🐣 R.BLACK — ALIEN MONSTER

⌾ LISTEN TO R.BLACK ALIEN MONSTER ⌾ There's a lot to like about 'Alien Monster' by R.Black. The synths twisting and melding with each other in the background definitely effuse a sense of, well, alien-ness and that's the first thing: this unobtrusive instrumental that, without getting in the way of what Houston-based, Jamaica-born musicmaker is doing with his voice, still conjures this bizarre backdrop of retro UFOs and pixellated, far-off galaxies.

Vocally, and lyrically, 'Alien Monster' is a gem. There's this hushed, rapid rap to begin with – featuring the no-bullshit of "I'm young and reckless / I'll snatch your breakfast" – and later on this slower, playground rhyme kinda rhythm, that kicks off with "Lover not a fighter / not a coward I'm a writer."

With this and other references to the literal craft of rapping, the skill of hopping on the beat, contending with nouns and verbs, R.Black has some originality that makes listening to his bars almost like hearing an alien man from outer space, which he mentions throughout. Combine with prime useage of reverb on some lines, brazen inexplicable yells and yelps for ad-libs, and you get a feel for the unique hype that is at work in 'Alien Monster'.

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• 🔔 Get to R.Black's SoundCloud to hear more (since 'Alien Monster' the tracks have mostly been produced by others and don't have the same soul, personal touch or DIY charm present in this track).

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📠
☟ R.Black Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ youtube ⚘ instagram ⚘ spotify

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🐣 ISAK THOMAS — SOMEWHERE, SOMEHOW

⌾ LISTEN TO ISAK THOMAS, SOMEWHERE, SOMEHOW ⌾

With a feeling like being invited into the worn pages of a diary tinged with VHS static, 'Somewhere, Somehow' beats with a soulful horizontal heart. Sweeps of warped guitar play somewhere between a dripping bleak-empty coastal town and late night psychedelic bedroom introspection as lyrics float by haunted by the shade of a person, all set to the buzz and thump of a disintegrated beat.

"Lo-fi sounds from old jazz standards to acoustic folk and blues has always been a huge inspiration," trackmaker Isak Thomas explains over email, "so I was aiming to bring that nostalgic, scratchy sound to a more accessible platform."

And after a crescendo of crushed guitar sounds and vocals interrupting themselves in mantra form – "I know you from somewhere somehow / I know you from somewhere somehow" – sun breaks through swirling clouds for the final third of the song, the groove changes tack and jagged chord progressions streak in.

Isak Thomas' well dusted time capsule of a track, an opened Pandora's box of desire and apprehension, presents a crowded mind carved into a love letter destined for another realm.

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• 🔔 You may purchase 'Somewhere, Somehow' by Isak Thomas via iTunes should you wish to do so. Or if Bandcamp is more your thing then you can grab it from there, too.

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📠
☟ Isak Thomas Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ instagram ⚘ spotify

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🐣 BOUT — AFTER U

Here is a cave network of sound, a lo-fi labyrinth of carved tunnel gloom and the majesty of something once-great but lost, the dripping stone calcification of it all and the millennia smell of this absolar world and its ruins hidden and hemmed in by rock, chambers and rooms and cathedralic spaces with vaulted ceilings and arcane edifices staring silent on the walls. Here we are, in the wheezing industrial mechanics, the dusty ancient organic flavours conjuring human spirit, the sense of elsewhere and of subterranean secrets constructed with progressive analogue hammer-and-anvil growth for maximum atmosphere effusion, the soundtrack to abandonment.

'After U' by Dallas-based producer BOUT completely transports, not with an alien sound but with one that is this expansive burrowing sort of vibe, an alternate history of the world, gorgeous thudding kicks trailed by abrasive scrapes dig into the ground joined by muffled clacking percussion tumbling rockily, wide chords rise up illustrative of illustrious spaces now decayed with white noise howling from a distant past. Those dusty kicks advance and march four-on-the-floor in an uptempo charge of esoteric techno rumbling with cranking cog hi-hat clink-clanking, paving the way for that humanistic guitar to float low and lamenting amidst a swirl of cooing ghosts in this crackling crystal ball vision of a track.

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• 🔔 It is possible to purchase the quietly incredible 'After U' on Bandcamp.
• 🔔 The track is taken from BOUT's debut EP Some Dream, out digitally 16th August and on cassette tape 31st August.
• 🔔 The spooky abandoned building-themed video for 'After U' was created Olivia Themudo.

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📠
☟ BOUT Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ youtube ⚘ instagram

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🐣 M-CUBED — ACQUAINTANCES

As soon a this track by Atlanta-based M-Cubed starts you sorta know you're in for it, in for something popping and energetic, and that is definitely what you get. What literally first came to mind was Sonic CD (a game what else), specifically the themes for some of the "Bad Future" levels, not that its reminiscent but the futuristic feel of it all, the industrial cog in the machine spirals of grandslam percussion tickety-tickety clackclackclacck thumping diagonal or like a fly bumping into a window, the dystopian flavour of the voxy chord-pads syncopating through the first section, those arpeggiating synths thoughts of digital brains. Got that dark jazzy atmosphere of that soundtrack with the same sorta speed and Sonic you know he's a fast hedgehog isn't he. Chaotic beautiful, yet also very laced with precision and mathematics.

