Afanyala Maylee Todd From Acts of Love DO RIGHT! MUSIC Even the small, restrained gestures made by Maylee Todd in the “surreal wearable art” costume she exhibits in the “Afanyala” video can’t disguise one glaring fact. This Toronto singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist of Filipino descent wrote, produced, and sang one of the best Sade songs that was never made. Acts of Love, her 17-track stripped down and synth-based alternative soul statement from 2017, nonchalantly flew under the radar. Truly a detriment to the less informed. Where else last year could you get a female producer constructing her own funk-ballads, 80’s revisionist soul-pop, and synth…
Author: John-Paul Shiver
John-Paul Shiver
Music Journalist who likes more songs about buildings and food. Contributing writer for several publications. Genre is a state of mind that I don't reside in.
Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs Soundtrack ABKCO Records As with every Wes Anderson film release, audiophiles around the world gear up in great anticipation to find out which forgotten left-field musical treasure will be shot into the current zeitgeist. No matter where you check in on the “Children and Animals Acting Like Adults” or “Bad Dads” operatives that run amok throughout his career. Without the unorthodox beauty of “These Days” by a lamenting Nico in The Royal Tenenbaums, or the anthemic “getting the team back together” enthusiasm of Devo’s “Gut Feeling” from Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou…Cinematic guideposts would be…
Not To Miss is a bi-monthly column dedicated to all things music related that might have fallen through the cracks. Want U 2 Want/Kendrick Lamar(feat Q-Tip) Earlier this month Q-Tip shared a previously unreleased single with Kendrick Lamar titled “Want U 2 Want” on his Beats 1, Abstract Radio show. It features both emcees vying for the attention of a female by trading heavyweight verses about their romantic methods. It’s a thunderous track that comes equipped with a variety of vocal grunts, scratches and sirens all flowing over a trademark “thick” Q-Tip beat. While it is thought to be a recording from 2013, two items…
The Optimist Ryan Porter World Galaxy In the Autumn of 2008, trombonist Ryan Porter crammed 11 of his fellow Los Angeles jazz musician brethren, mostly consisting of the West Coast Get Down, into Kamasi Washington’s parents’ garage. These humble recording sessions, captured in the broiling and claustrophobic “Shack” in Inglewood under the LAX landing strip, silently demanded perfection. For it was so hot, everyone was afraid to make a mistake which would force a restart. “Obamanomics,” a charismatically uplifting funk strut that allows several members of the cipher to introduce themselves round-robin style via boisterous and confident solos, was the first song written…
Not To Miss is a bi-monthly column dedicated to all things music related that might have fallen through the cracks. Optimistic (feat Brandy) August Greene/Amazon Music It’s fitting that Robert Glasper, Common, and Karreim Riggins would give “Optimistic” the proper 2018 fit that it deserves. Originally recorded in early 1990’s by the 40 member choir Sounds of Blackness with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis handling the production, this retooling involves Brandy reminding us that her voice remains at a gold standard…if anything she is vastly underused these days. “About a year ago, I told Karriem and Rob ‘Let’s get in the…
Not To Miss is a bi-monthly column dedicated to all things music related that might have fallen through the cracks. Here’s our Best of 2017. Dego & Kaidi/A So We Gwarn/Sound Signature Almost twenty years in… Dego and Kaidi Tatham release A So We Gwarn on the Theo Parrish’s Sound Signature imprint to solidify their ambassadorial status as master creators and designers of what is universally known as “broken beat.” This long player is rooted and based in funk, soul, hip-hop, and jazz. But gently enhanced and propelled forward in contemporary forms. The charismatic sounding “Me Soon Come (Africa)” stands as the…
