Northern Music Kinetics

Russian Circles - Empros

2011-12-26T13:47:00.000-08:00

I love burgers, and I hate mediocrity. As a musical equivalent that meets these standards, this band is tops. I wrote a review , my last before my second son Arrow was born.

You know what you’re getting when you order a Russian Circle burger. High quality, grass-fed meat, home made bread, locally sourced ingredients and perhaps a special ingredient you didn’t expect make listening a high quality experience. A nutritious rock experience high in zinc and iron and low in saturated fat. The band concocts its jams with a degree of unpredictability (perhaps a pineapple ring? blue cheese curds? blackberry porter marinade?) but the satisfaction in listening comes via amazing chops and mature song writing. Considering how many changes that occur within each song, Russian Circles are very good at pacing their material.

Empros starts strong, gets a little weird and a bit more brutal, and at the back end gets pretty. The confusion in properly orchestrating an album of mega prog metal has left the band. Empros succeeds in that it all sounds like one song; each begets the next naturally, which wasn’t always the case with previous records. The wide open expanse of “Batu” hits like the cool of tsaziki but it doesn’t distract from the strong palette of caribou and barbecue sauce established by total brain smashers like “309 and “Schiphol”.

<p>&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://russiancircles.bandcamp.com/album/empros"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Empros by Russian Circles&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

Simon Scott - Bunny

2011-12-14T16:32:00.001-08:00

This album is awesome. Read my well scribed review here. Or this snippet:

As in common in Scott's solo work, each song can be extracted and enjoyed out of context. This seems to be uncommon in ambient music, but the effect here is that Scott’s experimental sound collages come across as songs instead of soundscapes. This gives the album a discernable direction and arc. Instead of being buried in the ether, the songs are the ether - crackling, growing crystals, gasping for air. The textures that form are dynamic and moody, their origins mostly stemming from real instruments like guitar and piano.
Simon Scott - Bunny by miasmah

Incredible Musical Prodigy

2011-12-14T16:28:00.000-08:00

The Drift - Blue Hour

2011-12-04T11:29:00.000-08:00

Late trumpet player and electronics maestro Jeff Jacobs implored his band mates to continue making music should he lose his fight with cancer, and that is what this San Francisco-based trio have done with their seventh release. Blue Hour is a classic example of how not just to keep pressing on, but to triumph despite the sadness. The album begins with a couple of the most muscular tracks ever heard from The Drift, as if to say that the first reaction to a close friend's death is to plow ahead, faking a sense of confidence. These uncharacteristic tracks make sense when they give way to a more familiar meditative journey. “The Skull Hand Smiles - May You Fare Well” is paced with piano and rhythmic textures before the guitar helps the song coalesce. It is incredible how much space and storytelling Danny Paul Grody can do with just one guitar. Within the layerings of “Luminous Friend” one can almost hear Jacobs’ trumpet. The patience and bardo-like cadence of closing piece “Fountain” demonstrates that these are special musicians, capable of weaving powerful passages of emotionally dynamic rock even in a state of vulnerability. This graceful record may not top the year end lists, but it’s a potent reflection of one of life’s most difficult truths.

Listen: The Drift - Horizon

Hidden Orchestra - Flight EP

2011-12-01T14:36:00.000-08:00

An EP with one new song and four remixes? Sounds like a game plan for established fans only, but Edinburgh-based Hidden Orchestra hits it out of the park by opening with the spectacular "Flight". It's a song one can't help but play again and again. The synth-infused drama unfolds with a delicate thrumming bass-line provided by a cello and melodies handled by clàrsach (a small Scottish harp), saxophone, and a melifluously recorded clarinet. Castanets, twinkling chimes and shuffling electro percussion take the song to an exotic next level, making it completely natural for the remixed tracks from Night Walks to shine. And they do. The band's clarinetist Tomáš Dvořák doubles as Floex, whose remix of "Dust" is as fresh as shaved nutmeg on a frosted evening. The Colonel's take on "The Windfall" feels a bit redundant after Maddslinky's remix of the same track, but each has a very different style that they sort of blend into one longer piece. Each of the remixers has a clear understanding of Hidden Orchestra's groove and strengths, honoring the original tunes with a grace not often heard with this type of release. Not a dull moment to be found.

Hidden Orchestra - Flight EP by Tru Thoughts

Raw Landscapes.

2011-12-01T14:28:00.000-08:00

Enrique Pacheco's "Raw Landscapes" is anything but raw ~ it's a smooth and beautiful travelogue of Iceland's most picturesque locations. Max Richter's music provides the exciting background.

~Richard Allen, The Silent Ballet

Thanks for directing me to this video, Richard!

Raw Lightscapes from Enrique Pacheco on Vimeo.

Peter Broderick - Music For Confluence

2011-11-28T10:51:00.000-08:00

The manner in which Broderick can nail these feelings on all these classical instruments is endlessly captivating. It’s the subtle touches between the melodies that gives each track its unique voice. To score a scene where a kid finds a “deer skull” at the side of the freeway, only to realize it was actually human, Broderick puts together a Stars of the Lid-style respiration, executed with pointilist piano consumed by tremolo violin melodies and ghostly female vocals. In the opening moments, barely audible, haphazard strikes of strings or piano hammers litter the background. One of the final pieces, “Circumstantial Evidence” uses both tremolo and well-tempered violins in tandem to generate a palpable feeling of unstable resolve. The closely-miked piano, the distorted thrum (of a cello?), the dropping of a bow: everything that happens in the background is just as interesting (perhaps more!) as what requests our immediate attention.

The trailer for the film for which this music was created is here:

Confluence (Official Trailer) from Erased Tapes on Vimeo.

Plaid at the Biltmore Cabaret

2011-11-25T23:43:00.000-08:00

I went to a concert on a Monday night. I'm getting too old for this shit.

For over a decade Andy Turner and Ed Handley have rallied past simply making electronic albums, having composed for giant wooden machines that play music, worked with myriad visual artists, scored several films, all while regularly shuffling software. The artificial vocals on Plaid’s 2011 release Scintilli sound so real, they raise the audio freak’s eyebrows. Plaid’s sound palette blends round-cornered, cerebral digitalism with highly active and organic electro-percussion.

The last time Plaid played in Vancouver was in 2003, and it stands as the best sounding show I’ve ever attended, one that featured intensive video imagery as well as a remote-operated camera droid that essentially “remixed” the footage it gathered of the performers on stage. In 2011 Plaid played the increasingly popular Biltmore Cabaret, much to the chagrin of the aurally particular. The low ceiling ensures sound has little room to breathe, indicating that Plaid were not going to sound anywhere near as good this time.

: The Square Root of Evil gets svelte between hardcore beatscapes.

Local glitch-thumper The Square Root of Evil opened with a set that never lost momentum. Sometimes her aggressive rhythms gained such speed to the point of banality, only to transition lusciously into a jungle-esque storm seen through a Fuck Buttons lens. Spearheaded by the constant pulse, it was like Bogdan Raczynski extending a triumphant 80’s moment over time via 8-bit Nintendo sound libraries. Jen Pearson had a chipper energy about her, but her connection to the audience never exceeded the gaze of the giant cat eyes that appeared on her white tee shirt. Her wardrobe served as the entire concert’s lasting image.

Plaid opened with the sunshower and chimes of “35 Summers”, a piece originally created for the beautiful underwater video work involving a woman and an octopus filmed by Richie Burridge, which they naturally displayed. Much of the show's remaining video work was created live by Plaid’s on-board software, but it all paled in comparison to their previous touring visuals. Aside from the actual music videos they showed, this tech feature felt like a baby step toward a future triumph.

Next came “Sömnl”, a piece off Scintilli whose wah-wah bass emerged like a golden lion out of the speakers. Its bass kicks punctuated with welcome urgency. This is what the live electronic show is all about: revitalizing tracks, suddenly making the recording sound stale by comparison.

The opposite happened with “Eye Robot” which packed less punch and clarity than Scintilli’s version. The Biltmore’s limits were seemingly tested as the carbonated engine that drives this song was muddied into a cauldron of undestinguishable features. Other pieces like the circuitous “The Launching Of Big Face” and the inebriated “Talk To Us” suffered similar fates. The highlights ended up being the pieces with more percussive dynamism rather than cerebral headgames. “Crumax Rins” totally slayed, inspiring folks to dance harder. This “oldie” from Spokes injected more narrative motion into the set, sending Plaid’s dodecahedron down a worm hole.

Ed Handley and Andy Turner cast an iSpell in Vancouver, BC.

Before long, they laid it on thick with an exercise in multiple polyrhythms, a drumming deluge that was more confusing than stimulating. Plaid often toy with different time signatures to great success, but anyone who had ordered a PBR at this experimental detour really noticed their beer wasn’t alcoholic enough. The way to get people back into it would be to play the hits, and for Plaid that’s “Eyen” off of Double Figure. Retooled quite a bit from the original it put a fresh spin on the end of the set. The encore was the delightful “At Last” which features those artificial female vocals that continue to beguile.

Plaid’s focused stage performance resembled what you’d expect at a laptop concert, except this time the artists had iPads. Plaid are using them as controllers, and they serve as yet another icy fire in which to gaze alongside the three Macbooks. The stage was exceptionally dark, obfuscating whether or not Handley or Turner smiled or ever made eye contact with the humans in attendance. Sometimes you wonder if they’re just checking Facebook up there. If one of their laptops caught on fire then we’d have something to watch. All things considered, it was a show that featured satisfying adventurism in the song interpretations, but it was done a disservice by the sub-par sound. Those hypnotically bouncing cat eyes lingered in the periphery as everyone made their way home.

35 summers from Siam Liam J. I. on Vimeo.

Birds of Passage and Leonardo Rosado - Dear and Unfamiliar

2011-11-22T17:41:00.000-08:00

I almost feel like I went out on a limb saying this was one of the better ambient/vocal albums of the year (wait, there can't be that many of those). Still, while Alicia Merz's vocals are kind of like a sweeter version of Lhasa, they almost strike me as a guilty pleasure. Like it's a bit over-dramatic at times. But that's why this album works, since it's a re-creating of Casablanca's soundtrack. My review on The Silent Ballet analyzes further. Here is a sample:

The album is a tale of two sides, each concluded by Leonardo Rosado's trademark: animated drones and instrumental escapades. “A Kiss Is Just a Kiss” enters with a faucet of eastern drones and turns up the water pressure until the crescendo. These lyric-less bookends, as well as enchanting elements like the sitar on “Of Your Charm”, ensure that Dear and Unfamiliar stretches time. Each piece is paced a little differently, but on the whole they all create a living dreamspace so that the 43 minutes seem a lot longer, putting time and place on notice. Casablanca is in Morocco, but that raga sounds Indian, and the players are from two other completely different countries. Where is this beautiful place? Somewhere dear and unfamiliar. Let’s hope this isn’t a one-time collaboration between these two highly talented artists.

Here's lookin' at you, kid - Birds Of Passage / Leonardo from Hugo Goudswaard on Vimeo.

Benoît Honoré Pioulard - Plays Thelma

2011-11-22T17:15:00.000-08:00

From the opening wheezing of processed feedback to the distorted organ outro graced by the calls of many a swainson's thrush, this EP is distinctly a product of the Pacific Northwest. Plays Thelma offers glimpses and impressions of an imaginary lake and its surrounding fauna (Thelma) that exists in a liminal realm visited by Portland-based Benoît Honoré Pioulard. The hypnogogic chords of "Malick" hearkens the overcast, nostalgic leanings of Rafael Anton Irisari's The North Bend (another PNW-inspired album). The EP transpires via processed, ambient adventurism, most of which was recorded onto magnetic tape. This medium is not clean sounding and gives these audio dreams that hazy nowhere feeling, often keeping the point where the guitar begins and the harmonium ends indistinguishable. "Hushes Gasp" is a very active piece, with many types of vocal takes pinging across a vast field at each other. A bit like birdcalls, performed by stranded spirits. "Calder" sounds like a heavily reverbed and gently electrified guitar feedback-looping on behalf of itself, but we may never know. This quality of hazy source material secures the dreamspace being orchestrated by Thomas Meluch (Benoît is his performance name, didn't you know?), but the textural aspect has been ramped up a notch in comparison to previous albums. Plays Thelma is a lively and personal experience in the nether, one that ends with a rich, Concern-like drone that escorts the listener to sleep under a willow tree by the lake.

benoit honore pioulard - plays thelma (album preview) by experimedia

Sculpture - Toad Blinker

2011-11-10T00:36:00.000-08:00

TRON showed us what it would be like to be sucked into a digital video game, but what about being absorbed into a pinball machine? The electronic wizardry and analogue tape manipulations on Toad Blinker demonstrate what this would be like. This is the audio/visual duo Sculpture’s second full length zoetropic picture disc, and much like Rotary Signal Emitter, it’s a tidal pool of playful energy and audio mayhem. Toad Blinker is 35 minutes of carbonated caprice and while its music stands on its own, the album cannot be fully appreciated without Reuben Sutherland’s fantastic animation that is best viewed through filming the LP in motion at 25 frames per second with a high shutter speed? Don’t have a good camera? Neither do most of us, leaving us to observe the picture disc through a homemade viewer (demonstrated here) while Dan Hayhurst’s effervescent music concrète takes center stage. Imagine the ghostly fanfare of Philip Jeck sent through a grossly exaggerated machine built for Willy Wonka, and you might get an idea. The music is exciting: never stabilizing but also never running off the rails. Sounding much like the mind of a toddler, it’s surprising how intriguing Toad Blinker is despite the melodies and themes being hidden or absent all together. This duo is producing an artistic product that is highly unique, further pushing the idea that music when grafted into other realms of expression can be more than a folder of mp3s.

Elk Cloner from Sculpture on Vimeo.

Plaid - Scintilli

2011-10-27T20:56:00.000-07:00

I've always liked Plaid, and even though my review comes down a bit hard on them, I still enjoy this album.

Once in a while, it’s grand fun to act on impulse and tear open the plastic wrapper (Scintilli’s limited edition comes with a nicely designed pointless object, or “muda na mono”) and have some sweet treat. Like a gummy bear or a Snickers, this album is perfectly constructed to hit those spots in the brain that crave immediate satisfaction. In fact, if one embraces this album for the splendor of sound and ignores the premature dramatic fizz-outs, it’s a dream to listen to (with the exception of the irritating “African Woods”). Yet after all that work, it’s a shame to produce something so devoid of grit or humanity. Handley and Turner may enjoy what they are doing, but the album lacks an emotional element that even the most perfect digital delivery cannot fake.

