Writing about things that do and don't exit
Purchase Ali Berger's Direct Experience to support the National Council For Incarcerated And Formerly Incarcerated Women And Girls. The album is a series of improvised, minimally overdubbed synth excursions, featuring shifting layers of rhythms that hiss, splash, whir, and click like a sonic Rube Goldberg contraption. Check out some tunes below and follow the link … Continue reading Ali Berger – Direct Experience
KeyDaIntro is a Pittsburgh singer, rapper, and producer whose debut album, Fleeting Thoughts, contains eight tracks of sumptuous, velvety R&B goodness. The music on Fleeting Thoughts creeps along like a bead of sweat dripping down a sauna-bound forehead, jazzy keyboards and snail's-pace percussion melting together into a semi-solid pool of late-June-afternoon energy. The slinky "SummerBabyBlues" … Continue reading Daily Yinz – KeyDaIntro – SummerBabyBlues (ft. Ensilence)
Following a run of melodic, introspective singles, North Side rapper Nello dropped a 7-song project called Survive. "3 AM" finds Nello reminiscing on late nights--or early mornings, depending on your perception--spent talking, mourning, smoking, living. An undercurrent of grief runs through all of Nello's music (his album art is awash with caskets and tombstones), but, … Continue reading Daily Yinz – Nello – 3 AM
Psychedelic blues guitarist/producer Leila Rhodes supports Pittsburgh's Bukit Bail Fund with her single "Enough." The track is just over two minutes long, its sense of anger filtered through a weary haze. Over a steady drumbeat and a sea of vocal overdubs, accented by the occasional, scorching guitar lick, Rhodes calls out the police officers who … Continue reading Daily Yinz – Leila Rhodes – Enough
Help the Bukit Bail Fund (which describes itself as “a coalition of individuals supporting those incarcerated in Allegheny County Jail”) by purchasing I keep my visions to myself, an album released on the Orb Tapes label by Pittsburgh-based harsh noise project Burnt-feathers. The album is a punishing, discordant exploration of trauma, psychosis, and isolation. Overwhelming sheets of noise … Continue reading Burnt-feathers – I keep my visions to myself
PK Delay, a Pittsburgh rapper who spent his 2019 releasing 365 songs in 365 days (yes, you read that right), dropped his Life on Expert project in late May. The album is by turns triumphant, moody, and introspective; PK celebrates life and mourns death, often in successive breaths, conviction and despair blending together in an … Continue reading Daily Yinz – PK Delay – When I Die
Support the Bukit Bail Fund (which describes itself as "a coalition of individuals supporting those incarcerated in Allegheny County Jail") by purchasing BAIL, a compilation album released by the newly established Helpin Aht! Records. 100% of the proceeds will be donated. BAIL features acoustic protest ballads, punk screeds, and noisy lo-fi dirges from a number … Continue reading Helpin’ Aht! Records – BAIL
Pittsburgh rapper BrothaMans makes a foray into icy trap balladry with "Discovery." The song, one of the singles from BrothaMans's new album, From the Beginning..., brings to mind the spooky, cavernous slow jams found on Travis Scott's earlier mixtapes. A spacious instrumental, anchored by subsonic bass drones and sparse, percussive clicks, acts as an evocative … Continue reading Daily Yinz – BrothaMans – Discovery
Spotify playlist containing music from black Pittsburgh-area artists. BUY the stuff that you like, don't just stream! Purchase links for artists can be found here. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1H8r1oy9QQiH0tG4UeCnr5?si=mpsd1lBYR86dMGxrzAfeug
In late May, Pittsburgh singer/songwriter Dejah Monea released her debut album, Flowers And Dopamine, a collection of sumptuous neo-soul tracks. "Pills Interlude," a Bryson Tiller-esque meditation on beauty standards, social pressures, negative self-talk, and pharmaceutical relief, glides by in a haze of chilly synths and moth's wing hi-hats. Monea scrolls through her timeline on social … Continue reading Daily Yinz – Dejah Monea – Pills Interlude
Bored In Pittsburgh 