Top 10 of 2006

I may be jumping the gun a bit on this, but I had to submit my list to CMJ for them to publish and since I have a minute, might as well get it posted. Once December roles around anyways, most labels do very little releasing, especially big name acts. Looking at the release list, it appears the only likely canidate to make a push for the list would be Ghostface's More Fish (which I was tempted to throw on the list even before hearing it; i heart Ghostface). I would like to throw up an mp3 as well for each album, but Hipcast's Audioblogger update seems to be delayed. I was just double checking their news posts and some remarks on the comment section certainly signify that I am not alone being frustrated with this. Hopefully next week; at least the site is better looking. Okokokok, here's the list:

Michael's Top 10 of 2006 in no particular order

Juana Molina - Son / Domino


Juana Molina - Yo No - Son (Domino 2006)



Extra Golden - Ok-Oyot System / Thrill Jockey


Extra Golden - Ok-Oyot System - Ok-Oyot System (Thrill Jockey 2006)



Grizzly Bear - Yellow House / Domino


Grizzly Bear - Knife - Yellow House (Domino 2006)



Dosh - The Lost Take / Anticon


Dosh - Um, Circles and Squares - The Lost Take (Anticon 2006)



Georgia Anne Muldrow - Worthnothings EP / Stones Throw


Georgia Anne Muldrow - Lo Mein - Worthnothings EP (Stones Throw 2006)



Low Skies - All the Love I Could Find / Flameshovel


Low Skies - You Can't Help Those People - All the Love I Could Find (Flameshovel 2006)



Ghostface Killah - Fishscale / Def Jam


Ghostface Killah - The Champ - FishScale (Def Jam 2006)



Sao Paulo Underground - Sauna: Um, Dois, Tres / Aesthetics


Sao Paulo Underground - Olhossss.... - Sauna: Um, Dois, Tres (Aesthetics 2006)



Nomo - New Tones / Ubiquity


Nomo - New Song - New Tones (Ubiquity 2006)



The Brown Party - The Brown Party / self-released


The Brown Party - Three Plus Four Equals Fun - The Brown Party (self-released 2006)





There you have it. I strongly recommend all these albums and artists. If Hipcast ever gets on the ball, I'll attempt to throw some mp3s up there as well. Here's to an as-productive 2007 in the independent music world (er... and Def Jam as well).

New Music: Antimc, The Winks, Bracken

Still no mp3s due to Audioblog... here, I'll help: sighhhhhh. Ok, stay patient, as soon as I can, I will update.



Antimc - The Nogoodnick feat. Fog - It's Free, but Not Cheap (Mush 2006)


Antimc – It’s Free, But Not Cheap / Mush

Antimc (think Anti-MC aka Matthew Alsberg) is a producer with a great love for his synthesizers. He doesn’t love them in the ‘utilizes a lot’ kinda way (though he does), but he actually cares for them in the deepest meaning of the word. Within an Antimc song, you can hear Alsberg caressing, teasing and giving those playful little spanks (you know, the ones that keep a relationship interesting) to his wide array of synthesizers and keyboards, and his music responds with sexy grins to each loving touch. As well as contributing live instrumentation and exotic samples to his sound, the L.A. producer crafts a well realized and polished combination of electro-pop, post-rock and dancefloor-ready hip-hop. For mic duties, Antimc has enlisted scatter-brained indie-hop emcee Busdriver, hyped Canadian rapper Cadence Weapon and Bay Area true-hop mic-smith Saafir as well as Anthony Anzalone of the Mean Reds, Andrew Broder of Fog and Mark Mitchell of Clue to Kalo with mixed results. Busdriver and Broder fit the sound the best and are highlights of the album. Personally, I dig Antimc’s solo tracks the most (which goes as well for his previous work with Radioinactive), which easily show the promising producer and musician’s keen ear for catchy melodies, head-nodding beats and welcomed playfulness.




