Kelela - Cut 4 Me

tbh i don't even hear them as fussy or intricate, just awkward and rigid

I do too - rigid certainly, and if not always awkward to my ears then at least deliberately "ungainly" - but I suppose I can deal with it better as straight soundworld indulgence rather than when it sounds like someone took a perfectly decent house track and sprained its ankle.

It seems a reasonable thing to be turned off by though, IMO.

I could mostly give less of a fuck about a perfectly good house track at this point tbh

Even the straightforward "functional" dance music I'm into is club or ballroom or juke or falling in between those cracks.

Bun fire pon 4x4

but I suppose I can deal with it better as straight soundworld indulgence rather than when it sounds like someone took a perfectly decent house track and sprained its ankle.

i'm mostly thinking of stuff like "fogs", not to mention early jam city stuff like "arpjam", which are still some of my favourite dance trax of this decade, as examples of that urgency (not nec 4x4) which i find completely lacking among NS/F2M, including kelela, lately

Kelela's definitely going for a different thing than those tracks tho, more of a floaty, romantic vibe sometimes offset by jagged tracks. Something like "Bank Head" is more made to body roll and dance sexy to than stomp your feet and that's ALWAYS ALWAYS better.

We really need to have a thread on drums/bass/momentum/kineticism in music and what does and doesn't work for people, not necessarily dance music either. Because early NS just did not work for me at all on a basic physical level even when it was ostensibly similar to other stuff I liked.

Dance in between the beats

LOL some of us do know what dancing involves Rev.

I guess I specifically have a love for dance music that challenges me as a dancer.

This is one of the things I find awesome about footwork is basically its whole central premise as music specifically made for dance battles is the tension between how challenging it can be to dance to but still able to be danced to by a skillful dancer.

Thing is it's not just about dancing is it? A lot of the listening contexts for this music happen when there's no dancing at all taking place. I like footwork because the rhythmic patterns work for me on a very basic level and would never even think of trying to dance to it. And in 99% of the situations when I actually dance anything that particularly 'challenges' me would be doomed to disaster.

I mean obviously dancing is the primary purpose but if the music is any good you can get a lot out of it away from the dancefloor.

I guess I specifically have a love for dance music that challenges me as a dancer.

― The Reverend, Wednesday, October 2, 2013 9:19 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I broadly have the same sympathies, which is why in general terms jungle and 2-step and funky are closer to the centre of my taste than are typical house or techno.

OTOH my preferred form of "challenge" is one where the music is rhythmically more fluent, and dares you to try to keep up, as opposed to the inverse situation where the music kinda bludgeons about in an ungainly manner, in a deliberate debasement of rhythmic fluency vis a vis, say, house - although certainly I can also think of examples of this approach which I absolutely love.

Where I think the Kelela album does well is in raising the latter approach to its own level/form of fluency through intensification. I can imagine people dancing to some of this but it seems like a secondary effect.

i guess the dancing thing is a red herring w/r/t kelela specifically, i'm aware it's not made for that as such, but the same issues that have made NS club tracks in the past year-ish so undanceable to me are the same issues that make this underwhelming to me, it's the rigidity and refusal to do anything except hang there twitching. prettiness is really not enough when it doesn't parlay that into meat at some point

yeah i was gonna say why are we talking about this like it's a dance album

Yeah, that was a tangent. But Tim otm.

hah if ever further proof were needed that tim is la puta madre when it comes to sweetening up disses

Lovely listen, this. Currently on "Floor Show"

Only about half way through but not feeling this at all. With a better vocalist it might have worked but her voice is kind of thin and the songwriting isn't really good enough for it to work as R&B. Also the beats are so torpid and lacking in energy even when they're fast.

i gave it another try and it's not the negative space in the beats i don't like, it's the fucking stop-start lack of a groove - like on "cut 4 me", which is probably as strong as the album gets, even there you have that pretty good loop which just PAUSES after every iteration for no reason at all. kingdom started out making infinitely better vocal music than this so it's just massively disappointing.

Yeah I don't think this realizes the potential of forward-looking production and R&B vocalist.

It sounds like most of these guys aren't giving Kelela their best shit and her writing is pretty boilerplate at times. This crawls to the finish line. I still like it, but it's not quite there yet.

Lex, have you every considered the idea that you might be rhythmically inadequate or deficient, and not this music?

For Fans of: FKA Twigs, Ruby Goe, Aaliyah

i'm good

I've not paid much attention since The Perfect Lullaby but kinda despairing that this is the sort of R&B that Nguzunguzu decide to make when they get the chance.

This tape sounds pretty good to me, but I understand the indifference. It epitomizes everything that's meh about R&B in 2013: tiny voiced singers who mistake minimalism for substance; production that sounds like it came from glass studios where you can't touch anything; songs that don't stick; AlunaGeorge-isms, etc.

this sound just codes as super yuppie to me atp

This tape sounds pretty good to me, but I understand the indifference. It epitomizes everything that's meh about R&B in 2013: tiny voiced singers who mistake minimalism for substance; production that sounds like it came from glass studios where you can't touch anything; songs that don't stick; AlunaGeorge-isms, etc.

― Evan R, Friday, October 4, 2013 10:21 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

bingo. this style is dead as ... dead. heroin's coming back in a big fuckin way

Y'all have never been so wrong.

ILM you disappoint me.

evan otm. it does sound "pretty good" but...that's it

also idk who "josephine" is but i'm calling sock at any poster who seemingly only shows up to snark at me

get over yourself, b

whenever i see this thread title i hear the weeknd singing "take a cut for me"

FWIW I'm not grading its quality either way, just expressing a general ennui w/ the entire approach

haven't really digested this whole thing yet and though i think evan's assessment has an element of truth to it, "enemy" kinda refutes the idea that this is all very precious

production that sounds like it came from glass studios where you can't touch anything

i think this is less of a problem here... a lot of these beats are hard. one of the best things about this record. they would break glass studios! i understand the lineage you're referring to but i think it's a red herring here.

when the songs fail it's because the producers misunderstand timbaland's genius as purely related to his drums instead of his drums rubbing against the textures of traditional, soulful R&B. production nerd problems, i'd wager.

but i like this record. i don't think it's GREAT but the songwriting is stronger than i anticipated. i also think the vocals are generally pretty good except when she sounds too much like cassie (my main prob with "bank head"). also i think this leans closer to so so def-era bass music than it's getting credit for.

that said i do sympathize with lex in that i wish there were songs here that had momentum. there's a lot of banging up and down here — and i like that about it, "enemy" and "floor show" and "cut 4 me" — but not enough pushing forward

i'm with rev, this is great.

lex is right that this needs to be more danceable though lol

it's like two albums worth of good slow jams crammed into one which sounds good but is kinda boring

actually it's funny that evan made the "glass studio" quip when there's literally the sound of glass shattering in one song

lol, does 'guns & synths' use the gchat notification sound on the backbeat every so often? it's tripping me out.

i think this is plenty danceable in its way, thought that was the whole idea.

Up and down but not forward is a v good description of the beats (and why I don't get with them)

do you mean like in terms of dynamics (structure, builds, etc) or just how the grooves feel?

How the (NON) grooves feel I guess?

the actual slow jams (minus minimal dance beats) at the end of the record are stunning

This is growing on me a lot. Wish "Go All Night" was a full track.

the glass thing is probably one of Jam City's?

finally listening to this and yeah it seems pretty great. it's exactly the kind of album that will really open up for me on headphones with an edible and a run, i'm predicting. has late afternoon / golden hour vibes imo.

Anyone feels like the mood is similar to the SZA album ? Meandering, frail, lonely, vocals going up and down in vast and cold spaces and around skeletal structures. Raven with a consistent soundscape, SOS more sprawling.

A similar sense of desolation

Definitely the best thing she's done, but I'm a complete sucker for jungle breaks.

idk know Take Me Apart had more variety, and the songwriting isn't up to SZA's.

Raven is so, so good

thrilled to be seeing her live again later this year

so good I have to un-hide it: Raven

really digging the *Rave:N, The Remixes* album. so dreamy and cool.

https://i.scdn.co/image/ab67616d0000b27342be66dc114499902e3a4d15

so the live album she recorded at the blue note is stunning. i run pretty hot and cold on her stuff but this is front to back incredible

Jordan otm.
Was not expecting any new entries in my top live albums at this stage, but this one is so good.
It might have the best recording quality of any live album. The bass is ridiculous.

still possibly my album of the year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2IpeDPmjFo

If there’s an album of kelela-does-dreampop in the pipeline, then I am totally here for it

extremely here for a kelela dream pop album or even heavy-end-of-shoegaze album?

Yeah sorry I just said dreampop because I have an aversion to the pesky s-word :)

Only just got round to checking her insta and no mention of an album yet. It is about time though. She does say that it was inspired by Octavia Butler and is about “what it feels like to exist in this climate”

new album new avatar out july 10

https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/q/75/i/5ec50bf1fff2a70a0ad538173f5617e56cff2227669d47e4cd928fc6fab01801/WARP405_Packshot_3000.jpg

second single "linknb"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrjRQyQFGh4

whoa

omg "point blank"!!!! I think this is the best one yet

it's my least favourite so far, the groove is just awkward

I find out arrestingly discombobulating, it's like a Reinforced track circa 1993

Or, like, JME's productions for Tropical 2.

Beach club music for seven-limbed aliens.

I've been relistening to her catalog since "idea 1" dropped and I've got newfound respect for it.

Love this latest one with A.K. Paul, it's "evil Brandy" in the extreme

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mLNza10dKs