album

Album Reflection: Xiu Xiu – Angel Guts: Red Classroom

Xiu Xiu: Angel Guts: Red Classroom

Similar Artists: Suicide, Throbbing Gristle, Joy Division, Einstürzende Neubauten

Genre: Post-Punk, Industrial, Synth Pop

Label: Polyvinyl

If you hadn’t noticed upon clicking this page, I’ve changed the name of my posts from “Album Review” to “Album Reflection”, and in case you’re wondering, the reason is because I don’t believe I’ve written what one would call a “review” in quite some time. I haven’t really even been talking much about music in general (at least in its concrete form). Upon this realization, I’ve decided this space is from now on going to be dedicated towards my personal experience with a piece of music. Questions such as “what is the color of this music” and “what does the music look like” are ones I will be looking to address. Still, it will all be taken from my personal perception of the music at hand, as well as the social and cultural environment I happen to hear it in. My goal is to see what intensive listening sessions to particular brands of music will inspire me to write, and interpret whether anything artful comes out of the other end.

This movement has spurred from my inability to explain why music sounds the way it does, or even what it sounds like in the first place. I want to learn how to paint the picture of my experience with an album as vividly as possible; and seeing how everyone hears music in different ways, I believe this is a step in the right direction. I will warn you that there may be some pretentiousness here, so if you’re not into that kind of thing then I suggest you spend your time elsewhere. While under some circumstances I may go back on my word to write an honest to god “album review”, pretty much, you’ll just see a mix of short stories, personal anecdotes, and narrative driven imagery from me from now on. Thanks to anyone who’s followed my writing up to this point.

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A Confession/ A Love Letter:

Xiu Xiu were the band that saved my life, or rather, they were the one that brought me into my truest form. There were acts that preceded them and acts that followed them that all lie somewhere in the ranks of my personal importance, but right now, Xiu Xiu — along with Antony & the Johnsons — lie pretty high up on that list, and I’m not sure where I would be today without them.

Before 2008 — the year I graduated high school — I would say I was (and still am to some degree) an abnormally quiet person. Of course, this was because I was a closeted homosexual; something I would find out was also true about many of my similarly quiet peers years down the road. I remember freshman and sophomore year, walking the halls beneath a veil, screeching alarms firing off in my head to tell me what I should and should not do to assure I would blend inconspicuously into the environment. I was terrified of humiliation, afraid it would rip me apart limb from limb and throw me into exile, causing me to lose the few close friends I had. Like many other struggling gay teens, I first thought it would be a certain substance that would relieve me from my internal pressures, which led me to experimenting with an assortment of uppers, downers and hallucinogens. This process went on for years until I realized the escape it provided wasn’t for me. In fact, It wasn’t until college when I discovered Xiu Xiu — a band who embraced a startlingly bleak and confrontational blend of confessional singer-songwriter and manic post-punk — when I started to realize that maybe it was okay to be as fucked up as I was.

And that’s the thing; as much as mine was a generation more accepting of gays in many ways, I still felt I couldn’t fit into any of the archetypes society had carved out for me. I doubted that any sane person could find my personality to be commendable no matter how tolerant they were, because no matter how hard they seem to be trying, the media still isn’t doing a very good job of showing how tortured the soul of a gay person is. It’s why such a large percentage of gays hate gay themed television shows (Looking) and why almost all of them hate Macklemore. With Xiu Xiu by my side though, it seemed okay, and at times even cool, to have an ugly and disturbing side that I had yet to unleash. The more I thought about it, maybe it was okay to be lustful over one of your closest male friends and think about them erotically every night before falling asleep. Maybe it was okay to want something so bad you were willing to bleed for it. Maybe it was okay to have gender dysmorphia issues, and to have twisted thoughts pop into your head, and to fantasize about who would be at your own funeral. Most of all, maybe it was okay to hate yourself, and to hate everyone around you, including your own family.

