For as much as we love this band, we had never seen them play live until a few weeks ago, and our minds were blown big time. Not only did they have an entire music store's worth of gear, so many speakers it required renting a U-haul to get them to the club, and also required setting up on the floor since they wouldn't fit on the stage, they also sounded incredible. Two super unassuming guys, kicking out the sort of rib cage rattling heavy jams that would make most 'proper' metal bands seriously envious. All that, and they were funny as fuck too, playing to a strange backing track, that not only included their drum machine, but also a strange robotic woman, who sort of narrated, explaining the different songs, pimping out merchandise, and even arguing with the band members between songs. So genius. And it's no small feat to be funny, and not be a joke band. But these guys have it nailed. If you've ever seen their hilarious non-music videos, you'll know what we're talking about. But none of that would matter if they didn't rule, and they most certainly do. Definitely heavily beholden to the late great Big Black, with churning, super distorted bass lines, impossibly down tuned guitar chug, the sound angular, thick and corrosive, tranced out and HEAVY as fuck, then there's guitarist Justin Foley's hilarious vocals, that slip easily from sardonic spoken word, to wild bellowed yowl and back again. And if anything, not only is this new record heavier, and more focused, it's also way more melodic, with a much bigger focus on actual songcraft, not to mention some seriously tripped out production and unlikely sounds throughout. That crazy catchiness surfaces in the most unlikely places, the songs themselves, complex and intricate and downright proggy, a dense, relentless crushingly heavy, impossibly hooky noise-pop, industrial metal-prog that is so goddamn good, it baffles the mind that these guys were always the unsung / less popular weirdos on the Hydra Head roster.
But hopefully, now that they've struck out on their own, this being the first release on their own label, folks will wake up and dig the crazy heaviness, and warped weirdo poppiness, these guys have (not so) quietly mastered over the last however many years. And yeah, it's definitely their best record yet. And no it's not all the same note (fuck you Justin). Definite contender for record of the year, so leave a space on that list, you won't be sorry...
Available on cd, vinyl, and as a 1/4" reel to reel tape, for the super music mega nerds out there (the band, also uber nerds, suggest that version, as it sounds the best haha)!
A while back we made the debut full length from drum machine noise rock duo The Austerity Program our record of the week. And we still throw it on pretty regularly. Heavy, abrasive, hooky, a modern Big Black, but with a way better sense of humor.
We've been waiting patiently for the band to release something else, and now the waiting has finally paid off. A brand new two track 7", featuring "Track 20" and the oh so illusive "Track 1". One of these days we'll figure out their modus operandi, do they just pick numbers at random to attach to songs? Or, as we hope, are they chronological, all written in a flurry of activity, and picked out haphazardly for various releases. Thus this 7" would contain one of their more recent tracks, and the very first one! It sort of sounds like it too, but more on that in a second.
"Track 20" brings it all back, it starts out all slow and brooding, but soon launches into a surprisingly melodic blast of machinelike metal, of industrial noise rock indie pop, not sure what to call it, but it most definitely hits the spot. Super distorted guitars, Justin Foley's anguished howls, the drums as sharp and creatively programmed as ever. Part way through there's a killer mathy breakdown, the riffs splintering into space, complete with some swooping backwards high-hats, and a big finish where the drums get wild enough that it almost sounds like a real drummer.
But the flip side, "Track 1", is KILLER, super dynamic stop / start arrangement, the riffing eventually locking into a seriously buzzy loop, the whole track turning a wee bit black metal in face, even the drums get turned up a notch with flurries of double kick drum, underpinning the instrumental crush above. In some ways, it almost sounds unfinished, like a sketch almost, but even in its sketch like form, it's most definitely one of our favorite AP tracks yet!
SUPER LIMITED of course, packaged in a cool thick sleeve made out of some mysterious map, inside, a little sticker guiding you to a download of the two tracks!
The power of independent trucking indeed! This is some serious Big Black worship. Which is not a bad thing. I mean, if you're gonna find inspiration for your two-guys-and-a-drum-machine rock band, you can't really do better than the mighty 'Black. While no band can possibly hope to approach the ferocity and misanthropy of BB at their prime, The Austerity Program make a pretty good go of it, especially considering they are probably nice, respectable young men with not nearly as much opinion/pent-up anger/baggage as Big Black front man Steve Albini and thus have to work a bit harder to get ANGRY enough to make music this pissed. Screeching, clanging guitars, over machinelike rhythms, with half shouted/half sung vocals adding slight melody to the caustic, abrasive noisescapes. It's got a bit more of a post rock feel, but that's not a bad thing. It definitely helps make The Austerity Program sound a little more like themselves. Good stuff.
MPEG Download: "Song 3" [/audio/austerityprogramsong3.mp3]
Last list we reviewed a dvd from a 'group' called Author & Punisher, a one man industrial doom band, whose sole member, Tristan Shone, designed and fabricated an incredible array of massive sound generators: a 300 pound spinning metal disc, a huge hydraulic handled chain driven (and seriously physical) drum machine, a motorized handled bass generator, a headgear with a multi mic'd mask, to transform vocals into different sounds and rhythms... We were mesmerized by the footage, the sound was amazing, heavy and crushing, totally intense, but watching this guy, physically create and trigger the sounds, is what sealed the deal, an brutal and exhausting 'performance', a sweat soaked, instrumental work out, way more interesting than the legion of boring floorcore laptoppers and effects jockeys. That said, most of us tend to not re-watch videos, whereas records we'll spin over and over again. So we figured it would definitely be worthwhile to track down a proper record from A&P, and here it is.
The title says it all, Drone Machines, not to mention the front cover image of A&P maestro Shone, hunched over the huge spinning metal disc. So if you picked up the dvd, you know what sort of crushing sonic punishment you're in for, and if you missed out on that dvd completely somehow, then this is your chance to get introduced to A&P's churning, chugging, pummeling low end industrial doom crush.
Purely sonically, these sounds could have been played by a band, or created on a computer, but just realizing that it's one guy, and his army of sound generators, definitely adds something to the listening experience. Plus there's also plenty of weird sonic manipulation that could NOT be played by a band, thick bass tones slow down like someone pressing their finger down on a record while it's playing, that would be that massive disc, the booming percussion, involves a slamming of the huge chain driven hydraulic handle, hearing this, picturing that, makes it sound that much heavier, but screw it, taken on music alone, the sound of Drone Machines is classic post industrial metal crunch, but twisted and a little warped, a more robotic and machine-like Godflesh maybe, the tone and timbre definitely owes much to Broadrick's industrial beast. But then the record will offer up some weird buzzing almost synthy sounding bass, and weird high end tangles, strange haunting melodies swirling around, a totally tripped out psychedelic swirl, and we're in some far out sonic sci-fi universe, before it gives way to another stretch of lurching lumbering Teutonic pound. The vocals, when there are vocals, are gruff and howled, again harkening back to Broadrick, and add some serious menace to the already sonically menacing proceedings.
