The Answer Is In The Beat

Christopher Willits: OPENING (Ghostly International, 2014)

September 13, 2014 at 9:41 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Christopher Willits has been part of the Ghostly family for 10 years, and was releasing material on Taylor Deupree’s 12k label before that. But his highest-profile work in recent memory has been his production and mastering work on Tycho’s recent breakthrough album Awake. Listening to Willits’ new album, it’s hard not to think of it as sort of an ambient companion piece to that album, especially since Tycho’s Scott Hansen provided instantly recognizable, triangle-heavy artwork for this album, plus he and his band members contribute heavily to this album. While Awake had uptempo rhythms and U2-like guitar melodies, opening is much calmer and more relaxed, a 45-minute warm sunrise of an album. Beats pop up occasionally to push things along, and sometimes (as on “Clear”) they’re striking, but not in a way that’s overbearing. The beats get most involved in the album’s 2 longest tracks, “Connect” and “Wide”, which slowly unfold with chiming guitars, subtle glitches, and softly pulsing bass along with the beats. “Release” ends the album by doing just that, summing up the album’s wide-scope panoramic sound of sky-blue ambience and slowly thumping beats.

ODESZA: In Return (Counter, 2014)

September 13, 2014 at 7:30 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

ODESZA’s rise to popularity has been lightning-fast, already signing to Ninja Tune-affiliated label Counter after releasing several free self-released EPs and an album since 2012. They’ve been constantly touring since then (and they’re coming to the Blind Pig on 10/8!), and at this point they’re selling out shows in advance. This album refines their glossy, chopped-vocal chillwave sound into something more high-res and poppy, with more than half the tracks featuring guest vocalists. This results in some fun poppy songs (“Say My Name”, with a chorus joyously declaring “I wanna dance with you!”, and appropriately dancey music), but I feel like their sound says enough without lyrics. There’s enough sampled vocals in their music already that it still sounds coherent and communicates something, and even if the vocals are chopped up beyond the constraints of words, they still are catchy enough to stick in your head. The tracks without proper vocals seem kind of short, you kind of wish they’d go on longer, but if they did they’d probably just be repeating themselves, so really they’re fine the way they are. But even on the songs with proper vocals and lyrics, the vocal samples are used as an extra instrument, used to accentuate specific moments of ecstasy (as on “Echoes”). They draw from a variety of exotic-sounding influences too, with tracks like “Sundara”, “Kusanagi”, and “Koto” having Eastern-sounding instruments and vocal samples complementing their titles, and thumb pianos (among other acoustic instruments) showing up in tracks like “It’s Only”. Overall my favorite track would have to be “Koto”, with its no-nonsense tough distorted beat, crystalline melodies and glitched vocal samples. Extended bliss-out closer “For Us” is another highlight, though, with another chilled yet adrenaline-rushing beat, and an extended cool-down period for the last couple minutes. When vocalist Briana Marela sings “it feels like it’s perfect”, it pretty much does.

Slow Magic: How To Run Away (Downtown Records, 2014)

September 11, 2014 at 8:34 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Anonymous masked producer Slow Magic stole the show when he opened for Gold Panda’s tour last year, and he’s embarking on a headlining tour now (and playing the Blind Pig on 10/1!). His recordings simply do not prepare you for his illuminating, thundering live presence, which involves electric voodoo masks, huge drums, and audience interaction. But taken as they are, his albums are enjoyable slices of post-chillwave bliss, with sunny melodies, chopped vocal samples (few actual lyrics, and usually they’re just the title repeated, as on “Let U Go” and “On Yr Side”), and electro-funk synths (especially on “Youth Group”), with a few somewhat trancey melodies thrown in (“Waited 4 U”). There’s moments where tracks seem downtempo and melancholy, but then switch to an uptempo dancey beat (as on “Bear Dance”). The album’s 6-minute final track is appropriately called “Closer”, and pulls out all the stops, with trap-influenced beats and ecstatic cut-up vocal samples, building to the album’s emotional climax, breaking it down, and then doing it again.