I’m dramatizing a bit, to be fair, but in essence it’s all true. Xiu Xiu were a group that took the self loathing elements I always loved from acts like Radiohead and took it to a visceral and painfully honest extreme, somehow helping me realize that maybe being myself wasn’t so bad after all. When many people talk about Xiu Xiu, they talk about how comical certain songs of theirs are; the song “Fabulous Muscles” being the clearest example. When it comes down to it though, I don’t think I’ve ever related to a song as much as I have to that one, as it perfectly encapsulates our tendencies to worship guys we know will never love us back. Jamie Stewart is a lyricist who is capable of so much, and although his words are initially penetrable for their inherent shockingness, repeated listens reveal deep insights, even for non-homosexual listeners.

While it didn’t hit me all at once like that explanation may have seemed, I do attribute the group to have provided me with one big push towards helping me be okay with the outcasted individual I was, and eventually, one that would be proud of it. In celebration of their new album, this is my dedication and love letter towards a group that I consider, quite inarguably, to be groundbreaking. No matter how many more albums Xiu Xiu ends up releasing, I will always listen to them, because as far as I’m concerned, they own my soul.

Track Listing:

1.) Angel Guts:

2.) Archie’s Fades

3.) Stupid In The Dark*

4.) Lawrence Liquors

5.) Black Dick*

6.) New Life Immigration

7.) El Naco*

8.) Adult Friends*

9.) The Silver Platter

10.) Bitter Melon

11.) A Knife In The Sun

12.) Cinthya’s Unisex*

13.) Botanica de Los Angeles

14.) : Red Classroom

Album Highlight – *

Album Review: Actress – Ghettoville

by Rio Toro

Actress: Ghettoville

Similar Artists: Zomby, Lee Gamble, Lukid

Genre: XY2PQXX9

Label: Ninja Tune

It is now Tuesday, January 21st, 2013, the time is 4:25 PM, approximately 10 and 3/4 days since my initial voyage through Actress’ newest labyrinthine maze. While it’s no surprise that Ghettoville — Darren Cunningham’s 4th and apparently final album under the Actress moniker — is a strange and often confounding listen (considering the artist pretty much singlehandedly ushered in a new era of abstract techno) I admit that I underestimated the extent of his powers, and now, it seems I have befallen to them.

After incessantly listening to these 16 tracks repeatedly for 20+ hours, this marks the spot where I will begin my ~~third~~ fourth attempt to write this review. At this point in time, I am unsure if I will ever succeed in accurately conveying the themes of this cerebral minefield, and if this entrapping well I find myself in now continues to grow darker, I fear I will never be resolved of my duties as a music critic. Despite the increasing toll this experience has had on my well being, I must continue to stand by my duties, as mine is a profession relied on by many to provide satisfaction. However, if by some chain of events I am lead to deem my mission as being impossible, I hereby claim to hand over my prided music-reviewing degree and cast myself into exile. Thankfully, that day where I give up will never come, as I have taken an oath to continue to dissect this bold and insurmountable work until I can see it with eyes unclouded.

To prove my seriousness, I shall allow no other album — no matter how highly anticipated and readily available — to meet my ears until I have conquered this one. No dark crevice or subtle texture housed between the walls of this release shall pass by me without being factored into the towering equation. No lesser track shall be left out of the larger picture to allow for a quicker analysis, and most importantly, I shall blame myself and only myself for believing a track could be any less than absolute perfection.

There is no denying the brilliance of Darren Cunningham — I have moved past all thoughts of those kinds at this point in my journey, as I now know those thoughts are only a representation of the inherent mediocrity within myself. The only thing I must use now is patience, for it is the sole device necessary in unfolding the true meaning of this masterwork. Or maybe, just maybe, I will never be able to understand the whole of Ghettoville. Maybe the answer is that I’m just not smart enough to. This conclusion is something that in the long run I am not against saying, as a brain can only handle so much brilliance without overloading and crashing within itself. Sometimes, when I get caught up in thinking about it, I even fear the truth may be that I’ve never actually understood and properly enjoyed a single Actress track to date.