Oval & Mountains at Western Front

2011-10-12T17:29:00.000-07:00

Originally published on October 11th, 2011 for SSG Music

Mountains' gear dominates the humble wooden stage at Western Front in Vancouver.

Every year Vancouver gets a smattering of “Decibel Festival Lite,” where a few musicians who perform at the Seattle festival make their way across the border. At the Western Front on Sunday night nary fifty people came to see a unique pairing of electronic artists in Mountains and Oval, whose disparity in approach to music was plain to see.

Like a pair of lumberjacks fire-gazing in their log cabin for the winter, Mountains (Koen Holtkamp and Brendon Anderegg) confirmed they are professional relaxers. The early start time surprised me as I walked into the small acoustic space to hear the stoic duo already engaged in their psychedelic space crafting; they must appreciate a good night’s sleep. Motifs on acoustic guitars were swallowed by sequencers spread across the sonic divide like scintillating fog.

In other moments the guitars provided a warm spinal cord to hold up the burgeoning cosmos emanating from the live electronics, a feature that defines their recent album Air Museum. Taking the acoustic wash of ambience to another level, the sonics explore the warmer climes of classic science fiction videos. Their set featured familiar elements from Air Museum (parts of “January 17″ peppered the final ten minutes), but Holtkamp and Anderegg effortlessly created a unique armada of sounds that were engaging and relaxing. If only my folding chair had been a lazy boy.

The tables of Mountains’ analog gear, cables, effects pedals, and guitars made way for one small table and a stock PC laptop. This measure of equipment doesn’t prepare a listener for the quality and oddity of sounds that Markus Popp is quite excited to share.

Oval drags and drops squiggly erratta, almost-ethnic synthetics, plucked pointilism, and
off-kilter forms that are realized well after they've appeared.

Popp has been performing as Oval for more than 20 years, and much has changed since his earlier works that helped pioneer the idea that “glitch” can be a pleasing musical concept. The spartan room at Western Front made the performances seem more like a tech conference presentation than a concert. A chandelier or other design elements could put a little flavor into the space, but on the other hand, the lack of flair allows for complete focus on the performer.

On Oval’s recent double album O, real instruments were sourced to create sounds and spirited midi drums carry many of the compositions to a new level of depth, a result Popp himself was surprised with. He professed to the audience that he had “a lot of material to get through” and that if anyone didn’t like something, to speak up and let him know, encouraging discussion between songs. A song would end abruptly, and there would be complete silence. At each sudden interval Popp would occasionally mutter to himself and everyone in the audience would try not to breathe. The invitation to interact was exciting, but no one took a chance, leaving Popp to make every manner of facial expression as he ushered a jungle of different motifs into his main musical themes, creating entirely new but familiar compositions.

No song was more recognizable or infectious than “ah!,” a cerebral pop tune that reveals Oval can actually bring the party. Dancing at this small event would have felt a bit out of place, but many of the pieces planted the desire. The challenge in listening to O became an absolute delight in person. The cadence in each song was constantly misbehaving, keeping the mind highly alert. The instruments’ hard, analog strikes were quite physical. The levity and charisma of the off-balance melodies made the music very human, like you could feel it emanating from your bones.

Markus Popp wears his windbreaker to weather the storm of questions provided
by the audience.

Amongst his energetic and tumbling vignettes, Markus Popp is more of a scientist learning to become a musician. During the after-set discussion, he said he didn’t consider his pieces to be true songs and admits that he doesn’t ever listen to his contemporaries. “I’m always in touch with it, but I don’t listen to electronic music.” His laptop had color coordinated audio themes, arranged by instrument or feeling. He can experiment with his library of wild sounds as long as the base tracks (drums and main melody) are synchronized. He said it was akin to hearing the hum of a washing machine while experimenting in the kitchen. “It’s nice to know something is working while the rest is going on.”

Popp’s encouragement to interact and ask questions was the most wonderful part of the show. Even though the audience remained silent, each person knew he was a welcome participant. It played out more like a listening party and conference with wine and vinyl readily available. Popp’s humility and eccentricity made for an engaging evening of music and technology.

Amazing Drummer in Average Band

2011-10-04T10:53:00.000-07:00

BLAST FROM THE not so distant PAST: Tenacious D rock n' roll Invitation Request

2011-09-29T15:35:00.000-07:00

I am digging through my old files, and I found this little gem from when Julia and I found out Tenacious D were playing in Vancouver. The story goes that we are ridiculously devout D fans, and their music represents a special fraternity in our marriage that cannot be broken. When we found out about this show it was already sold out. So we put together a swarthy Craigslist ad. A day or two later, by some miracle of the heavens, a second show was added, and we ended up getting seats in the FRONT ROW. We even took a sharpie to the show and designed our own tee shirts on the spot to further supercharge the occasion. Jack Black sweated on me. Definitely a highlight of my concert going life...

We be two humble peasants wandering the path that was chosen. A man. A woman. Side by side, in rare friendshipian union, staring toward the blazing horizon, lusting after all the possibilities of the world. Nary a day goes by when we do not weep at the prospect of missing our mentors' grand judgment of rock upon our beautiful Canadian soil, for we missed our chance at snagging an invitation. When the D doth come a summoning, we must appear before their holy feet, to be learned another lesson of life, to have our socks rocked clean off, to get one step closer to answering the Ultimate Question.

For us, this would be a life-changing event. If yee be selling or losing tickets, lose them this way. If you want to ensure that your pretties are given to someone who will maximize their enjoyment, thus causing the Earth's biospheric aura to swell productively, please consider us.

PS, we have a tv and a playstation2 that we want to sell, but it can definitely be implemented into our obtainment of Tenacious D rock invitations. If you want said electronics, do come a calling.... with love Nayt and Julia

A Winged Victory For The Sullen

2011-09-28T20:47:00.001-07:00

Behold. This album is so gorgeous. Not to be missed. My full review on The Silent Ballet is pretty well written, too, I think.

Not everything is immediately apparent on this debut album. If you know Adam Wiltzie from Stars Of The Lid or The Dead Texan you know to expect orchestral drones and chamber minutaie performed by real instruments and expertly manipulated guitars. If Dustin O'Halloran’s performance prowress has you excited, you know you are in for some understated poignancy on rare pianos. If you heard that Peter Broderick guests on violin or that Hildur Guðnadóttir plays some cello, you might hear this album go by like a constellation secretly appearing at dusk and ask, “Wait, what?” It is that effortless in execution. It can take many listens, for instance, before one realizes a harp is being played on track four. At first, it all blurs together as one song, as if the mind and heart have some growing to do before the details begin to pop out. Where were all these supposed instruments, one wonders? But, boy, after some flexing of the mind, do these details pop out!

a winged victory for the sullen 'steep hills of vicodin tears' by kranky

Talvihorros - Descent Into Delta

2011-09-20T12:02:00.000-07:00

I done reviewed a pretty good guitar drone record. Ben Chatwin is pretty on it.

Chatwin seems to get better with each Talvihorros release, and Descent Into Delta is a fine example of the diverse ways in which a guitar can contribute to the crafting of a cohesive environment. Overall it has the sensibility of Aidan Baker and the real-time nocturnal features of Expo 70. Chatwin improvises much of his work and goes in to tweak it later. Yet despite the obvious amount of care, this release has the air of spontaneity. On the final track, “Delta”, a viola wanders like a ghost through the dead of night, clearly present, but without tangible form, like a lucid dreamer in the ether of sleep.
&amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://talvihorros.bandcamp.com/album/descent-into-delta"&amp;amp;amp;gt;Descent Into Delta by Talvihorros&amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;gt;

Nest - Body Pilot

2011-09-07T09:31:00.000-07:00

Nest are lovely aren't they? A more extensive exploration of this record is here. Here is a snippet:

More restrained and subtle than their previous release, this EP focuses on the phenomenon of flight or weightlessness. The opening "Stillness" provides the clearest link to Retold, inviting the listener to play the releases back-to-back. Out of a delicately sustained set of strings emerges an inquisitive and spartan piano motif. These singular notes and chords languish in the open air, vestal in feeling. The background textures and chordal ambience beckon a letting go into the clouds, which is where Nest heads next with tentative, outstretched wings.

Nest / The Dying Roar (Preview / Excerpt) by Serein

Paavoharju - Ikkunat näkevät

2011-08-25T14:59:00.000-07:00

Ikkunat näkevät is a brief collection of rare tunes and alternate takes from one of Finland’s outsider forest collectives. Paavoharju’s previous two LPs burst with imagination, extracting syrup from trees and turning it into blissful psychedelic pop and folky toy-tronica with male and female Finnish vocals. The band's edgy but gentle sound is entirely unique and mesmerizing, yet decidedly odd, like Bjork and The Sugarcubes trying to pull off a Broadcast and Focus Group record. The same sound is on offer here, but on the whole it's not nearly as intriguing as on the full records. Three tracks are reworked versions of some of the group's more memorable tunes, notably "Kevätrumpu" and "Aamuauringon tuntuinen". The familiarity of the hooks contained in these mutant versions glues the EP together, but if you've heard these before and aren't an obsessive fan, they are fairly similar to the originals. Paavoharju usually have a dark shadow lurking behind the smiling face of their songs, but the newer tracks here feature a more blissed out take on the dreamworlds they love flying around in. The title track is more of a traditional ballad featuring violin and piano as well as hand-on-heart male vocals, grounding the spacecraft for three minutes in rural, Finnish folklore. Overall, this EP is a digestable twenty minutes describing what these ascetics can do, and a lovely place to begin exploring some of Finland's more unusual groups.

Paavoharju: Ikkunat näkevät by Fonal Records

Donato Wharton - A White Rainbow Spanning The Dark

2011-08-24T15:33:00.001-07:00

An intricate, after hours foray into ambient expertise. Read my full review, or read this snippet:

The sonic territory is somewhat akin to the solo work of Aidan Baker, but Donato Wharton is more interested in the details than in melody or ambient propulsion. Tracks like “Breath Held”, graced by gong like plucks, white tones, amplifier gain and solitary guitar ambling, may be spartan, but their sonics are intelligently designed and highly evocative. These pieces feel like reflections of the human experience, rather than edgeless depths and clouds. As a result, the interacting creatures and winds of White Rainbow feel more like arctic shorelines than descriptors of arctic shorelines: memories grafted onto the backs of storm petrels.

Donato Wharton / Ink Mountains (Full Track) by Serein

Weird Al directing the Jr. Phiharmonic Orchestra of California at the 54th annual "Battle of Batons"

2011-08-19T15:52:00.000-07:00

Special. It's from 1991. I doubt Al is this limber these days.

Beware of Saftey - Leaves/Scars

2011-08-12T11:27:00.000-07:00

I wrote a review again. This time it was for the beloved Beware of Safety. Here is an excerpt:

Throughout Leaves/Scars, the bass playing is virtuous and versatile, and contributes a new aspect to the band: a sense of humor. This new levity is a welcome buffer between the album's emotional highs and evocative rock conversations. A soft but chipper bass riff introduces the playful “Crooked Nails For Catching Skin”. Eventually it is joined by an intelligent shimmery guitar line and a pair of expressive melodies. The opening riff almost sounds like something one makes up the first time one picks up a bass; but once the drums are added, and the song evolves, it's impossible to imagine a different phrasing. This track is the album's most exciting, as each section is in constant motion. The rhythms have bounce, the guitar melodies morph, and the playing sounds urgent and emotional.
&amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://bewareofsafety.bandcamp.com/album/leaves-scars"&amp;amp;amp;gt;Leaves/Scars by Beware of Safety&amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;gt;

Plaid compose music for robot band

2011-08-08T15:47:00.000-07:00

Extract from composition: 'Glide' recorded and filmed at Gasworks winter 2008

Noveller - Glacial Glow

2011-08-01T17:19:00.000-07:00

I wrote a full review of Glacial Glow here. I always want to route for the female artists doing something different, and fortunately Noveller is getting better with every album.

After an overall presentation of slow motion post rock and icy but vivacious drones, “Waxwing” is the experimental gem. Scrambled cetacean calls reveal themselves to be lost violins and reversed, reverbed guitar plucks. A new movement enters with a flurry of looped eccentricities, guided by (possibly) a cello and bolstered by more high-neck guitar busy work. It invokes microorganisms or perhaps a flock of wintering birds (the song’s namesake) all feasting on a leafless berry tree. Sarah Lipstate then lets the listener down gently like a sinking hot air balloon with “Ends”, a simple and earnest conclusion.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://noveller.bandcamp.com/album/glacial-glow"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Glacial Glow by Noveller&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

M. Mucci - The Secret is Knowing When to Close Your Eyes

2011-07-28T14:02:00.000-07:00

It's rare these days to find an expert guitar recording without added studio embellishment. Canadian Michael Mucci graced our listening ears with last year’s lush and acoustic-heavy Time Lost, a refreshing take on the American primitive technique. This follow-up cassette is limited to just 100 copies, making the singular and gentle electric guitar vignettes that emerge seem all the more personal. (Don’t fret*, digital copies are available.) The Secret is Knowing When to Close Your Eyes is an ode to the beaches and culture of Malta, and the ease with which one feels a true sense of home in a gorgeous yet humbling environment. With a nod to Loren Connors’ style of play, M. Mucci captures a truly emotional and honest performance, not one of extreme emotional highs and lows, but one of tranquility and comfort. A title like “The Calm of Knowing What is Going to Happen Next“ reflects the guitar player’s fragility and confidence. A detectably bittersweet tone is found in “The Three Cities”, but the resounding feeling of peaceful composure is featured in the title track, where notes and chords sculpt a lovely offering of gratitude. The Secret is Knowing When to Close Your Eyes is a wonderful 25-minute album for holding still.
&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://mmucci.com/album/the-secret-is-knowing-when-to-close-your-eyes"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;The Secret is Knowing When to Close Your Eyes by M. Mucci&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

The Caretaker - An empty bliss beyond this World

2011-07-26T17:23:00.000-07:00

This album is exceptional. Read my review, of which I am somewhat proud.

If you play this for a room of unsuspecting friends, they may quickly remark how much they enjoy it, but as Kirby's movements start to play out and mysteriously disappear, something odd may unfold in their souls. You may have given your guests the gift of second guessing, misplaced nostalgia, and temporary mental illness - even bliss! If this suggestion is a bit much, consider An empty bliss beyond this World as the perfect soundtrack choice for your haunted house this Halloween. I know it will be playing in mine, daring children and adults alike to question this reality and spend a moment in their own halls of horror.

