From dusted, though 'fork was pitching it too.
I'm not going to beat around the bush: the reason to get on board with this album is the production. Spank Rock is a good point of comparison: the beats are Baltimore-big, with a pulse, surge and buzz at every turn, alternately spare and huge, and sometimes both at once.
But generally, if there's any one influence to point to here, it's dubstep. Wait, wait! Come back! Maybe dubstep's already over, but this album's enough to give you some hope. In fact, think of this as a really experiemental dubstep-influenced electronic album and everything starts to make sense. It just happens to use some pretty decent rapping as a prominent line of focus, melody and rhythm, and it uses hip-hop influence to keep things interesting, letting at least one really nice melodic line tease and surge through each song.
Look at Are you...Can you...Were you, which does its darndest to cling to an icy series of chopped-too-soon samples, but then there's this looming synth, just out of range. And then at 3:17 the undeniable melodic line peeks its head in the door and slithers out, then comes back and leaves again, and again, now with a fat bassline, teasing, teasing, before heading out into the rain. These moments help the songs engage the bobbing part of the head in a way most dubstep won't deign to, and there's a Girltalky intuition manipulating emotion and groove on display here that most dubstep doesn't aspire to.
As an actual rap album? Its a weird one. The rapping is decent, again evoking Spank Rock with its whipsnap drawl. But the production is so aggressive, so different from what you're used to hearing even on experimental rap albums that the actual vocals really feel secondary. This just might be one that requires a bit more time to get used to.
I like it. It's interesting. On the surface, its pretty annoying, but it somehow works on subliminal level, pulling the right deep strings. It's an obvious pairing: sludgy, bassy, chopped electronic music as rap production. But it's done better here than it had to be, with imagination, heart, and craft 4/5
You might like this if: You want to hear some really experimental rap production. You saw promise in dubstep, got bored with it, but retain hope. This is a pretty cool variation.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
#372 Teenage Panzercorps - German Raggae
When I'm feeling lazy, but not quite pitchfork-lazy, I trawl dusted, which has no BNM feature, let alone numerical scores, so I have to actually read things. I haven't even had that kind of energy all that often lately, but I needed something a little different.
What you get with Teenage Panzercorps is something different, though it is pretty solidly rooted in a lot of other bands who were doing different things. Most immediately, there is a huge, throbbing bass sound with sheetmetal guitars over top, angularly arranged, plus some half-formless screaming, evoking noisy art-punks like Death from Above 1979, The Giddy Motors, and The Fall. The later is especially presence, given the deadpan delivery and the overall sound - you can sure hear The Fall's Barmy in Corpse Watcher's hopsteps and drones.
Everything's a little sludgier and artier than that though, with a Krauty sense of texture, space, and patience, sounding a bit like Deerhunter's haziest moments, Wavves's sludgiest, or Je Suis France's heaviest. And, you know, they sound, at times, like Can. The German menace and muttering help there.
And as you might guess, its a bit unlistenable, with its combination of dissonance and defiance of form. But it's also strangely alive, sounding like something written in passion and performed before the sheen wore off. I liked it more than I should have for that reason alone 3.5/5
You Might Like This If: You like arty, heavy, sludgy post-punk, with a spark at either end, and don't mind if it's all in German.
What you get with Teenage Panzercorps is something different, though it is pretty solidly rooted in a lot of other bands who were doing different things. Most immediately, there is a huge, throbbing bass sound with sheetmetal guitars over top, angularly arranged, plus some half-formless screaming, evoking noisy art-punks like Death from Above 1979, The Giddy Motors, and The Fall. The later is especially presence, given the deadpan delivery and the overall sound - you can sure hear The Fall's Barmy in Corpse Watcher's hopsteps and drones.
Everything's a little sludgier and artier than that though, with a Krauty sense of texture, space, and patience, sounding a bit like Deerhunter's haziest moments, Wavves's sludgiest, or Je Suis France's heaviest. And, you know, they sound, at times, like Can. The German menace and muttering help there.
And as you might guess, its a bit unlistenable, with its combination of dissonance and defiance of form. But it's also strangely alive, sounding like something written in passion and performed before the sheen wore off. I liked it more than I should have for that reason alone 3.5/5
You Might Like This If: You like arty, heavy, sludgy post-punk, with a spark at either end, and don't mind if it's all in German.
