Cermak - "Plaza Meditation". Rupert Grog wove in and out of the parking lot's lines, driving and reversing and hiking the parking brake; turning the key in the ignition and flicking the windshield wipers. This is an exercise, he repeated to himself. Take it easy. He imagined a class in Taking It Easy, where objects are placed on a table and you pick them carefully, calmly, easily up. Take the bowl, easy. Take the wheel of brie. In advanced classes, the taking would get harder. Take the kitten. Take the steam. Rupert followed the curve of the median. He was illuminated in sodium lights. It was summertime but getting cool.

[Cermak's Common Citysongs is about the easiest pleasure, right now. Rhodes, vibraphone, easy-listening Moondog grooves. Buy/listen at Bandcamp.]

The-Dream - "Murderer". Meanwhile, the protagonist of "Murderer" is having a rough August. A song that's grim, doomed, Terius's autotune like voices in your head. If the Spanish guitar recalls bad action movies like Deperado or good action movies like Miami Vice, know that this tune is "inspired" by the upcoming Zoe Saldana vehicle Colombiana. Certainly it feels like music for only a fictional murderer; unlike the death ballads of Notorious BIG or Scarface, "Murderer" is melancholy without grief, sweeping shots of green jungle. But it's also pretty wonderful, a two-minute coda to the best-ever episode of Law & Order.

The-Dream will apparently release two albums before the end of 2011 - one free record, 1977, due 8/31, and another, The Love, IV: Diary of a Madman, a little later. "Murderer" will not appear on either one. Mr Nash is beautifully prolific.

(photo source)