HE’S ON A SOUTH L.A. ROLL
‘Victory Lap (feat. Stacey Barthe)’
Nipsey Hussle (Atlantic)
The South Los Angeles rapper and roller rink owner earned his lap in 2018, and in his new video, he documents the celebratory moment(s). The clip for the title track from his critically acclaimed 2018 album “Victory Lap” finds the selfdescribed “Slauson Boy” zipping across water, spliff in hand on the bow of a boat, and elsewhere roaming a South L.A. residential neighborhood.
As he does so, Hussle raps of “downtown diamond district jewelers” asking for his business. He recalls how he “flew to Cancun, smoking Cubans on the boat / And docked at Tulum just to smoke.” Other snapshot moments? “Listening to music at the Mayan ruins / True devotion on the bluest ocean, cruising.”
‘Forewarn EP’
Sana Shenai (Leaving)
The Bandcamp notes on this seriously synthetic debut record describes its members Jimmy Tamborello and Mitchell Brown as “masters of reel-time tape tangling, live looping, seriously slippery synthesizers, fantastic field recordings, tantalizing textures, sequenced sentience and plenty o' pedals.” It’s true.
Tamborello is best known as half of synth-pop legends the Postal Service. Others refer to him as Dntel, whose oft-melodic digital dance numbers have scored the L.A. beat scene for nearly as long as it has existed. He and fellow Dublab DJ-musician Brown (a.k.a. Nanny Cantaloupe) travel on a journey to the center of the circuit board as Sana Shenai. There, deep within the darkness, waves of digitized hiss maneuver through measures laced with uneven beats, scattered thumps and menacing hums. This introductory EP was issued in early December; a forthcoming full-length album has been promised for 2019.
‘Away We Go’ Bad Suns (Epitaph)
Across the first few bars of “Away We Go,” fans of Bruce Springsteen might be forgiven for wondering whether he and his band had dropped a new song. Driven by a piano melody that’s pure Boss, that opening suggestion, though, is short-lived. The Woodland Hills-born Bad Suns quickly guide the three-minute rock song into post-punk territory as singer Christo Bowman declares that he needs “some kind of reaction” and “a little compassion.”
Depending on the circumstances, that’s not too much to ask, and the band’s new video finds them rocking through a screamalong anthem that argues their case. With a soaring chorus and a solid string of chords, the song moves with sharpened confidence. Recently signed to L.A. punk label Epitaph after issuing two albums for Vagrant, the band has been teasing news of its third studio album, which is likely to arrive in the coming year.