Emancipator - Shook [Sigur Rós vs. Mobb Deep]

What do gangsta rap and post-rock have in common? Well, not a lot by their lonesome, but in the world of bastard pop, conventionality is not the name of the game. Mash-ups have risen immensely in popularity as of late with artists such as Girl Talk, Super Mash Bros, and Milkman slicing up tracks every which way, blurring and reshaping musical designs and fashioning new memories out of old ones. Downtempo artist Emancipator brings us the ethereal soundscapes of Iceland's Sigur Rós and warps them with a verse of one of hip-hop's most revered tracks of the 1990s' "Shook Ones (Pt II)," by east coast legends Mobb Deep. I'm not the biggest Sigur Rós fan for reasons I don't care to mention, but when one of the most impressive and raw verses of the 90s' is layered over it, I can't help but appreciate. The emotionally-driven piano and string instrumentation build and build with chopped up vocals pushing against the melody as spare breaks and the song eventually drops, the short but commanding discourse of Prodigy combining with Sigur's vivid background music, the presence of the song rather bleak and visceral. A chill vibe with a hint of lyrical dynamism. Genius. And another great song to sleep to as well.

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Air - Alone in Kyoto

This track makes me want to perform open heart surgery. The song builds slowly, minimalistically, with acoustic guitar and mellow pads. The recurring beep reminds me a lot of an electrocardiogram. It climaxes with repeated piano chords, phasing in and out and reinventing the melody from the ground up time and time again. The harmonies are dramatic but not overdone and not by any means exhaustive. The kind of track where you can appreciate the tension. Ends comfortably with adequate resolution, albeit entirely on a down note. Good for sleeping, good for relaxing, as subtly alarming as it is.

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