Another hugely impressive release from the Hibernate label and perhaps my favourite on the label so far. Five tracks of drones that border on ethereal, each one lovely and slow. Listen hard enough on opener Serfdom and you can hear the faint sound of children playing against the windy drones and Ian Hawgood like crumples.
It's one of those releases that doesn't overdo it time wise, like Tom White's and Taylor Deupree's releases of last year, you don't feel that you have to take an afternoon off to listen to it, instead, instant, to the point and seemingly tireless.
I met Simon James French at Middlesex University when I was working on the Cut and Splice Domestic Soundscape podcast series. Along with several other artists he came to the informal workshops/classes I gave there about Sonic Wallpaper and contributed to the discussions on that topic which ended up in podcast #2 of the series, Rooms and Chambers.
I have kept in touch with SJF through following his blog Plundr Tumblr which I really enjoy reading, and was recently interested to read of his EP release, Anthem, which can be heard and downloaded here.
Serfdom - the first track - opens with generously rich and sonorous drones, the rustle of jeans and a distant patina of joyous voices. These drones continue over the subtly-changing soundscape beneath and there is a delicate, fragmentary quality to the snatches of environmental sound-recordings which move in your peripheral hearing as you listen. Is that a dog’s collar jingling? A tractor or other trundling, slow-engined vehicle?
Plunder is distinctly more ominous with more obscure and difficult-to-identify sounds lurking inside one another, ringed by dull, bell-like sounds. The tone darkens in the opening sections of Misery. Somewhere around here environmental sounds begin to rise out of the drone-soup and up to the fore, and there are some lovely sonic elements which remind me of my electronic cooker with its tap-tap-tapping sound, the bubbling hiss of onions frying or perhaps even the sound of rain pattering intensely on a surface. I love how the material qualities of sound are used here; how it somehow suggests wetness or dryness, scratchy or smooth, soft or hard, and how this materiality fleshes out the relative purity of the drones. The ethereal dronescape re-emerges towards the end of Misery and, surrounded by rustling sounds, there is an almost choral atmosphere to this section - like someone singing inside electronic wires - before the ponderous and slowly moving sequences of Falsehood open. Metallic, resonant and restless, this track pans about like an animal trying to get comfortable in its hole and fades to emptiness so that the last track - Shame - can round up the whole EP, which it does, in a rapturous crescendo of tremelo-rich drones, backdropped by what I think is the sound of cars passing.
At times in its gentleness I find this release to be very remeniscent of Greg Davis’s release, Somnia, but where Davis uses very pure drones and melodies which make it feel as though Somnia has been composed in a vacuum-sealed box, SJF allows his music to rub shoulders with a bit more environmental texture and I like this difference between the two. I enjoy the use of sounds throughout, and the pacing of each track, and the sense of Anthem as a complete work with discrete sections. My only criticism of this release is that the epic quality to the track titles and the release title itself - Anthem - do not necessarily, at least to my ears, reflect the delicacy and subtlety of the sounds contained throughout. There is something intimate and mellow about Anthem with its evocations of interior or familiar environs that I find more like vespers and less like an anthem, but I think this is a small point, and the overall sense of choral religiosity in the music makes those giant track titles forgiveable.
Another free download from Fortuna Pop! and this time a real blast from the past, Airport Girls, Honey I'm An Artist is one of my favourite pop albums from a very important part in my life musically, I remember discovering Airport Girl supporting Cinerama and playing alongside Solar Plexus (who became Saint Joan and now Ellen Mary McGee) at the now rarely used venue, The Boat Club in Nottingham.
The monstrously long titled track The Foolishness That We Create Through Love Is The Closest We Come To Greatness was always one of the highlights, starting off with an Idlewild esque riff before full on exploding into Dexys style pop and not sounding a second too long despite its length of just over 6 minutes.
The only sad thing is that my actual favourite Airport Girl song, and the original Bside to this single is not included, that of Striking Out On Your Own. Still it appears that the singles still available to buy on the website, it would indeed be money well spent. A welcome reminder of my indiepop past.
"Like Belle & Sebastian meet Denim, which is the stuff of genius"
(Melody Maker)
"Indiepop doesn’t come up with many epics. The three-minute perfect pop song ideal still seems to be held in high regard, long after commercial producers have padded the norm out to four and a half with reprises, extra choruses, key change, instrumental parts and longer intros (or it seems to be anyway, there’s probably an interesting graph waiting to be made of song length on number one albums over time)
And rightly so! Brevity is important in music, so explaining the brilliance of The Foolishness that We Create Through Love Is The Closest We Come To Greatness is tricky, as it clocks in at just over six minutes. I suppose part of it is the spontaneity in the lyrics that seems to force you onto the dance floor. “Just when I thought the chance was missed… well that’s when we kissed” being the moment that the song is hinged around. It just demands you dance to it.
