Mitch’s Weekly Roundup No. 1

Hey everybody, I’m Mitch, the hopeless plebeian who likes OK Computer.  You may know me as Ebola Zaire or carcinoZaire or whatever the hell other nickname I’ve used on various internet locales.

If you’d have told me at the beginning of the year that I’d be embarking on this project, I’d have been more than a little skeptical.  While I did think of my tastes as mature (they weren’t, past Mitchell liked Muse) I didn’t listen to what could be considered a “variety” of music at all.  However, really starting this year, I’ve made a conscious effort to dive into more and more music, and hopefully I’m pretty well equipped to handle this.

This is some of the music I’ve been listening to in the past week.  Remember that you can view our rating scale by hitting the “About” button on the sidebar!

6   Whirr Distressor [EP] (2010)

Genre: Shoegaze

I didn’t actually pick this up in the last seven days (the horror) but it was very recent and I’ve been hitting it hard enough that I think it warrants a spot at the top of this week’s roundup.  I went into this album with no expectations; I hadn’t listened to a single track, and I only knew the genre.  The opening track was just weird enough (featuring a short repeated riff and a spoken word bit) to turn me off a tad.  However, the remaining 23~ minutes of this EP were gorgeous, swirling soundscapes and some of the best vocals I’ve heard in shoegaze.

Those familiar with the indie scene know that it’s sort of in vogue to incorporate elements of shoegaze into their music; artists like The Horrors, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Deerhunter, M83, etc. have all played with shoegazing tropes (with varying degrees of success) but have mostly stayed towards a lighter, poppy sound.  That’s almost the inverse of what Whirr does; Distressor builds huge and drowning walls of sound (somewhat similar to Jesu, though not nearly as droning or metal-influenced).  The vocal effects and layering is somewhat similar to My Bloody Valentine (whose influence is notable on this EP), but the delivery is much closer to dream pop aesthetics.

The most obvious critique is that all of the songs generally stay the same and seldom leave the band’s comfort zone; however, I found myself drawn so into the EP’s texture and aesthetic that this failed to detract from it.  I hope that they further develop their sound and am really looking forward to a near-future debut LP.

5   the pillows FLCL Original Sound Track No. 3 (2005)

Genre: Alternative Rock

The official anime of !, now in soundtrack form!

Strictly speaking this is a compilation album (and not original); I think only two songs were composed for FLCL (“I Think I Can” and “Ride on Shooting Star”).  Despite my general avoidance of compilation albums, I really couldn’t pass up such a great selection of tunes that I knew from the anime.

As an album, this is not likely to be something that I return to often; however, while listening to it, I couldn’t help but be reminded of some great moments from the show and I think that it’s a testament to the music’s fittingness that it was able to evoke that characteristic FLCL feel.  Plus, it’s great workout music.

Rather annoyingly, the title of the album does insert a space into “soundtrack.”

5   Pinkshinyultrablast Happy Songs for Happy Zombies
     [EP] (2009)

Genre: Shoegaze

I hate it when the album title is too long to fit into one line.

Though unlikely to impress anyone with its length (clocking in at just under 14 minutes) this is a really solid shoegaze EP.  Fun fact: Pinkshinyultrablast are from Russia!  I guess even godless communists are capable of writing nostalgic tunes that capture the sound of early shoegaze albums.

The songs here are most reminiscent (to me) of The Jesus and Mary Chain and pre-Loveless My Bloody Valentine; “Deerland” in particular sounds like it would fit right in on You Made Me Realise or Psychocandy.  I am also really digging the vocals here; I can’t tell if Luba (the lead singer) is singing in English or Russian, but who cares about lyrics in this genre anyway; it’s the sound that matters.  They remind me a fair bit of the female vocals on LSD and the Search For God, which in turn reminded me somewhat of the Cocteau Twin’s Elizabeth Fraser (but don’t take that comparison very far, because Fraser is far more dynamic).

P.S.: In case you were on the fence about this one, the last song is titled “Ode to Godzilla.” That should be enough to convince you to listen.

4   Have a Nice Life Time of Land [EP] (2010)

Genre: Doom Metal (?)

Definitely doomy, not so metallic though.

This feels like a comfortable step from Deathconsciousness (Have a Nice Life’s 2008 debut LP); musically there’s not much extrapolation here, although the production is a bit nicer.  Dan’s vocals are not as reverbed as they are on Deathconsciousness, so they end up reminding me a lot of Giles Corey (his 2011 solo LP).  The songwriting is kind of rough and uneven (also like Giles Corey); “The Icon and the Axe,” especially, really fails to evoke any feelings and the yelling/drop thing that happens about midway through feels kind of silly and forced.  However, I still enjoyed this, even if just for “Woe Unto Us” which sounds like a pleasant combination of “Bloodhail” and “Deep, Deep” (two of my favorite tracks from Deathconsciousness).

