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ALBUM REVIEW: Salem – King Night

27 Sep


Due to the nature of how we listen to music in 2010, there are few surprises left. Before an act releases a proper album (a medium whose time may very well be up), they are dissected and analyzed like a frog on a 9th grade biology table. And just as sure as that frog has sat on its last lily pad, musicians are rarely afforded the chance to make a second impression.

On their debut LP King Night, Salem doesn’t seem to care about that. Or about anything else.

If you’ve heard them by now, you know what to expect. Chopped-and-screwed drum machines, epic synthesizer melodies, spooky moans and drugged-out raps. Salem’s distinct brand of drag is what sets them apart from countless witch house acts, more eager to insert triangles and crosses into their names than to make interesting music. But if you’ve heard Yes I Smoke Crack or their symbiotic remixes of Gucci Mane and came away unimpressed or turned off, King Night won’t change your mind.

Throughout the album, Salem gets deeper, darker, and more intense than ever before. For music that revels in drone, it is addictive in its dynamism. The title track opens the album, with bits and pieces of “I Love You” and “O Holy Night” fused to minimalistic trap beats and the echos and feedback of a mournful melody. “Asia,” the second single (I use that term lightly) off the album continues the death march with a drum corps’ intensity. The faux-snuff clip picks up where “Skullcrush” left off.

The heavily processed vocals of Jack Donoghue could pass for Gucci on songs like “Sick,” “Trapdoor,” and “Tair.” John Holland and Heather Marlatt stick to singing (again, loosely), exchanging groans and whispers on “Release the Boar” and “Frost.” On the latter, Marlatt’s vocals waft over footwork-inspired beats and waves of synths that hold – wait – is that a sense of “hope” amid all this darkness?

Arguably the group’s strongest song, “Redlights” is back yet again; the shifty, stuttering anthem is revamped for The Big Time and sounds great. “Traxx” plods along with an industrial sample that can’t help but evoke the “Law & Order” sound, but with off-kilter percussion that again references footwork. By the time the last jangly guitar chord drones on closer “Killer,” the listener is left with a sense of foreboding dread that they can’t quite put their finger on.

Salem knows what they are and what they do best: gothic trap music with a hint of mystery (even if unfortunate interviews and even more unfortunate live performances have lifted the curtain a bit). King Night succeeds by being a pitch-perfect set of upsetting mood music. Even if that’s what you expected.

FOUR OUT OF FIVE STARS.

S*** I’M DIGGING THIS WEEK: Crunk and Dope Edition

9 Sep

Man, I really loved screw music when it was the province of fat black dudes from Texas. My adoration of the works of OG Ron C and Michael “5000” Watts and the rest of the Swishahouse family should be pretty well known if you read this site. At least once every six months I drop a post where I proclaim my love of chopped and screwed rhythms. That being said, I may love screw music even more in the hands of skinny pale white goth kids even more. In following the adage of “less is more except when more is more,” taking screw music out of the realm of purple “lean” soaked fantasies and into the realm of spooky Halloween nightmares is pure fun and high entertainment. This is one of those places where you have to be thankful for ironic hipster bullshit, as well, if ironic hipster bullshit never existed, how else could you even account for this combination. Happy accidents come from strange pairings in music quite often, as proven by 1993’s rap/rock Judgement Night Soundtrack doing things like combining Helmet with House of Pain, but, this is a horse of a different color as the province of a brand new time in music.

Mad Decent’s arbiter of all things weird and musical, (and the key man behind Maluca’s next level merengue/techno sonic sound clash) Paul Devro dropped the second volume of a mix series by New York’s Ghe20 Gothik crew who do witch house, the province of crunk meets fright better in many cases than leading arbiters of the sound like S4lem and ooOoo. Whereas The aforementioned acts get caught up in histrionics regarding grinding speeds of songs to a near unlistenable halt, the Ghe20 Gothik crew instead find quality underground crunk Southern tunes and put them through a drugged out sonic haze of being screwed and having layers of screams, pained yells, angst and agony layered on top for a perfect blend of oddball fright. I’ll leave it to our own Denman C. Anderson, a leading national purveyor of all things musically creepy that go bump in the night to let you know when the Ghe20 Gothik crew throws their next NY party, but it’s probably a good idea to take the time to listen to the mix, and or take note of the witch house sound. It’s fun, unique and here to stay.

