Lockah - If Loving U Is Wrong, I Don't Want To Be Wrong

As a follow-up to his 2013 release, Only Built 4 Neon Nites, and as a prologue to his 14th of April debut LP, Yahoo or the Highway, Lockah will release his If Loving U is Wrong, I Don't Want to Be Wrong EP on 17 February.  The EP will feature two tracks--'Ayyo Tricknology' and 'If Loving U Is Wrong, I Don't Want To Be Wrong'--with accompanying stripped-down reworks. The latter of these two releases has been made available on soundcloud through Donkey Pitch. If you haven't heard Lockah's 2013 release, I included it after the jump.

Biosexual - Sleigher

Biosexual, composed of Zachary Nelson, Jocelyn Noir of Alak, and Michael RJ Saalman (Saalman's remix of Alak's 'I Pop Love' was one of my highlighted tracks of 2013), has released the decadent video for the single, 'Sleigher', on Tinymixtapes. The Window Wants the Bedroom LP, included below, was released in late 2013 through Seattle's Debacle Records.

Ian Isiah - Private Party (produced by Sinjin Hawke)

'Private Party' is the stand-out track from Ian Isiah's The Love Champion, benefiting from the stellar production of Barcelona's Sinjin Hawke.  After the jump, see Sinjin Hawke's collaboration with Morri$ (who produced my favorite cut on Kelela's Cut 4 Me - 'Go All Night (Let It Burn)').

Diamond Black-Hearted Boy - How The West Was Won, Wanted: Dead or Alive

Chino Amobi has released a new project through his Diamond Black Hearted Boy moniker. While working with different source material than his 2013 Father, Protect Me, Amobi cultivates a similar style in a frenetic tour-de-force of collage.  Non-diegetic material is interlarded with lyrics that at points echo Bob Dylan (as on Wanted: Dead or Alive) in what is perhaps the cultivation of the Wild West conceit. At other points the melodramatic erupts into violence unexpectedly: an ol' time jazz swing, pleasant at the beginning, is warped into a plaintive screech; the sounds of war erupt from a western ballad. The album is certainly satirical, at points; however, there also is a sincere effort to express oneself in a historical context (time's passing as expressed through the crackle of vinyl) that is multifarious, both outside and inside one's culture, and often violent.  Here is what seems to be an accompanying poem that is the only description of the project:

a lone wolf
bane of the west
mean as hell
someone to ride the river with
these tales, told by the man himself.
with a lick and a promise,
he penned them in the bone orchard
then spun these tales onto magnetic tape.
that right there is the Simon pure.
callous like sunned hide,
he seen his fair share of steely eyed crooks and the shoot
ace high stories contained in this collection of tales
visceral textures
shoddy production
this nighthawk lays some flannel-mouth poetry over it all.
the big guns will want him in the hoosegow soon enough after hearing this.
he'll give you the west
but it could be anywhere I guess 

I've included a tracklist after jump.  Favorites include track three on side A, 'Weezies Kitchen' (7.27), and and track five on side A, 'Frank Ocean Approximately' (11.45).

The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza) (film)

Those Best of the year lists are tough... the ranking seems so arbitrary and you always forget things.  Unless you're diligent year round, there's always something you want to revise a few days later.  Last night I saw The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza)... and it was astonishing.  It may have topped every other film I've seen this year.  It had the extravagance of Wolf of Wall Street, the fervent acting performances of 12 Years a Slave... but I really have no reason to compare it to these films.  This was different.  I haven't seen a film this compelling since Holy Motors.

“To travel is very useful, it makes the imagination work, the rest is just delusion and pain. Our journey is entirely imaginary, which is its strength.”
The film opens to the quote from Celine’s Journey to the End of the Night, which might apply to cinema as well.  La Grande Bellezza is being called a response to Fellini's La Dolce Vita.  The audience is dragged through an intoxicating Roman adventure with Jep playing the wise, cynical tour guide.  Jep's claim to fame is a promising novel he wrote in his late twenties, yet he never wrote another... and outside of the occasional interview or small review he has lost sight of great beauty in his existence.  Jep is jaded, and admits early on that he lives a life of the senses and thrives off of the power he has gained as a socialite.  Sorrentino's film is one of great depth.  We meet Jep (Toni Servillo) as he begins to teeter off his thrill ride.  His cynicism abhorring, but simultaneously relatable.  I believe Sorrentino's film speaks to the stagnation of the western world.  The lost sight of civic duty and individual purpose... the degradation of the 21st century escapist's party... or a Jep puts it, "what might be defined as the whirl of the high life."  As fulfilling sensually as the film is with its' operatic theme, beautiful, vaulting camera moves & long zoom lenses in the well lit streets of Rome, Sorrentino hits you over the head hardest late in the film when Jep comes face to face with a comical clergy.  He is sickened by what he sees, in just the same way that he is contemptuous of Rome's artists, intellectuals and political players.  The comical becomes the profound over and over again in this flawless masterpiece.  The Great Beauty is a film depiction of the Berlusconi era Rome, where there is a need to hear from Jep's poignant perspective.  This is my pick, for best film of 2013.

