Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Reedbeds - Swells on HIgh (Hooker Vision 2011)
Preview Buy via Microphones in the Trees
"Longtime fans of Reedbeds’ particular brand of hazy good vibes will instantly recognize this subtle masterpiece as a perfect wintry addition to an already extensive discography. New listeners will be equally rewarded as they sit back and allow the soft washes of guitar to smooth out any worries of the day."- Hooker Vision
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Crystal Stilts - Radiant Door EP (Sacred Bones 2011)
Preview Buy "Radiant Door reflects the band’s experiments with specific ideas in the studio and what they’ve been excited about and listening to, including Blue Orchids, Sanford Clark, and many more. Opening track “Dark Eyes” may be their strongest song to date, unshackling them from their fuzzy reputation, which, even at its heaviest, could never obscure one from this bands dexterous song-craft."-Sacred Bones
Psychic Dancehall - Dreamers LP (Art Fag 2011)
Preview Buy "With every relationship comes the creation of a brand new world. When Psychic Dancehall’s Dorian Wartime and Sylvia Innocent took an apartment in a run-down section of San Diego during the rainiest period in the city’s history and set about creating their world together, they’d no idea that fate and the weather would conspire to make that world worth sharing. Their apartment was adjacent to a drag bar where Innocent and Wartime would go every night. Trapped in their little house all day, venturing down to the bar, as well as to the Red Wing, the lesbian bar down the street, was really their only escape. The two felt safe and welcomed by the communities there and related vignettes of their nocturnal adventures back to one another when they went home. These experiences began to transform themselves into songs. Both being musicians, tinkering away with samples and keyboards was the most natural way for the couple to share their moments together and make them into something whole. “A Love that Kills,” a slightly sinister toe-tapper with a Serge Gainsbourg twinge and a reverb-heavy, breathy chorus, is a play between dark and light. “White City” was born from a fortunate mistake—the couple’s next-door neighbor Lexus was locked out of her apartment one night, and came over while waiting to get her keys. Lexus was famous for her karaoke skill, and together the three wrote the song’s hook. Dreamers is timelessly emotional, akin to the experimentation of Arthur Russell or Scott Walker, and like those artists, Psychic Dancehall could have come from any era. It’s music that translates feeling into sound, takes away the particulars of experience so one can make sense of the many parts of life." - Midheaven
Gnod - Chaudelande Volume 1 (Tamed 2011)
Preview Buy
Via Random Shit
"Formed in 2006, mancunians GNOD started their last European tour to date by spending a couple of days in the Studio Chaudelande, a small house made of bricks and passion, somewhere in the Normandy countryside (France). They recorded new songs that are now released as a two volumes LP serie on Tamed Records. "Chaudelande Volume I" contains three songs which demonstrated the multi-faceted universe of GNOD. From the heaviest spacerock parts they ever recorded to meditative neo-folk influenced moments of calmness and introspection, this new recording marks a new step in GNOD cosmic procession. "Chaudelande Volume I" is the first release on Tamed Records schedulded for october the 20th and we're happy to start the adventure with such a great record !"- Tamed Records
Monday, November 7, 2011
Na Hawa Doumbia - La Grande Cantatrice Malienne Vol.3 (Awesome Tapes From Africa 2011)
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
U.S Girls on Kraak (Kraak 2011)
Preview Buy Via: Random Shit
"When we first heard the seductive sounds of Meghan Remy\'s U.S. Girls in 08, we immediately fell in love with both the music and the persona. For her third full length \"U.S. Girls on Kraak\", this astonishing muse of modern pop music extends her old lo-fi aesthetics into what is her most melodic and radio friendly output so far. Remy\'s vocal abilities get a major stress on this record, clearly laying bare her sixties girl band and nineties R\'nB influences, without losing touch with her early roughness en experimentalism. In barely thirty minutes Remy moves from the hit parade flavoured \'Island Song\', over her sublime cover of Brandy & Monica\'s \'The Boy Is Mine\', to an actual classic country song. This is all intertwined with her usual talent for shortsong-writing and raw esoteric scapes. \"U.S. Girls on KRAAK\" is probably Remy\'s most accesible work to date, and a highlight in her oeuvre that might mark the end of her \'early years\'." - Kraak
The Famines - The Complete Collected Singles (Mammoth Cave 2011)
Review by Mauricio Gudiño
When coming across any singles collection there are two deductions that one can immediately make and conclude to be true:
1. "These tracks must be the cat's meow!" and;
2. "If these tracks are so great, then I should run/click over to my nearest retailer and fork over some cash for more!"
