Shamir – Northtown EP (2014)

Shamir – Northtown EP

Shamir Bailey, better known simply as Shamir, has a knack for making music. The Las Vegas-based singer made a surprising impact with his Northtown EP last year. With a new album, Ratchet set for release this May under famed British label XL Recordings, Shamir seems set to make a big breakthrough in terms of pop stardom. The young singer has been making some big waves lately, due to his impressive countertenor voice and the club smash “On The Regular” gaining significant traction on the club charts. Shamir’s debut from 2014, Northtown sheds a little context and gives an insight into the young singer. With a sound informed as much by R&B and hip-hop as it is disco and Prince, Shamir has his sights set on blazing his trail in the musical landscape.

“If It Wasn’t True” sets off quite nicely. A funky house number that slinks its way off of the dancefloor into your head with ease. Subtle bass notes mix in with oldschool drum machines to craft a woozy, yet alluring number that see’s Shamir showcasing his signature vocals. Shamir sounds wise beyond his years, as he sings ” Northtown has a great retro vibe about it, not retro in the revivalism sense, but more that it sounds like it crawled out of the ground from another time. The disco vibes that ring out via “If It Wasn’t True”, the acid house-channeling of “Sometimes A Man” and the R&B slow-jam that is “I’ll Never Be Able To Love” don’t necessarily sound en vogue, in terms of the current musical climate. But Shamir hasn’t got time for that, he seems content to do his own thing on Northtown, rather than blindly follow trends like some fame-obsessed madman.

“Sometimes A Man” mixes a low budget disco beat with the buzzing pulse of a 303 bass synthesizer, to create an electrifyingly potent dancefloor smash. Shamir’s distinctive countertenor voice is the standout element with his music and sounds highly reminiscent of disco divas from years past such as the late Sylvester, or even a less-annoying Sam Smith. His voice is arguably the one factor that strings Northtown together, since the rest of the tracks here have little to nothing in common aside from Shamir’s sensual vocals working their magic over them. “I’ll Never Be Able To Love” sounds like The Weeknd doing “Purple Rain”, with Shamir’s high-pitched vocals mixing in well with the songs woozy and tripped out beat.

The one major downside to the EP would be the lackluster balladry of “Lived And Died Alone”, which closes out the EP. As a lo-fi acoustic song placed smack bang at the end, It sounds like an unfinished bedroom demo. The song’s country twang and acoustic strumming isn’t a good mix, and doesn’t suit Shamir’s voice at all. It just sounds Shamir got drunk and listened to way too much Daniel Johnston and Hank Williams records, then thought it’d be a good idea to record the aftermath of the night. It’s not a bad song by any means necessary, but when you stack it up against the first four tracks, the dissonance is staggering.

For all the comparisons to fellow R&B singers and disco divas, Shamir really has crafted a sound of his own on Northtown. His distinctive voice is unmatched, and blows most cut-and-paste ‘Alternative R&B’ singers out of the water. Plus Shamir’s ability work the dancefloor as well as the bedroom should be enough to place him up in the big leagues once the Top 40 comes knocking at his door. The twenty year old singer pretty much knows just how to mix introspection, danceable grooves and beautiful singing into pop music with ease, as well as making it sound just so god damn appealing in his execution. Ratchet quite simply cannot come fast enough.

7/10

Ari Solus – Caveman EP (2015)

Ari Solus – Caveman EP

One of the beautiful things about the internet is how it can influence and essentially create multiple little genres of music. The past few years have seen such breathtakingly unconventional microgenres blow-up overnight, then become dated within a manner of months after a new genre comes along to take its place. Such online oddities such as witch house, chillwave, seapunk and vaporwave have all done the Hype Machine rounds in the past few years. Little is known about Ari Solus, other than a scant Tumblr account and some Youtube videos. While not exactly an enigma, his debut EP Caveman has been causing quite a stir in some circles on the internet.

Caveman is a surrealist excursion into seemingly every online-based genre of the past five years, while simultaneously sounding like something you’ve never heard in your life. You can hear echoes of trap rap, the acoustic fingerpicking of folk rock, and enough Auto-Tune to make T-Pain green with envy. Caveman is one of the most abstract, anti-genre EP’s I’ve ever listened to before. I’d hesitate to even call it an EP in retrospect, the structuring seems more indicative of a slapdash mixtape you’d find uploaded in the dark recesses of DatPiff. If it weren’t for the small transitions inbetween “Klonopin” and “Marissa Part 2”, you’d have The production is incredibly lo-fi, but on that note it displays some oddities that give it away as a product of the internet age. Musically, Solus can’t seem to decide whether he wants to be Justin Vernon or Chief Keef, he swings back and forth between introspective folk tunes and Auto-Tuned R&B with the skill of a pro.

