With Andrea Arnold's work on it butchered, my initial suspicion that BIG LITTLE LIES S2 would be a pointless cash-grab seems to be bearing out.
Generally haven't kept up with Mueller gossip outside a few key moments, but n+1 has an impressive summary of both the report and the sequence of events leading to it. Interesting in the same way that international politics is, with the U.S. verging on rogue state status.
(^I posted the above on 7/23, unaware of the hearings going on today, 7/24)
Nick Pinkerton celebrates Doris Day.
Steven Pinker and the classic "ideology of no ideology."
Break up Disney.
Always interested in the behind-the-scenes work of YouTubing, and the young people who devote their lives to it.
I always think back to Rosenbaum's total shutdown of APOCALYPSE NOW whenever the subject comes up. I used to adore the film, but reading his legitimate grievances against made me feel ashamed that I'd overlooked its ethnocentrism. I don't think I've returned to it since. Here, Phuong Le elaborates on how the metaphysical obsessions of the film are also bound up in Orientalism. The eternal conflict between good and evil -- which itself seems oversimplified -- is not an appropriate topic when it concerns subject matter that is inherently political and tied to a real, specific place. Taking place in a foreigner's misinterpretation of Vietnam, APOCALYPSE NOW balloons with unearned self-confidence, pushing Vietnam and its people out of the frame, favoring US soldiers in fashionable distress.
The terrible story of Keith Davis Jr., the first man shot by BPD after Freddie Gray's death -- and one whose survival has made him a prosecutorial target in the long years afterward. Kelly Davis, his wife, refuses to concede any territory at all on the subject of his incarceration. Through her efforts, she has exposed husband's trials as prominent displays of Baltimore injustice. I dearly hope for both of them that this ordeal ends soon.
The "loveable" Japanese Communist Party.
08/01 BONUS:
This EVA essay, by Willow Maclay, creeps me out plenty without even revisiting the last two episodes -- which, naturally I'm now tempted to do...
Probably always game for a Christopher Doyle interview, whether or not there's much new info in it.
Do the PERSONAL SHOPPER parallels need explication?
Pair this spectacular Ajit Singh chapter on China's well-considered Communism with this essay on the return of economic planning. In the overlap, you see the beginnings of a multipolar world freed from the (un-)free market's totalitarianism, opened up into material abundance with maybe -- just maybe -- the smallest chance of blunting ecological catastrophe. I don't think any of this is inevitable, but these are the trends I'm keeping an eye on if anything's going to get better. Or should we keep hoping the US military will have a change of heart and cease operations in the name of climate justice?
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Tuesday, June 4, 2019
06/19
Two good LARB essays on the Disney behemoth as represented by Marvel. The first is too intricate to boil down smoothly, but I do want to make a point of its use of "megatelevision," as I think that gets at the appeal of these things with surprising exactness. The second complements the first by comparing Marvel films to Game of Thrones, each series enviously eyeballing the other's medium of choice. Why does TV continue to haunt the consumer unconscious in an era of discontinuous, multimedia entertainment options? What does TV's persistence actually mean in the face of easy assumptions about attention spans, consumer malleability, and changing media environments?
Finally got around to this great Max Read article about the vertiginous cliffside of Internet unreality.
More by Read, this time generating some suggestive possibilities about cinema in a post-cinematic age.
From Girish: tough stuff by Lillian Gish, and a broader reassessment of her legacy after a cinema was stripped of her name.
Eternal reminder: no matter what wrongs other nations may or may not be perpetrating, the US has no credibility as a mediator or enforcer in their affairs.
It's been a week since I've returned from Malaysia, and I remain haunted by a sign I was confronted with upon arrival in the airport. Something to the effect of MALAYSIA IMPOSES THE DEATH PENALTY FOR ILLEGAL DRUG POSSESSION. I was carrying pharmaceuticals at the time, and even though I knew rationally that they weren't the kind of drugs warned against, paranoia crept in at the edges of my consciousness. In that context, it's rather a relief to see Malaysia will be updating its drug policies soon.
"The new left economics" comes as a welcome challenge to neoliberalism, yet I feel like Beckett's point about the possibility of it saving capitalism from itself is one worth further deliberation. Tellingly, the rock star economists quizzed at the end of this essay seem flustered when confronted with the idea, sure as they are that worker-led local businesses are the silver bullet we've been needing for decades. I can't blame them for their pragmatism, but, as usual, revolution is a truer reckoning with the profound injustices being faced.
Robin James is excellent as always dissecting the gendered undercurrents of Taylor Swift's new song and MV.
The origin story of Grab, a Malaysian rideshare app on which we depended heavily during our trip.
Great work by Kelley Dong on self-efficacy and its absence from kids' movies.
On the impossibility of depicting creativity (and why we try anyway).
It looks like I've been subliminally heeding Bifo's call to resist capitalism by relaxing and enjoying yourself. Trouble is, while there's nothing wrong with luxuriation in and of itself, it's a way of life that tends toward regression and complacency. The better action is to fight back with our imperfect psyches, constructing a future rather than endlessly savoring the present. It's a hard truth for me to face, but who better than Malcom Harris to make the case?
The young generation is falling apart financially.
Boeing will live to fly another day.
Out-of-control wildfires are never going to stop.
An insightful essay from Another Gaze about the Millennial Woman archetype, whose individual resilience (cf. Robin James!) or lack thereof takes the spotlight away from collective power/consciousness. Well-written and closely observed, this has the potential to guide a lot of thinking about the functions of 21st century fiction.
Sure, why not? More by James, an older post that nevertheless seems likely to build a bridge toward her upcoming book The Sonic Episteme. I do have trouble with sound/music studies, which doesn't arrive as intuitively to me as audiovisual thinking, but this is a good primer to what I expect will be a very exciting read.
It took us about three years to actually go inside downtown's Lexington Market, and now that we've found our own treasures there (Blue Island!), along come some notorious developers to transform it into something far worse than what it is now. What's really awful is that the residents already know this means gentrification and are confronting the supposed 'community outreach' team about it, yet there's little chance anything substantive will come from these deserved criticisms. Developers never want to hear that their projects will negatively affect the people they claim to be helping.
Finally got around to this great Max Read article about the vertiginous cliffside of Internet unreality.
More by Read, this time generating some suggestive possibilities about cinema in a post-cinematic age.
From Girish: tough stuff by Lillian Gish, and a broader reassessment of her legacy after a cinema was stripped of her name.
