Published by James October 23rd, 2006
in Album, Review and 2006.
Paper Tigers reminds me of the drawing exercises I encountered in studio classes so many years ago, particularly the ones where we were asked to draw the space that the model occupied and by interacting with that space gain a deeper understanding of the subject matter. Sasu Ripatti appears to take that visual arts concept to heart on this release as the arrangements are often indicative of something lusher and more detailed but have been worked down to those essential threads that bind the work together. It is at once abstract and organic, possessing a warmth and depth that can only be arrived at by realizing that a supposed finished composition can often be reworked into something more meaningful and that objects are often defined by the space which they occupy.
Ripatti’s process of carving and sanding his compositions is best felt on “Really Don’t Mind” which for all intents is a House track with a strong club beat and lush, soulful vocals. Execution of the piece takes a different turn as the vocals a reworked as an instrument and a texture much like the beat production, being used to both provide a structure and context to hang arrangement from as well as to serve as a primary focus for the listener. Wrapping about the arrangement are beats that occasionally skitter into the soft pads and sweeps that make up the songs open landscape. As the song bleeds into “Let You Know” it becomes clear that Ripatti approached the album as a whole rather than a series of discrete tracks. The composition sees the arrangement of the prior track evolve into a sort of minimalist Deep House production, similar to the trance leaning “Good To Be With”, though that description does not really do it justice as the compositions are more carefully thought out than just layering samples and beats.
The songs on Paper Tigers have a tendency to slowly unfold, quietly rotating and shifting in a manner that is more akin to the ambient work of Thom Brennan, Robert Rich, or Pete Namlook. It is this tendency that makes the album best suited for headphones rather than pumping it through your stereo as it is a study of contrasts: sparse and lush; wispy and warm; minimal and detailed. For myself, it is one of Ripatti’s best releases and easily makes it on my Best of 2006 list and finds itself to even be a contender for my favorite album of the year. Paper Tigers is simply outstanding.
Published by Marc October 4th, 2006
in Random, Album and Review.
Hello.
Thanks of the invitation of the webmasters of this delicious Candied Pop, I am here.
First of all, I will ask to you to be indulgent : english is not my mother tongue. Le français est ma langue maternelle.
OK, because of this lack of skill and knowledge of language, I am not able to write so subtle and long reviews than my friends.
But, OK also, it will not be my aim. My aim is to try to promote some european albums that deserve a recommendation and aren’t probably not available in States. And I am well placed for this, living in Belgium!!!
I swear : I will never review an album yet reviewed on AMG or Pitchfork…
For the beginning, an pan-european album. “Unwound From The Wood” is released on the belgian label Quatermass. The members of the band are the Scottish singer and composer Luke Sutherland and German electro musicians Volker Bertelmann and Stefan Schneider. The first was the singer of the indie band Long Fin Killie that made excellent romantic albums in the late 90s (the excellent Amelia from 1998 is available on eMusic). The german musicians are in bands like Hauschka, To Rococo Rot and Mapstation.
It was not easy to imagine a crossover between these guys. Sutherland has one of the beautiful voice of the romantic rock. His voice is just like wind in autumnal trees (wow, piece of poetry!). The german are playing some mechanical and very interesting electro pop. Sometimes, 1 + 1 = 1. Sometimes, 2. Here, it’s three. This album can be compare (but in better) with some works of Lali Puna and Styrofoam. The plus is the voice of Sutherland. He is known also as a good novelist as I read. Than, I hope you will have this pleasure of the good language.
Hoping you will find it. Available on Boomkat. You can stream some tracks here.
(OK, next time I will try to put the cover and some links; Paris ne s’est pas fait en un jour!)
Published by James October 3rd, 2006
in Album, Review and 2006.
Opening with shivering strings, An Announcement to Answer imparts a tangible organic feel that wraps itself about the listener in warm, textured folds but it is over all too quickly, unwinding just shy of the forty minute mark. On this, his third release, Will Holland, finds himself digging deeply into the Cuban Soul and Funk diaspora from the 60’s and 70’s, layering them thickly alongside elements from Japan and Africa to create an album that is at once sunny and exotic but tinged with a sense of moodiness. It is an intoxicating journey from start to finish, one that left me a little breathless and looking to repeat it immediately.
this is an album for muggy August nights, strolling underneath pale streetlights casting an orange glow as a stray dog skirts about just on the edge of darkness. “Sabor”, with its swollen horn arrangements, nimble guitar work, and loping vocals builds a fantasy of summer streets late at night with people lounging indolently against dirty brick walls or stretched out on the steps of a building breathing in the scent of the city slowly. Closing out the album is the delicately sweet “”Tell It Like You Mean It” with a saxophone arrangement that strikes closely to the feel and flavor of Rova’s “Suite For A Better World” if it were dropped in the middle of a Brazilian Carnival with undulating bass lines and lightly skipping percussion.