An empty bliss beyond this World by The Caretaker

Years Of Rice And Salt - Nothing of Cities

2011-07-06T17:54:00.000-07:00

This record is simply joyful. I wrote a review.

To sound “happy” on record takes confidence, and Years of Rice and Salt have it in spades. This album is strong from start to finish, weaving traditional post-rock, experimental stanzas, folky gaeity, triumphant singalongs, emotive journeying and seamless instrumental interplay. Perhaps it is the band's attempt at conjuring an imagined future, a statement implying that change is possible. To behold these songs in a place where cities play no part is the perfect strategy. Nothing of Cities is a celebration of life and sound.

Nothing of Cities (2011) by Years of Rice and Salt

Amon Tobin - Isam

2011-06-12T17:24:00.000-07:00

Amon Tobin! I wrote a review, which was, admittedly, from the perspective of HIGH EXPECTATIONS. Ah well. He's good, but this album is not...listenable, most of the time.

Isam is complicated, and relentlessly so. I never thought I’d say this, but Amon Tobin, an artist who changed my life and is in a league of his own, has slipped up, folks. For all its production complexity and the artistic talent incorporated into the release, this musical journey falls way flat. Amon Tobin is perhaps going somewhere I cannot go. They say that if it’s too loud, you’re too old, but I don’t think that applies here. Instead, let’s say that if it’s too not-good, you’re not fooling anyone. At least not me.

Hans Zimmer & Rodrigo Y Gabriela - Pirates Of The Caribbean IV: On Stranger Tides

2011-06-01T17:27:00.000-07:00

Yes, I reviewed this album. And I saw the movie, one of two I've seen this year, the other being TRON whose soundtrack is more consistent. However, the actual music on this one is arguably better. It's just... the remixes that kill the thing as a cohesive unit.

Those who enjoy following up an adventure film score with drum n’ bass remixes will find the complete package here. Barring Photek’s more than decent rehashing, the rest of the (six) remixes tacked on to the end of On Stranger Tides reek of Disney shmaltz, including a few with sword-on-sword clangs doubling as percussion (read: fail). Were these not involved whatsoever, the soundtrack would be pretty sensational. Hans Zimmer and his composer posse have been hitting home runs lately with scores like Inception and Sherlock Holmes. Here, Zimmer pairs his rock-influenced symphonics with the work of Rodrigo Y Gabriela, a Mexican duo who spent many years busking metal tunes in Ireland before rising to international distinction. The duo ends up stealing the show. Along with a rough sounding violin performer, they give the film a flavor distinct from that of the other Pirates films; it’s their soundtrack, with Zimmer doing his thing in a complementary role. (It’s their “Y” vs Zimmer’s ampersand!) Rodrigo Y Gabriela’s machine gun precision on the acoustic axes is a revelation. (They play so fast they ice their hands after every show!) Their talents are utilized particularly well on the playful “Angelica” and the riveting “The Pirate That Should Not Be”.

Overall the eleven primary pieces are paced very well, but whenever the flamenco/metal duo isn’t involved, Zimmer’s soundtrack seems to be missing that unique something that he seems to conjure time and time again. The forced feminine mystery of the “Mermaids” track sounds like something we’ve heard a lot before, unless one listens on headphones for the bizarre, sickly non-harmonies in the distant background. In the film it does its job - but really, how crazy can a man get when he’s working for Disney? The articulate acoustic shredding makes up plenty for the blatant, orchestral hot points, but those darned remixes continue to perplex.

Battles - Gloss Drop

2011-05-27T17:32:00.000-07:00

Battles are awesome, and now as a threesome they are arguably "better" because they still pull off amazing, complex tunes. Here is my review, touting Gloss Drop as something way more than decent.

A couple years ago, while Tyondai Braxton was still with the band, Battles had an album’s worth of material. When he left, the remaining members had to reinvent themselves and essentially make a new album. Gloss Drop doesn’t feature the polyrhythmic sensibilities that matched Braxton's sugary voice to the music; nor does it contain his compositional curveballs. Instead, this is the sound of Battles rising from the ashes. The vocal presence contributes to a significantly different feel. The sound often drives straight ahead, matching more muscular moments with the familiar overlapping guitar lines. And while this album isn’t as glued together as well as the last one, its level of talent, fun and ideas is still remarkable. If Mirrored was the wild stallion that one could admire for its beauty and unpredictability but never touch, Gloss Drop is the dependable thoroughbred that will more likely win the race when all is said and done.

Marcus Fjellström - Library Music 1

2011-05-14T00:52:00.001-07:00

This man is a delight. I thought his last album was a bit stronger on the whole, but my review of Library Music 1 sings his praises.

Most of these tracks are around two minutes long, and behave as windows into strange worlds. The dense and varied elements Fjellström arranges make these glimpses feel complete. The off-kilter piano chords in “107” teeter and rattle like the legs of a mentally-ill millipede. They are backed up by skittery snare rolls, static, fizzy cymbals, and a deep corridor of alternative percussion. “109” features a liquified, electronic vibraphone that shapeshifts amidst faint ebowed guitars, echoing chimes, some kind of dulicimer and an ambient haze. Fjellström works digitally, but his work sounds dusty and ancient due to progam plugins which emulate the irregularities of analog tape. “103” and even “110” sound a heck of a lot like Amon Tobin’s atmospheric meanderings, with motorcycle engine pulses, insectoid accents, bowed cymbals and a faint orchestra and choir. With such similar production values, one could easily trick an Amon fan into believing “103” was one of his new, unreleased tracks.

Il Rumore del Fiore di Carta - Lesson 3 / How To Live Without Senses

2011-05-11T00:43:00.000-07:00

Some folks on my staff really dig this album, but I don't agree. My review is revealing and maybe a bit harsh.

Instead of bold shifts or risks, Il Rumore del Fiore di Carta keep things simple for most of the album, abandoning their sense of adventure. This injures the listening experience, especially when an unnecessary pit stop like “Part-time Superhero” is tasked with carrying listeners toward the show’s eventual climax. Album closer "The Blind Cosmonaut Under The Sea” is a complete waste of time, sounding exactly like the end credits to a student film about an angry kid who whose father never loved him enough. This piano solo does not do the album any favors. Instead of ending strong, IRdFdC limps away with a track containing about as much emotional depth as a romantic comedy.

Explosions In The Sky’s All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone also ends with a track that dares us to get sentimental. “So Long, Lonesome” is a tame attempt at including piano for emotional effect, and Il Rumore del Fiore di Carta‘s latest album seems to be plagued by that same infraction. Coloring with accents and effects is fine, but as an instrument, the piano is too bold to sound this boring. It’s a big tease. Even the guitars seem to be playing in its shadow, and it isn’t quite working. The trumpet and the drumming/bass combo are Lesson 3’s saving grace, but it isn’t enough to get me out of my chair and race to the telegraph to tell you about this occasionally promising but ultimately pedestrian album.

Brian Reitzell & Alex Heffes - Red Riding Hood

2011-05-06T09:40:00.000-07:00

Brian Reitzell is a fascinating score composer who fashions new instruments to achieve very specific moods and sounds. For 30 Days Of Night he doctored a pottery wheel with felt, mallets and tubing. Their eerie, grinding tones helped the film’s outstanding soundtrack to achieve a rich uniqueness. For Red Riding Hood, Reitzell teamed up with Alex Heffes, who always conducts his own scores and has quite a varied set of film credits (Last King of Scotland, The Rite). Perhaps he was the grounding force to Reitzell’s more avant guard approaches. As a result, Red Riding Hood has a balanced mixture of synthetics and orchestra. “Kids” contains straight ahead drumming, liquid guitar accents and music box melodies, while “Dead Sister” turns up the ominous vibe with bowed cymbals, cobwebbed strings, hallowed vocals and a creepy anklung-esque bit of percussion. The ever-mutating “The Reveal” features the most in-depth look into the collaboration, as analog hadrosaurs shudder in the shadows while ominous cellos and horns shift the mood in a delicious fashion. Retizell’s drum programming and analog treatments are quite captivating at times, carrying a ton of momentum and intrigue. Other choices like hammered dulcimer, ambient glissades and a beautifully lamenting guitar (from “End Suite”) ensure the work steers clear of typical soundtrack schlock. To choose Fever Ray as a lead musical voice for a major motion picture is exciting, and Reitzell’s production and sound choices match the group’s tribal electronics, seemlessly incorporating the music into the fray. A big surprise is how enjoyable Reitzell’s collaboration with Anthony Gonzales turned out to be, as the symphonics cleanly blend with the sweet boy vocals and the classic M83 fuzz and space whir. The vocal-based tracks are well-chosen highlights as opposed to awkward stand-ins. While soundtracks often sound like they are aping a film one can’t see, Red Riding Hood is an apt demonstration of how collaborations can produce a fresh and focused voice for a film one doesn't really need to see to enjoy.

Listen to this bizniss here.

Thai Elephant Orchestra / Dave Soldier & Richard Lair - Water Music

2011-05-03T22:47:00.000-07:00

This review was the most difficult I've ever had to write. And it's not like I gave the elephants a poor review; I scored it high. It's just so difficult to articulate a judgment and analysis of creatures we don't understand as well. And I love animals so much; it was tough to be critical in any way. The album's music speaks for itself. It's simply magical and unique.

Many sound artists are bent on creating previously unheard environments, and the most successful exhibit an ease to their craft. Sometimes these elephants get a little too excited on the rain sheet or joyfully hit the gong a few too many times. But then they stop; they listen to each other. One hits the xylophone more softly, showing a little restraint. What are they thinking about? This isn't a bunch of children playing music. These are animals with musical minds, and quite often their seemingly haphazard playing is as striking as any recorded work done by Homo sapiens.

Seekae - +Dome

2011-04-26T21:45:00.000-07:00

While Australian three-piece Seekae have prepared to perform as a live band, their second full length album sounds like the experimental bug shooed a lot of the live instruments away from the studio. Processed vocals somewhere between helium and female are turned into drum pads on "Blood Bank". Indulgent segue "Underling" pairs a sampled string section with a series of square-waved glissandos. One of the best tracks, "Gnor", grooves with overlapping synth modes, bass synth lines, clickity rim shots and live drums. Can't knock these guys for the variety, but therein lies the issue: the endless directions could have been intriguing, but instead they distract from any overall cohesion. "Reset Head" sets the pace wonderfully with cerulean ambience and minimal drum programming before a beautiful melody tandem enters via synth and shimmery guitar. It's one of the highlights, but then things grow more experimental again; the band forges ahead and away from a good thing. No two songs on +Dome are alike. Sometimes the capriciousness of a band is what sells the music, but Seekae don't stick to one sonic pallete, and the myriad sounds aren't compelling enough to define all their edges. It may seem unfair to say, but the production is too clean and innocent for such off-kilter electronica. Most of the drum programming refuses to hit a groove, choosing instead to skitter around, teasing us with a moment that might never arrive. This moment does arrive once. For two glorious minutes in "Yodal", the groove starts as an insistent, shark-skinned laptop shredder, breaks for a cloudscape, and then continues on its razor juice tirade. +Dome is half as long as Seekae's behemoth debut album, but the obvious skills and risks never feel grounded. If this band went straight ahead more often, they'd have more of my attention.

Seekae - Blood Bank - +Dome by Rice Is Nice

Mountains - Air Museum

2011-04-22T17:13:00.000-07:00

This album jams. Read my long review at The Silent Ballet. It's one of my better writing pieces in a while, I think.

Air Museum’s strength lies in its ability to change tone drastically while maintaining an overriding voice. I was initially caught off guard by the album's sequencer rhythms, as I had become so accustomed to hearing the duo paint with soft brushes. The synthetic pulse's ebullient and deliberate voice is a gamble, and it’s easy to write off on first listen. In the ambient field, one could almost call this “rocking out”. Given the chance to pass through the folded arms and cell walls, such moments end up being the album's most memorable.

Post-Rock Paper Scissors Podcast

2011-04-07T08:50:00.000-07:00

Steve and I did an Internet radio show with Armand.

Episode 67: Curated By Nayt Keane & Steve Sherman by Post-Rock Paper Scissors on Mixcloud

Colorlist - The Fastest Way To Become The Ocean

2011-04-06T11:44:00.000-07:00

I like this record. But not a ton. Its brevity (26 minutes) allows for me to play it and not commit too long to Colorlist's occasional missteps, which is nice because I like what the band is up to. The track with the Tortoise guitar player is smokin'. My review is ok. I love the Serein label.

The Fastest Way To Become The Ocean definitely fits the bill as a spring time record. There are darker undertones from the winter beneath the surface, cobwebs to brush away, seeds in the ground that we have worried will not survive the frost, but in the end, the pastels and dewy wonder of a fresh start pervades. The last track “What We Have Left” features some light hearted vocals from Liz Payne, and while the track borders on being silly, knowing what Colorlist were going for helps the track’s disparity make more sense. Still, when taken in context with the longer suites of burgeoning sax revelations, “What We Have Left” feels out of place, like it belongs somewhere different - like Sesame Street. The beef of the EP is great, and the two shorter tracks kind of fill in the gaps with decent material, leaving the entire album feeling like a collection of good music by Colorlist, but not as cohesive as hoped for. EPs, however, are the battleground for experimentation, and given the talent and risks that this band is willing to take, I delight in the next journey they go on.

Vocaloid Hatsune Miku: The Hologram Pop Star

2011-04-06T01:16:00.000-07:00

When I put three piercings in my eyebrow my parents were probably perplexed. Why would our child do this? My parents had tattoos in their world (they would never get one), but the advent of body piercing really didn't become a thing until I was a young adult. They probably also wondered about raves, and parents before them were confused by chia pets, and rug burn and leather bars before that. I was starting to think that I've got a pretty radical take on the world and as I age, I still have a finger on the pulse of what young people are into and why (even if I've outgrown some things).

Until this. Watch the clip and be amazed at a sold out concert hall rocking out to a computer generated voice singing songs, with an animated pop star representing it. There is a live band, but wow, the focus is obviously on this machine that some Japanese folks invented that can learn and sing songs. Look at those glow sticks! I kind of get it? Who cares if the computer can sing? I suppose I listen to a lot of wacked music with electronics being the main voice. It's just the arena of the icon worship that electronics really haven't ventured into. Not like this. Rock stars have been human until this. Gorillaz dabbled, but this is full on.