The best parts for us are the parts where the sound sources become obvious, or at least where you can tell something weird and special is going on, the swooping low end, constantly changing pitch, the various sounds becoming clipped or cut off, the grinding rumbling low end speeding up then slowing down, it makes the whole experience that much more warped and tripped out and psychedelic. The music becomes more than a chunk of industrial metal, it becomes a heaving metallic monster MADE from industrial metal, the various gears and servos emitting strange buzzes and whirrs, its thunderous footsteps the booming beat, the speaker rattling low end it's guttural growl, and the howling vox, the man that commands this beast, and instructs it to do his bidding, a futuristic steampunk, post industrial robotic doom metal dirge, that we just can't get enough of!
We first discovered Author & Punisher via a super limited dvd, cuz really, as good as the music is, and it is amazing, you sort of have to see the music being made to understand just how fucking nuts this stuff, and this guy really is. A&P is one man, Tristan Shone, who builds his own instruments, which in and of itself is nothing new, but we're not talking cobbled together rickety speakers and Amps For Christ style plywood soundmachines (although we love that stuff), we're talking gorgeous, precision machined instruments, that look like modern art, huge smooth steel drums, strange handles that slide along metal rails, bizarre triggers and stainless steel mouthpieces fitted with multiple microphones, Author & Punisher's setup looks like some post modern Rube Goldbergian sonic mousetrap, all glimmering metals and smooth expanses of perfectly fitted machines, the live performance as physical as any normal instrumentalist if not more so, Shone spinning the huge metal; drum creating thick swells of rib cage rattling low end, slamming the strange handles along the steel rails producing booming bursts of percussion, the strange Cylon like microphone producing an inhuman alien bellow. Even sans sound, the performance is riveting. Mesmerizing. We were lucky enough to host an Author & Punisher instore, and besides being incredible to see up close, the sounds produced shook the old wooden building that houses aQ so hard, that our upstairs neighbors came down in a panic, explaining that the whole hose was vibrating, and things were falling off shelves and tables.
Now imagine that sort of physical energy, converted into sound, but not just any sound, but totally mesmerizingly epic, crushing buzz drenched post industrial heaviness. A sound that falls somewhere between the industrial crush of Godflesh, and the blown out electronic buzz and glitch of Digital Hardcore, but all blurred into a sort of abject blackened industrial doom. All manner of low end pulsing and buzzing, rumbling and whirring, the beats skittery and stuttery one second, pounding and Teutonic the next, and then there's the bass generator, which we assume comes from that huge metal disc, cuz a sound that thick and intense should really come from a massive 300 pound hunk of spinning metal, that impossibly dense low end, weirdly woozy and almost liquid, the tones being adjusted on the fly, so much so that it sounds like the speed of the recording is being messed with, the sound warbly and woozy, warped and darkly damaged and druggy. While at the same time being heavy as fuck, and pretty much WAY more brutal that bands with real drummer and a phalanx of guitarists in front of rows of amps.
It's amazing how much of the physicality is captured on the record, more so here than on past recordings, the sound managing the delicate balance between blown out amp destroying crush, and tightly wound, barely controlled chaos. The songs slipping from lumbering doomic lurch, to swoonsome skittery abstract dronemusic, from noisy metallic pummel, thick, sinewy digidub, and from thick almost metalgaze drift, to super spare haunting minimal skitter.
Ursus Americanus is definitely the culmination of past recordings and live performances, managing the seemingly impossible task of creating something that stands on its own musically, but that captures a soundmaking method that you're unlikely to experience from anyone else. Totally incredible. And obviously, if you get the chance, see A&P live, and have your mind (and ears) blown.
It's difficult to review records by Author & Punisher, cuz as longtime readers of the aQ list know, the music is only part of the equation. A&P is in fact Tristan Shone, who builds some of the most beautiful musical 'instruments' we've ever seen. Instruments that look more like pieces of art, or the guts of some super advanced aircraft, massive steel drums, weird science fiction style triggers attached to tracks, that slide along steel strips like some futuristic weapon. He sings through a mask that looks a little like that weird mouthpiece Bane wears in the Batman movies. And the act of making this music is extremely physical. Watching Shone play, he's spinning that massive metal drum, and slamming those weird triggers, sliding pieces of steel into other pieces of steel, there are huge dials and knobs, and chains, and cords, it's like he's in the cockpit of some alien spaceship, the act of flying said spaceship just so happens to produce the music of Author & Punisher, at least, that's how we envision it. And it's these gorgeous machines that while integral to the sound are inherently not present on the record. So if you've never seen the machines, or seen A&P play, then it's all about the music. Thankfully, the music is fucking awesome. Granted, it's a lot better listening to this stuff, and imagining those huge machines grinding away and spewing out these sounds, but even sans the visuals, this stuff kills. At times it's like an even more blown out, more machine like Godflesh. Although this time around, there's a lot more melody, which gives some parts a sort of dark gloomy rock vibe. We hear a little Deftones weirdly enough, and some of the post Godflesh outfits (Jesu, JK Flesh), there's definitely a serious dub vibe going on too, the vocals doused in effects, and looped and layered, the drums too, pretty dubby, and the bass, holy shit, the low end on this A&P record is unlike anything you've ever heard, like the rib cage rattling wobble of dubstep, but times ten, even more blown out and cranked up, noisy and thick, subsonic, corrosive and caustic. The sound will be heavy and churning, when suddenly, the bass drops, and it's like someone snuck in and spun your bass knob to ten. And cranked up the volume too. We can vouch for the extreme bassiness. We were lucky enough to host an Author & Punisher instore a while back, and one song in, our upstairs neighbors came rushing downstairs to see what the hell was going on, as EVERYTHING in their apartments was shaking and vibrating and sliding off shelves. THAT part of the A&P sound is pretty accurately represented here, the sound MASSIVE, and thick, and dense, and utterly CRUSHING.