This self pity doesn’t even matter anymore though. It doesn’t matter whether I will or will not ever grasp the underlying themes of this record, as this infatuation of mine is about something bigger than proving myself to the music world. I could care less about how many more hours I will undoubtedly spend waiting for a grand realization or epiphany to form in my mind, because there is simply nothing about my existence that bears any more of an importance anymore. I am addicted, yes, a slave even, though not from any discernible enjoyment that I get from the act of continuously listening, but from the unrelenting curiosity that haunts my mind during the moments when I’m not. There is a feeling of some true underlying importance buried within this record, and one I refuse to dismiss as a production trick. This is a feeling that has been harvesting within Actress’ catalogue ever since he debuted with Hazyville in 2008, but now the feeling has become unavoidable and cemented within the productions. There’s nothing else to do now but wait and listen, and I gladly will until I find out exactly what it is that makes this music so spellbinding, for when that epiphany finally does arrive, I’ll know I’d have spent my life well.

Track Listing:

1.) Forgiven*

2.) Street Corp

3.) Corner*

4.) Rims

5.) Contagious*

6.) Birdcage*

7.) Our

8.) Time*

9.) Towers

10.) Gaze*

11.) Skyline

12.) Image

13.) Don’t

14.) Rap*

15.) Frontline

16.) Rule*

Album Highlight – *

Album Review: Fuck Buttons – Slow Focus

by Rio Toro

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: 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 – *

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: 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: These New Puritans – Field of Reeds

by Rio Toro

These New Puritans: Field of Reeds

Similar Artists: Talk Talk, Mark Hollis, Julia Holter

Genre: Art Rock

Label: Infectious

Summer is now upon us, and once again, the last few weeks have seen the term “summer album” being thrown left and right at LP’s which contain music of a more playful and sunny variety. While Field of Reeds, the third album by Southend four piece These New Puritans, is by no means a “summer album”, it is certainly a brighter reinvention of the stark post punk inspired sound of the group’s first two LP’s. Because of this, Field of Reeds is in the perfect position to become the summer album for people who don’t like summer albums — or if you will, the year’s anti-summer album.

The closest genre that TNP’s new sound comes in contact with is art rock, but seeing how most of these tracks are made up of series of orchestral vignettes, using the term “rock” even in it’s loosest context doesn’t seem to fit. “Roxy Music” are clearly not an influence here, and neither are the group’s previous influences, “The Fall” and “Public Image Ltd”. Trying to figure out exactly how TNP arrived at this destination is surely a head scratcher, as this is certainly not a traditional progression. Unlike the heavy beats heard in their previous work, there is rarely any sort of streamlined pulse to keep us in a steady groove for more than a few measures. Even drum lines and vocals are noticeably absent for minutes at a time. At first, the album can even seem a bit fragmented, because often as soon as we grab hold of an identifiable rhythm, it fades out in favor for something completely different.

If you can tell by how I’m describing it, Field of Reeds is a difficult record — even compared to the group’s viscerally arresting last opus, Hidden. This is a much slower paced record (at least at first), but the tracks prove to creep up on your senses in highly unusual ways. Much of this can be contributed to the sonically intriguing production, which incorporates field recordings, deadly drones, noir-esque horns, children’s choirs, and a guy who apparently has the deepest voice in all of Britain. It’s a perfectionist’s record for sure, but there is also a very natural component to the music that is occasionally hair raising. One such instance, which happens during the tail end of the title track, there is a bell sound that repeatedly fools me into thinking the door to the subway train is about to close. Moments such as these make the music jump out into the real world, and It’s incomparable to much else.

Even “Fragment Two”, easily the most accessible song of the bunch, has an incredible array of instruments present throughout its four and a half minutes. However, most tracks run much longer, and prove to be more groundbreaking as well — “V (Island Song)” being the longest (and quite possibly strongest) at 9:16. The longer tracks contain their own interludes and are held together only by loose threads, such as distant piano or violins. Of course, this isn’t all quiet new age music; the band does break into the rock threshold occasionally, and when they do, the result is nothing less than extraordinary. All the musicians put in painstakingly detailed efforts — the orchestration is tremendously varied, baselines are all perfectly placed, and the drums (when they are present) penetrate on a near tribal level.

