Blogarhythms

Like I said yesterday, it’s not uncommon for me to get my hands on a yet-to-be-released record ludicrously early. When that happens I usually like to hold off on posting about it until the release date is imminent so the record in question is fresh in the minds of anyone reading this blog when it’s actually available for purchase. The flipside of that, which I also pointed out in yesterday’s post, is that I probably miss out on just as much music that I’m actually anticipating and intend to cop, or which I’m sure I’d like if I actually got to hear it, as I do crap I end up discarding or shunning as I sift around for new finds.

Sometimes I remain on task for an extended period of time and manage to get my hands on a long-yearned-for release months after I initially added it to my mental “want list.” Either that, or I just get lucky and stumble across it in my travels, refreshing my memory to the record’s existence and reminding me of my forgotten desire to hear it. Such is the case with The Dirty Decibels of Thomas Two Thousand, an eight cut EP from Los Angeles-based beatmaker and musician Thomas Wilson, a.k.a. Take, a previous Blogarhythms featuree. In fact, I mentioned the then impending release of The Dirty Decibels of Thomas Two Thousand and how I was looking forward to it in the previous post on Take dating back to the beginning of this year!

I only just got myself a copy of The Dirty Decibels… last week. And though I don’t know what took me so long, once I actually had it in my possession, and by extension in my headphones, I quickly recalled why I’d wanted it in the first place. Where Take’s LP from last year Earthtones & Concrete meandered through a lot of low-key psychedelic atmospheric ambiance between glitchy Boom-Clap neck snappers, the Thomas Two Thousand EP draws from a decidedly more Hip-Hop-influenced palett where bits of sound, vocal bits and familiar samples are stitched and scratched together with celestial synths over drum and bass programming that are all thump. Two of Take’s most striking sound collages are “After Words,” which pits the carnival organs and vocal harmonies of the Stax chestnut “After Laughter Comes Tears” (famously sampled by the RZA) against churning electronic sub-bass, stomping programming, video game sounds and tons of effects, and “Lie-Twerx” where he vivisections Raymond Scott’s “The Tomorrow People” (the source of Dilla’s “Lightworks”) and blends it with bits of a familiar ’70s Soul/Jazz classic over crunchy beats, a deep bass bump and laserbeam synths.

Take “After Words”

On the other hand, Magic Monday — the debut full-length from New York-based producer and disc jockey Michna (born Adrian Michna and otherwise known as DJ Eggfooyoung) — hasn’t been languishing without my attention for so long. In fact, it’s one of those records I mentioned that isn’t even out yet. Due out September 23rd via the Ghostly International label, it’s been keeping my ear-drums company as it patiently waits for its release date to creep a bit closer so I can share its existence here on Blogarhythms. But since I’ve been yammering about the discrepancies between advances, promos, leaks, release dates and my own failure to stay up on every record I want to get my meaty paws on, and I just so happened to have another instrumental beats record to write about which wasn’t getting any newer, I figured I’d jump the gun a ‘lil.

I can’t say I’ve ever seen homie DJ under his Eggfooyoung guise, at least not that I can remember. But his contribution to the Ghostly Swim compilation his label released in concert with the Adult Swim cable network, an uptempo thumper called “Triple Chrome Dipped” that sounded like “Tour De France” if Kraftwerk were a bunch of Baltimore Club DJs instead of a group of uptight Germans, was one of that project’s standout tracks. My favorite tunes on Magic Monday other than “Triple Chrome Dipped, which also appears here, are the ones, like the midtempo Glitch-Hop headnod & finger-snapper “Avante,” the motorik “Third Orbit,” and the Soulsonic Force/Arthur Baker-esque “Redline Flights,” that stick close to that track’s blueprint of chilly Euro/Italo/Krautrock-influenced synthesizers and booming programming. Other joints like “Do What You Want to Do,” “Believe In It,” “Skunk Walk,” “Raw Paw” and “Swiss Glide” present portraits of moodier Downtempo/Hip-Hop soundscapes where Folk, Soul and Jazz influenced arrangements, dubby mixing effects, acoustic sounds and live instrumentation including horns, keys and guitars are folded into the mix of electronic buzzes, zaps & bleeps, sweeping synthetic textures and sound-mutating effects.

Michna “Avante”

Whatever you do, don’t forget Michna’s Magic Monday when it drops in a few weeks like I did Take’s The Dirty Decibels of Thomas Two Thousand earlier this year.