The Winks - Woolongong - Birthday Party (Ache 2006)


The Winks – Birthday Party / Ache

After listening to The Winks’ eighth full-length release (which includes 5 self-released CD-Rs), Birthday Party, I’ve come to the conclusion that Canadians snack quite regularly on snowflakes dipped in maple syrup. It makes sense really, other than creative indie-pop, those are their two major exports, and most everything else is coated in some kind of sweet before it leaves the country. Take Todd MacDonald and Tyr Jami for example: beginning as an improvised instrumental duo, MacDonald on mandolin, Jami on cello, their sound has become increasingly structured and poppier as their exposure has grown. And now they are hitting the states for their first official LP on Ache and their music is now a swirling blend of sugarcoated indie-pop fleshed out with memorable melodies through woodwinds, strings and percussion. Jami’s young Bjork meets Pit er Pat’s Fay Davis-Jeffers vocals clash with MacDonald’s more generic voice giving their music a good dose of unpredictability as the two trade verses on just about every song. Birthday Party does a good job of mixing up the sound on a regular occasion while remaining true to the current indie-pop blueprint; I wouldn’t be surprised if The Winks get doused in bucket full of hype (or maple syrup).




Bracken - Heathens - Heathens EP (Anticon 2006)


Bracken – Heathens EP / Anticon

Meandering away from the pastoral foothills of Leeds, England, Chris Adams suddenly found himself among the many brick stoops of Oakland rather than the wooden porches of his hometown. No worries though, the Hood co-founder has taken sanctuary in the Anticon collective where he is releasing his first solo material under the moniker Bracken. Expanding from the hypnotic fuzz of Hood’s experimental shoegaze-folk, Adams is taping together tattered loops, borrowing Alias’ cluttered hip-hop punch and laying down his trademark ethereal voice for his first release, the Heathens EP. The title track sounds like vintage Anticon, pairing lo-fi hip-hop with otherworldly pop, while We Cut the Tapes and Scatter builds from short, overlapping violin samples and avant-garde noises while Adams’ reverb-soaked croon washes in and out of your ears. You also get a reworking of Heathens by Why? and Alias that strips away some of the fuzz while Yoni Wolf contributes his catchy phrasing and charming nasal tone. This is a promising EP that should easily please both latter-day Anticon and Hood fans alike.

New Music: Langhorne Slim, Vietnam, Amiina, Forro in the Dark

Now that the buffet of new releases and tours that is the fall season is over, labels are putting out more EPs and singles to tease the upcoming spring feast, hence what you see here. Also, Audioblog has not yet updated their program to work with Blogger Beta, but hopefully not too long after the holiday break. Once they get that up and running, I will post all of the mp3s that were missed. Also also, the Columbia, SC (where i went to school) CBS affiliate is syndicating my reviews for their website thanks to my good friend Dennis. I'm pretty sure I am going to be exposing the regular readers of that site to some very unusual music (for them), which makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.



Langhorne Slim - Honey Pie - Engine EP (V2 2006)



Langhorne Slim – Engine EP / V2

I’ll be honest, I don’t get down to backwoods Americana and bluegrass nearly enough, but then again, how many artists are really making that kind of music nowadays? But then of course, Langhorne Slim is not really your typical contemporary artist; he actually sounds as if he accidentally time warped about 80 years into the future and embraced his new surroundings with open arms and boyish charm. Taking the major label plunge after his amazing 2005 album, When the Sun Goes Down (which was pretty high on my end of year best of list), the twenty-something singer/songwriter builds upon his enthusiastic combination of bluegrass, stomping blues and mischievous folk, but for the first two tracks of the 4-song EP are a bit slower than I want to hear. Honey Pie on the other hand is a classic Slim get-up-and-dance track which relentlessly plows forward with punk drumming, wailing organs, guitar solos and shouts of “ain’t no girl gonna tell me, she don’t wanna be my honey pieeeee.” Rounding out the set is Sweet Olive Tree, the kind of slightly humorous, slightly worrisome campfire ballad that makes Langhorne so endearing. A brand-new full-length is due in 2007 and I for one will be eagerly waiting its release date.





Vietnam - Welcome to My Room - Welcome to My Room EP (Kemado 2006)



Vietnam – Welcome to My Room EP / Kemado

Two springs ago, I was joyfully (ahem, drunkenly) stumbling around pre-hurricaned Bourbon Street on a hot, muggy and very New Orleans, New Orleans evening. For most of the afternoon, I waded through the sea of camera-clad tourists seeking out street musicians, cheaply priced drinks and muffulettas when the space-time continuum ripped open before my bloodshot eyes and four dingy looking vagabonds seemingly from the 70s stepped out and crossed the street in front of me. Luckily I recognized Joshua Garrett, Michael William and gang instantaneously because I had just happened to be obsessing over their bohemian stained debut EP as Vietnam. Now two years later, they are finally releasing a full-length album of their brooding Velvet Underground meets Dylan meets Smog rock and roll. Now a fleshed-out quartet, Vietnam fill this teaser EP with the lively, fuzzed-out hippy-soul of Welcome to My Room, the smoke-stained drawl and lyrical electric guitar led Hotel Riverview and a live rendition of the non-album Goodbye which wrenches both the heart and the ears in it’s rawness. Their timeless sound hasn’t… well aged a bit in the last two years and I for one am very excited to hear an actual LP from the band.