The Foolishness… is also important for other reasons. It was unashamedly indiepop at a time when the genre was scattered all over the place and hard to find. For someone in the early days of discovering the genre at the time, this song seemed to say that it wasn’t all over. Dancing to Airport Girl at Indietracks in 2008 was proof of that. So, um, I suppose if I have to explain it using the three-minute perfect pop song ideal, this is two perfect popsongs. Back to back. In the same song.
It saves you the bother of having to get up to put the stylus back to the start every other time too."
Fortuna Pop have kindly decided to periodically release a free downloadable single from the cream of their wonderful pop roster. This time it's Allo Darlin, a band that you'll have heard me rave about previously, and one that I'm absolutely kicking myself about not including in my end of year pop list. Easily my favourite gig of the year seeing them support the Lucksmiths at the Scala, previous weePop! single Henry Rollins Don't Dance was as good as it got last year popwise, certainly up their with The Loves, Fergus and Geronimo, God Help the Girl and The Magic Kids.
Polaroid Song picks up where Henry Rollins left off, wonderfully catchy pop with dreamy lyrics 'I Feel like dancing on my own / To a record that I do not know / In a place I've never seen before" speckles of flute and Camera Obscura-esque guitars. This one WILL MAKE my 2010 list for sure.
BSide Will You Please Spend New Years With Me? coincidentally picks up where Heart Beat Chilli left off, showing a more melancholy and yet still deeply romantic and cutesy lovableness, all Kimya Dawson if she had a more perfect voice and was much much cuter, "I've been trying to think positively/ about taking up new activities/ I'll do yoga and learn Chinese/ play accordion/ and eat my peas/ But will you spend/ new years eve/ with me/ we can hide in my bedroom/ and watch cartoons all night" all followed by a whistled refrain that will no doubt be compared to the Moldy Peaches Anyone Else But You, but who cares, this is the sweetest song I've heard this side of the new year.
The Polaroid Song is the first fruit from Allo Darlin’s soon to be released debut album. A breezy, bouncy, eighties-style pop song that could have come straight from the soundtrack of a John Hughes movie, it was inspired by Polaroid’s decision to stop manufacturing the iconic film, a move that prompted Elizabeth of Allo Darlin’s photography-obsessed boyfriend to start his own stockpile. B-side Will You Please Spend New Year’s With Me? possesses a childlike naivety and emotional directness that conjures up the anti-folk lullabies of Kimya Dawson. As an added incentive to buy the record 100 of the 7” singles will contain a unique, individually-taken Polaroid which entitles the lucky finder to enter a competition to win a special Allo Darlin’ gig live in their own living room!
This already got itself an honourable mention in my end of year list but yet again i've found myself so completely enscapsulated by it that I feel the need to write again.
Despite being split into 12 sections, the truth is that in fact there are only three pieces here, two of which last around fifty minutes, split into several shorter pieces, normally exactly ten minutes in length and with no noticeable change. I normally hate the idea of super long tracks, pyscological no doubt but all the same they put me off, in this instance Mr Niblock has fooled me and drawn me in like a moth to the light.
Sometimes you just need a simple repetitious cycle of almost nothingness drone, the feeling of almost not being there, an ointment for the overused and over active brain, an equalizing fluid in the form of music, Phill Niblocks Touch Strings is every bit that remedy. Simple and repititious without ever veering towards eerie and every bit as delightful of Saito Koji's Candle on Resting Bell last year.
What Boomkat Said :
His fourth release for the label, Touch Strings is another commanding body of drone works from Phill Niblock, stretching across two discs. The first CD is occupied by the hour-long, six-movement Stosspeng, a composition for electric guitars and basses with a little e-bow intervention to sustain solid tones to avoid any 'artificial' post-processing. The piece is performed by Susan Stenger and Robert Poss who take up a stereo channel each, sounding a chord of three semi-tone intervals in various combinations over a variety of different octaves. As you'd imagine, it's the intensity of the microtones and subtly fluctuating harmonics that gives the composition shape, and it's really something that demands devoted listening to yield the best results. Over on the second CD, the twenty-three minute cello and sine wave piece 'Poure' is first up, capturing thirty-two layers of organic, sustaining tones. There's a fairly subtle dissonance to the composition, which takes its roots in the notes A and D but preserves an atonal quality via Niblock's layered, minuscule deviations from perfect pitch. The remainder of the second disc is taken up by the five-part 'One Large Rose', arguably the most remarkable of the three works compiled here. This is a forty-six minute orchestral piece recorded with the Nelly Boyd Ensemble in real time. It took four uninterrupted takes to get the desired result, but the version that made it to the final release sounds absolutely magisterial, manifesting itself in a powerfully physical way through the speakers, smashing the most clangourously incompatible micro-intervals together. Immensely powerful stuff that makes most drone records sound like kids' stuff. Highly recommended.
