I always liked Free Hand, swapping music tips with my dad over the holidays lead to getting some more Gentle Giant.
Oh prog, proggy prog prog. All the pomp, all the complexity, all the indulgence, the sweeping bombast, and based on this album, Gentle Giant just might be the proggiest band out there that's still listenable. More interested in legitimately weird time signatures and structures than Genesis and more adventurous in terms of instrumentation and sounds than Yes (but more exciting than the often-formless King Crimson), Acquiring the Taste is an album with one foot firmly planted in prog's classical influences and the other in the face of conventional rock's conventions, with its nose whiffing at a smoldering jazz corpse in the distance. In other words, the band stretches and stretches, sometimes seemingly for its own sake, but usually to good effect.
The House, The Street, The Roof provides a perfect example, the song seems formless, herky-jerking along, meandering, but suddenly the puzzle is solved and the song coalesces into straight up relentless overdriven, organ-drenched stomp, replete with killer guitars. And then, of course, the whole thing falls back apart and toddles off into the night.
There are hints of proto-math rock here, gestures suggesting that the structures represent hidden themes, driven my patterns outside the creative force of men, which is alienating, but human touches arise often enough to keep you engaged. Just as the title track finished twinkling along, Wreck throws you a bone, and The Moon is Down's rollicking organ lines are downright delightful.
These first impression reviews are impossible, more so with an album like this that indulges in so little repetition and convention, but that still gets my attention. A hedgey 4/5
You might like this if: you like complex, slightly jazzy, curiously pretty, genre-bending prog rock on the order of Yes, early Gabriel-era Genesis.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Thursday, December 29, 2011
#427 Atlas Sound - Parallax
Another one getting play on the end of year lists.
I could never really get into Deerhunter, and Bradford Cox's Atlas Sound side project makes roughly the same music: cottoney, sleepy pop that wafts into your ear and and echoes and echoes and expands until your brain is filled with clouds. This album is no great divergence from that pattern, the songs seem afraid of committing to a riff or hook, pulsing quantum around the borders of a sound, letting probabilities strike your ears, remaining largely unmemorable, leaving you feeling basically like you just spent all night listening The Kinks while more stoned than you've ever been in your entire life.
This reverb pop style has been in for a few years now and I'm done with it, every song sounds like the 10th track filler interlude between real songs, but the real songs never come 2/5
You might like this if: you think The Kinks ruined all their best songs by making sure you could hear the melodies.
I could never really get into Deerhunter, and Bradford Cox's Atlas Sound side project makes roughly the same music: cottoney, sleepy pop that wafts into your ear and and echoes and echoes and expands until your brain is filled with clouds. This album is no great divergence from that pattern, the songs seem afraid of committing to a riff or hook, pulsing quantum around the borders of a sound, letting probabilities strike your ears, remaining largely unmemorable, leaving you feeling basically like you just spent all night listening The Kinks while more stoned than you've ever been in your entire life.
This reverb pop style has been in for a few years now and I'm done with it, every song sounds like the 10th track filler interlude between real songs, but the real songs never come 2/5
You might like this if: you think The Kinks ruined all their best songs by making sure you could hear the melodies.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
#426 The Black Keys - El Camino
The Black Keys are always worth hearing.
These guys haven't quite made the same album again and again, but their growth has been about as glacially slow as humanly, musically possible. This is their seventh album. Seventh! And while the soulful sheen of Brothers stands apart from the Danger Mouse-dusted Attack and Release, only just barely.
Here the leap is bigger, the Keys' signature sinewey grit is rounded with bass, doubled guitars, organs and Radioheady electronics, and honest to god Stonesey gospel backing. It's all well-composed, well-balanced, downrich rich compared to their usual slimjim snap.
But most importantly, the band retains their songwriting knack for riffs, bridges, and hooks. Consider two of the album's standout tracks. Nova Baby is stripped to the basics in 4/4 bass, bass-snare-bass-snare stomp on the choruses, a soaring vocal line, and the usual killer ending riff and it all just works, sounding like a cover of a great lost early Weezer song.
Then there's centerpiece Little Black Submarines, which is all the most effective because of the structural fakeout it pulls. It starts off sounding like a White Stripes cover of Stairway to Heaven, copping White's blues-copping sneer and Zeppelin's exact progression, making this the most overrated-sounding song* of all time. But then it kicks into a shredding solo riff that bests Stairway's turning point, bending its original line into overdrive, blasts the kickin riff into overdrive, solo part 2 and we're out in 4:11. Can we start playing this song instead of Stairway to Heaven at the top of classic rock countdowns**? It does all the same things just as well in half the time.
