Dan Kipp

World, welcome to that which is Dan Kipp. An entity unto neither himself nor, some say, reality… but don’t be fooled: real recognize real. He floats in stratospheric equilibrium between gravity and grace, tending to tip towards the former. He is said to have a close kinship to that intangible imp known as Duende, and is twice as dubious. He writes of himself in the third person. I know the guy. Bouncy as Outkast. Soulful as Sublime. Tender as Petty’s Heartbreakers. Dan Kipp’s purported favorite food is papa rellena, and his musical syllogisms are, similarly, stylistically sound. I know the guy… He says he looks forward to bringing y’all’s earbuds an impetus of such pulpy impulse that you won’t not not not be able to get down wityo bad self. Whatever that does for ya.

On Dan’s Turntable: Don’t Think Twice (Dylan Tribute) / J.Period & K’naan

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Mar 142012

Don’t Think Twice (Dylan Tribute), J.Period & K’naan

A spectacular collaboration between Brooklyn-based producer J.Period and Somali rapper K’naan, here is Don’t Think Twice. The song is one of the duo’s best off their trilogy of albums, a series called The Messengers, tributes to Fela Kuti, Bob Marley, and, in this case, Bob Dylan. All interspliced up with personality and interviews from the man in question, this amiable recreation of Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” uses the original chorus, and includes original verses by K’naan, as well. Purty verses, at that.

Lyrically and stylistically, K’naan’s contribution to the song is sizable. Both stanzas start with a sizzling couplet, such as, “Daybreak elevates the fear of heartbreaks / Embrace with the chase we all got to taste,” and “He spoke like the poets, Baldwin and Byron / And all his woman heard was a siren.” K’naan’s flow is unmistakable, as is his accent. Distinct in the way he draws out certain words to fit the verse, K’naan is, in a way, is very much like Dylan. Like if you tried to sing it yourself, it wouldn’t work. In terms of the song, it sounds less like irony than harmony.

They both sing about lost love with a certain knowing. Dylan, confident in rhythm: “It ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe, / If ’in you don’t know by now / An’ it ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe, / It’ll never do some how.” K’naan, sad but matter of fact: “It’s no one’s fault, sometimes love falters, / Alters the state and you feel mortars / Exploding inside your hardened heart / And you thought you’d be fine apart.”

With its rich, soothing sound, this song is the balm. J.Period inflates the song with even more fullness in the single version, but his tracks are clear here. From the guitar that pops almost synthetically but wholly soulful, to the humming bass, to the snappy drum rolling the song along – actually a sample of Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover,” which Kid Cudi also kinda covered.

This song represents one of the most holistic collaborations between K’naan’s spittin, the trubte artist’s participation, and J.Period’s manipulation amongst The Messengers trilogy. Don’t think twice, and download the rest of it fo free!

On Dan’s Final 2011 Turntable: Rescue Ranger / Rubblebucket

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Feb 182012

Rescue Ranger, Rubblebucket

For my final haphazard catalogue of 2011, I offer Rubblebucket. I don’t know much about them, except that they used to go by Rubblebucket Orchestra, and that they’ve always been funky. Music ranging from alternative to pop, some indie and eclecticism, the band is hard to pin down. I’ve gotten lost listening to Rubblebucket. Intensely upbeat to ghostly visceral, all within the same song. Trumpets and sweety synths call to mind Triangular Daisies, right nextdoor there’sa turbulent Landing laying siege to your feeet! but it all ends up alright, as they end the album with a downhome Hommage.

Rubblebucket’s 2011 album Omega La La is, admittedly, not as swanky as the band’s past creations (i.e. the three in the prior paragraph). In context with the rest of the year’s music scene, however, it’s frigin intriguing. Omega La La is comprised of three remakes — Triangular Daisies, L’Homme, and Came Out of a Lady — from prior albums, and offers some of its own joys. Light renderings like Raining and Silly Fathers are sure to please, and when the party’s over you can curl up to Lifted/Weak Arms or a Pile of Rage. The headlining song, Rescue Ranger, is an adventure of its very own.

When the song pops, Kalmia Traver’s vocals both lead and trail the drum rolling steady to a bubbling bass line, heavy saxophone saturating your dance space. Excellently paced and sure to get a lift from your face, I think it’s because they play their instruments, rather than have a cpu crank em out, that makes Rubblebucket so visceral. Although, f’sho, they’re prettily “produced by Eric Broucek (LCD Soundsystem, !!!, Holy Ghost) & mastered by Joe Lambert (Animal Collective, Dirty Projectors, Herbie Hancock)” – thanks wiki. And thanks for your time. Espero te disfrute! More to come! I take requests!

