Review: Petrychor - Dryad

Artist: Petrychor
Title: Dryad
Format: Demo
Year: 2010
Label: None (now signed to Khrysanthoney)
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Rating: 80 / 100

Last year a new label appeared; it was called Khrysanthoney and has already swinged 4 releases into daylight (plus a Velvet Cacoon rerelease), of which I already reviewed two on this blog: Sleeping Peonies' Ghosts, and Other Things and the third Clair Cassis EP; Luxury Absolute. This band, Petrychor, was probably their latest signing, with an album release date planned for somewhere this year. This little demo; Dryad, is some kind of foretaste of what this one-man black metal project has to offer.

When looking to the band's logo and the coverart, it shouldn't be a big surprise when I mention Petrychor plays the atmospheric, probably nature-inspired type of black metal. This description often leads to a huge deception, sometimes because of the exuberant use of keyboards, sometimes because of the terrible sound quality and sometimes because of the uninspired fairytale melodies. In this particular case it leads to something which can easily be described as being one of the better projects active in this style of black metal. Even 'though progression occurs very rarely in black metal, Petrychor seems to almost have the debut this year of putting some renewing elements in their music (except for Sleeping Peonies' first album of course). One of those elements is the extensive use of highly melodic guitar melodies, and even some solos, no mindless Yngwie Malmsteen shredding-until-one-of-your-fingers-catches-fire, but a nice, noisy but melodic addition to the music, fortunately pretty much mixed to the background.

Intros, intermezzos and even one full song are build up by acoustic instruments, mainly piano and acoustic guitar, creating a spacious contrast with the rest of the, almost suffocating, mazes of guitar and synth melodies. Most of this demo is already by far on a level which would fit perfectly on a full album, just two minor points of criticism; the vocals are a bit too whishpery in my opinion for this kind of music, and the drums sound a bit mechanic (I assume they were programmed), but both of these factors form absolutely no problem most of the time. I even read on their website that their debut album will contain acoustic drums, which will hopefully be an improvement for their sound.

This demo forms a very promising debut for Petrychor, leaving me longing for the first real release. Khrysanthoney seems to have a great ear for promising new bands playing a bit unorthodox style of black metal, Petrychor is just a very fine addition to their roster.

Somebody loves you,

Selwin.

Review: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Belong

Artist: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Title: Belong
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Slumberland
Genre: Dream- /indie- /twee pop
Rating: 92 / 100

Yesterday, I wrote something about The Dø being a really nice soundtrack to those first wintry days of the carefully appearing spring. Well, Belong is already with ease my favourite soundtrack to those lovely sunny days in early May, sitting in the grass on the campus or playing volleyball on the beach of that lake nearby on friday evening. Two years ago The Pains of Being Pure at Heart astonished many people by releasing their beautiful self-titled debut album, introducing those aforementioned people to their lovely sugar sweet style of shoegaze, with their airy male/female vocal melodies on top and the noisy fuzzy tones of their Fenders underneath. Belong is nothing more than the sequel to their debut album, building further on the basis they laid down two years ago.

When I first saw the announcement of this new The Pains of Being Pure at Heart album I was really afraid of a big deception. Their previous album was just so much near perfection it would be pretty much impossible to reach that level or even top it. To be fair they didn't really top it, but they came as close as possible. This album is again full of really catchy, sunny music, with a slight melancholic touch. Comparing The Pains if Being Pure at Heart to sugar would maybe be possible while reviewing their previous record, in this case one will have to look for even sweeter options, maybe aspartame will come close. One of the reasons for this increasing sweetness is probably the way fuzz and distortion are used on these tracks, their self-titled debut was pretty noisy at times (which is something I love, don't get me wrong), while Belong is mostly played with clean guitars, and only occasionally features those layers of fuzz one might be used to after hearing their debut.

Something that really grabbed my attention were the vocal melodies on The Body, for some parts sounded exactly like the vocal melodies on Atmosphere by Joy Division, making me wonder whether they were actually inspired by Ian Curtis' ensemble during the writing process. Also the opening melody of My Terrible Friend reminds me very much of one of the melodies of Ceremony, also originally by Joy Division, those last two tones are even exactly the last two words of Love Will Tear Us Apart. I have been in love with Joy Division for almost 4 years now, and really like to hear something of their inheritance back in todays music. Maybe it is just pure coincidence, I don't know, maybe my ears are deceiving me, I don't really care, this is wonderful, and so are the songs I mentioned.

Two years ago they gained quite a lot of attention, this time I am pretty sure they will cause a tiny explosion in Music Land. And if this explosions will ever take place, it's a well-earned one for sure. For now I can't imagine anyone else besides The Pains of Being Pure at Heart deserving it.

Spread the love,

Selwin.

Review: The Dø - Both Ways Open Jaws

Artist: The Dø
Title: Both Ways Open Jaws
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Cinq7
Genre: Experimental pop
Rating: 81 / 100

The world of experimental music could be divided in two parts: experimental music I døn't like and experimental music I dø like, The Dø definitely fits in this last category. I found this album by typing "2011" into Soulseek, and picking out every band with an awesome name, saying this, please don't expect any deep comparisons with their earlier works, because this is really the first I ever heard from them. The only thing I know it's a half French, half Finnish band consisting of the Finnish singer/musician Olivia Merilahti and French multi-instrumentalist Dan Levy. Together they make some kind of indie pop with tiny hints of folk music, probably loved by people who also fell in love with Wounded Rhymes, Lykke Li's last (fantastic) album.

One thing that really distinguishes them from the major part of indie pop bands spoiling your ears nowadays are their very extensive use of all kinds of instruments, it goes from tribal like drumming to glitch beats and samplers, to violins, via trumpets to synthesizers after bleeps, piano, cello, xylophone and even a contrabass, all guided by Olivia's absolute beautiful high-pitched voice. It's an adorable mixture of more traditional instruments with some tiny electronic elements, vocal harmonies and catchy pop melodies. Really a pretty amazing sound accomplished by, at the end, only two musicians.

It's finally spring, the sun is really shining again, and these are the first days where I can leave my winterjacket at home, with The Dø being the soundtrack. Some early morning sunlight and The Dø even makes solving second order recursive equations in the train during rush hour fun. Both Ways Open Jaws is just an extremely decent album which will probably be loved by those who like their pop music a little bit different.

Spread the love, the sun was shining,

Selwin.

Review: The Babies - The Babies

Artist: The Babies
Title: s/t
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Shrimper
Genre: Garage punk/lo-fi
Rating: 77 / 100

A new Vivian Girls album, a new Woods album, both released this spring, and like it's still not enough; here is the first The Babies album. Basically a collaboration between Vivian Girls' Cassie Ramone and Woods' Kevin Morby, together with Nathanael Stark from New York based punkrockers Bent Outta Shape and Justin Sullivan from Ringers. This album is, as expected, indeed some kind of mixture between the punk'ish garage sound of Vivian Girls and the freakfolk from Woods (especially present in the second half of the album).

