psychedelic rock before it shifts into metal – it’s still got that hard psych vibe, but it’s very much a bad trip. It may be mostly treble, but Ty Segall’s guitar and synth parts are all very distinct, and overlap and contrast in ways that emphasis their melodic and rhythmic qualities. Segall takes a few different approaches with this voice, sometimes forcing it down to below his normal range, and other times embracing the tinniness of his tenor to approximate that “I have destroyed my mind” Ozzy quality from old Black Sabbath records.
Buy it from Amazon.
January 27th, 2016
These Fragile Things
Space Captain “Two”
There’s a lightness and elegance to this song that’s at odds with its lyrical sentiment, which from the start is telling you to “keep your crippling fear, let nobody come near you.” This could be cheap irony, but it comes out sounding rather sincere, making it more like a lullaby for the severely anxious than a bleak joke. The trajectory of the song suggests something a lot deeper, too – it starts out in this weightless, jazzy zone before drifting into cosmic psychedelia, and climaxes with this spiky riff that brings out all the nervous energy and bad vibes that up to that point in the track had only been mentioned in the lyrics.
Buy it from Amazon.
January 28th, 2016
Move In Space And Time
Bullion “Never Is the Change”
I’ve missed a couple stages of Bullion’s development as a songwriter and producer, but I’m happy to catch up with where he is now on this single. “Never Is the Change” is rather like Hot Chip at their best, at least in terms of being this very groovy dance track with vocals that are disarmingly lucid. It’s that thing of addressing emotional topics in this calm, thoughtful way, and while it can seem a bit aloof, it’s not indulging the sort of “I’m a robot-man making electronic music bleep bleep” routine that somehow never dies. (That shtick always strikes me as being influenced by Kraftwerk in only the most painfully literal ways.) The most interesting thing to me about this song is when he gets away from the microphone and plays this extended keyboard solo that’s very expressive, but also slightly awkward in an endearing way. The vocal and lyric sets up the idea, but I think the solo is where he really expands on it and gets across a deeper feeling.
Buy it from Amazon.
January 29th, 2016
Fist Fighting With Fire
Rihanna “Love on the Brain”
Rihanna’s new album has no bangers, an awkward flow, few obvious hits, a spectacularly botched release via Tidal, and a total absence of Kanye West despite him being attached as the record’s “executive producer” up until very recently. But it does have a couple of the best ballads of Rihanna’s career. That’s not the most difficult bar to clear – ballads have never been her strong suit as a pop star – but I’d rate “Love on the Brain” and “Higher” near the top of her catalog in terms of songwriting quality and vocal performance. She pushes herself a bit further on “Higher,” but “Love on the Brain” is the true revelation, with her getting across just the right mix of vulnerability and toughness on an old school soul track. She reminds me of Millie Jackson on these tracks, particularly in how she leans into the low grit of her vocal range, and how a line like “it beats me black and blue but it fucks me so good” echoes Jackson’s incredible 1973 hit “It Hurts So Good.”
Buy it from iTunes.