Def3 + Late Night Radio - Weddings & Funerals (Album Review)

Building on the phenomenal sounds and successes of Def3’s Small World, Weddings & Funerals finds the MC re-teaming with producer/DJ/general magicmusicman Late Night Radio for another feast where electronic music and hip-hop combine and reach something different, new and important. The pairing is a phenomenal match – evident that both artists understand each other and as such, compliment each other perfectly. On Weddings & Funerals, the raps and beats stand side by side in triumph, resulting in one of the years most warm, immediate and welcoming records.

Even more than Small World, Weddings & Funerals is deeply warm and highly personal; an album that feels like it needed to be made. On “Better” the homie raps “Funny thing about it when I write these jams, is in the end I’ma probably need it more than my fans,” and there’s where the impact of Weddings & Funerals lies. The specificity of the lyrical focus makes it all feel very universal and relatable.

“Just Wait” comes out of the gate hard with deep, smooth bass and some Dragonball Z. I’m constantly shocked the things I know about Dragonball Z because of rap music despite having never watched any of it. It's a great opener that sets up the rest of the album perfectly; some of the best straight-up rap-boasting I’ve heard in some time.

Late Night Radio is bringing some serious grooves here, as he is want to do. The groove on “Lift Off” is seriously infectious and should be a late-night wind-down party jam when everyone on the dancefloor is spent and just needs a warm hug. “Real Love” is a big, huge love song with an incredible swelling sax line – when the instrumentation drops and we’re left with just Def3 and the rhythm, it’s something special. “Drowning” is an arresting, contemplative, beautiful piece of hip-hop that finds Def3 bouncing over wonderfully lilting keys and horns. The production is so thought out, clear – every instrument, every beat is slotted in perfectly and given the proper space to breathe.

A lot of the album touches on fighting through darkness, both personal and societal, and while I do find that tiresome as a recurring theme quite often, the way the raps are built and sit on the beats here, the message never feels cumbersome or overwrought. Def3 radiates too much joy from the mic to for me to ever find the slightest bit bothersome. This is lyrical dexterity and relentless warmth – a deadly combo. Nothing on the album is more emblematic of this balance than “Push.” It’s a big, driving tune suiting of its title and a song that I would expect to be on a variety of playlists.

When we near the end of the record, LNR and Def3 drop “Got Away,” an achingly gorgeous and uplifting ode to the people that have been lost on the journey. The big, swelling organ combined with LNR’s little guitar flourishes and Def3’s flow is a deadly combination. And if that’s not enough, we finish it not by looking at weddings or funerals, but rather at birth, as Def3 closes up with the exquisitely lovely letter to his daughter, “Rani.”

The word “warm” has appeared a couple of times here I know, but in a cultural landscape that seems to be being slowly drained of warmth from every angle – hip-hop being a very big victim of this draining – Weddings & Funerals is like a blanket straight from the dryer on a cold evening. Highly recommended for anyone who needs some peace, some encouragement and/or some kindness – with big, cozy, groovy beats to match – in their hip-hop diet.

You can stream Weddings & Funerals on your favourite streaming platform, or better yet - go support good music and pick it up from Bandcamp.

The Dough Boys - The Dough Boys (Album review)

The Dough Boys - The Dough Boys (Album Review)

The Dough Boys self-titled debut is a perfect slice of chilled-out jazz-rap swagger; a confident, hazy-blazed way to introduce themselves to the world. In the opening track “Eulogy” BRAINiac declares “I don’t need the beat, I’ll kill this a capella” and with his previously laid evidence I have no doubt this is true, but I'm glad he doesn't go a capella because the melding of the MC with The Dough Boys has created something unique, dripping with ideas and energy. The Dough Boys have some serious musical chops and obvious chemistry that raise their debut to something unique in the quickly saturated jazz-rap world. At a time when a lot of albums are seemingly created for a streaming world, with too many tracks – songs stretched to 4 minutes to maximize profits, etc, The Dough Boys have a created a sharp, focussed, well-thought out piece of art to start their journey with. The album leaves you wanting more, not thinking about where the fat could have been trimmed.

