I listened to Tidal last week while cooking dinner.
Tomorrow I'm making pizza again and I will listen to When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks Like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He'll Win the Whole Thing 'fore He Enters the Ring There's No Body to Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might So When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand and Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights and If You Know Where You Stand, Then You Know Where to Land and If You Fall It Won't Matter, Cuz You'll Know That You're Right, maybe it's obvious but I'm kind of starting from the beginning here.
didn't really know anything about her, no preconceived notions about her 'place in the canon' or what other bands/artists she's lumped in with
Yeah, for a long time I felt like she was just my private obsession, like when I brought her up people thought she was fine, but a little silly to be taking seriously when I could be listening to Tori Amos. So this moment is pretty weird for me.
I’ve been enamored with her for a while, but I had no idea this album was even in the works. Then it drops with the rare 10.0 pitchfork stamp of approval and I was both “holy fuck” and also not trying to get my hopes up too much. But it’s fucking excellent. I’ve listened to it a bunch of times and it feels like an absolute classic.
Last edited by Ned Braden on Sat Apr 25, 2020 7:48 pm; edited 1 time in total
Ned Braden wrote:I’ve been enamored with her for a while, but I had no idea this album was even in the works. Then it drops with the rare 10.0 pitchfork stamp of approval and I was both “holy fuck” and also not trying to get my hopes up too much. But it’s fucking excellent. I’ve listened to it a bunch of times and it feels like an absolute classic.
absolutely feel the same way
“heavy balloon” is one of the best descriptions of depression i’ve ever heard
The ‘meat puppets suite’ on Nirvana Unplugged. Three of the best performances right in a row. I remember when Kurt sang‘would you like to hear my voice, sprinkled with emotion,’ it used to give me chills and the feeling hasn’t changed. Smoking Holy Grail.
This has been the featured review at the top of the RYM homepage for the last week or so:
This morning I did my daily rounds and checked pitchfork.com to see if anyone I liked had died while I was sleeping. Their featured review for the day was a compilation of old Clams Casino tracks.
Instrumental Relics contains many of Clams’ most notable early collaborations (Soulja Boy’s “All I Need,” A$AP Rocky’s “Numb”), as well as three tracks from his Rainforest EP on the late Tri Angle records (“Treetop,” “Drowning,” “Gorilla”), an original cut from the Grand Theft Auto V soundtrack (“Crystals”), and a handful of other strays. Most were previously available and have only been remastered here, but “I’m God”—the definitive Clams Casino recording—can now be officially streamed as a standalone piece of music for the very first time. The instrumental’s unforgettable sample has gone from an unapproved flip to a full-fledged feature, with Imogen Heap credited alongside Clams Casino.
“I’m God” was instantly iconic, immediately imitated, and impossible to recreate. Like Clams’ most haunting work, it decays and disintegrates inside your eardrum, more like a Burial composition than what you’d normally expect to hear Soulja Boy rapping over—the kind of thing I wish Mark Fisher had gotten to write about. For all its innovation and ethereality, there’s something timeless about “I’m God,” with drum programming that skews more boom-bap than trap, betraying Clams’ roots in New Jersey and his love of the East Coast’s classics — one of his first collaborations was with Havoc of Mobb Deep.
Going back to the RYM page, other reviewers say: "Every time I listen to this song I think of the end of my high school years. The lush vocals remind me of the final times I walked the halls, the hours and hours of free time, and the many times I played this at the gym. The song is full of wonder, it cries for nostalgia, the vocals are simply an instrument here to play along to the rest of the music and I love it."
and
"I can't claim to have rinsed this track much back in 2011 before its recent reemergence and official release on Instrumental Relics, but it goes without saying this is one of the most important hip-hop beats ever produced"
Just to be clear, is this the track that all of these reviews are referring to?
This is what's blowing people's minds? Are people reacting to it as an instrumental? As the Lil B track? Both at the same time?
Yeah sure this is fine but people are talking about this song it's something that changed music and changed peoples' lives. What am I missing here
I liked that Clams Casino album from back in the day. I'd sometimes listen to it while working or reading, but then there was a track where some dude pops in and starts screaming and it'd always break my concentration and annoy me.
But yeah, I never had some seeing Jesus moment with this music. Though, listening to this track it's not hard to see somb posters from 2009 ranking it as like number 2 electronic music of all time after M83, and I'd be like, "hmm, maybe you guys have a point guys."
So yeah, this Fiona record is pretty amazing. I need to listen to "When the pawn.." and "Incredible Machine" again, clearly. I have always been pretty closed-minded and dismissive about her post-"Tidal" sound (which she lambasts her listener for in this new record). This is a clearly a very special and super complicated record, I'm not even sure what to make of it yet. It's rare that I instantly connect to something with so little traditional production or a clearly developed sonic palette. It's raw and free, but more than that, it's so organic and smart and ahead of the listener. I'm blown away...
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