White Rabbits – “Percussion Gun”
It’s Frightening
While for much of this album, the band attempts unsuccessfully to hit a sort of Spoon vibe, but the guy’s voice is just too overwrought. On this first track, though, they mostly nail it. The up-front drums are tight, and the guitar is very Hail To The Thief. (insound)
Sean McCann – “Star Charge”
The Capital
I think this is what you hear when you go towards the light.
Dirty Beaches – “Sweet 17”
Badlands EP
This music sounds like “you have to be there” music — kind of the way I loved seeing Les Savy Fav live but don’t really enjoy their albums. But I can imagine being in some hot, dark venue and having this guy just hit this demented surf groove for all he’s worth, and everyone in the place just going nuts, though they’ll be unable to recall why afterwards. (insound)
Lia Ices – “Daphne”
Grown Unknown
I still haven’t heard the rest of this album because I can’t get past this song. It’s like a hybrid of the best parts of Joanna Newsom, Bon Iver, and Fleetwood Mac. I’m not messing with you. It’s really, really good. Whoever produced this should get a medal. Also: I have no idea whether this is popular already or not. (insound)
Songs:Ohia – “Hold On Magnolia”
Magnolia Electric Co.
Long known for his stark, dark compositions using little more than guitar and his voice (such as Pyramid Electric Co.), Jason Molina really only made use of a full band starting with this album, which he later retconned, if you will, from a Songs:Ohia album to a Magnolia Electric Co. album. This, the last song, is also the best, and although the rest of the album is good, this one stands out in dusty, lonesome grandeur. (insound)
Disasterpeace – “Ensis”
Rise of the Obsidian Interstellar
Caution: chiptune. I decided to check this guy’s albums out after I saw he provided the interesting background music for the Fez trailer (and will score the game) – and it turns out he’s awesome. I don’t listen to a lot of chiptunes as a rule, but this and his previous album Level are just too awesome to pass up. They’ve got the slow-build and powerful instrumental payoff of post-rock and prog, all through this fantastic chiptune lens. “Ensis” follows a primer track (“Beta’s Brilliancy”) that sets up its massive seven-minute travels, which are equal parts Daft Punk and Mega Man. This is the original, pure product that winds up being cut with commercial productions and sold as pop music. I like mine unadulterated. (more info)
My Education – “A Man Alone”
Sunrise
Sometimes, when you discover an incredible sound as a musician, you can’t help but build an entire song around it. This is certainly the case with “A Man Alone,” which doesn’t travel so much as just layer and intensify that shocking guitar sound, or whatever it is, sending shivers up my spine.
The Ivytree – “The Book Of Job”
Winged Leaves
This extraordinarily low-key and low-fidelity album sounds as if it was recorded in the lee of a rock, a thousand miles from civilization, and only discovered by accident 20 years later. Completely unaffected and simply beautiful all the way through. It’s a Jeweled Antler Collective thing, and only a thousand were made; it’s nearly impossible to find.
Kinski – “New India”
Be Gentle With The Warm Turtle
I class this song among the loudest ever recorded, along with The Psychic Paramount’s “Para5,” Crystal Antlers’ “Parting Song for the Torn Sky,” and the Red Sparowes “The Sixth Extinction.” The fun thing about “New India” is that you keep thinking they can’t add any more to it, and that’s just when yet another guitar comes in. Kinski has mellowed out quite a bit since this album; I wish they’d stayed monstrous.
Smog – “Palimpsest”
A River Ain’t Too Much to Love
I’d scratched Smog off the list after being disappointed some years ago, but after hearing this album at a cafe recently, I decided to give it another shot. Despite its simple singer-songwriter nature and plain instrumentation, it’s hard to pin down, mostly because of the delivery. His wry and subtle writing is hard to decode, but in this song it’s at least pretty easy to appreciate. (insound)
Ambulance LTD – “Helmsman”
Heavy Lifting 7"
This track and “Straight A’s” (from the same single) are just two fabulously well-crafted songs – the preferred genre of Ambulance LTD, whose 2003 LP remains one of the most solid collections of discrete indie-rock songs of the decade. The sound may not be original, but the frequency with which this band bests their influences is impressive.
The Intelligence – “Like Like Like Like Like Like Like”
Males
A raw, basic, and fun album with the charm and energy of The Lovely Feathers and the stripped-down aesthetic of Japandroids. The songs are simple and bite-sized, the longest track (“Males”) running just 4:47, with more than half being an instrumental breakdown and a full minute of glorious, unaccompanied distortion.
