MUSIC

Album Review: Fuck Buttons – Slow Focus

Fuck Buttons: Slow Focus

Similar Artists: Black Dice, Battles, Carter Tutti Void, Blanck Mass

Genre: Noise Rock, Post Rock, Noise Techno, Shoegaze

Label: ATP Recordings

When Fuck Buttons debuted in 2008 with the polarizing, John Cummings’ produced Street Horrrsing, the group actually received a resounding amount of backlash from noise purists — who said the duo provided an overwrought and overly accessible version of noise-rock; catering to people who were more inclined towards mainstream indie rock rather than the “hardcore”. Then, next year, around the time “Surf Solar” was released from the lauded Tarot Sport, the haters really started to shut up. It certainly wasn’t because Tarot Sport was any less accessible than its predecessor though, because gone were the filthy, distorted vocals and modular incoherencies — instead, Tarot Sport offered a more streamlined, HD version of noise-rock that perfectly encapsulated the epic crescendos of post-rock. The fact that they created this edgy, piercingly beautiful sound without the use of guitars made it all the more impressive; it even made us wonder what — if any — was the use for actual electric guitars in this day and age.

During the short amount of time between the group’s first two full lengths, their artistic approach grew tenfold. These were massive, pulsating statements that didn’t just change the mood of the environment they were being played in — they actually managed to grab hold of its neck and pummel it to the ground with resounding force. However, It has now been 4 years since their last effort, and despite the lengthy incubation period, their first self produced album, Slow Focus, offers much less in the way of stylistic change from its predecessor. Thankfully, this doesn’t prevent it from being a strange and often confounding listen.

More so than any of their previous albums, the seven tracks on Slow Focus are prone to overload your senses. It’s the kind of music that doesn’t seem overly loud while you’re playing it — but just wait until you take your headphones off and realize you’ve given yourself a case of Tinnitus. I believe the unbeknownst harshness has to do with the fact that the duo’s sound is somehow (possibly over any other adjective) accessible — even immediately so on tracks such as the frenetic, drum crazy “Brainfreeze” and the arpeggiator heavy “Prince’s Prize”. Despite how there are nearly always high pitched frequencies to be heard, there is also so much else that sends positive, even calming messages to our brain waves. Because of this “overload”, It’s tempting to say that the duo buries the noise within their compositions, but as everything seems to be so evenly distributed in the mix, that wouldn’t be correct either. It is more that we are distracted by the more luminescent aspects of the music, and our mind tunes out the harsher, more disorienting aspects of the music. It is because our minds ignore the noise that we fail to brace ourselves from it.

Nevertheless, this is music that is worth damaging your ears for. Fuck Buttons’ approach has expanded in the sense that the textures are deeper and more layered than ever before — which is saying a lot, especially because this happens to be the first time the duo are taking the lead roles as producers/engineers. It’s a wonder why they didn’t do production work on Yeezus, because here they obtain a mood that is similarly riddled with anxiety and paranoia, and the productions are so gargantuan and extremist that they could seemingly topple over on themselves at any moment. However, where Yeezus defied expectations, Slow Focus flows very naturally and even predictably during the lengthiest tracks. The last two tracks “Stalker” and “Hidden Xs” — which also happen to be the longest — are so floaty and indebted to shoegaze that one could even fall asleep to them.

It’s hard to figure out when music started to sound this luxuriously massive, because I certainly can’t remember hearing anything like this a few years back. These are productions that seem to transcend the aspect of slow vs. fast, noisy vs. ambient, and raw vs. precise. Since we have basically heard no new music from the group during their lengthy 4 year absence, it really is astonishing that no one was able to forgot about them — “Surf Solar” has even become somewhat of a classic, and might be the best introduction to the now prevalent genre of noise-techno. Whether you enjoy Fuck Buttons or not, this is music that leaves a mark on you due to its relentless immediacy; and yes, this “mark” I’m talking about is more than just the permanent hearing loss that will result from the experience.

Track Listing:

1.) Brainfreeze*

2.) Year Of The Dog

3.) The Red Wing*

4.) Sentients*

5.) Prince’s Prize

6.) Stalker

7.) Hidden Xs*

Album Highlight – *

Album Review: Lustmord – The Word As Power

by Rio Toro

Lustmord: The Word As Power

Similar Artists: Locrian & Mamiffer, Ben Frost, Robert Rich, Steve Roach

Genre: Dark Ambient, Drone, Religious Music

Label: Blackest Ever Black

There’s a whole lot of talented (as well as highly prolific) artists who seem to be devoting their lives to making dark ambient/drone music, and despite the time and patience that goes into making this so called “drone”, a whole lot of this niche feels disposable, and honestly, far from original. As great as Sunn O))) are, we don’t need dozens of artists to prove that to us by making what is essentially a “cover” version of the blackened ambient void that was so clearly perfected by the seattle duo a decade ago. I don’t mean to sound disrespectful, for I’m in fact a huge fan of a lot of the music I seemed to have just dissed, but recently many of these releases have acted more like mood experiments to be played in your sleeping chamber rather than an album to return to time and time again.

However, if there’s one label whose interests seem to lie in broadening the horizons of this genre, it’s Blackest Ever Black, whose 2010 debut marked the release of the first Raime EP. By linking disparate strands of electronic music (industrial, techno, noise) with the accustomed droning ambience, groups such as Raime have proved that drone is a genre that is far from sterile.

