Phantom's Music, Musings, and Musical Musings
 

Pretty much, I've been interested in starting a thread here for a while. Just a place to write about new music I discover, review what's coming out of my headphones, talk about hunting vinyl (which I doubt anyone will be interested in), and whatever else may come up that I want to write about. So that's about it. More coming if I get around to it. Hope everyone enjoys :D.

EDIT: I got depressed looking at the number of recent posts in the new release thread. So, I decided that's what this is going to be - I'll wade through the piles of **** that come out every week and pick the ones that I think are the best, and write about them here. Also, I'll try to find out how to embed lala here because it lets you listen to songs once for free. Hopefully someone will find this interesting, even though you'll probably just get pissed at me for trying to tell you what to listen to. Whatever, I'll have fun.

NEW EDIT: I don't care anymore, there's too much bad music I don't feel like dealing with it all. So **** it, this is going back to a place to post when I'm bored about whatever.

Well, I suppose it's time to resurrect this failure of a thread. Lets start things off with some youtube.

Mogwai - Tracy



To be honest, I just recently started listening to Mogwai. I had heard of them years ago, and they've been on my list to listen to for a long time, but for some reason I just never got around to it. I figured I'd give Young Team a try, and immediately regretted not doing so much earlier. I've really been missing out not listening to them. Their songs start out deceptively quiet and calm, with flowing atmospheric post rock goodness, only to surprise listeners with a quick flip of the overdrive switch for a sudden assault of distortion and noise. All in all, it makes for a marvelous album that was overlooked far too long by me.

Before I start posting new music, I was curious: anyone on here know what lala is? A friend at work showed it to me, and it's basically a really cool way to listen to music online. You can sign up and listen to any of the songs in their library, which is quite a lot of music, for free once. After that, you can buy web versions to listen to it through their streaming system as many times as you want for 10 cents or buy mp3 albums for $7.49 usually. The web songs are useless unless like me you're around a computer all the time, but it's a great way to find new music because you can listen to a whole album before deciding to download it and waste computer space and time. I'm afraid I'm not sure where it's available outside of the US, but I would highly recommend it for checking out new music if you have access to it. I was going to try to embed albums in my posts, but apparently that doesn't work. Just thought I'd share that with everyone.

I'll try to stick with albums that were released during the summer, but since I'm just starting I may go back a bit closer to the beginning of the year. But, I doubt anyone cares anyway so I should be good.

Timber Timbre - Timber Timbre



The song is Lay Down in the Tall Grass; it's only a minute and a half of it and I have no idea what the video is but it's all i could find. Timber Timbre is a pretty unique blues band, with Taylor Kirk's warbly voice creating a strange mix of a haunting but warm sound. I usually don't like blues, but really enjoyed this album; it's pretty unique. The songs are relatively simple but strangely enthralling. Better than their first album. Highly recommended.

Mount Eerie - Wind's Poem



The song here is Between Two Mysteries. Wind's Poem is a strange combination of folk, noise, and perhaps a little bit of black metal or dark ambient thrown in. It makes for a very interesting combination; obviously not all of the songs are noise/drone heavy as the one I posted isn't. I guess I'd recommend it if you can stand noise and like folk or vice versa. I don't really know how else to describe this, just listen to it.

Netherfriends - Calling You Out EP



The song is Friends with Lofts. If I have to tell you who their main influence is you probably won't like them anyway. That said, the band does deviate a bit from AC, focusing more on singing and creating melodic songs than a lot of the latters psychedelic heavy songs. They sound like they have some influences of Portugal. the Man mixed in there too. Worth watching; if they can just go a little further in the creative process to develop a bit more of their own sound they'll probably be a fantastic band.

Fruit Bats - The Ruminant Band



The song is The Ruminant Band. The Fruit Bats are fun, enjoyable poppy indie folk band with, some country influences. This is my only problem with it, some of the songs get a little to into the steel guitar and deviate a bit far from the folk/rock sound for me. But overall, The Ruminant Band is great, and borrows heavily from the 70's (definite Neil Young, Three Dog Night, and the like influences). The lyrics are pretty good too, creating characters and telling stories through them.

And much more soon to come!

Good luck with your new journal/thread phantom. The new release thread is a hit and miss affair for discovering new music and releases. I've found the indivdual member journals and blogs provide more leads to good music. Mowgai is a fantastic choice. They've been around for over a decade now and few folks are really familiar with this band's work.

Yeah, I wanted to kick myself as soon as I started listening to Young Team for not checking them out earlier. Post rock is really hit or miss with me, I don't have too much of it simply because I'm not in the mood for it a lot of the time, but this album is probably the one I'll be turning to most often.

