AStralblak -Seeds on 10 Notable Minnesota Albums of 2018
10 Notable Minnesota Albums of 2018
Lady Midnight & Mike The Martyr new mxitape Midnight Special Vol. 2: Countdown 2 Sunrise
Lady Midnight teams with Mike The Martyr for a mixtape with Sophia Eris, Dem Atlas I.B.E & Franz Diego on deck rocking over boom bap classics.
Limited from Electric Fetus and Bandcamp
https://ladymidnight.bandcamp.com/album/midnight-special-vol-2-countdown-2-sunrise
Astralblak -Seeds - Scratched Vinyl review
astralblak - Seeds
Written by Chi Chi on November 20, 2018
astralblak is the Minneapolis group formerly known as ZULUZULUU, consisting of Greg Grease, Proper-T, Just Nine, MMYYKK, and Elliott. They first started playing together back in 2014, and then released their debut album, What’s The Price? in 2016. After rebranding, they know come back with their sophomore album, Seeds.
When astralblak released their first album, the established themselves as a unique entity, a group where vocals, instrumentation, and production duties were spread around the five members, as they explored the worlds of jazz, funk, afrobeat, soul, and hip hop. They continue down this path on Seeds, as they both refine and expand upon this foundation that was laid on the first album. Most of the album eschews pop convention, instead opting for song structure more like that of prog rock or modal jazz, where songs are sometimes built around musical phrases or ideas, but the direction they go is hard to predict. To build these songs, they take the futuristic and eerie sounds of synthesizers, add drum machine funk and turntable scratching, and then pick their moments to add live instrumentation like guitar or flute or strings. Vocally, they are just as interesting, with soaring powerhouse vocals coming from Proper-T, ethereal raps from Greg Grease, and wonderfully tight harmonies across the group. As would be expected, they are lyrically abstract as well, painting philosophical questions with beautiful imagery with their phrasing. At different points across the album, they’ll remind you of TV on the Radio, Prince, Parliament, Living Colour, or Stevie Wonder, just to name a few, but at the same time astralblak is always putting their own spin on it. It’s an album that’s so unique and jampacked full of musical information, you can’t help but listen to it over and over again, picking up something new each time.
astralblak is one of the best things to emerge out of Minneapolis in recent years, and they continue to improve with their sophomore album. It’s inventive, soulful, and challenging, while also delivering moments of clarity and pure funk as well.
Title:
astralblak - Seeds
Label:
Sound Verite
Year:
2018
Rating:
8/10
'This is our thing': Astralblak define the new Minneapolis sound in a gentrifying city
This is our thing': Astralblak define the new Minneapolis sound in a gentrifying city
Every member produces on Seeds and, with the exception of Just Nine, every member is a vocalist in some capacity. To participate in the astralblak way of beating an idea to death, you might compare them to the 2004 Detroit Pistons: a group with no clear star player that’s greater than the sum of its parts.
If What’s the Price focused generally on external threats to the continued survival of black people, Seeds turns inward, to themes of balance and perseverance, self-actualization, and keeping your feet on solid ground. On songs like “Sand Houses,” Proper-T and MMYYKK duet, with lush vocals wrapping around and layering upon one another before Grease drops in for a quick, slickly rapped verse. It’s an idealized version of what ZULUZULUU were working towards—life lessons without judgment or dogma, over music that’s historically grounded but doesn’t cash in on cheap nostalgia. Then there are welcome new directions with dance-floor ready numbers like “Jerkin” and “Arms” that draw on the pulsating rhythms of house music.
As astralblak pull inspiration from an increasingly wider range of sounds, that speaks to the expansiveness of black musical expression. While globally minded, they also consciously pay homage to a regional lineage. Pieces of different Midwestern industrial hubs run throughout their music: the Ohio funk of Zapp & Roger, Bootsy Collins, Slave or Ohio Players; the house music of Frankie Knuckles in Chicago; and the different eras of Detroit, from Curtis Mayfield to Moodymann to Jay Dee.
Obviously, one northern city looms largest over the band: their hometown, and its rich history of funk, soul, and hip hop. The continuity was made real when Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis reached out to the band to play at a concert they curated when the Super Bowl was in Minneapolis last February.
“They knew exactly who we were,” says Grease, in a tone that makes it seem like he’s still processing his encounter with the legendary producers. “I’ve always looked at that history on a pedestal, like ‘That was such an amazing time, it would’ve been so cool to be there.’ But it’s like wait, we are that! We’re the continuation of it.”
“You can get stuck romanticizing the past without realizing that we can take it a step further, because it’s been laid out for us,” adds Just Nine.
By building on the legacy of the Minneapolis Sound, astralblak helps preserve a certain kind of civic cultural pride wanes with each additional luxury condo that shoots into the sky. “People come here because there’s something here that makes it special, and you know what that is?” asks Grease. “It’s us. It’s the people that are already here. The artists living the artist life.” His momentum builds with each sentence. “But you can barely do that shit anymore because we’re getting priced out. So it’s also an anti-gentrification thing too, like ‘Nah, this is what Minneapolis is about, this is our thing.’”
astralblak
With: Night Church
Where: Varsity Theater
When: 8 p.m. Sat. Nov. 24
Tickets:18+; $10; more info here