Two of my best friends in the world mailed me a handmade tape from across the continent and it has seriously added to my long term happiness. Posted it here on bandcamp for them. Now it is possible to share it with people without having to force them to listen to my walkman(although I’ll still definitely do that if I see you).
Archive for the 'album reviews' Category
by nathaniel whitcomb
In a few short weeks our strong community of lovers, amongst the rest of the world, will live the rest of their lives embracing this consensus: Mutual Benefit is a boss with the heart of a volunteer. On Jordan Lee’s forthcoming The Cowboy’s Prayer, featuring long-time Mute Benny collaborator & bff Andrew Morehart of Share-a-tories, Marc Merza of Lizard Kisses, and Sammy Yager of Birthdays, there exists this tangible reflection to understand one’s personal desires within the universe at large. In the case of this album, Jordan’s reflections take place during a road trip through his birthplace of the American Midwest. Raised in Ohio, with time spent in Austin, and currently residing in the Boston area, “things are different than they appear” rings a true blue meaning when acknowledging the territories of which Jordan has known home. Too often humanity finds solace in the concept of home, and not often enough there is a voice to remind us that the world beyond our immediate vision is a radically new experience… and that we should hope to explore the faces, places, and headspaces within these regions for the bettering of not only ourselves but those involved in our life. We cannot merely accept diversity, because it is the understanding that we are all one that is necessary. What makes The Cowboy’s Prayer such an enriching experience is that Jordan does not mean to preach this philosophy, but share in the discovery.
The Cowboy’s Prayer, originally a poem made famous by Badger Clark in 1906, is an acknowledgement of the spirituality of knowing salvation in the inherent freedom of man; that if life is not as open as the sky, fluid as the elements, or genuinely honest, then he would prefer not to have involvement in the affairs of the living. Brilliantly, this piece of writing continues to hold value in modern context as Clark shares, “I’m no slave of whistle, clock or bell. Nor weak-eyed prisoner of wall and street,” enforcing his personal belief in working directly as a part of nature as opposed to that which aims to destroy and recreate our shared organic value. Fifty years later Roy Rogers adopts the Cowboy’s Prayer [video] as a sentiment within his Riders Club. Rewritten, yet serving the same message, Rogers shares his own belief in collaboration and understanding nature as a community as opposed to individually. For anyone who has ever had a conversation with Jordan Lee, you’ll agree that these gorgeous themes are revealed as part of his plane of thought immediately. He fronts a solo project that we have never known solo in recording or performance, and curates a record label [Kassette Klub] of global gems that he finds akin. Sounds like a dreamboat to me.
It is a personal honor and pleasure to debut Max Alper‘s sixth solo collection, American History Sex, as the most recent addition to our group hug. Split into three chapters, the album provides three radical perspectives on the theme of inherent progress in maturation and becoming a part of the natural order among the self. Each chapter serves as coinciding explorations into time, and the methods in which varying applications of sounds can invalidate temporality altogether. Chapters A, B, and C are a discussion which sum two years of Max’s life beginning in the autumn of ’09, and it is up to the listener to take position among the present dialogue.
Part A [download] is a presentation of sounds that coincide to become songs, both voice and instrumentation becoming the victim of oppression by the other. Lyrically, the narrative is an assault upon the body and what is therefor psychically perceived to be truth when a visual reality has failed. The sky which humanity knows as a ceiling has become an empirical storm, and it is all we can do to stand by one another and develop our own eyes within the clouds above. These sounds are a single beacon, all of which bear equal importance, in the rallying cries for assembly.
Part B [download] is a pasture of free range compositions, or rather compartmentalized communities that consciously bear relevance to one another. Drum circles gather among the shadows of great trees while up the hill the boy who lays on the keys of his piano cries in his sleep. Hindustani ragas permeate our foundation as we approach aural temporality at the macroscopic level, charting melodies for architecture and belief in reshaping the visual.
Part C [download] is deliberately physical, a union for progression within a wall-to-wall piano composition. The revolution is subtle, but not without fantastic and whimsical texture. This is not a “part c” in which time has decreed an exponential linear progression, but a “part c” that is just as woven within “part a” and “part b” as “part b” and “part a” are as a component of “part c”. Here is the choreography for which our legs will want to follow, now understand where to teach them patience and restraint without neglecting the pleasures of experience.
