Dreamcrusher: "Vulpeculae Freeze"

Back in the 90's I used to dig me some gabber. Well, I dug a lot of things about it. What I actually really fucking hated about it was that every song had the exact same build - with only minor variation in BPMs - and the only thing that distinguished one track from the next was the rudimentary texture of abrasion layered over top. Ho hum and shit.

Dreamcrusher toy around with that abrasive overlay but don't bother with the unyielding, metronomic beats. "Vulpeculae Freeze" sounds like old Godflesh updated with modern production software, particularly in the overdrive dept... and considering Godflesh were my favorite band for a pretty good chunk of the 90's I guess that earns this track a blog entry, eh?

THROWBACK 1980 || The Associates: "Paper House"

Never released as a single, "Paper House" remains one of the more overlooked - and elegant - entries in the tragically short lived career of the already unfairly obscure Scottish band, The Associates (later just Associates). Like the best bands of the time, Associates fused upbeat, minimalist synth patterns with mechanistic percussion and dark, oblique bass/guitar lines to create a dichotomy of repressed alienation.

THROWBACK 1983 || Black Sabbath: "Born Again"

Black Sabbath have had their fair share of rebounds over the years - need I mention their Ozzy-helmed 13 comeback being nominated for a Grammy? - but for my money none of their resurgences have been more overlooked by history than the post-RJ Dio album, Born Again.

Earthless: "Violence of the Red Sky"

Here's one to chew your teeth on. Typically when epic doom songs exceeding 10 minutes in length are released as singles, they're edited down into "teaser" mode. Earthless don't play that shit. Here's "Violence of the Red Sea" in all its 15-minute glory, even though it's the kind of hook-based classic rock jam that you could easily see making a logical six minute cut.

Jesu: "Homesick"

Godflesh were my last favorite band. Meaning that when I discovered them around the turn of the 90's my tastes hadn't yet broadened to the point where having a "favorite band" became meaningless. Honestly by the time Godflesh broke up in 2002 I'd long since started thinking that singer/bandleader Justin K. Broadrick's side projects had become far more interesting, so color me stoked when he re-emerged with Jesu in 2003.

That band has gone through it's own fits and starts of experimentation, but "Homesick", the first single from upcoming album Every Day I Get Closer to the Light From Which I Came, is highly reminiscent in both tone and execution to 2006's EP headliner, "Silver", which makes it a bit of a homecoming, a return to form.

[EDIT 9/24/13: added official music video]:

Antwon: "Dying in the Pussy"

You know when you're actually hoping that Antwon is likening existence to the ghostly aftermath of a miscarriage and it turns out that nope, he's totally talking about the killing joke of punanny, a motherfucker clearly needs to feel some shame in his life.

Ka: "Peace Akhi"

Now this shit I like. The flow of Nas with the measured, patience cadence of a medicated Kool G Rap. Apparently Ka is a firefighter at his day job, so make whatever obligatory jokes you'd like about smoldering flames. We here at WKMR are above that shit.

Danny Brown: "Hand Stand"

Been awhile since we last saw Danny Brown and Darq E. Freaker on the same track, but good things come to those who wait. Speaking of long waits, Brown's belated to follow up to 2011's XXX - entitled Old, presumably because he's been sitting on these tracks for the last two years - comes out September 30.

Tre Mission: "Brunch / High Fashion"

There is a finite amount of flow out there - hell, even Tyler, the Creator and Earl Sweatshirt sound alike to me and both of those guys are geniuses (genii?) - but don't tell that shit to Tre Mission. I've always appreciated rappers who can craft singsong choruses without roping in generic R&B singers to pull it off (see also: Homeboy Sandman).

This video is labeled simply "Brunch" although it clearly shifts into a completely different track midway through. The back half would be "High Fashion", which joined "Brunch" on Tre's recent Malmaison mixtape and will represent the double-AA side to his debut single on Big Dada.


[EDIT 9/2/13: yup, the versions of both songs in the video are heavily abridged. Here are the full length versions from Tre's Soundcloud]:

Raumskaya: "Tolerance, Beauty, Love"

I love me some juke, but with all due respect DJ Rashaud and the Teklife crew, the genre is starting to get as stale as acid house circa 1991: a great concept run into the ground by too many self-limiting producers trying to make a buck off the sound without really developing it into new forms. Raumskaya does his part to make sure footstep doesn't follow down that same dead end path by going for short, choppy beats that are kind of variations on a theme... the track doesn't develop greatly throughout its length, but the drum patterns never repeat themselves. Not as danceable as the Teklife stuff but I guess the universe is ready for artjuke, eh?