Good buzz around this one.
Soundtracks are a tricky sell, either a motley mixtape that barely hangs together (the Singles soundtrack excepted), or a meandering soundscape that hangs limp without the visual element (the Fight Club soundtrack excepted). But every once in a while...
If you described this as a low-key, instrumental Nine Inch Nails album you wouldn't be far off, and if you worked in an Eno mention you'd be closer still, but it's more; a perfect embodiment of the movie's themes, a crackling homage to electronic innovation, and one of the finest slices of work music to come along in ages. The tone is all tension, sadness, and ambition. It isn't depressing, and it isn't angry, but it is sad and frustrated and driven. A menacing side that rises up out of the pits, but it's part of a struggle, always struggling, implying the doggedness and need for doggedness that that implies, always moving forward.
Is also just the greatest programming album ever, standing as an hour-long monument to the craft, standing alongside The Chariots of Fire theme and Eye of the Tiger's respective running and boxing embodiments. The task of programming is driving the line towards a goal while other tradeoffs and opportunities constantly invade, and a balance of focus and opportunism. The album is abuzz with strong synth lines awash in texture and background noise, all burbling just behind the scenes - it is the subtext of the movie, striving for perfection while a sea of dirty bits burbles in the boilerworks.
And finally, its actually a very beautiful album, perfectly paced, over before you know it, one of my favorites of the year 4.5/5
You might like this if: you like instrumental electronic texture, full of and buzz and Fragile beauty
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
#448 Mount Eerie - Wind's Poem
I had long known that The Microphones died on Mount Eerie and were reincarnated as Mount Eerie, but I'd never really listened to any of their stuff. I think that for me the arc was complete, the elemental cycle ended with the album that bear's this new band's name.
Phil Elverum's output has always demanded a monumental degree of patience, and has been more effective at rewarding that patience than just about anyone around. Naming the new band after a mountain couldn't be more appropriate, his albums have historically been wild and unforgiving and exhausting, but exalt you with skybreaking views of the beyond at their conclusion. The Glow Pt. 2 was the original 'work' album for me. I struggled through it like it was War and Peace, not really quite enjoying it, but finding just enough to draw me back, bolstered, I confess, by Pitckfork naming it their album of the year. It was an obsession, and eventually it revealed its secrets. Mount Eerie was a once through dark room dedicated listen that I found crushing, powerful, and never relivable, like a great piece of filmed tragedy. So maybe it was that exhaustion that kept me away.
Now here I am though, and the basic pattern is repeated. Kind of. If Mount Eerie was an eternal churning grind ever against gravity, this is a valley of wonders. It is guarded by twin beasts that batter you into a pliable shape, such that the rest of the album can run roughshod over your broken body. The opener is as pummeling as anything the band has ever done (though no worse than, say, Samurai Sword) and Through the Trees is appropriately named, a largely aimless 11 minute wandering. But once you're through, what wonders there are to find. Could the album work without those first two trials? I don't think so. They're necessary to hypnotize you, to break you down, to get you into the crushing headspace that this album wields.
An aside, as I've been doing lately. I listened to those first few tracks absentmindedly, without looking at the track times, like a goddamn vinyl age caveman might have. If I had known what I was in for with that second track I might have balked. I wasn't even aware of the track breaks, the first 15 minutes washing over me as an aggressive, slightly boring, too-arty excursion that turned me against the album. But it also let me put my guard down, such that the good bits could infiltrate and ravage.
So what of these much-touted payoffs? Lost Ode's mournful tones and sub-bass throb are as affecting and beautiful as anything Elverum has done, at least until Stone's Ode, which features honest to god harmonies. There are songs that, in the Microphones tradition, exist outside of music, but rather than creaking along as primitive totem beasts, these songs shimmer krypton-cold, tapping pulsing vibrations not unlike those I lauded on the Youth Lagoon album. Stone's Ode, it echoes on and on, as infinite as its name implies, just listen to those bass notes that follow the songs last lines and harbinge its fade-out.
Between Two mysteries is another song that's perfectly gorgeous in its own right, but also taps the uneasy cavities of anyone who watched Twin Peaks. I recognized its surging keys as Badalamentesque immediately, and then sure enough, the song weaves lines about "two mysteries" and then even "twin peaks" outright. It's a perfect point of reference, as Wind's Poem mirror's the shows uneasy, stunning highs, its uneven, difficult stretches, and even the blurry spaces between them.
Is this better than The Glow Pt. 2? I don't think it can compete with the fury and frailty of that, the most tragically human of all albums, and as a "hear once before you die" album it doesn't even outdo Mount Eerie, but its the prettiest thing by Elverum I've heard yet, and around here beauty counts for just plenty 4.5/5
You might like this if: you have patience. You will be battered by noise, tested by labyrinthine soundscapes, twisted by sentiment, but better for it by the end if you're willing to listen
Phil Elverum's output has always demanded a monumental degree of patience, and has been more effective at rewarding that patience than just about anyone around. Naming the new band after a mountain couldn't be more appropriate, his albums have historically been wild and unforgiving and exhausting, but exalt you with skybreaking views of the beyond at their conclusion. The Glow Pt. 2 was the original 'work' album for me. I struggled through it like it was War and Peace, not really quite enjoying it, but finding just enough to draw me back, bolstered, I confess, by Pitckfork naming it their album of the year. It was an obsession, and eventually it revealed its secrets. Mount Eerie was a once through dark room dedicated listen that I found crushing, powerful, and never relivable, like a great piece of filmed tragedy. So maybe it was that exhaustion that kept me away.
Now here I am though, and the basic pattern is repeated. Kind of. If Mount Eerie was an eternal churning grind ever against gravity, this is a valley of wonders. It is guarded by twin beasts that batter you into a pliable shape, such that the rest of the album can run roughshod over your broken body. The opener is as pummeling as anything the band has ever done (though no worse than, say, Samurai Sword) and Through the Trees is appropriately named, a largely aimless 11 minute wandering. But once you're through, what wonders there are to find. Could the album work without those first two trials? I don't think so. They're necessary to hypnotize you, to break you down, to get you into the crushing headspace that this album wields.
An aside, as I've been doing lately. I listened to those first few tracks absentmindedly, without looking at the track times, like a goddamn vinyl age caveman might have. If I had known what I was in for with that second track I might have balked. I wasn't even aware of the track breaks, the first 15 minutes washing over me as an aggressive, slightly boring, too-arty excursion that turned me against the album. But it also let me put my guard down, such that the good bits could infiltrate and ravage.
So what of these much-touted payoffs? Lost Ode's mournful tones and sub-bass throb are as affecting and beautiful as anything Elverum has done, at least until Stone's Ode, which features honest to god harmonies. There are songs that, in the Microphones tradition, exist outside of music, but rather than creaking along as primitive totem beasts, these songs shimmer krypton-cold, tapping pulsing vibrations not unlike those I lauded on the Youth Lagoon album. Stone's Ode, it echoes on and on, as infinite as its name implies, just listen to those bass notes that follow the songs last lines and harbinge its fade-out.
Between Two mysteries is another song that's perfectly gorgeous in its own right, but also taps the uneasy cavities of anyone who watched Twin Peaks. I recognized its surging keys as Badalamentesque immediately, and then sure enough, the song weaves lines about "two mysteries" and then even "twin peaks" outright. It's a perfect point of reference, as Wind's Poem mirror's the shows uneasy, stunning highs, its uneven, difficult stretches, and even the blurry spaces between them.
Is this better than The Glow Pt. 2? I don't think it can compete with the fury and frailty of that, the most tragically human of all albums, and as a "hear once before you die" album it doesn't even outdo Mount Eerie, but its the prettiest thing by Elverum I've heard yet, and around here beauty counts for just plenty 4.5/5
You might like this if: you have patience. You will be battered by noise, tested by labyrinthine soundscapes, twisted by sentiment, but better for it by the end if you're willing to listen
Monday, January 30, 2012
#447 Wye Oak - Civillian
Big in 2011.
This album gets off to a shaky start, full of cranky Cranberries inflections in the vocals, watery domestic indie arpeggios, a sub-Youth Lagoon sheen of production, plenty of markers of a no-go for me. This is the kind of album that being album-oriented is all about though, since its strengths lie in its structures, its finest moments in the payoff of meandering setups, like Explosions in the Sky songs in miniature.
The setups are all Sonic Youth dissonance, all disaffection and disconnection, with a foreboding of what is to come. The trick is, the setup operates on two levels. The opener builds to an obvious moment for a crashing climax, but then dies off. Then The Alter simmers, but lies at a pot-watched rumble at best. So by the time Holy Holy bursts joyous you're blindsided, having been tricked into overlooking the obvious signs by all the wolf-crying. And then Dogs' Eyes comes in at track 4, builds to an obvious halfway point buildup, pauses, and drops down to nothing. And then it stammers along, and builds again, and then it crashes monumental.
