New Music – The Hero Inside A Villain
A hero is someone that impacts lives and can move nations with a singular voice, whether a creative mind or an activist in a particular field; Kanye West is a modern day hero. Stood once as a people’s voice in the early stages of his career, Kanye West went through a villainous phase where he is now looked at as always-engaging, ever-pressing influence in a modern society.
Through fashion, movements, or more specifically his music; West is a standing monument in history. A continuous voice as one of the most popular artists of a generation, West moves into something that is less of a frantic mess, and more of an organized chaos that feels thrown together, but working in motions. West takes his otherworldly visionary mindset, forming a project that feels like an inner reflection of the darkest, but also brightest sights of West’s psyche.
YE is a studio project coming from West that received a large amount of speculation, fan-predictions, false leaks, and now an official release. With a controversy behind it, YE was expected to be one of the largest talks in the music and entertainment industry. As he delivers, West forms a cocky, yet loveable look into fatherhood and feels more authentic as the crazed, scattered, and sporadic West.
“I Thought About Killing You” is the opening track that gives the insight into the adventurous jungle that would become YE. While Kanye in the past has shown the bright ability to create flashy and ear-catching instrumentation. On YE, there is a difference and a new direction; the production is instead primarily stripped down and used to instead create the focus on West’s vocal and lyrical output. West has also been known in the past to deliver on some clever, comedic lyrics that reflect his own personal life and the society around him. While YE is a beautifully crafted album through production in some aspects, ultimately YE just does not have that impact lyrically that stopped charts and made the listener think twice or truly reflect on the poetry that West provides.
“I Thought About Killing You” has a beat switch and flow maneuver that changes the style, but does not really drop jaws. YE as a whole feels very thrown together as did The Life Of Pabloin its earliest stages. The beauty behind The Life Of Pablo was growing with the album. Seeing how different each track formed and the ways that the twisted mind and broken or fragmented intelligence from West all came together into one package.
YE wears a similar fashion where the album will see instrumental changes, it will see lyrical changes, and even most likely see some directional changes of entire tracks as did The Life of Pablo. It keeps the listener engaged and interested to see one of the only shape-shifting albums and truly an inspiration from one of the greatest voices in the world.
While he may be insane, called crazy or delusional, West is one of the greatest performers and innovators of music in history. YE is a reflection of that and proves that he can still form some sensibility to his sound even behind all the popularity, all the cameras, all the drama, and even the people that sue him. YE might not be even close to a personal favorite or what West’s best project is, but it has this strange attractive factor that makes it a new endeavor to the twisted, but beautiful mind of Yeezus.
Listen To YE Here!!! – Spotify/Amazon/iTunes
STREAMING // (Track) Curtis Harding – “It’s Not Over”
Listen/Watch Here – Youtube
STREAMING // (Video) Germ – “My Little Draco”
A Foulplay Production
Edited By: Jake Osmun
Executive Producer : Adam Hasson
Produced : Kswisha
Listen/Watch Here – Youtube
STREAMING // (Album) S.H.I.T. – “Complete S.H.I.T. LP”
Everything and Anything S.H.I.T. // Listen Here – BandCamp
Classic Day – Always Crashing
The man of many faces and personas makes a third trip to Matt’s Music Mine with his 11thstudio record, Low.With a standing ovation from critics and music fans alike, David Bowie was able to truly manipulate a sound to become his own. Changing directions with each and every single album, Bowie was a pioneer in the music industry for his bold stance, his unfearful attitude, and the ability to capture an audience with engaging, ahead-of-the-time displays of musical athleticism.
It is shown on the opening track, “Speed of Life” which is entirely instrumental but became iconic for its use of synthetic crashing and cascading chords. This was mainly to a relationship that would develop between Bowie and Brian Eno who himself had worked in the minimalist and ambient styling. This relationship would start to train Bowie in the art of making graceful, but haunting illustrations of the highs and lows of his life and career. In a time where Bowie’s Young American’s was still receiving radio play and being considered one of the best albums of the decade, Bowie instead wanted to entirely flip the script and create something a little less approachable.
Low is split in a near perfect half between ambient tracks that rely on the sense and lack of sustenance or structure. The first half is instead a more narrow blueprint of what Bowie was doing before, but instead relying more on creating these outstanding instrumentals that would boost his vocal performances. The instrumentals on Loware some of Bowie’s best, reflecting on “Sound and Vision”, “Speed of Life”, “Always Crashing in the Same Car” and even “Warszawa” that painted a vivid illustration of Bowie’s time in Berlin. A monumental time in music history, Bowie’s Lowwould become a constant mirror to his English upbringing and his new, more modern German sense.
With a larger focus on destroying the walls of direction, Lowis a collaborative effort that uses Eno, Carlos Alomar, Dennis Davis, George Murray, Ricky Gardiner, and Roy Young as the primary credited musicians. There is also the work of Iggy Pop and Mary Visconti, Eduard Meyer, and even Peter Robinson and Paul Buckmaster as they form the piano and different chord progressions on the later tracks. Bowie who had an arsenal of musicians, directors, producers, and nearly an endless supply of talent at his disposal was able to truly form something that felt groundbreaking with each transitional album.
Seeing Bowie grow even in a modern sense is fascinating, there is something that is so abnormal about seeing an immensely talented performer be able to be so forward-thinking and truly awe-inspiring in each category. Lowis an album that will stand out for being the starting factor in his Berlin trilogy, but for also having some of Bowie’s best songs in his career even in some of his darkest hours.
Listen To Low Here!!! – Spotify/Amazon/iTunes
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