#649 Brian Eno - Small Craft on a Milk Sea

When you first put this on you'll get what you likely expect from Brian Eno: carefully crafted, visual-evoking soundscapes that split the difference between his truly minimal ambient work and his rock-oriented solo-era ambient pieces. Everything is rather soft and nice (I challenge you to hear Emerald and Lime without seeing a sunrise).

And then Flint March charges in like an attacking army and it is all tension, nearly unbearable, full of decidedly modern hits and ticks and clicks, whirring, basal noise, followed by Horse, continuing the assault, sounding like the apocalypse itself, sounding like impossibly massive machinery crumbling, like the sky turning red, like swarms of cockroaches descending, and suddenly you remember this is on Warp and feel like you should have known it wasn't going to be another Another Green World. It is actually stunning, especially the way it comes on so suddenly and powerfully, there is a real sense of landscape and narrative.

We are in Atticus Ross territory, where the noise is dense and menacing and ever-shifting. I could list visual metaphors for hours. Its all sounds unknowable of source, and then suddenly, in the middle of track 3 of the blitz an honest to god guitar rings out and descends like a world-crushing blade from the sky and everything ends.

Things get less epic, but no less weird, where Bone Jump rings like the dub version of the overworld theme from a long lost Fight Club nintendo game, Dust Shuffle streaks like a cybernetic jaguar, and Paleosonic drowns guitars in glitch, and we are decidedly not in ambient terrirory anymore.

But then we are, and everything gets a bit quieter, but in an ominous voice, one that can't forget what it's seen.

Which is all to say that this is an expansive, massive, adventurous album where Eno has thoroughly considered where experimental music has been and used its best moves in his own ways. Its not a lot of fun to listen to, brutal and terrifying and effective, but its a work worth hearing that will likely reward repeated and close listens 4/5

#648 Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city

A staggering album in ways I still can't get my head around, as a loose, half-remembered, remorseful tragedy unfolds, possibly in reverse, over decidedly retro-inspired beats. This is the kind of narrative, tough-life big beat hip hop that I can't get into, but there's something curiously compelling about this. I could go do some research (look at the size of this wikipedia page!) and figure out what it's all about, but I think most of what I like about the album is the mystery and the promise of figuring it out. There's the suggestion of richness here. I'll get into it and get back to you.

In the meantime, the actual production is too minimal to move me, and the actual rapping is uneven at best, falling into that trap of repeating its most annoying moments (Backseat Freestyle is more or less unbearable), but the promise of an overarching premise keeps me interested 3/5

#647 The Dying Falls - Driftwood

Listen free here!

Disclosure: I like these guys, they're good dudes and they put on a good, taut show.

Also Mark's parents are pretty cool.

So I say it with nothing but love that these guys sound like a lot of bands. Look, we live in a post-girl-talk world, its ok to wear your influences on your sleeve and to combine them in new and fun ways. I say this all with great sincerity: these guys sound like a lot of my favorite bands, and that's ok.

The huge echoey slapping claps and ticks that punctuate Teenage Affliction are purely original, giving distance and space and stormtunnel transgression to a song that evokes a midtempo Tokyo Police Club song decorated with Modest Mouse wobble guitar paeans.

Entertainment rides Strokesey chug, but elevates it with punches of Unicornsey soft-square synthy melodies.

And look, a lot of people have made songs that sounded like Where Is My Mind, its no crime that Old Prisoner's Song goes there so strongly that it turns out to be a nice little tune. Also, I never get tired of across-the-room backing yelps.

Injury sounds like some combination of My Yellow Country Teeth, Bloc Party and (again) Tokyo Police Club, but comes across as bright and fun as anything any of those bands put out.

I'm sure this all sounds very backhanded and namedroppey and wiseassey, and I acknowledge that these are compliments laced with accusations of copping sounds, but for me copping a sound is no crime, and worth it if the song comes out like something I want to hear. For the well-listened indie rock fan, this is how you're probably going to hear these guys: they sound like a fun mashup of a lot of your favorite bands, expertly performed and produced. There's not a ton you haven't heard here before (though Teenage Affliction is a nice start), but doesn't seeking that get exhausting anyway?

If you're not familiar with all my little backhanded wiseass namedrops? Well, hear this first and it will be your new favorite album. Then go check out all those bands, and be warned: you will find they do what these guys do better and be a little sad. But you'll also find things you miss, that The Dying Falls do that none of those bands bring to the table. And you might find their collections of songs aren't actually as generally solid (I'm looking at you Bloc Party, and you post-Lesson-in-Crime Tokyo Police Club). Its like hearing Smash Your Head and going, man Biggie's a great rapper, and then realizing how dead fucking boring the production on Ready to Die is. Where's my Tiny Dancer at? Then you go listen to Smash Your Head and give it the respect its due 3.5/5

#646 Frog Eyes - Paul's Tomb: A Triumph

Would you believe The Folded Palm was my #1 album of 2004? Beating out Funeral, even. Sacrilege. That unhinged energy was just irresistible, so reckless and fearless and bold.

Here the band doesn't reach those highs though. Mercer yelps and howls, but he feels defeated by comparison. The tunes don't quite rollick. This is a more Serious album. This is mournful music from after the war, and is a pale shadow of the fight and fury the band showed when the sky cracked and the land streaked black and red and when their lives seemed to depend on proving whatever it was they had to prove 3/5

#645 The Chemical Brothers - Exit Planet Dust

Relentless.

This rides huge, block-rocking beats and the same basic squonky techno sound in loops and loops, peppers in drum fills, beat drops, synth builds, all on the same basic relentless backbeat backbeat backbeat backbeat. This is music for raving the fuck out to, and it pulls no punches for six tracks

Then, suddenly, you get your chillout comedown circa the airy Chico's Groove, into the downright downtempo One Too Many Mornings, and on through some more experimental, buzzy, samply, vocally territory.

Decidedly a two-sided album, with the first half being the stronger, serving as an unflinching bareknuckle mission statement. The second half shows some nice tricks, but ones that were bettered by their later albums (disclosure: I've always had a weird soft spot for Surrender). Come for the huge beats, wander out during the comedown set whenever you're ready to start partying again 3/5

#644 Daft Punk - Homework

Weird what albums you assume you've heard but never did.

If you've only heard Da Funk and Around the World, you'll know roughly what to expect here, but understand that those are the most lithe, muscular bits on an otherwise skeletal album that runs very minimal in places, very repetitive in others, and rides extremely basic, perfectly crafted analog-sounding synth lines really hard. There's something primitive about this - its electronic music, but you can feel the synthesizers working together, you can feel the machine moving - this wasn't made in a computer. Or if it was, it was done in the spirit of more raw, primitive electronic music.

If you come in expecting bangers like the two main singles, you're going to be bored. If you're willing to roll with some expansive, minimal house stretches and endless, blistering techno knob-turning, willing to let the whole huge, awkward, lumbering thing breathe and move, its actually pretty good as new school old school electronic fuckery 3.5/5

#643 Jorge Ben - Força Bruta

I liked his earlier album pretty good, except for those damn cuicas. Well, they're back, though they're not quite as annoying here, lower in the mix and less common. The overall vibe is still sunny, samba cool, with a bit more of an upbeat, rock edge, with some harder hits, some use of tension and release and a general willingness to jerk the leash a bit.

There's something timeless here, everything just wafting by like the wind, something that makes it special.

I prefer the harder-edged Tropicalia, but this is among the nicest and most interesting of the softer stuff. Still don't love those fuckin cuicas though 3.5/5