Yeah neither do I.

Maybe soon, though!

Artist - Autechre
Album - Oversteps
Genre - Electronica/IDM/Experimental

I'll have to try more actively to make sure not all my entries here involve the latest Warp-related release I have a boner over, but for this one in particular it's very necessary. The new Autechre album is upon us!

Here she be

A CHALLENGER APPROACHES

For those of you who might be reading this (do we have any of those people, guys?) that don't know me -- "Hi". I've been too busy / too lazy / too several other things to write an entry up until this point, despite being listed as a collaborator from the get-go.

It took something special to get me off my ass and writing. That something? The latest album by my favorite band.

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - The Brutalist Bricks (March 9th, Matador)

Track List:

1. "The Mighty Sparrow"
2. "Mourning in America"
3. "Ativan Eyes"
4. "Even Heroes Have to Die"
5. "The Stick"
6. "Bottled in Cork"
7. "Woke Up Near Chelsea"
8. "One Polaroid a Day"
9. "Where Was My Brain?"
10. "Bartolomeo and the Buzzing of Bees"
11. "Tuberculoids Arrive in Hop"
12. "Gimme the Wire"
13. "Last Days"

It's no secret that I love TL/Rx. Ted Leo is the consummate punk showman -- he is charming, funny, and can shred like few others of this generation. Some have called him a combination of Billy Bragg and Elvis Costello, for this millennium. While he is certainly not as legendary as either of those esteemed musicians, I won't say that it's an inaccurate description.

This is The Pharmacists' fifth full length, their first since 2007's Living with the Living. It is the first LP with Marty "Violence" Key on bass and the first to feature James Canty on rhythm guitar since 2003's Hearts of Oak, one of the best albums of the last decade. The addition and re-addition truly fill out the band's sound. I was always a fan of former bassist Dave Lerner and his wild mane of hair, but his playing never felt so... purposeful as Key's does here. I don't know if the mix will change any, with a month to go, but the basslines are prominent and driving when they need to be, but slink to the back when they need to, and it works very well, at least to these ears. Rounding out the rhythm is Chris Wilson, whose drumming is better than it ever has been.

Onto the front man, and the album itself. My initial reaction is that Ted has crafted some of his best work on The Brutalist Bees. Leo knows how to open an album -- see "Me and Mia" and "Biomusicology", from Shake the Sheets and The Tyranny of Distance, respectively, for further proof of that fact. He hits another homerun on this album too, opening with the excellent "The Mighty Sparrow", a quick, but solid groove through and through, with a very George Harrison-esque solo. It's followed by a rerecorded version of "Mourning in America" a track that was released on an EP in 2008 to benefit charity Democracy Now!. It sounds infinitely better here. It's more polished on all fronts. Crisp, thundering drums, pulsing bass, and an overall balanced mix that the original lacked.

The third track, "Ativan Eyes", is one of my favorites, but I can't for the life of me explain why. It's just a great song, I think. I could say the same of "Bottled in Cork", another song I love for intangible reasons. Maybe it's that it seems to have a strong connection to World War II, despite being a sort of romanticized punk song, with its closing refrain of "tell the bartender I think I'm falling in love."

The real highlights, though, are "Even Heroes Have to Die" and "One Polaroid a Day". The former is a relatively straightforward song. It's got a great chorus, sung in a sort of half-falsetto by Leo: "Even heroes have to die--- / No one lives forever, love / and no one's wise to try". There's nothing less endearing than a punk who refuses to age gracefully, and Ted shows how aware he is of that fact. The other gem, "One Polaroid a Day", is just fantastic to listen to. It has a sort of staccato riff that is just lovely to the ear, and Ted's vocal is a very understated, near-whisper that suits the song so so well. The bass is simple but functional, and the drums are relatively quiet. Everything complements each other so perfectly. It may be the best song the band has ever written.

From cover to cover, the album doesn't really have any truly weak tracks. "Tuberculoids Arrive in Hop" is very different, it's got no percussion at all, and has almost a wild-west vibe to it, and sounds like it was recorded outside -- crickets can be heard in the back throughout, and the song ends with about 20 seconds of outdoors-at-night-in-the-summer sounds, crickets, cars passing in the distance. It's not bad, but it's an acquired taste at the very least. Overall, The Brutalist Bricks seems to be the best Ted Leo work, LP or otherwise, in nearly seven years, and it might just be in contention for their best release yet.

Get it here
Buy it here

Hello everyone - long time no write. I haven't been too active on the music front lately, so I'm going to try and condense the last eight weeks of luke into one succinct blog post.

Dessa - A Badly Broken Code
Genre: trip hop, hip hop



This seems to be the Jukebox's album of the year so far. I don't think any of us are completely in love with it, but all of us like it a lot. Dessa reminds me of a female version of Sage Francis for some reason. She blends singing and rap in a way that's reminiscent of old trip hop, but she is undeniably a rap artist. I like that she isn't one of those female rappers that try really hard to show off how hardcore she is. She's content to just sing/rap about a broken relationship or use her intelligent writing to her advantage. This is the first I've heard of her so I may need to swim around in her back catalogue. God knows I don't have a lot of female hip hop!

The Antlers - Hospice
Genre: indie, music to kill yourself to



I'm about six months late to the Hospice party -- probably because the name of the band is The Antlers and who the hell wants to listen to a band named that -- but it finally clicked with me today. This album is equal parts brutal and beautiful - it is heartwrenchingly sad at times and then oddly inspiring. I'm not sure that 2009 had an album that stood out quite like Hospice. It took me ten listens to even decide if I liked it or loved it. The answer is love.

The Knife - Tomorrow, In a Year
Genre: opera, electronic, fucking weird



Wow. This album is bizarre. Silent Shout was one of the best records to come out in 2006 and the much-anticipated follow-up to it is a concept opera about Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species. It is torturous to listen to at times. There's five minutes of a droning sound, two minutes devoted of a high-pitched beep that makes you want to cover your ears, and some of the strangest opera singing around. It is the kind of album that most bands don't recover from: once they jump off the deep end, there's no going back to the land of normal. The album gets a little bit more Knife-y by the end of it, but at that point it's already past the point of no return.