Exposure to these three chapters is an incredibly intimate and seductive experience. What is it like to crawl through these headphones and momentarily coexist with the representation of these thoughts… with this friends’ performance of mind? American History Sex is a liberation, we’ll see you on the way through. Tracklist after the jump.
Recently, Chicago’s Cross Record put out a beautifully melancholic ep called Ring Bell that’s become one of my recent favorites. The description on their site simply says “2 weeks in south Florida” but with that sentence my imagination goes wild. I picture the moon reflecting off of the water and silence punctuated only by the tide. I can hear the wind getting into the microphone and distorting the delicate harmonies. With all of that these songs become arresting in their honesty and vivid in their simplicity.
You can catch Cross Record crossing the Midwest on the dates below and download Ring Bell for free at their bandcamp. I’m very much looking forward to seeing them play in Boston at Whitehaus.
My mother always told me to eat my beets. They were good for me, she boasted. Back then I was reluctant to eat anything that wasn’t fruit-by-the-foot, though her words inexorably always rang true to this day. Now I’ve some maternal advice for all you FMLY readers. DIG IN TO THESE BEATS! Seriously, not only does the following music have a tendency to blow minds, these soft, smooth, yet punchy beats will sedate and relax even the tensest of souls. Enter Bug Eyes, the prodigious music project of Boston producer Jake Yuhas (credited for producing every Truman Peyote release to date along with several other New England based groups including Many Mansions and Quilt). His eighth (yes 8!!) studio album in 3 years ((orbit)) (third under the Bug Eyes moniker) marks the culmination of a naturally talented creative hip-hoppin’ genius finding comfort in a realm of synthesizer swirls, fantastic sampling, and the headiest beats you’ve heard all year. As the tracks from ((orbit)) successively ebb and flow between your speakers and your ears, expect to leave this one on repeat all year (or until his next inevitable release!).
You can purchase digital copies of ((orbit)) at Yuhas’ bandcamp for only $2 (USD), which is truly a steal. In addition, all his other seven releases are available there for only $1 (USD), which feels closer to robbery than donation considering how insanely intricate and complex Yuhas’s music has become. You will not be disappointed! The fact that he’s one of my best friends in the world creates no bias, and if you don’t believe me get to that bandcamp ASAP and stream some of the most amazing beats from the most talented producer since Dre. My writing cannot even do justice to the talent inherent in Jake Yuhas, and in the words of Frank Zappa “writing about music is like dancing about architecture”. Dig in, and enjoy!
Click HERE to purchase and/or stream EVERY Bug Eyes release to date.
i’ve been lucky enough to have known ronnie since highschool. he used to be in this gnarly band called we are the romans. he’d blush if i told him, but he’s one of the biggest reasons that i make music today. ronnie is one of the kindest most awesome dudes in the whole world, and he happens to make some really awesome music too. who woulda thunk it. PANDA TEETH has been ronnie’s solo project for a couple years now. he’s been slowly collecting guitar pedals and gizmos for years and is constantly getting more proficient at wielding his frighteningly complex array of pedals, toy keyboards, samplers, mixers, mics, drums, guitars or whatever he can lay his hands on. his tracks on HOT PIZZA (the boc split with me, birthdays, and many mansions) are pretty stunning. panda teeth straddles the line between noise and melody so expertly that you just don’t want the barrage of sound to end. he draws back the waves of noise at just the right moments to reveal the beauty behind it. this is what makes good noise music. his latest release, SUNSHINE SIN, is out now on tundra dubs. its challenging, but to the right ears, very rewarding. i think it goes without saying that i like it a whole lot. and i like ronnie a whole lot.
xoxoxo
VD
TELETHON – I Hear This Song Forever from TELETHON TELETHON TELETHON on Vimeo.