Michael Trommer – “Morning Haze”
Tree Line
This barely-there album is like Tape’s most abstract pieces, further deconstructed and stretched out into soundscapes. Its moments of beauty are like the natural moments of beauty inherent to the world: transient and difficult to isolate. This track doesn’t really get going, if get going is an applicable idiom, until around two minutes in. The album is free.
Black Forest/Black Sea – “These Things”
Forcefields And Constellations
It’s a strange and noisy album, but sounds cohesive in that every track is something that could only come from Black Forest/Black Sea. Often the highest points of more traditional styles of music approach the quality of the best tracks from more popular or ancient bands like the Beatles or Pink Floyd. But it’s nice to have bands that, when they do something perfectly, you think “man, that is so… them.”
The Cubists – “The Orchestra Breathes”
Mechanical Advantage
There’s something soft and effervescent about this song, like it’s reaching you through a layer of drugs and water.
The Dismemberment Plan – “Crush”
Split EP w/ Juno
This deconstruction of the original pop song by Jennifer Paige is, in a way, a precursor to the slowed-down Bieber of memedom. Changing the instrumentation and tempo to let the melody breathe makes for a completely different song.
DNTEL – “Why I’m So Unhappy”
Life Is Full Of Possibilities
A beautiful track from a very interesting album. Most know DNTEL now as one half of The Postal Service, and indeed, “The Dream of Evan and Chan” from this album was the first (and best) of that fruitful collaboration. But “Why I’m So Unhappy” is more delicate and understated, allowing time for both the tripping beats and noise-play that mark earlier DNTEL to show at their own pace. (insound)
Sir Richard Bishop – “Al Darazi”
Salvador Kali
This guy is best known for his dynamic, improvisational guitar playing, most impressively on Fingering The Devil. But on this older album, he takes a piano break and creates a piece that’s.. pretty much the same thing but on piano. But I love it and there’s a lo-fi warmth to this recording that makes it sound like a record from the 30s.
Tape – “Dripstone”
Luminarium
While it’s not as beautiful as the pastoral Milieu, Tape’s latest album is certainly charming, and this too-short track demonstrates their mastery of tone. The album isn’t long to begin with, but with these barely-there tracks, it seems even shorter than it is. A very pleasant distraction. (insound)
Daniel Maze – “Steampunk”
Red After Image
A deliciously atmospheric album, equal parts Tim Hecker, Thieves, and older Manitoba. Soundscapes and beats and untraceable harmonies. The opening track is excellent as well. The best part? This great album is free. Download it here.
Unwound – “We Invent You”
Leaves Turn Inside You
This mystical and chromatic opener is an appropriate entry point for the beautiful, confident landscape of one of the great “post-punk” albums out there. Yes, that first part lasts for two glorious minutes.The first sound you hear is the distortion from the tape reel spinning up.
Oval – Track One
Commers
Some might hear a track like this and wonder how such a confusion of noise could ever be mistaken for music. I don’t blame them. With Oval, either you hear it or you don’t – but if you do hear it, its unique beauty is without comparison.
Black Heart Procession – “Drugs (Eluvium and Jamuel Saxon remixes)”
Blood Bunny/Black Rabbit
This 14-minute remix forms the last third of this collaboration album, and actually has a lead-in from the previous track. It takes more than four minutes for the first piano chord to hit, so enjoy the Eluvium atmospherics, which strongly remind me of track three from Palmless Prayer/Mass Murder Refrain. The chopped-up Jamuel Saxon portion is kind of incongruous with the long build-up, but it’s an interesting payoff and worth listening to. (insound)
Junior Boys – “Under the Sun”
Last Exit
I’ve never been able to handle a lot of the indie/dance stuff at a time — a few tracks of Ratatat, !!!, Chromeo, and so on is usually enough. So I rarely get to the second half of this Junior Boys album, and forgot about this excellent song. It reminds me of Spoon’s similarly spare and minor-funky “They Never Got You,” though really they sound almost nothing alike. It’s really a lot more like Studio than anything.
Los Halos – “Reasons To Smile”
Leaving VA
Loud, ebullient, and confident, this is the sound of a band at its best. An anthem for good days and triumphant returns.
