Song of the Day #192: Whatcha Name Is
2nd Floor Samurais – Whatcha Name Is
One of the singles off of the debut album of SF-based rap duo 2nd Floor Samurais (Kensho Kuma and MC Orukusaki).
One of the singles off of the debut album of SF-based rap duo 2nd Floor Samurais (Kensho Kuma and MC Orukusaki).
A number of new albums have gone into my listening rotation over the last week:
The biggest surprise among these albums has been The Weeknd, which is what I would describe as dark R&B. It is dark in a similar way to Lana Del Rey, eschewing the glossy, over-produced sheen of mainstream music in this genre and replacing it with an underground electronic music crossover vibe. Most of the songs are about sex, drugs, and partying, tinged with bitterness and heartbreak. Sonically, the production is slick and is reminiscent of this collaboration between Usher and Diplo a few years ago. In 2015 it feels like R&B is headed in an entirely new direction.
One of the most anticipated recent album releases is Meow the Jewels, a remix album of songs from 2014’s Run the Jewels 2, one of the most critically-acclaimed rap albums of the last few years. The concept behind the remix album is to bring a collection of excellent producers (like Just Blaze and The Alchemist) together to remix the RTJ2 using cat sounds. Here’s one song from that album, accompanied by an off-the-wall music video:
This week I was introduced to an app called Pause by a friend, developed by ustwo, the same design group that made MoodNotes. I haven’t used it extensively but the concept and principles behind the app are fascinating and it is worth checking out. For now it is exclusive to the iOS App Store and costs $1.99 which is a paltry amount for something this well made. In a word, I would describe the experience of using it as mesmerizing. Here’s a video describing Pause and describing the development process, along with a link to the app below:
This is an updated and improved version of a web-based called called HabitRPG which has been around for a few years. In this latest iteration, it is vastly updated and adds a lot of new functionality along with a greatly improved user experience. It’s available on iPhone for free and it’s available at habitica.com for free as well.