Gunfist » Music

2009 Mix

Ian — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:08:54 +0000

Having discovered my already minimal skillz have further atrophied, I present a raggedy mix of some of the year’s bangers. I pretty much slept on everything, as there was a hell of a lot more good tracks released this year than I had really thought about. I have particularly missed the UK stuff though, so there’s only the one local selection, from Foreign Beggars, but it is a monster.

Download audio file (Ian%20-%202009.mp3)

Foreign Beggars – Contact (United Colours of Beggattron)
Wale – Pretty Girls (Attention: Deficit)
DJ Quik & Kurupt – 9x Out Of 10 (BlaQKout)
Clipse – Popular Demand (Till The Casket Drops)
UGK – Still On The Grind (UGK4Life)
50 Cent – Death To My Enemies (Before I Self Destruct)
Royce Da 5’9 – Dinner Time (Street Hop)
Raekwon – Kiss The Ring (Only Built For Cuban Linx II)
Blaq Poe – Ain’t Nuttin Changed (The Blaqprint)
MF Doom – Gazillion Ear (Born Like This)
Brother Ali – Breakin’ Dawn (Us)
Attitude – Money (Mixtape)

Merry Christmas everyone!

Nothing Freestyle

Ian — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:22:24 +0000

Quick little freestyle from K over some scrubby track I had laying around this morning. Mostly posted because of the line ‘she can tie my cravat’. Brrrap! (Ed The Duck style only). Note the robot voice references were due to an effect in the foldback, which is not featured in an attempt to confuse the listener.

Download audio file (nothing.mp3)

An Important Message

Ian — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:00:11 +0000

As we approach Christmas again, I thought it wise to reiterate this important message from Half Man Half Biscuit:

Download audio file (cliche.mp3)

Life After Death

Ian — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:19:09 +0000

I recently watched the Notorious BIG biopic Notorious, which was very good, and it got me thinking about how Biggie’s albums were somewhat backwards – if he had been killed after Ready To Die it would have fit the life he described in that album, but Life After Death sounded (appropriately, given the title) so much more full of life. There’s nothing I would call a “sign-off” record there - sometimes an album does have something that fits the artists’s life perfectly. There are quite a few examples, but I think this decade has had two particularly good ones: Kings Crossing by Elliott Smith and Da Game Been Good To Me by UGK.

Download audio file (07%20-%20King%27s%20Crossing.mp3)

Kings Crossing is maybe my favourite Elliott Smith song, and there are a lot of brilliant tracks in his catalogue, which was cut short by his suicide. The swirling, layered intro and the depth of the production are miles from the 4 track grain of Roman Candle, but the depression and drug abuse themes are still there. Lyrically though, it’s like there’s a realisation in the song that being successful and famous hasn’t made it all better – it just pays the bills. The lyrics are superb, but I thought with Christmas approaching this would be the best snippet to quote:

It’s Christmas time, and there’s needles on the tree
A skinny Santa’s bringing something to me
His voice is overwhelming, but his speech is slurred
And I only understand every other word.

UGK are one of my favourite groups of all time, and Pimp C’s death came as a bit of a shock. The group’s final LP, UGK4Life, was released after his death, and while there are some excellent cuts throughout, it’s the final song, Da Game Been Good To Me, that really sums up what UGK, and Pimp C in particularly, were all about.

It’s a wonderfully warm, rolling beat, with a classic sung hook by Pimp C, who also co-produced. There’s no maudlin quality to Bun B’s verse, and that and the Pimp’s two verses have them doing what they do best – putting those that don’t respect the game in their place.

Never knew how to be scared

Ian — Sat, 23 May 2009 16:25:00 +0000

Just how to handle my infrared.

Gettin’ Hot In Here

Ian — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:46:19 +0000

Via Narcy (he who has a new album for pre-order) is some truly picture-is-unrelated level of what in video form. It’s more than one track too.

8tracks

Ian — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:41:08 +0000

Inspired by Warren Ellis, I’ve been playing with an online playlist/mp3 type doobry called 8tracks. It’s sort of like muxtapes if you recall that, not sure how long it’ll last before being shut down, but fun for sticking together playlists for people. In the spirit of things I’ve put up a fairly random collection of hip-hop (including precisely 0 tracks from the new Elemental as it didn’t CDDB and I’m feeling lazy vis-a-vis entering track names)

Rupert – Just Woke Up

Ian — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 20:39:26 +0000

Rupert is the rapper formerly known as Rup, and last weekend I had the pleasure of getting an excellent package containing his latest CD, a Naim 7″, and some sort of orange-y sweet (since consumed).

I’ve been into Rup’s stuff for a while, since hearing (possibly on Excalibur’s show, possibly on the Dugout) Angels & Devils, which was an absolute cracker of a track. I remember going to something around christmas one year at the Pressure Point, which he was also attending, going over and expressing how much of a banger that tune was and being met with a general look of confusion (possibly because me and my brother were one of a very select group there that weren’t actually rappers – the open mic caused a general emptying of the audience).

This new album is a quite a big jump, over the stuff I’ve heard previously, in it’s cohesion – the whole thing feels like it belongs together, rather than being just a collection of tracks. That said there are some standouts: the opener Make Moves bounces along on a fantastic synthy beat, and posse cut South of the River is just ridiculous, a proper head nodder with some nice lines from all involved “it’s south west/land of the bounced checks”. My favourite track is another Evil Sun production (with a bit of a Kanye Graduation feel, in a good way), Night Night, which is a bit more introspective, as is the closer Geography*.

The Naim 7″ (he also produced a track on the album) is two tracks of slightly Hot Chippian singing plus synths type music, both pretty catchy (particularly Sexy which seems one ad placement away from being on Radio 1 heavy rotation).

You can get the CD online at the Hear Today site for the reasonable sum of £6.50, though the run wasn’t massive so I have no idea how long they’ll be available!

* Though to be fair geology and tectonophysics also get a look in on the track.