How To Dress Well

Tom Krell, research translator of post-Kantian philosophy by day. Subterranean-fi R&B artist and sound designer by night. What a mystery. What an enigma. What a long lost twin of mine - because they are few people in this world who sweat early 90's R&B like I do.
"Candy Rain," "Twisted," be still my heart.
Difference being I do solo cracked croons in the car while he emulates and shares with all the world on his living breathing blog.

HTDW is escapist, deconstructed molasses miasma. The sound design elements - synthesizer, Aaliyahe-esque "ahs," handclaps - are so singular you know they feel nakey. Once exposed, they futilely attempt to cover themselves under his keening falsetto - like a Timberlake-after-a-balls-kick falsetto. But there's not much to hold onto before it's gone again.

Our smooth sound hero returns this month after his debut tour in Europe. Full length LP due out in September; you can cruise with me and belt Kci & JoJo in the Jetta if you're feening till then.

How to Dress Well // Ready For the World
How to Dress Well // Ready For the World (Twin Sister Remix)

Washed Out

A Thursday of Indian Summer. Makes me want to shuck my skinnies and expose faded tanlines to the level three UV Index.

Or I'll listen to Washed Out. Oozy boudoir synth, all pink pillows of sea foam and low country longing from Ernest Greene. I'll throw on neon wayfarers, slide my cut-neckline sweatshirt off one shoulder and smack some watermelon bubblicious before a solid sesh of seven minutes in heaven.

Washed Out // Feel It All Around

B Fleischmann

From Vienna, B Fleischmann started out as a drummer, touring with bands all over Austria. In 1998 he turned into a laptop nerd, but he still uses real drums and other acoustic instruments, too.

This song is from his newest album, Angst is Not a Weltanschauung!, on Morr Music. The album includes a rework of Daniel Johnston's "King Kong" and vocals by Sweet William Van Ghost and Marilies Jagsch (in this track).



B Fleischmann // 24.12.

If you like this, B has more downloads on his site, plus links to some of his own favorite music.

Forced Exposure

The IDM boat draweth nigh, along with a bunch of other stuff. For real, WRIR got this massive shipment in from my favorite music distributor of all time Forced Exposure.

I won't bore you with the details, but my love for Forced Exposure is so great that I as an audience member once made David Day, another audience member and at the time Forced Exposure's college radio contact, stand up in a room of maybe 200 at a CMJ panel discussion to talk about his company.

In the 80s and early 90s Forced Exposure was a zine published out of Boston (on newsprint), focusing on punk and obscure music as well as literature, with contributers like Lydia Lunch, Mission of Burma, and Sonic Youth.

Now they distribute music, ranging from rereleases of 1920s fiddle music from Baghdad to the entire Shitkatapult catalog to re-pressed Norwegian psychedelia from the 60s to free jazz and composers and ambient noise to English warehouse bangers. Look at their index of releases for March. Dazzling.

Basically half my career as a music director has been spent begging FE to send me stuff. Incidentally, they supply a lot of the electronic vinyl to Plan 9, too.

So anyway I am fulfilled, and guess what, I consider it both my job and my pleasure to share my musical joys with you. My next several entries will all draw from this boomshower of sweetness that arrived in the mail last week.

So there, too, music distro isn't dead after all, is it? Just shitty music distro. Thank you, Forced Exposure.

Mr Scruff

Mr Scruff draws cartoons and named his new album Ninja Tuna. Plus he started his own tea company.

Ninja Tuna is Mr Scruff's first full-length since 2002. He's been on Ninja Tune records since 1999 and been dj'ing famously since the mid-90s, when he blew up in Manchester.


Flyer drawn by Mr Scruff for Keep it Unreal, his monthly at Manchester club The Music Box. Scruff normally dj's the entire night (six hours).

Here's what he says about dj'ing:

Although I am a fairly technical DJ, it is vital to remember that the most important skill for a DJ is to play great records in the right order. Each record must complement the one before, and introduce the one that follows. Beatmatching is an obvious way of linking records, but there are other common factors, such as lyrical themes & complimentary keys that a DJ can use to aid the transition. Each piece of music has a mood and an energy level, and orchestrated carefully, you can create an atmosphere where every record that comes in is precisely right for that moment.

Hairy Bumpercress

Tobacco

Tobacco's myspace headline is, "Taking down PETA one member at a time." Yeah! But I think it might be because animal sacrifice is part of his religion. Leafy vines sprout from my brain and blossom into magenta fur. Backwoods Altar indeed.

Tobacco is one of the founding members of Black Moth Super Rainbow. His album Fucked Up Friends did very well on WRIR's charts this fall-- it's on the alt-hiphop label Anticon and includes a track with Aesop Rock.


He kind of looks like McKay.

Gross Magik

Wallpaper

I post this track for all the weekend warriors out there.

Wallpaper's real name is Eric Frederic; he's also a member of the band Facing New York. As Wallpaper, he seems like kind of a tool, but I think that's part of the persona. I think. Big in San Francisco.


T Rex