Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Weekly Whiskey Episode 36
Drum roll, please...
(Note: I was having a bear of a time getting blip.tv to work last night, so if the video is still screwed up, I'll fix it when I get home from work today)
Monday, December 19, 2011
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Best Of 2011 Nominees & Review Links
Look for a video AND a text post officially ranking these albums in a few days. For now, though, here's the alphabetical list of nominees and links to my reviews of each.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Weekly Whiskey Episode 35
Apologies for the lateness of this post. Technically I did have this posted to blip.tv last night but didn't have time to put it here, too. Ah, holidays...and local experimental music shows that keep me out late on work nights!
Monday, December 12, 2011
Blackout Beach- Fuck Death
Whether or not you're as a dedicated
fan of his as I am, I'm no longer sure if metrics of “good” or
“bad” apply to Carey Mercer's solo project, Blackout Beach. Like
Scott Walker's modern music, it has few precedents or points of
comparison and so it's hard to tell how good or not it is. You like
it because it's successful at what it's trying or because you find it
interesting, and you sure aren't going to put it on at a party.
Anyway, I don't think it's possible to like Blackout Beach on an
album-by-album basis; by now, you're either all in or all out, and
Fuck Death will do nothing to
change anyone's mind.
Mercer's
last two releases, Frog Eyes's Paul's Tomb: A Triumph
and Blackout Beach's Skin Of Evil,
felt like they belonged in the same headspace even if they sounded
little alike. The same dark, intense atmosphere permeated both, many
of the same characters haunted both records, and they were made
around the same period of time. Naturally, Fuck Death has
much more in common with Skin Of Evil,
though it does feels of-a-piece with both albums.
Still,
this is not Skin Of Evil Part 2 even
if the constituent parts sound similar. Mercer is pushing himself to
his greatest extremes yet on Fuck Death:
at more than 12 minutes, 'Drowning Pigs' is the longest track he's
ever made. Similarly, there are very few traditional guitar sounds on
Fuck Death as Mercer
decided to focus on synthesizers and atmospherics. Perhaps he was
inspired by Spencer Krug's Moonface release from earlier this year,
Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I'd Hoped,
where Krug limited himself to
primitive organs and drum machines. Or maybe the influence was the
other way around. But I digress.
In a
press release for Fuck Death,
Mercer took a few swipes at the chillwave scene in between explaining
that the record focuses on themes of war, beauty, and cowardice. All
of this, somehow, makes sense to me after listening to this album off
and on for a few weeks. One could make the argument that Blackout
Beach is the opposite of chillwave, forcing the listener into
discomforting thoughts and environments, like a Lars Von Trier film.
After all, there are no hooks or melodies, or anyway, no intentional
ones. The way 'Be Forewarned, The Night Has Come' peaks at the end
is strangely addictive to these ears, though it's worth noting I
genuinely like the No New York
compilation, so perhaps I'm skewed as to what is catchy and
addictive. As for the war, beauty, and cowardice...I assure you, it's
there in the lyrics and the sounds, you just have to keep working at
it.
And
you'll have to trust me that the work is worth it, because despite
the extremes that it goes to, Fuck Death is
perhaps the most successful Blackout Beach album yet. Which is my way
of saying, it's perhaps the best
Blackout Beach album yet. The lengthy, demanding 'Drowning Pigs'
seems like pretentious, slapped together dreck until you've heard it
a few times with patience in tow. To be honest, it has most of the
weakest moments of Fuck Death
and lacks the visionary progression of previous Mercer epics, though
it still manages to be interesting and also has, yes, some of the
album's strongest moments. The bit around the 8:00 mark when he's
singing over himself made me realize just how pretty and traditional
his voice can sound when he wants it to.
Fuck Death
is desolate, lonely music and by extension, it only makes sense when
heard on headphones or perhaps curled up in front of the record
player with a cigarette and some wine. If any of the above sounds at
all compelling, this is the album for you. If you don't always
qualify music in terms of 'good' or 'bad', but how 'interesting' or
'successful' it is, Fuck Death
may be for you, too.
