29: That's the MF Science
Hey y'all,
Hope your summer is going well! I'm so happy to have a few things back (the swimming pool! summer camp for the kids!), and I still miss a bunch of stuff dearly (my sanity, DJ gigs, radio), but I guess at this point we've adapted. I've been listening to music as an escape as much as ever.
The homie El Muntz is headed back to Portland for a brief visit in August, and we have a few DJ gigs lined up. Would love to see your vaccinated self out for either of the dates:
World Famous Kenton Club // Thursday, August 12 //
6 pm - 9:30 pm // NO COVER
Tough Luck // Friday, August 13 // 8 pm to midnight // NO COVER
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I made mix as a gift for a friend. Here's a link to stream and a link to download should you want to give it a spin.
First half is some of my favorite Hip-Hop songs from the first half of 2021, and the back half is the same but Portland artists.
SIDE A
1. Shabazz Palaces // "20 Gear Science"
I'm absolutely head-over-heels in love with this song. So many conversations for me with different music friends have wandered toward the topic of the dominance of Ish Butler and his lasting influence on Hip-Hop, in the PNW & beyond.
I've watched the video for the song at least twenty times.
2. Navy Blue // "god's-magnetic-pull"
Damn, Navy Blue has been on a run. His new album Navy's Reprise, has flown a bit under the radar for my liking (probably because it's not on DSPs & he's selling it on his website for $20). Last year's Àdá Irin and Songs of Sage: Post Panic! were gorgeous and meditative, but I feel like it all comes together on Navy's Reprise.
3. Georgia Anne Muldrow // "Boom Bap Is My Homegirl"
This was the first record that I was able to pre-order through the new Bandcamp system that works a little like GoFundMe. If you hit a pre-order target, the run gets made. Sheldon Pearce wrote a great piece on the album for the New Yorker.
4. Ovrkast. // "Love Somebody"
A one-off from a producer I really dig. Uncle raps over a sweet soul loop? Yes please. Another dope video.
5. Freddie Gibbs // "Gang Signs" ft. ScHoolboy Q
If you wanna start a fight and your thesis is that Freddie Gibbs is the greatest rapper alive, I ain't gonna argue. Video is gold.
6. Noname // "Rainforest"
Definitely a contender for single of the year in my world. Effortless, dense, and dazzling verses over bossa nova soul, a teach-in for your mind & your hips. BUY IT!
7. Chester Watson // "Sunbeam"
A Japanese Horror Film was released last October, and it slowly grew into one of my favorite Hip-Hop records from last year. It was a foggy, impenetrable trip to the underworld of feudal Japan. Son Raw wrote a great review on POW. His newest EP 1997 is also fantastic, much lighter in weight and tone. The video for "Sunbeam" is, as you might have guessed, dope.
8.Akai Solo // "Twice Twilight" ft. Navy Blue
Two of my favorite NYC MCs collaborated on an album called True Sky together, with Navy Blue handling most of the production work and Akai Solo as the primary storyteller. Abstract and loose, messy and perfect.
9.Pink Siifu // "NEGRO FRIDAY"
My musical selections over the past four years have consisted heavily of Pink Siifu, whose album ensley I fell deeply in love with in the fall of 2018. Last year he released NEGRO in April, and I think it is the record that resonated most deeply with me during the hell year of 2020. In between the FlySiifu projects, he released a deluxe edition of NEGRO. A somber, reflective cut that memorializes DOOM where Siifu says "I'm a complicated simple man."
10. Armand Hammer & the Alchemist // "Falling Out The Sky" ft. Earl Sweatshirt
A lush, tropical, light, airy beat is not what you expect under verses from Earl, but the Alchemist is great at switching it up. All songs with Robert Horry references will forever end up on my mixes. When billy woods of Armand Hammer raps about being on the West Coast for the first time and he "genuflected when (he) heard the weed price," you know they were on some special shit. Late night smoke session gold.
11. Jansport J // "In Your Mind"
West Coast sunshine production GOD
12. Mavi // "Methods"
Mavi's 2019 record Let the Sun Talk was one of my favorite debut records in a long time and his new End of the Earth EP is a sweet follow-up.
SIDE B // PDX
13. Tiger Milc // "Astro's Dugout"
In the last 12 months, Portland MC Milcmane (a.k.a. MILC a.k.a. Blanco) blessed us with (by my count) 6 collaborative projects with some of the best producers in the city, shown up on fistfuls of guest verses, and dropped a freestyle video nearly every goddamn week. It was a dizzying run of brilliance reminiscent of when Old Grape God released a finished project each month in 2019 under the Time Travel 444 name. The Tiger Milc self-titled album is a collaboration with Calvin Valentine & Green Team with outstanding artwork from Lawz Spoken.
