“Red Velvet Corridor” opens the Swans album “Soundtracks For The Blind,” which sent the band off for a ten year hiatus between album releases.
Swans greatest achievement is arguably their ability to develop and then transport the listener to environments that are so visceral you become part of them. These worlds are often not welcoming places and can involve some of the darker, sinister sides of humanity. This makes the group polarizing to listeners who find their subject matter uncomfortable to hear. But, for me, the craft required in their creations makes this band one of my favorites.
Red Velvet Corridor sets the scene for this album perfectly with its mechanical loops and drone textures, and a sound that sits somewhere between metal rubbing together and a human breathing. Its title reminds me of Twin Peaks, and so does the music with its off kilter and slightly disorientating atonal style. It doesn’t sit quite naturally on the ears, creating a surreal environment that leads you into the rest or the album:
“VOID FILL PRODUCT” Is the new abum by Datassette, who has stunned me for many years with his sound design and unique programming.
In his liner notes, he describes the process of making the album as “one-shot stereo recordings of hardware jams,” which were then refined into finished works. This tried and tested technique has been used effectively through the history of electronic music, right back to its experimental routes. It serves well Datassette’s natural talent for finding great melodies and interesting sounds.
“Nowhere” is a track reminiscent of one of my favorite albums “selected ambient works 85-92,” with its lo-fi recordings and stripped down instrumentation that play around with a single theme throughout its playtime. It’s a sound I love, and Datassette adds his own flair to it with a wonky bass melody, iconic of his compositional techniques. This makes ”Nowhere” a shoe in for my track of the week and an easy one to recommend to any fans of the genre:
Feelin’ Groovy is a classic that I’m pretty sure every one of my listeners has heard. I can’t remember the first time I heard it because it probably pre-dates my first memory. I grew up with the track as many people have, and over the past couple of weeks I’ve gone back to Simon & Garfunkels music and let their beautiful melodies and harmonies wash over me.
Listening to them in more detail, many of their songs come from a darker place than I remember. Stories from characters on the fringes of society, and feelings of loss and loneliness are prevalent in many of their tracks.
But even in more positive tracks, there’s always something sinister in them. It’s an overarching feeling, permeating a lot of pop music in the 60’s. The origins of this could be tied to the drug culture of the time period, or even the Vietnam war. Whatever the case, even the most uplifting tracks can have a sinister side and The 59th Street Bridge Song is a good example.
In its conclusion, the track seems to tilt to something manic as the harmonies and whistling fade out, leaving it in a different place than the opening. It leaves the track with a twist; an unsolvable riddle that keeps me listening to it to this day:
Sinister In A State Of Hope was the first track I heard from Loney Dear. Opening his album Loney Noir, the track sets the tone perfectly.
Most of his work has a downplayed and subtle approach. The instrumentation usually fades in and out of the track, developing so smoothly that it never tries to fight for your attention.
The introverted nature of the album may not be for some people, but if you can get into its mindset, there’s a lot to love. For me, it’s always been the instrumentation that has made me come back to Loney Dear’s work.
Mostly lead by acoustic guitar, and backed up by a massive variety of instrumentation; it is always beautifully recorded, with a care for intricacy.
Sinister In A State Of Hope is a great example of Loney Dear’s sound. Lush textures created by a large collection of different instrumentation bubble underneath the vocals and acoustic guitar. It creates a music that, although saccharin for some people, has stuck with me for many years:
I’ve been a fan of Peter Bjorn & John since first hearing the album “Writers Block“ over a decade ago. The album had come out several years before that, but somehow I’d managed to miss it. Their track “Young Folks“ had become so prevalent that its opening whistle had wormed its way into the subconscious of almost anyone who stood next to a radio.
I think my ignorance of “Young Folks“ really helped my enjoyment of this album, when I finally did hear it. Rather than being the seminal track that dwarfed the rest of the album, it was instead a catchy track in a collection of varied and exciting garage rock, trying to offer a wide gamut of different styles in the genre and somehow achieving each one of these lofty ambitions with fantastic results.
The track “Start To Melt” makes use of a tried and true sound of the rock genre, which I like to call the “indie pound.” Every instrument on the track plays on the beat at the same time, resulting in a pounding effect.
Its a sound that has been done by many “Indy” bands. A sound that continues to this day, popping up over and over again due to the intensity of the “attack and release” style of play it creates. Large transients barrage you with heightened emotion on a visceral, almost primal, level.
However when Peter Bjorn & John implement the technique on track “Start To Melt,” another level of complexity of emotion comes into play. The aggression is there, but there’s also a clashing mixture of romanticism, apathy and forlornness, created by employing a few different techniques.
It is in the aesthetics of the piece that this major stylistic change lies.
The lo-fi distortion on the guitar removes some of the punch that would be there on a cleaner signal. This more rounded off sound is also slightly thinner because of dilution by the number of instruments and layering used in the track. Further, it is all played organically, with more swing than usual.
This more drifting, rounded off sound sows seeds of doubt in what would usually be a single minded, focused technique. It gives the track a sponge-like, lingering thoughtfulness, which counterpoints the vocals, which are very defined, capturing a specific moment in time.
