Lisztomania: Hip-Hop Songs Heard Ad Nauseam in Florida

Because everyone loves lists...
This past holiday season, I headed off to sunny Key West, Florida with a group of friends to ring in the new year as ridiculously as possible. For anyone who hasn't been, the unsuspecting, small island is like a micro-Bourbon Street, with less public nudity and beignets, more stone crabs and Czech strippers. The open container laws are about even. Such is life on Duval Street. While I was adequately prepared for any and all daytime/evening antics, the bars' DJs did little to vary their nightly setlists. After five days, I'd heard "The Motto" over 50 times. I'll say this, all the ad nauseam song repetition only helped to blur those nights together.

Here are nine tracks that were heard in trashy clubs or hungover headphones too much. They should help Ken Burns soundtrack any potential documentaries of our trip...

Right-Click + Save Link As:

SBTRKT - Wildfire (Drake Remix)
Drake - The Motto (feat. Lil Wayne)
Big Sean - Dance (A$$) [Remix] (feat. Nicki Minaj)
J. Cole - Work Out
Mickey Avalon - What Do You Say? (feat. Dirt Nasty)
Ace Hood - Hustle Hard Remix (feat. Rick Ross & Lil Wayne)
Ludacris - Shake and Fries (feat. Gucci Mane)
Earl Sweatshirt - Drop
DJ Khlad - I'm on One (feat. Drake, Rick Ross & Lil Wayne)

Tweet

Just Pretend I Posted This Quick Mixtape Yesterday...

Some old tunes, some new tunes, all good tunes, most Mondays...
Right-Click + Save Link As:

Ganglians - Evil Weave
DOOMSTARKS - Victory Laps (Madvillainz Remix)
Weekend - Hazel
Julianna Barwick - Vow (Diplo & Lunice Remix)
Radiohead - Lotus Flower (SBTRKT RMX)
REO Speedwagon - Keep on Loving You
Toro y Moi - Freaking Out
Case Studies - You Folded Up My Blanket Like We Were Already Lovers

Tweet

Summer's Ending? Citizen Insane's Got a Mixtape for That

Well, it's September and I can already feel the changes. I've started to wear actual shoes instead of, y'know, flip-flops. I'm finally wearing pants again, breaking my shorts-everyday summer record. I've even stopped sweating through every t-shirt I go out in. But before October rears is chilly, leaf-turning head, let's all soak up these last few weeks of sunned weather, patio bars and the outdoors with no jacket required... Pretty soon, we'll be missing it.

Citizen Mix Vol. VII - Summer's End


Tracklist:

1. Major Lazer - Keep It Going Louder (So Shifty Remix)
2. The Zombies - Time of the Season
3. TV Girl - Benny and The Jetts
4. Wugazi - Ghetto Afterthought
5. The Scientists - Frantic Romantic
6. Syme - Modern Love (David Bowie Cover)
7. SBTRKT - Right Thing to Do
8. Lil B - I'm God
9. Joy Division - Disorder
10. Ducktails - Sit Around With Ya
11. Big Star - September Gurls
12. Beirut - After the Curtain

Alternate Download Link: Click here to download the mix straight from MediaFire.

Tweet

Lisztomania - The Top 15 Records of 2011 (So Far)

Because everybody loves lists...
As you've probably read elsewhere, we've reached that just-about halfway mark in the year (and the official start of summer, whoo) so it's time for every music publication to rattle off their favourite records of the the past six months. As is my due blogging diligence, I'm throwing my hat in the ring, keeping my list to a stout 15.

An exercise like this can be a weird one though. A Stereogum commenter put it well when he wrote, "These lists are snapshots in time, snapshots take time to develop. We’ll see what more exposure brings come winter time."

It's hard to accurately rank albums I've spent so little time with and who knows where or if they'll show up on my year-end list--plus, there's that looming issue of albums I haven't even heard yet. Regardless, here are the LPs I've been spinning nonstop since I first got my ears on them...

- 2011's Top 15 Albums (So Far) -
15. Woods - Sun & Shade
14. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
13. SBTRKT - SBTRKT
12. Julian Lynch - Terra
11. Ducktails - Arcade Dynamics

10. Bill Callahan - Apocalypse
09. White Denim - D
08. Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place
07. Zomby - Dedication
06. Wild Beasts - Smother

05. The Weeknd - House of Balloons
04. Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972
03. Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver*
02. Pure X - Pleasure
01. James Blake - James Blake

*Includes the album's three bonus tracks.

Like the list? Click on each album title for its respective download link.

Tweet

Album of the Week - SBTRKT by SBTRKT

You know what's a trend I can totally get behind? Gentrified dubstep. Allow me to qualify that. Of course, I'm not referring to race, income, et al., but rather the mainstream re-modification of this rather specific genre of electronic music.

Dubstep has by now developed a relatively concrete template--it may be hard to describe to friends in one sentence, but you know it when you hear it--so much so that if one departs from its standards, they must be re-labeled "post-dubstep" or "witch-house" or some other genre that the collective press has yet to stupidly* name.

But as dubstep continues to grow up and out of the underground, artists like Jamie Woon and SBTRKT are co-opting its styles and praxes, stripping away all the warble, murkiness and grime and re-purposing said conventions for mass, pop appeal.

"Is 2011 turning out to be the year UK bass music goes semi-mainstream?" asked Pitchfork's Jess Harvell in an April review of Jamie Woon's Mirrorwriting. With the release of SBTRKT's self-titled debut right around the corner (June 28th), alongside Woon's output and the championing of James Blake, she may be onto something.

SBTRKT's record, which I've already spun several times between Sunday night and now, runs all over the place stylistically speaking; there's something for everyone. And while the LP is delivered in broad strokes, it's more than "generic UK garage."

Don't get me wrong, the lo-fi output of Burial, Zomby, Benga, Mount Kimbie or Kode9 define dubstep, but not everyone has an ear for a track like "Endorphin." Even if you do, do you always have the patience/appreciation for it? Wouldn't you rather just dance? Honestly, it's refreshing to hear London bass in a much more glossy, digestable form and SBTRKT delivers just that.

I could complicate things further by throwing around genre terms like funky, 2-step, drum & bass, four-on-the-floor, grime, ambient, or breakbeat, but the takeaway here is to cheers an album that captures UK electronic music in an easy-to-swallow 40 minutes, not to pick SBTRKT apart influence-by-influence; its originality exists in its straightforward delivery.

*Can we honestly not do any better than "Chillwave" or "Witch-house"?

MediaFire Link:

SBTRKT - SBTRKT

Right-Click + Save Link As:

SBTRKT - Wildfire
SBTRKT - Something Goes Right
SBTRKT - Right Thing to Do

Tweet