Eternal reminder: no matter what wrongs other nations may or may not be perpetrating, the US has no credibility as a mediator or enforcer in their affairs.
It's been a week since I've returned from Malaysia, and I remain haunted by a sign I was confronted with upon arrival in the airport. Something to the effect of MALAYSIA IMPOSES THE DEATH PENALTY FOR ILLEGAL DRUG POSSESSION. I was carrying pharmaceuticals at the time, and even though I knew rationally that they weren't the kind of drugs warned against, paranoia crept in at the edges of my consciousness. In that context, it's rather a relief to see Malaysia will be updating its drug policies soon.
"The new left economics" comes as a welcome challenge to neoliberalism, yet I feel like Beckett's point about the possibility of it saving capitalism from itself is one worth further deliberation. Tellingly, the rock star economists quizzed at the end of this essay seem flustered when confronted with the idea, sure as they are that worker-led local businesses are the silver bullet we've been needing for decades. I can't blame them for their pragmatism, but, as usual, revolution is a truer reckoning with the profound injustices being faced.
Robin James is excellent as always dissecting the gendered undercurrents of Taylor Swift's new song and MV.
The origin story of Grab, a Malaysian rideshare app on which we depended heavily during our trip.
Great work by Kelley Dong on self-efficacy and its absence from kids' movies.
On the impossibility of depicting creativity (and why we try anyway).
It looks like I've been subliminally heeding Bifo's call to resist capitalism by relaxing and enjoying yourself. Trouble is, while there's nothing wrong with luxuriation in and of itself, it's a way of life that tends toward regression and complacency. The better action is to fight back with our imperfect psyches, constructing a future rather than endlessly savoring the present. It's a hard truth for me to face, but who better than Malcom Harris to make the case?
The young generation is falling apart financially.
Boeing will live to fly another day.
Out-of-control wildfires are never going to stop.
An insightful essay from Another Gaze about the Millennial Woman archetype, whose individual resilience (cf. Robin James!) or lack thereof takes the spotlight away from collective power/consciousness. Well-written and closely observed, this has the potential to guide a lot of thinking about the functions of 21st century fiction.
Sure, why not? More by James, an older post that nevertheless seems likely to build a bridge toward her upcoming book The Sonic Episteme. I do have trouble with sound/music studies, which doesn't arrive as intuitively to me as audiovisual thinking, but this is a good primer to what I expect will be a very exciting read.
It took us about three years to actually go inside downtown's Lexington Market, and now that we've found our own treasures there (Blue Island!), along come some notorious developers to transform it into something far worse than what it is now. What's really awful is that the residents already know this means gentrification and are confronting the supposed 'community outreach' team about it, yet there's little chance anything substantive will come from these deserved criticisms. Developers never want to hear that their projects will negatively affect the people they claim to be helping.
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
05/19
5/3: With our trip to Singapore now only six weeks away, I'm definitely starting to dig deeper into primary sources for perspective. This is one, and it seems to me like a fair assessment of Singapore's strengths and Hong Kong's weaknesses. My main takeaway from studying Singapore is how utopian most people consider it, which I don't think is true for Hong Kong -- although it felt like my own private kind of utopia, with its towering skyscrapers, overgrown plant-life, and well-trodden streets. In contrast, Singapore seems higher-functioning and more overtly welcoming (hefty fines for misbehavior aside). I have nothing bad to say about Hong Kong, but I do value the dissenting views, and I'm sure I'll feel the same about Singapore after returning home.
A lot of very good writing on an artist I don't really like: Burial. Although you know which of his releases I do like? The Rival Dealer EP, which is somewhere along that spectrum of monumental albums and fragmentary smaller releases. Anyhow, it's always a treat to see Simon Reynolds go to work, and I love that he mentioned that masculine/feminine dichotomy in the UK Continuum, which is something I'd also noticed and internalized independently.
And of course I had to follow Reynolds' link to the Mark Fisher post on Burial. It's even better still, yet I sincerely wish I could feel the things as do these two guys I highly respect. They make Burial sound like exactly my ruminative sort of thing...maybe another listen is in order after all. Despite all the last ones not working out.
As Malaysia continues its search for Jho Low, an unexpected new wrinkle emerges. I'm reminded of the bizarre trails capital blazed in THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, i.e. Benihana, Steve Madden, and wow (I legitimately forgot) Red Granite Pictures itself, who produced the film. To 'follow the money' in fraud cases is like tracing the original thread of a massive spider's web.
W.E.B. DuBois on Robert E. Lee.
Don't know what to make of this article's framing. It seems very presumptuous to claim this is how leisure time works now, especially from an Unequal Childhoods perspective. There are still plenty of children don't see their hobbies as unpaid internships (thankfully). I don't mean to be too critical, but the rhetorical choice struck me as odd. Maybe I'm also just trying to process my own unevenly-developed childhood, divided as it was between hated extracurriculars and beloved pastimes.
A good overview of Brandon Soderberg and Baynard Woods' reporting on the heinously corrupt Gun Trace Task Force in Baltimore, book soon forthcoming. It's such crucial work, even for outsiders.
Much-needed clarity from Professor Laurence Brown as always, though the article only glances over his comments. I live not far away from this site, so its shadow will be looming over me unpleasantly.
Fairly detailed peek at the economic imbalances between China and Russia which, in the face of US obstinacy, may not be such a stumbling block after all. To me this is just more evidence of a slow shift away from unipolarity and toward a coalition guided by the above two nations.
CAPERNAUM -- as universally-loathed a film as any I can think of -- finds a home in China's unique movie marketplace, where arthouse/indie movies stand a better chance than in the West. The most interesting examples of this are surely yet to come.
We live in a YouTube world.
What's next after self-optimization fails? Perhaps it's self-management, a rather more cool-headed ethos that emphasizes long odds and steady persistence. I think I've noticed this change in myself a little too: now that I've aged out of the higher-flying ambitions of my young adulthood, I feel that I spend more time looking after myself to avoid burning out, giving up, etc.
Excellent interview, but I just wanted to highlight this portion in particular, which praises Venezuela for its generosity toward marginalized people residing in the US amidst the 2008 financial crisis:
Brexit techno (counterposed against "lo-fi hip-hop beats to relax/study to").
The Fortnite bubble may pop just as fast as it inflated.
Advertising as prefigurative desire is just about the most bone-chilling concept I can imagine. Thanks, as always, to Rob Horning for the profound psychic disturbance.