Solus has a tendency to warp and distort his voice beyond the point of recognition, overdosing on Auto-Tune and placing enough reverb on his vocals to make Andrew Eldritch cringe. Solus swings back and forth between a comically gothic sounding baritone (as on the album standout “Marissa”), or a Bon Iver-esque falsetto. Solus’s experimentations with Auto-Tune brings to mind fellow internet trendsetter Yung Lean, or even a more subdued 808s & Heartbreak-era Kanye West. “Ovo I Ride Freestyle” sounds like it could’ve come off one of Lean’s very own mixtapes. The sound clipping on “Immolation” somehow adds a more human feeling, to what is otherwise run-of-the-mill indie folk tune. Caveman is definitely a very low budget affair, and contains enough sampled drums and dollar-store microphones to make you question why you’re even listening in the first place.

The majority of the songs on here barely even resemble fully fleshed out ideas, some of them barely last beyond the 60 second mark, and most of them (“The Grey Days Are Just Beginning” and “Ovo I Ride Freestyle” in particular) tend to cut out before they’re even finished. “Marissa” is one of the most surprisingly beautiful songs on the album, with Solus’s gentle fingerpicking and soft percussion perfectly suiting the songs distant and isolated feeling. It sounds unfinished in parts, but at the same time you get the feeling that adding anything else to it would simply be overkill. “Post Game Update” even features a sampled loop from Drake’s Grammy-nominated single “0 To 100/The Catch Up”, as if Solus isn’t afraid of comparing himself to someone as famous as Drizzy himself. If most other people did this, it’d just sound egotistical and silly, but in the context of the EP it’s cute and endearing.

As much as Caveman defies categorisation and genre pigeonholing, you get the feeling that a genuinely decent amount of work was put into it. The trap songs are stupid, let it never be said, but others such as the highly danceable remix of “Grey Days” or the Weeknd-esque slow jam “Klonopin” work brilliantly sandwiched between the more indie-friendly tunes. Ari Solus’s penchant for minimal production combined with his music’s sense of mystery recalls the reclusive artist Jai Paul, while his love of experimentalism brings to mind Dean Blunt’s more recent work. Solus has crafted a set of tunes that, while indeed amateurish rough around the edges, show significant promise and display a definite love of moody R&B and sombre indie folk. Here’s hoping Solus can go on to outgrow his Soundcloud roots and become a full-fledged professional musician with ease.

7/10

Allday – Startup Cult (2014)

Allday – Startup Cult

The Australian hip-hop scene has never been exactly brewing with creative juices. Whether it’s Hilltop Hoods and their regurgitation of 90’s Native Tongues style rap (with all the afrocentricism replaced by middling samples and jokes about Adelaide), or 360 and his obvious bogan-baiting lyrics and stage behaviour, (not to mention godawful collaboration choices, seriously Gossling?) Australia has never exactly been a world-leader in the rap game. Iggy Azalea aside, not one single Australian rapper has made it big outside of the homeland. This could be attributed to various reasons (location, cultural differences, lack of ambition, etc.) but when you listen to someone like Seth Sentry or Bliss ‘N Eso, you get the feeling that their music would work extremely well in Northgate, but wouldn’t exactly go down well in Long Beach.

However, Allday happens to be cut from a different cloth than the legions of floral shirt & snapback wearing 360 clones you usually see getting airplay on Triple J. Startup Cult is the 23-year old Melbourne MC’s long awaited debut, coming off a string of self-released Bandcamp mixtapes that’ve been doing the rounds for the past few years. Allday’s soft, R&B-esque flow owes quite a bit to fellow emotional crooners  such Drake or Frank Ocean and his gravelly, cigarette-stained flow evokes Tyler, The Creator at his most mellow. Listening to Startup Cult you get the feeling that Allday has more in common with overseas MC’s like Childish Gambino or The Weeknd, as opposed to Seth Sentry or Kerser.

“Clouds” features a peculiar backing sample of Darth Vader’s breathing noise, which perplexes the listener while Allday’s woozy flow entrances them into the song’s grasp. “Taking Hold” sounds like a lost B-side from Drake’s Take Care, with its soft piano chords and minimalist percussion intertwining with Allday’s story about getting picked up by the police one night, then going to work a shit job in retail the next day. As he croons “I hope it kills me, ’cause I need the pain/I hope you’re ready for me, ’cause I need the same”, you can just hear the hearts of fangirls swooning everywhere. The pitched-down voice at the end of the track sounds like Allday recontextualising Tyler’s Goblin, and putting his own spin on it. He even manages to sprinkle in some Crash Bandicoot and Dragon Ball Z references into the track, while he’s at it. The production can get a bit monotonous at times, but Allday’s chilled-out flow never loses its charm even throughout the album’s 50+ minute running time, which is a tough thing for even the most experienced rapper to accomplish.