Thanks for the good luck wishes, though I'm not sure anyone will really be interested here. I know a lot of members aren't too into new music. I'll try to keep it as diverse as I can, hopefully I'll be able to steer some people towards some good stuff.

Time for two of my favorite albums so far this year, and something you may be expecting if you know my taste in music:

Sonic Youth - Eternal



That's a little preview of a bunch of songs from the album; to be perfectly honest I didn't even listen to the whole thing so I'm not sure what songs are in it. But, this is a great album. It's like a culmination of everything Sonic Youth has done so far, combining the poppy more accessible Rather Ripped with the experimental rock sound fans loved from Daydream Nation. SY is one of the few bands I can think of that can release an album 25, 30 years after forming that is actually better than a large part of their discography. They continue evolving their sound as they grow, and I'd have to say I think the departure from Geffen and signing to Matador was a great thing for them, if that's what this album is a sign of. Not to say I didn't enjoy Rather Ripped, but it wasn't really a Sonic Youth album.

Dinosaur Jr. - Farm



The song is Pieces, the first track from the album. Farm is just what I'd expect to here from Dinosaur Jr these days - good, earnest, loud rock. The album's a lot like previous releases post Bug, aka their more polished major label sound (after their departure from their first 2(or 3) noise heavy records). While it can't combat You're Living All Over Me or Bug, it's definitely a continuance of the sound many of us love, and I'd be happy if they continued without change as long as they can make music. Especially with Lou Barlow back. And... I get to see them 2 weeks after I get my brace off!

I think it's time for some of that hip hop today. Got two more for you people:

Doom - Born Like This



The song is Gazillion Ear. All I really have to say about this is that it was a huge disappointment to me. DOOM is still better than a lot of the rappers out there, as far as I'm concerned, but this album can't hope to stand up with anything else he's made. Is this the next Mm..Food or Operation: Doomsday? Hardly. In fact, I think it may be possible that he dropped the MF and the caps to ditch the comic moniker and get a little bit more serious. But, if you're a fan of MF DOOM, you'll probably want to pay it some attention. It's worth a shot, you might like it more than me.

Dalek - Gutter Tactics



The song is 2012 (The Pillage). This is almost certainly my favorite hip hop album so far this year, and I have jackhammer to thank for introducing me to this band :D. Gutter Tactics takes the abrasive, noisy sound of Absence with the ambient hip hop of Abandoned Language to create a dark, gloomy, loud but more accessible hip hop gem. If you like underground hip hop at all, check this out. It's fantastic.

Yeah, I definitely like it more than you do. I think the new album beats the hell out of Mm..Food and Gazillion Ear is a particularly good song. I think if you listen to the whole album through a few times you might see that Doom is still improving and growing. That's how I feel anyway.

I get where you're coming from, but I enjoy the ridiculous, funny, nonsense DOOM that I found in Mm..Food and I originally fell in love with the jazz beats I found in Operation: Doomsday. That said, I still owe it a few more listens (I listened to it the whole way through only once). Gazillion Ear is a great songs though, I'll give you that. Maybe I'll give it another shot today and post later if I feel different about it at all.

Ahhh...lala. How I miss the good old days. Did you know that that site used to be a CD trading site? I was totally awesome. Then they f-ed us all over. :mad:

Yeah I heard that. I just think it's pretty cool to be able to listen to albums before I waste my time downloading the whole thing. That sounds like it would be cool, whatever happened? I think there's still some sort of trading that goes on through the site. I could have sworn a message that began with something along the lines of "Attention lala traders". Did the majors come in and rain on the parade or something?

Sorry for not putting more stuff in here. Here's some lo-fi ish summer releases.

Summer Cats - Songs for Tuesdays



The song is Super. Maybe it's just me, but there are some albums that sound better in a certain season. For example, the dark, lonely ambient soul searching of Alias' Through the Looking Glass sounds better to me on a cold, lonely winter day than any other time. This is another one of those albums, true to its name, which I imagine won't bring the same enthusiasm come Halloween. This is a fun one though, the music is kind of like a lo-fi Stereolab without any electronic influences to speak of done garage-pop style. A great album to kill the laziness on another hot summer day. I wish it was a bit longer though...

Box Elders - Alice and Friends



This song is Jackie Wood. The Box Elders are faster, maybe even a bit rawer, and lean a bit more towards garage rock/punk than the Summer Cats. Unlike Songs For Tuesdays, I would say this album might seriously benefit if a few of the tracks were removed and the album was a bit shorter; there's some repetitive spots. Overall, I liked this a lot, though apparently they ripped their sound off from a band called The Nuggers (my mom heard this song while I was listening to it and that's who she thought it was... can't verify this myself).