After listening the album around five times I started looking around on the interwebz whether there were some reviews on this album, suprisingly the first rated this album 4.5 and Pitchfork didn't go any further than a 5.8. One of their biggest problems with the album seem to be a lack of originality, making it hard to stand out in the lo-fi crowd. I have to admit this isn't one of the most progressive albums that came out this spring (I will have to give that award to Kurt Vile, or maybe James Blake), but I rarely heard anyone complain about this while listening to some garage rock band. Yes, it's simple, not it's definitely nothing original, but damn it contains some fantastic catchy tunes. I can imagine a party to tracks like Meet Me In the City or Breaking the Law would be pretty damn fun.

Why oh why didn't you rate it a bit higher then? Well, from Sick Kid on it seems Kevin Morby takes over much of the songwriting (even though I read he is the main songwriter on this whole album), resulting in a bit slower, bit lethargic style of music, definitely more on the Woods side of the musical spectrum. I enjoyed the new Woods album (review soon), but after going party hardy on the first half, the second isn't very special, quite relaxing, definitely not bad, but nothing I would write my mom a letter about. Normally tracks like these can grow on me after listening more often to them, like the first Junip EP's for example, but in this case even after listening the album over 5 times, there's still no mixture of adrenaline and endorfine running through my veins, like what happened while pulling the first half through my well washed ears.

There are some excellent little pieces of garage gold to be found on this album, without any doubt, but the major part of the second half is just a bit too superfluous to really make this an amazing album, for now I'll have to stick to pretty damn ok, resulting in the earlier mentioned score.

Spread some love, ór become a Hypomanie groupie, the choice is yours,

Selwin.

PS: if you have any album you would like to see reviewed here, please write something adorable in the comment section.

Shit's Awes0me: Safeashome

Everybody probably has a couple of bands/artists in mind of which they think are incredibly underrated, in my case on of these bands are Safeashome, a partially electronic shoegaze/noise pop band signed, like Ceremony, to Safranin Sound. Very little is known about this band, they released two singles (Grid and Hateful Town) and an album (Not What Happens) through the aforementioned Safraninsound, but since a year or so I haven't heard a thing about them. The Safranin site is inactive and Safeashome's myspace page has been deleted. It's a pity because in my humble opinion Not What Happens was one of the best albums of 2008, and Hateful Town is still one of my favourite tracks ever. They recorded this track during a live session, a video of this session was published on Youtube, but it took another few months before the track itself was released, too bad they decided to rerecord this track, resulting in a far less interesting version. The version I adore so much:



The first time hearing this track was like hearing what I was looking for in music, it has everything: absolute beautiful unequalled guitar sound, extremely dreamy, noisy, just enough reverb on the vocals, just superb. Everytime I hear this, I wonder why they got so little attention, because if there's one band that deserves it, it's Safeashome. If only you'd give it a chance because their vocalist looks so much like Ian Curtis. I would definitely recommend to look for the whole album, as long as I am online, you can find it on Soulseek, containing an additional 11 pearls of sonic violence, but a bit more hi-fi than the songs posted here. If you're really still not convinced (which would be ridiculous): here's the only pearl I was able to find on the interwebz:



There is another video that was posted last January, if it was posted by one of the bandmembers, or someone from Safranin, there might be a little bit of hope for them coming back someday, in that case, I'll be waiting.

Everyone, please put your reverb in frónt of your fuzz,

Selwin.

J Mascis goes psychedelic

Good morning interwebz,

A couple of days ago I reviewed Several Shades of Why, the fantastic singer-songwriter album by Dinosaur Jr. vocalist J Mascis. Yesterday a video for Not Enough, probably the best track from the album, was published on Vimeo. Of course everyone has been waiting to finally see a drawed version of J Mascis in a hare's stomach, being puked out, drowning in an animated sea, or being burnt in an oven.

Here's a little something to enjoy your weekend even more:



We're all hippies when the light go out,

Selwin.

Review: Times New Viking - Dancer Equired

Artist: Times New Viking
Title: Dancer Equired
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Wichita
Genre: Noise pop / shitgaze
Rating: 67 / 100

They are loud, they are noisy, they put distortion on every synth they can get their hands on, they don't care about production and they have just released a new album: Dancer Equired. Times New Viking is the embodiment of not giving a shit about anything, Times New Viking is the embodiment of pure sonic violence. Being around since 2005, they have an extremely productive history, releasing 5 albums, 2 EP's and a bunch of singles in only 6 years. As I am a huge fan of rumbly noise pop, this is the third album I hear from them, even 'though they didn't change too much in their relatively short lifespan, one might notice they decided to turn the gain knob on their amps and pedals a bit more anticlockwise, making their 2011 album a bit more listenable for the average indie pop fan. This might be a welcome change for them, I personally prefer their more punky, distorted sound on the previous records. Don't get me wrong, this will probably still be considered as extremely noisy compared to your average indie rock band, but this time they will not fuck your speakers up.

Besides some exeptions, most of the tracks are relatively down-tempo, which might be a kind of kamikaze in some cases. Lo-fi and noisy goes perfectly well with uptempo songs like Fuck Her Tears, but lo-fi and noisy and down-tempo pop songs just don't go along very well. Unfortunately, the major part of this album falls into that last category. It's like a part of the musical anger from the earlier albums is gone on Dancer Equired, the musical anger which made me love Times New Viking in the first place. Let's say they went from running on the boulevard, screaming out loud random things, to sitting down on a bench on the boulevard discussing what they did last week. It's a bit of the same traject Smith Western went, improving their sonic quality, but loosing their youth. And oh, how I love youthful music.

One could call this new Times New Viking a vexation, but it is a vexation with some tiny hints of flown awes0meness, to be heard in the opening track: It's a Culture and especially Fuck Her Tears. Every band has its right to disappoint of course, but I hope this was just a little dip, because really, this album isn't so bad after all.

Destroy your ears, but do it with love,

Selwin.

Review: Smith Westerns - Dye It Blonde

Artist: Smith Westerns
Title: Dye It Blonde
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Fat Possum
Genre: Post-glam (omg, such a hip genre name, should definitely arouse some people with large black glasses.)
Rating: 73 / 100

Smith Westerns' self-titled debut was definitely one of the best garage records to come out in 2009. 30 minutes of distorted drums, guitars, vocals and yes, even distorted synths. Smith Westerns was a powerful introduction to their lo-fi simple garage rock sound many seemed to love. Somewhere in 2010 they decided to leave the garage and visit a proper studio together with producer Chris Coady. There is very little wrong with career changes and renewing yourself, but in the case of lo-fi garage bands, I don't really see why it is necessary. Most people (like me) like it so much because of that unpolished, pure rock sound. Production really isn't something to worry about when you play music like Smith Westerns do, unfortunately they did, resulting in Dye It Blonde, something which could almost be described as a modern glam rock album, probably even inspired by T. Rex.

Now I can almost hear you screaming your lungs out, asking me whether this really is a bad album? The most simple answer I will be able to offer you is: "No". It was just a bit of a shock to discover one of my favourite garage bands changed their style from something which was close to noise pop to something so polished and even radio-friendly they could easily be the opening act for the new Peter Bjorn and John tour. Now, I have to admit I actually enjoyed Peter Bjorn and John's last album, and likewise, I have to admit I also enjoyed this new Smith Westerns album. It was a bit more difficult than the last one, but after all it's a very decent pop album containing some fairly catchy tunes.