But the track gradually slows down, morphs through a couple of phases, goes from this speedball clatterraucous mayhem into one just a little less busy from 1:25 on, adding these atonal organ chords and hyper little melodies like an injection of Bach. Then 2:07 the beat's accents and ornamentations fly away and leave only a slow nodding beat, gently wobbling electric piano chords warming out the rest of the track as things gradually fall away, the last mechanical sounds of before slowing and distorting at the very end. To arrive at that point from those stuttering robotics and shattering beatscapes of before is astounding, that change in dynamic and feel throughout making this broken beat-feeling half-footwork half-experimental track a playground of sound.

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• This arrived courtesy of M-Cubed of course but it arrives also courtesy of COMPUTER GHOST URL MUSIC, an online music collective. They release electronic computery music on their SoundCloud as far as I can tell.
• The artwork in all its crystalline distortion glory is by ASTRAL, who also created the logo for Computer Ghost URL Music, too. The blue and pink merging in these skeletal lines fit the jagged beatisms of the track, that's for sure.

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☟ M-Cubed Internet Presence ☟
• Facebook • SoundCloud • Bandcamp • official site • Twitter • YouTube •

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BENJHA – ΣALAD DAYS

'Σalad Days' is a four month-old song that popped up as recommended on SoundCloud when I was writing about something else that is more than a week old and I could not just sit here and hear the sumptuous sounds of it without putting some words onto the internet, sending something out into the nethersphere. It is a track by someone called Benjha who may or may not be based in Texas. I've now been just sitting here with the song on repeat going around and around and around and taking me with it to wherever it may be going, to space, through walls, floating just a few feet above the ground and wafting home like a tired ghost through commuter streets and suburban spaces. I'm there, I'm fully there.

There is a sense of the spooky in this track but it's nothing to get scared about because the track is more delicious than mere atmosphere conjuring; it's full of textures and tastes that are undeniable and that swirl into your brain like weed smoke and there's nothing you can do except shrug and get the fuck high with it running through your nerves and thoughts like a lazy lust. What does Benjha do that's so nice?

This musicmaker carves out a huge wonky beat, jingling and crunching with cascades of percussion, crackling with the familiar smell of vinyl and off-beat hip-hop tint to it, rough and heavy guitar sounds decorating a thunderous beginning, where also synth chords wash into the mix, a soft cosmic cavalcade, then rich cymbals begin to ding ding ding ding... a woodblock click that reverbs so far into the swirling decorative void of the song... a slow groovesome bass that evolves into a bending foundation of blooping bass made the whole track reminiscent of a much more chilled version of this battle music from Earthbound.

A piercing synth lead lances up and soars, melting like a bleeding rainy sunset sky and all streetlights and strangers' eyes downcast as you make your way places. The synth bulges and buzzes abrasive and thick sometimes, with other ornamentations coming from crashing cymbals and clapping hands, the beat thickets with noises, it is alive with sonic observations, a stream of sound that is a microcosm in itself. And then it ends in a slow unnerving smog, like the realisation of a ghost that there is no living left but only ghostly journeys.

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• There is also a video for this track.

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☟ Social Media Presence ☟
Facebook • SoundCloud • Bandcamp • YouTube

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KALKO – I'M SO GLAD I FOUND U

If you waltz away from this song without feeling even a tiny bit of emotion – ok, even if you can discern the emotion in this, that's ok – but if you can't feel or detect a single thing either after or during listening to this… well, I don't know what to say.

It's not that this is dripping with obvious emotion, that it epically drops with standard sonic epithets, that it explodes with feeling. It's that it just touches the heart somewhat, and that is enough. "It", "it it it" – it is called 'I'm so glad i found u' and it is by a musicmaker called kalko who says they're from Texas, so let's go with it: Texas it is.

Anyway… 'I'm so glad i found you' is simple enough: a set of melodies, a bit of a beat. Simplicity and complexity doesn't really come into it when we're speaking about emotions – you hear, see, taste, smell, touch something and feel stuff as a result. That's how it is.

And that's how it is with the plaintive melodies of thanksgiving and innocent pleasure that swirl at the heart of this little song, which, beginning soft and muted, gradually become sharper, glittering, come into focus previously blurred, a sense of true happiness, body-warming gratitude sweeping through your soul, the skin-tingling shimmering-sun-dappled-through-bright-green-leaves feeling of utter contentment (see the artwork above; sounds like that).

Skiffly shakers and zipping hi-hats and scratchy snares and fuzzy kicks, a lo-fi beat that develops and grows as the song progresses, the sense of positivity expanding outwards and encompassing you, as you listen there from your laptop, aglow with the same feeling as kalko's track, ebbing away after saying its piece, not taking up all of your time: just stopping by to express happiness, ending beautifully.

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• Don't miss a free download of this cutely shimmering ode to warming happiness.