Posted by
ben
at
08:55on Wednesday, 17 February 2010
A long time favourite of mine, admittedly I jumped onto her bandwagon when her I Conjure Series EP came out and therefore am a fan of her rawer, more stripped down material. As such it took a while to get used to some of the more alt. country stylings of her last album This Fool Can Die Now, strangely enough those songs are now my more preferred on the album and so the stripped down sound of The Calcination was somewhat of a disappointment initially. Repeated listens have however shown that Scout as ever is one special girl. The only disappointment is that many of these songs are not new, saying that the fantastic opening tracking Just Do It , rather than being the new Nike theme tune, previously appeared as a BSide to her Dinosaur Egg single and yet I have no recollection of this wonderful track so its good to have them collected alongside the new tracks.
Reading into her lyrics she seems worryingly disturbed, "and the voices said just do it/ and i think i agree/ cos someones gotta do it/ and it might as well be me" Both the title track and Cherry Cheek Bomb see Scout at her heaviest, a fine mix of quietude and raucous noise as previously cooked up on tracks like No Ones Wrong and Lullaby for Scout in Ten Years.
Stripped with Pluto is so fuzzed up its only a stones throw from sounding like a collaboration with Emeralds Steve Hauschildt.
Its another wonderful addition to the musical archives that reiterates in my mind just why Scout is fighting with Grouper as the most listened too artist in my Last Fm collection.
1 Just Do It! 5:28 (apareció originalmente en el ep "Dinosaur Egg", mayo 2007) 2 The Calcination of Scout Niblett 3:31 3 I.B.D. 4:34 4 Bargin 4:54 5 Cherry Cheek Bomb 6:28 (original en la recopilación "Comes With a Smile #8", agosto 2003) 6 Kings 4:38 7 Lucy Lucifer 1:51 (originalmente bonus track digital de "This Fool Can Die Now", octubre 2007) 8 Duke of Anxiety 2:14 9 Ripe With Life 5:32 (original en la recopilación "Eye of the Beholder II", octubre 2002) 10 Strip Me Pluto 3:06 (originalmente bonus track digital de "This Fool Can Die Now" -titulada "Pluto" y en versión instrumental, octubre 2007) 11 Meet and Greet 9:01 (original en el single "Kidnapped By Neptune" -titulada "I am a Prince", mayo 2005)
What The Line of Best Fit Said :
One of the hardest things about The Calcination of Scout Niblett- the singer’s first album in three years- is that it is so difficult to describe. Yet, it is precisely this fact that makes it so good in the first place. Staffordshire-born Scout Niblett, now based in Portland, manages to merge influences so effectively that the sounds become her own, rather than a re-moulding of revered predecessors. The grungy sounds of Sonic Youth and Nirvana are evident, the guitars on Kings sounding particularly Cobain-esque, but the singer-songwriter has so firmly taken hold of the quiet-loud dynamic that her songs remain individual.
Opening track ‘Just Do It!’ sets the tone, quiet Shellac-style electric rumblings underlying Niblett’s clear, folk-learned vocals, intriguing accent and pronunciation. The pure yet untamed feel of her voice brings to mind a more raucous Cat Power or early PJ Harvey. Lyrically, Niblett swings from brutal honesty to apparent nonsense, each as effective and complimentary to its accompaniment as the other, ‘Duke of Anxiety’ coming off as especially witty. The title track carries the lines “Welcome to my self-made sweat box. This is where I take it all off”, highlighting the record’s theme of exorcism.
‘Cherry Cheek Bomb’ shreds itself open with one gargantuan wave of riff, harking back to classic Smashing Pumpkins’ tones (before egos got the better of everyone), then retreating again to more introspective meanderings. The simple, stripped back drums and howls of “hallelujah” are heart wrenching, illustrating the intimate, lonely feel of Niblett’s music at its best. The nursery rhyme melody of ‘Lucy Lucifer’ is similarly haunting. Niblett’s long-term collaboration with Steve Albini makes sense, his penchant for gain-centric instrumental mess music and sporadic drums placed prominently in the mix perfectly complimentary to her style. The overall feel is awfully reminiscent of his and Harvey’s Rid Of Me, each space purposefully utilised to counterpoint fuzz-driven chords and guttural vocal lines
Whilst Niblett’s fifth album is unlikely to result in any kind of mainstream crossover, the typically unstructured nature of the songs perhaps unapproachable to some, Calcination… is incredibly visceral and gripping. There always remains a powerful, otherworldly quality which the listener can’t quite put their finger on. Admittedly keeping carefully close to the minimalist sounds she has been making for a decade, it is a format Niblett has now distilled into an art form, wasting never a searing note or unsettling fill. Tense, raw and skeletal with a soul, Niblett has perfected her ability to nip delicate emptiness in the bud with delightfully harsh soundscapes and acerbic lyrics and, for that, let us be thankful.