This time around Shone seems to have honed everything he was going for on past records. The production is huge, the bass is punishing, the arrangements are dense and intricate, the sound is equal parts dubbed out and electronic, super dynamic too, with long stretches of more skittery minimalism, the heaving slabs of skull smashing heaviness more spaced out, plenty of gothy and gloomy passages, the vocals slipping easily from effects heavy clean croon, to demonic distorted bellow, the beats flit from skittery to devastating pound and back again, the overall sound is more textural, more fully realized, heavy, and rhythmic, mesmerizing and seriously fucking brutal. Anyone into Godflesh, Necro Deathmort, JK Flesh, old Digital Hardcore, heavy dub, blown out beatscapery, and of course alien robotic metal-dub, this shit is unbeatable!
Cool small world aQ crossover postscript: Longtime readers of the aQ list are no doubt familiar with the comic Wuvable Oaf, we've reviewed several issues, and raved about it like crazy, our very own Andee even appeared in one issue, as did aQ, lots of big hairy dudes, cats, strange sex and plenty of METAL. Anyway, one of the imaginary bands featured in the comic, Ejaculoid, who is in fact a 'real' imaginary band (featuring some aQ beloved hardcore luminaries!), were given the 'real' remix treatment by a handful of actual real bands, one of which was Author & Punisher, whose Ejaculoid remix is included here!
First off, if you don't know the comic Wuvable Oaf, go track down whatever you can. Right now. There's a forthcoming compendium, which should gather up most everything, but the individual issues (some of which we still have in stock, just ask) come with all kinds of extras, hand drawn covers, scratch and sniff pages, guitar picks, stickers, paper dolls and even records! By the imaginary bands in the comic!! basically, it's all about a big hairy guy named Oaf, his failed attempts at finding love, his crazy cats, and his weirdo friends, the comic is silly, and funny, and clever, and hairy and pretty gay, and has lots of music stuff in it too (our own Andee is featured in one issue, as is "Aquarium Records"!!) One of the bands in the comic is the awesomely monikered Ejaculoid, and we're obviously not the only ones a little bit obsessed with Ejaculoid, as two aQ faves, LA black metal trio Harassor and mad scientist industrial metal instrument builder Author & Punisher, have stepped up to offer their own takes on the Ejaculoid classic "Fearce" (recorded by members of Limp Wrist!), which originally accompanied the Oafanthology collection, but now available on its own...
Author & Punisher transform it into what is essentially an A&P track, a churning industrial pound, processed vocals, thick, grinding rib cage rattling bass, sounding like some weird hybrid of Nine Inch Nails, Ministry and robotic gabber, but slowed down into something malevolent, maniacal and darkly doomy. While Harassor turn the track into a lo-fi grim blast of grunted black buzz, furious blast beats and insectoid riffing, laced with some weird electronic squiggles, and breaking down part way through into a swaggery doomic stomp. So rad!
On maroon/grey swirled vinyl, with bad ass Ed Luce artwork, includes a download!
Rabid punk obsessives and collectors are probably already familiar with this eighties Stockton punk rock band, having been featured on the legendary first volume of the Killed By Death series and having released an almost 'classic' single called "I Hate Cops" (of course), and we have to admit, when we first got this reissue in, we immediately recognized the iconic cover photo, with a big dog licking the face of a policeman, but we have never actually heard them until now. Turns out, "I Hate Cops" is a killer jam, with the guitar simulating the siren at the beginning, and a wicked anthemic chorus (and don't let that first line throw you off, they say that all cops are "piggers"). The flipside "Radiationmasturbation" is pretty awesome too with some of thee most ridiculous lyrics ever. Poppy and hooky, punk as fuck, killer riffs, some wild shredding lead guitars, a killer vocalist, and some seriously kick ass songs, hard to believe these guys managed to stay so far under the radar for so long. This comp collects pretty much everything the group ever recorded, 14 songs, 22 minutes, all of it ruling!
Includes a big booklet with lyrics and liner notes.
Our first thoughts on finding out just who was in this new band Autistic Daughters were that it was our dream of a glitch-drone rock supergroup! Yup, we're pretty keen the line-up of Autistic Daughters on their debut release for Kranky (LP on Staubgold): New Zealand's Dean Roberts + Viennese improv scenesters Werner Dafeldecker and Martin Brandlmayr. Guitarist Roberts we know from his old bands Thela and White Winged Moth, not to mention his fine solo recordings like Be Mine Tonight (also on Kranky) and And The Black Moths Play The Grand Cinema (recently reissued on Staubgold, and raved about here a few weeks ago!). Meanwhile drummer and vibraphonist Martin Brandlmayr has been an integral part of several AQ-fave recordings, playing in various post-rock/glitch/jazz groupings, among them Radian and Trapist. Bassist Dafeldecker we've also encountered playing in numerous interesting situations. So what have they all got up to together here? Again, the common thread of all three members previous projects is the combination of live playing with electronics and processing in the studio, and that's the modus operandi here. Like the Roberts records mention above, this is in a slow-moving, mopey, mellow vein, full of hazy, droning textures, fragmented melodies, and shuffling, sorta This Heat-ish percussion. Roberts sings (and, in addition to guitar, plays harmonium and harmonica), and his gentle vocals guide this towards being a sort of indie-pop Radian, something fans of, say, Village Of Savoonga will probably like. And there's a Kinks cover: "Rainy Day In June", that fits right in and goes some way to suggest that Roberts and co. see what they're doing as much in the rock/pop tradition as being about electro-acoustic experimention. Quite nice!
Teeter-tottering betwixt morose indie-rock songishness and purely textural, experimental soundscapery, this avant garde and all together moody international trio, consisting of Dean Roberts (Thela, White Winged Moth), Werner Dafeldecker and Martin Brandlmayr (Radian, Trapist) brings us their second album for Kranky, following up 2004's Jealousy & Diamond. Slow and steady and suffused with low-key drama, Uneasy Flowers should satisfy anyone's yen for (again) an uneasy-feeling yet smoothly executed mix of New Zealand indie-murk free noise and European glitch-drone laptoppery. The album is pleasingly bathed in a glow of wavering distortion/feedback (shortwave static style), scattered with This Heatish percussive patterns (from Brandlmayr) and fragile vocals (from Roberts). Nice!!
Female fronted primitive psych-folk... melancholic, mysterious, melodic. Could be from a Finnish forest, but is actually related to LA's Amps For Christ (specifically, singer Tara Tavi). Henry Barnes of AFC guests on guitar on one track too.
Features occasional members of Dymaxion, as well as Sheila McCarthy whose sister happens to be Dawn McCarthy of Faun Fables! Much mischievous eccentricities are unfurled on their self-titled album. A whole nineteen tracks worth! truly bizarre and strange a la Captain Beefheart or Frank Zappa.
