Though brief, this post might be the meatiest of all my song of the day posts, especially since I have three excellent tracks to share, and each more than stands on its own. Nonetheless, they all fit together, albeit in a somewhat circuitous way, so please bear with me.
As I alluded to before when discussing Busdriver, I am frequently bored by hiphop, both lyrically and musically. With so much experimentation and innovation elsewhere in modern electronic music, I am continually surprised to see so little of it crossover. APC, however, not only embraces it, they take it in a completely new direction too. I didn’t immediately get this particular song, and I recall it was the feature track on Warp’s website for a number of weeks to my then dismay, but I quickly warmed up to it. In fact, the only thing I love more than this track itself now is the video for it:
I think seeing the way they move makes the music even more accessible. Here’s the track again:
There is no way I cannot share LFO’s superb remix of “Ghostlawns”:
And no mention of LFO can go without playing his epic remix of “Me and Guiliani Down by the School Yard (A True Story)” — see yesterday’s post on !!! for the original):
APC broke up several years ago shortly after touring with Radiohead in Europe, but have recently begun recording together again. While Beans more than kept it interesting in APC’s absence, I can’t wait to hear all of them on their new album Fluorescent Black when it comes out in 2009.
I have been itching for some new hiphop lately, but I long ago stopped actively looking for it, and instead rely on serendipity. Prior to today, I only knew of Busdriver by his association with two other Los Angeles based luminaries Flying Lotus and Pigeon John, as well as the incomparable Beans.
I was browsing bleep today, and came across Busdriver’s Cosmic Cleavage release on Big Dada. Since it wasn’t licensed for sale in North America, I went searching for more, ended up on his myspace page, and discovered a gem in “Imaginary Places” from his 2001 album Temporary Forever.
You can imagine my delight in hearing this Busdriver track, with its stripped down sound, breakneck beats, massively deep bass, and one seriously spastic flute. I can’t even read the lyrics as fast as he can speak them:
She doesn’t love me cause I don’t have the right hair cut
I’m misunderstood, I just face it, I’m no good
but I will not appologize for anything that I say
My name is Mr. Busdriver
this is the producer Paris
we did not embarass to admit that we were purchasing a bit
of our own imaginary place
I have only bought this and one other song so far, but you can bet that I’ll look for more from Busdriver, and I will definitely have to catch his show the next time he comes through town. I know he toured with Beans the last time around, how did I miss that show?