Thomas Coppola - Dusty Review

Premium-grade production and a voice that you can chill or ride to are just a few of the many ways to classify Long Island rapper Thomas Coppola’s latest full-length album, Dusty, a tribute to his home state of New York and the legends of hip-hop who kick-started the movement.

Update: Interviews Incoming

As an ongoing attempt to bring my online publication to the next level, I will start publishing focused and unique interviews on the AirdriftSignals platform. When there are new music releases from independent artists, I will provide an opportunity for the artist to speak for the music themselves, and also give their insight into what goes on in their creative process. This will usually be accompanied by a full review of the artist's latest release that will follow up as the next entry of this publication.

Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Bandana Review

Freddie Gibbs and Madlib - Bandana Review

Bandana, the second record of a planned trilogy by hip-hop duo MadGibbs, Freddie Gibbs and Madlib bring the heat just as expected. Not only does Bandana build upon their first album, 2014’s Piñata (my review of which can be read here), but it also delivers an impeccable flow by Freddie with m.ind a.ltering d.emented l.essons i.n b.eats to match. 

Thom Yorke - ANIMA Review

For an artist as inventive and mysterious as the lead singer and frontman of Radiohead, Thom Yorke has made a name for himself as a compelling creative force by carving out a diverse portfolio of a solo career, which has become a solid separation from the alternative rock group that made him world-renowned. His debut solo release, The Eraser in 2006, proved to the community of Radiohead fans that his work was intriguing and beautiful enough to stand on its own, and his following release, 2014’s Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes proved more of the same as an elegant, but mellow sophomore effort. Not only was Thom interested in his solo work, but he ended up forming his own side act out of his lineup who toured in support of The Eraser, which took the name after his track in that album, Atoms For Peace. They released their own album, AMOK, a year prior to Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes. Last year, Thom Yorke surprised his fans yet again with his first stab at film composing, with the horror remake Suspiria’s original score (my review of which you can read here), following in the footsteps of his bandmate Johnny Greenwood’s multiple film score outings, and reaffirming to the musical community that Radiohead’s music, as well as the work of the singular bandmates, is essentially designed and paired astonishingly well to visual storytelling. Now, just a half a year since his film score debut, Thom drops another sonic work of brilliance in the form of his third solo album, ANIMA. Besides being an extremely busy creative force, releasing albums on his own, with Radiohead, and his first film score, ANIMA shows listeners that Thom is far from slowing down. On the contrary, his musical journey only seems to expand even more with age, and this latest work of the imagination and dreams displays his masterful musical experimentation with grace and fluidity. 

Masterpiece Crate #1: Nirvana - Nevermind

Nirvana - Nevermind Analysis and Review

September 24, 1991

Starting off this 49-album series is the worldwide commercial breakthrough of an entire genre and the monolithic rise of a band destined for tragedy. Another band I have been exposed to later in life followed a similar trajectory with their frontman just over 20 years prior, and that was The Doors, a band which had a frontman full of mystery, intrigue, and demons, who ultimately succumbed to a death that was equally as suspicious as our latter subject's demise, but this group was before my time, and so I digress.

Retrospective Review: Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Piñata

Freddie Gibbs and Madlib - Piñata Review

In order to prepare for their hotly anticipated sophomore album Bandana by hip-hop duo, Freddie Gibbs and Madlib, I wanted to take a step back and look at their first collaborative record together, Piñata, released half a decade ago. Piñata came at a time I never knew I needed. Madlib was an inspiration for me for many years, having followed his multiple alter egos Quasimoto, Yesterday's New Quintet, The Beat Konducta, and The Loop Digga. His albums opened my mind to the world of hip-hop with the masterpiece alt-hip-hop album, Madvillainy, which was a team-up of Madlib's beats and MF DOOM's narrative rap flow, as well as The Unseen, the debut Quasimoto release that blew my mind up with his stream-of-consciousness, jazz-infused, hazy raps, all wrapped in a sleazy, cartoon swine. Naturally, I was curious in this newly announced collaborative effort.

Nox - The Formula EP Review

Nox - The Formula Review

Long Island emcee Nox released his fine-tuned and diverse debut EP, The Formula late last year, getting his pure styled productions and raps in before the year’s end. Much like the hit AMC program Breaking Bad, The Formula is a recipe of music that's been cooked with enough ideas and winning ingredients to create a euphoric chemical bliss for fans of conscious and creative hip-hop.

Claud5 - Claudscape Review

Only a couple months after releasing his debut concept album, Dogs Carry Knives, Claud5 is back again with a tropicana, hip-hop, and nujabes-infused summer album, Claudscape! Not to put his debut, atmospheric, electronic debut in the rearview mirror, but in a way, to show another side to his persona, Claudscape is best enjoyed while kicked back on a warm, summer day, with a drink in hand, and it's an exciting genesis for an artist who clearly has been saving his songs in the bank and allowing them to grow in quantity and quality.

Tyler, The Creator - IGOR Review

What? Tyler, The Creator is evolving!

I'll admit, I had lost my interest in the self-described creator ever since his follow-up release to his major label debut, WOLF. I had an early interest in Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All when they first arrived on the scene, boasting a large entourage of rappers and producers and putting out multiple albums and mixtapes and cross-promoting each other with features. I mostly just kept tabs on Tyler while I predicted that his protegé Earl Sweatshirt was going to eclipse him artistically. While over the years, Earl, who has stayed largely in the same minimalist, lo-fi musical landscape, Tyler, The Creator, has grown in style and ambition and has created an entirely new image for himself in his acclaimed hip-hop, R&B, and funk soaked album, IGOR.

Flying Lotus - Flamagra Review

Flying Lotus has become an amalgam of jazz, hip-hop, and electronica ever since he burst onto the scene with his minimalist beat-driven debut LP, 1983. A dusty, stripped-down collection of beats and electronic songs which defined him and defined an era of the late 2000s glitch hop scene. Since then, he has continued forward in big and exciting ways, releasing his touchstone classic, Los Angeles, and pushing forward into more styles and genres that all seem to melt into one signature sound in his follow-up works, Cosmogramma, Until The Quiet Comes, and You're Dead! This was a period of serious experimentation and collaboration into the genres of hip-hop, jazz, fusion, and cinematic, orchestrated greatness, and Flying Lotus, aka Steven Ellison, began a wild career full of all-star collaborations on these records. Artists such as Thundercat, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Erykah Badu, Radiohead's Thom Yorke, Snoop Dogg, and Kendrick Lamar, are just a few of the many team-ups gracing Ellison's catalog, and these artists and his forward-driving sound give them all a special place in history. Like Ellison's past work, Flamagra continues this tradition with more of that definitive experimentation in his most dynamic album to date.