album shelf

i just listened to this album today so these are fresh thoughts. usually i wait for my opinions on a project to develop after multiple listens but i think i know what i want to say now. i still know jack shit about electronic music and its genres within but i know my opinions at least!

this project is a collection of music made up of artists specializing in various electronic subgenres, assembled together as a collaboration between music label dismiss yourself and online shop (?) layer22. as for the appearances, i havent heard of most of the featured artists, but ive at least seen the names exodia, emotegi, miya lowe, dvstrr & azucar.

this project was pretty solid. all the songs were solid by themselves and had their own distinctive elements to praise. it was a collage of many styles, which all captured different sounds; ranging from deep, dark sounds to light, smooth tracks, but still mixed pretty well with each other. songs had perfect moments where the track strung together a melody that perfectly scratched itches in my brain.

the intro song, 'moon over 25' by dj takataka was awesome and captivating while serving as a good introduction. the third track was a sweet time and like exactly the kind of song i like, basically. all the ambient tracks bridged together nicely and were all soothing to my brain. Nfract creates a very interesting, almost magically grimy atmosphere on their track, which actually transitioned very nicely to exodia's 'zone 13', a demonic rave sort of deal. i remember being very emmersed by 'evangelis nitro'; it felt like i was levitating kind of. the heavenly choir melody and the bass and synth, which seemlessly weaved in and out, working perfectly together. that shit went beautifully hard. a not entirely similar but like thoughts/feelings were felt listening to 'isopod farm'!

and um im gonna stop giving the song by song opinion. the mix of many different styles which i could all comment on is making this hard for me to succinctly comment on. i feel like i need to say something on every song. lol. every one went pretty hard.

err one of my standouts that i have 2 talk about is the azucar song. holy fuck tickled my brain so well. from the little ive heard of azucar, i love their imusic already. the off-kilterness of the song switching up and then pausing and then coming together. how the like whining melody (is the only way i can describe it) mixed with the fast footwork-esque kickdrum pattern during the middle. and i liked how perfectly unhinged and fun it is. the everchanging sswitchup. awesome.

OH YEAH another song i liked was crunchtime. that the exactly the kind of song i like cause it scratched my brain (again). i liked all these songs bruh.

the only big problem i have with this is that the track placement in the beginning is weird. the second and third (especially third) feel out of place with the other tracks. not that theyre bad, but that theyre so different from the rest its kind of hard to stomach. after first listen it sort of works together, but first listen i had whiplashed

also i didnt really like the ending song (at least as a ending song, maybe???). it felt like an unsatisfying wrap up also also was kind of abbrasive.

overall, this collection is pretty awesome and has a myriad of interesting textures to keep you engaged. i liked it quite a bit and theres some really good stuff ill be holding onto. and new artists im now obligated 2 check out

yo i havent done one of these in literally 10 years so idk lets see if i can do it well kek

normally i open up these reviews with like a little description on who the artist is, some backstory about the project, etc. bu in this case i literally know nothing about pierre honestly. and info on this mixtape is limited cause its not one of his “official projects” released onto spotify (only available on soundcloud) (though i could probably find some shit off of reddit…but do i want to do that? not really).

the reason i listened to this is cause someone put me onto i guess ‘drake and chill’ from the first tlop mixtape and i was like “wait this is the greatest song of all time” and then subsequently checked out tlop and loved it. then after many months i finally decided to listen to the second one lol

"The Life of Pi'erre 2" is the second installment of the “The Life of Pi'erre” mixtape series. it was released november 2016 and is written/almost produced entirely by pierre himself.

i really, really like this album. its fun and enjoyable to listen to (the perfect album for sunny rides on the bus on the way back home) with great pace, not ground-breaking but still unique sound. the album explores a variety of sounds but theyre all shades of pierre’s distinct style.

it starts with ‘harry potter’, a goofy song that serves as a nice intro to the mixtape. the chorus is just a gross gag joke about how “hermione loves his stick” but its fun, catchy (but embarrassing once you realize youre mummering the chorus out loud) and the synths mixed with the 808s put in the perfect places make it a good opener to the mixtape.