And yet, there's something bizarrely enticing about this disc. It is fascinating in its own strange way. I find myself listening to it and wondering how the hell they made it, and then when it ends I find myself grateful that my ears are not being pummeled anymore.

Why? Alopecia
Genre: indie rock/emo jewish hip hop



The album I listened to the most in 2009 is the album that should have been my 2008 album of the year, Alopecia. For some bizarre reason I just can not stop listening to Alopecia. Yoni Wolf's brutal honesty and clever as hell wordplay just keeps me coming back over and over and over. It's addicting. I think this album is very close to being my favourite album of all time at this point. I even hooked my girlfriend/fiance/whatever on it recently which makes me like it even more. I need to find a way to stop listening to this before I get sick of it.

Massive Atack - heligoland
Genre: lounge-hop



I was afraid to listen to this album. You see, Massive Attack really defined music in the 90s, first with the seminal Blue Lines and then with one of the best sounding discs of all time, Mezzanine. You couldn't talk about trip hop without somebody mentioning Massive Attack. It was impossible.

Then the 2000s happened and Massive Attack has been irrelevant ever since. 100th Window, while a decent album, never hits the highs of previous albums and while their recent EP was interesting, it wasn't top tier material. heligoland follows this trend of being merely average and therefore extremely disappointing. Massive Attack is a great band that I have great expectations for; when they come up short and merely put out an average album, it's almost worse than not putting out anything at all, especially seeing how this album took seven years to make. I find it hard to imagine a time where Massive Attack is relevant again - time has just passed them by, I think.

RJD2 - The Colossus
genre: instrumental rock, jazz, hip hop



Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh. This is one of the most frustrating albums of all time.

At first, it's really cool, a varied instrumental album that manages to make you forget about how bad The Third Hand was. Kenna is an old fave of mine and does and his voice fits in well with RJ's instrumentation. The album stagnates a bit as it goes on, but considering how low he set the bar after The Third Hand, it's tolerable.

And then track 9 happens.



Four minutes later, you're reminded of how good RJD2 used to be and how he used to completely own the world of instrumental hip-hop. It doesn't help that Illogic is one of my favourite guys in the world of hip-hop. Suddenly he's invalidated the whole album by daring to compare it to Dead Ringer. It's not even close to being as good, but that doesn't even matter. RJD2 is officially a tease. RJD2, I hate you.

Seeing as my topic purged and all, I felt I should document this somewhere rather than keeping all three of my fans hanging. And, you know, so that I can laugh at this in a few years time when I only actually like one of my current top five anymore. I don't think there has been a single year this decade that I heard my favourite album from the year during that calendar year. Well, except maybe 2008, but that was such a musical write-off that it barely even counts.

If anyone wants links to / write-ups for any of this stuff, I'll happily oblige. And it'd be awesome to see everyone else's lists posted on here too!

Anyway:

Top 25 Albums of 2009

1. Maudlin of the Well - Part the Second
2. Rome - Flowers from Exile
3. Shpongle - Ineffable Mysteries from Shpongleland
4. Converge - Axe To Fall
5. The Antlers - Hospice
6. Levon Helm - Electric Dirt
7. Sunn O))) - Monoliths & Dimensions
8. The Ruins of Beverast - Foulest Semen of a Sheltered Elite
9. Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...Pt. II
10. Natural Snow Buildings - Shadow Kingdom
11. Mos Def - The Ecstatic
12. Amesoeurs - Amesoeurs
13. Cunninlynguists - Strange Journey Volumes 1 & 2
14. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
15. Clipse - 'Til The Casket Drops
16. P.O.S. - Never Better
17. Lady Gaga - The Fame Monster
18. Mastodon - Crack the Skye
19. Wu-Tang Clan - Chamber Music
20. Drudkh - Microcosmos
21. Bohren & der Club of Gore - Mitleid Lady (EP)
22. Burial & Four Tet - Moth/Wolf Cub
23. The Necks - Silverwater
24. Cobalt - Gin
25. Crippled Black Phoenix - The Resurrectionists

Top 25 Songs of 2009

1. Converge - Cruel Bloom
2. P.O.S. - Let it Rattle
3. Mos Def - Life in Marvelous Times
4. Drudkh - Ars Poetica
5. The Antlers - Kettering
6. Clipse - Freedom
7. Converge - Dark Horse
8. Shpongle - Invisible Man in a Fluorescent Suit
9. Maudlin of the Well - Laboratories of the Invisible World (Rollerskating the Cosmic Palmistric Postborder)
10. Animal Collective - Brothersport
11. Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks
12. Rome - To Die Among Strangers
13. Sunn O))) - Alice
14. Rome - We Who Fell in Love with the Sea
15. Bohren & der Club of Gore - Mitleid Lady
16. Raekwon, Cormega & Sean Price (Wu-Tang Clan) - Radiant Jewels
17. Sole & the Skyrider Band - Black
18. Levon Helm - When I Go Away
19. Jay Electronica - Exhibit C
20. Joss Stone (feat. Nas) - Governmentalist
21. Lady Gaga - Alejandro
22. Why? - Eskimo Snow
23. Big Boi (feat. Gucci Mane) - Shine Blockas
24. Animal Collective - Bluish
25. Patrick Wolf - Thickets

It seems I work through a year's releases significantly less rampantly than some of my colleagues here - while icon could probably make a top twenty already I'm taking it easy.