One of the finest moments in game design ever was a small detail in Resident Evil 4. As you stagger through zombie-ravaged wastelands you come across all manner of boxes and containers that, when slashed, give you bullets, money, and other beneficial items. As a player of a survival horror game that is hell-bent on wracking your psyche, you can't help but wonder if there's going to ever be a box that has something bad in it instead. But after hours and hours of gameplay, every single box has been safe, and you just assume that's not part of the deal. Then, maybe an hour or two after your last thought on the matter, THEN there's a fucking deadly snake in a box that scares the everloving bejesus out of you. And you go, "woah! I guess there is a snake in there every once in a while". And then you think about the rate at which you've seen them and when you should start worrying about another one and its somewhere in the midst of that spare-brain-cycle musing that, not 5 minutes later, another goddamn snake leaps out at you. Now you're on edge, having lost any handle on the rhythm of shoe-drops, and its a tension that the game passively milks through 2 or 3 more hours of snake-free gameplay.
That's basically the experience of this album. Full of some ragged, Mogwai/Microphones-worthy crushing walls of doom, full of big hits and big drops, but all the more effective because it swerves as much as it does. I don't think there's a lot of replay value here, and I don't know that I even necessarily enjoyed it (I can't really get with those vocals), but I admire its craft, a masterful piece of songwriting structuring that's worth hearing once 3.5/5
You might like this if: you like the big sudden moments in rock, where the army of guitars leaps from the bushes to assault you, a goddamned Vietnam of an album
This album gets off to a shaky start, full of cranky Cranberries inflections in the vocals, watery domestic indie arpeggios, a sub-Youth Lagoon sheen of production, plenty of markers of a no-go for me. This is the kind of album that being album-oriented is all about though, since its strengths lie in its structures, its finest moments in the payoff of meandering setups, like Explosions in the Sky songs in miniature.
The setups are all Sonic Youth dissonance, all disaffection and disconnection, with a foreboding of what is to come. The trick is, the setup operates on two levels. The opener builds to an obvious moment for a crashing climax, but then dies off. Then The Alter simmers, but lies at a pot-watched rumble at best. So by the time Holy Holy bursts joyous you're blindsided, having been tricked into overlooking the obvious signs by all the wolf-crying. And then Dogs' Eyes comes in at track 4, builds to an obvious halfway point buildup, pauses, and drops down to nothing. And then it stammers along, and builds again, and then it crashes monumental.
One of the finest moments in game design ever was a small detail in Resident Evil 4. As you stagger through zombie-ravaged wastelands you come across all manner of boxes and containers that, when slashed, give you bullets, money, and other beneficial items. As a player of a survival horror game that is hell-bent on wracking your psyche, you can't help but wonder if there's going to ever be a box that has something bad in it instead. But after hours and hours of gameplay, every single box has been safe, and you just assume that's not part of the deal. Then, maybe an hour or two after your last thought on the matter, THEN there's a fucking deadly snake in a box that scares the everloving bejesus out of you. And you go, "woah! I guess there is a snake in there every once in a while". And then you think about the rate at which you've seen them and when you should start worrying about another one and its somewhere in the midst of that spare-brain-cycle musing that, not 5 minutes later, another goddamn snake leaps out at you. Now you're on edge, having lost any handle on the rhythm of shoe-drops, and its a tension that the game passively milks through 2 or 3 more hours of snake-free gameplay.
That's basically the experience of this album. Full of some ragged, Mogwai/Microphones-worthy crushing walls of doom, full of big hits and big drops, but all the more effective because it swerves as much as it does. I don't think there's a lot of replay value here, and I don't know that I even necessarily enjoyed it (I can't really get with those vocals), but I admire its craft, a masterful piece of songwriting structuring that's worth hearing once 3.5/5
You might like this if: you like the big sudden moments in rock, where the army of guitars leaps from the bushes to assault you, a goddamned Vietnam of an album
Saturday, January 28, 2012
#446 Youth Lagoon - The Year of Hibernation
Another piece of popular 2011 hotness, this one even recommended by some dude at an art party. I guess that's a thing; it was fun.
This album is really stunningly gorgeous. It has a preposterous mastery over sound, a Moby-at-his-peak level flawless insight into exactly what note needs to be played, fraught with perfect, inflected tones that move non-euclidean and dance in the light, shimmering like sunny winter lakes, glowing like ice. It's the stuff desperate similes are made of, weaving through the space cleared by New Slang, Ratatat's Cherry, and Here Come the Warm Jets, keening sounds that ring and vibrate, almost surely the best produced album of the year.
The other key is the approach to beats, which are absent for long stretches, but then kick in just perfect, simple, crisp, exactly what you heard in your head the beat before they arrived. Watch what happens the second time you listen to afternoon and the halfway point rolls around, those claps rise up out of your heart itself.
I'm not into the reverbey, wishy washy indie sound that is so big these days, and this falls into this category. I'm also not into the ragged, inflected approach to female vocals that seem so very popular (see also Wye Oak, coming up next). But this pulls its tricks so well I can't resist.
The album's last great strength is its brevity. There's something to be said for knowing when to quit, for providing an experience of the right length such that the listener is given a journey. Sure, with a long album you can always just not listen to the entire thing, but that's like justifying a long movie by saying that you could just leave in the middle. An album that overstays its welcome denies itself the chance to end gracefully. I might have liked this album even better as a 6 track EP, but I probably would have disliked it as a 12 track LP (see also various Pains of Being Pure at Heart that were great and then ran out of tricks). At 8 tracks, its close enough, dragging through July or so, falling into the 3 slow song trap that OK Computer practically invented (sorry stalwarts!).
As it is, its still a very pretty slice of indie, the only encouraging note to come out of this sleepy washed out movement in a long time. Music for laying around staring at the ceiling to 4.5/5
You might like this if: you love beauty and can tolerate indie excess
This album is really stunningly gorgeous. It has a preposterous mastery over sound, a Moby-at-his-peak level flawless insight into exactly what note needs to be played, fraught with perfect, inflected tones that move non-euclidean and dance in the light, shimmering like sunny winter lakes, glowing like ice. It's the stuff desperate similes are made of, weaving through the space cleared by New Slang, Ratatat's Cherry, and Here Come the Warm Jets, keening sounds that ring and vibrate, almost surely the best produced album of the year.
The other key is the approach to beats, which are absent for long stretches, but then kick in just perfect, simple, crisp, exactly what you heard in your head the beat before they arrived. Watch what happens the second time you listen to afternoon and the halfway point rolls around, those claps rise up out of your heart itself.
I'm not into the reverbey, wishy washy indie sound that is so big these days, and this falls into this category. I'm also not into the ragged, inflected approach to female vocals that seem so very popular (see also Wye Oak, coming up next). But this pulls its tricks so well I can't resist.
The album's last great strength is its brevity. There's something to be said for knowing when to quit, for providing an experience of the right length such that the listener is given a journey. Sure, with a long album you can always just not listen to the entire thing, but that's like justifying a long movie by saying that you could just leave in the middle. An album that overstays its welcome denies itself the chance to end gracefully. I might have liked this album even better as a 6 track EP, but I probably would have disliked it as a 12 track LP (see also various Pains of Being Pure at Heart that were great and then ran out of tricks). At 8 tracks, its close enough, dragging through July or so, falling into the 3 slow song trap that OK Computer practically invented (sorry stalwarts!).
As it is, its still a very pretty slice of indie, the only encouraging note to come out of this sleepy washed out movement in a long time. Music for laying around staring at the ceiling to 4.5/5
You might like this if: you love beauty and can tolerate indie excess
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
#445 Acid Casuals - Omni
Stumbled across this - the Super Furry Animals guy put out an instrumental electronic album? Gotta hear that
Gruff Rhys (edit: Shit! I've been told Gruff had nothing to do with this, total fail on my part: SFA Keyboardist Cian Ciaran is the man behind the curtain here. Amateur hour.) had long dabbled in these kinds of electronicey instrumental meanderings, see Alternate Route to Vulcan Street and (A) Touch Sensitive on Rings Around the World alone, and that basic style is what's on display here. There's loping bass, skittery drums, and that signature peaning electronic chime that sounds like a lighthouse sweeping across the sea, into your eyes, and back around the mountain, in the span of a quarter note.
But its a bit more than that, I'm not even sure that "electronic" is that fair a description. The songs have an organic quality, with enough piano and jazzy flourishes to put this into a broader Enossified experimental category. Some of it drags, and the overall tone doesn't quite manage to rock nor soothe, occupying some odd Jamiroquied middle ground. Kraken and J.T. 100% in particular never quite get off the ground. But the highlights, like the beautiful, sprightly Hancocky Wa Da Da and the gorgeous, downright pop closer Bowl Me Over, make it worth a listen, and may entice enough repeat listens to tease out some finer points.