To keep this as a sort of relevant new release thread, I'm only gonna post stuff that's been released since June of this year, and eventually try to keep it within a month of the post. Here's some more random awesome summer goodness:

Birds of Avalon - Uncanny Valley



They got the name wrong, it's actually All Your Downtime Is Up. This music relies heavily on 70's psychedelic rock, but pushes that music to the experimental level. Sort of seems to borrow from new wave to me, I dunno that could just be me. I think this could be considered progressive rock at times too, though I'm not a big prog fan and am not entirely sure.

The Most Serene Republic - ...And the Ever Expanding Universe



Hopefully this video is them playing, I'm listening to an album and can't be bothered to pause it to check. The song should be The Old Forever New Things. This album was good, it gets busy because they have a bunch of people, I think 7, in their band. But it ends up sounding kind of like a classical composition with a bit of indie rock dashed in, which turns out to be a really cool mix if you ask me. Not the best thing I've heard lately, but it's up there.

Science Fiction Corporation - Science Fiction Dance Party: Dance With Action

Don't think there's a video out there for this one. I love this album, it's actually from a very long time ago but just got reissued this summer so it's new to me. It's a lot of fun to listen to, I think the best way that I can describe it is to suggest 60's cartoons (like Scooby Doo) music done psychedelically with B-movie samples. It's really groovy music, if it were a new release it would be one of my favorite albums of the year for sure. It's hard to stop it once you start playing it.

Birds Of Avalon sound interesting, so I might have to find a bit more of their stuff at some point. They remind me vaguely of the kind of unease that's at the heart of a lot of Birthday Party and Pop Group songs.

Just thought I'd say it's great to have a thread like this that keeps up with the good new sounds, so keep up the good work eh.

Yeah, I'm not so sure how much interest there really is but I'm having fun doing it so it doesn't really matter.

This is going to reach back a little further than I just said I would go back in my last post (it's from April) but I really like these albums so I'm putting them up anyway:

Dananananaykroyd - Hey Everyone



The song's Pink Sabbath. Dananananaykroyd have a sound that to me harkens back to At The Drive-In's Relationship of Command, but injected with a nice fresh blast of indie rock and a bit of punk. It's not too often I find a very upbeat band and think of post-hardcore. This is great, check it out.

Pomegranates - Everybody, Come Outside!



The song's Tesseract. The Pomegranates make fantastic indie pop infused with a bit of a shoegaze feel (well, actually more that ethereal dream pop feeling). This is a really good album, you should get it.

EDIT: As long as I'm putting up The Pomegranates, here's another:

Memory Tapes - Seek Magic



This came out last week I think and I'm just now giving it a full listen. It's pretty good, but I'm disappointed because I found it searching for new shoegaze releases. Which is not really what this is. It's pretty good, more dreamy with less noise than the Pomegranates track. Enjoy.

I've definitely heard that Dananananaykroyd song before and really enjoy it. How's their album?

Personally I loved it, it really is like an injection of indie rock type stuff into At The Drive-In's post hardcore sound. It's got a nice balance of heavier and softer songs too. You want?

By the way, I guess I never mentioned this in here, but if anyone wants anything that I post about just ask.

Oh, and this is the ****.

Glide and Swerve - Bring Back Love


The song is And I Smile. This is one of my favorite releases of the year, it's a lot like Thievery Corporation but maybe a bit more hip hop at times and a bit more ambient. I think it's ambient trip hop actually. It's made to listen to in one sitting as well; it's like they put a simple ambient break in between each song and then randomly chose a spot in it to end one track and have the next one start. That's not to say you can't tell the tracks apart, but it could be one big long flowing song with various sections as much as an 11 song album. In fact, I just found out this band started in Hong Kong and decided to create music to do themed club nights for the masses, which explains why this album plays like a downtempo DJ mix. Do yourself a favor, especially if you like ambient, dub, or trip-hop, and check this out.

!!!! that would be awesome !!!!

New Yo La Tengo out today...

Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs



The song is Nothing to Hide. This album is fantastic; Yo La Tengo bring us another fantastic album today. My only complaint is that at the end of the album the really long songs do get a bit repetitive for my taste.

TV Ghost - TV Ghost



This song is Cold Fish by TV Ghost, a noisy experimental abrasive punk band. Very harsh, but fun to listen to if you can enjoy this kind of music. Just be warned, it's a bit of an assault on your eardrums. It's a very dark album, I suppose it's really like art punk done evil style.

The Duckworth Lewis Method - The Duckworth Lewis Method



Unique, rather interesting Beatles/classical combination by a band with a very strange name. Not bad.

