Bedhead – “The Present”
Transaction De Novo
Bedhead’s understated songwriting makes for such incredibly solid albums, but so few truly standout songs, that it’s hard to pick a track. I’ve always loved the slow grow and sudden end of “The Present.” It’s not exactly representative of this excellent album, but it’s a great song nonetheless. Great being around the house music.
Silent Kids – “Sgt. Dexter Pt. II”
Take Us Home
This is the last track on this album, which to be honest wasn’t that impressive. But if the rest of it were the quality of this track, they’d really have something amazing. The first part is more like the rest of their songs, but the brilliant extended instrumental outro and quiet coda (after about 30 seconds of silence) really shows that they’ve got a lot at their disposal. I love the amp’s cool-off “ahhh” noise in the breaks! You can get the whole album here.
Transmission
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Camera Obscura – “Other Towns And Cities”
My Maudlin Career
Half of this album seems to me to be rendered somewhat toothless by poppy instrumentation; the vocals and songwriting are best left relatively unaccompanied, as demonstrated by “Other Towns And Cities.” It becomes clear once you strip away the backing that it’s really the vocalist’s wonderful cadence and simple counterpoint melodies that are really making the music sing, as it were. (insound)
Stereolab – “Tomorrow Is Already Here”
Emperor Tomato Ketchup
I think this was the first Stereolab track I ever heard. It’s still the one I think of when anyone mentions them. They really did have a knack for rhythm, layers, and timing — and all the rest of the stuff as well. Makes me want to listen to this whole album again. Maybe I will.
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)