Hatsune Miku (初音ミク) is a singing synthesizer application and its female character, developed by Cypton Future Media. It uses Yamaha's Vocaloid 2 synthesizing technology. Her name translates to something like "Voice of the Future." I was hoping the videos I saw were just staged and that this wasn't really all that popular, but I was wrong. It's a world wide phenomenon. She's performed in Singapore recently. It's growing. Learning... compassion.

In a way, this pop star is perfect. It can't get chased by the paparazzi. It doesn't do drugs or make bad choices after a show. It doesn't get tired or go through the fame gauntlet, leaving it messed up for the rest of its life. It's always going to perform. Once the computer refuses to perform, the world will have effectively changed forever. Usually, people make mechanical or 3D versions of humans, but here, we see humans fetishizing the machine and dressing up like her. It's a total role reversal, and one that I am barely clinging to for some kind of understanding. Why would anyone really care how high a computer voice can sing? How is it that when a certain song begins at this show that everyone's voices rise in appreciation? It's manic, and I feel that gap forming between old fogey Nayt and what kids of the future are into. It's happening. I'm 32 and I feel like I'm already cut off.

Who Is Arcade Fire

2011-04-06T01:07:00.000-07:00

I am in love with The Suburbs record, and since The Arcade Fire won a grammy for best album of the year, there has apparently been a large pouting backlash against them due to their apparent obscurity next to acts like GaGa and Bieber and such. Kids be appalled that the band won and they hadn't heard of them. Anyway, if you are at all stoked that a band you kind of (or really) like actually won one of these awards for once (even Trent Reznor won a grammy this year for chrissakes!), then you will probably find this funny.

Who Is Arcade Fire media tumblr. Even Dog The Bounty Hunter's twitter weighs in.

Zomes - Earth Grid

2011-03-27T11:39:00.000-07:00

Asa Osborne has something going on here, but I fear many will not care. These are lovely meditations on timbre and melody. They seem to be educational studies, even. My review is full of praise, but something doesn't quite happen unless you're in the proper mindset or on drugs.

Earth Grid impresses by not trying hard to be something it is not. It behaves like a miracle or the advice of an elder, natural and at ease. The album's nature can feel oppressive and dull, but citizens of the technosphere aren't going to be ready for mystical mantras sung from peasant amplifiers. How often have we lost our concentration on something vital to a frivolous distraction? Food is industrialized, SUVs are named after eradicated Native American tribes, and the next thing you know Stonehenge is causing global warming. This album is a calming agent, striking chords (literally and spiritually) with the aim of focusing one's energy inward so that one's subsequent actions will be full of beautiful intention. Even the cover art, born of white tape on black paper, is more than the sum of its parts. It's not a perfect album, but considering how little is going on, it has an undeniable inertia that defies conventional reason.

Powerdove - Be Mine

2011-03-12T11:34:00.000-08:00

I thought my buddy Malcolm might dig this stuff, as the folk component is actually tempered by experimental work in the background. I can't really get into much folk music because of its devotion to that very hippie-christian methodology that only allows for guitars and mandolins to really have any part of the narrative.

As social primates, we need each other. When we are yearning to break our fossilized fears, it often takes a loving companion to help see the light. Annie Lewandowski’s wispy voice and spartan acoustic guitar carefully crawl up the walls of a dark spiderwebbed lair, bringing light to places that have only known darkness. Her earnest, husky explorations into intimate settings are greatly enhanced by her textural backing. Jason Hoopes is the bass player and Alex Vittum the drummer, but that's just the beginning of the story. Bells, bowed cymbals, trombone, clarinet and feedback support Lewandowski’s haunting and sun dappled lyrics. Be Mine strikes a pleasant balance between the gloomy corners of the mind (“Resting Place”) and the playful impressions of life’s oddity (“No Carpet”). While this record is not easily digestible, it is cut from an honest cloth, and makes for a profoundly physical listening experience.

Birdsong

Annie Lewandowski (voice/guitar), Jason Hoopes (bass), and Alex Vittum (percussion)

Valentine's Day 2009

alt : http://www.annielewandowski.com/files/birdsong.mp3

Area C - Map of Circular Thought

2011-03-02T11:28:00.000-08:00

This record is perhaps better than I suggested in my review. A real brain massager and provoker. This dude knows his shit.

Good ambient music often isn’t really all that ambient. Decent musicians set up a scaffolding of sorts that repeats and then play within it, delighting in the details. Area C has a lot to offer on the periphery of carnality. It serves a wholly different purpose than, say, Destiny’s Child, attempting to turn fragments of mind into entirely physical manifestations. The physical aspect of these sounds gives them power, much like the work of William Basinski. It’s no surprise that Carlson is an architect and has been making installation art for years. He's a student of sound in space; he’s even scored pieces for National Geographic, the NASA RI Space Grant Consortium and the LEF Foundation. This person isn’t just sticking to the studio or his bedroom; he’s involved in spheres where his music truly overlaps and makes sense. It’s inspiring to see what many could call an “obscure” kind of music be afforded so much importance in telling the stories of the world.

An After Image by Area C by Preservation

A Setting Sun - Flower Garden of Rejuvenation

2011-02-28T11:21:00.000-08:00

What a mess! Ok, it's not so bad as to say it's useless or a white washing of the senses, but... my review is a combination of kind and head-shaking.

Tonally, Rejuvenation contains themes of beauty and brutality, agitation and repose, personal struggle and loss. The rather obvious re-tooling of the original album’s title indicates that there was no theme for the remixers to emulate. This is reflected in the disjointed nature of the tracks. As fun as it may be to send one's tracks to like-minded music freaks and have them souped up and transformed, the remix album is taken to the next level when everyone is on the same page.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://asettingsun.bandcamp.com/album/flower-garden-of-rejuvenation"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Flower Garden of Rejuvenation by A Setting Sun&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Aidan Baker - Lost in the Rat Maze

2011-02-21T11:17:00.000-08:00

I have a special place for Mr. Baker in my heart, and I am not often inclined to go there. He's got more releases than I have days in a year, so I can say that this album is a decent place to link up with Aidan's dreamdirge style. I wrote a large review of it, too.

Despite the rather uninviting image that graces this album’s cover (taken by the artist in question), the music has quite a wealth of variety. Piano and flute sounds appear, which give Aidan Baker’s typically guitar-centric robo-drifts some expanded topography. Overall, the compositions are different enough from each other as to designate ‘songs’ as opposed to one long drift (as on albums like Green And Cold or Pendulum), and the album as a whole benefits greatly. The dismal yet gentle palette is peppered with variable drum lines, boyish exhales and indistinguishable lyrics, as well as an overall playfulness. Baker once again sounds like he is in total command of his world, and it’s nice to hear so many sides of his work in one place. The album’s cohesiveness throughout its experimentation is testament to Baker’s ability to maintain a narrative focus on every project.
&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://brokenspineprods.bandcamp.com/album/lost-in-the-rat-maze"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Lost in the Rat Maze by Broken Spine Productions&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Pleq - The Sound of Rebirth

2011-02-20T11:15:00.000-08:00

By the time you read this, Pleq will have released another album. Perhaps many more. Those in the electronic music world have the opportunity to be highly prolific, as Sound of Rebirth is the Polish sound architect’s fifteenth LP or collaboration, roughly. Sharing similar down-tempo palletes with the likes of Benge and Arovane, Pleq’s sound here is fulcrummed on jazzy piano lines immersed in chilled, soft-focus electronic foyers. The tracks that work best feel like sound accompaniments to the exploration of long-abandoned, but furnished houses, the air flecked with the novelty of curiosity fulfilled. Female voices appear as apparitions, whispering or breathing through walls, like on “A Very Gentle Death.” Pleq’s penache for writing alluring pieces that bloom gracefully as they progress is quite lovely. On the other hand there are a few tracks where the female vocals dominate, and their breathy waywardness feels more an intrusion. No more is this true on the opening piece, “Black Dog”. Hiiro-tent’s voice may be compelling in another context, but here it meanders and contradicts any flow the song might have had. Ghostly siren Natalia Grosiak flutters about more purposefully on “Raindrop”, fitting in much better with the album’s overall framework. Overall, the record has great songs, but the arc of the album is broken up by weaker or unfleshed-out tracks, or just a case of too many different sounding songs bogging down the main themes. The violins on “Swell_Bliss__Downtempo_Edition_” are a great addition, but they appear so deep into the procedings that it sounds like a different album alltogether. I thought the album was over several times before it was. One thing is for sure: With Sound of Rebirth close to 74 minutes, Pleq doesn’t skimp on the quantity.

Apparat Organ Quartet - Pólýfónía

2011-02-04T15:40:00.000-08:00

I wrote a gushy review about this incredible album. The return of AOQ! It's a happy one.

The robotic vocals that appear throughout Pólýfónía would be a crutch for most bands, but here they make a perfect match for the analog machines. There really are four organ players, all darlings of the Icelandic artistic community. When Jóhannsson founded the band, he joked that there was no precedent for an organ quartet album, and they were forced to invent the genre. Listening to each of their individual melodies interact and weave together is a joy to the ears. The apexes AOQ reach while ascending square rainbows and tossing cubic pixie dust are so high, it’s like eating really good chocolate, while driving in space, while orgasming (ok, choose your own hyperbole). By the time the corny and endearing “123 Forever” appears with its robo-Sesame Street singalong, we are best friends with these guys, and we can forgive any dissimilar tastes or oddball choices, because 98% of the other ones were purely awesome. Closer “Söngur geimunglingsins” is a near seven-minute acid burner that moves into sky-opening, prog rock territory until it fizzles out into a static-encrusted puddle of radiation and then disappears. At this point, replaying the album seems the only option. It truly is an irresistable listen.

Lavinia - There is Light Between Us

2011-01-26T11:11:00.000-08:00

Don’t let the Roman goddess name fool you into thinking this mini album has much in common with ancient lore. Depressive and bright at the corners, the debut EP from Boston four-piece Lavinia wears its heart and its influences on its sleeve. Guitarist/vocalist Nate Shumaker (formerly of Eksi Ekso) sings in a style much similar to the darker evolutions of the late 1990’s pop metal vocalists (think Cold or Staind without the abrupt screams of angst), and aches himself into lyrics of loss and heartbreak. The music combines elements of that 90’s era with flights of post-rock and post-metal. The influence-worship comes into full effect on “Fires”, sporting that unmistakable, liquid, reverberating bass that often defined the ISIS sound. Lavinia breaks free a little toward the end of the EP, where banjo and slide take predominant roles, but even here it reminds the ear of Red Sparowes. Closer “Bone & Arrow” presents the biggest ray of hope, both in atmospheric quality and in originality. Here Shumaker’s vocals are seldom, often leaving the banjo and slide to carry the voice duties. The blistering wall of tremolos reinforces that this band features members of Eksi Ekso, Caspian and a few other Boston post rock acts. The song goes beyond these parts, however, offering the most diverse array of internal dynamics on the EP. It’s a decent effort overall, and while the EP sounds great, and I want to root for the band, I cannot help but think that this release is going to fade away under the sheen of Lavinia’s future output. There Is Light Between Us feels more like an ode to the last decade in rock music, and is more of a stepping stone for a developing band than anything memorable.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://laviniamusic.bandcamp.com/album/there-is-light-between-us"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;There Is Light Between Us by Lavinia&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Video: Boom Bip - Last Walk Around Mirror Lake (Boards of Canada remix)

2011-01-18T11:59:00.001-08:00

My 2-year old was so amazed by this video we had to watch it twice. The track is from a Boom Bip remix album, Corymb, which in my estimation, is still one of the best remix albums ever made. It's much better than the album Seed To Sun. It contains a few new Boom Bip originals,
as well as remixes from Boards of Canada, Four Tet, Clouddead, Mogwai, Venetian Snares, Lali Puna, and a couple Peel Sessions with the legendary John Peel. It's an impeccable set of songs that are greater than their sum when listened to all together. I never knew there was a video for this song. Boards are always putting amazing physical feats into their videos, so this makes sense. The video makes the song even more sublime.

Zach Hill - Face Tat

2011-01-17T11:55:00.000-08:00

Face Tat is Zach Hill's gazillionth release, but second under his own name. I really want to meet the woman on the cover (but not when she's igniting explosives). I reviewed this album, and at first totally loathed it. As it grew on me, I realized that it changed me, elbowing itself into my conscious realm of acceptance.

Explaining one’s own work is masturbatory. In an interview about Face Tat, Zach Hill said, “Just like with any art form, you’re expressing something that can’t really be expressed in any other form. We all have something in us that needs some other platform to get out. Talking about it defeats the purpose of even doing it in the first place. It’s a double standard because the entire reason you do it in the first place is because you can’t talk about it. I can’t even explain what I’ve got going on. That’s the whole point.” Funny how his inability to talk about his work is helping my analysis. It's a mixed bag, and the experience trumps an explanation every time. Depending on one's disposition, one will either need LSD or Aspirin while listening to this. The album is loud, in charge, strange: a challenging asteroid of rock and roll.

The SE7ENTEEN: 2010

2011-01-07T17:55:00.000-08:00

This year was full of amazing music, and perplexing popular choices. Kanye West made one of the most incredible albums EVER (apparently). I can't wait to hear it! Emeralds seem to have all the "it" kids by the balls. Why does everyone think it's the best album from a band no one's heard of? Granted, these opinions are weighted by support from the community. I just never got into either of these records. I like Caribou's Swim album, but I also didn't get into it. Once the amazing first track "Odessa" ends, everything feels like a drop off. I did get very into the new Arcade Fire album, and I intend to check out These New Puritans. Truth be told, I don't listen to much vocal-driven music anymore, so it takes something special to get my attention. So I'm going with what I know. Let's do this in reverse order, for extra tension (and because I like to copy everyone else).

20., 19., and 18. who get respect but no love.
. .

Strië - Sléptis . . Nils Frahm & Anne Müller - 7fingers . . Evan Caminiti - West Winds

17. The Parenting Award
Hans Zimmer - Inception Soundtrack
Have you heard the Flashdance soundtrack? It's a bunch of pop songs and mini ballads from the 80s, and if you listen to it on vinyl in your parlor the only thing binding them together is the production values of that decade and their overall mediocrity. In the context of the movie, it works ok (though Footloose is way better). Soundtracks these days are really getting better; more thoroughly conceived. When I listen to Inception while I work, my pulse quickens or falls, making me work faster or more intently. Hans Zimmer truly has perfected his style, and each film he scores has unique musical moments (Gladiator was good). The dude scores so many films, it's hard to understand how he can continuously come up with memorable themes. On Inception,there is a glut of themes, it's hard to pick which one is the flagship of the movie.Zimmer employs a few new tricks as well, and while the massive brass-driven DUHN - DUHNs are kind of cheap, they really are effective. Like a Playboy, or doritos. Except I don't feel cheap when I hear it. I am exhilarated.