The Vivian Girls - Everything Goes Wrong

Couldn't find a video for this one, but if you liked their debut, check out The Vivian Girls' new album. It's a lot darker than their previous album and lacks some of the harmonious singing. It also shows them leaving the shoegaze type sound and heading more towards punk. But they are still the fuzzy, lo-fi, punk girl trio that we expect, and they've made another great album.

Massive Attack - Splitting the Atom EP

YouTube - Massive Attack - Splitting The Atom (from Splitting the Atom EP)

I can't embed the video because the link was removed from youtube by request. The song there is Splitting the Atom from the new Massive Attack EP. Sadly the album was pushed back another year, so this is what they gave us instead. At least they released something. Check it out.

Super Furry Animals - Dark Days/Light Years



Probably the best psychedelic/experimental indie rock band around. They kick ass. They're back with a new album in typical SFA style, leaving you guessing what's going to come next. That's probably what I like most about these guys, their songs all sound so different you have no idea what to expect. This is one of my favorites of this year for sure.

Aww gee, Massive Attack put the album back another year? Bugger, I was really looking forward to it :( Still, at least they've put something out I guess.

Had no idea that SFA had a new album either, so all might not be lost for this year's music eh :D Amazing band, as you say. I'll definitely be having a lookout for their new one.

Yeah the Massive Attack news was certainly a disappointment, though I'm not as big a fan of them as some. I was really hoping their new album would be out soon though, it's been quite a while. As for Super Furry Animals, it's wonderful... but can they possibly make something that isn't?

Here's a few more for everyone.

Japandroids - Post Nothing



The debut album of noisy garage rockers Japandroids is another favorite of mine this year. The band consists of just a guitar and drums, and they make up for the lack of other instruments by playing loud and hard. It's a pretty funny album if you listen to it; not serious at all but another one that's a lot of fun to listen to.

The Clean - Mister Pop

I couldn't find a video for this one, but this is a new release that came out this week from The Clean, a punk band from New Zealand. This is not a punk album though, they've gone very poppy with their sound and create some interesting post punk/pop sounding music on this album. It works out pretty well, not going to be at the top of anyone's list for the year but certainly an enjoyable listen.

Noise Addict - it was never about the audience

Noise Addict just released a new album! Not only that, the lineup now consists of Ben Lee, and Lara Meyerratken, but also Lou Barlow. Could it be any better? Yep, it's free too. Get it from their website. The idea behind the band is that they just set out mics in Ben's bedroom and record. That's it. And believe it or not, it's actually an amazingly good album. I was sort of expecting a piece of crap, to be perfectly honest with you, but this is actually going to be in my top albums of the year, without a doubt. This is a project straight out of the indie vaults of the 90s, and from looking at their website the band gives off the feel these days of being a group of friends trying to give the people of today some good old fashioned indie rock. In fact, Ben simply says "here is the new Noise Addict album "it was never about the audience". its the first Noise Addict album in about 14 years. it felt like time for a new one." A great album from some great musicians that just want people to have good music to listen to. What surprises me the most about this is that these 3 can just sit down, have a good time writing some simple songs, and actually produce something better than what the vast majority of new bands coming out these days can do. Hmm, I think that says something...

Rubik - Dada Bandits



That's Wasteland of Rubik's new album, Dada Bandits. It initially came out in April, but I completely ignored it and it was just released Tuesday here overseas (US), so I thought I'd give it a chance. Their debut was alright, it reminded me a lot of OK Computer which wasn't too good crossed with AC. This album, however, is a huge improvement. On my first listen, up through the first half, I was seriously considering it for best album of the year. Sadly, the last 5 songs just can't keep up with the first 6. That said, this is still a fantastic album, with lots of stuff going on and major diverstiy in the songs. It's a lot more upbeat than their first, and you know you're in for a treat on Goji Berries - the song contains a very, very Animal Collective like riff that suddenly switches to harsh noise and screams for a few seconds, and back again as if nothing had happened. ****ing awesome. I wish they had done a little more with the noise breaks in that song, but it's still a really good album. Check it out if you like Animal Collective, Flaming Lips, and other Swedish pop stuff like Seabear or Sin Fang Bous.

Mouse on the Keys - An Anxious Object



If you like any type of jazz, post rock, or anything with piano, you have to listen to this. I found this completely randomly on some blog I was looking at. I think it's a Japanese post rock band, and they focus heavily on use of a keyboard playing jazzy melodies with drums beating complicated rock rhythms in the background. It keeps you guessing, rarely ever repeating anything very much, so that you never know where they are going to go next. Absolutely fantastic listen, I've got it on repeat right now.

The Raveonettes - In & Out of Control



****ing fantastic. I really enjoyed this, I think the Raveonettes bested everyone else in this genre. But just a heads up, if you don't know anything about the band, they are dark. I'm probably a little biased on this one, that song (Last Dance) struck particularly close to home for this year. Enjoy though, again ask if you want.

