A Sea Of Codeine

Lil’ Wayne “I Feel Like Dying” – Okay, so, whether he intended it or not, this is basically Lil’ Wayne approximating the style of Tricky circa the mid-90s, but without all that complicated sexual tension that I wrote about a couple weeks ago. Really, aside from the fairly straightforward beat, the total absence of sexuality is the one major difference between this and a classic Tricky cut — Wayne’s gravelly yet puckish voice sounds remarkably similar at some points, and the hypnotic female vocal hook sounds as though it could be an outtake from Pre-Millennium Tension. The subject matter is rather familiar as well: The song is essentially a meditation on self-medication that vacillates between dark humor and total despair, and the sampled voice is playing the part of a siren calling Wayne towards oblivion. (Click here for the Lil Wayne MySpace page.)

Grouper “Everyone In Turn” – If you put this on repeat, you may not notice the track beginning and ending. There’s a pause, of course, and a crackle of surface noise, but all the sound just hangs in the air like a dense, slow-moving cloud. The arrangement is not at all static, but its mournful mood and spectral aura is sustained until you shut it off. (Click here to buy it from Type Records.)