Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Hot Chip, DJ Kicks (!K7)


Who: Wildly popular UK electro-poppers eschew their keyboards and drum machines to play DJ on the latest installment of this veritable mix institution.

What: The band selects a quirky collection of spacey underground gems (Grovesnor's "Nitemoves") and perennial party jams (Young Leek's "Jiggle It").

Made for:
Dance-crazy indie kids decked out in day-glo in search of exciting new ways to get their shake on; Hot Chip fans ready to dig deeper into their heroes' influences.

Battles, Mirrored (Warp)



Who: Respected math-rock super-group add vocals to their chop-heavy mix of industrialized guitar histrionics.

What: A man-machine hybrid of Krautrock precision powered by the muscle of hardcore with robot vocals and a degree in computer programming. Amazing, and a little bit scary.

Made for: The younger siblings of Tool fans looking for their own heroes; rock stalwarts hungry for bands that can really play; sci-fi freaks who wish Daft Punk played guitars.

Miracle Fortress, Five Roses (Secret City)


Who: Montreal's Graham Van Pelt explores the furthest reaches of post-pop paradise, invoking influences ranging from My Bloody Valentine to Animal Collective.

What: Dreamy and luxurious landscapes of meticulously crafted bedroom symphonies that would make Brian Wilson proud.

Made for:
Pop heads still obsessed with Wilson's Smile album in need of an update; anyone that misses the music Seth Cohen moped around to on The O.C.

(Originally published on Metromix.com)

Friday, May 18, 2007

Au Revoir Simone, The Bird of Music (Our Secret Record Company)


Dream-pop girl group revel in the beauty of sadness

On The Bird of Music, the three willowy women that comprise Brooklyn synth-pop trio Au Revoir Simone conjure a dreamy, quixotic sound reminiscent of the melancholy ambiance of Sofia Coppola's directorial debut The Virgin Suicides. Coppola's hazy, romantic vision of the 1970s was scored with a quirky cross-section of the decade's most melodically morose hits, like 10cc's "I'm Not in Love," alongside the swirling, synthesized sounds of French duo Air. Au Revoir Simone's Heather D'Angelo, Erika Forster and Annie Hart use only three keyboards and a beat-box, and write wistful, delicate songs rich with a similar nostalgia and heartbreak.

They like mixing moods, with the album opening on the downbeat but hopeful "The Lucky One," featuring child-like vocal harmonies invocative of the Carpenters singing with the Polyphonic Spree. "Sad Song" juxtaposes an uplifting, bouncy rhythm reminiscent of Stereolab against teary-eyed lines like "Play me a sad song/because that's what I want to hear/I want you to make me cry."

The ladies' quiet, comforting voices almost drown in the oceans of thick analog waves and cascading pianos that ebb and flow through "A Violent Yet Flammable World." They crank up the BPMs with a jumpy new wave tempo on the celebratory skip of "Night Majestic," before closing with the string-laden grandeur of "The Way to There."

The Bird of Music is a cinematic collection of mood-driven tone poems for your own real-life soundtrack, with Au Revoir Simone serving as the house band whenever you feel like checking out and indulging in just how good sadness can feel (and sound). With or without Coppola behind the camera.

(Originally published on Metromix.com)

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Patrick Wolf, The Magic Position (Low Altitude)



Star-kissed prodigy catches the spirit and goes for the heart


The Magic Position is the work of an artist as touching as he is touched.

Blessed with prodigious artistic talents that belie his relative youth and life experience, Patrick Wolf does the touching here. But Wolf's blessings can also be a curse, as in the way that his flamboyant tendencies and musical predilections made him a target for schoolyard bullies as a kid.

Now 23, the U.K.–born Wolf has channeled those feelings of frustration and the need to love and be loved into his third full-length album, The Magic Position, a brilliantly conceived collection of little epics, each an earnest poem dedicated to the freedom to fly your inner freak flag as high as possible. When he sings, "And I know how you've hurt/Been dragged through the dirt/But come on/Get back up/It's time to live," over a sea of soaring violins during the album's title song, it's obviously a personal observation.

His intense, dramatic vocals are an ideal foil for the sprawling nature of his songs, coming across like the overachieving lovechild of Morrissey and ambient pioneer David Sylvian. Juxtaposing symphonic grandeur with subtle electronic flourishes, Wolf creates a singular sound that's both intimate and cinematic.

Show-stopping ballads like the piano-powered "Magpies" showcase Wolf's passionate delivery against the time-hewn rasp of the legendary Marianne Faithfull, whose presence brings a substantial weight to the proceedings. From dreamy torch songs of new love ("Enchanted") to bass-heavy dance-floor anthems of heartbreak ("Bluebells"), this promising young artist is proud to wear his heart on his sleeve and sing of the joy and pain that heart has to endure.

(Originally published on Metromix.com)

Monday, May 07, 2007

New Music Tuesday: Maximo Park, Our Earthly Pleasures (Warp)

With a majority of their contemporaries suffering from varying degrees of sophomore slumping, Our Earthly Pleasures is Maxïmo Park's chance to make a move for pole position in the scene. And they've come prepared with a not-so-secret weapon: singer Paul Smith, who delivers wry witticisms in a dramatic rolling brogue that bring his band's urgent bursts of angularity to life.

Coming across like a hopped-up Jarvis Cocker channeling Morrissey, Smith's singular persona lifted the band's debut album, A Certain Trigger, above the increasingly crowded fray of the U.K.'s twitchy, guitar-driven indie bands. Best exemplified on songs like "Apply Some Pressure," Maxïmo Park's idiosyncratic charisma and left-field song arrangements showed much promise.

Replacing A Certain Trigger producer Paul Epworth (Bloc Party, the Futureheads) with studio vet Gil Norton (best known for his work on the Pixies' legendary Doolittle album), Maxïmo Park's characteristic quirkiness has been refined to a more straightforward, guitar-rock gloss. Smith still sings about the volatile chemistry between girls and boys in his own inimitable style, tossing off lines like "Last night did we go too far/is that why your nose is bleeding?" (from "Nosebleed") with casual aplomb.

They still have a way with melody and manipulating whiplash tempo changes, but their approach is much more mature and controlled. That works swimmingly both on upbeat rockers like "Girls Who Play Guitars" and the melancholy "Books From Boxes," which plays like R.E.M. covering the Smiths.

While the album starts to lose a little steam towards the end, Our Earthly Pleasures has already made a distinctive point. Its ambitions reach far beyond the casual indie fan looking for easily digestible hits, and for that alone should be applauded. The fact that they pull off a couple of surefire hits anyway makes it even more laudable.

(originally published at Metromix.com)

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Incoming: St. Vincent & John Vanderslice at Largo, Thursday May 10

Annie Clark comes from a mob background. As a member of two sprawling collectives (Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens’ touring band), she’s been a lone voice amid large ensemble casts. But when Clark transforms into St. Vincent, she sheds the multicolored robes and cheerleader outfits of those other acts to step forward and reveal her own lovely persona, and it’s quite a sight to behold. Her debut, Marry Me (on Beggars Banquet, due in July), is rife with gorgeous arrangements that invoke similarly expansive artists such as Kate Bush and Tori Amos at their most inspired, all performed with an uplifting, childlike glee. She supports John Vanderslice, late of ’90s alt-rockers MK Ultra, who has forged a stellar live rep with his clever troubadour tendencies, four-tracked daydreams and wry wordplay. Bill Gates, beware...

(Originally published in the LA Weekly, 5/07)