Drunk At The Funky Pickle

Cadence Weapon “Oliver Square” – First line: “It’s corrupt where I’m from, Edmonton.” Really? I had no idea. My ignorance is revealed – the only things that I associate with the city of Edmonton are a gigantic mall, the Oilers, and cold weather. I know that I wouldn’t normally expect excellent hip hop music to come from Edmonton, but here it is. The track is built around keyboard textures that sound like a funky malfunctioning Gameboy, but the main attraction is Cadence Weapon’s solid flow and wordplay, which is sort of like a brainer, less bombastic version of Ludacris. (Click here for the official Cadence Weapon website.)

The Jealous Lovers “Fight For Survival” – This has a lot of the same “weird kids fucking around in their basement” appeal as the Moldy Peaches’ first album, but with the folky elements replaced by lo-fi funk. The production values are very amateurish, resulting in a track in which all of the parts of the arrangement sound distanced from one another. The horns and percussion sound like field recordings, and seem as though they are meant to be heard as quotations in the context of the song. The bassline and the keyboards may as well have footnotes attached to them. The disjointed sound works for the Jealous Lovers, and goes a long way in distancing them from the colder, less organic sound of many of their post-Electroclash peers. (Click here to visit the official Jealous Lovers website.)

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