Still though, initial impressions and rankings for a few choice albums:

Dessa - A Badly Broken Code
Dixon's Girl: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eQL3BrRqM8

Can't quite boast the same highs as her debut False Hopes EP, but this is still a thoroughly excellent slice of hip-hop melancholia. There's something about this woman's voice and lyricism that just melt me - I can't think of a single female rapper quite as comfortable showing her tender side in her songs, and it's precisely that which makes her stand out. She focuses more consistently on the topic of failed relationships than on her EP; and while no one in hip-hop has covered that area as well as she does here, it still comes across as slightly contrived at times. It's also probably telling that the very best songs here (Children's Work, Dixon's Girl) are largely the ones which deviate from that lyrical formula. But after listening to A Badly Broken Code I don't want to marry Dessa any less than I did before it, so I guess that's mission accomplished on her part. She definitely has the potential to make an album better than this in the future, but for now I'm very happy with this one, thank you very much. 8.6/10

Eluvium - Similes
Leaves Eclipse the Light: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpVzxGtyN6c

Matthew Cooper is a guy I'm glad the music industry has around. The best description of his music I've ever heard was "baby's first ambient," a quote which I've shamelessly stolen from a Copia review, but I don't see why that needs to be a disparaging comment. Sure, parts of Talk Amongst the Trees aside, he's never put out anything especially captivating or truly worth canonizing. But every single one of his albums have been cleverly put together, easy to listen to, and more importantly good. And despite what the internet might be telling you, Similes doesn't change that. Cooper's voice might not be the greatest, but it fits with his sound pretty seemlessly, and he has a pretty damn good ear for vocal melodies. I won't be praising this as anything mindblowing, but not everything needs to be. Similes is a consistently enjoyable and very pleasant album, and as far as reading music goes it's hard to do much better. 7.2/10

Jaga Jazzist - One-Armed Bandit
Bananfleur Overalt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3kOVxteDAQ

Hell yeah, this is the album I've always wanted Jaga Jazzist to make. All of their releases before now have appealed to me on some level, but this takes all of their electronic, post-rock, modern classical and jazz influences and tosses them into a big fusion melting pot. It's barely possible to describe the sound of the thing as it's just so diverse, but it comes out sounded roughly akin to Zappa's more jazzy material filtered through the music scene of the last decade. The nine-minute centrepiece Toccata is arguably the most impressive thing here, with its Steve Reich percussion and booming brass, but the whole album barely puts a foot wrong anywhere - of the record's eight songs, only Prognissekongen and Music! Dance! Drama! fall beneath utter excellence. I wouldn't necessarily go as far as to say that this is their best album, but it's certainly their most impressive, and more importantly it's definitely the one which appeals to me most. Anyone with an interest in jazz, fusion or progressive rock owes it to themself to check this out. 8.1/10

I'll do the other four albums I've heard so far later on, perhaps tomorrow.

Little bit late this week, due to events coming up at school, like essays and mid-terms. Fun stuff! As such, no comments for now. Those'll be added in later, and probably, finally, an upload of that Extra Life album. Put it off because we also had new Four Tet and Wu Tang vs. The Beatles to listen to!

8. Extra Life - Made Flesh - 17/01/10
9. Dessa - A Badly Broken Code - 17/01/10
10. Spoon - Transference - 17/01/10
11. Alexander Tucker and Decomposed Orchestra - Grey Onion 18/01/10
12. The Besnard Lakes - Are the Roaring Night 18/01/10
13. Four Tet - There is Love in You 19/01/10
14. Wu Tang vs. The Beatles - Enter the Magical Mystery Chambers 20/01/10
15. Max Roach - We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite 20/01/10
16. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy - Master and Everyone 21/01/10
17. Gillian Welch - Revival 22/01/10

A massive ten new listens last week. Thanks, waffles free leech! The only album that stands out here is Spoon's Transference, and that's because it's a bit of a bore to listen to. It's almost as if they forgot that they can, occasionally, write interesting hooks, and not just atonal indie rock. Everything else is class: those Dessa and Extra Life albums will, most likely, be among my favourite of the year; Max Roach's album was brilliant as always; Alexander Tucker continues to impress in short, EP form; and Will Oldham and Gillaim Welch provided some nice country sounds. Good week!

Listens incoming this week: new Liars, Jaga Jazzist, and a bunch of what I picked up for free leech, which was a lot of jazz.

Okay, I'm really just posting this for Giggs. I'm still kind of speechless.

You can listen and download it for free here.

Artist: Four Tet
Album: There Is Love In You
Genre: Dance/Electro/Techno

Four Tet is currently streaming his new album here http://soundcloud.com/four-tet/there-is-love-in-you which is a big enough deal for me to blog about! Enjoy

Artist: Dessa

Album: A Badly Broken Code

Genre: Hip-Hop

Heard of Dessa? No? That's a shame, but an understandable one; she's only released one official EP, and been featured on various Doomtree promos/experiments/etc, as well as appeared on a few of Doomtree acts' records -- like P.O.S.'s excellent album from last year. But she's finally getting an LP out there, and it's good. Female emcees are a rare breed, and even rarer are intelligent ones, but that's exactly what Dessa is. A Badly Broken Code is a solid album, an excellent showcase of her talents, and one of the better recent releases.

I'll say more on this album in my weekend summary next Sunday, once I get a better grasp of it, but I'm at loving this. I've had if for a little over two hours and I've already heard it three times. If you want to hear a sample, I've posted the first song, "Children's Work," over at Brave New Waves.

Enjoy!

Another light week for me, with only 3 new listens. This trend stops this week, most likely, as I've heard two new 2010 albums today, one of which will be upped this tonight, the other later in the week.

5. Massive Attack - Heligoland 10/01/10

I want to love this album; I really do. And maybe I will, when a proper rip comes out. It's the first Massive Attack album in years, more attention needs to be paid to it! If you heard the four song preview of this album that came out late last year, you'll know what to expect. In fact, all four of those songs appear on this album, possibly untouched (I haven't done an AB comparison). Portishead-esque drums and typical Massive Attack production, but it feels a little... flat. The last two tracks, "Saturday Come Slow" and "Atlas Air," may be my favourite tracks.

6. Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra & Pierre Boulez - Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemp (The Rite of Spring) 14/01/10

Not my first listen of this piece, but my first listen of this performance. The Rite of Spring was the first piece of classical music that I ever really loved, and this rendition is just as powerful and beautiful as any I've heard. Highly recommended.

7. Nine Horses - Snow Borne Sorrow 14/01/10

Not sure how to describe this one. A mix of jazz and electronic, but not in a trip-hop kinda way. I get Boy Eats Drum Machine vibes from this one, without the chaotic production associated with that act. Listen and decide for yourself.

So, three good-to-great albums. Not bad, eh? But this coming week already promises to be the strongest of the year so far.

It was a fairly light week on my end of new listenings this week; this is, most likely, due to the start of school, as well as a couple other interests getting in my way (finished Batman: Arkham Asylum, watching Dexter/Mad Men/Doctor Who). These four albums happen to be, more or less, the only music I listened to this week.

1. Red House Painters – Red House Painters 1st LP (Rollercoaster) 01/01/10

My first listen of the new year. One thing I'd like to do this year is expose myself to artists that I've had an interest in for some time but never really looked at their back catalogue much. Mark Kozelek is one such name. I think I'll try to work through his career chronologically; my only experience with him has been his Sun Kil Moon records which are, for the most part, quite good. This was, unsurprisingly, quite good.


2. Martin Siewert & Martin Brandlmayr – Too Beautiful to Burn 05/01/10

One more thing I'd like to do this year is expand my musical palette. I've always had an interest in ambient/experimental stuff, but only recently have I been trying out new things. Kreng's 2009 album, L'Autopsie Phénoménale De Dieu, was one of my favourites last year. Yes, I know that has nothing to do with Too Beautiful To Burn. I only gave it one listen, but I was impressed. Tense strings, tape hiss and other such noise on display here.

3. A Silver Mt. Zion – Kollaps Tradixionales 08/01/10

"There Is Light" was excellent. I'll save my judgement for later on this record. It may grow on me, but for now I was left unsatisfied.

4. Basia Bulat – Heart of My Own 09/01/10

The most impressive album of my week, I thought. I'll probably blog about it mid-week. This is such a drastic improvement on her first album. The introduction of string sections to more of the songs give this sweeping folk album more momentum than Oh, My Darling and Bulat seems to be more in control of her already powerful voice.

This week I will (probably) include a few of the more impressive songs from these albums over at Brave New Waves, and will most likely listen to the new Massive Attack album which I just didn't have time for yesterday. As for other stuff, who knows!

2010 is just around the corner, which means exciting things here at the Rebellious Jukebox. Did I say exciting? I meant things. Hopefully our little gang of rebellion -- we need a name to call ourselves. The Jukes? Rebels? I don't know, one of you more clever ones think it up -- will find more inspiration than we did in '09. I know that there are a few things I would like to do in the New Year for the blog: I'd like to keep track of all the (new) albums I listen to on a weekly basis, because, as much as I like RYM, I think it's a bit clunky for that; I'd like to put some focus on Vancouver artists before and after the Olympics, where the focus of the world will be on the place I live; I'd somehow like to integrate this and my tumblr, which I would also like to put more effort into; and a whole host of other things. Let's see how well I follow through!

Since we are near the end of the year, lists have been popping up all over the place. What about ours? Not sure yet. We may all add our lists here individually, or there may be some combined list. Who knows! Expect more in January, probably, while the others touch up theirs. At the very least, my personal list will, most likely, be posted on my aforementioned tumblr and RateYourMusic account on January 1st. And since we're near the end of the decade, a top 100 albums of the decade list is in order, right? That will probably completed in April, I would imagine.

Oh, right, the point of this post. The leaks!

Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy) - Heartland

Genre: Baroque Pop

Year: 2010

Try.

Owen Pallett's a pretty neat guy. While he's now trying to move away from his jRPG influences, and rightly so as they were beginning to wear thing, he has in the past created two really good albums based around his ability to loop a violin and play it in ways in which I'm sure weren't intended. He's now stretched out quite a bit more. The new album is entirely orchestrated, references his past, and might be his best album yet. It sounds nothing like his former albums, but still sounds like Owen Pallett. That makes sense, right?

Los Campesinos! - Romance is Boring

Genre: Pop

Year: 2010

I haven't given this album too much attention yet, but it's every bit as fun as the first one was, with the added maturity of a few years that was hinted at on their second 2007 album, We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed. Everybody needs a fun band to bust out every now and then on their iPod/Zune/Achros/what-have-you, and Los Campesinos! fit the bill perfectly.

Try.

Two of the best.

as is evidenced by these two songs:

my friend played me this song the other day. blew my mind. seems like something icon might like.

Artist: Toro Y Moi
Album: Causers Of This
Genre: Glitch pop/Chillwave/Indie

Another album from the future here, this time both in release date and actual sound. I've been listening to this for the past few days now and the richness of the electronics and production have been blowing me away. No matter that I can pick out maybe a dozen words from the whole album, the music is gorgeous and scattershot, relaxed yet ready-made for a party. Layers of voices and hollowed out pads pulse throughout the whole album without stretching too thin. The chops and cuts made to the beat and instruments feel natural and serve to define the music through their own tasteful restrictiveness instead of by creating chaos. Depth of songwriting shows through the ambiance (not ambience) wells on tracks like Minors and Thanks Vision, the latter of which is an absolutely stunning drive of chilled beauty. Causers Of This is immaculately put together and an early favorite for the coming decade.



Well let's test it out!

