In addition to the new releases on 1/19/10 that I did list, it turns out that many more new releases came out last week that I found out about later. It turned into a very busy release week and this week is going to be even bigger! So there is much to get to and this is going to be a partial for week #3 of 2010.
JPLS-"The Depths" is a 2-CD is a new release out on the MINUS label known for minimal techno and partially run by Richie Hawtin (aka Plastikman). I really enjoyed this album. The sound is phenomenal and there were several highlights like: Reset, Basis, & State were standout trax. Disc 2 is a continuous mix of the album and very nice. Strong 4 stars.
Owen Pallett (who is in Arcade Fire part-time) also has a side project called Final Fantasy. His new 3rd album "Heartland" (2010) is FANTASTIC. He uses and orchestra and the songs are special and memorable and creative. At least 7 of the 12 trax are perfect! High 4 1/2 rating.
I saw the band Red Sparowes open for Jarboe a few years ago in L.A. and I remember a beautiful wall of sound like Mogwai, without the ear damage. They are back with a new EP "Aphorisms" and these 3 trax are excellent! The band seems a bit mellow on this release or perhaps they are just more focused? Either way I love it and hope a new release is imminent. 4 stars.
This next release is perhaps something I shouldn't like but I kept turning it up louder and louder and really loved it so I'm going to declare this my first "guilty pleasure" record of 201o. Silver Swans-"Realize The Ghost". This falls somewhere between New Order bass lines popping up and a bit of an 80's flashback. Although I do the band a bit of a disservice by using that description because within these songs I found a lot more going on than initially meets the ear. These are well crafted songs and a few real movers are: Are you really on my side, Realize The Ghost & I. I give this album a strong 4 star rating and I'm not embarrased that I like it. My buddy James would dig this...
This next artist, Courtney Jaye, I read about and saw that she was doing a cover of the Jesus and Mary Chain/Hope Sandoval track "Sometimes Always" with the singer of Band of Horses. Naturally, I had to hear it. Apparently, she has quite a few records out. Her new one is "The Exotic Sounds of Courtney Jaye" (2010). At times her voice is reminiscent of Neko Case but I can definitely say that her songs are stronger than the ones Neko put on her latest release "Middle Cyclone". I love Neko but she needs some help in the songwriting department. Courtney is definitely beating to the sound of her own drum and I like it! She is an exciting new find for me and I'm going to delve into her other releases soon. Her voice is fantastic and I can tell she has a great band and she's very interesting. Strong 4 star rating!
Frank Turner has a new deluxe edition of his "Poetry of the Deed" album just out. I've read about Frank many times and finally had to hear him. Reminiscent of Billy Bragg, he has a lot to say and he says it well. Apparently he was in a punk band called Avail and then went solo. I've no idea what his old band sounds like but I really like what he's doing at least on this record (he has several out). Kind of reminds me of Chuck Ragan (from Hot Water Music) in a good way. I give this a 3 1/2 rating.
A new little compilation "singles club" from England called: Explorer's Club just released their Volume One called London-Paris. There are 3 songs. Sweet Billy Pilgrim deliver the beautiful "Amina" and Peter Broderick has the gorgeous "Robbie's Song" and Ryan Teague has the very interesting "high knoll" making this a perfect introduction to their little "club". I really love these 3 trax.
Anthony Collins-"Dreaming Of Running" EP (2010) is new techno. I really like 2 of the trax here so I'm going to give it 3 stars.
This next one is one of my TOP PICKS for Week #3. This album is fantastic. Darko Esser-"Balans" (2010). This guy is great. He has put out an exciting new album that delivers. It's not your typical electronic record. It's very creative and VERY well crafted. This album engages from beginning to end. I couldn't get enough. 5 stars!!!