16. The Fat Man Sweat Award
Slow Six – Tomorrow Becomes You
Christopher Tignor is one of those people who's too good. Explaining how he creates his own (open source) live-manipulation software to effectively make the bands he plays in possible can make your head spin. On top of that, his bands are really good - Wires.Under.Tension, himself, and this Slow Six thing, which is a bunch of all stars from the New York scene, though you've likely never heard of any of them. My friend Malcolm's even recorded with a couple of the guys who play live with Slow Six (we don't remember their names, but they were talented chaps). This brush with obscure stardom was fun for me to discover! I was pretty positive Tomorrow Becomes You was one of the best albums of the year back in January. Not much has changed. If anything, I over-listened to it, and now I have to wait a year before I go back. I was saturated with the glut of amazing ideas, techniques and compositional executions on this record that my ears are bloated. This is the only way I can explain its position at #16. But on another day this could be in my top five because the music on this album is what rock and roll is all about.

15. The Indigenous Christ Award
65daysofstatic – We were exploding anyway
These assholes just seem to get better and better. I was on an Amtrak back in 2001, on my way to Florida, when I ran into a very large young man. He was bound for Gainsville, his first scholarship year for the Florida Gators football team. He spoke of Jesus, and the entire train car ended up in our riveting religious discussion. My main problem was with the tenet that once someone hears about Jesus Christ and his availability for saving your soul, it was your fault for not being saved (and being damned eternally). "So people in Papua New Guinea, who have never heard of Jesus, who led a healthy and happy life, get out of this?" By his logic, that was the case. While this view is frustratingly flawed in some ways, it can be applied to 65daysofstatic, because if you are an aspiring rock band, and you hear these people, it's up to you to not suck anymore, to strive to be great at what you do. Never before has a band fused electronics and rock elements in such an energetic and exciting fashion. This record is an absolute riot, jam-packed with inertia. I know they're probably listening to Jay-Z, but I always imagine football players are listening to We Were Exploding Anyway while they warm up for a big game.

14. The Death By Kitchen Sink Award
World’s End Girlfriend - Seven Idiots
Who knew the same guy who sounds so slow and sad on Palmless Prayer: A Mass Murder Refrain would also create one of the most riotous explosions every committed to tape. And yet, Seven Idiots is highly accessible compared to Daisuke's Program Music, in my opinion. If you were imagining this album was to contain more mournful drift, World's End Girlfriend really shits the bed on expectations with this one. Centered around the Divine Comedy, Seven Idiots is truly an adventure in sound. It massacres anyone with ADD and satisfies those looking into the fine qualities of pacing. It sure sounds like Katsushido Maeda hired every manner of demon, pixie, video game character, gorgon, pink elephant and muppet to suit up in some comical suit of armor to unleash the joyous fury that this album possesses. Nothing on earth behaves as this record does. An anomaly.

13. The Secret Handshake with Terence McKenna Award
Dirac – Phon
How this record didn't end up on The Silent Ballet's top 100 is beyond me. One track. One hour. One novel, mutating organism. "Ambient" is merely the name of the diving board one launches off of while the ocean awaits beneath. My buddy Steve postulated that, "Dirac's project is to provide the necessary assistance to the listener, that she might access something within her psycho-physical existence that would otherwise prove impossible." To be swept away by this sleeping beast, is to leave the body and all relativity. This could very well be a dream. At its apex, Phon can help one achieve ecstatic frames of mind. Whoever these people are have a concentrated amount of knowledge when it comes to the finer details of soundscape drama. Definitely artists who are seriously into what they are doing, and I can't wait until they receive the acclaim they must be heading for.

12. The Classical Music To Get Dumped To Award
Daniel Bjarnason – Processions
This album is a testament to how the times are changing - but in a cyclical fashion. Back in the day, artists like this would be at odds with other composers, perhaps ready to duel at sundown over who was more honorable or talented. Nowadays, feuds are over the same shit, but we usually hear about how this one guy in the Rolling Stones dissed the girlfriend of so and so from INXS (look it up). It's the rock bands that are getting the attention put on their personal lives. The Icelandic composer Bjarnason has been writing and conducting other people's work for years, as well as his own. He's worked with so many incredible music outfits (London Symphony, Sigur Ros) that it's high time for a debut album. And what a massive piece of the earth's crust he has vaulted over the heads of the contemporary landscape! From this tower of amazing composition, this guy rains down the fire and brimstone in a visceral display of wisdom and fury. You don't just get dumped, and write a tune out of frustration with an orchestra. You do it with a guitar - thus the popularity of rockers. But this.. . . This Processions album, as beastly as it is, feels like it harnesses that energy. Considering the magnitude of a full orchestra agreeing to play these notes, no ex will ever recover from the rebounding wrath. Oh, and Processions is muy pretty, too.

11. The Ecstacy Award
My Education – Sunrise
Jesus god, another post rock album. But wait, this band is pretty good. And anything is better than this album cover. (As Richard Allen said, "All time least good!") So anything further can be redeeming, but wow, what a statement Sunrise makes. The production is as clear as crystal (with 8 different instruments, that's pretty great). The songs are riveting, for the most part, and compositionally speaking, My Education have a beat on how to perfectly arrange repeating parts. Meant to be a soundtrack to a 1922 silent film, this album apparently only features the highlights. I come out of it thinking nothing on the lines of post rock. Post rock is dead, and bands like this frankenstein it for the greater good. Also, someone told me that if you listen to "Oars" while on MDMA, it's awesome. I can imagine! Did you know that MDMA is used by therapists in Sweden and other nations as a chemical agent in resolving conflicts? If the dude in the silent film Sunrise ever took this drug, he likely wouldn't have gotten to the point where he was trying to murder his lover. So I recommend it. (the album)

10. The Canadian Dictatorship
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Orchestra rock. Why is this popular while orchestras are not? Why does the adding of classical elements enhance, while classical elements themselves have no luster in this climate of young music? Sorry Daniel Bjarnason. But people want to sing along. Fandom is contagious. The impression of being a part of something is powerful, while finding a genuine tribe is hard work or seemingly improbable. The Arcade Fire are a pretty well-knit tribe, one that people are ridiculously in love with everywhere. I missed my chance to see them at a small venue back in 2004. Opted not to chance it. But now they only seem to play the concrete noise church that is Pacific Coliseum. And they wouldn't be in such big venues if it weren't for their disgustingly quality albums. Suburbs will never be Funeral (perhaps the best rock album of last decade), but it is Arcade Fire. They ain't compromising for anyone. It's all bliss in its angst and pressing on. The lyricists are not cynical, they are full of hope, wonder, determination. It's the kind of album that you put your fist in the air to, while the other hand is writing a letter to that person you've been meaning to talk to for all your life.

9. The Perfect Springtime Soundtrack Award
Jónsi – Go
Oh, how all doubters were silenced by this. Sigur Rós was riding high, and then they made that one album with all the running asses on the front. Lost their luster a bit, for me. Are they sad? Are they happy? In order to better arrange these disparate emotions, let's go solo. Jónsi sure is happy. But we've all heard happy people that make shitty albums. Like Mr. T. Bruce Willis. Alf. Ringo. If Jónsi had made a movie, maybe it would be a B rate bargain bin special. Instead he's made one of the happiest albums I can remember. Not forced either. You know how Lords of Acid was sort of cool when you were younger cause it was all sexual and shit? Well, it's total crap. Forcing the sex thing into songs is a big no-no. So trite. Cheap. Cheaper than Mad Dog 20/20. Go is no fruit colored liquor. It is a unicorn frolicking on a flowery hillside, swallowing rainbows and harvesting manna. Or, that's what Ford Motors thinks, at least. What's up with that, you say? Jónsi doing a Ford commercial? Listen: It's not like Jónsi agreed to sing a song about the nuclear family driving cars over the bloodied corpses of third world sweat shop workers. He wrote a song, years ago, it's successful and full of joy, Ford gives him money. Ford was going to give someone money. Jónsi didn't have to do anything extra. I'd rather hear Jónsi than another rah-rah Pappa John's mess of an audio mix. You aren't buying cars anyway, you're loving this album.

8. The Having Sex in a Lamborghini, Eating Chocolate, Flying Off a Cliff Award
Talons – Hollow Realm
Mega awesome, high energy album. Someone we know once explained how they wanted to die, and it was roughly the name of this award. Why go out snoring? Fly by the seat of your pants, and fuck up as many times as you have to while you do what you love, that's what I say. Adding a violin player to a band is a little played out now, but adding two violins, however - now that's not so common. And in this case, the songs have so many changes and seethe with such intensity that it becomes a recipe we've never really heard of before. Hollow Realm feels innovative because so many post rock bands languish their energy in looooong build ups. No filler here. Talons are incredibly talented and they play fast and complex stuff. I am so satisfied when I turn this one up. My 2-year old is on breakthrough away from requesting it every day (like he does with some albums). But we all get obsessed. I'd say that each of the albums listed from this album on gave me so much so as to be obsessed for a long period of time. They are wonderful.

7. The World Eraser Award
Richard Skelton – Landings
This is not an album. It's life itself, contained in a man-made product. You might say, that's what all music is, to a degree. And I counter: Richard Skelton isn't music. It's life. Whether he is Cloubeck, A Broken Consort, himself - whatever - there is a special quality to his music that feels like it emerges from within the listener's heart. Was it because he recorded his mournful pieces in a vast wilderness where he secluded himself, with babbling streams, curlews and winds playing along with him? Was it the poetry he wrote to accompany the book graced with his dead wife's photography? What is this quality? It's magic; that's all I can say. Nothing compares to this guy's stuff. You can feel each bow string, each meandering thought. And no listen is the same as the last. If I was trying to be funny in this analysis, it wouldn't work. Because life is not funny. TV is.

6. The Best Soundtrack For A Devastating Premise Award
Brian McBride - The Effective Disconnect
Dude didn't call it "Soundtrack for...." No. This soundtrack is good enough to have its own title. Bees are disappearing everywhere, and it's horrible. People's livelihoods hang in the balance. Nature would never be the same, ecosystems might collapse. You might not be able to grow flowers in a pot! But wow, McBride sure makes it all sound pretty amazing. In fact, this album is so gorgeous, it has lessened my acute awareness that bee populations are declining. In essence, I disconnected (effectively) from the entire problem to instead focus on orchestral ambient perfection. Has Brian McBride done the world a disservice by ironically helping to destroy bees? Why care about bees when people are way more beautiful? I find myself going to this album a lot. The arrangements are more suite like, engaging the listener more than a Stars of the Lid track (which is often spread out over three tracks!). So beautiful. Just don't forget about the rest of the world too long...

And now, my top five.

5. The Virginie Lebeau Award
Black Swan - Black Swan (In 8 Movements)
You think Daft Punk wants you to respect the music and not the people who make it? They do. That's why they are robotozoids with fashion sense. But Black Swan ups the ante, choosing instead to appear as a series of X-rays! I don't know if this can be topped. There's no straighter path to the importance of the musical experience than to deliver it to your audience as an anonymous persona represented in ambiguous two-dimensionality. It definitely gives this album a special appeal, as if it had always existed - like a waterfall in a canyon, or a cluster of quasars. And in this case, the music is so compelling. It's ambient, drone, William Basinski-esque tape manipulation - and it is excellent. It has a creep factor, as if the listener is meant to be gagged and bound, subjected to a barrage of violent television or a parade of eternally damned sinners. And it is gorgeously conceived, as if the dark lord himself were singling you out for a soliloquoy about the everything. I have yet to listen to this record and feel jaded. Over and over, it delivers. There are few records that have this power over me. The fact that it's just over a half hour in length preserves the magic, and encourages one to play it again as soon as it ends.

Here is but one movement of the 8 at bandcamp.com

4. The I Got Nothin' Award
Olan Mill – Pine
I can't find a single disrespecting review of this album on the Internet. Come on, people. Doesn't anyone hate Olan Mill? There's got to be something bad to say. "Too Good. You might as well just die because nothing's really going to be as beautiful as this again. Kill yourself." You would think that if everyone knew about this album, the suicide rate would actually go down. I reckon people kill themselves while crappy music is playing. Serial killers on the other hand - they might warm up to this album. Kind of like how the Joker loved classical. Well, this is modern classical, so get with the times, you lunatics. Pine plays out like an afterlife romance, provided that that afterlife takes place in a regal mansion with a ballroom, cloud vistas, aromatic fields - really pretty places. There's nothing dark about this release (in case you think "afterlife" is synonymous with something morbid, that's not where I was going). It is bright at the corners, optimistic, all the love in the world, effusive, just out of reach. An audio symbol of the condition we humans have where knowing everything about existence would just crush us. It would be too much. This is the music that laments but smiles in light of this. Hard to realistically say anything asinine about Olan Mill's debut. Splendid stuff.

Listen to Pine on Soundcloud.

3. The Jesus Makes No Sense But Buy it Anyway Award
Year of No Light – Ausserwelt
This band is all kittens and cranberries. Kittens are, of course, juvenile rodent murderers. Cranberries are a bitter fruit that can only survive in acidic bogs. Now imagine a bedraggled cat, soaked in bog water, maw full of bloody cranberries - a zombie, cast aside by the eyes of love, left to wander the badlands without purpose except perhaps to hunt down the innocent, destined to crash in a heap and await a grizzly fate. That doesn't exactly summarize how Ausserwelt sounds, but it does bring to light its brutal sound palette, fused with a dreamy, shoegazey bent. This is not black metal - far from it. It's sweet, but bitter. It's fuzzy like a cat, but cats are also escorts for dead pharaohs as well as creepy in general. This is really a stupid review. What I really want to say is that this album absolutely destroys. In fact, I don't like cats all that much. But I do love cranberries. They help cure bladder infections. And they complete the North American holiday meal. So this album was bred from hate, but it's healthy and tastes delicious. It's purrrfect. (Kill me)

You can hear a track off Ausserwelt here.

