Author Profile

Noah Levine

Web: http://flickr.com/noahdj40

Twitter: @noahdj40

Profile:

A writer, DJ, photographer and designer currently based in Chicago, Noah does his best to stay on top of local, national and international music of all types. Besides regularly contributing to the pages of Urb (both physical and virtual), his words about music (and occasional concert photography) can be located among the pages of publications such as Remix, BPM, Newcity Chicago and Chicago Innerview. While currently defunct, for a time his AptCoot blog provided an outlet for writing on political and social topics. As DJ 40oz. Noah spins hip hop, funk, soul, downtempo, uptempo and anything else he feels like at spots around Chicago and beyond. He keeps in shape playing ultimate frisbee and works out of it drinking his homebrewed beer.

Posts by noahlevine:

Nov11

Atlas Sound – Parallax (Review)

Atlas Sound

Parallax

Released by 4AD


The name Bradford Cox chose for his latest Atlas Sound release perfectly captures the connection between his two main musical outlets. Parallax is the term for the differences that become apparent when looking at the same thing from different vantages, and on his album of that name Cox continues to dissolve the distinct features that once separated the looping bedroom ambience of his solo work as Atlas Sound releases and the psyched up rock he worked up with Deerhunter. “Earthquake!” and “Helicopters” were among the highlights of his band’s ...

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Sep27

Warm Ghost – Narrows (Review)

Warm Ghost

Narrows

Released by Partisan


While music critics have been busy coining the term Chill Wave to describe the burgeoning crop of electronic acts whipping up dreamy soundscapes in their bedrooms, Paul Duncan and bandmate Oliver Chopy are already pushing past those definitions with a sound that comfortably cozies up with the name they’ve taken for the project. Warm Ghost’s debut album builds on the sound they developed with a pair of well received EPs, exploring comfortable intimacies and all the dark things lurking around the edges. Duncan’s wrought vocals mix 70s emotion with ...

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Jul12

The Cool Kids – When Fish Ride Bicycles (Review)

The Cool Kids

When Fish Ride Bicycles

Released by Green Label Sound


Suffering through a delayed album release is pretty much a hip hop right of passage, especially when you’re heavily buzzed about and regularly being tagged as a next big thing. For some acts this delay is deadly. The hype gets to their heads and by the time their bloated debut gets out the door whatever they did to get noticed is no longer interesting or too many voices got in their ears and they’ve abandoned their spark to chase someone else’s because that’s now the flavor of the month. ...

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Jun21

Junior Boys – It’s All True (Review)

Junior Boys

It's All True

Released by Domino


On their recent releases, the electro-pop put forth by Junior Boys was excellently refined and intimate in composition and production. Jeremy Greenspan’s lyrics certainly put his emotions out in the open, and he and bandmate Matthew Didemus constructed the songs that excelled in their polished restraint. Yet it came with a detached air, almost as if the honed electronic sounds and the spirit of the music were being presented from behind a screen. All the same basic elements—classic synth leads, intricately pulsing rhythms and pop vocal stylings—are back again ...

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Jun09

Chucha Santamaria Y Usted – Bright Young Light Pt. 2 (MP3) (MP3)

This soon to wed duo of Sofía Córdova and Matthew Kirkland bring a latin accent to the electro pop on their self-titled debut set for release in two weeks on Austin’s Young Cubs label. They’ve got plenty of energetic and aggressive beats and lyrics in store, but ahead of that release, Chucha Santamaria Y Usted are offering the track “Bright Young Light Pt. 2″ as a sample. It’s gliding intensity is descriptive of the album, but the track is mostly an example of Córdova and Kirkland at their most restrained.

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