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Talk about variety, thesecond Echoboy album of the year once again follows a seeminglymulti-genre'd blueprint as Volume 1. Richard Warren, who goes by thename of Echoboy has gathered another ecclectic collection of nineself-recorded self-produced delves into audio experimental popinfluenced rock tunes. Whether it echoes early 80s electro pop a'laPeter Schilling's "Major Tom" or 90s analogue synth retro, Warren'senergy is fiery and relentless, his talent as a songwriter and musicianis undying. Some songs carry a feverish pulse, with a utilization ofguitars and vintage keyboard sounds not entirely unlike good oldSuicide or Trans Am. When the slower paced tunes creep through thespeakers, the music is never less saturated. The usage of variousorganic drums with electronic drum machines, guitar filters, bass linesand special effects . Echoboy's loved by critics and adored by collegeDJs all over the world, I assume because it seems like the guy's arabid music fan like the rest of us, and hasn't decided to make a'band' to only focus on one style. If I only had one complaint aboutEchoboy, it would be that this guy has way too many limited editionsingles and EPs of which many tracks will probably be lost, never tosee the light of day again. Brilliant asshole.samples:
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It's tough to try to talk about a release from the High Llamas without mentioning Stereolab, but when you've got Sean O'Hagen leading a chorus of girls singing pretty "la la"s combined with airborne melodies, loads of chimes and vintage organs, comparisons are as unavoidable as the moose standing in the middle of the highway as you barrel towards it at 65 miles per hour. I quite like this disc however.It provides an excellent Sunday brunch soundtrack, hungover as the bright sun bleeds in through the blinds. "Here, honey, how about a tall glass of orange juice with some fresh new High Llamas?!" Never too abrasive and not incredibly repetitious, the tempo and feel for nearly all of the songs strike a wonderful emotional chord. The album's sound features a gentle blend of vibes and processed guitars with a fondness of late 1960s soundtrack music. I appreciate the variety of instrumental, male and female vocal tracks as it does somewhat break up a certain monotony that would be there had they not done it.
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Following the energy fromthis year's spectacular full-length offering, "And then Nothing Turneditself,..." Yo La Tengo have come up with three pleasant newinstrumental gems. The group called all three songs Danelectro andcoupled them with a remix of each to round out the CD EP. A short butsweet hip-hop variation is brought to the table by somebody who goes bythe moniker of Q-Unique, while a rather intense jazzy cut, spliced andover-layered version has been treated by San Fran's Kit Clayton. Myfavorite however would be the 11+ minute electronic sunshinereinterpretation from Nobukazu Takemura. In my opinion, whileTakemura's work was in no way 'cut out' for him, he did have theprettiest source material to work with. While I'm fond of Yo La Tengo'sLPs and this EP, these songs might sound rather out of place on analbum from the group known for their vocal pop rock material. There'ssomething that's somewhat indescribable about the brightfulness of themelodies themselves, it's almost as if they possess a certain Holidayspirit. Perhaps this EP was intended to be a Christmas-type releasefrom the NY threesome. I'm not aware of this yet I'm not convincedotherwise.samples:
- Danelectro 1 (Q-Feel mix)
- Danelectro 2 (Nobukazu Takemura mix)
- Danelectro 3 (Kit Clayton mix)
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Can't say I'm terriblysurprised that a label run by the Autechre folks would put out an EPlike this. Team Doyobi's style is relatively remeniscent of an older,more squarish 4/4 beat-filled Autechre sound, yet the group exploresmore with melodic motives than Booth and Brown seemingly did back in"the day." The release is an eight track mini-lp stretchingapproximately a half hour. The music is enjoyable, bright and bouncey,with innovative usage of sampled and synthesized sounds tapping out themelodic rhythms. Fans of glitchy Mouse On Mars beat music willdefinitely be keen on this one as there's various video-game esquesamples and over-processed primitive sounding analogue syntheticstossed in to color the tunes. As good as it is, however, it's nice tohave it short and sweet. There's not an incredible amount of variety interms of tempo change and feeling between the different songs, sosomething like this would be a bit heavy to digest had it been twice aslong.samples:
