Aesop Rock

Aesop Rock | Integrated Tech Solutions | 3hive.com
Aesop Rock | Integrated Tech Solutions | 3hive.com

Ian Matthias Bavitz, more commonly known as Aesop Rock, is a NYC native and a pillar in the underground hip-hop scene. He’s been making music and doing it in a way that’s sustainable and submented in legend for the way he has done it. His projects have dabbled in chart success over the past 20+ years which is no small accomplishment. But don’t get it wrong, Aesop Rock is 100% underground legend, with very few joining him on the mountain top.

His most recent project, Integrated Tech Solutions, has received glowing praise which I will add to in a second. My man is crazy prolific, this double LP clocks in at over an hour, starting strong with a feature from Billy Woods on the track ‘Living Curfew’ (you can spin this below). This track is a perfect example of the source material and sounds that made 2023 a great year for the genre, with two of the best acts flowing and passing the mic seamlessly.

This album is full of examples where Aesop shows his range and willingness to learn from and mesh with others like Rob Sonic and Nikki Jean which shows his humility and curiosity even this far into his career – and the results are powerful.

However there are some minor flaws in this project. There are a couple cuts that are lyrically fierce but feel similar to others on the album, suggesting maybe a couple tracks could have been reduced into one. But that’s a small nit to pick on an album that’s stacked with tracks that get stronger with time.

Overall, Aesop channels his greatest strengths and creates an album with legs and that will be looked back on as a solid project in his discography.

Integrated Tech Solutions is out now via Rhymesayers. You can get it on vinyl from the 3hive Record Lounge, and stream it wherever you like listen to music.

Armand Hammer

Armand Hammer | We Buy Diabetic Test Strips | 3hive.com
Armand Hammer | We Buy Diabetic Test Strips | 3hive.com

This post was written by our great friend Jeremy.

I challenge any musical outfit in the world to create a more thought-provoking and challenging piece of music than Armand Hammer’s We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, because I haven’t heard one this year. Just as their past three albums have, this release makes me feel like I’ll need to listen to it a thousand times in order to adequately peel back the meaning behind the lyrical layers that woods and ELUCID have laid. That’s the kind of challenge that puts them among my favorite musical artists of the present moment, ever brooding and exuding political acumen. In my opinion, their uniquely bold style and flows make them the most interesting rappers around.

In this release, they continue to demonstrate a deep understanding of the bleak and corrupt environment created by the powers that be, though they do it with personal anecdotes and poignant lyrical tact. Much of their language is subtle enough that we’ll need to rely on the Genius community to help us decode it little by little (despite woods’ line in this album that says “SMH Rap Genius improbable readings”), including the many apt historical and pop culture references. They’re anticolonial and anti-establishment in the most informed way. The title itself provides a clear critique of the greed involved in the American healthcare system. 

With an all-star producer cast, the album presents an even more complex and mind-blowing soundscape of beats than their previous releases (which is saying a lot). Despite already having successfully “Scar[ed] the Hoes” this year, JPEGMAFIA appears as producer on tracks throughout the album in all his glitched-out majesty. Aside from Peggy, El-P and DJ Haram bring the biggest and most memorable beats. In addition, heralded woods collaborators Messiah Musik, Preservation, Kenny Segal, Jeff Markey, and Moor Mother also contributed their production skills, bringing the distorted, off-kilter, and abruptly changing sound that keeps me coming back to Armand Hammer albums again and again.

The album opens with a sound collage of lo-fi and sometimes backmasked spoken-word clips and dreamy echoes. These types of sounds resurface throughout the track list, complementing the unrelenting and dour raps. They blur seemingly mundane details and observations into deeper concepts with obscure references. Fans will recognize certain refrains from their previous work (i.e., “You don’t work, you don’t eat”). Whether they’re callbacks to past tracks, or simply their own mantras, you could never mistake woods and ELUCID for anyone else. You can feel that there’s deeper meaning in their haunting verses, but you don’t need to be able to interpret every word to appreciate their inherent poetic value and relevance. 