Not To Miss is a bi-monthly column dedicated to all things music related that might have fallen through the cracks. San Francisco First American MUTEK Edition/Launches May 3-6, 2018 MUTEK, the long-running electronic music festival that started in Montreal and now extends to Barcelona, Mexico City, Buenos Aires and Tokyo, will officially break American soil in San Francisco May 3-6, 2018. After many months of curious sightings of the MUTEK logo with SF tagged on it, the event will become official with Miroslav Wiesner and Gabrielle de Villoutreys curating the lineup. Wiesner, who is also the founder of San Francisco-based booking and management…
Not To Miss is a bi-monthly column dedicated to all things music related that might have fallen through the cracks. Jon Bap/You Be You Our main protagonist, Jon Bap, uses a scattershot beat and frantic sound design to go with his lyrical assertion of how much his woman in question just needs to be herself on the killer “You Be You.” The Texas-based producer and musician, who claims to still hold a day job at Chipotle, is confident in showing his adoration for late 80s (“Sign of the Times,” “Around the World In A Day,” “Parade”) Prince. But it’s merely a reference point,…
Laurel Halo Dust Hyperdub Records Operating as both an installation in sound… and a singular patchwork of eccentric groove, Dust, by Berlin-based producer Laurel Halo, is an eleven-song fever dream transmission that refuses to be pigeonholed. This release seems more concerned with the abilities of the voice, many of them in fact, and their capacity to frame stories as the device to deliver music. The lead song, “Sun to Solar,” is an adaptation of “Servidão de Passagem” by Brazilian concrete poet Haroldo de Campos. Along with the ensuing “Jelly,” these are casual yet VERY legit broken beat tracks at the core. Both are purposely…
Not To Miss is a bi-monthly column dedicated to all things music related that might have fallen through the cracks. Kerri Chandler/DJ-Kicks/!K7 Affectionately referred to as the ‘Stevie Wonder of house,’ New Jersey native Kerri ‘Kaoz’ Chandler is the next substantial contributor to the ever-essential DJ-Kicks mix series, with a CD and vinyl release set for October 20, 2017. “Peace, love, and admiration” is well-known as Kerri’s sign-off on messages to his fans, and this album is born of that spirit. His DJ-Kicks mix takes him out of the club and through a world of influences and inspirations. “It’s like me taking you…
Not To Miss is a bi-monthly column dedicated to all things music related that might have fallen through the cracks. Box Dream Serenader/Gulls/CTMS Rerub CTMS aka John Keaka Friend has delivered a direct, clear, and haunting rework of “Box Dream Serenader” by Gulls from the full-length album Patterns is Life out on Boomarm Nation. Friend, who now runs his own label Tripshow, worked at and managed one of San Francisco’s legendary record stores, Open Mind. It was a great place to broaden your musical horizons and a haven for adventurous vinyl enthusiasts. Ever the musical preceptor while DJ’ing. With mixing and selecting in his…
Not To Miss is a bi-monthly column dedicated to all things music related that might have fallen through the cracks. Holophonor/Light Magnet/World Galaxy / Alpha Pup Records The seven-piece jazz ensemble called Holophonor, all graduates of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, convey nuanced urgency with their lead single “Zirma.” The unswerving and gallant forthcoming full release “Light Magnet,” produced by jazz master Wayne Shorter, is a 13-track display of taste and superior dexterity. “Zirma,” barely clocking in over two minutes, is an impassioned trip of percussive communication equipped with bells, vocal…
Not To Miss is a bi-monthly column dedicated to all things music related that might have fallen through the cracks. Natasha Agrama /Goodbye Porkpie Hat/World Galaxy Natasha Agrama, who will release her debut full-length album The Heart of Infinite Change in early September on World Galaxy, has brought the jazz standard “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” into the contemporary realm, with musical support by Thundercat, Ronald Bruner Jr,, and the late Austin Peralta. Her updated version of the Charles Mingus classic, using the lyrics that Joni Mitchell penned, morphs into a bittersweet history lesson delivered by the next grade of culture keepers.…
