New Music: Harlan, Junior Boys

Man, today really took it out of me. I'm preaching to the choir as you probably didn't have it any easier, but sometimes you come home and there's just nothing left that you want to hear. It's tough being in the convergence business. Pfft, journalism. So streamlined, so slick, so modern... It's about the opposite of what's going on in my apartment right now, actually.













Harlan - The Ballad of Selective Memory (Odd Thud 2007)

Harlan - The Still Beat / Odd Thud

See, my roommate ordered a banjo I don't know how many weeks ago, and tonight it finally came in. To put this in perspective, young Tommy - he prefers T-Bird - doesn't play an instrument and has only been in a band once: He "sang" a musical rendition of "The NeverEnding Story" after ten shots of vodka. In the best traditions of "I was there" elitism, I played gong in a flame-retardant suit. Lucky for us that Google Video got a hold of the performance (We won the popular vote that night in a Battle of the Bands).

In any case, it's a little clearer now what we're working with. He's in the living room strumming it like a fool and there's really nothing the rest of us can do. After ten minutes of this, I developed a headache like any other reasonable human being. To save myself, I turned to some real guitar-playing by a bloke named John Harlan Norris. To save you, I won't bother with any "roundhouse-kick-to-the-face" one-liners, but it should be noted that Mr. Norris doesn't need any trivial pop culture references to get his point across on an album he did entirely alone: The Still Beat was constructed on the strength of synth melodies and guitar solos with a dash of folk and British trad-pop chops, but it was the dash of bayou flavor that Norris used with his Baton Rouge background. Actually, that's not entirely true: Norris was working in Spanish Harlem when he decided to just up and move to Kentucky to record in a mountain cabin. And then when he finished selling off a collection of handmade EPs, he moved to Louisiana to fetch an MFA in painting. A true renaissance man, written and performed by one man: Norris doesn't bother with that arrangement anymore, now using a full backing-band to get his message translated live. But it hardly matters: The Still Beat works on record just as well as Norris and friends live.

If you're wondering where the Odd Thud link is, Harlan's got the answer: The Still Beat is the first and only release so far. A label to keep an eye on.












Junior Boys - Double Shadow (Kode9 remix) (Domino 2007)

Junior Boys - The Dead Horse EP / Domino

Backing band, that's probably a phrase that doesn't immediately come to mind in the context of Kode9. Junior Boys aren't really about that either, are they? These two artists, I feel, don't really need long-winded introductions or the enticing story of my roommate's struggle to play even one chord correctly: You know Canadian duo Junior Boys through their past with 2004's oft-overlooked Last Exit and, of course, 2006's spectacular So This is Goodbye. Kode9, meanwhile, was featured here a few short months ago for his supreme album Memories of the Future that featured his MC The Spaceape. The Glasgow-born head of the Hyperdub label gave dubstep a much-needed shot in the arm and he's been riding high ever since.

Two mighty beings of electronic collaborating here for "Double Shadow" are not the end of the story, though. The best part about The Dead Horse (which I find funny because it doesn't really seem like Junior Boys made a huge to-do out of their sophomore release; in a time of big albums, they slipped in, made their mark and retired their hype to the road) is that it doesn't beat anything into the ground. One of the best parts of So This is Goodbye was all the songs that didn't make the album: The five remixes presented here merely carry on in the tradition of the In the Morning EP that had a couple of enjoyable reworkings from Alex Smoke and Morgan Geist. Hot Chip return from their Boojing around to remix said track to start off the handful, and with excellent source material it's hard to screw it up. Carl Craig is the other "big" name on here, but don't discount Marsen Jules or that Ten Snake remix of "FM." Actually, why would you? If you like Junior Boys at all, you'll likely go straight out and get this when it hits stores as a CD April 10th and vinyl May 8th.

So this is an apology: We'll be on top of our game next week when I'll have a little more time to focus, but today was just bad. You'd think Fridays would be easy, but no luck: Even after getting out of my requirements early, coming back was just as much of a burden thanks to dirty dishes and detuned folk music. Thank goodness Harlan and Junior Boys were there to save me - it might've been ugly otherwise.