Brian Williams, who has recorded as Lustmord since the 1980’s, is rightly credited as a progenitor of the dark ambient genre, so it seems appropriate that he makes his newest artistic leap on Blackest Ever Black. Still, with an overwhelming catalogue of music from the past three decades, it’s hard to really get excited about a new Lustmord release — especially when that release happens to be a two disk, 70 minute long statement based upon theological constructs.

With The Word As Power — Lustmord’s most ambitious and high profile release in years — we are treated to 7 ritualistic monstrosities that blur the line between holiness and wickedness, serenity and fearfulness. The pieces are largely led by a host of ethereal vocalists, such as Aina Olsen, Soriah, and Jarboe of Swans fame, whose voices are all largely untouched production wise — save for some slight reverb and the occasional echo. This is the first album in the artist’s 30 year career to focus so closely on vocals, so it really is astonishing that they are all executed with such dynamic precision. The second half of the album even features throat singing from a completely unrecognizable Maynard James Keenan. Due to the mostly ethereal voices, these tracks play out like ancient hymns being sung as a gift to the heavens — hence the title The Word As Power. This power is best represented during the 17 minute centerpiece “Chorazin”, in which the vocalist wavers around the same vocal line while reciting the word “holy” over and over again, such as it would be in a buddhist chant in order to obtain a higher state of being. Still, despite the presence of religion, people are going to find this music unnerving over anything else, like they are being taken through a state of divine retribution.

Even with the cast of vibrant vocalists, the album happens to be its most heart stopping when the instrumentation is at its full force. The tracks range from 5 minutes to 17, and it is during the longest pieces where the environment becomes the most frighteningly intense. Aside from quiet ambience, the instrumental landscape is made up of minimal organ chords, swirling black metal guitars tuned to abnormally low frequencies, threatening bass drops, slight percussion, and deformed ghostly howls which claw at us ominously from the distance.

It may sound like it isn’t all that different from your average dark ambient album, and although it isn’t quite groundbreaking, it does manages to stand out from the horde of followers due to the way it maintains a solid mood, while still changing up the dynamic with each track to keep things interesting. Furthermore, while it may not propel the genre into unchartered territory like other releases from the label have, it does exist as a singular statement within both the dark ambient and drone genres — which isn’t a thing that can be said very often. The Word As Power is a monolithic, expansive, and downright harrowing release from an artist working at the peak of his creativity.

Track Listing:

1.) Babel*

2.) Goetia

3.) Chorazin*

4.) Grigori*

5.) Andras Sodom

6.) Abaddon

7.) Y Gair

Album Highlight – *

Album Review: Various Artists – After Dark 2

by Rio Toro

Various Artists: After Dark 2

Similar Artists: The ones featured here

Genre: Italo-Disco, Synth-Pop

Label: Italians Do It Better

Choose any of the 15 tracks on After Dark 2, and chances are by the song’s end you will already have been sucked into the ultra stylish and noir-esque world of Italians Do It Better. If you’re familiar with previous releases from the label, then you know what you’re getting into here, but the fact that this isn’t a departure certainly doesn’t make the material any less mesmerizing. There’s a clear vision being expressed wholeheartedly by the artists’ here, and it’s arguable that their vision has never been implemented as precisely and seductively as it is here. There’s no denying that compiling the material for this album was a painstakingly tiring process — being plagued by delays since 2008, it even seemed doubtful that there would be an After Dark 2 at all — so the fact that it’s a near perfect representation of the label’s history is somewhat of a miracle.

Maybe it was because everyone was going crazy about darkly sensual “nighttime” electronic music in 2012 due to the popularity of Nicolas Winding Refn’s surrealist, late-night noir masterpiece “Drive”, but something about the two big releases from Italians Do It Better from last year — both Symmetry’s Themes for an Imaginary Film, and Chromatic’s Kill for Love — felt otherworldly and essential. Kill For Love in particular seemed to open a dimensional rift that led us into a 1980’s set in an alternate universe.

However, if you thought those two albums indebted too much to film scores — and consequently had too many drawn out ambient pieces — After Dark 2 is for you. As on After Dark (1), once again, label head Johnny Jewel (whose name still never falters to make me sprout with joy) produces and/or performs as a band member in the majority of these tracks — and once again again, the disk is led my the labels two most prominent acts, Chromatics and Glass Candy, who together make up 1/2 of the over hour and 15 minute running time. There are also a host of radiant “newcomers”, such as Appaloosa, Mirage, and Farah, who do in fact happen to steal the spotlight every once in a while — Appaloosa’s “Intimate” being my personal favorite.

It all feels remarkably well put together for a compilation, as there are instrumental excursions, four on the floor bangers — as well as minimal atmospheric pieces compared to more heady, maximalist ones. Even so, all the tracks contain a similarly fueled icy design, so there are no huge surprises or non-sequitors (except for perhaps the quite satanic sounding “Into Eternity”). This is possibly the best part about After Dark 2: when you put in on, you are immediately taken away, and you’ll know where you are until you choose to turn it off. Although this music at its heart may be most intended for night driving, it has the ability to change the form of any environment you might be in (subways, walks in the park, your living room…).