“Dogs Gotta Eat,” the albums first single and a rework of the track that appeared on BRAINiac's incredible Lunch Meat (2019), is an obvious highlight. It brings some heaviness that the original didn't have while doing the very important work of giving that incredible hook – one of the best to come out of the west coast in a long time – a new breath of life. And there is the hook for the whole album – this is serious jazz-rap ysht with a full band, immediately setting it apart from a lot of the bedroom/solo produced jazz-rap that is filtering out into the musical world these days. The Dough Boys are able to pull out a surprising number of sounds and feelings from within small, connected framework. The beautifully lilting summer love anthem “Your Man” floats down the ear canal, while “Blunt” comes in dense and heavy – much like the feeling of smoking a proper blunt. Very different songs, that both directly hit what they're trying to do while fitting incredibly nicely on the same record.

This is hip-hop and the Dough Boys make sure to allow their MC to be front and centre but the moments when they take the spotlight are arresting and impactful. Check the back half of “Collage” where BRAINiac's flow has gains big momentum just to stop dead and give way to a heart-aching saxophone solo. “Amidst Everything” floats on a cloud of spacey, drifting keys. I haven't thought of a guitar as a secret weapon in many years, but here on the Dough Boys' debut, the guitar is a shockingly effective weapon – like on “Thirst” where the guitar just gives the song such a perfect, slinky, sliding-through-the-night feeling. (Check out guitarist Ranger's generally fantastic solo output too. Especially this wonderful single.) And none of it works without a rhythm section, after all, this is hip-hop, and the rhythm section holds the proceedings together tightly.

With their smart, stoned-out, perfectly chilled debut, The Dough Boys are staking their claim as an act to watch on the west coast to watch. They've built a base for something special going forward. And even if they just stopped at this one album, they could rest easy known they've created a legit summer classic of an album.

Support the boys and pick up the album on Bandcamp (It’s also available to stream wherever you like to stream things.)

BURNT starts 2021 strong with "Reaching for the Sun"

It didn't take long – just one day, with a January 1 release – for the first really interesting album of 2021 to hit the galactic frequencies, as BURNT started off the year with their sprawling opus Reaching for the Sun. If you like reggae, any flavour of reggae - roots, dub, ska - this is an album you need to get into your ears. If you're just a passing fan of the music - the spirit and soul, the vibes - then you also need to get his into your ear canals. Reaching for the Sun is a spiralling, lovely journey into the heart and soul of reggae, created by a group of humans that clearly have nothing but genuine love in their hearts for the music. Oh, and the serious musical chops required to bring their ideas to a crystallized fruition.

This album is a big one, especially for me personally, as this album has pulled me back towards inspiration, back to writing. Like many people reading this, the past year pulled me away from many of the things I've personally loved. The inspiration to do these small but necessary things had just slowly dwindled away and when the flicker of inspirado would linger, the energy was rarely there to match. But Reaching for the Sun got into my bloodstream and lit something inside me almost instantly. Even though BURNT has been on my radar for sometime, I knew this was the moment I had to reach out and make contact with these groovy humans. Using the magic of conference calling, we talked about all manner of things including the creation of Reaching for the Sun. (Stay tuned for a huge installment of 5 Questions with Rags featuring BURNT. Coming very soon.)

That Reaching for the Sun is positively overflowing with such smooth grooves and was created in the midst of global pandemic is more than a feat. It's one thing for a DJ or rapper to be able to create in this environment, but for a large group of players so synonymous with live performance and recording, this is a genuine achievement. And to release an album – a unified piece of art – of such length in an age when a lot of music is seemingly created to be consumed as singles, is a refreshingly bold move.

“I think once we got sent home now it was like 'We have all the time to do this, but how are we going to make the album work if we can't be together?'” explains Jamal, producer and player of both sax and keys. “We didn't really have a plan for anything. I also think that honestly had we been able to get together to do an album the way we normally do, we probably wouldn't have had as many songs as we did.”