Amiina - Seoul - Seoul EP (The Worker's Institute 2006)



Amiina – Seoul EP / The Worker’s Institute

Iceland has become renown for their very melodic music scene as of late, and after hearing Amiina, four lovely ladies from Reykjavik, I’m pretty sure that no one on that wintry wonderland of an island has ever heard a discordant sound in their entire life. The former string section of Sigur Ros continues to move out on their own with their second EP under the moniker. Like Sigur Ros, their sound is almost otherworldly in it’s intertwining of so many gorgeous melodies, but unlike Sigur Ros, their music isn’t dragged down by over-dramatization. I think if the bright Icelandic sun ever decided to make music by refracting light through a glacier then translating the resulting light waves into sine waves, it would sound pretty close to Amiina. During Seoul, xylophones twinkle over quiet synth nods, glockenspiels glimmer over theremin woos, and tightly wound strings pluck delightfully in between light drum patterns like an intricately designed kaleidoscope pointed directly at the sun on a crystal clear day. If fairies, elves and unicorns exist, they call Reykjavik their home and more than likely on a sugarplum farm run very lovingly by the ladies of Amiina.




Forro in the Dark - Indios Do Norte - Bonfires of the Sao Joao (Nublu 2006)



Forro in the Dark – Bonfires of São João / Nublu

Picture this: it’s an exceptionally hot, muggy night in the heart of Northeast Brazil. While the ambient forest and wildlife sounds engulf most of the region, a bright rhythmic pulse beats out of a large, illuminated dance club. A sweaty group of men and women, who should be exhausted after a long week’s work, dance exuberantly pelvis-to-pelvis in a waltz-meets-salsa like motion to a colorful vibrant band effortlessly performing a style of music centered around the bass-like thump of a zabumba, the awkward wail of an accordion and a large metal triangle rattled so quickly, you’d think the musician was having a seizure. Well ok, Forro in the Dark is not quite that type of traditional forró band, instead they are bringing an updated style of the music to the hipsters and club-goers of NYC, but the sweaty, excitable vibe is still undeniable. Supplementing the traditional instrumentation with electric guitars, an array of flutes, modern percussion and other contemporary instruments, along with the help of David Byrne, Bebel Gilberto and Miho Hatori, Forro in the Dark capture the immediate, pleasure-craving core of forró for modern audiences to relieve their stress on the dance floor just like the Brazilian workers of the early 1900s.

New Music: Xela, Blake Miller, Dave Fischoff

Xela - Wet Bones - The Dead Sea (Type 2006)



Xela – The Dead Sea / Type

John Twells’ Type imprint is somewhat of an enigma in that the music released by the U.K. label ranges from the dark, minimal electronica of Logreybeam to the bright kaleidoscope folk of Mountaineer. So really, it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise that Twells, who records under the moniker Xela, crafts music that reaches for both sides of that spectrum. The Dead Sea, one of his two albums released in 2006, is a somber concept album tracing a sea voyage ultimately doomed by an abrupt attack of malignant zombies. Twells soundtrack is composed from gusts of dismal frequencies, tattered rhythms and eerie synths as well as glittering bells, tingling guitar picking and the occasional hopeful melody “murdered and re-animated” into twelve visceral instrumentals. The contrast within the songs brings the album to life evoking an array of dramatic emotions in the listener from desperate hope to bleak acceptance. Equally influenced by the druggy drone of Odd Nosdam, the omniscient clatter of John Cage, the hypnotic doom of Wolf Eyes and the cerebral folk of John Fahey, The Dead Sea is truly an intriguing listen, animating the ghostly cover art provided by illustrator Matthew Woodson.




