love me like you used to

i came across class actress in a daytrotter session a lifetime ago. while i'm not sure her sound makes a good complement to rock island's stripped down, analog environment, i enjoyed the free music that was offered to me, and promptly... forgot about it.

lo and behold it turns out she's actually significantly better with studio polish behind her. elizabeth harper's 2011 release rapprocher is, composition-wise, a top-to-bottom exploration of 80's style retro pop, with her lazy, nihilistic voice adding a modern touch; the conflict between the two is really what makes the sound what it is. and what it is is quite, quite good.

and of course, she's fucking gorgeous. i mean, honestly... why do i bother at this point.

here's two songs that she made.

class actress - love me like you used to


class actress - weekend

i'm just saying you could do better

"he's a tourist."

"he vacations in people's lives. takes pictures, puts them in his scrapbook, and moves on. all he's interested in is stories. basically, leslie, he's selfish. and you're not. that's why you don't like him"

i hate drake. i love drake.

drake - marvin's room/buried alive (interlude)

god damn these people that remind me of you

as it would happen, that p.s.l.w track from the last post makes for just a darling little segue into this one.

based in fort lauderdale, arrange (@arrange_malcom) is a one-man post-dubsteb post-emo artist that's caught my ear these past few days. his debut LP plantation is up and available for download on bandcamp, and i would strongly recommend it. in a world where channelling the rawer side of emotion into music seems to necessitate screaming and song titles the size of small novels, arrange's minimalist lyrics and ghostly production value bring a depth back to my library that i didn't know i missed. and to add to the fun, it would seem he's part of something of a twitter friendship circle with ricky eat acid (@rickyeatacid) and germany germany (@grmnygrmny) that i can't help but hope and pray will churn out new beautiful tunes.

here's when'd you find me, and a rework of the same featuring sam ray himself.

arrange - when'd you find me


arrange - when'd you find me (ricky eat acid remix)

forget about the world

ricky eat acid is all i'm going to listen to again ever.

ricky eat acid - ONLY GIRL.


ricky eat acid + arrange - P.S.L.W.


everything he's ever done is available up for pay-as-you-see-fit over on his bandcamp. so listen to his music and then give him some god damn money.

all the things that we thought we were losing

this'll be brief, i promise.

first, childish gambino's camp drops momentarily, and i'm pretty excited. you can stream it over at npr, so if the darling glover piques your interest in the slightest, do check it out. 'heartbeat' has my ear at the moment, though if the rest of his work is any indication, i'll jump from favourite to favourite over the next little while.

second - drake's latest album/mixtape/whatever it is, take care, just arrived to much fanfare.

i couldn't be angrier.

i love love loved jamie xx and gil scott-heron's collaboration, and drake's take on the title track of his new creation... disgusts me. the man has a production team that's second to none, and yet his version of 'original' music is to take a gorgeous song, let rihanna (retch) repeat the lead vocals and then throw two verses over literally the exact same song with a drum beat added. no modification, no sampling, no musicality - hell, no original thought - just his ill-thought out words over somebody else's music. it's like the man is doing it solely for the attention.

oh.

music is commerce, and i'm familiar with the notion that some treat it as more commercial than others. but there is a solid line between respectful use of a legendary (and recently deceased) artist's work, and the sheer pillage of said work for profit. and toronto's finest just trampled right the fuck over that line.

so get back in the studio. write something. create something.

be an artist.

don't let it get to you

it's been a good 9 months since we've heard from vampire weekend, and i'd be lying if i didn't admit - i miss them a tad. that ivy league swing has a way of melting into the nooks of crannies in your mind, and unlike some i just loved contra - the band's growth from a one-note sound to the wildly eccentric, influence-hopping sound their sophomore album offered up struck a chord with me. classifying it with some of more experimental-soft-indie bands out there (here i refer you to appendix a: yeasayer, dirty projectors, yacht) contra was just so much more... digestable. the string arrangements added a delightful second layer to more than one track, and when i came across an eastern influence or two it brought a smile to my face, not a furrow to my brow. lord help me, but i am anglo-saxon to the core, and this form of musical colonialism just works for me.

anyhow, much of the advance in the bands's sound can likely be attributed to "multi-instrumentalist" (whatever that means) rostam batmanglij. like all good 21st century muses, the products of his mind cannot be contained therein, and must be spilled across today's moleskine notebook - the tumblr page. aside from from arrangement work on the side, he's also worked up a couple semi-instrumental tracks, wood and don't let it get to you. the former pulls heavily from bollywood with a smattering of that lovely wine-and-cheese string work that makes a lot of vampire weekend so cheeky, while the latter features an african-inspired machine-gun dreambeat that will have you struggling to keep still in your chair. i'd love to hear more 'weekend soon, but for now... this, this'll do.

rostam - wood


rostam - don't let it get to you

i hope that you're dreaming of me

it's always interesting what you come across during the wee hours of the morning.

this gem is a deep cut off of mark ronson's 2010 release record collection. alex greenwald's barbershop quartet-ish lyrics work well off of ronson's hop-skip-and-a-jump drumbeat, and rose elinor dougall's sleepy chorus is the perfect complement to the track's wistful theme. it's just the song to accompany your late-night angst in a way that isn't, well... obnoxiously sappy.

it's brooding for the 21st century.

mark ronson & the business intl - the night last night ft. rose elinor dougall, alex greenwald