right after this, the only track not produced by pierre (instead fuse from the 808mafia collective); ‘yes’, is a shift in tone from the more lighthearted intro song into a more “HARD” i GUESS (cause thats the only word from the top of my head i can think of to describe it) sound. the mixing is a bit wacky and the 808s stab my ears so hard (808mafia) but its chill. like with literally every single song pierre has ever made i think, its SO catchy and at least a chorus will embed itself in your head for a week after listening. honestly this is my least favorite production wise because pierre already works so perfect with himself hearing him on a beat thats not his style feels weird NDEKWLD, but it still works very well.

even though ive only listened to 2 of his albums, some tracks he produced (iloveuihateu lol) and like a couple songs from his other personal projects, ive already developed a feel for his production style. its so simple yet effective. in the case of this album, even though its been like 7 years now since it was released (passed away realizing nov/2016 is 7 years ago now) it still sounds fresh and enjoyable.

if i focus on the beats of this, its literally just noises: short, semi-abrasive repeating synth melodies, interpolations of short snippets of samples, and an 808 pattern to compliment because thats mandatory. it works so well with the way his lyrics just sort of flow out of him which makes every track work so naturally and so well. my favorite beats off of it are probably blunts,

one of my favorite things about pierre when hes rapping is his lyricsm. not for the content itself (though he has had some cool wordplay moments) but for just the way he builds each lyric off of each other…how hell repeat previous lines its like its just a freestyle flowing out of him. and his deliveries and vocal qualities in general compliments his songwriting style so well! his voice is really nice to me i dont know why, and he plays with a range not above average but still interesting, engaging, and fun. highlights of this are ‘blunts’, ‘thank you jesus’, ‘shit crazy’, and honestly ‘solodolo’ too.

one song id like to talk about the lyrical content for i guess is ‘whatever that means’ and my kind of analysis.??

so firstly the entirety of the verses are him repeating things hes heard from a past s/o, followed with him brushing it off with the repeating line “whatever that means, yeah”

though most would probably interpret this as him being a dick, and maybe this is just me playing devils advocate idk, i fee like theres an element of self reflection in this song? all the lines of him repeating things his girlfriend said feel so incredibly specific. “you dont know your own values”, “you tried to tie me down too much”…i feel like if he was the worst/this wasnt a song with self-reflection he wouldve just said some more vague shit.

the pre-chorus/chorus, also seeming boasting and not caring, at least to me it reads like just coping LOL.

my personal interpretation of the song is that this is him playing up his carelessness and “whatever” attitude about a breakup but he still remembers what the girl said about him and why the relationship didn’t work out, showing his underlying regret. through the pattern of sharing something his girlfriend(s) said to him, he reveals how this relationship broke up in an interesting and kind of actually really cool way, playing with the messy dynamic of toxic relationships.

but thats just my stupid theory and maybe its not deep at all and im wrong. but i choose to believe this cause otherwise id like the song a lot less KEK

sooo what else is there to say about this mixtape besides yeah yeah i like it a lot and ive listened to it at least 10 times just going back from school on the bus and the suns beaming down and i feel a lot cooler than i am and like the beats are really cool and shit and the songs are infectious. its a great, pretty short listen (jk its like average album length i think…36 minutes but it goes past you quick!) so if youre interested at all i highly reccomend checking it out :)

ever since ive heard it, i knew i had to write up a review on this. it was mandatory. i needed to spill my thoughts on this work of art. i kept procrastinating it, though, but now that im sick, hate everything, bored and looking for an excuse to listen to this album for like the fifth time by now, here we are.

i love this thing. i discovered evaboy/miya lowe not too long ago—just a few weeks by now—from youtube recommending me his chao gardens album. it was a nice time, tho i didnt get through all of it because i had to go to costco or some shit idk. then i listened to jook till i die, but didn’t finish that completely either (i have since finished it tho like twice or thrice) then youtube recommended me beef, which clicked with me instantly and made me fall in love with evaboy.