While you can't really, 100%, say that this chain of assessments is wholeheartedly the most logical to spring to mind, they do fall in place somewhere along the timeline of exposure. And the truth is that "exposure", the secret magic word in this review, seems to be exactly what the Famine's release "The Complete Collected Singles" is attempting to attain. And with the raw energies and blasted out recordings of this noise rock twosome, the Famines will melt your face while in transition of blasting it as well as leave you curiously feening for more info on the group.
The Famines, one part edmonton; one part montreal, canada, are focused. Having toured Canada countless of times since 08' (four national, and multiple regional), released five 7" records, along with a distinctly executed graphic aesthetic (posters, visual art books, an educational pamphlet and a 268 page liner note book), this duo seem as if their plans are to strike with a specific brand of precision that only true observers of the the genre can obtain. While my opinion on the whole vintage-revival-retro movement would be cheapened to simply say that it's cop out, I don't think/feel I've come across a group that transcends the fashionable "cop-out'edness" of the movements that have taken nostalgia by the balls and crushed our dreams of anything significant happening in music until I've read into and really studied the charm of the Famines. They seem to channel a certain style that guides the energies that would brand them a part of the movements named above, but within the structures built by Raymond Biesinger (the seemingly mastermind behind the group) lies a contemporary mind that wants to start a conversation.
The first track on the collection's title, "Hi Hi Hi", immediately brings a picture of an hyperactive 6 year old with an enthusiastic greeting, which actually works great as a visage for how the rest of the albums energy plays out (listen to track "Princess Louise Caronline Alberta). Faux Famous, the second track, kicks off with a chugging baseline covered in rusted nickel grit that will leave you wanting to find out what old tube amp Biesinger searched down to get that sound. Then you have songs that display the seductive and still playful side of the groups vocal melodies ie: TWA Flight 553. Listen for yourself. The collection of songs work as a manifestation for listeners who did not follow the group's tracks from their first outwardly taken treads, noting that their first show came posthumously to first release, but work well to tempt you for more. For the sakes of Garret Kruger (drummer/percussion), Biesinger and all of us who are in need of something heartfelt, solely of this generation, but has intelligent design lets hope what comes after their call out for exposure (guhaaaggh!!!!! ::confetti burst::) leaves us as interested in them as their audio/visual attempts to have us pay attention.
1. "These tracks must be the cat's meow!" and;
2. "If these tracks are so great, then I should run/click over to my nearest retailer and fork over some cash for more!"
While you can't really, 100%, say that this chain of assessments is wholeheartedly the most logical to spring to mind, they do fall in place somewhere along the timeline of exposure. And the truth is that "exposure", the secret magic word in this review, seems to be exactly what the Famine's release "The Complete Collected Singles" is attempting to attain. And with the raw energies and blasted out recordings of this noise rock twosome, the Famines will melt your face while in transition of blasting it as well as leave you curiously feening for more info on the group.
The Famines, one part edmonton; one part montreal, canada, are focused. Having toured Canada countless of times since 08' (four national, and multiple regional), released five 7" records, along with a distinctly executed graphic aesthetic (posters, visual art books, an educational pamphlet and a 268 page liner note book), this duo seem as if their plans are to strike with a specific brand of precision that only true observers of the the genre can obtain. While my opinion on the whole vintage-revival-retro movement would be cheapened to simply say that it's cop out, I don't think/feel I've come across a group that transcends the fashionable "cop-out'edness" of the movements that have taken nostalgia by the balls and crushed our dreams of anything significant happening in music until I've read into and really studied the charm of the Famines. They seem to channel a certain style that guides the energies that would brand them a part of the movements named above, but within the structures built by Raymond Biesinger (the seemingly mastermind behind the group) lies a contemporary mind that wants to start a conversation.
The first track on the collection's title, "Hi Hi Hi", immediately brings a picture of an hyperactive 6 year old with an enthusiastic greeting, which actually works great as a visage for how the rest of the albums energy plays out (listen to track "Princess Louise Caronline Alberta). Faux Famous, the second track, kicks off with a chugging baseline covered in rusted nickel grit that will leave you wanting to find out what old tube amp Biesinger searched down to get that sound. Then you have songs that display the seductive and still playful side of the groups vocal melodies ie: TWA Flight 553. Listen for yourself. The collection of songs work as a manifestation for listeners who did not follow the group's tracks from their first outwardly taken treads, noting that their first show came posthumously to first release, but work well to tempt you for more. For the sakes of Garret Kruger (drummer/percussion), Biesinger and all of us who are in need of something heartfelt, solely of this generation, but has intelligent design lets hope what comes after their call out for exposure (guhaaaggh!!!!! ::confetti burst::) leaves us as interested in them as their audio/visual attempts to have us pay attention.
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