GOOD The Stevens Chapter Music The Stevens, an Australian “scratchy pop” quartet, hold court between lo-fi scruff and groggy pop on their second full-length outing, the snarky entitled Good. The 18-track “jangle and fuzz” document was recorded on eight-track reel to reel tape in various bedrooms around Melbourne. It captures the maturation of a solid band blossoming into a larger shoe size, whilst popping along at their “simmering boil” peak temperature. Upon hearing the harmonium creep in the infant stages of “My New Hideout,” visions of Frodo partaking in maudlin negotiations in lush terrain come to mind. Take the chorus…
Not To Miss is a bi-monthly column dedicated to all things music related that might have fell through the cracks. Cold Specks/Fool’s Paradise/Arts & Crafts Ladan Hussein, known on stage as Cold Specks, has this haunting no frills verve swirling in her voice. The calm strength delivery in her lead single “Wild Card,” which includes Tim Kingsbury of Arcade Fire performing on bass, represents a through line of authenticity for the Somali-Canadian woman. Hussein, a Toronto native who now resides in London, has contributed to Moby’s album Innocents and was invited to play with Joni Mitchell at the singer’s 70th birthday…
Not To Miss is a bi-monthly column dedicated to all things music related that might have fell through the cracks. J Dilla/Motor City James Dewitt Yancey aka J Dilla changed hip-hop so much….that we take it for granted. He made the average hip-hop head, the rookies, newbies, and all the Beckys with the good hair, better listeners. With each beat tape compilation he instructed a generation on how to discern between creative and contrived. Over the span of just a couple of years, J Dilla brought the overground and underground together…and then built distance between the two again. Allowing his followers, mostly new and some old,…
Not To Miss is a bi-monthly column dedicated to all things music related that might have fell through the cracks. AYBEE/A Purple Tear AYBEE, Chief Alchemist of Deepblak Recordings, comes with an audible reminder of how EVERYDAY is PRINCE DAY. A Purple Tear was released on AYBEE’s SoundCloud page right around the time of Prince’s b-day this year. Releasing music under a range of monikers (Orion 70, o1o, Prof Delacroix), Producer/DJ/Filmmaker AYBEE aka Armon Bazile has garnered respect from all corners of the electronic music spectrum. With a versatility that is genre defiant, AYBEE traverses techno, house, experimental, and hip-hop seamlessly. Pushing a distinct sound that is in constant evolution while resolutely rooted in…
Raymond Scott Three Willow Park: Electronic Music from Inner Space, 1961-1971 Basta Music An early Xmas gift for knob turners, beat digging library record collectors, and overall fans of recording studio lab rats who stay smarter and more curious than the average soul. Three Willow Park: Electronic Music from Inner Space, 1961-1971, documents 61 previously unissued electronic “explorations of synthesized rhythmic minimalism and low-key ambience” by former jazz musician, bandleader, and composer Raymond Scott. Many of these selections feature hypnotic rhythm tracks played by Scott’s Electronium – an invention which composed and performed rhythm patterns using programmed intelligence. These experimentations…
Not To Miss is a monthly column dedicated to all things music related that might have fell through the cracks. The Lay Low/Afrikan Sciences/Soundcloud Eric Douglas Porter, who performs under the moniker of Afrikan Sciences, released a half-time mysterious wonder of a track recently on his SoundCloud page. It’s a building mix of haunting voices of the past with creeping millennial bleep dread that stays with you like a classic John Carpenter film. Afrikan Sciences himself says about the track, “Sometimes things around us can seem to move at lightning speed on the flip side there can be minimal movement…
Puff Bernice Arts & Crafts So it’s a complete sucker’s move and a bloviating action to compare Bernice, the Toronto-based project of vocalist and songwriter Robin Dann, to the breezy stance of mid-1980’s Joni Mitchell. Keeping the obvious comparisons rolling…one can make the case that Dann appears to be a funkier version of Laurie Anderson in millennial garb. What stands out as boldface fact is this: Puff EP, the most recent offering from Dann and project collaborator Thom Gill, weaves a most non-conformist pop stratagem that keeps the feet dancing to thick low-end frequencies and the inner brain projecting mini-Technicolor motion pictures. Born to a musical family, the daughter of a symphony…