Last summer, jazz trio Bad Bad Not Good showed the world another side of the depth and darkness of the music of Tyler the Creator and Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All with their Goblin medley. Now, the guys have returned with a new mixtape that attacks on all genre fronts.
The tracks showcase a gravity and versatility that is coming to be the trademark of BBNG’s arrangements, as if the trio were the dark, alternate universe counterpart to the vibrancy of 2Cellos in the best way possible. Even as they hit those deep, dark, low notes and pound brutally and mournfully at every moment, there’s an unmistakable energy brought to every track.
The majority of the covers – Earl Sweatshirt‘s “Earl,” My Bloody Valentine‘s “You Made Me Realise,” and a medley of Tyler the Creator’s “Bastard” and Gucci Mane‘s “Lemonade” – have an apocalyptic feel to them, but nowhere is this more present than in their take on Kanye’s “Flashing Lights,” feeling, all at once, like they’ve taken both a scalpel and a sledgehammer to the original in the most brilliant way possible.
On the covers of James Blake‘s “CMYK” and “Limit to Your Love,” though, BBNG somehow do something brand new while doing what they always do; they transform the act of covering a song into an act that can only be called translation – the translation from electronica to jazz. That translation is fluent, beautiful, poetic, as is the rest of their catalog. Enjoy.
MP3: Bad Bad Not Good – Limit to Your Love (Feist/James Blake Cover)
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MP3: Bad Bad Not Good – Flashing Lights (Kanye West Cover)
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Check out more from Bad Bad Not Good and download the rest of the mixtape on their website.
