Friday, January 02, 2004   Loving Usher's "Yeah": those squealing rave-crunk synths from Lil' Jon's "Get Low" arranged into an eerie r&b jam pivoting around a magical flute sample (!) while Usher spreads his smoove vocals over the groove like honey. Lil Jon's presence, apart from the production, is limited to his ubiquitous shouts of "YEAH!", but this is as much his track as Usher's. Like Bonecrusher's remix of Sizzla's "Solid As A Rock", "Yeah" highlights crunk's appeals by setting them up againt a smoother and more traditional style, such that the crunk hovers malevolently around the edges of the song like an impending storm (I luv luv luv grime remixes of female r&b tunes for the same reason, but I'll talk more about that in a forthcoming Grime '03 round-up, assuming Luka Heronbone doesn't smash my face in first). Actually maybe I'm just more generally into the increasingly pop-focused nature of crunk generally. I'll come clean and admit that I tend to find the harsher crunk a bit heavy going and just... unrelentingly shrill and blaring in a way I can appreciate but which buzzes unpleasantly in my ears. When I listen to the Banner album I prefer the mid-tempo tracks like "So Trill" or "Still Pimpin" to the all-out assault of "Might Getcha" or "What It Do" (though "Fuck 'Em" is of course fucking awesome). So it's great to hear Banner's "The Christmas Song" - possibly this year's second best christmas song after Elephant Man's "Badman Holiday" - all spectral crystalline synth runs and carollic choruses, this spooky record sounds simultaneously ancient and totally the new thing - a gorgeous soundclash of muck 'n' magic. - 7:00 PM 0 comments 0 Comments: Post a Comment   everything here is by tim finney     mail me... here   songs Jamesy P Nookie Patrick Cowley Mindwarp Isolee It's About (Lopazz & Casio Casino's Maxi Mix) Glass Candy Sugar & Whitebread Beats International Dub Be Good To Me (Smith & Mighty Remix) Depeche Mode A Pain That I'm Used To (Jacques Lu Cont Remix) Girls Aloud Wild Horses Tweet Steer Bobby Valentino Gimmie A Chance Freeform Five No More Conversation (Richard X Remix) links House Is A Feeling 1471 A Wild Young Under Whimsy And So This Is Christmas Anthony Is Right Bitchcakes Blackdown Blissblog Bowling Ball Breaking Ranks Chantelle Fiddy's World of Grime The Church Of Me Cis Don't Like It Easy Clap Clap Blog Country Glamour Cucina Povera DJ Martian Doubt Beat Dubplate.net Epicharmus.com Everything's Usable Fluxblog Fop Freaky Trigger Freelance Mentalists Freezing to Death in the Nuclear Bunker Gel & Weave Gutterbreakz Haibun Heronbone The House at World's End Hyperdub I'm So Sinsurr ILXOR Josh Blog Kin ">Lex Scripta Maura.com Home of Matos Must Try Harder New York London Paris Munich Orbis Quintus The Original Soundtrack Pearls that are his Eyes Pearsall's Tunes Philip Sherburne Pop Life Popshots Poptext Prancehall Quicksilver Shapeshifter Radio Free Narnia Sasha Frere-Jones Shards, Fragments & Totems Silver Dollar Circle Sink Somedisco Somnolence Spizzazzz Spliiiish (Atommick Brane) Symposiasts Tufluv Vain Selfish and Lazy Why I Stopped Smoking Woebot Words, Words (??????): A Catalogue of Errors Worlds of Possibility   archive February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002 January 2002 December 2001 November 2001 October 2001 September 2001 August 2001 July 2001 June 2001 May 2001 April 2001 March 2001 February 2001 January 2001 July 2000 June 2000 May 2000   articles Daft Punk Ludacris Ian Pooley Outkast Artful Dodger The Loft