WTUL New Orleans Progressive Reviews

Artist: Katy B

 Album: On a Mission

 Label: Rinse 

 RIYL: Magnetic Man, Mark Ronson, Lily Allen, Ms. Dynamite

 English artist Katy B offers a different side of dubstep. Her vocals resemble those of R&B and funk artists, and her lyrics demonstrate honest observations of her surroundings, love and everyday life. “Lights On,” a collaboration with English rapper, Ms. Dynamite, proves to be the most up-beat track on the album. The album has a range of songs that lend a retro funk-esque feel to 2000s interpretation of dubstep. Refreshing to see a female take the lead in dubstep music instead of as only a featured artist! KLM

Artist: Big History

Album: All At Once EP

Label: S/R

Add date: 11/16/11

File in: LOCAL! 

You heard it here first! Local indie poppers Big History offer you an EP of pleasure-inducing ghost-electro space jams with funky bass. Play with Ladytron, Givers, new M83 (coming soon!). Try ALL; you may be familiar with tracks 2 & 3, but I have a crush on 4. A♡G

Artist: Docteur Legume et les Surfwerks

Title:La Planete Sauvage

Label:self-released

Added: 11/21/11

Docteur Legume is ideal, really. He releases frequently, entirely for free on the web, well-produced, and usually with a pretty cool music video. But more importantly, he does surf right: excessively. The guitars are loud, brazen, and with a non-arty B-Movie anything-goes-but-never-gimmicky instrumentation that feels like it was played with just as much fun as it is to listen. He could have gotten away with the sound alone, but there are some powerful, memorable riffs in here. –HK

RIYL: Estrus surf groups, M?OAM

TRY: 7,3,2, all

These two guys come through town every so often and bring out the DIY community in droves. As purveyors of ultra-heavy doom metal, I can remember they were making some sort of debris rain down from the ceiling of Nowe Miasto when I last saw them. They’re THAT loud. This anthology gathers tracks from tour releases, self-released songs, and tracks from splits, along with one previously un-released track (12). Many of these tracks are covers and I think those are the best moments in the collection. The Sinead O’Connor “cover” of “Black Boys on Mopeds” (16) especially. Best for playing late at night for the insomniacs and fans of darkness.

Try 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16

Artist: Warm Brew
Title: Warm Brew EP
Label: 
File In: Hip Hop
Region: Los Angeles, CA

Already excellent lyrically, Cali based crew Warm Brew are (Espy, Serk Spliff, Baby Boy Manu Li and Ray Wright) backed up by mostly hot beats if not at least somewhat interesting. Espy, who made most of the beats on the album, makes pretty generous use of live instrumentation (real instruments) for a hip hop album. This is especially noticeable with the guest production of Ski Team (8) and Listed (5). Casual listeners might recognize what the last track references.

Profanity: All
Obscenity: None
Try Safe Harbor (10 pm - 6 am): All, esp 1, 2, 3 (George Benson’s “Breezin’”)

Artist: The Visioneers
Title: Marc Mac presents Dirty Old Hip Hop
Label: 
File In/Genre: Hip Hop - Instrumental (Vocals 1, 4, 5)

A (mostly) live instrument version of some originals and some of your favorite beats. For this one, just play a game with yourself to see if you can recognize the beats. When you pass Lvl 1, proceed to find out where the samples themselves come from. This is pretty much a primer for how a band should play hip hop and make it interesting while staying true to the idiom.

Try: 2*, 3**, 4*, 6, 8*, 9 (could totally pass for porno music though), 10**, 11, 12, 14, 15

Artist: Various
Title: Red Hot + Rio 2
Label: Entertainment One
File In/Genre: World -> Brazil -> Tropicalia 

Basics you might be interested to know before playing:

Tropicalia 
- came to prominence just after bossa nova began to wane in the popular eye in Brazil during the beginnings of the military gov’t 
- artistic/cultural movement based around the concept of the cannibalization of culture. 
- music: decidedly politically-charged psychedelic prog-rock with lyrics often existential or armed with a subtle subversive bent and a bossa/samba rhythmic feel. 
- Popular tropicalia artists: Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Os Mutantes, Chico Buarque, Tom Ze, Gal Costa
- Artist Features Namedrop: Of Montreal & Os Mutantes (Of Montreal have been covering this song for awhile now), Madlib, Beirut, David Byrne & Caetano Veloso, Mia Doi Todd & Jose Gonzales, John Legend, Aloe Blacc, Devendra Banhardt, Beck & Seu Jorge (that one Beck song from the 90’s that was his take on the idea and music of tropicalia, here the only difference is Seu Jorge singing the verse), Ceu, John Legend, Javelin & Tom Ze, Bebel Gilberto

Note: A lot of songs on here might seem like they start weak or cheesy, but usually totally evolve. Unfortunately some never really get better. Certain covers are interesting, such as the take on “Águas De Março” which settles on paying homage to the famous duet version of Jobim and Elis Regina. Of course, that song isn’t really tropicalia, just a super popular song in Brazil (then again, there are a few on here that aren’t really tropicalia). John Legend track sucks, the least he could have done was try to sing the style. Sinatra did, and John Legend is no Sinatra. Also, the Of Montreal/Os Mutantes is really just Os Mutantes teaching Of Montreal how to actually sing the song, since Of Montreal have been doing it wrong as part of their live set for years.

CD 1: 1*, 4, 5, 7*, 8*, 9, 10**, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17
CD 2: 1, 4, 5*, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14*, 16

Artist: Megafaun
Album: Megafaun
Label: Hometapes
Add date: 11/06/11

RECOMMENDED. In indie genealogy, Megafaun is a sibling to Bon Iver, both descending from Eau Claire, WI band DeYarmond Edison, which split up after a move to Raleigh, NC. Justin Vernon moved back to Wisconsin and made For Emma, Forever Ago, an album whose origin story is modern myth; Phillip Cook, Bradley Cook, and Joe Westerlund stayed in NC as Megafaun, and made two albums and an EP that don’t have nearly the recognition, despite racking up numbers like 7.8 on the ’fork. This is their third album, recorded November 2010 in Fall Creek, WI. So, that said, I think the promoter RIYLs are too obvious: Bon Iver, duh. Fleet Foxes, sure. Drive-By Truckers, are your folk horizons that limited? This is casual, deep-gazing, long-country-driving indie rock/psych-folk, and I’ll agree with RIYL The Band, but only if we pretend Bon Iver is Simon & Garfunkel. It can sound like there’s several similar bands on this album, maybe because almost every track features different guest musicians (including Justin Vernon on guitar in track 3 [SH only, and worth all 8 minutes]). Track 1 puts up a deceptively laid-back front, building with reverb but releasing in singalong; track 2 breaks vocal harmonies into Sufjan-style sonic crashes and pan flutes. Track 4 is the most Bon Iverian, all ringing harmonies and wintery piano. Track 7 is seventies-style rock heaven; 9 is a moody, slow-mo, screeching, Black-Keysian take on the Staples Singers song “I’ve Been Scorned.” Instrumental: 5 (energetic, jazzlike but not jazzy), 10 (pysch-glitch-folk), and 13 (continuation of 12 that could be played as one, features Hometapes co-founder Adam Heathcott playing the Reactable smartphone app) — don’t overlook them. Secret track 15 is weird vocal samples and a square-dance song starting at 4:30, so for radio purposes I’d give it a miss. In sum, I’m glad I let this lie around until I got a good listen and did some research, because it is seriously quality. A♡G

RIYL: Vetiver, earlier Okkervil River, Bon Iver, The Band
Try: 1!, 4, 5, 9!, 10, 12, 13
Profanity: 3!, 7! (but play in Safe Harbor)

Artist: Twin Killers
Album: The Two Fridas (Single)
Label: S/R
Add date: 11/4/11
Genre: LOCAL

Taking its title from the Frida Kahlo painting, this single from the Baton Rouge band has a tone of hysteric, moody, heavy darkness. RIYL PJ Harvey, Bat for Lashes. A♡G