Blake Miller - Rain and Sunrise - Together with Cats (Exit Stencil 2006)



Blake Miller – Together with Cats / Exit Stencil

Scraping up potential left and right, the underrated Exit Stencil label (home of This Moment in Black History, Home and Garden, The New Lou Reeds) have wisely snagged burgeoning singer/songwriter Blake Miller by compiling twelve self-recorded songs straight from his tattered, doodle-lined notebook. Reminiscent of the equally promising Julie Sokolow album (Western Vinyl Records), Miller’s lo-fi recordings are perfectly imperfect as multi-layered vocals drift in and out of harmony, acoustic guitar strums strive to resonate in the thin frequency bandwidth and consistent rhythms are nowhere to be found. Which you would assume equals a bad album, but Miller’s immensely strong songwriting and innate musical ability translates the imperfections into engaging bedroom folk echoing early recordings from Iron and Wine, Will Oldham and that lost Nashville charm. The 19-year-old upstart is currently in the studio recording a proper full-length though it seems like that was the request of label; as he puts it in Rain and Sunrise, “I want to be a superstar, but only in the bedroom.”




Dave Fischoff - In This Air - The Crawl (Secretly Canadian 2006)



Dave Fischoff – The Crawl / Secretly Canadian

The cover art for The Crawl is made up of a rush-hour crowd of simple, snuggly dressed, hand-drawn people with arching noses and quaint, masking half-smiles making their way in front of a silhouetted skyline. You can only assume that hidden behind their yarn-like hair are small, white earbuds pumping in the triumphant, cut-and-paste orchestra conducted by Dave Fischoff and causing their pencil-line mouths to curve slightly upwards. The Bloomington, IN native and Chicago-based musician recreates the cheery orchestra pop of The Beach Boys and Burt Bacharach with an array of synthesizers and keyboards, then intertwines shuffling drum machines and strings it all together with Her Space Holiday-like vocals and sentimental storytelling. Fischoff’s bedroom indie-pop will be classified with electro-pop groups like The Postal Service, but his music tends to shamble rather than bounce and has a very wintry holiday like vibe throughout separating it slightly from the pack for better or worse. The Crawl will not instantaneously grab your attention, but if it finds its way into your earbuds, you very well could crack that same small smile.

FYI

"We are currently working on supporting Blogger's new beta system. We are hoping within the month to launch."

I take back any bad things I may have said about the people at Audioblog.

Sincerly,
Me.

New Music: Josef K, Swan Lake, White Magic, Women and Children, Andrew Bird

Well this is incredibly frustrating. I was quite excited to switch to Blogger Beta, give the site a new design and let the snowball continue to gain momentum, but apparently Audioblog, the site I use to publish my mp3s, has not updated their program to work with Beta. Sigh. So, here are my new reviews, but you'll have to wait for the sample mp3s... or just buy the album. In fact, you really should support these amazing artists and be buying the albums anyways. I promise as soon as Audioblogger gets on the ball, as well as responds to my bitching emails, I will get the mp3s posted.




Josef K - Chance Meeting - Entomology (Domino 2006)



Josef K – Entomology / Domino

In line with Domino’s current re-release schedule comes Josef K, an anti-career quartet whose jangling post-punk came to define the Scottish underground scene along with Orange Juice in the 80s. Inspired by the artsy, anti-pop rock of 70s New York scene along with obvious like-minded names of Bowie, Ferry, Reed, Cale, Eno, Byrne and Verlaine, the Edinburgh lads detuned their chiming guitars, recorded with the concentration on the rhythm section and wrote detached pop songs with an emotionally monotone frontman. In 1981, they recorded an album then scrapped it; went back in the studio and returned with The Only Fun in Town, both Josef K’s and their label, Orange Juice’s imprint Postcard, only release. With the enigmatic, jerky rhythms and tinny guitars that defined 80’s post-punk, the album went to #1 on the U.K. indie charts, and then the band promptly disbanded. In their defining of the “Scottish Sound,” frontman Paul Haig determined there was nothing left to prove and the members split up joining groups like OJ, Aztec Camera, The Happy Family and Cabaret Voltaire among others. Compiling Only Fun with aborted tracks and 7” singles as well as a Peel Session track, Entomology finally introduces the influential, short-lived Josef K to the U.S.