Tankie favorite Parenti vs. mainstream leftist Chomsky. This is a long post with a lot of provocative points, and while I haven't delved into the many Parenti plugs, I think the clearest picture that emerges is one of Chomsky as a wishy-washy public intellectual. His tendency toward vagueness and reflexive anti-Communism gets a very thorough documentation here in a way that I find pretty disqualifying for serious inquiry. The points on conspiracy theory as useful political heuristic are well-noted, though that still feels like a slippery tautological slope that could be dangerous to approach. I'll have to revisit this at some point and follow some of its many sources.
Soham Gadre notes that it's been 25 years since an Indian film was selected In Competition at Cannes (SWAHAM, by Shaji Karun), in an unforgivable act of Eurocentrism against the world's largest cinema. This is a huge problem and one I'm also working to rectify, having only begun to engage with Indian films a few years ago myself. Living off Sight and Sound Lists, American web magazines, and Cannes-centric international coverage as a younger person distorted my view of what kinds of cinema mattered and what didn't, and unsurprisingly there's a racial line drawn right between those two adjoining territories. I plan to make amends by continually addressing that oversight as an adult.
More on Cannes' dark side.
Absolutely magisterial work by Hito Steyerl on "extrastatecraft," financialization, and the traumas they've inflicted upon people and places alike. Makes me want to read everything Steyerl's ever said or written.
The US problem of young people's diminishing free time and subsumption into constant workflow is a problem in Hong Kong as well. And I'd imagine this is true across much of the overdeveloped world, everyone scrambling for jobs and stability that hang precariously just out of reach. As the older population passes on, I wonder what a world shaped by such financial -- and mental -- insecurity will look like. I can't recall when or where I saw it, but recently I saw the suggestion that there are dominant affects in world history. During industrialization, the primary affect was misery; during post-war economic growth, boredom; now, anxiety.
To all appearances, China does appear to be taking its anti-corruption campaign seriously.
Nice history on Filipinos in Alaska, a.k.a. Alaskeros.
Mike Thorn interviews Sophy Romvari, whose work I always enjoy catching up with at the Maryland Film Festival.
And Baltimore's Eric Allen Hatch on the future of cinema, at least as a discrete experience.
A lot of very good writing on an artist I don't really like: Burial. Although you know which of his releases I do like? The Rival Dealer EP, which is somewhere along that spectrum of monumental albums and fragmentary smaller releases. Anyhow, it's always a treat to see Simon Reynolds go to work, and I love that he mentioned that masculine/feminine dichotomy in the UK Continuum, which is something I'd also noticed and internalized independently.
And of course I had to follow Reynolds' link to the Mark Fisher post on Burial. It's even better still, yet I sincerely wish I could feel the things as do these two guys I highly respect. They make Burial sound like exactly my ruminative sort of thing...maybe another listen is in order after all. Despite all the last ones not working out.
As Malaysia continues its search for Jho Low, an unexpected new wrinkle emerges. I'm reminded of the bizarre trails capital blazed in THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, i.e. Benihana, Steve Madden, and wow (I legitimately forgot) Red Granite Pictures itself, who produced the film. To 'follow the money' in fraud cases is like tracing the original thread of a massive spider's web.
W.E.B. DuBois on Robert E. Lee.
Don't know what to make of this article's framing. It seems very presumptuous to claim this is how leisure time works now, especially from an Unequal Childhoods perspective. There are still plenty of children don't see their hobbies as unpaid internships (thankfully). I don't mean to be too critical, but the rhetorical choice struck me as odd. Maybe I'm also just trying to process my own unevenly-developed childhood, divided as it was between hated extracurriculars and beloved pastimes.
A good overview of Brandon Soderberg and Baynard Woods' reporting on the heinously corrupt Gun Trace Task Force in Baltimore, book soon forthcoming. It's such crucial work, even for outsiders.
Much-needed clarity from Professor Laurence Brown as always, though the article only glances over his comments. I live not far away from this site, so its shadow will be looming over me unpleasantly.
Fairly detailed peek at the economic imbalances between China and Russia which, in the face of US obstinacy, may not be such a stumbling block after all. To me this is just more evidence of a slow shift away from unipolarity and toward a coalition guided by the above two nations.
CAPERNAUM -- as universally-loathed a film as any I can think of -- finds a home in China's unique movie marketplace, where arthouse/indie movies stand a better chance than in the West. The most interesting examples of this are surely yet to come.
We live in a YouTube world.
What's next after self-optimization fails? Perhaps it's self-management, a rather more cool-headed ethos that emphasizes long odds and steady persistence. I think I've noticed this change in myself a little too: now that I've aged out of the higher-flying ambitions of my young adulthood, I feel that I spend more time looking after myself to avoid burning out, giving up, etc.
Excellent interview, but I just wanted to highlight this portion in particular, which praises Venezuela for its generosity toward marginalized people residing in the US amidst the 2008 financial crisis:
Useful thoughts from Melinda Cooper on how privatizing social burdens onto the family unit is a form of social control. Harris really likes this book, so I'd like to check it out when I get a chance.
Brexit techno (counterposed against "lo-fi hip-hop beats to relax/study to").
The Fortnite bubble may pop just as fast as it inflated.
Advertising as prefigurative desire is just about the most bone-chilling concept I can imagine. Thanks, as always, to Rob Horning for the profound psychic disturbance.
Tankie favorite Parenti vs. mainstream leftist Chomsky. This is a long post with a lot of provocative points, and while I haven't delved into the many Parenti plugs, I think the clearest picture that emerges is one of Chomsky as a wishy-washy public intellectual. His tendency toward vagueness and reflexive anti-Communism gets a very thorough documentation here in a way that I find pretty disqualifying for serious inquiry. The points on conspiracy theory as useful political heuristic are well-noted, though that still feels like a slippery tautological slope that could be dangerous to approach. I'll have to revisit this at some point and follow some of its many sources.
Soham Gadre notes that it's been 25 years since an Indian film was selected In Competition at Cannes (SWAHAM, by Shaji Karun), in an unforgivable act of Eurocentrism against the world's largest cinema. This is a huge problem and one I'm also working to rectify, having only begun to engage with Indian films a few years ago myself. Living off Sight and Sound Lists, American web magazines, and Cannes-centric international coverage as a younger person distorted my view of what kinds of cinema mattered and what didn't, and unsurprisingly there's a racial line drawn right between those two adjoining territories. I plan to make amends by continually addressing that oversight as an adult.
More on Cannes' dark side.