Friday, June 24, 2011
#371 Steely Dan - Katy Lied
Lets try one more of these!
Here again, I'm not in love. The instrumentation seems simpler in construction, the vocals less passionate, the sentiments more bland. It sounds like a band, having tried to stretch a bit, settling back into an accessible, core sound.
That said, this inspired me to return to Countdown to Ecstasy, and the difference isn't all that marked. Maybe it's all about expectations - I came into Countdown unsure and was surprised at how good it was, and with Katy Lied and Pretzel Logic I had a standard in mind that they didn't live up to. Or maybe the newness has just worn off, as I dig into the catalog of a curiously imaginative/unimaginative band.
Caveats aside, I do think this is a more bland album. The performances seems a bit auto-pilot, and the sound is of a perfectly talented house band at a mid-high-end touristy California beach town restaurant and bar. Good, smooth, and only a little bit more. I do like the speed-up-slow-down-speed-up chorus on Bad Shoes, but I can't say I'm otherwise more than mildly pleased and a little bored 3/5
You might like this if: See Pretzel Logic. If you're in the mood for smooth, perfectly good poppy light rock and have already heard Countdown to Ecstasy.
Here again, I'm not in love. The instrumentation seems simpler in construction, the vocals less passionate, the sentiments more bland. It sounds like a band, having tried to stretch a bit, settling back into an accessible, core sound.
That said, this inspired me to return to Countdown to Ecstasy, and the difference isn't all that marked. Maybe it's all about expectations - I came into Countdown unsure and was surprised at how good it was, and with Katy Lied and Pretzel Logic I had a standard in mind that they didn't live up to. Or maybe the newness has just worn off, as I dig into the catalog of a curiously imaginative/unimaginative band.
Caveats aside, I do think this is a more bland album. The performances seems a bit auto-pilot, and the sound is of a perfectly talented house band at a mid-high-end touristy California beach town restaurant and bar. Good, smooth, and only a little bit more. I do like the speed-up-slow-down-speed-up chorus on Bad Shoes, but I can't say I'm otherwise more than mildly pleased and a little bored 3/5
You might like this if: See Pretzel Logic. If you're in the mood for smooth, perfectly good poppy light rock and have already heard Countdown to Ecstasy.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
#370 Ty Segall - Goodbye Bread
I heard about this one somehow, not especially strongly recommended, but I liked Melted.
That album was "punk rock" thanks to its huge, punishingly distorted guitar sound and seething rage. Here, the guitars are small, the rage repressed or released, punk rock only in a disinterested, post-punk kind of way. It's like the transition from Raw Power to The Idiot, stretched out, stretched thin, stoned, disinterested, leaning and lurking with halfhearted menace. Where's the shredding climax of Sad Fuzz? The double-time, piano-pinged, screamy climax of Caesar? Here, the music is confrontational in its unwillingness to do anything it doesn't want to - it establishes a groove, a vocal line, and you're going to sit there and like it, because the band can't be bothered to drag themselves out of it.
On one hand, maybe that's a great art gesture; there's something Velvet Underground about it. In some sense, this is the obvious followup to Melted. But in practical, listening terms, it comes across as lazy b-siderey; most of these sound like the 9th track on a 90's alternative album. Look, I have plenty of other options these days, and while I don't mind confrontation and challenge, I'm not going to do all the heavy lifting on the performer-listener collaboration. This is a disappointingly limp followup to last year's incendiary slash of rock 2/5
You might like this if: You want some stripped down, wasted, slow, vaguely Velvetsey rock, with a couple good solos, but don't otherwise need many surprises.
That album was "punk rock" thanks to its huge, punishingly distorted guitar sound and seething rage. Here, the guitars are small, the rage repressed or released, punk rock only in a disinterested, post-punk kind of way. It's like the transition from Raw Power to The Idiot, stretched out, stretched thin, stoned, disinterested, leaning and lurking with halfhearted menace. Where's the shredding climax of Sad Fuzz? The double-time, piano-pinged, screamy climax of Caesar? Here, the music is confrontational in its unwillingness to do anything it doesn't want to - it establishes a groove, a vocal line, and you're going to sit there and like it, because the band can't be bothered to drag themselves out of it.
