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GRAPESHOT #01 ALL OVER YOUR FACE

John Legend [ft. Pusha T]: "Heaven" (Remix) [Download]

This ended up sounding something like what I imagine Pharrell thinks he's doing when he sings the hook on Clipse records. Actually it's maybe even a little difficult not to hear Pharrell-like turns in Legend's melody, especially that "last night was the worst night" part. I like Pusha's line about how he'll take a girl to the jeweler and she will leave looking like she sat in a cooler. It's pretty much that line exactly, I just checked: "I myself will have you sitting with the jeweler, leave there looking like you were sitting in a cooler." 71 RIFFS

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Michoacan: "She's Sent (Heaven) (The Emperor Machine Remix)" [Download]

The last Tiny Sticks release I heard was Dondolo "Dragon" but now I'm thinking they're LTW material in this sort of backwards, forget the a-side and skip straight to the probably badass remix sort of way. (To wit, the other Dondolo release has Hot Chip and Mock+Toof remixes but no a-side, which speaks positively of Dondolo as a self-editor, not-so-positively as a producer, oh well.) Pretty obviously a Meecham remix from the first few seconds--that really papery but muted snare and the reverb on the hi-hat clicks and the guitar tremolo and the bubbling italo synths--but this one's his best since Röyksopp. 74 RIFFS

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In Flagranti: Wronger Than Anyone Else [Download Reputation Or Notoriety"]

17 tracks, mixed, no track longer than 3:53, spans a bunch of currently popular dance music styles, thought it was a mix the first time I put it in actually. This is a fantastic idea though as far as dance artist full-lengths are concerned: If you're not really playing with time and repetition and build, if you're keeping loops infinite merely because you can, just get in and get out and on to the next. Todd mentioned Mr. Oizo to me yesterday and that's dead on obviously, but that's just the pacing. I like the idea of dance artists not pigeonholing themselves with samey 12s, or conversely not allowing themselves maximum creative space and maximum chances to try any number of songs in any number of genres, which this sampler lp approach takes care of. To say nothing of the fact that if a song drags it'll be over soon enough, etc. 79 RIFFS

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Jim Jones: "We Fly High"

TMI, I've been practicing the "ballin!" ad lib a lot, really trying hard to get the length and pitch and cadence down so I don't sound like an idiot. I didn't understand what "infectious ad lib" meant until this holiday when I caught myself saying it whenever anything merely happened: the dog coming into the family room, my mom passing the ketchup bottle, the ketchup squirting out onto my plate, my eyes blinking, etc.. Ballin'! I fucking love "ballin'." I've thought a lot about ballin' and I like the way it makes me feel when I say it. It's definitely the closest I will get to actual balling.

Anyway the song played every other back home over break and I realized something. No matter how much you or I love to yell "ballin!" I am 100% positive that Jim Jones like to say it more. I heard him squeeze it into his verse on "Walk It Out" and it really hit me: This is a catchphrase Jim Jones is probably a little angry caught on so much. He never intended this. He might even hate when we say it. He loves "ballin!" and we are fucking up a good thing. We are I-Didn't-Do-Iting Jim Jones and he'll never forgive us for it. 8 RIFFS

Labels: balling, dance, mp3, rap, remix, reviews