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☟ kalko Social Media Presence ☟
SoundCloud • Bandcamp • Twitter • Instagram

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Y/N GUEST MIX 018 :: STONEWALL KLAXON

This mix. It is a wholly original mix. It features only tracks from the artist himself, Mr. Stonewall Klaxon. Obviously, or perhaps not obviously if you're not au fait with Americano historia, this guy is named after Stonewall Jackson, an American Civil War commander. A few potential reasons why: 1. This guy is a Confederate sympathiser (being from Texas and all); 2. Apparently Mr. Jackson was something of a legendary person, why not name yourself after (kinda) him?; 3. Just cos it rhymes; 4. Don't know. Should've asked really shouldn't I?????????? lol oh well. Not the point right now is it.

The point is this is a mix with a difference because it's basically like hearing a Stonewall Klaxon live set. His music is like… really nice. It's beats-heavy, synth-heavy, a waterfallish cascade of electronica set to mostly uptempo rhythms, kind of in a paint-splashed realm between dubstep and footworky stuff, for instance with the white noise watercolour wash and pneumatic drill kicks of his remix of 'TBAE' by urlchild or the hyperactive synth stutterings and finely diced vocals in 'Gary Lazer-Eyes', coupled with the busy explosiveness of 'Neon Swords' and its gurgling vocal samples whose beat seems to hang in the air, and 'Cigarettes', where infra-bass kicks are the gloopy swamp out of which brittle mangrove snares snap and crack.

The mix, which includes samples of Link's sword-swinging shout in Ocarina of Time ('All Of Me') and Navi's "Hey!" ('Neon Swords', the set closer), and a sparkly remix of 'Latch' by Disclosure, pitch-shifting Sam Smith's vocals just ever so slightly, is luscious, the sound equivalent of breakdancing under a canopy of stars, or playing videogames with friends because one of them has a free house and it happens to be a marble-and-gold mansion of a place. Stonewall Klaxon, real name David Andrew Lunson, is 26 currently lives in Austin, Texas, "working as a chef in a restaurant downtown." But cooking skills aside, musicmaking comes first: "Music has always been my passion, and my true priority," he tells me. "I suppose what first inspired me to make music was simply being in the school band and orchestra~ playing euphonium, trombone, and cello."

The rich flavours and dynamics of his sound are, with this information in mind, easily traceable back to this classical and traditional training in music; you can hear the feel-good, triumphal nature of band music in each rousing hit of synth, and in its gentler moments, his music is certainly orchestral, albeit with electronic sounds – the melodies and progressions are so well done, so basically perfect. I've seen reviews of his stuff saying 'Flume-esque' or 'Wave Racer-esque' but you never hear anybody say that any classical music is 'Beethoven-esque' or 'Mozart-esque', really, do you? There is space enough in the music world for true talent and actual hard work to shine through, and it seems as if the gleams of Stonewall Klaxon are just about starting to reach the eyes and ears of the world.

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• T R A C K L I S T •

1. 0:00 Chords (Excerpt) (Vocals are Frank Zappa)
2. 2:39 Gary Lazer-Eyes
3. 7:27 Spherical
4. 12:07 Cigarettes
5. 15:21 Urlchild - TBAE (Stonewall Klaxon Remix)
6. 20:09 Disclosure - Latch (Stonewall Klaxon Remix)
7. 23:21 All Of Me
8. 26:38 Neon Swords

All tracks by Stonewall Klaxon

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• Hey! Listen! Go download a free copy of the Neon Swords EP, from which most of these songs are taken.

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☟ Stonewall Klaxon Social Media Presence ☟
Facebook • SoundCloud • Bandcamp • Twitter

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BLAZ – SINK

Waaaaa! Wows. This is a really cool sound. You fall through a wormhole into the centre of the Earth and come out the other side and realise you're in a different dimension where everything glints towards bioluminescence and in the air there is the aroma of biological immortality achieved through hundreds of years of research on Turritopsis dohrnii jellyfish and transdifferentiation. Everyone lives forever and nothing is sacred yet we wonder still why and how everything is as it is. Humanity bulges in our corner of the universe and religion is a fairytale and we are all individualist libertarians.

Anyway, like, that's kinda what I felt when I listened to this track. It's by a person from Austin, Texas, who makes music under the name of Blaz. The track itself is called 'Sink' and, well yeah, it's kinda like sinking. First inspired to make electronic music whilst living in France a few years ago, Blaz calls it "very shiny and digital" and that's it on a basic level. In an email to Y/N, Blaz also shared some background information about the song: "The inspiration for it was old N64 video games... and a desire to take some of the recent PC Music sound, which I love, and twist it into something a little darker and heavier."

From the start, eternal arpeggios stream into your ears like schizoid pulsar stars, glassy galactic fog breathing with it, spiralling towards the main body of the track.

Tumbling fragmented kicks ba-dum-ba-dum-dum beneath, which become a regular beat punctuated with kung-fu-punch snare-claps, occasioned with stark synth chords blasting, which break into a melody towards the end alongside rollicking snares for building up and virtuoso popping sounds in what could be one of the regular favourites at the juke-specialising Club Satellite orbiting the earth (circa 2376), a slowdown retro sample ringing out: "This is how we—" ("—do it," I guess).

• THIS IS A FREE DOWNLOAD, SO WHY NOT.
• Also check out Blaz's Kirby EP, full of more WALL OF SYNTH sounds.

