Kamasi Washington made my list of albums of the year with “The Epic”. Over It’s 3 hours of runtime it has some fantastic pieces of work and Clair De Lune towards the end is one of the highlights.
Talking the classical Debussy piece as its foundations it does what jazz does best and shows you other potential structures within its construction, pulling apart segments and riffing around their ideas before coming back to the original several times throughout:
Hot Chip have always mixed the uplifting elements of dance music with the melancholic vocals of Alexis Taylor to great effect. They turn this talent onto the Bruce Springsteen classic “Dancing in the Dark”.
The angst ridden lyrics in this song work really well with the upbeat electronic instrumentation but the highlight for me is when the track breaks down and we hear a sample from the LCD Sound System song “where are your friends tonight”. At this point the track seems to become a reflection on experience of hot chip and their connection with New York. It branches out into saying something different from the original song and turns a good cover into a new and interesting expression of the bands ideas:
You may have noticed something new on my album of the year list 2015 and that was the integration of Spotify to the tracks.
I’m going to start including Spotify more on my lists rather than Youtube as it will make sure its the artist/label getting the listeners rather than some random person. It will also hopefully stay on Spotify longer keeping links on the site playable years into the future.
Spotify also allows the use of playlists to be shared so from today I am making every available track from my TOTW Segment available in a single playlist on Spotify. This will be updated weekly so for people who just want to put on a collage of eclectic brilliant music can do so with this playlist.
On album Have You In My Wilderness, Julia Holter follows art pop traditions whilst also creating her own sound in a way that keeps the genre as fresh as it sounded over 50 years ago.
Betsy On the Roof starts with a fairly traditional solitary vocalist and piano however these elements already hint at where the track is going in their production. Over exaggerated reverbs seem to detune and shimmer in the background. As the track continues more instrumentation builds on these foundations until it becomes a swaying skyscraper, unsteady and on the edge of toppling at any moment. Yet this house of cards manages to stand firm, a shining beacon of the more experimental side of modern pop:
Beach House had a busy year with two albums of great new music that will appeal to any of their fans. For me their second album “Thank Your Lucky Stars” was the better of the two and sticks quite closely to the sound they have developed over several years. Looping synth lines/organs and drum machines underpin the more human elements of guitar and vocals.
It’s this blend of the hypnotic layers of instrumentation with Victoria Legrand’s poetic and often cryptic vocals that always create an air mystery and self-reflection in a way I always find enchanting and Rough song is no different:
I have already written quite a long article about my love of the Flaming Lips in a previous TOTW. needless to say I’m a great believer in their artistic flourishes no matter where they go I will always respect what they do even when it doesn’t work.
The CD version of 7 Skies H3 is the condensed form of a 24 hour-long live recording they released on flash drives encased in real human skulls for Halloween 2011. It is far more raw than most of the flaming lips other work in many ways from its recording to its arranging and the opening track is all the better for it.
In (Can’t Shut Off My Head) were treated to something more morose than most of the flaming lips catalogue of music up to this point. Sounds we hear in their later album entitled The Terror seem to have grown from the seeds of 7 Skies H3. Vocals of loss and morning by Wayne Coyne cry out with little upside or hope and are accompanied by detuning instrumentation, dark synth pads and a slightly distorted guitar as the main instrumental focus. Between verses a simple yet dominating lead synth line wafts into the track with elements of despair and regret. The whole track completely opposes the silver lining elements that had existed in previous flaming lips music, wether it be lyrically or in production for over a decade.
It may be darker and rough around the edges but I still find the album and this track captivating. The Flaming Lips have always managed to push in directions you would never expect them to and I look forward to being surprised by them again in the future:
As the year draws to an end and my albums of the year list gets more imminent, it becomes a mad rush to listen to as many new albums as possible. At some point I need to clear the palate with some music I’m very accustomed to. Music that’s been in my psyche for years, ingrained into my life and experiences like a soundtrack. Moving by Supergrass is one of those tracks.
The track sounds like two different choruses from separate songs have been merged together into an A-B repeating pattern. We open with the (A) section complimented by a wondrous string arrangement that provides a bed for the acoustic guitar section before more rock elements of electric guitar, organ and heavily hit piano come in for the B section.
Both these sections would be the highlight of two separate tracks and it’s this contrast between the harder B section and the more Refined A section that really work well when put together. But it’s the A section that I always look forward to hearing. It brings a sense of nostalgia that always pulls at me emotionally. Even without that nostalgia, moving is a well made piece of indy pop from an dacade where indy pop was king and I hope it will connect with people today as it did with me 15 years ago:
On The album Elaenia, Floating Points mixes Jazz and elements of Electronica with great skill the highlight being the Suite of tracks entitled Silhouettes. Running in at over 10 minutes we are treated to a track that at first sounds like it is going a more traditional electronic route before the more organic flow of jazz is introduced with the drums a minute in.
As more live instrumentation is added over the sequenced Eurorack synth we move into something far more freeform. Synth, rhodes piano and an instrument that could be a sax or synthesiser go the traditional jazz route, finally a string section followed by vocalists comes into the mix and lifts the track into the sky.
It’s this fluid nature of the track that really makes it. As it morphs between styles we never notice the quite dramatic changes throughout its instrumentation until you look back on the piece. Floating Points has managed to blend the rigidity of step sequencing and electronic music with the natural instincts of jazz in such an organic way that differentiating between the two is hard. This in itself is an incredible achievement, coming from an artist with a clear and developed understanding of composition and it deserves to be heard:
The Seattle Radio Station KEXP has a real passion for showing a wide variety of great live music and over the years have built up a fantastic back catalogue of video featuring an eclectic collection of artists including this video of Simian Mobile Disco performing live.
On their album Whorl SMD use modular synths to make the whole album. As modular are a personal hobby it’s always interesting to see other people’s kit and also how they can be used in a live scenario.
Over the 30 minute set we’re treated so some great soundscapes that emphasise the more drifting and dreamy side of synthesis with some backup with stronger electronic percussion and without a traditional computer in sight:
It has been just over a week since the release of the new Onohtrix Point Never album entitled Garden Of Delete and I have listened to it a lot. Yet again OPN aka Daniel Lopatin has both defied and expanded expectations with music that seems to come from somewhere truly unique. Music that continues to develop through years of listening as his previous albums have proved. A musician that is pushing the edges of taste, genre and even music itself.
Sticky Drama is the most recent single from Garden Of Delete and is a perfect summary of the album as a whole. Old Chiptune vocal synthesis, hard tearing synths and heavy midi manipulation are used to create music that seems to be both referential and truly unique.
On the first few listens it may be hard to get your head around what is happening within his sound design and compositional structures but I urge you to stick with it. Ignore what you usually expect from music and focus on the raw guttural emotions you get from listening to Sticky Drama. The track manages to blend elements of beauty and harshness. It’s an anthem for both total anarchy or a violent dictatorship:
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