Bon Iver album preview (2)

About two weeks ago a very short video was posted on Vimeo, containing a 30 second sample of a new Bon Iver song, yesterday a full track, called Calgary was uploaded. It's the first time hearing Justin's beautiful voice again, absolutely astonishing song, too beautiful to waste any more words at, here it is:



I have no idea when the new album will leak, but as soon as it will, a review will be posted here.

Spread the love,

Selwin.

Review: Altar of Plagues - Mammal

Artist: Altar of Plagues
Title: Mammal
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Candlelight Records
Genre: Post-Black Metal
Rating: 89 / 100

Two years ago an Irish band was responsible for one of the most remarkable Black Metal releases of that year. The album was called White Tomb, that Irish act was called Altar of Plagues. White Tomb was a fifty minute album, filled with four very lengthy tracks of absurdly dark, yet progressive Black Metal, ranging from pounding blast-beats to eerie dark ambient intermezzos. This April, British Black Metal label Candlelight Records released Mammal; the logical sequel to 2009's White Tomb.

Those who are familiar with their previous recordings will not be surprised by what Mammal has to offer, pounding, droning Black Metal, but with a very heavy Post-Metal edge, giving this album enough dynamics to compete with bands like Isis or Rosetta. It's the best of both worlds combined, put together these elements generate an atmosphere so dark, many Black Metal bands would be jealous. They have perfectly found a balance between slow, contructive dynamics and these almost oppresive, sonic explosions. It's something that wasn't as balanced on White Tomb, this album was clearly split in two parts, a faster, more Black Metal oriented first half and a much slower, more ambient'ish second half. On Mammal these elements are nicely put together in each of the songs seperately (with When the Sun Drowns in the Ocean being the only exception).

Albums like these heavily rely on the atmosphere, it's what seperates Black Metal from other extreme metal genres, and at the same time, it's what seperates this new Altar of Plagues record from most of the other modern Black Metal albums being released almost everyday. Every single part of every song has its own participation in the creation of this huge burdensome atmospheric unity. It's the unity White Tomb lacked a bit, and it's the same unity that gives this album such an enormous emotional impact.

This emotional impact, together with James O'Ceallaigh fantastic vocals and the terrific musicianship and songwriting makes this record the best Black Metal Record for me so far, together with Deafheavens debut Roads to Judah. 

We put seashells in the trees, so please don't be offended,

Selwin.  

Review: Ringo Deathstarr - Colour Trip

Artist: Ringo Deathstarr
Title: Colour Trip
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Club AC30
Genre: Shoegaze / Noise Pop
Rating: 92 / 100

Unfortunately, the shoegaze movement isn't as alive anymore as it was in the mid-80's. Some bands, like Asobi Seksu, Raveonettes and The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart still make music which is of course clearly inspired by the bands that made this genre so famous, but keeping this very modern, sometimes even quite poppy element in their music. Besides this so called nugaze movement there is Ringo Deathstarr, a Texas based shoegaze band which grabs back those elements that made bands like My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus & Mary Chain so unique. Fuzzy, reverb drenched guitars, saturated vocals, mixed to the background, together creating an enormous wall of hazy melodies, a droning noise of pure sweetness.

Back in 2007 they released their very first self-titled EP, which was my personal introduction to their music; a very traditional style of shoegaze. It was one of those rare pieces of music which perfectly balance noise and melody. A couple of singles and EP's followed, eventually resulting in this Colour Trip, their first real album (assuming Sparkler was more a kind of compilation of earlier released tracks). The biggest piece of criticism Ringo Deathstarr had to endure in their early days was their undeniable similarity with both My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus & Mary Chain. It's something that hasn't changed by the release of Colour Trip, I am absolutely not going to deny those similarities. Still, releases like these are extremely rare nowadays, and it's a type of music which has brought forth a relatively small amount of really good albums. I am convinced Colour Trip could with ease be added to that small list of amazing shoegaze albums produced since the early 80's. It might not become as classic as Loveless, but qualitatively it's, in my humble opinion at least, pretty much on the same level.

But what is it that makes Ringo Deathstarr so awes0me? It's actually something I already mentioned in the previous paragraph; it's their ability to perfectly balance noise and lovely melodies. This balance is what makes shoegaze so attractive, and it's a balance Ringo Deathstarr is able to keep, with ease. It's the result of a noisy underlayer of a guitar/bass unity, literally drenched in tremolo, delay, reverb and fuzz, lots of fuzz, but on top the soft male/female vocals, often reminding me of Slowdive, or more topical; The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart.

