Son Lux

Weapons EP (anticon, 02.2010)

For: Ekkehard Ehlers + Odd Nosdam, Matmos

Byline: Son Lux's combination of weaving classical harmonies around put-your-hands-in-the-ayer hip-hop beats are given the remix treatment by the best in the game: instrumental hip-hop artist/producer Alias, neo-classical composer Nico Muhly.

An album for all occasions, Son Lux took an already well-written song and for his EP, remixed and reorchestrated each song, collaborating with various artists transcending genres. The result: each song on the album, though the same song lyrically, holds itself independent from one another, with a singular, haunting melody keeping each song connected. I will be the first to say, that, personally, remixes are not my cup of tea, but Son Lux's uses of different beats and instruments and making each song unique, definitely won me over.

No matter the mood or occasion I can revert back to this album. If I am mellowed out I can listen to the WEAPONS II or WEAPONS VII. Son Lux's classical use of string instruments in the first song, won my heart and imagination over. WEAPONS III (Polyphonic Remix) immediately reminded me of Matmos, in which the artists creatively utilize the sounds and beats around them to build an entire song. The Polyphonic Remix definitely achieved this goal.

The rumors are true. I am a sucker for hip-hop, hence the paper chain I have made to count down T.I.'s release date from prison (March 26!!!). So when I began listening to the Alias Remix of WEAPONS VI, I was completely captivated, and found myself nodding my head to the beat and waving my hands in the air like I just don't care. Beyond the incorporated use of hip-hop, I am pretty much a sap for classical string instruments and the majority of his songs incorporated such a use, which left my ears yearning for more. If anything, this album definitely left me wanting more Son Lux. My solution? Leaving it on repeat. Best. Idea. Ever.

.erin.leigh.

Son Lux Myspace

Adelyn's pick of the month: Themselves

Crownsdown (10.09, anticon)

For: Subtle, Boom Bip, Cannibal Ox

Byline: Guess who's Back? Jeffrey 'Jel' Logan and Adam 'Doseone' Drucker erect a teetering monument to fallen hip-hop heroes.

Both Jel and Doseone are elder statesmen in the world of left-field/avante-garde hip-hop, and this being their 10 year anniversary, the duo known as themselves pen a fitting and nostalgic look back at the artform that some claim the anticon imprint saved or ruined for the whole world. Not considering myself a hip-hop purist, I have always been thrilled by Themselves experimental tendencies. Doseone's hyper-kinetic, polyrhythmic, totally cryptic, nasally raps and Jel's genre-mashing soundscapes that lets tracks wander instead of jumping down your throat. With Crownsdown I am not saying the script has been flipped, but there are certainly more indicators that point this album back to hip-hop's golden age than to the blurry line of I-have-no-idea-what-to-call-this anticon artistry. Stylistic nods abound, from the yes-ya'lls of Rakim to the aggressive braggadocio of Wu-Tang Clan to the already nostalgic nod of Dax Pierson's auto-tuned voice on "You Ain't it". Drucker's takes on a million different characters at once, from his multi-layered high nasal free association sing-song melodies to the snarling M.C who throws down threats, come ons, and bewildering non-sequiturs. There is a legion of voices and personas within Drucker's stage-personna, each taking equal turns at bat.These delightful discoveries of hip-hop evolution are not hidden in the details like in albums past, instead these self-evident head nods slap you right in the face.

The "guess who's backs?" concede to Themselves sounding like a newly minted Themselves about halfway through the record with the introduction of one of 2009's best singles "Daxstrong". I don't think I have ever heard Doseone rap with so much speed and sincerity, after mentioning "15 passenger vans" and rolling over on "black ice", the exact accident that paralyzed Subtle member and sometimes Themselves collaborator Dax Pierson. From this point on the track takes a somber, elegiac turn that is light years away from the jump-off. This move flies completely under the radar thanks to Jel's virtuoso programming. Bump this in your car as you do donuts in the mall parking lot, or on a roadtrip where your fears of mortality consume you as you wonder if that is black ice or asphalt underneath your tires. Either way, Crownsdown is 2009's strongest and most effecting hip-hop release. It only took 10 years in the making.

Ryan H.

Oh, P.S You can download their mixtape, FREEhoudini, for FREE.

Why?

Eskimo Snow ( 09.09, Anticon)

Byline: The most natural, convincing, and amazing transformation from outsider hip-hop to country-tinged Psych-pop Americana (barring of course Kid Rock)

For: Silver Jews, Dan Deacon, Neil Young?

Exactly half way through the album Yoni Wolf breaks the fourth wall and confidently sneers, "and I know saying all this in public should make me feel funny/but you gotta yell something out you'd never tell nobody". It is hard to imagine mustering the apathy or the sincerity to say something like this after breathing some of the most hyper-confessional lines that border exhibitionism and a cry for help. Yoni Wolf, however, weaves the ugliest parts of his body, his shallow grasp on mortality and his deepest fears into universal koans that make all of our concerns, flaws, and failures seem like crass excuses we give in order not to investigate deeper into ourselves and our relationship to the outside world. Why? can turn a phrase like it ain't no joke.

I would like to say I am intimately familiar with pretty much everything Why? has ever put out. When my wife and I first dated "Elephant Eyelash" was the first cd I ever gave her. Two years later she recently outed Why? as her favorite artist. This came as no surprise, there is hardly an occasion we are not listening to one of his three proper albums. For first time listeners and vets alike "Eskimo Snow" is a deceptively easy album to digest. His most "un-hip-hop" album ever is an understatement. Yoni Wolf's voice, which has always fluctuated between a hyper-punctual talk-rap cadence and an understated whiny croon, has finally found a mid range we can all live with. This new found voice is celebrated with some very "un-hip-hop" like traits. For example "One Rose" is an almost country music ode to death. Complete with slide guitars, bowed fiddles, picked guitars and Yoni's half-Howe-Gelb-half-Cass-McCombs drawl. This song is, however, not a complete departure for Why? His trademark malleted layered percussion and bells are featured here (and everywhere on the album) along with the repetition of the line from Odd Nosdam's 2007 Level Live Wires song "Kill Tone Two", "I never saw my parents try to make a thing like me/with time in the bathroom mirror I learned to accept my body".The whole album is incredibly live sounding. Where Why? found most of his best moments with studio experimentation, pitch-shifted vocals, processed everything, you won't find any of that here. In fact I'll bet everything translates almost verbatim when they perform these songs live. (I'll let you know in a month)

The single that pulls the whole thing together is the amazing "This Blackest Purse". While it may be the catchiest song on the album it is by far the most devastating. While none of the songs have the same catchiness as "Alopecia" or the bite of "Elephant Eyelash" one cannot marvel that this is by far Wolf and CO. most accomplished, elegant, and mature release to date. Recorded in Nashville by Lambchop's Mark Nevers, his precision instrumentation and generally subdued output reins in Why's? tendencies to chop up songs into a million ideas and lets each song unfurl slowly and gracefully. I don't want to give away too many one-liners or phrases from "Eskimo Snow", because there are moments on this album that everyone should experience, whether it makes you smile or sends a shiver up your spine. Astounding.

Ryan H.

This Blackest Purse (Thanks to Stereogum for hosting this mp3)