Speaking of that last track: there was a trend in among underground 90's acts to put a weirdly upbeat, comparatively dancy, repetitive song as your last track (most notably Loveless and Emergency & I, though as an aside-aside Slanted & Enchanted and Doolittle do the opposite and end on a track that seems like it could have been any track out of the middle, were those guys even trying to craft an arc?) Point is, this is the first example I can think of where a weird electronic act ends on a poppy song, instead of the other way around.
Anyway. Omni. A fun little curiosity, nothing that's going to change my world, but further proof that Rhys (Edit: Cian. Sorry.) is a creative little bastard. I just wish he'd get back to making songs that were more fun 3/5
You might like this if: you liked the Furries' instrumentals, this is basically an album of them. For the unfamiliar, its an album of lay-low, loping downbeat bass grooves and electronic flourishes. It won't make you bob your head, but it has enough crystalline details and muscle to make you sway
Gruff Rhys (edit: Shit! I've been told Gruff had nothing to do with this, total fail on my part: SFA Keyboardist Cian Ciaran is the man behind the curtain here. Amateur hour.) had long dabbled in these kinds of electronicey instrumental meanderings, see Alternate Route to Vulcan Street and (A) Touch Sensitive on Rings Around the World alone, and that basic style is what's on display here. There's loping bass, skittery drums, and that signature peaning electronic chime that sounds like a lighthouse sweeping across the sea, into your eyes, and back around the mountain, in the span of a quarter note.
But its a bit more than that, I'm not even sure that "electronic" is that fair a description. The songs have an organic quality, with enough piano and jazzy flourishes to put this into a broader Enossified experimental category. Some of it drags, and the overall tone doesn't quite manage to rock nor soothe, occupying some odd Jamiroquied middle ground. Kraken and J.T. 100% in particular never quite get off the ground. But the highlights, like the beautiful, sprightly Hancocky Wa Da Da and the gorgeous, downright pop closer Bowl Me Over, make it worth a listen, and may entice enough repeat listens to tease out some finer points.
Speaking of that last track: there was a trend in among underground 90's acts to put a weirdly upbeat, comparatively dancy, repetitive song as your last track (most notably Loveless and Emergency & I, though as an aside-aside Slanted & Enchanted and Doolittle do the opposite and end on a track that seems like it could have been any track out of the middle, were those guys even trying to craft an arc?) Point is, this is the first example I can think of where a weird electronic act ends on a poppy song, instead of the other way around.
Anyway. Omni. A fun little curiosity, nothing that's going to change my world, but further proof that Rhys (Edit: Cian. Sorry.) is a creative little bastard. I just wish he'd get back to making songs that were more fun 3/5
You might like this if: you liked the Furries' instrumentals, this is basically an album of them. For the unfamiliar, its an album of lay-low, loping downbeat bass grooves and electronic flourishes. It won't make you bob your head, but it has enough crystalline details and muscle to make you sway
#444 The Bloody Beetroots - Romborama
Years ago I briefly dated a girl who was way into these guys. I happened upon some of their stuff on my computer and figured maybe this was the answer to my Feed Me withdrawls. At very least, it might make for good work music.
This is big beat, housey techno, with a touch of a rockist twist and a dash of noise/punk/ dan deacon technicolor obnoxiousness thrown in, staying just this side of Skrillex. Like Skrillex (whose album I didn't much like), The Beetroots' Bob Rifo throws annoying noises around willy nilly, seemingly as a substitute for creativity, and certainly isn't afraid to beat a given hook halfway to death and back.
But there's something else here, an actual sense for human feelings and desires, that saves the album. There's a bizarre sense of humor at the core, a willingness to legitimately try new things, and believe it or not a strange sense of vulnerability, especially in the surprisingly affecting last act. There things wind down a bit; we have the interstellar buzz of Warp 7.7, Moby-via-Aphex swooning of Mother and the singularly strange I Love the Bloody Beetroots. That penultimate track sounds, on the surface, like a self-aggrandizing anthem of self-congratulation, as a parade of distorted voices warble the name of the track. But the result is somehow more, it's bizarrely humorous, maybe even self-effacing.
In theory, the man/woman/men/women behind an album don't matter. It's about the music, not the scene, not the mode of production, not the cache. But it does matter, dammit. The best music is personal on one level or another, just as anything created by a single artist can't help but be. And if the art in question projects the idea that its creator is an asshole, I'm not rooting for it, I can't enjoy it.
Fact is, I get the impression, solely from his music, that Skrillex is a tool (and I fully concede I might be wrong. Not actually hating on the guy as a guy, but he does kind of make tooly music). This album somehow dodges that bullet. Rifo makes annoying clubby, maximalist techno, but there's a sense that he's more frustrated than furious, more interested in making you like him than making you buy his record. Why does it matter? Because music is a conversation with the listener, and I don't like having conversations with people who talk like assholes. Maybe I see a bit of my own misunderstood self in The Bloody Beetroots. Maybe I better end this thing while I'm ahead 3.5/5
You might like this if: you like big beats, rockist influences, and are willing to give love a chance
This is big beat, housey techno, with a touch of a rockist twist and a dash of noise/punk/ dan deacon technicolor obnoxiousness thrown in, staying just this side of Skrillex. Like Skrillex (whose album I didn't much like), The Beetroots' Bob Rifo throws annoying noises around willy nilly, seemingly as a substitute for creativity, and certainly isn't afraid to beat a given hook halfway to death and back.
But there's something else here, an actual sense for human feelings and desires, that saves the album. There's a bizarre sense of humor at the core, a willingness to legitimately try new things, and believe it or not a strange sense of vulnerability, especially in the surprisingly affecting last act. There things wind down a bit; we have the interstellar buzz of Warp 7.7, Moby-via-Aphex swooning of Mother and the singularly strange I Love the Bloody Beetroots. That penultimate track sounds, on the surface, like a self-aggrandizing anthem of self-congratulation, as a parade of distorted voices warble the name of the track. But the result is somehow more, it's bizarrely humorous, maybe even self-effacing.
In theory, the man/woman/men/women behind an album don't matter. It's about the music, not the scene, not the mode of production, not the cache. But it does matter, dammit. The best music is personal on one level or another, just as anything created by a single artist can't help but be. And if the art in question projects the idea that its creator is an asshole, I'm not rooting for it, I can't enjoy it.
Fact is, I get the impression, solely from his music, that Skrillex is a tool (and I fully concede I might be wrong. Not actually hating on the guy as a guy, but he does kind of make tooly music). This album somehow dodges that bullet. Rifo makes annoying clubby, maximalist techno, but there's a sense that he's more frustrated than furious, more interested in making you like him than making you buy his record. Why does it matter? Because music is a conversation with the listener, and I don't like having conversations with people who talk like assholes. Maybe I see a bit of my own misunderstood self in The Bloody Beetroots. Maybe I better end this thing while I'm ahead 3.5/5
You might like this if: you like big beats, rockist influences, and are willing to give love a chance
Saturday, January 21, 2012
#443 Canibal Ox - Cold Vein
Always looking for more good rap, this made a bunch of "best underground rap albums" lists - I don't know how I missed it up till now.
I've got a long way to go on my unified theory of rap, but this album nudged me along. There are three major kinds of satisfaction you can get from a rap album:
- Emotional: hard deliveries that make you feel like a kickass badass, or smooth snoop flows that make you feel like a laidback badass.
- Intellectual: punchlines, things that turn the phrase around, lines that make a little joke, references to shit that makes you smile.
- Visceral: somewhere in between, where the cadence of a delivery, the intricacies of the rhyme structure, tip your brain off on a subconscious level that something awesome is happening. This is the stuff that takes a bunch of listens to unpack, and then you realize how sick a certain line is.
You rarely get all 3. Gangsta rap is emotionally tough and full of hard-hitting punchlines, but it's all in the forefront, not enough twisting around underneath. Most underground stuff is very visceral in its appeal, full of shit that pulls itself out from under you. Das Racist is such a success in my book because they are viscerally complex and their lines are so dense with punchlines even those operate on a visceral level. Then you've got something like De La Soul, where it seems to all be intellectual wordplay, but without much punch in structure, nor in emotional heft.
This is all to say that this is a rare album that succeeds on all fronts. The rhymes are Das Racist level dense, fraught with doubleups and inner rhymes and ever-shifting structures, landing punchlines hard again and again, all within an aggressive, heavy delivery. It's one of the more complex rap albums you'll hear, and definitely one of the hardest among those in the running. It's exhausting to keep up, emotionally and viscerally both, but there's a cathartic satisfaction in trying.