Artist: Beach House
Album: Teen Dream
Genre: Dream Pop

Do I really need to go into Beach House? I think we're all aware of this Baltimore sweetheart. They, seemingly, came out of nowhere three years ago to rave reviews from Pitchfork, Your Official Music Publication, for a somewhat-unique sound at the time. Not many bands were creating a shoegaze, lo-fi, dreampop concoction like they are now. The simple yet elegant nature of their debut earned them many fans who would, undoubtedly, stick around. Beach House came back with Devotion two years later, which I felt was a bit of a letdown, though I appear to be in the minority. Most of what that album covered had been done on their debut in a superior fashion, but so it goes. Devotion had some solid tracks, but as a whole I didn't feel it was as strong as the first. Teen Dream responds to this in a large way.

Beach House have given us their more mature record yet, and we should be thankful. It's simply stunning how beautiful it is. The production is more crisp (thanks, Sub Pop!) than what I'm used to in a Beach House record, which is a good thing, and I think it lends the album a more intimate sound.

This album needs more listens, by you and me alike.


MU

Let's get some action here on Rebellious Shponglebox, shall we?


Artist: The Mercury Program
Album: Chez Viking
Genre: Post-Rock

I haven't had a chance to listen to this, as I just came across it. By all accounts (note: I have read no accounts), this album will be similar to A Data Learn the Language in style and in quality. Let's hope so! We really need some lush post-rock right about now.

Try.

gotta love that basssssssssssssss

I flew 3800 miles to be at this show, the first legitimate Shpongle live show ever. Worth it? hell yes.

This is merely the audio of the show; you can buy the actual DVD here. If you buy the Real Thing you can probably see me being assaulted by a bubble machine. So awesome.

Track Listing:

1. Ineffable Mysteries
2. Beija Flor
3. Dorset Perception
4. Periscopes of Consciousness
5. I Am You
6. Star Shpongled Banner
7. My Head Feels Like a Frisbee
8. When Shall I Be Free ?
9. No Turn Un-Stoned
10. Divine Moments Of Truth
11. Shpongle Interlude.
12. Nothing Is Something Worth Doing
13. Once Upon The Sea Of Blissful Awareness
14. Around The World In A Tea Daze

give it to me already

A fortnight without a single post? I guess we were all just Shpongled.

The Necks - Chemist
Genre: Avant-Garde Jazz
Release Year: 2006

A note first: for all the Necks will be described as "avant-garde jazz" pretty much everywhere they're mentioned, it's a misleading label if I've ever seen one. When jazz is described as experimental or, lord forbid, "free," it conjures images of the likes of Ornette Coleman and Peter Brotzmann's noise-fests. Not that either weren't wonderful musicians, but it's fair to say that the likes of them being the reference points for an entire description of music is gonna be pretty offputting to the majority of curious music listeners.

For what the Necks do is basically bring the fundamental tenets of minimalism to the traditional jazz trio base. Their albums almost exclusively consist of one slowly shifting, utterly entrancing hour-long opus, and since they started adding studio wizardry and overdubs to their box of tricks around a decade ago they've been one of the most utterly unclassifiable bands around. They've skirted with Arvo Part-esque ambience on Aether, krautrock on the pulsating Hanging Gardens, and on 2003's Drive-By they created one of the most menacing, futuristic yet ultimately accessible takes on jazz I've ever heard. And amazingly, despite their blatantly unorthodox nature, The Necks are a pretty damn accessible band. Unlike avant-garde jazz's standard bearers, they're not difficult to listen to at all; in fact, the difficult part is not getting utterly swept away by the subtle shifts in tone and timbre throughout. If genres were truly literal descriptions of music's effect on the listener, The Necks would be the best trance band ever formed.

Which brings us to Chemist, I guess. Their latest studio album (before the release of Silverwater this month, anyway) probably isn't their best, and the fact it has three twenty-minute pieces rather than one does slightly hamper its potential (Fatal and Abillera could both be stretched to an hour with ease) but it is still remarkably good and probably the best way for all of you people to start loving these guys as much as I do. Which, I have no problem in admitting, is the entire point of writing all this.

The three tracks that make up Chemist pretty much cover The Necks' sound as well as three tracks ever could. The straight out the box, almost dirty 5/4 groove of Fatal makes it the most immediate piece they've ever done, Buoyant is spooky, electronic and minimal and Abillera almost sounds like The Necks playing at shoegaze - it marks the first time they've ever used a guitar in their 20+ year career, and using it to write what basically sounds like a twenty-minute jazzy M83 song wasn't a bad move whatsoever.

So, uh, yeah. The Necks are almost certainly the best band you don't listen to. Change that ASAP (make it Skepticism or Ulver or something instead!)

Download link (~220 kbps VBR)

Shpongle - Ineffable Mysteries from Shpongleland (2009)
Genre: Electronic, Psytrance
Year: 2009

Nothing Lasts... but Nothing is Lost is the one album that people associate with me more than any other. I've probably turned 20-30 people onto Shpongle thanks to its awesomeness. I flew halfway across the world to see Shpongle live last year. Naturally, this is my most anticipated album in god knows how long. How is it?

Pretty damn good. As good as Nothing Lasts? Nah. But what is? Nothing Lasts featured 20 tracks that were all five minutes or less, while this album -- hereby referred to as Shpongle 4 because this title is stupid -- only has 8, many of which break 10 minutes. Each song is a lot more varied than your standard song, though, with each song featuring several musical ideas that blend together quite nicely. I often am like 'is this even the same song?'

Shpongle 4 features a good amount of vocal work, at least compared to previous albums. I Am You and No Turn Unstoned are the standouts here thanks to some nice choruses that repeat throughout the song. Even those without vocals tend to feature some sort of crazy chanting. My favourite song though is the vocal-less third track, Nothing Is Something Worth Doing. It's serene and features a hang drum, an instrument I've been obsessed with since I saw them play it live last year. Damn, those things are cool. I'd buy one if I randomly had thousands of dollars I didn't want anymore.

So yeah, Shpongle 4. It's real. It actually exists. Listen to it.

buy (releases november 2)
try

To celebrate the beautiful union of funk and psychedelia throughout the ages, I put together this weird little mix of stuff new and old. It's kinda trippy, I hope you enjoy it.

