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)