front to back, this is produced with such love and care and awesomeness oozing through it. its electronic, grimy, and hard. but also a fun, enjoyable, good time all at once. filled with catchy beats, lots of samples tastefully mixed with the beat, unique production taking inspiration from a plethora of genres, and some parts of miya singing or rapping or whatever the fuck on select tracks (favorite moment of this is probably 925 validation or i hate u).

i say this all the time i have difficulty trying to describe really the “genre” this album is. its a mix of pseudo hip hop elements (war, beef, candy paint), definitely some species of club, electronic, funk, and bounce all at once. some parts of it even sound like samples or interpolations of video game osts/clips or something. the album feels like eating coins, jelly, stale ass bread and meat all at the same time. it mixes a lot of different sounds but into something thats distinctly evaboy.

because i have the attention span of a 5 year old i usually cannot make it listening to an album 15+ tracks but miya manages to flawlessly move and progress the theme and sound of a track to make it engaging and fun using things like beat switches, transitions, speed/pitch alteration, etc. if you play the first “section” of a song and then fasttrack to a later part of it, it’ll sound different, but the journey miya takes you on by slowly progressing through different soundscapes is so skillfully achieved and just sooo fucking good. its like youre rewarded for your listening.

thats what good music in this type of genre should do. it shouldnt sound the same start to finish. it should lead to places that feel different yet the same.

i stumble upon tons of electronic adjacent music that tries to do what miya does so well in this and it never sticks. beef is actually fresh and unique, never boring, and it actually feels like an experience carefully/tastefully simulated instead of the same. fucking. thing REPEATING PLS.

it radiates this intrinsic “online” quality to it for some reason. whether it be because of the many silly goofy samples or something else, this is a product of the internet. i dont think this makes sense but whatever, i think its clear if you listen to it.

last thing ill say is while idrfk anything about miya lowe or evaboy, if theres lore or drama or any shit, but a theme that permeates this project is “anger/beef”. from miya’s singing/rapping parts to the general tones of songs, i have this feeling this album is meant to channel/release some sort of pent up anger about recent experiences. i definitely get this feeling when listening, and i sort of just click with parts that make me think about stuff im still angry about. as the description says, i guess this is my music i beef to. very fitting and captured well.

overall, amazing project and probably my favorite project from evaboy so far (though im still listening to older/other stuff). im not sure if this the best description of the album i can do, but like all these albums here, its best you just listen to it yourself. i think its a great project and worth a spin. thank u evaboy for this beef

words to describe this album: wow what the fuck.

ok but really, what the fuck? this is literally so revolutionary but its not serious or made by someone pretentious at all:

grave robbing is the fourth (and final ☹) album by jane remover under the alias leroy. it first premiered on NTS radio and marks the death of the leroy alias (very likely the reason for the album title).

like every leroy project, its treated with a hint of humor; all the song titles being silly bullshit loosely related to one of the samples, ridiculous samples (which we will talk about later), etc. but what the fuck this shit is life-changing genre-defying revolutionary and so much more.

from the first track, you know youre in for something. this crunchy, harsh distorted repeating sound mixed with the light vocals of misc. 2000-10s pop sample 1 of 300 thats so nicely elevated by the synthy and fast production, its so good. and that jersey club type mix ~3 minute mark is so good. then it CONTINUES FOR THE REST OF THE TRACK BUT LIKE ITS MIXED WITH ALL THE OTHER ELEMENTS TOO UGHDHDHDHDH AND ITS MIXED PERFECTLY.

im so convinced jane has mastered production, being able to so flawlessly mix together sounds and at subtle details that add so much to the song. every element seems to be so carefully picked, im so interested to see their production process with how natural everything feels. everything flows so well into the next element.

im also convinced theyve mastered the art of buildup and progression. like i said, every element so perfectly transitions into the other, the wavering prominence of the chosen samples in one song so expertly weaved through it, mixed with such an energetic edmish/jersey club/hyperpop/blah blah blah beat and perfect timing between buildup to explosions of sound.