Some of my favorite tracks are as follows, though there isn’t a dull track on the album:

  • “Woke Up and Asked Siri How I’m Gonna Die” is JPEGMAFIA at his best. woods paints a surrealistic picture of life that matches the vibe of the backing track: “Life’s a trip, if you live long enough you gon’ see it all / Life’s a blip, I flew in under the radar / Beat up spaceships, sliding under the light of a dead star / Still made my shift, appropriately lit for the graveyard.”
  • The aptly named Trauma Mic brings the sickest and most austere rumble from DJ Haram, complemented so well by ELUCID’s confrontational verse.
  • The Gods Must Be Crazy just has the best beat with the best groove (from El-P), and every verse flows so well with it. ELUCID references the novel 1984 with the line, “Why I still gotta dress for a thought crime?”. woods, who I can’t quote enough, raps, “White women with pepper spray in they purse interpolating Beyonce”.
  • Y’all Can’t Stand Right Here is a biased favorite due to the MF DOOM sample. woods includes one of his best verses: “Passed my own crime bill / It said if you scared, go to church, you could still get killed / Life’s hell / Natural life, If your lies put somebody in the cell / Ten years for trading stocks, enhancements for brokering deals / CFOs pleading out junior traders flipping / Flip you for real.”
  • On Empire BLVD, Junglepussy and Curly Castro’s features complement the sinister bassline and dark tone of a track that ends up being a banger. woods’ verse blows my mind on this one, and ELUCID absolutely destroys it as well, spitting fire at the end of the track and including the line “If you can’t be used, you’re useless.”

We Buy Diabetic Test Strips is out now via Fat Possum. You can get it from their Bandcamp page or from us here.

Todd’s Favorites of 2019

2019 was another great year for music, below are my top ten favorite albums 2019:

  1. Business of Dreams – Ripe For Anarchy [Slumberland]
  2. Select Level – S/T [Wax Thématique]
  3. Pinch Points – Moving Parts [Roolette/Six Tonnes De Chair]
  4. Oh Sees – Face Stabber [Castle Face]
  5. Modern Nature – How To Live [Bella Union]
  6. Cherry Glazerr – Stuffed & Ready [Secretly Canadian]
  7. Trampoline Team – S/T [Hozac]
  8. Cold Showers – Motionless [Dais]
  9. Czarface – The Odd Czar Against Us! [Silver Age]
  10. Altin Gün – Gece [ATO]

Also for your aural pleasure (and my own), I have attached a handy-dandy playlist of some my favorite songs from 2019…

Sam’s Faves of 2018

It’s time for my annual blog post…

Without further ado, my favorite albums of 2018:

Khruangbin Con Todo El Mundo (Dead Oceans)
Durand Jones & the Indications self-titled (Dead Oceans)
Bodega Endless Scroll (What’s Your Rupture?)
Jean Grae & Quelle Chris Everything’s Fine (Mello Music Group)
Janelle Monae Dirty Computer (Bad Boy)
Altin Gun On (Bongo Joe)
Smokescreens Used to Yesterday (Slumberland)
Idles Joy As an Act of Resistance (Partisan)
Low Double Negative (Sub Pop)
Cut Chemist Die Cut (A Stable Sound)

I encourage you to enjoy these on vinyl (link will go here as soon as I get off my butt and update the online store).

And because 2018 offered so much more music than can fit neatly in a Top 10 list, here are my 23 favorite songs of the past year…

Favorite Releases of 2017 (Sam’s List)

Better late than never – my auditory loves of 2017, in rough order…

Thundercat Drunk (Brainfeeder)
Intoxicating, weird, vulnerable, and soooooo damn funky. My Album of the Year if I had to pick one.

Slowdive Slowdive (Dead Oceans)
The comeback album of our collective dreams.

Trementina 810 (Burger)
If this hadn’t been The Year of Slowdive’s Triumphant Return, I’d like to think this gorgeous offering of dreamy shoegaze from Chile’s Trementina would’ve been the talk of the town.

The xx I See You (Young Turks)
Now that producer Jamie Smith, aka Jamie xx, is getting his due as the driving force behind The xx juggernaut, I might be able to stop raving about him. But why stop now?

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings Soul of a Woman (Daptone)
What a force. What a voice. What a loss.

Big Thief Capacity (Saddle Creek)
This album has quietly slipped on to a bunch of Best of 2017 lists because it is just that: a quiet album of incredible strength.

Grandaddy Last Place (30th Century Records)
“Even still the rockers are…”

Mountain Goats Goths (Merge)
A wonderfully engaging concept/tribute album – whether you are, were, or have ever loved a goth.

Boris Dear (Sargent House)
Rumored to be a farewell letter to their fans, it’s a welcome return to the nuanced take on sludge/drone/doom metal that first lured me in almost 20 years ago.

Fazerdaze Morningside (Flying Nun)
Nearly perfect bedroom pop.

Moses Sumney Aromanticism (Jagjaguwar)
All the feels.

