Well hello, lovers of music and culture. We are Under the Stars, a quasi-weekly column that stays on message with strong-ass opinions, presenting new music releases, upcoming shows, and electronic music ideas. We keep it moving, hustling with the changes, thinking outside the margins. We’ve been doing this for five years or more… Spend some time with us…
GOLDIE, TIMELESS (LONDON RECORDS)
As we descend from another stellar year of live music from Noise Pop, it’s important to remember how the hallucinatory realm of electronic music helped to establish us as a diverse musical metropolitan region. Goldie’s Timeless, which celebrated its 30th anniversary last year, isn’t just considered one of the most important albums in electronic music history; it’s also quite possibly a catalyst of the drum and bass boom that happened here in The Bay during the ’90s. So many times, people speed straight to Roni Size & Reprazent winning the Mercury Music Prize in 1997 for their debut album New Forms—a classic, and I’ve seen and enjoyed Size’s DJ sets, and the album made waves. But Timeless, released in ’95, felt like it stuck around for five years or more.
From a boots-on-the-ground perspective, “Inner City Life” and its many remixes and alterations could be heard right here in Cloud City circa ’96 at hip-hop parties, drum and bass parties, house and techno functions, the chill room area at raves, and also got played on alternative rock stations, college radio stations, and KPOO. As a drum and bass album, it overachieved. For a genre that, at the beginning, many could not understand due to the chaotic pace of breakneck breakbeats firing off in every direction, “Inner City Life” attaches a Rotary Connection-type musical ideology to this new music. Jazzy neo-soul is allowed to explain this feeling. When the late British singer Diane Charlemagne hops on the call with, “Come to me/In those open arms is where I wanna be/Livin’ free/I need to be/I need to be your love,” that’s all the introduction normies need to get comfy with this drum and bass. They are hooked.
The one song The Roots have actually won a Grammy for is “You Got Me,” which was written by Jill Scott, with a hook that is sung and performed by Erykah Badu (the Queen battle begins). The last section of the song switches to a drum and bass cadence, likely influenced by Goldie’s Timeless.
The physical album was displayed in record stores here in SF like a prizefighter’s belt or a ridiculous burrito special; At Open Mind Music on Divisadero, Tweekin on Haight (where Vinyl Dreams now operates), and at the always colorful Compound Records on Valencia, just down the street from Martuni’s. Timeless was everywhere, and to this day, the original version of the song “Inner City Life,” which lasts all of 21 minutes (yes, really), sounds like a future dream.
Goldie deserves special recognition for bringing modernism into the mainstream. That’s a very difficult feat to accomplish. I still believe that drum and bass was present in San Francisco before its release. But afterward… Local music enthusiasts, DJs, promoters, vocalists, and producers, coming from all genres of music, recognized something they wanted to be part of.
Pick it up from Amoeba here.
THE OLYMPIANS, IN SEARCH OF A REVIVAL (DAPTONE RECORDS)
Once word spread that The Olympians, the Daptone Records project known for its rich audio ethos of sweet-sounding arrangements and retro soul touch, was releasing a new project after a 10-year hiatus, I got smoked like a Newport in my DJ text chain. The record nerds (I’m one of em) were geeked, and for good reason. Titled In Search of a Revival, this self-referential-sounding name possesses the goods. It features ornate horn charts, stoney bedrock drum breaks, and wide-stretching spirit reminiscent of the American session musicians affectionately known as the Wrecking Crew.
Yes, the Olympians are back, painting those ’60s-era Southern California vistas in song.
“My grandparents lived in southern LA, and my mom went to Stanford and lives there half the year now,” said Toby Pazner, founder and leader of the group. In 2008, he took some of New York City’s most sought-after musicians and put them in a Brooklyn bedroom, gathered around a Tascam 388 tape machine. There, they recorded what would become the debut 45 of a project he named The Olympians, and initially released on Truth & Soul Records.
“Gabe, the owner of Daptone, lives in Riverside and has a studio there. I wrote some parts to this album while out there with Lee Fields. Also, a lot of the music is inspired by the gold star sound of LA in the ’60s.”
Simply put, that gleaming concept has returned.
Grab it here.
CARRÉ, HIBISCUS (TEMPA)
So I was casually reading through a so-called Music Intelligence Report from the good folks at Soundcloud. Very informative, no shade. But then they let it slide out the side of their neck:
“Electronic music is booming in the US, and Dubstep is back.”
Well, yeah, Sherlock. Have you been following the likes of Introspek? Surveyed the DJs and producers throwing underground parties in Manchester and Dublin and then starting little labels? Dubstep been back, wobblin’ and gobblin’ dance floors up globally, my friend. This new generation is interested in making the batter thicker, not watering it down with that bro-step 4Loko junk.
There are some pretty compelling spots on the new Hibiscus EP from London by way of Los Angeles producer CARRÉ [kah-RAY]. Its ethos keeps you engaged with the gelatinous aspect of its mindbenders.
“Warm Light” features sleek, reflective environments, where the low end maintains a heartbeat rhythm while the ephemeral takes listeners down endless paths. LA artist Bbyafricka brings depth to the snarling, dynamic “Hibiscus,” blending themes of dedication with the compressed grumbles in the bass bin.
However, the final two tracks, “X Effect” and “Ride It Out,” resemble a dub version of something by Skream or Benga. This is where we see the current generation of dubstep producers treating the genre with the care and attention it truly deserves. With all the atmospheric layers in the background, CARRÉ allows these tracks to build progressively like a Jordan Peele/Alfred Hitchcock potboiler, or a quality dub-reggae grinder. CARRÉ‘s arrangements are constructed with the understanding that it’s in the repetition that both listeners and dancefloors discover just how menacing dubstep can be when it breathes.
Grab it here.
37 HOUSES, “EYE FOR AN EYE”
Local SF band 37 Houses sounds and feels like they’re some kind of reality TV scenario, minus the fraudulent tomfoolery. Formed during the pandemic, Sydney and her husband Jeremy Rosenblum took all those bottled-up emotion and feels that can be triggered within a nanosecond, and fed the ’90s indie flick premise by building a high-flying band. They employ the searing, gritty vocal caterwauls of Sydney, as evidenced on their new single “Eye For an Eye”, wherein that lead singer and vibe merchant does some acrobatic vocal soaring—not wailing. If you’ve been putting it off, the time has come to hear this talented band.
Pre-order here.
LOLO ZOUAÏ, “HOLDING ON”
Growing up in the Sunset District provided Lolo Zouaï with solitude, a place where she could write her music, be surrounded by diversity, and, of course, grab that sea-air magic from Ocean Beach. She’s a Forbes 30 Under 30 musician who embodies a triad of culture: born in Paris, raised in San Francisco, and shaped by her Algerian roots. In past interviews, she has mentioned that her sense of creativity stems from San Francisco, where many of her friends are artists involved in clothing design, painting, and music. Her parents encouraged her to view creativity as an integral part of life, something to be embraced. Her upcoming project titled Reverie showcases this creative spirit. It features a fusion of alternative R&B, hip-hop, pop, and Arabic influences, presented in both French and English. The sound reflects her connection to the beach community and her personal sensibilities.
Pre-order here.
