After releasing three singles on SharkAttack! and providing very little information about themselves, Charlene release their eponymous debut full-length. While the singles were simple, sparse, and often brief, these recordings feature a denser sound, with more instruments and a clear evolution in production.
 
- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
Let me just say this one thing to our entire British audience before I get started with this review: Just because you guys import our urban music by the barrel doesn't mean we Americans should have to put up with any quantity of yours. Sure, we'll take the occasional Craig David track and play the video on M2, but we have no interest in your "So Solid" UK Garage (save for the R&B-like MJ Cole and Artful Dodger). That being said, my heart is filled with nothing but the purest of pity for the poor A&R over at Vice Records who's going to lose his or her job in the crash and burn effort to attain some level of crossover success with The Streets. Sole member Mike Skinner may speak directly to the British youth in the same way that Eminem speaks to suburban white teenagers, but he's speaking an entirely different language than what this market speaks. The lyric sheet that came with this promo CD is essential for any attempt to understand the heavy slang here, although some translations would be even more useful (birds = bitches; geezers = UK garage wiggers). While I could waste far too much of my time slagging The Streets' total lack of lyrical flow, I'll just say that it really takes away from the mediocre tracks underneath. The peppy single "Has It Come To This?" sounds like a radio spot where the hyper-caffeinated disc jockey babbles on, unable to oblige the listeners by shutting the fuck up and go back to the music they actually tuned in for. Sadly, this song stands among the few-and-far-between decent moments of the album. Tracks like "Sharp Darts," "Don't Mug Yourself," and "Too Much Brandy" are so ridiculously bad that I am stunned that a reputable music magazine like NME praised 'Original Pirate Material' as a "landmark record." Still, a handful of the songs would have worked as instrumentals, namely the moody two-step lurch of "Geezers Need Excitement" and the string washes of "It's Too Late." Though I'll take another twelve Damon Albarn side-projects before I listen to anything like this again, 'Original Pirate Material' does manage to come out sounding better than that last Vincent Gallo compilation, destined to be the worst CD of the year no matter how many more British MCs release albums in 2002.
samples:
Read More
- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
The peculiarity of Pavement's music to me has always been its indifference. A song like "Loretta's Scars" is at once dreary as well as rousing. Stephen Malkmus's slackeristic vocals contribute to the indifference, but I think it has more to do with the unconventional composition of Pavement's songs. On the one hand, at the time 'Slanted and Enchanted' was recorded, you had a bunch of fellows who, at best, had moderate skill with their instruments, yet a fairly intimate connection with them. On the other hand, part of the band was living outside NYC, while the other part was back in Stockton, California, and so the result is a sort of bicoastal composition which successfully hybridized a bunch of antagonistic pairs: Malkmus's melody craft with Kannberg's explosiveness; menacing snarls with mournful croons; an East Coast melancholy with a west coast optimism.
The bridge straddling these poles is Malkmus's lyrics, a literal glue holding together the music which is constantly threatening to disintegrate. I always felt that the comparison between Pavement and the Fall was most pertinent in terms of the lyrics of the two bands. I can no more pierce the meaning of "Conduit For Sale!" than I can "Prole Art Threat." No two bands have ever made a better case for incoherent musical ramblings to equal great literature, mostly because no two bands have ever created such poignant verbal formulations with their lyrics and titles.
Matador has just released a tenth year anniversary edition of Pavement's first album, called 'Slanted and Enchanted: Luxe and Reduxe.' It is a two-disc set with forty tracks comprising: the original songs, remastered; two Peel sessions; a live set recorded at Brixton Academy (originally released on a bootleg entitled 'Stray Slack'); the 'Watery, Domestic' EP; nine B-sides and unreleased takes from both the 'Slanted' and 'Watery' sessions.
Inside the embossed slipcase is a booklet which contains liner notes, detailed thoughts from Malkmus, Spiral Stairs (a.k.a. Scott Kannberg), and others, and archives some of Malkmus's personal lyric notes. The entire package is handsome. Some of the high points on Matador's reissue are the Peel sessions, which feature a furious rendition of "Here," as well as a thoughtfully meandering song "Secret Knowledge of Backroads," which would later turn up in a different version on the Silver Jews's 'Arizona Record.'
