Plaid (ft. Bjork) – “Lilith”
Not For Threes
I’ve had this track for years; it dates from the Audiogalaxy period, when I downloaded things willy-nilly with no context and then promptly forgot about them. This little collaboration is fun and uncomplicated, but you still get a little Plaid-ness poking through now and then. It’s a nice listen that pops up for me once every few months.
Portugal. The Man – “Colors”
Censored Colors
My friend has been working on these guys’ music videos, so I thought I’d check them out. As it turns out, they’re very good! Excellent sense of harmony – the blasts of voices never clash with the instrumentation, although that lone violin is a bit overwrought. There’s a lot of variety on this record, but throughout, there’s a range of vocal experimentation that really catches your ear. “Colors” is a little more low-key than the rest of the album but I like it especially for some reason.
Peach Pit – “An Open House Where Horror Is Your Host”
Suspicious Cargo
This is from a much earlier (1999) album than their astonishing split EP with Majmoon. It’s much more subdued but you can still hear a lot of the same tendencies, especially in the menacing final third of this track. They had yet to really apply the math or layers, though. Definitely worth a listen.
Blood On The Wall – “Stoner Jam”
Awesomer
I place this song under the same “nearly perfect” category as the Beatles’ “I Feel Fine,” Radiohead’s “Airbag,” and Skygreen Leopards’ “The Heron.” There are hundreds of such songs in my memory, but it is still relatively exclusive company; it is a category of consummate craftsmanship and a sort of syzygy of every element in a song to make it something more than a sequence of notes. Blood On The Wall’s “Lightning Song” is another good example. (insound)
Collections of Colonies of Bees – “Flocks III”
Birds
This track belongs with the grand-daddies of post-rock: GY!BE’s “Storm,” Tarentel’s “Ursa Minor, Ursa Major,” much of Mono’s Walking Cloud, and so on. Their take on the long-form instrumental rock genre is more repetitive and anthemic than Mono’s wandering strains of hard-soft or Godspeed’s tone poems. Warning: the track is 11 minutes long, and you have to listen to the whole thing straight and at great volume. (insound)
The Delfonics – “Delfonics Theme”
La La Means I Love You
Your slow-motion make-out track of the day. The instrumentation on this song (sitar, piano, horn, organ) is just a bonanza.
Abe Vigoda – “Wild Heart”
Reviver
This is a strong (but relatively quiet) stretch of an interesting but spotty EP. It reminds me of Remora with its unsure, wavering vocals and repetitive but hypnotic background instrumentation. (insound)
Chopin – Etude, Op. 10, No. 7 in C Major
I just love that there are pieces like this. Flighty, rhythmic, and colorful, yet still full of carefully-planned harmonics and counterpoint.
Rachel’s – On Demeter
Selenography
Give this track a little time and the lengthy intro gives way to beautiful and atmospheric chamber music. I heard Selenography in Barnes & Noble when it came out in 1999 and immediately bought it. The track that I’d heard was “The Mysterious Disappearance of Louis Leprince,” a standout on the album, and at the time I didn’t think the rest of Selenography stood up. I know better now that I’ve heard a bit more contemporary chamber music, though I’ve never listened to much else from Rachel’s. Selenography is about to be reissued as a 2xLP, so now is as good a time as ever to start listening.
Circulatory System – “Symbols and Maps”
Circulatory System
This band’s first album is one of the deepest and most puzzling albums of all time. While it resembles in some ways the Elephant 6 psych-pop of Olivia Tremor Control, its intense layering and mind-blowing instrumentation (multi-multi-tracking) put it beyond even OTC’s complexity, while better maintaining its musicality. It required a lot of close listening to “get” for me, and I’m still discovering details in it years later. Luckily, there are also moments of easy clarity and beauty, like the dreamy beginning to this track. (cloud recordings)