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☟ Blaz Social Media Presence ☟
Facebook • SoundCloud • Twitter

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CORY JREAMZ INVICTUS EP

Wahoo! Here it is. Yes. Ever since I first encountered the music of Houston rapper Cory Jreamz well over a year ago, he's been on a constant curve of improvement; coming across as a guy who not only seems intent on conquering the world, but also as someone whose future efforts must surpass those that came before, it's no surprise that he gets better and better. His latest EP, Invictus ("unconquerable" or "undefeated" in Latin), released a couple of days ago, is his third to date and follows on from last year's Vague Current Vivid Fated, an angst-ridden quartet of songs from the mind of 18-year-old Cory Jreamz. One year and four months later, and one year older, CJ has developed his sound and his style and come up with something very striking indeed.

From the first ultra-distorted, unearthly sounds of 'Pressure' you know you're in for an intense ride. The very first lines introduce the Cory's uncontainable emotion, littered with varied name-drops: "Teen anger's all in my heart / Sylvia Plath all in my veins / I ain't takin' shit like Rosa Parks" and "Play this piece in the Pantheon / I'll play it all in Versailles too / Write a script with Hitchcock / Then show my cock to Lucy Liu" particularly. Grinding saw-waves rise like razor waves from a steel sea, framing a dizzying slew of references – both pop culture and high culture – from Cory Jreamz throughout the song: Napoleon, Thomas Edison, Genghis Khan, to name just a few. He roars the song's refrain – "They should've played this shit up in the movie Casablanca, and have a black man rapping while they fight Nazis" – draping a fierceness across the rumbling beat of the track that he has absolutely no qualms about displaying. He doesn't ooze confident, he burns with it.

At the end of 'Pressure' he brashly raps "I'm the black black black black black Marlon Brando" – clearly unafraid to make a point of his race, something which is still very much an issue in the US. Speaking of Marlon Brando, Cory must be a fan because he references the actor in 'Alive' as well, a song with a more chilled beat, dripping with strings and samples yet still retaining Cory's love for dark atmospheres. This track comes with a new extension, known now as 'Alive/NYC', the 'NYC' part comprised of a track he dropped earlier this year, 'Driving To New York AT 4AM'. It's a wholly nightmarish and menacing closer to the EP, in which he implores, "let my family know that I'm gone with the wind" and spits vitriolic and ironic desire for model wives and fast cars in the nocuturnally alone atmosphere.

As you can tell by now, Cory Jreamz is full of inspiration and influences, from films and pop culture to literature and historical figures. I love them; they're really entertaining, I find myself listening intently to hear who is gonna find themselves mentioned in a rap. The grime-flavoured 'Nina' is packed full of references and irony, displaying a confident, sarcastic lilt against a triumphal, war-like brass section. Also, in 'Howl' (check the video here), for instance – the title itself a reference to Allen Ginsberg's famous poem of the same name – Cory summons art world references in his defence, raining down fiery scorn on anybody who refers to his career as a pipedream.

He tackles that same judgemental attitude in 'Will You Be Here', condemning the world for making people conform and stamping down his conviction for success with lines like "Ain't never stoppin' I'm always climbing" and "Nigga this more than a rap hobby / All this soul up in my body / If I don't make it and get a Grammy / You can shoot me like I'm Bobby." In the second half of the song the music turns slow, ambient, fluid, echoing with ghostly samples in a stew of everdreaming subconscious, the perfect evocation of the "lost highway" he finds himself on, countering fear of death with determination to leave a legacy: "When the lights go out I'ma still be here / Rockin like Keith Moon till my last breath of air."

The cocksure, audacious lines don't stop, gloriously full of Cory Jreamz' personality: determined to make something of himself. Amidst its raw beat and scratching synths, 'Swim' is a track in which he humorously explains "I never learned how to swim or ride a bike" whilst contrasting this with determination in the form of a tongue-in-cheek middle-finger-up attitude to detractors. 'Swim' is potentially my favourite from the EP, because of its very legible beat and being the track to best display the almost yawning flow of Cory Jreamz, talking out the side of his mouth (seemingly) in a sarcastic manner that truly gives no amount of fucks to "doubters".

What more can I say? Alternatively dark beats that scream just as loud as Cory Jreamz's soul seems to be and, as he says himself in 'Swim', his voice is a piece of art, something to enjoy. You don't have to relate to it, of course. But the fact that it exists, and is consumed like art, is enough. With this said, it's pretty evident that Cory Jreamz is going to get bigger – this EP has confirmed it. And since bettering himself from last year to this, I don't really doubt that he's going to top this Invictus next year when he releases album The Lonely Painter. Also, look out for a video for track 'Nina' in January.

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Like Cory Jreamz on Facebook
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Visit Cory Jreamz' official site

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CORY JREAMZ NINA

I think, I think I don't know exactly because this is all subjective after all, but I THINK that Cory Jreamz is just getting better and better. If you don't know about him already you either should or you more than likely will. Why's that? Well, because he's been making some waves recently. Having been played by Scroobius Pip - an esteemed rapper in the UK himself - on his XFM radio show The Beatdown (premiering this particular song, 'Nina', last Saturday), he's also naturally been getting featured and interviewed on a load of online publications. Good! Cause he's good.