On the second disc, 'Watery, Domestic' sessions songs "So Stark (You're a Skyscraper)" and "Greenlander" are two tracks which are simply indispensable. The first starts with a lull and slowly builds to a howl and then relapses, only to crescendo again in a screech which sounds like it is tearing Malkmus's left lung into thirty-four ravaged pieces. The second is a soft, mossy exploration which vitally bounces up and down, intermittently dipping into a paralytic ice-encrusted pond for three brief moments where the music's pulse simply halts. Both songs are gems, and similar jewels populate the rest of the selections. The re-release of 'Slanted and Enchanted' validates Pavement as one of those seminal bands to which they were compared ten years ago. And if their election into the aristocracy of the indie rock empire was already tacitly accepted by many, then you can consider this reissue the official coronation ceremony.
samples:
 
Read More
Terrastock 5 was an outrageous weekend-long nostalgia fest. By the evening of Sunday I'd really had enough of musty old psychedelic rock. The day had been disappointing. I was mostly hanging out at the bar, happy for any distraction from the music that came my way when suddenly, in the middle of it all, SubArachnoid Space made my day. They punched through all the dross, chatter, space and bodies and captivated my attention. At last, here was the prog rock aesthetic demonstrating its superior durability by sweeping away all the psych cobwebs of the weekend. Despite some technical issues, their sound was excellent—very loud but tight, punchy and clear. The first rate drumming, which reminded me of Police-era Stuart Copeland and of Trans Am's second album, combined with massive wedges of bass (sufficient to cause a perceptible draft) to lay down the groove while ingenious guitar figures and washes filled out the well delineated compositions. This was so good that, in a guilty, devil-may-care frame of mind, I broke the terms of my unemployment and bought a couple of their CDs. The first, "These Things Take Time" on Release was recorded live at KFJC in Silicon Valley in 1999 and the second "Play Nice" is a self-released 2002 tour CDR comprising bootleg-quality recordings from rehearsals and concerts. To be candid, if SubArachnoid had played like they did on these CDs in their T5 set, I wouldn't have bought any CDs. "Play Nice" holds some of live set's powers (check the samples) but overall the material is, unfortunately, much more psych than it is prog. While SubArachnoid's set at T5 was (blessedly) on the fringes, the music on these CDs would have been right in the middle of the T5 spectrum, almost definitive: lugubrious noodling jams with lashings of space echo on the guitar — pleasant enough in their own right, sometimes breaking the barrier into interesting, a long way from being enthralling and almost memorable. The good news is that SubArachnoid Space are working on a new album.
samples (from "Play Nice"):
- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
When Mineral disbanded following the completion of their second record, 'EndSerending,' many fans of their brand of plaintive and emotional rock were stunned and dismayed. In just a short time, Mineral had not only amassed a loyal following and had been courted by a number of major labels—even signing with Virgin but calling it quits before they could record anything—but they had also nearly changed their sound completely. Once a punk-laced energetic emo band like Sunny Day Real Estate, they were now fans of sprawling melodic structures with even more soaring vocals. Founding members Chris Simpson and Jeremy Gomez decided to continue making music together under the moniker The Gloria Record, and released several EPs and singles on Crank!. With this, their first full-length, the Gloria Record accomplishes the same growth in sound Mineral showed from their first LP to 'Endserenading.'Arena Rock
Where as before their sound was more acoustic in nature, with mellower songs and themes, now The Gloria Record is an accomplished indie rock band with some very interesting textures and flavors. They've finally hit their musical stride, featuring keyboards and distinct drumming, chiming Sundays-like guitars, and Simpson's vocals soaring above it all with a renewed sense of glory. The album opens with the synth-drenched title track, but soon shifts to the fervor and drive of "Good Morning Providence," eclipsing anything these musicians have been involved with previously. Things move pleasantly along with "Cinema Air," with its lyrics the most impressive of the lot—and the frolic of "The Immovable Motorist," which is a mostly somber affair with a hospital/death mixed with driving theme. "My Funeral Party," "I Was Born in Omaha," and "The Ambulance" are phenomenal arrangements, surpassed only by "The Overpass," burying them all in piano and Simpson's falsetto. Fans of Mineral should like this new sound, but fans of Death Cab for Cutie and the like will also love this release.
