Hannah Epperson "BURN"

[$5 CAD to Download // $15 CAD for 7" Vinyl // https://hannahepperson.bandcamp.com/album/burn]

I've been trying as much as I can in recent months- and really it was most of my mantra for the end of 2014 going into 2015- to not compare artists with other artists in a negative way.   This is simply to say that I no longer wish to say: "This sounds like <fill in the blank> only better!" because it's kind of that belief of putting someone else down to pick yourself up.    (Though I'm technically not picking *myself* up, just the other artist who sounds how I would like the first, not as good artist to sound)

These two songs from Hannah Epperson begin with beats, strings and an overall mix of electronic pop rock that musically has the makings of something like Gotye.     As strings are delicately plucked in the second song you can hear this as well.    It's very easy to please the ears with these intricate wonders of music on both of these songs.   I've listened to this through at least once trying to focus only on the music and pretend that the vocals do not exist (I sometimes wish I had the technology to pull the vocals out in some sort of music program way) and it is just fascinating to hear the many layers at work here.

On one hand, you have earth-shattering beats that make you believe this could be some sort of hip hop, and yet the style and grace of something classical in the string sense.   Now just imagine the stereotypical person who you would think of as liking classical music (snooty) meeting the stereotypical person who you would think of as liking hip hop (gangsta)   They seem so different, but when these two sounds clash on "BURN" it creates an all new form of beauty.

As you stop picking apart the music, listening for the various levels on which it operates, you do realize that, yes, this does indeed have some beautiful female vocals singing over it as well.    It reminds me of the first time that I heard Polly Scattergood or Kimbra, but back to what I was saying in the first paragraph-- one song particularly stuck out to me when listening to this and that was the theme song to the Netflix original series "Orange Is The New Black".    Of course that song, easily searchable for the artist behind it, is a song that I do enjoy because it gets stuck in my head when I binge watch OITNB but I am not a fan otherwise of her music.

Now I'll say something tired and cliche about how if that other artist sounded more like Hannah Epperson then I would certainly be listening to her as well.    But it doesn't really get much better than these two songs right here and regardless of what other artists you happen to like or dislike or maybe have just not heard of yet, "BURN" should be in your playlist if not your vinyl collection.

Big Shug "Triple OGzus" (Brick Records)

[http://brickrecords.com/]

I grew up listening to hip hop on cassette.   This was back when 2Pac was still alive.   I loved Dr. Dre's "The Chronic" like no other album at the time and it remains one of my all-time favorites.    When I got into my later teens though- maybe 18 years old or so- I took the switch to punk rock.   I found Fabolous and Nas in the late 1990's/early 2000's but otherwise I've had an on and off relationship with hip hop because I feel like, on a mainstream level at least, it just doesn't have what it once did.    And I think it would be fair to say that Big Shug agrees with me, though he is the rapper and I am the writer so perhaps I should say that I agree with him.

These songs have a great flow to the rhymes and they take me back to that time of Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, 2Pac and even Biz Markie.    It can be hard, like gangsta, or as he likes to say at one point "soul music with a hip hop twist".    As it pays homage to the hip hop of my youth, back when rap music was just all around excellent, there is a little something modern in here, even if it comes out by way of Nas.

The guest spots are right on and Big Shug brings something to this that only he can deliver.    On the song "All In" he says "You original but you sound like him" and I think a lot of that is true in hip hop nowadays, where you think of how good one of these mainstream rappers is and yet it's only because they sound so much like somebody else.    Big Shug makes it clear on "Triple OGzus" that he is pulling no punches and like Frank Sinatra said, he is going to do it his way.

If you are a fan of hip hop- and I mean real hip hop- or you've always just been curious as to what the appeal of it might be, then I suggest you listen to "Triple OGzus" as it is quite possibly the finest hip hop album of 2015 if not all time.    They just do not make 'em like this anymore and it is a damn shame.