On Dan’s 2011 Turntable: Youth Lagoon & schultzing

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Feb 152012

Posters, Youth Lagoon

Claremont, schultzing

Sometimes, all you want from your music is a background track to whatever you’re doing… whichformeismostlyhomework. It is this aesthetic that connects the two bands featured here: Youth Lagoon, who I know nearly nothing about, and schultzing, a German jazz quintet.

Youth Lagoon. Just one dude, 22, named Trevor Powers. Cool name. The 2011 album is The Year of Hibernation. So mysterious. Guaranteed forty-five minutes of either quality background tuneage or, depending on how into it you want to get, some very legitimate music. Alt-pop powered by layers of lacy synth, from piano to steel drum. His vocals hide in the low-fi and electric, but they bravely fade into Fleet Fox-ish cathedral paintings. I haven’t listened for the lyrics once. The songs stay dreamy, an “eerie yet nostalgic” vibe reminiscent of The XX about them until he drops the bass, when things can get pleasantly epic. Youth Lagoon’s true charm, I believe, is in his patient construction of each song, building it appreciably – if at times too safely – then delivering when the moment arises. Such as at 2:20 in Posters, the first in The Year of Hibernation.

A less safe embarkment would be for the shores of schultzing. One of my now-favorite bands and a refreshing break from the indie scene. Their seven-song 2011 album is federleicht (light as a feather) and it features Mateusz Smoczyński, a Polish jazz violinist, whose heavenly strings often synch with Hanna Jursch’s singing. Their lack of capitalization reflects the experimental nature of their jazz, from the twisted nine-minute jam they called Karawahn, to Ballade, a smoky song led along by two Peters — Schwebs’ stand-up bass and Ehwald’s tenor sax. Claremont, the song featured above, pretty perfectly epitomizes the light and featheriness federleicht suggests.

No schultzing song allows you to disengage from it the same way Youth Lagoon is susceptible to, but still I find myself able to fade from and study to it. (As well, of course, as get down to it.) Both have a certain levity, that I realize now may be from their shared lack of lyrical allure. What I mean is Youth Lagoon’s are unassuming, voice so shrouded in static distance; and because schultzing’s German is incomprehensible to me it slides from my brain like rain from a rock. For neither am I tied down in one part of my mind, following the words of the song; I’m free from understanding them in a literal way.

Let them do for you what you like, and happy studies!

On Dan’s 2011 Turntable: Flying Overseas / Theophilus London

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Feb 092012

Flying Overseas (feat. Devonte Hynes & Solange Knowles), Theophilus London

2011 was a year that in large part legitimized the rise of indie music, in all its eclectic forms. With Bon Iver topping Pitchfork and many others’ charts, 2011 marked an age led by low-fi acoustic folk recordings, accompanied by 80s-esque electronic renderings of several sorts. And there was nothing wrong with a lot of it, and some was even good! That being said, I felt a distinct lack of soul in too many instances.

Anyone that knows me already knows my definition of soul as something connected to duende and, as such, compels one dance. I firmly believe that a firm bass can reverberate from the feet through to the vertebrae in a way only its own. It brings out in one a want to move in a way 2011 generally was want of. Except for Theophilus London.

Each of the five-tracks on his 2011 EP Lovers Holiday have a sound so rich and full you don’t even need surround sound for it to envelope you. The warmth found here speaks for itself — and all this from London in spite of some very obvious indie influences! London has colossus clout with a coterie of artists, from indie-pop English songwriter/composer/producer Devonte Hynes to indie-rock/folk singer Sara Quinn (of Tegan and Sara) — both featured on the album.

London conforms (to an extent) to his contemporaries’ 80s vibe on several tracks, but they vibrate with a liveliness that engages the present. From the extravagant anthem banger “Wine and Chocolates,” to the beautifully tragic “Why Even Try,” to the synth-happy “Strange Love,” Lovers Holiday shows that London knows how to make music and its consumers move.

In the song featured above, Flying Overseas, London combines all the keys: a perfectly produced rich sound, a melody of chimes with a rumbling humming, well-timed synth, and angelic vocals provided by Solange Knowles, R&B-singing kid sister to Beyonce. Listen to this one next time you take off, whether or not its overseas, and see if it doesn’t move you — feet or elsewhere.

On Dan’s 2011 Turntable: Fuck Your Ethnicity / Kendrick Lamar

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Jan 282012

Fuck Your Ethnicity, Kendrick Lamar

A gangster rapper from Compton with a social consciousness sharp as Common, Kendrick Lamar entered the hip-hop game in 2010 with his release of O(verly) D(edicated). The year prior, he released the Kendrick Lamar EP, notable for the fact that it contained 15 tracks—many more than the traditional EP, displaying an impressive dedication and work ethic. In “The Heart Pt. 2,” the opening song of OD, Kendrick explains: “Got all these niggas approaching their mixtapes different / They said seven tracks, I said fifteen / Called it an EP, they said I’m tripping / But little did they know, I’m trying to change the rules / That we’ve been confined to / So the corporate won’t make decisions / Uppity bitches, handling business…”

Kendrick extended this attitude of true workmanship on his 2011 album, Section.80. The album reached only 45 on Pitchfork’s list for the year. Guffaw.