Many people are going to refer to this band as pretentious, but to me that is a term as overused and contrived as the world’s current favorite word: “hipster”. Neither of those terms do anything to commemorate talent, and they both talk about something that isn’t even really related to music. Sure, these musicians are not particularly modest; as it happens, they want to do something profound, they want to create a masterpiece — I am glad to say that with Field of Reeds they have done just that.

Track Listing:

1.) This Guy’s in Love With You

2.) Fragment Two*

3.) The Light in Your Name*

4.) V (Island Song)*

5.) Spiral*

6.) Organ Internal

7.) Nothing Else

8.) Dreams

9.) Field of Reeds*

Album Highlight – *

Album Review: Dirty Beaches – Drifters/Love is the Devil

by Rio Toro

Dirty Beaches: Drifters/Love Is The Devil

Similar Artists: Suicide

Genre: Loner Music, Experimental

Label: Zoo Music

Some may disagree, but personally, I’ve always felt the main reason double-albums are often so prone to failure because the artist attempts an exploration of genres outside their forte, and in doing so creates a listening experience that is ambitious, but overall uneven and not representative of his/her talents. Plus, especially in these backward looking times, cohesiveness has been something to strive for in music. While it’s certainly impressive to make songs that run upwards of 20 minutes, or an album that requires 2.5 hours worth of subway trips to finish, in the end are those really the albums you are going to play again and again throughout the year?

Alex Zhang Hungtai, mastermind behind “Dirty Beaches”, has avoided many of the pitfalls associated with double albums by making one in which each disk appropriately complements the other. Both are entirely distinct from one another and even have their own titles. The first one, titled Drifters, is an outward looking record heavy on freak-outs and detailed drum programming, while Love is the Devil is a more personal, ambient heavy affair. If you are familiar with Dirty Beaches’ first proper full length, Badlands, which was released in 2011, you will likely be very surprised with how radical a departure much of this music is. While Badlands was a grimy, 70’s inspired lo-fi record heavily influenced by Suicide, here the influences are much harder to pinpoint. While I seriously doubt these were primary influences, without the saxophone that is heard throughout “Landscapes in the Mist”, it could easily pass off for a Wolfgang Voigt track, and similarly, “Berlin” has an ethereal piano backdrop that wouldn’t be out of place on an Eluvium record.

Thankfully, despite his broadened horizons, Hungtai hasn’t abandoned what made his first album such a standout. This guy is a loner if there ever was one, and his lack of a proper home (a statement he has made in several interviews) is felt throughout the entirety of the album. Many people are saying that the first disk here is much more accessible, but let me make this clear; in the traditional sense, absolutely none of this music is accessible. Only on Elli do we arrive at what could be considered a “song” with a naturally flowing chord structure. Furthermore, it took me until the end of my first listen to realize I had yet to understand, or ever properly hear, any of Hungtai’s lyrics. While part of this is because he occasionally sings in a different language, such as French on “Aurevoir Mon Visage”, mostly, it is because he sings/screams in a deadened drawl that is so drenched in reverb it is almost 100% indecipherable. Everything here, including the edgy guitars and pulsing synths, is heavily corroded and bursting at the seems with dense, mind-altering pressure. However, instead of being too harsh, these factors actually give the album a lot of personality.

The two disks here represent two sides to a very experimental coin, and each style is sought out with the utmost precision. Which disk you prefer is ultimately based on your musical tastes, as I have to deem them equal in quality. With that said, the majority of people are going to find Drifters more appealing than its ambient based counterpart. As most of Hungtai’s work has been released on cassette-only labels, what he has given us here feels like a very generous offering. While 75 minutes is a big chunk of music and time, I find this album to be relatively easy to listen to, because hidden under the brutal textures and noise there is something here that remains interesting, unique and undeniably beautiful.

