Record Review: Crystal Castles-III

Crystal Castles-III (Fiction)
By Nathan G. O'Brien on Scene Point Blank

Aptly-titled, III is the third album by Ethan Kath and Alice Glass, the Canadian experimental electro-noise duo collectively known as Crystal Castles. They are everything you wish you could be: shadowy, ingenious, skinny, and punk as motherfucking fuck. With percussion that thumps like a persistent authoritarian finger-tapping your congested chest and searing, agitated synths that spike into the backs of your eyeballs with the ease of a hot knife through warm butter, it’s the best dream you’ve ever had and your worst imaginable nightmare colliding face-first deep in recesses of your brain matter; erupting into a tepid, saccharine goo that flows through your body in a hurried uneasiness. I’ve never done heroin, but I’m guessing this is what the first taste is like. III is mood-altering, strangely danceable, and most of all, frightening yet beautiful vandalism. ...Read full review after the jump.

Record Review: Vinnie Paz-God of the Serengeti

Vinnie Paz-God of the Serengeti (Enemy Soil)
By Nathan G. O'Brien on Scene Point Blank

Paz enlisted a number of beat-makers for Serengeti—Havoc, DJ Lethal and C-Lance among them. Things get heated early with a DJ Premier-laced banger, “The Oracle.” Preemo’s hard-knocking boom-bap, turntablism, and sample-based hook provide the platform on which Boxcutter Pazzy spits his signature hard-rhymed lyricism: “My hands are made of stone, cut from that Madusa shit/Big gold chains, we was on that dookie shit/Still roll with the kids I stole the Gucci with/I punch you dead in the face, so fuck the music shit.”

Similarly, Marco Polo’s beat for the Blaq Poet feature, “Crime Library” unabashedly annexes the familiarity of the East Coast’s hardcore rap history, with chest-thumping drums, looped eeriness, record scratching, and a hook comprised of the oft-used Onyx “Throw Ya Gunz” sample—“One gun, two gun, three gun, four/Yours, mine, it’s all about crime!”  ...Read entire full-length review on SPB.

HDD Radio #11: All Hip-Hop (and some reggae) Mix

Welcome back! This is the eleventh episode of HotDogDayz Radio, and the second edition of our all hip-hop mix. This time we tossed in a little reggae to warm things up. It’s an hour of ‘70s reggae, ‘90s goofball hip-hop, and some brand new raps. No talkers—all rockers. Thanks for listening! Enjoy… Tracklist:
Dillinger - Fountain on the Mountain
Junior Byles - I’ve Got a Feeling
Derrick Harriet - Train to Herbsville/Crash Dub medley
KMD - Suspended Animation
Redman - How to Roll a Blunt
Pizza Boys - Simp Phonie (feat Andrew Broder & Mrs. Mucho Iglesias)
Quasimoto - Discipline 99 Pt. O (feat Mr. Herb)
Guilty Simpson & Apollo Brown - Dear Jane
Showbiz & AG - I Luv Her When I’m High
Meek Mill - Believe It (feat Rick Ross)
Kendrick Lamar - m.A.A.d city (feat MC Eiht)
Strong Arm Steady & Statick Selektah - L.A. Blues
Sean Price - STFU pt. 2
Vinne Paz - Cheesesteaks
Lil Fame & Termanology - Fizzyology
Freddie Gibbs - Go For It (feat Young Jeezy)
Gucci Mane - Servin’
Action Bronson & Alchemist - Rare Chandeliers
Dillinger - Natty Kung Fu

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TSK #1 back cover

Restore The Power samples

HDD Radio #10: Old Stuff - '80s and '90s

And we're back! After another lengthy hiatus, HotDogDayz Radio returns to the air waves. (I feel like we're saying that every episode now.) In this edition our fearless DJ spins a bunch of old CDs of records that came out between the early '80s and mid '90s--punk, post-punk, new wave, alt, etc. Some of it you've probably heard, and some maybe not. Heavy on the Sugar and even heavier on the Soul Asylum. (Don't be frightened. Did you know they used to be a punk band?!) Thanks for listening! Enjoy... Tracklist:
Billy Bragg - Train, Train
The Smiths - Death At One’s Elbow
R.E.M. - Get Up
The Cure - Love Song
Happy Mondays - Hallelujah
E.M.F. - Unbelievable
Sugar - Good Idea
Sugar - Tilted
Sugar - Explode and Makeup
Sugar - All Roads Have Led to Nowhere (live)
Soul Asylum - Draggin’ Me Down
Soul Asylum - Do You Know?
Soul Asylum - Whoa!
Soul Asylum - New Feelings
Soul Asylum - No Man’s Land
Soul Asylum - Crashing Down
Public Image Ltd. - Bags
Sonic Youth - Inhuman
Bauhaus - In the Night
Joy Division - Atrocity Exhibition

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Record Review: Skyzoo-A Dream Deferred

Skyzoo-A Dream Deferred (Duck Down)
By Nathan G. O'Brien on Scene Point Blank

Much like its predecessor The Salvation or, say, Torae’s For The Record, this album is more along the lines of this-is-my-story (see Kanye West’s College Dropout) and less I-am-who-I-pretend-to-be (see anything Kanye West post-Late Registration.) It wouldn’t be a stretch to draw comparisons to, for lack of a better term, the emo rap days of the early ‘00s when Atmosphere, Blueprint and Sage Francis were the face of indie hip-hop. That is to say, Skyzoo’s approach to songwriting is more about providing personal insights and allegorical mind-benders than it is about providing escapism or furthering the negative stereotypes often associated with rap lyrics.  ...read full-length review right about now.