D'Angelo - Black Messiah (2014)

I wonder how many of these tracks were recorded by the band, in a room, or how many were constructed from miles and hours of takes, a la Teo Macero/Bryan Ferry. A guitar from here, a bit of percussion from there ...

I doubt there's much of the latter if this was all done analog. No one's gonna go through the laborious process of tape splicing these days.

I love how the guitar in "till it's done (tutu)" is consistently about .1s behind the beat the entire song, it's just perfect

i'd be willing to bet that it's almost entirely overdubbed/pieced-together.

Plenty of people record analog then dump to digital for further refinement/editing.

i'd be willing to bet that it's almost entirely overdubbed/pieced-together.

― festival culture (Jordan), Tuesday, December 16, 2014 10:51 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

on one or two listens this was definitely my read

as long as we're talking concise vs. sprawling/messy/whatever, the songs on BM feel judiciously edited to me, though that might just be in comparison to the 6/7min avg track length on Voodoo. no reason these songs couldn't support being stretched out like that, but he opted not to do that, which I think was a really smart move to help differentiate it.

Oh, definitely overdubbed, just saying I love the delay

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B47mAtIIAAE5dhQ.jpg

"no digital "plug-ins" of any kind were used in this recording. all of the recording, processing, effects and mixing was done in the analog domain using tape and mostly vintage equippment."

What constitutes "maximum volume"?

usually 10

11 in certain cases

i'm not a purist by any means, but i like knowing that that's true of this record

"i feel like this is so wrong that they've switched the labels on your CDs, but probably more likely we're looking at the exact same thing from inverse angles, or something, like"

nah, not really. dominique really said what i was getting at, but the song lengths on this thing are the shortest hes ever done, which indicates hes been thinking about how to compress his ideas around funk/sloppiness/groove into slightly more compact frames. within that, theres a lot of clever editing/arranging thats gone on. even something like sugah daddy packs quite a lot into its relatively short time, where on voodoo, its equivalent (chicken grease) was allowed to be a bit meandering cos he was making a show of stretching out a la 70s funk. here, the arrangements are tighter. the grooves still seem loose, i think the playing aesthetic has stayed the same, anyone whos followed quest/dilla over the last 10-odd years will be familiar with what theyre doing, but i think its the focus this time that makes this different to voodoo, its sloppy but with a sharper intent to it. theres less of a 'just capturing whats happening in the studio', its more 'this is what we can do with what we do in the studio'.

anyway, for all the bilal/erykah comparisons, songs like charade and aint that easy remind me a lot of older van hunt.

some interesting background on the album (even on the font!) and its quick release here -
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/17/arts/music/dangelos-black-messiah-was-released-in-a-rush.html?_r=0
the fact it was motivated by ferguson still makes me think 1000 deaths should have been the first song. for me thats where the album really begins, like devils pie did on voodoo. i might change it on my ipod.

reading along to the lyrics has def cracked this album open further for me

xp
Ain't That Easy is very reminiscent of Hello Goodbye and The Charade has shades of Dust. There are certainly grounds for comparison with later Van Hunt i.e. "What Were You Hoping For?"

How is Playa Playa not the perfect opener/scene setter?

oops i totally forgot about playa playa lol

the fact it was motivated by ferguson still makes me think 1000 deaths should have been the first song. for me thats where the album really begins, like devils pie did on voodoo. i might change it on my ipod.

hang on, 1000 deaths isn't the first track??

Ha! My review download was ordered alphabetically. And it really works that way!!

They can put a man on the moon but they can't get review downloads to appear in the right order.

but hes never been a particularly strong melody writer,
-StillAdvance

W-W-w-w-w WHATTT[Kyle's mom]

RACCOON chooses BROWN SUGAR

BROWN SUGAR sprinkles itself all over this Opinion!!

StillAdvance fainted!!!

this album is def thick with grooves, more so than voodoo even i think, or more effectively maybe
-StillAdvance

Now you're just wreckless, go home you're drunk. And you've puked down your new LED light christmas jumper.