I remember back in the day when Warp was one of my staple label,s alongside Domino, Geographic, Too Pure and Kindercore, ever reliable for IDM and playful melodic electronica like Plone. Sadly like other labels i adored at one time FatCat and Leaf, they seem to have slipped out of my circle of listening, maybe it was Maximo Park, who knows.
I really didn't know what to expect from this but the simplistic boy-ish cover was enough to make me curious and I'm so glad I did. This is like nothing I've heard before or even remotely within my normal radar of musical taste but its simply amazing, this is where its at.
Coming on like Lee Hazlewood or Buck 65 stealing the mic at a Bhangrakaraoke night, "Cowboys and Indians, Real Cowboys and Real Indians...I'm turning John Wayne into another John Doe" Awesome, maybe too good, Sheep from the forthcoming album is maybe better still, a completely different kettle of fish but genius all the same.
Posted by
ben
at
14:51on Thursday, 4 February 2010
Although not as instant as the two excellent releases last year care of Smallfish and Under the Spire (those labels names alone should really tell you enough, you're almost guaranteed satisfaction) Tom Whites latest on the up and coming label Hibernate is still most worthy of your attention.
Slightly conceptual in manner, the tracks are inspired by the photograph that serves as the albums artwork and carry an icy winter cold feel to them, On Sundays is all crackles and cold winds, its almost chills you just to listen to it. Slight echoes of Godspeed slip in toward the end of the track, though they should in no way be used as a main reference.
It's a slow burning album, but things really pick up come track A Pardon and the two tracks that follow, delightfully liquidy in sound and reminiscent of The Fun Years organic wash of a sound, crackling embers over running water, a real delight.
The almost title track, Visibility, finely mixes the field recordings with a gently churned out melody, squeezing it self out like a bulb sprouting from under the snow showing the first sign of new life following the bitter winter.
It'll take a good few listens, even now i'm only just appreciating the quality of tracks such a Moredon Cooling Towers. I've said it before and i'll say it again, Tom White is very much one to watch.
Arriving in the midst of a bitterly cold January the Hibernate label could hardly have timed this release any better. 'In Poor Visibiity' positions itself as an ode to your wintry woes, sporting a sleeve image that could have been snapped outside your house this very morn. It wasn't, incidentally; as it turns out the cover-mounted photo is a found picture that electronic composer Tom White took as an inspirational starting point for his music. The evocative imagery of frost, snow and ice continues to be of great inspiration to ambient and microsound composer types, as the list of blizzard-pummelled soundscapes grows ever longer: in the past we've had the likes of Thomas Koner, Bernhard Gunter, Taylor Deupree, Lawrence English and White's Hibernate labelmate Ian Hawgood all revelling in the bleak midwinter, and In Poor Visibility is a notable entry into this fine tradition. Beginning with 'Global' as a kind of overture, White fires his album up with some magisterial drone work and a collage of various natural sounds, all filtered through a soft-focus, blurry recording aesthetic. Starting to pick apart his soundworld, 'On Sundays' finds White reducing down to scratchy panning noises, minuscule twitches of guitar and a brooding, bassy swell of background tones, and 'Cecil Andrew' further delves into more textured terrain, sounding a little like a Gas recording caught in a downpour of sleet. The album cleverly avoids sounding too pastoral, throwing in one or two coarser sonic constituents as time goes on (you'll hear a fair amount of distortion and feedback circulating in the outskirts of the mixes here) meaning that you're never fatigued by sugary sweetness. Even in the most serene moments - during the excellent 'Visibility' for instance - there's always an undercurrent of dissonance close by to keep you on your toes.
On a week when our country has been bought to an almost stand still by a few flakes of snow, I've wanted to do nothing else than stay in bed and keep warm, wrapped up in gorgeous drones. Sadly I have to work.
In the moments between being out the house the following artists have been of great comfort to my ears. Eluvium and one half of Opitope, Chihei Hatakeyama. The latters back catalogue has been on heavy rotation this weekend, his Under the Spire release, August, 3 tracks long, each engaging and yet humble enough to fade into the background without you ever forgetting that its still there. His 2006 Kranky album Minima Moralia still sounding as fresh and can be, given a few more listens a may force its way to becoming my favourite release of his, though it has some catching up to do with last years Room40 release, Saunter.