2   Lovesliescrushing Bloweyelashwish (1993)

Genre: Ambient, Shoegaze

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I don’t think this album has melodies, just loads of feedback and ethereal “Oooooooohhhhhhh“s.  It’s not strictly bad in that nothing seemed like it was actively hurting my ears, but there was nothing for me here beyond some nice textures that I wish had been developed into a coherent structure. Weirdly, I think the short, intermission-esque tracks are the strongest here, and the titular track is actually really nice.

Also, fuck this album, the second track is too short to scrobble.

Ryan’s Weekly Roundup No. 2

Howdy. Apologies for not posting this last week, but I’m lazy. That’s my excuse.

Also this only has 3 albums. Deal with it.

7   Janelle Monáe The ArchAndroid (2010)

Genre: Pop, Soul, etc.

One day a long, long time ago, I downloaded this album out of complete whim. I had no idea what it was or anything, it just seemed interesting. During the download, I decided to read about it a bit, and listen to a song or two to maybe get the feel of it. I was a bit skeptical after reading about it, it sounded weird and like I wouldn’t care for it too much. Then I went and listened to “Tightrope” and “Cold War”. At that point I made the horrible, horrible mistake of cancelling the download. I didn’t think I would like it. Thankfully, after this mistake, I showed the album to Zack. He loved it. And after a few weeks of him egging me on to listen to it I did. Holy shit.

I don’t even know what to say about this album. My first listen I was blown away just by “Suite II Overture”, the first track. One of the last things I expected was a really good instrumental piece to start off the album. The other last things I expected were the entire rest of the album.

What I expected was an above-average, radio-friendly pop album. I don’t think anything’s blown my expectations so much ever. EVERY song on this EIGHTEEN TRACK album is no less than great. There’s an incredible amount of variety in styles and genres, among the, if not the, most diverse albums that have ever graced my ears. Janelle Monáe’s voice seems like it can do whatever it wants to. Hearing her scream in “Come Alive (The War of the Roses)” or the high-pitched-ness on “Wondaland” or ANYTHING on the album is just an absolutely fantastic experience. The prouction is flawless. The instrumentation is another generic highly positive word. Everything comes together perfectly.

If I had to say any negative thing about this album, “Make the Bus” is too short. It should be like 5 minutes long. That’s about it. I literally can’t think of anything else this could improve upon.

Sorry for not actually talking about the music that much or anything but this is too good to say anything about for the most part and I’m a bad writer to begin with.

2   Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)

Genre: Hip hop

I’ve given this album a 1 before, as well as having said it was my least favorite album ever (which was a hasty response, it’s not even close. Wiz Khalifa’s Rolling Papers wins if you’re wondering). I felt like I was being way too hard on it, especially because so many people love this, so I decided to give it another spin.

It was a lot better than I remember it being. I guess can attribute this to the fact that I knew what was coming, and felt less offended listening to some of the tracks. It felt a lot shorter too, which is good, because this is the most insufferably long album I’ve ever listened to. It’s not the longest, but it just has absolutely no business being as long as it is. Songs drag on for an average of 5 minutes, sometimes longer, rarely shorter. And every time it seems like the song ran out of ideas halfway through. The verses just start getting really lame, and “guest stars” are added, so it seems, only to add time to the tracks instead of making them any better.

A lot of people praise this album’s production. I don’t see why. I’ll admit it is potentially above average, but I feel like there’s a bunch of very noticeable slip-ups that completely ruin it for me. The mixing is fantastic, but there’s nothing else that really impresses; especially since the songs are so bad to begin with.

I do quite like “Dark Fantasy” and “All of the Lights (Interlude)”. I guess it’s just not my thing overall, though.

5   Nosaj Thing Drift (2009)

Genre: Downtempo, glitch-hop

This is a cool album I picked up the other day at complete random. I didn’t know who Nosaj Thing was, never heard of him before in my life. What I got was a pleasant surprise.

This album is really nice, as well as being incredibly easy to listen to. All the songs are at least good, though nothing on here really strikes me as GREAT. Other than that though, I don’t really have much to say about this. It’s a good album, and really easy to pick up. I’d recommend it.

Mitch’s Weekly Roundup No. 3

Hope everybody’s having a good Thanksgiving. Mine’s average.

4   Janelle Monáe The ArchAndroid (2010)

Genre: Pop, Soul, etc.

Apparently this is some concept album or something but I just can’t really care about the lyrics that much, which is a shame because Monáe is a phenomenal singer and her prescence really dominates this album. I guess that they tell some story about a bridge robot or something but most of the songs just play as stories about love and war and good and evil. They’re dense with symbolism but I don’t know if they’re meaningful per se. This is fine though - I mean there’s a lot of music I listen to that doesn’t have really meaningful lyrics - I just think that the lyrical side of this album is really overstated.