The challenges of making a record with a full band that can't be in each others' presence are clear and many, but it's the immediacy of the creation process that gave some of the biggest challenges while creating the record. “You put a part down and you send it, you have to wait to hear back if it works or if it doesn't, whereas if you're all together you can lay something down and know right away if it's gold or if it's shit,” says Burnt bassist Karthik. Producer and player of both sax and keys, Jamal adds, “The magic part about doing it live and with everyone there, is being able to see everyone's initial first reaction. When everybody fucking lights up at the same time. 'That's the take! That's the one!' That reaction is invaluable and no matter how good you are at communicating, you can't replace that.”

The long recording process, exacerbated by the separation, changed the process so much, that Burnt ended up with their most sprawling album to date, running over two-hours and 27 songs. “I think that doing this all from home – it slows the process down because each person has to do things one at a time. And when you slow things down you just keep coming up with more shit to throw on the pile,” explains Jamal. “Had we all gotten together, we could have banged out 12 songs in a month and half and that would have been the album. But because we kept coming up with good ideas before the other songs were finished, it felt like we couldn't really throw them out. It didn't feel like there were any filler songs we could throw out.”

Hard to believe that at over two hours there isn't any filler littering the sonic landscapes of Reaching for the Sun, but as someone who has listened to the album more than a few times, I can confirm that Burnt has pulled off the feat of a seriously bounding, filler-free record. And even on such a jam-packed record, there are songs that leap out of the speakers and grab the ears attention, reggae-lover or no. “Moscas” is a slow-burning jam that weaves it's way down to the ear drum. “That one is just super raw and I would say out of all the tracks on the album, one of the most authentically BURNT – To what the essence of what the band is and does. It came from a very organic place that no other band could have done,” says Jamal of the track. Karthik recalls the inspiration for the album, “Back in the day, in the San Diego desert, we used to record at Studio One in the Coachella Valley, and there was always a gang of flies in the studio. There was always fly paper and there's pictures of me around with two fly swatters, swatting the shit out of flies.”

“It’s hot as fuck, and it’s sweaty and there's moscas everywhere.” - Danny (Not pictured. See paragraph above.)

“Moscas” stands in stark contrast to – but somehow remains in the same spirit of – a song like the high-octane bounce-fest that is “Bolo The Kelp Rider.” An instrumental track that drives along with relentlessly fun momentum. Guitarist and vocalist Danny has vivid memories of the creation of “Bolo”: “Some of these tracks were kernels of songs that have been floating around with us for years. At some point we were up at Rob's place in Point Arena, which is on the coast about three hours north of San Francisco. Rob was telling me a story of this guy who hangs out down at the beach there, Schooner's Gultch – he's known to be seen shadow boxing with invisible enemies, and his weapon of choice is this giant bull-kelp whip. He drives a Cadillac down this dirt road, flying at a breakneck speed, knows every curve by the back of his hand and he's somehow able to just cross the Coast Highway – a very busy highway – miraculously in his Cadillac and skids into his parking spot at Schooner's Gultch, hops out and does his routine of shadow boxing with a giant bull kelp. I was enchanted by the story and after some adult beverages later, the bones for that song started to come out.”

Even though everyone in BURNT has their instruments and has a role, those roles are shifting and changing all the time. I found this out first hand when I asked drummer Rob about the big, heavy hip-hop banger, “Ablaze.” “As the drummer in the band, I didn't play drums on that track and I like the drums on it. That's the rest of the crew here doing that,” politely responds Rob to my direct question about the track. Jamal adds, “Because we were recording all separately, most of the tracks started with a drum loop or sequenced drums or something. Almost every track started like that and then we'd wipe the drums and Rob would play in. I think 'Ablaze' was one of the only ones that the vibe was already there and Rob was like, 'I don't need to do anything on this one, it's good to go.' There might have been two of those songs on the album.” Even though he didn't play on the track, Rob still looks at the track as a big one for the band. “That song is a powerful track. I feel like we wanted to release that in the summer. That song was pretty much done before 2020 occurred. November of 2019. All of a sudden that song got really relevant to me, so I'm glad it's out there in the universe.” The track is another testament to the power that a group of people can have both in creating art and spreading a message. One of the more powerful tracks on the album, “Ablaze” grabbed me right away just like the deep, almost sinister dub reggae of “Ganjamal Dub Revenge,” a track that builds and stomps its way to a towering crescendo featuring rhymes and flow of powerful Karmic Basis, MC and frequent BURNT collaborator. “Anger. Just fucking mad at the system. That's the feeling,” says Karmic Basis of the standout track. Personally, I wish I had of asked Karmic about “Twisty” because, upon retrospect, it's absolute fire – a perfect amalgamation of hip-hop and reggae that is going to make it onto any number of future playlists that I will be making.

