LISTEN TO “LAVENDER” FT. KAYTRANADA VIA THE FADER
IV OUT JULY 8 VIA ARTS & CRAFTS
"kicking the jazz world's ass back into relevancy." - VICE
"a brash attitude and youthful energy winning out over technique." - NPR
"...even given the fairly proud lineage of wild musical juxtaposition, these kids are making waves." - The Guardian
PHOTO CREDIT : CONNOR OLTHUIS
After recently announcing their forthcoming album IV and sharing its lead single, featuring Samuel T. Herring,BADBADNOTGOOD are back to share a new Kaytranada-assisted album cut. "Lavender" picks up where BADBADNOTGOOD and Kaytranada left off with "Weight Off", the BADBADNOTGOOD-featuring song from 99.9% and explores even more alien-sounding sonic terrain.
Speaking about the collaboration, BADBADNOTGOOD said, "We made Lavender amongst many other songs and samples with Kaytranada in our home studio 'Studio 69'. Kay started the idea as a beat with our drum breaks and some synth melodies. Then we recut the drums and synth to formulate a song with more sections. Kay came back to Toronto and gave us that hot lead melody as well as percussion and we all finalized the arrangement. It's an incredible honor to call Kay a close friend of ours; he is a talent like no other."
LISTEN TO “LAVENDER” FT. KAYTRANADA VIA THE FADER
Its release comes on the heels of BADBADNOTGOOD wrapping a run of North American tour dates, which was capped off by a performance at House of Vans in Brooklyn with DIIV and Sunflower Bean last week. Full tour dates can be found below.
Like musical theatre and scripted television, jazz and hip-hop are uniquely, undeniably North American art forms. Though the latter genre was born out of funk and disco in the late 1970s, many of its landmark artists embody the ethos of jazz: loose, visceral, instinctive. Some hip-hop acts, A Tribe Called Quest, or more recently Kendrick Lamar have successfully repurposed jazz, but the older genre has seldom made successful inroads into new generations of rap fans. And that's what makes BADBADNOTGOOD, the four-piece, Toronto-bred jazz outfit that has melded jazz and instrumental hip-hop into something elusive, something altogether their own, so unique.
On their latest full-length effort, IV, BBNG decide to expand their universe, which was already one of the most compelling, labyrinthine worlds in pop music today. Saxophonist Leland Whitty, a long-time collaborator, joins Chester Hansen, Matthew Tavares, and Alexander Sowinski on a full-time basis; for the first time, guest vocalists are welcomed into the fold. Some artists find collaboration stressful and cluttering, but BBNG simply seems freer to chase down creative rabbit holes than ever before.
The effect is apparent immediately. See "Lavender," a collaboration with the Montreal-based producer Kaytranada, which pairs delicate, skittering production with a punishing low end. Or take the virtuosic closer, which underscores superb performances by Whitty and Tavares with a grande swell of strings. On "Hyssop of Love", upstart Chicago rapper Mick Jenkins moves languidly, stretching out taunts ("I heard your plug was drrrrry") before he snaps upright ("Never needed no dollars to prove worth"). The result is not just BBNG's most expansive, most dynamic effort to date, but their best. Lest anyone think the group is only concerned with blurring genre lines, the title track alone is enough to ensure the most discerning jazz purists will have to respect BBNG's technical chops.
IV is a master class in mood. The opening three-song suite, "And That, Too.", "Speaking Gently", and the Samuel T. Herring-assisted "Time Moves Slow", is a slow, slinking creep, like moving uneasily through an abandoned house. And while BBNG explores different tones on subsequent tracks, that feeling--the search, the push for the unknown--is the prevailing theme. "Chompy's Paradise" is peaceful and serene, but ends on an uncertain note, unresolved. Like most great artists before them, the quartet understands that it's more important to raise questions than to answer them.
LISTEN TO “TIME MOVES SLOW” FT. SAMUEL T. HERRING HERE
BADBADNOTGOOD ON TOUR
6/17 - Ballinough Castle, IRE @ Body & Soul
6/18 - Barcelona, SP @ Sonar Festival
6/19 - Hilvarenbeek, NL @ Best Kept Secret Festival
6/21 - Luxemburg, LX @ Rotondes
6/23 - Tel Aviv, ISR @ Barby
6/24 - Luzern, CH @ Sudpol
6/27 - London, UK @ Village Underground
6/28 - Paris, FR @ Trabendo
7/1 - Roskilde, DK @ Roskilde Festival
7/2 - Werchter, BE @ Rock Werchter
7/3 - Timisoara, RO @ JazzTM
7/23 - Oro-Medonte, ON @ WayHome Festival
8/5 - Buena Vista, CO @ Vertex Festival
8/6 - Happy Valley, OR @ Pickathon
BADBADNOTGOOD IV TRACKLIST
1. And That, Too
2. Speaking Gently
3. Time Moves Slow (Feat. Samuel T. Herring)
4. Confessions Pt. II (Feat. Colin Stetson)
5. Lavender (Feat. Kaytranada)
6. Chompy's Paradise
7. IV
8. Hyssop of Love (Feat. Mick Jenkins)
9. Stucture No. 3
10. In Your Eyes (Feat. Charlotte Day Wilson)
11. Cashmere
BBNG ONLINE
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