That’s right yall, the man, the myth, the legendary MF Doom is back and has a new album in the works.  “Born Like This” is slated for a March 24th release date, but Doom has already released two of the tracks to his myspace.  While Doom is self-producing most of the album, he’ll be rapping over a few foreign beats, courtesy of J Dilla (RIP), Dangermouse, and Jake One and featuring Wu-Tang Clan members Raekwon and Ghostface Killah.  This album would mark the return of Doom after a two-year hiatus, during which previous collaborator Madlib (of Madvillain) released Madvillainy 2 without any further collaboration with the man behind the mask.  Doom has long since been one of my favorite emcees for his versatility and lyricism.  Needless to say, I’m expecting a lot from this album, and judging by the two tracks on Doom’s MySpace, “Ballskin” and “That’s That,” Doom will deliver, like he always has.

–F. Fresh

Music has the ability to capture and convey many emotions, whether they are anger, angst, frustration, happiness, despair, or any number of others. All good music does this by painting pictures and weaving words, taking the listener on his or her own personal journey:  to the top of a mountain or into the pits of Hell;  receding into a quiet corner, on the town, or perhaps through a field of flowers. It is however, a special thing when a musician creates an album which does all of this and more. John Frusciante’s 10^th solo album, titled “The Empyrean,” is that album. If you’re looking for that journey, look no further.

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Frusciante’s solo career began in 1994, when Frusciante released “Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt” after recording the album while strung out on heroin. Since then, Frusciante has battled his demons and is now completely clean, but “The Empyrean” speaks to both sides of Frusciante’s own journey. It’s a record of personal and spiritual expression, good and bad times.

But while Frusciante has led the rock-star lifestyle, “Emyprean” is not a rock album-far from it. With cryptic lyrics and distortion effects on guitars, drums, keys, and strings alike, Frusciante’s sound is moody, psychedelic folk blending electronic and instrument into soundscapes that can be mind-altering or familiar, but never without a bit of experimentation-an interesting time signature here, a vocoder there.

The ambient textures of “Before the Beginning” set the tone for the record, as Frusciante screams soulfully over echoed drum and keys with an effected-out guitar line that reminds one of Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, using minor chords and piercing high notes to weave a wailing way through the track. The tempo is slow and sincere.

In contrast to this first instrumental track, “Song to the Siren” is a cover of the Tim Buckley song, originally written with poet Larry Beckett in the late 1960s, which showcases Frusciante’s disturbingly talented singing abilities as he narrates a story of temptation, calling to mind themes from Greek and Roman mythology. His voice is dirgeful on this track, honestly human.

“Dark/Light” also starts out slowly and carefully, a sad song over keys and quiet organs, but picks up into a bass line driven pop song, courtesy of Red Hot Chili Peppers band mate Flea, and for the rest of the song the brilliant chemistry between the two musicians takes center stage during a simple chord progression jam. On “Unreachable,” Frusciante and Flea again do some fantastic stuff: as Frusciante builds up into a two minute soaring guitar solo, Flea is right behind him, never missing a beat on the bass. As heavy as “The Empyrean” is on meaning and expression, Frusciante’s musicality can be heard on tracks like these.

“Enough of Me” and “One More of Me” use the same chord progression and similar lyrics to suggest a theme of duality. The former is more optimistic, with lines like “Whatever slips out of our hands / Will find its way back to us once again,” but the latter is dark in comparison, with lyrics like “What’s gone will never come back / But it exists when you think of it / What is anything anyway / But a series of things running through your brain.” Split by the dark, heavy song, “Central,” featuring the Sonus Quartet on strings, these two songs say outright what the rest of the album only hints at: a sense of struggle between good and evil, life and death, heaven and hell, choice and fate, saints and sinners, the forsaken and the redemptive.

Frusciante’s lyrics on “The Empyrean” play with many subtle themes but the repeated allusions to religious images and concepts are clear on the album. The album’s title itself speaks to Greek mythology and Christian literature alike about the highest place in heaven which is occupied by the element of fire, God, or the mind of God. With song titles like “God,” and “Heaven,” the allusion continues. Frusciante’s lyrics on the album are introspective, existential and speak to religious paradox. On “After the Ending,” Frusciante sings “There is nothing after the ending / Everything is eternal / Nothingness does not exist / No thing has ever become nothing.”

John Frusciante is a musician, and it’s painfully obvious on “The Empyrean.”   By telling stories that speak to us on a deep spiritual level, it is music for you and me. But, again and again, Frusciante’s solo work is his own: these words are his own personal struggles; this music is his own personal journey. We should just be glad he brought us along for the ride.

–Frosty Fresh

As I was browsing the ever expanding hip-hop blog universe, I stumbled upon one blog that struck me as “incredibly fresh” On the front page of the blog, there was a new post, more or less demanding me to download their newly released EP entitled So True. I was feeling spry, so I decided, why not? While it was downloading, I looked at some of the older posts, and realized that Deacon (part of Cunninlynguists) is featured on one of their tracks. Upon reading this, I became very excited.

When it finished downloading, I threw it in itunes, and clicked play. Now I am not a huge fan of rave reviews nor am I good at writing them, so instead, I’ll let Frosty review the album. However I am going to tell you that  I am now a huge fan of Inverse, and that these tracks have been listed in my itunes as favorites. I am also going to recommend that if you want to listen to quality hip-hop, then you should go download So True EP. This album, in my opinion should be on the shelves at the record stores, not being downloaded for free, but I’m not complaining. 