Mr. Carmack - insomnity (again)

The homie Carmack does not sleep.

His recent body of work can be purchased Here. Stream one of the tracks after the jump.

Feral's Ssense Mix

Been a minute since a Ssense mix was this turnt.

Stream Feral's highly slept on 2013 EP, Haymaker, after the J.

LuckyMe Advent Releases: Hudson Mohawke and Lunice

 The Jacques Greene edit of Sampha's 'Can't Get Close' was the first track we shared from LuckyMe's advent song-a-day-download Christmas celebration.  Away for the holidays, I missed the releases from Lunice and Hudson Mohawke. I've included the complete playlist after the jump which includes each song for the twenty-five days of the advent season.

Kali Uchis - T.Y.W.I.G.

Above is the video (as I'd say it's more than a teaser) for a compilation of three tracks from the forthcoming Por Vida project (early 2014) from the Columbia-born, Virginia-based Kali Uchis. Below is her most recent soundcloud release T.Y.W.I.G.  And after the jump, you can watch her video of her 2013 release, 'What They Say'.

Gilligan Moss - Choreograph

Gilligan Moss's Choreograph was released back in October.  In this his second single of 2013, the Chicago beatsmith seems to be shifting through a variety of styles, trying each on for their fitness, before finding an odd harmony. 

Ashanti - Movies (Murlo refix)

Doc's Best of 2013

Noteworthy and Memorable Songs:

 Miscellaneous others included after the jump.

Videos:

Projects:

αtu - doubts

2 Nice's Best of 2013

Tracks:

Music Videos:

Projects:
Jessy Lanza - Pull My Hair Back
Kelela - CUT 4 ME
James Blake - Overgrown
King Krule - 6 Feet Beneath The Moon
FKA twigs - EP2
Ethel Wulf x Eric Dingus - Damare Shizukani
PARTYNEXTDOOR - PARTYNEXTDOOR
Drake - Nothing Was The Same
Burial - Street Halo EP

