Track Attack- "Ready for the World" (How to Dress Well & cokc dokc, 2009)

In terms of covers, How to Dress Well and cokc dokc's haunting, echoplex take on Ready for the World's 1986 slowjam "Love You Down" is one of the worst ever constructed. Save for a sample of forgotten 90s singer INOJ murmuring from her own version, there's nothing even linking the former two together. The original "Love You Down" was lustrous and loaded with cheesy 80s staples like: bass plucks, descending keys, blankets of synthesizer, and unnecessarily soloing guitars. But in all its schmaltz it found time to achingly portray a romance heading towards peril.

While HTDW's Tom Krell and cokc dokc do capture an unmistakable ache, they gently toss all other markers of the original hit into a dark pond. Though Krell's expanded his sonic palette in recent years, when "Ready for the World" dropped in November of 2009 he was stridently lo-fi. Most artists with that label would recoil in horror, but Krell embraced the tag before anyone could pin it to him; referring to his sound as "lo-fi Shai". Still giving plaudits to him for self-awareness would be foolish, listen to "Ready for the World" just once and you'd be at a loss to describe it any other way. His crooning is nearly inaudible at times and his words entirely indecipherable. Frequently Krell’s jockeying for position against speaker bursting drums and droning electronics. Instead of extending his striking vocals into a soaring chorus, he cuts them off with a shrieking guitar part. As well as "lo-fi" works as a descriptor, perhaps "frustrating" is more apt.

I'll admit my own frustration is part of the reason I logged nearly 200 plays of the track in the weeks and months following "Ready for the World"'s release. At first my obsession had little to do with quality; it was born out of a desire to know what I was hearing. Akin to Grouper's spellbinding 2008 track "Heavy Water/I'd Rather Be Sleeping" I thought if I hit repeat enough I'd be able to hear past the song's histrionics and get to its heart. It got so bad that I'd leave the entire Friday Morning Hymnal EP on at night, in the hopes that Krell's intent would be imprinted onto my dreams. Thankfully my roommate loved the song himself and possessed a similar fascination, though I may be projecting there. 

Much to my chagrin nothing appeared, there was no "a-ha" moment. I continued to hear only Krell and shadowy production; occasional "oohs" bleeding into keyboard stereo pans. Each whisper danced tantalizingly close to my ear without ever extending a hand. After enough passes it began to sink in that I'd never figure it out. Moses wouldn't be coming down from Mount Sinai with a divine revelation. Somehow that was fine with me after a while. If the notion "some riddles are best left unsolved" had any merit, I had to let it go. Had How to Dress Well & cokc dokc given us a straightforward reading, it would've been forgotten about as soon as it went up on BlogSpot. That's not the case. Hedging towards five years since its release, "Ready for the World" still lingers in the collective music unconscious. When you hear the Weeknd, Shy Girls, or any number of "indie R&B" artists perform, you're faintly hearing ripples of the tune. Leaders don't have all the answers and the masterfully enigmatic "Ready for the World" demonstrates that.

What's New(s)?

M.I.A. debuts video for "Double Bubble Trouble"

There's nothing inherently political about M.I.A.'s writhing Matangi cut "Double Bubble Trouble". The blaring Partysquad beat is far more likely to get you dancing than rallying. But this is still M.I.A. we're talking about and the recently released video for "Double Bubble Trouble" proves the Sri Lankan artist can't remain apolitical for long.

"What if you could make weapons like these in your own home, using what's called a three-dimensional printer?" a voice calmly wonders aloud at the beginning of the M.I.A. directed clip. It's not a stretch to say our society is suffuse with guns, so to hear that making your own is now possible is utterly terrifying. And M.I.A. seizes on that terror throughout the video. Brazen individuals are seen waving their weaponry with delight, while others quietly lurk in close quarters. If that weren’t enough, circular drones casually float overhead to check in on the self-made "militias." For all of the neon-imagery and brightly colored parrots the political firebrand throws in, "Double Bubble Trouble" stays remarkably dark.

(Earlier this morning, M.I.A. was apparently having troubles with Universal in releasing the clip, but thankfully those problems have now been resolved.)