Track Listing:

Drifters

1.) Night Walk

2.) I Dream in Neon*

3.) Belgrade

4.) Casino Lisboa*

5.) ELLI

6.) Aurevoir Mon Visage

7.) Mirage Hall*

8.) Landscapes In The Mist*

Love is the Devil

1.) Greyhound at Night

2.) This is Not My City*

3.) Woman

4.) Love is the Devil

5.) Alone at the Danube River*

6.) I Don’t Know How To Find My Way Back To You

7.) Like the Ocean We Part

8.) Berlin*

Album Highlight*

Album Review: Daft Punk – Random Access Memories

by Rio Toro

Daft Punk: Random Access Memories

Similar Artists: Giorgio Moroder, Nile Rodgers

Genre: Disco, House, Pop, Dance

Label: Columbia

With Random Access Memories, Guy-Manuel and Thomas Bangalter have created an album that is so meticulously detailed and expensively produced that it is essentially critic proof. At 320 kps, RAM is simply one of the best sounding records of our time, and it makes all other factors such as songwriting and originality seem far less important than they should be. It is not an exaggeration to say this is the new go to album when testing out the quality of a new set of speakers/headphones. Still, while critical reception has been, for the most part, very positive, this has to do with it being undeniably solid and pleasing to the senses rather than it being groundbreaking.

On first listen, it is easy to be disappointed – I for one was expecting something much more progressive. After the resounding amount of hype surrounding this release, it is slightly disheartening that 2/3rds of the record is made up of slow jams. As a whole, this is a record that is neither as fun as Homework, nor as revolutionary as Discovery. Instead, RAM stands on its own within the group’s discography, and in its own way, it ends up being just as impressive as the duo’s previous landmarks.

Obviously, this is a record that looks to the past for inspiration, and here we get to see the duo wear their long time influences on their sleeves in spectacular fashion. Many of the duo’s long time influences even take part in songwriting credits and vocal duties. The concept of the album is about living in the sounds of the past to arrive at a new destination that encapsulates the spirit and energy of a time long gone. This is most present in the Todd Edwards sung title track “Fragments of Time”, where he repeatedly sings /I’ll just keep playing back, these fragments of time, everywhere I go, these moments will shine/ during the chorus. Unfortunately, that song ends with a Peter Frampton like vocoder guitar solo that is one of the few instances where the sound comes off as being nearly pastiche. Most of the time, the album plays true to this theme of reinventing the past while still sounding modern and fresh.

The list of collaborators that took part in the construction of RAM is sprawling, and representative of an array of genres spanning multiple decades. A whole lot of talent, such as Nile Rodgers’ disco infused guitar work and Paul Williams’ emotive, almost broadway vocals, is showcased throughout the hour plus running time. Some of the most interesting collaborations come with newer artist’s such an Noah Lennox and Julian Casablancas lending their gifts to the sounds of 70’s and 80’s house music. While a look at the production credits would leave one to believe the album would be a clusterfuck of auto-tuned vocals and incongruous harmonies, it is to the producers credit that the opposite is true. In fact, the pairings are often so smooth and nuanced that the results seem far too natural and human for a group as robotic and mechanized as Daft Punk.

While Daft Punk has always been cheesy in their own delightful way, here they have taken more than a few steps into adulthood. After all, these are two grown men who are pushing their mid 40’s; so it is no wonder why they have thrown out many of their less mature charades. However, some of the cheesiness that fueled their earlier work still has a lingering presence – it is during these moments where the album occasionally falters, as we feel they aren’t in on the joke of how silly some of this music is. One such instance that calls to mind is the album’s miraculous and spectacle worthy “Touch”, which is almost ruined when Paul Williams sing’s /Touch sweet touch, you’ve given me too much to feel, sweet touch, you’ve almost convinced me i’m real/ in a disastrous cry of self pity that proves way too broadway for this reviewer.

