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- The Retrographer, Issue 120 (November, 2 0 2 4)
The Retrographer, Issue 120 (November, 2 0 2 4)
Kendrick Lamar, Denzel Curry, Armani White, JPEGMAFIA, Ka, Boldly James, harry Fraud, Tee Grizzley, Hotline TNT, Dummy, Jane Remover, Two Shell, Fievel is Glauque, and more!
Charlie Kaplan
December 06, 2024
The Retrographer, Issue 120 (November, 2 0 2 4)
Bulletins:
I just released my first Christmas song: “It’s Finally Christmastime”! It’s sorta nuts, see for yourself.
My third album, “Eternal Repeater” is out now. Listen here and buy an LP here.
I’m doing something cool with a local label called Leestavall: You select a song, I perform it, they press it to vinyl, and then only you get that copy of that performance. So if two different people request I play “Cloudburst”, I will play “Cloudburst” twice, and each of those two people will get a vinyl with a different performance of it. Let’s say your name was Hank and you liked my song “I Got It”. I’d probably open up that performance by saying, “Howdy Hank, this one is for you.” Then Hank, and only Hank, would get that copy of that performance. Do you want to be Hank? Click this link and buy one!
Rap World is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time
Dummy
“heart pt. 6”, Kendrick Lamar – I’ll have to settle for this, I guess. GNX is Lamar’s least singular work and so it squares that the best track for this totem for his art form to strike a nerve on the the latest in his “heart” series, reflecting on times of greater inspiration.
“WISHLIST”, Denzel Curry and Armani White – Possessing of truly superior taste and honed skill, Curry is free to have fun and let the trunk bang so hard it registers on the Richter scale. That this is labeled as a mixtape sets the bar lower than it needs to be, despite him soaring over it.
“don’t rely on other men”, JPEGMAFIA – Peggy is a constantly inventive producer, making hay out of samples and finding grooves that are nowhere on the radar for other artists. However puerile, combative, or terminally online he is as a lyricist, you’d be hard pressed to find yourself focusing on the beats over the bars.
“Beautiful”, Ka – The late son of Brownsville has always cast a clandestine quietude over his work. On this, his final work, the hush sounds like an empty church, a man sharing his thoughts with God over a tracklist of gospel samples, speaking a prayer only meant for one to hear.
“Cecil Fielder”, Boldly James, Harry Fraud, Tee Grizzley – ”Last grade completed was the eighth, but now it's cakes of 'Nyl.” As bleak as it sounds, this is Boldy’s come up: Making something out of nothing, a celebration and a lamentation at once.
“Soonish…”, Dummy – Drawing some from the baggy Madchester bands of the 90s and some from the psychedelic electronic music of Stereolab; The droning bassline and oceanic guitars seem to smooth the whole thing over, a little space out music.
“Magic I Want U”, Jane Remover – Incredibly good, forward-thinking pop. The downtuned guitars and pitched down vocals cast a darkness; Breakbeats and glitches create a kind of Matrix-era retro-futurism; Above all, hooks, hooks, hooks.
“Mirror”, Two Shell – On a windy, gray, cold day in Brooklyn, you might walk through a swirl of trash: plastic bags billowing, flyers with big bold text, particulate matter. What is it? You close your mouth and cover your face as you walk through and check after to see none of it stuck on you. You look back, and it may still be there, a squall like this song.
“Floating”, Olof Melander and Aquiles Navarro – A recording that has brought me great peace recently is Pharoah Sanders’s “Greeting To Saud (Brother McCoy Tyner)”; like this song, it suspends harmony in a shrapnel cloud of twinkling keys and chimes, a frozen moment.
“Hover”, Fievel Is Glauque – Where else might you hear music like this? Ph.D presentations in university performance halls? CD collections left on the curb? A lost ECM subsidiary? It’s virtuosic, adventurous, weird, and yet somehow catchy as hell.
MONTHLY
#118.5.2 “In a Little Bit of Time”
#118.5 “Edie Got Away”
#118 September, 2024
#117.5 “Mescarole"
#117 August, 2024
#116.5 “Cloudburst”
#116 July, 2024
#115 June, 2024
#114 May, 2024
#113 April, 2024
#112 March, 2024
#111 February, 2024
#110 January, 2024
#108 November, 2023
#107 October, 2023
#106 September, 2023
#105.5 “Country Life in America”
#105 August, 2023 | “Rockaway”
#104 July, 2023 | “Gas Station Bathroom”
#103 June, 2023 | “Talkin’ French”
#102 May, 2023
#101 April, 2023
#100 March, 2023 | The Feelies, “The Good Earth”
#99 February, 2023 | Judee Sill, “Judee Sill”
#98 January, 2023 | Pink Floyd, “Meddle”
#96 November, 2022 | RIP TOM PETTY