On one hand, maybe that's a great art gesture; there's something Velvet Underground about it. In some sense, this is the obvious followup to Melted. But in practical, listening terms, it comes across as lazy b-siderey; most of these sound like the 9th track on a 90's alternative album. Look, I have plenty of other options these days, and while I don't mind confrontation and challenge, I'm not going to do all the heavy lifting on the performer-listener collaboration. This is a disappointingly limp followup to last year's incendiary slash of rock 2/5
You might like this if: You want some stripped down, wasted, slow, vaguely Velvetsey rock, with a couple good solos, but don't otherwise need many surprises.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
#369 Bon Iver - Bon Iver
I got this off pitchfork, I guess, but man, this guy's PR guy better be getting a fruit basket or something, I've seen banner ads, interviews, late night appearances, radio stories - pretty hot right now.
On one hand, this is an awesome album for riding the bus over the Charles on a cloudy, sleepy morning. On the other hand, it kind of broke my day.
It is all ethereal, all TV on the Radio melody and falsetto, incandescent-lit cobwebs of reverb, and an abundance of plucked guitars, distant horns, long bells, long bass notes, long, sung notes ringing, like you're in the living room while two Sufjan songs play through the walls in opposite rooms. You're drunk and high and sunk on the couch while guitars shuffle in and out of the room and say things you can't remember and shimmer and unfocus and you lose track of what time it is again and again until you wake up to sunshine and memory fails.
It's all a bit gorgeous, and its all a bit flushed with regret. It's all a bit much. You come out hung over, wrung out, possibly moved, possibly annoyed, possibly both, possibly unjustifiably 3.5/5
You might like this if: You want something for your late night or early morning to sink into you and drag you into yourself.
On one hand, this is an awesome album for riding the bus over the Charles on a cloudy, sleepy morning. On the other hand, it kind of broke my day.
It is all ethereal, all TV on the Radio melody and falsetto, incandescent-lit cobwebs of reverb, and an abundance of plucked guitars, distant horns, long bells, long bass notes, long, sung notes ringing, like you're in the living room while two Sufjan songs play through the walls in opposite rooms. You're drunk and high and sunk on the couch while guitars shuffle in and out of the room and say things you can't remember and shimmer and unfocus and you lose track of what time it is again and again until you wake up to sunshine and memory fails.
It's all a bit gorgeous, and its all a bit flushed with regret. It's all a bit much. You come out hung over, wrung out, possibly moved, possibly annoyed, possibly both, possibly unjustifiably 3.5/5
You might like this if: You want something for your late night or early morning to sink into you and drag you into yourself.
#368 Steely Dan - Pretzel Logic
I found I was actually listening to Countdown to Ecstasy a lot. Really weirdly a lot. Guess I came to terms with my Steely Dan thing. Let's ride this all the way down.
This one loses a step somehow. Everything seems slowed down a step. There's pluck and piano saloon shuffle bits. There's thematic jazz influences in the form of Duke Ellington cover East St. Louis Toodle-Oo and Charlie Parker tribute Parker's Band. Then there's strings on Through with Buzz. To me it sounds like a band trying to branch out, trying to be more of a good-music band, but it seems forced, losing some of that wheels-coming-off dense energy that Countdown had. Some magic is gone.
The one exception is Charlie Freak, far and away the reason to even hear this album. It calls to mind Genesis, of all things, and not their 8 minute prog suites, nor their late-era pop, but their mini-pop masterpiece Harold the Barrel, with its narrative structure and rolling, loping beat. Charlie Freak pushes through 2:44 of relentless, one drunken-fall-step-stagger after another, sidewalk rearing, with a swooning oilslick kris of a guitar line.
Other than that? The album is fine, but it retains most of the other album's overslickness and too little of its energy 3/5
You might like this if: You like overslick, complex pop-rock, with a bit of an adventurous spirit. Or if you wish that Countdown to Ecstasy stretched its legs a bit more.