I really love the Raveonettes although all I have is Pretty In Black. What else do you think I should get?

Oh **** bitches I'm back to my journal. The original idea for this didn't work, no one took interest probably because I picked a bunch of ****ty bands to put up and didn't really put any time into it, just wrote 30 second random posts about the music using the words fantastic and great as many times as I could.

So now, upon resurrection of the thread, I intend to start writing real reviews of my favorite albums of the year. I'd say I'm going to do my top 100 list for the year, but that won't happen. Plus 100 is a lot of albums, the end of the list would probably be boring to write about. Instead I'll just do the ones I really like in no order, just as I feel like listening to them and writing about them. To kick things off, I'll put a review of something up in a bit; I have nothing better to do except for maybe my job.

Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport

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1. Surf Solar
2. Rough Steez
3. The Lisbon Maru
4. Olympians
5. Phantom
6. Limb
7. Space Mountain
8. Flight Of The Feathered Serpent

The otherworldly English ambient/noise rock duo Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power is back with a second release. And are opinions ever split on this one. The group’s debut, Street Horrrsing relied heavily on experimentation and loud noise to create a strange variation of ambient music that refuses to slip into the background. From the first listen of intro track Sweet Love for Planet Earth, listeners felt the music’s presence with the repetitive massively heavy synth chord played over a repeating keyboard melody that we’ve come to know and love as part of Fuck Buttons sound, and a layer of ethereal guitar distortion. The album contained screams and distortion to the point that any melody was virtually inaudible at times, and voices swept up into the mix that were never quite clear. The song Bright Tomorrow was the sole respite from the noise (until the last 2 minutes or so), coming in after a 30 some odd minute assault on ones eardrums and as a quick break before the powerful closer Colours Move.

But where Street Horrrsing was something like an experimental Xinlisupreme or an industrial Xiu Xiu, Tarot Sport finds the band conjuring more of an ambient, industrial, post rock sound, mixing in elements of glitch and even more than a few seconds of pure, clean melody. In fact, on songs like The Lisbon Maru and the last song Flight of the Feathered Serpent, the music is more reminiscent of Carbon Based Lifeforms’ psytrance and post rock invoking moments of pure beauty. The chugging, distorted synths are still there, but the ambient soundscapes in the back are exponentially clearer and easier to find.

Surf Solar: The album kicks off with a typical shimmering keyboard part that grows and expands over a quiet ethereal layer of chorus in the background. Strange werewolf howl like bending of sounds leads into the main melody of the song, with a house type bass drum beat (I think) and the first taste of the post rock sound the band really came to love on this album. The song starts cracking as distortion forces its way in after about 5 minutes, and before you know it the song has gotten quite heavy with something like a girls voice shouting very quietly underneath it all until everything breaks down into a minute of pure noise.

The Lisbon Maru: The song starts off with a typical shimmering Fuck Buttons keyboard riff and a hazy background sound layer, until the keyboards fade a bit and a distorted synth (I think) kicks in chugging along with a few repeated chords and some simple tribal drum beats. About 5 minutes, the keyboard is back, the drums have added a tambourine, and there is a guitar or something making another layer of ethereal distortion in a beautiful melody. This is the point, for me, where I knew the album was going to be as good as Street. The song ends with a battle type snare drumming and leads into…

Olympians: This is probably the most upbeat, happy song that the band has released to date. It starts off with a simple shimmering keyboard riff that is quickly accompanied by an electronic percussion rhythm. The song builds for about 3 minutes, at which point their synth busts in with a strange electronic organ sound to bring about a post rock vibe and imagery of sun bursting through clouds in the distance while a thunderstorm continues to rage on overhead. After a few minutes, the synth again changes to a shakier, electronic tweeting type voice. Then comes the distorted wall of sound, just in time to keep the song from becoming truly ambient and slipping into the background.

Phantom Limb: This is more of an experimental track than anything else on the album. Definitely has its share of glitch, with certain parts being composed almost entirely of glitchy sounds looped and layered to compose a bizarre dark industrial symphony of machinery. Towards the end a clean keyboard line finds its way out, and the song quiets down to close like a wave heading back out to sea after crashing down violently on the shore.

Overall, really, the album is just much more polished and electronic than noisy and raw like their previous release. Sadly, this probably lost them a few fans. I personally think it shows a solid progression for a band that could have faded into obscurity though, and that could very well be reinventing their sound on each album to come (There have to be more after the two we’ve been given so far). I don't know that it's any better or worse than Street, it's just quite a different album. This is pretty much Fuck Buttons giving a big middle finger to the sophomore slump.