El-P's production is just about perfect for it to, complex and dense, but with a certain lightness, woven through with melody ad grace, like a samurai sword. At least for a while, the tracks bounce around downright listenably, considering the heft of the rapping and the beats. Eventually, it gets a bit exhausting, running long as rap records are wont to do, but up till that point its as good a rap album as you'll hear if you're looking for something smart and tough both 4.5/5
You might like this if: you like complex, hard rapping. Simple as that.
I've got a long way to go on my unified theory of rap, but this album nudged me along. There are three major kinds of satisfaction you can get from a rap album:
- Emotional: hard deliveries that make you feel like a kickass badass, or smooth snoop flows that make you feel like a laidback badass.
- Intellectual: punchlines, things that turn the phrase around, lines that make a little joke, references to shit that makes you smile.
- Visceral: somewhere in between, where the cadence of a delivery, the intricacies of the rhyme structure, tip your brain off on a subconscious level that something awesome is happening. This is the stuff that takes a bunch of listens to unpack, and then you realize how sick a certain line is.
You rarely get all 3. Gangsta rap is emotionally tough and full of hard-hitting punchlines, but it's all in the forefront, not enough twisting around underneath. Most underground stuff is very visceral in its appeal, full of shit that pulls itself out from under you. Das Racist is such a success in my book because they are viscerally complex and their lines are so dense with punchlines even those operate on a visceral level. Then you've got something like De La Soul, where it seems to all be intellectual wordplay, but without much punch in structure, nor in emotional heft.
This is all to say that this is a rare album that succeeds on all fronts. The rhymes are Das Racist level dense, fraught with doubleups and inner rhymes and ever-shifting structures, landing punchlines hard again and again, all within an aggressive, heavy delivery. It's one of the more complex rap albums you'll hear, and definitely one of the hardest among those in the running. It's exhausting to keep up, emotionally and viscerally both, but there's a cathartic satisfaction in trying.
El-P's production is just about perfect for it to, complex and dense, but with a certain lightness, woven through with melody ad grace, like a samurai sword. At least for a while, the tracks bounce around downright listenably, considering the heft of the rapping and the beats. Eventually, it gets a bit exhausting, running long as rap records are wont to do, but up till that point its as good a rap album as you'll hear if you're looking for something smart and tough both 4.5/5
You might like this if: you like complex, hard rapping. Simple as that.
Friday, January 20, 2012
#442 Bassnectar - Mesmerizing the Ultra
I've been listening to that Feed Me album a lot, and can't seem to find anything else that scratches the same itch (including other albums by the same guy). Three different people though, when asked about something similar, pointed me to Bassnectar. In this modernday manysphere, that's a goddamn ironclad consensus my friends.
I can see the point of comparison. Bassnectar trucks in highly textured buzz, is unafraid of maximalism and riffage, and generally blends more traditional house and trance with proto-dubstep dabbles. For the first half of the album it's fresh enough, as different variations on the basic deep-bass-thrum-plus-beats waft through. The most exciting moments are those with rappers over top, especially on the Prefuse/Mouse on Mars-chopped Blue State Riddm (but not counting either of the two tracks with Sunru Skywaka, which end up sounding like Prodigy B-sides).
The whole thing, too often, falls too far on the trancy side of things though, bound by repetition, seemingly not wanting to draw too much attention to itself. Plus, the whole thing vastly overstays its welcome. By the time Interpret rolls around we've been listening for an hour, with 3 tracks to go, and things have gotten really repetitive, sounding more like Orbital soundscapes than anything worth really moving to.
And I guess repetition and long runtimes are fine if you're looking for chill-out music, but I'm not. This is my whole problem, modern techno pariahs Justice and Feed Me both dared to adopt rock notions of excitement, riffs, and pacing, which I love, but which aren't really in line with the genre's actual tendencies. This album lays down its basic loops and then satisfies itself with throwing variations over top, I want actual full-bodied, whole-hearted changes, even if it means interrupting thoughtless rhythmic swaying. There's some interesting stuff here, but the deep bass doesn't agree with my chillout needs, and nothing outside the rap-laden tracks really pumps my blood for me. The quest continues 3/5
You might like this if: you want something mostly mellow, fairly adventurous, but ultimately repetitive to listen to and feel like you want to hear bass go bbbwwwwWWWOOOOOAAAAAAAAAaabbb a thousand or so times
I can see the point of comparison. Bassnectar trucks in highly textured buzz, is unafraid of maximalism and riffage, and generally blends more traditional house and trance with proto-dubstep dabbles. For the first half of the album it's fresh enough, as different variations on the basic deep-bass-thrum-plus-beats waft through. The most exciting moments are those with rappers over top, especially on the Prefuse/Mouse on Mars-chopped Blue State Riddm (but not counting either of the two tracks with Sunru Skywaka, which end up sounding like Prodigy B-sides).
The whole thing, too often, falls too far on the trancy side of things though, bound by repetition, seemingly not wanting to draw too much attention to itself. Plus, the whole thing vastly overstays its welcome. By the time Interpret rolls around we've been listening for an hour, with 3 tracks to go, and things have gotten really repetitive, sounding more like Orbital soundscapes than anything worth really moving to.
And I guess repetition and long runtimes are fine if you're looking for chill-out music, but I'm not. This is my whole problem, modern techno pariahs Justice and Feed Me both dared to adopt rock notions of excitement, riffs, and pacing, which I love, but which aren't really in line with the genre's actual tendencies. This album lays down its basic loops and then satisfies itself with throwing variations over top, I want actual full-bodied, whole-hearted changes, even if it means interrupting thoughtless rhythmic swaying. There's some interesting stuff here, but the deep bass doesn't agree with my chillout needs, and nothing outside the rap-laden tracks really pumps my blood for me. The quest continues 3/5
You might like this if: you want something mostly mellow, fairly adventurous, but ultimately repetitive to listen to and feel like you want to hear bass go bbbwwwwWWWOOOOOAAAAAAAAAaabbb a thousand or so times
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
#441 Gilberto Gil - Gilberto Gil (Cérebro Eletrônico)
More self-titled 1968-69 Tropicalia albums (though not his debut, stay tuned for that one)! See previous post
This album doesn't fuck around, how much cool shit happens in the first 45 seconds of the opening track? I don't know many albums that come out the gate as hard as this, as its all spastic rhythms, maniacal shouting, strange instrumentation, 3 guitars at a time, slashes of organ, these guys come out guns blazing, a firebomb of purpose, keep up or shut it off.
Here's something on quite the other end of the spectrum from Caetano Veloso's debut, an album that dabbles in crooning and shuffling rhythms, but uses them as a launch pad for something far wilder, reflecting, perhaps, Gil's early exposure to the Beatles and an under-justified 1969 prison stint. The songs rollick and roil, torn ragged with garagey riffage and buzz, while Gil steadies the ship or rocks the boat, alternately, everything bursting with energy, sounding like a Brazilian Zappa, in terms of musicianship and madness alike.
This is one of my favorite Tropicalia finds so far, sounding like a more adventurous Veloso or a smoother (and frankly, more traditionally Brazilian) Os Mutantes, a wonderful balance, losing points only for being so nervous to listen to at length. That's the price of all that energy 4.5/5
You might like this if: Again, be warned, nary a word of English, but past that its as adventurous a piece of rock you're likely to find, in any era, on any continent.
This album doesn't fuck around, how much cool shit happens in the first 45 seconds of the opening track? I don't know many albums that come out the gate as hard as this, as its all spastic rhythms, maniacal shouting, strange instrumentation, 3 guitars at a time, slashes of organ, these guys come out guns blazing, a firebomb of purpose, keep up or shut it off.
Here's something on quite the other end of the spectrum from Caetano Veloso's debut, an album that dabbles in crooning and shuffling rhythms, but uses them as a launch pad for something far wilder, reflecting, perhaps, Gil's early exposure to the Beatles and an under-justified 1969 prison stint. The songs rollick and roil, torn ragged with garagey riffage and buzz, while Gil steadies the ship or rocks the boat, alternately, everything bursting with energy, sounding like a Brazilian Zappa, in terms of musicianship and madness alike.
This is one of my favorite Tropicalia finds so far, sounding like a more adventurous Veloso or a smoother (and frankly, more traditionally Brazilian) Os Mutantes, a wonderful balance, losing points only for being so nervous to listen to at length. That's the price of all that energy 4.5/5
You might like this if: Again, be warned, nary a word of English, but past that its as adventurous a piece of rock you're likely to find, in any era, on any continent.