The coolness that is inherent to the album’s design gives it a lot of soul, but as on previous releases the music is somewhat devoid of emotion. Even when the vocalists are pouring their hearts out and reciting their vows, they still seem inhuman and robotic when we think of them as actual people. Although this may sound like a negative to some, the lack of humanity plays along with how remarkably stylish and mysterious the music is.

When I listen to this compilation I’m reminded of the essentials to dance music — like how a simple well placed bass drum can bring tremendous light to a melody, or how the seemingly endless repetition of a synth pattern can become our best friend when the atmosphere is just right. Even with the vintage synths and ancient machinery at work here, as a piece, After Dark 2 feels eternal. It’s almost too corny to say, but these Italians still, still, do it better.

Track Listing:

1.) Warm In The Winter*

2.) Tears From Heaven

3.) Let’s Kiss*

4.) Fill the Blanks

5.) Looking For Love*

6.) Heart of Darkness

7.) Camera

8.) Half Lives

9.) The Possessed*

10.) Cherry*

11.) Beautiful Object

12.) Into Eternity

13.) Intimate*

14.) The Magician

15.) Redheads Feel More Pain

Album Highlight – *

2013 MTV Video Music Award Noms- The List is out…

by Ryan Shea

The Video Music Awards are the one award show I look forward to every year because beyond anything it tends to be pretty freaking awesome. It ranks as one of the most social events of the year and has birthed and revamped many careers over the past three decades. Now in it’s 30th year (crazy), the VMA’s are set to take place back where it all started- New York. It will be broadcasted live on August 25 at the brand new Barclay Center right in the heart of Brooklyn. Heck, even the classic Moonman got a great redesign for only this year. Truth be told, this will be another one for the record books. How can I tell? All the great people are nominated this year. Let’s break down each category.

Video of the Year-

The ultimate, the biggest award of the night has got to be “Video of the Year”. In recent years, R&B Divas like Beyonce (Single Ladies) and Rihanna (Umbrella, We Found Love) have taken the trophies yet over it’s 30 year history has seen this award go to a bevy of legends such as Madonna (Ray of Light) and Eminem (Without Me) just to name a few. This year three R&B crooners, a hip-hop legend in the making and one of the biggest female stars on the planet all under one category. Robin Thicke has his first set of nominations this year with his number one chart topping “Blurred Lines” featuring Pharrell Williams and T.I. That song has been voted by several publications as the song of the summer, and boy has it been good to him. Justin Timberlake returns to the VMA pool with the second single off his album The 20/20 Experience with “Mirrors”. He has been in this category twice before for “What Goes Around… Comes Around” and “Cry Me A River”. Country-turned-Pop diva Taylor Swift has her first Video of the Year nod with the second single off her album “Red” called “I Knew You Were Trouble”. Rounding out this category is R&B hit maker Bruno Mars “Locked Outta Heaven” and who I think will and should be the winner, Macklemore &Ryan Lewis’ “Thrift Shop” which currently sits as the biggest selling song of 2013. It’s also a rad video. Yup.

Best Hip-Hop Video-

This category has been around since 1999 (it changed from Best Rap Video) and has been won by quite the bevy of artists such as Beastie Boys, Jennifer Lopez and Missy Elliott. The nominees this year scream out for the fresh new faces that are taking over the industry and keeping it hot and hopeful for the years to come. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, who are up for 6 this year, come in again in this category with “Thrift Shop” but they have some truly stiff competition in place. Newbies in the game from Kendrick Lamar (Swimming Pools), A$AP Rocky (F***ing Problems) have their first shots at winning a moonman, and perennial favorites such as Drake (Started From The Bottom) and J. Cole (Power Trip) are looking to make their mark in this category. “Thrift Shop” will most likely win in this category as well, but there is a crowded room for anyone to come out on top.

Best Collaboration-

This award, only given out in 2007, 2010 and 2011 has been won by all the big divas in recent years such as Katy Perry (E.T. with Kanye West), Lady Gaga (Telephone with Beyonce) and Beyonce and Shakira (Beautiful Liar). The divaness in this one is not on the mainstage, as the five nominees couldn’t be different from each other. Robin Thicke shows up again in this category with the saucy “Blurred Lines”. Hot dance tracks such as Pitbull & Christina Aguilera’s “Feel This Moment” and Calvin Harris & Ellie Goulding’s “I Need Your Love” populate the crowd as well. The two that I see truly going neck to neck on this is Justin Timberlake & Jay-Z’s “Suit & Tie” and chart-topping “Just Give Me A Reason” by Pink and Nate Truess.

Check out the full list on MTV.com. Who is your pick to win? Be sure to watch the MTV Video Music Awards live on August 25th and see if your favorite wins!

Album Review: Airhead – For Years

by Rio Toro

Airhead: For Years

Similar Artists: James Blake, Mount Kimbie, Nicolas Jaar, Boards of Canada

Genre: Downtempo, (Dubstep?), Organic Electronica

Label: R&S

There’s no real recipe for creating great music — things that work well for some artists don’t work at all for others, and that extra oomph that makes music tick tends to just come from something within the artist’s blood. However, in 2013, if there is some kind of trick to get an artists’ career rolling, it’s through the use of restraint. Of course, it isn’t as easy as it sounds, because knowing when to hold back and when to release is where the true talent lies. Probably the best example (within recent memory) that proved the powers of well harnessed restraint would be Nicolas Jaar’s 5 hour interdisciplinary performance at MoMa PS1. Through the holy-fuck-this-is-long running time, he only reached a handful of climactic phases, but due to his skill at building tension, the music never failed to entice — surprisingly, my worn legs never managed to fail out on me either. Using this “restraint” has become especially important for virtuosic musicians such as Nicolas Jaar or James Blake, because when they aren’t showing off, we have time to focus on other facets of their music, like their brilliant use of sound design and production techniques — when they finally do let loose as the climax arrives, the likelihood that we will be blown away is magnified tenfold.