Of even greater surpise to me has been my rediscovery of Eluviums 2003 album, Lambent Material. My main love of Eluvium has been care of his Piano pieces, especially Prelude for Time Feelers and Radio Ballet from 2007's Copia. On Lambent Material his sound is much more indebted to the drone side, opener The Unfinished is reminiscent of Polmo Polpo at his very best, There Wasn't Anything carries echoes Godspeed at their quietest, however it's the closing pair that steal the show. The 15 and a half minutes of Zerthis Was a Shivering Human Image are quite possibly the best thing i have ever heard, perhaps an over exaggeration but give it a try and see for yourself. If you were even remotely impressed by Wixel's Briksdal of last year, then this will blow your mind, achingly simple, painfully beautiful.
What Boomkat Said About Eluvium - Lambent Material:
Lambent Material is the entirely appropriately named debut album by Matthew Cooper of Portland, Oregon. Under the guise Eluvium, Cooper went on to be responsible for some of the most graceful examples of contemporary ambient electronics of recent years, but this is where it all started. The album begins with 'The Unfinished', a track that mirrors the effortless drift of Stars Of The Lid at their most vivid, but there's a considerable chane of pace on the following piece, 'Under The Water It Glowed', which manages to retain the kind of suggested, implied melody of the first piece whilst using a less obfuscated sound palette of bright synth tones and wafts of guitar. Taking a far more organic route to the same end is 'There Wasn't Anything', a piece rich in breathy woodwind and distant, reverberating piano. The longest single track on the album is up next: 'Zerthis Was A Shivering Human Image' a fifteen-minute dirge propelled by biting digital distortion on a panoramic scale (it's rather reminiscent of Fennesz's 'Circassian' from his Venice album), which eventually lapses into the exquisite 'I Am So Much More Me That You Are Perfectly You', another of Cooper's more organic, transparent works, filled with clouds of electric piano and waves of static hiss. Excellent.
I won't lie, i have been seriously distracted from pop music, you've probably already realised that by my extensive ambient list of last week. That being said it's hard to deny that there has still been some really great pop music released this year, not much of it revolutionary but pop music is pop music and it's great so why change it??
I wanted to try and add some mp3's but ran out of time. As always you can usually find a track or two on Hype Machine and Elbo, I'm also pretty sure every band in the world has a myspace and they're generally easy to stumble across via google. Purchase wise, Amazon, Norman or Boomkat should sort you out with this bunch.
Happy reading, listening, discovering etc etc etc.
1. God Help the Girl - Stills Ep A return from Stuart Murdoch and a triumphant one too, anyone who thought he'd lost it was proved wrong, if not by the album then certainly by this fantastic and much overlooked ep. Stuart himself providing vocals on the jaunty second track He's a Loving Kind of Boy, full of Belle and Sebastian panache and an indie dancefloor recipe cooked to perfection. Stills and Baby's Just Waiting are gorgeous slow burners and The Psychiatrist Is In is again so perfectly Belle and Sebastian, the vocal phrases staccato and instantly memorable. A glorious EP not to be missed.
2. Fergus and Geronimo - Blind Muslim Girl A wonderful pop single, garage greatness and begging to be played continuously come summer or winter.
What Soundsxp Said :
‘Blind Muslim Girl’ is another audacious pop tune approaching the greatness of ‘Harder Than It’s Ever Been’. It’s bubblegum-surf pop, a giddy hybrid of Jonathan Richman and the Ramones, and as perfect as pop music can get. ‘Powerful Lovin’ on the flip is gospel-garage music, accompanied by a charming toy organ sound, showing that Fergus & Geronimo are nothing if not versatile. Their records have been some of the sharpest highlights of the musical year.
3. Lacrosse - Bandages for the Heart Following on from their 2007 debut and one of my favourite pop records ever, namely, This New Year Will Be For You And Me, Lacrosse delivered yet again, opening the album with two storming tracks, We are Kids and You Are Blind, proving beyond a doubt that this was a band that did not intend to slow down with their delivery of perfect, catchy pop.
There are a few slowies that are still growing on me but the aforementioned openers alongside I See a Brightness and It's Always Sunday Around Here ensured that this album would be played time and time again this year and next year too.
4. The Loves - Three A band who have always had a place in my heart, and for good reason. Simon Love is some kind of time travelling beatnik genius who writes track after track of fantastic 60's esque garage pop classics. Where to start? The singles One-Two-Three and The Ex Gurlfriend had long since made huge impressions in my record collection. Add to that the awesome Ode to Coca Cola, Sweet Sister Delia and the wonderful stomping cover of You Don't Have To and you have on your hands yet another essential foot stomping, hand clapping, dancestastic release from the ever evolving but ever lovable and reliable Loves.
