best nu-andre 3000 verse

there are some good moments on this album, but giving this a bnm off vibes while so few actual rap albums get bnm this year is something

The careful wording of that review is really killing me this morning. So much of the praise would need virtually no editing to make it have sense in a 3.1 review rather than BNM: “When André does finally play, he picks his notes carefully…. Even on his handmade flutes, he never lets out the kind of fluid, cocksure flow that sold over 25 million records.”

His decision to be pretty bad at playing his instrument lends a unexpected element to the proceedings, much like the chance-based compositions of fellow searchers John Cage and Brian Eno...

The occasionally lovely textures are not really enough to save the really-quite-shocking flute playing

This was the vibe for me

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

I didn't know I needed to see that, although the ending overdoes it

Some of this works for me, mostly on vibes created by the non-flute instrumentation -- there are a few serene and spacious soundscapes that are lovely. But largely agree with the takes above that on the whole it feels like a vanity project lacking in both compositional and performance integrity. A few tracks transported me to a bad yoga studio / massage parlor.

Those yoga soundtracks are usually performed by slick, disciplined pros! Would not want to hear this LP during my full Swedish

the idm equivalent of this was when Cylob put out Mood Bells

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

now i need to hear new blue sun shittyfluted

the pitchfork review is one of the most unbearably pretentious things "in recent memory"

I like how the the review compares André to John Coltrane (shit, cat!), Pharoah Sanders (though not "in its actual playing"), Philip Glass, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Eric Dolphy...

This is the ultimate ambient album, you don't even have to listen to it, it just exists.

it's a nice list of things to listen to instead of this album

xxp Dont forget Raymond Carver!

so my final assessment of this album is a total meme review: after listening to new blue sun, my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined. five mics. good day, good sirs.

"now let us never speak of it again"

I can’t be mad at this album…One track sounds exactly like David Sylvian’s “Words With The Shaman”….so that’s good….

The notation is minimal, and he repeats short and uncomfortable phrases until they begin to sound right: Listen as he dips, brushes, and dabs in “The Slang Word P(*)ssy Rolls Off The Tongue With Far Better Ease Than The Proper Word Vagina . Do You Agree?,”

“The Slang Word P(*)ssy Rolls Off The Tongue With Far Better Ease Than The Proper Word Vagina . Do You Agree?" (dip`n`dab remix)

I reviewed it:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/andre-3000s-new-blue-sun-review-1234886904/

I wasn't expecting those conclusions tbh

I can’t be mad at this album…One track sounds exactly like David Sylvian’s “Words With The Shaman”….so that’s good….

And Sylvian joins the conversation...

https://ibb.co/4P83mHM

ha, I thought of Sylvian too

Well that didn't go well...

Will try this again:

The new Andre 3000 record is wonderful. Sounding like a dream @davidsylvian58 might have.

— Ian Webber (@ian_webber) November 18, 2023

@ian_webber
Nov 17
The new Andre 3000 record is wonderful. Sounding like a dream @davidsylvian58 might have.

@davidsylvian58
i'll always have time for people who change the course of their musical trajectory particularly if they've a high profile. take this as you will but this album sounds more like a dream joe zawinul might've had in the mid 80s.

<3

The bit comes around 8:15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gaHB9WPN4g

yuck

My latest Stereogum jazz column is up; I used the André 3000 album as a springboard to talk about Yusef Lateef, Bobbi Humphrey, Hubert Laws, and Nicole Mitchell.

oh if people are saying this sounds like sylvian maybe i actually have to listen to it

the greatest pleasure I get from this release is wondering how many heads of posters on the Philaflava would have exploded if this had come out in like 2006.

The best thing personally about all the discussion of jazz flautists generated by this release is I discovered Prince Lasha's Firebirds album, which is beyond great.

Carrying on with the similar-but-better vibes recommendations, I randomly came across this new reissue:

Sergey Karapetyan - Duduk Solos
https://canary-records.bandcamp.com/album/duduk-solos
Haunting Armenian duduk (apparently a double reed instrument that's sort of like a low clarinet?) playing over drones

as long as nicole mitchell is getting her due I'm happy this album exists

I only know prince lasha for writing and playing on "music matador" with eric dolphy and I assumed he was a sort of dolphy protege with his playing - esp since it's the 2nd track on an album that starts with a (awesome) dolphy flute showcase - but I don't know his biography. I'm on track 3 of firebirds and it's great - lovely range of textures with flute, saxes, clarinet, cor anglais (always nice to hear in jazz - sonny simmons is also new to me). it has some of the sense of restraint and use of empty space and one-foot-in-the-tradition-ness that I associate with AACM recordings from a few years later. never heard bobby hutcherson and charles moffett together before but they have great chemistry

I only heard one track of the duduk thing but I'll come back to it - it's gorgeous and lonesome and would probably make a better meditation tool than the andre album

anyone fuck with this soul flutes album?

https://youtube/f7FjnNxY21I?si=nNP33XnmhBGnoe3p

the Duduk album is fantastic

Flutes + Joe Zawinul vibe = Stone Flute by Herbie Mann

ya'll-
i know i'm a flippant little shit stirrer but unperson saw the opportunity and seized the fucking day with that piece. bobbi humphrey recs for the kids in 2023? where can i donate to your campaign?

outstanding stuff. thanks for posting.

FYI that soul flutes album is Heriberto Mann on flute with Ron carter and herbie Hancock.

Spell check doesn’t like herbie apparently

What's Najee up to these days?

herbie mann's artier outing "the stone flute" is so good - killer lineup - sharrock, ayers, ron carter and more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwY75gziVIQ

yes that album totally rules

Spell check doesn’t like herbie apparently

― Heez, Wednesday, November 22, 2023 8:26 AM

heriberto hancock

i like Herbie because he likes to lie

Rumor has it that the next album is recorded . Its in the same jazz improv “genre”, but Andre is doing vocals over it

rapping? or is that too much to hope for

if that's true,
i would assume he'll be doing a kind of spoken word thing. "spottieottiedopaliscious" with noodly beatless backings.

and if that is the case,
fuck that fake big rube bullshit. GIVE US THE UNRELEASED BIG RUBE ALBUM FROM 1997 YOU COWARDS!

if no one has yet gathered, this whole thing has been one of the most anticlimactic things in my distant memory and i'm trying to have a good attitude about it. my disappointment is pretty significant tho.

This album is fine. I don't know what people were expecting

the ability to play his instrument beyond a very novice level.

like if this was one of those pandemic era pay-to-stream live performances and they just noodled it out as a one-time thing, fine. that would have been cool to see him!

but idk, to actually make a record out of these improvised jam sessions feels sorta cheap. it's not even clear what he's doing most of the time. i mean he's always been a greenhorn instrumentalist, but on the old records he at least sounded proficient and practiced.

okay, okay... deep breath, good attitude