Seven of its songs now rank amongst the top-played on my iTunes. On these tracks Kendrick Lamar delivers the complete package: memorable melodies snapped into gripping beats, all overlaced with a flow of original lyrics. “Hol’ Up,” “Ronald Reagan Era,” “Rigamortus,” “Ab-Souls Outro,” and “Hiii Power” provide this and more.

More than individual songs, Section.80 has something to offer everyone. From highly-produced tunes with catchy choruses, to tragic tracks centered around the stories of Tammy and Keisha, Section.80 is at once a banger and a thinker. The album is unified by Kendrick’s overarching desire to speak for Generation Y, Eighties Babies, who befall a number of hardships due to their circumstances—from the unavoidability of drugs to corrupt politics.

The opening track, “Fuck Your Ethnicity,” is Kendrick at his best. Lyrically he is piercing as he shifts from commenting on a societal ill to showing how his rapping promotes its cure: “Racism is still alive / Yellow tape and colored lines / Fuck that, nigga look at that line / It’s so diverse / They getting off work / And they wanna see Kendrick.” When you hear the piano bounce and the beat pound, all there is to do is put your 3’s up in the name of HiiiPower.

On Dan’s 2011 Turntable: The Girl From Ipanema / Amy Winehouse

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Jan 132012

The Girl From Ipanema, Amy Winehouse

My best of 2011 list begins with a posthumous album by Amy Winehouse, Lioness: Hidden Treasures. The album contains covers of classics such as “Valerie,” recordings of original songs like “Best Friends, Right?” and “Between the Cheats,” as well as a nasty collaboration with Nas in “Like Smoke.”

Throughout the album, Winehouse displays her impressive vocal and stylistic range, from syrupy ballads to bubbling bits of doo-wop and jazz. For someone entering the Winehouse for his first time since hearing “Rehab” on the radio – as I’m sure much of America, like myself, has done recently – Lioness is indeed filled with some hidden treasures. She holds her own in a duet with Tony Bennett, and there’s an intimate moment at the end of the album where Winehouse talks about Don Hathaway, a hero of hers—two all-time crooners in the same sentence!

The song above is a rendition of “The Girl From Ipanema” Winehouse recorded when she was just 18 years old. Remember the “bubbling bits of doo-wop and jazz” I was talking about earlier? Let the snare snap and the bass hum as Winehouse’s lips transform tones into trumpet calls. Listen as palm trees sway in the violin’s breeze and see if your feet don’t demand a tapdance or two.

On Dan’s Turntable: Bizness (live) / tUnE-YarDs

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Dec 312011

Bizness (live at Other Music Dig For Fires Lawn Party at SXSW), tUnE-YarDs

Remember the way you first felt psyching yourself up with lipstick lined cheeks? That pre-pounce compression coiled in your limbs when you were just a bushbaby, stalking the kings of the savannah with bubblewands? Remember the way the cockatoos crooned, harmonizing in time with the cricket’s crouching amidst the tall grass securing your secrecy? And the release of all that joyous good juju as you danced a tribal two-step alongside that lioness with glowsticks in her mane?

Ah yes, childhood.

tUnE-YarDs made number 7 on Pitchfork’s top albums of the year with w h o k i l l, the second studio production by Merrill Garbus — and duly so. The album is full of beautifully savage songs, sounds that have been described as “primal pop,” and sentiments that stick amiably to your musical memory. See if you don’t end up walking around and attempting to sing “Your power / inside / it rocks me like a lullaby,” the visceral anthem found within Powa. You can read the pretentious (yet positive) reviews of w h o k i l l all over the internets. For now though, let’s return to that savannah — in this case, a lawn party at South by Southwest 2011.

It’s sweltering. Vocals loop over each other each over loop vocals weaving a heatwave in your brain. A sneering drum snares your thoughts as the saxophone asks what you’ve already been dreaming. What’s a kick drum to a doldrum? Who’s this wildwoman and how does she sing so recklessly on key? How do you spell ukulele? And what’s the bizness?!?

On Dan’s Turntable: Puppets / Atmosphere

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Nov 212011

Puppets, Atmosphere

I don’t know which is the greater sin: that it has taken me this long to write on this song, or that I’m even about to attempt to put this song into words in the first place. As such, I think you should listen to this song before you read this.

