Renaissance Sound - Renaissance Sound (2012)

Illinois group made up of former members of Loose Lips Sink Ships. This is a bit of a departure here from the formers math happy tap a thon. Renaissance Sound dish out heaping helping's of instrumental Jazz rock/Math rock with an almost a lounge quality. My favorite portion has to be the vibraphone and violin working together or playing at odds with one another. Its makes for some beautiful moments where all instruments are fighting for their own spotlight. When its hard to pay too close attention to one thing because everyone is doing something amazing you know that you've hit straight gold. Did I forget to mention there's occasional vocals? yep  and they are sweet sauce. Do it for yourself this is a group that will produce a great many wonderful things in the future.

ps. track 2 "dereks journey" at 1:15 I swear that bass line sounds eerily similar to the bass line in  "Penelope" by Pinback.

Band Camp it up!

Jean Jean

French Instrumental Math Rock. Really fantastic stuff. Nothing too technical going on yet certainly not boring by any stretch. Totally out of left field on this one wasn't expecting this style.  Excellent production as well which give this an extra edge.


Jean Jean

Nicolay- City Lights Vol. 1.5; Here (2005-06)

Its easy to say that Phonte Coleman has really found his own voice and sound since leaving Little Brother. Although Phontes voice goes a long way, a big part of his sound comes from the connection he has with Dutch producer Nicolay. I love all the things these two make together, and recently realized I had dug deep into Phontes earlier work, but had neglected checking further Nicolay.

City Lights 1.5 is a 20 track album of mostly instrumental hiphop tracks; a few have guest rappers rhyming or giving Nicolay a shoutout, but for the most part it is tight, chill beats and nice instrumentation. Here came out a year later, and is an 11 track collaboration he produced and wrote, but it features vocals throughout, focusing on the vocal melodies, rhyming and harmony over the longer instrumentals on City Lights. Both are very nice; heres track 4 on City Lights, Light it Up:



vol. 1.5
here