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This blog absolutely reminds me to remind you of the brilliance of the Judgement Night soundtrack. The 1993 film may have sucked mightily, but it’s soundtrack set an archetype for music for the next millennium. Everyone who has heard, or still owns the disc has a favorite track. I love Onyx, and their title track with Biohazard is pretty amazing. De La Soul and Teenage Fanclub’s hippie boho combo for Tom Petty and the Heartreakers’ “Free Fallin'” as “Fallin'” is kinda fun. But the award for easiest and most natural sounding pairing on the album goes to either Boo YAA Tribe and Faith No More on “Just Another Victim, or Helmet and House of Pain’s “Just Another Victim.” The Boo YAA Tribe are lost heroes of West coast hip hop, their chino-sino-latino sound now back in vogue with the likes of Rocky Rivera kicking it from the Bay area, and Faith No More, after kicking Courtney Love and then Chuck Mosley to the curb in favor of Mike Patton, and everyone from Fred Durst to Chester Bennington, to yeah, I’ll say it, Eminem couldn’t have existed without Faith No More’s 1993 rap-rock classic “Epic.” And Helmet and DJ Lethal and the most underrated 32 bars in the history of 90s hip hop by Everlast make “Just Another Victim” a track worthy of a listen if you’re a hip hop afficionado, or if at any point you were a fan of any song by Limp Bizkit or Linkin Park, and yes, I know that covers about, yep, 85% of this reading audience.

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And, the track that likely started the entire screw music adoration by nerdy white kids who love hip hop and strange sounds is “Still Tippin'” by Mike Jones, however, attention deserves to be paid to the remix of “Got It Sewed Up,” as Three Six Mafia’s Juicy J goes to TOWN on the track.

MIXTAPE MONDAY: Drag the lake

9 Aug

“Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.” Inscription at the Gates of Hell, or another post about drag and witch house? You decide! Today’s Mixtape Monday takes us to the darkest reaches of the Internet, with new mixes from Salem and the sick folks behind (the NSFW) Put.A.Spell.

Salem’s I Buried My Heart Inna Wounded Knee is a nearly-unlistenable mix of Goth crunk – and I mean that as a compliment. There’s no tracklist, but would one really make a difference? Salem drags and screws tracks until they are barely recognizable ghosts of the originals; mixing in the Velvet Underground’s “Femme Fatale” is brilliant. Salem continues to make the i-dose version of purple drank. Their debut full-length King Night is set for a September 28th release, and this mix should stave off the tremors until then.

Put.a.spell (what I’ll be calling the force responsible for these mixes, since they’re only labeled with the quintessential witch house symbol ‡) recently released two equally disturbing mixes, Summus Exussum Ervum and Beasts in Drag.

Summus Exussum Ervum, which roughly translates to “burn the high weeds,” touches on everything cold and industrial. From Throbbing Gristle to Fever Ray, the mix is the perfect soundtrack for your next invocation or ritualistic sacrifice. Compared to Salem’s mix, it is practically Top 40.

Beasts in Drag is more crunk than Goth, relying on drag versions of Gucci Mane and Playboy Tre (from the Adult Swim x Beaterator ATL RMX album), among others. As the mix closes, it fades from GR†LLGR†LL’s gloomy “Lollipop” cover “Slowlickin” to “If You Are But a Dream,” by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, the bluesman best known for “I Put a Spell On You.” That inclusion alone shows that the musicians behind drag and witch house have a sense of humor, even if it is sick and twisted.