This album represents kind of an incredible, is un-dramatic, transition for the band: the move from gritty garage to legitimately shimmering, swaggering glam is pulled off seamlessly. Or at very least the transition from the garage-via-90's to glam-via-90s. There's nothing truly new here, but the whole thing just hangs together, cementing The Black Key' status as a brilliant band made of nearly brilliant musicians who make nearly brilliant songs 4.5/5
You might like this if: you like all those crunchy guitar songs you've been hearing on all those commercials, but wish somebody would come along and glam em up a bit.
* Is there any non-Christmas song whose popularity is more fueled by nostalgia than Stairway to Heaven?
** I came across this list in my research. Is it or is it not the shittiest Greatest Rock Song list you've ever seen? If you can find a worse one I owe you a dollar.
These guys haven't quite made the same album again and again, but their growth has been about as glacially slow as humanly, musically possible. This is their seventh album. Seventh! And while the soulful sheen of Brothers stands apart from the Danger Mouse-dusted Attack and Release, only just barely.
Here the leap is bigger, the Keys' signature sinewey grit is rounded with bass, doubled guitars, organs and Radioheady electronics, and honest to god Stonesey gospel backing. It's all well-composed, well-balanced, downrich rich compared to their usual slimjim snap.
But most importantly, the band retains their songwriting knack for riffs, bridges, and hooks. Consider two of the album's standout tracks. Nova Baby is stripped to the basics in 4/4 bass, bass-snare-bass-snare stomp on the choruses, a soaring vocal line, and the usual killer ending riff and it all just works, sounding like a cover of a great lost early Weezer song.
Then there's centerpiece Little Black Submarines, which is all the most effective because of the structural fakeout it pulls. It starts off sounding like a White Stripes cover of Stairway to Heaven, copping White's blues-copping sneer and Zeppelin's exact progression, making this the most overrated-sounding song* of all time. But then it kicks into a shredding solo riff that bests Stairway's turning point, bending its original line into overdrive, blasts the kickin riff into overdrive, solo part 2 and we're out in 4:11. Can we start playing this song instead of Stairway to Heaven at the top of classic rock countdowns**? It does all the same things just as well in half the time.
This album represents kind of an incredible, is un-dramatic, transition for the band: the move from gritty garage to legitimately shimmering, swaggering glam is pulled off seamlessly. Or at very least the transition from the garage-via-90's to glam-via-90s. There's nothing truly new here, but the whole thing just hangs together, cementing The Black Key' status as a brilliant band made of nearly brilliant musicians who make nearly brilliant songs 4.5/5
You might like this if: you like all those crunchy guitar songs you've been hearing on all those commercials, but wish somebody would come along and glam em up a bit.
* Is there any non-Christmas song whose popularity is more fueled by nostalgia than Stairway to Heaven?
** I came across this list in my research. Is it or is it not the shittiest Greatest Rock Song list you've ever seen? If you can find a worse one I owe you a dollar.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
#425 Das Racist - Relax
Really still love Sit Down, Man, kinda liked Shut Up, Dude, gotta check out the new one.
On one hand, this has a lot to like. The rhymes are still complex and clever, and their previously straightforward approach to production has evolved to become a adventurous, wooly beast, with odd sounds, odd structures, plenty of noisy flailing and aggressive annoyingness. It sounds not a little like newer Spank Rock, full of neon and mirror ball glinting. It's exciting.
That said, it's just not that much fun. On Shut Up, Dude, the dudes sounded like rappers doing their thing. On the follow-up, they seemed giddy with the possibilities of their newfound success, tweaking expectations and frolicking in the fringes of rap, race, nostalgia, and anything else that flit through their minds, moving at blazing speeds. But now they seem to be trying to live up to something, not content to revel, they seem to need to engage and justify, to react instead of provoking reactions. The rapping comes across as alternately confrontational or aggressively disinterested, flaunting their ability to do whatever they want, instead of just doing whatever they want.
Sit Down, Man was a grower for me. Das Racists' rhymes can take a few passes to decipher, and are much more fun once they've worn grooves in your mind. There's a lot of promise here, with new sounds and angles around every corner, but it didn't make me smile. I like to smile!