Above all else, this is an album in the truest sense of the word. It is meant to be listened to in unison, and after it sinks in, you could easily live with this music for weeks on end. Best represented by Giorgio’s voiceover on “Giorgio by Moroder”, RAM is an album about disco rather than a disco album – not unlike how DJ Sprinkles fantastic “Midtown 120 Blues” was an album about the classic deep house scene. Daft Punk have perhaps created the most expensive music history lesson of all time. Although the effect it will have on the future of music is uncertain, as of now it is an absolute essential to any music lovers catalogue.

Track Listing:

1.) Give Life Back To Music

2.) The Game of Love

3.) Giorgio by Moroder*

4.) Within

5.) Instant Crush

6.) Lose Yourself to Dance

7.) Touch*

8.) Get Lucky*

9.) Beyond

10.) Motherboard

11.) Fragments of Time

12.) Doin’ in Right*

13.) Contact*

* – Album highlight

Album Review: Savages – Silence Yourself

by Rio Toro

Savages: Silence Yourself

Similar Artists: Siouxsie Sioux, The Fall, Bauhaus

Genre: Post-Punk

Label: Matador

It seems like every year the term “fully-formed” is appropriated to a new band, and this year it seems the title is being given to London’s “Savages”. It’s a term that’s previously been applied to groups such as Brooklyn’s “Grizzly Bear” and co-Londoners “The xx”, but what exactly does this title mean? With “Grizzly Bear” it was a reference to how each member was an equal and essential component to the band’s overall sound, and with “The xx” the term was a relation to the band’s sleek distinctiveness and style. However, with Savages, the term is more representative of the band’s revolving ethos rather than the music itself. It’s the kind of warning that makes you wary that the hype is just hype…

The much talked about manifesto that accompanies Silence Yourself is the band’s way of advocating for a better, purer world – which calls to mind The Knife’s concept heavy “Shaking the Habitual”. This isn’t quite a concept album, but the Buddhist leaning principles of the band’s declaration pop up constantly throughout the album. Many of the lyrical themes are based around freeing yourself from distractions and deepening your focus on more personal matters. No better is this described than on “No Face”, where Jenny Beth condemns those who lack intrapersonal skills.

While Savages do have a face, it certainly isn’t one they could call their own. For a band that isn’t doing anything new in terms of music, they are making some incredibly bold statements – statements that could have easily backfired if they didn’t prove to have the proper credentials. When it comes down to it, Savages are mere Post-Punk revivalists, but what makes them thrive within the flooded genre is their unshakeable authenticity.

So yes, Savages are the people they say they are – this is not a hoax. While it is tempting to relate this female four piece to Riot Grrrl greats like “Sleater-Kinney”, or more recent female lead groups like “Screaming Females”, Savages have much more in common with “Siouxsie and the Banshees” or even “The Fall”. Lead vocalist Jenny Beth has a French tinged delivery that is commanding in its force; often building in intensity every few measures until the song cuts out with her screaming at the top of her lungs. Some of the best moments arise when she is singing/yelling the same words ad-infitum as the guitars pummel out fastidious riffs and splatter us with noisy violence.

The album as a whole is pretty full throttle in the energy department, but the sequencing is flat out excellent so as not to overwhelm. For instance, there are slower, more gothic songs such as “Waiting for a Sign” that show off the artists’ songwriting strengths, and there is even an ambient interlude to break up side A/B. Each song provides a slightly different angle than the last to create an experience that feels well rounded to the talents of the musicians. The reason the band released so little in the way of ep’s/singles is likely because of their dedication to the album format, and their ambition shows off in strides here.

Manifesto or none, this is a great rock record. It may not be revolutionary enough to cause us to change our lifestyles the way the band wants it to, but it’s an affecting experience nonetheless. At its best, such as the rollicking opener “Shut Up”, the guitar, bass, vocals, and drums mesh to create a sound that is at once enraged, distraught, and beautiful – quite a rare feat for a simple punk band.

Track Listing:

1.) Shut up*

2.) I Am Here

3.) City’s Full*

4.) Strife

5.) Waiting For A Sign*

6.) Dead Nature

7.) She Will

8.) No Face*

9.) Hit Me

10.) Husbands*

11.) Marshal Dear

* – Album Highlight

album

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