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Ulan Bator is a French avante art rock trio who apparently take theirname from the capitol of Mongolia. "Ego : Echo" is their third albumand it was for the most part spontaneously created during 3 weeks ofsessions last summer in Florence, Italy with producer and Young GodRecords head Michael Gira (SWANS, The Angels of Light). Ulan are allabout tight and minimal, tense and repetitive guitar/bass/drum rockgrooves - both noisy and subdued - as musical and (French) vocalpassages become hypnotic head noddin' mantras. Add organ, piano, bow,keys, horn, tape loops, electronic drone, 'la la la' styled backingvocals and Gira's dry, crisp, clean and full production. Comparisonsto Can, Faust (Jean Herve Peron contributes horns to 1 song), the BadSeeds and Gira's own projects is inevitable as everything is sparseyet beautifully melodic and the sound and feel is similar, at the veryleast, in spirit. The 16 minute centerpiece "Let Go Ego" in particularprovides the variety of most everything Ulan Bator do in one song withextensive stretches of drone, somnambulant sonic meandering, heavy rockout and lengthy coda chant. "Ego : Echo" is a dynamic rock record thatresonates with passion and a sense of straightforward urgency. It'sone of a handful of cool musical things lately from France and it fitsright in with the rest of the Young God catalog. Up next from YGR arealbums by Calla and Flux Information Sciences in January and the newAngels of Light album "How I Loved You" in February.samples:
- Diane Lewis
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Though the bright, streamlined bounce of first-track "Container of Drudgery(Never Had a Name)" seems to be crafted with almost excruciating precisionnext to last year's noise-saturated Fingerpainting, don't let the openingstrains fool ya. The Red Krayola's new six song EP eventually flexes andfractures into the same smattering of electronic chirps and indifferentlycolliding rhythms and melodies that characterizes their other recent DragCity releases. Midway through the album, the spastic rhythms and synthesizedsquawking and burping commence. These moments are capable of producing thefear and agony of one confined to a room filled with two-year-olds andFischer Price instruments. On "Is There," vocals, guitar, synthesizer, anddrums all seem to improvise playfully with only the occasional nod tosolidarity and structure. This isn't a problem in itself, but the samecryptic sing-song lyrics and compulsively spastic tapping that carry throughmost of The Red Krayola's albums now seem uninspired and more likely toinduce nervous twitching than appreciation. Yet when the fun and bluesyinstrumental "6-5-3 Blues" eventually breaks into chewy electronic twists,you can't help but feel the scattered moments of cohesion are worth (mostof) the disarray. The last two tracks maintain this balance with flair.While 'Blues, Hollers and Hellos' may not be The Red Krayola's best, the morevaried use of electronics makes up for some the inconsistency and you can'thelp but be grabbed when it's disparate elements come together just right.The slow "Magnificence as Such" rolls with cymbals and fuzzy, meanderingguitars while Mayo Thompson's wobbly croon, "Still it slays me when I touchmagnificence as such," may even produce pangs of tragedy and beauty in thosewho typically cringe. Yum.samples:
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Uwe Schmidt's SenorCoconut project is probably his most popular incarnation. This 12" has3 versions of the Kraftwerk song 'Tour De France' and 2 versions of'Expo 2000'. All but one of the songs are unique to this 12". There isthe 'Merigue album version' of "Tour De France" taken from the 'ElBaile Aleman' CD. You get 2 more verions of the song here as well: the'Good groove's 501 Vocal mix' and the 'Good groove's 501 Instrumentalmix'. All three versions break out of the tight confines of the pretend'neo-Latin' music that the Kraftwerk cover record sticks to. This 12"is the only place you'll find his version of the recent Kraftwerk'comeback' song "Expo 2000". there are 2 versions here: the 'MamboOriginal' and the 'Mambo Instrumental'. Uwe Schmidt seems to excel atwhatever he does. A few weeks ago I heard the second Flanger CD he didalong with Burnt Friedman. Although I am not usually one for straightup jazz, that CD sounded crystal clean and somewhat unique in it'scombination of traditional jazz and modern electronics. I can't wait tohear his Erik Satin project, which I've heard is his EasyMusicdeconstruction act - kind of similiar to what Tipsy is doing.Read More
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My appreciation of Spencer Yeh has increased in recent years due to his clear disinterest in re-covering familiar and expected territory.  Nowhere is that creative restlessness more conspicuously on display than here, an entire album of charmingly ramshackle left-field pop.  As it turns out, Yeh has been concealing a knack for songwriting all these years, as Transitions is a legitimately excellent and charismatic effort that makes me wish he had been doing this all along.  These are some of the most instantly likable songs that I have heard all year.