On some level, Das Racist can't win. What else should they have done here? And if this was another group's debut, it would be a stunner. These guys, more than any band I can think of, engage with expectations, a double edged sword that splits us to around 4/5
Edit Jan 5th 2012: on further listening, this is almost certainly a brilliant album, full of weird production and structures and other things I love, shackled by the carefree blush of its predecesor, its probably at least a half a point higher
You might like this if: you like weird production, weird rapping, cleverness, and obnoxiousness, glittering sickly slickly.
On one hand, this has a lot to like. The rhymes are still complex and clever, and their previously straightforward approach to production has evolved to become a adventurous, wooly beast, with odd sounds, odd structures, plenty of noisy flailing and aggressive annoyingness. It sounds not a little like newer Spank Rock, full of neon and mirror ball glinting. It's exciting.
That said, it's just not that much fun. On Shut Up, Dude, the dudes sounded like rappers doing their thing. On the follow-up, they seemed giddy with the possibilities of their newfound success, tweaking expectations and frolicking in the fringes of rap, race, nostalgia, and anything else that flit through their minds, moving at blazing speeds. But now they seem to be trying to live up to something, not content to revel, they seem to need to engage and justify, to react instead of provoking reactions. The rapping comes across as alternately confrontational or aggressively disinterested, flaunting their ability to do whatever they want, instead of just doing whatever they want.
Sit Down, Man was a grower for me. Das Racists' rhymes can take a few passes to decipher, and are much more fun once they've worn grooves in your mind. There's a lot of promise here, with new sounds and angles around every corner, but it didn't make me smile. I like to smile!
On some level, Das Racist can't win. What else should they have done here? And if this was another group's debut, it would be a stunner. These guys, more than any band I can think of, engage with expectations, a double edged sword that splits us to around 4/5
Edit Jan 5th 2012: on further listening, this is almost certainly a brilliant album, full of weird production and structures and other things I love, shackled by the carefree blush of its predecesor, its probably at least a half a point higher
You might like this if: you like weird production, weird rapping, cleverness, and obnoxiousness, glittering sickly slickly.
#424 Clams Casino - Instrumentals
Another one that's getting good buzz on the best of 2011 circuit.
Here we have some really creaky instrumental hip hop, so bent as to transcend the label, taking on a strange timelessness. The obvious point of reference is Endtroducing, and it has a similar nostalgic soul, but everything is warped and imprecise, sounding beyond analog, beyond vinyl, like a successful version of Sam Baker's Album (which I mostly hated). It's also much more interested in repetition and tone and slow evolution, eschewing any kind of soundtracking or half-glimpsed narrative. A lot more interested in repetition, in fact, annoyingly so oftentimes, unfortunately.
Perhaps most importantly though, this sounds more personal, for better or for worse like music being made by a producer, where the man behind it all shows through in many of the transitions and gestures, while Endtroducing (and to a lesser degree Deadringer) sounded plucked from the universe itself. The finest moments are those rough-hewn details that trigger unidentifiable nostalgia, a la The Books or Grasscut.
I can't decide if I like it yet. There's something disquieting about the approach to the loops, the murky reverb, the bent speeds, the wobbly LFO amplitude, but I'll confess I'm not unintrigued 3.5/5
You might like this if: you like experimental, creaky, curiously personal, curiously off-putting instrumental hip hop.
Here we have some really creaky instrumental hip hop, so bent as to transcend the label, taking on a strange timelessness. The obvious point of reference is Endtroducing, and it has a similar nostalgic soul, but everything is warped and imprecise, sounding beyond analog, beyond vinyl, like a successful version of Sam Baker's Album (which I mostly hated). It's also much more interested in repetition and tone and slow evolution, eschewing any kind of soundtracking or half-glimpsed narrative. A lot more interested in repetition, in fact, annoyingly so oftentimes, unfortunately.
Perhaps most importantly though, this sounds more personal, for better or for worse like music being made by a producer, where the man behind it all shows through in many of the transitions and gestures, while Endtroducing (and to a lesser degree Deadringer) sounded plucked from the universe itself. The finest moments are those rough-hewn details that trigger unidentifiable nostalgia, a la The Books or Grasscut.
I can't decide if I like it yet. There's something disquieting about the approach to the loops, the murky reverb, the bent speeds, the wobbly LFO amplitude, but I'll confess I'm not unintrigued 3.5/5
You might like this if: you like experimental, creaky, curiously personal, curiously off-putting instrumental hip hop.