His latest song is called 'Nina' as you probably now know. Produced by t extends and accentuates all of the elements that have previously gone together in making a Cory Jreamz track: poetic, confident lyrics - a comfortable flow - dark, chaotic beats. They're all here. But it seems that his flow here is more verbose than it has been previously - he literally says more words than he ever has done, I think. The beat is a mash of crunchy, distorted synth and sub-bass kicks coupled with glass-breaking cymbals and faraway snares: a busy, menacing vehicle for Jreamz's smooth and often rage-venting words.

I might be totally stupid here but I don't know what the titular 'Nina' refers to. It's a shame because if I knew I'm sure I'd like this song even more. Despite that, CJ's sheer passion in his lyrics, referencing record labels that say you gotta have a singer on your songs, or people who told him to just go get a job like a normal person, in addition to his audacious, sometimes-cerebral-sometimes-pop-culture references, which here include Richard Pryor, Da Vinci and Zeus, paint the picture of Cory Jreamz as a personality quite well.

There's a great dynamic here in this song, where it fades out into nothing and then fades back in with the sound that's either Chewbacca or some kind of monster coming to life. And it's a fitting noise, as the music that appears next is even more distorted and much dirtier, a beast risen at the end with crashing snares and an almost industrial vibe, decorated with swarming noises from the darkness and choral synth chords. The brass sound that pervades the song throughout is something that almost owes itself to grime music, perhaps an intentional move to align the music with the raw, brash sound of grime itself. In any case: another good song in a string of good songs, all with the theme of amelioration. Just 19 years old, he's definitely on to a winner.

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Like Cory Jreamz on Facebook
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Listen to Cory Jreamz on SoundCloud
Visit Cory Jreamz' official site

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LAZY INTERVIEW #17: BOTANY

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← #16: SAMUEL #18: PSAPP →

At the end of last week I wrote about a really nice album. It's called Lava Diviner (Truestory) and it's by Botany and it's kinda a concept album built on the loose story of a religious cult praying for a volcano to explode. Whilst the songs worked out of context, so to speak, they most certainly worked in their intended order and I recommend having a listen. The atmosphere alone is really filmic stuff, so prepare to drift off and imagine.

Anyway. It was a really nice listen and I had fun going on the journey. There should be more concept albums. The flow is something else. I'm talking like I've never heard a concept album. But all of that aside, Botany himself was kind enough to lend his time in answering the Y/N lazy interview: lazy by name, not by nature. Please sit yourself down with a cup of tea or coffee or whatever you fancy, have a nice read of these words and enjoy.

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Who are you? Where are you from? What do you do?
My name is Spencer Stephenson. I grew up in a small town in Texas called Weatherford, full of football-moms, chain restaurants, and conservative politics. I think the guitar player of White Denim is from here too. It's a place that anyone who wants to do or say anything moves out of as soon as possible. I make music as often as I can and schlep at a warehouse in Fort Worth, Texas. I would say I live there too, but I'm in a little bit of transient period. I don't live in LA or New York and I'm not from Detroit or Chicago. I have a life story that no one should pay attention to.

Why did you decide to start creating music?
I've been playing since I was 10 and making electronic and hip hop stuff since I was 15. I've always done it. It's a hermit-crab shell that I never outgrew.

How would you describe your sound? What makes you and your style stand out?
I would describe my sound as one that uses a hip-hop composition style to make anything that can possibly be made that way. I tend to gravitate towards themes like mysticism, wonder, fantasy, and the ancient world, anything that someone would call another person a nerd for liking.

Is there a perfect time and place for listening to your music?
That's totally up to the listener. I try to create enough of a "world" within the music itself for the listener to be able to listen to it anywhere at any time, but there are some places that are better than others. I'd recommend night time, outside.

What inspires you most when writing a song?
Usually a piece of an old record that would loop into something really interesting or pleasing to listen to. Landing on good drum sounds always pushes a song into the next dimension for me, too. If I like something I'm working on and that feeling doesn't go away then I'll finish the track.

What is your most memorable musical experience?
I opened for Panda Bear in 2011 in Dallas and it was the first time I played a big room by myself, to 500-800 people. It was really exhilarating.
Other than that some of my favorite musical moments have come from improvised jams between me and my friend Bruce Blay who makes music under the name Melting Season. We used to do a lot of free-form, krautrock-infused noise jams a

What are your favourite three songs at the moment?
Pharoah Sanders - "Greeting To Saud"
Four Tet - "Gong"
Ahnnu - "Mirror"

Who do you most admire in the music world?
Matthewdavid is doing some amazing shit with his label Leaving Records. They've partnered with Stones Throw for a few releases as well. Everything they put out sounds great and sounds so much more raw and alive than 99.9% of electronic music/hip-hop. When I first found out about them I felt a kinship immediately like "ah yeah someone gets it!" Some of the stuff on Leaving breathes so naturally you'd never know computers were involved. Perfect approach, and really relatable. To me anyway.

In your opinion, what is the future of music?
Well I see the kind of music that I do fully breaching the visual side of things. I hope to see albums released with some kind of fully interactive visual component, maybe one that is viewed through virtual-reality hardware. I often listen to music in dark rooms with my eyes wide open, it would be nice to put something in front of them and round out the experience that way.

