Sound

With a pang of guilt at my overwhelming laziness of late I have decided to bestow upon you a fickle post compiled of some of the records I've been hearing of late. Consider it not lax in body, but minimalist. Minimalism is good, isn't it?


IAM // Anthologie. A chronology of hip-hop with a European, nay French, twist. In other words an immaculate musical essay on the evolution of the sound of hip hop, in a language that is most beautiful when you cannot understand 98% of it.

Seasick Steve // Man From Another Time. A southern hoedown that isn't repulsively gag-worthy. Genuine good quality music. Yee haw.

Jaco Pastorius // Jaco Pastorius and Invitation. A classy fusion of Jazz and Big Band genres that is far too upbeat to be categorised as blues. Unlike some Jazz it's not perfect all the time but hits home when called for.

Johan Christian // Beats, Samples and Life. After the Avalanches Since I Left You I'm surprised that a whole bunch of pseudo talented space punks with Mac computers haven't jumped on the solely sample salad bandwagon and bastardised the shit out of the genre. Or maybe it's just that noone has actually done it properly. Not to say that this emulates the excellence of Since I Left You, but it does a damn fine job anyway.

Telepopmusik // Genetic World. As the name suggests all at once, this is European-Pop-Music, at it's finest may I add. This is the musical equivalent to as a kid playing with Lego for so long that the sharp corners have butchered your fingertips but you don't care because it's fun. What?

Crazy Penis // Wicked Is The Music. This is just classic. Listen and don't be shy.

Washed Out // High Times. A new genre of music known as 'chill wave' that is strictly defined is exemplified by bands such as Neon Indian however championed by Washed Out. To use a drug reference yet again, it's kind of like garage grunge on acid, with an intentionally grainy recording sound. I'm not going to fall over and have convulsions about this cd but I will say that there's probably something for everyone in here. And as much as I detest myself for saying this it really is the prefect soundtrack to summer. Better run off the General Pants now and buy myself tickets to every upcoming music festival, all while profusely wanking the dick on my forehead.

Claude Von Stroke // Bird Brain. Traditionally, I fucking detest CVS. Yuck. But there is one track on this that makes all the rest seem not so repulsive. Vocal Chords is slippery and mellow. If you too hate his shit, but are feeling adventurous enough to go against your values, give Vocal Chords a go and you may be pleasantly surprised.

David Axelrod // Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. I really don't know what to write about this. It's from the 80's, but that impression may just be from the cover art featuring a macro portrait of Mr. Axelrod striking a very dramatic, fearful and otherwise sans emotion face, dense mullet in the background, which is blaringly 80's. Anyway, it sounds like Jazz. But it's not quite Jazz. But anyone who favours the fairer genre will surely enjoy this golden oldie.

Beach House // Teen Dream. Yeah I find myself listening to this a fair bit of late. To do another useless comparison that I'm reknown for using to describe things, I can sort of liken this to Chairlift meets some shoegaze but without any teen angst. I can also hear a bit of Wild Beasts too. Oh but what fucking point is all this? I can't write about this CD so just listen to it I know you'll like it and if you don't leave an abusive comment on this blog, please.

Yeasayer // Odd Blood. I heard one review that said this was a 180 from their old album. Well that is bullshit. Literally and realistically speaking a 180 from All Hour Cymbals would be seeing Yeasayer popping up on So Fresh Hits of your Terrible Fucking Life, wouldn't it? Now, I'm not saying that the sound hasn't changed, but the differences are subtle and shouldn't be frowned upon. And shoot me for saying it, but the first 3 tracks off All Hour Cymbals are really the only interesting ones. So with Odd Blood we see a dash of pop nestle itself quite comfortably in. Admittedly, I'll have to give it a few more revolutions to adapt to the absence of shoegaze and preppy psychedelia that we know and love Yeasayer for.

Memoryhouse // The Years EP. I'm too lazy to and frankly don't care to find out if there is any music correlation between Memoryhouse and the aforementioned Beach House. Both released at the same time, both with the same sound roughly and both with strikingly similar names. To an outsider a coincidence of such gargantuan proportions is far too improbable, however in the incestuous, excessively friendly and (to me) mysterious music world, such an occurrence is much more feasible. Not that it makes a difference; this is wonderful! It feels to me like Bon Iver BB (before Bloodbank) on mushrooms on holidays somewhere in Scandanavia in the winter.

Massive Attack // Heligoland. Man, I was so reluctant to hear this cd. Massive Attack are one of my favourite bands of all time and I didn't want to have that timelessness ruined. I tested the waters by playing this in the background while completing idle tasks, not devoting all my attention to it completely as to not be violently slapped in the face. Gradually easing myself in I listened a few more times more attentively to find that it's not too bad. Flying the 'godfathers of Trip-Hop' flag a little higher than on previous records in my opinion, it isn't as simply beautiful as Protection or Blue Lines. However it does hail some credit, and is deserving of the attention of any Massive Attack fan.

Happy listening.