Absolutely magisterial work by Hito Steyerl on "extrastatecraft," financialization, and the traumas they've inflicted upon people and places alike. Makes me want to read everything Steyerl's ever said or written.
The US problem of young people's diminishing free time and subsumption into constant workflow is a problem in Hong Kong as well. And I'd imagine this is true across much of the overdeveloped world, everyone scrambling for jobs and stability that hang precariously just out of reach. As the older population passes on, I wonder what a world shaped by such financial -- and mental -- insecurity will look like. I can't recall when or where I saw it, but recently I saw the suggestion that there are dominant affects in world history. During industrialization, the primary affect was misery; during post-war economic growth, boredom; now, anxiety.
To all appearances, China does appear to be taking its anti-corruption campaign seriously.
Nice history on Filipinos in Alaska, a.k.a. Alaskeros.
Mike Thorn interviews Sophy Romvari, whose work I always enjoy catching up with at the Maryland Film Festival.
And Baltimore's Eric Allen Hatch on the future of cinema, at least as a discrete experience.
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
200 Favorite Albums/Mixtapes/Etc.
1. ancoats2zambia (The Baby Namboos)
2. Angels with Dirty Faces (Tricky)
3. Animal (Ke$ha)
4. Anniemal (Annie)
5. Arabian Horse (Gusgus)
6. Baduizm (Erykah Badu)
7. The Beauty in Distortion / Land of the Lost (J*DaVeY)
8. Bizarre Nation [Disc 2] (Various Artists)
9. Blowback (Tricky)
10. Body Talk [Pt. 1, 2, 3] (Robyn)
11. Boy in Da Corner (Dizzee Rascal)
12. Boy Is Fiction (Boy Is Fiction)
13. Broadcasts in Colour (Boy Is Fiction)
14. Broke with Expensive Taste (Azealia Banks)
15. Call to Mind (Commix)
16. Cannibal (Ke$ha)
17. Carpainter (Carpainter)
18. Chatterton (Chelonis R. Jones)
19. chiptek (she)
20. Chiptune Memories (she)
21. city of glass (glaspaser)
22. coloris (she)
23. Colours (Adam F)
24. COSMIC EXPLORER (Perfume)
25. CRUSH (2NE1)
26. Da 2nd Phaze (Eskiboy)
27. days (she)
28. Dedication (Zomby)
29. digital ambient designs (she)
30. Discovery (Daft Punk)
31. Dislocated Genius (Chelonis R. Jones)
32. Don't Stop (Annie)
33. Down to Earth (Bungle)
34. Entropy (Icicle)
35. Esperanza (Esperanza Spalding)
36. Everything Ecstatic (Four Tet)
37. False Idols (Tricky)
38. Family Portrait (Ross From Friends)
39. Fatherfucker (Peaches)
40. Fear Not (Logistics)
41. The Fifth (Dizzee Rascal)
42. The Forgotten Floor (4Gotten Floor)
43. Future Brown (Future Brown)
44. Future History (Nu:Tone)
45. Gangster Chronicle (London Posse)
46. GAS (GAS)
47. Generally Speaking (Newham Generals)
48. Godfather II (Wiley)
49. Greatest Hits (Skepta)
50. HAKA: The Greatest Hits (Various Artists)
51. Half Shadows (TOKiMONSTA)
52. Halfaxa (Grimes)
53. Heligoland (Massive Attack)
54. Homework (Daft Punk)
55. Human After All (Daft Punk)
56. Human Story 3 (James Ferraro)
57. I Feel Cream (Peaches)
58. I Love Grime (Various Artists)
59. The Inevitable End (Royksopp)
60. The Intricate Beauty (King Britt)
61. Introducing Tokyo Prose (Tokyo Prose)
62. Junior (Royksopp)
63. Junjo (Esperanza Spalding)
64. Juxtapose (Tricky)
65. Kamikaze (Icarus)
66. King Original [Vol. 3, Vol. 4] (Footsie)
67. Lazy Beats 2 (Eggshell Goblin)
68. Level3 (Perfume)
69. Lifeforms (Future Sound of London)
70. Linear S Decoded (SHXCXCHCXSH)
71. Lipstick (Orange Caramel)
72. Living the Dream (Jammer)
73. London Zoo (The Bug)
74. Los Angeles (Flying Lotus)
75. Love & Devotion (Heterotic)
76. LOVE&PEACE (Girls' Generation)
77. Loveless (My Bloody Valentine)
78. LP5 (Autechre)
79. Lubuaku (Konono No. 1)
80. Mad Raver's Dance Floor (Goth-Trad)
81. Man on the Moon: The End of Day (Kid Cudi)
82. Man on the Moon, Vol. II: The Legend of Mr. Rager (Kid Cudi)
83. Mark E Works 2005 - 2009 Selected Tracks and Edits (Mark E)
84. Mary Musth (MAGNOLIUS)
85. Maths + English (Dizzee Rascal)
86. Maxinequaye (Tricky)
87. Melody A.M. (Royksopp)
88. Memories (Bungle)
89. Memories of the Future (Kode9 + The Spaceape)
90. Mercury's Rainbow (Zomby)
91. Metaphorical Music (Nujabes)
92. Method to the Maadness (Kano)
93. Midnight Menu (TOKiMONSTA)
94. Midtown 120 Blues (DJ Sprinkles)
95. Millennium Mambo OST (Yoshihiro Hanno & Lim Giong)
96. Mixed Race (Tricky)
97. Music for Real Airports (The Black Dog)
98. Nanda Collection (Kyary Pamyu Pamyu)
99. Nearly God (Nearly God)
100. New Amerykah - Part One (4th World War) [Erykah Badu]
101. New Designer Drug (J*DaVeY)
102. New Energy (Four Tet)
103. nightbath (galen tipton)
104. No One's Listening Anymore (Klute)
105. Nocturnes (Little Boots)
106. Now More Than Ever (Logistics)
107. NXB (Triad God)
108. NYC, Hell 3:00AM (James Ferraro)
109. Ode to Hyde (MAGNOLIUS)
110. Omaru (Toiret Status)
111. One Way (Mark One)
112. Orbits (Starkey)
113. orion (she)
114. Pamyu Pamyu Revolution (Kyary Pamyu Pamyu)
115. Parallel Memories (Mr. Mitch)
116. Pimp Master (Soil & "Pimp" Sessions)
117. Pimp of the Year (Soil & "Pimp" Sessions)
118. Pimpoint (Soil & "Pimp" Sessions)
119. Pink Friday (Nicki Minaj)
120. Pink Tape [f(x)]
121. Planet Pimp (Soil & "Pimp" Sessions)
122. The Planets (Terror Danjah)
123. Polydistortion (Gusgus)
124. Pre-Millennium Tension (Tricky)
125. The Present Lover (Luomo)
126. Pressure (The Bug)
127. Product of the Environment (Tricky)
128. Psionics (Goth-Trad)
129. Queerifications and Ruins (DJ Sprinkles)
130. Quixotic (Martina Topley-Bird)
131. Rave Rising (Ennnn)
132. Reality Distortion (かめりあ vs. Akira Complex)
133. Red Light [f(x)]
134. Remixed (by Tricky) [Various Artists]
135. Restless (Faye Wong)
136. Rhythm Trax Vol. 4 (Dam-Funk)
137. Robyn (Robyn)
138. Royksopp.com Tracks of the Month (Royksopp)
139. Safe (Visionist)
140. Science Fiction (Bachelors of Science)
141. Sealed for Freshness: Blend Tape (Pac Div)
142. See Clear Now (Wiley)
143. Senior (Royksopp)
144. Shark Carousel (Mrs Jynx)
145. The Shimmering Hour (Wisp)
146. Silica Gel (BODYGUARD)
147. Sine Tempus: The Soundtrack (Goldie)
148. Skid Row (James Ferraro)
149. Skilled Mechanics (Skilled Mechanics)
150. Sleepstep (Dasha Rush)
151. Snakes and Ladders (Wiley)
152. Sonic Diary (costanza)
153. Soundsystem (The Qemists)
154. SPD GAR (Various Artists)
155. Speed Garage Anthems [Vol. 1, Vol. 2] (Various Artists)
156. Speedin' Bullet 2 Heaven (Kid Cudi)
157. Squid Ink (Icarus)
158. The Standoffish Cat (Mrs Jynx)
159. Sushi (James Ferraro)
160. T5UMUT5UMU EDIT PACK (T5UMUT5UMU)
161. Takk... (Sigur Rós)
162. Tangram (Reso)
163. That's Harakiri (Sd Laika)
164. There Is Love In You (Four Tet)
165. This Is Normal (Gusgus)
166. To Anyone (2NE1)
167. Tongue'N'Cheek (Dizzee Rascal)
168. Top Producer (Jammer)
169. Torsion Spring (stepic)
170. Treddin' On Thin Ice (Wiley)
171. TREKKIE TRAX X HAKAisDEAD (Various Artists)
172. Trekkie Trax The Best 2012 - 2017 (Various Artists)
173. TREKKIE TRAX THE BEST 2016-2017 (Various Artists)
174. ukg (TQD)
175. Undeniable (Terror Danjah)
176. The Understanding (Royksopp)
177. ununiform (Tricky)
178. Value (Visionist)
179. The VinchOnacci Project (DaVinche)
180. Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives (Prefuse 73)
181. Von (Sigur Rós)
182. Vulnerable (Tricky)
183. Warehouse Dayz (Bachelors of Science)
184. Warrior (Ke$ha)
185. WZRD (WZRD)
186. Yo! Bum Rush the Show (Public Enemy)
187. Youth Novels (Lykke Li)
188. ZB2 (Footsie)
189. Zips 1 + 2 (Wiley)
190. 3 Feet High and Rising (De La Soul)
191. 4 Walls [f(x)]
192. 7 Days of Funk (7 Days of Funk)
193. The 13th Note (Mrs Jynx)
194. The 18th Day (Estelle)
195. 21 (Marcus Intalex)
196. 23 (Subeena)
197. 28 Gun Bad Boy (A Guy Called Gerald)
198. 100% Publishing (Wiley)
199. 1983 (Flying Lotus)
200. () [Sigur Rós]
2. Angels with Dirty Faces (Tricky)
3. Animal (Ke$ha)
4. Anniemal (Annie)
5. Arabian Horse (Gusgus)
6. Baduizm (Erykah Badu)
7. The Beauty in Distortion / Land of the Lost (J*DaVeY)
8. Bizarre Nation [Disc 2] (Various Artists)
9. Blowback (Tricky)
10. Body Talk [Pt. 1, 2, 3] (Robyn)
11. Boy in Da Corner (Dizzee Rascal)
12. Boy Is Fiction (Boy Is Fiction)
13. Broadcasts in Colour (Boy Is Fiction)
14. Broke with Expensive Taste (Azealia Banks)
15. Call to Mind (Commix)
16. Cannibal (Ke$ha)
17. Carpainter (Carpainter)
18. Chatterton (Chelonis R. Jones)
19. chiptek (she)
20. Chiptune Memories (she)
21. city of glass (glaspaser)
22. coloris (she)
23. Colours (Adam F)
24. COSMIC EXPLORER (Perfume)
25. CRUSH (2NE1)
26. Da 2nd Phaze (Eskiboy)
27. days (she)
28. Dedication (Zomby)
29. digital ambient designs (she)
30. Discovery (Daft Punk)
31. Dislocated Genius (Chelonis R. Jones)
32. Don't Stop (Annie)
33. Down to Earth (Bungle)
34. Entropy (Icicle)
35. Esperanza (Esperanza Spalding)
36. Everything Ecstatic (Four Tet)
37. False Idols (Tricky)
38. Family Portrait (Ross From Friends)
39. Fatherfucker (Peaches)
40. Fear Not (Logistics)
41. The Fifth (Dizzee Rascal)
42. The Forgotten Floor (4Gotten Floor)
43. Future Brown (Future Brown)
44. Future History (Nu:Tone)
45. Gangster Chronicle (London Posse)
46. GAS (GAS)
47. Generally Speaking (Newham Generals)
48. Godfather II (Wiley)
49. Greatest Hits (Skepta)
50. HAKA: The Greatest Hits (Various Artists)
51. Half Shadows (TOKiMONSTA)
52. Halfaxa (Grimes)
53. Heligoland (Massive Attack)
54. Homework (Daft Punk)
55. Human After All (Daft Punk)
56. Human Story 3 (James Ferraro)
57. I Feel Cream (Peaches)
58. I Love Grime (Various Artists)
59. The Inevitable End (Royksopp)
60. The Intricate Beauty (King Britt)
61. Introducing Tokyo Prose (Tokyo Prose)
