I posted this around the same time last year.
Nathan Fake - Xmas Rush by Pampa Records
Christmas just isn’t the same without some pretty industrial sounding electronica, is it now?
December 3, 2011
Nathan Fake - Xmas Rush
May 16, 2011
April 11, 2011
Tim Hecker - Blood Rainbow
Tim Hecker’s new album, the amazingly named ‘Ravedeath, 1972’, has deservingly received high praise since its release.
The album is great but my favourite thing to come from listening to it is that it reminded me about this much earlier Tim Hecker song from 2006’s Harmony in Ultraviolet.
Listen to Blood Rainbow in the evening on a train. Or having a nice walk somewhere in the city. It doesn’t matter, it’s really excellent.
March 28, 2011
That Ghost - Calls
Lo-fi has a slightly awkward position in music these days. Too often used as an aesthetic afterthought, feeling inauthentic and overly-stylised, hearing a lo-fi song that feels genuine is quite rare.
That Calls’ ‘Ghost’ is one of those rare songs. The whole thing is so woozy and sleepy it just sort of ‘happens’. It’s not unlike large chunks of the debut album from Real Estate, so if you liked that, you’ll like this. Probably.
March 8, 2011
Dent May - Eastover Wives
If you’re still impatiently waiting for new material from Jens Lekman (you are) this should keep you going.
All the components are there, including; rich voice, a hint of funk and some very excellent sax. SAX.
It takes a long time to leave your head once you’ve listened to it, which is no bad thing.
February 23, 2011
Squadda B - 2012 (Feat. Robbie Rob)
This is basically amazing. My favourite hip-hop song in a long time…including Kanye’s last album. A case of the sum being greater than the parts, what I love about 2012 - the second half particularly- is that it has the atmosphere of classic 90s West Coast hip-hop like Pharcyde and Souls of Mischief.
Tremendous fun to rap along to if you don’t mind sounding completely off your face.
Squadda B - 2012 (Feat. Robbie Rob) by themightyhealthy
Fat tail like the back of a whale.
February 20, 2011
Dodos - Black Night
Dodos’ Visiter was one of my favourite albums of 2008. Raw, a bit schizophrenic and thoroughly excellent. Its follow up Time To Die felt like a sanitised version of the band - not quite a misstep but missing some of the jagged edges that made Visiter such a welcome surprise.
Black Night brings back the rawness while keeping some of the better aspects of Time To Die - namely richer instrumentation.
Things are definitely good for the new album.
February 14, 2011
Braids - Native Speaker
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (in a good way).
Braids “Native Speaker” by aalbert83The rest of the album, Native Speaker, is very enjoyable too. See:
February 9, 2011
Jeans Wilder - Tough Guys
The last few months have been very good for swearing in music. A new trend of disguising threats and abuse by singing them everso sweetly has come to prominence. Here we get “You’re such a motherfucking tough guy….”
If you like swearing you’ll love it. You’ll also love it if you like (very) lo-fi pop with nice melodies.
Jeans Wilder - Tough Guys by themightyhealthy
Also - he’s called Andrew Caddick. Like the cricketer with substantial ears. Which is good isn’t it.
Maybe it’s the same person? Let’s compare:
No.
February 6, 2011
On Shuffle: Sunset Rubdown - Stadiums and Shrines II
Wolf Parade announced they were going on an ’indefinite hiatus’ at the end of November last year. I’ll read that as ‘we’re splitting up but we still quite like each other’. In truth it’s not that surprising - in recent years the band had increasingly felt like a side project for its two songwriters Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner rather than the main focus it once was.
Quite sad news, nevertheless. Then I listened to Stadiums and Shrines II from Spencer Krug side-project (err…main project) Sunset Rubdown’s Shut Up I am Dreaming (great album name, incidentally) and didn’t feel quite so sad.
Spencer Krug was always my favourite of the two. He could turn Humpty Dumpty in to an epic, life-affirming adventure. Stadiums and Shrines II is certainly that.
Sunset Rubdown - Stadiums And Shrines II by themightyhealthy
When he sings that lyric ‘…there’s a kid in there, and he’s big, and he’s dumb and he’s…kinda scared’ followed by that sublime guitar whine…
…And when that guitar whine turns in to a beautiful flourish leading into the chorus…
…And the way he slows the pace right down before building up to a typically huge, triumphant finish… I’m getting a bit carried away here, but that’s what happens with Spencer Krug songs. It’s difficult to articulate their impact - they aren’t songs to be dissected in a review, they’re songs to listen to and get taken along for the ride.
In the end, the name of the band doesn’t really matter. As long as Spencer Krug is writing and releasing songs like this I’ll be happy. Even if it’s a cover Humpty Dumpty.
I won’t quite be the same, though. Together, Wolf Parade were frequently brilliant. Almost untouchably so on occasion. Let’s hope it is just a hiatus.
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