+ Toggle Tracklisting

SIDE A:
Intro (Chester P)
Shafiq Hussayn - Nirvana
Os Mutantes - Teclar
Staff Benda Bilili - Avramandole
The Natural Yogurt Band - Soft Cheese
Klaus Weiss - Research
Ananda Shankar - Dancing Drums (Edit 1)
The Village Soul Choir - The Cat Walk
Nacho Patrol - Mind World
The Upsetters - Dollar In The Teeth
Madlib - J's Day Theme 3
Egg - Fugue In D Minor
The Poppy Family - No Blood In Bone
Klaus Block - Slow Motion

SIDE B:
Os Mutantes - Tempo Perdido
Ananda Shankar - Streets Of Calcutta
Ananda Shankar - Dancing Drums (Edit 2)
Gong - Flying Teapot (James Pants Mix)
MRR/ADM - Untitled (Track 2)
Can - Halleluhwah (Edit)
The Soft Machine - Why Are We Sleeping?
Oh No - The Funk
Biddu - Qurbani Bonus Beats
The New Apocalypse - Junkshop
Lloyd Miller - Elude In The Iranian Mode Shur
Travis Biggs - Tibetian Serenity (Edit)
The Natural Yogurt Band - Chit Chat
Funkadelic - I'll Bet You (1969 Version)
The New Rotary Connection - I Am The Black Gold Of The Sun

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Various Artists - Psych Funk 101: A Global Psychedelic Funk Curriculum
Genre: Psychedelic / Funk / World / Jazz / Arabic / All over the fucking place
Released: 2009

Recently released on StonesThrow, this bizarre compilation attempts to piece together a "global movement" of psychedelia and funk-inspired madness from the late 60's onwards to the early 80's. It's a round-the world journey which shows how far psychedelia travelled in a short amount of time. The destinations range from the far and wide, with Nigeria, Iran, Turkey, Russia and South Korea all helping to join up the musical dots. The sounds vary from acid-tinged traditional world music, to the truly ridiculous and experimental (tracks like "The Feed Back" and "The Big Search" are the main highlights for me). The chicken-and-the-egg question though is What hit their shores first: The music or the LSD?

The files are 320/VBR mp3, but I still can't vouch much for the audio quality because you have to consider these are songs taken from old, dusty and most likely quite hard to find records. They may sound fuzzy and crackled, but just be thankful you're able to hear them at all!

Try it
Buy it
.
.

Artist: Various
Genre(s): Dubstep/Electronic
Released: 2009

What exactly is dubstep? I'm not entirely sure. Wikipedia offers this:

"Dubstep is a genre of electronic music that has its roots in London's early 2000s UK garage scene. Musically, dubstep is distinguished by its 2step rhythm, or use of snare sounds similar to 2step garage and grime, and an emphasis on bass, often producing "dark" sounds, but just as frequently producing sounds reminiscent of dub reggae or funky US garage. Dubstep tracks are generally produced at a tempo of around 140 beats per minute and in recent years have developed signature half time rhythms, often heavily shuffled or syncopated, and usually, though not exclusively, including only one snare drum hit per bar, often on the third beat. Such factors make dubstep rhythms markedly different from four-to-the-floor rhythms used in other styles of electronic dance music such as house music, which usually have two snare hits accompanying the second and fourth kick drum. Often, the sense of rhythm in dubstep is propelled more by the bassline than by the percussive content."

That sounds very accurate based on what's offered in this compilation from London label Hyperdub. If you are unfamiliar with the label, you have probably at least heard of Burial -- a band I often confuse with Battles for reasons unclear other than similar names, 'cause lord knows they don't sound the same -- and possibly Tombs-favourite Zomby. Hyperdub was started two years ago by Kode9.

Unfortunately that's as much information as I, an outsider to the genre, can offer. Hyperdub release a shitton of stuff, mostly 12', and this compilation featuring 30 songs from artists such as Burial, Kode9, Darkstar, Zomby, Samiyam and much more seems to be an excellent introduction not only to the label Hyperdub but the genre of dubstep as a whole. It's a very solid comp that really flows well, beats and melodies chugging along to a brilliant conclusion on many of the offerings. So try it.

Artist - Felix Mendelssohn - Hebrides Overture (Fingal's Cave)
Genre - Classical
Release Year - 1827

- Felix Medelssohn, a musical prodigy and synaesthesite, was famously so struck by the strange and ominous rock shapes surrounding his visit to Fingal's Cave that it forced music into his genius little brain and he jotted down a sample of sheet music for it to send in a letter to his sister describing how instense his trip was. And now to describe how intense the Hebrides Overture is, I'm writing a blog entry with a link to a recording of it, because I was so struck by the strange and ominous shapes of it. This internet thing just makes it all come full circle, doesn't it?

(Note: This recording is by the Utah Symphony Orchestra, which to my knowledge has no official artwork - the picture above is actually Fingal's Cave.)

link

All Natural - Second Nature

Genre: Hip-Hop

Released: 2001

This album kinda brought Hip-Hop forward into the new decade for me, despite the fact that at the time, there were lots of albums coming out which were far more experimental and wide-reaching. It just seemed like Hip-Hop had suffered an indentity crisis somewhere around the new millenium, unsure whether it should be about Hype Williams videos and R&B singers on every chorus, or complex metaphorical madness over disjointed beats. In trying to be so many things at once, it pulled itself apart and needed something to sew it back up. I'm getting a bit too deep here though, because to be fair, Second Nature didn't exactly fix Hip-Hop by any means. At the time it just went somewhat ignored (except among a handfull of underground enthusiasts), and is now being touted about on ebay as a "rare" LP. What I guess it did do though, was prove that in the emerging information age of cross-breeding genres and bullshit sub-genres, it was still possible for some really fucking good, no-bullshit Hip-Hop to be made! There was a moment where if an MC were to craft some art into his wordplay, it would mean he was "consious", and if a DJ wanted to bring something new to the table, they'd need to smash two opposing genres together on some wacky mash-up mixtape.