The moments the vocals describe are cryptic as to their subtext, but clearly have a huge emotional significance. In real time, the events described would be even shorter than the briefness of this track. But by extending the moment into the tracks length, it replicates the feeling of altered time, experienced in important events. The feeling where everything slows down and even the subtlest of moments can be remembered vividly.
And that’s what makes “Start To Melt” so great. It perfectly encapsulates a brief moment. Playing the track transports you there; not to the singer’s event but to your own. A moment that may have been fleeting, but at that time felt like it lasted forever.
Their album “Writers Block” deserves more attention than it gets. Over time I could see every track on it ending up as part of my Track Of The Week segment. “Young Folks” may be catchy downplayed Indy at its best, but it is only one of they many different styles they incorporate on the record, and all of them are done just as well. It results in a garage rock sounding record, with an emotional depth and proven creative talent that keeps it in my mind to this day:
Both Daniel Avery and Alessandro Cortini are highly respected in the electronic music world for their unique and experimental takes on different genre. They have come together to make an album that focuses heavily on sound design.
Large, slowly evolving soundscapes make up the majority of this album, with an emphasis on atmosphere over rhythm. Although large swaths of the album have a darker sound pallet, which is rich in distortion, its title track is certainly one of the more uplifting pieces.
The main focal point of “Illusion Of Time” is a looping, sequenced pattern that continues throughout. It’s supported by a deep bass line and a melody that uses the same sounds as the sequence, creating a variety in the piece.
But its the sound design underneath the surface that really makes the track for me. A large shimmer reverb and use of distortion creates vast rich pools of sound that sit low in the mix. They hint at something far grander than the lead composition displays:
Big Thief took quite a while for me to get into, but I’ve found their past two albums (both released last year) to be real growers with time. The first track to really grab me was “Not” and it’s the reason I came back to their work and give it the chance it deserved to show it’s qualities.
The most instantly recognisable sound from big thief is the distinctive vocals of Adrianne Lenker who’s rasping voice portrays a raw emotion that can easily go missing in folk rock. It’s always backed up with great lyrics that are often full of powerful symbolism.
“Not” adds to this with its structure that slowly builds to the choruses feeling more and more restrictive. heavily distorting guitar provides drone sounds that create a feeling of descent and increasing pressure. The only respite offered in the track is in small sections when the instrumentation strips away to just the percussion.
The second half of the track concludes with a rip roaring guitar solo that continues to get more raucous and less structured as it collapses in on itself on the tracks conclusion. It’s a powerful and emotional track who’s lyrics, vocal delivery and instrumentation all unify into a truly great piece of music:
The seven piece band NÉRIJA make some smooth jazz on their record “Blume.”
It’s a great record, with many fantastic tracks. EU stood out on my first listen though due to its composition.
Once over the halfway mark, the track completely changes. Instrumentation falls away to the percussion, which then takes a more forward role in the track with a heavy reverb on the snare and shuffling ghostnotes that slowly crescendo until they become the main driving force for the flute solo.
It’s a bold direction that you rarely hear in jazz, but it really works well on this track. A great demonstration of what makes their music so good; fantastic musicianship, and interesting composition and production decisions that make this track and the album a must listen:
Caribou has always impressed me with his sweet and sour mix of light, clean electronic production, which belies darker subject matter in the vocals. His latest album “suddenly” follows the same formula, but goes even further with its overall sound.
“Never Come Back” came out earlier in the year, but I tend to wait until albums are released before listening to the preview tracks; they always skew my opinion of the album. It’s the clear single from the track listing and instantly stood out with its strong dance structure.
Opening solidly, with looped vocal samples and sawtooth synth stabs, which are slowly built on to form a fairly traditional house track; it is elevated to something exciting and fresh by his personal creative flourishes. Noteworthy examples include the de-tuning synth accompanying melodies and changing drum samples/machines in each section:
On album “We’re new again” jazz drummer and band leader Makaya McCavern re-imagines the final album of poet and performer Gil Scott-Heron. Turning an album that’s more experimental in its sound design into a jazz infused Hip hop style that works extremely well on many of the tracks.
“Where Did the Night Go” is a great example. The looping industrial sound from the original version is replaced with flute and drums that suit both the words and delivery of Gil Scott-Heron but slightly adjusts their context into something a bit lighter and more dreamlike.
Once the original poem is finished the track then takes samples from the vocals and structures them into a more rigid style. This is then accompanied by a looping flute line and a hiphop drum beat that shifts the context of the original again. It’s achievable due to the outstanding quality of Gil Scott-Herons poetry, how it can both be very personal and at the same time omnipresent. This fluidity in both the text and its delivery gives a gravitas to the piece and still allows for the instrumentation to go in its own direction.
At times The album manages to elevate the original tracks into something even greater than the original recordings and when it doesn’t they’re shifted In directions that makes you see them in a different light. This makes the album well worth a listen wether your new to Gil Scott-Herron or you’ve heard his work before:
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