The sunny vibes associated with reggae obviously buoy Reaching for the Sun, and nowhere is that ethos more evident than on a couple of other standouts “Frankie and Dobby” and “Moonglow.” The former a beautiful, slowly lilting love track that will probably steal a piece of each listener's heart. “That was a fun track to record on. I have a lot of basses – that's an understatement – throughout this process I had to figure out different basses to use for different songs, different amp settings and everything,” Karthik says of the beautiful ditty. Danny adds, “Karthik was very humble in his reponse here. The bass playing on that track really blew me away. Not just because it’s such a tasty groove, but because he really has so much chops as a musician but clearly worked hard to find and focus the pocket on that track. That’s a real thing for our musical evolution together.”

And then we come to “Moonglow,” a song that has been haunting BURNT long before the seeds of Reaching for the Sun were even created. “It's a song that's had three or four different versions. More than 5 years – I thought maybe it would be a single one day and it just never really came around. We were trying to revamp the old version, at some point Danny was like, 'We need to strip everything off of it.' So we stripped it down to literally just the guitar. Karthik redid the bass line for it. We wiped out the drums and Rob did drums on it. Even then I thought for awhile it was going to get cut. It was one of the last tracks to make the album and it was thanks to Miguel from Sublime who finally did the finishing touches of the guitars and some weirdo synth work that glued the whole thing together and brought the song to life. I'm so happy because honestly that's one of my favourite songs on the album and it was pretty damned close to not making it. Again,” says Jamal, to a big laugh from the rest of the band on the line.

I could go on and on here about every track on Reaching for the Sun, (For instance, keep your ears open for the gritty, hard-hitting “Shadows” and the warm reggae-hug that is “True Love Never Chain”) but why would I want to take away the experience of sitting down, lighting up your favourite herb or pouring a glass of your favourite drink, laying back and taking in the first incredible musical journey of 2021? If you've made it this far reading this piece, then you're probably already on the train, but if you haven't heard the album, or BURNT at all, you should go right now and get Reaching for the Sun spinning and ride down the sonic highway to auditory bliss.

Grab Reaching for the Sun from BURNT's bandcamp now! (Or stream on Spotify if that's your bag. But they're independent and buying music directly is ALWAYS a good way to support good homies and good art.)

Sexweather - Sexweather (Review)

Sexweather – Sexweather (Review)

The first time I saw Sexweather live my first thought was “This is one of the worst bands I've ever heard.” By the end of the set I was loudly declaring to anyone who would listen, “This is one of the best bands I've ever seen in my life!” The potent combination that informed that performance – passion, skill and excitement that boarders on recklessness – oozes from every nook and cranny of the power trio's eponymous, self-titled debut. I've listened to Sexweather fucking countless times since its release last summer and I still get the feeling that it might all just fall apart at any moment. That is a truly beautiful thing in music and something that is generally only found in a live setting. Sexweather is a record that manages to capture that elusive feeling – a rare album, indeed.

Is the production? That's a big part of it, because the production here is truly phenomenal. The sound has an very deep, familiar warmth, and it's a bit rough; but it doesn't sacrifice modernity or cleanliness to achieve its decidedly classic sound. Sexweather is just, end-to-end, a really, really good sounding record. Immaculate production aside, this is all about the powerhouse collection of 10 songs that make this record.

