Thursday, March 17, 2011

Kodak to Graph: "I Keep Holding On"

It's impossible for us to think of Kodak to Graph's music without using metaphor, perhaps because of his name, which harmonizes so well with his cuts that we can only think of them as time-beaten snapshots. Kodak to Graph is the stage name of Pensacola, Florida's Michael Maleki, whose musical leaps--within a few short months--have been both breathtaking and unexpected. "I Keep Holding On" calls on the post-Burial taste for ghostly, down-the-hallway vocals, but veers suddenly into an almost J-Dilla-like territory with the infectious sample from the Jackson 5's "I'll Be There." That's not to say Kodak to Graph is a pastiche of the two in any way--of course, with all artists, there are resemblances, but Maleki commits to a nostalgic take on tropical sounds that is scarce in this steel drum world we live in today:  

I Keep Holding On by Kodak to Graph

"Diet Pills," another excellent, intelligently-constructed track, comes to us via his free December 2010 self-release, Darts--it also marks an extreme shift from his earlier release, Malayer Feet Make Beach Hands, which featured an electronic post-rock sound that, while also quite good, is somewhat eclipsed by the gorgeous, by-the-water half-light of his most recent works, including the very breezy, "ayandeh".

Diet Pills by Kodak to Graph

ayandeh by Kodak to Graph

Visit Kodak to Graph on Myspace; scope out his Soundcloud.

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