8.9/10.0

Broadcast & The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age

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01 Intro/Magnetic Tales
02 The Be Colony
03 How Do You Get Along Sir?
04 Will You Read Me.
05 Reception/Group Therapy
06 A Quiet Moment
07 I See, So I See So
08 You Must Wake
09 One Million Years Ago
10 A Seancing Song
11 Mr Beard, You Chatterbox
12 Drug Party
13 Libra, The Mirror's Minor Self
14 Love's Long Listen-In
15 We Are After All Here
16 A Medium's High
17 Ritual / Looking In
18 Make My Sleep His Song
19 Royal Chant
20 What I Saw
21 Let It Begin/Oh Joy
22 Round and Round and Round
23 The Be Colony/Dashing Home/What on Earth Took You?

Ah, Broadcast. Thank god we have them; with Stereolab on hiatus I don’t know where else I’d get my dose of jazz influenced female vocal lounge pop. But Broadcast pulls of something Stereolab never did: this album is actually quite scary. It’s much more experimental and samples a lot of sounds, and a common tool is recording sounds and playing them back in reverse direction. There really aren’t too many tracks that are flat out horror inducing music. The thing about the album is, it ****ing puts you on edge, similar to the way that some of the music by Pink Floyd when they were recording with Syd Barrett. Relatively normal songs, but something’s not quite right. But it’s a lot creepier than anything by Pink Floyd because it tries to be. The best analogy of the music that I can think of, is it’s like walking through the woods and coming upon a graveyard in a clearing with an open grave and no one around. Morbid fascination will probably inspire one to walk up and look around and try to figure out what’s going on, and you know it could be dangerous, but the last thought to come to mind is that someone could knock you in. This album is not quite right in the same way that situation would be.

I’m not going to do any actual song reviews because there are 23 songs and this needs to be listened to as a whole. But I’ll go over the album quickly. The first actual song, The Be Colony, starts off sounding like it could come from Emperor Tomato Ketchup or Dots & Loops, but during a few parts of the song the vocals take on a strange echoing ghostly warble. It’s followed with How Do You Get Along Sir which opens with strange echoing vocals being played backwards on a crackling recording, and actually turns into a very melodic song. From here on out, the album is for the most part upbeat with dark undertones and rapidly changing sounds. A Seancing Song starts off with an eerie high pitched muddled, fractured background and Trish Keenan singing a strange chant type lyric over as sounds of someone trying to open a door over and over, a chair being slid around, and radio static come in and out in the background. It’s enough to leave you really trying to figure what is going on in the room where the song is taking place. Mr Beard, You Chatterbox has a definite free jazz sound with the same strange muddled, dark background in place, but goes through quite a variety of sounds before ending. A Drug Party sounds like the title implies, a party with dancing and all, but for spirits rather than living beings. As if to confirm it could all disappear in the blink of an eye, halfway through the song a dog starts barking and the only remnant of the party noise is a gusty wind. Love’s Long Listen-In is my favorite track. It has a very simple jazz bass line and an occasional jazz flute that sounds off for a quick few seconds, and has a strange aged layer of melody that borrows straight from Boards of Canada’s aged sound. We Are After All Here could be a recording of the lounge where souls go after death. The last track is The Be Colony – Dashing Home – What on Earth Took You and it’s pretty much the perfect end to the album. You’ve got a jazzy bass line underneath Trish Keenan’s vocals and a heavily avant garde jazz flue part. Some crickets come in, and a harpsichord or something picks up the melody and changes it just enough to sound a little unusual, and the album fades out to silence.

Really, I can’t stress enough how creepy it is. Right when it seems the music could be getting normal, they add in just one little change to the melody or one little loop or sample in the background that makes the hair stand up on your neck again. They even manage to turn I See, So I See So, a middle ages flute track with female vocals, into something very uneasy. Part of it, I think, is that at times the music just gets dark for a second or two, enough to disorient the listener and leave a question of whether it was the music or just the imagination playing tricks. Throughout the album, there is a loose sort of concept based on black magic and witchcraft, which manifests in songs like Reception – Group Therapy, A Seancing Song, A Medium’s High, Ritual – Looking In, and Royal Chant, but that never really completely disappears from the music. Definitely worth checking out if you like Stereolab or avant garde/experimental music.

8.4/10.0

It took me a good few listens to get into Stereolab but not because of the mish mash of styles, more the fact that I found that they weren't dynamic enough for me but I think they get better with each listen so this album is intriguing me. It's not just odd for the sake of it is it? Because there is enough worse than a band trying to be as out there on purpose but if it's all incorporated well into the music then I'm all for it.

Great thread man.

I'm actually kind of dissappointing you've decided to stop posting your opinion on all of the new music coming out. I can definately understand why though b/c I've been doing the same thing lately (without posting reviews of course) but you do end up wading through a lot of garbage to find the gems.