Autonervous are Jessie Evans of The Vanishing and Bettina Koster of Malaria -- bringing together two generations of post punk and new wave. Both Koster and Evans are hellions on the saxophone, so it's not surprising that that instrument is featured as prominently on the front cover as the ladies themselves. The two also share the synthesizer, bass and vocal duties on the album, but go it alone on guitar (Koster) and drums (Evans). It's clear they're having a blast together in producing their shiveringly cold marches, sharing an easy flair for dramatics with ample nods to their respective pasts.
1968 psychedelia from New York City, that comes across a bit more like West Coast stuff (and consequently didn't do too well at the time). Noodly, fuzzy, upbeat psych-rock, very much of its era and thus pretty fun. Frank Zappa didn't produce this album, but
Not really sure why I ended up randomly listening to this cd (I had heard the name before and maybe seen their cds), and I don't really know anything about them, but this is some really great sixities style French pop but with a modern electronic feel,
Another awesome chunk of retro pop weirdness from Olde English Spelling Bee, this one from the truly baffling Autre Ne Veut. Unlike the rest of the current crop of John Hughes worshipping garage pop new wave revisionists, who mix their retro leanings with modern bits of rocking indie crunch or hypnogogic swirl, the music of ANV is totally removed from any modern musical movement. It definitely has that eighties soundtrack vibe, a weird minimal synth pop, with keening falsetto vox, woozy synth bass, stumbling skeletal rhythms, cheesy electronic drums, super dramatic melodies, reminding us more of Terence Trent D'Arby, Erasure, Prefab Sprout, Scritti Politti, groups like that, and it almost sounds like every track here is from a musical montage from a cheesy eighties straight to video teen movie, the kind you only see at 4am in a hotel in some godforsaken town, where everything closes at 9pm, so you're forced to stay in your room, eating food from the gas station watching whatever is on whatever janky cable channels they have at the Motel 6, and somehow you find yourself riveted. And these are the songs you somehow find stuck in your head. And that's the thing, for all of their cheesiness and retro-ness, these jams are pretty irresistible, like the theme from Beverly Hills Cop, or Breakfast Club, or Pretty In Pink, but once removed, less obviously poppy, but still crazy catchy, more synthy, more cheesy, and sort of more alien and abstract, but at the same time cooler, and weirder, rife with strangely lush vocal harmonies, washed out sci-fi synths, occasional bits of twisted effects, and some of the coolest weirdest (synth) pop songs ever.
Strange and wonderful and definitely a new favorite...
For those who have been delving into the many minimal wave / synth punk reissues and anthologies that have been emerging in the recent years, the name Linear Movement should be familiar. They were a Belgian synth-pop outfit with a few art-disco-punk leanings, featuring Geert Coppens and Peter Bonne (Bonne would later found the EBM project A Split Second, but his earliest synth-wave work has stood the test of time much better than A Split Second). Unfortunately, much of this early work had only been released on small cassette runs, despite some exceptionally strong production values and some great song writing to boot. The aforementioned Linear Movement had an album slated for release in 1983, but the label dropped the album from their release schedule. It was rediscovered later by Minimal Wave who released that lost album 25 years later in 2008. While a few breathtaking gems of early OMD / Human League sequencing are found within, that album was admittedly an inconsistent listen.
However, Autumn's Synthesize fares much much better. This project operated on a parallel track, using all the same gear, but they come across as a slightly darker alter-ego of Linear Movement and with a bit more weird science thrown into the mix. Their catalog consists of four self-released cassettes and a single, with Synthesize being a best-of record in all the right ways. Tracks like "Night In June" have an uptempo, sing-songy melodicism amidst the squelchy analogue sequencing sort of like a more robotic incarnation of New Order, and then there's "Behind You" with its dark sequencing of vocoder driven proto-electronica, prescient of an Italo-disco / Model 500 sound, with a nod to Ruth as well.
Autumnfair was the shortlived side project of Savage Republic bassist Thom Fuhrmann and British transplant Val Haller. So shortlived, in fact, that by the time their first record was released on IPR in 1991, they had been broken up for two years. In
Dynasty is the latest from Chinese indie/post/electro rockers AV Okubo, and as with most of the rest of the Chinese bands we've been digging lately, they take plenty of influence from the West, but manage to fuse those disparate influences into something pretty original. And pretty bizarre. The garish DIY, computery, lo-res, 8-bit cover art makes way more sense when you get a load of the opener, all swirling synths, spidery guitar melodies, and loping post rock, with some surprising disco drumming, all fused into some soaring sonic majesty, the sort of sound that could score your early eighties, straight to video, big heist getaway. Oh and did we mention the vocodered vocals? Shades of Trans Am at their most retro abound, as do nods to other instrumental outfits like the Champs (albeit way less metal) or Scale The Summit (but also less metal), but the same sort of sprawling epic-ness and heady hypnotic jammage.
But it's not all instrumental, the record veers into totally different territory with the next track, which features breathy almost falsetto vox over soulful post punk grooves, and shimmery electro-pop jangle, in turn leading directly to the third track, which somehow fuses the sounds of the previous two, adding some WTF? funkiness and some creepy X-Files melodies to a churning low slung groove, with just a hint of metallic crunch. And as much as we'd like to say you know what you're getting into after that, you really don't, at least not entirely, the sound does stay pretty well lodged in some eighties soundtrack nether-verse, but it veers from Cure-like jangle-goth, to frenetic pogo-pop punkiness, to more motorik krautrock influenced grooviness, to eighties style pop metal, to total bubblegum J-Pop, and at least one track that sounds like a Chinese indie pop version of Surfing With The Alien, and pretty much every sonic gradation in between.
Weird stuff for sure, but for fans of modern retro-synth wrangling, faux VHS soundtrack soundscapery, fuzzy, electro-indie rock, and twisted freaky-funk, vocodered post pop weirdness, this might just hit the spot (or spots!)...
Super groovy! Here's the reissue of The Avalanches' debut album originally released in 2001. A swirling jetsetter affair brimming with samples galore (some more recognizable than others), phat bass, orchestral strings, spy movie horns, choral vocals, dialogue snippits, and turntable squidgey-squidge. Seems like a lot of 'stuff', don't it? But The Avalanches know just what to do with it all, meticulously crafting and arranging with a razor sharp finesse and an equally sharp wit to boot. A total genre melting pot, Since I Left you kicks off with such good time flair, you almost expect them to break out into "The Hustle" or to bust out their rainbow hued "dancing water" fountains. The latter half of the album gets a bit more woozy and hyper, almost as if from too much pink champagne and espresso. Fans of Daft Punk or Dan Nakamura (any of his numerous projects) just might wanna dip their toes into this party pool. This album is a blast!
After years of desperately trying to track down every cd-r and 7" and lathe cut lp by these underground Finnish forest psych folk weirdos, we're all about to be in Avarus heaven. Not only will Andee's tUMULt label be releasing a double cd compilation collecting all of those rare and impossible to find sonic artifacts next month, but right here we have a brand spanking new full length as good as anything these guys have ever done. So fans of all things clattery and pagan, foresty and folky, psychedelic and droney, krautrocky and hypnotic, DIG IN! Unlike the sometimes spare and sparse early recordings, that reminded us quite a bit of No Neck Blues Band, Sunburned Hand Of The Man and other like minded hippy pagan outsider free-folk tribes, this Avarus is definitely the most rocking. Intensely propulsive, fuzzy and murky, Finnish "krautrock" (huh) of the highest order. But fear not, all the misty mystery is still present. it's still like being lost in a Scandanavian forest, and stumbling across a strange pagan ritual, in some lost darkend glade. It's just that this ritual sometimes erupts into some serious rumbling drone rock. The muddy grooves, motorik rhythms, and creepy ambience definitely remind us of the recent AQ record of the week German Oak, so what else do you need? Finnish! NNCK! SHOTM! Krautrock! German Oak! C'mon!! Features members of other Finnish underground rock luminaries Kemialliset Ystevat and Anaksimandros.
What to say about Avarus that we haven't already said? Have a look at the aQ website for review after review extolling the virtues of these freaky foresty folky Finns. Heck, Andee even liked them enough to out out a double cd of theirs on tUMULt.
Longtime readers of the aQ list are no doubt by now familiar with Avarus and the sonic orbit they exist in. Kemialliset, Anaksimandros, Fonal Records, but of all the multitude of soundmakers and amazing records, there's just something special about Avarus that makes them maybe our favorite of the bunch.
This lp-only release captures the group on tour in the US in 2006 and 2007, and live Avarus can be a much heavier and riffier beast. Two sidelong jams, the first recorded in Washington D.C., finds the band channeling German Oak, offering up a murky buzzy groove, that sounds like it was recorded in some bunker, the guitars muddy and thick, the percussion simple and propulsive, a gorgeous and druggy blow out that takes up most of the side, but eventually the riffs drift off, leaving a scattered abstract soundscape of bird calls and weird vocalizations, of detuned guitar and stumbling skronk, swirling effects and mumbled chanting, angular and obtuse, building to a cacophonous finale.
The B side, recorded in Providence, is like the second half of the first side expanded to nearly half an hour, total abstract minimalism, dada-ist sound making of the highest order, reeds creak and shriek, percussion stumbles and skitters, vocals are spoken, hummed, broadcast through a megaphone, deep resonant swells surface and quickly fade away, the track growing gradually more and more chaotic, the vocals transformed into moans, the drumming growing more frenzied, the air seeming to thicken with murky buzz and fuzzed out whir, as if the fidelity in the room is slowly decreasing. A pretty neat trick, and one that surely suits Avarus' absurdist sensibilities.
Packaged in a full color fold over sleeve, with a printed full color insert. Pressed on beautiful greenish clear vinyl. And pretty limited of course, just can't remember HOW limited. VERY we're guessing...
Quite a few of you who read our list are probably already followers of the whole Finnish folk-psych underground, right? So this Avarus will most likely already be going in your basket (especially since it contains all of their WAY out of print early releases!)... But if you're not yet a Finn-folk-freak, you'll also find this to be a great introduction to one of the key bands from that scene...
This double cd collects the early recorded works of the mysterious Finnish free folk collective Avarus. Previously released as limted run cd-r's and 7"s (in tiny runs of 50-200 copies), these tracks are a tantalizing glimpse into the mist-shrouded musical world of Finnish underground music, equal parts the hypno rock of fellow countrymen Circle, the pagan ritualism of The Wicker Man, the droning throb of Faust, the propulsive rhythm of Can, and the lo-fi clatter and skree of the Dead C.
Imagine a land of forests and fjords, a land of dark skies and windswept landscapes. Then imagine the sort of music this land would evoke. Droning hypnotic clattery free folk, dark and propulsive, mesmeric Krautrock, rhythmic pagan musical rituals, all detuned guitars and hand drums, chanting and wild free percussion, and everything in between.
Avarus combine psychedelic folk rock, motorik Krautrock, free jazz and modern noise into a totally mesmerising, totally unique modern avant noise/folk, unfurling lengthy meandering almost funereal jams, desolate and mournful, but dreamy and pastoral, machinelike and hypnotic at the same time. Strummed acoustic guitars frame distant throbbing caveman percussion, dreamy soundscapes are punctuated by occasional clang and clatter, all swaddled in the warm drone of amp buzz and ambient hum. Lo-fi, rambling, ramshackle blues jams mutate into wildly propulsive psych-folk with intensely strummed guitars and far-away flute melodies.
Dipping their toes into whatever variant of their unique 'sound' that strikes their fancy, Avarus sway woozily from atonal Jandek-ian campfire hippy hoedowns, to wild jams with spastic drumming and sing-songy melodies plucked out on beat up, strangely tuned guitars, to wild clattery bursts of percussion splattered haphazardly over a Skullflower-ish skree, to stripped down, jangly hyperactive psychedelic rock to loose ambient soundscapes of whir and buzz and twang, with slithery, sitar-like guitars. Occasionally Avarus kick up quite a racket, a thick slab of sound, with LOTS of guitars, feedback and some seriously dense drumming, recorded hot and overblown, adding just the right amount of distortion and haze to the recording. It almost sounds like some New Zealand noise rock band like Gate or UK psych/drone ensemble Sunroof! -covering- Avarus!
Epic and endless, rumbling and stumbling, space-y psychedlic folk jams spread over two discs, TWO PLUS HOURS. Imagine the Total or The Dead C playing Finnish forest music. Or the Tower Recordings covering International Harvester next door to Reynols' practice space? Droning, damaged clatter, like the wild drunken cavorting of drugged out hippy carpenters. Space-y and druggy and totally mesmerizingly beautiful.
