Originally Published March 1, 2015:

It’s February. Time to get into the grind. There are no breaks. The weather sucks. But new music is still being made everyday, and that’s what you should focus on. For instance, just yesterday, the electronic/jazz trio BADBADNOTGOOD dropped their collaboration record with rapper Ghostface Killah, entitled “Sour Soul”. I dig the whole sound of their record, so it was hard to single out just one song for today’s song of the day, but I decided to go with “Stark’s Reality”, a track on the record that actually doesn’t have Ghostface spitting his characteristically rugged (and distracting) rhymes, which means it’s a great song for buckling down and doing work. As BADBADNOTGOOD have progressed as a band, their sound has had a unique development in that some of their newer tracks have sounded more like contemporary film noir soundtracks than hip hop instrumentals. This track especially, with it’s opulent orchestral sounds and interesting arrangement of bell parts, brings a vibe that proves the trio has evolved from covering Dilla instrumentals to creating their own aural landscape. I don’t mean to gloss over the rhythm section in this song, because the drums provide a simple and undistracting groove, while the bass gets into some lines that display the full range of the instrument. Still, the whole track retains that groove that is the reason we keep coming back to BADBADNOTGOOD. Nevertheless, the beauty in this track really can be seen at the end, because when the song is over, you feel like you just woke up from a dream sequence in a movie. Wierd.

Improvin’ and grooving,

Erez