Movies:
2013's films explored two ideas: decadence (Gatzby, Wolf, American Hustle...) & bad luck (All is Lost, Gravity, 12 Years a Slave, Captian Phillips, A Hijacking).  This year saw mainstream American cinema come harder than it has in a long time.
12 Years a Slave- You're probably not ready for Solomon Northup's harrowing journey of abduction and consequent slavery.  You're probably just a little bit more ready than he was though.  This true story makes the audience process each new development about Northups new environment with him.  There's a visceral mounting dread that director Steve McQueen (Hunger, Shame) builds with long takes that helps supplement the viewers idea of the 12 years that pass in the world of the film.  Chiwetel Ejiofor (playing Northup) is a lock for best actor on the year, he blends anger, pain and bewilderment without uttering a word... and speaks with beautiful eloquence as the rare educated black trapped in his southern slave plantation.  Steve McQueen can be found here at the top of his game.  This may be the year's best.
Gravity- Alfonso Cuarón's exhausting space epic utilized similar technology to his friend James Cameron's Avatar to create this innovative feature.  Yet somehow, despite the awe striking space explosions and sightly views of a tiny earth, the film's lead performance by Sandra Bullock is the best of her career & moves the viewer.  The year's best action film had heart... and it set new standards for 3D cinema, a medium I have begun to believe in.  Oh and this one goes in the bad luck category.
A Hijacking- I quite liked Captain Phillips... but somehow it is a distant second to this steely, raw portrait of a Somali pirate hijacking.  Tobias Lindholm (R) writes and directs.  I'll keep it brief because you need to go out and see this... and you probably haven't yet.
Dallas Buyer's Club- It's hard to like Matthew McConaughey. As soon as I say that name a vicious montage of rom-coms start to beat you in the face like the fists that give him a next level ass beating in the first 15 minutes of the film.  And before you know it, the preening southern drawl... the womanizing cockiness... the ignorant homophobia... all play perfectly into the character that is: Ron Woodruff.  This limited budget, indie film by Jean-Marc Vallee (The Young Victoria) has been highly praised, but I'm certain it deserves even more.  Cinematographer Yves Belanger's composition is astounding in almost every shot, yet never detracts from the arc of the film.  A gaunt McConaughey, who lost nearly 40 pounds for his role, commands the screen as the accidental savior of gay men in the 80's. But Jared Leto makes his first appearance on the silver screen in four years and gives the best supporting performance of 2013.
The Act of Killing- It was a cool year for documentaries (Cutie & the Boxer, Stories We Tell were both fantastic)... but this one was unprecedented.  Director Joshua Oppenheimer traveled to Indonesia and got the killers from the 1960's genocide there to dramatically reenact their mass murders from the time.  Through this process they examine themselves in the most fascinating way.  These murders modeled themselves after gangsters they saw at the movies, and so when they are finally confronted by themselves on screen, it is a revelation for them... and doubly so for the viewer.
The Wolf of Wall Street- Scorsese just dropped a three hour pile of corrupt decadence in our lap and called it Wolf.  In the late 70's Scorsese found him self contemplating suicide next to a pile of cocaine when Robert De Niro called him up and convinced him to make Raging Bull with him.  My point is twofold: Scorsese knows about drugs and he puts his this on display... But more than that, Scorsese made his best films after this low moment.  Wolf feels like a sequel to Casino or something.  The montages of excess.  The horrifically hilarious moments bombard the viewer and instead of moralizing some easy message about capitalism, the film makes it's points in subtler ways (the moment on the subway with the DEA agent made my jaw drop)... and somehow I feel like a lot of people who watched this film missed the point.  People who left the theatre in droves idolizing Jordan Belfort have missed the point of this film.  It's a bit too long at three hours but... like Jordan, nobody in the audience wanted it to end.
Blue is the Warmest Color- Abdellatif Kechiche's first two films were political.  I'm convinced Blue is too but like Wolf the film make's its most profound points in subtle ways.  It's happy to leave you asking questions in the final scene... leaving whispers about a sequel.  Adele Exarchopoulos plays the lead role with the same first name.  Kechiche would film her when she was on her way to set, at meals and when she was relaxing between scenes... and with all the great moments he had, he decided during production to change the name of the character to her real name.  We spend so much time with her in these everyday moments that when we see the big moments in her life, the gravity of each is amplified.  Adele's blue-haired lesbian lover owns her character as well, played by Lea Seydoux.  This is the best foreign language film of the year, but it requires patience and focus.
American Hustle- David O'Russell (The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook) grabs all of the best actors from his previous films (Jennifer Lawrence, Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Robert De Niro) and lets them loose.  A great deal of the dialogue in the film is improvised... to the degree where actors worried about the consequences of their ad-libs on the progressions of the film.  O'Russell's response?, "...I hate plots. I am all about characters, that's it." Bale's performance is remarkably nuanced and Jeremy Renner melts your heart as the politician who's duped into corruption.  The story itself is not half as compelling as the performances.  These are characters that make you listen.
Before Midnight- The sobering third installment to the most famous series of intelligent romance films leaves you without a sense of wonderment.  You get it.  This is the true story of middle aged love.  This isn't staying up all night conversing in Paris, red wine and poetry... This is hanging out all day conversing in Greece about divorce, saggy tits and infidelity... but still all wrapped in Richard Linklater (Waking Life, Dazed and Confused)'s insightful philosophical musings.  It's the same style with a major dose of realism.  The kind that makes you realize that the early two films were just real enough to trick someone into thinking a life of commitment is all sunshine.  As a viewer you're left to answer how fruitful the game of love really is... and how optimistic one really should be.
Her- Spike Jonze is one of my favorite directors and though this film is fantastic, I found myself disappointed.  It's corny!... but it also works?  It's nice to see Joaquin Pheonix smile and relax for a change.  Scarlett Johansen supports as the enthusiastic, sultry voiced OS1 that Pheonix finds himself falling in love with.  She shatters him when she admits she loves hundreds more.  Pheonix complains early in the film that he's worried he'll never experience a new feeling.  His OS is dealing with the opposite problem as the world's novelty turns into an exhausting feeling.  She too however longs terribly for personal connection and the beauty of this film lies right there.  Solar flares and bokeh are everywhere in this "perfect", near-future Los Angeles... yet Phoenix's character still fights melancholy to an Arcade Fire soundtrack.  I wanted to love this film, but I don't.
Honorable Mention: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Grandmaster, Prisoners
Didn't see: Snowpiercer, The Great Beauty, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Actress - Grey Over Blue (Video)

Here is the new video for Actress's 'Grey Over Blue'.  The single and accompanying video are meant as the precursors to Actress's forthcoming release, Ghettoville (which has leaked since the release of the video).  While such a claim is admittedly speculative, I'd venture to say there is a cogent link between urban/cultural decay and the musical loop here, perhaps hinting at some notion of a stagnant dialectic.  Also worth considering are the resonances 'Ghettoville' invokes with Leopoldville and Brazzaville.