The Needle Drop

Happy Birthday, Björk! (Starter Pack Playlist)

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Today Icelandic singer-songwriter, composer, and pop innovator Björk celebrates her 50th birthday. In honor of this occasion, we've compiled the above career-spanning playlist for newcomers or those who just would like an overview of her catalog. This set was probably the hardest one yet to sequence, as over the course of the past three or so decades Björk has dabbled in such disparate genres as post-punk, vocal jazz, alternative dance, chamber music, glitch pop - the list goes on. But this is simply emblematic of the adventurous spirit that has made her work so fun and captivating over the years.

We hope you enjoy the tunes; let us know what your faves are. And to Björk, we wish a very happy birthday.

YUNOREVIEW: October 2015

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The magical monthly segment where Anthony briefly touches down on a gauntlet of albums he didn't get a chance to review this past month. These are just his short, straightforward, passionate, biased opinions...

Extreme Noise Terror - Self-Titled
https://willowtip.bandcamp.com/album/...

Fuzz - Fuzz II
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou-72...

Kelela - Hallucinogen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py6Pg...

Nicole Dollanganger - Natural Born Losers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS91G...

Skylar Spence - Prom King
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8ZTD...

Danny Seth - Perception
http://mobile.livemixtapes.com/mixtap...

Clutch - Psychic Warfare
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8cmb...

Here We Go Magic - Be Small
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADrg6...

Yacht - I Thought the Future Would Be Cooler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXMG1...

Robb Bank$ - Year of the Savage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny-Gm...

Jean-Michel Jarre - Electronica 1: The Time Machine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw02Z...

Janet Jackson - Unbreakable
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_t0f...

Zombi - Shape Shift
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yncxu...

The Neighbourhood - Wiped Out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3UCV...

Laurel Halo - In Situ EP
https://soundcloud.com/honest-jons/se...

EL VY - Return to the Moon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYr2F...

Great Albums: October 2015

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Anthony rounds up his favorite releases of October 2015. Mentioned are:

1. Joanna Newsom - Divers
Listen: http://www.dragcity.com/products/divers
Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GasAQ...

2. Protomartyr - The Agent Intellect
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC7M9...
Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8b-I...

3. The Game - The Documentary 2.5
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3e_lW...
Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvavZ...

4. Neon Indian - Vega INTL. Night School
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTuT1...
Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSF5o...

5. TWIABP - Harmlessness
Listen: https://theworldis.bandcamp.com/album...
Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3e_yN...

Golden Age Hip Hop Vol. 1

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It's high time that we devote one of these playlist features to perhaps the most important era in hip hop's history, its Golden Age. Centered on the East Coast and spanning the mid-80s to the early-90s, the golden age of hip hop was a time of creative innovation, intensifying social consciousness, and stylistic legitimization thanks in large part to a predominantly unbridled, "Wild West" attitude toward sampling. Certainly by the early '90s, when recording artists began being taken to court over uncleared samples, hip hop was seen all across the US as a legitimate institution and form of artistic expression.

This set that runs nearly two hours is a journey through the diverse hip hop landscape of the time, remaining exciting and fun to this day. Enjoy! And don't despair if we left out anything — as the title suggests, we'll probably be down to make another one somewhere down the line.