Rustie - Glass Swords

perhaps you are saying you do not want a mind trip, but a body journey

whoa this mix

(xpost) mind you, that Thunder Bay beat's great neanderthal insistence owes more than a wee bit to this old grime number....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q1Z6KQ49tU

kinda weird that Pitchfork reviewed it

yeah i thought it must have gotten a physical release or something

rev you so crazy

how you say the rhythm here is an afterthought

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKm1m1NJysk

i mean on a conceptual level it sounds to me like a basic crunk / southern rap beat (admittedly i'm not a big expert on those genres) w/ crazy-ass synth work on top BUT i think it's an extremely competent and well-crafted basic beat and not at all an afterthought or half-assed beatwork

actually "extremely competent" is probably an oxymoron, maybe i just mean "completely competent"

that's my favorite track of glass swords BTW

i think the "maximalism" of rustie is somewhat overstated

on the essential mix last saturday -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01f15yf

was listening to the essential mix today and it seemed like he's a huge chick corea fan

I like rustie, for whatever reason I'm not angry when I listen to whatever shit of his I've heard, think he's kind of boring to me in an overall musician way but still it's not the worst

Apparently he's been approached to work with Justin Bieber and Shakira. He wisely said no. I can't see how that would have worked.

Hudson Mohawke appears to be making that move

was listening to the essential mix today and it seemed like he's a huge chick corea fan

hahahaha this is like the most predictable thing ever. can't wait for the bela fleck collabo.

people say a lot of ott things about how much is going on in rustie tracks

to me rustie basically sounds like hip hop jacking IDM of yore, except updated to reflect the cadences of 00s rap tunes and ukg / grime and really creative / cheesy / goofy synth textures

i definitely agree with that. although i think those write-ups are mostly trying to call attention to his aesthetic/attitude, i.e. going big rather than creating an atmosphere.

yeah his music is kinda loud, those gloopy shiny synths really "fill up" the, uh, psychoacoustic space or whatever you want to call it.

i'm kinda referring to things like that quote from the pfork EM review where the writer says something like "five simultaneous melodies going on at once" ... uh, no. there's not five melodies going on at once, there's usually one melody with lots of pitchbending and fx (not much more intricate than a typical modern acid house track) and one bassline and some random embellishments (definitely not intricate compared to the DSP fuckery in most idm tracks)

don't get me wrong i LOVE rustie and hudson mohawke it's just i think the praise they get is kinda ill-informed and misses what's great about them

fwiw i also think hudson mohawke's production and drum programming is much more "intricate" although definitely not "better" because of it

apparently he's been approached to work with Justin Bieber and Shakira. He wisely said no. I can't see how that would have worked.

― And I have been called "The Appetite" (DL), Tuesday, April 24, 2012 7:03 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

i don't see why someone wouldn't just try this. the worst that happens is that nothing good comes of it and that's that.

he's holding out for lil wayne

fwiw i also think hudson mohawke's production and drum programming is much more "intricate" although definitely not "better" because of it.

totally. i agree that rustie's thing isn't about a ton of sounds and parts, it's about huge sounds so that he can base a track around ONE part that still sounds pretty overwhelming.

sorry for repeating myself but this is all I could think of when listening to the essential mix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDkqu7GPd0o

yup

Warp Record guest Rustie delves into the diversity of his own tastes with a special selection including: Boards of Canada, Allan Holdsworth, Yes, Return to Forever & Weather Report.

he should've totally taken bieber and shakira up ffs

i mean you can totally imagine shakira doing a vocal along the lines of nightwave's on "surph" and fleshing the song out a bit

please apologize for linking to a site w/ a picture of rustie

This was originally meant to go to Rihanna
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrsaB0Uune8

ha xp

return to forever is totally in these days, just look at that thundercat record.

wtf r u talking abt when was RTF ever not cool?

rustie looks like he could be on wdyll

allan holdsworth is a pretty deep pick

"nice keebaab?"
"it....it was a burrito actually"

ha i was obsessed with that stuff when i was a teenager, but you have to admit that they have the worst rep out of all the big fusion bands (for the usual jazz crimes - cheesy/overblown/soulless etc.).

yeah his music is kinda loud, those gloopy shiny synths really "fill up" the, uh, psychoacoustic space or whatever you want to call it.

i think this is my actual biggest problem with the record. most of the synth sounds he uses are just loud and shrill to me and drive me nuts

rustie is shrill

but he is also shrewd, and chill

are people still into http://gigi.nullneuron.net/ultima/u6/items/glassswd.gif glass swords http://gigi.nullneuron.net/ultima/u6/items/glassswd.gif ?

Funny you should mention this. I was just listening to this today. I love this album (been listening to it since it came out, as well).

the best album of 2011 for me

"slasherr" from this year is decent as well

yeah liked this record a lot, didn't even notice it was much taken notice of on ILM

My favorite 2011 album that I didn't hear until 2012.

I kind of hear what Matt DC is saying about it not really being dance music - not that you 'can't' dance to it, but a lot of the songs never get going quite enough or sustain a beat long enough. I could see it lending itself really well to dance remixes/edits that wouldn't have to do a whole lot.

sure it's still awesome

that's part of what I like about it, all that tension that never quite releases

dance prog. imo it's really more an update on instrumental funk from the 70s, that was as much an exercise in jamming, in a musicianly way, as it was "dance music".

really? it's got some fusion signifiers, but to my ears the forms/structures are very exacting and dance-based (and the most fun moments are when he's playing with listener expectations on the builds/drops).

something that confused me about rustie was that he got so much more popular / acclaimed than hudson mohawke. their approaches, qualities and strengths seem very similar to me.

i guess that's not true post-tnght but i always felt "butter" got a bad rap

I don't really mean it sounds like fusion, just that it reminds of what a lot of instrumental and fusion bands were doing in the 70s, making records of essentially "dance" music, but that were never really the same kind of dance music as, say, giorgio moroder or chic. Even tho really, if you listen to it, formwise, it's not arguably a different thing. See also a lot of instrumental hip-hop, post-dubstep stuff like zomby, or even squarepusher (who really does play the fusion card).

hudson mohawke seems to actively court dance/hip-hop appeal tho. Like, he makes tracks, and with tnght, that sound like their primary purpose is to woo a rapper to use them for production, and to make festival crowds jump up and down. Whereas rustie to my ears sounds too "impressive" in a muso way. It sounds amazing when I hear it at home, but maybe too busy in too short a time to work as "dance" music, as was suggested upthread. A fine line tho!

just listened to "glass swords" b2b w/ soul jazz's "deutsche elektronische musik" comp which is largely just prog as opposed to electronic music and it was a very smooth transition

there are moments of the rustie album that are straight-up prog imo