Photo by Samantha Casolari
As we continue to look back at the year that was, we’d like to take a moment to memorialize 40 records we haven’t already highlighted in our editors’ lists (available here, here and here) or album spotlights, starting with a stunner that soothed our caffeine-wracked nerves every time we had to deliver an issue on deadline…
Check out Zola Jesus’ favorite films of the year below…
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Photos by Elizabeth Weinberg
A lot’s happened since the last time self-titled spent an afternoon with Das Racist, exploring the Queens neighborhood where MC Heems and hypeman Dapwell grew up. For one thing, the Brooklyn trio—rounded out by Kool A.D., possibly the only rapper we’ve ever seen rocking a pair of Zubaz pants—finally released its first proper album, Relax, a record that rightfully earned the group a Spin cover and the tagline “hip-hop’s smartest smartasses.” Relax has also kept Das Racist on the road for the past few months.
So rather than grill them about their role in underground rap or what it was like working with members of Vampire Weekend, Yeasayer and El-P, we asked the group about 25 of 2011’s most talked-about tracks…
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The Men, shot at their rehearsal space
Photo by Jimmy Fontaine
As promised late last week, we’ve uploaded the Web version of our latest issue for mass consumption a few days earlier than our enhanced iPad edition. Check it out below—featuring cover stories on Azealia Banks, The Men and Factory Floor, and exclusive features with Nicolas Jaar, Charlotte Gainsbourg and many, many more—or on a dedicated widescreen page here…
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Words and Photos by Andrew Parks
If you could make it past the kill joy closing of Fleet Foxes—seriously dudes, no one cares that Dizzee Rascal dissed your MOR folk music a few years ago—the second day of Pitchfork’s annual festival was rife with artists reinventing their studio sound for the stage. That goes for everything from the feel-good Grateful Dead-isms of Woods to the muscular synth-pop of Cold Cave, which finally saw frontman Wesley Eisold relishing his frontman role with the same sense of confidence and pressure-cooked aggression that he once had in the hardcore band Give Up the Ghost.
The only letdown of the day? Watching DJ Shadow struggle to project the live visuals of his ambitious “Shadowsphere” show in broad daylight. Some advice for Pitchfork’s promoters: don’t make a sample-chopping, crowd-pleasing legend in a Death Star globe play before a band that’s best heard in coffee shops and the main stage of Bonnaroo.
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As the summer release schedule slows to a slight crawl, we’re happy to report one of our most anticipated albums of the fall season: Conatus, the album Zola Jesus has been carefully sculpting in L.A. over the past year. According to her co-producer Brian Foote (see also: Nudge), the record was recently wrapped, with drums from Nick Johnson and strings from ambient artists Sean McCann and Ryan York. Other than that, the singer wrote and performed everything herself. Judging by the IDM-infused track Sacred Bones just shared, it sounds like the Wisconsin native has taken yet another creative leap on her path to becoming one of the country’s most promising solo performers.
Have a listen to the splintered synth-pop of “Vessel” and read our Zola Jesus cover story from last year below…
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Photo: Angel Ceballos
Free Association is a recurring self-titled feature where we go beyond simply streaming a new album (we’re looking at you NPR and Spinner!) and ask our favorite artists to share the stories behind their songs.
Up this week: Prefuse 73’s new one, a profoundly haunted exploration of the ether within Guillermo Scott Herren’s ever-evolving sample banks. Not to mention the raw power of such vocalists as Zola Jesus, Angel Deradoorian, and Trish Keenan. Or as the producer puts it in the following exclusive, “Yes, it requires patience, but everything underneath is mutating and taking shapes of its own.”
Listen to The Only She Chapters late at night with the lights off and you’re headphones on blast and you’ll understand exactly what he means…
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Photo by Bryan Sheffield
So it looks like the Zola Jesus appearance on Prefuse 73’s new album isn’t the last unlikely pairing we’ll be hearing from the two. According to a press release, they’ve also cut a series of mixtapes starting with a psych one that dropped today. You can grab it after the jump, and check out The Only She Chapters on April 26th…
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Check out two of Beck’s recent mixtapes after the jump, and his entire “Planned Obsolescence” archive here…
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The Artist/Album: Prefuse 73, The Only She Chapters (Warp, April 26th)
The Details: After years of side project rumblings and rambling beat-head records, Guillermo Scott Herren has finally taken a welcome detour with a weightless collection of cuts that has more in common with neo-classical compositions than manic MPC workouts.
“This record is a weird one for me,” Herren admitted in a press release. “The process features all women vocalists and voices and the music was recorded very differently from how I normally work. This can be seen as a departure from other albums but it’s not a departure intended to leave people feeling alienated or baffled. It’s just a different way to interpret my music and it’s an open invitation for anyone that wants to listen.”
Guests include Zola Jesus, Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond, and the late Trish Keenan of Broadcast. Check out the full breakdown below, and an album sampler at Warp’s site…
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