SCNTST – “Percee Scan”
Self Therapy
I don’t always go in for these songs that use real-world sounds as their basis (Matmos and M.I.A. are exceptions), but this one repurposes a scanner it for more than just rhythm, assembling several distinct voices from it. The beat could stand to be a little less house-y, but otherwise it’s a solid and highly original sound. “So Tough” is another amazing track if you’re looking for something less weird. (insound)
Silo – Prime Movers
Alloy
With their single-minded, heavy, groove-focused, mostly instrumental songs, Silo fall somewhere between Trans Am and Tortoise. That the repeating portion is so prominent in most of the songs may turn a few off, but it’s simply a thicker tapestry into which subtle patterns can be woven. (swim)
Speedy Ortiz – “No Below”
Major Arcana
A straightforward quality indie-rock album for the most part, with this excellent track striking a rather darker tone than the rest. The growling bass and lurking guitars lead to a wonderfully noisy but ultimately restrained finale, and the song slips away before it overstays its welcome. (insound)
Grails – “Future Primitive”
Deep Politics
Grails takes it back a couple notches after the sublime Burning Off Impurities and tense Doomsdayer’s Holiday. Here be restrained distortion, subtle arrangements, piano solus, and less overall dread. It’s Morricone-infused 70s psych rock with an undercurrent of unease, and it’s a very good listen. (insound)
Bear In Heaven – “Werewolf”
Red Bloom of the Boom
If nobody had told me it was them, I wouldn’t have been able to connect this vastly varied and ambitious album to Bear In Heaven’s interesting but ultimately unfulfilling follow-ups. Red Bloom of the Boom is a dream of melody in battle with a nightmare of noise: multilayered headphone music that demands your attention and deserves it. This track is pretty subdued, though. (insound)
CFCF – “Camera”
Music for Objects
A brief and diverse collection of (what else?) object-themed music, Music for Objects is less about hitting a catchy groove and more about creating unique sounds. “Camera” makes the biggest impact, but the keyboard-dominated “Ring” and “Glass” (bookending the album) are an airy side of CFCF I don’t hear often. (insound)
Savages – “Shut Up”
Silence Yourself
I’m not entirely sold on the vocals in this band (or their all-caps “messages,” though I don’t object), but the wailing guitars, clear growling bass, and mega-tight percussion are impossible to not stomp along to — they deserve the hype. You can skip the first 45 seconds or so, which is just album intro stuff. Note: Savages are the kind of band that would punch you for doing that. (insound)
Balmorhea – “Constellations”
Constellations
In the predawn gloom you can just make out the pianist slouching in the parlor, reeking of laudanum and rose water, deliriously tapping out a sparse gothic paean to hollow euphoria, then listing, toppling, and waking in the morning having forgotten all of it — the ecstasy, the agony, and the ivory. (/pitchfork) (insound)
Crocodiles – “She Splits Me Up”
Crimes of Passion
It’s really hard to find anything at all wrong with this song. The bass line is strong and gives tone to the beat, the vocals are pleasantly and fuzzily multitracked, the glittery guitar has the deft precision of a harpsichord. Even the initially atonal opening riff falls exactly into place. True, it doesn’t change much, but neither does it overstay its welcome. A summer jam I’ll be inserting into many a playlist. (insound)
Gauntlet Hair – “Human Nature”
Stills
Dark electro with a No Age-esque edge. Deserves to be played at high volume, so you get the power of both the dubby backbeat and the noise-rock counterpoint. (insound)
Hauschka – “Paige and Jane”
Youyoume
Delicate yet rich, a piano and cello weave together and create something heart-stopping. This album is short but absolutely exquisite. (serein)
Houndmouth – “Penitentiary”
From the Hills Beneath the City
This folk-orchestra item impressed me in the car with its resonant chorus harmonies and authentic sounding insertions of “oh mama” and “oh lord.” Not my usual wheelhouse, but a great song is a great song. (insound)
Lotus Plaza – “Monoliths”
Spooky Action at a Distance
It’s hard to pin down the sound exactly – Jesus & Mary Chain crossed with Women? However you define it, this Deerhunter side project makes solid, fuzzy psych-rock and “Monoliths” is an ebullient nugget of just that. (insound)
Brambles – “Salt Photographs”
Charcoal
Another subdued album of what might be called ‘enhanced chamber music’ from the label that owns that space, Serein. This song, the longest on Charcoal, combines atmospheric noise and percussion with delicate and precisely-placed strings and keyboards. I love the transition and slow build, like a cross between early A Silver Mt Zion and label-mates Nest — a nearly flawless ambient work. (serein)
Bach – “Ei! wie schmeckt der Coffee süße”
BWV 211, the “Coffee Cantata”
Ei! wie schmeckt der Coffee süße, / Ah! how sweet coffee tastes!