What he's saying is that D'Angelo's more about fitting his voice in with the groove just right, as opposed to singing 'melody lines'. Like, the first time I listened to BM I remarked on how little D'Angelo there is in the overall mix. It's all down to little 'pah-PAH''s and 'dap-dow''s, squiggling songlines that weave complexly in and out the beat. He's definitely there of course, but his vocal lines work more like another, highly flexible, instrument than anything else. I hear parallels in things like later Miles Davis records where the trumpet will serve to pepper and punctuate the groove of the other musicians - always central, always essential, but rarely taking over from the rest of the action.

love "brown sugar", but not sure the upper-register vocal hook goes any great distance toward proving d'angelo as a tunesmith

apparently they're cramming a 56-minute album onto one LP for the vinyl release, boo

yeah, sucks, shoulda given it to LITA

What he's saying is that D'Angelo's more about fitting his voice in with the groove just right, as opposed to singing 'melody lines'. Like, the first time I listened to BM I remarked on how little D'Angelo there is in the overall mix. It's all down to little 'pah-PAH''s and 'dap-dow''s, squiggling songlines that weave complexly in and out the beat. He's definitely there of course, but his vocal lines work more like another, highly flexible, instrument than anything else. I hear parallels in things like later Miles Davis records where the trumpet will serve to pepper and punctuate the groove of the other musicians - always central, always essential, but rarely taking over from the rest of the action.

dangelo is a gospel singer 1st, and this album even though he sidelined the keys is his most gospel vocals yet, even if betray my heart would be the only straight gospel song here. being a gospel singer in melody is not just about the straight pop hooks you and StillAdvance are trying to compare him to, the melody is created through the verses and the song as a whole.

I'm declaring Till Its Done a straight Badu homage

holy shit Jesse Johnson from The Time is on guitar somewhere. Percussion on Sugah Daddy is not by Questlove but James Gadson and writing contributed by Q Tip on that track too. D Angelo down as playing 9 instruments on album.

is anyone else credited with doing a lot of the keyboards? because there's some really lovely piano on the album

I would assume that's D himself!

gotta be. and he played that insane bass on 1000 Deaths.

"no digital "plug-ins" of any kind were used in this recording. all of the recording, processing, effects and mixing was done in the analog domain using tape and mostly vintage equippment."

but not editing, you'll notice. i can't imagine that they didn't edit it in Pro Tools after recording to tape. one of the engineers mentioned needing a couple hours to bring up a session when D wanted to switch songs, but that's probably to recall all the outboard mixing & effects settings, i'm guessing.

if you wanted to do legit complicated analog tape splice editing it today it would involve getting a serious old school industry dude

yup there's no way this was edited on tape

apparently they're cramming a 56-minute album onto one LP for the vinyl release, boo

― christmas with the canks (some dude), Wednesday, December 17, 2014 6:49 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

are there any well known examples of the "echoes" people here from narrow grooves?

even the studios and studio bods I know who are proudly analog would only edit on digital tbh

maybe they brought zappa back from the dead

apparently they're cramming a 56-minute album onto one LP for the vinyl release, boo
― christmas with the canks (some dude), Wednesday, December 17, 2014 6:49 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

are there any well known examples of the "echoes" people here from narrow grooves?

― $80 is absurd and very ridiculous! (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, December 17, 2014 11:00 AM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

goddamn it is this confirmed? cuz then i might as well go buy on CD to support the first week sales

Jesse Johnson's guitar all over this thing, not on just on SD.

doing some digging this is the pink fender D'angelo uses today, given to him by, Jesse Holding it on the inner sleeve of Shockadelica

http://i.imgur.com/vD7gbgH.jpg

here it is again

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/336486/Jesse+Johnson.jpg

no wait, that's not it lol

all pink guitars look alike eh

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/3912158/Jesse+Johnson+J+Johnson+Pink+Guitar.jpg

that is a G&L

my Publix is fond of a not bad by chart DOA duet with Sly Stone from '86 called "Crazay."

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2012/09/the-best-song-of-2012-dangelos-the-charade.html

BTW - on the vinyl pressing, I asked on Twitter and apparantly it's a double LP? (which would make sense given the running time)

Ben Kane ‏@kanevibrations 45m45 minutes ago
@MattHelgeson it's a double LP and yes it was pressed from the hi def digital master which came off our tapes. It'll sound great!

my secret shame about this album is that Charade is my least favorite

it's not one that leaps out at me - wfmu blog correctly that it leans a lot on late-period Prince "rock" singles

xp I think they originally said double. But then the website says only "Side A" and "Side B", which I guess really means "Disc 1" and "Disc 2".