#95 October, 2022 | Cannonball Adderley, “Cannonball Adderley's Fiddler on the Roof”
#94 September, 2022 | Sheryl Crow, “Tuesday Night Music Club”
#93 August, 2022 | D’Angelo, “Live at the Jazz Cafe, London”
#92 July, 2022 | Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, “Southern Accents”
#91 June, 2022 | George Harrison, “Living in the Material World”
#90 May, 2022 | The Wild Tchoupitoulas, “The Wild Tchoupitoulas”
#89 April, 2022 | Joni Mitchell, “Taming the Tiger”
#88 March, 2022 | Young Thug, “Barter 6”
#87 February, 2022 | Stephane Grappelli and Stuff Smith, “Violins No End”
#86 January, 2022 | Nas, “God’s Son”
#84 November, 2021 | Milt Jackson with the Thelonious Monk Quintet, “Wizard of the Vibes”
#83 October, 2021 | For Against, “Coalesced”
#82 September, 2021 | Pat Metheny, “Bright Size Life”
#81 August, 2021 | The Chicks, “Fly”
#80 July, 2021 | Allen Toussaint, “Southern Nights”
#79 June, 2021 | Novos Baianos, “Acabou Chorare”
#78 May, 2021 | One Direction, “Four”
#77 April, 2021 | Bob Dylan, “New Morning”
#76 March, 2021 | Ty Dolla $ign, “Free TC”
#75 February, 2021 | Ghostface Killah, “Fishscale”
#74 January, 2021 | Minnie Riperton, “Minnie”
#72 November, 2020 | Sufjan Stevens, “Seven Swans”
#71 October, 2020 | Common, “Resurrection”
#70 September, 2020 | Herbie Hancock, “Thrust”
#69 August, 2020 | Special Issue
#68 July, 2020 | Cam’ron, “Purple Haze”
#67 June, 2020 | Jorge Ben, “A Tabua de Esmeralda”
#66 May, 2020 | The Meters, “Rejuvenation”
#65 April, 2020 | Eddie Kendricks, “People… Hold On”
#64 March, 2020 | Thelonious Monk, “Solo Monk”
#63 February, 2020 | Cat Power, “Moon Pix”
#62 January, 2020 | Yusef Lateef, “Eastern Sounds”
#59 November, 2019 | Frank Sinatra, “In The Wee Small Hours”
#58 October, 2019 | Steely Dan, “Gaucho”
#57 September, 2019 | Bonnie Raitt, “Streetlights”
#56 August, 2019 | Daft Punk, “Alive 2007”
#55 July, 2019 | John Coltrane, “Interstellar Space”
#54 June, 2019 | Big Pun, “Capital Punishment”
#53 May, 2019 | Paul Simon, “Rhythm of the Saints”
#52 April, 2019 | Dirty Projectors, “Rise Above”
#51 March, 2019 | Kate Bush, “The Sensual World”
#50 February, 2019 | Sonny Rollins, “Next Album”
#49 January, 2019 | Sade, “Diamond Life”
#47 November, 2018 | Curtis Mayfield, “There’s No Place Like America Today”
#46 October, 2018 | The Blue Nile, “Hats”
#45 September, 2018 | Lucinda Williams, “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road”
#44 August, 2018 | Aretha Franklin, “Amazing Grace”
#43 July, 2018 | Teddy Pendergrass, “TP”
#42 June, 2018 | Dennis Wilson, “Pacific Ocean Blue”
#41 May, 2018 | Bobby Brown, “Don’t Be Cruel”
#40 April, 2018 | Amy Winehouse, “Back to Black”
#39 March, 2018 | Q-Tip, “Kamaal the Abstract”
#38 February, 2018 | Miles Davis, “In a Silent Way”
#37 January, 2018 | Beck, “Sea Change”
#35 November, 2017 | Slum Village, “Fan-tas-tic Vol. 1”
#34 October, 2017 | Steely Dan, “Two Against Nature”
#33 September, 2017 | Baaba Maal and Mansour Seck, “Djam Leeli”
#32 August, 2017 | Billy Joel, “The Stranger”
#31 July, 2017 | Big Daddy Kane, “Long Live the Kane”
#30 June, 2017 | Janet Jackson, “Control”
#29 May, 2017 | Steely Dan, “Aja”
#28 April, 2017 | The O’Jays, “Back Stabbers”
#27 March, 2017 | Wire, “154”
#26 February, 2017 | Professor Longhair, “New Orleans Piano”
#25 January, 2017 | Elvis Costello, “Live at the El Mocambo”
#23 November, 2016 | Erykah Badu, “Mama’s Gun”
#22 October, 2016 | Donald Fagan, “The Nightfly”
#21 September, 2016 | Aretha Franklin, “Young, Gifted, and Black”
#20 August, 2016 | The Dave Matthews Band, “Under the Table and Dreaming”
#19 July, 2016 | Clams Casino, “Instrumental Mixtape II”
#18 June, 2016 | James Brown, “Love, Power, Peace”
#17 May, 2016 | Ali Farka Toure & Ry Cooder, “Talking Timbuktu”
#16 April, 2016 | RIP PRINCE
#15 March, 2016 | Prince, “Prince”
#14 February, 2016 | Big L, “Lifestyles Ov Da Poor & Dangerous”
#13 January, 2016 | Bill Evans, “Live at the Village Vanguard”
#11 November, 2015 | Donny Hathaway, “Live”
#10 October, 2015 | Paul McCartney, “McCartney”
#9 September, 2015 | Talk Talk, “Laughing Stock”
#8 August, 2015 | B.B. King, “Live at Cook County Jail”
#7 July, 2015 | Miles Davis, “Filles de Kilimanjaro”
#6 June, 2015 | Joni Mitchell, “Hejira”
#5 May, 2015 | Kanye West, “The College Dropout”
#4 April, 2015 | MF DOOM, “Operation: Doomsday”
#3 March, 2015 | Bruce Springsteen, “The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle”
#2 February, 2015 | Eric B. and Rakim, “Paid in Full”
#1 January, 2015 | Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers, “L.A.M.F.”
ANNUAL
#109 | 1 0 0 2 0 2 3
#97 | 1 0 0 2 0 2 2
#85 | 1 0 0 2 0 2 1
#73 | 1 0 0 2 0 2 0
#61 | 1 0 0 2 0 1 9
#48 | 1 0 0 2 0 1 8
#36 | 1 0 0 2 0 1 7
#24 | 1 0 0 2 0 1 6
#12 | 1 0 0 2 0 1 5
DECENNIAL
#60 | 1 0 0 2 0 1 X
THEMED