No beef, only a Madlib beat — plus new songs by Charly Bliss, Ted Leo : NPR

8 Tracks is your antidote to the algorithm. Every week, NPR Music producer Lars Gotrich, with the assistance of his colleagues, makes connections between sounds throughout time.

The place had been you once you first heard a Madlib beat? Mine was 21 years in the past at WUOG, the student-run station for the College of Georgia, the place I used to be one in every of three music administrators. Our desks had been simply stacks of CDs and hulking PCs; music was a continuing within the workplace as we debated airplay and fielded cellphone calls from school radio publicists. Finals would have simply ended, so when Madlib’s “Slim’s Return” spun up, the muggy waves of summer time all of the sudden hit me with cut-up flute, fluttering orchestra sweeps, watery vibraphone, disembodied MCs and turntable scratches.

That tune got here from Shades of Blue, which gave the producer entry to the Blue Observe vault to remix the honored jazz label’s catalog. On “Slim’s Return” alone, he reshapes The Three Sounds’ lush “Ebook of Slim” and flutist Bobbi Humphrey‘s breezy “Blacks and Blues,” but in addition snips parts from KRS-One and Gang Starr. The music looks like a magic trick. The album did and did not put together me for what would occur in 2004: Madvillainy, Madlib’s virtuosic collaboration with MF DOOM, who ended up changing into my favourite rapper of all time.

Madlib’s received method too many pseudonyms and initiatives, however I do my greatest to maintain up together with his tempo. Jahari Massamba Unit, his jazz duo with Karriem Riggins, launched YHWH is LOVE only a couple months again. In case y’all thought Madlib was simply beats, it is a reminder that the dude’s received severe chops on nearly each instrument you may title. However then Madlib drops a brand new observe like “REEKYOD” and I’m reminded as soon as once more that Madlib is simply constructed completely different. On this version of 8 Tracks, we bow right down to Madlib’s mastery, plus take a look at new music by Charly Bliss, Fana Hues and reminisce on an outdated Ted Leo file.

Madlib (feat. Black Thought & Your Previous Droog), “REEKYOD”

It is a growth bap that drags — not behind the beat, however like a rogue planet spinning in its personal orbit. House detritus joins and exits the social gathering as want be: muted horn blasts, extraterrestrial squiggles, Solar Ra-style synth noise, string squeaks and the occasional beat blast that sends every part off-kilter for a cut up second. Two generations of rappers take a rocket to stake their place in house: Black Thought spits, “I am not sparing the rod / Not so long as I am nonetheless inhaling air and alive,” whereas Your Previous Droog clowns on haters: “Heard any person say Droog shouldn’t be an entire artist / You higher off trusting a person with three barbers.”

NIKI, “Too A lot of a Good Factor”

If NIKI’s final album Nicole saved large feelings at bay with an atmospheric pop temper, it looks like the forthcoming Buzz will shake every part free. With a slinky-but-spare string part and a snare-and-bass-drum beat that struts like new boots on an outdated sidewalk, “Too A lot of a Good Factor” provides the Los Angeles-based Indonesian pop singer extra room to swagger. The music drops out when she dares her crush to make a transfer: “To not jinx it, however I wanna be the rationale / Your future lovers hold altering with the seasons, babe.”

Fana Hues, “Paper Tigers”

After I first heard Fana Hues’ flora + fana in 2022, I might hear a restlessness in her music, which the singer-songwriter confirmed in an interview for NPR: “I do really feel just like the music that I make is R&B, and then some.” This observe begins in a well-recognized zone — a soulful, off-ya-shoulder pocket and keys that catch that glowing feeling of recent love — however then “Paper Tigers” slams down a psychedelic guitar riff. The shift is sudden, however she communicates an pressing ardour, “You are the one I waited for,” with the not-so-subtext: And I am not letting you go.

Charly Bliss, “Nineteen”

In its indie-rock days, Charly Bliss might seize youthful desperation with a squeaky spunk, however because the band’s moved towards pop so, too, has its introspection deepened. Maybe “Nineteen,” a slow-burning ballad worthy of a placement on The O.C. again within the early 2000s, can solely include a ways. It is a tune about younger love — how every part aches as a result of your coronary heart does not know your head from its ass — however extra importantly “Nineteen” asks us to be form to the various errors that had been made within the midst of blooming. Oh, and Eva Hendricks completely sells this vocal efficiency.

Supermilk, “Sweat”

Forgive me for feeling nostalgic for 2004 (see above: Madlib), however it’s additionally been 20 years since The Futureheads launched its self-titled debut and, frankly, extra people ought to know in regards to the English band’s tautly thrilling post-punk. The Futureheads’ secret weapon? Meticulously syncopated, ping-ponged shut harmonies, which I used to be tickled to additionally discover on this revved-up power-pop ripper by London’s Supermilk. “Sweat” lays down extra fuzz and permits extra room for the melody to spiral, however satisfies my want for buttoned-up harmonic frenzy.

Wild Up, “Our Father”

My colleague Tom Huizenga as soon as summed up Julius Eastman‘s music as “difficult, mischievously irreverent and typically ecstatic.” The equally euphoric and daring ensemble Wild Up has taken up the problem and can launch its fourth quantity of Eastman’s music this summer time. Our Father is one in every of Eastman’s final recognized works and, for somebody who punked up the classical world, it is moderately austere. Written for 2 male voices, right here singer Davóne Tines doubles his intoxicating bass-baritone voice over sparse strings for a liturgical chant that haunts the chapel.

Gastr del Sol, “The Bells of St. Mary’s”

In 1996, Gastr del Sol contributed a model of this obscure, seasonally adjoining tune to a subversive Christmas compilation solely launched in Japan. (The Christmas Album additionally featured avant-tinsel toe-tappers by Soften-Banana, Secret Chiefs 3 and a not-so-“Silent-Evening” by way of Merzbow.) The forthcoming album We Have Dozens of Titles collects dwell, unreleased and in any other case hard-to-find tracks by David Grubbs and Jim O’Rourke‘s short-lived, however well-beloved duo, from an period when “post-rock” usually meant adventurous rockers making an attempt their hand at post-classical composition. Gastr del Sol strips the melody of its schmaltz — “The Bells of St. Mary’s” was revived within the Forties by Bing Crosby, it must be famous — for a slow-motion snowglobe shake of droning organ, hiccuping synths and left-hand piano minimalism.

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, “Little Daybreak (Demo)”

If y’all will allow me one final formative piece of 2004, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists’ Shake the Sheets additionally got here out 20 years in the past this October. It is a meditation on dwelling beneath and thru warfare — each figuratively and actually as American troopers had been stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq — that, shocker, nonetheless rings true. To commemorate, Leo launched the album’s demos on Friday; the concepts had been all there from the beginning, simply roughly recorded. “Little Daybreak,” an intricately soulful-yet-nervy rocker, all the time felt like a letter to anybody listening as a lot as himself: “However on the times and nights it is exhausting to breathe and you may’t consider you continue to stroll the streets / Stretch out your weary hand to me, it is all proper.” He is touring for the Shake the Sheets anniversary this yr and I’ll shout this from as many rooftops as attainable: By no means miss a chance to see Ted Leo dwell; recently, he is discovered an invigorating new groove onstage that lifts me skyward.