MPEG Stream: "Horuksen Vasemman Silman Mysteerikoulu Royh Eli Vuh Tai Siis Moi Kaikki: Rikottu Noidat Haluavat Luusi Universumin Pienin Kysymys Varisten Kokoontumislaulu" [/audio/avarusvasemmann.m3u]
MPEG Stream: "Horuksen Oikean Silman Mysteerikoulu Astraalikaali 25 Metria Kavellen Veden Alla Kirjoitusmerkki Aikamerkki Arkistosali" [/audio/avarusoikean.m3u]
The major label debut (after three AQ-recommended indie label releases) for these "you've got your emo chocolate in my heavy metal peanut butter" punk rock kids from SoCal. With their capable and practically seamless blend of soaring, melodic emo-styled vocal choruses, Sunset Strip cock rock swagger, slayin' metalcore breakdowns, and Maidenesque gallop (all flawlessly executed with tons of energy), Avenged Sevenfold certainly have their fans here at Aquarius! To be sure, we might have to lump 'em into the guilty pleasure catagory, 'specially with City Of Evil's big-leagues production polish. But if you're not afraid of a band whose vocalist unleashes a few heartfelt (if whiny) "Whoa-oh-oh-ohs" per song, then this album gets our recommendation for best Bad Religion-meets-Helloween record of the year, so far, for sure! Or is it Anthrax-meets-Faith No More? Or the Get Up Kids-meets-Bang Tango-meets-Metallica-meets-Alice In Chains-meets-The Offspring-meets-Yngwie Malmsteen-meets-Poison The Well-meets-Skid Row? Heck it's all of that and more. And even though they make it really easy to play games of "what's that part remind me of? and that part?" within each track, what's amazing is that their songs remain so dang catchy and definitely Avenged Sevenfold's when all's said and done. Reactions to A7X's cheese-to-crunch ratio (a lot of both, really, each drawn equally from their metal and punk influences, and that's ok with us) will assuredly vary according to one's individual taste -- we say yum!
We were totally blown away by this band when we got the ep precurser to this record and we've been super anxious for the full length and it's finally here. Avenged Sevenfold are kids from Southern California who play some of the most explosive metallic
We eagerly anticipated this second full-length from SoCal's Avenged Sevenfold, and now that it's here, it proves to be equally as impressive as their AQ-fave debut. If you haven't heard 'em before, these kids are sick experts at blenderizing LA metal/emo/hardcore/pop-punk into something that shouldn't really work but does. It's like Jimmy Eat World meets Iron Maiden meets Pantera meets Get Up Kids. Their blender is friggin' clogged with chunky, chugging guitar riffs, emo vocal choruses, Euro-bright leads, punishing drumming, lush piano interludes, Zakk Wylde pick squeals, Phil Anselmo growls, and MTV-ready pop hooks. It's a total you-got-your-peanut butter-in-my-chocolate kind of thing, and it totally works, crushing you with metallic brutality one moment, lifting you up and wringing your heart with vocal melody the next, bridging the gap between the two with soaring '80s metal guitar harmonies... Avenged Sevenfold might not appeal to people stuck at either extreme end of that spectrum, but the rest of us are lovin' it. There's other hardcore bands attempting to mix these genres, but we think Avenged Sevenfold are the most traditionally metal AND one of the most poppy. Oh, is it at all ironic? Let's just say you can enjoy it on many levels. Maybe they were being fun and ironic before, but now they've realized the commerical potential of their approach. Recommended.
One of THEE greatest punk rock records ever, from these legendary SF punks finally gets reissued, and reminds us just how good the Avengers really were (as if we had forgotten). As a band, they existed for a scant 2 years, and only released an ep before they broke up, their debut lp, this one right here, was only released in 1983, four years after the band disbanded, but displayed an incredible knack for writing amazing pop songs, and hinted at what could have been, had the Avengers survived to make another record.
But really it hardly matters, as this record, often referred to as The Pink Album, is so good, not only is it an incredible collection of impossibly catchy songs, but is there anything more punk than making a record this good and then hanging it up? Hell, hanging it up before the record even came out!! Juts give a listen to the first few sound samples and you'll be sold (if you haven't already worn out your old copy). "We Are The One" is a total punk pop anthem, with Penelope Houston's snarled/crooned vox and Greg Ingraham's killer guitar playing, the whole band killed, and the songs were untouchable. And if "We Are The One" isn't already enough, "Car Crash" will seal the deal, all super melodic bassline, and chugging churning riffs, dark and minor key, Houston's vocals all raspy and occasionally cracking, and the crazy catchy "wooooah oooh oooh" chorus that you'll find stuck in your head forEVER.
It's hard to know what else to say about this record. If like us you already had it, you might want to buy it again, for the bonus tracks certainly, or maybe just cuz there's some weird satisfaction in rebuying records you love (vinyl resurgence?), but if you've never heard this before, and dig poppy punk or punky pop this is gonna blow your mind.
The cd includes a big booklet with tons of photos as well as liner notes from Greil Marcus. The cd version also includes a whole extra disc of bonus material, which includes a bunch of rehearsal, studio and live tracks!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Reissued by Water a few years ago, now again on vinyl by the unstoppable Superior Viaduct, one of THEE greatest punk rock records ever. As a band, these legendary SF punks existed for a scant two years, and only released an ep before they broke up; their debut lp, this one right here, was only released in 1983, four years AFTER the band disbanded, but it displayed an incredible knack for writing amazing pop songs, and hnted at what could have been, had the Avengers survived to make another record.
But really it hardly matters, as this record, often referred to as The Pink Album, is so good, not only is it an incredible collection of impossibly catchy songs, but is there anything more punk than making a record this good and then hanging it up? Hell, hanging it up before the record even came out?! Just give a listen to the first couple sound samples and you'll be sold (if you haven't already worn out your old copy). "We Are The One" is a total punk pop anthem, with Penelope Houston's snarled/crooned vox and Greg Ingraham's killer guitar playing, the whole band killed, and the songs were untouchable. And if "We Are The One" isn't already enough, "Car Crash" will seal the deal, all super melodic bassline, and chugging churning riffs, dark and minor key, Houston's vocals all raspy and occasionally cracking, and the crazy catchy "wooooah oooh oooh" chorus that you'll find stuck in your head forEVER.