Good, now. This song is Puppets, by Atmosphere, a rap duo from Minnesota. Prolific in their music making since they started in 1989, Ant (Anthony Davis) produces the tracks that Slug (Sean Daley) raps over.

The collab is consistently captivating. Be it in the beautiful, broken-down blues guitar of Guarantees, or in the lines lifting with a grin, realizing, “Ain’t nothing like the sound of the leaves / When the breeze penetrates these south side trees.” Especially early in their career, Atmosphere tends towards the desolate. Instead of rapping about riches, they artfully speak for the down-and-out, through songs sometimes empowering, often depressing, and always full of soul and truth.

Presenting Exhibit A: Puppets, off the album When Life Gives You Lemons, Paint That Shit Gold.

Knowing hums open the tale of a man who has been begrudged of fame’s good fortunes. Throughout the song, Slug flip-flops between sympathy and scorn towards the guy. Slug understands his “complaints / About how nowadays things ain’t the same,” and the piano’s clap seems to agree in one-dimensional assent. But as the beat kicks in for the second verse, Slug swaggers along, searing: “I think it’s great how you used to be great.” He calls out the man for throwing away his “Future – so afraid of yours, That you strayed from the course / And you came up short.” By the time the chorus comes along the second time, ringing of pity for snorting lines and last calls to numb the paint of failure, Channy Moon-Casselle (of Gayngs, an indie group also based out of Minnesota) runs away with a layer of riffs simply trickling with sooth, telling of the triumph that soul and self-honesty can have over the rock star life. This emphasis on life and resilience amidst shitty situations is what allows, indeed impels one to listen to Atmosphere over and over, despite and maybe because of the sadness it often conveys.

I’m sure this blurb doesn’t nearly do the beat justice, but maybe it’s an adequate starter pack, or snap shot. Take it for what you will, just know, “It wouldn’t look so bad with the bandage off.”

On Dan’s Turntable: Machine / Anni Rossi

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Nov 192011

Machine, Anni Rossi

Anni Rossi is one of those artists I have no idea how I know, but I’m glad I do. She first magically materialized in my iTunes with her robotic rendering of Rude Boy, a cover of Rhianna. Rossi herself is a violinist and vocalist, but she often bleeps and bloops her way into the realm of electronic music. These forays into lo-fi often yield songs that are eerie in their detached, simple beauty. Rossi is at her best when she sticks to her strings, though.

She has a very distinct voice, innocent with glints of insanity. In sudden, brave jumps to her upper register, Rossi displays her amazing control—and her blatant disregard for normal melodies. Her voice is memorable, and moving, especially when its erratic recklessness catches her string-driven instrumental.

In the song above, Rossi rages against with her visceral vocal chords. She sings of “Swinging crazily like a stock exchange,” “Flinging ice and snow like little kids.” All the while, her voice dips and dives as if a mind on its own. In so doing, she reminds us that “We will still have our feet,” our eyes, our hair, our skin—and that we “Can’t buy these impulses from a machine.”

On Dan’s Turntable: Big Girl / Ghostface Killah

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Sep 042011

Big Girl, Ghostface Killah

The successful melding of the crude and the poetic is a rare thing. Charles Bukowski did it… and so does Ghostface Killah. It’s fitting these two men share the same sentence, since they’re both pretty thug.

Ghost samples “You’re A Big Girl Now” by The Stylistics, a 70s soul group, a great song on its own. Instead of chopping and producing it up the wazoo, Ghost just let’s it ride and raps over it. He straps himself into the song with a bass that kicks harder than a mule, and uses the natural flow of the original track to help paint a picture he’s seen oh-too frequently.

Ghost knows about coke; the man’s a head himself. This intimate relationship with the drug allows him to see it’s problems in others. In “Big Girl,” Ghost walks up in a club, strutting typical materialism — “I just put down my dollar bill, took off my mink / Bartenders know me big spenders, gave us those monster drinks / Sent us lobsters and cigars that stink.” So established, he juxtaposes his own wealth with that of the scene-girls: so rich they could “inherent the Santa Maria? Y’all money that long?”

Through the song, Ghost moves from a tsk tsk standpoint to that of a self-proclaimed “father figure.” “If y’all ladies was all mine,” he says, “I’d teach you well.” He gets pedagogical, “Before you sleep, read your books like it was my fan-mail,” while maintaining that spice of cockiness.

It’s in the ability to strike this sensitive dichotomy, I think, that Ghost (and Bukowski – ”waiting for / something extraordinary to / happen / but as the years wasted on / nothing ever did unless I / caused it: / broken bar mirrors, a fight with a 7 foot / giant, a dalliance with a lesbian”) derive their authority.