Matteo Grilli

I have to admit that I wasn't really into Tyler when he first burst on the scene, I really did not get the whole thing and resisted the hype way too much, but he definitely won me over with some impressive muisic over the years.

His stuff is pretty unique in a genre where people are very afraid of getting too far away from what's hot this year and even in chromakopia he's ranging far and wide from soul r&b to rock and hardcore rap, there's literally a little bit of everything.

It's still a little bit too scattershot for me personally, there's moments I love a lot and others I don't, but it's yet again an impressive… More

Anecdotally it seems this record isn't getting the great reviews that people were expecting but I'm just mesmerized by how well crafted it is, the tracks flow into one another seamlessly and the atmosphere evolves slowly over the course of the whole album. Truly a dreamlike experience

It’s time to finally move on from the neon lime green of Brat Summer and dive headfirst into the steel chrome gauzy drones of Nati Infiniti, Alessandro Autumn is here.

very complicated feelings for this. first off I think we can put to rest the theory that AI tools were going to be great 'equalizers' and allow anybody to make great art or whatever. In reality something like this is probably the most practical use case, somebody who's already great at doing their thing using AI to get that extra 10% or to automate the more tedious parts of the work, or even somebody who's already established enough that their use of the tools can be seen as a broader artistic gesture.

Also more personally since I like a lot of more abstract music I have long held the (maybe controversial) opinion that people care too much about the identity… More

It’s raining and it’s time for obscure cult Japanese Ambient Autumn and this record is perfect.

Shades of Terry Riley and Lamonte Young, amazing electric piano tones and great saxophone playing.

I am visiting my mom in my hometown and I go down to the beach to take a walk, I haven’t been there in ages. I actually love to go the beach in the offseason, the water is cleaner, there’s nobody there, it’s peaceful.

Just as I am starting to head back into town I spot a message in a bottle just sitting there on the shoreline, half buried in the sand.

I think what the hell but of course I pick it up, there’s a little shred of yellowing paper inside with just four words on it:

“we are SO back”

un grande sì a questa collaborazione català / italià!

excellent and effortless, reminded me of the pure glee I felt as a teenager when a new chemical brothers or basement jaxx would drop, so many ideas and little cool touches sprinkled throughout. I'm not into dance music so much these days but this is still a great listen

I just love her so much. Endlessness feels like a natural evolution of her work on space 1.8, here there's just a bit more to dig into. More lush orchestration, more jazzy drumming, more virtuoso performances, a whole universe of different influences somehow made to fit inside the grooves of a single record.

The synth arpeggios bubbling throughout are a personal standout for me but everything sounds great here. Space 1.8 sounded more hazy and ambient and was the perfect soundtrack for the period of my life when I stumbled into it, I hope this accompanies me through this new season as well.

it took two minutes for these fuckers to completely destroy one of the most sacred words in the italian language.

30 years later I still can't hear the world lasagna without laughing, truly cursed.

really interesting stuff, deep house beats with jazzy elements, perfectly balancing all the different influences. Expertly produced. Reminds me a bit of some records that I love from 20 odd years ago like Tourist by St Germain and Newcomer by LLorca.

Moroderesque synth disco banger with a melancholic tinge. the production doesn’t shy away from some cheesy sounds and some transitions aren’t perfectly smooth but those details help the track stand out

cool indie pop with an 80s touch. Funny, earnest and catchy as hell.

I'll admit that I'm not super up to date into the latest club music styles but this is definitely the wave i'm personally more into these days: deep, hypnotic, textured, evolving. There's so many little details weaving in and out over the minimal framework to reward listening to this over and over and getting lost into the groove

I have my problems with Spotify for a variety of reasons but sometimes it can be really cool, like when it lets me stumble into records like this one.

It's very difficult to tell if these funk tracks have been recorded in the 1970s or just last year, maybe the mix is a little too crisp in the high end and there's not much tape hiss or vinyl crackle coming up from the speakers but everything else is absolutely on point for that particular period.

Guitar tones and licks are absolute standout here, great collection of tracks.

very lush, widescreen cinematic little gem. Percussion sounds come through sharp and crispy all over warm orchestral textures and vocals, definitely a great tone reference.

can't get enough of the song Parque Laje, a stone cold classic.

probably my favorite band at the moment. I keep going back and forth on this but I think I loved their last album slightly more, still this is rock solid stuff.

Their tracks sound like bursting at the seams from all the awesome ideas stuffed into them. Nai Palm’s excellent vocal melodies keep the lid firmly on top and everybody else locked in.

well crafted but also kinda 'meh'

Kaytranada produced album of smooth and sexy r&b. Silky vocals, cool grooves. Formally beautiful but not very memorable.

Underrated french touch gem. slightly more hip hop funk in vibes than the usual french house records of the era with lots of samples and scratching. Another album and band that time forgot. Pick it up if you see it in the bargain bin.

a collection of great songs, amazing performances and very strong writing. At times reminded me of Sade which is something that I have never thought of any other artist, pretty remarkable.

Great. Strong melodies, beautiful voice, powerful sound. The production is immaculate, every sound comes through crystal clear and earth shattering deep. Mabe's cello rips sound like somebody stabbing you with a knife.

smooth playing, great takes, cool cover art.

21 years old to the day, still a stone cold classic.

Their blend of classic golden age rap and r&b feels perfectly tailored for my taste so maybe I’m not super objective about it but to me this sounds genuinely incredible. Their previous collaborations were already good but this is more refined. The production is elegant and expansive and Paak lets it shine by picking his spots perfectly.

great showcase of Dilla’s overall musical talent and also a blueprint for every beatmaker album that followed. Classic.

I believe it takes a good artisan to make something in the style of somebody else and get very close to it, but it takes a great one to go beyond that and turn all your influences into something new and fresh.

Kaytranada seems to be able to pull ideas and inspiration from about every corner of the last 50 years of r&b and still push it way forward into the future.

Masterful album, covering an expansive territory from jazz to deep ambient synth but still painting a cohesive picture. Love pretty much everything about this from the great cover art to the beautiful harp tones throughout.

il gruppo di improvvisazione nuova consonanza is kind of an acquired taste, Morricone, Micalizzi and their friends scratched their darmstadt school itch when playing in this band and the results are slightly too avant-garde and atonal for a pleb like me, but and there's a big but, the title track here has some of the greatest breakbeat action ever committed to magnetic tape, and the rest of the record has plenty of weird percussion sounds so for sample heads this is still worth owning on vinyl.

Personally I’m more fond of Aphex Twin’s more experimental and ambient releases but the tracks in this ep are eternal, undeniable bangers.

Also it's very interesting to listen to the extended version re-release which features both remastered versions and alternate takes restored from original dats and cassette tapes from the early 90s, a perfect time capsule of the thick, hazy sound from that era