Listenable – Zola Jesus, the low-fi band that doesn’t exist
Posted by Mat | Filed under Music
“Zola Jesus didn’t need to clean up to stand apart from the Lo-fi horde– they already had Nika Danilova’s voice”
In the very first sentence of their review of Zola Jesus’ new EP Stridulum, Pitchfork presents the reader with a clear image of the music – great female vocals and Lo-fi sound. The expectations are set – early Liz Phair, or maybe the garage sounds of No Age or Vivian girls.
Nope, no Lo-fi here.
Buzzing guitars, scratchy vocals, pervasive noise, and other Lo-fi staples have been supplanted by dron, martial percussion, and a sole, powerful and echoing, voice. This is downright goth.
A look over at Zola Jesus’ site confirms the thought:
What are your musical influences? – Singers with big voices, like Diamanda Galas and Tina Turner. Divas. Film scores from the ’70s and ’80s. Industrial and power electronics. BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Opera, Philip K. Dick.
Bizarre female vocalist? Really avant garde electronic music? Dystopian science fiction?
Congrats to you, Zola Christ, you’ve managed to break the vicious cycle – you’re beyond the scene and have a much more relevant genre tag. I have found my post-goth figure to rally behind.
Tags: elitism, industrial, listenable, low-fi, post-goth, scene, zola jesus
Listenable – White Hinterland: Kairos – underwater ice music
Posted by Mat | Filed under Music
It’s my new sub-genre: underwater ice music.
Imagine Superman’s Fortress of Solitude or the Ice Queen’s Palace. Now put it in an underwater ice cave. What music would be played there? Sonically it would be defined by notes that hang in the could air, voices and string plucks echo off of icy walls, and beats that reverberate throughout the structure and then dissipate into the surrounding waters.
Historically, Underwater Ice music has it’s deepest roots in the following two sounds:
His Name is Alive – Livonia | Home Is In Your Head
Quite possibly one of the most unsung bands from 4AD’s heyday, His Name is Alive probably suffered from being between the Cocteau Twins and Pixies eras.
Consisting on a wild mix of tapes spliced and edited, His Name is Alive’s first two albums are lush, but schizophrenic, soundscapes in which single guitar strings ring louder than the pulse of the drums, and the vocals hum out of some unseen space. If the Grudge has a soft spot and a love of avant garde music, it would be a fan.
Bjork – Vespertine
The follow up to 90s defining album, Homogenic, Vespertine is often the overlooked album between the “big deal” disc and the one that was featured in the ‘04 Sydney Olympics.
Vespertine does away with the austere cyber future ascetics of Homogenic, and marries the artificial with the organic. Drum machines sputter and drift while breathy vocals fill the remaining space. For some reason or another, it’s considered a sensual album – perhaps it’s some sort of neo-primitive sensuality, but there’s nothing decidedly warm about the album, instead it’s just raw and overpowering, like windchill.
White Hinterland – Kairos
Is there any other band name more closely tied to the notion of Underwater Ice music than White Hinterland? If there is, it’s most probably some Norwegian Black Metal band.
Digression aside, Kairos is available for pre-oder – a deal that comes with a full album rip (all at 320 bps).
Kairos begins with the previously discussed Icarus, which serves more to set the listener up for a softer, more layer and ethereal, sound. The next track, Moon Jam, dispels this notion entirely.
Kairos continues on with thuds, plucks, and echo – as per it underwater ice roots, but adds a bit of trip-hop thematics, vocally and in terms of beat structure. It’s a major departure from White Hinterlands previous album Phylactery Factory, which was far too deep into the “Feist-y singing lady” genre to break out. On the other hand, Kairos boldly moves my newly invented genre into the 10’s. Maybe in another decade or so we’ll find another artist to lump into the subgenre.
Tags: bjork, his name is alive, listenable, underwater ice music, white hinterland
Listenable – L.A.’s post-goth looking glass
Posted by Mat | Filed under Music
Apparently, somewhere between the Highland and Havenhurst exits, I crossed through the looking glass.
Perhaps I’ve fallen prey to a very grassroots, viral marketing scheme for a new Jack Sparrow + the guy that boned Planet of the Apes flick. Or, maybe I shouldn’t have given Jerry O’Connell a buck when I saw him outside of 7-11.
All I know is that I’m in a world in which Los Angeles post-goth duo, She Wants Revenge exists, but doesn’t suck. Maybe suck is a bit strong of a word. How about ‘but doesn’t bring anything new to the table.’