#423 EMA - Past Life Martyrd Saints
Some time on a plane let me get caught up on some albums making people's best of the year lists. I completely missed this when it came out, but it kept cropping up in my browsings.
Why is it that dense, complex, interesting, adventurous indie rock is so often accompanied by high-pitched, generally annoying crooning? I'm looking at Of Montreal, Fiery Furnaces, and the legendarily over-inflected Joanna Newsom here. EMA breaks that mold, though maybe I only even thought to put her in it because of the wonderful, epic, suddenly swerving opener The Grey Ship, which inspired me to dub her the un-annoying Joanna Newsom.
While it never reaches those heights again, the first half of the album retains that adventurous spirit, full of noise and seething fury and well-engineered left turns. I feel like I need to here some of those songs again and again to map their ever-shifting curves, at least for a moment.
The second half is a disappointment though, descending into too much murk, too much repetition, Marked and Butterfly Knife in particular striving for some kind of silky menace that never quite lands. It's an interesting one, wringing more newness from the broadly-defined indie sound than I thought was possible these days, largely admirable for trying even in the places where it falls oddly limp 4/5
You might like this if: you're looking for complex, undulating rock with a good sense of pacing and hook, at least for half an album or so.
Why is it that dense, complex, interesting, adventurous indie rock is so often accompanied by high-pitched, generally annoying crooning? I'm looking at Of Montreal, Fiery Furnaces, and the legendarily over-inflected Joanna Newsom here. EMA breaks that mold, though maybe I only even thought to put her in it because of the wonderful, epic, suddenly swerving opener The Grey Ship, which inspired me to dub her the un-annoying Joanna Newsom.
While it never reaches those heights again, the first half of the album retains that adventurous spirit, full of noise and seething fury and well-engineered left turns. I feel like I need to here some of those songs again and again to map their ever-shifting curves, at least for a moment.
The second half is a disappointment though, descending into too much murk, too much repetition, Marked and Butterfly Knife in particular striving for some kind of silky menace that never quite lands. It's an interesting one, wringing more newness from the broadly-defined indie sound than I thought was possible these days, largely admirable for trying even in the places where it falls oddly limp 4/5
You might like this if: you're looking for complex, undulating rock with a good sense of pacing and hook, at least for half an album or so.
#422 Das Racist - Shut Up, Dude
Sit Down, Man has been my go-to walking around town music, and I've decided its my favorite rap album in years. So why not check out its precursor mixtape?
On SDM you hear Heems and Victor reacting to the reaction to this album, creating a rapping-about-bullshit-about-rapping post-modern reference spiral for the ages. The genesis of that chain starts here, with a rap album that sheds some light on the pair's weed-rap reputation. They rap about weed plenty, but beyond that the languid pace, the heavy production, the meandering instrumentals, create something far more blunted than the wild ey'd mirrorballing of the followup. It sounds almost like an EL-P album, and he's featured on some of their later stuff, so maybe that's no coincidence, with bass rumble, laserfacing, and general murk and menace.
Of course, the clever turns, the cultural referenceballs, the smart-dumb switcheroos are all in place here. The seeds are certainly planted, but for my money, this is just too murky, lacking the clarity and swagger of Sit Down, Man. If I'd heard this first? I might have been charmed by it, but now its mostly useful, Almost Killed Me-style, as a provider of context for its better big brother. That said, this works better as background music to an activity than Sit Down, Man, which really requires your attention, which is a legitimate role for legitimate music 3.5/5
You might like this if: You want to listen to clever, dense rap, and prefer dense, stoned production to Sit Down, Man's comparatively playful approach.
On SDM you hear Heems and Victor reacting to the reaction to this album, creating a rapping-about-bullshit-about-rapping post-modern reference spiral for the ages. The genesis of that chain starts here, with a rap album that sheds some light on the pair's weed-rap reputation. They rap about weed plenty, but beyond that the languid pace, the heavy production, the meandering instrumentals, create something far more blunted than the wild ey'd mirrorballing of the followup. It sounds almost like an EL-P album, and he's featured on some of their later stuff, so maybe that's no coincidence, with bass rumble, laserfacing, and general murk and menace.
Of course, the clever turns, the cultural referenceballs, the smart-dumb switcheroos are all in place here. The seeds are certainly planted, but for my money, this is just too murky, lacking the clarity and swagger of Sit Down, Man. If I'd heard this first? I might have been charmed by it, but now its mostly useful, Almost Killed Me-style, as a provider of context for its better big brother. That said, this works better as background music to an activity than Sit Down, Man, which really requires your attention, which is a legitimate role for legitimate music 3.5/5
You might like this if: You want to listen to clever, dense rap, and prefer dense, stoned production to Sit Down, Man's comparatively playful approach.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
#421 Real Estate - Days
Further plumbing the popular consensus on the hotest 2011 hotness.
This is a perfectly pleasant piece of reverby, pleasant, meandering indie pop-rock to get washed away in, evoking the relentless pulse of Broken Social Scene, the lush bounce of early Shins, the guitar wash of early Swervedriver, in turn. Chiming guitars are everywhere, the drums chug, and the vocals bounce Band of Horses ethereal off of the heavens.
Its quite gorgeous actually, and in my artsincrafts first listen bliss it was about perfect. My main complaint is that the songs all sound a bit the same by the end, with that same chiming washing over everything in sight, front to back, with only standout It's Real managing to really distinguish itself with a legitimate hooky hook.
I'll have to see, I could see it being a You Forgot it In People meets Oh Inverted World grower, but I think its sameyness is going to hold it back for most listeners 3.5/5
You might like this if: you like pretty, chiming guitars and ethereal vocals. That's the third time I've said "chiming" in this post, but listen to this album and tell me I'm wrong.
This is a perfectly pleasant piece of reverby, pleasant, meandering indie pop-rock to get washed away in, evoking the relentless pulse of Broken Social Scene, the lush bounce of early Shins, the guitar wash of early Swervedriver, in turn. Chiming guitars are everywhere, the drums chug, and the vocals bounce Band of Horses ethereal off of the heavens.
Its quite gorgeous actually, and in my artsincrafts first listen bliss it was about perfect. My main complaint is that the songs all sound a bit the same by the end, with that same chiming washing over everything in sight, front to back, with only standout It's Real managing to really distinguish itself with a legitimate hooky hook.
I'll have to see, I could see it being a You Forgot it In People meets Oh Inverted World grower, but I think its sameyness is going to hold it back for most listeners 3.5/5
You might like this if: you like pretty, chiming guitars and ethereal vocals. That's the third time I've said "chiming" in this post, but listen to this album and tell me I'm wrong.
Friday, December 16, 2011
#420 Blondie - Blondie
One of those bands kicking around that I wanted to get caught up on.
I remember seeing Blondie on the (excellent) No Thanks punk compilation, and went, really? Blondie? Punk? On further listening...still don't see it. There's a disinterested disdain and sassy swagger that seems somewhere in the neighborhood of punk, but not on the same block. Too much melody, too much 50's copping, leaving us at New Wave Ave, at the closest.
Ok, enough about Blondie-as-Punk doctrine. The band has an undeniable ear for hooks, with rollicking bass, pre-REM jangly guitars, rolling synths and of course Debra Harry's keening over top. For the most part, its not for me, the vocals too annoying, the song structures a bit too clean, the whole sound too trebly, though the synth lines are a revelation, especially on tracks like In the Sun and Sharks in Jets Clothing, and Rifle Range's backing vocals give some needed body to the mix.
I'm left roughly where I started on the band - sassy new wave, not my scene 2.5/5
You might like this if: you like angular, synthy rock, with a brash ladysinger firmly at the fore
I remember seeing Blondie on the (excellent) No Thanks punk compilation, and went, really? Blondie? Punk? On further listening...still don't see it. There's a disinterested disdain and sassy swagger that seems somewhere in the neighborhood of punk, but not on the same block. Too much melody, too much 50's copping, leaving us at New Wave Ave, at the closest.
Ok, enough about Blondie-as-Punk doctrine. The band has an undeniable ear for hooks, with rollicking bass, pre-REM jangly guitars, rolling synths and of course Debra Harry's keening over top. For the most part, its not for me, the vocals too annoying, the song structures a bit too clean, the whole sound too trebly, though the synth lines are a revelation, especially on tracks like In the Sun and Sharks in Jets Clothing, and Rifle Range's backing vocals give some needed body to the mix.
I'm left roughly where I started on the band - sassy new wave, not my scene 2.5/5
You might like this if: you like angular, synthy rock, with a brash ladysinger firmly at the fore
Sunday, December 11, 2011
#419 Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones
Tom Waits is another of those artists where I figured I knew what they were about and never really bothered to plumb the depths. Well, lets start plumbing, with this album, named the 2nd greatest of all time by an oddly aggressively non-conformist Spin list.
Here's where, I'm told, the hen-legged hut-lurching music machine got rollicking, and its wheezier and creakier than ever after here, sounding recorded on a concrete floor by men crusted from toils in dirty days. The tales are stark, the instrumentation wildly varied while within a particular threadbare spectrum but there's a simplicity to the tales, edges stained dark without sinking into inky pitifulness. The thinness of the mix, the harshness of the space, the tautness left in Wait's signature croak, make it more enjoyable than I expected, will need to revisit when I've (re)visited some of his other stuff on a kick that might be upcoming 3.5/5
You might like this if: if you like ramshackle, lurching rock, with leathery edges and a charcoal heart, sounding like a wasted, undead Aeroplane Over the Sea, just to retrofit the lineage.
Here's where, I'm told, the hen-legged hut-lurching music machine got rollicking, and its wheezier and creakier than ever after here, sounding recorded on a concrete floor by men crusted from toils in dirty days. The tales are stark, the instrumentation wildly varied while within a particular threadbare spectrum but there's a simplicity to the tales, edges stained dark without sinking into inky pitifulness. The thinness of the mix, the harshness of the space, the tautness left in Wait's signature croak, make it more enjoyable than I expected, will need to revisit when I've (re)visited some of his other stuff on a kick that might be upcoming 3.5/5
You might like this if: if you like ramshackle, lurching rock, with leathery edges and a charcoal heart, sounding like a wasted, undead Aeroplane Over the Sea, just to retrofit the lineage.
#418 Skrillex - My Name is Skrillex
I keep hearing this name. Apparently this guy is so popular the guys on BBC news bothered to take some "that's not music" sniffing disses at him, and it seems like everyone that likes dubstep, electronic music, or good music of any kind has deemed him a scourge. Anyone who manages to garner disdain from two such different circles of elitists has at least piqued my curiosity.
3 phases: I put this on a bit after listening to the Feed Me album, and after a first listen, it had basically passed cornlike through my brainbowels. I had no impression of it other than that it went "SQUOOONK" a bunch of times.
So I put on a second listen and really payed attention. I like squonky textured noises, I often like obnoxiousness (Dan Deacon, Spank Rock, Girl Talk, Muscles and Fuck Buttons all have passing overlap with this stuff), I like unpredictable structures like the ones features on the album's opener.
During listen 2, track 2-4 I had a growing impression. This guy truly is fucking terrible*. Look, I tried to give it a fair chance (see above), but this is unlistenable, artless, uninteresting, undancable, with no real sense of texture, movement or flow. Feed Me, Girl Talk and Fuck Buttons are masters of controlling a flow**, understanding where you're at, where you might like to go, how to get you there, in terms of tempo, emotion, mood, and essential heartbeat manipulation. Dan Deacon and Fuck Buttons know how to craft sounds over time to make rich hypnotic spaces. Muscles and Girl Talk know how to be a lot of goddamned fun, to make noise, but noise that is fun to listen to.
Skrillex has none of that. It is pop beyond pop, not even bothering to craft a chorus, or an entire hook, to repeat, simply finding 2 noises that go "SQUOOONK", and hitting a key that triggers them over and over and over again. And over and over and over again. There's no build, no cooldown, no change, no evolution, no journey. Just the same noise again and again and again, scarcely a change in dynamics or tempo, and those that do arrive do so seemingly at random, with no sense for when those kinds of changes are needed. Its like watching a badly dubbed version of a badly edited movie, where none of the subtly needed details are there. Its the Phantom Menace of dance albums. Even the bits that are decent (the insistent pulse of Do Da Oliphant) are beaten so badly to death and then horse-beaten further still that any Fruit Stripe rush you had is fast lost. It makes Lil Jon's Yeah look like Supper's Ready.
I also have no idea how this is being called dubstep other than the fact that every once in a while the noises stutter, but this is as dubstep as Tonight Tonight was classical. The opener has its moments, but the rest is uninteresting if you don't listen and annoying if you do. Pass 1.5/5
You might like this if: you like huge maximalist techno, want some squonky swerves, and don't mind getting really severely pummeled by the endless repetition of a single synth stab
* Edit March 5th: I really should have said this album is terrible. Here's my arc with what I think of Skrillex as a guy:
- 1) listen: to this album: this guy sure makes tooly music.