Aves are an entirely new prospect to us here at aQ HQ. Here's a quick list of things we know about Aves: 1) Aves is from Virgina. End of list! Oh, and also Aves plays glorious coming-of-age sun-dappled blackened instrumental post-gaze-punk. Is that a thing?? Well, it is now! For the first two minutes of Feather's first track you'd be forgiven for thinking you were listening to some lost Smiths instrumental, all jangling reverbed guitar, uptempo "This Charming Man" swing, shuffling drums and walking bass. But then suddenly, and really without any warning, the song lurches into a glimmering black metal crescendo. The stormclouds of Transilvanian Hunger pseudo-blasts clashing with the sunset horizon of blissed out comfort blanket post rock. The easiest comparison here is early Alcest, but Aves have a tendency to genre hop much more, leaving the black metal tendencies completely behind for extended chunks of time, only for them to barge back in again when you'd almost forgotten they were ever there. "Nest" is all four-to-the-floor disco drums accompanied by the kind of bittersweet dancefloor sway you could easily imagine Bernard Sumner singing over. But four and a half minutes in, those hazy blastbeats muscle their way in, turning the song transcendent, before morphing into a punk rock bounce, nostalgic guitar leads swarming like transparent insects. Elsewhere, the minor key post punk swivel & pulsating anxious bass work of "Nightflight" recall classic Echo & The Bunnymen (not to mention sadly defunct Alcest spin off Amesours). "Somewhere" is the closest Feathers gets to black metal in any traditional sense (although it's still a little ways off!), its plodding mid paced beat throbbing under heartrending cascading fuzz sounding something like My Bloody Valentine covering Filosofem. While conversely, "Clouds" doesn't have even a hint of metal, channeling instead the all enveloping opiate warmth of Slowdive. We're used to hearing black metal flirt with other subgenres, but it's rare to hear black metal used so sparingly by an otherwise totally non-metal entity. It's a really intriguing and effective approach, and Aves is definitely something we'll be keeping our eyes on! Highly recommended for fans of the aforementioned Alcest and Amesours, as well as Deafheaven, Sleeping Peonies, Clouds Collide and all manner of life affirming post rock, post punk and shoegaze.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Animal Collective dude goes at it solo. Ends up sounding a lot like his bandmate Panda Bear at times, but sadly not as good...
We've said it before, we'll say it again, EVERYTHING sounds better backwards. As a child, the minute you discovered how to spin records backwards manually, no discs were safe. The Beatles, Kiss, the Beach Boys, it all sounded so alien in reverse, drums swooshed and vocals were transformed into garbled nonsense, it was a way to make EVERY record sound psychedelic. Screw the backwards masking, and the secret messages, it was the music that we needed to hear backwards.
Those early years must have had a lasting impact, as even today, we find ourselves drawn to sounds in reverse. The psychedelic pop of the Teenage Filmstars is one example, the B side of the first Sonic Youth on cassette featured the whole record BACKWARDS. Some of us even spent time opening up cassettes and flipping the tape over to make our own new backwards records...
So it should really come as no surprise that Avey Tare of the Animal Collective and his partner Kira Brekkan (of Mum), while recording their most recent record, discovered that it actually sounded better backwards (we could've told them that!). The surprising part, is that they actually decided to put it out that way! But we're definitely not complaining, as this slab of backwards psych pop has been tickling our ears nonstop since we got it in.
If you've never heard music backwards, it's hard to describe just why it sounds so much better. It has something to do with switching up the attack and decay, so a sound that usually starts suddenly and fades gradually, does just the opposite, fading in slowly and cutting out quite suddenly. It makes everything sound woozy and seasick, it gives rhythms a new twist, each beat suddenly having a strange 'FFFsssssst' at the end. Simple guitars become druggy calliopes, the vocals of course retain much of the melody, but remove the words from the equation, and suddenly the voice is transformed into some alien musical instrument.
Pullhair Rubeye was probably already a sort of trippy folky pop record, but flipping it backwards has only made it more so. Woozy and dreamlike, a musical trip through the looking glass, everything warped and wavering, guitars are pulses, waves drawn backwards from the shore, some of the shorter tracks sound like they were almost composed specifically to be backwards, the clipping and reverse swooshes turning simple melodies into stuttery Oval like smears of sound, while others are so blissful and abstract, you only occasionally notice that the sounds are coming at you in reverse order. And that's when the record shines, when it sounds like it was meant to be backwards, like instead of just flipping the tape, they actually crafted this strange alien sound. So beautiful and trippy. Our only complaint is Brekkan's elf like vocals, that when reversed and sped up sound a little too much like the Chipmunks, thankfully, they only surface here and there, and after a handful of listens, they begin to sound like an essential part of the warped and warbly Pullhair Rubeye landscape.
And if this record turns you on to the joys of backwards sound, then check out the Record Reverser elsewhere on the AQ site, a nifty little gizmo that allows you to turn all of your records backwards!!!
Released in 2000 but only now coming to AQ's attention, this debut album by Avey Tare and Panda Bear is, well, it's really good! It's an intriguing combination of elements -- a plaintive, weak voice chirping sadly over rapidly strummed yet fractured guitar, which is normal enough but then there's these weirdly muffled, like, jungle beats in the background, so faint you barely even notice that they're there. The tension between the styles happening simultaneiously is carefully handled and forms a satisfying whole. Vocals are tremulous and tinny but somehow appealing, too, like the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne making incredibly emotional dissonant, fuzzed-out bathroom electronica. There are also gentler numbers with moody piano and delicate vocal effects. And some raucous squealing feedback guitar (like a womans wail) over Reichian arpeggiated synths. The overall effect is slightly creepy but mostly just wintry, melancholy and sad. Windy's favorite not-new record.
All it takes really is one song. Sometimes that's the key to understanding a record, to loving a band. A record can seem just sort of okay, but then that one song can work its magic and make all the other songs make more sense, and then suddenly it's not just that one song anymore. That's happened with lots of our favorite records, and is exactly what happened with this, the debut from Avi Buffalo, a group of young Southern Californians, whose sounds is a little bit Built To Spill, a little bit Elephant 6, a little bit Shins, you know what we're talking about, jangly and hooky, indie pop, but smart indie pop. The sort of stuff we do dig, but also the sort of stuff that is EVERYwhere.
So while we found this record pleasant enough, it wasn't until "What's In It For?" that everything clicked, a pretty much perfect slice of wistful jangle pop, with sly sad boy emo lyrics, spidery melodies, simple major chord jangle, the about to crack vocals, and the chorus, and absolute killer, with some super cute and charming background harmonies, that seem to get looser and looser as the song progresses, plus how can you not love a young songwriter who compares his crush's lips to two little pieces of bacon?! So after playing that song about a million times, we started letting the whole record play, and all the other songs blossomed into other songs begging to be played a million times, and who are we to argue? Sunshiney and summery, melodic and subtly catchy, songs like "Summer Cum" with its weirdly sing songy verse and heart wrenchingly twee chorus, or "Five Little Sluts", with its chiming guitars and strange serpentine vocal melodies, that manage to be catchy as heck, even though they're so unlikely. Which is sort of the story with the whole record, unlikely, off kilter, but so catchy and heartfelt and awesome. Definitely a new pop fave.
