My Education – “Concentration Waltz”
5 Popes
Some post-rock reminiscent of earlier albums from Mogwai, Tarentel, and GY!BE. A great, lo-fi progression of noisy instrumental rock.
TK Webb – “The Devil’s A Dork (The Sea Told Me)”
Living Bridge (Compilation)
One of the songs I’d forgotten about from the excellent Living Bridge compilation from Rare Book Room, which features major artists like Deerhunter and Blood On the Wall as well as rarer stuff like Doldrums and this. It’s a jangly, easy-to-listen-to tune with great guitar work and confident vocals. My new favorite from the compilation.
Sunset – “Your Eyes Are Mirrors,”
The Glowing City
Wow, this album is great. It’s one of these seamless song-into-song-into-song albums, and the sound is constantly changing, yet remaining identifiable throughout. Bill Baird is the name of the guy behind it, a sort of all-in-one musician with talented friends, not unlike The Microphones’ Phil Elverum (though the music is very different).
Peach Pit – “I”
Split w/ Majmoon
My friend Jeremy dropped this in my lap. Peach Pit, a Croatian (?) math-rock band that takes the usual “weird progressions and signatures” style of math-rock music and adds a surprising amount of power and melody. This is the first track of four, and they really cover a huge amount of musical ideas over the 26 minutes they use up. It’s actually shocking how good they are sometimes.
You can download the second track here, and here’s a video of a live performance of “4x100m”. More stuff here at the Peach Pit page.
Tunng – “Woodcat”
from Comments Of The Inner Chorus
Strange and excellent folktronica. More at last.fm.
Yeasayer – No Need to Worry
from All Hour Cymbals
Yeasayer has a really weird thing going on. But when they hit, they hit hard. “No Need to Worry” is a great example of this. Very unique sound. Sometimes they fall under the “mystical” category of music along with Gang Gang Dance’s God’s Money and Charalambides’ Our Bed Is Green.
Alice Russell – “Two Steps”
from Pot of Gold
When I heard this on the radio, I thought I’d gone back in time. It’s a really solid soul tune with a great horn and rhythm section, and although it could be a little shorter, it’s still a great track. I didn’t feel that the rest of the album lived up to this, though – it’s actually new and other parts of the album are much less soulful. She even does a cover of “Crazy,” a song I detest. But check this one out.
Women – Black Rice
Women’s self-titled album is sort of like a cross between Deerhunter and Grizzly Bear or something. It’s unpredictable, virtuosic, and good pretty much all the way through. But the whole time, you keep thinking “what kind of music is this exactly?” From faultless chorused voices in the insanely short “Group Transport Hall” and “Black Rice” to shimmering and mystical soundscapes like “Woodbine,” they cover a lot of ground. The whole album is worth your time, so check them out.
The Gray Field Recordings – Rune of the Moon and Endymion
One of the standout tracks from Gold Leaf Branches, a compilation from Digitalis. I’m not a fan of spoken word but it’s nonsensical enough to be inoffensive. The artist has a knack for the mystical auditory environment; you can hear some more at Last.fm.
I heard another Eric Whitacre piece on the radio one day and was surprised to find he was a contemporary choral composer, not however many decades or centuries old. “Sleep” is not particularly complicated musically, but his sense of harmony is stunning.