 

How to Dress Well is hitting the road

 

Indie R&B crooner How to Dress Well (Tom Krell) has a new album, entitled "What Is This Heart?", out June 24 through Weird World and to promote the record Krell is hitting the road this summer.

 

After 5 European dates in mid-to-late June, Krell will arrive on North American shores in August and tour until late-September. With 26 total dates spread over two months, its the largest tour the artist has undertaken. And while you wait for the "massive" tour to begin, you can enjoy the video for beautifully fragile "Repeat Pleasure".

 

Tour Dates:

6/13 London, England - ICA

6/14 Brussels, Belgium - Beursschouwburg
6/16 Paris, France - Nouveau Casino
6/17 Amsterdam, Netherlands - MC Theatre
6/29 Berlin, Germany - Berliner Festspiele

8/21 San Diego, CA - Casbah
8/22 Los Angeles, CA - First Unitarian Church
8/23 Monterey, CA - First City Festival
8/24 Monterey, CA - First City Festival
8/25 Portland, OR - Holocene
8/26 Vancouver, British Columbia - Fortune Sound Club
8/27 Seattle, WA - Neumos
8/29 Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge
9/2 Omaha, NE - Waiting Room
9/3 Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock Social Club
9/4 Chicago, IL - Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA)
9/4-9/6 Raleigh, NC - Hopscotch Music Festival
9/5 Louisville, KY - Headliners Music Hall
9/8 Atlanta, GA - Terminal West
9/9 Nashville, TN - Exit In
9/11 Columbus, OH - A&R Music Bar
9/12 Toronto, Ontario - The Mod Club
9/14 Montreal, Quebec - Le Belmont
9/16 Boston, MA - Brighton Music Hall
9/17 New York City, NY - Irving Plaza
9/19 Philadelphia, PA - District N9NE
9/20 Washington, DC - U Street Music Hall
9/22 St. Louis, MO - The Luminary Center for the Arts
9/24 Oxford, MS - Proud Larry’s
9/25 New Orleans, LA - Hi Ho Lounge
9/27 Austin, TX - Central Presbyterian Church

Lupe Fiasco battles cancer in new single "Mission"

 

 

 

Lupe Fiasco dubbed himself a "Friend of the People" all the way back in 2011, but today's release of Tetsuo & Youth's first single "Mission" fully drives the point home. Beginning with personal testimonies of cancer survivors, including G.O.O.D. Music's Charlie Wilson, Fiasco breathlessly raps over a hyper-kinetic beat about an unshakable will to live. Throughout the six-minute effort are small asides about "bald heads" and "biopsies" which only makes the track more relatable for anyone who has ever been affected by cancer. 

 

While "Mission" is intended as the first single to Fiasco's upcoming 5th album Tetsuo & Youth, it also serves to promote the Stand Up 2 Cancer foundation, "a groundbreaking initiative created to accelerate innovative cancer research that will get new therapies to patients quickly and save lives now." You can download "Mission" now through iTunes.

 

 

Check back tomorrow for more of the newest in new(s) and follow AllFreshSounds on Twitter for updates throughout the day.

"Repeat Pleasure"- How to Dress Well

In my review for How to Dress Well's jaw-dropping "Words I Don't Remember" I made sure to include the phrase "delicately croons." Quite honestly it's a phrase that could be appended to any number of songs by Tom Krell under the HTDW moniker. With enough emotional duress, the R&B artist's voice will begin to shake and waver. That recognizable falsetto becomes like glass: thin, seemingly translucent, and unbelievably fragile.

For all of the inherent bliss of new single "Repeat Pleasure", the first from new LP What Is This Heart?, Krell's voice displays some of its greatest fragility to date. Opening over a pensive acoustic guitar figure and staccato drum hits, Krell is tumbling between these realms of self-confidence and self-doubt. "Now that I've known you, the truth could never come without your smile," he sweetly hums. All of the lyrics point towards the end of a relationship, but Krell's performance suggests he's in the midst of something wonderful and new. He wonders how anyone could ever compare again, openly declaring "there's no one above you." Robbed of a physical he's sent into spiritual darkness, "thrown to the night" as he sees it through rosy eyes. In "Repeat Pleasure"'s ebullient climax, right before HAIM-like guitars and frenzied drum-machine playing take hold, Krell is at his most desperate and most confident. "Even broken my heart will go," he assures in a heart-stopping tone. The same love that can bring you to your knees can just as easily raise you up.