 
samples:
 
Read More
- Steve Smith
- Albums and Singles
For their second release, this Montreal-based drum, bass, and tape trio has mellowed out their punk-influenced musical assault, and have somewhat filled the space with a wider variety of sounds and techniques. The result is a diverse collage of musique concrete- and beatbox-inspired instrumentals. Throughout the album, the musicians stay true to their rock roots. Even when bits of DSP are employed, the overall sound is stripped-down and unpretentious. "Gauss" opens the album with some low bass and brooding bass clarinet, establishing the album's stark and gloomy mood. Most of the songs combine a slow, moaning, three- or four-note bassline with some solid mid-tempo breakbeat drumming and noisy tape and computer processing. "Voiceboxed" is an excellent track; it is propelled forward by a repeating one-note guitar part (played by Mike Moya of Hrsta) and reel-to-reel tape manipulations, while some well-crafted digital effects shift in and out. "Ice Storm" starts as a semi-interesting medley of instrument cable buzzes and intermittent static; a downtempo beat and some clarinet emerge for a while but then the piece gets quiet and abstract again for the last minute. "My Country Is Winter" has an almost hip-hop beat and one of the better bass melodies as all manners of tape noises and strange electronic sounds whirl about. Exhaust have used the studio effectively in constructing this album; at various points the drums cut out and are seamlessly replaced or augmented by filtered and machine-produced rhythms. The reel-to-reel tapes were my favorite part of Exhaust's debut, and that element isn't as high-profile as I would have liked this time around, but there's so much more detail and variety of sound on this album that it definitely deserves a closer listen than its predecessor. The mixing of organic rock instrumentation with more abstract electronic elements makes 'Enregistreur' an entertaining and interesting release.
samples:
Read More
- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
Upon first listen, the latest full length release from the sunshine state's The Mercury Program comes across as an homage to Tortoise's 'Millions Now Living...' due in part to the liberal use of vibraphone, hypnotic arrangements and a firmly rooted rhythm section. After putting aside the fact that the vibraphone had been around for quite some time before 1996, and several more listens, it's apparent that these guys are more at home with prog rock than say, post rock, for lack of a better term. Guitarist Tom Reno perfectly blends the Fripp/Belew sound of 80s King Crimson with the style of Will Sergeant. The multi-faceted drumming of Dave Lebleu is made melodic through Sander Travisano's solid, yet understated bassline translations. For me, what makes this disc is the electric piano provided by newest member Whit Travisano. You just can't go wrong with a Fender Rhodes these days. There being raised level of musicianship, the tunes can be somewhat lengthy with a fair bit of repetition in order for the exchange between the players to gel. This leads to some clever compositions which push their own boundaries. With all the elements that personally make for a satisfying listen, the unfortunate thing is that I don't find myself being too emotionally involved in what should otherwise be a great disc. Perhaps it's more of a live thing.
samples:
Read More
- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
It's a frigid and sleepless December night. I'm sitting in the darkness on the floor in the living room across from the tall, stoic fir tree, watching the metal ornaments on its branches shoot brief, brilliant sparks of light when cars pass, flashing their headlights through the front window. This is the experience of listening to 'Model 91', the debut album from Brooklyn duo Christmas Decorations. Using an ad hoc aesthetic built on the band's improv background, Steven Silverstein and Nick Forte create patient melodies that are much more sincere and approachable than the modern electronic composors from whom they draw their influence. The thumpy, low basslines on tracks such as "Brittle Stem" recall Graham Lewis' post-Wire recordings for 4AD, and the band's use of primitive digital sequencers contribute further to the early '80s feel of 'Model 91.' "Small Window" sounds like a computer on life support being gently nursed by the ambient guitar and bass. The vocals featured on several of the tracks are approriately monotone and disjointed (to the point of being potentially off-putting to the listener), but without sounding disaffected. Christmas Decorations are surely one of the most innovative new bands to appear this year, with their refreshingly raw, yet concise sound and bold approach.
