Sweet Harm - Certain Sun LP - Yellow Vinyl

Salinas (2025)

Sweet Harm are proving to be a difficult band to write about in the short time I've been listening to their debut album Certain Sun.  I find it equally intriguing and frustrating, at times wanting to like it more than I do, while also wondering if I'm trying to hard to like it when I don't.  It's a good album, but there's something holding it back for me.

We've got your standard rock music line up.  Two guitars, a bass and some drums.  The music they are creating is warm and easy to listen to.  There's a good base of guitar fuzz, complimented by a little jangle in all of the right places.  We're talking predominantly mid tempo indie that's fast enough to not get boring, while also being mellow enough to not step all over itself or get too punk for its own good.

I think what keeps this album from growing on me is the vocals.  The bulk of the singing is handled by Dominic Armao.  He has a conversational singing style that sometimes reminds me of a less whimsical Stephen Malkmus.  His vocal melodies often verge away from where you think they should be considering the music he's singing over.  There are times where that's interesting, but there are also times where it sounds like he's singing a different song than the rest of the band is playing.  

Kate Larson is the group's other vocalist.  She takes the lead on two tracks, and provides backing vocals on the others.  Again, I struggle as to what to say about them as they're difficult to hear on most of the album.  She seems so buried in the mix that you can mostly only pick up on faint echoes of backing vocals here and there.  This mixing decision is also noticeable on the two songs that she takes the lead on, they're just so different from when Dominic is singing, as he's way louder.

And that's where I struggle.  It's a pretty good record, but the vocals don't really do it for me.  I'm not sure if it's the way everything was put together after the fact, or if these are intentional decisions that the group is making.  At the end of the day, this one's just not for me.

Sweet Harm - Certain Sun:

https://sweetharm.bandcamp.com/album/certain-sun

Kaotic Style - Infinity LP - Yellow Vinyl (/50)

Dope Folks (2021)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for thirty plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

As I continue to try to clear out records that have been sitting around for too long without being written about, we come to Infinity by Kaotic Style.  Back in 2022 I had written about the first of the Kaotic Style releases that Dope Folks had put out.  I had this record when I wrote about that one.  I've had it long enough to have gotten one of the limited to 50 copies versions on yellow vinyl.  I just never wrote about it.  Again, trying to clean that up as best as I can.

Kaotic Style is really strong early 90s, East Coast hip hop.  About half of these songs were pulled from singles released between 1991 and 1992.  The remaining half are unreleased songs that the group recorded between 1994 and 1996.  If you look at the time frame and the geography, it's a pretty safe bet that this is going to be the exact sort of hip hop that I want to listen to.  The songs from the early 90s singles are really strong for that era.  I would have absolutely been into these guys if I had access to their music in 1992.  The flows are really strong, with lyrical structures that go beyond simple rhyme schemes into more complex microphone magic.  Everything is upbeat and the words per minute keep up with and often exceed the beats per minute.

The production can more than hold up to the lyrics as it's that boom bap style that I love so much.  Even the songs that were recorded past my usual 1994 cut off don't fall into the slow, often boring production that I think tends to dominate 1995 and 1996.  Now, is the singing break of "Get Down" my favorite thing on the album?  No, but even that isn't very offensive and the lyrics more than make up for it.

I'm not really sure why these guys didn't get a chance to put out a full album back in the 90s.  They just never broke out of the underground.  While it's a bummer that because of that I never got to hear Kaotic Style when they were active, those underground styles are why these tracks still sound so fresh and exciting in 2026.

Kaotic Style - Infinity:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58028yuMRgE

Mrs. Magician - High Resolution 7"

 
Swami (2026)

It seems both inconceivable and ridiculous that it's been ten years since the last Mrs. Magician record came out.  This is a band responsible for two incredible albums, the first of which is easily in my top 10 records that have come out in the 2000s (probably top five, honestly - but I don't have time to check and do the math right now).  This two song 7" marks their return in 2026, leading up to a new album next month.  Which coincidently includes both of the songs on this 7".

