Published by James July 31st, 2006
in Album, Review and 2006.
I first discovered the two names behind this double-disc set one trip to NYC where on a hot August afternoon a clerk slid copies of DJ Heather’s Tangerine and Colette’s In The Sun over the counter and with much gravitas recommended them both. Colette and DJ Heather at the time were part of Superjane and their work was generating plenty of buzz but sadly as life caught up I fell behind on their work along with everything else going on on the club circuit. Needless to say when I saw the two of them collaborating again and on the heels of last year’s sublime Hypnotized I found myself dancing like only a middle-aged white man from the suburbs can.
House of Om features many of the Om Records royalty from Caldwell to Kaskade and the first disc, a breezy and light journey, belongs to Colette. Her track selections are warm and expansive carrying that fat, round San Francisco sound out to the setting sun in a blissfully trance like way. “What Will She Do For Love”, from 2005’s Hypnotized, makes an early appearance with a high energy remix by Andy Caldwell that bangs its way from beginning to end with a huge back beat and an early 80’s Disco flair in the last couple of minutes which gently slips into the sublime minimalism of Late Night Alumni’s reworking of “I Knew You When”. The Latin tinged “No Problem” with its shuffling rhythm section and bouncing piano line, vaguely reminiscent of Rhythim Is Rhythim’s “Strings of Life”, provides a sharper flavor to the mix.
DJ Heather’s set settles into a late night Deep House mix that is at once spare and soulful; her aim appears to keep bodies moving and she does this through a tight mix with a focus on razor sharp beats. In contrast to Colette’s set, Heather’s is built around transitions and mixing artistry as she works groups of songs that are shorter and closer related yielding a greater sense of continuity. The passage from “Jus Trippin”, “Getting There”, to “To Do” is a great example as she steps from stiff tech driven beats to a warmer soul sound driven by a organ and saxophone line that will put a hitch in your step. Heather also takes a turn at the mic on the East Coast Boogiemen’s track “Picture of You” where she floats in indistinct and hazy with breathy vocals adding to the overall stickiness of the cut.
House of Om is a solid set and both discs stand well on their own buoyed by their individual strengths, be it Colette’s vocals or Heather’s instincts behind the decks. Highly recommended. You can grab a copy over at eMusic.
Published by James July 26th, 2006
in Album.
I was all fired up to write up my thoughts on the new Colette and DJ Heather collaboration House of Om when a summer cold struck me soundly between the eyes (and nose). with my sniffling, sneezing, and general woolly-headedness I can barely string two sentences together (actually that’s no different than any other day). So shifting gears I thought I would profess my love for the art of continuous mixes.
Most DJ albums are intended to be played back in a continuous manner so as to best approximate a live set feel; CDs are mastered with cross fades and individual tracks often feel out of place when not nestled in and among the surrounding tracks. When these albums are presented in MP3 format something is lost; the three second gap breaks the cross fade and introduces a feeling that each track should be discrete when it really isn’t. Thankfully, some labels have been releasing some albums as one giant MP3 to preserve the feel of the mix.
Renaissance has been the best label to find these types of tracks as many of their DJ albums will find two releases on eMusic, a tracks based one and later a continuous mix. Below are some of my favorites that they have released.
James Zabiela - ALiVE
John Digweed - Transitions
Renaissance The Masters Series: Hernán Cattáneo Vol. 1
Renaissance The Masters Series: Hernán Cattáneo Vol. 2
Renaissance Presents Nic Fanciulli
Renaissance - The Masters Series Part 7: Dave Seaman
For a whopping eleven tracks you can drown yourself in over thirteen hours of music. Not only a serious bargain but a blissful way to spend the better part of the day.
Published by Scott July 24th, 2006
in Album, Review and 2006.
These guys draw from the same influences as the Elephant Six bands, especially The Beach Boys, as well as from the collective itself. They play sunny, mildly psychedelic pop steeped in harmonies and kitchen sink instrumentation. Apparently they split up as a band when some members moved from their Memphis home base. In a neat twist they agreed to share the Snowglobe moniker and record albums “directed” by individual members with some amount of long distance collaboration. This is the first effort of that name sharing experiment and was spearheaded by Brad Postlethwaite.
Oxytocin has some catchy material but can come across as stiff and a bit too studied. It’s meticulously crafted and occasionally stifling as a result. You really get this sense with the vocals that are often fussily decked out with harmonies and/or multi-tracking. The rare time that there’s a pure vocal is like a breath of fresh air. I’m a sucker for Beach Boys-esque harmonies but it can be cloying if not metered out judiciously. “Rainbow” is a good example of a song that stumbles in its Pet Sounds pop masterpiece aspirations.
Sometimes they get it just right as on the bouncy orchestral pop gem, “Dry.” And the best song, “Happy,” stands out not only for its quality but also because it’s atypical of anything else on the album. Irony abounds as the approaching mid-life crisis sober self-assessment lyrics are set to a boppy beat with cheesy 80’s-sounding horns and a ridiculously catchy sing-along melody. These two tracks are easily the highlights of a generally agreeable album.
Mixtape tracks- “Happy” and “Dry”
Freebies- No mp3’s but you can stream “Happy” at the Snowglobe MySpace page.
Published by James July 20th, 2006
in Free Tracks, Album, Review and 2005.