I could go on about the amazingness of the sound for a couple of hours but I think fery few people are interested in hearing the sexual arousement one could experience from a track like Kaleidoscope or Two Girls. In other words; yes, I could find a tiny little flaw on this album, it's not something which is the bands' fault, unless they've produced it theirselves, but I suspect there is a producer responsible for this. It's part of what's called the Loudness War, producers tend to compress the music as much as they can to make it as loud as possible but at the same time pulling all the punch and clarity out of the music. In the case of shoegaze, this normally isn´t such a problem, but I noticed the guitar sound being sucked away by the drums in some songs, which obviously is due to overcompression. These extreme forms of dynamic compression are a pity, especially when they decrease the overall sound quality of an album, still, Colour Trip is one of my favourite albums of 2011 yet, and some productions flaws won't make it any less enjoyable.

Please spread some love, I tend to fail at this activity,

Selwin.

Review: Cloud Nothings - s/t

Artist: Cloud Nothings
Title: s/t
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Wichita
Genre: Garage/pop-punk/powerpop
Rating: 86 / 100

Ok, this is kinda strange, I was really convinced I already reviewed this album, apparently, I never did, which is a pity, because I really, really liked this new Cloud Nothings release. Some may have noticed Cloud Nothings before they released this album, Dylan Baldi has been active for some time, recording lo-fi rock songs in his basement/garage/whatever, but not really releasing anything. In 2010 he eventually grabbed it all together and released it as Turning On, which was my introduction into Baldi's amazing skills of creating powerful, catchy music.

In early 2011 Wichita released his first real, self-titled album, showing a far better produced, but again really catchy album, to be fair, it's even the catchiest, most easily enjoyable album I have heard this year. One could have been expecting this from miles way, but yes indeed: Baldi's music is nothing new, nothing original, nor progressive or anything like that, it's just very straightforward cheerful, poppy garage punk. It's actually still what Dylan has been doing for quite a while, only differing in line-up (full band instead of solo) and production (studio instead of fuzzy 8-track), fortunately Baldi kept what made Turning On so awes0me: youthfullness.

Last week I remember writing something about Jay Reatard (R.I.P), in my humble opinion Dylan Baldi has kind of the same talent Jimmy once had; being able to create a huge amount of melodic, catchy, uptempo tunes, without ever getting boring, or even containing just one disappointing song. Still, there's a fairly big difference between Cloud Nothings and Jay's solo work, on Jay Reatard albums, one will regularly find quite dark sounding songs, like Faking It, or especially Oh, It's Such a Shame (gotta love that one). Cloud Nothings on the other hand is extremely cheerful, almost happy, one of the characteristics of Cloud Nothing's music that really add to this cheerfulness are Dylan's vocals. Being fairly high-pitched, they sound a bit childish to me, which fits perfectly to the music by the way, please don't get me wrong. It is what makes this album so youthful, and as a result, so damn enjoyable.

I know it's a bit late (multiple months after the release date), but if you love catchy Jay Reatard'ish garage and still haven't checked out Cloud Nothings, or just heard Turning On, but disliked the lo-fi sound, please check this out, it would be a kind of sadomasochism not to look for it.

Please spread the joy (omg, subtle Vivian Girls reference),

Selwin.

Vicarious shame 2.0

I know Liturgy is currently one of the most hated Black Metal bands around, but as amplifiedstrawberry has to keep this blog hipster-approved, I will just have to post their newly released video for Returner. Ridiculous Windows Movie Maker effects and slightly homo-erotic V-necks (*rawr*) below:


For those who have absolutely no idea what they just witnessed, today is your lucky day, because Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, their frontman, happens to be very good at analyzing his own work:

"And so so so, like, part of, part of the composing of Liturgy is sort of, in this like kind of sonata form vibe almost, you know, of sort of like making sure it kind of starts somewhere and then like creates like this huge rapture'ish amount of momentum, which comes from romanticism, which does have a natural connection to Black Metal 'though it's not always acknowledged."

So now you know, and knowing is half the battle,

Selwin.

Review: Caroline - Verdugo Hills

Artist: Caroline
Title: Verdugo Hills
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: Temporary Residence
Genre: Electronic pop/glitch
Rating: 88 / 100

Since the day Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir left múm, I really started to miss music as cute as their first two albums with her on vocals. Fortunately I discovered Caroline Lufkin last year, a Japanese artist, specialized in creating adorable electronic, glitchy pop music, which regularly reminds me of what múm once did (despite the far more folky, less minimalistic approach of múm). Caroline Lufkin is the sister of more well-known j-pop artist Olivia (Lufkin), but fortunately (not being a huge j-pop fan), her sister's music is completely different, only sharing the beautiful vocal sound. Not until I began writing this review, I finally discovered Caroline is also a full-time member of Mice Parade, a band the aforementioned Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir did guest vocals for on their 2005 album Bem-Vinda Vontade, so I think my associations with múm weren't as far-fetched as I initially thought.