62. Junior (Royksopp)
63. Junjo (Esperanza Spalding)
64. Juxtapose (Tricky)
65. Kamikaze (Icarus)
66. King Original [Vol. 3, Vol. 4] (Footsie)
67. Lazy Beats 2 (Eggshell Goblin)
68. Level3 (Perfume)
69. Lifeforms (Future Sound of London)
70. Linear S Decoded (SHXCXCHCXSH)
71. Lipstick (Orange Caramel)
72. Living the Dream (Jammer)
73. London Zoo (The Bug)
74. Los Angeles (Flying Lotus)
75. Love & Devotion (Heterotic)
76. LOVE&PEACE (Girls' Generation)
77. Loveless (My Bloody Valentine)
78. LP5 (Autechre)
79. Lubuaku (Konono No. 1)
80. Mad Raver's Dance Floor (Goth-Trad)
81. Man on the Moon: The End of Day (Kid Cudi)
82. Man on the Moon, Vol. II: The Legend of Mr. Rager (Kid Cudi)
83. Mark E Works 2005 - 2009 Selected Tracks and Edits (Mark E)
84. Mary Musth (MAGNOLIUS)
85. Maths + English (Dizzee Rascal)
86. Maxinequaye (Tricky)
87. Melody A.M. (Royksopp)
88. Memories (Bungle)
89. Memories of the Future (Kode9 + The Spaceape)
90. Mercury's Rainbow (Zomby)
91. Metaphorical Music (Nujabes)
92. Method to the Maadness (Kano)
93. Midnight Menu (TOKiMONSTA)
94. Midtown 120 Blues (DJ Sprinkles)
95. Millennium Mambo OST (Yoshihiro Hanno & Lim Giong)
96. Mixed Race (Tricky)
97. Music for Real Airports (The Black Dog)
98. Nanda Collection (Kyary Pamyu Pamyu)
99. Nearly God (Nearly God)
100. New Amerykah - Part One (4th World War) [Erykah Badu]
101. New Designer Drug (J*DaVeY)
102. New Energy (Four Tet)
103. nightbath (galen tipton)
104. No One's Listening Anymore (Klute)
105. Nocturnes (Little Boots)
106. Now More Than Ever (Logistics)
107. NXB (Triad God)
108. NYC, Hell 3:00AM (James Ferraro)
109. Ode to Hyde (MAGNOLIUS)
110. Omaru (Toiret Status)
111. One Way (Mark One)
112. Orbits (Starkey)
113. orion (she)
114. Pamyu Pamyu Revolution (Kyary Pamyu Pamyu)
115. Parallel Memories (Mr. Mitch)
116. Pimp Master (Soil & "Pimp" Sessions)
117. Pimp of the Year (Soil & "Pimp" Sessions)
118. Pimpoint (Soil & "Pimp" Sessions)
119. Pink Friday (Nicki Minaj)
120. Pink Tape [f(x)]
121. Planet Pimp (Soil & "Pimp" Sessions)
122. The Planets (Terror Danjah)
123. Polydistortion (Gusgus)
124. Pre-Millennium Tension (Tricky)
125. The Present Lover (Luomo)
126. Pressure (The Bug)
127. Product of the Environment (Tricky)
128. Psionics (Goth-Trad)
129. Queerifications and Ruins (DJ Sprinkles)
130. Quixotic (Martina Topley-Bird)
131. Rave Rising (Ennnn)
132. Reality Distortion (かめりあ vs. Akira Complex)
133. Red Light [f(x)]
134. Remixed (by Tricky) [Various Artists]
135. Restless (Faye Wong)
136. Rhythm Trax Vol. 4 (Dam-Funk)
137. Robyn (Robyn)
138. Royksopp.com Tracks of the Month (Royksopp)
139. Safe (Visionist)
140. Science Fiction (Bachelors of Science)
141. Sealed for Freshness: Blend Tape (Pac Div)
142. See Clear Now (Wiley)
143. Senior (Royksopp)
144. Shark Carousel (Mrs Jynx)
145. The Shimmering Hour (Wisp)
146. Silica Gel (BODYGUARD)
147. Sine Tempus: The Soundtrack (Goldie)
148. Skid Row (James Ferraro)
149. Skilled Mechanics (Skilled Mechanics)
150. Sleepstep (Dasha Rush)
151. Snakes and Ladders (Wiley)
152. Sonic Diary (costanza)
153. Soundsystem (The Qemists)
154. SPD GAR (Various Artists)
155. Speed Garage Anthems [Vol. 1, Vol. 2] (Various Artists)
156. Speedin' Bullet 2 Heaven (Kid Cudi)
157. Squid Ink (Icarus)
158. The Standoffish Cat (Mrs Jynx)
159. Sushi (James Ferraro)
160. T5UMUT5UMU EDIT PACK (T5UMUT5UMU)
161. Takk... (Sigur Rós)
162. Tangram (Reso)
163. That's Harakiri (Sd Laika)
164. There Is Love In You (Four Tet)
165. This Is Normal (Gusgus)
166. To Anyone (2NE1)
167. Tongue'N'Cheek (Dizzee Rascal)
168. Top Producer (Jammer)
169. Torsion Spring (stepic)
170. Treddin' On Thin Ice (Wiley)
171. TREKKIE TRAX X HAKAisDEAD (Various Artists)
172. Trekkie Trax The Best 2012 - 2017 (Various Artists)
173. TREKKIE TRAX THE BEST 2016-2017 (Various Artists)
174. ukg (TQD)
175. Undeniable (Terror Danjah)
176. The Understanding (Royksopp)
177. ununiform (Tricky)
178. Value (Visionist)
179. The VinchOnacci Project (DaVinche)
180. Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives (Prefuse 73)
181. Von (Sigur Rós)
182. Vulnerable (Tricky)
183. Warehouse Dayz (Bachelors of Science)
184. Warrior (Ke$ha)
185. WZRD (WZRD)
186. Yo! Bum Rush the Show (Public Enemy)
187. Youth Novels (Lykke Li)
188. ZB2 (Footsie)
189. Zips 1 + 2 (Wiley)
190. 3 Feet High and Rising (De La Soul)
191. 4 Walls [f(x)]
192. 7 Days of Funk (7 Days of Funk)
193. The 13th Note (Mrs Jynx)
194. The 18th Day (Estelle)
195. 21 (Marcus Intalex)
196. 23 (Subeena)
197. 28 Gun Bad Boy (A Guy Called Gerald)
198. 100% Publishing (Wiley)
199. 1983 (Flying Lotus)
200. () [Sigur Rós]
Best MVs 2018
Came out three weeks into the new year and faced no competition at all for the rest of it. Chung Ha's charisma is just off the charts.
