Bempology April 2011 – hoping mom doesn’t read this post.
♦ Can’t say I loved a ton of what I heard in April, so turned back to a few tracks from 2010 I forgot about to supplement. Sarah Jaffe ‘Clementine’ gets better with every single play and could ignite a Lilith Fair crowd if that entity existed anymore, Anais Mitchell employs some esoteric and nuanced spoken word with help from Justin Vernon i.e. Bon Iver’s hauntingly awesome vocals, and Kyle Roberts creates a one-man indie rock stomper with ‘Bombs Away’, a track I learned about from a Doritos commercial. Yep.
♦ Some great blog-rap this month, Tayyib Ali destroys a chill jazz-string number on “Keystone State of Mind”, Community’s Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino executes some pretty insane wordplay over Kanye’s “All Of The Lights“, Chiddy Bang continues to prove their more than an internet sensation over Martha & the Vandellas “Heatwave“, and Is the Professor nails the Chiddy Bang formula over a slick vocal sample.
♦ Good amount of electro-pop per usual. Edwin van Cleef and Jane Hanley take and electrify Phoenix’s indie summer standard “Lisztomania” and Plastic Plates hijacks Adele’s golden vocals, transforming Set The Rain On Fire into the type of anthem that fuels the sorts of scenes at Ibiza and Mykonos.
♦ Germany Germany continue to impress on “Take Your Time”, translating computerized blips into tracks with serious human warmth to them. Tender electronica. Guilty, slightly embarrassing pleasures of the month awarded to Madeon and Tim & Jean. Madeon’s take on Alphabeat is painfully cheesy but still catchy as hell and Tim & Jean basically just complete a karaoke version of “Little Secrets” with some atrocious lyrics but it’s still pretty fun.
♦ Lastly, great to see Mylo back in the picture. Takes me back to some serious nostalgia in the college days from 2006′s Destroy Rock & Roll. Here, he tackles the fantastic Niki & the Dove’s “Gentle Roar” and pulls together some traits from 2000s best remixes (notably the bouncing insouciance Aeroplane’s remix of Friendly Fires “Paris” and Chicken Lips disco-laden take on Bell X1 “Flame” ).
Thanks to Snake, Liser, and JB for rec’s this month. Go enjoy some sun.