ok. so i want this band to play my high school pool party in space. TELETHON are from florida. these sassy party animals came through wisconsin on tour last summer and blew the top off the whole damn town. one of the tightest, weirdest, most utterly enjoyable live bands i’ve had the pleasure of playing with. their new three song EP “FOREVER” is a cosmic one two pop punch straight to the groin. go get it fo free. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
our naked bros from chicago dropped their new album SHOULD BE today. this shit is so good. no one holds a groove like the nudey dudes. i’ve never enjoyed being blasted by the same chord progression for ten minutes in my hole life. i’m used to their live show, which is about half an hour long and consists of two, maybe three songs. the long, repetitive sludge translates perfectly onto the album. its astonishingly clean and listenable. i’m currently being blown away by the closing track, “Chill Pill”. this is by far the most out there NUDE SUNRISE track i’ve ever heard. do yourself a favor and download these jams and stay tuned, because they’ll be releasing two more songs (about half an hour of music) soon. and if you’re going to SXSW look up NUDE SUNRISE if you wanna get lost in a beer stained haze of guitar,fat ass synth, and sex drenched crooning. TOUR DATES
laurel gitlen gallery
Pool Games – Someday
Pool Games – For You
Pool Games – Portals
Just one of my favorite musicians in general and a good homie, Jeff Roman of Sky Stadium, Ultra Dome, The Basement Gallery (RIP), Milky Way Transport, and Tealfx just put the final touches on his more recent endeavor, Pool Games. A cool medium, Jeff’s new flavor favors a more pop-punk approach [with only keyboards and a drum machine] to songwriting while retaining the gorgeous array of melodies and synthscapes we’ve come to love him for. Yes there are words, yes you can boogie down to every jam on this release, but there is so much space that makes this a participatory listening experience. Muffled phrases of quarter-life angst, distorted keys just as confused as I am, and buzzing hooks I can’t help but let my heart pour out all over ["Puzzle" at 0:48]…all the ingredients are here to give Futura an epic amount of staying power.
After the jump I’ve written a track-by-track review of this collection. To listen to Futura in full, just click here.
cripes. these guys are too good. you know that band arches? well, it turns out when tom isn’t recording beautiful music with the guys, he’s recording beautiful music all by his lonesome. he’s just released a tape on the brand spanking new treetop sorbet. he calls it old smile, and let me tell you, its very, very nice. one of those albums that you can listen to on repeat for hours and hours. like the rest of tom’s music it straddles the line between over indulgence and listener friendliness. its just right where you want it. right before you think “oh man, this is so pretty, but i kind of wish they would move on” the chorus ends, or the solo stops and moves into something just as pleasing. its very refreshing to see musicians so tasteful that you are never left wanting more or less. i bet they’re good at sex. so go buy his tape and prepare to be satisfied.
photograph by David E. Moore (artist based in Seoul, South Korea)
Not Jeremy Jones- Untitled(Deprivation)
Performing in a foreign culture seems romantic, but can also often be met with quite a bit of confusion. Not Jeremy Jones, based in Daegu, South Korea, has been making noisy drone experiments and freaked out pop songs for some years now and performing them regularly, although often to some strange responses. He’s faced insensitive ex- pats fake grind dancing to his atonal, arrhythmic noise, and people literally trying to punch him in the face in the middle of his set. Luckily this has not influenced him to water anything down. Staying true to himself on his newest album, 시신시대(meaning: the corpse generation), he rants about a mouse in his house who insults his wife, but is also his friend. He also beckons his listeners to dance until we nuke our parents and ponders how he can kill the dead.
Fortunately, even though experimental/ indie music is quite unknown to the general public in South Korea, there are many interesting musicians and artists working there. The independent music scene is also changing and more and more international acts are coming through via people like Super Color Super and Rad City. Because of this, he was able to recently perform with Lymbyc Systym.
My head immediately made a story for this track from 시신시대, which is a really pretty one and performed with some desperate guitar strumming and a keyboard at his feet. I would rather not influence your interpretation of the song though, so if you’d like to share what the song does to your brain or know what my imagination created just email me at mmdannyg@gmail.com and we can have a convo and maybe even become friends.
I Am Genko – Cloak & Dagger
review: i am genko’s awkward teenage years
A boy sits down with his electronics in Lima, Peru. He records his sounds to document an experience within a certain place in time. He sends these documents across the globe and one of them finds your browser. You click the button above to be instantly drawn into the channel of I Am Genko.
I want to talk about Awkward Teenage Years as a first impression, a mind floating freely and losing itself in a vast array of technological possibilities and humane assumptions. Powerful in its spaciousness, with every rotation of this free digital download a new listening settles in…and they’re all inspiring and gorgeous as shit. As this was released in October of 2009 you can only imagine what Turn The TV Off (released this past february) sounds like! Free download via bandcamp.
recommended if ya dig bits and waves like unicorn dream attack or technobox and layers like dosh and el ten eleven, or can just appreciate listening to sweet new jams. track-by-track review is below:
