princemyshkin

'Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace' is not quite an ambient record, ambient being a genre where the listener’s nonpresence is permitted, if not sought. As the title suggests, Shabaka actually encourages presence and observation. The atmosphere – which he and his collaborators fashion out of breathy woodwinds, vocals, and field recordings – feels comparable to the sensation of sitting alone in nature, where one is both everything and nothing. But Shabaka ... read more

What does sincerity look like in music – and particularly, in hip hop? I thought I knew. ‘Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst’ and ‘Mommy Dearest (A Eulogy)’ spring to mind; but as excellent as these songs are, they are arguably as much performances of sincerity, hand-crafted and finely tuned, as they are vignettes into the artists’ souls. Kendrick Lamar and Boldy James open up, but only under the condition that their pain and flaws are heard seriously. ... read more

You told me that art should be nothing less than an entryway into the heart. For creatives, that is obvious. Until listening to 'Live at Montreux 1976,' I hadn’t considered the entryway as operating on a two-way basis. The pleasure of a live performance is that it is a confrontation between the body and the music: vibrations split-pulsing in the ribs, forcing a half-painful, half-erotic friction between oneself and one’s environment. Not to suggest that I was present at ... read more

'Hello Everyone' is romantic, sweet, lovesick, lonely… in the first song. The concept – as you prefaced to me, Nastasya – of an individual engaging in their own dissolution through romantic love is not fresh or anything. How did that Smashing Pumpkins song go? “Love is suicide.” But unlike an album such as Tyler’s 'IGOR,' which chooses to sit in the fleshwarm fantasy of unrequited love for a good while, the deterioration of Midori’s ... read more