The Best Song on I'll Try Living Like This
In May of 2015, the now legendary & iconic vaporwave trio known as death's dynamic shroud put out what would be the 12th album in their now 50+ discography of full-length records, this one on the then-prestigious Dream Catalogue label: I'll Try Living Like This, produced solely by two of its members James Webster (known as HCMJ) and Keith Rankin (known as Giant Claw). The album was produced in the midst of awaiting cassette production for what would end up being their 13th album in 2016 on Rankin's Orange Milk Records label, produced by the remaining member Tech Honors: CLASSROOM SEXXTAPE.
From the moment it came out to this very day and beyond, I'll Try Living Like This remains to be seen as death's dynamic shroud's revolutionary, genre-redefining magnum opus and it stands as one of vaporwave's most creative & experimental records to achieve this level of notoriety. There's a lot to be said about each individual track and how it pushes the boundaries of a genre so many people neglectfully view as reductive & derivative. But one tracks I want to particularly highlight is one that isn't often seen as the emotional high point that it is early on into the record.
혼자 남은 지금 꼴이
The fourth track into the record in a short streak of amazing tunes kicks off with two samples: The introductory vocal humming of Avant from his song Separated and the stretched out instrumental to AOA's Miniskirt providing the beat & chords, provided more density & reverberation added to the beat. Beyond that, you hear a whole lot going on. There's a specific recurring vocal sample that gets chopped up & glitchy throughout the song, I can't confidently tell you where that's from, it could be from Separated again for all I could tell. Above that, you hear dialogue from CSI: NY spliced in, coming from Kim Kardashian of all people, some shimmering sounds coming from the intro to Fleetwood Mac's classic song Everywhere and later on, some lesser edited samples of the Legend of Zelda Sound & Drama, which I'll touch on in a moment.
It's an incredibly dense track, but more important than what it samples it how it feels to sample these things. The Miniskirt beat, once an upbeat, sharply produced k-pop track, is paulstretched & echoed out to feel much more lethargic but equally intoxicating. I think even without the added elements, the backing track is absolutely thick & heavy. It's like walking through the city on a packed night and just slowly dragging yourself through an extremely concentrated atmosphere, an opaque fog of urban smoke & emotional weight, and it wouldn't feel that way if it didn't sound so… melancholic.
There's a sadness permeating throughout the song. The strange CSI: NY dialogue, the dragged out & buffering vocal glitches, the lonely Avant vocalizing, there's something about all of those elements, combined with the once sensual love song beat profusely slowed down, that makes the whole experience feel so depressive, like an alcoholic bender. After two and a half minutes of this, you're given even more hints to what all of this is. A Japanese dialogue sample from the aforementioned Zelda Sound Drama plays and it of course reads like a piece of Zelda drama… but one sentence sticks out:
愛が鍵です。(Love is the key.)
A little further in, the shimmering of the Everywhere sample strips away. For a moment, it feels less crowded, but still… sad. Shortly before the four minute mark, Link's cry for Zelda is heard, the beat disappears for that moment and when it cuts back in, you hear something swelling in the background. You feel an emotional tension starting to rise. Then Avant sings.
We never turned our backs on each other
But now that we're separated
We can't stand one another
And when we were together
We never turned our backs on each other
But now that we're separated
We can't stand one another
You did me wrong
This is a breakup song. More than anything else, it's a tragic, bittersweet, heart-wrenching breakup song. The added bass synths to the beat and orchestral strings climbing further up in the background for as long as those lines are sung; it feels like the rest of the track that came before was trying to suppress its deeply sorrowing emotions before all that resistance just shatters and every ounce of grief just spills out into tears falling into the puddles of rain below. The song concludes from there and it overall changes the dynamic depths of this album's extremely abtract concepts that are as hard to define, pinpoint or deciphir as this one is, if not more so.