The idea that a mini tour through Americana would come from the Canadian west coast in 2019 is kind of a baffling one, but here we have it. The album is an ode to the many facets of American music. There's a straight ahead 70s acoustic campfire singalong, “Wendy.” There's the really fucking good, laid-back jazz rap of “Musician.” The down and dirty blues-rock of tracks like “Golden Ticket” and “Black Bayou,” the latter of which is an especially sticky, sweet sludge for your ears. The hard-driving “Takedown” is perfect speeding-down-the-highway-at-night-with-a-cigarette-in-your-mouth music, and what, may I ask, is more Americana than that? Don't usually use the word “bratty” these days when talking about any kind of guitar-based music but “Punanawa” (which I just spelled correctly on the first attempt, thank you) is one of the straight-up brattiest songs I've heard in a long time and it's fun as hell.

Putting your biggest song at the end of the album is a thing I've missed in a lot of albums I've heard and Sexweather does just that as they close things off with “Abracadabra.” The hook on this song is absolutely ridiculous. Legit will be stuck in your head for days after just the first listen. Each member takes lead vocals. It's a little musical journey that feels like three songs in one. It's a lean 6 minutes but feels like a muscular 3.5. If any other song ended this album I would genuinely complain and it would ruin the experience. But another song doesn't end it. Sexweather ends with “Abracadabra” and as such, I can say this is one of the most genuinely pleasing albums I've heard in a very long time. This is a goddamned good record and one you should listen to.

Pick it up at Bandcamp.

Emotionz - Gems (Review)

EMOTIONZ - GEMS

A little hip-hop treasure, Gems is a warm, thoughtful and hella groovy record from Emotionz, one of Vancouver's mightiest MCs and keepers of the culture. Gems is a lovely example of old school hip-hop aesthetic and beats flavoured with just enough spice from the modern era to keep it tasting fresh and delicious. “Warm” is the word that can't leave my head anytime this record is on. The production is lush and rich, sliding along at a deeply restful and calming pace. Lyrically, Emotionz is concerned with the earthly, the human, the immediate. If albums had mission statements, I think a good, simple mission statement for Gems would be “Anti-Bling.” While I personally don't need or want all of my rap diet to be on this tip – or really even to be making any point at all really – right now, in early 2020, this is exactly what I (And my best guess is a quite a few others) need in my musical diet.

The album is a easy-grooving, endlessly pleasing listen. Soothing boom-bap beats, with hefty doses of soulful bass lines, sweet horns and drums that hit proper. Beginning to end, Gems is going to keep your head your head bobbing and your spirit feeling strong. If you haven't heard it I don't want to spoil too much, because like any piece of art, you should discover it on your own. I could point to any of the tracks on here and say, “If you like good, solid rapping on a positive steez, over classic beats that work the car or in a club (albeit, a really cool club – if such a thing exists), listen to this album,” so I'm going to do that and point out a couple of my favourites after more than a few listens through the album.

“Complications” bounces along on a sexy house beat that slides down the ear canal like warm audio-syrup. The track has Emotionz going in with lots of “tions” rhymes – which has made me realize how pleasant of a sound that “tion” sound can be to ears when utilized correctly. Combined with that groovy beat, the song is works as both earworm and hip-shaker. “Request Line” is an absolute staple of so many rap albums I grew up, with homie is rapping lovingly about all the rappers and pieces of hip-hop culture that inspired him. This kind of shit always makes me feel good because it's a nice reminder that people making rap are usually doing it because they're real fans. Just like us! Seriously though, this is in my lane. On an album that repeatedly proves Emotionz' seemingly bottomless capacity to write a verbal hook that gets into your brain, I don't think anything here accomplishes that like the slow-burning, chilled-out G-funk treasure, “Moments.” Emotionz' use of varied tempos and cadences on this one is pretty astonishing and when he gets to “Is you good?/Well alright/In my hood/We could ride/And we could/Go all night...” there's something that happens in the brain that commands full attention.

Gems is full of delights for fans of hip-hop that are looking for something fresh, but are missing a more old-school vibe, both in lyrical aim and in beatsmanship. It's definitely going to be an album to reach for as winter fades and the creeping warmth outside needs a soundtrack.