Swan Lake - All Fires - Beast Moans (Jagjaguwar 2006)



Swan Lake – Beast Moans / Jagjaguwar

When the Planeteers found themselves in an environmentally hazardous pickle, they combined the spirit of their magical rings to call upon the majestic powers of Captain Planet to save the day. When the cream of the Canadian avant-indie crop find themselves in a musical pickle, they combine the powers of their songwriting pencils to call upon the imposing sound of Swan Lake to save the day. Made up of Daniel Bejar (Destroyer, New Pornographers), Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes) and Spencer Krug (Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown), three immensely creative and renown Canadian songwriters and musicians, Swan Lake paints a skewed, oddly colored creature not wholly unlikable, but attractively weird in the same way… well Destroyer, Frog Eyes and Sunset Rubdown are. At the same time what you’d expect and surprising, Beast Moans gurgles, hiccups and purrs through 13 songs of fractured indie-rock both brittle and confident, detached and sentimental, anxious and reflective… you get the point. Obviously fans of the members’ other bands will be ecstatic to hear a new record from… well all of them, without the burden of paying for separate albums or choosing which to listen to first.




White Magic - All the World Went - Dat Rosa Mel Apibus (Drag City 2006)



White Magic – Dat Rosa Mel Apibus / Drag City

The much talked about Brooklyn goth-folk group finally presents a full-length to add a little substance to the buzz around their live show and eclectic EP. After a slew of line-up changes behind singer/guitarist/pianist/focus Mira Billotte, White Magic’s core has settled into a duo with guitarist ‘Sleepy’ Doug Shaw joining Billotte as principle songwriters. Dat Rosa Mel Apibus, Latin for “the rose gives honey to the bees,” features a gaggle of contributing artists as well, including Dirty Three’s Jim White, Gang Gang Dance’s Tim DeWit, Silver Jews sometimes drummer Tim Barnes, among others. Though grouped in with the new wave of artists classified as freak-folk, they, along with the like-minded Joanna Newsom, have a more Renaissance, gothic feel thanks to the haunting vibe and classical instruments involved. Billotte’s Nico-meets-Eleanor Friedberger alto is the center-piece of their sound, typically surrounded by simple, canonic piano melodies, meandering guitar picking and resonant, almost-tribal drums. The album is hit-or-miss throughout; All the World Went is a hypnotic, raga-leaning puff of hookah smoke, but it’s followed by the redundant, boring-until-the-last-45-seconds title track, and so the album progresses. Like their previous EP, DRMA is promising but wavering, but then again, it’s only their first full-length.




Women and Children - Mary Blues - Paralyzed Dance, Tonight (Narnack 2006)



Women and Children – Paralyzed Dance, Tonight / Narnack

Adding to the already borderless genre boundaries of Narnack’s wholly enjoyable discography is Women and Children’s sophomore effort, Paralyzed Dance, Tonight. The multinational quartet have dug up an eclectic style of folk-pop not completely unlike the random-thought-utopia you achieve from lying spread eagle in an open field on a ridiculously starry night. A soft guitar strum circles lazily, a woman’s delicate croon let’s you know that you’ve fucked up once again (but she still can’t really live without you), drums lazily plod through the damp grass, a tinkling piano plays the part of scurrying field mice and reverb settles all around you in a light mist. The trading male/female vocals and loose arrangements reminisce of The Velvet Underground and Nico sessions while some spots sound like the charming music made when a talented artist attempts to imitate a foreign style, but sounds just barely off-center. You may not fall face-first into Paralyzed Dance, Tonight, but you can’t really dismiss it either… it just kind of lingers, lovingly.




Andrew Bird - Dear Dirty - Fingerlings 2 (self-issued 2006)



Andrew Bird – Fingerlings 3 / Self-Issued

For the third edition of the self-issued Fingerlings comp, Chicago’s darling singer/songwriter, Andrew Bird, shakes things up a bit and offers a slew of new and old songs recorded in a variety of locations. Obviously his endearing mix of gypsy, folk and rock are still the basis for his sound, and his honey-soaked voice and amiable violin are in top form throughout. The traditional live cuts presented here are The Happy Birthday Song and A Nervous Tic from 2005’s Mysterious Production and Dark Matter and Scythian Empire from the upcoming 2007 release, Armchair Apocrypha. The Water Jet Cilice and Ethiobirds are solo outings recorded live in his home studio for a “few hundred interested insects” while Measuring Cups was taken from his Lollapalooza set. Live covers of Son House’s Grinnin’ and The Handsome Family’s Tin Foil are also included. To round it out, Bird also includes Dear Dirty, a studio track that never made it to an official album. Also, multi-instrumentalist, Anticon recording artist and good friend Dosh appears on five tracks.

