03.26

Live-Evil (Miles Davis, 1971)

What it lacks in coherence and forward momentum (compared to my other favorite Davis albums), it more than makes up for in scope and variety.  Some of the wildest and most inspiring music and noise in general I've heard.  I'm not sure who's idea that left-field voice-over at the end was but it's a pretty good cap-off to 100 minutes of alternating pure beauty and nuttiness.

03.24

How to Train Your Dragon 2 (Dean DeBlois, 2014)

I remember when this came out reading a review in Time that called it a darker version of Game of Thrones or something.  I'm not sure what it is about slightly unorthodox children's films that inspires such absurd exaggeration from critical quarters but yeah suffice it to say it's not as dark as Game of Thrones.  Nor is it particularly good.

03.24

The Music Room (Satyajit Ray, 1958)

The story is much less interesting than it sounds on paper but the direction is utterly gorgeous.  I don't know about Chhabi Biswas' musically enraptured expression but Ray for his part conveys a love for unadulterated music I haven't seen in film since Huillet-Straub's Bach movie.  It's beautifully shot but it would be worth watching with just the soundtrack over black leader as far as I'm concerned.

03.20

Sour Soul (BadBadNotGood and Ghostface Killah, 2015)

As of late Ghost seems to be taking a back (?) to basics approach with more straightforward lyrics and a more pronounced, calculated delivery.  Uh I can't say it's exactly the turn I was hoping his career would take but at least he's doing something different, and he remains a commanding presence on the mic.  Tone's Rap strikes me as one of the keystone tracks, the natural conclusion of years of flirting with self-aware self-parody.  BBNG hold up their end admirably and probably do most of the heavy lifting; with almost any other backing this would be a pretty shitty album, but once I got a better sense of what it was going for I definitely enjoyed it.

03.19

Subatomic Particle Homesick Blues (Ben Goldberg, 2013)

Has a preciousness that makes it feel like a better soundtrack to a shitty animated movie, but as it gets underway it becomes a pretty impressive piece of sonic world building.  Probably not my style in general but a lot of the little touches are definitely up my alley, especially the refrains of certain musical themes.  And I prefer its surprisingly lowkey ending to the climactic tying-it-all-together type resolution I expected.

03.16

Regulate...G Funk Era (Warren G, 1994)

One of the smoothest and most cohesive hip hop albums I've heard, whole tracks passed by without me noticing the transition.  The wide variety of guests he brings in adds a lot too.  It's definitely not a lyricist's album though, and the production sounds a bit too dated or something for me to call it a favorite, but I certainly gained newfound respect for Warren G.

03.15

Juvenile Hell (Mobb Deep, 1993)

Not something that inspired multiple listens but even at this point Havoc was pretty darn impressive behind the boards.  Despite the horrorcore album cover there's a lot less of the romanticized homicide we've come to know and love these two for and a lot more hanging with the crew, don't do (too many) drugs, and I got bitches type songs of a comparatively vanilla variety.

03.12

Miles & Coltrane (Miles Davis, 1958)

Not so much an album in the contemporary sense as a collection of songs from a couple different sets in the 50s with Davis bandleading.  For this reason and because it's more traditional jazz than what I've been accustomed to hearing lately it took me awhile to get into, but by the second spin I was digging it.  I'm writing too far down the line to say much more in detail, sorry.

03.02

Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014) (theatrical)

Feels in some ways like an LA companion piece to Cosmopolis, but whoever wrote this is no DeLillo (I guess).  Appropriately grotesque and depressing, but also feels kind of played out and obvious.  I don't really understand how Cronenberg chooses his scripts.

02.28

Murda Muzik (Mobb Deep, 1999)

Hell on Earth faired much better on subsequent listens than my initial evaluation would suggest, and I started listening to The Infamous again and realizing Mobb Deep is actually pretty fucking cool in their own live and direct stab the neck way.  I've only heard this all the way through once so I'm a bit reluctant to evaluate it but I also want to bring this blog entirely up to date, so fuck it.  These guys seemed to be played out by this point in their career but it's still reasonably fun motions to hear them go through and they bring in some cool guests.  Havoc seems to be the progenitor of the Necro-style brand of producing, and while he definitely understands music better than Necro it gets to be one way too similar sounding track after another, more here than in the previous two albums.  This would be less of a problem if they were interested in putting more variety in their rhymes, but then they wouldn't be Mobb Deep.

02.25

Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (OutKast, 2003)

I never dreamed that when I finally listened to this I'd prefer Big Boi's half, but while The Love Below's peaks are higher it feels like a spaghetti of ideas with nothing to tie it back into itself.  Dre's so big on concept I figured by this point in his career a more or less concept album would display the focus and insight I've come to expect from him in short form, but hearing this I can better understand why his solo career never fully materialized.  Speakerboxxx is way better than Sir Lucious Leftfoot but still not entirely my cup of tea.  Critics continue to confuse me, I'd have expected this to be received as kind of an ill-conceived mess with some definite highlights rather than a career near-high.  It seems like Idlewild basically got the former reception though, and if they continued down this path it'll likely take me even longer to get around to than this did.

02.23

A Quiet Storm (Smokey Robinson, 1975)

Utterly fucking gorgeous, and I'm tickled by the intermittent refrains of storm winds that tie it all together, just my preferred kind of touch.  I need to spend more time with the lyrics, every time I hear it I'm caught up in the rapture of the aesthetic, but hell, I'm in no rush to leave that space.

02.22

Summit (George Brooks, 2002)

My uncle lent me this for Zakir Hussain's tabla playing, but Steve Smith's jungle percussion is pretty great too.  Outside of the drumming it seems pretty generic but certainly enjoyable.

Galaxy Quest (Dean Parisot, 1999) (rewatch)

I've been spending a lot less time watching movies and a lot more time watching Star Trek lately, so I figured this might be a good way to ease back in.  The main thing I remembered about it from seeing it as a kid is how much the pacing bothered me.  That wasn't as much of a problem now but goddamn, I don't think this kind of writing would make it into a major release these days.  Tempted to say it's more dated than either of the shows it spoofs but at least in the case of TOS that's probably disingenuous.

02.15

The Enchantment (Chick Corea and Bela Fleck, 2007)

Obviously both virtuoso players, but damn, these guys can't write or structure an album for shit.  I played it a second time in the car with my friend and she didn't even notice there was music playing until it ended and I changed the CD.  The best that can be said for it is it'd be an improvement on most of the music currently heard in elevators.

02.12

Emergency! (The Tony Williams Lifetime, 1969)

Couldn't think of a more appropriate cover, explosively energetic.  With contemporary Davis albums I find myself emotionally invested in the journey, and there wasn't much of that here, it was a flatter experience more like looking down on something that's already been completed from above than actually being in the thick of it while it's underway (guys lemme know if this blog devolves too far into indecipherable stonerbabble).  The long and the short of it is I wouldn't quite call it a favorite but I really liked it and look forward to getting more out of it on future listens.