Monday, January 16, 2012
#440 Caetano Veloso - Caetano Veloso (1968)
Ever since I came across the compilation Tropicalia: A Brazilian Revolution in Sound 10 years or so ago I've rather liked the 60's Brazilian psychedelic sound. Raw, adventurous, cool, all in perfect proportions. I've hit some of the albums from the era, most notably most of the Os Mutantes stuff, but I got inspired to look at the discographies of the heavy hitters in earnest.
It was a thing to put out self titled albums as a tropicalia artist; some of the big names put out more than one in a few years' span (hence the '68 note in the post title). Also, 1968 was the year it all hit, a scene at least as vibrant and inventive as its North American counterpart. One of several 1968-69 self-titled Tropicalia albums I'll be hitting here.
As for the actual album, this is on the Brazilian side of the Brazilian-NorthAmericanPsychadelic spectrum that covers most of Tropicalia. Os Mutantes were borne of garage rock crunch and proggy dungeon delves, Veloso's debut is all sunshine, or at worst lamplit patios. The vocals are at the forefront, with horns and strings washing over swaying samba beats, more Sinatra than Hendrix, but just enough weird flutes, guitar crunch, organ licks and inflected acoustics to show that equator-crossing Tropicalia flair. The best possible encapsulation comes in the supershort ditty Superbacana, tell me that doesn't make you sway, the vocals galloping along in clipped little bursts. See also closer Eles though, with a downright Beatlesesque wash of Indian influences, reverb and tape effects, a great standard-bearer for the movement's limitless pan-global inventiveness.
This isn't my sweet spot for my Tropicalia tastes, but it's a must-have album in the style, one of several pillars of one of the greatest, most underappreciated movements in rock history 4/5
You might like this if: First of all, its all in Portuguese. All of it. Still with me? If you like adventurous, weird psychedelic rock, swinging, cool crooning, all rolled up into one, you can't do a lot better.
It was a thing to put out self titled albums as a tropicalia artist; some of the big names put out more than one in a few years' span (hence the '68 note in the post title). Also, 1968 was the year it all hit, a scene at least as vibrant and inventive as its North American counterpart. One of several 1968-69 self-titled Tropicalia albums I'll be hitting here.
As for the actual album, this is on the Brazilian side of the Brazilian-NorthAmericanPsychadelic spectrum that covers most of Tropicalia. Os Mutantes were borne of garage rock crunch and proggy dungeon delves, Veloso's debut is all sunshine, or at worst lamplit patios. The vocals are at the forefront, with horns and strings washing over swaying samba beats, more Sinatra than Hendrix, but just enough weird flutes, guitar crunch, organ licks and inflected acoustics to show that equator-crossing Tropicalia flair. The best possible encapsulation comes in the supershort ditty Superbacana, tell me that doesn't make you sway, the vocals galloping along in clipped little bursts. See also closer Eles though, with a downright Beatlesesque wash of Indian influences, reverb and tape effects, a great standard-bearer for the movement's limitless pan-global inventiveness.
This isn't my sweet spot for my Tropicalia tastes, but it's a must-have album in the style, one of several pillars of one of the greatest, most underappreciated movements in rock history 4/5
You might like this if: First of all, its all in Portuguese. All of it. Still with me? If you like adventurous, weird psychedelic rock, swinging, cool crooning, all rolled up into one, you can't do a lot better.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
#439 The UV Race - Homo
Another popular 2011 choice, another Aussie band!
This time we don't get fast fun post-punk, we get droning, ugly, confrontational post-punk in the post-Velvets vein, carrying the torch passed from Iggy Pop to The Fall to Liars. Droning guitars churning, belligerently riffless; droning, entoning vocals; squalls of organs cutting neon slashes over the top. Only the opening Girl in my Head has a nice Art Brut energy to it, but everything else just seems to lack for ideas, substituting disinterest for interest. Conceptually, this was heady, heavy stuff the first few times through, but by now, as Art Brut themselves said when they slammed the door on this scene and kicked it off a cliff, I can't stand the sound of the velvet underground 2.5/5
You might like this if: you like the swagger of aggressively ugly, droning post-punk and don't mind if it doesn't break any particularly new ground
This time we don't get fast fun post-punk, we get droning, ugly, confrontational post-punk in the post-Velvets vein, carrying the torch passed from Iggy Pop to The Fall to Liars. Droning guitars churning, belligerently riffless; droning, entoning vocals; squalls of organs cutting neon slashes over the top. Only the opening Girl in my Head has a nice Art Brut energy to it, but everything else just seems to lack for ideas, substituting disinterest for interest. Conceptually, this was heady, heavy stuff the first few times through, but by now, as Art Brut themselves said when they slammed the door on this scene and kicked it off a cliff, I can't stand the sound of the velvet underground 2.5/5
You might like this if: you like the swagger of aggressively ugly, droning post-punk and don't mind if it doesn't break any particularly new ground
#438 Royal Headache - Royal Headache
More stuff people liked in 2011, part of some miniature Australian invasion that seemed to hit last year.
Royal Headache churns out a relentless stream of brash, fast, garagey punk. They balance two sides:
- post-punk backhanded aggression, sounding like a fast versions of The Jam or Gang of Four
- post-post-punk passion, closing the sincerity circle, sounding like a fast version of Hot Hot Heat or Jay Reatard. Or maybe just a regular speed version of The Thermals.
The resulting brew is a hell of a lot of fun, with perfectly inflected vocals, like Julian Casablancas decided to cut loose and give a shit for once, with all the character and cool that the comparatively flat Yuck album lacks. Urgency bursts from every pore, everything played just this side of wheels-coming-off fast, the whole thing in and out in 26 minutes, only twice cresting the 2:30 mark on song length, possibly the closest thing to a second Exploding Hearts album we'll ever get, with plenty of the same carefree 60's via 50's neon contrails.
It's a perfectly paced 26 minutes too, with two little instrumental forays proving breathers. Any chance the Pet Sounds-aping Wilson Street is a nod to Brian? Maybe that's a stretch, but its a fun little diversion, leading into one of the albums only other slow moments, the beautiful, organ slicked intro to the rollicking Honey Joy.
If the namedropping of 10 or so other bands didn't tip you off, I like this record. It owns its references, running a tight, singular, perfectly executed little route through your afternoon 4.5/5
You might like this if: you like fun, fast jangly punk shouted with winning swagger
Royal Headache churns out a relentless stream of brash, fast, garagey punk. They balance two sides:
- post-punk backhanded aggression, sounding like a fast versions of The Jam or Gang of Four
- post-post-punk passion, closing the sincerity circle, sounding like a fast version of Hot Hot Heat or Jay Reatard. Or maybe just a regular speed version of The Thermals.
The resulting brew is a hell of a lot of fun, with perfectly inflected vocals, like Julian Casablancas decided to cut loose and give a shit for once, with all the character and cool that the comparatively flat Yuck album lacks. Urgency bursts from every pore, everything played just this side of wheels-coming-off fast, the whole thing in and out in 26 minutes, only twice cresting the 2:30 mark on song length, possibly the closest thing to a second Exploding Hearts album we'll ever get, with plenty of the same carefree 60's via 50's neon contrails.
It's a perfectly paced 26 minutes too, with two little instrumental forays proving breathers. Any chance the Pet Sounds-aping Wilson Street is a nod to Brian? Maybe that's a stretch, but its a fun little diversion, leading into one of the albums only other slow moments, the beautiful, organ slicked intro to the rollicking Honey Joy.
If the namedropping of 10 or so other bands didn't tip you off, I like this record. It owns its references, running a tight, singular, perfectly executed little route through your afternoon 4.5/5
You might like this if: you like fun, fast jangly punk shouted with winning swagger
Thursday, January 12, 2012
#437 Yuck - Yuck
Further 2011 favs from around the web, more garagey rock, this time from the UK.
The 90's are back! It has undeniably begun, the resurgence, an honest to god 90's rock revival, full of chiming guitars over layered guitars, with the occaisional squealing guitars, chugging, repetitive structures, 3-4 minute songs, strained melodic yelping. The first harbinger was the (increasingly enjoyable) Mr. Dream album, which was so 90's underground-tastic that some dubbed it parody. Stay tuned to this space for more evidence.
In the meantime, I feel like I'm taking a spot the reference quiz, with answers like Beulah (Shook Down, Suicide Policeman) Built to Spill (Suck, Operation) Early Pumpkins (Stutter) Numerous Watery 90's Bands I Never Really Listened to (Sunday), with a vague wash of My Bloody Valentine, Swervedriver, and generalized swirl rock. I'm pretty sure there's a right answer to The Wall, Holing Out and Georgia too, I swear I've heard those exact guitar sounds and chord progressions before, but I just can't quite place them.
