This is what happens when amateur journalists get behind on their reviews. I try to bring you new bands by reviewing debut EPs, and, in the interim between purchase and review, they release their first albums.
Such is the case with Sir Sly's four-song EP, "Gold". I have it. I have listened to this thing like crazy since its released. But they already have a major album on Interscope that I have not listened to I hope to.
Originally from Los Angeles, this trio has a big sound, primarily electronic, that creates huge orchestral landscapes. Each song is slow and steady, moving forward with a purpose, inevitable like a glacier. Huge sonic landscapes driven forward by stroboscopic electronic beats like insistent bursts of ultraviolet radiation on ice.
Probably the best song on here is the title track, "Gold". This tune has made it on virtually every mix CD I have made in the last eight months. An electric surge tempered by the layered vocals of singer, Landon Jacobs. "Where I'm Going" and "Ghost" continue this exploration of musical horizons that is slightly reminiscent of Brendan Perry's work with Dead Can Dance. The EP is rounded out by the happy "Found You Out", with a catchy beat and slightly sappy boy band feel.
These young artists show promise, the ability to stretch the definitions of pop music. I am sure we will hear more from them in the future.
I'm a 44 year-old man, which means that I have a fairly good grasp of music from the last millennium, But I have a music guru. Every person over the age of 40 needs one to help keep them relevant. Mine is a mother and yoga instructor half my age named Nikki. Nikki is always making music recommendations to me which is great for my blog.
One of the artists she steered me towards was Broods, a brother and sister synthpop team from New Zealand. I am glad she did.
I am reviewing their eponymous debut EP, "Broods". Since my purchase of their six-song EP, they have released their first full album. But I have not acquired the album yet, so I will review the EP.
How do I describe Broods? First of all, they have garnered much attention in the international scene, but back home in Aotearoa they are kings. They share the same musical producer as fellow kiwi, Lorde. There is a similar sound, but I much prefer Broods over their surly teen counterpart.
This music is atmospheric, moody, whispered, and slightly melancholic. Definitely electronic, but less Depeche Mode and more trip hop. They remind me quite a bit of Imogen Heap. This is music designed to evoke feelings, and it does. It takes a few listens to get into it. But once you do, you move past Georgia Nott's breathy vocals and see some exquisite musical arrangements provided by sibling, Caleb Nott.
The EP starts out beautifully with "Never Gonna Change" with gentle synthesizers and staccato drumbeats that would make Massive Attack proud. The second selection, "Pretty Thing" evokes Chvrches, and the best part is when brother and sister mirror the lyrics back and forth. "Bridges" is the main single, and it is for a reason - a shimmering, bittersweet song with sad, wistful vocals with a vibrant, electronic pulse. My favorite song is "Taking You There" which starts out with a simple acoustic guitar. The song doesn't seem to quite fit the rest of the EP, which is perhaps why I like it so much. It stirs something in me when I listen to it.
This is a great start for Broods. There is not a bad song here. I am eager to check their album. Hey, you should, too! Thanks to my music guru for suggesting this to me. I, in turn, recommend it to you!
It was 1988. It was just after new wave and just before grunge. There was a sound. Mainly, it dominated college and alternative radio. R.E.M. was at the forefront of that. Dramarama. They Might Be Giants.The Connells.The Silencers. Dead Milkmen. Camper Van Beethoven. The Reivers. The Bolshoi. And The Feelies. Jangle pop, dream pop, Americana. This was the driving music of my teen years.
Honestly, this band from New Jersey had a history long since I ever heard them - 1976. The Feelies had two albums before "Only Life". But I never heard them. I still haven't. The nerdy punk of "Away" was frenetically pulsing on MTV's "120 Minutes" every Sunday, and I had to get that album. So I went to Zia's in Tempe and bought the cassette (that I still have). This album was one of the many anthems of my senior year in high school.
To review this album, I downloaded a digital copy. First of all, it sounds really dated. It has that "sound" that I was talking about - right at the tail end of the "Me Decade". But isn't that the sound that is kind of hip now? This album, even rooted in its time period, is as catchy as hell.
Both "Away" and "For Awhile" have their signature sound - songs that start as mellow pop songs and then slowly build in tempo until they feverishly having you shake your mop of hair and are starting to pogo in your living room. This record is definitely guitar-rock, but it is also a dance album. You can dance to every single tune on this selection. This is especially true with the opener, "It's Only Life", as well as "Deep Fascination", "The Final Word", and "Too Far Gone".
My favorite selections are the R.E.M.-ish piano and guitar ballad, "Higher Ground", and the haunting "The Undertow", driven by bongos and a desperately strummed acoustic guitar. These two songs are highly nostalgic for me. The album ends nicely with a Velvet Underground cover, "What Goes On".
This is music that I tell me family, "This is my music." I'm proud to own it. I'm proud that I was there, not listening to what the mainstream was listening to, and I am glad that I still have this music with me.