2. The Cinnamon Toast Crunch On Christmas Award
Fang Island - Fang Island
I love the Black Swan album for it being disembodied from its creator. At the same time I love this album, Fang Island, for the fact that it sounds like people having fun. Clearly humans made this. It's got raw talent, amazing hooks, godzilla-sized guitar lines, and a sing-along factor I can't recall an album having since, perhaps, a Beatles record. And, to satisfy my niche mind, it has post-rock segments that are killer. (I am all about killer metaphors) Weird, wonderful, I don't know how this record feels so fresh. All it is is a few dudes with guitars and drums and voices, all fired up, in unison, slaying demons with songs. And they are having the time of their life. I think that's what does it here: the fun factor. You know how certain people always make you smile? Or make you feel validated, smarter, or something? People like Joseph Campbell or Tom Hanks. They just have that special joy that makes their life a work of art at all times. They love it. Fang Island are totally in their element. A lot of young bands start out loud and proud, swashbuckling their way to their third and fourth albums where shit starts to slow down and mellow out, disappointing millions of bandwagoners, only to nestle comfortably into a market niche that has nothing to do with the grassroots or genuine nature of being in a rock band. This band, however, feels like they could make happy rock and roll forever. They don't give a fuck, but they care about you! Have you seen them playing in that kindergarten class? Tell me these guys aren't in it for the joy.

Listen to the whole album here.

1. The Toy Story 4 Award
Nest - Retold
We put up with sequels all the time. You might have seen the latest Toy Story film and thought what I thought: best one yet. By far! Most of these sequels fall flat. You don't really think the third Austin Powers was superior, do you? Is the debate worth it? How high were you? Regardless, this re-telling of old tales is a part of our culture. Movies do it all the time. But when an album gets re-tooled to better express an artist's vision, woa, Hey now. We'll listen, but we won't validate you. Oh the controversy. To explain, five of these songs were released as an EP in 2007. One of them was re-done for this release. They all were re-mastered. Four new tracks were added to make it an album. And thus, it is not eligible for pretty much anyone's best-of-2010 lists. I was up in arms. "Big deal! It's amazing." A technicality may deprive many willing ears from one of the best secrets of the year. It's a crime. Retold is easily one of the year's best; Nest's Empire Strikes Back. It's hard for me to decide whether or not this or Olan Mill's record is better, but I think Nest has the edge. Maybe it's the otherworldly, ethnic flavor of the Welsh harp. Or the perfect placement of every single note. My buddy Gabe was equally amazed in his review of this amazing work of art. Nothing is out of place. The album's flow is lovely. The beauty is stark and evanescent at times, but more often it is as tangible as a moss covered stone at the water's edge. Your cheek on its moist fuzz, the sound of the waves lapping. Linear time is gone. The album's narrative is just top notch, with each instrument woven in like a star in the sky's indigo blanket. Retold's space is consistently large, and cozy. Constellations appear everywhere, in any form, depending on how you connect the dots. I think what makes the album so special is the myriad and unique voices heard throughout. "Kyoto" uses that harp and a synthetic 'Japanese' mirror instrument. "Marefjellet" has a peculiar air of nervousness and determination. "Amroth" is a total drifter into the arctic waves of white. The fact that these two musicians added songs to an existing EP and made it better shows a lot of skill and integrity about what kind of story they are trying to tell. That EP was just the trailer. This is a complete work. Impressive, gorgeous and essential listening.

Listen to Retold here:

Everest's Year End List

2011-01-01T17:17:00.000-08:00

I think the name of the CD was Go Bananas by The Wiggles. It looks like this. Tailor-made kids sing alongs. Everest's grandma got it for us, and I really should have given it more of a chance than 0 listens. But these CDs irritated me when I was little. For completely selfish reasons I tried to impress upon my 2-year old other music; music that we like. And to smashing success! But not what I'd expect, exactly. These are Everest's Top Five Albums of 2010.

5. Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs ~ Western Region

"See the mourning dove," said Everest on December 31st. The dawn of bird call recognition has begun, and it started with this 4-CD intimidator pack of bird calls. This collection is annoying because several bird species will appear on each individual track, but Everest's interest in hearing the birds and seeing their accompanying pictures (in iTunes) piqued as soon as I showed it to him. He knows the calls of red-tailed hawk, Wilson's snipe, and sandhill crane, though he has yet to see them in person.

4. The Glitch Mob ~ Drink The Sea

This was one of those albums I was really high on for a while, and I tried to get Everest to dance to it often. The first time he requested "hear da gitch mob" I swelled with pride. More profound for him, though, was likely the album cover. When scrolling through iTunes, he would ask to either see the Lights Out Asia cover with the sun and clouds or this one: superimposed numerology symbols atop a desert field with an astronaut and, his favorite, a snake. At two and a half, this kid can already differentiate between boas and cobras. Not that the Glitch Mob gets credit for that, but his proclivity for snakes was identified early thanks to this album.

3. Fever Ray ~ Fever Ray

There has only been one album E-man has asked to hear more than the number one on this list, and that's Fever Ray. Hearing a two year old utter the name of Karin Dreijer Andersson's alt-electro project from 2009 is just too adorable. If I had to hear Go Bananas over and over, I'd probably drive off a cliff. Instead, the repetition of these melifluous tunes is welcome, and it primes our child for a wider range of what pop music can sound like. Have you heard her voice on some of these tracks? It is Zuul. Since E's scared of fireworks, it's nice to know a nocturnal alienade can put him at ease.

2. Expo 70 ~ Black Ohms

I've mentioned this record before as being a prime album to put my kid to sleep to. It still works. Something about the buzzing drones and echoey guitars are mesmerizing for Everest. And me. I feel a strong sense of comfort when I've got him lying on my chest while I sway in the rocking chair at those times when there's no way Mom can give any more. Given that E still breastfeeds, it's a triumph to be able to put him to sleep myself, and Black Ohms has accompanied a high percentage of these times. And what obscure music fan wouldn't just die at their son asking, "Hear the drones dad. The black CD." I'm in love.

1. Scissor Sisters ~ Night Work

I bought this album for Julia. I had little interest in the band, but sometimes you just do nice things for your true love. That was five months ago. Now I know just about all the lyrics, have been to a Scissor Sisters concert, and am seriously considering buying a tee shirt. But not for me. For Everest. I cannot believe how much he loves this album. Its cheeky, gay innuendos matched with BeeGees harmonies, nocturnal four on the floors, and genuinely good song writing seem to be the perfect match for my two year old. He asks for this album (the red one; and on rare occasion, the brown one) pretty much every day now. There's a really good way to know if an album or a movie is actually any good and that's how many times you can stand to listen to it. The Iron Giant is a good enough film where we could watch it over and over and still find wonderful things in it. Same goes with Night Work. I never thought I'd be saying this, but this is actually a good album. Couple of songs I could do without, but overall, the narrative it strives to tell is spot on. All the pieces fit. It's funny, it's fabulous, and Everest can't live without it.
"Go for a drive, dad. Hear scissor sissters."
"How about a different album this time? There's so much music in the world."
"How 'bout scissor sissters?"
"Will you promise to fall asleep?"
"Scissor sissters. The red one."
"Dear god."

Talons - Hollow Realm

2010-12-31T19:32:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite albums of the year (right at the end). It placed 28th on The Silent Ballet's year end list. Check out my full review.

The fusion of punk, math, metal, and post-rock isn’t often achieved with such natural results. Just one listen to “Peter Pan” gives the listener a sense of how much fun the band had in scribing these tunes. A roiling, octopoidal drumbeat with violins as menacing zephyrs breaks down into a distorted, chugging trawl before a ferocious strumming section kicks into gear. Already the mind is dancing pirouettes. Then the sumptuous rock breakdown snaps into action, like a mechanical saber-tooth tiger racing through a canyon at mach three, ubiquitous explosions and gunfire barely making a dent in its magical hide.

Danny Saul - Kinison - Goldthwait

2010-12-13T00:53:00.000-08:00

My review of this suspiciously good album by Danny Saul. It still haunts me, its sounds bewildering at times, stuck in my head, a gluey maelstrom.

This is music that clusters and billows. It has a deceptive speed to it, mutating in a clandestine fashion while it casts a spell. Melodies I could not place that were playing in my head turned out to be pieces from Kinison - Goldthwait. The album begins with a subtractive static that slowly births a swooning guitar melody drenched in sumptuous reverb on “Kinison (Part 1)”. It is quite beautiful, as if it is setting the stage for more exotic emotions, like those in Parts 2 and 3. Skeletal piano chords flock to the clouds before a wet electric acoustic guitar leads the ambient drift toward organ and drone. This melodic and delicate portion of the album is not where the story ends.

Teebs - Ardour

2010-11-22T00:31:00.000-08:00

This album is great. Read the whole review at The Silent Ballet.

Before eventually adventuring to Los Angeles where Flying Lotus lay in wait to discover him, Mtendere Mandowa had only been creating beats for a short time. Within his artistry is an alchemical ease that makes a lot of hard working artists nauseated with envy. Teebs definitely likes instruments that sounds delicate. His affected, arpeggiated flutes, bells, and chimes spread like a network of mycelium through the thick hip-hop beat-driven soil.

Elisa Luu - The Time of Waiting

2010-11-20T00:35:00.000-08:00

Decent electronic dreams from a lady in Italy. Here's the review I wrote.

It’s summer time, the county fair is on, and your nine-year-old hands grasp an aromatic serving of cotton candy. The line for the Zipper ride is short. It feels like freedom, marvelling at all the smells and blurred human forms. This warm and distant place is evoked by “r735”, which opens The Time of Waiting with the chatter of children, mechanical wheels, and tracks, whirring beneath the twinkles of a backward acoustic guitar. Wahed vocal tones make the track as memorable as the images it invokes. The honey-baked vocal-esque tones warm the chest like hot cider.

Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross - The Social Network

2010-10-28T11:12:00.000-07:00

Oh Trent. My first review of your music after over fifteen years of listening. I was excited about you scoring a film almost ten years ago, and at long last we have it here. I still prefer Still, though I am hugely interested in seeing this film to witness how well the music fits. In spite of the decline of my interest in NIN, I am continuously compelled to listen to this soundtrack. It does have a hypnotic edge to it.

Good film scores create a consistent mood rather than upstaging the action on screen. This soundtrack certainly pulls it off, with many ideas packed into multiple versions of the Reznor/Ross method. For those disinterested in Reznor’s dark Dr. Seuss-like lyrics, or confounded by the density and glut of directions on Ghosts I-IV, The Social Network may be the panacea. This score may combine the lowest common denominators to achieve depth, but it does so for a cause, without compromising Reznor's musical fortés. It is safe, yet effective. The limitations of matching one’s music to another’s ideas was likely a boon to Reznor and Ross. Their subdued approach to this release makes this the pair’s most relaxed effort to date.

Brian McBride - The Effective Disconnect (Music Composed for the Documentary “Vanishing of the Bees")

2010-10-25T11:18:00.000-07:00

I love me some Stars of the Lid, and for this solo effort, Mr. McBride has truly improved upon his craft. Read my entire review on The Silent Ballet.

McBride was asked by the George Langworthy and Maryam Henein to consider four different themes: “the gloriousness of the bees, the endurance and hardships of traditional beekeepers, pesticides and the holistic nature of non-industrial agriculture.” Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Piece of cake! In all seriousness, though, he attempted to focus on the gloriousness of the bees, to give the sad narrative a balancing serenity. A butterfly or a bee is beautiful to behold, but its life is temporary and fragile. McBride expertly captures this delicate aspect of life. His music hurts the heart, not in a bad way, but in a way that lets you know it’s still there. He felt that his tendency to make his pieces more mournful won out in the end, but these forty three minutes are too beautiful to wallow in sadness.

We depend on bees and other insect pollinators to have the varied diets and beautiful worlds that we do. While the documentary gets into the agricultural and political severity of this matter, it also celebrates humankind’s relationship with bees as well as honoring the benefits of “Colony Collapse Disorder”. The film is an earnest look at such a crucial facet of a fundamental part of our lives, and Brian McBride’s soundtrack is a worthy match, capable of fully resonating with a listener even without the benefit of seeing the film.

Aun - Black Pyramid

2010-10-19T11:20:00.000-07:00

Here's my review of the new Aun. A mildly satisfying adventure into the depths of space.

Aun packs enough grit into its hokey star surfing to satisfy, and often the music shimmers divinely. It’s fascinating to hear something so vast and dark sound so wholesome, as it does on the title track. Still, Black Pyramid does not quite hit upon the organic vitality of the band's Motorsleep. It’s pretty, but it can feel like wearing a labcoat at the edge of the universe. Despite the band's sumptuous efforts to make the guitars and melodies sound like they are crumbling, the synth sounds can often sound primitive, infused with a Larry Fast (Synergy) vibe. Yet more often than not, this album’s delicate doom will help listeners to visualize monolithic temples migrating through swarms of ice crystals and sunbeams being swallowed in dark rifts of nothing. The subtle sound woven behind the main melodies makes a strong backbone for Aun’s trippy tales. Recommended for fans of Hecker, Aidan Baker, doomgaze, and darker climes.

Solo Andata - Ritual

2010-10-14T22:46:00.000-07:00

This album is haunting and engaging, and I secretly want to go back to it again and again, though I am not sure why exactly. Read the review!

What is striking about this Australian duo is that they do not sound electronic. The overall effect of their audio science strikes one as being a completely natural phenomenon. It’s easy to conjure imagery while immersed in their rich, “sonic topographies,” which is a good sign of an engaging listen. Solo Andata have scripted another unique weave of sounds that, while invoking the natural world we humans coexist with, can only exist in its artful synthesis. The final track is full to the brim of sounds and ideas, but toward the end things drift off again into an unfocused somnambulism. Clearly this is the intent of the artists. What may seem like a letdown to the average person consuming a pumpkin spice latte can become for the focused listener a dance between the subtle and the intense. Given the right chemical guides or frame of mind, this album has the potential to cast a powerful spell.

Her Name Is Calla - The Quiet Lamb

2010-10-04T01:48:00.000-07:00

This was a tough one to write. The album is just so massive. Hopefully it's not a tough one to read. Go ahead; read it! It's one of the year's best albums.

While this album behaves as a sorrowful witness to our lost traditions and civilized blindness, opening track “Moss Giant” reveals the playful storytelling Her Name Is Calla is capable of. Violins sustain, mallets gong cymbals, and a hopeful piano awakens in a clearing. “Oohs” and “aahs” drift in and out, and the scene is easy to picture as we look upon an ancient tree, wondering, “How can something so true be so fragile?” The strings creak like branches echoing in the canopy, and with nature as our base, we begin the journey.