- 2) see: pictures of him: wow, this guy looks like a complete tool.
- 3) read: a rolling stone article about him: he actually seems like a pretty earnest, decent guy, and this was apparently his first record outside of his screamo background. So that's impressive, considering. Still don't like the album though.
** Edit December 21st: I found the perfect point of contrast: listen to the first two minutes of Feed Me's Grand Theft Ecstacy, especially that ever-hitched kick in at 1:30 or so, the restrained way that it works with and subverts the archetypical buildup, the dizzying, sickening way the bass interacts with the high synth line. There's repetition, but the parts are in balance and used to compose something affecting. That's how its done, my friends.
3 phases: I put this on a bit after listening to the Feed Me album, and after a first listen, it had basically passed cornlike through my brainbowels. I had no impression of it other than that it went "SQUOOONK" a bunch of times.
So I put on a second listen and really payed attention. I like squonky textured noises, I often like obnoxiousness (Dan Deacon, Spank Rock, Girl Talk, Muscles and Fuck Buttons all have passing overlap with this stuff), I like unpredictable structures like the ones features on the album's opener.
During listen 2, track 2-4 I had a growing impression. This guy truly is fucking terrible*. Look, I tried to give it a fair chance (see above), but this is unlistenable, artless, uninteresting, undancable, with no real sense of texture, movement or flow. Feed Me, Girl Talk and Fuck Buttons are masters of controlling a flow**, understanding where you're at, where you might like to go, how to get you there, in terms of tempo, emotion, mood, and essential heartbeat manipulation. Dan Deacon and Fuck Buttons know how to craft sounds over time to make rich hypnotic spaces. Muscles and Girl Talk know how to be a lot of goddamned fun, to make noise, but noise that is fun to listen to.
Skrillex has none of that. It is pop beyond pop, not even bothering to craft a chorus, or an entire hook, to repeat, simply finding 2 noises that go "SQUOOONK", and hitting a key that triggers them over and over and over again. And over and over and over again. There's no build, no cooldown, no change, no evolution, no journey. Just the same noise again and again and again, scarcely a change in dynamics or tempo, and those that do arrive do so seemingly at random, with no sense for when those kinds of changes are needed. Its like watching a badly dubbed version of a badly edited movie, where none of the subtly needed details are there. Its the Phantom Menace of dance albums. Even the bits that are decent (the insistent pulse of Do Da Oliphant) are beaten so badly to death and then horse-beaten further still that any Fruit Stripe rush you had is fast lost. It makes Lil Jon's Yeah look like Supper's Ready.
I also have no idea how this is being called dubstep other than the fact that every once in a while the noises stutter, but this is as dubstep as Tonight Tonight was classical. The opener has its moments, but the rest is uninteresting if you don't listen and annoying if you do. Pass 1.5/5
You might like this if: you like huge maximalist techno, want some squonky swerves, and don't mind getting really severely pummeled by the endless repetition of a single synth stab
* Edit March 5th: I really should have said this album is terrible. Here's my arc with what I think of Skrillex as a guy:
- 1) listen: to this album: this guy sure makes tooly music.
- 2) see: pictures of him: wow, this guy looks like a complete tool.
- 3) read: a rolling stone article about him: he actually seems like a pretty earnest, decent guy, and this was apparently his first record outside of his screamo background. So that's impressive, considering. Still don't like the album though.
** Edit December 21st: I found the perfect point of contrast: listen to the first two minutes of Feed Me's Grand Theft Ecstacy, especially that ever-hitched kick in at 1:30 or so, the restrained way that it works with and subverts the archetypical buildup, the dizzying, sickening way the bass interacts with the high synth line. There's repetition, but the parts are in balance and used to compose something affecting. That's how its done, my friends.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
#417 Feed Me - Feed Me's Big Adventure
Another album I heard a bit of at Mike's house that I decided to check out proper.
I feel like I shouldn't like this, maybe because he's affiliated with DeadMouseWitha5SomehowImNotGonnaGoogleIt and Skrillex, who I sense a backlash against these days. And sure its nothing new, big beats, jagged synth loops, the occaisional post-IDM squiggles. But man, he pull it together really nicely, and the devil's in the details. Sure its just a synth loop on White Spirit, but what a synth sound he gets, just so goddamned squonky, so noisy and buzzy and rich with texture, and then at 3 minute he wheels it out into proggy arpeggiation proper with raveup stab-and-build, and gets just choppy enough to be interesting without breaking flow. Fact is, its a goddamn well-executed song, with some real filth and organic slink to it.
