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:
I’m really enjoying the new Deafhaven album and have been listening to it more than anything else the past few weeks. Their blend of Metal and Shoegaze really works for me on many levels.
Baby Blue is the track on the album that separates these genres a bit more than the others which mash them together in closer intervals or even at the same time. The first three minutes of the track focus very much on the shoegaze elements before we then soar into a progressive metal of almost operatic grandeur. After it’s peak the track then subdues to an ambient pad of music with a field recording of transport information from the George Washington Bridge. It really is something special:
I have been doing this blog now for over 3 years and looking back on It’s history there is one band that I haven’t covered as much as I should have, It’s time to rectify this.
I first heard The Flaming Lips on the UK release of Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots so I would have been around the age of 15 and I instantly fell in love with the album. In time this love grew to their entire back catalogue, from their early drug fuelled punk/grunge through to their development In more progressive, psychedelic and experimental rock. They have been a soundtrack for nearly half my life. The highs and lows have all been accompanied by their music and on one amazing occasion, my life and the band collided when I got to go on stage with them at the Manchester Apollo and dance like a nutter dressed as Santa. A memory that will be with me for the rest of my life.
It was in this brief few hours that my thoughts towards making music changed. I had always loved music and used to enjoy playing instruments, this was crushed by bad experiences in education but I remember vividly thinking on stage as I jumped up and down that, although this was a surreal experience it was also real. That performing in front of thousands of people was possible and making music was for everyone. This is one of the key events, which turned me back from just a lover of music to a creator. To put it quite simply, without The Flaming Lips there wouldn’t be this website.
But without this experience I would still be a fan of The Flaming Lips because of their music. If you haven’t given them the time of day you should. This is a band that have never restrained their creative freedom or let what other people think get in the way of what they make. They have often attempted to make projects that are hugely ambitious both technically and creatively and amazingly most of the time achieve them successfully without over-stretching.
As someone who is into production of music The Flaming Lips and their producer Dave Fridmann have offered it in spades with interesting, creative and often fresh methods of sound design and mixing. This works well with a band whose lyrics vary into some really alternative and strange territories but are always rooted in lead singer Wayne Coynes profound understanding of the human condition.
This leads us to my TOTW “Sound Of Failure” although it’s not one of their most well-known tracks it is one of my favourites and manages to summarise what I love most about the band in its runtime. We get a large verity of orchestration and textures throughout, from synthesised elements of the orchestra, both electric and organic drums, guitars, and many layers of vocal overdubbing with unique processing techniques.
These vocals tell a story of a girl who is introspectively contemplating the death of a friend but Wayne Coyne looks at the situation in a more complicated way than most song writers with maturity that can only stem from experience. Instead of a one-sided view that we usually hear which will be aimed towards one emotion or feeling such as Hate, Anger or Love we get a mix of complex emotions. The sense of loss of a friend but also the power of resolve and growing through acceptance and self-reflection. It also references music that doesn’t handle these feelings with the lyrics “go tell Britney and go tell Gwen. She’s not trying to go against all them” which exemplifies how a lot of pop music simplifies human emotions which are always more complicated.
It’s this empathy in humanity that has always attracted me to Wayne Coynes lyrics and the music of the flaming lips. Under all the grand external stories of priest driven ambulances, wars with giant pink robots, time travellers, magicians, psychedelic monsters etc. There is always, incredibly well thought out internal struggles with the characters involved which anyone will be able to relate to.
The Flaming Lips manage to be both one of the most creative experimental pop rock bands out there whilst also creating music that deals with subjects that are both surreal and insightful. They will continue to be the soundtrack to my life as I get older and are one of the few acts I will listen to everything they create because even when it doesn’t work it is always full of great ideas and when it does work their tracks can be about as perfect as music can be:
The Joey Bada$$ album B4.DA.$$ is very much from the East Coast. Continuing the traditions of East Coast Hip hop that are still as exiting and refreshing today. Namely Great Beats accompanying more complex lyrics.
I first heard Hazus View on the fantastic Song Exploder Podcast_Joey Bada$$ where Joey Bada$$ and producer Kirk Knight deconstructed the track before playing it in full. By that point I was hooked on its short looping samples and great lyrics that I had to make it my Track of the Week:
Vince Staples solo rap album entitles Summertime ’06 is am impressive debut, with its own distinctive sound and a collection of some really fantastic tracks. The highlight for me is the stripped down sample heavy track entitled Summertime.
It’s a lot sparser than many of the other tracks on the Album with less lyrics and musical accompaniment. But it’s this minimalism that really allows the track to breathe. The Looping Nature of the samples with the monotone vocals manages to emote a collection of feelings that drift between happy and sad throughout its runtime, powerfully and with subtle purpose. A really fantastic piece of work:
I know there has been a lot of Oneohtrix Point Never love on my site for a the past few months but I have to say his upcoming album Garden Of Delete is my most look forward to this year.
I Bite Through It is the first track released in full from it and we’re treated to something new and allot harsher than we have experienced in his past two albums. Synthetic sounds are chopped and warped in his usual unworldly fair. Yet his work never goes in a direction you would expect it to and this track makes no exceptions. Going from full synths wrapped in heavy distortion to acoustic solo guitar. This sudden change between heavy and light tones really keeps you guessing untill it all the elements crash in on each other and fall apart.
I can’t work out if it’s brilliant or insane but I can’t stop listening to it especially on headphones where the stereo design really shines through:
This Year seems to have been a tour de force for LA musicians collaborating with each other. Thundercats mini EP is a perfect example of this. You can tell Thundercat is a bass player as multiple tracks of the instrument take centre stage on this piece which is then blended with some great piano work and a sax accompaniment from Kamasi Washington.
This fusion of genre has been a mainstay of several works over the year including Kamasi Washingtons own triple album The Epic and the Kendrick Lamar album To Pimp A Butterfly and it’s created some of the highlights of the year for me. This track being one of them:
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