Now, I must remind people that I have an aversion to listening to songs from un upcoming album outside of the context of the full album.  I find that it makes me hear those songs differently than the rest.  In the past I have overplayed advance singles and I've learned that it does the album no favors, so I avoid that now.  I bring this up because I'm writing about this 7" only having listened to it once, with no plans to listen again until I can hear these songs with the rest of the full record.

I did write down some notes while I listened, knowing that I wouldn't be back for a little bit.  A side "High Resolution" is a driving pop song with a big guitar riff doing the heavy lifting in the verse.  There's some nice surfy secondary guitar sprinkled in and a great hook for the chorus.  The song is very good and as I listened to it I was getting pretty excited to hear the new album when suddenly at about the minute forty-five mark or so, the song veers into an incredibly catchy bridge or breakdown or whatever you want to call it.  It's just bonkers and makes the song even better than I already thought it was.  What a ride.

On the B side, "Dead Alive" starts off with that scrappy, early, reverb heavy Mrs. Magician sound before cleaning itself up when the main thrust of the song kicks in. I hope we get a little more of that fuzzy aesthetic on the rest of the record as I really dig that.  But again, this is another cracking good song with crunchy guitars and some really nice vocal interplay between Jacob and Tiffany Turnbloom where there's a back and forth before coming together into a harmony.  

Like I said, I only listened to this once, but I definitely liked what I heard.  What it really does (and I do believe this is the point of singles, I'm sure it's in a book somewhere) is make me excited to finally hear the full length.  I am counting down the days and doing finger exercises to ensure I can preorder the vinyl as quickly as possible once it shows up in the Swami shop.

Mrs. Magician - "High Resolution":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C55h4t9BF-I

Mrs. Magician - "Dead Alive":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPapZ7Y4laU

C.P.O. - To Hell and Black LP

 
Capitol (1990)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for thirty plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

C.P.O. is mildly confusing to me.  It's a group, but it also ended up being a person (Lil Nation is in the group, who later became Boss Hogg who also was CPO?).  But what I do know about C.P.O. is that they are affiliated with MC Ren of N.W.A.  How do I know this?  He guests on two tracks, he co-wrote almost every song on here, he's the producer and on the back of the record there's a larger font, bolded thank you paragraph to him that is borderline embarrassing to read.  Don't get me wrong, I like MC Ren, I don't think he ever gets his due for how important he was in the history of N.W.A, but his name is on this LP more than anyone actually in the group.

I wasn't aware of C.P.O. when this album came out in 1990.  I discovered them when Paramount+ uploaded about 75 old episodes of Yo! MTV Raps a couple of years ago and I proceeded to watch every single episode (they are sadly gone again, but what a glorious ride that was).  I saw the C.P.O. video a few times and decided to check out the record.  1990 was when I started watching Yo!, though I don't remember seeing C.P.O. back then.  But still, better late than ever.

The record itself is a strong album as far as what the production of 1990 sounded like.  It's a little dated sounding listening to it today, but in the context of when it was actually released, it holds up.  Lil Nation is totally solid on the mic.  You can certainly hear the MC Ren influence and co-writing, but it's not like he doesn't do a good job when he's spinning his yarns.  Though MC Ren completely dominates the spotlight every time he comes up.  Again, I don't think that guy gets the credit he deserves for how good he was during this time period.

Is this album great?  No, it's not great, but it's pretty good and is a cool snapshot of the villain in black at a period between Straight Outta Compton and Efil4zaggin.  Oh, and there's a group called C.P.O. here too.  When I picked up this copy I didn't realize that someone had written on the cover, but I'm not really bothered to go buy another copy to upgrade this copy for my collection.  I think you can use that information to judge where I rank this album.  Good enough to keep, but not important enough to upgrade.

C.P.O. - To Hell and Black:

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mMp4BJ_IbbEw2F1y1I_psMX7kEmUnBxgs