Skrillex, aka. Sonny Moore,has enjoyed a career as one of the top electronic deejays in the world for several years. But he has never released an album until 2014, with "Recess". According to the rumor, while in Italy, he had two laptops stolen out of his hotel room that contained the materials for an unreleased album, called "Voltage". Fortunately, he was able to gather enough material to record this debut album - after many, many EPs. And what an album!
Those who know me know that - in 2011 - I was totally on board with the whole dubstep thing, back when it was new and relatively unknown. All summer, I deejayed this music on the fair circuit from Utah to Wyoming to Montana. I got a huge response. And the undeniable King of Dubstep was Skrillex. All of those dubstep affecianados now like to turn up their nose to Skrillex now in favor of other artists like Excision, Kaskade, Nero, and Bassnectar. But they were into Skrillex back then, just like everybody else.
Dubstep, like all fads that blaze quickly, also burned out quickly. It is nice to see that Skrillex, like his erstwhile competitor, deadmau5, have been able to transcend this genre. Yes, there is still much dubstep on this album on songs like "Doompy Poomp" and "Fuck That". There is wobble bass - you know, that electronic noise that sounds like Cylons talking. But he has used many elements of other electronic genres - electro, brostep, drum & bass, reggae, and dancehall. This is truly an album that goes beyond any label.
Recess
For instance, Skrillex seems to make his noise on the higher end of the spectrum now with songs like "All Is Fair In Love & Brostep", the infectious title track, "Recess", and "Stranger". Skrillex adds to his sound by recruiting other electronic artists, like Alvin Risk, on "Try It Out". My favorite song is the faux reggae on "Ragga Bomb" with its feverish static set over a funky beat. Other favorites are "Ease My Mind" (with Niki & the Dove) with its haunting vocals and Middle Eastern rhythm, and the album concludes with the mellow "Fire Away".
Of course, it couldn't be a Skrillex album without the songs that annoy me - "Coast Is Clear", the drum & bass /"Dirty Vibe", "Doompy Poomp", and "Fuck That". That is the thing with electronic music. It has the ability to move us, or grate on us.
All in all, this album is a success. It will be interesting to see where Skrillex is in another five years from now.
A couple of years ago, This Mortal Coil released a box set of their three albums, released mostly in the '80s, along with a "greatest hits" type compilation, "Dust & Guitars", taking selections from their library and digitally remastering them in HD.
For those of you who don't know, This Mortal Coil is the pet project of Ivo Watts-Russell, founder of the prestigious British record label, 4AD, and John Fryer. The project was used to showcase musicians from the label's line-up. Usually, they did covers of songs from the '60s and '70s that influenced Watts-Russell, as well as original pieces.
It is hard to describe This Mortal Coil, or to place them in a genre. This is definitely mood music. The songs are all laced together by samples, orchestra arrangements, and electronica to form a stream of consciousness, dreamy texture and sonic landscapes.
And to listen to this - remastered in HD - divine! One of my chief complaints about 4AD's early releases are poor production quality. To listen to these sings enhanced by technology is nothing short of miraculous. This is the way they were meant to be heard.
My only complaint about this particular collection - these albums were conceptual. It's really hard to listen to a song on its own without the rest of the pieces that stand with it. This is one of the reasons that I rarely add TMC songs to my playlists. I don't like to separate these songs.
The compilation starts with bit of a rarity. The very first This Mortal Coil release was a cover of Modern English's "Sixteen Days" and "Gathering Dust." Watts-Russell would frequently cover at least one song from his label's catalog, and Modern English was one of the first bands to sign on 4AD. For those who remember Modern English as the happy-go-lucky one-hit-wonder that sang "I'll Melt With You" might be surprised at the darkly gothic selection that was reflective of their early music. This is old school gothic - sung by Elizabeth Fraser and performed by Robin Guthrie, both of Cocteau Twins, with Gordon Sharp of Cindytalk performing background vocals. All driven by a drum beat a la "Bela Lugosi's Dead" (also an early 4AD release).
Ivo Watts-Russel, founder of 4AD and This Mortal Coil
"Song To the Siren" is also here - arguably one of This Mortal Coil's most famous releases - also with Liz Fraser and Robin Guthrie performing this cover of Tim Buckley's classic, a hint of the future relationship Fraser would have with Buckley's equally talented son, Jeff.
Other selections from "It'll End in Tears" are "Kangaroo" and the title track from that record - both sung by Gordon Sharp and dominated by piano and string arrangements. The pieces from "Filigree & Shadow" include "Drugs", a Talking Heads cover, a revamped version of "Thais (Bird of Paradise)", and my favorite, "Come Here My Love", a Van Morrison cover, a tidal wave of samples. keyboards, and Allison Limerick's vocals that evoke that dream-like feel of their music that I have come to love.