Rob Mcandrews, AKA Airhead, is the long time collaborator and touring guitarist of James Blake, and the two have worked together for years now, starting with the “Pembroke” single released in early 2010. Before now, Mcandrews had only released a handful of singles, most notably the Karen O sampling “Wait” and the more beat driven “Pyramid Lake”, both of which are featured here. Due to his steady relationship with Blake, and his undeniably similar musical style (excepting vocals), you would imagine that his debut full length would mine similar territory: albeit of a more guitar inclined variation. While that is true in some respects, For Years is far from being 10 repeats of “Lindisfarne” (one of the two artists’ most notable collaborations). The ten tracks here are actually rather diverse, as we hear lovely acoustic guitar, off kilter vocals, big beat breakdowns, robot symphonies, and an array of ambient wash. Mcandrews manages to sound similar to his peers without quite being a rehash of them, and it is why For Years is an almost instantly likable collection of tunes.

The first thing you’ll notice about the album is how well made the tracks are. Each one almost feels like a distinct single; which in fact turns out to be both a positive and negative when you look at the album as a whole. While the beats are often big and luxurious, and the effects crackle and fizz with the necessary depth, there isn’t much holding this album together as a unified piece (possibly the idiosyncrasies of the sampling?). Secondly, while several of the tracks do contain the aspect of controlled restraint that I lauded earlier in this review, the concept doesn’t reach across tracks to build any kind of album climax. While “Fault Line” and the previously released “Pyramid Lake” do attempt to heighten our sense of ecstacy by being bolder and more quickly paced than the rest of the bunch, overall they fail because they don’t sound like a continuation off of the previous tracks. This lack of a proper beginning, middle or end left me occasionally feeling lost while listening to the album, and I often had to reassert myself into the music rather than be whisked away by it. Some albums can work by simply being a track for track compilation of an artists’ work, but with this kind of organic sounding electronic music something feels missing from the complete package.

A lot of what makes music successful is the point it is released in time. This year we have seen releases from both James Blake and Mount Kimbie — the two acts most closely related to Airhead in terms of sound. Although this music isn’t dull, it doesn’t stand out like it would have if it was released a few years back, and Infuriatingly enough, some of these tracks, such as “Wait”, have supposedly been entirely finished since 2009, so it really is unfortunate that it took so damn long for this album to come out. One can imagine that hearing this music even a year ago (a year that was quite devoid of downtempo electronic music) would have left a more ingrained impression. Airhead doesn’t seem to care about his pacing issues though; he seems quite content being indefinitely compared to James Blake as long as he gets to release his own material every once in a while. On For Years he proves that he is an intelligent producer capable of tackling various moods and styles, it’s just too bad his contemporaries have proved that twice over already.

Track Listing:

1.) Wait*

2.) Milkola Bottle

3.) Callow*

4.) Masami

5.) Pyramid Lake*

6.) Azure Race

7.) Autumn*

8.) Fault Line*

9.) Lightmeters

10.) Knives

Album Highlight – *

Album Review: Run the Jewels

by Peter Foy

Run the Jewels: Run the Jewels

Similar Artists: Non-Phixion, Organized Konfusion, Del tha Funkee Homosapian

Genre: Hip-hop

Label: Fool’s Gold Records

I don’t see any need to beat around the bush, so I’m just gonna say it: I feel hip-hop is going through a very interesting phase right now, and I’m saying this as a fan that’s spent countless hours of research and observation on the culture. As I went to college during the latter part of the 2000s, I consistently listened to 90s hip-hop groups like A Tribe Called Quest and Public Enemy, and finding most recent mainstream artists sorely lacking the introspection that the old-school ones did. Still, it was a bit disheartening to see this genre I love continue to dissolve into dance music, with little concern for lyrics and flow cadence, which made me think that future generations would grow up not knowing anything about the foundations of hip-hop. Fortunately though, the cultural lexicon seems to deem that a decade must reach 20 for it to be considered cool again, and in that sense logically the 90s are at the forefront of the 2010s. Perhaps beginning with the much publicized hip-hop ensemble group OFWGKTA, a group that’s style and rap delivery was very much owed to the Wu-Tang Clan, I began to notice that the raw-yet-polished sound of hip-hop’s golden period had become both commercially viable and hugely relevant again. Since then I’ve seen plenty other high notes from hip-hop newcomers, such as Kendrick Lamaar and Danny Brown, who are really able to successfully reinvent the 90s sound of hip-hop for the ringtone age.

