Oktoberhits

Midterms got you feeling blue? The Forum's got you covered.  Read, listen, and enjoy. Under Pressure - Dr. Dre(ft. Jay-Z)

A sign that Detox isn’t a long, drawn-out hoax? Only like ten frickin’ years since 2001 dropped, the first signs of life from Dr Dre come via illegal channels- earlier in the year some cyber-savvy Dre aficionado had the cahones to hack the fine Doctor’s email account, steal a few unfinished demo mixes, and pass them around like turkey at Thanksgiving; as Dre so eloquently puts it “"We’re in a new age and that’s a sign: Wake up motherf*****. You have to be more careful with your s***”. Truth. Anyways, he's complaining that it's an unpolished, hook-less version of the song, but whatever: with a kick-ass driven beat, a Dre snarl and some quality Hova lyrics, it’s still like plugging your adrenal cortex into a Humvee.

Whether or not the actual album will ever drop is anyone’s guess-my theory is that Dre is going all Dr. Frankenstein on us and won’t stop working until the album transcends some aural law of physics or can explode heads by the sheer power of awesome.

PS. Best line:

“I’m in this party, I’m up to no good And I should be duckin’ these clubs, Tiger Woods”.

One (Your Name)-Foals(Swedish House Mafia Cover)

One part club banger, one part English funk rock, all parts genius. Snipping out superfluous drums and other techno tedium, Oxford-based Foals trim the Swedish House Mafia thumper to its bare essentials. The musical equivalent of smashing a guitar into a Tiesto keyboard.

Rhythm of the Rain(ft. Thee Tom Hardy & Tunji)-Kno

When was the last time you heard the phrase “ukelele-infused rap”? Never? Well, here’s an opportunity to add it to the lexicon. Produced and rapped by Kno, one half of the hip-hop duo CunninLynguists, “Rhythm of the Rain” feels like it was piped in from a Hawaiian surf-noir film, the ominous sampling sucking you into a forbidding corner of Kno’s brain. There’s no swagger in his rhymes, just a hauntingly deliberate flow punctuated by some very choice lines- the solo debut drops on Tuesday, and if this is any indication it should be pretty excellent.

Hell Yeah!(Brenton Duvall Remix)-Ludacris and Raekwon

Who the hell is Brenton Duvall? And how is he dropping some of the sickest remixes out on the Internetz? Through some strenuous research and some mild Facebook stalking, he appears to be a sophomore at UC Boulder: other than that (pending friend request) we can only deduce that he’s tapped into some crazy musical fountain of goodness- you may have heard his Passion Pit/Lil Wayne mix some time ago, or more recently his Tupac/Gary Jules bundle of creepy magic, both of which temporarily ruled the roost over at Hype Machine. This one is not quite as mellow- paradoxically, the ethereal back beat only accentuates the Ludacris’s Southern braggadocio, so listen with caution. If you like his steeze, check out his Soundcloud account.

Iron Horse - New Slang (The Shins Cover)

Usually not a huge fan of covers (though this is the second on the list): either you end up with a soulless replication of a more talented band’s work, or you take it so far out of whack that you pith it of the magic that made it worth listening to in the first place. That said, Iron Horse’s bluegrass cover of New Slang drops a heavy dose of Deliverance twang on this Shins tune--some ferocious banjo strumming and plaintive vocals suck out the bitterness that characterized the original, making it a strangely wistful take on small-town estrangement. Take a listen and get in touch with your inner Appalachian.