This, of course, is not Yeh's first foray into "pop," as that honor went to last year's "In the Blink of an Eye" 7" single.  Writing a great album is quite a bit different than recording a cool fluke single though and Yeh does not seem to have taken the challenge lightly...at least not from a craftsmanship angle.  In another sense, Spencer seems to have approached the album extremely lightly, which is exactly the right way to approach a pop album.  Transitions does not feel like any sort of calculated attempt to appeal to a wider audience; rather it feels like Spencer had an enormous amount of fun constructing short punchy songs packed full of meaty bass lines ("Transitions"), kitschy drum machine grooves (pretty much everything), and a host of amusing curve-balls like horns, wah-wah guitar, and crude 8-bit-sounding synth textures (ie- the killer, blurting breakdown in "Masculine Infinity").
Happily, Spencer's embrace of tunefulness and enthusiastic appropriation of New Wave-isms and burbling synths does not coincide with any sort of decrease in intelligence or any sidestepping of his more esoteric influences.  For example, the album's most overtly odd piece (the lurching, sing-song "Laugh Track") betrays a clear love of prog/art pop like Robert Wyatt and Slapp Happy.  Even more notable is the album's gleefully subversive synthpop closer "I Can Read Your Mind."  It is easily the album's most conventionally catchy and radio-friendly song, but it could not possibly be less commercial in origin as it is a actually a Father Yod and The Spirit of '76 cover.
There are a couple of slight wobbles in quality among these ten songs, like the guitar-centered power pop pastiches "The New Guy" and "Whose Life," but the album otherwise has the feel of a greatest hits album.  As bizarre as that sounds (particularly for a former noise musician), it is not hyperbole: nearly all of these songs sound like great, hook-heavy would-be singles that would make me exclaim "Woah- who is this?" if I heard them by chance on a college radio station or something.
Probably the highest compliment that I can pay Transitions is this: Yeh covers Stevie Nicks' "Rooms on Fire" and it turns out to be one of the album's weaker pieces.  While I am a closet Fleetwood Mac superfan, Yeh's original pieces are actually a lot more vibrant, quirky, and witty.  Of course, part of that might be because Yeh is a bit too reverent and serious in his treatment of the Nicks' piece, an error that he does rarely makes elsewhere  In fact, it is often pretty hard to tell when Yeh is being serious and sincere and when he is merely being hilariously deadpan, but his dry tone works much better in his own pieces because it is couched amidst livelier, more triumphantly absurd music.
Yeh has accomplished something truly unusual, as he has essentially made a weird, indulgent, and inventive pop album completely on his own terms that may perversely have widespread appeal.  Significantly, that is entirely due to Spencer's energy, sense of humor, and remarkably intuitive understanding of strong songcraft rather than any actual attempt to be liked outside the underground/avant-garde milieu.  I recognize that making a (mostly) synthpop album is an incredibly trendy thing to be doing right now, but there is a hell of a lot of playful self-sabotage and wrongness thrown into the mix to balance it out here.  To my ears, this is one of the most enjoyable and surprising albums to come out this year.
 
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Sometimes, an artist sticks to a style even though they have done it to death but lack the vision to move on from the one idea that they briefly got right. Then there are artists who take this one idea and make it work, over and over again. A Place to Bury Strangers fall firmly into this second camp. They continue to sound as fresh as they did on their debut, which is impressive, considering the musical coffers of My Bloody Valentine and Jesus and Mary Chain should be well and truly bare by now. A Place to Bury Strangers have created a magnificent and charged work that demonstrates they have plenty of fire still to be unleashed.