Regards,

-Jigga

Oh yeah, here’s Inverse.

Theres….Something quiet, something personal and introspective about weekend mornings.  Saturdays are either dazed attempts at piecing together friday night or a flirtatious procrastination with whomever decided to stay after the party ended.  But sunday mornings are by nature almost peaceful.  Put on the tv watch re-runs over a cup of coffee, or perhaps curl up with a book you’ve already read a couple times.  It safe to say that nothing real gets done, but thats when it all comes together.  What have I learned this week?  Who have I met that will change my life?

Not to be cheesy, but I should borrow a line from the movie, “Stranger Than Fiction.” which I saw last night, and enjoyed immensely.  How can we tell which moments in our lives are the significant ones?  It’s difficult, no doubt, to determine which courses of action to pursue at the end of the week, but perhaps that’s what sunday mornings are all about.  It’s the perfect time when life affords you a much needed breath of air, and a chance to remember the smile of a girl you just met, or have known very long, or just give you a moment to listen to the silence that a hard week can bring.  You know, the little things.

So as this Sunday morning draws to a close, and becomes afternoon, I hope you’ve spent it well.  Maybe you finished another chapter in your memoirs, or visited the neighborhood bakery with your family, or sent a cute text message to a love interest, or curled your toes and enjoyed a cup of tea with someone, or made some calls to relatives, or went for a drive down to the lake even though it was cold simply because you could.

Anyway, here’s to another week gone, hopefully some life’s lessons’s learned, and so on.

Posting some fun music soon,

F.F.

Something awful happened a couple weeks ago.  Due to some overheating issues, I damaged my hard drive disk and lost all of my music in the transfer to a new hard drive.  All of my hard work over the years, all of my discoveries, each album prized from the void like a miner’s gem, gone.  It’s not an uncommon tragedy for music lovers, but nonetheless the blow was dealt, and it took me a week to recover from my grief.  I had to rebuild what I had lost.  And so I set out with a  brand new 400 GB external to harvest and cultivate a new library of music, bigger and better than before.

I will no doubt look for much of my old music, classics, but in my search I will add new underground, overlooked B-sides from my favorite bands, and explore new genres altogether.  Since this blog is heavily about music and culture, I will post the best of my discoveries to share.

Today I’m bumpin’ some of Del the Funkee Homosapien.  If the name doesn’t tell you, he’s an alternative hip-hop artist with a flair for unorthodox beats and topics, but its all good hip-hop.  He’s the rapper from the Gorillaz record, “Clint Eastwood” if that helps you to remember (try to act like you didn’t have that rap memorized.)  I’ve been listening to some of his older stuff from when he was on Elektra records, but these days, with his last release “Eleventh Hour” to be specific, he’s working with Definitive Jux records, and so gets my vote of confidence: those gentlemen know hip-hop.

Check out Del’s MySpace to listen to some good music.

Keep it real, yo.

–Frosty Fresh

Possibly one of the most iconic and well known jazz albums ever recorded, Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, released in 1959, still deserves every bit of credit it receives today.  Too infrequently does the world enjoy the pleasure of hearing so many talented musicians–truly masters of their craft–on one album, but Kind of Blue affords us such a rarity.  Miles, Cannonball, Coltrane, Wynton Kelly, Bill Evans, Jimmy Cobb, and Paul Chambers–The Greats.  Not a jazz enthusiast?  Not a problem.  Miles’ solos are melodic enough to appeal to even the most untrained ear, and Evans’ bluesy rhythms are at once simple yet subtly complex.  An introductory album to the genre, and an old favorite for the rest of us, Kind of Blue is jazz for the soul.

Miles Davis-Kind of Blue (Imeem)

–Frosty Fresh

This is my plea.  I would really, really, like a Ffffound! invite.  If you still have yours, I would love it.  Thanks

bcourtright@mail.bradley.edu

–Frosty Fresh

Converse low-tops.  They look good with just about anything.  Clean cut and simplicity at it’s best

–Frosty

I’ve been in a real good mood all week, and I decided to start doing a “song of the day” since my days often have their own soundtrack depending on what I’m listening to.  Today, and probably tomorrow, is backed by Little Brother, one of my all time favorite, and probably one of the most slept on, hip hop groups.  Rapper Big Pooh and Phonte have been making solid album after album since the 90s, and “Slow it Down,” off the Minstrel Show, is just what I want to hear.  A classic 9th Wonder beat, meaningful lyrics, and soulful chorus after chorus, this track has it all.  The production is tight and flawless and even though the skits on the album are wisecracks at Black culture in the media, “Slow it Down” is sincere and wonderful. So if you missed it, or just wanna hear it again, check it out.

Little Brother-Slow it Down ft. Darien Brockington

–Mister Frosty Fresh

Threadless, one of my personal favorite T-shirt outlets, is having it’s Annual Holiday Sale going on right now.  Threadless is a 24/7 365 T-shirt design contest where artists can submit their designs to be printed and sold through the Threadless site and in Threadless stores.  The result can be some pretty unique artwork–not your average graphic tees.  I already own 7 or 8 Threadless shirts, but with sales of hundreds of designs at $15, $10, and $5 bucks a pop, the number is sure to rise.  Check out all the designs Threadless has to offer.

–Frosty