Braille "Everyone's Crazy" (Friends of Friends)

[$6 to Download // https://fofmusic.bandcamp.com/album/everyones-crazy]

When I looked up Friends of Friends I found out that they release music by Shlohmo who oddly enough was connected with Tropics and I've been listening to this EP with "Rapture" to the point where I want to put the two on a mixed tape together.    Can someone do that for me?  I really don't have the time right now.

In any case, this music is strange.   It's electronic manipulation with percussion that can make it feel like hip hop at times and other times it could be chillwave.     Synth progressions come out like jazz horns and by the fourth song I'm hearing C&C Music Factory which makes me want to get up and dance.

There are a number of ways to describe this but I just like to think of it as being weird.    Even if you only listen to the first song, which happens to be the titular track, then you should be able to enjoy this because even if I don't make that Tropics/Braille split cassette I might make a mixed tape and that would include the song "Everyone's Crazy" (or at least some sort of "Best of 2015" playlist by year's end)

QuiVive "Astral Gatecrashing"

[Name Your Price Download // http://quivive.bandcamp.com/album/astral-gatecrashing]

This is my first time hearing QuiVive not on cassette and it's the first release after the cassette I reviewed, so with all of the statistics out of the way let's get into the music.    It begins with these dark sort of rock n roll guitars and then drums come in as well.   The first song just has this overall tribal feel to it as there are ahh's and what also sounds like bongos and steel drum rhythms.     The second song changes it up into these bell tone patterns that skip and then the drum machine kicks in with them.

Within the second song that is this certain rhythm that although instrumental makes you want to sing still.   It goes do-do-do-doo-do-do-doot-doo and unless you hear it then it might not make sense to you.    This is key because the next song has female vocals of sorts over it as hip hop beats are spliced into it as well.    The hip hop beats do become a theme during some of the other songs as well, so it's hard for me to say that this is a specific genre but rather an exploration of several genres.

Really slick guitar notes come out on a song that is fittingly called "fast.cars" while some sort of frequency changes groove with the beats on the last track.    I have different perceptions of what vaporwave is but I can tell you that this is probably not that.   It could be chillwave, but that seems like such a broad term to me and I only want to use it because a) this music is chill and b) I feel like it should be in a genre that ends in "wave".

      As much as I always tend to think about how that is that and this is this, I want to sit around one day and really get a true understanding of not only what all of these different genre names mean (look at the tags on Bandcamp if you genre search) but just how if we take a certain number of them and cross them over into one another what that could be.   (What is chillwave + hip hop + the guitars + etc.)    The trouble is I simply don't have time because instead of attempting anything of that sort I would much rather listen to music such as this.  

Until The Ribbon Breaks "A Lesson Unlearnt"

The overall feeling that you can get from "A Lesson Unlearnt" is one of smoov electro rhythms.    There are some bits of funk, such as on the third track, but for the most part this maintains that synth-something feel with hip hop occasionally thrown in for fun.   Yes, the old school hip hop beats do eventually lead to an appearance by Run the Jewels and really your mind should just make the connection: If Run the Jewels will be on it, then obviously it is good.

Through bits of Blue October's "Into the Ocean" vibe there is a song called "Romeo" in which he states more than once "I would have killed Romeo and saved Juliet / But I don't write stories that time won't forget".    This is strange to me because, yeah, I get that you don't want to compare yourself to Shakespeare and all that but don't you want to try and write songs that time won't forget?    Isn't that the point of this all?

Time has gone on for so long and will continue to go on long after we're gone.    Our individual existences are such small blips on the grand radar that I wonder why someone wouldn't want to do something that creates a lasting impression in a positive way.  (Say, invent the internet)

Regardless, this is one of the few artists who isn't strictly hip hop but has a song named after the artist name and it even is said in the lyrics.    The song itself references something breaking "like your favorite old tape" and that obviously wins points with me, so you should listen to this at least once in your life.   You owe yourself that much.