Your friend and mine, Vivek Shraya is releasing "If We're Not Talking" as a single from his album of the same name, with some producers gently mutating the song into some banging club mixes. They might start off slow, but they evolve into the kind of dance songs you might expect a kaleidoscopic montage to go with.
Computerization a.k.a. Derek is a one man band from Brooklyn akin to the likes of Figurine. This comparison is particularly strong on "1Point14Me" where the artist's friend Ashley does a fantastic job of imitating Meredith Figurine. The rest of the self-titled album realizes just how low-fi an electronica project can be. Aside from the opening track there is no vocoder within earshot, instead there's an off kilter warbling whisper of sometimes too intimate lyrics. Some songs come out as straight up awkward like "MyBody" which sounds like a rejected carnie's struggle with narcissism or "Fukuwinicu" which you can decipher by looking at for a little while. It's not as eccentric and self indulgent as early Panther and Treasure Mammal releases, if you can get past the voice, there's some nice melodies and analog keyboard sounds. That opening track is particularly sweet. Check it out.
Tin Can Telephone is a band/project out of London, UK they create catchy little guitar tunes with plenty of hand percussion. You can download more songs at their Myspace.
I've known about HEALTH for a while now and that their music is pretty raw and edgy, but outside of their remixes I'd not heard that much of them. Recently I listened to both their original album and their HEALTH//DISCO albums and I have to say that while the original album is certainly interesting and has a cool groove occasionally I much prefer the remix CD. It seems that with punk and electro trying to find new ways of merging organically, the Health songs are perfect for attaching those electro beats and synths to. Seeing as it doesn't get much more raw or punky than Health.
I was fortunate enough to have received a message from Kyle the leader of the Secret Life of Sopfia, who found my page through playing with A Faulty Chromosome and looking up what blogs had written about them. He was also kind enough to compliment my cartoons, which you should also check out.
My appreciation for the Notwist stems out of my quest during my freshman year of college to find as many artists that were comparable to the Postal Service as possible. You might say that that quest continues to this day. Anyway, along the course of this quest I found such artists as Styrofoam, Lali Puna, Ms. John Soda, Console, and of course the Notwist. I remember being compelled to purchase their album “Neon Golden” along with a copy of The Faint’s “Wet From Birth” when I found it in a For me, it doesn’t seem like that long since the Notwist released an album because I discovered them in 2004, and their co-album with Themselves under the name “13 + God” was released in 2005. Also the same time I’m reviewing their new album “The Devil, You + Me” I am also listening to their earlier records “12” and “Shrink” which are also excellent. You wouldn’t think it, but The Notwist were forged in the fires of metal and grunge in the late 80’s. Their early work is especially interesting for singer Marcus Acher’s gentle croons bumping against waves of guitar rock riffery.
The new album “The Devil, You + Me” at times hearkens back to that guitar driven sound, like on album opener “Good Lies” and “Alphabet”, but the distinct electro-symphonic style of Neon Golden is more prevalent here, and expanded upon. It’s hard to pick favorites at this point, but the tracks that are really speaking to me are “Boneless” and “Gone Gone Gone”. Overall, this is the experimental German band’s most fluid release to date, there are some glitchy adventures to be had here, but the best the album has to offer are the smooth melodic numbers enhanced by acoustic guitar and violin and of course Marcus Acher’s gentle voice imbibing us with pensive optimism. With each release the band gains more depth and produces new and interesting sounds, I’ve only listened to the new album a few times, but I think it’s their most satisfying and fluid release to date.
The Notwist – One With The Freaks (Neon Golden)
Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails has released a new album hot on the heels of his instrumental anthology "Ghosts". I'd heard something about the instrumental album and listened to a few tracks, but an over saturation of meandering instrumentals led me to not listen to the albums as a whole yet, and I like ambient industrial music. So when I heard that he was releasing a new album for free I had to check out this more digestible bit of free music. It seems that ever since Radiohead released "In Rainbows" for free, Trent has not only aggressively adopted this new music business plan, he has aggressively pursued new avenues and ways to push it's envelope. Now he has released Saul William's "The Rise and Fall of Niggy Tardust", NIN's "Ghosts" and now NIN's "The Slip" all for free. Out of all these releases it is certain that "The Slip" will be getting the most listens with it's short running time and sound that will be familiar to both new and old NIN fans.
Well, it's about time! The Faint announced that their 5th studio album will be released August 5th not on Saddle Creek, but on their own label Blank.wav. Pretty exciting. Likewise, Conor Oberst is releasing his next album on Merge records under his own name. Times they are a changin'.
Here it is, the final installment of Wesley the Robot for this season. It's been a good run this season and he might pop up somewhere this summer, who knows! Again I apologize for not posting a whole lot, finals and papers routinely kick my ass. After this Thursday I promise to start posting regularly again, I have so many bands to review. This summer is going to be awesome. Like usual here are some songs that I've been enjoying.
Usually I am not one for pretty boy/guitarist/songwriters, or let me put it this way; in my opinion Dave Mathews Band and Jack Johnson belong in a purgatory equal to that of their middle of the road jam band meanderings. Now that that's off my chest let me just state that Findlay Brown is an amazing musician and songwriter who just happens to be a young man who plays the acoustic guitar. His music taps into the same vein as Jose Gonzales with thoughtful delivery and some careful experimentation with timeless pop. I have a feeling he could sing me the phone book and I would end up singing numbers walking to class. If you're looking for acoustic guitar music with actual substance versus a lure for that drunken sorority girl to go to your room, Findlay Brown delivers.
During my time in a state of academia comatosis it completely passed over me that Microfilm, my favorite Chicago based electronica act, remixed Radiohead's Nude. You can go listen to it and vote for them here. In the meantime, enjoy their cover of the Magnetic Field's "The Desperate Things You Made Me Do". Also, nice new promotional photography guys.
I apologize for the lack of posts in the month of April, due to some academic/social activities the blog was put way on the back burner, but guess what? I'm back. Also, a new Wesley cartoon. Could life be any sweeter? Well, if school was over and the summer was here... all in good time.