The tone set on this album hints at an inescapable, pallid future, not unlike the worlds of Radiohead or Cormac McCarthy. Western culture favors the mindset that we are all individuals in contention with each other for an exclusive version of freedom. Her Name Is Calla, like many artists, rejects this, and devotes a musical landscape to faith and hope for us all to awaken before more unjust and brutal realities unfold. Vocals are often used as atmospheric support, and this element imbues the rather dire tales with a refreshing sense of optimism.

Concern - Cæsarean

2010-10-01T13:26:00.001-07:00

I had high hopes for this record, but it wasn't the bag of chips extra than the "all that." It seems like Concern is best at writing drone EPs, as this record seems to be the combination of two strong EPs which max out at 76 minutes. Read the incredible break down of my amazing critical thoughts on The Silent Ballet!

Concern is very good at creating meditative drones fueled by perpetual energy. These typically possess great momentum, but when broken up after gaining so much speed, a veil or two drops. There is a lot of good work on Cæsarean, but in the artist's attempt to vary the landscape, things go awry. Nonetheless, as drone artists go, Concern is fundamentally glorious to listen to and a few speed bumps along this album’s arc needn’t deter listeners from checking it out.

Concern / Cæsarean by slowflowrec

Black Swan - Black Swan (In 8 Movements)

2010-09-11T13:21:00.000-07:00

I may have gotten a little carried away with how good this release is (score wise) but I stand by the review's assertion that this is a really engaging drone record. Read it all on The Silent Ballet, the blog that keeps me blogging.

The anonymity of this New York-based artist has an effect on the listening experience. The music is given the right to exist on its own, as if it had always existed. It stakes its claim in the mind, making the listener a collaborator in a seductive narrative-noire that travels through a hall of horrors and memories, an escort to a final resting place. One might encounter spirit animals, forgotten lovers, faceless apparitions, leviathan rifts, or a cozy blanket of stars. It is easy to become comfortable in the soothing darkness, and when it seems like eternity has arrived, Black Swan pulls the plug. Listen to it here.

Fennesz Daniell Buck - Knoxville

2010-09-05T12:55:00.000-07:00

Read the review in its entirety on The Silent Ballet.

Unlike the "magic carpet sound" of Fennesz, Daniell (who plays in San Agustin) provides a more grounded guitar sound, reminiscent of other electronic folkscapes in the American midwest. As these three strangers get a feel for each other in opener "Unuberwindbare Wande", it is Daniell who provides the first road to follow, as he meanders around his guitar's neck, finding chords and notes like one picks berries. Buck's drumming here features bowed strings, gnarled shapes and clattered atmosphere, but his precision is notable (which is no surprise since he plays for The Necks). As the piece builds, the drums begin to erupt like a warming mud pit. While Fennesz stretches his granulated limbs and settles into an ambient skree, the listener must note that this is a very dense and fascinating way of people saying "hello" to one another. The musicians, after all, had never met before the day this was recorded.

The Pharcyde - Drop

2010-08-24T00:29:00.001-07:00

90's Flashback. Even though you know it's all played in reverse, it's intoxicating to forget.

Chris Abrahams - Play Scar

2010-08-03T20:23:00.001-07:00

This review was enjoyable to write. There's more to it at The Silent Ballet.

Play Scar is a wonderfully adventurous ode to creative play. It plays out like a Room40 mixtape, collecting strange ideas from a larger pool of people, except that Chris Abrahams is instead one man full of Room40 artists. The album is a wealth of curious realities and questions: questions like, Where am I?, that bring an inquisitive smile to the face. This world is not full of dread, like so many other experimental noise records tend to be. Abrahams is not daring the listener; he’s telling stories or describing new places, lush with detail. Even after diving off a deep end or three, the final song “Leiden” comes in to seduce and stabilize the situation for a true sense of closure. This record is a fascinating journey, and with the piano leading the way, it is accessible and relaxed enough for someone new to unconventionally-structured music.

Sunwrae - Live At The Thornbury Theatre

2010-08-02T20:15:00.000-07:00

Read this review on The Silent Ballet. Although I do admit it's probably my least spirited one in a long time.

Those who enjoyed Autumn Never Fall will undoubtedly enjoy Live At The Thornbury Theatre, recorded in Melbourne on the last night of the band's 2009 summer tour. Thanks to a seated and attentive audience, the sound is as clear as that on the studio album, and a few songs feel truly vibrant.

Aquarelle - Slow Circles

2010-07-16T00:09:00.000-07:00

Read the tasteful review on The Silent Ballet.

There is not one flat moment on Slow Circles, an album that is as enchanted as it was loved in its making. Potts revised and re-did the album so many times over the years, and one can really feel how complete it is. The album kicks off with a sharp splash of an affected acoustic guitar strum, and forever after the listener is submerged into a densely satisfying world of sound. "In Days of Rust" thoroughly completes a strong album with waves of percussion-flecked static and a pantheon of guitars sailing to the undying lands. If Aquarelle wasn't on your radar before (This is his fourth full-length.) now is the time to perk up and take the plunge. The hard copies are gorgeously packaged, with artwork and photography done by Potts himself, making the album all the more special to be with. Slow Circles comes pretty close to inciting synesthesia, and "Aquarelle" (a drawing in transparent watercolors) couldn't be a more perfect moniker. Prepare to be caressed, listened to, and comforted by your own fuzzy introspection

1-bit symphony

2010-07-02T17:52:00.000-07:00

I am very excited about this release. I think Jim would really dig it. It's an album that plays itself through a microchip. Just plug in headphones. Check out the link. It's by a fellow named Tristan Perich. Looks pretty cool. Certainly different than just another cd to play.

Oneohtrix Point Never - Returnal

2010-06-28T20:10:00.000-07:00

I done smoked this review up on The Silent Ballet. I am fairly proud of this one.

The machines have won. Humanity has been assimilated into a scientific factoid without a history, which no longer exists thanks to the myths and stories of our kind yet violent species no longer being passed along. Yet, consciousness continues. Somehow, beings who are drawn to alternate existences with limitations continue to channel the happenings of our Earth, but through computers and android modes. The first track of Returnal is a complete disaster if one gives up during its maelstrom of chaos and fractured howls. Judging the album by this track alone would be a mistake, for while the piece is dense and challenging, it is merely the horrible portal we must pass through, the final crushing blow to our species, in order to reap the benefits of a synthetic consciousness. And this consciousness, this new dream being woven by the keys of Oneohtrix Point Never is a sumptuous and blissful experience.

The Glitch Mob - Drink The Sea

2010-06-18T20:08:00.000-07:00

I done reviewed this on The Silent Ballet. Read more.

None of these tracks fall under five minutes, and never do any of the songs drag on too long. The pop aspect is prevalent, but the sounds that make up the structures are so succulent that any prejudice against the word "pop" collapses under their glory. "Fistful of Silence" is possibly the best example of how damn good things can be with this album. A delicious distorted guitar groove completely slays, and just when we get comfortable with a rocking beat or a catchy passage, The Glitch Mob throws in a cinematic curve ball to take things in a new direction. No pop motif is safe; The brain is just bound to love the energy and sonics on display. The pacing is such that the strongest songs emerge as the record moves along. The single is probably the weakest song, which speaks to the band's strength of writing expanded pieces that don't bog down on a theme. At times the band wears its influences on the sleeve, but Drink The Sea features a unique voice being broadcasted through layers of crunked out fuzz and phase-hopping shifts. It's an irresistible combination and sounds just dangerous enough to get even the most conservative of popular listeners to cross over to something new.

My Education - "A Man Alone"

2010-05-29T12:36:00.000-07:00

Wiley Wiggins has made a music video, ladies and gents. And it's not for one of Richard Linklater's DVD Extras! It's for a My Education song. Both camps are from Texas, so it makes sense. Wiley always struck me as an actor with high artistic integrity, so it's no surprise to see these people as buddies or artistic associates. In any case, a music video for this highly underrated band is something to cheer for.

Ben Frost performs 'Leo Needs A New Pair Of Shoes' at the Greenhouse Studios

2010-05-27T22:00:00.000-07:00

The Alps - Le Voyage

2010-05-24T15:53:00.001-07:00

Read my entire review on The Silent Ballet. Oh yes, there's more.

Le Voyage begins like a Hallmark greeting card and ends with a slow burning raga of enchantment. The pedestrian innocence of the mostly acoustic opening number "Drop In" is inviting. It acts like a sugar coating that coaxes the weary into eating the matrix-revealing blue pill, because this album gets a little weird and trippy. The choice tracks feature in the second half, but in order to get there, The Alps puts together a collage of twelve-string guitar, piano, groovy bass, effects freak outs, self-referntial samples, and field recordings that, when listened to in the prescribed order, come off as a little sloppy. The sample-crazy, synth effect interludes are extremely busy and too long. They were apparently influenced by GRM's musique concrète archive and the Radiophonic Workshop, but without a film from the 1970's to anchor them, they feel unnecessary in the context of all the other gorgeously played pastoral pieces and spartan, guru grooves.

The Alps - Le Voyage by _type

Manorexia - The Mesopelagic Waters

2010-05-17T16:48:00.000-07:00

Read the entire review on The Silent Ballet. This was a really tough one to grasp and write. Personally, i am glad it's over. Manorexia does not jive with my spring time.

Scuttling and bubbling off to the side in J. G. Thirlwell's tidepools of "other" musical outlets lies Manorexia. Begat on Thanksgiving of 2000, this was, until recently, a completely solo, electronic project. In 2001 Manorexia released Volvox Turbo, with The Radiolarian Ooze appearing the following year. These albums feature some highly experimental compositions filled with haunted environmental shifts and a kitchen sink's worth of sampled instruments. Mostly of the creepy or disturbing persuasion, these works are equivalent to several feature films' worth of dynamism and intrigue. With the lavish electronic-heavy versions as guides, Thirlwell was interested in arranging the pieces for classical musicians, but not until 2006 (for a few shows in Russia) did this ever happen. He's just so busy! Manorexia of today is not one band or group. Thirlwell has different manorexial ensembles in both New York and London, both of which have given a few special performances around the world. The Mesopelagic Waters is the first studio demonstration of what this all sounds like.

Waspette

2010-05-16T22:27:00.000-07:00

Remembering Dio

2010-05-16T21:31:00.000-07:00

I never listened to Dio or the albums he did with Sabbath, or really anything related to him; except for the tributes made to him by Tenacious D. In an allegorical sense, I respect the man and the legend and the music. My affinity for The "D" is 100% so whatever myth or legend they want to perpetrate is just fine with me. Dio was part of Tenacious D's existence, and I'm sure the two guys and all those associated in their circles are mourning the loss of one of the classiest gents in metal.

Ronnie James Dio. Thanks for the greatness I have yet to fully explore. I have laughed a ton at your expense. He was 67, and died of stomach cancer. Apparently peacefully. Julia and I have already sung the Tencious D song named after you, today.

Show: Red Sparowes and Caspian

2010-05-11T14:11:00.000-07:00

At last Caspian! They came to Vancouver for the first time. They sure do look like a rock band. Somewhere between arty and blue collar, they exist and devote everything to their music. Their show was good, yet it was amazing that they did not play "The Raven". It's probably because they have played the piss out of it and wanted to salvage some magic from one of their best songs for future tours. They do tour a lot.
One of the guys in Caspian looks so much like Jim Smith, right down to the Chuck Taylors. With all those pedals, it was like having good ole Jimbo back in the Pacific Northwest. We miss you, Jimmy All The Time! Caspian's set was kind of average, to be honest - until the last three songs. "Brombie" just had something extra to it, and I was moved to head bang. The final two songs were some of fans' least favorites, but they were so good live I was quite pleasantly surprised. "Vienna" and "Sycamore", the final diptych of Tertia, closed the show, and it was one of the only moments that I was into the show, not overthinking things, not thinking "where is the raven, god dammit?" It slayed, and having everyone smash the drums together is an exhilarating way to end a show.

Julia was at this show with me. Beforehand we had a dinner date (our first in months!), drank some choice red wine, got all happy and jogged through some rain over to the Biltmore. We stood up at the stage for Caspian, but happiness was wearing thin as far as "standing" went, so most of Red Sparowes was taken in at the back on The Biltmore's nice velour couches. I have to hand it to Red Sparowe's design team. Their visuals were so professional and engaging this time around, and really, when a band moves this seldomly, the visuals are a huge plus. Nonetheless, we were so tired. Yet another show went down where I took my wife, and we either fell asleep, got morning sickness or jumped ship because one of us was pregnant and unsure of how a fetus would react.

I kind of decided after this show that I wasn't really into going to post rock shows anymore. Despite how much I love the music, the shows are just not compelling enough (I will probably still go to them anyway! On guestlists). I was extremely bummed out that Fang Island did not make it through the border to this show. Honestly, that was the band I was pumped to see. Now they're off with Coheed or STP or something, playing arenas. All you asshole Americans with criminal records constantly disappoint me! At least all of Red Sparowes made it through the border this time (unlike last time). Their new guitar player is a lady, but no more interesting than their former player(s). I like to think they added changed guitar players so they could come to Canada... and Europe and anywhere else. Ah well. We will always have the pedal steel. It truly makes watching this band worth it.

Cue the video (not from my show) (in fact none of these photos are either, but they are from the same tour)

Red Sparowes - A Hail of Bombs from Jon Mancinetti on Vimeo.

Fang Island - Daisy

2010-05-06T17:11:00.000-07:00

This is a video for one of my favorite bands at the moment. FANG ISLAND. They are "fun" in a nutshell. Fun, however, is such a lame word. They describe their music as "everyone high-fiving each other." Their energy is infectious. I wish the music video was the whole album, because it is a joy to listen to. Everest loves to ROCK to this one. Check YouTube for the video of Fang Island playing in a kindergarten class. TODDLER MOSH PIT. Watch for the mystery spot in the video when the kids are playing the instruments.

65daysofstatic are awesome

2010-05-04T13:47:00.000-07:00

In honor of 65daysofstatic's growing sensation, here's a video for, what I'd consider, their signature song. "Retreat! Retreat!" Pretty much one of the most awesome live bands on the planet. I really hope that since this new record is so heavily produced and features Robert Smith that it helps them explode big time (I mean, they toured with the Cure; come on, droves!) so they can tour on their own over here on the forbidden continent. Here's to wishing...

Olan Mill - Heavy Leg Cycle

2010-05-02T17:47:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite unknown groups, Olan Mill, has created a stop motion-esque gesture of a video. It's only two minutes, but the lush strings and urgent ambience is on full display. My review of this record is apparently helping it blow up and sell like hot cakes, well before it has been released.

