What's your latest earworm???

QuadraphonicQuad

Help Support QuadraphonicQuad:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I've been spinning the new album by French indie artist Mcbaise called Tubes pretty much once a day for the last two weeks. It's hard to put my finger on exactly how I'd describe his sound but it's a combination of heavy-sounding guitars, some funky drumming (and a lot of 16th-note hi-hat grooves, a personal favourite) and an array of vintage '70s and '80s analog synths. At times, though the songwriting style isn't really that similar, the mellow, melancholic vibe reminds me a bit of early/mid '70s Pink Floyd.

In addition to being a great musician, Mcbaise is also an incredibly talented traditional animator in the Max Fleischer style, and he does all the animation for his music videos himself:





The whole album is great and very much in the style of these two tracks if you like them at all.

Vinyl search… end results
20C0455A-7923-411F-A820-38D08AD31DE3.jpeg
 
Vinyl search… end results
View attachment 78261

Sadly small artists like this are last in the queue at vinyl pressing plants because of major labels exploiting the vinyl resurgence. When this album came out he did a pre-order for a vinyl version which I think was limited to 500 or 1000 copies and it sold out almost immediately, but it took nearly a year for the actual product to materialize. I'm sure they'll do a repressing at some point but I'm happy to listen to the album on YouTube or from the bandcamp download in the meantime.
 
This is my latest discovery, a vocalist out of Southern California called Raquel Rodriguez - she has a bit of that Durand Jones & the Indications throwback soul vibe, but I can also hear bits of Neo Soul artists like Maxwell and D'Angelo in her sound, not to mention older artists like Curtis Mayfield. Whatever way you slice it she'd got a great voice and some really catchy melodies that have been living rent-free in my head for the last week or so.



 
I've been spinning the new album by French indie artist Mcbaise called Tubes pretty much once a day for the last two weeks. It's hard to put my finger on exactly how I'd describe his sound but it's a combination of heavy-sounding guitars, some funky drumming (and a lot of 16th-note hi-hat grooves, a personal favourite) and an array of vintage '70s and '80s analog synths. At times, though the songwriting style isn't really that similar, the mellow, melancholic vibe reminds me a bit of early/mid '70s Pink Floyd.

In addition to being a great musician, Mcbaise is also an incredibly talented traditional animator in the Max Fleischer style, and he does all the animation for his music videos himself:





The whole album is great and very much in the style of these two tracks if you like them at all.


The music's all right, in an acid-jazzy kind of way (and that guitar-heavy "weirdly long instrumental" bridge on "Water Slide" puts me in mind of early Snarky Puppy), but the animation just kills!
 
Last edited:
The music's all right, in an acid-jazzy kind of way (and that guitar-heavy "weirdly long instrumental" bridge on "Water Slide" puts me in mind of early Snarky Puppy), but the animation just kills!

I felt the same way the first time or two I listened to it - it was like there was something missing - but it steadily grew on me, especially after I listened to the full album, which I now think is the only way to experience these songs. It got to the point that I had to ration myself one listen a day so I didn't burn out on it - I don't expect that everyone will connect with it the same way but I've found it really rewarding on repeat listens, where it seems like there are different textures and instrumental nuances to discover every time.
 
I felt the same way the first time or two I listened to it - it was like there was something missing - but it steadily grew on me, especially after I listened to the full album, which I now think is the only way to experience these songs. It got to the point that I had to ration myself one listen a day so I didn't burn out on it - I don't expect that everyone will connect with it the same way but I've found it really rewarding on repeat listens, where it seems like there are different textures and instrumental nuances to discover every time.
I found it on Apple Music, Qobuz didn’t have it. I still need to take time to check out the whole album, as you sorta say, groove into it as a whole. So much of what folks listen to these days are just fragmented pieces and end up being almost background music while multitasking mindfully elsewhere. Letting myself relax and get lost into a whole album has been rare for me of late. But maybe it has as much to say about the quality of music these days.
 
Haven't posted in this thread for awhile. Here's a track by Nicky Hopkins from the stone age. He's played on albums by Stones, Kinks, Steve Miller, Quicksilver and others too numerous to mention. I'm crazy enough to have bought a UK pressing of this long ago:



Far Out's 7 best Hopkins performances:

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/seven-greatest-nicky-hopkins-performances/
 
had to make a long drive north today. had Marillion F.E.A.R. playing in the vehicle. the more I listen, the more I really appreciate the sonics, the lyrics and the production of this album, it took awhile for me to warm up to this album. now I feel it is one of the band's best
 
Benson & Farrell "Flute Song"



Funny thing about this album, back when it came out in the mid-'70s I went through 3 copies and finally gave up trying to get a record that didn't skip to the adjacent groove about 45 seconds into "Flute Song". Seems a kick drum lick was overdriven. I remember looking at the record with a 20X magnifier and it was visible what the problem was, the groove overlapped just enough to make the stylus jump over! Tried several cartridges and stylus types, no improvement. Anywway was glad to get it on CD, and the CD sounds great!
 
Back
Top