How to Dress Well's new album What Is This Heart? is out June 24 through Weird World and was produced by Rodaidh McDonald who has previously worked with: Adele, Vampire Weekend, The xx, and Savages.

"Words I Don't Remember"- How to Dress Well

Considering Tom Krell's blown-out R&B as How to Dress Well feels like a dream partially reconstructed, it was only a matter of time before he crafted a song title to reflect that feeling. In How to Dress Well's hazy world R&B "heroes" are paid homage, though the tributes have the thinnest connections to the source material. Even if you can hear through the thick-coats of reverb and distortions, pinpointing a single song as "inspiration" is still a Herculean effort.

"Words I Don't Remember"'s warbly synthesizer presents a similar challenge. Hearing it ring through the track's dark halls brings to mind countless instrumental breaks from 90s R&B, but it's too much of an abstraction to be categorized. It will warble in fear while building to climatic breaks that never come. The synth crests into waves that are warm to the ear, but cool to the touch. Out there somewhere in such a strange dichotomy is Tom Krell trying to stay afloat. "You know that I love you, baby, only wanted one thing on my mind," he delicately croons. Even in that initial pledge, there's a note of reluctance. HTDW's work is marked by tremulousness and here it's played to a hilt. Embracing those shivers allows Krell to wonder, "So what is trust but knowing when to let you have your silence, baby?" over a riffling background guitar figure. I've had similar questions creep into my head as I labor intensively to find a balance between giving someone I care about space and letting them go completely. At times, finding balance is seemingly impossible. There's no hard and fast rule as to what is "too much" or "not enough." One answer won't solve every problem. In Krell's case he resigns to promising "I won't tell you how to live out your life" as he fades into a fog of echoes. How to Dress Well's work may often be blurry, but here it's presented in stark clarity.  

Starting next week, HTDW will be playing shows with friend and label-mate Forest Swords at venues throughout the U.S.

Tour Dates:
3/17 San Francisco, CA - The Independent
3/18 Los Angeles, CA - The Roxy Theatre
3/21 Brooklyn, NY - Rough Trade NYC
3/22 Washington, DC - U Street Music Hall
3/24 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
3/26 New York, NY - Le Poisson Rouge
3/27 Cambridge, MA - T.T. the Bear's Place
3/29 Toronto, Ontario - Mod Club
3/30 Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall

"No More"- Shlomo & Jeremih

 

Bass-music producer Shlomo has a free-pass to work with any R&B singer he'd like. "Don't Say No", the centerpiece of his breakout 2013 EP Laid Out spotlighted How to Dress Well's perpetually aching vocals up against a skittering background. Banks' seductive croon became even more exotic after her pairing with Shlomo's "tropical boom" on last month's "Brain". For such decidedly non-human soundscapes, he's able to ring out absolute pathos from his collaborator. Effectually, he's indie-R&B's "Horse Whisperer".

And over the course of the last year, there's no one's ear he's had more than Chicago's Jeremih. Already in the midst of a career-transformation with 2012's sorely underappreciated Late Nights with Jeremih, he completed the metamorphosis with the quiet storm of last summer's "Bo Peep (Do You Right)". That piece of airy bleeps and slow gurgles already seems staid though as soon as you hit play on "No More". Leaping out of the gate with scraping electronic sounds, "No More" writhes with trap-rap ticks and palpitating bass drops. Jeremih is similarly jittery, repeatedly wailing in his falsetto "I don't want to wait." "All I want is you now and later" he confesses at another turn; concealing agitation. By the end he descends into ghostly Auto-tune and everything is obscured. Waiting games are only "fun" for so long. 

"No More" is the first taste of a new, as-of-now-untitled EP Shlomo and Jeremih have partnered up for. You can download the track through NPR and look for the EP out through
WEDIDIT/Def Jam.

What's New(s)?