Some songs on this record are actually single-worthy, so much even, they actually released the first song of this album: Weekend as a single, I would personally have preferred Imagine Pt. 3 for it's amazing cathiness, but Weekend will do fine for me too. Saying this, rating this album being a pop album would be much easier, because after all, it is pretty decent pop music with a little raw edge reminding of the few years they spent in their garages. Rating this as a Smith Westerns album is just very hard because I don't know what to think about their sudden change in sound. That's I will go for the first option, and just rate it like it is the debut album of some new American rock band.

Sit down in the grass and enjoy the sunlight of early spring, while doing so, please try to spread some love,

Selwin. 

Review: The Low Anthem - Smart Flesh

Artist: The Low Anthem
Title: Smart Flesh
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Bella Union/Smart Flesh
Genre: Folk/americana
Rating: 79 / 100

It has already been more than a month since this record was released (official releasedate was February 21st), but it was three days ago when I finally decided to really pull those tones through my speakers and let my ears enjoy the soothing tones The Low Anthem has to offer. And to be fair it actually was my first experience with The Low Anthem. Being quite a young band it is very surprising to hear their more traditional, almost americana like folk sound, with the regular use of unconventional instruments like an autoharp, pipe organ, horns and flutes. In this modern wave of folk music they tend to stand out due to their more traditional approach, where bands like Mumford & Sons or The Avett Brothers go for the bit more modern folkrock sound, The Low Anthem keeps it more simple, focussing on the true basis of folk music, but with the fine addition of somewhat, in pop music at least, forgotten instruments.

The overall sound of the album is pretty introvert, quite relaxing actually, it sometimes reminds me a bit of slowcore bands like Bedhead or Codeïne, but the folky variant of course. This melancholic atmosphere could with ease attract devotees of this genre, together with those who enjoy the traditional sound of americana. Something one wouldn't normally hear in records in this genre is the very heavy bass sound, that is, the very heavy bass sound in some songs. Especially tracks like Boeing 737 and Hey, All You Hippies! (love that title) have a very heavy, droning bass underneath, in stark contrast to the folky tones above, and the jangling banjo and high-pitched flutes on the rest of the album. This bass is probably what was necessary in some cases to come to those lovely climaxes to be heard at the end of some songs on this album, which really is a big plus.

People who read this blog regularly might have noticed I really like modern folk music, that is the reason why I couldn't really get into this album the first time. It's very different from what you would expect from a folk album released in 2011, nevertheless, Smart Flesh is a beautiful addition to their still very modest discography. It's the perfect bridge between modernity and traditionality, which will hopefully be discovered further the upcoming few years, because this bridge offers a nice perspective of how folk music could be played.

Spread some apothecary love,

Selwin.

New Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) song published.

Good afternoon dear interwebz,

Whoaa, it's 30 years after the formation of Sonic Youth and Thurston Moore is still as active as an average seismometer in Japan. Besides the recently released soundtrack for Simon Werner a Disparu, he has apparently also been busy writing and recording for a new solo album. Yesterday my grey/blue eyes bumped onto this new Thurston Moore song, it's a preview of his newly released solo album, of which I can't find the title yet. What I do know is the fact that Beck produced this album, and I assume also this song. It's called Benediction and features Samara Lubelski who plays the violin on this track. The result is a 5 minute, very subtle, very soft, whispery singer-songwriter'esque harmony which I would love to share with you.

Thank you NPR Music for having the world premiere:



  Thurston Moore - Benediction

Spread the love!

Selwin

Review: Tennis - Cape Dory

Artist: Tennis
Title: Cape Dory
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Fat Possum
Genre: Surf pop / dream pop (despite the album cover, suggesting some cheesy 80's electronic radio friendly album, one would normally try to avoid.)
Rating: 88 / 100

Yes, I am definitely aware of the fact that this is already the third album I review on here of a band that is part of this new wave of American lo-fi, female-fronted (surf) pop bands. First we had the new Dum Dum Girls EP, followed by the third Vivian Girls album and now we have this debut album by husband/wife band Tennis. Even 'though they're pretty new to this genre, they already accomplished two things: 1) getting signed to Fat Possum Records (Dinosaur Jr., Wavves, Smith Westerns) and 2) alomost becoming my favourite in this genre in a very short amount of time.

Searching a bit on the widespread interwebz, you'll notice the two members (Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore) who together formed Tennis have a pretty strange history. They met in college, sold most of their possessions and decided to travel the seas together for almost a year on a sailboat. Their temporary life on the ocean is now translated into this record: Cape Dory (which is a brand of yachts, apparently). The sound is exactly what you would expect from a record probably mostly inspired by the seas, sailing and the American coasts; sunny, lo-fi, simple, but very effective. Yes, like Best Coast, you're totally right, but atmospherically speaking they are so different. Best Coast fans will adore this record, that's for sure, but Tennis is definitely different enough to be able to stand out, and not be called superfluous. One of the reasons being their dreamy, relaxt atmosphere. It's like sailing indeed, it's even more like laying down on a boat's deck, with the only thing to worry about it whether the next bottle of wine will be red or white.

Tennis is a very delicate addition to the modern American pop scene, with Cape Dory only being their first effort, they are an extremely promising band from which I would love to hear more in the future. They seem to be the umpteenth in a line of excellent signings of Fat Possum Records, which hopefully will not come to an end in the near future.

"You never have to go to work"

Selwin.

Review: Codes In The Clouds - As the Spirit Wanes

Artist: Codes In The Clouds
Title: As the Spirit Wanes
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Erased Tapes
Genre: Post-rock
Rating: 80 / 100

Finally, after two years, the second Codes in the Clouds album has been released, well actually it was already released this January, but as there is a giant wave of quality records coming out these months, I missed it. Too bad, because I really enjoyed their 2009 debut album Paper Canyon. Being aware of the fact that Codes In The Clouds isn't really the best known post-rock band to mankind, an introduction to this British band could be welcome. As you probably already read in the description, Codes In The Clouds is a post-rock band, one of many, and yes, very similar to both Explosions In The Sky and Mogwai. Originality in the field of post-rock is an extremely hard thing to accomplish being a band formed in 2007, and indeed, they fail. Is this necessarily a bad thing? No, not really, but they might have to confront the issue of not being noticed in the giant melancholic grey mass called modern post-rock.

The music on As The Spirit Wanes will definitely not be the problem, from an objective point of view, this really is qualitatively well-written music, ignoring the standard rock patterns, and thus more or less following the standard post-rock patters. But besides the soft tremolo-picking, dynamic song construction and associated climaxes, there is the subtle addition of some more traditional instruments, including a violin on You And I Change Like Seasons, a trumpet on The Reason In Madness, In Love and glockenspiel on Washington. Not in a way Godspeed You! Black Emperor uses them, but as a nice addition to the overall guitar sound, especially the way the trumpet is used in this kind of music is pretty renewing and actually sounds very good. Too bad it only appears on one of the ten tracks on this album.