New Music: The Evens, Plague Songs, Terry Manning, Lithops

So I've switched to Blogger Beta, hence the new look, but I am having problems with connecting to Audioblogger, the site that I use to publish my mp3s. As events unfolded, I was able to get all but the Clinic and The Evens mp3s ready. I have contacted Audioblogger and hope to be up and running smoothly again shortly. On the plus side, I finally got interweb in my apt.





The Evens - Cut from the Cloth - Get Evens (Dischord 2006)



The Evens – Get Evens / Dischord

You can take away the external amplification from Ian MacKaye, but no matter the medium, be damn sure that he is going to bring amplified emotions and attitude. MacKaye’s latter-day collaboration with like-minded Amy Farina of The Warmers, The Evens strips away all of the feedback, blaring guitars and pounding rhythms of Fugazi, Minor Threat and Embrace but absolutely none of the drive or political commitment. Even a bit rawer than their first, more finely produced record, the DC duo opt for a sound more akin to their amazing, intimate live shows, which greatly enhances the album to no end. With MacKaye on baritone guitar and Farina on drums, their agt-pop is played with minimal accompaniment, but the underlying urgency of the bold protest lyrics and immediate vocals makes Get Evens incredibly aggressive even in it’s stripped back state. Farina and MacKaye’s incessant touring schedule no doubt strengthened their already rock solid chemistry which adds even more to the organic, natural sound of the record. I quite enjoyed their first album, but it actually loses some of its appeal after hearing the perfected vibe that surrounds this one.





Brian Eno & Robert Wyatt - Flies - Plague Songs (4AD 2006)


Various Artists – Plague Songs / 4AD

Commissioned by the British arts organization Artangel and soundtracking a modern recreation of the Israelites’ flight from Egypt (reference a Bible for further explanation) captured on film for a possible 2007 release, this album compiles ten exclusive, original recordings from a diverse selection of artists re-tooling the 10 plagues of the book of Exodus. Kicking off with a streetwise rendition of the plague of blood from British rapper Klashnekoff, the comp quickly displays its genreless boundaries by following it with the shimmering harmonies of Scottish folkie King Creosote. Stephin Merritt merrily follows with a bouncy, lo-fi disco beat laced with tales of lice while Brian Eno & Robert Wyatt (Soft Machine) concoct an ambient, drone-leaning sea of fly buzzing. Laurie Anderson keeps things sparse with barely audible organ, strings and her quivering voice, Cody ChesnuTT returns to form with his left-of-center soul ballast, The Tiger Lillies ride the androgynous chirrup of singer Martyn Jacques and Imogen Heap turn the plague of locusts into a glittery electro-pop dance-party. Keeping with his reputation, Scott Walker turns his plague of darkness into a disturbing a cappella backed with a consistently yelping choir, and rounding out the unpredictable disc is the soft-voiced Rufus Wainwright and his moving ode to the tragic death of his cousin, a first-born. This is a great idea with pretty good results, mostly featuring the inventive songwriting skills of the artists involved.




Terry Manning - One After 909 - Home Sweet Home (Sunbeam 2006)



Terry Manning – Home Sweet Home / Sunbeam

Originally released in 1970, Home Sweet Home began as a joke with multi-instrumentalist Terry Manning covering Eddie Hinton’s Choo Choo Train in a dirty, psychedelic, rock and roll tantrum, but the obvious potential resulted in Stax producer Al Bell requesting a full-length of such covers. Surrounded by the amazing Memphis soul sound, Manning doused his rock & soul with fuzz guitars, emphatic vocals and funky rhythms possibly inventing glam as he handled just about all the instruments recorded. In most notable addition, Big Star’s Chris Bell makes his recording debut with a slew of guitar solos and Robert Moog supplies his keyboarding skills and synthesizer to the amazing 10-minute rendition of George Harrison’s Savoy Truffle which kicks the album off with a large bang. After being released by Stax imprint Enterprise, Manning went on to become the co-owner, engineer and producer of Ardent Records and Studios, which went on to release the Big Star albums. To garnish the re-release, three bonus tracks have been added including a cover of The Music Machine’s Talk Talk, a version of Lennon/McCartney’s One After 909 which was actually recorded before the Beatles finalized their version (!!!) and a amazing live cut of Manning covering I Can’t Stand the Rain in 1991.