Molly Burch Please Be Mine (Captured Tracks)
A sparse, timeless album that allows nothing to interfere with the purity of Molly’s hypnotic voice.

Doug Tuttle Peace Potato (Trouble in Mind)
Hypnotic psych pop with enough ragged edges to keep you awake.

Homeboy Sandman Veins (Stones Throw)
Based on record sales in the “>3hive Co-op Shop, not everyone agrees – but I think he’s one of the best, most versatile MCs around.

Waxahatchee Out in the Storm (Merge)
Katie Crutchfield finds her sound and voice amidst the rubble of a failed relationship.

Honorable mentions: Iron & Wine Beast Epic [buy vinyl], Protomartyr Relatives in Descent, LCD Soundsystem american dream [buy vinyl], Destroyer ken [buy vinyl], Open Mike Eagle Brick Body Kids Still Daydream, The Courtneys II [buy vinyl], King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard Murder of the Universe [buy vinyl], Jonwayne Rap Album Two, Priests Nothing Feels Natural, Robyn Hitchcock Robyn Hitchcock [buy vinyl]

Favorite Releases of 2017 (Todd’s List)

Here are my favorite albums/EPs from 2017, in no particular order…

Monster Rally Flowering Jungle (Gold Robot)

Spotting Spotting EP (self-released/Aarght)

The Rebel Set 4 Song EP (Hidden Volume)

Ty Segall Ty Segall (Drag City)

Molly Burch Please Be Mine (Captured Tracks)

Doug Tuttle Peace Potato (Trouble In Mind)

David Bowie No Plan EP (Columbia)

FRONDS Cold Across My Skin (Gold Robot)

Jake Xerxes Fussell What In The Natural World (Paradise of Bachelors)

Lilith Apology Plant (Disposable America)

Tall Friend Safely Nobody’s (Exploding In Sound)

Oh Sees Orc (Castle Face)

Bedouine Bedouine (Spacebomb)

UV-TV Glass (Deranged)

Destroyer ken (Merge)

Mountain States Whispers (Coaster)

Kevin Morby City Music (Dead Oceans)

Otoboke Beaver Love Is Short! (Damnably)

Century Palm Meet You (Deranged)

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings Soul of a Woman (Daptone)
RIP

Slowdive Slowdive (Dead Oceans)

Open Mike Eagle Brick Body Kids Still Daydream (Mello Music)

Milo Who Told You To Think??!!?!?!?! (self-released)

Michael Nau Some Twist (Suicide Squeeze)

Thundercat Drunk (Brainfeeder)

Jack Cooper Sandgrown (Trouble In Mind)

Waxahatchee Out In The Storm (Merge)

OCS Memory of A Cut Off Head (Castle Face)

Once And Future Band Once And Future Band (Castle Face)

The Safes Tasty Waves (Hidden Volume)

Homeboy Sandman

Homeboy Sandman | Veins | 3hive.com

Homeboy Sandman | Veins | 3hive.com
Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover. Everything you need to know about the latest Homeboy Sandman album is right there: the stark black & white cover photo of our hero throwing a long shadow and – on the flip – the conspicuous absence of guest artists next to the song titles. This time around Boy Sand clears away any distractions and focuses on his fierce – and fiercely personal – flow. It pays off in spades. On Veins, you’re witnessing one of the best contemporary MCs at the top of this game. If you’re new to Homeboy Sandman, start here.

[Buy Veins on shiny black vinyl in the 3hive Co-op Shop – while supplies last. Or better yet, buy the bundle!]


Thundercat

Thundercat | Drunk | 3hive.com

Thundercat | Drunk | 3hive.com
Stephen Bruner a/k/a Thundercat is a musical omnivore. In interviews he’ll cite Manhattan Transfer, Mahavishnu Orchestra, John Coltrane, and video game music as influences – all in the same sentence. He’s played with everyone from Snoop Dogg to Suicidal Tendencies. And he’s already appeared on as many albums as he years old (33!). Such a broad palette can be a blessing or a curse. Fortunately, Thundercat has managed to channel his wandering mind and expansive talent into another uniquely cohesive – and funky – package with his latest, Drunk.

Whether the topic matter is mortality, race relations, or how freakin’ cool Tokyo or his pet cat is, Thundercat brings a levity and sincerity to the party that would be hard for most people to balance. If I told you he accomplishes this with a 6-string bass and entrancing falsetto as his primary weapons, it’d be even harder to believe.

