Neil Young pulled his music from this newsletter
Astrolith! Roedelius! Two Shell! The Range! Toro Y Moi!
Just kidding! His new record is just not very good!
If, like me, you thought more about Joe Rogan this week than the rest of your life combined (except s/o NewsRadio!), then you probably also aren’t familiar with the details of his show and thus were wondering just how damaging his podcast is for COVID misinformation.
If, like me, you didn’t want to marathon the hundreds of hours of Rogan’s podcast, Media Matters summarizes his 2021 “greatest hits” of COVID misinfo, anti-trans rhetoric and general racist trash here. I don’t have a larger argument than “maybe he sucks” but mostly no one should have to slog through his show, or even the very popular Rogan recap podcast, to know this dude sucks.
On to this week’s Good Links that as far as we know don’t have any COVID-19 misinformation:
Larry Fitzmaurice’s interview with Tom Krell aka How To Dress Well ends on a must-read bleak answer on the role of wealth in the music industry
Slung? Maplekore? Hyperplugg? This list of Soundcloud microgenres is guaranteed to make you feel old
Dan Charnas’ book Dilla Time about the life and impact of J Dilla drops today and I personally can’t wait to buy it and dig in, especially with the accompanying listening guide on Charnas’ site
Want to know the top records of the year from The Needle Drop’s Discord? This Google doc has the answers you seek
Now for this week’s tracks - you can follow along on our playlist on Spotify and Apple Music, which will update every week along with the newsletter.
THE UNSKIPPABLES #23
Roedelius & Story - Haru
This record was made by two men on one piano, with composer Tim Story building on top of Hans-Joachim Roedelius’ improvised compositions. Story splashes Bill Evans-esque colors on top of Roedelius’ elegant phrases, sometimes turning a single note into an unresolved chord, sometimes providing a chromatic spiral staircase between passages. “Haru” is a tribute to Harold Budd, Roedelius’ simple theme recalling Budd’s playing on Music For Airports, with Story’s parts interrupting the glacial phrasing with unease and discordant sadness for their passed friend.
Two Shell - Home
This is the first hyperpop-leaning track that hit me with a real sense of emotion. Two Shell shares the same fun dnb chirp as the mutant pop coming out of LA, but the song’s chord changes and searching melody cut the drum part’s relentless euphoria with a muted sorrow that runs counterpoint to “Home’s” frenetic energy. The song’s sadness unlocks a more complex emotional release than their peers, whose mall pop nostalgia mines the same breaks and pitch-shifted vocals for a much shallower impact. (PS - Two Shell’s other track has a silly but extremely effective Alicia Keys drop!)
The Range - Bicameral
At a minute-twenty or so into “Bicameral,” the Range’s first solo track since 2016, what seems like a building of knot of tension opens up into a glossy neon-green chord, and anything suddenly seems possible. Anchored mostly by a vocal sample from Bemnet Tekleyohannes, the song gently lilts back and forth from nervous wiggle to consonant joy, its ebbs and flows creating their own logic as the track unfolds.
Astrolith feat. Leikeli47 & Cakes da Killa - Yo Ma
As a Bay native, Astrolith’s new single reminds me of Rick Rock’s productions for the Federation - the snappy kick and stark syncopation are nothing if not peak hyphy - but it also has the buzzy energy of Missy Elliot and Timbaland’s sneakiest bounces. Longtime collaborator Cakes Da Killa and Brooklyn rapper Leikeli47 freewheel over the track, like they’re in a getaway car about to crash into the dancefloor.
Toro Y Moi feat. Salami Rose Joe Louis - Magazine
The B-side to Toro Y Moi’s new single “Postman,” this collaboration with Bay Area artist Salami Rose Joe Louis moves like a waking daydream, thanks mostly to its tic tac psych bassline and bleary-eyed chorused vocals. Salami Rose Joe Louis (Salami for short?) sings the hook like a creak of afternoon daylight through a curtain, and the whole song has a deliberate but slow “depression sweatpants but still down to hang” mosey. Cereal for dinner, who cares!!
THROWBACK CORNER
Chris Isaak - Unhappiness
My friend in LA has a playlist of inspiration for weird guitar solos, and this track was hanging out at the bottom, an album cut from Chris Isaak’s 1985 debut LP Silvertone. A slithering backwards guitar hangs around the song’s brushed beat underneath Isaak’s straightforward crooning, providing a Kevin Shields-goes-honkytonk counterpart and Blue Velvet strangeness to the ballad.
Aaaaand that’s all for this week. Thanks for reading!