Diplo Presents: Free Gucci

★★★★
The rise of Gucci Mane from obscure mush-mouthed rapper to pop chart Usher collaborator is just as difficult to understand as his allure. It's an allure that's undoubtedly there, despite the fact that on the surface he seems like any run-of-the-mill Atlanta ex-drug dealer turnt rapper. As it is with Hip-Hop, so much of an MC's talent lies within his voice, and Gucci's voice is something special. His withdrawn viscous growl conveys so much more than his wry and simplistic rhymes, which he humorously lets out in short bursts. He doesn't scream or dominate the microphone like so many other power-obsessed rappers. Instead it almost feels like he's just going along for the ride, casually talking to himself as the beat goes on. On Free Gucci, it's the same old Gucci but the beats have changed, thanks to Diplo and a cadre of indie electronic producers.
The rhymes on Free Gucci are from three mixtapes called The Cold War Series, your basic rap mixtapes with DJ Drama screaming all over the tracks. With all the "Gangsta Grillz!" and explosions going off, and the repetitive pounding of the contemporary Hip-Hop beats, it's easy to lose sight of Gucci Mane. You would think the same would happen here, with lavish techno production drowning out lil' ol' Gucci. What's so great about Free Gucci is that it's the exact opposite; the production here gives Gucci room to breath. The DJs have give the vocals all the focus, and on most of the tracks they amplify their impact with incredible beats. On Gucci's most recent studio album, The State vs. Radric Davis, there were some examples of production that gave Gucci the opportunity to be heard like he is here. Hopefully more producers will follow suit.

Key Tracks: "Danger's Not a Stranger", "Dope Boys", "I Be Everywhere (Mumdance Remix)"

1. Danger's Not A Stranger (Diplo Remix)

2. Dope Boys (Bird Peterson Remix)

3. Excuse Me (Memory Tapes Remix)

4. No No No (Brodinski & Monsieur Monsieur AKA Rubi Sapphyr Remix)

5. Frowny Face (Douster Remix)

6. Frowny Face (Emynd Remix)

7. I'm Expecting (DJ Teenwolf Remix)

8. Boi (Zomby Remix)

9. My Shadow (Salem Remix)

10. Excuse Me (Diplo Remix)

11. Photo Shoot (Flying Lotus Remix)
(For some reason this is the only one not on YouTube. Whatever, it's weak.)
12. I Be Everywhere (Mumdance Remix)

13. I Be Everywhere (DZ Remix)

14. I'm The Shit (DJ Benzi & Willy Joy Remix)

15. Break Yourself (Diplo Remix)

Hot Chip - One Life Stand

★★½
Hot Chip is a band that's been derided for being practitioners of "indietronica", 2008's hottest music fad. The hipster genre is all about dancefloor tempos paired with mellow instrumentation or atypical sounds and structures. On their 2008 album Made In The Dark Hot Chip played with these structures, moving away from the technicolor glitch pop of their early work to a more varied and matured record. Songs like "Ready For The Floor" were infectious and meticulous pop hits, while slower songs like "We're Looking For A Lot Of Love" gave the album a ton of depth. With their new album One Life Stand, it seems they've returned to the shallow end of the pool, delivering an album that is cohesively toned down and zoned out, and one of the most boring dance albums I've ever heard.
Listening to One Life Stand it seems as if someone talked this band out of having fun. Nothing on the album even attempts to reach for dancefloor greatness like "Ready For The Floor" or "Over and Over". The few moments when they do are the album's highlights; big juicy slabs of retro house perfectly suited for Alexis Taylor's quiet quivering vocals. I'm not against the album's slow songs; the ballads on Made In The Dark were my favorite moments. It's just that all the energy has been sucked out of the album, mostly due to some truly awful songs that don't add anything at all to album. It's ten songs long and five of them suck. A big step backwards for one of Britain's biggest bands.

Key Tracks: "I Feel Better", "We Have Love"

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

★★★★
A fictional band is a hell of a platform, and Damon Albarn has used Gorillaz to let lose his wildest pop fantasies. It was easy to tell Albarn wasn't interested in being trapped within the confines of a band after his fallout with Blur guitarist Graham Coxon. Since its debut in 2001 Gorillaz has acted as an outlet for Albarn, and each album has been fascinated with styles far from Blur's Britpop. Their self-titled debut was an experimentation in dub, while nearly every song on 2005's fantastic Demon Days was rooted in Hip-Hop. Now with Plastic Beach Damon Albarn presents us with a tapestry of pop, full of orchestral swells and Wilson-esque grandiosity.
Don't let the Snoop Dogg fool you, Plastic Beach isn't the murky Bush-era rap album that was Demon Days. The album is both parts melancholy and eager anticipation, with haunting pop ballads based more in electronic music than trip-hop. There are moments of psycheldelic layering that recall The Soft Bulletin, and other times we get muted electronica reminiscent of Air or even Hot Chip. On Demon Days Albarn's collaborators dominated on a lot of tracks. Here the featured performers seem to adapt more to the album, like the brilliant Bobby Womack on "Stylo" and even Lou Reed on "Some Kind of Nature". The album has a cohesiveness that really draws you in and makes you appreciate its little nuances that much more. There was talk that this Gorillaz album was never happening, but the progress made on Plastic Beach makes me very excited about the future of this project.

Key Tracks: "Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach", "Superfast Jellyfish", "Plastic Beach"