Damian Catera: Baroque Treasures (Praxis Classics, 2014)

September 10, 2014 at 10:05 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

I’m not sure if Damian Catera is still a professor at Rutgers, but he was when I went there, and I saw him play a free concert that WRSU was presenting (in which Drop The Lime was booked but never showed up), and he played a noise set during the day to a small but oddly captivated audience. Catera was in a group called ConDemek in the ’80s and early ’90s, which released an LP on RRRecords in 1988, and he also collaborated with KK Null and released several albums on the Harsh House label. Since 2006, however, he’s been exploring deconstructions of baroque music, releasing an entire album of algorithmic variations on Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier in 2011. This release finds him tackling Handel, Vivaldi, Scarlatti and Albinoni. His take on Handel’s Water Music starts near-silently, slowly fading in with sliced-and-diced recognizable fragments of the melody, and ending up with a warm drone, with more pieces of the melody flaring up. “Vivaldi Concerto In G Minor Pop” starts with a disconcerting violin drone loop, then switches through several levels of time-folded-over manipulations of violins. “Albinoni Adagio For Strings & Organ” renders those instruments unrecognizable; there’s glitched-out classical guitar and insect-like buzzing, all being transformed and warped inside some sort of forcefield. “Scarlatti Sonata In D Minor” is 9 minutes of classical guitars tumbling and falling backwards and somehow upwwards throughout eternity, ending up a mountain of unspooled, rewound tape. “Vivaldi Concerto In G Minor” expands on the concept of the previous 5-minute “Pop” version, for 20 minutes of mind-melting string transformations, at turns drastic, dramatic, and bordering on noisy. Available at Bandcamp.

Evy Jane: Closer EP 12″ (Ninja Tune, 2014)

September 4, 2014 at 8:59 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

I missed Evy Jane when they performed at SXSW last year, and then again when they played NXNE this year, but I was excited to see that they’d signed to Ninja Tune, because maybe soon they’d have more than just 2 songs out (those 2 songs being the equally stunning double A-side “Sayso” and “Ohso” from 2012). Now their debut 12″ for Ninja Tune is finally out and, well… The title track is nice enough, a really woozy bummer R&B ballad, but it still kind of feels like it’s walking in place rather than actually going somewhere. “Nothing So Great” mostly consists of slow vocals, and soft synth, with a trip-hop beat trudging in only during the last minute of the song. Very much a slow burn, but it just doesn’t really excite me that much. “Sosoft” is more minimal R&B, with sparsely used bass and cascading vocals, which is intriguing, but it still ends up feeling like half a song. “Worry Heart” introduces a dub riddim to the band’s sound, suggesting an interesting direction the band might take on their album, and is much more of a proper song. I’m still excited for their album, but this EP feels like a work in progress or B-sides, when their first single had 2 arresting songs right out of the gate.

Kidkanevil: My Little Ghost (flau/Project: Mooncircle, 2014)

September 4, 2014 at 8:23 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Kidkanevil has several albums of abstract, experimental hip-hop on various British and European labels, but for this album he aligns himself with Japanese label flau for something veering a little closer to playful, melodic IDM. Tracks like “Earth To G San” waste no time finding bright, shiny melodies and gloopy, skittery beats, and the sounds of excited children. “Inakunaru” has an intricate, uptempo rhythm and childlike Japanese vocals, with a bit more of anthemic but not quite danceable feel. flau mainstays Cuushe and Cokiyu guest on a few tracks, one each and one featuring both of them together; Cuushe adds ethereal vocals to “Butterfly/Satellite”, Cokiyu’s “Tomie” is a short music box-like instrumental, and then “All Is Not Lost” stretches out past 7 minutes, with more music box-like chiming, hard, crunchy, static-y beats, and more samples of children’s laughter. Bonus track “Tales Of Moonlight And Rain” features samples from Lullatone, and has their familiar digital raindrop melodies along with video game bleeps and micro-thumping beats. The whole album is as charming as anything you’d expect to hear from flau.

The Garment District: If You Take Your Magic Slow LP (Night People, 2014)

September 2, 2014 at 10:28 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Jennifer Baron was in at least two prolific ’90s/’00s indie bands: The Ladybug Transistor (who were affiliated with Elephant 6 and signed to Merge Records) and Saturnine (who I vaguely remember as being more folky and were on labels much smaller than Merge). The Garment District is her newest project and has released a tape on Night People and a 7″ on La Station Radar, and now this LP. Listening to this album, it wouldn’t surprise you to know that it came from an E6 alumni, but it goes in a lot of other directions than her previous bands. There’s retro poppy melodies, vintage keyboards, and some psychedelic aspects, but also some synth-heavy instrumentals that push it more into electronic territory, but they still sound home-recorded and lo-fi. Watch out for the false ending on opener “Secondhand Sunburn”. “Weird Birds and Strange Days” is kind of a drowsy psych instrumental, then “Bell Book and Candle” returns to vocals, with kind a post Pet Sounds/High Llamas sunny day lilt. “Cavendish on Whist” is a curious synth instrumental with some crashy beats and gnome-like pianos and synths. “Miraculous Metal” is a bedroom-disco/space-rock synth/guitar instrumental, which could fit alongside plenty of Bliss Out-era Darla bands (I’m thinking Füxa especially). “Soon We See Green” is another easygoing lo-fi Pet Sounds-y track, and “Song For Remy Charlip” is another curious, somewhat baroque synth instrumental, with flute and harpsichord synth patches and more expansive, washy tones towards the end. “June’s End” gets a bit more uptempo, and seems to change a few times, but not jarringly so; a nice little prog-pop instrumental. “Velvie Woolvine” is a drifty, sunny instrumental with bird sounds (seagulls?) squawking away. “Jonquil Place” ends the album on a jaunty note with another organ-heavy instrumental, which fades out nonchalantly.

