RadiusSleeping Wide Awake (Moment Sound)
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Recently Norwood combined forces with a small army of similarly minded DJs and producers from around town, including Kenny Keys and DJ Moppy, to form a collective called Beyond Luck. The group has decided to debut its music in long-form mixes rather than in discrete tracks. This first one, simply titled Sampler Podcast Vol. 1, highlights their mid- and up-tempo compositions, and a second compilation of ambient and downtempo music is soon to come. The mix lacks some of Sleeping Wide Awake‘s idiosyncrasies, but if anything it’s even more ambitious, combining all of the above influences with a heavy streak of classic Chicago house.
The Earth Is a Man + Tim Heidecker“All the Tired Horses“
Demo tapes have a considerably more respected position in metal than in most other scenes—partly because home-dubbed demos were the only way a lot of metal bands could be heard before the era of cheap CD duplication and free digital distribution, and partly because so many metal bands are better suited to the basement than to the professional studio. Having heard only their demo, I’d be willing to consider filing In the Weeds in that “basement” category. On the bulk of the tracks here, the trio nails a sound I’ll call “filthy, doom-laden maelstrom,” and anything even approaching high fidelity would be disrespectful to that. And unlike the demo tapes of yore, this one is streaming online—which lets me easily skip past the parts where the band veers into unsatisfying melodic territory that reminds me of my least favorite Faith No More songs.