That said, there are plenty of hardcore hip-hop heads that are very particular on what “real” hip-hop really is, and a lot of today’s new guys just don’t cut it for them. They desire a sound that is more rugged and unfiltered, free of jingles as much as possible…people that really appreciate that Killer Mike and El-P hooked up to make some dope-ass shit. For those of you that heard last year’s critically lauded R.A.P. Music, one can certainly attest that Killer Mike made one of the ballsiest album decisions a dirty south rapper has made in a long time. Enlisting the legendary Brooklyn-based beatmaker El-P to completely produce the album for him, R.A.P. Music intentionally disregarded most of the mainstream leanings of Killer Mike’s previous records, and instead used a sound that invoked the more experimental work of El-P’s career. Thing is the two turned out to be a match made in hip-hop heaven, as Killer Mike’s angry southern raps perfectly synched with the neo-boom-bap of El-P’s music, and it was possibly the first hip-hop album since early Ice Cube that was able to find the right ratio between gangsta posturing and social outrage. Now, a year after that glorious album, El-P and Killer Mike have teamed up once again as a rap duo called Run the Jewels, with an album that’s free to download off their website. Once again, it’s a very formidable case of contemporary hip-hop.

First off, this album isn’t trying to break new ground musically or lyrically from their past ventures. The two emcees haven’t updated their style at all from last year, and El-P’s production is still the industrial-esque future sound that’s made him such a hop-hop anomaly for nearly two decades now. What the album is trying to do is expand their scope in a new format, and I’ll be first to admit that I’ve always been a big fan of hip-hop duos. While projects from solo artists always tend to be more personal and thematically concise, I always have liked the dynamics of hearing two skilled rappers work together, trading off each other’s flows (i.e. Method Man and Redman), and yes both El-P and Killer Mike are great emcees, albeit very different ones as well. Killer Mike is the more generally good rapper of the two, as his gruff vocals and Southern drawl are evocative of his mentor Big Boi, and his lyrical content focuses on the essential gangsta rap motifs. El-P, however, proves to be a very vital counter-point, as he’s just as angry as Killer Mike, and his lyrical prowess almost matches his talent as a producer. His words are often abstract, paranoid, and always towering. Some of his lines wouldn’t feel out of place in a David Foster Wallace book either (“Slow water drip to the Annotate temple to live in a prison. When the walls don’t appear to your vision/One floor down from that mall’s that prison. Where shower stalls get all y’all missin”). In some ways both these artists represent different areas of the hip-hop spectrum, with Killer Mike being the venerable African-American southern rapper with a background in drug dealing, while El-P is the middle-class white man who has turned his love of science-fiction and music into a career. Never before, however, has the line between those two points been so blurry.

The songwriting here is exceptionally strong too, even if this album doesn’t include a track that’s quite as brilliant as the R.A.P. Music standout (Reagan). If anything though, this album is a bit trippier than their previous work though, such as on the song No Come Down which features a chorus that acts as a more hazy version of Three Six Mafia’s 2005 hit single Stay Fly, and a verse from Killer Mike that involves a sex-ploit while on hallucinogenics. Of course, the sound is overall very abrasive, perhaps most evident on Banana Clipper, which uses a BDP-esque beat, and features a great appearance from Killer Mike’s most famous collaborate, Outkast’s Big Boi. Still, there is always a good sense of humor from Run the Jewels that keeps it from being too self-serious, as can be seen on their sex rhyme Twin Hype Back. Here the two go back and forth on their nastiest lyrics (“I’m fat but I dress nice, and bitches finesse Mike/They suck the dick and squeeze on my belly like bagpipes”), but the biggest surprise on this track is the inclusion of fan-favorite rapper/producer Prince Paul. Playing as his sex-fiend Chest Rockwell alter-ego, he makes some hilarious creepy monologues that give Rick Ross’ controversial date rape lyrics a run for their money (albeit in a much more tongue-in-cheek nature). Closing out the album is A Christmas Fucking Miracle, which is the album’s most epic track (it’s the only song on the album that runs over four minutes), and finds El-P and Killer Mike finally getting political again, as they shout about America, societal upbringing, and personal growth. A really banging closer for this half-hour of highly addicting music.

Run the Jewels is pure no bullshit hip-hop delivered with a real love for the old-school mentality. While other mainstream artists like Kanye West and Jay-Z have been consistently trying to push the boundaries on what their take of what commercial hip-hop can really sound like, Killer Mike and El-P only wish to carry on the sound that drew people to the genre in the first place. Despite the fact that El-P’s beats have an industrial-cum-electronic feel to them, and that this album is being released exclusively as a free download, Run the Jewels comes a lot closer to an old-school favorite (I.E. Criminal Minded), than one of these new-fangled records (i.e. Yeezus). If you’re a hardcore hip-hop head who values a hard sound, weird beats, and lyrics that are as intelligent as they are tough…then why haven’t you heard this already?!

Track Listing:

1) Run the Jewels

2) Banana Clipper*

3) 36′ Chain

4) DDFH

5) Sea Legs

6) Job Well Done

7) No Come Down

8) Get It*

9) Twin Hype Back*

10) A Christmas Fucking Miracle*

Album Highlight*

Album Review: James Holden – The Inheritors

by Rio Toro

James Holden: The Inheritors

Similar Artists: Vladislav Delay, Ital, Pete Swanson, Manual Gottsching

Genre: Sound Collage, Krautrock, Experimental, Noise, Techno

Label: Border Community

The world of electronic music is a constantly moving one — there are seemingly hundreds of micro-genres, new *must have* equipment is put out on a day to day basis, and with intuitive tools like “GarageBand” being readily available on the everyman’s computer, it is easy (almost too easy) for people to make music. Due to these circumstances, the genre (if it can even be called that anymore) is flooded with near unlimited possibility, and because of that, producers seem to always be in a constant state of flux, desperately seeking out that next big sound — or at least a somewhat original one. It’s gotten to the point where every year (or every few months even) an electronic album comes around that is deemed “groundbreaking”, and honestly, keeping up with even the very best of the electronic releases throughout a year is a challenge; especially when you have to factor in that many of these albums take multiple listens to register.