samples:
Read More
- Diane Wei-Lewis
- Albums and Singles
Although 'This Night' features a number of solidly written songs, this extremely production-heavy album emphasizes its faux-velvet-bell-bottom-wearin'-chamber-pop sound so forcefully—to the point of being tedious—that even those who acclimate will probably remain disgruntled.Merge
Drippy reverb makes a mush of overly rhapsodic instrumentation. Nearly every song is unmercifully dominated by affected vocals. Don't get me wrong—Daniel Bejar's coquettish voice is the perfect complement to his wistful, teasing lyrics. But over the course of the album, the vocals and the effects put too much emphasis on a fairly categorical sound, at the expense of the songwriting. Each on its own, the songs here might do a bit more justice to the band's less obvious talent for assembling the essential melodic and lyrical structures of each track. Consecutively, however, their continuous drone becomes irritating and awful. Obviously, some bands have successfully worked this angle to their advantage, but in the case of Destroyer, the somewhat desperately lush effects-laden backdrop is empty filler, a viscous mud one must wade through to get to the heart of each song. There is a pretty great album here, tragically smothered by its own "atmosphere."
samples:
 
Read More
- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
I adore this disc, I really do. Its fifteen studio tracks, mostly between two and three minutes each, are so dizzyingly dense that it will be a long time before I figure it out, if ever. The music is devoted to the prog rock aesthetics of the 70s and 80s and delivered with Japanese values of painstaking design, utilitarian efficiency, precision execution and quality. But I have some confidence in Tzomborgha's endurance since a) I always loved prog despite my self-consciousness over its profound unfasionability through the 80s (hatred and denunciation of prog was a tenet of 80s British music journalism), and b) much of the material is based on favorites from various periods of my youth: Crimson (70s and Discipline, yae!), Sabbath, Olivier Messiaen and John McLaughlin. The Mahavishnu and Sabbath Medleys are spectacular, of course, and fun crossword puzzles for the so inclined, while the Messiaen quotes are very hard to pin down. There's an extended blissed-out jam with pretty vocal and a cloying Fripp-like solo, an exercise in Indian styles, and Magma singing on several cuts (check the samples for each). Yoshida blessedly restrains his goofiest vocal excesses most of the time so there is seldom a feeling of parody. The Ruins have successfully defined and mastered their own mesogenre, put a huge variety of music in it, and made it highly entertaining and credible — a rare achievement of which this CD is a fine exhibit.
samples:
Read More
- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
The 1970's Brazilian band Spectrum hailed from the Nova Friburgo region of Rio de Janeiro, which also hosted the well-known Os Mutantes. Spectrum shares a musically similar psychedelic slant with Os Mutantes, but without the refinement and prolificacy of their more famous compatriots. Despite its rough edges, Spectrum's soundtrack for the film 'Geracao Bendita' (The Blessed Generation) compiles a pleasant hodge-podge of 60's psych-influenced sounds which take from just about every band of the psych generation which it ought to. There are elements of the Mamas and the Papas, Simon and Garfunkel, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Blue Cheer, and Jefferson Airplane, all complemented by a general fuzz that hovers throughout the album. There are even some funk sounds starting to creep in (see the beginning of "Pingo e Letra"), it being the 1970's and all. The soundtrack for the film (supposedly the first Brazilian hippie movie) has been out of print for some time now, but Shadoks Music has reissued it with new liner notes and photos. Songs alternate between English and Portuguese; meandering and straight-ahead; female and male vocals; fuzzed out and reverberating. The sound of Spectrum can best be likened to the broken English in which the liner notes are written: you can understand what both are trying to say, but it could be executed more crisply. For instance: "After that, Ramon was attacked by a disease, which made Tiao sacrifice himself in substituting him on the bass, with a lot of study, much devotion, persistence and performance." Unfortunately for Tiao, the persistence and the performance did not pay off, since the band itself had neither persistence nor performance. Spectrum was around for about four years, without ever performing live once as Spectrum. The band which prefigured Spectrum, 2000 Volts, played a number of club shows, as well as birthday parties and schools. 'Geracao Bendita' is a pleasant listen, helped in some part by the economy of the record, which lasts a perfectly allotted thirty minutes.
samples:
Read More