This is what good music does, it is transportive, carrying the listener out of the mundane and to something more vibrant and nuanced. Not many do this as well as Holland, under his Quantic moniker. An Announcement to Answer is sultry listen, one that is warm to the touch, confident and breathless at the same moment. For all its quickly evaporating thirty-eight minutes captured my mind and heart easily putting it on my Best of 2006 list. To get a feel, you can sample the album over at his website.
Published by James September 26th, 2006
in Album, Review and 2006.
The Contingencies debut album has this amazing ability to pull me back some fifteen years, dropping me back into my freshman year at college when the world was a little sharper, brighter, and I felt eager to jump into each day. Viva Ole, in a crisp set of fourteen tracks, wrapping up into a tidy package much of the music I was introduced to at the time when I work the over night at the college radio station. There are elements of Sugar, Dinosaur Jr., The Bog Men, and even glimpses of The Pretenders and the 70’s work of Elvis Costello, all of which the band’s label admits might be considered a touch anachronistic in todays indie-rock scene. That aside the album is a nice backward-leaning yet forward-moving album that mines the best of the college rock scene that defined the Alternative genre in the late 80’s and early 90’s.
Dead center in the album are the best examples of The Contingencies brand of bright, shimmering rock with reverb damp guitars and chorus soaked vocals. “Up In The Clouds” presents a tight guitar line that struts about the song like a hopped up folk riff shining in all its sharp angularness. Towards the end of the song the direction shifts to a more sprawling and slightly grittier feel that alludes to how the band might come off as a live act: loose and and largely unconcerned with conventional structures, instead opting to play to the mood of the audience. “Nameless” follows offering moody vocals that drift outside of the composition buoyed on waves guitar with the treble boosted to the point of sounding like a series of shattered mirrors. “Ruthless Prix” sees them shift up to a sound reminiscent of The Bogmen circa “Closed Captioned Radio” with grit beginning to push aside the brighter tones.
While I’m not as well informed as my partners in crime here at CP headquarters, I have a decent handle on what makes my heart race and this album does. For the sheer nostalgia factor Viva Ole easily makes my Best of 2006 list with its shimmering guitars and crisp production the album tossing me back to those days when almost everything I was listening to was new, exciting, and important. You can stream two tracks over at Myspace or read up on the band over their label’s website and to spice up your next mix throw “Proud As Punch” onto and impress your friends and family with your taste.
Published by James September 19th, 2006
in Free Tracks, Album, Review and 2006.
Wale Oyejide’s sophomore effort, Africa Hot! - The Afrofuture Sessions, sees his sound drift farther from its Hip-Hop underpinnings to embrace a more diverse sound ranging from House, Electro, and Afro-Pop. In particular, the sounds of West Africa find the broadest use in expressing his message where at times his delivery approximates a raw more unpolished version of Youssou N’Dour with all the politics of Fela Kuti providing the momentum. The album, in itself, follows a path that has it move from Afrocentric Hip-Hop to tribal driven Electro, to sprawling Soul House numbers in seventy minutes making for a deeply engaging listen.
Tracks like “H.I.V.” best demonstrate Oyejide’s politics and concern for the problems that plague Africa and the world at large. He earnestly implores the listener to sit up and listen carefully that ignorance and carelessness carries the gravest of consequences and provides traction to the disease. He sings of simple mistakes leading to the deaths of children and lectures on the necessity that individuals must take control of their destiny and protect themselves in order to ensure the future. Writing about it gives the song all the appearance of being a five minute PSA and in some regards it is but Oyejide’s convictions are strong and his believe in the inherent goodness of mankind prevails making that “H.I.V.” more than a simple moment in health education.
Later in the album, as the tone begins to change, the listener is treated to some astounding dance fueled production as tracks like “Cooba” burn with a tribal drive anchored by a dirty bass line than growls and snaps. Here Oyejide stretches into many different genres mashing Cumbia rhythms with Tech House and elements of Breakbeat. “Cooba” is easily a mix ready track providing enough fire to get people moving. “Heaven” sees things slow down with some blissed out Soul House, smoldering and swaying gently as the listener is guided closer to the end of the album further proving that Oyejide is not composed of a single trick, that he possesses a deep love of music from all people. Africa Hot! easily makes My Best of 2006 list.