It's hard to tell what this MV is supposed to be conveying. It seems like abandoned exposition for a movie that doesn't exist, something modelled after...I, ROBOT? A cinematic vignette without surrounding context. Matters aren't helped by the song, which, despite its claims to "filth," isn't especially dark, saucy, or even coherent - sonically or lyrically. Suggestive, at the very least (Malaysia 2028!), but not unenjoyable as such.
(Special mention also to Man of the Woods, another confounding song/video combination, one so silly it almost charms its way onto this list.)
When this premiered, Sarah and I compared it to K-Pop, and I think the point of reference still holds. It's more open and pleasure-focused than most Western pop allows itself to be, and Troye Sivan's presence could be as powerful solo as in a boy band.
Where vertical composition goes now that it's been introduced is anyone's guess, but music videos are a great way of experimenting without having to commit more than a few minutes to the attempt. This is a nice song from an artist who deserves to be more famous, and hopefully still has the chance to be. It's no Superlove, but Tinashe's dancing remains incredible here.
If Michael Mann directed post-human music videos.
Hard to describe in words, yet perfectly clear as experience.
Unpopular opinion but...I prefer this song to Bodak Yellow by several orders of magnitude. No disrespect to Cardi though, who wended her way across the social media swamp and claimed the treasures lying in wait. I just happen to like this MV a lot, so it gets pride of place.
Title says it all.
One of Young Thug's best, with a strong assist from Lil Uzi. That and the MV's dark visions make this one stand out in Thugger's extensive body of work.
This one made me stand up and take notice. I haven't connected as much with their other songs, but there's no denying the grinding beat and energetic raps on DIANA.
Some unbelievable flows here. I always appreciate the ambition of MVs that push toward 10 minutes (or more).
The first few seconds of this video are so bizarrely disorienting that I hoped the whole video continue in the same vein. Nevertheless, the remainder is plenty solid, although I'm still not sure Drake belongs in this song.
Finishing up with more of the best. BRTHR's one of the best MV directors working right now, and this one, for Kali Uchis, is another great serving of rainbow-slime psychedelia. It's always hard to choose just one image from BRTHR's videos, so I went for two this time. Compositionally similar yet very different, they seem to express two halves of the MV -- even if, unfortunately, some of the wilder tangents are left uncaptured.
I know everyone's mad at Ariana now and I understand 100%. But I can't bring myself to disavow her earlier achievements, and this must be her very highest. Complemented with an all-time best MV by the great Dave Meyers, no tears left to cry breaks up its visual space post-cinematically to match Ariana's limitless emotion. The infinitude of interiority is expressed through digitally manipulated exteriority, like INCEPTION with all the fluidity that flat-footed film lacked. And what a strange, marvelous mood this song casts: crestfallen but resilient, defiant but hurt, vulnerable in all the most heartbreaking ways. Ariana's recent admission that she suffers from debilitating PTSD informs this song retroactively, adding the specificity of her experience to a song with the utilitarian, audience-focused dimensions of all great pop. It lives on unresolved dialectics, yet none of these impinge on the song itself. It's only as wounded as it needs to be, sublimely self-assured when it's not. After Roller Coaster, this was 2018's ultimate pop gem, and I'll always be grateful to Ariana for giving it to us, no matter what else the future holds.
Saturday, April 6, 2019
04/19
Brandon Soderberg's commemoration of Freddie Gray's death goes farther than just memorial, actively linking that tragedy to other key events since 2014. Just look at the density of this screencap:
Injustice after injustice. And no signs of improvement. As our mayor celebrates one month of exile from her job, it's anybody's turn at figuring out where to go from here.
The parts of this essay that concern Stuart Hall and his collaborators are very strong. They make a lot of sense in relation to that specific period of British history, when no coalition emerged that was significant enough to overturn Thatcherism. I'm less fond of where Haider takes those conclusions, which seem unhelpfully vague and general.
Really liked this dismantling of the Green New Deal excitement. A useful rhetorical tool for sure, but impossible without radical change.
Simple as it sounds: Where Do Correct Ideas Come From?, by Mao.
And on the subject of China, there's a willingness to tackle elder care that is lacking in Japan and, evidently, Britain. I feel like it could be rewarding to dig into how Communist countries handle this vs. capitalist countries, how human life is valued under these two oppositional ideologies.
Linn Ullman in her own words.
Alt Lit is dead and deserves to die.
Adam Kotsko, author of Creepiness, on creepy Joe Biden. I think this also illuminates about why so many men shoot for the status of "uncle," it's a low-stakes version of adulthood that doesn't challenge them in any serious way.
So much to say, so much I felt about Agnes' passing. Richard Brody is great about it, as he always is with Francophone filmmakers of a certain age. For myself, I made the conscious choice a few years ago to spend time with Agnes' films while she was still alive. The choice came as a result of a Tweet, glimpsed just briefly in my Twitter feed but destined to have a large impact on me, which advised we appreciate Agnes, Godard, Luc Moullet, and a forgotten fourth while they're still alive. I took this suggestion and generalized; I want to appreciate all elders while the chance exists.
And lastly, I decided yesterday (4/30) that I'd like to attend an action for solidarity with Venezuela and Maduro...only to read this a few hours later. Maybe I haven't been tuned in enough, but the bloodlust raging around Venezuela had seemed to be calming in the last few months. I thought perhaps the USA had lost interest in its perpetual victim. Uncharacteristically, it seems I was too optimistic, and Venezuela is very much still under threat. So I'll be attending that action after all in just a few hours, less to affect any kind of change than to make vocal my hatred of imperialism. I am, however, open to all possibilities.
Injustice after injustice. And no signs of improvement. As our mayor celebrates one month of exile from her job, it's anybody's turn at figuring out where to go from here.
The parts of this essay that concern Stuart Hall and his collaborators are very strong. They make a lot of sense in relation to that specific period of British history, when no coalition emerged that was significant enough to overturn Thatcherism. I'm less fond of where Haider takes those conclusions, which seem unhelpfully vague and general.
Really liked this dismantling of the Green New Deal excitement. A useful rhetorical tool for sure, but impossible without radical change.
Simple as it sounds: Where Do Correct Ideas Come From?, by Mao.
And on the subject of China, there's a willingness to tackle elder care that is lacking in Japan and, evidently, Britain. I feel like it could be rewarding to dig into how Communist countries handle this vs. capitalist countries, how human life is valued under these two oppositional ideologies.
