PUYL Favorite New Artist: Purity Ring

Vocalist Megan James and producer Corin Roddick came together a couple years ago to form Purity Ring.  The pair collaborated to release a few songs in that time, but didn't put out their debut album, Shrines, until this year.  I've heard them compared to other indie electronic duos such as The xx, but those comparisons also dwelled on the fact that they consist of a male producer and female singer so it seemed like a weak connection.  In my opinion, I think they are unlike any other group making music at the moment.  Their songs swell and encompass you.  Megan's voice lightly rides the wave of sound yet her lyrics are strangely disparate from the music.  Pretty much all of the song titles are made up words.  Each tune manages to seem like a lullaby and a dream, as well as a petrifying nightmare all at the same time.

The group realized that the energy of their music might not translate well to a live show because of the mixed emotions it may induce.  To add another dimension to their performances, they worked with a design team to invent LED cocoons that hang around the stage.  The setup is directly linked to their production equipment, so the lights are exactly synched with the music as they play.

They also re-released their song Belispeak after adding bars from rapper Danny Brown.  That was a collaboration I did not see coming, but it worked pretty well.  Purity Ring is certainly a pioneering group with many more tricks up their sleeves.

Download: Purity Ring - Fineshrine

PUYL Favorite New Artist: TNGHT

TNGHT (vowels aren't cool anymr) is a collaborative effort between producers Lunice and Hudson Mohawke.  Each artist has generated significant buzz in his own right; Lunice was involved with '212' and HudMo with 'Mercy', two of the biggest hits from the past year or so.  I saw Lunice perform live before I knew who he was, and it was something special.  His show was great; he played lots of fresh, high energy songs.  What impressed me the most was that he was the exact same way.  Generally, DJs stand behind their decks, bob their heads a little, and leave getting weird to the crowd.  Lunice, however, was head banging in Billy Blanks double time and often stepped away to bust a move or ten.  It was incredible.  After his set, he was handing out copies of One Hunned Stacks, which got me hooked on his music.

The first time I heard of his new project with Hudson Mohawke was through this promo video:

You're lying if you say that doesn't get you hyped up.  You hardly want to take it easy after hearing this right?  Well think twice because the title is 'Easy Easy'.  It literally feels like we're gonna launch into space.  All those crashes and booms and claps typify the chaotic soundscape that these guys create.  After such a brief time working together, they've already concocted a perfect blend of trap, bass, hip-hop, and electronica stylings.  Their music begs to be danced to.  Hard.  Knowing them as producers, I at first felt that it lacked vocals, in particular some raw rap verses.  I quickly realized the music works just fine on its own, AND rapping would be awesome over it.  Versatility will take them far tnght, tmrw, and into the nw yr.

Download: TNGHT - Easy Easy

PUYL Favorite New Artist: The Underachievers

I've already written about The Underachievers, and unfortunately, not much has changed since I did.  Please familiarize yourself with them if you missed that previous post.  I did the whole write up within two days of first hearing their music because I was that excited about sharing this new talent.  They truly are new favorites because they've only been making music together since June of this year.  These kids are on another level, and I mean that in an metaphysical sense.  They are very into achieving altered states of consciousness and gaining universal enlightenment and clarity.  It goes beyond recreational drug use, too.  Issa Dash will routinely tweet about lucid dreaming, philosophical musings, and his favorite books.  Their debut mixtape, Indigoism, was slated to be released at the end of September, but got pushed to October.  It got bumped again until after Captain Murphy's Duality was dropped, which happened toward the end of November.  It's December, now and I was really hoping I'd be able to share the whole tape with you, but I can't.  So go bug Issa and Ak.  Hit up their official handle on Twitter.  Bother their label, Brainfeeder and the man who signed them to it, our friend Flying Lotus.  C'mon!

Download: The Underachievers - T.A.D.E.D.

PUYL Honorable Mention Video: Grimes - Genesis

Grimes - Genesis

So this gets the honorable mention because I didn't keep coming back to it like I did with my other favorites.  For those three, the imagery was intimately involved with the audio, so together they provided a total experience.  'Genesis' is a great song, and this video is definitely interesting.  Music by Grimes is always full of surprises and oddities, while still being well crafted.  The same is true for this video.  We get plenty of scene changes, costume changes, weaponry, a python, and a rapper/stripper co-star.  It's not the worst combination of visuals even if I can't make any sense of it, but knowing her, that's kind of the point.

PUYL Favorite Video: Baths - Lovely Bloodflow

Lovely Bloodflow from BATHS

Alright, this one is actually a couple years old, but I only recently discovered Baths, and I was instantly hooked.  There is something about scenes of tranquil green forest that captivates me.  I feel like I'm supposed to hold my breath so as not to disturb the peace and serenity.  At the same time, the greenery is a sign that life is thriving.  As the wounded warrior staggers through the woods we don't know how he sustained his injuries.  The pulsing drums and dark melody follow him on his final steps while strange white figures observe him from a distance, their intentions unknown.  After he falls and begins to emit a ghostly blue smoke from his wounds, they seemingly heal him by reversing the flow.  It appears he is saved, yet they drag him away and leave him for an encounter with another figure.  My favorite part of the song comes at this point where, around 2:34, a few notes of harsh distortion are immediately followed by a gentle piano riff.  The man is now alert but underwater, apparently meeting his end.  The creature inhales his last breath and the forest returns to as it was, with only a few remnants of his disruption.

PUYL Favorite Video: Flying Lotus - Putty Boy Strut

Flying Lotus - Putty Boy Strut

Flying Lotus has always been one to push boundaries.  Preceding the release of his fourth album, Until The Quiet Comes, FlyLo put out a short film which gave fans a first chance to hear a handful of songs from the album in the setting of a rather dark, yet theatric video.  After seeing that, I wasn't sure what to expect from Putty Boy Strut.  Because my first view of the video also gave me my first listen of the song, I was initially struck by the frenetic and urgent pace.  The viewing experience is enhanced by the robots clapping along to the beat and reacting to sound changes.  I feel like I am visiting a Seussian machine world devoid of intelligent life.  The inhabitants are constantly consuming and destroying things around them... until the quiet comes and the song culminates with a symbol of the beauty of change.

PUYL FAVORITES 2012 & Video: xxyyxx - About You

Another great year of music is winding down, and I have continued to lag behind on passing it along to you.  I figured I'd do something ambitious to make up for it and to try and catch you up to speed.  For the rest of the month, Push Up Ya Lighter will be featuring my favorite music from the past year.  The plan is to write a new post each day to highlight what was so great about 2012.  I'll share my three favorite music videos, new artists, and albums; along with some honorable mentions.  In addition, I'll close out the calendar with my top 10 favorite songs in the chronological order they were released.  Hopefully I can make the time to stay on schedule and then use that momentum to get a good start to 2013.  After all, as long as the music keeps playing, I'll still be listening.  Let's get started...

XXYYXX - About You [directed by VASH]

When this video first came out, I went through about a two week period where I would watch it every single night before I fell asleep.  While listening, my breathing falls in sync with the slowly shifting chords.  The sparse drum kicks and nearly unintelligible vocal samples are not at all overbearing and merely serve to complement the main melody.  Seeing the girls in the video push up their lighters is relaxing in its own right, and by the time the song gets a little wild, I'm essentially already asleep.

Zion I x J.Period - Bomb First (Mixtape)

I watched Rush Hour 2 the other day.  100% of the reason I watched it was because of this scene.  I know this is a music blog, but I'd argue that that scene tops Chris Tucker's karaoke performance.  Anyways, I also noticed that since it was 2001, Tucker casually refers to people and things as 'da bomb' which unfortunately has gone out of style.  If you've read this far into the post, I'm guessing it's because you knew exactly which scenes I was referring to and you wanted to watch them and then see where I'm going with this.  I want to convey the excitement of shared interests.  It's always fun when someone expresses interest in things that you enjoy.  Long time collaborators Zion I and J.Period linked up for a warm up mixtape to Zion I's upcoming album release.  I had heard the Zion I x Little Dragon Remix earlier this week so my expectations were already set high.  I wasn't expecting them to produce a stellar tape made up almost entirely of my current favorite artists.  Not only are the features and samples amazing, never before have I heard such a varied mixtape.  We get remixes, added features from Zion I, samples with new verses, samples mixed with old verses, and straight, unadulterated hip-hop.  I was really blown away by the selections so I think it's fair to call it da bomb.

