Just One Man’s Opinion: The 25 Best of the 2010’s

Preamble In 2009, I thought my listening habits would just continue to stroll into the 2010’s in the same manner. I was neck deep in a world of Indie Rock, with a peppering of classic Blues, Jazz, and R&B albums – basically to maintain some appearance of balance. Real Estate had released their eponymous debut album, Grizzly Bear had dropped the powerful and immersive Veckatimest record, and Animal Collective was making Electronic Indie music mainstream with Merriweather Post Pavilion. There...

Sonikseek: Revisiting the Underrated Brilliance of Labi Siffre

  A medium-sized tangent to start things off (before the main topic of Labi Siffre): There are those who listen to the music before the lyrics, and then there are those who need serviceable lyrics before they jump on-board with a song. Everyone leans in one of these directions, yet it’s certainly never cut and dry. It’s a slowly-peeled discovery to find the direction a person gravitates, and always an illuminating discovery. You can probe by asking some questions, though...

Hate CD But Love Digital? Steve Lacy Says We Can Have Both

It seems even at the slight age of 21, Steve Lacy has already come into his own. Remarkably, he doesn’t share the same popular esteem in R&B as peers like Frank Ocean, SZA, or The Weeknd- an aspect that confounds my sense of decent music taste while also making me question whether I’m deluded in believing he has transcended his indie bona fides to a greater regard. Maybe his lo-fi leanings make him not quite right for the spotlight –...

Mix Master Bestor: Tunnelgazing Into Lo-Fi Soul

    How did we get to this point? In 2019 the derivations of R&B spread like a great sycamore tree. However, the prominence and preeminence of R&B is nothing new, nevertheless, the character of it in today’s day and age is something pretty remarkable. Trace back to the late 70’s with the rise of Disco and you’ll see one of the first times the world of popular music was ensconced in the groove and melody of R&B. The chart-topping...

One Man’s Opinion on 2018: The Year’s 20 Best LPs

  I was laser-focused on navigating through as many albums from 2018 as physically possible. It was a willful endeavor to pour over the dozens of albums mentioned on some list or other, as well as scroll through all the playlists and musical libraries I created in the past year. For me, the end of 2018 was this whirlwind binge of music from disparate genres and corners of popular music. After the countless hours of listening intently while openly scrutinizing,...

Last Year Says It Needs to Be Said – 2018’s 10 Best EPs

The typical 12-inch vinyl record you will find at the record store can hold roughly 22 minutes of sound per side….if pressed at the typical 33 revolutions per minute (rpm). When Columbia Records introduced the microgroove technology in 1948, it became the standard of the music industry and a format that would come to define the Long Playing (LP) full-length record. Competing with the LP record were “45s”, the 7″ vinyl records played at 45 rpms (hence the name). “45s”...

Turning Over Rocks: Buried Gems Found When Sourcing Samples

The rich heritage of sampling in Hip-Hop has given many artists second and third lives. Quite appropriately, it’s often the obscure and/or forgotten artists who either get their first day in the sun or receive a nostalgic dousing of warmth when a notable modern Hip-Hop act samples their music. Most other forms of music can’t make such claims even if there are great influencers we can hear in the music. Rock, Folk, Blues, Jazz, and Dance-Electronic build upon the work...