Such is the case with James Holden’s The Inheritors. James Holden is a British producer/DJ who has worked on and off in the scene since the late 90’s. Although he own’s his own record label and released one of the best mixes of the 2000’s with Balance 005, he is arguably most well known for his early trance singles such as “A Break In The Clouds”, or his remix of Nathan Fake’s, “The Sky Was Pink”. With his 2007 debut full length, The Idiots are Winning, he took a side step away from his lush, bigger than life soundscapes to immerse himself more fully in prog and krautrock.

However, even for those of you who have become familiar with James Holden’s non traditional career arc, the first thing you will notice about his 2nd LP is how experimental it is. For one, the tracks are a blend of electro-acoustic instrumentation, with tones that alternate — almost haphazardly — between being sharp and dissonant to fuzzy and warm. Secondly, the tracks are based around live, single take keyboard melodies. This gives the music a whole lot of subtlety — at least some of which was likely unintentional. Even when something sounds like a loop, it isn’t, and once you realize this, hearing each piece play out becomes mesmerizing; since we never know when a drastic change might occur, it also feels rather dangerous. Lastly, there’s always something ominous lying within the depths of these tracks, as if a ritual is taking place and a ghostly apparition may be called forth at any moment.

The experience can be a bit overwhelming at first, and even after a dozen or so listens I am still startled by how layered many of these tracks are. While Holden certainly brushes upon Kosmiche (Circle of Fifths), noise (Sky Burial), minimal (Self Playing Schmaltz), and hauntology (Seven Stars), no track feels like a complete representation of said genre; there is no pure light or pure dark here. Instead, what we get is a series of sound collages that come together in a kind of delicious home made soup bowl. A treat that can only be offered by the very best that experimental music has to offer.

It has become somewhat of a cliche that electronic producers turn out music that is more challenging and inaccessible as their career lengthens, but that doesn’t keep The Inheritors from being any less of it’s own. This project was in fact inspired by William Golding’s 1955 novel of the same name, and while basing an album off of a 60 year old science fiction novel screams over-intellectualism, this is an album that has its more obvious pleasures as well. While people will complain that this music doesn’t contain the same sense of spectacle of Holden’s earlier work, that’s not necessarily true. If you want to find techno, or trance, or house, you can find it — somewhere within these endless waves of static hiss, its all there.

Track Listing:

1.) Rannoch Dawn*

2.) A Circle Inside a Circle*

3.) Renata*

4.) The Caterpillar’s Intervention

5.) Sky Burial

6.) The Illuminations*

7.) Inter-City 125

8.) Delabole

9.) Seven Stars

10.) Gone Feral*

11.) The Inheritors*

12.) Circle of Fifths

13.) Some Respite

14.) Blackpool Late Eighties*

15.) Self-Playing Schmaltz

Album Highlight – *

Album Review: Zomby – With Love

by Rio Toro

Zomby: With Love

Similar Artists: Kode9, Burial, Ikonika, Actress

Genre: Dubstep, Garage, Jungle, Dark Rave

Label: 4AD

Despite the rough draft feel, there has always been something attractive about musical sketches. Listening to these minimal tracks — ones that often contain ideas just waiting to be expanded upon in countless directions — can be an intriguing and inspiring experience. Even more so, is the fact that when a track is slimmed down to its bare essentials, the few elements that are present stand out to a much more effecting degree, creating music where every snare hit and chord change becomes inescapable.

Now i’m not saying that the 33 tracks off of With Love, the 3rd album (2nd on 4AD) from London/New York producer Zomby, are necessarily “sketches”, but since most hover around the 2 minute mark, we get the feeling that these tracks were quickly made and finished off at the moment their creator had to stop and think about where to go next. Within the first second, we are thrown into the shuffle of Zomby’s ever broadening electronic palette, and it is up to our senses to find our way through the labyrinthine maze that is With Love.

The tracks are spread across two disks (in alphabetical order no less) and although this is essentially a lumped together compilation of what the producer has been doing for the past few years, the pacing mostly keeps us on our toes. While some tracks adequately segue into the subsequent ones, others end abruptly and offer an awkward transition. This will certainly lead to a confusing experience for many, but the way I see it (and probably Zomby himself), the rough, slapdash feel we get from scurrying through a dozen or so genres is part of the fun; especially because here we see Zombie at his most precise.

With Love doesn’t make any statements, and it most certainly doesn’t tell a story — which will certainly prevent a handful from returning to this album past the first initial playthroughs. But despite the lack of any kind of overarching neatness (god knows it isn’t cohesive), individually, these are tracks that project a sleek and undeniably stylish presence, and few listeners will fail to become attached to the best of these productions; after all — there are 33 of them, so you would certainly be hard pressed to hate them all.