5. The Cave Weddings - Bring Your Love Another exceptional 7" that found itself gaining heavy rotation on my turntable this year. A little bit Buddy Holly, a little bit Jonathan Richman, that is with a more perfect voice, dare i say. Delightful stuff.
What Odd Box Said :
Another day, another slice of American garage rock’n'roll. Yet another 7″ record on the increasingly amazing Hozac Records.
The Cave Weddings are a three piece from Albany, New York. But they could be from any town, any time. Especially a dead beat back water town circa 1966. This is a worthy successor to the 60’s sounds brought back into vogue by compilations like nuggets and pebbles. The Cave Weddings provided some driving guitar action on this two track 7″ single. ‘Bring Your Love’ kicks off proceedings and it’s a rollicking ride through 1960’s garage rock sound. The ‘B’ side ‘Let’s Drive’ keeps the 60’s vibe intact – but it hints at a 50’s rock’n'roll heart beating somewhere deep within The Cave Weddings.
6. The Drums - Summertime Maybe the Drums Lets Go Surfing is this years answer to Young Folks with its instantly lovable whistled melody. Really great fun summertime music.
7. Summer Cats - Songs For Tuesdays Reminiscent at times of Henry's Dress, for their fuzzy raggedy sounds, Comet Gain and just about anything else great that has happened in the last 30 years noisy indie pop wise. Super and Maybe Pile stand out, though the album as a whole is amazing. Would love these guys to come to the UK.
8. Cats on Fire - Our Temperance Movement I've never liked The Smiths, that may however be the same as i've never liked the Beatles, cos i'm stubborn and have never let myself get to know them. Apparently Cats on Fire sound alot like The Smiths, the band that is, you arsonists!, and i like Cats on Fire alot. A very strong album with Tears in Your Cup being the cherry on top, one of my most played tracks in 2009.
9. Cheap Red - Cheap Red Absolutely wonderful to hear something new from Stewart Anderson and Jen Turrell, even better to know that members of Kanda completed the line up of Cheap Red.
From the opening notes of the aptly entitled Let's Start a Riot, with all their Sanddollars charm, it's clear that this is going to be a treat. Unlucky in Love very reminiscent of Kanda with a cup full of Pipas thrown in for good effect. As you'd expect it's a little rough a round the edges but in my eyes all the better for it.
10. Cortney Tidwell - Boys The Boomkittens waxed lyrical over this one, and rightly so, delicious and dizzying, a whirlwind of honey like pop.
What Boomkat Said :
Courtney Tidwell's self-titled debut remains one of the most played records in our office ever, its bittersweet blend of sugary vocals and a deep sense of melancholy never failing to get a reaction from anyone who happens to be around when its played. This long awaited second album for City Slang should hopefully nudge her beyond her current status as one of the great underrated singer songwriters of her time - its just music made for recognition. The production is crisp and glossy but contained by Tidwell's remarkably evocative voice, a voice that somehow reminds us of The Sundays' Harriet Wheeler or Emiliana Torrini but with a sad, introspective edge. Opening track "Solid State" is just vast in scale, a sun-bleached, countrified ballad washed with sweeping strings and quite possibly the most astonishing vocal delivery from Tidwell yet. Recent single 'Watussi' is up next and changes tempo and colour with a perfectly judged Casio pop burner, complete with a super-addictive, propulsive chorus that you'll find impossible to stop humming after just a couple of listens. "Oslo" is an altogether more introspective number, evoking the memory of Hope Sandoval's incredible "Bavarian Fruit Bread" album with its widescreen, hushed tones - just beautiful music. Yes, it's smart and glossy, but something rings very true about this girl, and besides - anything that makes us think of the Sundays AND Hope Sandoval is an absolute winner in our book so we really couldn't recommend this album highly enough. Buy this album - it's just irresistibly lovely.
11. Micachu - Jewellery Much hyped by the NME and deservedly so, a real special debut from the elf like Micachu, DIY pop, eccentric and inventive, something that seems to be lacking for the most parts on the pages of the aforementioned journal, a refreshing change.
What Drowned in Sound Said :
Her debut, Jewellery, - delayed from its original release date due to the band shifting label allegiances to Rough Trade – is bursting with leftfield yet accessible ideas that for once avoid mining the increasingly stripped-bare past for their cues. Though for all the talk in the press of this being a pop album, those in search of something fitting the classic verse-chorus-verse mould should beware. Outside of the melodic brilliance of early single ‘Golden Phone’, Jewellery subsists on a heavy diet of scattershot, deconstructed pop.