Olan Mill - A Heavy Leg Cycle from Serein on Vimeo.

How To Destroy Angels

2010-04-28T12:59:00.000-07:00

Trent Reznor warned Earth that Nine Inch Nails would no longer be touring after last year. Already the first side project has emerged! With his wife! She can turn knobs apparently, showcased in the "teaser" video offered on the mini site. Of course, knowing Trent, they also have Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, DoubleSpeak, Avatar happy meals, laptops singing in random outhouses to unsuspecting campers, etc. The video has got to be the most boring teaser video ever made. It is devoid of intrigue. Such a salesman! He knows we're hooked already, he doesn't have to show us ANYTHING. At least the search for the next best logo (behind the NIN logo) has begun.

Mouth of the Architect - The Violence Beneath

2010-04-26T23:47:00.001-07:00

Read the entire review of good at The Silent Ballet.

On their own, each song offers something unique. "Restore" feels like the ship has a broken rudder, leaving our dizzied, metalloid pirates to rage on about how distracted we have become that we cannot see things as they truly are. There is a lot of burning and breaking being foretold on the EP, as Mouth of the Architect unapologetically expresses that real change is only going to come about through suffering, destruction, and the like, on a mass scale. The many vocal textures seem more like instruments than vehicles for lyrics, and as with most metal, it is not easy to discern what is being said. The inclusion of Peter Gabriel's song at the end seems to indicate that the band members are in fact romantics, not exactly eagerly awaiting the crush of global cleansing; they likely believe in the power of love over all else. It also says that this group from Ohio is capable of trying anything, and now that over ten people can be called "former members" of the band, it seems ever more likely that the project will produce interesting and ego-smashing results.

Loscil live

2010-04-20T11:23:00.000-07:00

What a treat to see Scott Morgan come out and play a set on Record Store Day. Loscil rarely does live gigs and prefers to keep a low profile. His whole family was there, which was great, as I brought Everest along, and he was actually really interested in the sound coming out of the PA speakers high above his head. He would point and say, "Dah." I said, "Soundwaves." Or, "Mixing Board." He then demanded to get into the expensive LPs. The people at Redcat Records left LPs everywhere, like they were going out of style! At least they were lined up in rows, looking somewhat organized. A few people paid money for them! I caught a glimpse at the round, black saucers contained in the paper sleeves. Curious, I purchased a copy of Endless Falls, the new Loscil (as well as the new Erykah Badu, which has a killer album cover. Hopefully Everest will get lost in there some day). Mr. Morgan signed it for me. Apparently he lives in my neighborhood.

Here is a link to a two minute interview with the photographer of Loscil's album cover. It's so cute, you simply must hear.

Interview with Bersarin Quartett

2010-04-19T07:39:00.001-07:00

Bersarin Quartett was one of my favorite albums (from '08), and still is. I interviewed Thomas Bucker (who is in Germany), and he was really warm and receptive. He's re-releasing his record through Denovali, on vinyl, and as gratitude for doing a nice interview, the label is sending me a copy! So lovely.

Olan Mill - Pine

2010-04-16T09:36:00.000-07:00

Read my entire review of awesome on The Silent Ballet

Good music is capable of frolicking in the unconscious mind. The Rihannas and the Timbalands can cook up a catchy batch of popcorn, but once the body excretes the sugars and salts, the satisfaction is lost. Pine speaks like a great story, in that, as the critic Walter Benjamin descibed, "It does not expend itself. It preserves and concentrates its strength and is capable of releasing it even after a long time." This album is surprisingly grand for being so short, and once the closer "Flume" has ever so slowly faded away, it resonates in the negative space of perception. Pine has great power within it. Benjamin might compare it, like a story, to seeds of grain that "have lain for centuries in the chambers of the pyramids shut up air-tight and have retained their germinative power to this day." Pick up this album if you seek the chalice of perpetual self-rejuvenation.

Olan Mill - Pine (Free Download) by Serein

Floyd for the NES

2010-04-15T13:23:00.001-07:00

Godspeed You! Black Emperor say, "Fuck it, let's play."

2010-04-13T13:28:00.000-07:00

Since I'm in the instrumental veins, I better put this up. The most influential of all bands in these circuits is reforming after about7 years of hiatus. They are curating All Tomorrow's Parties for three nights, performing each day. In ENGLAND. Not in Canada, their home turf. Hopefully they will play where I am (i.e. their home turf). Here is the official "press" release, if you can call it that. Godspeed are usually very opposed to The Press and all it stands for. Their public existence is enigmatic by rule.

2010-04-05T15:24:00.000-07:00

I wrote up a pretty decent account of 2010's Cumulus Festival. I hope I did everyone involved justice and represented all the bands well. It's tough to balance real people in an article that also features bits of personal interests of my own. This was the first editorial piece I've really ever done. My first on the spot reporting kind of thing. I really enjoyed it. I was lucky that my wife encouraged me to go all three days and then some, while she took care of our son and our house... and our chickens. Thanks Julia!

It's finally published. As are the four interviews Steve and I did with some of the bands.

Grails: Black Tar Prophecies IV

2010-04-01T00:33:00.001-07:00

Need I say more? Ok, I will. I invented a new term to describe Grails. Epiclectic.

Spartak - Verona

2010-03-29T10:11:00.000-07:00

Read my entire review on The Silent Ballet.

Verona has many sounds, but it is one thing: a wonderful sounding experiment. Structures are as loose as they come, provoking folks to use terms like "high concept sound art." The pieces are a bit frenetic to be simple installation pieces, but it definitely would be neat to see the band playing in a Matthew Barney film. Australia's musical climate has helped forge yet another quality group crafting a listenable experimental release, and, while Verona feels like a stepping stone to the next big reveal for Spartak, it does not disappoint. This is quality sound adventuring.

Spartak - Verona by Low Point

Concentric - Immeasurable

2010-03-17T16:48:00.000-07:00

Read my entire review on The Silent Ballet.

As an album, Immeasurable is both amazing and exhausting. One has to imagine these guys wouldn't play a show that lasted this long, and so the deluge of music is a little unrealistic. When studied in shorter breaths, the music is fantastic, and that's the preferable impression to leave here. This is the band's first album, and now that it's available to rest of us, it is recommended for everyone to check out these impressive musicians and wonder what might happen the next time they write something. Given the band's work ethic and ability to write melodic gems around their impeccable technical skills, it's only a matter of time before we compare every avant guard acoustic band to Concentric.

Jean-Michel - Berlin-Koblenz-Kassel

2010-03-17T16:47:00.000-07:00

Let's hope Denovali come through and actually send me a promo LP of Bersarin Quartett's album! I'm in talks with them about it!

Efterklang - Live

2010-03-13T17:13:00.000-08:00

Efterklang travel 200 days out of the year, and while those aren't James Brown numbers, not many bands are playing shows around the world so frequently. And so it is credit to their own enigmatic selves how they seem so delighted to be on stage, no matter where they are. Their new album Magic Chairs has an interpretable title and while the band sits on their tour bus for eight hours a day, bassist Rasmus Stolberg says, "you want to look at it in a positive way; you can look at that as your magic chair. I mean, it takes you on to new adventures every day." He's the dude with the sweet mustache. You gotta be happy if you're going to pull that thing off.

Efterklang (last year); note Peter Broderick on violin, and sister Heather Woods on flute.

Thanks to Sarah, I went to this show; she bought me a ticket! Efterklang were so awesome this past Friday night. Better than last year when they played with Peter Broderick. Maybe it was Peter's presence that upstaged them, because this year's opening acts were not nearly as good. The first band Aunts and Uncles were charming and sweet. I wanted to put them in my pocket. They express an eclectic naiveté, but are really solid, musically. The violinist seemed like she was not ready to give a "show" per say, merely standing and doing the minimum. The lead guitarist was androgynous in voice and talented, and the drummer was also really good.

The next band gets no love from me. I think I have been spoiled for a long time at shows, or I just know how to pick them. Balmorhea was supposed to open for Efterklang but due to a serious family issue they had to cancel their entire tour. I was bummed but optimistic. Certain Breeds opened with some nice synth sounds, but then........oh, shudder... the vocalist. I am highly open minded about how vocalists express themselves. I was giving this woman a big chance, several songs in, but when it became apparent that she had ONE NOTE that she liked to sing, somehow atonally, I became highly irritated.

Maybe she was going for a tribal take on things, or she subscribed to the mantra that repetition is the best, the best, the best. Whatever the theory, the execution was flawed and ugly sounding. The music even sounded good at songs' beginnings, but it never intensified to help give some kind of phantom meaning or intensity to this hollow, lupine whining. God I hope this band finds a new singer, or does something completely different. The problem is that they seem to be a pretty well known and (somehow) popular local band. They've played at Music Waste, been featured in the Georgia Straight. It will be just our luck that they never make it big and Vancouver audiences are stuck with them for decades. I was trying to describe the music to someone, and I couldn't. It was like it was devoid of style. Like a milkshake without flavour. Maybe some vanilla flavouring, but no bean and no love from grandma. This was Dairy Queen at 4am. Empty feeling and full of that dreadful knowing that, despite civilization's comforts, your happiness is doomed in this situation.

Speaking of future truckers and their empty milkshakes, I ran into a future Large Marge at the beer cooler. Having scrounged up $3.60 in coins, I strutted up to the open air basin full of ice and brews, hoping I could score a $3.75 Pabst can at a minor discount. A prolonged wag of the head, lower lip pressed into the upper; this young woman was immovable on the price. "I don't even know if I'm going to make 15 cents tonight," she lamented. I humorously offered her the first sip of my Pabst as penance, because we all know after that first sip, the honeymoon is over. You just have to pretend it's better beer after that. She pointed to her charts on the nearby wall, tallying every beer sold. She made it seem like she had bought every beer and was hoping to break even. I didn't know the Biltmore allowed entrepreneur beer girls. I even considered adding the two loose buttons in my wallet to my total. It's kind of sad to find what you think is a quarter, and it turns out to be a button. But then it's funny because beer is trivial.

Efterklang wore green. It was lovely.

Later I found a loonie in the Twilight Zone pinball machine, but I reasoned that it was better to have made money at the show rather than waste it on a shitty, overpriced beer. I made money at this show! And after seeing such a terrible band, Efterklang had to be great by comparison. And they were. Such awesome music these chaps can make. And so passionate, full of fun. They always look like they are enjoying themselves. Vocalist Casper Clausen plays his drum sticks on everything around him, acting on elfin impulses, aware of all the hipster black rimmed glasses scrutinizing his every move. Efterklang are glorious. The music is so rich and lively, yet you know the people who go to these shows. They stand, for the most part. Those black rimmed glasses don't bounce. But I moved. It was hard not to.

The guitar player they had with them was awesome. I can't remember if it's the same guy they always had, but I don't think so. This dude is the shit. He was belting the glorious lyrics that sound like they're in the back of the room. Heather Woods Broderick is so short! But it's not her fault I could barely see her. The Biltmore stage is like an uber widescreen viewing area. Like your vision is being pinched by god's finger and thumb. Sarah and I didn't even realize there was a drummer on stage until the fourth song when he stood up to play trumpet. I actually started to feel a buzzkill because of the "live" drums that were apparently being played through the P.A. but luckily there was a drummer after all! Buzz back on! Dollar in pocket. The Magic Chairs songs are really awesome live, and as usual, the electronics are of premium quality. Damn these people are good. I read a hilarious and inspiring quote from Rasmus about how the band isn't classically trained. "We—the four guys in Efterklang—are as untrained in music as you can be, almost,” he says, laughing. “But we are specialists in making Efterklang music."

The Resonance Association - Clarity in Darkness

2010-03-10T18:43:00.000-08:00

Read the entire review at The Silent Ballet.

Everything on hand seems tailor-made to appeal to instrumental Nine Inch Nails fans (think Ghosts I-IV). Variety, faux-metal passages, electronic elements, and a ritualistic mystery — they're all here. Daniel Vincent's once-heard vocals are definitely much sweeter than Trent Reznor's, but there is something that Reznor does well that is missing here. For all its complex arrangements, great sounds, and varying parts, this album's labyrinth doesn't have a thread to hold onto. Everything changes before we've had a chance to get to know it (the exception being "Magick Is The Science," which does revisit a theme), and so the album has the effect of holding the listener at arm's length. "Look through this window, and behold!" it says. But pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. It's not an intimate experience.

Sunwrae - Chinook Winds

2010-03-08T21:43:00.000-08:00

Delightful song, and a quality video/audio! Delight.

Blood Into Wine - The Arizona Stronghold

2010-03-08T21:38:00.000-08:00

Will our fascination with Maynard ever end? I hope not. Even though this trailer looks legit, there's still a decent chance of it being a complete hoax. Even when you watch the film at an international film festival, there's still a chance of it being fake. It sure is nice seeing those dramatic shots of Jerome and Sedona, though. ~sigh~ Wish I was back there...

Ramona Falls - "I Say Fever" video

2010-03-03T10:15:00.000-08:00

Never heard of Ramona Falls, and the song is pretty cool, but it's the ANIMATION that is just absolutely phenomenal. Directed by the uber talented Stefan Nadelman. You have to watch this!

Ramona Falls "I Say Fever" from Barsuk Records on Vimeo.

Richard Skelton - Landings

2010-02-28T22:47:00.000-08:00

Read this entire review on The Silent Ballet. It's one of my best.

The ethereal breath and blurry edges of Landings is kindred with the music of Skelton's other pseudonyms, but what makes this album so good is its scope. At seventy minutes, it has the transmutational quality of changing size or shape to couple with the listener's mood. This is music of grieving and focus, but it is also ritualistic and gracious. It isn't going to make the listener cry and wish for something better; this is a tribute to the land in which it was recorded, and it behaves as an attentive listener, not an edict of expression. It offers itself to be explored, and what we find in listening is that the human heart, no matter the damage done to it, perseveres. Richard Skelton was truly compelled to play in this place. He would wake up at 5 A.M., drive to the moor and play guitar, violin, or concertina for hours in an old ruin or by a stream, in hopes that the environment would bestow itself into the recordings. He pressed individual CDs for himself, dressed them in little boxes, and stowed them in secret places where they were recorded, not wanting anyone to discover them. These private relics are still hidden in the landscape, and only he knows their locations!

Patsy Cline - Sweet Dreams (of You) - 45 rpm

2010-02-21T10:47:00.000-08:00