If there’s one great thing I can say about this album, it’s that the song transitions are on point and this really does feel like a complete experience, rather than a collection of unrelated songs. This is hard to find in pop, which is mostly about how much radio play you can get. Production is also really great - there are no stupid, overblown, loud synths obscuring the melody here, and the instrumentation is pretty diverse, from 70’s-esque guitar solos to orchestral strings. It’s a unique atmosphere for the album, and I appreciate that.

Despite all this I just can’t really get into The ArchAndroid. There are a couple of really nice songs here (“Cold War, “Mushrooms and Roses”) but as a whole it doesn’t do anything except be nice songs. I think that it’s mainly that the songs aren’t all that different in mood from each other (with a few exceptions), so despite flowing like an album it doesn’t really feel like it’s going anywhere. It also doesn’t really do anything emotionally for me (possibly because of the previous point), which is pretty important to my enjoyment of the music.

Rather awkwardly I have to say that I highly recommend this album and that I really appreciate what it does from a production viewpoint, despite my lukewarm score. This stuff absolutely blows your Lady Gagas and Ke$has out of the water- it’s smart, it’s artsy, it’s ambitious, and it’s almost never overblown or cliche. It’s just not entirely my cup of tea.

3   M83 Before the Dawn Heals Us (2005)

Genre: Dream Pop, Electronica

The sole reason I really listened to this album is because I was curious about M83’s new album, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, but felt like I should find a better entry point for their material. Well, here we are.

So! M83 is this pretty popular indie outfit from our WACKY European friends, the French! You may know France for some of their popular exports, including: French Fries, French Onion Soup, French Toast, and French Guiana. I hear they also don’t use deodorant. That makes me want to avoid French people!

If I had to describe this album in one word, it would be “long.” The album itself clocks in at just under an hour; longer than average, but by no means unreasonable. It just seems like the songs themselves drag on a lot; there’s a lot of repetition of uninspired melodies or chords, and even some of the shorter tracks (“Fields, Shorelines, and Hunters”) feel like they stretch on for much longer than they should.

The aesthetic for this album is pretty diverse though; some of the early songs - “Don’t Save Us From the Flames” especially - are very synthy and energetic, and remind me somewhat of The Killers’ early work. Songs like “Can’t Stop” almost seem like a modern interpretation of 80’s power pop… albeit repetitive and aimless, like a lot of the other stuff here. There are also some really slow-moving tunes here, like the piano ballad-turns electronic “Safe” (which sounds eerily similar to some material on Deerhunter’s Microcastle; M83 definitely has some influence on that band); and snyth-scape “Farewell/Goodbye.” This is nice, but again the songwriting is a a bit weak and the album seems like it’s dragging continuously.

That being said there are some stand-out songs; “*” is a really great, chaotic noise piece that sounds like it doesn’t even belong on this album. It’s definitely my favorite here, despite its short length and almost interlude-like presentation - seriously, the only song I like is the one that isn’t long enough. On the other side of the spectrum, “Car Chase Terror!” is a standout song because of its status as my least favorite song. I think that it’s too good; the vocal samples (depicting a mother and daughter fleeing from a presumably abusive husband) legitimately unsettle me. Despite a soundscape that I actually rather enjoy, I can’t get past the uneasy state that the samples put me in.

I’m torn between a 2 and a 3 here, but “Car Chase Terror!” notwithstanding I don’t really dislike any of the tracks here - they just aren’t that good. I’m definitely less interested than before in checking out the rest of this band’s discography, though.

6   Battles Mirrored (2007)

Genre: Math Rock

Since Gloss Drop is one of my favorite albums this year, I was worried that the vocals on this album would sound really out of place with Battles’ chaotic, staccato-driven instrumentation. I was pleasantly surprised to see it work incredibly well here; lyrics exist, but for the most part all I was able to pick up without Google was “ooh-WAH-yah-WAH-hah-WHA” or some variation, and that totally congeals with the euphoric guitar twinklings and schizophrenic rhythm shifts. Every element is in its right place for this record.

I was also surprised to find that Mirrored was every bit as good as its successor, albeit in some different ways. It’s not quite as fun as Gloss Drop… which is kind of like saying something’s not as sweet as pure sugar (I’m not exaggerating when I say that literally every album I’ve ever heard can be described as “less fun than Gloss Drop”). This is still a fun album, but there’s more tension and conflict on the songs here; there’s something a little bit sinister floating beneath the surface on “Tonto” and “Tij” that doesn’t really make it to Gloss Drop. I also detect a greater sense of intensity here; Mirrored is less about ROCKING OUT \m/ and more concerned with itself and the structure of the songs; as a result there aren’t any tracks like “Ice Cream” or “My Machines” that settle into a nice pop groove. Weirdly, the tracks here are less structured yet more controlled, giving both of the Battles LP’s a unique flavor.