Miles Raymer, Reader staff writer, is obsessed with . . .
Trouble, 431 Days mixtape On my right shoulder there’s an angel who tries to make me feel bad for enjoying music that promotes a broad spectrum of interpersonal violence, performed by a guy who wears his gang affiliations and prison stint for aggravated assault with sneering pride and couldn’t give less of a shit about my liberal guilt. But it’s hard to hear that angel over the devil on my left, who’s screaming about how fun it would be to turn this up to 11 and reenact the hammer-fight scene from Oldboy.
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Various artists, Country Funk: 1969-1975 Though it’s often considered the ne plus ultra of whiteness, country music has a long, cozy history with black music, and during the funk era the two collided surprisingly harmoniously. This compilation—the brainchild of Zach Cowie, a former Drag City employee living in LA who DJs as Turquoise Wisdom—collects some of the best products of that collision, from private-press obscurities to numbers by bigger names like Bobby Darin, who recorded a couple albums of funky country while living in a trailer in Big Sur and having a particularly fruitful emotional breakdown.
He asks . . .
Morgan Thoryk, commercial music producer, what she’s obsessed with. Her answers are . . .
Angel Haze, Reservation mixtape This is a good rap album! “New York” and “Jungle Fever” are the obvious jammers here, but “Realest,” “Gypsy Letters,” and “Werkin’ Girls” all hold up—and make you feel things. I want to be young again. Haze also gives advice on “giving no fucks” from someone’s rec room on her YouTube channel.
Alessandro Cortini at Trash Audio’s Synth Event 12, July 29 at the Empty Bottle My friend Surachai organized this daylong synth market, performance, and general nerd-out event. The whole lineup was stellar, but Cortini’s set in particular floored me—huge arpeggios over dark drones. The Bottle’s sound system drove it in deep until the ending bit snuck up out of nowhere and filled every cubic inch of the room.