And yeah, there's a hint of the D word in there, but its used to good effect here. You get a touch of wobble, a bit of chop, a bit of swerve, but all in service of the beat. Its Girl Talk vs Jason Forrest/Early Dan Deacon/Early Girl Talk, in that its well-tuned to the listener's needs and knows just how much to subvert expectations without breaking the spell. Maybe I'm a sucker or a philistine for falling for it, but I dig it.
And yeah, it gets a little wearying by the end, but I gotta give credit for the degree to which it got in my ear, even with a not-my-favorite-genre penalty in play 4/5
I feel like I shouldn't like this, maybe because he's affiliated with DeadMouseWitha5SomehowImNotGonnaGoogleIt and Skrillex, who I sense a backlash against these days. And sure its nothing new, big beats, jagged synth loops, the occaisional post-IDM squiggles. But man, he pull it together really nicely, and the devil's in the details. Sure its just a synth loop on White Spirit, but what a synth sound he gets, just so goddamned squonky, so noisy and buzzy and rich with texture, and then at 3 minute he wheels it out into proggy arpeggiation proper with raveup stab-and-build, and gets just choppy enough to be interesting without breaking flow. Fact is, its a goddamn well-executed song, with some real filth and organic slink to it.
And yeah, there's a hint of the D word in there, but its used to good effect here. You get a touch of wobble, a bit of chop, a bit of swerve, but all in service of the beat. Its Girl Talk vs Jason Forrest/Early Dan Deacon/Early Girl Talk, in that its well-tuned to the listener's needs and knows just how much to subvert expectations without breaking the spell. Maybe I'm a sucker or a philistine for falling for it, but I dig it.
And yeah, it gets a little wearying by the end, but I gotta give credit for the degree to which it got in my ear, even with a not-my-favorite-genre penalty in play 4/5
#416 Meshuggah - Destroy Erase Improve
Another offshoot of a night at Mike's when I got talking to his metal-loving buddy about his all time favorites. Word is this one is up there.
I don't know metal well enough to be able to say a whole lot here, but that's part of the point of the project, fixing that. What I can say is that this is fast and loud as Slayer or your speedy benchmark of choice, but that it within that framework its a squirely beast. There are extra beats in some places, beats missing in others, sudden time changes, and a dynamism that sometimes lets a keening guitar is allowed to rise over the fray. The songs exist in two modes, a frentic one where complexity is crammed into every corner, the corners are put under shells, the shells are set on fire, and thrown into a jet engine, and a patient one where a stomping metal machine is set in motion, churning out hypnotic sequences that get time to infiltrate your brainstem. This is to say, even change isn't constant on this album.
This album almost certainly would reward repeat listenings, sounding a bit like a much heavier Tool in its obliquely proggy gestures. But it's a beating, exhausting in its relentless restlessness, even more so than a lot of speed/death/heavy metal that has the decency to blur to noise after a while. I don't think its my scene, but I confess to liking it more on a second review-listen than I did the first time through 3.5/5
You might like this if: you want more headphone-ready complexity in your metal or more metal power in your headphone rock.
I don't know metal well enough to be able to say a whole lot here, but that's part of the point of the project, fixing that. What I can say is that this is fast and loud as Slayer or your speedy benchmark of choice, but that it within that framework its a squirely beast. There are extra beats in some places, beats missing in others, sudden time changes, and a dynamism that sometimes lets a keening guitar is allowed to rise over the fray. The songs exist in two modes, a frentic one where complexity is crammed into every corner, the corners are put under shells, the shells are set on fire, and thrown into a jet engine, and a patient one where a stomping metal machine is set in motion, churning out hypnotic sequences that get time to infiltrate your brainstem. This is to say, even change isn't constant on this album.
This album almost certainly would reward repeat listenings, sounding a bit like a much heavier Tool in its obliquely proggy gestures. But it's a beating, exhausting in its relentless restlessness, even more so than a lot of speed/death/heavy metal that has the decency to blur to noise after a while. I don't think its my scene, but I confess to liking it more on a second review-listen than I did the first time through 3.5/5
You might like this if: you want more headphone-ready complexity in your metal or more metal power in your headphone rock.
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