“God Starve The Queen” is easily one of the best tracks on the album, with a club-ready beat and some breathy vocals to sweeten the deal. About 40 minutes into Startup Cult, you start to realise just how accessible Allday’s music is in regards to his contemporaries, and just how easy it would be for him to blow up internationally. His cloudy, ethereal beats and soft flow sound no different from the multitude of unsigned rappers littering DatPiff and various Soundcloud pages. The moody Tumblr-indebted aesthetic that Startup Cult reeks of would resonate extremely well with today’s current crop of #Sadboys loving teens. For someone who groans at the thought of more cheesy songs about fish and chip shops and skateboards climbing the ARIA charts, it’s a breath of fresh air to see a rapper who can elevate himself above such clichés and deliver a cohesive album in the process. If Startup Cult is any indication, Allday has the audacity to go beyond the Triple J Hottest 100 and make his mark on the world at large, not just a couple of Melbourne suburbs.

6.5/10

Ariana Grande – My Everything (2014)

Ariana Grande – My Everything

2014 has been an absolutely massive year for Ariana Grande. The pint sized pop singer with the powerhouse vocals has absolutely dominated the pop charts this year. Following on from her 2013 debut Yours Truly, the former Nickelodeon starlet was dogged with criticisms about how she was just another run-of-the-mill child star turned pop singer. While the album wasn’t necessarily terrible by any means, on My Everything Ariana seems determined to escape the Mariah Carey comparisons and deliver a fully formed album at all costs. Fortunately, this seems to have paid off for her, as My Everything is quite an enjoyable listen and easily one of the best sophmore albums of the year.

Lead single and album opener “Problem” has been absolutely inescapable on the radio since about roughly mid-April. Ariana’s vocal performance will makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. The ‘parp-parp-pa-parp’ section with the horns might be one of the most glorious instrumental hooks of the year. Iggy Azalea’s verse sounds like pretty much every other verse she’s ever dropped. That is to say, it works well in the context of the track, but it’s nothing you’re gonna be placing on a pedestal either. “Break Free” with it’s electro house beat,provided by German whiz-kid Zedd, is the dictionary definition of a club banger. It’s poppy enough for Top 40 radio, but you could drop it in the middle of a peak-hour set you’d still have at least half the club grooving to it. “Be My Baby” see’s Ariana try her hand at Jersey Club, with the mixing duties provided by Norwegian producer-of-the-moment Cashmere Cat. It’s a great track, with Cat’s spastic production knocking back and forth throughout the song, and Ariana’s voice undergoing some digital manipulation midway thorugh the track, making for a downright chilling performance.

The majority of the featured artists on the album range from passable (Iggy Azalea) to somewhat great (Zedd, Cashmere Cat) to downright bizarre. “Hands On Me” would simply be a cookie-cutter club track, were it not for the strange feature of A$AP Ferg, dropping hype statements like a madman while Ariana channels Mariah Carey with ease. Big Sean sounds braindead on “Best Mistake”, presumably spitting his lines with one eye on the clock. The soft piano chords on “Big Mistake” are pleasant, but the beat doesn’t so much thump as much as it squelches lazily along. It’s definitely one of the few let-downs on the album. “Break Your Heart Right Back” is a smooth, gloriously slow-jam of a track, featuring some menacing chords and a delightful snap rhythm. The sample of “I’m Comin’ Out” by Diana Ross induces some some sweet “Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems” vibes, and Childish Gambino’s verse fits the party-oriented mood that the track’s going for. “Love Me Harder” is the album’s  standout, and features guest vocals from Canadian R&B-troubadour Abel Tesafaye (a.k.a The Weeknd). After releasing some sweet mixtapes, and following them up with a dud of an album; it’s great to see The Weeknd back on top form. Ariana and him play off of each other in the absolute best possible ways, with her sultry vocals intertwining with his high-pitched croon.

Ariana Grande avoids the dreaded sophmore slump with ease on My Everything. She manages to traverse her way through R&B, EDM, Jersey Club and hip-hop with ease, and does a damn good job of putting her own stamp on the genres. Ariana wastes no time in putting those four octaves of her voice to good use on My Everything, with the singer’s voice being an absolute standout. If there’s one album in 2014 that could sum up the sound of Top 40 radio, it’d easily have to be My Everything. It’s a solid album that should provide plenty of enjoyment throughout the rest of the year and into 2015. Expect some great things from Ms. Grande in the future.

7/10