My story about Lushlife comes in two parts: West Sounds and Cassette City. Lush — Raj Haldar — has become a friend through working on his record Cassette City over the last 18 months. I didn’t know him from Adam in 2005 when he released West Sounds.
I can’t remember exactly how I stumbled across West Sounds, but I’m really glad I did. It got mixed critical reaction, but I think the critics really missed the point. Some were saying that the mash-ups were too simple, others criticized Lush for not being hip hop enough, though all admitted finding pearls throughout the record. The problem was that they listened to the tracks, but didn’t put enough thought into the context and the statement Raj was making.
It all starts with Brian Wilson famously calling hip hop “the lowpoint in the history of music.”
I hold the opinion that music shouldn’t be judged outside of personal context. Brian Wilson hates hip hop? Okay. But to call it the lowpoint in the history of music, of which his lifetime spans only a small fraction, is silly. Art changes, some people love the new, some people hate it. The point is that art is change, music is art, and the act of creation trumps all else.
That defined West Sounds for me. The quote from Wilson was on the digital packaging. In 2005 big Lushlife release was Order Of Operations, his excellent debut. West Sounds was a response to Brian Wilson, not some ridiculous verbal exchange or blog rant, but a new creation built from the man’s own work that could inform the argument and lend a new viewpoint. It’s a great example of a constructive reaction to a negative and unproductive comment. (And also the basis for an argument about why we need to support great thinking like Creative Commons, but that’s a whole separate post.)
So it was 2005 that brought me this heady introduction to Lushlife, and it wasn’t until 2008 that I reached out, introduced myself, and told Raj about what we were trying to do with CASH Music.
We hit it off pretty quickly, and Raj gave a rundown of plans for his next album, Cassette City. Before long he shared a sneak preview and that demo stayed in heavy rotation for me. We built him a site to stream it securely which he used to pitch labels and monitor their interaction with the demo. Billy helped him review contract terms and that ultimately gave Raj the ability to make a solid decision and sign with !K7 for the record.
As Cassette City drew closer each new version got better and better. I got to hear little tweaks and changes as I iterated through artwork for the cover. It was a pretty interesting way to work and I’m really proud of the end result. I’m a little too close to give an impartial review, so take my opinion for what it’s worth, but I love the final record. It’s wonderful, intelligent, and effortlessly blends true hip hop with indie rock sounds. Working on Cassette City gave me the real sense that CASH is building something, and for that I’m truly grateful to Raj.
We just helped launch a new Lushlife remix project that’ll add a fan remix to a great lineup of official remixers. Well worth checking out. Raj has included the test pressing from Order Of Operations in our raffle, and also wrote a really nice post about it on his blog.
Lushlife’s CASH fundraiser contribution
Lushlife at CASH
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