This wasn't my favourite song for the longest time. I mean, for a long while, it was 그대 기억에 지쳐 잠들죠, but that's more of an interlude piece that directly transitions into a reprise of this song, funnily enough, that further elaborates on that Miniskirt sample with a bit of an eccojam. But other times, it was Loving is Easy or everybody's favourite 내 마음은 떨고. It was hard to define what really makes I'll Try Living Like This's best song. Sure, the latter had probably the best production of the bunch and the most energy for it, but an emotional pique or a definitive highly was hard to come by in an album that was always so consistent but always in some way relied on its surrounding pieces or the overall album package. 혼자 남은 지금 꼴이, however, completely stands on its own. As its own song and its own emotional piece.
I think it goes ultimately unrecognised in the grand scheme of this album because of how subtle it all is. Everything I just described to you about the song is subtle in their respective degrees. You really don't come to notice its value at the face; you find it out by digesting it further & more thoroughly, giving each listen its own time to clue you in to what it's about and what it's doing here on the album. It ultimately comes across as the most rewarding song on what is considered to this day to be death's dynamic shroud's masterpiece.
One that is immeditely ruined by the vocal samples on 이보다 좋을 수는 없겠어, but believe me, we do not want to have that conversation today.
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Deaths In 2023
January
1: Fred White (67, American drummer, Earth Wind & Fire)
3: Alan Rankine (64, Scottish musician/producer, The Associates)
6: Gianluca Vialli (58, Italian football player/manager)
10: Jeff Beck (78, English guitarist, The Yardbirds/The Jeff Beck Group/Beck Bogart & Appice)
11: Yukihiro Takahashi (70, Japanese singer/drummer, Yellow Magic Orchestra)
12: Robbie Bachman (69, Canadian drummer, Bachman Turner Overdrive)
Lisa-Marie Presley (54, American singer/songwriter, daughter of Elvis, mother of Riley Keough)
16: Gina Lollobrigida (95, Italian actress)
18: David Crosby (81, American singer/songwriter, The Byrds, Crosby Stills Nash & Young)
27: Sylvia Sims (89, English actress, ‘Ice Cold In Alex’)
28: Barrett Strong (81, American singer/songwriter, co-wrote ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’/‘Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone’
Tom Verlaine (73, American musician/songwriter/producer, Television)
Lisa Loring (64, American actress, ‘The Addams Family’)
February
2: Calton Coffie (68, Jamaican singer, Inner Circle)
3: Paco Rabanne (88, Spanish fashion designer)
8: Burt Bacharach (94, American songwriter, co-wrote ‘Walk On By’/‘Anyone Who Had A Heart’/‘A House Is Not A Home’/‘Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head’)
10: Hugh Hudson (86, film director, ‘Chariots Of Fire’)
12: David Jolicoeur a.k.a. Trugoy The Dove (54, American rapper, De La Soul)
15: Raquel Welch (82, American actress)
16: Chuck Jackson (85, American soul singer, ‘Any Day Now’/‘I Keep Forgettin’’)
18: Barbara Bosson (83, American actress, ‘Hill Street Blues’)
19: Richard Belzer (78, American actor, ‘Homicide: Life On The Street’/’Law And Order: Special Victims Unit’)
Dickie Davies (94, British television personality, ‘World Of Sport’)
23: John Motson (77, English football commentator, ‘Match Of The Day’)
March
2: Steve Mackey (56, English bassist/producer, Pulp)