As the Spirit Wanes is a very, very decent record, and could even be described as a great album if it would have been released before this huge wave of modern post-rock bands. In 2011, I am afraid Codes In The Clouds just lack a little bit of quality to really stand out, mainly because their sound is more post-rock than post-rock itself. As a consequence, I will give this album 80 / 100, even though it might be possible I will rarely listen to this album again.

In the name of love, spread some love,

Selwin.

Shit's Awes0me: Alessi's Ark

Last time I was talking about Julia Stone on here, this time I would like to shed some light on her British collegue Alessi, performing with some more musicians under the name Alessi's Ark. As said, her music is very similar to that of Julia Stone, the main difference being that Alessi's music is bit folkier, a bit more natural, the other difference being her voice, both Julia and Alessi have very unique voices, Alessi having a bit lower, more vibrating tone.

In her short history of existence she released a couple of albums and EP's, some of them even released by her own label; Zooey, one of them being her last work: Soul Proprietor. The last song on this 4-track EP is called Bird Song and is a collaboration with Willkommen Collective. It's not one of her typical songs, but it's a lovely preview of what direction she might be going in the near future.



Previous to this EP, in 2009, she released one of my favourite folk albums of the past couple of years: Notes From the Treehouse of which Woman is my absolute favourite. It's probably the most introvert track on this album, and provoking a lot of joy when discovering this: she actually performed this track live on a balcony in Dublin, with Marcus (Sons of Noel and Adrian) on the background playing guitar and doing background vocals. Like falling in love:



I hope so much this was enough to convince you of her undescribable cuteness, awes0meness and absolute unique way of composing contemporary folk music.

Spread the love, yellow paint and purplefuzzylowglow,

Selwin.

Review: Starfucker - Reptilians

Artist: Starfucker
Title: Reptilians
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Polyvinyl
Genre: Electronic/synth-pop
Rating: 89 / 100

Starfucker (for censorship reasons also regularly spelled STRFKR) is a Portland based electronic band, founded in 2006. Since that year they spit out three albums, of which this Reptilians is their last. Is this synthpop? Yes. Is it lame, cheesy, 80's inspired synthpop? Definitely not. Starfucker is probably one of the best introductions one could have to this genre. Even I, who normally tries to keep a little bit of distance to electronic music, was absolutely amazed by their renewing sound palet, uplifting synth melodies and whisper'ish vocals. In the oh so colourful virtual music landscape Starfucker would probably be found jumping around in a flowery field somewhere between Cut Copy and The Knife.

One of the music's distinguishing characteristics for me are really the vocals. No vocals send in and out vocoder after vocoder, autotuned and then sent through some obscure 60's tape delay, but just soft almost whisphering, subtle vocals, mixed a bit to the background. Making me wonder whether they aren't secretly shoegaze devotees in their spare time, because really, those vocals would perfectly fit on some random dream pop album. They definitely make this whole album a lot more dreamy than one would expect from a Portland based synth-pop band. When thinking about these characteristics: Portland, synth-pop, 2011, one would normally expect some Crystal Castles'ish new rave band, but really no, Starfucker is a whole different story. Starfucker is new rave's tender little sister, focussing more on subtle atmospheric melodies instead of pounding beats and highly overdriven synths.

This is one of the few times I have absolutely no material to compare this album to, because I never heard their older albums, and still haven't got the chance to finally listen them. But this is also on of the few times I absolutely don't need any comparison material/context/historical background to realize this is an amazingly catchy electronic album which could with ease be enjoyed by any dream pop fan. Really, if you enjoyed Papercuts' last album, and have absolutely nothing against the exuberant use of electronic instruments, I am convinced you should give this record a try.

Distribute some purple paint, and spread the love,

Selwin.

Review: Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo

Artist: Kurt Vile
Title: Smoke Ring For My Halo
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Matador
Genre: Pyschedelic bedroom pop
Rating: 78 / 100

Our long-haired, in his bedroom living, constant hitmaker being musician is back, and I was waiting for it. Being addicted to his 2008 album Constant Hitmaker, I was expecting a lot from this new Smoke Ring For My Halo. Expectations were pretty high, but Kurt Vile is able to make those high expectation come true. For those who never heard of Kurt Vile before, he is a in Philidelphia living musician, mostly known for his psychedelic sounding, bit lo-fi bedroom pop. It's pure, raw pop music made by someone who obviously fell in love with his room full of instruments. To be more precise, his music could be decribed as a mix between the indiepop of Liam Finn, the singer-songwriter of Bon Iver and some random psychedelic 60's band.

This album is full of tracks built up by a shitload of interfering individual tracks, often making it one big maze of melodies. On previous albums this was also present, but here he takes it a couple of steps further, surprisingly making it a bit poppier than Constant Hitmaker and Childish Prodigy, where single loops were often present during most of a song. This time he seems to have put more time into the overall songwriting of this album, making it a bit less Kurt Vile, but still a very enoyable piece of music. Kurt especially excels in his more acoustic oriented tracks like Baby's Arms and Peeping Tomboy, where he expresses his great talent to build up fairly complex little melodies on his guitar. Another point where Kurt Vile peeps out of the grey mass, is, whether you like it or not, his occasional use of dissonants in his tracks, not often being heard in modern pop music.

Being contemporary psychedelica in its finest form, Some Ring For My Halo really caught my attention again, just like his previous records, but it just misses that little bit of catchiness to really stand out, and become one of my personal favourites of this year. No problem, maybe it needs a couple of more spins before I will be screaming along and drowning in euphoria while listening.

Tea with honey is classic, spread the love,

Selwin.

Review: Sleeping Peonies - Ghosts, and Other Things

Artist: Sleeping Peonies
Title: Ghosts, and Other Things
Format: EP
Year: 2011
Label: Khrysanthoney
Genre: Heavily fuzzing black metal
Rating: 81 / 100

Somehwere along Velvet Cacoon's footsteps, Sleeping Peonies appeared last year with their first demo Rose Curl, Sea Swirl. It was very positively received among some Clair Cassis, Velvet Cacoon and Alcest devotees. It wouldn't be a big surprise to mention that Sleeping Peonies' style of Black Metal lies somehwere between these bands. It has the droning sound of the earlier on this blog discussed Clair Cassis, but the dreaminess often found within Neige's compositions, mixed with some Lovesliescrushing/Astrobrite tender fuzziness. All with all Sleeping Peonies creates a fairly original blend of tones, but obviously inspired (also lyrically) by Josh/Clair Cassis, it even makes me wonder if Josh isn't involved in any way.

This EP is basically the Krysanthoney sequel to their first EP, which was nothing more but a very fine introduction to Sleeping Peonies' sound: a droning bass, which often makes me seasick, delayed drums (what the fudge? yes, really) and a blurred wall of fuzzy guitars. New on this EP are the occasionally appearing samples and the introduction of a synth. Vocals are tortured moans, mixed to the background, of course drenched in reverb and delay, like practically every other instrument on this EP. This might make it hard to distinguish every instrument, every melody, but who the fudge ever wants to hear a single melody when your ears could be pampered with the harmony of hundreds.