I also totally forgot I wanted to check out the F*ck Buttons so thanks for the reminder.

No not at all. Have you heard anything by Broadcast before? This is different because it's a collaboration album (well, technically a mini album but clocking in at 48 minutes I hardly consider it such) with The Focus Group. I haven't heard too much by them, but I know they make very experimental electronic music based heavily in samples of old movies and that music that was made for libraries where people could pay for the rights to it, and musique concrete. So, while Broadcast makes Stereolab like jazzy dream pop, it's The influence of the Focus Group that makes it odd. I think it's the witchcraft concept that adds a little bit of the creepy factor, but it's really not dominating in the album. I'll actually send it to you and you can decide.

And I haven't really completely stopped, more like just decided to cover the best albums and do full reviews of them. I'll try to get one up every day or two, if I can.

Hmm time to try and get this going again, I'm lazy and inconsistent. Sorry I keep changing my mind, but now I'm going to do albums from the past decade, or maybe couple of years, that you should really listen to. First up:

Eureka Brown - ¡Digitalia!

http://www.theartcoop.com/digitalia/63.jpg

1. Intro Dub
2. Full Speed Ahead
3. ¡Digitalia!
4. Just Got This Feeling
5. I Told You So
6. Alien Wars
7. Mystical Crystals
8. Yes No Maybe So
9. Come On Baby Here We Go
10. OMG

This one has been getting more than it's fair share of plays on my iPod. Eureka Brown started releasing tracks from his debut, Future of the Digital Universe, back in 2007 and apparently got the song Full Speed Head on a BBC Radio show on the net. Which is really cool, because he did it entirely by releasing songs on his myspace as they were made. The title of the album seems to be a small movement that believes in file sharing so all of their stuff is available for free somewhere (I found this on a blog though, don't know where). It's a mini album of only 10 short songs running for about 20 minutes sadly; I wish it was longer. I have yet to check out their debut, but I imagine the two in one playlist would make for a decent length listen.

So, on to the music. It's a mish mash of mod music, dream pop, space rock, and psychedelia all at once, and even with the short songs you're barely able to keep up with the changes in the music. From the second I heard the dubby distorted guitar in the intro track Intro Dub give way to the mod sounding keyboard part, very groovy drum beat, and jazzy bass line, I was hooked. It's a completely unique fresh take on pop that simply blew me away. From there, it just gets better, giving way to Full Speed Ahead, an almost tropical sounding lo-fi poppy song. Now that I think about it, this is easily the lo-fi album of the year, he takes what bands like Girls, Vivian Girls, and Summer Cats are doing and makes it exponentially better. This leads into the title track, which has his voice melded into the background with all of the other instruments, a very catchy guitar riff, and some of the best drumming I've heard in quite a while. The song goes from laid back, spacey psychedelic rock to lo-fi noise pop just switching from verse to chorus, and it is done unbelievably perfectly. Just Got This Feeling is a jangly, trippy pop song that includes some female vocals with a cool effect. Skipping ahead to Alien Wars. The song has a very Beck like acoustic part rocking under layers of keyboards, jangles, and some other stuff. It evens sounds a bit like Happy Mondays at times, utilizing the loud to quiet ingle keyboard note (that probably makes no sense, you'll know what I mean if you listen). Mystical Crystals starts off with a very cool synthesizer voice over an amazingly catchy bass line, and moves on to add in slide guitar to the mix, not sure how that works but it does. Quiet the infectious instrumental song. The outro track, OMG, is a nice calm end that sums up the album perfectly.

All in all, this album is a gem that will go largely unnoticed. They have a lot of stuff going on at once, and it's somewhat lo-fi, but never sound messy and muddled like any of the ****gaze bands. If you're not careful, you won't even be able to tell where one song goes into the next because the whole album has a very similar feel. But it's not because the songs sound the same, more like one 2 minute song will go through so many different melodies, bridges, etc. that you might not be able to tell at times where a new song starts. It will definitely take a few listens to digest and fully grasp everything that's going on, but that's not a problem because once you listen to it the whole way through and realize how short it is, you won't want to stop. This is one album I truly couldn't imagine getting bored listening to.

9.0/10.0

I've been ashamedly lax in keeping up with peoples journals here. Going through this, it seems your's is one of the journals closer to my tastes. So you can be assured i'll be keeping a close eye on this.

Thanks good to know someone's reading, I'll really make a serious effort to keep up with it this time around. For now, I'm going to tag my entire music library, which hasn't ever been done before. I'll be back in a few days :banghead:

Nice journal, phantom. A lot of stuff I'm into so I'm sure it would be worth my time to check out of these artist I haven't heard of.

