The Review - New Music week of July 6 from Mac DeMarco, Four Tet, Dre’s first Beats 1 Show & The
This week we get a surprise instrumental EP from good Edmonton kid Mac DeMarco. DeMarco’s fantastic album ‘Salad Days’ quickly became one of my most listened to over the past year. His chilled out, fun, quirky sound has a certain magnetic quality you can’t help but not like. Not to mention it’s the perfect soundtrack to your hot West Coast summer!
This new EP from DeMarco, called ‘Some Other Ones’, is pitched by Mac as a ‘BBQ soundtrack’. It’s all instrumentals and it’s the kind of quick, loose feeling record I wished more artists would put today. DeMarco appears to be having the time of his life right now and it comes across in his music. Stand out track for me here is ‘Onion Man’. This instrumental EP is a prelude to his next LP, Another One, due out in August. Stream the official BBQ Soundtrack of the Summer of 2015 below and check out his 2014 classic Salad Days.
Next is Four Tet’s latest ‘Morning/Evening’. Four Tet hit my radar after hearing there remixes of Radiohead songs. Radiohead offered up their ‘The King of Limbs’ songs for the remix treatment and Four Tet took on the song ‘Separator’. Since then I’ve gone back and been a fan of their previous work. You can stream ‘Morning/Evening’ below and it’s a listen with just two tracks that clocks in at just over the 40-minute mark.
There is a review I read on the Bandcamp page that carries this stream that sums this album up better than I can: “An album you can forget you're listening to but not stop paying attention to. Seeps into your internal thoughts so easily.”
It’s an album that would not sound out of place on your BBQ Soundtrack vibe coming right after the DeMarco instrumental. Both have a feel good vibes that don’t overpower but compliment activities.
‘Morning/Evening’ feels like a journey, just as the album title/song names elude too, with the vocals coming in after a solid drum start that almost startle you but then settle in for the next 10+ minutes nicely.
Last week I mentioned Dr Dre’s Beats 1 radio show, The Pharmacy, debuting Saturday. Unfortunately I missed it but Apple has it figured out by posting past show playlists. Where the missed something is not posting the show as it aired, with Dre (or other hosts like Zane Lowe) speaking. Maybe I’m the minority but when I listen back I want to hear the hosts opinions and why they chose these songs to make up that show. Apple could offer both… a straight stream of the show with commentary and what they have now with the playlist of songs.
Even though I missed Dre’s show I have gone back and listened to some of the playlist. What I did enjoy was the tip of the cap to classic songs that make up the backbone to a lot of hip hop classics. Dre plays The Doors ‘Five To One’ before the Jay Z ‘Takeover’. And in news to me, Joe Cocker’s ‘Woman To Woman’ gives the 2Pac & Dre Westcoast classic ‘California Love’ iconic sound!
West Coast Summer is in full swing and summer always seems to deliver that iconic song that you end up hearing everywhere! For me it’s The Weeknd’s song ‘Can’t Feel My Face’.
This song is already doing super well on Top 40 radio and I don’t see it slowing down anytime soon. The Weeknd announced his next album this track will appear on due out August 23rd, called ‘ Beauty Behind The Madness’.
Next weekend I’ll be In Victoria checking out Rock The Shores (The Black Keys, Jane’s Addition, Father John Misty, TV On The Radio & More) and I’ll plan to recap that festival the week of July 20th.
Next week I’ll check out new Chemical Brothers, Ratatat & Tame Impala.