The highlight is the misleading opener Get Away, with its keening guitar line traipsing over the top of rumbling alterna pop, and that song rung in my ears after my first listen, leading me t think fondly of the album as a whole. But on a second listen, I'm finding the sound getting stale already. Maybe its the general verse-choruseyness that I'm even more tired of than I was in the 90's, maybe its the fact that I'm not that into the 90's sound any more, maybe its just the fact that this album just is kind of repetitive, even outside of its cultural pigeonhole, but it doesn't last long beyond the "man, I remember liking stuff like this in the 90's". It's perfectly pleasant, with nice variations in tempo and dynamics between songs, even if there are almost none with any of them individually. I demand more, its 2012 people 3/5
You might like this if: you liked the 90's, and want something agreeable to put on in the background while you play A Link to the Past.
The 90's are back! It has undeniably begun, the resurgence, an honest to god 90's rock revival, full of chiming guitars over layered guitars, with the occaisional squealing guitars, chugging, repetitive structures, 3-4 minute songs, strained melodic yelping. The first harbinger was the (increasingly enjoyable) Mr. Dream album, which was so 90's underground-tastic that some dubbed it parody. Stay tuned to this space for more evidence.
In the meantime, I feel like I'm taking a spot the reference quiz, with answers like Beulah (Shook Down, Suicide Policeman) Built to Spill (Suck, Operation) Early Pumpkins (Stutter) Numerous Watery 90's Bands I Never Really Listened to (Sunday), with a vague wash of My Bloody Valentine, Swervedriver, and generalized swirl rock. I'm pretty sure there's a right answer to The Wall, Holing Out and Georgia too, I swear I've heard those exact guitar sounds and chord progressions before, but I just can't quite place them.
The highlight is the misleading opener Get Away, with its keening guitar line traipsing over the top of rumbling alterna pop, and that song rung in my ears after my first listen, leading me t think fondly of the album as a whole. But on a second listen, I'm finding the sound getting stale already. Maybe its the general verse-choruseyness that I'm even more tired of than I was in the 90's, maybe its the fact that I'm not that into the 90's sound any more, maybe its just the fact that this album just is kind of repetitive, even outside of its cultural pigeonhole, but it doesn't last long beyond the "man, I remember liking stuff like this in the 90's". It's perfectly pleasant, with nice variations in tempo and dynamics between songs, even if there are almost none with any of them individually. I demand more, its 2012 people 3/5
You might like this if: you liked the 90's, and want something agreeable to put on in the background while you play A Link to the Past.
#436 Milk Music - Beyond Living
There were two big themes in this year's indie/rock circle 2011 lists this year: reverby, watery, folky rock, and big blunt garagey rock. I'm much more into the latter. This is one of those.
In fact, this is downright grunge, straight outta Washington, full of fuzz, pumped to 11, complete with great little Pumpkinsey squeals, churning pre-New York chugging guitars, buzzy harmonics, offkilter Sonic Youth chords, and hoarse, heartfelt shouting. Notice a theme? Guitars. This album has armies of them, like a flock of birds arriving, guitars moshing into eachother, chiming, stomping, lurching in lockstep before keening off into the sky.
Volumewise, its jammed to the top of the meters front to back, and tempowise, the songs pick a pace between chugging and breakneck and stick to it, but the album, in the listening, is curiously dynamic. There's always a tonal change, a texture nuance, a shift in focus, as huge, stompy 90s guitar rock goes, this is time capsule, locked away for 21 years, gone in 21 minutes 3.5/5
You might like this if: you miss the 90's, specifically huge crushing underground guitars, more specifically Dinosaur Jr?
In fact, this is downright grunge, straight outta Washington, full of fuzz, pumped to 11, complete with great little Pumpkinsey squeals, churning pre-New York chugging guitars, buzzy harmonics, offkilter Sonic Youth chords, and hoarse, heartfelt shouting. Notice a theme? Guitars. This album has armies of them, like a flock of birds arriving, guitars moshing into eachother, chiming, stomping, lurching in lockstep before keening off into the sky.
Volumewise, its jammed to the top of the meters front to back, and tempowise, the songs pick a pace between chugging and breakneck and stick to it, but the album, in the listening, is curiously dynamic. There's always a tonal change, a texture nuance, a shift in focus, as huge, stompy 90s guitar rock goes, this is time capsule, locked away for 21 years, gone in 21 minutes 3.5/5
You might like this if: you miss the 90's, specifically huge crushing underground guitars, more specifically Dinosaur Jr?
#435 Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
2011'in.
Mogwai is one of those bands, like Yo La Tengo, The Black Keys, Sonic Youth or REM*, that has consistently been putting out decent albums for years and years, all of which are perfectly creative and good, but none of which really stand outside eachother, so infused are they with the band's signature sound. Would any song by any of those bands sound really out of place on a different album than it was actually found on? Compare to, say, Radiohead, pre-Information-Guerro-ModernGuilt Beck, or The Kinks: longrunning acts who, if nothing else, certainly have created the quiet album, the weird album, the rock album, have gone through their phases.
But Mogwai is still Mogwai, still epic, still huge, still living for the big chord-on-chord-on-chord kickin. I like the particular sheen they've got on their guitars this time around though, with a big of a chiming Ratatat influence, a touch of Justice electronic buzz, textures straddling the twin excesses of post rock and shoegaze nicely, making something far more exciting and far less patience-testing than either, like a pop Explosions in the Sky.
The best moments collide shimmering and boreal on the Rano Pano / Death Rays suite, which is maybe the most gorgeous 11 minutes of music to come out all year, with the downright hooky San Pedro as a great palette cleanser afterwards. It overstays its welcome less than your average instrumental rock album, and is my go-to on the matter for the time being 4/5
You might like this if: you like big guitars, buzzy fuzz, riffs on riffs, off into the sky, and don't mind if the 6 minute mark only gets exceeded on two tracks albumwide
* huge fans of these bands would probably tell me I'm full of shit, and might not be wrong
Mogwai is one of those bands, like Yo La Tengo, The Black Keys, Sonic Youth or REM*, that has consistently been putting out decent albums for years and years, all of which are perfectly creative and good, but none of which really stand outside eachother, so infused are they with the band's signature sound. Would any song by any of those bands sound really out of place on a different album than it was actually found on? Compare to, say, Radiohead, pre-Information-Guerro-ModernGuilt Beck, or The Kinks: longrunning acts who, if nothing else, certainly have created the quiet album, the weird album, the rock album, have gone through their phases.
But Mogwai is still Mogwai, still epic, still huge, still living for the big chord-on-chord-on-chord kickin. I like the particular sheen they've got on their guitars this time around though, with a big of a chiming Ratatat influence, a touch of Justice electronic buzz, textures straddling the twin excesses of post rock and shoegaze nicely, making something far more exciting and far less patience-testing than either, like a pop Explosions in the Sky.
The best moments collide shimmering and boreal on the Rano Pano / Death Rays suite, which is maybe the most gorgeous 11 minutes of music to come out all year, with the downright hooky San Pedro as a great palette cleanser afterwards. It overstays its welcome less than your average instrumental rock album, and is my go-to on the matter for the time being 4/5
You might like this if: you like big guitars, buzzy fuzz, riffs on riffs, off into the sky, and don't mind if the 6 minute mark only gets exceeded on two tracks albumwide
* huge fans of these bands would probably tell me I'm full of shit, and might not be wrong
Monday, January 9, 2012
#434 Feed Me - To the Stars EP
I have been listening to Feed Me's Big Adventure damn near continuously, need more.
This isn't quite it though. Here's a leaner, more traditionally experimental album, with some of the housey consistency shaved off, the indulgent buzzes stretched thin, the bleeps in odder rhymic pigeonholes, less electro, more (post?) dubstep. It reminds me of Justice's arc, where they Cross's shameless, muscular riffage was followed by an apologetically icier, artier set.
The highlight here is the title track, which has a joyous set of swerves and squiggles as its backbone, but nothing here approaches FMBA's highest highs, sounding like something off of a DFA sampler. I still like it better than most anything that can see dubstep from where it's standing, but this seems like a regression into the chin-scratching that I was so refreshed to use Feed Me as an escape from 3/5
You might like this if: you like big bass, scattered structures, ragged synths, if you thought Feed Me's Big Adventure was too bluntly fun
This isn't quite it though. Here's a leaner, more traditionally experimental album, with some of the housey consistency shaved off, the indulgent buzzes stretched thin, the bleeps in odder rhymic pigeonholes, less electro, more (post?) dubstep. It reminds me of Justice's arc, where they Cross's shameless, muscular riffage was followed by an apologetically icier, artier set.
The highlight here is the title track, which has a joyous set of swerves and squiggles as its backbone, but nothing here approaches FMBA's highest highs, sounding like something off of a DFA sampler. I still like it better than most anything that can see dubstep from where it's standing, but this seems like a regression into the chin-scratching that I was so refreshed to use Feed Me as an escape from 3/5
You might like this if: you like big bass, scattered structures, ragged synths, if you thought Feed Me's Big Adventure was too bluntly fun
Sunday, January 8, 2012
#433 Drake - Take Care
2011 recap!