Lithops - Cephalopod - Mound Magnet (Thrill Jockey 2006)


Lithops – Mound Magnet / Thrill Jockey

As if Jan St. Werner weren’t busy enough shaping the unpredictable distorted electro-funk of Mouse on Mars with Andi Toma or embracing his more ambient, but no less surprising, side in his Microstoria collaboration with Oval’s Markus Popp, he also releases solo material under the Lithops moniker which finds a necessary middle ground between the two. Like actual lithops, a genus of succulent plants native to Africa that disguise themselves with a stone appearance (thank you Wikipedia), Werner masks his off-kilter melodies with a camouflage of rustling white noise and skittering, almost unidentifiable rhythms. Probably unappealing to those not accustomed to avant-electronic music, Mound Magnet is a distorted factory of grinding electronics held loosely together by tattered bass lines and splotches of splattered melody. The Lithops brand of electronica is a challenging, unconventional and cluttered array of sounds, but definitely engaging in its attempt to mesh the worlds of random noise and structured music.

Update ETA

So it looks like Sunday now will be the ETA for interweb in my apt. We'll see though, it was supposed to be working 2 weeks ago at this point. They have a hearty window (8a-5p) they have given me when a technician is expected. So it looks like Sunday will be spent on the couch watching football and waiting for a stranger with the magic tools to give me unfettered access to the world's information. Go Panthers. Hopefully and update Sunday though with the missing mp3s and cuts from Terry Manning and the Plague Songs Compilation.

Your friendly neighborhood audioblogger.

New Music: Clinic, Feathers, Precious Fathers

I have moved to the Logan Square neighborhood in Chicago and without the interweb for the moment, so my updates are a little delayed. I wrote the Clinic and Feathers review yesterday but neglected to upload the audio at work, so I will post the reviews but the mp3s are going to be missing for a few days. Hopefully Monday at the latest for them. On the bright side, I really like Logan Square with my cheaper, roomier apartment and Mexican restaurants on every corner.



mp3 to come later

Clinic – Harvest EP / Domino

Fueling the anticipation for their January 2007 full-length release, Liverpool art-rockers, Clinic, unleash a 3-song EP further deepening their sound into the hazy garage rock of the late 60s. Kicking off with the title track, Harvest (within you) is a rollicking blend of tribal drums, slurred vocals, minimal gritty guitar and eerie organ sweeps. Presenting a deceptively simple arrangement, the surgical-mask clad quartet is simultaneously catchy and brow-furrowing. You Can’t Hurt You Anymore is a retro instrumental centerpiece harkening back to breezy parties on the beach when Dick Dale was king and tomfoolery was always a foot. It strangely diminishes though into Lee Shan, which comes off as Can jamming with the Velvet Underground. Obtaining its goal, Harvest is a mysterious teaser that really gets you salivating for Clinic’s next unpredictable full-length.




Feathers - Ap(Parenthe)-Synthesis - Synchromy (Home Tapes 2006)


Feathers – Synchromy / Hometapes

Firstly, this Feathers is not to be mistaken with the recent freak-folk Devandra-heralded Feathers; this is a trio out of Miami formed in 2003 that makes experimental pop music… which actually came first and is the rightful Feathers is beyond me. But band names aside, Eddie Alonso, Matt Crum and Eric Rasco conjure a brand of poppy post-rock that is nearly impossible to nail down due to their penchant for unconventional equipment and numerous outside influences. Though based in Miami, the trio regularly travels to Chicago to record with the like-minded John McEntire at SOMA studios as with Synchromy, the second of their three EP trilogy (which started with Absolute Noon). Melodies dance out of analog synths, tinkered sounds bubble and hiss, a backbeat settles in and then evaporates in a sea of static wash… and that’s just in the first minute. Think of it as progressive psychedelia with SOMA being Abbey Road built on post-rock rather than pop-rock… how can you hate on that?




Precious Fathers - Prairie Train - Precious Fathers (White Whale 2005 Canada, 2006 USA)


Precious Fathers – Precious Fathers / White Whale

So to speak truthfully, quality melodic post-rock is not that rare these days, but for me at least, it’s one of the few genres that I really enjoy across the board. Fitting comfortably into this genre is Vancouver instrumental outfit, Precious Fathers, who incorporate shoegaze, math-rock, indie-rock and just touches of electronica and jazz into their sound. Featuring members of Destroyer, Loscil and Sparrow, the multi-functional quartet recorded this album in a few live settings in 2004, but it is just now reaching American ears riding on the back of Vancouver’s White Whale Records. Throughout the self-titled affair, pastoral fields of interweaving guitar, synth, bass, drums and occasional horns roll into gentle, coast-approaching waves as if mimicking the Pacific Ocean on a relatively calm autumn day. Think a midpoint between Tortoise and Six Parts Seven, neither incredibly technical nor pure melody, but a comfortable niche between the two. For Precious Fathers really to make a name for themselves though, they are going to need to really find their individual sound, perhaps pulling from their external projects a bit more.