5 Successful Stars Out Of 5
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Atlas Sound- Parallax
Though the album begins with the
ringing sound of feedback, Parallax
is actually the most accessible and pop oriented release of Bradford
Cox's career. However, this doesn't mean it's an easy or mainstream
record; it's all a matter of degrees. After all, the last Deerhunter
album was the most accessible and pop oriented thing that group has
released to date but it's still weirder and more experimental than
anything you'd hear on modern rock radio. In the same way, Parallax
may lack the abrasive/off-putting elements of Cox's past work but it
still manages to be a meaty and eccentric record, moving from classic
rock/retro influenced pop songs to dreamy/spacey daydreams with
surprising ease and coherency.
As
de-facto leader of Deerhunter and solo artist under the Atlas Sound
moniker, Cox has quietly become one of the finest songwriters of his
generation. A track like 'Angel Is Broken' would be the clear
highlight of most other artists' careers but it wouldn't even make my
top ten favorites by him. While even I still primarily think of him
as the guy who uses lots of effects pedals and always has a druggy
bent to his music, the reality is that underneath all that adornment,
his songs (at least most of them) boast memorable hooks and affecting
lyrics. True, like all of Atlas Sound's recordings, Parallax
sounds best on a pair of
headphones but this doesn't stop it from also being an album that
sounds great in the car or on a stereo. 'Te Amo' is packed with
detailed touches that are lost without said headphone listening
though it still sports a strong enough hook to trap you on first
listen when heard out loud.
After
I was left a little cold by Logos,
I began to wonder if Cox would continue getting more—for lack of a
better term—accessible in his two projects. And I don't mean
“accessible” in a good way. True, the main failing of Logos
was its lack of focus and the spotlight stealing guests, but it also
didn't help that the songs were sometimes too stripped down for their
own good. It gave one the impression Cox still wasn't sure what the
Atlas Sound project would be. I began to think of it as his tinkering
space for where he wanted to take Deerhunter. Parallax,
then, represents both a return to spacier/dreamier pastures as well
as finally nailing down why Atlas Sound was a separate affair from
Deerhunter.
Whereas
Deerhunter is more about a full rock band approach, stopping off to
try out shoegazer, garage rock, and psych-pop, Atlas Sound as
codified on Parallax
toes the line between full band, retro influenced pop/rock songs like
the title track and 'Mona Lisa' and the
staying-in-bed-and-spending-the-day-alone spacey ambient/pop of Atlas
Sound's first album. Not that they're always separated. It
effectively mixes the two styles, too: the aforementioned 'Te Amo'
may be one of the poppiest tracks but there's also all sorts of
little flourishes and electronic sounds in the background.
Indeed,
the last half of Parallax
spends more time drifting off into the ether than it does rocking
out, giving the record a sense of progression that makes it a more
cohesive listen than the scattershot Logos.
The two part finale, 'Quark', is actually more
experimental than anything on even Let The Blind Lead Those
Who See But Cannot Feel, the
first part a seven minute collage of clattering percussion, spacey
looped sounds, and, near the end, some pretty xylophone lines. The
shorter second part, meanwhile, blooms beautifully with the sort of
bright, gleaming acoustic guitar loops he often uses when playing
live as Atlas Sound (check
out this performance to see what I mean).
Parallax
isn't as special to me as the first album yet I would say that it's a
more complete album, succeeding where Logos
nearly-failed despite having a wider variety of sounds. It's tempting
to call it his most accomplished work to date, but perhaps a better
way to think of it is that it's his most finessed and committed work
to date. If Atlas Sound always sounded like a sideproject with songs
leftover from Deerhunter recording sessions, made on a whim alone by
Cox, this should be the record that proves he is putting his all into
Atlas Sound, too.
5 Poorly Drawn Stars Out Of 5
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