in their non-leroy music too theyre so good at creating a song that climaxes into perfection, where every second leads up perfectly to a cacophony of perfect production (case in point: lips).

it also has such a nice texture to all of it, the sweet pop song samples contrasting with the harsh distortion, abrupt cuts, synths, and face-paced beat. every song is angelic yet ridiculous thanks to the copious amounts of distortion, its such a silly ass time listening to it.

i keep talking about the samples because thats what leroy’s music most heavily relies on. no song has og vocals, just tons of samples and banger production. not like theyre the first to do it, but theyre definitely a pioneer in utilizing such heavy sample use to create masterworks. every song is totally distinct from the sources they take from. one can dream that every lousy flip will sound like a leroy song one day.

final word: plsplspslpslpsplspllpsplsplspllps listen to this album!!! (and, when it comes out, census designated bc it will rock!) jane deserves to go down in history as a visonary or some shit. if you like edm, club, electronic, hyperpop WHAtEVER JUST LISTEN TO IT BRUH (also subtle moe shop sample goes hard)

c/w: pretty in-depth disccussions of substance abuse

OKOK i will try to do this as unbiased and as true to my own opinions as possible.

This album is, fuck, so fucking good to me. Its ethereal, dirty, disgusting, beautiful, sweet. Thats the range. Its the debut album of Swedish-British artist Ecco2k. In this album, he mainly talks about his ketamine/drug abuse and his experience as a mixed man in a predominantly white community.

The albums soundscape is glossy, gracefully electronic, angelic, and pretty, but the lyrics, in contrast, focus on my “dark”, “grimy” and personal topics. His vocals add so much to this atmosphere as well, his high falsetto singing and just his normal emotional voice make every line feel like its elevating you more or more or some shit, putting you in his drug-fueled, “unreal” world he creates in this.

Songs like Fragile, maybe the best example of his ethereal background vocals and voice, mixed with the perfectly-fitted production (which ill talk about later) crafting together a ethereal world that i feel like is supposed to be emblimatic of his life. In the song, he talks about cooking up ketamine, consuming it/MDMA and the effects it has on his body, making his heart race and makes it “stop and start”, breaking his teeth/causing his jaw to clench, unable to speak because of it.

I find it beautiful he can speak so openly on the fact hes addicted, and knows it, then spins that shit into a beautiful song. This album feels reflective of his drug addiction, acknowledging it and admitting he does have a problem. He openly just details about himself snorting crystals, “bringing the bag out like its nothing” & crushing rocks with an oyster card at the bus stop.

On tracks such as Calcium, Peroxide, and Blue Eyes, he also talks about his experience as a mixed man living in the EU (actually crazy) and how he earns stares, how stereotypes shape his character/preconcived & prejudiced notions. In Blue Eyes he repeats over and over that all his friends have blue eyes, as if to emphasize how “out of place” it feels to not be white in the community he lives in.

The production, mostly done by Yung Gud and other close associates/friends, is so fucking crazy. Its minimal, the beats aren’t much, but so subtle and careful and tasteful the created. Its so fitting, the album feels “naked” in a way from the, in my opinion, minimal production aside from vocal effects in most songs (idfk im not a song producer i would not know) but it still does so much to the music. Just the repeating beating sound, whatever instrument it is in AAA Powerline makes it so much more immersive and just amazing.

The final thing I’ll talk about is the cover. Its the “℮” symbol, often called the “estimated sign” and “e-mark” represents the maximum allowed tolerances on many EU prepacked products. This ties in the frequently recurring theme of drug abuse, like hes saying hes at his limit.

This project is so good. I’m trying to hide my bias and give it an objective rating but honestly this project is almost perfect to me. Please, listen to this album, its amazing and under 30 minutes. It’ll be worth your time, i promise.

