Ayno Goze - Deep Bathtub Blues

Hey everyone, I'm very excited this week to be reviewing Ayno Goze's Deep Bathtub Blues.  Ayno Goze is an electronic producer from Stockholm, Sweden.  He has been producing music in a personal capacity for several years now, and his full length debut, Deep Bathtub Blues, is inspired by his time DJing and teaching english in South East Asia, and his love for taking long bathtub sessions after a busy day.  Structurally, his music draws on elements of dub and future garage to create very deeply textured and smooth atmospheres.  He often also combines found sounds with guest vocals, and deep, reverb soaked synthesizers to create oddly bright, but still heavy and spacy music.

This release stays pretty firmly in a slow dub-reggae tempo, rarely rearing its head with faster songs.  However, on songs like "Castle of Sand" and "Educaged"the percussion is really punchy and aggressive, which keeps the songs moving forward nicely.  These couple of songs really remind me old Gorillaz tracks like "Ghost Train".  For a song like "Killing the Ghost" though, it builds up nicely early on and then it doesn't really go anywhere.  As with most of these beats, it starts out on a really firm foot with some aquatic synth work and a nice reggae chord progression, but then it doesn't develop enough to stay involving all the way through.

Like trying to eat a three piece fish and chips dinner.  It can't be done.

I also find myself very mixed on some of these vocals.  I love the passion and intensity in Ayno's voice when he really belts it out on "Reload" before the interlude, but I also find him somewhat ineffectual on "SMOKE Night FIRE Day."  I also really love Emma's contributions to "Bleep" and "Killing the Ghost."  In "Bleep," her smooth voice really keeps the mood bright and hopeful while the backing instrumentation is so deep, and saturated with reverb.  The effect is akin to shining a light into the bottom of a lake.  Also, the lyrics on the close of that song are seriously catchy.  Just closing my eyes and imagining her singing "away, away, away, ow, ow, ow..." is nearly enough to send me to a contented slumber.

The synth work compliments all of these vocal textures nicely wherever they appear.  I find that none of it is especially colourful, but despite its deep aquatic vibe it has a strange sort of luminosity that keeps the album from being too dark or oppressive.  I like how dusty and sullen they sound on "Educaged," and I also like how serene and beautiful they sound on "Bleep."  Through a lot of the album as well, the synth lines kind of float away as if the sound was contained in air bubbles slipping away from you to the surface of the water.

I remember hearing that drowning was a serene experience

In closing, I thought Deep Bathtub Blues was a good debut album.  Ayno Goze has a very prominent command of the textures in his music.  The synths, the background noise, and the vocals are all blended very well, making for some solid atmospheric music (my personal favourites were the tracks with Emma).  Nothing really sounds out of place, or hastily put together on any of these songs.  However, the one major problem that keeps me from thoroughly enjoying it is the pacing.  If the beats had a tighter control of energy, maybe by introducing new elements and taking them away with a greater sense of purpose, then this could be a really great album.

You can listen to Deep Bathtub Blues on Spotify:
http://open.spotify.com/album/2AM2UiRAHuhvLbUNotxdGV
If you're in Canada like me, you will have to listen to the sampler on SoundCloud:
https://soundcloud.com/ayno-goze
Alternatively, you can purchase it now on Itunes.
https://itunes.apple.com/se/album/deep-bathtub-blues/id672720099

Thanks a lot for reading everyone!

Kanye West - Yeezus

Can you hear all that buzz?  It is still quite loud from where I am standing.

Kanye West has released another album into the world, and all of us are caught up in the swirling torrents of his ego that are spilling forth from it.  Personally, I haven't ever been interested in what Kanye West does.  I used to think that his voice sounded too clean and not expressive enough to mix with a lot of his beats.  My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy did peak my interest, mainly because of "Power" and "Runaway" which I thought were both great tracks. On my first listen though, I remained pretty blase, until the line at the beginning of "Runaway" finally forced me to engage with what Kanye was doing.

"Find pictures in my email. I sent this bitch a picture of my dick.  I dunno what it is with females, but I'm not good with that shit."

I sent out thirty dick picks today! you tell me why I can't get a girlfriend!

What a ridiculous fool!  You don't know what it is? maybe start by analysing that thing you just said, Kanye.  How could you ruin such a heavy, emotional beat, and what is actually a very personal and revealing song, with such a terrible opening line?

Then my brain really tried to make sense of it, and I was left with a choice: either Kanye is completely bonkers for including this laughable and out of place line in an otherwise involving and tragic song, or he is a genius for divulging the true ridiculousness of his personality in a way that is so obnoxious and hilarious, you couldn't miss it.  Applying this dichotomy outwards, to the rest of Kanye's music, really gives an explanation as to why his music is so polarizing.  Kanye makes incredibly well produced rap music with lyrics as nonplus as Tracy Jordan from 30 Rock (It's been proven).  We as an audience have to fill in our enormous questions about what is going on in his music with our opinions of him as a person.  The gaps are so large, that anyone really taking apart his music would end up either thinking he was a moron or a genius.  When you look at his lyrics, there really seems like no other options.

or you may end up wanting sweet and sour sauce...

Yeezus is definitely no different on the lyrical side.  It might even be worse.  However, on this new album, the real change is in the production.  Kanye dives into the harsh, alienating electronic noise of artists like Death Grips, leaving behind his older soul inspired pop production techniques.

First off, the way the electronic beat rolls back in on itself in "On Sight" sounds highly similar to Death Grips' "Come Up and Get Me" but without any of the intensity or insanity, and part way through the song there is a highly out of place soul sample.  It might be a reference to his older work, but it is so jarring; it's hard to appreciate it.  The other time that this kind of smashing of genres happens is on the track "Blood on the Leaves."  In this song, the beat is much better blended, but this combination of Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" with Kanye's ridiculous autotuned voice and frankly stupid lyrics is just tasteless.  It's uncommon for me to stop a song, but there is a first time for everything...

In this song, and in "New Slaves" it seems like Kanye is trying to make a strong statement about racism, or something, but he gets quickly sidetracked by his bravado and doesn't bother going back to make his lyrics make sense.  It doesn't even seem like he tries.

I should totally talk about croissants right now.  Ya now would be a great time.

This is honestly a shame, because these beats are fantastic.  The deep underwater bloops of the electronics in "New Slaves" are threatening and chaotic, the TNGHT horns in "Blood on the Leaves" are fat as hell, The percussion in "Black Skinhead" is explosive, and the skidding glitching beat in "I Am a God" is tense.    Again and again though; I can't enjoy any of them while listening to Kanye say things like "I just talked to Jesus. he said what up Yeezus? I said shit I'm chillin, tryin to stack these millions."  Seriously, what the fuck?

I really tried, but I can't take this album seriously.  I think the beats are nearly perfect.  They each hold their own moods, and progress with expert precision and there was no moment when I felt the album dragged, or went too quickly.  I also appreciate that Kanye changing his production style this much would be akin to Van Gogh learning how to paint cubism and then doing it perfectly, and that these are really forward thinking beats to be released into mainstream audience.  However, In this entire album, I failed to find one thing I could relate to, sympathize with, or understand.  I found myself lurching from song to song in a confused state, half laughing and half disgusted, taking a break every thirty seconds to stare in disbelief at the lyrics wondering if this is a real thing.  I still don't know.

Discussion

• Do you think Kanye West a Genius or a fool? Give me your best argument!
• Do songs like "New Slaves" show that this album has a message? what do you pull out of it as a whole?
• Are there ways to tastefully remix old protest songs such as "Strange Fruit?" or are these some things that are just off limits?

Thanks for reading!