Second Nature just gets straight to the point, refusing to bend over to a new emerging style on the basis that what it's already got is good enough to last, and no, it doesn't bore you with cheesy nostalgic tracks about how "boy I wish it was '86 again" either. Listening to it 8 years later, it still sounds just as refreshing and exciting. If you've accidentally overdosed on synthetic beats and velcro-texture vocals (we're living in a world of Love Lock Down and Flashing Lights here), i'd prescribe this album as the perfect antidote.

Tracks like Elements Of Style, Ill Advisory and Stellar are immensely potent in that mystical, most supernatural of forces they call dopeness. If these don't make you want to throw on a Kangol hat and start doing windmills in the street, then there's something wrong with you.

"The Stick Up" opens the album up with some straight rowdy shit,

"You keep your Nikon 'n Canon camera's

Focused on the icon cats that's slammin' ya

Over the banister, 

The B-Boy barrister, embarrass the, 

Phonies on Sony, Def Jam and Arista..."

...and the album pretty much continues in that vein, with almost every beat and every verse reminding you of why you love Hip-Hop.

Before I finish, I have to throw in a mention of that beat on Queen's Get The Money somewhere, just because it's amazing.

Second Nature (192kbps)

Keep it natural.

and now for something completely different

Manufactura - Precognitive Dissonance
Genre: Power Noise, Industrial
Year: 2003





This is about the most aggressive, unsettling, violent music I listen to. It is pulverizing and painful, the content is flat-out offensive and I often feel bad for listening to it. I can feel my blood pressure rise whenever I listen to this.

I have to be in the right mood for something this intense (I can only take so many samples of people getting killed and raped), but sometimes it's a nice change of pace. It's great for tuning out the world.

and not much else!

buy
try

Blog two, comin' with that ol' E-brew
Giggs-tical puttin' niggaz back in I.C.U.

Matt Elliott - The Mess We Made
Genres: Singer-Songwriter, Electronic
Release Year: 2003

Seeing as this is the exact type of thing that the likes of tranny and Seg in particular would likely eat up, it wouldn't especially surprise me if I'm reporting on old news with this one, but The Mess We Made is one of most awesome, moody albums I've heard in ages. Landing sonically somewhere between Boards of Canada, UNKLE and Low, with an dreary atmosphere best compared to Radiohead's Amnesiac, it's about as unclassifiable as it is effective. RYM has it tagged as Electronic, Slowcore, Singer-Songwriter, Post Rock and Folk, which just about sums up its uniqueness, I reckon.

The Mess We Made's eight tracks all tend to smudge together in a haze of unease, but the nine-minute centrepiece Cotard's Syndrome stands out simply because it takes the prize as the dreariest of all, and the brilliantly put together Spanish guitar-influenced closer Forty Days is also worthy of note and acclaim. Only The Sinking Ship Song really stands out at all for negative reasons - and even only then because as awesome as authentic accordion-laced sea shanties are, they're a little out of place on a record as ambiguous and grey as this one.

But if I know you guys at all, you love ambiguity and greyness, right?

Download Link (192 Kbps)

Link mercilessly stolen from http://aroomtobreathin.blogspot.com - check it out, or something.

Air - Love 2
Genre: Electronic, Indie
Year: 2009



I haven't heard this yet, but I get the feeling it might be popular amongst us so I threw it up early. I'll probably throw a review up later.

buy (available 10/5)
try

Micronaut - Europa
Genre: Electronic, Instrumental Rock
Year: 2005






Europa is not like most electronic music. Most electronic music is extremely synthetic, created in a small room on a computer. If something from the electronic genre sounds organic, it's usually sampled. There is nothing wrong with this approach to music at all, and indeed, many of my favourite records are created this way.

But not Europa.

Europa is the electronic sideproject of one Chris Randall, the creator of the seminal industrial rock band Sister Machine Gun. Chris Randall is a programmer first and a rock musician second, but that rock sensibility never goes away. There's loads of guitars and basslines and all that good old natural shit going on here. Sometimes I classify this album as instrumental rock over electronic just because it feels like something you could actually see a band playing instead of a guy letting the computer do all the work.

My favourite thing about Europa is its progression. The first four tracks plod along in a restrained, quiet way - you don't really notice that they're there, but you appreciate them nonetheless. They're pleasant. Then the album flows seamlessly into some glitchy IDM, then a brooding piece with a cello, then some loud guitar riffs, and then back to brooding again. All the while, Europa maintains its restraint, sounding like something that approaches the boiling point but never quite goes over. The second half of the album is just gorgeous songwriting. I have a hard time putting it into words, but it just feels like you're listening to something great.

And you are.

buy
try

A mix I put together whilst under the influence of orange juice. Enjoy.

+ Toggle Tracklisting

SIDE A:
1. The Heliocentrics - Distant Star
2. Quantic & His Combo Barbaro - The Dreaming Mind
3. Hypnotic Brass Ensemble - Sankofa
4. Afrique - Soul Makossa
5. The Heliocentrics - Joyride
6. James Brown - There Was A Time (Kenny Dope Remix)
7. Generoso Jimenez - The Phantom Bass
8. Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra - Go Je Je

SIDE B:
1. The Daktaris - Daktari Walk
2. Wareika Hill Sounds - Reggae Land Dub
3. Aiff - Let It Rock
4. A Race Of Angels - Just Begin
5. TM Juke - Knee Dee (Nostalgia 77 Remix)
6. Marlena Shaw - California Soul (Diplo / Mad Decent Remix)
7. Nostalgia 77 Octet - Nativeland
8. Nobody & Blank Blue - All The Shallow Deep

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Kode9 - Black Sun (12")
Genre: Electronic / Dubstep
Released: 2009

Funky shit from Kode9. Always good to hear new stuff being done with dubstep instead of the usual mid-range wobble.