Drunk is tight, so tight, almost efficient: 22 joints and not one clocks over 4 minutes long. In contrast to Thundercat’s live shows, where songs gets blown out into transcendent (sometimes frenetic) jam sessions, each studio track packs a concentrated punch. “Bus in the Streets” argues for unplugging from technology over a snappy Steely Dan-esque synth line. “Walk on By” is a yearning R&B burner with Kendrick Lamar guesting with a potent dose of street poetry. “Them Changes” – a bringback from his 2015 EP – showcases the funkiest bassline this side of Larry Graham. Then there’s the two Big Singles: “Show You the Way” featuring Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins, with no irony whatsoever, and “Friend Zone” which lit the place up when I saw Thundercat perform it a couple weeks back and has already reserved a spot on most Best of 2017 lists.

Speaking of his live show, it was a melting pot of jazzbos, hip-hop heads, skaters, Pitchfork disciples, and drum circle types – a testament to Thundercat’s broad appeal. You can love him for his virtuosity, his groove, his unabashed nerdiness… or maybe you’ll find some other reason. I’ll leave that to you and Thundercat.

Sam’s Top 23 Songs of 2016

(Sequenced for flow – not ranking – purposes.)

Tyvek “Choose Once” (In the Red)
My single of the year, from my album of the year. So raw, so good.

Mass Gothic “Every Night You’ve Got to Save Me” (Sub Pop)
Family Sing-Along Song of the Year honors go to this raucous doo-wop jam.

DIIV “Under the Sun” (Captured Tracks)
Shining down from a shimmering crack in the clouds that hung over 2016.

A Tribe Called Quest “We the People…” (Epic)
I could have chosen any of a half dozen tracks off this album but this here’s the anthem, get your damn hands up.

Francis and the Lights w/ Bon Iver “Friends” (KTTF)
Alan Parsons meets auto-tuned R&B meets, well, Bon Iver.

KAYTRANADA “LITE SPOTS” (XL)
Half this song is impossible to dance to; the other half is impossible not to dance to.

De La Soul “Royalty Capes” (AOI)
I wish this album had been more fulfilling than my anticipation of it, but there are some real gems amidst the scattershot experiments. This one’s about why a guy can’t find vintage De La on any of the streaming services.

Homeboy Sandman “Heart Sings” (Stones Throw)
Homeboy Sandman w/ I Am Many “Real New York”
(Stones Throw)
Sometimes he rhymes slow, sometimes he rhymes quick.

Beach Slang “Spin the Dial” (Polyvinyl)
“I was born at the bottom
But I never belonged
I’m hardly ever right
But I’ve never been wrong”
Could’ve been ripped straight from Paul Westerberg’s notebook.

The Men “Dreamer” (We Are the Men)
What you’d imagine to be playing anytime a parent pounds on their teen’s bedroom door and yells, “Turn it down!”

The Radio Dept. “Committed to the Cause” (Labrador)
A slinky statement of a song with hints of Prefab Sprout and St. Etienne.

Parquet Courts “Steady on My Mind” (Rough Trade)
Mmmn, Velvet-y.

Grandaddy “A Lost Machine” (Sony)
Man, this album can’t come soon enough…

James Blake “Love Me in Whatever Way” (Polydor)
That laugh track makes this even more heartbreaking than your average James Blake song.

ot to, not to w/ Noah Smith “Regretta I” (Other People)
Listen very closely.

The xx “On Hold” (Young Turks)
I know their 15 minutes of fame should be long gone, but that Hall & Oates sample…

Sonny & the Sunsets “Needs” (Polyvinyl)
The album where Sonny fell in love with a drum machine and made some goofy babies like this one.

Sunflower Bean “I Was Home” (Fat Possum)
Critics fawned over their debut but I found most of the album kinda boring. That said, this single is some transcendent psych rock amazingness.

Terry Malts “Used to Be” (Slumberland)
Terry Malts has been to me in the early 20-teens what The Wedding Present was to me in the early 1990s – completely durable and indispensible.

The Intended “Don’t Wait Too Long” (In the Red)
Rollicking goodness from Detroit’s garage (or basement, as the case may be) scene.

Leonard Cohen “It Seemed the Better Way” (Sony)
I’m a man of faith but after a year like this one, I get it. I really do.

David Bowie “Lazarus” (ISO/Columbia)
As my grandmother was bedridden and dying of cancer she’d ask my mom to open the curtains so she could watch the birds in the tree outside her window. When I first heard the bluebird line, I crumbled into a sobbing mess. Bowie gave until the very end…ain’t that just like him?

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