With that said, there is not a single track here that comes near “classic” status — keep in mind, while I do believe this album shows the producer at his overall best, there is nothing that reaches the status of something like “Natalia’s Song” off of Dedications (which, with its copyrighting issues is another story all together). Also, while I previously said that you will likely become attached with a handful of these tracks, for an album titled With Love, far too many tracks are emotionally barren, and devoid even of the gloomy atmosphere the best dubstep producers are known for. Even the far reaching vocal samples Zomby is known for are pulled back here.

While the first disk does a good job of switching musical styles from song to song (dubstep, garage, rave, jungle), the second disk lacks variety, and offers far fewer standouts. If the first disk is more entertaining and club oriented, the second disk is more cryptic, and as it recalls Actress’ early work, it’s also more hazy, and occasionally even hypnotic. Listening to both disks in unison works well enough, but the one true misstep is that, on the second disk, the drum programming from track to track is eerily (and sometimes maddeningly) similar — even causing the listener to second guess if the same track is on the album multiple times.

Even with all these complaints though, this is a world that’s easy to get sucked into — especially while traversing dark (preferably rainy) cityscapes. Maybe i’m a sucker for the beautiful black and white cover art, and maybe many of these tracks are in fact a case of style over substance, but something about Zomby’s aesthetic sticks with you, and at his best he sounds like no one else. With its ups and downs it certainly won’t be a contender for album of the year, but it sure as hell will be staying on my mp3 player for the next several.

Track Listing:

1.) As Darkness Falls
2.) Ascension
3.) Horrid*
4.) If I Will
5.) Isis*
6.) It’s Time
7.) Memories
8.) Orion*
9.) Overdose*
10.) Pray For Me
11.) Rendezvous*
12.) The Things You Do*
13.) This One
14.) Vanishment
15.) VI-XI*
16.) VXV
17.) 777
18.) Black Rose
19.) Digital Smoke
20.) Entropy Sketch
21.) Glass Ocean*
22.) How To Ascend
23.) I Saw Golden Light
24.) Pyrex Nights
25.) Quickening
26.) Reflection In Black Glass
27.) Shiva

28.) Soliloquy*
29.) Sphinx
30.) Sunshine In November*
31.) Vast Emptiness
32.) White Smoke*
33.) With Love

Album Highlight – *

Album Review: Sigur Ros – Kveikur

by Rio Toro

Sigur Ros: Kveikur

Similar Artists: Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Radiohead

Genre: Experimental Rock, Post-Rock

Label: XL

Writing about Sigur Ros in 2013 isn’t an easy thing to do. Through 15 odd years and 7 albums, the Icelandic five piece have perfected their brand of glacial post-rock countless times over, and their influence on today’s music scene is easily documented. Still, despite their ever increasing popularity, and the undeniable quality of each passing album, the last few years have seen Sigur Ros receiving a fair share of criticism (or, at least much more than they probably deserve). While the band has yet to be outright ridiculed, for some reason, critics expect Sigur Ros to be more than the most technically impressive rock band in the world. The bulk of this “negativity” has revolved around Sigur Ros not reinventing themselves, but instead continuing to maintain and adapt their own distinct sound. Personally, I find this critique to be unfair, and even a little bit cruel when you consider how indescribably beautiful the sound of Sigur Ros really is. Sure, while listening to a Sigur Ros song, it’s relatively easy to recall another, similar sounding song within their discography, but try taking each of their albums as a full piece; you will be able to see how each entry stands as a unique experience. For instance: Von is their most experimental, Agaetis Byrjun is their most sprawling, ( ) is their most challenging, Takk is their brightest and most accessible, Med Sud is their most varied, and Valtari is their most serene.

However, I do have to say, even with these noticeable differences, the core emotions we feel when listening to Sigur Ros have for the most part stayed the same, and because of that, coming up with a new set of descriptors for Kveikur is proving troublesome. It’s certainly a few shades darker — but that bit is almost too obvious to talk about. More interesting perhaps, is that while typically a Sigur Ros song has followed a path of slow and steady verses building to epic climaxes (soft/soft/loud), here a bulk of songs start off at what seems like full blast — only to become even more ferocious a few minutes in (loud/loud/very loud). With the pounding drums, and the rhythm section which is more prevalent than we have heard from Sigur Ros in years, Kviekur is much more rooted in “rock” than their last few efforts. The band themselves even pegged this as Valtari’s polar opposite. If it wasn’t for Jonsi’s transcendental and always soothing voice, much of this album could be seen as straight up metal; albeit metal of a more atmospheric and piano inclined variety.

The album opens with crumbling static decay, which soon feeds into pummeling guitar chords. While “Brennisteinn” isn’t representative of the album in its entirety, we definitely get to see the band in a more raw state of mind throughout the nine tracks. Jonsi’s voice is often doused with reverb and cut into miniature segments, similar to the maximalist production found on solo album “Go”, but without the sense of whimsy. The title track in particular incorporates elements from industrial and goth rock to create a pulse that even outdoes their previous go-to headbanger “Ny Batteri”. On the other side of the spectrum we have a track like “Rafstraumur”, which has a backing vocal that wouldn’t be out of place on a Yo La Tengo record. The band manages these sounds in a way that maintains the unparalleled grandiose spirit they are known for.