Azealia Banks debuts new track

Harlem rapper/R&B singer Azealia Banks debut LP Broke With Expensive Taste has been in a perpetual state of delay, but that hasn't stop the firebrand from staving off audience hunger with new material. Banks is already teasing a new mixtape, titled Fantasea II: Second Wave tenatively scheduled for a July 11, 2014 release. While such a far-off date might seem farfetched, Banks has supplied "Count Contessa" for proof. The beat supplied by producer Lone squelches and squeaks like interstitial JRPG music, if it was soundtracking a nautical themed house party. "If you can't dance and if you can't sing", Banks intones several times over the wavy synths. If the release date has any grounding in reality, we'll have plenty of time to practice our moves. 

 Daft Punk time travel in new video

If Daft Punk's rosy love-letter to the 70s Random Access Memories failed to demonstrate robots are capable of experiencing nostalgia, the French duo's new video featuring Pharrell and Nile Rogers is the final proof. Nothing overly complicated about the set-up here, just the four collaborators in an angelic disco glow playing for a dance conscious crowd at Studio 54 circa 22nd century. The camera pans the entire crowd and we find there isn't a single soul not caught up in the groove. Daft Punk has supplied a video that lives up to the song's lofty commands.

How to Dress Well releases "Hangover Mix"

  

"Ok i woke up super hungover today and made this mix of songs," Tom Krell of How to Dress Well begins his most-recent Soundcloud posting. The near 45 minute mix weaves through intermittent clips of Krell recontextualizing current rap juggernauts in the way of "Hold On We're Going Home" and a Ryan Hemsworth remix of "Honest". Krell finds the time to stop over and laconically back up Kanye West on "Hold My Liquor" with his breathless falsetto. We also detour to incendiary bits of Kevin Gates, subdued acoustic strumming from the reviled GG Allin,  and slow-burning pieces from Tink and Tracy Chapman. When considering the parenthetical title of "Hungover Mix", the genre-hopping starts to make sense. As Krell succinctly puts it in his post, "it's like a mix of songs that soothe and punish".

Top 30 Albums of 2011 (Pt. I)

So to get the ball rolling on my list of the Top 30 Albums of 2011, I'm dropping the first three reviews for this list. Periodically until the year ends, I'll be unveiling the rest of my list so keep checking in for updates. Now let's get started.

#30 4- Beyoncé

Almost immediately on “1+1,” the opener to Beyoncé’s fourth album, the R&B diva swoons “I don’t know much about algebra, but I know one plus one equals two. And it’s me and it’s you.” With that one line, Beyonce recalls the ebullient soul of Sam Cooke’s “Wonderful World.” But where that song was ultimately uncertain “if this one could be with you, what a wonderful world this could be,” Beyoncé is all-knowing. Where she was once “Dangerously in Love” she is now comfortable if still “crazy”, crooning her conviction over a simple guitar figure. 

Comfortability is the tale of 4, but it shouldn’t be mistaken for laziness. With that comfortability comes a new confidence in Beyoncé, seeing her pursue bold new ideas down their respective rabbit holes. “I still need you, why is that,” she wonders on the sparse “I Miss You.” It’s one of the tenderest tracks of her career and possesses little more than metronomic drumming and slow rolling waves of synth, simplicity giving way to sentimentality of the highest order. Elsewhere, she plays shape-shifter in the infectious “Countdown,” driving throw a litany of beat drops and switches. It’s a track endemic of the album as a whole, no longer having to look for love, Beyoncé is free to follow her muse, letting stability give way to startling creativity.

"Countdown"

 

#29 The Dreamer, The Believer- Common

“What I loved most she had so much soul,” it’s a line any hip-hop head knows all too well. For anyone who’s followed Common it’s undoubtedly what they’ve loved so much about the Chicago MC as well. With the release of 2008’s Universal Mind Control, he traded in that soul for staid electro-beats courtesy of the Neptunes. Their cold-rugged thunk a far-cry from the warm rays of soul Common’s lines were often bathed in.

When it was first announced that the 2011 follow-up The Dreamer, The Believer would be entirely produced by old cohort No I.D. I was ecstatic. The Chi-city producer laced Common with some of the greatest beats the Alt-rap world had seen at the time and Common masterfully fit in. This new release picks right-up where the duo left off, beginning with “The Dreamer,” which sports a driving drum-beat No I.D. has staked his career on and a hypnotic vocal loop. “You can live the dream, just believe in it,” Common proclaims in the bridge. Throughout this record, he balances his hip-hop dreams with what 20 years in the game have taught him.