They also have a new name – The Delta Mirror.
Whereas in my side of the looking glass, I had Bauhaus rips and songs about jilling and popsickles, The Delta Mirror Brings depth (rabbit hole deep). Yes, we get the post-goth sounds – brooding music and properly laid beats, but we also get piano, vocal textures, and fluttering IDM touches.
Instead of a weak Blade Runner concept album, there are the Vangelis-like flows of electronics that only M83 seem to be able to pull off.
Most importantly, we get the droning and flawed voice, but it has a sense of emotion that leaks into the rest of the layer tracks, rather than just talking over them.
Really, instead of traveling through the looking glass, it would seem that I was lucky enough to have instead discovered the long hidden, secret love child of Idioteque and Atmosphere. While they might never be cooler than their parents, as long as they don’t grow up to be accountants, their pedigree is secure.
The Delta Mirror have an album out this month along with a residency at The Echo, in Los Angeles – I plan to give them money, you should too
Tags: listenable, los angeles, M83, post-goth, scene, she wants revenge, the delta mirror
Is it too late for a best of 2009 list?
Posted by Mat | Filed under Music
Blame a lack of time or inability to make decisions on blog layout, but it’s February and the obligatory end of year recap has yet to be posted.
As a music blog, that makes you an utter failure. So, in order to make up for the grievous oversight, below are three different lists, recapping 2009.
Top 5 Most Notable Artists/Albums
5. Pictureplane – Dark Rift
| House beats and the cutup style of early, culture jamming, style industrial. This is what new electronic music should sound like – Dark, plodding, and deliberate. |
4. Fever Ray – self titled
| The Knife redux (even the steel drum sound comes back), Fever Ray took the feel of the Live Deep Cuts album and applied to the new songs and textures. |
3. Best Coast – Best Coast / When I’m With You
| Probably the most accessible of the lowfi, garage sound, Beast Coast are like running through sprinklers with all your mustachioed friends. |
2. The XX – self titled
| Music school youngsters, they’re either the dubstep Slowdive or the anti-Raveonettes. I’ll punch you if you call them “The double exes.” |
1. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion / Fall be Kind
| There are no words left on the internet to discuss these albums. |
Top 5 Most Listenable Artists/Albums
5. White Lies To – Lose My Life…
| Interpol suits, teenage lyrics about love and death, drama; goth as fuck with a new coat of paint. Apparently, they’re huge in UK. |
4. Boxer Rebellion – Union
| Apparently the internet didn’t get the importance of a kick ass, a self released album that held the top the iTunes charts, beating out some Grammy winnings bands. |
3. The Pains of Being Pure At Heart – self titled
| People are constantly trying to figure out who The Pains of Being Pure AT Heart sound like – actually, they’re just the synthesis of all things fun about music. |
2. The Raveonettes – In and Out of Control
| Leading the way for the 60’s style, Spector-esque bands, the In and Out of Control is easily the best album of the year to play while rocking out or being convicted of a felony. |
1. Asobi Seksu – Hush
| Spoiler: it doesn’t sound like Citrus. Drop the expectations and enjoy a more textured and fluid album with noisy break downs, sweet lulls, and infinite playability. |
Top 5 Near-Win Artists/Albums
5 That almost made it onto one of the lists above
5. We Were Promised Jetpacks – These Four Walls
| You have big ass guitars and yelling; dudes should love you. You have Scottish brogues; chicks should love you. What happened? |
4. The Horrors – Primary Colours | A Place to Bury Strangers – Exploding Head
| What’s up post-punk + psychedelic bands of 09 – you brought a good game, but you lacked the oomph to make your albums memorable. |
3. Washed Out – Life of Leisure EP | Millionyoung – Sunndreamm EP
| These are the best of the “Chillwave” crop. Please, for 2010 bring some consistency to your albums – I really do want to enjoy every song. |
2. The Big Pink – A Brief History of Love
| Big ballin’, bombastic Britts. Velvet and Dominoes brought the bravado, but the second half of the album falls apart into moments, instead of songs. |
1. Editors – In This Light and on This Evening
| Oh Editors, what happened to you being the post-punk revival band that no one paid any mind, but were more consistent than Interpol? Oh yes, these words happened: You ran with the dead today, with the moles from the C.I.A. Ouch guys, ouch. |
Tags: 2009, Best of, listenable, near-win, notable
