on the pulse - 2023 - #19 - andre 3000, ajr, danny brown, chris stapleton, aesop rock, reverend kristin michael hayter, sofia kourtesis, dominique fils-aime
Dominique Fils-Aime - Our Roots Run Deep - So after the conclusion of her three-album trilogy in 2021 with Three Little Words - quietly one of the best albums of 2021 - I wasn’t sure where she would go next. And this… it’s hard to dislike, given how the production is still immaculate and organic to support excellent soulful vocal arrangements, with horns and upright bass tilting a bit back towards smooth jazz as the drums and hand percussion gets more spare and textured, the compositional approach has changed. The structures are more rooted in cyclical mantras and rounds, built for meditative chants as lyrics get increasingly stripped down and repetitive, to be one with nature, embrace change, move past petty earthly dramas and angst. I can’t deny it’s effective in this lane, but with how short so many songs feel, it can feel thin. Certainly tasteful and an easy listen… just wish there was more quiet intensity; very good, not great.
Sofia Kourtesis – Madras – I’ll freely admit this review is later than it probably should be, mostly because at first glimpse, despite the critical acclaim, the description of this debut on the surface left me a bit lukewarm – Peruvian producer, currently working out of Berlin, gaining a ton of buzz off a debut EP in 2021 which was pretty damn good in its airy but sandy house bounce with its choppy vocal sampling, but I’d struggle to call it great, where even if some of the themes around a complicated relationship with one’s family and accepting one’s own queerness seemed compelling at a distance, it was tough to distinguish from that what was driving so much acclaim. Then I listened to it… and yeah, I get it now, this is terrific, but I also get why it might be tough to translate why there’s been such a leap, because it comes down to fine details. The mix still has an airy, spare approach to melody and hazy vocal samples, but they feel more developed and blended, better cushioned into the mix with tasteful reverb and the slightest touches of distortion, where the glitchy keyboard whirs and warps have been softened and coaxed around those vocal lines, or on a fractured cut like ‘Moving Houses’ it’s allowed to feel more deliberate to center those messy emotions. And the percussion is considerably more diverse and textured – you still get those sandy touches, but it balanced out by more diverse grooves, like the hazy patter of the title track that reminds me of a Jamie xx cut in its humid immensity that flows so well into the shuffling clatter of ‘Si Te Portas Bonito’ and the yearning bubbly rattle of ‘Vajkoczy’, the pulse-pounding drums on ‘What Makes You Feel Better’ and especially ‘Funkhaus’, and then the ridiculously strong one-two punch of the ending with the bassy but choppy clatter around the ethereal pianos, warped guitar, and wild vocal calls of ‘Cecilia’, followed by the Afro-Peruvian swell of blurry vocal samples, a fantastic shuffling groove, and just enough muted horns erupting through on ‘El Carmen’. And to my surprise, I think the lyrics work as well – for a house project celebrating community and hope they don’t need to be prominent, but Kourtesis gets the difficult emotions and tension that come with talking and rebuilding a relationship in times of trauma where they may have ostracized you before, and those people must be brought into your world rather than subsuming to theirs, which is even more difficult when those figures might be older or a parent in a culture that places them on a pedestal. So by necessity the album ends on an uncertain note without a full swell of euphoria, of which I have mixed opinions – it feels emotionally true, but in execution it means the back half of this album can lag a bit, where the production prowess shines through but it can feel a bit muted. Even still, this is one hell of a full-length debut that caught me completely off-guard as one of the strongest house albums I’ve heard this year, and that only shows more refinement and potential – terrific project, don’t make the mistake I did in sleeping on it, check it out!
Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter - SAVED! - I’ll admit that I’ve had a certain reluctance to cover this album, where Kristin Hayter has discarded her Lingua Ignota moniker for… what would best be described as lo-fi southern gospel music on a rickety prepared piano rooted in old Appalachian folk melodic structures, taking a lot of the ideas behind SINNER GET READY and importing them south with a much more fractured, analog recording. And with every discordant shudder, tape breakdown, and warped sample of lay people speaking in tongues - before on the final track ‘HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING’ she attempts it herself and while the exhausted pain of doing it feels tangible, the reality that it’s a performance even if she’s described it as dissociative feels off to me - it’s intended to evoke the ineffable connection with the Lord on high that comes through these ceremonies, where the meaning of her theatricality at the pulpit is intentionally left blurry - how can anyone be sure of another’s connection with God, especially as the fire can both scorch and cleanse. And this has left a polarizing record for many reasons, especially as Hayter has repeatedly said this is not a parody or satire - because if you don’t have the faith context it can come across as an unkempt gimmick or novelty, where in comparison with the more heartwrenching performances and personal context of SINNER GET READY or especially CALIGULA, this is a more fragmented healing experience, with the feel of a lost and degraded exploitation movie drenched in Christian apocrypha where you’re wondering how serious you should take it. However, if you live that faith context or have a deeper grounding in southern gospel and country, it gets dicey, because not only do these apocryphal trappings exist across swathes of real America today, it can feel like she doesn’t quite grasp the tangible, external power such practices have and how claustrophobic they can feel when you’re trapped inside them; it might be a sincere, self-imposed attempt at healing and purification by fire for her, but it sure as hell isn’t that for so many others who can’t get out, and I know she knows that, SINNER GET READY had more of that layered subtext! Some of this just comes down to presence and delivery - beyond the issues with a very intentionally rough mix overall, while Hayter can really sell the scrupulously wracked emotionality closer to the Catholic hymnal - her version of ‘THE POOR WAYFARING STRANGER’ is a real highpoint on the album - the broader nasal affectation she attempts for southern gospel and especially country feels forced and caricatured in a way it really shouldn’t, especially on all those abbreviated interludes - less ominous backwoods preacher where if you don’t repent, Hell is around every corner, more hokey arthouse framing where even if the dissonance with the more serious moments is intended to show the cracks, it kills any sense of immersion. I think there’s something also to be noted in Hayter’s choice to sing more from the pulpit rather than set herself more in the congregation - it has a different meaning to command the power of God rather than be among the huddled masses seeking something to believe in, and that doesn’t help the sense of populism, mostly because over half of the songs are interpretations of traditional hymns and the rest are playing very much to that spare, direct tradition and could have used more distinctive meat on the bones, with probably the best being ‘I WILL BE WITH YOU ALWAYS’. And I think that’s at the root of my frustration with this, because I think I believe Hayter when she says this was her personal, harrowing, agonizing journey to find something to believe in before any end comes, and you can tell on performance along she desperately wants it, at its most potent moments it can feel like she’s ripping herself asunder… but with greater trappings of artificiality in the recording and the framing of any theatricality, it feels less personal and I become more acutely aware of when faith becomes ritual or doctrine. As such, I hope this was the healing that Hayter needed on her journey… but on all of our own paths towards transcendence, this one fell a bit askew for me; a fascinating listen, but not one that really resonated, at least for me.
Aesop Rock - Integrated Tech Solutions - The funny thing I’ve realized about Aesop Rock after having reviewed his work multiple times is that I’m most drawn to his storytelling that doesn’t need the lyrical obfuscation - that’s always a nice perk and Aesop Rock has only grown more expressive and borderline conversational as a rapper, but the emotional core is what draws me back to his best songs, which makes his newest self-produced album a fascinating conceptual experiment, where you might expect the technophobic dystopia that feeds around the moody contemplation from the outside that’s been his standby, but that’s not really what this is. Instead it’s probably the most thoughtfully optimistic album that Aesop Rock has made in years, focusing more on the inexplicable things in which technology can’t fill in the gaps, because while it’ll continue marching forwards with human “progress”, we humans are apt for all manner of misadventures, backsliding, superstition, and diversions both within and without systems we can’t fully grasp, let alone control, and thus imperfect human connection becomes all the more valuable. More importantly while Aesop Rock has been self-referential before, this is the first time where he interrogates the industrial side of making art, from inspiration to creation outside the norms to the legacy he’s created, especially when so much of legacy is defined by commercial success rather than the artistry itself - which juxtaposed with technology really highlights how the problem has never been the tool, but those who use and exploit it for cheap, destructive gains. And for what it’s worth, Aesop Rock has only gotten better as a producer, juxtaposing the glossy, 80s-esque synths of the framing device with his most organic swaggering grooves he’s produced to date, from the bassy, creaking scratches of ‘Mindful Solutionism’, the coursing wiry guitars of ‘Forward Compatibility Engine’ with Rob Sonic and ‘Living Curfew’ with billy woods - who in recent years only seems to fit better into these tones - the bubbly guitar musings of the genuinely hilarious ‘Pigeonometry’, the echoing snarl of ‘Aggressive Steven’ in the messy exploration of a break-in, the shambling organ and guitars of ‘Bermuda’, the gurgling graf anthem of ‘All City Nerve Map’, the heartbreaking pianos behind the family story of ‘Vititus’, the genuinely terrific bouncing groove of ‘Black Snow’, and perhaps the most eerie and uncanny fast food order of ‘Time Moves Differently Here’ I’ve ever heard. Yeah, sometimes the vocal blending isn’t quite as seamless, and like with Spirit World Field Guide the meandering can make the listen feel long, and there is a part of me that can’t place this among Aesop Rock’s best - most because his ceiling of quality is ridiculous - but I can argue this is his best since The Impossible Kid and easily his most approachable. Genuinely excellent album, full of quotable storytelling with a robust thematic core, if the problem in your life is “not enough top-tier rap music this year”, this album is an easy solution!