Music is a personal experience and you can cherry-pick record stores and the internet and create a library that reflects your tastes perfectly in a much more specific way than ever before. I think we're at a point where artists are reaching for their own sound and identity like never before because of how saturated the music world is, and that's only going to make for a more personal experience on the listener's end as well.

What's the future of your music - what do you hope to do next?
I hope to just keep going and making music that I'm proud of. I'd like to work with more rappers and other vocalists, but not in a "featuring" way necessarily, not in a way that's sort of compartmentalized like "here's the beat, here's the singer." I'd like to work with vocalists who add to the music in a really integrated way instead of just floating over the top of it. That's not how I think about vocals. They're another instrument in the mix. I feel like too many vocalists give songs an ego and a face with what they do. I'd like to go the opposite route.

I'm working on an EP right now that should be out next year, I really like the material that's on that.

What, aside from music, is most important to you?
Staying on top of everything else so I can keep making music.

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He comes across as wholly dedicated to not just the process of creating music but also to the intended purpose of music: listening. Which is a nice thing to hear. Enjoyment, as ever, seems to play a big part in whether music even gets made in the first place, and his idea for the future of music - a more pervasive visual element - is something that prolong, augment and even enhance the listening experience. I know that VJs exist but how often do you ever hear of a famous VJ? Matching movement, images, colour to sound (the video for Julien Mier's 'Super Tropic Tramp' is a perfect example) is probably as difficult as making sounds into a coherent, likeable flow in the first place.

Whilst he says "I have a life story that no one should pay attention to," I believe that a life story, anyone's life story actually, shapes the person they become. For a maker of music, especially one so entrenched in music from an early age, that life story is going to mark your sound somewhat. Growing up, he says, in the midst of a place "full of football-moms, chain restaurants, and conservative politics" might explain why his music is so escapist; it doesn't even lash out, it simply transports you from where you are to somewhere else.

I listened to Lava Diviner (Truestory) whilst I was walking around my own hometown early in the morning. It was still dark. Instead of the comfortable suburban housing and commuters walking to the train station, I focused on the music - I couldn't not. This is music that comes from a place where people feel they don't belong, and speaks to people in similar situations. For everyone else, his finely-crafted beats will attract you into the marginal soundscapes that live at the heart of Botany's music.

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← #16: SAMUEL #18: PSAPP →

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BOTANY LAVA DIVINER (TRUESTORY)

Google "the death of the album" and you have like a zillion results (259 million on google dot com), the top one being a Wikipedia entry on the actual phrase itself. A lot of publications have based entire articles around this phrase, which you can see on the Wikipedia snippet described as a "perceived decline of a traditional album in the 21st century." The keyword here, however, is "perceived" - and of course, it is perceived. It is not fact. You don't need to read any article to refute it. Although single songs are more readily available and people aren't necessarily having to buy entire albums just for one song anymore (as my dad admitted he used to do), these single songs happen to come from actual albums. People are still making albums. It's not, or shouldn't be, a big debate. It simply shows the readiness and the willingness of people to jump on the naysaying bandwagon and commit themselves to pronouncing the supposed decline or, more melodramatically, "death" of something, almost like a celebratory lament: a virtual conjuring of vultures circling. Tell me if I'm wrong.

In a similar vein, I'd like to introduce the new album, Lava Diviner (Truestory) by Texan producer Botany. It was released this week and it is a concept album, charting an imaginary cult in their efforts to make a volcano erupt via their prayers. I've already written about a couple of songs from the album, 'Quatic' and 'Simple Creatures', and was curious to hear how they fit into the concept, because both tracks are strong by themselves. Let's see, shall we?

From the bubbling bleeps and drum chaos of at the intro of 'Comm', we're led into a soothing paradise of sounds: true glitters of metallic percussion and chanting, wordless vocals. An introduction to the ideas behind this album, a searching view of a distant, unknown, tropical land. Tribal drumming rises out of the sounds, fades out, until a raw hip hop beats comes in, leading us to the next track, 'Anchor'. True to its name, heavy, bursting kicks lie at the heart of the beat, cementing it as the rest of the sounds are free to float all around - a dream world of pretty, ambient sounds. Inhuman voices yelp out, as if you're passing by the glowing mouth of a cave in the sweat of ominous night air. We're taken slowly into that forboding maw, as a low shamanistic vocal chants at the beginning of 'Owa'.

White noise fills your ears to the bounce of the beat, swimming synth echoing more singularly than before, the howl of voices in a labyrinth of tunnels. Things start to heat up. A huge room opens up, signalled by the expansive fluttering of the sounds in 'Per Eon', a greeting of a song where unintelligible voices chatter in its intense, all-encompassing sound, slowly fading to nothing. It's here, in 'Simple Creatures', where things turn a little eerie, helped by the soaring vocals of RYAT, our brief guide who in otherworldly layerings of aching tones repeats the mantra "simple creatures". We find ourselves in the midst of a ceremony in 'Cant / Goosemother' regular stamps of beating drums give way to hoards of relentless clapping and looping bloops of some giant marimba. A chorus rises up and sways. By the end, we're left with a more peaceful beat, more delicate sounds that herald utopian visions underpinned by sub bass.