Melt-Banana Live at the Rock N’ Roll Hotel with Abiku, Sugar Dunes, and Desert of Maine

http://www.skingraftrecords.com/grap..._pics/mb_1.jpg

So as you may know, I went to see Melt Banana last Friday downtown. I’m finally getting around to writing this up now.

It’s nights like this that make me realize how much I’m actually going to miss living near D.C. It’s quite the haven for experimental and noise rock. The city is the political center of the country, and as a result the majority of the people there are relatively conservative and feel a need to act professional. However, this general feel has also spawned a bit of an opposite reaction amongst people that go against this conventional attitude. As a result, the city is a breeding ground for experimental music and crazy **** like Melt Banana and the three local bands that opened for them. And while concerts can be really hit and miss (a lot of times, like Dinosaur Jr, hardly anyone moves), when they hit, they ****ing rock. That’s pretty much what happened this night.

I went with my friend Sarah, and we got there about 10 minutes after the start time, Abiku was just coming out on stage. I listened to their recordings and wasn’t really all that impressed, but they are a band that simply can’t translate the ferocity and insanity of their live concert to recordings. The band consists of two members, Josh on guitar and Jane on one of those keyboards worn on a strap like a guitar. They are a bit weird; when we walked in they were wearing black robes with glitter completely covering their faces. I’ve met Jane before so I knew what was underneath the robes, but it was interesting to see people’s reactions when they realized the voice doling out vicious yelps and brutal screams was a girl who probably weighs about 90 pounds while the six and a half foot tall giant rarely sang a word. As for the music, they’re kind of like a good version of Brokencyde (sp?), creating a strange concoction of heavy electronic music, noise, and post punk. It was a great intro to scare away all the annoying college kids from the bar upstairs. They played for about a half hour, then I introduced Sarah to Jane and we went outside and smoked a cigarette. Up next was Sugar Dunes, a experimental noise rock band that sounds a lot like post rock at times. They at times sing with almost staccato vocals and relatively standard alternative riffs before breaking down to shouts and whatever sort of loud bizarre sounds they can get out of the instruments. Much like Melt Banana, the drummer held the rhythm together the whole time. At one point, the singer and guitar player came off the stage and jumped into the middle of the crowd while playing, which was pretty cool. Desert of Maine used a lot of steel guitar, so we hung outside for most of them time while they were playing. It sounded interesting when they freaked out, but for the most part didn’t’ appeal to me.

Now for the part of the evening anyone might read this for. Melt-Banana finally came onstage around 11:15 with Phantasmagoria playing, lights strapped to their heads, shaking them around at the crowd which was neat. Stu mentioned when he saw them they didn’t really click, but there was none of that here. Maybe for 2 or 3 minutes of the entire concert they were a bit off, but the rest of the set they kicked ass. Everyone in the club was cheering, but ready for the band to jump into a song, and it was definitely the tensest moments of any concert I’ve seen. They went from that into Shield From Your Eyes, a Beast in the Well on Your Hand. The night truly kicked off the second the bass came in. The ensuing chaos was probably no different than what would have happened if an explosion went off in the club. Every single person in the relatively small venue, definitely no more than 100 people, went ****ing nuts. The ensuing hour and 45 minutes was absolute chaos at its best, just what you’d expect Melt-Banana live. Normally I’m not big into moshing, but I’m not sure how you could keep yourself from jumping in with this sort of music. The nice thing about seeing a show at a smaller venue is that you can get right up to the front and stand maybe 2 feet away from the band, which is where I spent the concert when I wasn’t in the mosh pit (which was probably about half of the crowd). When they played If it is the Deep Sea, I Can See You There I sang along; Yasuko got down on the stage right in front of me and sang right to me, which was ****ing awesome. They mixed in a few of their more experimental calmer songs and a few songs as Melt-Banana Lite, which was basically just a necessity to catch your breath seeing how it must have been 100 degrees (F, for you foreigners :p). What amazed me about that was, true to form, Ichirou had has surgical mask on the entire time; I was wondering if he was going to pass out at some point. At the end of the show, not a single person stepped back or left; we were determined to get our encore. They came back on and played several songs, including their kick ass cover of Monkey Man, and despite the fact that I think nearly everyone was about ready to drop dead from a combination of dehydration and exhaustion, the crowd was just as lively as at the beginning of the concert.

They wrapped up around 1, and the concert was over. We hung around for a few minutes, and I don’t think anyone didn’t have a giant **** eating grin on their face. Sarah and I drove home (our evening lasted a bit longer :D) and that pretty much summed up what was, without a doubt, the greatest night of my life. In conclusion, if Melt-Banana comes to a town near you, the only excuse you have for not seeing them is being in a coma.