Let's get this out of the way. Drake is a pretty shitty rapper. The album reeks of punchin frankensteins cobbled together from a dozen takes, with the new rap standard ample autotune during the crooning, but even during the rapping. Plus, I saw this guy on SNL and he was awful, out of breath, off the beat, struggling his ass off on a song that's not even that intricate, and nothing on this album shook me of the impression that this guy is using every trick in the book to cover up his flow deficiencies.
Also, this album reeks of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, from the reedy deliver, the autotune, the confessional tone, the alternating self promotion and self flaggelation, the shimmering production, right down to the Runaway => Marvin's Room epic-length emotional breakdown centerpiece.
That said, I liked that album a lot, and this pulls off a lot of the same tricks. The production is rich and gorgeous, the pathos occasionally brutally bracing, the structures inventive, unpredictable and exciting (all of which is on display on the strangely brilliant, singularly haunting Marvin's Room). I don't think I like Drake as a rapper, maybe not even as a man, but I can't quite look away from this album, the bad boy, sad boy, maybe we can fix him 3.5/5
You might like this if: you like weird, sad, complex R&B, with an unlovable, unignorable, self-hating narcissist at the center, couched in some the year's most listenable, ethereal soundscapes
Let's get this out of the way. Drake is a pretty shitty rapper. The album reeks of punchin frankensteins cobbled together from a dozen takes, with the new rap standard ample autotune during the crooning, but even during the rapping. Plus, I saw this guy on SNL and he was awful, out of breath, off the beat, struggling his ass off on a song that's not even that intricate, and nothing on this album shook me of the impression that this guy is using every trick in the book to cover up his flow deficiencies.
Also, this album reeks of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, from the reedy deliver, the autotune, the confessional tone, the alternating self promotion and self flaggelation, the shimmering production, right down to the Runaway => Marvin's Room epic-length emotional breakdown centerpiece.
That said, I liked that album a lot, and this pulls off a lot of the same tricks. The production is rich and gorgeous, the pathos occasionally brutally bracing, the structures inventive, unpredictable and exciting (all of which is on display on the strangely brilliant, singularly haunting Marvin's Room). I don't think I like Drake as a rapper, maybe not even as a man, but I can't quite look away from this album, the bad boy, sad boy, maybe we can fix him 3.5/5
You might like this if: you like weird, sad, complex R&B, with an unlovable, unignorable, self-hating narcissist at the center, couched in some the year's most listenable, ethereal soundscapes
Thursday, January 5, 2012
#432 Danny Brown - XXX
Another one getting big props on the '11 lists.
Is it possible to spoil an album? Like the way you spoil a movie? I had read that this album had a particular progression, moving from preposterous bravado and swagger to hungover regret and desolation. It turns out it does one better, starting off in a pit of desperation, dragging itself by its veins and liver and soul to fucked heights, and then landing back where it started, with co-referential thematic bookends XXX/30 tying the whole thing together. It's this structure that gives this album its greatness, making a journey of the listen, providing a more album-oriented other-side to the My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy's structure bending prog-rap coin. The comparisons to Kanye's 2010 opus flow readily, with similar paranoia, radiohead-ready production, and self-aggrandizing, self-doubting, self-hating paradoxes.
Brown's biggest strength comes from sounding like he's a guy, an actual guy who's delivering these words. He's strained, just coping, sincere, immediate in this hoarse, yelping delivery, sounding like recording this album was the last thing he did during the last day of his life, and even when he's boasting he sounds like he's convincing himself and doubting himself and trying to shout down those doubts. It is all, again, above all immediate, and exciting for it.
The production helps too, providing plenty of interesting atmosphere and detail, woven into songs that don't overstay their welcome, settling for one repetition of a verse when lesser songs would have overdone it with one more. The resulting experience is restless and alive, rushing through its demons to escapism, and the fact that you actually feel empty and unresolved and conflicted when the album ends, even after a first listen, is a testament to its movie-like narrative achievement.
A surprising album in so many ways. Not something I expected to like, not something that I would normally like on paper, but something that's undeniably more than the sum of its parts 4.5/5
You might like this if: you like narrative hip hop on the order of Slick Rick, reincarnated in the guise of maniacal Kanyesque excess and with Biggie-level pathos.
Is it possible to spoil an album? Like the way you spoil a movie? I had read that this album had a particular progression, moving from preposterous bravado and swagger to hungover regret and desolation. It turns out it does one better, starting off in a pit of desperation, dragging itself by its veins and liver and soul to fucked heights, and then landing back where it started, with co-referential thematic bookends XXX/30 tying the whole thing together. It's this structure that gives this album its greatness, making a journey of the listen, providing a more album-oriented other-side to the My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy's structure bending prog-rap coin. The comparisons to Kanye's 2010 opus flow readily, with similar paranoia, radiohead-ready production, and self-aggrandizing, self-doubting, self-hating paradoxes.
Brown's biggest strength comes from sounding like he's a guy, an actual guy who's delivering these words. He's strained, just coping, sincere, immediate in this hoarse, yelping delivery, sounding like recording this album was the last thing he did during the last day of his life, and even when he's boasting he sounds like he's convincing himself and doubting himself and trying to shout down those doubts. It is all, again, above all immediate, and exciting for it.
The production helps too, providing plenty of interesting atmosphere and detail, woven into songs that don't overstay their welcome, settling for one repetition of a verse when lesser songs would have overdone it with one more. The resulting experience is restless and alive, rushing through its demons to escapism, and the fact that you actually feel empty and unresolved and conflicted when the album ends, even after a first listen, is a testament to its movie-like narrative achievement.
A surprising album in so many ways. Not something I expected to like, not something that I would normally like on paper, but something that's undeniably more than the sum of its parts 4.5/5
You might like this if: you like narrative hip hop on the order of Slick Rick, reincarnated in the guise of maniacal Kanyesque excess and with Biggie-level pathos.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
#431 Tonikom - The Sniper's Veil
edit 1/20/18 - I've never done this before, but my original review here was just too unfair and embarrassing. I'm pulling it and only leaving the gist.
--
The intro filters in with ambient details, sounding subtle, mysterious, and you might be inclined to get your hopes up, but then that beat kicks in and it all gets pretty predictable.
There's no particular tranceness, no particular dancability, no narrative, no flow, it sounds like the kind of thing I made when I was a high schooler clumsily fooling around with Sony Acid. The result is an hour that never surprises you once, unless you count that first time that beat kicks in on the opening track 1/5
You might like this if: you like repetitive electronic music and don't need a lot of surprises.
--
The intro filters in with ambient details, sounding subtle, mysterious, and you might be inclined to get your hopes up, but then that beat kicks in and it all gets pretty predictable.
There's no particular tranceness, no particular dancability, no narrative, no flow, it sounds like the kind of thing I made when I was a high schooler clumsily fooling around with Sony Acid. The result is an hour that never surprises you once, unless you count that first time that beat kicks in on the opening track 1/5
You might like this if: you like repetitive electronic music and don't need a lot of surprises.
#429 Autechre - Gantz Graf EP
A lesser-known Autechre album, recommended by a staff member on a largish music site.
At some point in high school, before I'd heard any particularly experimental electronic music, I came across the soundtrack to the movie Pi, which I would still recommend as a pretty good crash course in IDM, featuring Autechre, Aphex Twin, Orbital and Roni Size before you even make it out of the first half of the album. I didn't know quite what to make of it, but I got sucked in by Clint Mansell's muscular technoing, and the exploded rhythms of tracks like Bucephalus Bouncing Ball at least tweaked my interest, planting the seeds for a proper jaunt through the drills and glitches and drones years later. Said jaunt aside, I don't know that I know any more about Autechre than I did then, to me they sound like distilled 90's IDM, full of skitter, warp, and burst, bending loops until they break or eschewing them altogether in favor of tag team rhythm-as-melody haymakers.
And that's more or less what you have here. The first track is clearly carefully honed and definitely worth a listen, evoking space and time in swaths of noise. After that, its two longer tracks that are mostly interested in bending loops out of shape while ambient noises ebb and flow in the background. Interesting, but not especially listenable, not particularly evocative, not unlike a Pollock painting, where you admire and say "I see what you did there", but don't have a lot to work with once you get past the basic reimagining of genre that makes up its conceptual backbone. Maybe after I hear enough of these I'll have more to say about them, but right now it still just sounds like squiggles to me 2.5/5
You might like this if: you like weird techno? Check out the title track, after that I suspect if you're into this stuff you've heard plenty that sounds like Dial. and Cap.IV.