But the real truth lies in the raw boom-bap of the unnerving 'Quatic' - euphoric sunny guitar sweeps get left behind for the hard reality of molten lava and ever-maddening voices, twirling over distorted walkways of bass. Things get serious. 'Small Keys' explodes with a hard, aggressive beat, decorated with snare ornamentations, a frenzy of sparkling noises jostling for supremacy. We finally meet the 'Lava Diviner' - a short oasis of exalted, choral reverence. Then the lamenting guitars of 'Celeste' and breezy drums give way to a dubstep beat, the perfect rhythmic vehicle for the less-busy, darker sounds of this track. Whooping, chuckling shades of vox fly out at you. Things turn orchestral as strings take over hounded by white noise. By the end, it's nothing but a frightening concoction of noise and brief murmurings of a low, demonic voice: a glimpse of the dark heart at work.

Perhaps things have faded for now. Carefree, complex drum patterns characterise 'Sunna / Show Me', a track whose jazzy, lounge leanings feel like gusts of pure air compared to the suffocatingly intense feel of some of what has come before. The drums fade and a flute plays alongside a lo-fi piano, the thin air of dawn. One single menacing note of bass sounds and leads us into 'Birdlife'. It's a structured, 2/4 affair, rich waves of chords ushering in a sense of calm as vocal samples skip along. It builds to an overarching crescendo of farewell. But as you look back, mournful strings remind us of the journey we've taken, remembering strange destructive human desires, the sound of molten bubbling still in our heads. Whether this cult prays for it or not, the threat and the power of the volcano is always there: nature remains.

... A journey, that's for sure. That's what this album was. And it's all thanks to a skill at moulding a whole plethora of analogue noises into evocative, believable soundscapes. Well-crafted, often intricate beats keep the pace and augment the dynamics inherent in these sounds. Botany himself, real name Spencer Stephenson, calls the whole thing a "cathartic release" - perhaps, then, it reflects his own heart, his own passions. This album itself was an eruption waiting to happen.

It's out now on Western Vinyl (as vinyl) and you can also buy it from iTunes or Amazon.

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BOTANY FEAT RYAT SIMPLE CREATURES

Here is something for you. It is from two American artists. One is called Botany (Spencer Stephenson IRL) and he is a producer from Texas. The other is called RYAT and she is a singer; in this instance, she provides vocals whilst Mr Botany lays down a long and winding road of heady noises.

This comes, by the way, from Botany's upcoming album - out 29th October on Texan label, Western Vinyl - called Lava Diviner (Truestory). It is so-called because it's kind of a concept album about a religious cult that prays for a volcano to erupt, but also being his debut album, Stephenson himself feels that it's a "cathartic release" - an eruption that was just waiting to happen. And fair enough too: his last release, an EP called Feeling Today, was released aaaall the way back in 2010.

But aside from the mysteries and canon of trivia that lies behind this release, what is there? Well, there is this song called 'Simple Creatures'. It is an amalgamation of organic noises that clatter together in orgiastic repetition, presided over by the sweeping layered lilt of RYAT.

The sond creates the perfect setting: euphoria tinged with darkness that illustrates the simple pleasures of simple creatures. Hi-hats judder, bells tinkle, electronic boops bob along, tapping percussion - a general yet intricate mash of makeshift metallic clink-clanking forges a path almost into the crater of the volcano itself, followed by the chorus of voices provided by RYAT. Her thousand-layers of vocals are as addictive as they are blissfully easy on the ears. A drivingly relentless yet understated bass upholds all of this. It reminds me of entering the Fire Temple in Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the first time: heat warps the air and the intensity of your surroundings just overwhelm you. This is what this song is like. But it is sweetly overwhelming. As such, it'll be really nice to hear how 'Simple Creatures' will fit into the journey that I expect Lava Diviner (Truestory) will be.

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LAZY INTERVIEW #12: CORY JREAMZ

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← #11: YOSI HORIKAWA #13: THE ORWELLS →

Already making waves, having been featured on websites much more prestigious, desirable and professional than mine, and also played by UK rapper/poet/MC/DJ Scroobius Pip on his XFM (that's a UK radio station btw guys) show - Beatdown, every Sunday 12am to 1am - and also by Lily Mercer on her Rinse FM show (Mondays, 1am to 3am) - or at least, Cory Jreamz thinks she did.

Yes, his name is Cory Jreamz and he is a rapper from Houston, Texas. I've been following his progress since he released his EP, Vague Current Vivid Fated, last year - it was a pretty leftfield venture out into the world of rap, draped with all the frustrations of being 18, which Jreamz was at the time. Next, this year, we heard 'Howl', a distorted mass of noise tied up with a spoken word diatribe. It comes from his upcoming album, The Lonely Painter, scheduled for release later this year.

Anyway, as you can probably tell Cory Jreamz is the latest of the YES/NO Lazy Interview Q&A. If it's ok with you, you can read it below and find out a little bit more about this up-and-coming rapman.

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Who are you? Where are you from? What do you do?
　My name is Cory Jreamz, from Houston, Texas. I make music.

Why did you decide to start creating music?
　It came from me writing poetry. Needing a way to express myself. I'm a fairly quiet person so music gives me my voice. People always wonder why I'm quiet sometimes, it's because I'm writing the songs in my head haha. I have a lot to say.