I will preface this review by saying this is my first introduction 2 Grimes I dont really know much about them but ive heard a lot about them so one day when i was just mindlessly drawing i decided to listen to this album. Now, while writing this, im listening to it for like the fourth time i think?? And this is my opinion of it at the moment. This is baby’s first Grimes introduction. This is my entry into like Grimes preschool. If ur like a Grimehead idfk sorry if this sucks. ALSO i have not yet listened 2 the deluxe version, i will later maybe possibly yeahhhhhh

On my first few listens i didnt resonate with this album as much as i did now. Its a lovely, trance-like magical, synthy, surreal experience. Its so simple yet so connecting at the same time, it makes me feel like im being intertwined with the music, becoming indoctrinated into the world they crafted with the soundscape of this album. Its electronic, synthy, all the words i used to describe it and more. Its all just so good, honestly.

I’m not very familiar with Grimes that much, this being my introduction to them as an artist, but after doing some very not-in-depth research on the creation of this project & some background knowledge ive gathered about them, this project was recorded entirely on GarageBand in a 2-3 week span, locked in their room on tons of amphetamines. And i think this was recorded during the time she was living in a crackden or something, im not sure, im trying to vaguely recall what ive heard. What I’m trying to say is that im assuming her life was not in a perfect place. Something about this album does capture that feeling. Its magical and beautiful, but also rough in a way. Sometimes the synth and electronic instruments whatever the fuck they are and a distorted, robotic version of their voice can be heard, or just general, more “messy” distortion on tracks can be heard. This is probably a parallel ass analogy im drawing but whatever fhjkrefhsdn dcfbgm.

The twelfth song, Skin, feels like im in a ethereal and pure yet grimy atmosphere just ascending or some shit, angelic from her “elevated” vocals, grimy from the ambient atmosphere of the song. The lyrics seem to be about a past lover thats hurt them. What I gather is that even though they didn’t love them to begin with, their touch “made [them] feel human again”, and that that person will never realize what they did for Grimes, even if unintentionally. I could talk about so many of the other songs, Visiting Statue, Colors of the Moonlight, and, well, of course, Oblivion. But thats all I have to say for now.

Overall, amazing album, and ill definetly try 2 get into more of their music!!

Recently became acquainted with the artist slater after hearing their song, Swallowed My Key. after a few weeks of just straight up forgetting to, i finally folded and listened to the EP its off of; the one im writing up a review for right now, ESI.

It was a chill experience. The first thing you’re hit with is the slick, bass-heavy start on the first song, also called ESI. No idea what “ESI” means but according to his lyrics, its possible to cruise across them. His calm, mellow voice works well with both the synthy and bouncy and smooth, chill moments across the EP. Speaking of, the beats on this project are really good at expressing a feeling of contentment, life moving by, and living, essentially. feels like im moving along to someone’s life, crusing around a car, with nothing on my mind, if that makes any sense.

My favorite song on this is still probably just Swallowed My Key, maybe because of the familiarity of/time ive already spent with the track. other tracks that I found nice though were Skittle on my Wrist, a bouncy, club-type track, Sp33din’, a chill, glidy track which i think best matches my description of this EP being like a cruise to no where in a car. I also just love his delivery on the chorus, something about it just makes me really happy for some reason. (Shoutout 2 Brainiac 2….im literally about to praise like all of the songs on this bro i like it a lot haha)

Speaking of Sp33din’, as an absolute loser, I first listened to this track via a random person’s YouTube compilation of the EP’s songs. In the end, the included the music video of Sp33din’ which doubled as one for Swallowed my Key. It was quite the story-telling treat, where Sp33din’ was him, well, speeding in a car, then transitioning to Swallowed my Key’, which was the aftermath; him being covered in blood and going to a house party of sorts. It was really nice, the first part being filmed in a green light, as if theres a thick, sick tension in the air & a careless or at least numb attitude to the things hes doing, while the second part is red, obviously because he well, fucking crashed his car with blood dripping down his face, but also, adds a weird, ethereal, but also nauseous feeling to when he enters the house party. I’m really explaining this like dog shit, but please, watch the video for yourself, its wonderfully done!!

Overall, great EP, enjoyed it a lot! 8/10 and heavily recommend if ur bored and want to jam out to some chill songs !