At some point in high school, before I'd heard any particularly experimental electronic music, I came across the soundtrack to the movie Pi, which I would still recommend as a pretty good crash course in IDM, featuring Autechre, Aphex Twin, Orbital and Roni Size before you even make it out of the first half of the album. I didn't know quite what to make of it, but I got sucked in by Clint Mansell's muscular technoing, and the exploded rhythms of tracks like Bucephalus Bouncing Ball at least tweaked my interest, planting the seeds for a proper jaunt through the drills and glitches and drones years later. Said jaunt aside, I don't know that I know any more about Autechre than I did then, to me they sound like distilled 90's IDM, full of skitter, warp, and burst, bending loops until they break or eschewing them altogether in favor of tag team rhythm-as-melody haymakers.
And that's more or less what you have here. The first track is clearly carefully honed and definitely worth a listen, evoking space and time in swaths of noise. After that, its two longer tracks that are mostly interested in bending loops out of shape while ambient noises ebb and flow in the background. Interesting, but not especially listenable, not particularly evocative, not unlike a Pollock painting, where you admire and say "I see what you did there", but don't have a lot to work with once you get past the basic reimagining of genre that makes up its conceptual backbone. Maybe after I hear enough of these I'll have more to say about them, but right now it still just sounds like squiggles to me 2.5/5
You might like this if: you like weird techno? Check out the title track, after that I suspect if you're into this stuff you've heard plenty that sounds like Dial. and Cap.IV.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Top 20 Albums of 2011
(5/9/11)
Finally! A couple polar opposite punk albums at the top, Radiohead beaten at their new game, some super annoying rap throughout, and a generous helping of indie rock standbys filling in the gaps. Also, this has got to be my first top 10 with 3 "fuck"s in it. Enjoy!
01 Royal Headache - Royal Headache: 25 minutes of too-fast, melodic interstate punk with sun-soaked shoulders for taking breaks. The most fun, perfectly-paced album of the year.
Best Sample Track: Psychotic Episode
02 Fucked Up - David Comes to Life: Royal headache's evil twin, a gorgeous 77 minute album about love, all in thunderous hardcore clothing.
Best Sample Track: Queen of Hearts
03 Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor - The Social Network OST: Dense, weightless, minimal instrumentals, dripping with tension and promise.
Best Sample Track: Intriguing Possibilities
04 Radiohead - The King of Limbs: I've heard this called "a minor masterpiece" and that just about nails it. As spindly and uncanny as a stop-motion skeleton.
Best Sample Track: Bloom
05 Das Racist - Relax: Offkilter rapping that's as funny, complex and downright listenable as ever.
Best Sample Track: Relax
06 M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming: So huge. Biggest album of the decade. Slash Ever? Bonus points to the ridiculous Raconte-Moi Une Histoire for cracking this crusty old heart of mine. Best Sample Track: This Bright Flash
07 Starfucker - Reptilians: A bursting, joyous, depressing album, pop charging headlong down laser tunnels into death. Best Sample Track: Julius
08 Spank Rock - Everything is Boring and Everyone is a Fucking Liar: Brash, ugly, spazzy, noisy, nasty square wave rap. Strangely irrisistable. Best Sample Track: Nasty
09 Wu Lyf - Go Tell Fire to the Mountain: A raucous, mournful, moon-howling bliss-out, with big drums and bass and chiming guitars for miles. Best Sample Track: We Bros
10 Battles - Gloss Drop: Just the slickest, sickest, most fun beats of the year, wrapped around all manner of offkilter jams. Best Sample Track: Futura
---
11 King Creosote and John Hopkins - Diamond Mine: A quiet, tragic masterpiece told in moments tiny and small. Best Sample Track: Bats in the Attic
12 Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver: At its best it soars eternal, but its too samey for me to heft it to the heights decreed by the indie elite. Best Sample Track: Holocene
13 Youth Lagoon - The Year of Hibernation: A stone soup of perfect beats and perfect synths and crooning yearning. Best Sample Track: Posters
14 The Black Keys - El Camino: A richer, glammier album from the most stone cold solid (for better or worse) band going these days. Best Sample Track: Little Black Submarines
15 Mr Dream - Trash Hit: A perfect 90's underground tribute/parody/ripoff, lousy with great crunchy riffs. Best Sample Track: Crime
16 Smith Westerns - Dye it Blonde: All the longing and fuzz-edged pumpkinsey guitars you can fit in a single summer. Best Sample Track: Weekend
17 Flashbang Grenada - 10 Haters: The highlight is the buzzy, chippy, bent production. The great rapping is gravy. Best Sample Track: Moisturizer
18 Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, but You Will: Typical mogwai boreal hugeness, but in an uncharacteristically catchy, well-paced package. Best Sample Track: Death Rays
19 Danny Brown - XXX: A harrowing, schizophrenic rap epic: reveling-in and suffereing-from excess, in turn. Best Sample Track: Fields
20 Wavves - Life Sux EP: Wavves finally puts out a disc with a the perfect fun-ass-punk-to-stoned-ambience ratio. Best Sample Track: Bug
And for reference, here's everything I listened to / reviewed in 2011. New reviews starting back up soon!
Finally! A couple polar opposite punk albums at the top, Radiohead beaten at their new game, some super annoying rap throughout, and a generous helping of indie rock standbys filling in the gaps. Also, this has got to be my first top 10 with 3 "fuck"s in it. Enjoy!
01 Royal Headache - Royal Headache: 25 minutes of too-fast, melodic interstate punk with sun-soaked shoulders for taking breaks. The most fun, perfectly-paced album of the year.
Best Sample Track: Psychotic Episode
02 Fucked Up - David Comes to Life: Royal headache's evil twin, a gorgeous 77 minute album about love, all in thunderous hardcore clothing.
Best Sample Track: Queen of Hearts
03 Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor - The Social Network OST: Dense, weightless, minimal instrumentals, dripping with tension and promise.
Best Sample Track: Intriguing Possibilities
04 Radiohead - The King of Limbs: I've heard this called "a minor masterpiece" and that just about nails it. As spindly and uncanny as a stop-motion skeleton.
Best Sample Track: Bloom
05 Das Racist - Relax: Offkilter rapping that's as funny, complex and downright listenable as ever.
Best Sample Track: Relax
06 M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming: So huge. Biggest album of the decade. Slash Ever? Bonus points to the ridiculous Raconte-Moi Une Histoire for cracking this crusty old heart of mine. Best Sample Track: This Bright Flash
07 Starfucker - Reptilians: A bursting, joyous, depressing album, pop charging headlong down laser tunnels into death. Best Sample Track: Julius
08 Spank Rock - Everything is Boring and Everyone is a Fucking Liar: Brash, ugly, spazzy, noisy, nasty square wave rap. Strangely irrisistable. Best Sample Track: Nasty
09 Wu Lyf - Go Tell Fire to the Mountain: A raucous, mournful, moon-howling bliss-out, with big drums and bass and chiming guitars for miles. Best Sample Track: We Bros
10 Battles - Gloss Drop: Just the slickest, sickest, most fun beats of the year, wrapped around all manner of offkilter jams. Best Sample Track: Futura
---
11 King Creosote and John Hopkins - Diamond Mine: A quiet, tragic masterpiece told in moments tiny and small. Best Sample Track: Bats in the Attic
12 Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver: At its best it soars eternal, but its too samey for me to heft it to the heights decreed by the indie elite. Best Sample Track: Holocene
13 Youth Lagoon - The Year of Hibernation: A stone soup of perfect beats and perfect synths and crooning yearning. Best Sample Track: Posters
14 The Black Keys - El Camino: A richer, glammier album from the most stone cold solid (for better or worse) band going these days. Best Sample Track: Little Black Submarines
15 Mr Dream - Trash Hit: A perfect 90's underground tribute/parody/ripoff, lousy with great crunchy riffs. Best Sample Track: Crime
16 Smith Westerns - Dye it Blonde: All the longing and fuzz-edged pumpkinsey guitars you can fit in a single summer. Best Sample Track: Weekend
17 Flashbang Grenada - 10 Haters: The highlight is the buzzy, chippy, bent production. The great rapping is gravy. Best Sample Track: Moisturizer
18 Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, but You Will: Typical mogwai boreal hugeness, but in an uncharacteristically catchy, well-paced package. Best Sample Track: Death Rays
19 Danny Brown - XXX: A harrowing, schizophrenic rap epic: reveling-in and suffereing-from excess, in turn. Best Sample Track: Fields
20 Wavves - Life Sux EP: Wavves finally puts out a disc with a the perfect fun-ass-punk-to-stoned-ambience ratio. Best Sample Track: Bug
And for reference, here's everything I listened to / reviewed in 2011. New reviews starting back up soon!
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