A few lists back we hailed the return of the Mausoleums, our coworker Andrew's band which had lain dormant for far too long, and who in that time seemed to have morphed into a completely different beast, trading in the schizophrenic black metal weirdness for something much more droned out and psychedelic. And apparently that sonic shift also inspired the formation of a new band, this one called Avian Bones, which traffics in a similarly murky psychedelic krautdrone sound, taking obvious inspiration from Spacemen 3, Loop and other purveyors of druggy hypnorock, the emphasis in AB seeming to be much more on propulsion, the rhythm mixed way higher and giving these songs some extra heft, and some propulsive momentum. And the murk being such that it often seems to blur the riffs and other instrumentation into clouds of shimmering sound, more of a textural backdrop for the rhythm and the fore, the sounds shifting melodically, but drifting dreamily into oblivion.
After a brief lovely reverbed guitar intro, AB lunch right into a long droned out stretch of dronerock bliss, the shifting sounds subtle enough, that it almost feels looped the song trancelike and fantastically relentless. "Going Somewhere Else" is another slab of similarly murky mesmer, the drums a bit busier this time, a bit loose limbed which gives the track a more organic feel, as if it could derail at any point.
It's not until "Only You Will Know" that the songs shifts dramatically, the drums machinelike and skittery, the droned out noise of the first few tracks dialed way back, leaving the sound more low slung and slithery, but gradually building to another spacey psychedelic sprawl, and once it reaches that point, the song locks tight, and we're once again carried away by the endless riffing and motorik rhythm. "Anoxia" offers up a false start, before lurching into a strangely spidery abstract bit of psychswirl drift, the guitars spare, the drums simple and skeletal, the guitars over the course of the track's 8 plus minutes, growing more melodic, but not necessarily louder, the track remaining spares and spare, but building in intensity, which is a nice effect, and leads right into the caustic crunch of the closer, a heady chunk of Loop meets Jesus And Mary Chain, with most of the JAMC shoegaze noise pop blurred into Loop-ed expanses of soaring melodies, and swirling distorted murk, and again, the song locks into a lumbering groove, and proceeds to churn away, with the clouds of guitar overhead swirling and constantly shifting, a seriously blissed out drone-psych coda.
And like the Mausoleums record, this one too is cassette only, the low fidelity and tape hiss only serving to enhance AB's marvelous murk. And we'd be surprised if the psych rock obsessives who freak out over every Carlton Melton / White Hills / Wooden Shjips release, finally started getting hip to the newly (re)launched Mausoleums / Avian Bones sonic axis...
Birmingham's Avrocar slowly collapse into well-worn couches as the vallium starts to kick in, allowing thick sublime washes of electronics with mumbled pop structures to envelop them. A sort of drug appreciation outfit in that Spaceman 3 kind of way, Avocar's space-rock electronics recall some of the best and most sublime parts of the Michigan spacerock scene (Windy & Carl, Auburn Lull, etc.).
Eight brand new tracks of pummelling blasting grind from these Buffalo thrashers (not actual thrashers of buffalos, but thrashers -from- Buffalo). Insane blast beats with a dual vocal attack (one bark, and one growl, the growl being maybe one of the best
Getting a bit caught up with our friends to the north at Mint Records... We've just gotten in a few new and new-to-us titles on this fine Vancouver indie label (this one as well as some by Neko Case's early band Maow, Buttless Chaps, The Pack A.D. and Immaculate Machine)!
This pop gem is from a couple of years back, but still sounds fresh as a daisy! Psst, we also just got their more recent album Slimming Mirrors, Flattering Lights (it's not reviewed yet, so if you'd like to order it just ask!).
From the garden that bloomed those New Pornographers, Destroyer, Zumpano... Awww, you know the pop city we're talking about -- Vancouver! Here's a fresh new addition to us, but the faces aren't necessarily unfamiliar having played with and been buddies with the bands mentioned above among many other aQ fave Canadians. The Awkward Stage's debut album will surely geek the ears of soft-hearted, smart-lyric'd pop fans. No surprises it's on Mint Records (Canuck home to the NPs, Neko Case, Ms Mark, Duotang, I Am Spoonbender, The Organ, and many others). As we've come to know and love about Canadian indie popsters, these folks are terrific songsmiths, unabashedly earnest and romantic, but not without a sharply witty barb or a, yes awkwardly, dorky self-deprecating line here and there. Guitars have plenty of jangle and crunch. There's nice variations in rhythm, tempo, and percussion choices. And Shane Nelken's smooth sensitive guy lead vocals are sweetly charming and complimented well by The Choir Practice's Coco Culbertson's backing vocals on songs like . Co-produced by New Pornographer Kurt Dahle. If you dig The NPs, The 1900s or Peter Bjorn And John, we recommend you give this a spin!
A terrific sophomore release from The Awkward Stage has made its way down the West Coast to our eager ears. What is it in that Vancouver water that sprouts such dandy melodic sensibilities? On Slimming Mirrors, Flattering Lights, the dulcet drowsy voiced Shane Nelkin and company may initially come across as unassuming, and at times, yes, maybe slightly awkward, but in the most charmingly distinctly Canadian way. Then they wheel out their (also distinctly Canadian) guitar pop chops, and watch ears start pricking up and toes start tapping. Hot on their heels come a graceful tickling of the ivories and some buoyant bright horns (that gave us the nostalgic warm fuzzies for Zumpano), and well, away we goooo! The Awkward Stage casually nestle catchy hooks into both smooth and crunchy settings with delightful results. We're guessing they were raised on '60s pop and '70s soft rock (a la Raspberries, Sweet, Bread, Chicago, etc), and nurtured in the neighborhood of fellow Vancouverites The New Pornographers, the abovementioned Zumpano, and Immaculate Machine. Heck, Nelkin played with both A.C. Newman and Jason Zumpano's Sparrow for a spell. We also think this may tickle your fancy if you dig Hidden Cameras, Arcade Fire, Sloan and Interpol too. When this has been played in the store pop loving folks have asked, "Ooh, what's this?" and often take one home with them!