This is black metal at its absolute sweetest, it's one big noisy, fuzzy haze of rumbling violence, but with a gentle marination of chocalate, cinnamon and brown sugar. Very few will ever top Babysbreath by Lovesliescrushing or Astrobrite's Tearjerker, but this EP approaches a lot closer than most of the other albums made in this style.

Nothing solves iterated integrals better than cinnamon,

Selwin.

Review: J Mascis - Several Shades of Why

Artist: J Mascis
Title: Several Shades of Why
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Sub Pop
Genre: Grungy singer-songwriter
Rating: 91 / 100

People who are reading this but don't recognize this name: shame on you. J Mascis is the grey, long haired, often basebal cap wearing singer of legendary rockband Dinosaur Jr. So, with this in the back of one's head, one would probably think of screaming Fender Jazzmasters, pounding drums and distorted bass, definitely not about a very introvert and clear J Mascis, singing sweet, subtle songs, guided by gentle acoustic guitars and an occasionally appearing violin. Whether you believe it or not (which would be a ridiculous thing to do), that is what Several Shades of Why is all about. At my first listen I really had to get used to J Mascis' voice in this context, his raw voice, which gradually evolved since the birth of Dinosaur JR, isn't new for me, it's also what he sounds like on the amazing 2009 Dinosaur Jr. album Farm, and even on his guest appearance at Mew's Why Are You Looking Grave? This first listen was a bit strange, but from the second time on, everything fell into place, and I was finally able to really enjoy this album in the way it was meant to.

On Several Shades of Why some guests appear, of which two names really caught my attenction, first there is Kurt Vile, a singer-songwriter primarily known for his somewhat lo-fi sound, the other name was really surprising for me; Godspeed You! Black Emperor/A Silver Mt. Zion's Sophie Trudeau plays the violin on the title track. Together with these guest appearances, this album was probably the biggest surprise for me this winter/early spring. J Mascis moves very far away from what he normally does, but he does it with so much passion, so much quality, this could with ease become one of my favourite records of this year.

Eternal youth: J Mascis has it,

Selwin.

Review: Noah and the Whale - Last Night on Earth

Artist: Noah and the Whale
Title: Last Night on Earth
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Vertigo Records
Genre: Folky pop/rock
Rating: 66 / 100

Ever since this new album leaked onto the interwebz, there was almost a wave of criticism for this record, curious as I am I gave this new Noah and the Whale album a spin. I must say it isn't by far as renewing as the first two albums; Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down and The First Days of Spring, on the other hand, it isn't as bad as most of the people seem to say it is. It is very different from the sunny folk pop heard on the first album, and the more melancholic sound of the second album. This time they included some electronic beats, which were so surprising, I had to check at the first track whether this was really Noah and the Whale (I shit you not). Normally when I say surprising it is meant as being a good thing, in this case it was a really bad surprise to be honest. Noah and the Whale, computer produced beats and synthesizers just don't go along very well.

Some people compared this new Noah and the Whale album to Bruce Springsteen, this comparison, especially when listening to L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N, is actually pretty accurate. For the rest of the album a bit less, but they are definitely moving towards a more Bruce Springsteen type of pop/rock sound. Since I absolutely hate Bruce's music, it would be a huge improvement if he and his E-street Band were the ones to release this album, but come on, this is Noah and the Whale, they released two albums I love so much. This one is a bit of a disappointment compared to those earlier albums, when you listen to the album itself although, not looking at the band that released it, it isn't that bad. In that particular case, it's a somewhat average pop/rock album with some folky and some more electronic influences.

Saying this, I don't really hate, nor really like this new Noah and the Whale record. In these days, when there is such an overload of albums coming out every week, I am afraid this will sink deep into the grey mass of mediocrity. Fortunately they released two very enjoyable records before sinking away, and maybe, some day, they will find themselves back in the studio recording a third one. For now, I will just hope that intro of Life is Life will not cause any nightmares, it was almost as frightening as hearing Sigur Rós announcing a reggae album.

Spread some love, I know you're able to,

Selwin.

Review: Heretoir - Heretoir

Artist: Heretoir
Title: s/t
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Northern Silence
Genre: Black metal with some depressive rock elements
Rating: 70 / 100

This was an album I was really looking forward to, because, in my opinion Heretoir has always been a very promising band. Their first demo/EP Existenz, released in 2008 and the splits with Thränenkind, Soliness, Shyy, Ethereal Beauty, Dopamine and Dernier Martyr were a bit of a mediocre, but pretty promising introduction to what Heretoir was all about: the mixture of black metal with various elements from depressive rock bands like Katatonia and Anathema, and, since this new album, some minor post-rock influences.

With half clean, half screamed vocals and a bit of a dreamy overall sound, Heretoir fits, genre-wise, in the same tradition as acts like Alcest, Amesoeurs, Lantlôs and all the above mentioned bands/projects. And, like most other bands in this row, they are, with every release, moving further and further away from their black metal background. It's of course still undoubtedly present, but where on most black metal albums blastbeats are present in abundance, on this records they are mostly replaced by more down-tempo drum patterns, followed by a mixture of hazy guitars and, occasionally, some acoustic melodies.

The thing I loved so much about the first Alcest album Souvenirs d'un Autre Monde was the unprecedented, extraordinary dreamy atmosphere. This thing I love so much about Alcest is what I miss a bit on this record: It's there somewhere, oh yes, it's definitely there, but it isn't by far as present as on the earlier mentioned French band's first record. The self-titled debut of Heretoir is more mechanic, especially because of the drumsound, which was probably recorded in a studio this time. The thing I hate about modern studio's, or better said: about modern recording technique is the excessive use of compression, mainly on the drums. In this case it results in a somewhat mechanic overall tone of the music. Which really wasn't necessary, because the drumming patterns fit really well to this kind of music.

Overall, this album is pretty good, but to be fair, it's still in the stage of being promising. I hope their new album will be beyond that stage, while not becoming a clone of some of Neige's projects. I also hope it will be released before this whole new post-black metal thing gets over the top, if it hasn't already. Oh, and before I forget: curly logos are soooo 2010.

Spread the love, goddamnit,

Selwin.

Shit's Awes0me: Julia Stone

For those who have been living underneath a rock, in a cave or in Oklahoma for the past 5 years, and thus haven't heard of the name Julia Stone, I will try to introduce the most beautiful female voice in modern folk music first; Julia Stone is essentially the female half of the Australian folk duo Angus & Julia Stone, who are, as the name also suggests, siblings. Both were already playing music before Angus & Julia Stone formed, one could say they are two solo musicians playing together. Angus and Julia released two albums together: A Book Like This (2008) and Down The Way (2010), which was, with distance, my favourite record of that year. This same year Julia Stone also released her solo album The Memory Machine, an album essentially in the same nature as both Angus & Julia Stone albums, but a bit more introvert and, of course, primarily featuring female vocals. At a live concert last year in Amsterdam (so happy I was there) they played probably the most beautiful song of Julia Stone's solo album: Where Does The Love Go. I am really happy to have finally found this song, because I initially wasn't even aware of the existence of a solo appearance of Julia Stone. Because of my euphoria, I'd love to share it with you:



Julia Stone rarely performs live solo, but in March and May Angus & Julia Stone will tour pretty much whole Western Europe (except Holland, boohoo), and the 15th they will perform live at the Coachella Valley Music and Art Festival in Indio, California. if you have nothing to do, if your boyfriend/girlfriend is finally saturated, if you prefer a Heart Full of Wine, or find yourself frequently asking yourself "Where Does The Love Go?", I would really like to advise anyone who reads this to visit on of their concerts, it's a magical experience, I promise.

