I guess it’s worth noting that this album is a side project of Tom Fec, the man behind Black Moth Super Rainbow. This might mean a lot or nil to you. For someone who has been recommended BMSR but never pursued it - it holds a little weight. More than anything it makes me want to go and explore Fec’s central project.
Fucked Up Friend feels like a side project in the sense that it’s a collection of short form experiments. It’s on the far spectrum away from an epic concept record; however, that doesn’t take away from how enjoyable it is. Each song is built on a foundation of spacey electro soundscapes - a two dollar phrase for glitchy beats. Outside of a few guest vocal spots (most notably by Aesop Rock), the album is void of vocals, and most structure for that matter. This could be elevator music for alien spaceship cities, but only if they were some hip aliens.
So it turns out that Kanye didn’t quite love his mastering of “Love Lockdown” and “Heartless.” This being 2008, Kanye goes back into the studio, reworks the songs and then gives them away for free on his (frequently updates and quite awesome) blog. He then posted another song with Jeezy called “Amazing” - again free to download. Finally two more songs surfaced on the same hosting service he uses, so I’m assuming they are from him. Links to all below.
Deerhunter have entered their pop phase. The blanket of feedback covering Cryptograms has been left behind, and Bradford Cox has evolved into a frontman. The recording process for this album, which you can witness first hand over at Pitchfork.tv, shows a move away from a wall of sound style and towards arrangements with more breathing room for the instruments and up front vocals.
Microcastles is a perfect forward step in the Deerhunter catalog. The album is rooted in the best moments found on Cryptograms. Those core elements are then further realized into uncharted territory. The culmination of this can be seen on “Little Kids” and “Never Stops,” where Deerhunter embody the Sonic Youth cool they most certainly admire.
In the Pitchfork special Bradford talks about wanting to write pop songs, and somewhere inside each track he has succeeded. Of course the songs as a whole could hardly be considered pop, but that is what makes Deerhunter the band they are. The candy coated gleam that covers most modern pop songs has it’s place in the world, but so do the more messy and frayed. Deerhunter embody that latter approach, and do it with the kind of style and talent that any of the New York legends would applaud.
For being a solo artist Phil Elverum (born Phil Elvrum) sure likes his pseudonyms. I first discovered Elverum at the tail end of his run as The Microphones. I kept noticing The Glow Part 2 on everyone’s top ten lists of 2001, and decided to give it a spin. The album is almost uncomfortably candid. It sounds like Elverum recorded the LP in his room, and stood way to close to the mic. However, this blend of adolescent awkwardness with complex instrumentation is what makes it a Phil Elverum recording.
Another defining trait of The Microphones, now Mount Eerie, is the warm analog tones in each recording. His reel to reel recording process is essential to the success of Lost Wisdom’s delivery (and a valid argument against digital recording). For this most recent release, Elverum recruited Julie Doiron to join him on vocals and the result is a stripped down duet with each vocal snugly intertwining with the other. Like the eerily burning barn on the album art, the vocals deliver a flat, dark storytelling experience.
I have absolutely nothing bad to say about Ra Ra Riot’s debut, The Rhumb Line. Personally, its the first album in a long time that I have fallen this hard for in such a short period of time. Its infectiously good, impossibly accessible, and hints at a potential and trajectory that could dethrone some of rock music’s reigning success stories of the past few years. And there really isn’t any embarrassment in it: no cheese-based ballad that makes you cling to the walls, no half baked thought, tone, or lyric. (They are on Barsuk for heck sake!)
On their debut, Ra Ra Riot shows that they thrive at tackling meaning and philosophy in a pop art forum. They take the weird out of a celestially deep Kate Bush song (”Suspened In Gaffa”) and turn it into a lighthearted, stomp-stomp anthem for the questioning, young heart. They bring out the smile in their reworking of E.E. Cummings poem “dying is fine)but Death“, leaving the listener with no question as to the tone of the author’s intent.
But is Ra Ra Riot just tricking the kids into singing along to the ponderings of life’s greater mysteries? If it feels this good to question things than I’ll just hit replay a few more times.
When the Young Liars EP emerged in 2003, the persona of TV on the Radio were shrouded in mystery. Left with only album art and the music, I reverted back to a pre-internet world of imagination and minimalism. The arrangement and delivery of the music felt like nothing else at the time - twenty minutes of barbershop vocals and fuzz.
Throughout the next two albums, TVOTR made efforts at expanding their musical palette. While this is the goal of any band, only the great ones turn these efforts into progress instead of diversion. They never stepped outside of their foundational sound, and still moved forward musically with each new song.
Dear Science rests right in line with the progression of Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes and Return to Cookie Mountain. The band is at their most mature and contemplative, and have cut away the bed of static from Cookie Mountain. “Dancing Choose” and “Golden Age” are the singles for obvious reasons, but I think “Halfway Home” and “Stork & Owl” might be my favorite tracks on the record.
TV on the Radio is committed to music, and Dear Science puts their labors and progress on record. Their catalog should be mandatory listening for any new hype band.
In Ear Park is not a tide-over record, one to keep your patience at bay, while you await the next release from Grizzly Bear. Its hard not to connect the two projects though; this Department of Eagles album is smudged with the fingerprints of Grizzly Bear and the subtleties of sound, the ghoulish background vocals, and dedication to seventh chords that made Yellow House such a delight. Though it hints at a California sound, as filtered through Randy Newman or Van Dyke Parks, In Ear Park is far from the sunshine popping playfulness that seems to bracket most music under the California banner. The result is much moodier, like a fog-ridden drive down Highway One before sunrise, when the cramped California still feels far away.
The landscape of the music industry has changed tremendously over the last 10 years, and the smartest artists are learning to adapt. Artists and labels have come to realize that consumers want constant contact and content from the artists they follow, and if they get bored they’ll look elsewhere for that fulfillment.
Kayne West understands this new system and is doing everything he can to continue his reign on top. On the heels of a incredibly successful latest album and equally impressive concert tour, Kayne is already completing a new record that he will be releasing practically the day it’s finished (sometime in November). He is also an obsessive blogger and keeps a great connection to his fans that way. To keep the experience interactive, Kanye has released the stem tracks to “Love Lockdown” for everyone to remix and rework. When you finish post it online and link it through the comment section. We want to hear your creation!
Even with the tempo slowed down to below 100 bpm’s, the Ruby Suns‘ version of El Guincho’s “Palomitos Park” is immediately identifiable with its ancestry. Its a beautiful offspring from the parent recording, but this child is a little softer around the edges, about 40 percent fatter in time, and the most sensitive a cover song could ever be. Maybe its just because I can actually understand the language this time.
Campfire Songs is for the active and possibly obsessed Animal Collective fan. If you haven’t had the good fortune of listening to their music then I beg you to enter door number 1 and begin your journey. For those of you that are left, I give you what I believe to be the earliest artifact of what we now know as Animal Collective. Although there are two LPs before this release, Campfire Songs marks the first time all four members of AC played together.
True to its name, the recording of the album was done in the open air (a screen porch in Maryland to be exact), and the songs played back to back in one take. Untrue to its name, these songs are definitely not your average “camp songs” - and thank God for that. The album is somewhere between ambient sound and the foundations of Sung Tongs. There is something undefinable about Avey Tare’s acoustic guitar playing. He takes an instrument that is so weighed down in traditional song writing, and transforms it into an enigmatic tool. Any admirer of Sung Tongs (and if you don’t know what that is you really should have taken door number 1 above) will find a satisfying point of origin in Campfire Songs.
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