This one loses a step somehow. Everything seems slowed down a step. There's pluck and piano saloon shuffle bits. There's thematic jazz influences in the form of Duke Ellington cover East St. Louis Toodle-Oo and Charlie Parker tribute Parker's Band. Then there's strings on Through with Buzz. To me it sounds like a band trying to branch out, trying to be more of a good-music band, but it seems forced, losing some of that wheels-coming-off dense energy that Countdown had. Some magic is gone.
The one exception is Charlie Freak, far and away the reason to even hear this album. It calls to mind Genesis, of all things, and not their 8 minute prog suites, nor their late-era pop, but their mini-pop masterpiece Harold the Barrel, with its narrative structure and rolling, loping beat. Charlie Freak pushes through 2:44 of relentless, one drunken-fall-step-stagger after another, sidewalk rearing, with a swooning oilslick kris of a guitar line.
Other than that? The album is fine, but it retains most of the other album's overslickness and too little of its energy 3/5
You might like this if: You like overslick, complex pop-rock, with a bit of an adventurous spirit. Or if you wish that Countdown to Ecstasy stretched its legs a bit more.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
#367 Fucked Up - David Comes to Life
Also off pitchfork. Lazy days!
I had heard of these guys and had a good feeling, but had never heard them. They're awesome, and I listened to this album on my way to work for about a week.
Let's get this out of the way, Pink Eyes has one gear, and it is gutteral, desperate, last-note-ever shouting, thundering out of a big-dude body and a dead-dude throat. That leads the whole thing to a very hardcore sound. But then the rest is just fucking amazing, deft, melodic guitar work, with all the hooks of the best pop-punk, with the production chops of the best shoegaze, landing somewhere between the French sheen of Phoenix and the midwest grit of The Hold Steady. There's even a touch of pretty girl vocals here and there, giving the whole thing an extra lighthearted, joyous dimension.
Want a sense of it? Try early standout Under My Nose, which gives you all the elements in a minute: green day chops into layered chiming Mogwai guitars, the entire thing chugging with relentless post-Buzzcocks, night-train-running-on-empty postive energy.
In fact, that's one of the main themes here, this album is relentless. The hits just keep coming. Pink Eyes shreiks "where the fuck is the other shoe?" and is answered by the next song, The Other Shoe, which begins "rat tat tat here's the other shoe!" But then two songs later, he's shouting about the other shoe again. That's the secret of life, there's always another shoe, so you better learn to stop worrying about the drops. Meanwhile, the album goes forward with pulsing, chugging, chiming, shouting for 70 minutes with narry a break, on and on and on. It's kind of incredible 4.5/5
You might like this if: First, can you put up with shouty, hardcore, no-note vocals? If you can, and you like guitars and riffs and grit and heart and joy, then you probably need to give this a try.
I had heard of these guys and had a good feeling, but had never heard them. They're awesome, and I listened to this album on my way to work for about a week.
Let's get this out of the way, Pink Eyes has one gear, and it is gutteral, desperate, last-note-ever shouting, thundering out of a big-dude body and a dead-dude throat. That leads the whole thing to a very hardcore sound. But then the rest is just fucking amazing, deft, melodic guitar work, with all the hooks of the best pop-punk, with the production chops of the best shoegaze, landing somewhere between the French sheen of Phoenix and the midwest grit of The Hold Steady. There's even a touch of pretty girl vocals here and there, giving the whole thing an extra lighthearted, joyous dimension.
Want a sense of it? Try early standout Under My Nose, which gives you all the elements in a minute: green day chops into layered chiming Mogwai guitars, the entire thing chugging with relentless post-Buzzcocks, night-train-running-on-empty postive energy.
In fact, that's one of the main themes here, this album is relentless. The hits just keep coming. Pink Eyes shreiks "where the fuck is the other shoe?" and is answered by the next song, The Other Shoe, which begins "rat tat tat here's the other shoe!" But then two songs later, he's shouting about the other shoe again. That's the secret of life, there's always another shoe, so you better learn to stop worrying about the drops. Meanwhile, the album goes forward with pulsing, chugging, chiming, shouting for 70 minutes with narry a break, on and on and on. It's kind of incredible 4.5/5
You might like this if: First, can you put up with shouty, hardcore, no-note vocals? If you can, and you like guitars and riffs and grit and heart and joy, then you probably need to give this a try.