There is also an unreleased track called "We Never Danced" and surprisingly no selections from their final album, "Blood". There is, however, "Acid, Bitter, and Sad", taken from the "Lonely Is An Eyesore" compilation. This song starts out with wind chimes and drums, and fades into a liquid keyboard and Allison Limerick's voice. Limerick is a regular fixture on all of TMC's albums.
This compilation is a good way to become familiar with This Mortal Coil's music. Turn down the lights. Turn on the lava lamp. Let these sounds wash over you...
In the 17th Century. French poet Cyrano de Bergerac regaled us with a poem about traveling through the ether to the moon. In 2014, rapper Kid Cudi did the same on his fourth studio album, "Satellite Flight: The Journey to Mother Moon".
Previous to this, I had not really been exposed to Kid Cudi, beyond his hit single, "Day 'N Nite", which I gave a lot of play when I was deejaying on the fair circuit in 2009 and 2010. I decided to check out this album, and it is definitely one of the most unconventional hip hop albums I have ever heard.
The first thing I noticed is that - for a hip hop record - there is very little percussion here, no sick beats. There are tripped out synthesizers and samples. Indeed, this collection of songs is less rap as it is ambient or trance. It reminds me more of an album by The Orb. The songs melt from one into another, and most of the selections are instrumental. It is like a light-speed acid trip through space.
But that is a good thing. It is artists like Kid Cudi - and his mentor, Kanye West (love him, or hate him) - that show enough creativity to expand the genre into something beyond pop music, into art.
Songs of note are "Satellite Flight", the sweetly erotic "Balmain Jeans", and the Cosmos-like "Too Bad I Have To Destroy You". But my favorites are the spacey instrumentals like "Copernicus Landing" and "Return of the Moon Man". It makes me wonder if we will eventually see Kid Cudi stop throwing down rhymes and writing movie scores.
Definitely check out this album. But don't except it to make you throw your hands up in the air like you just don't care. Most likely it will out you in the mood for a bong in a place to chill out while you take a wild ride into space.
In the late '80s and early '90s, we were really inundated by bands that fit the shoegaze description. "Shoegaze" was a term coined by music critics for artsy bands that did not jump around and engage the audience, but would stare contemplatively at their shoes while they played their instruments.
However, back then, we didn't call it shoegaze. I now describe shoegaze as "hard rock influenced by Cocteau Twins". And I think that's a pretty apt description, Back in the day, this included bands like Lush, My Bloody Valentine, and Catherine Wheel. These bands were dominated by soft, unintelligible vocals drowned in a wash of white noise of swirling guitars.
Fortunately, this genre of music is alive and well thanks to, one of my favorite bands, Silversun Pickups, and a new band called Nothing, originally out of the Philadelphia hardcore scene.
I randomly stumbled on their debut album, "Guilty of Everything", and I'm glad that I did. They are really great. This is my type of music. You have to listen deeply to get past the barrage of buzzing distortion. There is some fine musicianship here. Dominic Palermo's vocals are hoarse and practically whispered, but it creates the ambiance.
The album starts off beautifully with "Hymn to the Pillory" that starts out soft and languid, the guitars shimmering, and the vocals are feminine and angelic. Then it explodes into something that would make the Pixies proud.
Truthfully, every song is good here. But my favorites are "Bent Nail" which has a Jesus & Mary Chain vibe, "Endlessly" which explores this dichotomy of hard and soft at the same time, and "Somersault" with its guitars that are very reminiscent of Robin Guthrie's ethereal strumming. My favorite is "Get Well" which kind of reminds me of Nirvana. "B&E" is another awesome tune, and the album finishes like a feather drifting in the wind with the title track, "Guilty of Everything".
This is such an amazing album that already has me caught in its wake. I foresee this one becoming fast one of my favorites.
Okay, the first thing I have to say is that I am really behind on my blog. I have a stack of thirty albums that I need to review, so everything I review for the next little while will be late.
The first album I will be reviewing is the 2014 debut release by A Great Big World, a duo from New York, called "Is There Anybody Out There?". I normally would not have downloaded this album, but I did so at the request of my former wife. I posted on Facebook that I had purchased this selection, and immediately I got some strong reactions like, "Okay, if you like wimpy music!"
This truly isn't my type of music, but it's not all bad. There are several decent songs on here. My wife listened to this with me, and she pointed out that many of the arrangements - dominated by piano, strings, and brass - sound like the music from a kids' show. It's true. Several songs like "Land of Opportunity" and "Cheer Up!" sound like selections from "The Muppet Show". They remind me of They Might Be Giants minus the sarcasm.
Of course, everyone recognizes the weepy single "Say Something" sung with Christina Aguilera, and "This Is the New Year", which was featured on "Glee", which is appropriate. This band has a "Glee" feel. There are some lesser known pop tunes that are pretty good on here like "Rockstar" and "I Really Want It".
But the favorite song shared by both my wife and me is the tongue-in-cheek "Everyone Is Gay". It is so funny that I don't understand why this song is not a hit. The GOP probably would probably stop it...