There are tracks by previous Push Up Ya Lighter post stars such as SBTRKT and Little Dragon, Blu, Danny Brown, and Curren$y.  I would be willing to bet lots of Curren$y A$AP that my most played list from the past few months contains the particular songs included here by Kendrick Lamar, Theophilus London, Azealia Banks, Frank Ocean, and Action Bronson.  And of course, there are nods to some of hip-hop's legends as J.Period mixes in verses and instrumentals from The Roots, Andre 3000, Nas, and MF Doom.  Hell, even the interludes are interesting!  Normally those are an instant skip but this time we get a vocal sample of Morgan Freeman from the show, Through The Wormhole.  And Lights is sampled!  That alone should be enough to hit DOWNLOAD.

Stream the uncut mix above and click the download link for a zipped file of the separate tracks.

Chiddy Bang - Paper & Plastic

This is a little old, but I'm still playing catch up on sharing some great tunes.  Chiddy Bang was one of those groups that was super exciting when they first popped.  Xaphoon Jones helped push the boundaries of hip-hop sampling by digging up indie rock music as opposed to traditional soul and R&B records.  He also adds his signature 'bleeps' and 'bloops' to most of his tracks.  His partner, Chiddy, is well known for his freestyle skills and clever delivery and word play.  That's why they're good.

In my opinion, they kind of fell off after all that initial hype.  After the brilliance of The Swelly Express, their subsequent mixtapes and EP's were a noticeable step down in quality.  Their debut album, Breakfast, also left much to be desired.  It may have had a little to do with the novelty of their style wearing off with time, but I feel that their energy level was decreased.  It seemed like they were going through the motions of what worked before, but with less fervor.

A few months ago they collaborated with Champs Sports and Converse on a project to produce an exclusive new track.  They involved fans by starting with a little audience participation:

Basically, they held a contest where people sent in refrigerator magnet poems and they based the writing process for the new song off the winner, "Ladies like the sandwich party captain".  Alright. There's still nothing new for them here.  It's the same style of production and the same style of rapping, except I really like it.  Using outside inspiration could have sparked a new energy level.  Or maybe since all their mediocre releases have food themes, looking outside the fridge was a step in the right direction.

The Underachievers

A reawakening is happening.  This time last year, I was most excited about the up-and-coming rappers out of the Pacific Northwest, but 2012 is unveiling some very refreshing new talent, and they are coming from the cradle of hip-hop, New York City.  A few months ago we saw Joey Bada$$ and his Pro Era Crew start to gain traction in the blogosphere.  I feel like when you can earn the respect of the Internet, being the fickle and fleeting fans they are, you've given yourself a good chance for success.  He has also drawn attention from a variety of fellow artists, so that is legitimizing as well.  Real recognize real, right?

Another young Brooklyn group, The Underachievers, are more than deserving of a spot in the limelight just because they shine bright, and they rhyme tight.  Check out their first music video:

Download: The Underachievers - Gold Soul Theory

Their name originated as a disparaging label which they are seeking to repossess and empower.  It isn't hard to imagine, however, that even the duo might feel a little bit of truth in their name given the fact that they grew up on the streets that produced some of the most important artists of all time.  Hopefully, that is plenty of motivation to stay dedicated to their craft and to continue to push the genre forward.  Ak and Dash clearly draw a lot of inspiration from their hip-hop predecessors, as well as from more experimental artists such as Flying Lotus, and, of course, they use plenty of herbal assistance:

Download: The Underachievers - Herb Shuttles

Their trippy visuals, gloomy beats, and focused rhymes combine to make a strong case for why they claim the East Coast is the Beast Coast.  Their first mixtape, INDIGOI.S.M., will be released next week on Tuesday.