Best Available Technology‘s Exposure Therapy LP came out this month on Styles Upon Styles. The project is helmed by the Portland-based producer Kevin Palmer who explains that his new record is “a complex meditation on the golden age of New York hip-hop.” The complexity comes from the fact that Palmer’s admiration for NYC’s boom-bap era is observed thru the distance of time and place and it reflects the musician’s struggles “with how to express a deep affection for a sound that was always thousands of miles away.” Palmer recently discussed his project with XLR8R where he explained,
“Let’s be clear: I am not a scholar or anything approaching an authority on the subject (way too ADD to be scholarly or authoritative) I just know that when I heard those sounds and voices I was profoundly moved and have been a bit obsessed with trying to recreate the feeling I get when I listen to it.”
The video for “Session 9177” is directed by Jordan Levie, and it too draws it’s inspiration from NYC. Using POV perspective, and fueled by a long day drinking malt liquor, Levie’s over-the-shoulder view takes in wide swaths of the city as the video’s protagonist travels by foot and train. As one might expect after a long day of drinking, the view grows increasingly hectic, but by sunset, it basks in the buzzed afterglow of a carefree day. You can watch Best Available Technology’s “Session 9177” video below, and while you’re at it, give Palmer’s XLR8R mixtape podcast, featuring material drawn from his catalog of unreleased work, a listen here.
