POSTS TAGGED : Run The Jewels

Best of 2014: w/ Cormac Brady

As has become tradition for this time year, I’ve asked bands and artists who’ve played a BarryGruff show during the year, to put their own list making skills to the test in picking their ‘favourite album of 2014′, ‘favourite song/remix of 2014′ & ‘favourite Irish song of the year’. I’ve really enjoyed these over the past few years so why break with tradition?

Right, that is enough waffling from me, it’s over to Cormac Brady to share his picks from 2014…..

Favourite albums of 2014:

01. Run the Jewels – ‘Run the Jewels 2’

My number one album slot last year was El-P and Killer Mike’s first record together as RTJ, so it’s a little predictable but entirely honest that their second gets the top spot from me in 2014. And deservedly so too – RTJ2 is another two headed beast of an album, but this time more earth shaking and spitting twice the fire. I find it so reassuring that in this fucked up world there are two incredible rappers that head off to a remote cabin in the woods to take loads of hallucinogens and other drugs and make fucking outstanding rap records that rip on religion, politics, law, business and all that other rancid soul destroying shit. It means a lot to me to know that. Sniff. Long live Run the Jewels.

02. Teebs – ‘E s t a r a’

I don’t know a whole lot about Teebs, other than that he did some shit with Prefuse 73 ages ago and he’s from LA (I think). A pretty lame opening line for a review I’ll admit, but I want to keep my knowledge of Teebs limited. This album is intimate, textured, warm, glowing and puts me in a good place when I listen to it. I don’t want to over elaborate on why I love the record, or what makes it so great because I’m afraid I might ruin it for myself. I recommend you listen to it and get lost in it like I did, it’s very rewarding.

03. RATKING – ‘So It Goes’

This album feels to me like the modern equivalent of a few lads back in the day cooked up in a flat making hip hop tunes on an MPC and a couple of SM58s. Of course So It Goes is sonically more sophisticated than could be achieved with the aforementioned tools and lyrically more poetic would be associated with early hip hop, but there’s something completely real and honest at work here and it’s class.

04. Mac Demarco – ‘Salad Days’

05. Beck – ‘Morning Phase’

06. The Bug – ‘Angels and Devils’

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BarryGruff’s Albums of the Year 2014

BG2014

So, it’s that time of year again, yeah, it’s favourite albums of the year time. Loads of great music this year, some old faces and plenty of new ones too but for those of you who care, here are my 25 albums of 2014. Enjoy!

25. Second Storey – ‘Double Divide’

24. Beach Day – ‘Native Echoes’

23. Globelamp – ‘Star Dust’

22. Sex Hands – ‘Pleh’

21. The #1s – ‘The #1s’

20. Attaque – ‘ON LY YOU’

19. Shit Robot – ‘We Got Love’

18. Mowbird – ‘Islander’

17. Oh Boland/Me & My Dog – ‘Delphi’

16. Jamie T – ‘Carry on the Grudge’

15. Pharoahe Monch – ‘PTSD’

Following on from his 2011’s W.A.R, comes fourth solo LP, PTSD (aka Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), a loose-concept album which sees Pharoahe Monch speaking as a weary independent warrior against the industry machine and dealing with the struggle of the black male experience in America. It’s dense, raw and sometimes painfully raw, as he relives harrowing memories of his struggle with addiction, depression and suicidal thoughts. It’s all draped with his familiar top-notch storytelling, cavernous vocabulary, thought-provoking rhymes, precise delivery and thought-provoking metaphors, placing him right up top of the current hip-hop pile.

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Run The Jewels – ‘Oh My Darling Don’t Cry’

 

RTJ2

Run The Jewels, the sublime rap duo of El-P and Killer Mike, are back with news of a second album RTJ2, which is released on October 27th.

To coincide with this most excellent and exciting news we’ve been served with an offering from the forthcoming LP, entitled ‘Oh My Darling Don’t Cry’. 2013’s self-titled debut demonstrated the incredible chemistry at work between these two rappers and ‘Oh My Darling Don’t Cry’ is a timely reminder of just how good El-P and Killer Mike are together. It’s a gritty, aggressive, bass-booming track, as the two MCs take turns spitting sharp rhymes at a relentless pace, matched only by the devastating booming bass and flitting samples, courtesy of human soundboard Michael Winslow (of Police Academy fame). Utterly brilliant but did we expect anything less?

RTJ2 is out on October 27th, get a taste of what’s coming with ‘Oh My Darling Don’t Cry’ below. And for those of you back home, Run The Jewels play Dublin’s Opium Rooms on December 21st. By all accounts they were utterly amazing when they played Vancouver last month. Not to be missed.