It's such a shame this video doesn't include a picture of her, so I had to include one myself, she is just so amazingly cute while singing.

Please everyone, spread the love!

Selwin.

Review: Vivian Girls - Share the Joy

Artist: Vivian Girls
Title: Share The Joy
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Polyvinyl Records
Genre: Garage Girl Pop
Rating: 82 / 100

What? new Dum Dum Girls ánd Vivian Girls releases in just one week? Well, not really, He Gets Me High was actually released this week (I think), this new Vivian Girls album has just leaked, but will be released this spring. As you might have noticed, I am a huge Vivian Girls fan, ever since their debut album in 2008, I fell in love with their fast, melodic, noisy garage pop. Some changes have been made since this first record, they changed their drummer a few times, from Frankie Rose (now in Frankie Rose and the Outs) to Ali Koehler (now in Best Coast) to Fiona Campbell (former Coasting member). The music, fortunately, stayed the same. This is already the third full album filled with chaotic, but dreamy little pearls, very similar to the earlier mentioned Dum Dum Girls (w0wzerz, see review below), and even more Best Coast.

The thing where Vivian Girls really distinguishes themselves from these other bands is the teamwork of vocal melodies. Vivian Girls' bassplayer Katy Goodman (that dangeroulsy good looking girl, on the picture) forms a little one-girl-choir by doing the background vocals on this album, giving it a little bit more of a 60's girl group feeling (think The Ronettes, The Shangri-las). And since I totally adore both The Ronettes and The Shangri-las, I also adore this new Vivian Girls record. The only little thing I noticed while comparing this one to the first two is that the happiness and "up-temponess" of these records is a little bit gone on Share the Joy. But that, dear tea-with-sugar-enjoying, soon Hypomanie groupies being sweethearts, is basically all that can be said about this lovely piece of rumbly music.That, besides I really didn't think it was necessary to include a full band picture when your bass player is so cute.

Spread the rumble, and don't forget to put more reverb on your drums,

Selwin.

Edit (March 27th): I noticed a huge mistake in the title, sorry, it should be Share the Joy of course.

Review: Dum Dum Girls - He Gets Me High

Artist: Dum Dum Girls
Title: He Gets Me High
Format: EP
Year: 2011
Label: Sub Pop
Genre: 60's girl group/Noise Pop
Rating: 71 / 100

Sub Pop is getting popular here, first a fantastic release by Papercuts, then the signing of two amazing new dream pop bands, and now this new Dum Dum Girls EP. The Dum Dum Girls are part of this fresh wave of female American garage bands, including Vivian Girls, Frankie Rose and The Outs, PENS and, since Ali Koehler joined, Best Coast. All playing mostly the same style of fuzzy, noisy, surfy, punk inspired pop music.

This EP is a 13 minute sequel to their debut album I Will Be, before their official debut they also released some EP's (three I guess) and a 4-way split with Grafitti Island, Crocodiles and PENS. Compared to their earlier releases absolutely nothing has changed, still the same simple, garage pop. This time they chose to cover There Is a Light That Never Goes Out, orginally recorded by The Smiths. By covering a song like this, there is always the possibility of raping a classic, which they really didn't. They made this songs theirs in the same manner Nouvelle Vague makes 80's new wave classics theirs. I even have to admit I like the Dum Dum Girls version just a little bit more.

The other three songs are just like one has heard earlier from them, the first two a bit more up-tempo, the third a bit slower. The reason why I didn't give this EP any higher is because I like Dum Dum Girls the most playing fast, and this EP was just a bit too slow for me, no problem, but it keeps me from jumping around the house. I love Dum Dum Girls, and always will, this release is definitely their best EP, but if it was just a bit faster, it could easily be rated 10 points higher.

Everyone! Put more reverb on your drums!

Selwin.

Sub Pop goes Dream Pop

Good morning dear interwebz,

This monday Sub Pop announced they signed two new bands: Still Corners and Memoryhouse. I am not easily amazed by new music I hear, but I have to admit, they both didn't fail to amaze me. It's Dream Pop of the sweetest kind, if honey could sing, it would go something like Still Corners, if caramel could sing it would go something like Memoryhouse, it's like sweet wine in polaroid. Don't believe me? Please do:


Still Corners


Memoryhouse


 I am dearly sorry for not including the full video's on this page, but otherwise this blog will become as slow as Myspace and nobody wants that to happen, right? Sub Pop announced the new Still Corners record to be released this summer, unfortunately you'll have to wait for anything from Memoryhouse until the end of 2011. In the meantime there are still enough bottles of sweet wine and boxes of candy and chocolate to be found in a store nearby to survive this spring.

Also I will have to hit myself in my face if I would't have showed you this: Millionyoung's remix of To The Lighthouse.

Please spread some polaroid love,

Selwin.

Review: Clair Cassis - Luxury Absolute

Artist: Clair Cassis
Title: Luxury Absolute
Format: EP
Year: 2011
Label: Not yet released, probably Khrysanthoney
Genre: Droning Black Metal
Rating: 72 / 100

Somewhere in 2009 just after the release of Velvet Cacoon's Atropine and P aa Opal Poere Pr. 33, Josh probably decided it was enough and formed Clair Cassis. In both line-ups there are multiple other members mentioned (with exciting names like Angela and Daniel Marvin), but as there are so many lies spread by Josh surrounding his music, I will for now assume he is the only member. The sound of Clair Cassis' records are basically the same as the Velvet Cacoon records, the only difference being the length of the songs and the absence of any ambient tracks (thank some imaginary creature). And as I never get sick of this droning type of Black Metal, I also enjoyed all three Clair Cassis EP's. This third one is more of the same, more low-tuned, atmospheric bassy music, apparently inspired by luxury, parfume and, if those stories are true, drugs. Songs are really short for this type of music, while most Velvet Cacoon songs are around the 5 minute mark, only one song on this EP lasts longer than 3 minutes. Oh, how I love lengthy songs, aiming for some kind of climax, few things are better than sex, but I just tried to describe something which approaches it more than anything this life can give you.

Ok, you will not find anything like that on this record, period. What's left is one giant haze of out-of-this-world tones, guided by what seems to be a drumcomputer and followed by the same raspy vocals as those found on the early Velvet Cacoon albums. If you liked those, there is little to dislike about Luxury Absolute, if you felt like throwing up while listening to Genevieve and/or Dextronaut there is very little to like about this album. Nothing has improved since, but improvement has never been necessary. Multiple messages are spread over the interwebz about both Velvet Cacoon and Clair Cassis being split-up, I have to say that after three Clair Cassis EP's in such a short time, I am saturated. The two EP's released after the first were even a bit superfluous to be fair. For now I am waiting for the new Sleeping Peonies album to arrive, same style, different implementation, I am really really curious.