New Music: Moody, Conjoint, Tommy Guerrero

Moody - A Fool on the Hill - The Gentle Rain (Sunbeam 2006)


Moody – The Gentle Rain / Sunbeam

This is fantastic… this is fantastic fantastic… in fact, this is the actual manifestation of a crate-diggers dream. The ultra-rare collection of soul-funk instrumental covers from the beautiful year of 1973 is the reason cats get so obsessed with this hobby; just about every second of the record can be sampled, flipped and molded into a bonafide hip-hop banger. Conceived by arranger extraordinaire Nick Ingman, think the pop-rock Axelrod, at the creative apex of fusion, The Gentle Rain is a result of 16 on point session players including Kenny Wheeler, Canada’s premiere avant-garde jazz trumpeter, Alan Hawkshaw, a heralded session keyboardist, and former drummer of The Shadows, Brian Bennett, pushing the boundaries of pop covers to it’s absolute edge. Prolific arranger Ingman may not be a household name, but you probably know his work; after working under producer Norrie Paramor in his youth, he went on to arrange film, classical and pop music that ranges from the Fine Young Cannibals to Radiohead’s OK Computer. For these 12 covers, including selections from The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Carole King and Sly Stone, Ingman pieced together Moogs with jazz flugel, rock basslines with funk drumming and seldom used woodwinds (bass flute, contra bass clarinet, etc) with Latin percussion for a sound unlike any in its time. I can imagine a young Madlib stumbling across this and a light going off in his head, seconds later Yesterday’s New Quintet was born.




Conjoint - Blue & White - A Few Empty Chairs (Buro 2006)


Conjoint – A Few Empty Chairs / Buro

There is live jazz which necessitates a pint in hand and a bar stool to lean against so you can tap your toe without pulling a calf muscle; then there is live jazz which could only be enjoyed on a plush seat enveloped in dense hookah smoke. Conjoint’s third album, A Few Empty Chairs, was recorded live (though liner notes neglected to say where or when) and would without a doubt be categorized in the latter column, but please don’t read that as loungey. The multi-generational ambient-jazz quartet formed in 1996 with their much heralded debut album which brought comparisons to Miles Davis’ In a Silent Way. Consisting of veteran vibraphonist Karl Berger, who has played with Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman and George Clinton among many others since the 50s, German jazz guitarist Gunther ‘Ruit’ Kraus, Chicago-born digital manipulator Jamie Hodge, who has recorded on Plus8 among many others, and David Moufang aka techno luminary Move D whose Source recordings initially sparred this project. Their combined talents form a very intricate display of ambient jazz that chimes and skitters thanks to the interplay of acoustic melodies and minimalist electronica. Structure is sparse, but the unspoken understanding between the players keeps the songs from ever sounding lost. Finely recorded with little-to-no crowd noise makes for an incredibly intimate listen that can transform your living room into a hazy underground club… hookah smoke and bean bag chairs sold separately.




Tommy Guerrero - The Under Dog - From the Soil to the Soul (Quannum 2006)


Tommy Guerrero – From the Soil to the Soul / Quannum

The aptly titled From the Soil to the Soul is the latest album from the do-it-all artist that is Tommy Guerrero who is now pushing four decades of existence, but not musically aging one bit. Now signed to hometown label Quannum, the legendary skateboarder continues to be the muse of San Francisco manifesting the multi-ethnic population and breezy weather of the city. Guerrero’s resume is too long to really give justice hear but realize he was part of the renowned 80s skateboard team, Bones Brigade, co-founder and art director of skate and clothing companies, recording artist under numerous labels alone and with his other bands Jet Black Crayon and Free Beer, graphic designer and collaborator with everyone from Prefuse 73 to Jack Johnson. For his latest outing under his own name, the one-time punk-rocker draws as much from those roots as he does San Fran’s vibrant hip-hop community, not to mention dropping a dose of jazzy post-rock here and soulful funk there. No matter which genre he is dissecting, Guerrero’s melodies are always playful and his rhythms head-nodding, making From the Soil to the Soul a delightfully groovy listen.