Now Hear This v4

Mellow simplicity & bass in your face.

Now this might be considered entirely cheesy if you had payed for this subscription, but right now things are free. Every once in a while it’s time to shutup and listen. So I give you some of the things that have been knocking me out of the box inspirationally from the musical end of things. First we start with the Nu Deco Ensemble.

This was particularly great to blast through the house a couple weekends ago when the boyfriends were over. Hmm. I haven’t introduced you to the boyfriends. In fact, you may not have any idea what my family looks like. Meh. That’s for another time. It should suffice for you to know that in current homestead, both of my adult daughters live at home, but at least twice a month we have a cooking event. Last week was the Superbowl. You can .. ok you can check out my Instagram, which is another happy place I am pleased to share with you.

As it stands I haven’t found many ensembles I am particularly fond of but Nu Deco is found. It will probably be another 5 years before they can crank out an equally deft set of suites. I felt the same way about Snarky Puppy and D’Arcy James Argue.

This past month or so I have fallen for a couple new (to me) artists and have also fallen into the groove of groove. So without further ado I introduce you to a few tracks that are deeply satisfying for their simplicity and emotion. But first we have to take a moment to remember the late dearly departed Chick Corea.

On the simple funky side I am listening a lot to chillhop. It is a marvel. Right now my favorite guys are L'indécis and Miktek. This follows right on the tail of my deep infatuation with Krhuangbin last year and the year before. First to L'indécis.

I’m thinking the ontology of “HipHop / Rap” is going to have to undergo some mutation, but I’m not surprised that that might not happen in the US for a while because we’re still ignorantly married to the commercial shite White Mike, you and I find repulsive. (Don’t click on the White Mike link right now, it will bust a cap in the good mood I’m working on here. Come back to later when you’re in a mood to get angry at the mob of commercial stupids.) But do by all means enjoy the next by Miktek and the following by Monolake.

What I love about both of these is how wonderful this sounds if you have a nice tight bass in your system. OMG. It is some of the most awesome stuff that could completely change your mind about deep bass. Sort of like George Lucas did for the entire film industry when he unleashed THX for The Empire Strikes Back. I still remember. I saw it at the the Avco Cinema on Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood.

BTW, If you actually have a good system, you’d be better off listening to Monolake here instead of at YouTube. It will be a lot crisper. But sweet album cover.

Now we need to close out with some super retro funk. This will make you remember that a lot of pop music that was pretty cool then can be awesome now in the right hands. Checkout this bass arrangement.

And finally I want to go back to Cory Henry who is a marvelous talent. Ain’t much else to say except this: A lot of bad news is out there, and I know that there are answers. Like I alluded to in my prior post, a lot of things will fail when stressed, but look at us. Better yet, listen.

Take care, friends.