It may reek of graduate thesis on the page, but what actually transpires on ‘Calculator’ or the stuttering neurosis of ‘Just in Case’ is fractured yet shimmering pop music made for the 30-second attention span generation. Jewellery is, fundamentally, a constant case of musical leapfrog that boldly springs from gleaming melodies and found sounds to sudden rhythmic and stylistic shifts; often within the space of a single track. And it all stems from the brain of a sneering tomboy capable of sending most major label marketing departments running for the hills in screaming terror.
What do you get when you put it all together then? Thrillingly improbable pop made by a grade-A maverick. Three cheers to that.
12. The Long Lost - The Long Lost It seems forever since i was first completely enthralled by this release. One to keep your hope in true love alive, Daedelus and wife cook up some truly beautiful pop, toy pianos and all, enchanting and charming scarcely give credit to the fairytale beauty of this collaboration.
13. Slow Club - Yeah So Another band that's been charming our pants off for what seems like forever, he is the genius, she is annoying, but luckily when they embrace in song the results are near sublime.
14. Pastels / Tenniscoats - Two Sunsets Another meeting of voices, this time the Pastels and Japanese underground legends, the lesser mans Maher Shalal Hash Baz, combined to make some delicate delicate pop music. Song for a Friend was one of those magic moments of the year. Spine tinglingly sparse and equally beautiful.
15. Dreamdate - Patience Just wonderful, somewhere between Dear Nora, Tiger Trap and the Darling Buds, i think i've said enough.
16. Stolen Hearts - Heart Collector A very recent discovery but this 3 track single has enough Shangri-La's in the first twenty seconds to guarentee its place in my heart forever, fantastic sixties girl pop, nothing new but still, this kind of pop is rarely done quite so well.
What Fire Escape Talking Said :
Their songs are full of chugging new wave bass, driving guitars and infectious 60s pop. Their favourite records may well be Blondie’s Parallel Lines, the Ramones’ debut album and Spector’s Philles classics.
17. Magic Kids - Good to Be Garage Pop is rife or so it would seem, yet another great release was Magic Kids Good to Be, can't really put it any better than Boomkat did below. The B Side, Hey Boy being the real star, almost like they should make a musical based around it. Special stuff.
What Boomkat Said :
"Hey boy, where's your girlfriend? She needs your attention." So starts this luminous piece of pop architecture - the work of a bunch of Memphis based youngsters billing themselves as Magic Kids. The verses are sublime early '60s bubblegum with a faintly festive feel to them, but by the time the chorus kicks in, 'Hey Boy' becomes downright majestic, sounding like a pre-pubescent Roy Wood doing his best Phil Spector impersonation, arranging horns, tuned percussion and garagey clatter in a fashion that makes you wish Vivian Girls were more like this."
18. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca If only for the quite wonderful accapella explosion half way through Remade Horizon, a special band taking pop to the next level.
What Boomkat Said :
I was beginning to lose hope, I really was. 2009 wasn't shaping up to be a great year for pop music; sure there have been good albums but there weren't many really 'defining' records. Animal Collective had hit us square in the chops with 'Merriweather Post Pavillion' but nobody else had raised their game to meet it - the world was lacking the run of albums it needed to make 2009 'great' rather than simply 'good'. That brings us to 'Bitte Orca', an album which might lack the fanfare of its Black Flag-influenced predecessor 'Rise Above' but delivers sonically on every imaginable level. The band have for me always been 'almost there'; their records have been inventive, original, daring and engrossing, but I haven't found myself going back time and time again. Something about the arrangements maybe stopped me from humming the tracks on the bus, but this is exactly what Dave Longstreth has addressed on 'Bitte Orca'. From the tantalizing first few seconds it's obvious that Longstreth has trimmed the fat without losing any of the creative pizzazz the band is known for; the tracks manage to amaze on a technical level but at their heart they're simple, sing-along pop songs, laden with hooks. It's all too easy to make musical mathematics boring or overly quirky but with 'Bitte Orca' we have balance and for every dangling 7/8 guitar part there's a heart-wrenching vocal line, every production flourish is balanced by pounding beats or heavenly harmonies. The band worried long-term fans when 'Stillness Is A Move' was released as the first single; the track is notable for not featuring Longstreth on vocals (sorry girls), but I find it was the perfect teaser for the album. The song is the definitive realisation of Longstreth's fascination with commercial R&B music - a style he's flirted with for years but until now never really got spot on. 'Stillness...' sounds like Longstreth's take on Aaliyah (RIP), with stuttering Timbaland-inspired basslines and sugary vocal harmonies toying with the senses. The only weakness is that there aren't more tracks like this - but that's hardly a criticism. Each track seems to excel in its respective style, and Longstreth battles with folk, blues and soul, wrapping everything in a hip indie sheen without losing sight of coherence. If you haven't come across Dirty Projectors before, don't worry. If you haven't heard Dirty Projectors before, it doesn't matter - 'Bitte Orca' is the pop album of the year, you won't want to miss out.