As mentioned in the description above, Luxury Absolute hasn't yet been released, that's why I will include the download link Khrysanthoney published on their website. For everyone who likes getting raped at night, as long as it's in luxury.

Loukoumia > Rosewater Cake

Selwin.

Shit's Awes0me: Ceremony

A couple of years after the wave of shoegaze violence in the late 80's, early 90's Skywave was formed. Active from somewhere in the mid 90's to 2004, they released 3 albums and a couple of EP's, all pretty lo-fi The Jesus and Mary Chain'ish noisy shoegaze. After their demise in 2004 Paul Baker and John Fedowitz formed Ceremony, basically a continuation of Skywave, minus Oliver Ackermann, who is now playing in A Place To Bury Strangers and was replaced by a drumming machine.

Personally I never really got into those Skywave songs, a bit too lo-fi, not the hazy melodies My Bloody Valentine has or the beautiful sweetness of Slowdive. Ceremony is a whole other story, their songwriting approach is a bit more noisepop instead of the echoing post-punk on the Skywave records. Something Skywave never had, but Ceremony's records are full of, is catchyness. Probably one of the main reasons why they got signed to Brainwashed Recordings (home of Soundpool, Jessica Bailiff, Thisquietarmy and industrial lengends Coil). To give you a little impression of how Ceremony sounds nowadays, my personal favourite of their 2010 album Rocket Fire.




Before Rocket Fire they settled for one cd-r called Disappear at one of my favourite record labels; Safranin Sound (Screen Vinyl Image, Safeashome, The Vera Violets). Unfortunately Safranin Sound seems to be inactive for almost a year now so it might be a bit hard to lay hour hands on this shiny piece of recordable, yet affordable polycarbonate plastic. The upcoming weeks they are touring Europe (especially Germany) together with The Lost Rivers, come and see them if you happen to live nearby, and please, bring some earprotection. If you're still not convinced of the inarguable awesomeness of this band, this is Call My Name from their Safranin debut. The quality is low for some reason, it must be the LOUDNESS. Earpiercing in this case also means speakerpiercing.




Spread the love and the inarguable loud awesomeness of Ceremony,

Selwin.

Review: The Dirtbombs - Party Store

Artist: The Dirtbombs
Title: Party Store
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: In The Red Records
Genre: Garage band goes Techno
Rating: 41 / 100

As you might have noticed, The Dirtbombs are from Detroit, the home of many famous and less famous artists like The White Stripes, MC5 and The Gories (Mick Collins' previous band). Detroit is also known for a fair amount of techno artists. Mick Collins and his Dirtbombs really thought it was a good idea to make a garage rock album covering some of these songs. For me personally the mixture of techno and garage rock could as well be dumped in the same imaginary trash bin as alternative country black metal, avant-garde speedfunk, atmospheric Bar Mitsvahcore, party death metal and 8-bit polka blues.

The Dirtboms already had a bit of a weird history concerning the sound of all the individual albums they produce. Ultraglide in Black was some kind of bluesy rock, We Have You Surrounded left all the blues and sounded somewhat more like a "general" garage rock album. Now we have Party Store, I had a really hard time listening this whole album at once, one of the main reasons being me asking myself frequently what the musicians were thinking during the recording process. Maybe they have a certain gift, making them enjoy techno played by fuzzy guitars, a gift I obviously don't have, making me unable to enjoy the anti-harmonic, uncohesive, repititive way of playing, often present on this record.

Normally I wouldn't review records containing a genre I can't enjoy, like most hip-hop and r 'n b, but this is The Dirtbombs, a band I used to enjoy. Looking at the rest of their discography I would, with ease, call this a superfluous record. At the moment when an obscure split with King Khan & His Shrines is a more valuable addition to your list of recordings than a newly released full-length, there is something wrong. Looking at the oh, so famous interwebz, there are apparently a huge amount of people who seem to like this album. Maybe this record would be better if I was into obscure Detroit techno, but to be fair, I am not. For now, 41/100 is more than enough.

Spread the love,

Selwin.

Review: Deafheaven - Roads to Judah

Artist: Deafheaven
Title: Roads to Judah
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Deathwish Records
Genre: Extremely Hip Post-Black Metal
Rating: 90 / 100

One of the biggest surprises of 2010 for me was definitely the first Deafheaven demo. Even 'though they really aren't the first to play this style of modern Black Metal, in my humble opinion they are the first to do it in the right manner. Of course I enjoyed Two Hunters and Black Cascade by Wolves in the Throne Room, but those were still a kind of regular Black Metal albums, just with a little atmospheric touch and some clean passages. Roads to Judah seems to bring this type of music to a whole new level, obviously more inspired by non-Black Metal related genres like screamo and post-rock, this records basically blows a whole lot of the Black Metal releases put out nowadays to tiny little pieces.

Compared to the demo, which was released less than a year before their debut album, very few things changed. The overall production improved a little bit, which actually wasn't a necessary thing to do, because the production of the demo was already perfect for this kind of music. It's still not overproduced 'though, which is something I was afraid of when this album was announced and especially when I read it would be released by Deathwish Records, a label normally releasing only screamo, metalcore and hardcore bands.

There is one change in sound I, as a post-rock devotee, really adore, this is the introduction of more clean guitars and more complex drum patterns. On the demo these clean parts were recorded using an acoustic guitar, I have absolutely nothing against acoustic guitars (oh, how I love all those folk albums coming out these years), but acoustic guitars and metal are still a somewhat doubtful marriage, even when you're playing music like Deafheaven does. But, good for me, they seem to have dumped those acoustic guitars in a nearby trashbin, set them on fire, or threw overboard in the Atlantic (yai, subtle Black Lips hint), and continued with the in metal naturalised electric instruments. 

This is not only music for the extremely hip, this is just a fantastic metal record, mainly focussing on the atmosphere most of the Black Metal records are missing nowadays. There is just one little minus, the demo was good, the album great, but after another album or two this just might get a little boring. I just hope they will keep improving their sound, and especially keep experimenting with more influences, instruments, sounds and structures.

Love you all!

Selwin.

Review: Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes

Artist: Lykke Li
Title: Wounded Rhymes
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: LL Recordings
Genre: Atmospheric Female Pop 
Rating: 86 / 100


Three years after her debut album Youth Novels, here's the sequel Wounded Rhymes, which was released, just like Youth Novels, on her own record label LL Recordings. Lykke Li is the stage name of the Swedish Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson. She plays a very atmospheric style of modern pop music, the overall sound is basically what would happen if M83 and Sarah Blasko would make an album together. It's beat driven music with a very heavy accent on vocal melodies, creating a dreamy cohesive wall not often to be heard in this particular style of music. One of the main reasons for liking her music is the organic, human sound she produces. Most instruments on this album seem to be physical instruments, even 'though there are of course some synthdriven parts to be found, but the main source of melody in her case are both her, often multilayered, vocals and the bassguitar droning underneath.