The folk artist Josephine Foster is back with an interesting new release, "Graphic As A Star" is a collection of some poems by Emily Dickinson which she set to music. The reviews I read on this were mostly uncomplimentary. I don't agree with those reviews. I really like Josephine anyway and her fragile and pretty voice sings these poems in a really nice way. If I had to give a criticism it would be that due to the short nature of the poems many of the 27 trax are really short. Perhaps a bit more thought on the instrumentation could have happened. Still I give it a good 3 1/2 rating.
Richard Skelton has a new album "Landings" (2010). I've read about him before and decided to check out this new release. After listening to it I then read an extensive review on it in the January issue of The Wire and he was compared to Arvo Paart and that description clicked for me. It's awash in soundscapes of electronics, pianos (treated) and guitars (SUPER treated) and it's really perfect for a rainy day, which is when I listened to it. Very interesting and sounds excellent on headphones. 3 1/2 rating.
The Imagined Village is a British folk collective of musicians. Naturally, I was intrigued. The have a 2nd release, the new "Empire And Love" (2010). I wanted to like it but none of these songs (some covers) were not engaging me in a good way at all. I had all but given up on it and then the last 3 songs on the album provided an excellent 17 minutes of music! One of which is an amazing cover of "Cum On Feel The Noize" originally from Slade. It's a brilliant interpretation. Then there is a 2nd cover of "Scarborough Square " (String Reprise) that is really excellent. There is another straightforward cover of this song earlier in the album and it did nothing for me, but this one did. Then the other excellent track "Rosebuds in June/Mrs. Preston's Hornpipe" went places that I didn't expect and was the first treat on this record. Since I didn't enjoy all of the earlier songs I can only bestow a measly 2 star rating but I do recommend those last 3 songs!!
Ok, here is another TOP PICK for week #3. The band is called Oh No Ono and their new release is "Eggs" and I found this one to be a stunner! Incredibly creative and unexpected and oh did I mention creative? This is forward thinking new music. It sounds like there must be a lot of people in the band creating all of this wonderful sound. I had some trouble making out some lyrics but on further listening it may become easier. I can't really compare this record to anything which is a REALLY good thing to say. Highly recommended and I give it 4 1/2 stars.
Yet another TOP PICK for week #3 (can you tell yet there is some great new music out so far this year?) is new one from EELS-"End Times" (2010). What can I say? Mr. Everett has delivered what I think is even better than last years excellent "Hombre Lobro" album. This album is a thinker with beautifully sad thoughtful songs. He mixed up the pace of the album in the first half and then mostly abandons that and just delivers stellar songs on how crappy our world is. I LOVE IT!!!! A strong 4 1/2 rating.
This leads perfectly into the next new release: Nick Cave & Warren Ellis deliver "The Road (Original Film Score)" (2010). First of all, my favourite book of 2008 is Cormac McCarthy's "The Road". It's a stunner. Never have I felt more alone in the world than when reading the thoughts and implications of that book. Devastating. After listening to this album I read a rather nasty review of it in the January issue of The Wire which said that the boys pretty much were not up to the task of recreating what was going on in the film. To a SMALL extent I agreed with some of their reasons but on the other hand I find their soundtrack to be mostly fitting to what is happening in the film. It's not my favourite film but I do think that based on the subject that the cast and the visuals in the film worked quite well. Not perfect, but really good. And I guess I can use that to describe this soundtrack. Perhaps a strong 3 1/2 rating is what I will give it. There are some really memorable pieces on here and I think it was well thought out and crafted by these 2 very talented boys so I don't find the need to patch on it.
Fabric is a series. It is a techno club in London as well as a label and that label has a 2 series. One is a mix series and each edition is by a particular artist doing essentially a mix tape. Their other series is that theme taken "live", thus called FabricLive. Just out is the new release to the regular Fabric series and it's #49! This one is from Magda. She is an artist and a dj who has been around for about 12 years. This edition is excellent! She incorporates some of her own material (Most of the compilations have the artists doing that) into the mixes. Very creative and if I were to ever go "dancing" again, this is the kind of material I would enjoy listening to instead of the crap I hear whenever I go to WeHo and those bars just play nothing of any significance. If that was all you were exposed to, you would probably end up thinking there wasn't anything interesting going on in electronic music, but quite the contrary. Thankfully there are a ton of people putting out creative forward thinking electronic music be it whatever flavour of genre one might want to put it into. I prefer to just stick with electronic because some of the music just can't be pinned down to a single description and I really like that. See the Darko Esser album for an example. This is a great addition to the Fabric series and I give it a strong 4 star rating.