Lieblicher als tausend Küsse, / Lovelier than a thousand kisses,
Milder als Muskatenwein. / smoother than sweet muscatel.
Coffee, Coffee muss ich haben, / Coffee, I must have coffee,
Und wenn jemand mich will laben, / and if someone wants to treat me,
Ach, so schenkt mir Coffee ein! / ah! my cup with coffee fill! (wiki)
Black Moth Super Rainbow – “Forever Heavy”
Dandelion Gum
I wrote off BMSR long before this album came out, finding much of their output only partially accomplishing what it sets out to. Looks like they got their ducks in a row, because this excellent opener is a truly glorious combination of wah-wah synth, UFO noise, and the guy’s distorted voice. If a robot did mushrooms, this is what it would hum. (insound)
Hildur Guðnadóttir – “Leyfðu Ljósinu (prelude)”
Leyfðu Ljósinu
This astonishing piece is the work of one Icelandic woman, performed live and without any post-production. Its delicate beginning only hints at the tonal richness of the rest, in which her cello and voice (looped and layered) intermingle in otherworldly, spine-chilling fashion and gradually build to a near-frantic conclusion. The best modern chamber music I have heard in years. Listen to the whole thing here.
Phantogram – “Make a Fist”
Nightlife
Somehow combines the mystical, rhythmic insight of Gang Gang Dance with the best aspects of today’s electropop. Every buzz, echo, tomtom, and break in this song is placed with extreme care and precision, manifesting in unremitting urgency and variation. (insound)
A Sunny Day in Glasgow – “100/0 (Snowdays forever)”
Autumn, again
The last track on this album epitomizes it well, and is perhaps also the best one, assembling a truly broad assemblage of tones and instruments into a cohesive and powerful whole. The bass is great, the keyboards sharp, the random synths, echoes, and breaks well-placed. They also successfully make a minor key upbeat and ebullient. Still, their “klangy” noise-pop isn’t for everyone. (insound)
Nico Muhly and Nadia Sirota – “Part I: Material In D”
Drones & Viola
Part of a series of short contemporary chamber music EPs by Muhly and collaborators, this track is perhaps the most listenable (some of the pieces are a little— bangy), yet is also fundamentally elusive. The “drone” aspect acquires different tones throughout the piece despite remaining in essentially the same key, causing an interesting tension: Are the ever-present strings or the itinerant piano driving the melody? (insound)
Mojave 3 – “My Life In Art”
Excuses For Travelers
Mojave 3 may be cuddling music, but that doesn’t mean their solid songwriting can’t be acknowledged. This classic album has more than a couple tracks I’ve been whistling for years, but “My Life In Art” is the low-key, porch-sitting, significant-other-squeezing centerpiece.
Lake Trout – “Look Who It Is”
Another One Lost
An ominous, Lynchian instrumental that seems at odds with the rest of the album, which is energetic but uneven. Really impressive second half, channeling Angelo Badalamenti’s “Go Get Some” from the Mulholland Drive soundtrack.
Juno – “The Great Salt Lake”
This Is the Way It Goes & Goes & Goes
I missed out on Juno when they were a Seattle band, though I had their split with Dismemberment Plan and later taught Travis’s daughter at preschool for a couple years. It seems they helped lay the foundation for later indie rock bands, and present a sort of middle ground between earlier alternative bands and post-punk stuff, like The Wrens mixed with Built To Spill, if that makes any sense. This track is not representative of the album at all, but is too good not to share with anyone who likes atmospheric rock and hasn’t already encountered Juno. (insound)
The Wind-Up Bird – “Violin & Trumpet”
Conduction, Convection, Radiation
This excellent (but rather somber) split between 1 Mile North, Colophon, and The Wind-Up Bird has a number of great, near-ambient tracks. 1 Mile North’s “Ashes & Dust,” with its spare piano and texture, is a departure from their usual guitar noodlings, and Colophon’s contributions acquire perhaps too much poignancy once you know their context (probably better not to learn). But it’s The Wind-Up Bird’s tracks, shimmery and otherworldly, that stand out most to me — this one in particular. (insound)
Fredrik – “Black Fur”
Na Na Ni
A rhythmic and harmonic little anthem. I keep thinking I remember how it sounds, but then it surprises me with little flourishes or jangles. (insound)