Wayne Shorter (89, American jazz saxophonist, Weather Report)
3: Carlos Garnett (84, Panamanian jazz saxophonist)
Tom Sizemore (61, American actor, ‘Saving Private Ryan’)
5: Gary Rossington (71, American guitarist, Lynyrd Skynyrd)
8: Topol (87, Israeli actor, ‘Fiddler On The Roof’/’Flash Gordon’)
10: Junior English (71, Jamaican reggae singer)
12: Dick Fosbury (76, American high jumper)
13: Jim Gordon (77, American drummer, Traffic/Derek & The Dominoes)
14: Bobby Caldwell (71, American singer/songwriter)
15: Greg Perry (singer/songwriter/producer)
16: Fuzzy Haskins (81, American singer, Parliament/Funkadelic)
17: Lance Reddick (60, American actor, ‘The Wire’/’Oz’/’John Wick’ films)
23: Keith Reid (76, English songwriter, Procol Harum)
Peter Shelley (80, English singer/songwriter/producer, ‘Gee Baby’/’Love Me Love My Dog’)
28: Paul O’Grady a.k.a. Lily Savage (67, English comedian)
Ryuichi Sakamoto (71, Japanese musician/composer, Yellow Magic Orchestra, composed theme to ‘Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence’)
29: Charles Sherrell a.k.a. Sweet Charles (80, American bass player/singer, The JBs, ‘Yes, It’s You’)
April
5: Booker T. Newberry III (67, American singer, Sweet Thunder, ‘Love Town’)
6: Paul Cattermole (46, English singer, S Club 7)
8: Michael Lerner (81, American actor, ‘Barton Fink’)
12: Jah Shaka (75, Jamaican sound system operator)
13: Dame Mary Quant (93, English fashion designer)
14: Mark Sheehan (46, Irish guitarist, The Script)
16: Ahmad Jamal (92, jazz pianist)
17: Ivan Conti (76, jazz drummer, Azymuth)
22: Barry Humphries a.k.a. Dame Edna Everage (89, Australian comedian/actor)
Len Goodman (78, English TV personality)
25: Harry Belafonte (95, American musician/actor/civil rights leader)
27: Wee Willie Harris (90, English rock & roll singer)
Jerry Springer (79, English-born, American TV host)
28: Tim Bachman (71, Canadian guitarist, Bachman-Turner Overdrive)
May
1: Gordon Lightfoot (84, Canadian singer/songwriter, ‘If You Could Read My Mind’)
3: Linda Lewis (72, English singer/songwriter, ‘Rock-A-Doodle-Doo’)
18: Jim Brown (87, American football player/actor, ‘The Dirty Dozen’)
19: Pete Brown (82, poet/singer/lyricist, ‘Sunshine Of Your Love’/’White Room’/’I Feel Free’)
Andy Rourke (59, English bass player, The Smiths)
24: Bill Lee (94, American jazz musician/composer, Spike’s dad, scored ‘She’s Gotta Have It’/‘School Daze’/’Do The Right Thing’
Tina Turner (84, American-born, Swiss singer/actress, ‘River Deep Mountain High’/’Nutbush City Limits’/’What’s Love Got To Do With It?’)
26: Reuben Wilson (88, American jazz organist, ‘Got To Get Your Own’)
June
1: Cynthia Weil (82, songwriter, ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’’/’Here You Come Again’)
6: Tony McPhee (79, English guitarist, The Groundhogs)
12: Treat Williams (71, American actor, ‘Hair’/’Prince Of The City’)
14: John Hollins (76, English football player, Chelsea/Arsenal/England)
15: Glenda Jackson (87, English MP/actress, ‘Women In Love’/’Sunday Bloody Sunday’)
27: Julian Sands (65, English actor, ‘A Room With A View’)
29: Alan Arkin (89, American actor, ‘Catch 22’/’Little Miss Sunshine’)
30: Lord Creator (87, Trinidad-born, Jamaican singer/songwriter, ‘Kingston Town’)
July
3: Vicki Anderson a.k.a. Myra Barnes (83, American soul singer, Carleen’s mum)
Mo Foster (78, English songwriter/musician/producer)
5: George Tickner (76, American guitarist, Journey)
16: Jane Birkin (76, French/English actress/singer, ‘Je t’aime … moi non plus’, banned by the BBC in 1969)