I mean, just look:
It was cool to see Milc be recognized by the WW Best New Band dealy, still haven't seen him perform which I gotta rectify immediately.
14. [bryson, the alien] // "Together"
Speaking of creative PDX rap artists, [bryson the alien] has been on a TEAR. From mid-December 2019 with the drop of JUENETHIA until his double release of Strictly Based and Strictly Inglish for his birthday in mid-July 2021, I count FOURTEEN compelling projects, singles, releases, and full-lengths on Bandcamp. I'm astonished at bryson's prolficacy, consistancy and quality in his projects, and he's collaborated with some pretty impressive names. An essential part of the Portland rap scene.
15. Goldenbeets // "Post mortem"
A producer with roots in Seattle/Bellingham/Portland making some great beats on his debut full-length Sommelier. Hypnotic, jazzy loops with expert production.
16. Unexplained Aerial Phenomenon // "3D" ft. Open Mike Eagle
UAP is a collaboration between the aforementioned [bryson the alien] and L.A. psych rock band Pioneer 11 by the esteemed L.A. label POW Recordings. Some of the best damned songs I've heard in the last year have come from this collaboration, so to say I'm excited to hear the full album would be an understatement. Jeff Weiss called Open Mike Eagle's feature verse on this cut his "favorite rap existential breakdown recorded during the pandemic."
17. Trox // "Ferrari Chase"
Trox left Portland for San Antonio, but from my perspective, living in Portland and making music makes you PDX4Lyfe, kinda like "once a playmate, always a playmate." Trox released a killer EP called Tweedheads full of top notch chops and some of the best snares in the game. Definitely nailed the Miami sunset video game vibe.
18. Sxlxmxn // "Jay Electronica - Exhibit C (sxlxmxn flip)”
When I say that there are incredible producers in PDX, I feel like some of y'all are not hearing me. The fertility of Rose City's Hip-Hop scene has been paying off in droves lately, with a ridiculous amount of talent releasing a constant deluge of good music. Here comes Sxlxmxn's blend of Jay Electronica's 2009 classic "Exhibit C" that kiiiiiiinda runs laps around Just Blaze's original production. His latest release is University Park and includes an awesome cut ("Hulk Organ") with horns by PDX legend Farnell Newton.
19. Luvjonez & Free Tillman // "The Son of Melody Cool*"
Two of my favorite PDX beatsmiths joined up this past May to release the collaboration FreeLuv on Bandcamp. This track is perfectly named, evocative of the effortless nature of appearing cool.
20. Mike Mo Beats // "Black Storm"
I'm of the mind that Mike Mo Beats doesn't get enough credit/respect as a producer. His music is ILL. This sinister trap tune is perfect for driving through the city at night.
21. Surebert // "Into the Sea"
Another instrumental cut, taken from Portland producer, Sureburt's latest release, the 4th volume of his Short But Sweet series.
22. The Last Artful, Dodgr // "Jazz Crimes"
Had to throw this one back to one of my favorite PDX Hip-Hop/R&B releases of the past five years, The Last Artful Dodgr's collaboration with Neill Von Tally called Bone Music.
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The climate crisis has weighed heavy on my mind since school let out in early June, as we've experienced an ahistoric heat wave, extended drought, and a pronounced shift in fire seasonality in Oregon & beyond. I think lots of you know that I taught high school environmental science & natural resource management, followed by a stint in grad school to study forest ecology. My twenties-into-early-thirties were consumed by an insatiable desire to learn everything I could about climate change, so that I could in turn educate my students.
One of my favorite writers, Tess Lynch, recently passed along an article that she referred to as "the definitive modern fable about what happens when climate despair turns you into an insufferable person." In the article, a husband faces his climate-induced depression and the effect it has on his wife and family. They discuss the word
“salience” being the term of choice in the climate community for the gut-level understanding that climate change isn’t going to be a problem in the future, it is a crisis now
And I sympathized hard with a man that was finding it increasingly difficult to function in a world he perceived as dying.
My experience teaching so young definitively killed my idealism (the salience of it all!), but not my hope. It's from that hope that I gain purpose, to watch out for my kids, family, and friends in a world that is going to change even faster. Sometimes I feel a little like I'm on the other side of that "salience" doorway, having passed through it nearly two decades ago when I first began teaching.
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The ladies, getting their first fishing lesson from Papa.
The rose garden at Peninsula Park is in full bloom, and one can smell it for blocks around the park.
These ladies know how to PARTY**.
Thanks,
DJ Mr. Mom
North Portland
July 30, 2021