Clearly all that time has taught him well and Common is in top form throughout. He spares full-force with a furious Nas on “Ghetto Dreams” and soars on the epic ELO-sampling “Blue Sky.” “Do they end up in a coffin because we haven’t taught them,” he wonders on the John Legend feature “The Believer,” turning in his most impressive performance in years. It’s a question Common can’t help but ask. He’s been “teaching” his whole career and the rap-world still has so much to learn. “Let us dare to dream,” Maya Angelou boldly proclaims on “The Dreamer.” Common has spent his time dreaming of a hip-hop world he has yet to see, but he still steadfastly believes. Maybe one day he can still “take it all back,” like he promised all those years ago. All we can do is dream.

"Blue Sky"

#28 Just Once EP- How to Dress Well

 

At one point on the Just Once EP, a silence emerges I could spend hours talking about, where the lush violin and cold piano give up the ghost leaving us alone with singer Tom Krell. Time seems to stop. “It’s like there’s no air, no air, no air” Krell despondently sings. He goes on to say he “wasn’t in any pain,” but we know better from listening to the whole track.

"Suicide Dream 2 (Orchestral Version)

This is an EP of a frightened and despondent man, hopelessly lost. Where previous HTDW efforts hid that hopelessness under mountains of reverb and tape hiss, this work trots out Krell’s pain for all to see. The orchestra that plays with such warmth throughout only serves to show us how cold Krell’s world truly is. Lyrics are still obscured, this time by the still proudly lo-fi orchestra, but it doesn’t matter, one listen to that voice on a track like “Suicide Dream 1,” tells us all we need to know.

This is music transfixed on the past, every mistake made blown-up and analyzed to an overwhelming degree. When the brief respite of “Decisions,” comes at the EP’s end, it’s too late. It’s a moment of glory, frozen in a troubled time.

TO BE CONTINUED

     

Track Attack- "Suicide Dream 2 (Orchestral Version)"

"Would would it be to live a like that wasn't like this?" asks How to Dress Well mastermind Tom Krell. In these week's "Track Attack," I look at that question, examining one of the most moving songs of the year.

A somber violin wails away from the start, informing us this is going to be an emotional ride. The melancholia intensifies as a simple piano figure buoys the track. Rising out of this gloom, is Krell's voice, no longer submerged in the murk of prior How to Dress Well tracks.

In the initial version of this song, released a year earlier, Krell's soulful singing was buried in the lo-fi charm associated with HTDW. As impressive as that cut was, its dark seas drowned Krell's masterfully terse lyrics. That wrong is righted in the "Orchestral Version," bringing the lyrics- now dedicated to a fallen friend to the forefront.

"Suicide Dream 2"- Can't See My Own Face: The Eternal Love 2

 

"Look at a picture of my father and I look just like him," Krell wistfully reflects early on. Most men reach this point in their lives, no longer desiring to be their childhood hero, but a man of their own. Krell is here now, looking back at his childhood wondering "what was happening in my life?" A thought that falls on deaf ears.

"It's like there's this weight down on my chest," Krell croons. And in a transcendent moment, all the music comes to a halt, Krell's unadorned voice deciding his fate, "there's no air, no air, no air," he sings. In this one moment, Krell ties together all the pressure that comes with trying to be your own man, a pressure that can drag anyone down.

Krell's performance in this track is on a level all it's own, in fact I would go so far as to say it's the most impressive vocal performance turned this year in popular music. It's a shame too, because this is a one time approach for Krell, which served as the inspiration for the EP name Just Once. He'll now go back to that lo-fi R&B feel he knows so well. It's a disservice to Krell, whose voice alone in the track suggests bottomless wells of pain with its trembling tone. As cleverly cryptic as the lyrics are, they can't help but be overshadowed by that voice. Even if we can't personally identify with Krell or what he's going through, hearing that voice so stark and so alone, transports us to world where we all wait for something we may never see.

"Suicide Dream 2 (Orchestral Version)"- Just Once EP