v/a: Corndogs #2 12″ (Sly Fox Records, 2014)

September 1, 2014 at 11:13 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Newest white-label comp from Detroit’s mysterious Sly Fox Records, who released an excellent Appian/Segv split 12″ in 2012, a clear lathe cut Corndogs #1 12″ last year (which I haven’t heard), and now this one. The Appian track that opens this 12″ is just simply sublime crystalline Detroit house, rich in melody and inventively programmed, only settling into a solid 4/4 thump for the last minute or two of the track. Gerald Norton’s track is a sly garage-house shuffler with repeating vocals pleading to “tell Peter Parker that he ain’t got what I got.” Segv’s track adds tons of crazy echo to some basic, repetitive piano chords, yet it manages to stay clear of the usual dub-techno cliches. The disc ends with a track from newcomer Suitor, a murky, mysterious techno track with cryptic synth patterns and clicky hi-hats. Solid release from a quality-over-quantity Detroit label.

Music Blues: Things Haven’t Gone Well (Thrill Jockey, 2014)

August 30, 2014 at 3:12 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Music Blues is the solo project of Stephan Tanner, bassist for Harvey Milk, a doom metal group I’ve heard a lot about but never listened to. Even without knowing the group’s history, this album still seems like the work of a side project; it’s instrumental, and the songs seem like sketches or ideas that haven’t been fleshed out into proper songs, whether or not they’re supposed to have vocals. Tracks like “Premature Caesarean Removal Delivery” and “Great Depression” slowly lurch from one chord to the next, and you expect it to turn into something, but it doesn’t. “Tears Tie Children” is 50 seconds of a slowed-down Crosby Stills & Nash sample, for no discernible reason. “Hopelessness and Worthlessness” goes through various angles of doomy guitar chords, before segueing into “Trying and Giving Up”, which does eventually settle into a more steady, recognizable groove. “Failure” is where he seems to get struck down the most, shrouded in swarms of echo and producing the harshest guitar sounds on the album. The swirling dirgecore of “It’s Not Going To Get Better” is the album’s centerpiece, and “Tremendous Misery Sets In” continues in this vein. Despite the songs’ increasingly negative, depressed titles, the actual songs seem to get more inspired, developed and energetic as the album progresses, and by “The Price Is Wrong”, it feels like there’s even boiling-hot peak-of-summer sun burning through the rainclouds. There’s even some gallopping drum fills that make you think it’s about to turn hardcore or speed-metal. The “bonus track” seems to have electronic drums and synths, suggesting that it’s a demo or even a taste of a different side project altogether. As side project-y and almost comically self-loathing as this album may seem, it definitely does channel negativity into something productive and enjoyable.

Taylor Deupree: Lost & Compiled (12k, 2014)

August 30, 2014 at 2:31 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Taylor Deupree has been ceaselessly active since the early ’90s, releasing dozens of albums and singles under many different projects, running the 12k label, mastering hundreds of recordings by other artists, and being a noted graphic designer. It’s inevitable that his prolific work schedule results in plenty of material that never gets released on an album, so this collection compiles alternate versions, sketches, and live material. The pieces on here generally consist of warm digital ambient drone, sometimes with soft guitar plucking (“July 032013”, “Sketch For February”), fuzzy digital flare-ups (“Field (Beta)”), and even foggy vocals (the end of “Journal (Rough)”). As with most of his recent material, this barely resembles the more overtly techno recordings he made his name releasing in the ’90s, but “Sea Last (06.05.08)” has some sporadic, incidental pulses that feel like beats. 2 consecutive tracks have “Sleep” in the title, and while “Sleepover (Alt)” sounds like it’s nuzzled in a do-not-disturb slumber, “So Sleepy” sounds a little bit more restless and insomniac. An odds-and-ends collection to be sure, but the differences between the tracks aren’t jarring enough that it doesn’t seem like a cohesive, soothing listen.