Linn Ullman in her own words.
Alt Lit is dead and deserves to die.
Adam Kotsko, author of Creepiness, on creepy Joe Biden. I think this also illuminates about why so many men shoot for the status of "uncle," it's a low-stakes version of adulthood that doesn't challenge them in any serious way.
So much to say, so much I felt about Agnes' passing. Richard Brody is great about it, as he always is with Francophone filmmakers of a certain age. For myself, I made the conscious choice a few years ago to spend time with Agnes' films while she was still alive. The choice came as a result of a Tweet, glimpsed just briefly in my Twitter feed but destined to have a large impact on me, which advised we appreciate Agnes, Godard, Luc Moullet, and a forgotten fourth while they're still alive. I took this suggestion and generalized; I want to appreciate all elders while the chance exists.
And lastly, I decided yesterday (4/30) that I'd like to attend an action for solidarity with Venezuela and Maduro...only to read this a few hours later. Maybe I haven't been tuned in enough, but the bloodlust raging around Venezuela had seemed to be calming in the last few months. I thought perhaps the USA had lost interest in its perpetual victim. Uncharacteristically, it seems I was too optimistic, and Venezuela is very much still under threat. So I'll be attending that action after all in just a few hours, less to affect any kind of change than to make vocal my hatred of imperialism. I am, however, open to all possibilities.
Sunday, March 10, 2019
Grime Notes
For almost a decade now, grime has been a major presence in my life. It started slowly at first, just a guest feature or two by top MCs on tracks in different genres. Then I downloaded Wiley's Treddin' on Thin Ice, Eskiboy next, and from there I knew something big was about to happen. I'd enjoyed hip-hop plenty as a younger adult, but grime was totally new to me. It moved differently, felt different, gave me a new appreciation for the interaction between music and lyrics. I got sucked in deeper and deeper: Tempa T, Jme, Footsie, Dizzee Rascal, Terror Danjah, Durrty Goodz, and countless more besides. Exhilarated by MCs and instrumentals equally, never more so than when the two collided on an unmissable track.
The purpose of this project is to add to the worldwide appreciation of grime. Despite the likes of Dizzee, Skepta, and Stormzy blowing up internationally, grime has always held a tenuous connection to the larger industry infrastructure. It existed on the margins at first, had a brief flirtation with the mainstream in ~2007-09, then returned to obscurity for another half-decade. My interest in the scene began in 2012, when things were mostly under the radar (excluding Wiley's new major-label effort). The old hands were hard at work, of course, and Butterz was ascendant on the club/independent label circuit, yet things were still bubbling with no signs of imminent eruption. So I was surprised as anyone when, a few years later, Skepta's Konnichiwa album started generating serious heat. It was especially surprising that a throwback track like That's Not Me would be the one to touch things off, after so many magazine articles about how grime just didn't make sense to listeners outside the UK. Soon grime found a second life in the charts, and mostly without the last incarnation's pop overtones. It was a heady time even for me as a US-based observer, but the crucial thing to remember is that grime never claimed sole dominance of UK rap. The real kings of that larger movement were Krept and Konan, fellow-travelers who belonged more properly to the 'road rap' genre designation. And then of course came UK drill, current champion and popular scapegoat for the racist press. Ask your average US American what's going on with UK rap, and I would wager they'd be more likely to tell you about Headie One than any of grime's crowning achievements.
(Though one guy here in Baltimore seems to regularly pump out Giggs from his car en route to work...)
Anyhow. The format I'll be using is short, ongoing, and incomplete, which I feel is appropriate for my limited understanding of a musical phenomenon to which I'll never have insider access. I can only relay my impressions and enthusiasms from afar, molded by years of intense stateside admiration. These grime notes will be arrangements of stray thoughts I've accumulated through considering particular MCs, songs, tracks, or labels. The smaller size of my planned posts should help me with semi-regular updates, since more sustained projects tend to wear down my initial motivation. But by the end, I'd like to look back on a database of observations and avenues for continual investigation, a re-organization of what's possible that can guide me through the '20s. If grime was just a passing fancy for me, I would've known it by now. It's absolutely here to stay, and I welcome its permanent place in my life. The effect has already been immense; let's see what a new decade will bring.
Collected links to be compiled here:
Grime Note #1: Wiley, Gangsterz
The purpose of this project is to add to the worldwide appreciation of grime. Despite the likes of Dizzee, Skepta, and Stormzy blowing up internationally, grime has always held a tenuous connection to the larger industry infrastructure. It existed on the margins at first, had a brief flirtation with the mainstream in ~2007-09, then returned to obscurity for another half-decade. My interest in the scene began in 2012, when things were mostly under the radar (excluding Wiley's new major-label effort). The old hands were hard at work, of course, and Butterz was ascendant on the club/independent label circuit, yet things were still bubbling with no signs of imminent eruption. So I was surprised as anyone when, a few years later, Skepta's Konnichiwa album started generating serious heat. It was especially surprising that a throwback track like That's Not Me would be the one to touch things off, after so many magazine articles about how grime just didn't make sense to listeners outside the UK. Soon grime found a second life in the charts, and mostly without the last incarnation's pop overtones. It was a heady time even for me as a US-based observer, but the crucial thing to remember is that grime never claimed sole dominance of UK rap. The real kings of that larger movement were Krept and Konan, fellow-travelers who belonged more properly to the 'road rap' genre designation. And then of course came UK drill, current champion and popular scapegoat for the racist press. Ask your average US American what's going on with UK rap, and I would wager they'd be more likely to tell you about Headie One than any of grime's crowning achievements.
(Though one guy here in Baltimore seems to regularly pump out Giggs from his car en route to work...)
Anyhow. The format I'll be using is short, ongoing, and incomplete, which I feel is appropriate for my limited understanding of a musical phenomenon to which I'll never have insider access. I can only relay my impressions and enthusiasms from afar, molded by years of intense stateside admiration. These grime notes will be arrangements of stray thoughts I've accumulated through considering particular MCs, songs, tracks, or labels. The smaller size of my planned posts should help me with semi-regular updates, since more sustained projects tend to wear down my initial motivation. But by the end, I'd like to look back on a database of observations and avenues for continual investigation, a re-organization of what's possible that can guide me through the '20s. If grime was just a passing fancy for me, I would've known it by now. It's absolutely here to stay, and I welcome its permanent place in my life. The effect has already been immense; let's see what a new decade will bring.
Collected links to be compiled here:
Grime Note #1: Wiley, Gangsterz
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