21: Tony Bennett (96, American singer, ‘I Left My Heart In San Francisco’)
22: Vince Hill (89, English singer, ‘Edelweiss’)
24: Trevor Francis (69, English football player, Birmingham City/England)
26: Randy Meisner (77, musician/songwriter, Poco/The Eagles, ‘Take It To The Limit’)
Sinead O’Connor (56, Irish singer, ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’/songwriter, ‘Mandinka’)
30: Paul Reubens a.k.a. Pee-Wee Herman (70, American actor/comedian)
31: Angus Cloud (25, American actor, ‘Euphoria’)
August
4: John Gosling (75, English keyboard player, The Kinks)
7: DJ Casper (58, DJ/artist/songwriter, ‘Cha Cha Slide’)
William Friedkin (87, American film director, ‘The French Connection’/’The Exorcist’)
9: Robbie Robertson (80, Canadian musician/songwriter/singer, The Band)
Sixto Rodriguez (81, American singer/songwriter, subject of 2012 documentary ‘Searching For Sugar Man’
13: Clarence Avant (92, owner of Sussex Records/Tabu Records, film producer, ‘Jason’s Lyric’)
Magoo (50, American rapper, Timbaland & Magoo)
16: Jerry Moss (88, music executive, the ‘M’ in A&M Records)
17: Bobby Eli (77, guitarist, MFSB/songwriter, ‘Love Won’t Let Me Wait’)
Gary Young (70, American drummer, Pavement)
19: Ron Cephas Jones (66, American actor, ‘This Is Us’)
24: Bernie Marsden (72, English guitarist, Whitesnake/songwriter, ‘Here I Go Again’/’Fool For Your Loving’)
29: Jamie Crick (57, English radio broadcaster, Jazz FM)
31: Gayle Hunnicutt (80, American actress, ‘Dallas’)
September
1: Jimmy Buffett (76, American singer/songwriter, ‘Margaritaville’)
4: Gary Wright (80, American singer/songwriter, ‘Dream Weaver’/’Love Is Alive’)
Steve Harwell (56, American singer/rapper, Smash Mouth)
8: Mike Yarwood (82, English comedian/impressionist)
13: Roger Whittaker (87, Kenyan-born English singer/songwriter, ‘Durham Town’)
16: Sir Horace Ove (86, Trinidadian-born, English film director, ‘Pressure’)
Irish Grinstead (43, American R&B singer, 702)
25: David McCallum (90, Scottish actor, ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’/’N.C.I.S.’/musician)
28: Michael Gambon (82, English actor, ‘Harry Potter’ movies)
30: Russell Batiste Jr. (57, American drummer, The Meters)
October
2: Francis Lee (79, English football player, Manchester City/England)
8: Burt Young (83, American actor, ‘Rocky’)
11: Rudolph Isley (84, American singer, The Isley Brothers/songwriter, ‘That Lady’)
12: Michael Cooper (71, Jamaican musician, Inner Circle/Third World)
14: Piper Laurie (91, American actress, ‘Carrie’/’The Hustler’)
19: DJ Mark The 45 King (62, DJ/musician/producer, ‘The 900 Number’)
20: Haydn Gwynne (66, English actress, ‘Drop The Dead Donkey’)
21: Sir Bobby Charlton (86, English footballer, Manchester United/England)
24: Richard Roundtree (81, American actor, ‘Shaft’)
28: Matthew Perry (54, American-Canadian actor, ‘Friends’)
November
12: Anna Scher (78, founder of the Anna Scher Children’s Theatre)
19: Joss Ackland CBE (95, English actor, ‘White Mischief’)
22: Jean Knight (80, American soul singer, ‘Mr. Big Stuff’)
25: Terry Venables (80, English footballer, Chelsea/Tottenham Hotspur/England manager)
26: Geordie Walker (64, English guitarist, Killing Joke)
29: Sticky Vicky (80, Spanish dancer and illusionist)
30: Shane MacGowan (65, English-born Irish singer, The Pogues/songwriter, ‘Fairytale Of New York’)
December
1: Brigit Forsyth (83, Scottish actress, ‘Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?’)