Everything summed up, you get a release which can actually only be produced by Phil Spector, what? that Lana Clarkson murdering, white man's afro having, almost forgotten 60's producer? Yes, remember the good ol' days when Crystals and The Ronettes were decorating teens bedrooms? This is the first release in years which really reminds me of those Phil Specor girl groups again, especially tracks like Unrequited Love and Sadness in Blessing. The walls of vocal driven melodies, the echoing drums, even the use of the toms. It's all actually pretty similar, the main difference being that this album was released almost 50 years after Spectors golden years. The only thing I am "missing" is the orchestra, but hey, that's Phil Spector, Wounded Rhymes was produced by Björn Yttling (Peter Björn and John).

Maybe this Phil Spector girl group comparison goes a bit far, but I am really happy to finally find something a bit similar to these groups. Especially the enormous spacey production this record has just fascinates me. At first I would have liked to rate this album 81/100, but I'll give this album 5 points extra, for the simple fact that the artwork that comes with this album could have been on a Cocteau Twins 12", and I totally adore Cocteau Twins.

Please everyone, spread the love,

Selwin.

Fuck yeah, Vice Music

Good morning interwebz,

The sky is pale blue again, my dog is catching the first sunrays of spring, and Vice Music appearently announced two new albums. Raven in the Grave, a new The Raveonettes LP was announced last month and will be released this spring.

The second announcement made me even happier: Garage -welikeKingKhanmorethanyoudo- orchestra Black Lips will release Arabia Mountain in June. Even 'though they really thought it was necessary to wait another three months, they recorded a video at the Bahamas for one of those songs. Really: what the fuck are Black Lips and Vivian Girls doing on one boat at the Bahamas? And even more important: why the fuck does the bass guitar at 1:41 only have three strings? Nevermind, throwing 3-string bassguitars in the Atlantic: +1.



Talking about Vivian Girls: in case you missed it (just like me), there will be a new album released the 12th of April by Polyvinyl Records. I totally fell in love with this preview. While Hypomanie is in desperate need of more groupies, I bet there are boys and girls begging to become one of theirs. There will be a review posted on here as soon as it found its way to my ears.



Spread the love,

Selwin.

Review: James Blake - James Blake

Artist: James Blake
Title: James Blake
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Interscope Records
Genre: Soulful Downtempo Electronica
Rating: 68 / 100


James Blake seems to have gained a lot of attention with his first EP CMYK, so much attention Interscope Records (Lady Gaga, No Doubt etc.) heard there was money to be earned. His first release on Interscope Records is this self-titled album. Where, on previous releases Blake mostly used samples of other people singing, he seemed to have grabbed the microphone himself this time, moving to a bit more Soul in his tracks.

Some people referred to CMYK as a dubstep album, everything that was dubstep about CMYK is now mostly gone. It's a more minmal approach, more piano, more vocal harmony, let's say: less Burial and Skream and a bit more Marvin Gaye. Is this a soul album? No definitely not, it's electronica, but it's electronica with soul. What? Yes, electronica with soul. As weird as the description sounds, so does the music. It's like a white Otis Redding on a vocoder, with Bon Iver on harmony vocals singing to glitching Massive Attack beats.

All these aforementioned artist create music soaking in emotion, to be fair, I can't hear much of that back in Blake's music. Soul? yes, emotion, passion? very little. Maybe that's the consequence of signing to a label like Inter$scope Re€ords, maybe it's just not what James Blake is here for. Blake makes minimal music, minimalistic soundwise, minmalistic emotion-wise. It's quite enjoyable, it really is, it is renewing, for me at least. Objectively speaking it's a qualitatively good, well-written record (especially comapared to the rest of the Inter$cope roster), but for me personally I prefer those three aforementioned artists. Mathematically speaking: (Blue Lines or Blood Bank) > James Blake.

Spread the love,

Selwin.

Sleeping Peonies' new EP finally released...

Good evening dear interwebz,

Even 'though Ghosts, and Other Things was once scheduled in late January, and even on Valentine's Day, the first EP with delay on drums was finally released this week, well Krysanthoney thought it was. Yesterday Krysanthoney published the news that so many copies were damaged it might take another 7-10 before the first copies will be sent to all those honey licking, coke sniffing, in Portland living, big glasses wearing, IQ's of 176 having Sleeping Peonies groupies. Not to be confused with the boy loving, chronically alone sleeping, orange juice drinking, The Jesus and Mary Chain appreciating Hypomanie groupies.

Because King Tubby isn't the only one allowed to put delay on his drums: This Bass Makes Me Seasick

Also from the Krysanthoney website: Luxury Absolute, seems to be a new Clair Cassis EP, released only months after the previous EP. When you're at a point when you release almost 3 EP's a year, maybe it's time for an album. Nevermind, shit sounds good, review will be posted soon.

Spread the love! (please do it),

Selwin.

Review: Papercuts - Fading Parade

Artist: Papercuts
Title: Fading Parade
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Sub Pop
Genre: Dreampop
Rating: 83 / 100


Papercuts is, as described by Sub Pop, a breath of fresh air. I couldn't agree more. Sub Pop always had a good ear for renewing bands, they were one of the first to notice Nirvana, same with The Jesus and Mary Chain and Mogwai, even though they seem to have fell upwards nowadays, they still release very good music. That is, if you like acts like No Age, Dum Dum Girls or Foals. Active for almost a decade now, Jason Robert Quever has released 4 albums so far. All dreamy indiepop drenched in reverb. What? Did you say Beach House? Yes, very similar, but Papercuts had allready released two albums at the time Beach House was still to be formed.

Back to the album itself: Fading Parade. If you are familiar with one of their earlier albums, you might notice it's somewhat more of the same. Saying that, Papercuts could better be described as a very long breath of fresh air. But hey, who cares, if you love sweet sunny melodies, right from the American West Coast. Fading Parade is full of them, it's like reinventing the term sweet melody. Hazy guitars, soft piano, drums mixed to the background, Jason's whispering vocals, everything saturated with reverb. This is where indiepop stops and dreampop kicks in. Well, it's not like kicking, it's more like caressing your cheek.

Where most modern Californian bands (Best Coast, Dum Dum Girls, Wavves) tend to have a very bright, happy sound. Papercuts is definitely on the more melancholic side of the spectrum. If Best Coast is running across the beach with your girlfriend, Papercuts is watching the sun go down. Papercuts is like getting drunk on sweet white wine. Fading Parade is like putting reverb on a jar of honey.

Spread the love,

Selwin.

Amplifiedstrawberry, what the fudge?

An absolutely wonderful afternoon interwebz,

There is only one thing I love more than groupies, and that's music. That's why this blog appeared on your oh so dear interwebz. My intention is to review music professional reviewers will frequently ignore, not bound to any genre or geographic positioning. If there is any news I seem to know before 96,6667% of the interwebz, I will also definitely post it here. The person behind amplifiedstrawberry is me, Selwin, also known as "that guy who records all those Hypomanie tracks", or: "that guy who failed to appreciate Radiohead, but fell in love with Woodie Guthrie". Suggestions for albums to review, or announcements of upcoming releases are very welcome in the comment section.

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Selwin.