#366 Cults - Cults
Another sign I'm busy, I don't even do the legwork to find bands, just hit up pitchfork's latest and greatest.
I likened the Russian Futurists to The Magnetic Fields, if they were smothered in blankets. Its the overblown, big bass, big beat sound, tons of reverb, the entire thing pulsing off itself, a sound that the Tough Alliance would later cop, and that probably has indie pop origins to the beggining of recorded sound. And here's the latest entry.
Its not a sound I'm so into these days, all a bit dense, all a bit bloated, and in this case it isn't used to puff up simple, catchy pop songs, but more weighty, swoony, Tegan and Seraism. The result reflects off itself, echoes off itself so densely that I don't think there's any room for me in there. Abducted starts promisingly, but after that, it's not for me 2.5/5
You might like this if: You're into bassy, reverbey pop, with a slightly angsty girl singer over top. Also, my gut is that girls are more likely to like this than boys are.
I likened the Russian Futurists to The Magnetic Fields, if they were smothered in blankets. Its the overblown, big bass, big beat sound, tons of reverb, the entire thing pulsing off itself, a sound that the Tough Alliance would later cop, and that probably has indie pop origins to the beggining of recorded sound. And here's the latest entry.
Its not a sound I'm so into these days, all a bit dense, all a bit bloated, and in this case it isn't used to puff up simple, catchy pop songs, but more weighty, swoony, Tegan and Seraism. The result reflects off itself, echoes off itself so densely that I don't think there's any room for me in there. Abducted starts promisingly, but after that, it's not for me 2.5/5
You might like this if: You're into bassy, reverbey pop, with a slightly angsty girl singer over top. Also, my gut is that girls are more likely to like this than boys are.
Monday, June 13, 2011
#365 J Dilla - Donuts
Where does the time go, writing these next 7 or so up way late on the 29th/30th.
I don't know how I even came around to this one, might have been in search of new instrumental hip hop. Weird I've never heard this for what a legend it is.
You might know his stuff if you watch a lot of adult swim, or even listen to much rap, since this album has been used post-hoc as production for a lot of albums, including Fishscale and Born Like This. I can see why. The loops are funky, complex, with an emotional undertone. Plus, they're abundant; this is like a hip hop Bee Thousand, with 30 tracks, only one of them longer than 2 minutes. My only real complaint is the signature siren that blares over song after song - why the hell would you make the album's backbone an annoying noise? I know the sound has a long legacy in hip hop - still hate it, its a scrawl on landscape, rebellious and ugly, but not in a way that I like.
That aside, the ADD shifts and pulse of feeling keeps it fresh, full of energy and texture. It fills a nice niche, more sprightly and fun than your average instrumental hip hop album, more soulful and structured than your average beat and loop mixtape 4/5
You might like this if: You like energetic, well-produced, slightly off-kilter, soulful hip hop loops, and don't mind that the beat's going to change every minute or so.
I don't know how I even came around to this one, might have been in search of new instrumental hip hop. Weird I've never heard this for what a legend it is.
You might know his stuff if you watch a lot of adult swim, or even listen to much rap, since this album has been used post-hoc as production for a lot of albums, including Fishscale and Born Like This. I can see why. The loops are funky, complex, with an emotional undertone. Plus, they're abundant; this is like a hip hop Bee Thousand, with 30 tracks, only one of them longer than 2 minutes. My only real complaint is the signature siren that blares over song after song - why the hell would you make the album's backbone an annoying noise? I know the sound has a long legacy in hip hop - still hate it, its a scrawl on landscape, rebellious and ugly, but not in a way that I like.
That aside, the ADD shifts and pulse of feeling keeps it fresh, full of energy and texture. It fills a nice niche, more sprightly and fun than your average instrumental hip hop album, more soulful and structured than your average beat and loop mixtape 4/5
You might like this if: You like energetic, well-produced, slightly off-kilter, soulful hip hop loops, and don't mind that the beat's going to change every minute or so.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
#364 tUnE-yArDs - w h o k i l l
Hope I got all that typography right! Album 2 on The Colossus night.