5: Denny Laine (79, English musician, The Moody Blues/Wings, songwriter, ‘Mull Of Kintyre’)
7: Benjamin Zephaniah (65, English poet/writer/actor, ‘Peaky Blinders’)
8: Ryan O’Neal (82, American actor, ‘Love Story’/’Barry Lyndon’/’Paper Moon’)
Nidra Beard (71, American singer, Dynasty)
11: Andre Braugher (61, American actor, ‘Homicide: Life On The Street’/’Brooklyn Nine-Nine’/’Glory’)
Richard Kerr (78, English singer/songwriter, ‘Mandy’)
15: Bob Johnson (79, singer/songwriter/musician, Steeleye Span)
16: Colin Burgess (77, Australian drummer, AC/DC)
17: Amp Fiddler (65, singer/songwriter/producer)
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SOCA THERAPY - MARCH 24, 2024
Soca Therapy Playlist
Sunday March 24th 2024
Making You Wine From 6-9pm on Flow 98.7fm Toronto
Captain (Dr. Jay Plate) - Hey Choppi
Dutty Flex - Kes
Soca Shanty (Nah Going Home) - Adam O x DJ Riddim Master
DAP (Drink And Party) - Viking Ding Dong
Happy Birthday (It's Shot O'Clock) - Motto x International Stephen
Honeycomb - Kes The Band feat Busy Signal & Michael Brun
Sha La La (Remix) - Nessa Preppy feat Skeng
Gal Like Sand - Shal Marshall
Wild Out Remix - Voice feat Rajahwild
Soca Bunx Riddim (Instrumental) - Zimi Records x PP x Dj Private Ryan x Travis World
Closer - Imani Ray
One Ah Dem - Shal Marshall
Roxanne - Problem Child
Search Party - Preedy
Soca Eden - Destra
Let's Pretend - Patrice Roberts
In The Center - GBM Nutron x Farmer Nappy
So What - Fay-Ann Lyons
You, Soca & Money (Muv Short Edit) - Nadia Batson
Arch - Rhea Layne
Hot Gyal Anthem - GBM Nutron
Holiday - Problem Child
Good Medicine - Jaiga
Human Nature - Voice x Jada Kingdom
1 On 1 - Jimmy October
Wassy - Full Blown
TOP 7 @ 7 COUNTDOWN - Powered By The Soca Source
Top Songs On Jamaica Radio (all stations) from March 1st to 19th
7. Bad Gyal - Erphaan Alves
6. Inventor (Izaman) - Olatunji
5. Whistle While You Work - TK International
4. Energy - DJ Cheem x Tallpree
3. Wetter D Better - Preedy x Sekon Sta
2. We Reach - Iwer George
1. Everytime - Nadia Batson
Bad Gyal Section - Konshens
Boss Wine - Machel Montano x Salty
Back It Up (Remix) - Freezy x King Bubba Bashment
Ba Ba Ben (Wine & Bend Pt. 2) - DJ Cheem
Risk It All - Rudy Live
Night & Day - Th3rd x JMTB
Cut Me Loose - Kes x Travis World
Nothing Better - Nadia Batson x Romain Virgo
Enough - Nadia Batson x Farmer Nappy
Right For Somebody - Kerwin Du Bois
Alive And Well (DJ Kevin Festival Edit) - Voice
Stay Far - Problem Child
Energy Killers - Kerwin Du Bois
Mind Off (DM Edit Clean) - Lil Rick x Jus-Jay
No Press Button - Problem Child
Dutty O'clock - Hance John
Fall Down - Keith Currency x Viking Ding Dong
Somebody Gyal - Skinny Fabulous
PAN MOMENTS
Pan By Storm - Fonclaire
TANTY TUNE
(1988) Woman Is Boss - Denyse Plummer & Len "Boogsie" Sharpe
Take Dat & Cool It - Nigel Lewis
Turn It Up - Square One
Warming Up - Adam O x Akaiiusweet
BenUp - Porgie & Murda
Mon Bon Ami - Angela Hunte
Human - Machel Montano
Miracle - Kes & Tano
Beatin Road - Preedy & Smiddy Smith
Carnival Contract - Bunji Garlin
Document We - Kerwin Du Bois & Shal Marshall
Born To Fly - Nailah Blackman & Pumpa
Anxiety - Patrice Roberts
Devotion - Destra
My All - Nadia Batson
Best Self Transition to DNA - Nailah Blackman, Lyrikal, Mical Teja, Madness Muv
Rum Sweet - Problem Child
Welcome Back - Imani Ray
Weh Yuh Want (Soca Baby) - Prezzi Don
Yuh Lie - Added Rankin
NORTHERN PRESCRIPTION
I Will Be Here - Kreesha Turner
Full Extreme - Ultimate Rejects feat MX Prime
Follow Dr. Jay @socaprince and @socatherapy
“Like” Dr. Jay on http://facebook.com/DrJayOnline
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