THE DROP: Dragged and Screwed (or, witch house cover songs)

29 Jun


The latest development in electronic music is the sonic darkness known either as drag or witch house. Equal parts chopped-and-screwed hip hop and gothic industrial, the mysterious scene is all over the internet yet difficult to pin down, due in large part to glyph-filled band names that are both unpronounceable and unsearchable.

With new releases from Disaro or Tri Angle dropping seemingly daily, it’s getting difficult to keep our triangles and crosses straight. So apart from SALEM, where should you start with drag? How about some macabre makeovers of pop and hip-hop songs?

San Francisco’s oOoOO has released an EP that features several gloomy cover versions of formerly-upbeat dance tracks. The title track, “No Summr4U” is a a reworking of Nocera’s 1986 hit “Summertime, Summertime” which replaces the freestyle melody with a stark beat and hypnotic synths. “PCKRFCRMX” is short on vowels but big on dissonant keys and cut-and-paste Lady Gaga vocals.

Witch house heads must see something they like from the Haus of Gaga, because oOoOO is not alone in reworking the pop star of the moment. Mater Suspiria Vision has turned her songs into delay-heavy drone-fests. Not only have they given a mindfuck remix to “Alejandro,” but their take on both the song and video for “Paparazzi” is truly twisted, and not for the faint of heart.

SALEM proved that drag and hip-hop are a natural fit with their Gucci Mane edits. ✝ NO VIRGIN ✝ takes a shot at some trap music with a version of Gucci’s “I’m the Shit.” NO VIRGIN’s appropriately titled Downer EP is full of similarly pulsing scarefests and is available for free. If you’re into that sort of thing.

Whether you call it drag, witch house, or goth crunk, this music is not for everyone. Sludgy drum machine beats, grim synth lines, and samples of everything from gunshots to child-like pleading (!) may not be everyone’s cup of tea. But sometimes it pays to not be afraid of the dark.

THE DROP: SALEM keep pushing that Goth crunk

27 Apr

Salem makes scary music. Music that exists somewhere between chopped-and-screwed, industrial, and dubstep – a dreary, grating, drugged out amalgamation that is challenging and unforgiving. And I can’t stop listening to it.

This week, Salem released a mixtape for DIS magazine, an art outfit that fits the Salem worldview. The mix, entitled Raver Stay Wif Me, is 32 minutes of both familiar and obscure tracks, twisted and manipulated to the edge of recognition. The titular raver is paid tribute by classic tracks like “Better Off Alone” by Alice Deejay, “Sandstorm” by Darude, and “Can’t Stop Raving” by Dune, trance tracks whose hypnotic affect is still apparent, even if the music is better suited for cough syrup sipping than Ecstasy popping.

Download the mix after the jump.


Download SALEM – Raver Stay Wif Me (courtesy DIS magazine)

It may be an act, but only Salem is twisted enough to include a track by a convicted sexual predator: South Park Mexican‘s “Vogues” is a record-skipping center piece of the tape. Too sick for you? They include “Unchained Melody” and “Young Forever,” classic love songs that just seem wrong in contrast to the rest of the mix.

Not much is known about the Michigan trio of John Holland, Heather Marlatt, and Jack Donoghue; they don’t give many interviews, or take photographs, or humor the social media crowd. Instead, they keep a public image that mirrors their music: dark, mysterious, unnerving. Their music videos don’t give many clues, either, except that the band may need psychological help. Check out the NSFW clip for “Skullcrush,” a video that makes M.I.A.’s “Born Free” look like a Disney film.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5704072&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

SKULLCRUSH from bea fremderman on Vimeo.

Raver Stay Wif Me is another required listen from a group whose limited press EPs Water and Yes I Smoke Crack are equally challenging and rewarding. And if all this is too dark for you, check out their remixes of Gucci Mane, a match made in Hell.

http://www.youtube.com/v/ktsBvDm9-Bk&hl=en_US&fs=1&

MIXTAPE REVIEW: Gucci Mane x Diplo – Free Gucci: Best of the Cold War Mixtapes

12 Jan


The concept of “genres” is dead.