Free Track: Africahot! (+ Meczilla)
Website: Science Fiction Is Wale Oyejide
Myspace: Wale Oyejide
Published by Scott September 18th, 2006
in Album, Review and 2006.
I only recently “discovered” Dr. Dog, being impressed by the song “Say Something” on a mix that someone sent me. I promptly grabbed the album it came from, 2005’s fantastic Easy Beat, and have been playing it fairly regularly since. I didn’t even realize they had an EP scheduled for release so it was a pleasant, timely surprise when it cropped up on eMusic the other day. All the more so since Takers and Leavers is another wonderful collection of songs.
The good Doctors continue to proudly incorporate their 60’s and 70’s influences into their own brand of scrappy pop-rock. Not to give the impression that their music is nothing more than a pastiche of past icons’ styles, but part of the fun is definitely in the style checks. “Goner,” for instance, features slide guitar reminiscent of George Harrison, Ringo-like drum fills, and vocals that at one point sounds like Paul at his “I’m Down” wildest. (John must have kept his spectral touch to himself as there’s nothing that strikes me as particularly Lennonesque.) The folky acoustic guitar and vocal harmonies on “California” at first made me think it was a cover of some lost Crosby, Stills, and Nash song. And I believe Neil Young, slipping through a wormhole in time during the Tonight’s the Night sessions, sings on “Livin’ a Dream.”
But seriously, Takers and Leavers is pretty irresistible. It doesn’t necessarily cohere as a singularly themed work, but the variety is engaging and nothing smacks of filler. It’s all high quality, but the opener, “Ain’t It Strange,” stands above the rest. With yearning, cracking on the high notes vocals, gorgeous harmonies, endearing hippy drippy lyrics, and a melodic fretboard workout winding things down at the end, it’s a psych-pop gem. Of course, the remaining nineteen minutes aren’t too shabby either.
Mixtape tracks- Ain’t It Strange, Goner
Freebies- Well, I suppose low quality is better than nothing. 96 kbs versions of “Ain’t It Strange” and “California” are available at the Dr. Dog MySpace page.
Published by James September 12th, 2006
in Album, Review and 2006.
Classics, if you’re anything like me, is the perfect bridge between that pair of acid washed 501s with the tear in the left knee and the fact that Colette’s Hypnotized is still in weekly rotation. It is a decadent romp filled with crisp drum production and thick, heavily processed guitars that oddly evoke fond memories of all those long summer days grinding through “More Than A Feeling” because the guitarist truly believed Boston was the pinnacle of rock music. On their sophomore effort Ratatat joins the mathematical precision of beat making and juggling with all those fleeting moments in rock that might make you pause and think, “Hey, maybe guitarists aren’t so bad after all…”
This is an album about guitars or more accurately about hyper-distorted, freakishly compressed layers of tones that occasionally approximate six strings and a fretboard but more often than not have more in common with a synthesizers and racks of tone generators. This is not to say that Stroud is on the same page as DragonForce’s Li and Totman, rather his playing is definitely more understated, eschewing flashy technique and focusing on balance and interplay between melodies and sounds. “Montanita” shows him layering delicate tones that glisten with just enough tremolo to give a sheen of exotica yet the song still manages to retain grounded in the rock roots from which Stroud emerged.
Giving structure to all of it is the work of Mast, the brains and production behind the pop friendly beats that dominate the album. From the infectious dancehall inspired back beat of “Gettysburg” to the restrained Beatlesque psychedelia of “Tropicana” his work on the album demonstrates that it is far deeper than just a collection of hooks and bridges. It is his ear for composition and arranging that help this album span the world of bedroom beats and arena rock posturing; if you have any doubts check out the free stream over at Myspace of “Wildcat” with its campy cat growl and early 80’s bare-bones Disco rhythm section.
Slap “Lex” on your next mix to give it that much needed strutting cock-rock flavor and by all means grab the whole album if you have the chance even if it means the rock purists in your circle will wrinkle their noses at the hyperbolic guitar production and post-ironic harpsichord lick. Classics makes it onto my Best of 2006 list for the simple fact that it makes me like guitarists again, if only for a little over 40 minutes.
