Mercury 94 - Cry

It’s hard to resist admiration when something weighty and effective gets fashioned from modest materials. Think of Basque cuisine; the charcoal drawings of Rembrandt; the architecture of Mies van der Rohe (who insisted on the simplicity of angular metal and glass over decoration!).

At 2 minutes length, this track feels like a sketch. The percussion: a bass drum and a click. Soft, deliberate keys repeat a minimal pattern - just a handful of notes. And sitting in the middle is Mercury 94's subdued vocal delivery, spoken word in time; as the focal point of the track, your attention is concentrated on his enigmatic poetry:

“Been writing bout misery
What’s frightening is
The happiness
A docile aberration
Of fiery flame
A Pisces in name
When I was crying it was never in shame.”

The vocals are duplicated, the top track pitched up, which introduces a disquieting dramatic element, like Jekyl and Hyde are speaking at once. Behind the voice(s), a trail of mechanically whirring, unimposing distortion. 

It's exciting to see Mercury 94 make so much out of so few ingredients. I have no idea what is next, but whether it is 2 or 10 minutes long, I'm awaiting it expectantly.

Zamir - Anti

A couple of months ago the former L.O.S. rapper Zamir released "Anti", a track that sees him boasting of being proudly antisocial. Now the music video is out; it stays on theme, opening with Zamir rapping alone in a room into a handheld mirror, and then developing into Zamir and Ymcee (featured on the track) rolling through an otherwise empty field, as they announce that they don't want new friends. And you know what, I don't blame them, it looks like fun.

The track is a jam.

The video is directed by Ademola Faloma. 






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Aitch - Taste (Make it Shake)

Aitch has already had two popular singles this year, and he was recently featured on the Young T and Bugsey hit "Strike a Pose". The Manchester rapper is going to fly to the top of summer playlists again with this one.

Dau - Clichés

I know a three things about Dau. 1 - He is from a suburb of Paris. 2 - He models. And 3 - He released his debut album NSP30 recently, and it has some absolute bangers. 

Exhibit A:

Lefa - Bitch (feat. Vald)

Parisien rapper Lefa is out with a cracking new single. The accompanying video, directed by Akim Laouar Aronsen, would be best appreciated with popcorn.

Domo Genesis & The Alchemist - No Idols

Domo Genesis has come out with a new Mixtape, No Idols. This marks his third full length album, following the Tyler-produced Rolling Papers in 2010, and his second album the following year, Under the Influence. So he's gone three for three and released another album, which was created in collaboration with The Alchemist (no intro hopefully needed).

The release proves that Genesis can hold his own as an emcee and make a track work effectively by himself. Of course, that doesn't stop him from frequently featuring many of his Odd Future and other buds on the tracks. And yes, the fact that Tyler is on the title track automatically makes it better. Much better. But as I said, Genesis can hold his own.

Lyrically, he simply exhales rhymes in rapid verse, often espousing emotionally overt sentiments of loneliness, frustration, ager, but always with an undertone of excitement and determination to succeed. Often, he also expresses encouragement and inspiration for his "O.F fam", which builds to his almost  childlike enthusiasm for what he is doing. These topics are probably a blessing and a curse. Genesis probably will never possess the depraved, warped imagination to lyrically create the scenes that Tyler enjoys setting. A problem for him now will be differentiating himself substantially from these guys. Right now he is only set apart for his self proclaimed love of weed. He's a rapper. Unique.

Much of the success of this album has to be credited to the Alchemist, who lays down beats to perfectly compliment whatever is being rapped. The instrumentals are a huge step away from Tyler's production on his last album,  founded on heavy beats and prominent low pitched synths. This album the makes only subtle uses of bass, and incorporates soul elements and jazz elements into the mix. The bizarre samples starting off several tracks, such on "The Daily News" provide a unique twist to the atmosphere of the mix.

So all in all the album is very good. You can easily begin listening to it and find yourself back at the same song and wonder how you could've listened all the way through. If Genesis keeps his pace and finds his niche, we can expect more good stuff from him.

ODDFUTURE

Toro Y Tyler ?

Finally, we catch a glimpse of the long rumoured collaboration between Toro Y Moi (Chaz Bundick) and Tyler The Creator. A raw version of their song, "Hey You", leaked prematurely a "couple of months ago", according to Bundick, but it was only popularised last wednesday, when Tyler linked to the leaked song on the Odd Future tumbler. They confirmed that they were working on a song together as early as November of 2011, and there was twitter hype about a possible collaboration even before that. Still, Chaz tweeted to "stay tuned for the studio version". Now I'm just waiting for a joint tour.  Please let there be a tour.