Boris Shallow Dive #3- “Akuma No Uta”

Boris does what Boris does best here. This is definitely a continuation from what they were doing on “Heavy Rocks”, a lot of this album is still very punchy and intense in the best ways. On the streaming version of this album the opening track is extended to about 10 minutes, and it’s a very slow and steady kind of song, it’s very slow to change, it’s almost like a drone in that way, it’s very different than ... read more

Swans Shallow Dive #Anniversary- “Swans Are Dead”

Exactly one year ago I first listened to my very first Swans album, “Soundtracks for the Blind”, definitely not the best first introduction to the band due to its elusive and unique nature, but I instantly feel in love with that album, over the next 3 days I listened to their critically acclaimed 2010s trilogy of albums, and I loved them even more than “Soundtracks for the Blind”, in fact “The Glowing ... read more

Boris Shallow Dive #2- “Heavy Rocks”

A chaotic, intense and noisy album. Following their expansive masterpiece “flood” and a collaboration with Merzbow, Boris would release their 2002 version of “Heavy Rocks”, they have since reused this name for two other albums, and instead of the large and dynamic post-rock and drone of “flood” they delivered an intense and noisy rock/metal album. To call this this thing ‘intense and noisy’ is an ... read more

Casual Review:

A phenomenal album that would lay the groundwork for an even better album later down the line. Black Country, New Road’s debut is a relatively brief 40 minutes and it rocks hard for those 40 minutes, it leans a lot more into post-rock than “Ants From Up There” ever does, the hard hitting guitars and drums that swell up into these massive crescendos evokes that genre much more than the slower and more artsy “Ants From Up There”. If that album is ... read more

Album Trade Week 10: @Rolymongone

It’s another Kill Bill album. There’s some good here, I generally like the spacey and chill production, the almost futuristic feel of the beats is cool, there’s still some of that jazz rap buried in here and I still think that that is where Bill shines the most. The more of him I listen to the less sure I am of his voice, there’s just something about it that I don’t quite like for some reason, and his flows aren’t ... read more

Boris Shallow Dive #1- “Amplifier Worship”

A sludgy and droning album with some excellent highs and some unfortunately boring lows. I’ve only heard one Boris album prior to this, that being “flood”, which I thought was incredible, a perfect mix of slow and repetitive droning segments and large and bombastic rock segments; I can’t say exactly the same thing about this album though. Boris 1998 debut album, “Amplifier Worship”, leans a little too ... read more

Album Trade Week 10: @TreeofAllTime

A devastating yet strangely beautiful folk album. This one is hard to describe, it’s very elusive in a lot of ways, the instrumentals are these depressing and almost psychedelic trips made up of mainly acoustic guitar and the organ with some drums and percussion on a few songs, it’s very enchanting. The vocals are largely buried within the mix, hard to make out at times, they’re very warm but in a heartbreaking way, it’s strange, ... read more

Casual Review:

Definitely one of my favorite Kill Bill albums yet even if I do have some small problems with it. I really like the production on here, for the most part it’s super chill and jazzy, especially in the back half, I liked every beat and there’s a good chunk of variety in them while all still revolving around the same feel that this album has. Kill Bill is a solid enough rapper, his flows or lyrics never blow my mind but he sounds great on every beat and there’s ... read more

Casual Review:

Vince Staples’ exploration into rock rap paid off with an incredible album for the times. This is only my second Vince Staples album, i’ve previously heard “Big Fish Theory” and I did really enjoy that album, “Cry Baby” is very different than that album though. The production is incredible, Staples is effectively rapping over punk instrumentals, the guitars are distorted just the right amount and the riffs are catchy, the drums are super crisp ... read more

A Tribe Called Quest Shallow Dive #6- “We got it from Here… Thank You 4 Your service”

I want to start with some context behind this album, following their legendary (and eventually less than legendary) run in the 90s, Tribe would break up right before the release of their fifth album, and for many years that would be the end of A Tribe Called Quest, they would all go their separate ways occasionally crossing paths during solo records or a one off group feature. Until in 2006 ... read more

Album Trade Week 10: @Stupidstorm

Some really chill and relaxed jazz rap from across the pond. I’m generally not a fan of British Rap if i’m being honest, there’s something about their accents that just turn me away from a lot of the work that comes out over there but I like Lausse’s voice on here, he’s very chill and I like how laid back most of his performances are on here. The production on here is excellent, it’s again very chill, the jazzy drums sounds ... read more

A Tribe Called Quest Shallow Dive #5- “The Love Movement”

A soulless and uninspired slog of what wants to be album stolen from the dead corpse of A Tribe Called Quest. I already had a lot of problems with Tribe’s previous album, I thought it was uninspired for them, I thought the production was lacking, I thought the features were lacking and overall there was just this feeling that Tribe was slipping in their quality. If that album was a slip in quality, this was a nose dive ... read more

A Tribe Called Quest Shallow Dive #4- “Beats, Rhymes & Life”

This is easily Tribe at their most uninspiring and worst yet. Following the legendary back to back of “The Low End Theory” and “Midnight Marauders” A Tribe Called Quest would release their fourth album and it didn’t really feel like a new Tribe album. I’m going to structure this review in a little bit of a fun way, let’s go by the title. Starting with the beats, this is easily ... read more

Causal Review:

It’s no “Crumbling” but it’s a great psychedelic folk album that laid the groundwork for that perfect follow-up. This is definitely less adventurous than “Crumbling” but it’s still definitely out there and weird at times, there’s still that mix of traditional and acoustic folk elements and watery and psychedelic electronic elements that made “Crumbling” the masterpiece it is, it’s just on here it’s less ... read more

A Tribe Called Quest Shallow Dive #3- “Midnight Marauders”

The perfect continuation of “The Low End Theory”. Following their excellent sophomore album A Tribe Called Quest continued to expand on what they did so well on that album with follow-up two years later, the same jazzy style of production, the same socially conscious and brilliant lyricism, and the same absurdly high level of consistent quality. Let’s start with production, it’s phenomenal on here. ... read more

TOMORROW I SWEAR ITS LATE

Album Trade Week 9: @Rolymongone

It’s hard to talk about this thing, it’s simultaneously both an album and a movie and so i’m going to talk about it both ways independently as much as I can. Musically, I don’t really like this all that much, it’s definitely interesting and it’s definitely well made, and there are moments where I can really appreciate it and think it sounds pretty good, but for the most part this is surprisingly boring to me. The backing ... read more

A Tribe Called Quest Shallow Dive #2- “The Low End Theory”

This is such a massive jump up in quality from their debut, it’s hard to believe it was only a year later. A Tribe Called Quest followed up their debut with an album that fixed every single problem I had with that debut. The production on here is absolutely phenomenal, it follows the same jazz rap style as their debut but I think this does that style way better, the bass is actually crazy on here, it sounds so deep, ... read more

Album Trade Week 9: @TreeofAllTime

Some really smooth and jazzy art pop. This just sounds really nice, it’s very easy listening to me I could put this on and work on something else in the background and it would work perfectly but I can also sit here and really appreciate the intricacies of every song as well. Instrumentally this is stellar, I loved the guitars on here and the jazzy use of horns was really nice, the synths were solid as well, everything just sounds really smooth and just ... read more

A Tribe Called Quest Shallow Dive #1- “People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm”

A Tribe Called Quest is often regarded as one of the greatest hip-hop groups of all time but i’ve never really heard much of their music, so it’s time to change that. Their debut album is solid, it definitely shows promise but rarely do they quite reach the heights that I think that they can. The 4 members of A Tribe Called Quest all work really well together, Q-Tip is ... read more