The most important lesson learned from the Free Gucci: Best of the Cold War Mixtapes release by Mad Decent Records is that there are a ton of young production minds in this world now available to the world of hip hop. Now that Snoop Dogg and Nicki Minaj freely flow over dubstep, Pitbull has made a career on electro, and reggae emcees have already been on the dub and reggae tip for quite some time, we’ve reached a musical equilibrium. The nature of this mixtape in principle is to explore what Gucci Mane would sound like over musical styles unfamiliar to his typical dirty South productions. Instead, this just sounds like a bunch of ideas that Gucci can explore when he gets released from prison.

Literally one year ago, Diplo and the gang at Mad Decent released a mixtape taking Alabama’s Paper Route Gangstaz into the underground club scene. At the time, that album sounded fresh, odd and entertaining. Fast forward after 2009, and the same concept with Gucci Mane sounds like his latest mainstream album release. This says a lot about the saturation of electro in mainstream top 40 music, and if anything portents the same expectation for dubstep in the year to come. Instead of reaching far, this mixtape sounds like an amalgamation of competing B-sides for Warner Brothers to choose from for inclusion on white label releases of singles. Music is an odd place, and with this release, we begin to see where the separation of styles of music actually ceases to exist, and the invocation of a fertile, genre-less musical atmosphere can occur.

In just under 53 minutes, some of the brighter young production minds in electronic dance music, alongside a select few veterans attempt but often fall short in creating awe inspiring remixes of Radric Davis. However, there are a few standouts that require spotlight. Chicago Ghetto-industrial band Salem’s take on Gucci’s “My Shadow” is dark, bleak and completely frightening, adding tremendous depth and meaning to the track that clearly was not there prior. The weaving and meandering synths and frankly depression inducing bassline is fantastic. The band has prior experience in the realm of Gucci Mane remixes, so their success here is in no way shocking at all. Chicago’s Willy Joy and DJ Benzi go bonkers on “I’m the Shit,” crafting a fun and funky house remix with Daniel Bedingfield’s “Gotta Get Through This” as a winning track to lay the vocals over. The doubles on the chorus are a particularly entertaining touch, creating some fun UK 2-step type instrumentation.

But the champion here is Diplo. He’s weirder than ever now, and in his fertile imagination lies such far reaching freedom for innovation that by comparison, though everyone here is more than talented, Diplo sets the bar so far above and beyond that it’s truly impossible at this moment to reach. Take for example the mixtape opener “Danger’s Not a Stranger.” I can’t imagine anyone else in the universe re-interpolating Mariah Carey’s “Can’t Let Go” and blending in Gucci’s vocals to create a mid-tempo, drive time radio banger. Mixtape closer “Break Yourself” goes from being a hood anthem about women to being an Ibiza trance inspired bottle service club crusher when Diplo injects the familiar synth lines of ATB’s “9PM (Til I Come)” into it, changing the emotion and expanding the hit potential of the song.

The issue with the mixtape is that many of the younger producers on the album violate the nature of the vocals in attempting to take an acapella in a particular direction seemingly as a route to attaining mainstream acceptance. As solid as Douster and DZ are at providing dubstep for the masses, Gucci Mane’s cadence really just does not lend itself well to deep basslines. Veterans Bird Peterson and Emynd show and prove here, Peterson’s take on “Dope Boys” a downtempo and intropective track that is acceptable, and Emynd gets southern vet Playboy Tre to drop 16 bars on Frowny Face, creating a high hat, bass kick and 808 laden ATL strip club style remix that certainly passes muster as expected.

In final, this mixtape is more than solid. However, it speaks much more to the proliferation of underground musical styles succeeding in the mainstream than to any advancement or celebration of Gucci Mane as an artist. On the strength of Diplo’s, Salem’s and the Willy Joy and Benzi remixes alone, this is a must download compilation, but certainly not a contender for the best compilation of the year.

3.5 OUT OF FIVE STARS