Caribou - Odessa

In the same way blogs exploded when My Girls came out at the beginning of last year (was it really that long ago?), Odessa was the go-to track at the beginning of this year.

And rightly so, emerging from his more psych first album, Caribou brought his next-level with Swim as an album and particularly the lead track.

Always a favourite of mine to play when DJing, it's solid rhythms are superb with incredible additional percussion, spacey vocals, a cool guitar, an almost house piano line and simply a fucking great recorder sample, and how many times do you get to say that?

Enjoy Odessa in HD glory

Friday Eargasm - Evolve

Not sure if this song was written for the Gatorade commercial, especially as wikipedia's only two Kevin Quinn's are a neo-nazi and a sportscaster.

The only tidbit of information I managed to find is that it's produced by American rapper David Banner, or to use his real name, Lavell Crump. What a name.

However, it's damn catchy and even if it does promote Gatorade and is being adapted to god knows how many different things like wildfire, it's just a fun song.

Can you tell my mind's not into writing at the moment?

Enjoy

If you wanna revolution the only solution

evolve gotta evolve

If you wanna revolution the only solution

evolve gotta evolve

if you gettin off track and you wanna get back

it may take a lot of work won't break your back

If you wanna revolution the only solution

evolve gotta evolve

No matter what they do they cant break your stride

Revolution is a thing that starts inside

throw your hands up cuz ur frisked with pride

hold your head high no need to hide

EVO LVE come on get inside,

come on rock with me.

if you want a revolution the only solution, evolve (gotta evolve)

GOT TO EVOLVE! if you want a revolution, you got to evolve.

OHH BABY! if you wanna a revolution

the only solution, evolve

I'm teetering

My almost bipolar moods are massively reflected in what I'm listening to, as music should.

Good days have me leaning towards old reggae such as Dave Barker and Ansel Collins' classic track Double Barrel.

I love it's deep, smooth bass lick and the great honky-tonk piano. Also, slap-back echo on vocals always brings a smile to face, it reminds me of going to the ridiculously loud and busy Notting Hill Carnival last year and having a great day in the sun.

I'm also loving the original Solomon Burke version of Everybody Needs Somebody To Love, originally the collection song Burke played at his local church, it's simple rhythm and uplifting groove have made it one of the all-time great songs.

Finally, the new Quantic album is inspired around Dub and Reggae sounds and the excellent 'lead single' Dog With A Rope is available now. It is of course lacking the crackly production that adds so much to reggae and dub production for me but it's still an excellent song. Download Dog With A Rope free from Quantic's website or check out the equally good dub version below.

Dave Barker & Ansel Collins - Double Barrel

Solomon Burke - Everybody Needs Somebody To Love

Quantic Presenta Flowering Inferno - Dog With A Rope (dub)

Expect a write up of the lows when im up to it

Jean Paul Richter once said
"Man's feelings are always purest and most glowing in the hour of meeting and farewell".

Good luck, be safe, I'm incredidibly proud of you but most importantly, I'll miss you.

Always yours

xxx

Early Eargasm - Evenings

Ok so this week's Eargasm is coming slightly early as I'm off to DJ at the PA festival this weekend and I need to get my shit together, including picking records.

One track that will 100% be making the list is Evenings latest EP North Dorm which you can download for free from his bandcamp.

More and more recently my iTunes has been filled with "chillwave", "chillgaze", "glo-fi", whatever you want it to be called with incredible albums from RxRY, Niva and Worriedaboutsatan all creeping into heavier rotation on my personal playlist and DJ sets.

Most definitely a headphone listen, North Dorm's prime success for me is the incredibly detailed and dense percussive sounds that litter the record without being too invasive. It's all too easy for drums to take over a track, especially with no vocal line and little melodic movement but Evenings percussion is so detailed that it becomes a melody in itself.

North Dorm's mood is set right from the off with Still Young containing small samples of everything to be expected for the rest of the EP. There are looped synth parts, small vocal drops and superb percussive production with quick snare rolls falling away and a generally choppy sound to synth lines.

As the EP progresses, songs are slower and less busy sonically but equally as impressive in their creation of mood and use of instrumentation.

My highlight of North Dorms however is Friend [Lover] with a nonsensical looped vocal part and a simple bass line to reinforce the vocal melody.

Where this track really stands out again is it's ingenious use of percussion. The track is littered with cowbells, manipulated rolls, shaped cymbals and a whole variety of other sounds to really make the drums front and centre. This provides a slow and moody song with some drive and direction, an important element often lost in this genre.

All too often, Chillwave covers a ride cymbal in reverb and considers that the height of production for drums. However, North Dorm is a perfect example that just because it's chilled, it does not mean that percussion can be forgotten.

North Dorm is available to download for free here

sometimes I scare even myself.

what the fuck are you doing

With every passing day this becomes more true...

And it scares me.

A lot.