A question I asked myself a few times while listening to this record is: are Sigur Ros still relevant? It might seem like a strange question from someone who is clearly a huge fan of this group’s output, but while the quality of this group’s music has been consistently excellent, the group’s earlier efforts made you feel like you were listening to a truly important band — one that only comes around every few lifetimes. It turns out they were important, and because of it they will likely have their place in the music history books regardless of what the rest of their career entails. Now the group’s legacy is firmly set in stone, and while nothing is missing here, it certainly doesn’t feel vital. It might sound like i’m giving off mixed messages with this album — but i’m not. It’s a great album, but that’s also all it is.

Track Listing:

1.) Brennisteinn*

2.) Hrafntinna

3.) Isjaki*

4.) Yrifborf

5.) Stormur

6.) Kveikur*

7.) Rafstraumur*

8.) Blapradur

9.) Var

Album Highlight – *

Album Review: Deafheaven – Sunbather

by Peter Foy

Deafheaven: Sunbather

Similar Artists: Converge, Godspeed you Black Emperor, Slint, My Bloody Valentine

Genre: Metal, black-metal, shoegaze, post-rock

Label: Deathwish

I often go through stages where I just want to listen to metal music, but I rarely call myself a metal head. Sure, I often blame my interest on music on the alternative metal bands I discovered as a teenager, such as System of a Down and Tool, but now I also often find myself seeing it as a genre that’s easy to half-ass. Any musician worth half their weight will tell you it isn’t difficult at all to make your instruments sounds loud, and I often find much of metal’s more known sub-genres (be it black metal, death metal, power metal, etc.) tend to rely more on gothy imagery than good songwriting. That said, when I find a metal band really finds a voice that breaks the mold and really demonstrates how powerful this music can be, then I often find myself tuned out once again to how blissful this genre can be when placed in the right hands. I can clearly say that the San Francisco five-piece, Deafheaven, have just released a sophomore album that is exactly that.

Those that have followed the bands previous efforts will see that the band has evolved plenty during their brief three-year existence. Formed as a duo in 2010, with George Clarke on vocals and Kerry McCoy on songwriting/guitar, the group always showed that they were a band interested in combining the vocals of death metal with the soundings of shoegaze. It wasn’t always very good, but the band showed ambition if nothing else, and they definitely became the focus of a lot of discussion once they signed to Deathwish, the record label founded and owned by Converge’s Jacob Bannon. People began to think that the insight of that legendary frontman was what was needed to really make the band take off. They then released their debut LP Roads to Judah in 2011, which definitely was more focused than their live efforts, but there was a sense that the pair were trying to squeeze to much material in their songs. Now, for their sophomore album Sunbather, the group has transformed into a full five-piece band, and have incorporated more elements from post-rock into their work. The result is an album that’s original, breathtaking, and even meditative.

Deafheaven makes their influences very clear, as the sound is very much borrowed from a plethora of great alternative bands. The shoegaze trappings prove to be transcendent, and often the album sounds like it could be Mogwai’s attempt at making a hardcore album. While often heavy, the music also utilizes calming instruments like piano, and often wants to invigorate the soul rather than invoke anger. The album’s mid-way track, “Please Remember” features guest vocalist Neige (Alcest) reciting lines Milan Kundera’s novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which proves particularly haunting when placed against the track’s droning backdrop guitars.

While many will most immediately liken Clarke’s screamed vocals to the typical screech of death metal singers, it’s more relevant to compare Clarke to his label’s owner. Like Jacob Bannon has done with Converge for almost two decades now, Clarke adds a real passion and lyrical stance to his screamed vocals, only Clarke is accompanied by music that sometimes doesn’t even remotely resemble metal. There’s such a rich thematic tapestry to the album, which is often difficult to pull off with an album that contains this kind of singing. Yes, the first time around you won’t be likely to make out most of Clarke’s lyrics, but the more you tune into the band, you find that there’s a real poeticism to what he’s saying, and his songs have a great sense of imagery. On the title track, Clarke describes a trip he’s taking through a rich neighborhood, wondering what it would be like to have such wealth. The song’s title, however, appears when he spies a young beauty and is instantly taken by the image. Love and it’s frustrations are big themes on the album, perhaps most evident on the song Dreamhouse. This tracks ends with lyrics that Clarke says he took from drunken texts he sent to a girl he was infatuated with: “‘I’m dying.’/ ‘Is it blissful?’/ ‘It’s like a dream.’/ ‘I want to dream.'”
In a straight through listen, there is an aura of sameness on the record’s later half. The melancholic guitars and warped audio which sounded so revelatory in the beginning do take a bit of a toll from the album’s hour-long running time. Still though, the repetition is necessary to really appreciate the band’s ambitions, and added listens will only take him more from the cascading guitars, and lofty scale. When the album closes with the epic Pecan Tree it really assesses what you just taking in: a fully realized modern art-rock record that knows exactly how to mesh the sounds of the old into a very cohesive and compelling whole.

Sunbather is exactly the type of album that many different kinds of music fans have been waiting years for. Whether you’re a metal fan who feels the genre really lost something after Isis broke up, or an enthusiast on post-rock who has been looking for the style’s next big thing, than I can assure you that Sunbather is what you’ve been looking for. Already rock critics have been talking about how the album has the potential to be very influential on American death metal in the years to come. If it does, let’s hope it’s imitators keep this in mind: What makes Deafheaven work is that they’re only partially a metal act.

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