The National stumbled into my field of hearing when I heard their track “Abel” on the excellent and free 2006 Pitchfork Music Festival Sampler over at eMusic. Their sound reminds me of a place where New Wave can take Alt-Country out for a quick spin on the dance floor and just for a moment urban angst is comfortable in the arms of country Gothic. Where a drawl touched with gravel and ennui rolls alongside the bright bending tones of a Gretsch semi-hollow body buoyed by delicate brush work by the drummer.
Alligator, for the most part, is a quiet album. There are no real barn burners, searing leads or explosive solos. It is headphone music that lopes along. It is a pleasant album but the compositions often feel to similar and threadbare in their starkness leaving me wanting for more; more dynamics, tempo shifts, key and time signature changes. Alligator just moves along to easily for much of the album making the soundscape feel like a road trip down much of America’s highways.
Like everything in this world, though, there is an exception. “Abel”, the track that drew me in, is a great homage to Springsteen’s work with the E Street band with its infectious hooks, plain yet soul baring lyrics, and shout out loud chorus of “My mind’s not right” shakes the album from its somnolent introspection, infusing it with energy for the remaining handful of songs and ending on “Mr. November” which belatedly addresses my desire for changes in the soundscape.
Alligator is a good album, solid in its execution, production, and lyricism but I found the best place for it was tucked into a more boisterous collection of albums to offer respite and temper an over abundance of energy. It is the perfect complement to a warm and lazy afternoon. You can find it over at eMusic.
Published by Scott July 19th, 2006
in Album, Review and 2006.
Why don’t I love this album? Sonic Youth is one of my favorite bands and Rather Ripped is rather good. I really do enjoy it every time I give it a spin. The problem is that I need to prompt myself to play it. As in, “I should listen to that Sonic Youth some more and give The Unicorns and Islands a rest.” It’s more out of loyalty to the band that I choose to play their new one than a need to hear the songs again.
Not that there’s anything “wrong” with Rather Ripped. It’s really not all that different than the bulk of their considerable body of work. All of the key SY elements are in place: alternate tunings that define their unconventional sound, songs that veer off on brief, unexpected tangents, and lead vocals alternating between three singers. This time around their approach is more streamlined though and the result is mellower and more accessible. Most of the songs are in the three to four minute range so there’s a conciseness to the proceedings as well.
At the risk of sounding like an indie rock snob (all the more preposterous since Sonic Youth has been on a major label since 1990), I think their friendlier sound is what I find off putting and prevents me from really connecting with the album. I miss the noise and experimental adventure that usually permeates their releases. Rather Ripped finds the band refining their approach and I’m slightly less interested as a result.
Mixtape tracks: “Reena” and “Incinerate”
Published by James July 18th, 2006
in Free Tracks, Album, Review and 2006.
Sunshine, Shadows and Luck is a snack sized album more akin to an EP but with more tracks but what it lacks in length it certainly makes up for in flavor. Mark Scanlan, the beat scientist behind Kobra Audio Labs, works out a series of tracks that possess a sort of dystopian, sci-fi funk. They can be often rubbery in sound but lurch about unexpectedly like the charmingly creaky “War All The Time” with its heavily chopped and spliced guitar line that stumbles through fields of lo-fi drums that stretch and snap or the psychedelic “Down To The Dozens” with its breathy flutes and vague steel drums floating in the background.
Parallels could be drawn between Kobra Audio Labs and DJ Shadow, Pete Samples, and DJ Spooky but Scanlan draws on a wider body of material than just the world of recombinant music. “In Opposition” sees him dipping a toe into a dirge like ballad that comes closer to the work of the psych-folk music found in the work of Guido Möbius and Bibio though in a more traditional manner. Brushing against Ambient soundscape is “We Have The Strength But We Don’t Have The Will” which floats on lazy synth pads and loping drum beats, a blissful head nodder that will have your eyelids dropping and a slow smile spreading across your face.
Overall, Sunshine, Shadows and Luck is worth grabbing; short but sweet. You can sample some free tracks at the Kobra Audio Labs website.
Published by James July 14th, 2006
in Album, Review and 2006.
DJ Cheb I Sabbah’s La Kahena, which dropped last year, was a wildly intoxicating blend of traditional North African rhythms and modern production techniques. On La Ghriba: La Kahena Remixed Sabbah revisits the same sonic territory but with an increased focus on breaking those tracks down further and folding them into beats anchored in Dub and House through the work of artists such as Bill Laswell, Fnaïre, Yossi Fine, The Chakadoons, Temple of Sound, and Bassnectar.
Stand tracks include Laswell’s work on “Esh ‘Dani, Alash Mshit: The Constantine Remix” which brings the track into an expansive sound that is at once dark and exotic but still inviting; the vocal samples peppering the song are reminiscent of Juno Reactor’s more ethno-flavored work on Bible of Dreams. Makyo’s re-envisioning of “Madh Assalhin (The Zen Breaks)” stretches the track out to a drifting trance infused Dub that is deeply hypnotic while DJ Sandeep Kumar opens the album with a fiery remix of “Toura Toura” that adds a touch of swing and sway to the underlying beats.
La Griba makes a great addition to La Kahena, ostensibly it could be packaged as a second disc if it sees a re-release down the road. Highly recommended and La Griba certainly has a place on my “Best of” list for this year as it maintains the artistry and integrity that made La Kahena such an incredible listening experience.