19. Bill Callahan - Too Many Birds How could anyone resist "that" voice. Amazing as ever.
What Boomkat Said :
Bill Callahan's second post-Smog album is arguably a more solid and consistent affair than Woke On A Whaleheart's occasionally sunny, gospel-influenced sounds, harking back to the more authoritative, poetic works of earlier albums. The first line of 'Jim Cain' provides a great introduction: "I started out in search of ordinary things: how much of a tree bends in the wind?" It's a lyric that mirrors Callahan's uncomplicated yet enormously commanding voice, and a sentiment that hints at the kind of teasing enigma residing at the heart of his craft. For an ordinarily very wily, enigmatic artist, a moment of uncommon directness comes soon after: "I used to be darker, then I got lighter, then I got dark again" he intimates, seemingly laying plain his temperament during recent albums - and no doubt prompting many listeners out there to start thinking he's talking about his relationship with Joanna Newsom - yet there's always some doubt as to just how much we can really trust Callahan, and we always half-suspect he's smirking at us through that rich, Johnny Cash-like baritone. After announcing "I dreamed it was a dream that you were gone", lamenting the absence of a loved one, the beautiful 'Eid Ma Clack Shaw' becomes part Kubla Khan, part 'Tribute' by Tenacious D, with Callahan claiming to have later dreamed the "perfect song/It held all the answers" yet having scribbled it down the words read as gobbldigook. Rather than merely reporting this fact, Callahan goes on to transcribe and sing a nonsensical chorus full of meaningless words, though it's all delivered with the same seriousness and conviction heard everywhere else on the album. It's at once beautiful and strangely quite tragic, as if these were utterances from someone floundering hopelessly both in their relationships and their art. On the strength of this resolutely on-form album however, we can conclude that the latter, at least, is most certainly not true at all.
20. The Crayon Fields - All The Pleasures Of The World We had the pleasure of playing with this band earlier in the year and even though i loved them i never really expected an album as good as this, very sixties sounding and very very good, less garagey than the majority of t60's influenced bands this year, instead more like the Zombies, sweet and harmonious, the opening track especially so.
What Austin Town Hall Said :
In a year that offered lots of mediocre albums, 2009 had so many new records that it was hard to digest them all in due time for reviews. Yet, I always intended to touch on this album, as I’ve loved The Crayon Fields since Animal Bells came out a few years back.
“Mirrorball” made the list of our Top 50 songs of 2009, and it still draws a lot of power, months after it first hit our ears. Singer Geoff O’ Connor has a real breathy vocal projection (like a pop whisperer), one that will recall Colin Bluntstone of The Zombies for many listeners…it’s just one of the many touchstones for the group.
One thing that differentiates the characterstics on All the Pleasures of the World from Animal Bells is that there seems to be a little bit of darkness lingering beneath each of the songs. On Animal Bells, you had songs like “Living So Well,” which were full of sunny beach pop and gang vocal effects, but this doesn’t fit here. On the album’s title track, amidst singing of pleasures, O’ Connor seems sort of resigned to see the pleasures, though not necessarily take part in them. Perhaps the extra layering of instruments has made a more dense soundscape from which the band took off this round (some of the best being from the solid bass work). Just a guess.
When one comes across songs like “Celebrate” you can see how a Clientele reference might creep up in a review, but you might also note that the similarites are existant, yet polarizing. Where The Clientele often feels extremely cold, and their melodies have a sense of brooding danger, The Crayon Fields put a little bit of energy into their artistry. By this I really mean one thing: The Clientele gives you foggy melodies; The Crayon Fields blow the fog away with a touch of beach-side sunshine.
You’ll also find a lot of the guitar-work of Glaswegians Belle and Sebastian lying beneath this album. You can almost pick up on the homage being given in songs such as “Disappear” where there is a hint of swing and sway to the general atmospheric creation. It’s not a bad thing to highlight, as I’m a fan of the former band, which also probably shows why I’m a huge fan of the latter. Really, is there any ground for originality nowadays?
So, here I am, a few months after the release, though you will still find it hard to get a hold of All the Pleasures of the World in the U.S. Be that as it may, you’ll do yourself, and the dollar, justice if you go out to your local hotspot and purchase the latest from The Crayon Fields, and the last one while you’re at it.
Another hugely impressive release from the Hibernate label and perhaps my favourite on the label so far. Five tracks of drones that border on ethereal, each one lovely and slow. Listen hard enough on opener Serfdom and you can hear the faint sound of children playing against the windy drones and Ian Hawgood like crumples.