How would you describe your sound? What makes you and your style stand out?
　I don't think I could describe my sound. Each song sounds really different. Charisma, aggression, teen Angst ha it's a lot of things. What makes me stand out is that you can't compare my sound to anyone's. It's just Cory Jreamz.

Is there a perfect time and place for listening to your music?
　At night while driving around it sounds amazing. Driving really fast on the freeway it sounds pretty cool. I wouldn't listen to it in the morning though. Morning is more fit for folk Joni Mitchell type of vibes. Rap would be hard on the mind in the morning.

What inspires you most when writing a song?
　Anything going on in my life. Anything someone said to me. People, places, many things. I'm inspired by everything I encounter in one way or another. Movies also. I got inspired to do the the first half of the intro to my album while watching the film The Tree Of Life. 'Swim' was also inspired by someone asking me did I know how to swim or ride a bike. I mean, you might even be inspiration for something. I pretty much get inspired by 100% of things I encounter.

What is your most memorable musical experience?
　Passing out my CD's at school my junior or senior year I think. I was passing it out to everyone in the class. I ended up handing one to a girl in my class, and she broke it in half right in front of my face. I'll never forget that moment, I still have the CD actually. I decided I will never quit making music at that point. Keeps me humble.

What are your favourite three songs at the moment?
　MGMT - Your Life Is A Lie
　M83 - Your Tears Are Becoming My Sea
　Waka Flocka Flame - 50K Remix

Who do you most admire in the music world?
　Pink Floyd. Greatest band ever in my opinion. From taking risks with their album covers to having flying pigs at their shows. Wow. I also admire David Bowie in certain ways. I really admired what he did with the Ziggy Stardust stages of his career. It was fresh. I think it's cool when artists come up with different personas, characters of their self. That's what made me fall in love with how Nicki Minaj or Eminem have the weird voices they do when they rap. I love it.

In your opinion, what is the future of music?
　I think everything will eventually be digital. CD's will stop being sold in stores etc. I feel like some new genre or sound will come and takeover also. Sort of like what Hip-Hop did. Just a prediction. Who really knows though?

What's the future of your music - what do you hope to do next?
　Release this album in October first of all haha. After that the focus will be on making my first show happen. Which will be in London of course. I'm aiming for December or January.

What, aside from music, is most important to you?
　Family, Friends, Film. I'm really into movies. I want to further enhance my screenwriting skills eventually. And then move to directing. So at least by 24 or 25 I could be directing and writing the scripts for all my videos.

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There you go. 11 questions asked, 11 questions answered. It's clear that there's a lot of ambition here - a mix of the charisma and teen angst he mentions above - and that's definitely not a bad thing. In fact, half of making music is having the guts to actually DO it in the first place and for Cory's particular style of music - alternative rap, I guess, but not like anything really - it's a really brave step.

With that in mind, I'm looking forward to see how The Lonely Painter will turn out. 'Howl' was wildly different to anything on Vague Current Vivid Fated, so the whole album has the potential to be a polarising experience - not just between the songs themselves, but for the audience. However, I'm pretty sure that Cory isn't afraid to create something that isn't just going to turn heads but also spark a very different reaction depending on who's listening.

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← #11: YOSI HORIKAWA #13: THE ORWELLS → - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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CORY JREAMZ HOWL [VIDEO]

It's been a while since we've heard from Cory Jreamz - for those who don't know, this young guy is an up-and-coming rapper from Houston, Texas. You could call it alternative rap, but it's quite difficult to compare Mr Jreamz to anybody in particular: he is his own creation. Which is a very good thing.

Last time the world heard from him it was at the end of last year with his Vague Current Vivid Fated EP, four songs that run through the fantasies and frustrations of youth. I wrote about it - check it out.

Now he's back with a new song: 'Howl'. Alongside sharing its name with Allen Ginsberg's iconic and "obscene" poem - a frantic and wordy shout to the world - Cory Jreamz has peppered it with lyrics that reference other art-world-related things, such as trying to be "better than Ernest Hemingway" and putting a "black man in the MoMa". It overflows with the desire to create art, dismissing those who dismiss this desire as a pipe dream with a suggestion: "stick it up your anus".

You can even see this intense attitude in the video; Jreamz directs his diatribal one-liners at the camera, keen and fervid.

Aside from CJ's voice itself, whose words strike and reverberate poignantly, the music itself is biting and affective. Experimental at heart, a barely decipherable beat hides itself behind these fluidly rippling sounds, a watery, dreamlike feel to them. An occasional bassline almost gets the hairs on the back of your neck standing on end. An eastern-like twanging of a stringed instrument boils in the background, a cycle of sharp sounds to go with the growl of the vocals. It's a heavy atmosphere.

It's a nicely unique sound, one that's genuinely a sonic howl into the air, a short statement of intent to the world - and I'm glad it's coming from someone like Cory Jreamz, a thoughtful and thinking guy standing on the fringes of rap and hip hop looking to external influences for inspiration, expanding his mind. We'll be hearing his next single, 'Swim' on 1st August, after which we'll be looking forward to his album The Lonely Painter, expected later this year.

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