Martes Martes "Dragon cat fox cat son"

Jib Kidder

In a shitty review of the incomparable Dirty Projectors album "Rise Above," a richdork worker bee had but one lucid moment when he described DP as "consumed with cultural appropriation and aesthetic polyamory-- a post-pop-art idea of authenticity." This seemed dead on to me at the time and ever since I've been looking for other phenomena that might fit this bill. Here's one. I'm not sure I'm up to the task of describing or classifying the wide array of aesthetic love affairs involved in his music - but they include electronic, guitar, female gangsta rap elements and some windows xp and lion king samples. Still, the end product is far greater than the sum of its parts. Jib Kidder's forthcoming album, "All on Yall" on State's Rights Records has me as impatient as the time I found out that I was getting the ghostbuster's firehouse for christmas and then had to wait three whole fucking days. try "Windowdripper" or "Murdergong" or "the Return" on his myspace for a peek.

The tracks have been finished and waiting to be released for way too long which is why we should all harass States Rights Records into getting it out on the free market where it might take it's first nihilistic breath and overtake Kidz Bop vol. 13's number four seat on the billboard charts. I already sent an email which, and I quote, made the owner "feel weird as a human being." It was actually a lovely encounter: I believe both of us were skullied that Saturday evening when I sent my motivating hello and he replied right away with his "look bro, it's like I'm sort of trying my best." But he promptly released the fraternal twin "All on Yall: da mixtape" so I can only assume weirdness was mostly responsible.

Sizzla "Black Woman and Child"

This was recently recommended to me and has pretty much revived my interest in reggae. Though I loved Marley throughout my younger years, there's really only so much you can take and I never got much exposure beyond him.

Sizzla offers an instrumentation that relies more on synthesizers and drum machines; something I once thought to be blasphemous in reggae - as though I held any stake in that tradition. Despite my intuitions, I'm amazed at how authentic and fluid a sound he achieves.

His lyrical content is devoutly Rastafarian which at first I, somewhat naively, found intriguing. However, I recently learned that he's sung some pretty despicably homophobic things (on other albums) which has put me on the fence about his music. It's hard to place that sort of attitude within his other themes of peace and self-empowerment. Is it possible to pick out only what one can ethically stomach? A lot of second wave feminists are Kantians despite the fact that Kant didn't believe women were fully human.

Canada and the UK have gone as far as to ban Sizzla from performing all together, which I wouldn't want to debate. I read in Time that he along with other reggae musicians subsequently signed what was called the "reggae compassionate act," which asserted the right of gays and lesbians to live without fear of violence - though all of their motives are questionable. Regardless of this, his music is worth a listen if you're interested in what's happening in Jamaica these days.

First Post: Sam White's "Unchi Radar"

Just found this joe named Sam White who makes electronic music of various kinds. So far I've been enjoying his clever sample collection/technique. A lot of his beats on the other hand have a somewhat mechanical feel to them - not really sure i like it, kind of reminds me of my early tinkerings on hammerhead. Komsomolet, is offering this for free here

"lights go off, stars turn on" is nicely done as is "Lotus Lounge."
You can also listen to this for free on last.fm