Richard D. James – Queen City Sounds and Art

Even without the outstanding video treatment for the song, “The Remakes” by Michael VQ has a tonal resonance and immediacy of production that holds your attention from the beginning. It’s style is a bit like if Aphex Twin and say JPEGMAFIA or Aesop Rock collaborated on a track that was too weird to be the kind of hip-hop many people think when that expectation is set and too hip-hop for whatever genre tags one might want to apply to the work of Richard D. James. Voices are layered in the track to form rhythm and melody alongside the programming giving the whole affair an organic quality that is intimate while the processed beats lend it the aspect of a dance track for a more forward thinking modern rave event. The music video has vivid images mirrored in quadrants and constant motion and imaginative color palettes like an Edgar Wright film and the procession of figures hits like an experimental horror film minus the fear. The net effect will be reminiscent for those that remember of a time in the late 90s at night on MTV when some of the most forward thinking electronic music of the 90s found a place to be broadcast to people who might otherwise have never heard much less seen visuals for that music for years without being in the places where it came from. The imagery and the music together feels like a well kept secret that won’t be for long. Watch the video for “The Remakes” on YouTube. Look for Michael VQ’s album 4U&URMØN$TER out soon on Tanoshi Crime School Records. Connect with the artist at the links below.

Michael VQ on Instagram

OhMrJames_Primer_cover_crop — Oh Mr James, *Primer* EP cover

“Screaming Banshees” by Oh Mr James is the lead single from the latter’s new EP Primer. At first one hears the urgent breakbeats, alien robotic voices and ambient swells and take into consideration that the project is called Oh Mr James and wonder if that James is Richard D. James of Aphex Twin fame operating under a different moniker as the artist is also from Cornwall and the song wouldn’t be out of step with Aphex Twin’s most recent compositions. Whether that’s true or not, this song doesn’t sound like an omen of death so much as multiple planes of musical ideas working over and with each other in sync. The electronic percussion parallels and reinforces the staccato yet bouncing bass progression sounding like a frantic teletype receiving portentous news. Multiple synths come together throughout the song as the carriers of the melody while background atmospherics are the connective tissue for the song which you come to realize is a bit like the musical model of the functioning of a fast moving animal that races across the earth and arrives at its destination and place of rest at song’s end. Whatever the purpose of the song it takes us on a journey of texture and emotion rich in detail and expertly executed polyrhythms that make it impossible to ignore yet non-invasive enough to stimulate your brain into creative realms of thought. Listen to “Screaming Banshee” on Soundcloud

Tag: Richard D. James

Michael VQ Evokes Late 90s Experimental Electronic Weirdness on Hip-Hop-Inflected IDM Single “The Remakes”

With Plaintive Robotic Voices and Relentless Evolving Rhythms, Oh Mr James Brings us Along for a Ride Through a Cybernetic Jungle on “Screaming Banshees”