Revisiting: Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city
K.Dot's first masterpiece album is a coming-of-age story with Kendrick navigating life in Compton, resisting peer pressure, destructive behaviour and trying to stay righteous in a corrupted world.
Ahead of our listening party at the Big Romance, Andrea takes us on the Hero's Journey of Kendrick Lamar's breakthrough 2012 second album good kid, m.A.A.d city.
Subtitled A Short Film, this cinematic rap masterpiece was a huge mainstream success, and crowned Kendrick as the voice of modern hip-hop (Dr. Dre literally appears to do so on the coronation track 'Compton') and it's narrative storytelling tells the story of a 17-year-old Lamar on a quest for a girl before being sidetracked by homie peer pressure and the more dangerous elements of his surrounding landscape.
It features the songs 'Bitch Dont' Kill My Vibe', 'Money Trees', 'Backseat Freestyle', and the accidental frat anthem 'Swimming Pools (Drank)'.
We revisit this modern rap masterpiece, Kendrick's first of many.
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1:03:46
Going to the Island with Open Ear Festival
The avant-electronic and experimental Irish music festival Open Ear returns to Sherkin Island on the June Bank Holiday weekend.
Open Ear is known for its preoccupation with illuminating music operating on the fringes, and the remote island setting of Sherkin Island off the coast of Baltimore in West Cork reflects this outsider ethos.
The varied programme is drawn from electronic, techno, experimental folk and trad, jazz EBM, bass music and art rock, and this year features the likes of Irish techno legend Sunil Sharpe, Scottish piper Brìghde Chaimbeul, Cork sean nos rockers I Dreamed I Dream, Belfast Sound Advice record shop owner Marion Hawkes, Limerick rap and production duo Citrus Fresh and 40Hurtz, Catalan/Italian EBM duo Dame Area, Autechre collaborator Rob Hall, and lots more. The programme features one artist at a time across various stages on Sherkin including the infamous Banger Cliff.
I spoke to Open Ear head of programming Dion Doherty aka Belacqua about the challenges and uniqueness of putting on an experimentally-minded festival on an island and as it approaches its 10th year, how its planning to grow its European partnerships and unearths Irish music of the underground.
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52:13
Our best of April's albums and songs
Our monthly Patreon episode in which Andrea Cleary and Niall share our favourite music of the past month.
The Best of the Month episode is now Patreon-only. Public subscribers get the first 20 minutes or so of the episode as a free preview. Members get to hear the whole episode on Patreon for a €5 a month so come join us!
This month, we are discussing new albums from Torres and Julien Baker, Daughter Of Swords, Bon Iver, Maria Somerville and songs from The Hives, Turnstile, mischa and the bear, Frankie Cosmos, Morgana, Myles Manley and a Crossed Wires NTS show recommendation.
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Albums and tracks mentioned
Marika Hackman; Laura Marling - Skin
Daughter of Swords - Alex LP
The Hives - Enough Is Enough
mischa and the bear - Deny
Maria Somerville - Luster LP
Turnstile - NEVER ENOUGH
Julien Baker; TORRES - Say A Prayer For Me LP
Bon Iver - SAble, Fable LP
Bon Iver - I'll Be There
Morgana - Power Cuts
Myles Manley - Indieboys of Dublin
Myles Manley - Di Fontaines
Frankie Cosmos - Vanity
Dame Area - La Danza Del Ferro
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19:39
Róisín El Cherif is singing for Palestine and Ireland
The Irish-Palestinian singer and filmmaker speaks about embracing her Arabic heritage in her music, and the resurgence of interest in keening and Irish folklore.
The Irish-Palestinian artist Róisín El Cherif has spent 18 months advocating for the people of Palestine, speaking out on the injustice and genocide in Gaza. El Cherif has begun singing in Arabic on stage, noting the connections between Irish and Arabic folk music and culture.
It's best encapsulated in the Róisín El Cherif live show, which debuted at the Fringe Festival and was given a Fringe award for Astounding Performance of Political and Cultural Significance.
The next live show takes place at the Button Factory in Dublin next week, Wednesday April 30th, which will be a blend of live music, poetry and film visuals featuring clips from Arabic films, Palestinian folk music and drawing parallels with Irish mythology and folklore - the cailleach, banshees and keening which is also found in Arabic culture as wailing, and further represents and celebrates the oppressed people of Palestine.
El Cherif recently accepted the Choice Music Prize award on behalf of Fontaines D.C. by reciting part of a poem from Palestinian poet Samih al-Qasim written in 1971 called Enemy of the Sun which speaks of Palestinian resistance against Israel.
We also talk about the reaction to Kneecap's recent Pro-Palestine statements at Coachella.
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50:27
Why J Dilla was such an influential producer
It’s DILLA TIME
This month's special is about Jay Dee aka J Dilla, a Detroit hip-hop producer’s whose work is so prolific and influential his MPC sampler is in the Smithsonian.
Dilla worked with hip-hop and R&B greats - Q-Tip, A Tribe Called Quest, Busta Rhymes, The Roots, The Pharcyde, D'Angelo, Common, Madlib and made his own signature rhythm that others copied - he used a sampler like no one had before.
Through his unique methods of playing with layered timing, rhythmic expectation, polyrhythm, samples stretching and feel and his ability to bend time-signatures to his will, Dilla changed how music moves, and made Dilla Time (a term coined in the 2022 book of the same name by Dan Charnas).
We explore his production work, solo music and the legacy of his final album from 2006, released three days before he died - Donuts - a sample psychedelic beat tape of melancholic beauty and a magic trick of sampling that serves as a towering and influential creative statement.
The accompanying Dilla playlist.
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Ireland