Music Recommendation: The Avalanches ft. Freddie Gibbs- BAD DAY

Freddie Gibbs and The Avalanches are one musical collaboration I never expected to hear, but now that it's an actual thing, I'm so happy it exists. On the surface, the two wouldn't seem to go together- Gibbs, a gangsta rapper, has built up a solid reputation in hip-hop quarters over the last decade plus, known for his technical skill and gritty, dark subject matter, while The Avalanches are a plunderphonics group hailing from Australia, who rose to fame around the turn of the century with their eclectic style of sun-kissed, sample-extensive electronic music. With this track however, Gibbs and The Avalanches join forces to create a fantastic song that finds both artists in top form, proving that unusual pairings can, in fact, work. The track opens with a sample taken from Shuggie Otis' classic 70's jam "Strawberry Letter 23", before a simple bassline and new sample come in to overtake it. It's at this point that the beat kicks in, with the new sample being continuously looped as Gibbs enters. From a lyrical standpoint, Gibbs' verse isn't anything groundbreaking, but much like he did on his and Madlib's criminally underrated joint 2014 album Piñata, Gibbs masterfully rides the beat like a pro, spitting bars about celebrating the success of his career à la Biggie while also taking time to reflect on the harsh, violent environment he grew up in that he can't seem to shake. His verse does a great job of matching the juxtaposed quality of The Avalanches' detailed & colorful production, which on the one hand, is bright and upbeat, but also seems to possess an underlying sense of melancholy. This feeling is heightened by the sample that is intermittently interspersed into the primary loop that drives the song, as a pitched-up soulful voice croons, "And it feels like I'm not really gettin through." The last third of the song sees The Avalanches changing things up again, returning to another sample of "Strawberry Letter 23", this time using its opening keyboard chimes, and then overlaying that with a dreamy guitar-violin sample that has a 1960's psychedelic pop vibe. The finishing touch incorporates a gorgeously understated chipmunk vocal of Stevie Wonder, sounding reminiscent of something Kanye might have chosen to sample back in the early 2000's. "Bad Day" is an incredibly fun and creative song. In typical Avalanches fashion, it's a mess in the best way possible, weaving several disparate moods and genres of music from the 60's, 70's, and present together into a wholly unique tapestry of sounds. The mixing could be fine-tuned, and listening to it you get the sense that the song, as is, isn't completely finished. But for what is essentially a B-sides leftover from The Avalanches' previous album (Wildlfower, released last year), it doesn't get much better than this.

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