Day 0764 - Ill Communication

Beastie Boys "Ill Communication" (1994)

The second day of illness in a row.  Clearly 1994 was an ill year indeed!

 

The Beasties had been paring back their use of sampling, opting instead to play instruments themselves for their tracks.    That, combined with Adam Yauch's interest in Buddhism, their early hardcore punk roots, and their hip hop sound makes for an incredibly diverse album.

There are rocking hardcore tracks, monkish chants, moments of 70s funk, jazz instrumentals and of course the guys busting their raps all over it.   A couple of their better known tracks are found on this album including "Sabotage".  The band had worked out the music for it but had no lyrics.   Later, Ad-Rock was 'ambushed' by paparazzi while attending a private memorial service for River Phoenix.   He unleashed his anger in rap that ended up being the lyrical basis for 'Sabotage'.

Day 0763 - Illmatic

Nas "Illmatic" (1994)

Son of a jazz musician, Nas started playing trumpet and writing rhymes.  His father Olu Dara actually features on this album playing trumpet.

Nas met producer/rapper the Large Professor and through him recorded some material in studio downtime between other artists' sessions.   None of these recordings, however, were released at the time.   Nas then secured a recording contract with Columbia records and released his first single, a track on the soundtrack to the Oliver Stone-produced film "Zebrahead".   

By the time they came to work on Nas' debut "Illmatic", he had created enough buzz to attract a few producers wanting to work with him.  Producers for Illmatic included Large Professor, Q-Tip and DJ Premier.  The music is a good mix of jazz elements and more stripped down hip hop beats.   

Nas reports on ghetto life, but with grim reality rather than glamourising it.  The album was awarded a rare '5 mics' rating by American hip hop magazine 'The Source', a rating considered so high and so rare that the magazine had to make a point of defending it publicly.

Day 0762 - Haunted Dancehall

Sabres of Paradise "Haunted Dancehall" (1994)

Producer and remixer Andrew Weatherall formed Sabres with engineers Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns.  The group made acid house and dub-based music and set up their own "Sabresonic" warehouse raves.

This is a sonically interesting album of largely (maybe completely, I'm forgetting) instrumental electronica.   There are some grimey dubby baselines, moody synth-lines, interesting beats, what sound like industrial/machine noises and even a brass band at one point.  

This album would work really well as a score/soundtrack: interesting, but not overwhelming.   Hypnotic, but not repetitive in any kind of boring way.

Day 0761 - Dummy

Portishead "Dummy" (1994) - got it

The words that spring to mind with this one are moody, cinematic and a mix of old and new.

"Cinematic", not necessarily meaning grandiose, it's just that the music creates atmospheres and visuals in my mind.  This sense of the cinematic is emphasised by Beth Gibbons changing her singing voice to suit each track, almost like a vocal 'actor'.

"Old and new" because they're mixing old jazz, soul and torch-song sounds with modern production.   Organs, strings and moody trumpet with hip hop beats and scratches.  

Opening track "Mysteron" is appropriately titled as it sounds like an old sci-fi b-movie score with a beat.  "Glory Box" speaks of sultry noir, and was used as the backing track for MTV's Superrock show, hosted by the glamorous Julia Valet.

Though Portishead didn't invent triphop, this album's sound came to be what many would associate the with the genre.

Sadly, the band's output (though superlative) has been fairly small.  Two albums, then a fantastic live album with the NY orchestra.  After that there was a 10 year wait before their third and (to date) final album.  

Day 0760 - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

Pavement "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain" (1994)

I think I preferred this one to the previous Pavement album in the list.   I've seen it referred to as a more mainstream sound than the previous album, but I dunno.  It's still quite noisy and has some unconventional compositional directions.

Though the album has some nice hummable melodies, there's still a lot of noise.   A sparse piano part will appear out of a cloud of fuzzed guitar.  A rock song will suddenly give way for an extended, repeated clean guitar section.  There's a jazzy instrumental in 5/4 time "5-4 = Unity" which is a tribute to jazz pianist Dave Brubeck but it also has elements of rock and even rockabilly on show.

The 90s are obviously well underway by now with that idea of it being cool to not care.   Singer Stephen Malkmus is just so unimpressed, and so cynical, and takes the time to make fun of several other 90s rock acts in song "Range Life".

Day 0759 - The Sun Rises in the East

Jeru the Damaja  "The Sun Rises in the East" (1994)

Jeru had worked with Gang Starr, and that group's DJ Premier produced this, Jeru's first solo album.  

The production and beats are probably the most interesting part of this album for me.   It almost seems to lean into trip-hop territory with moody instrumental samples backed with drum-machine loops.

The book talks about how Jeru calls out various other rap artists of the time for various perceived offences, but then I don't generally pay attention to lyrics.   Whatever is pissing off Jeru it goes past me, and musically the album doesn't really stand out for me above and beyond other albums or even other hip hop albums of the time.

Day 0758 - Venus Luxure No.1 Baby

Girls Against Boys "Venus Luxure No.1 Baby" (1994)

The band utilise synthesisers and dual bass guitars... I have to admit that I did not notice these things on first listen, it was only when I went back and gave it a second listen that could hear the two different basslines going on.

The music is largely grungey rock but it feels like it touches on the sounds of bands as diverse and Mazzy Star and Clutch.  There is some stonking, riff-heavy rock but there are also some moodier moments.  They play around with distorted piano lines in "Billy's One Stop", a hypnotic almost sensuous groove on "Get Down" and a slow groove-metal feel to "Rockets are Red".