Chris Stapleton - Higher - It’s funny, going back to when I covered Chris Stapleton’s Starting Over three years ago, part of my commentary was rooted in how it was a very solid album that was incredibly easy to like, but in a year stacked with so many terrific country albums, I was holding him to a higher standard of which I know he’s capable - on several individual songs, he’s proven it. And when you lead off your rollout with ‘White Horse’, one of the best southern rock songs I’ve heard in recent memory and almost certainly one of the best songs of this year, even in a more stacked year of country music, I think it’s fair to set those high expectations again. And yet if you were expecting this album to surge to that height… I shouldn’t be disappointed that this is merely a pretty great selection of midtempo country soul with such a high floor of quality because Stapleton is a fantastic performer and Dave Cobb’s production feels more warm and burnished than ever, especially as this album was reportedly dedicated to his wife Morgane who co-produced and sings backup on a number of these tracks… I kind of wish there was a bit more outside of that comfort zone? Now part of this is how I’ve never been as impressed by Stapleton’s lyricism as his performance - with every creak and shift in his craggy, powerful voice, it adds shades of emotional dynamics that you’d otherwise see in the writing, and I appreciate how over the years he shows more sensitivity and vulnerability in the give-and-take of the relationship, especially as internally he can be his own worst enemy, as seen with the willful deflection of ‘The Bottom’, the disconnect of ‘The Fire’, or the truly excellent stripped down closer ‘Mountains Of My Mind’… but some of these cuts can lack a bit of dimension to their love stories; just a little more detail to flesh out of the picture would help a lot, especially as Stapleton is still cherry-picking across his own lengthy catalog of old songs and cowrites to flesh out an album that once again isn’t exactly sequenced to have much momentum. Yes, ‘White Horse’ kicks a ridiculous amount of ass, but it’s the only cut on the album that goes that hard and while I appreciate ‘Crosswinds’ and ‘South Dakota’ for having a bit more road-weary snarl, they aren’t quite on the same tier. But it’s also worth meeting this album where it is, and if you’re looking for the smoky, bedroom jams, Stapleton delivered a fair number of those too with ‘The Fire’, ‘Think I’m In Love With You’, and ‘Loving You On My Mind’, and you can tell with his and Morgane’s production assistance the mixes feel more robustly balanced in comparison with how brittle what Dave Cobb has provided in the past. As a whole, though, it’s once again an extremely easy album to like, albeit with few surprises, and for those who only cover a few country albums a year, the bar of quality seems self-evident… but as someone who has more than a few smoky indie country soul albums to pick from this year, Stapleton’s formula is starting to feel less special and more single-minded. So yeah, still great, still worth hearing, but if you’re going to check this out and not The War and Treaty, Jaime Wyatt, even Karen Jonas, you’re missing out.
Danny Brown - Quaranta - I’ll be honest, I was not sure where to set my expectations with this album. Because yes, Scaring The Hoes with JPEGMAFIA is one of my favourite albums of this year, but with the throwback sounds of uknowhatimsayin? in 2019 kind of leaving me cold and conversations on his podcast indicating that how unfeasibly expensive Atrocity Exhibition was to make, it gave me the impression that we probably weren’t going to get anything as off-the-walls as that ever again. And a lot of the buzz around Quaranta suggested that it was a more sober, thoughtful look at aging within rap, hitting his 40s… and here’s the thing, while Danny Brown is most popularly known for his wild, hedonistic side, the undercurrent of all the debauchery was how deeply messy it was, most often a deflection from depression and working through his issues, that was the thematic undercurrent of Atrocity Exhibition. Quaranta, meanwhile, doesn’t try for that knife’s edge balance - this is a sober Danny Brown sifting through the wreckage of it all, with a real relationship ruined by him cheating amidst the ‘rapper lifestyle’, and trying to engage with reality in aging in the music industry as a job, wondering what even is the point this many years in without hits or industry awards. And it’s not pretty - behind the occasionally dicey vocal mix he sounds world-weary and haggard trudging across the textured, shambling beats of Quelle Chris, or Paul White returning for more ethereal and conscious moments that probably remind me most of his work with Open Mike Eagle on Hella Personal Film Festival, especially as by the album’s conclusion on the gorgeous ‘Bass Jam’, the longing for the emotional communal experience of the music with the family is an answer to Danny Brown’s question, a desire to recapture that magic in the art again. What it does mean is that for the kookier songs, they don’t really stick as deeply beyond appreciation of clever wordplay - his heart doesn’t feel in them to the same extent, especially if you draw any parallel to Scaring The Hoes, and they feel less escapist or memorable; ironically it’s the more midtempo, melancholic songs that have stronger hooks like the excellent three song run of ‘Down Wit It’, ‘Celibate’ with MIKE - I’m not as wild on his impressionistic feature as most are - and ‘Shakedown’ with ZeLooperZ bringing the assist. I’d also say there are a few moments that feel broadly sketched, and I’m of a few minds here: I don’t mind that his sharp observations on poverty, gentrification and the struggle of sobriety being blunt at all - and Bruiser Wolf’s verse on ‘Y.B.P’ is as clever as always - and the plainspoken nature can amplify the personal… but like with uknowatimsayin? it can feel a little abbreviated, and I wanted to hear more of that personal journey, even though with that heaviness it could have been a mixed blessing. Overall, I’ve often found myself wishing I like Danny Brown a little more than I do, and while I think this is mature and compelling, it’s also a project I need to appreciate in a specific state of mind. I’d put money on it growing on me in the same way Scaring The Hoes, but as of now… call it on the cusp of greatness, more likely than not to tilt into it.