Somewhere in 2006, Caroline released her debut album Murmurs, ever since that day it has been very quiet around her, a remix album of Murmurs was released through iTunes in 2008, but that was it. Now, after 5 years, she finally releases new material: Verdugo Hills, and oh, how I love to hear her soft, whispery vocals again. Verdugo Hills is an album which is actually precisely what one would expect after hearing Murmurs, slow, compelling songs, beats mainly made up by glitches and electronic noises, droning synth-based instrumentation, and of course Caroline's high pitched vocals exciting my ears in any possible manner.

One of the most recognizable characteristics of this album is the lovely minimalistic, almost childish sound Caroline is achieving here, soft as clouds, thin as a satin blanket, yet warm as the sun of early May. As lovely as Lullatone, yet having a rythm section as inimitable as the first two múm records. It is sweetness square, loveliness to the fourth power, yet musically as interesting as a 65daysofstatic album.

To those who fell in love with all music, sweet, tender and cute, please check this out, to those who are already having issues with The Pains of Being Pure At Heart leaving their fuzz pedals at home, please keep a distance of at least 2 to 3 miles to this record, its tenderness might result in honey-infected ears and similar disorders.

Spread the love,

Selwin.

Review: The Fresh & Onlys - Secret Walls

Artist: The Fresh & Onlys
Title: Secret Walls
Format: EP
Year: 2011
Label: Sacred Bones
Genre: Psychedelic rock
Rating: 68 / 100

The Fresh & Onlys are a band I discovered about a year ago as being an extremely productive, raw, straight-to-the-point garage rock band. These characteristics of their early music made me being fairly surprised to hear the slower, more psychedelic sound of this new EP, Secret Walls. Now I know their 2009 album Grey Eyed Girls, should have been a warning to what way they were going with their music, but I happened to have missed that one, being only familiar with their more raw garage albums.

Production wise, one could say they have finally moved out of the garage, the overall sound of this EP could be considered as a huge improvement to the somewhat sloppy sound on their earlier works. Musically, they went the same route as they did with their production, songs are far more well-structured, multiple layers of interfering melodies and rhythms is what this EP is all about. As I said in the introduction, this EP is a bit more down-tempo than what they were so used to, making the songs, in my humble opinion, somewhat less "exciting". Now, this is an 18 minute EP, so my attention doesn't have any problems with the minor lack of excitement. On the other hand, I can't guarantee that my attention will be as forgiving if this would be a 40+ minute full-length.

During my first listen, I was amazed by the extremely well-structured songs and even fairly catchy melodies this EP has to offer, still, I really prefer their more raw garage sound on their earliest releases. Objectively, I will still have to call this EP a major musical improvement, just not the kind of improvement I was really waiting for.

Spread the love, even when the sun is temporarily gone,

Selwin.

PS: If you have any recommendations, I would love to hear about them in the comment section.

Review: Keren Ann - 101

Artist: Keren Ann
Title: 101
Format: Full-length
Year: 2011
Label: EMI
Genre: Relaxing, poppy singer-songwriter
Rating: 66 / 100

It has been almost 4 years now, since Keren Ann previous (self-titled) record was released, it has been about 2 years now since I finally discovered her music, being introduced to her through her fantastic song Not Going Anywhere. As this song still counts as one of my all time favourites, expectations were fairly high for this album, it took her four years, so I couldn't imagine such a wonderful musician would disappoint me. Unfortunately, and even 'though it's still quite a decent album, the French/Jewish/Dutch/Indonesian/Israeli/whatever singer-wongwriter did disappoint me a little bit. I was just expecting a bit more from her. 

Overall I would describe this album as being a bit "careful", there are no sharp edges, no exciting structures or daring vocal debaucheries, just this soft, melodic pop music. I was eating vanilla custard this afternoon, while listening this new Keren Ann LP, and I have to say the slightly sickly taste of the custard could pretty well be compared to 101. It's is a bit sweet, a bit sticky, a bit creamy, but nothing your tongue would be surprised by. Just like my ears weren't really surprised by hearing her new album. Now, this might sound a bit negative, but I wouldn't go as far as calling this a huge vexation or anything like that, it's just... I have listened this album almost 5 times, but still, almost none of the songs really grabbed my by the throat, be it emotionally ór musically.

You might have noticed me saying "almost", you might be currently asking yourself: "why almost none?", well, somewhere in the middle of the album You Were On Fire kicks in, a fabulous, melancholic pop song, drenched in strings and having this really catchy nostalgic melody. 1 out of 11 isn't that much, I admit, but it keeps me awake during a listening session, which is really important, in my opinion, if you make the kind of smooth music Keren Ann does. 

A track like You Were On Fire surprisingly keeps me from disliking this album too much, and as a result, making me able to give this album a strong 6. Yes, Keren Ann disappointed me a little bit, but she's still a lovely musician, and still capable of recording this 40+ minutes of qualitatively well-written music. It's just a bit too careful and too smooth for me to really grab my attention, just that tiny lack of emotional defiance, which makes me rate this album as "decent" instead of "lovely".

Where did Julia Stone go?

Selwin.