This next release isn't a guilty pleasure. It is perhaps a record that I had NO expectations about since their previous records are alright, but nothing spectacular. I was merely just curious and the price was right. :-) Oh, and the reviews are really quite mixed so I'm going to clear this one up right here. It's the latest from OK GO-"Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky" (2010). The first 2 trax are excellent, so it's a great start! The first highlight of the album is track 4 "needing/getting". Spectacular song. The 2nd highlight is the pumping "White Knuckles". I hate to mention this part but it is occasionally true in this record. Several songs you can close your eyes and imagine that if Prince had remained as good and creative as he was in the mid 80s that he could have delivered a few of the songs on this record. The singer does truly sound like Prince in several trax and I really didn't find it to be a negative. It actually put a smile on my face that this audacious white boy attempted the nearly impossible and really pulled it off. This is NOT the case for the entire album. The album is really much more creative than just that so I really have to give it a strong 4 star rating. An unexpected delight.
Tape Deck Moutain deliver their debut album "Ghosts". Wow, this is one creative HOT mess and I REALLY like it! The influences in these guys heads must be swirling around at a rate that equals ADD. Not really a record I can describe much. Instead it's something that one must listen to. I am happily impressed that this came out of San Diego and also by the fact that I'm continually encouraged by the new creative music that really IS coming out. Perhaps noone is talking much about all of the interesting new music coming out, but I am listening and noticing and it makes me very happy. I'll give this (for now) a strong 3 1/2 rating.
Spoon are back with new "Transference" (2010). After seeing them on a late night show last week where they did what I think is one of the weakest trax on the album "Written in Reverse", in which Britt sounded HORRIBLE (apparently vocal troubles) and the song itself was blah! I am surprised that is apparently their "single". So after seeing/hearing that I had to lower my expectations! Thankfully, the rest of the album is MUCH better. "Trouble Comes Running" is definitely my fav as well as my pick for the single. Why didn't someone contact me first? HELLO!!!! Half of this album really is great and the next 3/4 is really good and so I'm giving it a strong 3 3/4 rating! Not quite a 4, but close...
The Hotrats-"Turn Ons" (2010) is essentially a Supergrass covers album - really. There are 12 trax here and I really like only 5. The good ones are: You gotta fight for your right to party (considering I hate the original it was a BIG stretch that I'd dig this, yet it's totally different and it's great. I saw them do it on late night last week and Gaz was in a skirt and totally jamming. Reminded me of why I liked Supergrass in the first place. Anyway, also good on here is: Damaged Goods (Gang of Four), Lovecats (The Cure), Queen Bitch (Bowie), E.M.I. (Sex Pistols). Unforgivable: Love is the drug. What the crap did they do to this? Yuck. Also 'Pump it up' (Costello) has no OOMPH! What is up with that? There are other unmemorable moments like "Crystal Ship" (Doors). It sounds alright but it's a straight cover and it's boring. So, while I really wanted this to be great (I was looking forward to hearing it) I must be honestly objective and say it's not all great. Therefore I can only give it 2 1/2 stars for the 5 trax I really like.
Since it was a BIG release week last week I still have some albums to get to and discuss. Next time we'll hear about: Surfer Blood, Worm Ouroboros, Kevin Barker, Horse Stories, Dawn Landes, Dinowalrus, Cold War Kids, Editors, Joan As Police Woman, Jon Dee Graham & The Fighting Cocks, The Walkabouts (Tribute) & Franck Rogers. I'll post a separate Week # 4 (1/26) new releases listing. Enjoy new music while you are alive!!!!!
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