How To Destroy Angels

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Spartak - Verona

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

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

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

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

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

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