I throw the phrase "unlistenable" around pretty easily when something rubs my ear the wrong way, but that is almost certainly the goal here. The singing i dissonant like early Animal Collective
s least tuneful moments, occasionally burst into out in to shrill reedy shouts, regularly settling into half-off harmonies and dissonance. Musicwise, the songs are built on minimalist little beats with a non-western flourishes here and there, sounding like Ween (or 12 year olds on Nitrous) covering Peter Gabriel and Vampire Weekend.
I kind of admire what they do in places - it comes across as adventurous, and the guys seem to be having fun making bent, wanky noise. But it is not listenable. As in, it is slightly painful to listen to. They didn't quite figure out the Ween trick of making it work: the singing, the music, he beats, the overall approach is so tin that I can't quite stand it. Neat that you guys are doing that but I'll not be listening to it 2.5/5
You might like this if: you want something spastic, adventurous and wild, and don't mind if it comes across as sloppy and more than a little unpleasant. That's not backhanded - that's a lot of people! Try it! Or don't!
I throw the phrase "unlistenable" around pretty easily when something rubs my ear the wrong way, but that is almost certainly the goal here. The singing i dissonant like early Animal Collective
s least tuneful moments, occasionally burst into out in to shrill reedy shouts, regularly settling into half-off harmonies and dissonance. Musicwise, the songs are built on minimalist little beats with a non-western flourishes here and there, sounding like Ween (or 12 year olds on Nitrous) covering Peter Gabriel and Vampire Weekend.
I kind of admire what they do in places - it comes across as adventurous, and the guys seem to be having fun making bent, wanky noise. But it is not listenable. As in, it is slightly painful to listen to. They didn't quite figure out the Ween trick of making it work: the singing, the music, he beats, the overall approach is so tin that I can't quite stand it. Neat that you guys are doing that but I'll not be listening to it 2.5/5
You might like this if: you want something spastic, adventurous and wild, and don't mind if it comes across as sloppy and more than a little unpleasant. That's not backhanded - that's a lot of people! Try it! Or don't!
#363 RJD2 - The Colossus
Still listening to music, believe it or not! A lack of internet, time and general stability made this the lightest month for new stuff in the short history of the project. Got this one from Nicole, and it was actually the first album I listened to in my new place, back on the 4th or so.
I had only heard Deadringer before this, yet another consensus-best-and-forget victim. What I heard there did not really prepare me for this, though. Sure, there's some of the same muscly, driving instrumental hip-hop gone full rockist, and those songs are as good as ever (nothing to compare to Ghostwriter, though Small Plan's comes close with its bent synth revs). But then there's these odd, crooned, numbers that evoke peak-populraity Fatboy Slim or Jamiroquai, legitimately singer songwriter moments that pepper the album.
For the most part, they actually work better than you might think: Games You Can win has some nice buzzy production underneath - some fall flat: The Glow and Gypsy Caravan aren't as funky as they try to be by a third.
It all hangs together more than you might expect though, the result is a creaky, charmingly-half effective, only occasionally awkward little slice of tunes. I kind of admire the adventurousness, even if the adventure was to do something so pop in between jams, and most importantly, its curiously listenable 4/5
You might like this if: you like head-bobbing, rock-oriented, hip-hop production jams and slightly adventurous acts of pop croonery. They come together here better than you might expect.
I had only heard Deadringer before this, yet another consensus-best-and-forget victim. What I heard there did not really prepare me for this, though. Sure, there's some of the same muscly, driving instrumental hip-hop gone full rockist, and those songs are as good as ever (nothing to compare to Ghostwriter, though Small Plan's comes close with its bent synth revs). But then there's these odd, crooned, numbers that evoke peak-populraity Fatboy Slim or Jamiroquai, legitimately singer songwriter moments that pepper the album.
For the most part, they actually work better than you might think: Games You Can win has some nice buzzy production underneath - some fall flat: The Glow and Gypsy Caravan aren't as funky as they try to be by a third.
It all hangs together more than you might expect though, the result is a creaky, charmingly-half effective, only occasionally awkward little slice of tunes. I kind of admire the adventurousness, even if the adventure was to do something so pop in between jams, and most importantly, its curiously listenable 4/5
You might like this if: you like head-bobbing, rock-oriented, hip-hop production jams and slightly adventurous acts of pop croonery. They come together here better than you might expect.
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