AJR - The Maybe Man - It feels telling that no Patrons requested this - nature is healing, I guess. But I’ve said my piece on AJR and folks are finally grasping my main thematic issue beyond badly-produced, derivative ear torture: teetering towards growth, but using privilege to dodge it, agonizingly self-aware millennial arrested development. But now with more engineers and a larger label budget… at least it’s AJR’s best produced album to date, even if they’re yet to discover what an interesting bassline is? But overall it feels less idiosyncratic - still recognizably shrill AJR, but melodically less kooky and way more minor key and bleak, especially in the lyrics, where behind all the corny, overworked lines the self-destructive existential emptiness underscores the anxiety, depression, empty fame and losing a parent; still awkwardly framed, but more emotionally real. I still can’t say it’s “good”, but I also can’t hate this, let’s try to move on.
Andre 3000 - New Blue Sun - you know, if you were to go back fifteen years and tell fans of Andre 3000 that his first solo album - if you don’t count The Love Below - was an eighty-eight minute entirely instrumental ambient flute album dabbling in jazz and new age… well honestly, a lot of folks in that era would probably call it a joke, but given that Andre doesn’t think at his age he has anything to really rap about and this is what he wants to do instead, I was at least intrigued, especially for the discussion that it would give me an opportunity to get on my ambient bullshit? And I should stress that while Andre 3000 is leaning on the flute - both organic and digital - to convey traces of a lead melody, there’s a broader selection of woodwinds, fluttery synths, chimes, guitars, drums used more for texture than beats, and what even sounds like field recordings blended in - and really, blend is the operative word, as the co-producer Carlos Niño can feel like more of the subtle architect of the soundscape, creating whatever passes for structure around mixes that ebb and meander over the extended runtime. It’s why I’m don’t really buy the comparison to the more strident and challenging ambient compositions of Tim Hecker or what the late Pharoah Sanders would deliver with a more centered performance with Floating Points on Promises - this and Andre 3000’s performance in particular feels more tentative and deflective, the flute slides in and around the textures that can often feel a bit more stable and formed, trying to find a place in the ensemble rather than commanding it; he’s as much on a journey as we are, with Niño subtly shaping the path, and it leads to some striking passages: perhaps the most developed ethereal melancholy on the album with ‘I swear, I Really Wanted To Make A “Rap” Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time’, the haunted distant patter of ‘That Night In Hawaii When I Turned Into A Panther And Started Making These Low Register Purring Tones That I Couldn’t Control ... Sh¥t Was Wild’, the jagged eruptions of analog synth all over ‘BuyPoloDisorder’s Daughter Wears A 3000® Button Down Embroidered’, the aching violin off the bass on ‘Ninety Three ’Til Infinity And Beyoncé’, or how beautifully pensive the closer ‘Dreams Once Buried Beneath The Dungeon Floor Slowly Sprout Into Undying Gardens’ felt. So the question is which of these paths are worth taking… and once you can sink into the mature new age but still distinctly gauzy and Californicated vibes - always peppered by Niño shaking those shells - it can feel intentionally patchy. The bleeping synth blends can feel weedy and not always as organic as you’d like to compliment the woodwinds, it’s hard to escape the feeling that many of these stumble into an attempted climax rather than build a more potent progression - I’m curious how much improvisation took place mid-session - and the mood of these tracks can feel deliberately muddled, an obfuscation that will absolutely wear out of its welcome as many compositions struggle to sustain their extended length. I am happy that Andre 3000 made a swerve into such challenging territory, and how on that basis and his name he’ll get more folks to listen to an experimental ambient jazz and new age album than will ever listen to it on their own… but if you accept it on that standard, Andre 3000 feels like an ensemble presence in the mist for an ambient jam session that feels more satisfying in its creation than experience; take that as you will.