With the album's opener, "Alone," the group grabs hold of their distinctive overblown sound—where before it sounded like they could lose control at any moment—and focus it like a laser guided missile. While their ramshackle approach is what drew me initially to them on the first two albums, this tighter style of playing manages to channel all their best bits without losing any of the music’s power; "You Are the One" is the older, cooler brother of "Missing You" from their debut whereas "Mind Control" sees the group consolidate their strategic assault on my ears as they increase the intensity and volume significantly.
However, it is on the album’s title track where they show how much they have developed their sound in the last couple of years. It begins like an outtake from their first album before they completely blow the song open. Melodies, feedback and blissed out vocals all come together to make a perfect whole. It is a potent piece of psychedelic rock that sounds utterly timeless. This feeling permeates through the rest of Worship, particularly on the gorgeous, dream-like "Dissolved," where a gentle guitar refrain becomes buried in the sort of tremolo bar action that would send Kevin Shields into a swoon.
While I liked 2009’s Exploding Head, Worship sounds like the true successor to their first album and their incendiary live shows (my ears are still ringing from the last time I saw them). The more I listen to it, the more I fall in love with its beguiling distorted melodies. (You know a band has got you good when you wish you could jam along with them.) The only thing I feel is missing from this album is a strobe light to go with the sensory overload of the guitars. Other than that, it is impossible to find a flaw in Worship.
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Originally an accompanying piece for the vinyl release of A Static Place, this afterward to that album utilizes the same archaic gramophones paired with computer processing approach, resulting in a similarly dynamic, understated piece of minimalist composition.
The WK in the title refers to Wilhelm Kempff, whose piano based recordings of Beethoven make up the original vinyl source material used to create this work.Opening with ringing, almost painfully shrill sounds, the dynamic nature of the piece become utterly apparent, as the pitch rises and falls, so does the volume, creating a constantly evolving, although distant and cold, piece of music.
The movement is slow throughout Coda's 20 minute duration, emphasizing mostly sustained and stretched out tones, and occasionally a bass-heavy rumble surfaces to act as a counterpoint to the otherwise bright sounds.The latter half especially is bathed in a gauzy, white noise glow that semi-obscures melodies below.Towards its end, the piece seems to take on a darker, bleaker hue before ending on the same type of clean and pure sounds that opened the disc.
While Coda is somewhat slow, its pacing works perfectly for its meditative, carefully unfolding sound.Moments may be somewhat disconnected or bleak, but never off-putting.Regardless of the mood conveyed, Mathieu's work always channels a complex beauty that may not always be delicate, but is always effective and compelling.
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Initially a work inspired by Cage's 100th birthday this year, this album began life as a soundtrack to his One11 film. However as those recordings progressed, Australian composer Lawrence English began to develop a wider body of pieces that were inspired, both directly and indirectly, by the legendary artist, and take on a life of their own.
Cage’s use of chance, and his interest in Zen Buddhism are among the more often occurring themes and influences on these eight pieces, which are deliberate and meditative, but retain a loose, improvisational feeling at times.The ghostly wisps and sustained lower-frequency moments of "Otidea Onotica" possess a certain peaceful quality, though that is contrasted by the quickly rising and falling tonal outbursts around them.
"Gymnosporangium" and "Amanita Inaurata" also have this apparition-like sparseness, with the former especially employing the varying tones and pitches of "Otidea Onotica"."Hygrophorous Russula" takes a different path, sounding like a slow-motion fall accompanied with higher register textural passages.
The back to back pieces "Naematoloma Sublateritium" and "Coprinus Comatus" make for an especially overt contrast, with the former relying on almost foghorn like dark sounds that go to a distinctly creepy, dark place, while the latter has a warmer, inviting character to it, even if they follow similar structures compositionally.
Closer "Entoloma Aborivum" stands out as perhaps the most drastically different piece on this album, given its harsher, more commanding tone.Even though it moves at a glacial pace, the heavily reverberated textures, at times resembling elongated guitar noise, are harsher and more commanding than what preceded it.The closing moments also have a shrill, feedback like quality that adds a bit of welcome abrasion to an otherwise gentle work.
For/Not For John Cage may show differing levels of inspiration courtesy of the legendary composer, but English's work also stands on its own as the work of a powerful, established artist in his own right.At times ascetically sparse, other times boisterous and dominating, there is a significant amount of variation within these eight pieces, but they all sit nicely beside one another as a coherent work.
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