LINK(320kbps) (mediafire)
or
LINK (320kbps) (sharebee)

I'd recommend you do the right thing and pick it up on vinyl!

Sub Loam - Ohr
Ambient
Year: 2009

I'm sorry Boomkat. I'm not one to guard the genre boarder, but there is no way that this album is modern classical. And what the hell is home listening, anyway? That's more of a description, wouldn't you say?

I suppose I should stop talking to (at?) Boomkat and start talking about what this album is, rather than what it isn't. It is the latest release from Cotton Goods, a new ambient label out of the UK that makes gorgeous, handcrafted and limited covers for all of their releases. It is ambient, in that there is very subtle progression among the tape hiss and the drone. It is an EP. It is something to put on right before you go to sleep -- home listening, you might call it. It is quite good.

Albums without voices are possibly the music writer's wet dream. They can allow the writer to say anything s/he wants to with little fear of ruffling any feathers. How can your assertians be wrong? Easily, actually -- hello Boomkat. Or the writer may use several superfluous and exaggerated claims about the album -- hello Boomkat. I refuse to do this. I will, and I suppose am, going to note the following:

- This album is ambient, purely ambient. It is slow and builds to a very subtle climax.
- There are some well-placed found sounds used throughout the album, building a peaceful soundscape that is rarely interrupted.
- Ohr is Hebrew for light, nettle is a type of plant. Knowing this makes the imagery evoked in the track titles ("Nettle Mix", "Undergrown Path", and "Stones, Sunlight, Morning") more apparent and coherent.

My name is Jordan and I hope you enjoy this album.

Try

All Natural - No Additives, No Preservatives (Xtra Phat)
Genre: Hip-Hop
Released:  1998

Yeah, this one is strictly for the Hip-Hop heads. 

All Natural are a duo from Chicago who have released two of the most slept-on Hip-Hop LP's in recent times, and undoubtedly some of the best Hip-Hop to ever come out of the windy city. Everyone loves a bit of experimental Hip-Hop every now and then, but you know, sometimes... you just want to hear something uncomprimisingly pure. As their name suggests, All Natural make Hip-Hop which is exactly that. I believe they also run (or ran?) their own health bar (wtf?), as you can see from their album cover. Anyway, this whole album is packed with classics, with quality that matches the quantity (it's a big album!). For some reason, one of my favourite moments in Hip-Hop is just Capital D repeatedly stating "it's Windy City style!" on the intro to 'It's OK', and that flute sample... you could chill to that all day. There's not much else for me to say really except that this album is ridiculously dope and an essential part of your Hip-Hop collection. So yeah... refresh your mind with some healthy Hip-Hop.

LINK (256kbps) (megaupload)
LINK (256kbps) (mediafire)
Buy It!






I'll also be posting their follow-up LP Second Nature later which is as good, if not better.

Autechre - LP5
Genre: Electronica/IDM/Techno
Release Year: 1998

- Are my colleagues sick of this band yet? They will be.

I just yesterday finally got around to hearing the electronic duo's lessee uh...fifth long player and within the twenty four hours I've had since then, I've played the length of it about five, going on six times. It's rare for an album to take me over for even just a day, and here with no end to the addiction in sight. So I might as well blog about it.

The first thing I noted is that like most Autechre outings, LP5 is a monolithic yet foggy affair. By this I mean that Sean Booth and Rob Brown's mantra behind the music is "more is more", which allows for a sense of "bigness" but also forces, for better or for worse, a near irreducible complexity on it. In one light, the songs all develop and mature (or corrode), but trying to actively listen for the changes is like trying to detect the minute hand on a clock move around - it'll eventually come full circle but your mind can't consciously observe that kind of thing. Just doesn't have the capacity. But don't fret puny human, this is exactly where the might and magic of Autechre comes from.

LP5 in particular is probably their best work in making that magic happen without completely alienating the listener from the experience altogether. Later works like Confield and Quaristice ended up being so cerebral that anyone with two sober feet on the ground would be turned away at the gates of dissonance, and earlier stuff such as Tri Repetae and Amber, while great pieces of work by themselves, simply don't have the balls that LP5 has. And so in my mind it currently sits as the summit of two methodical sides of a mountain. After a day.

Next to the rest of music, it's some of the most psychotic, intelligent stuff there is.

And when compared head to head to another certain IDM flagship, Boards of Canada aren't even that good.

- Seginustemple

Top tracks - Arch Carrier, Rae, Drane2



>>> Link <<<

hello, my name is luke. i hope you're all doing wonderful





Mythematica - Mythematica
Genre: Electronic / Ambient / Psytrance
Year: 2009

There is a huge genre of ambient-y electronic music that is absolutely impossible to define with words. I find that it's easiest to say "it sounds like Boards of Canada", even if it sounds absolutely fucking nothing like Boards of Canada. Hell, Boards of Canada aren't even that good -- sorry Seg -- but at least people know what the hell you're talking about. I was just peeking around and found the term "neo-ambient". Neo-Ambient? Really? What does this even mean?

90% of the albums that fit the "fuck it, it sounds like Boards of Canada" label are decent albums that I'll never listen to again. They're usually good for background music but not for repetitive listening. Every once in a while, though, I'll find something absolutely amazing that just clicks on the first listen. I have no idea what it is but it's just musically interesting and keeps bringing me back for more.

Mythematica doesn't really sound like Boards of Canada at all, but fucked if I know how to pigeonhole them. Sometimes they've got beautiful soundscapes, sometimes they're playing some funky jazz, sometimes they can be pigeonholed into the psytrance genre, and sometimes they probably sound something like what a generic Boards of Canada fan would like. I don't fucking know. But it's really good, one of the best electronic albums I've heard all year.

buy

try