I Finally got to see Mew this week and am glad I did. For me this band are highly underrated. Always doing new and interesting things that push their sound.
Although they have taken a more pop feel on their recent album “+-” they still manage to create a complex and layered sound that reveals more on multiple listens. Water Slides is one of my favourite tracks, its chorus manages to pack a punch and be joyous. It’s that blend of warm pad sounds with layered guitar that keeps me coming back to their music and Water Slides continues the tradition:
Oneohtrix Point Never creates some of the most varied and exiting experimental music out there. Although over the past few years he has been releasing work related to his commission pieces his albums feel very much spawned by limiting himself to a collection of ideas.
This makes each album sound very different and his 2013 release R Plus Seven is no exception. It blends a lot of sounds from computer synthesis and samplers, especially the use of choir samples. This use of the weirdly synthetic and organic along with its skittish blending of musical styles makes the whole album a complex work to get your head arround.
I have gone back to this album many times now over the past year and still find more complexities in it. Chrome Country finishes the album off and is the one track I go back to the most. The blend of the organic vocal samples with warm pad sounds that all get time stretched into digital artifacts before a pipe organ finishes the track off make for a sound that is truly out there.
Throughout all the weirdness the thing that I most appreciate about his music is that it often leads to an emotional rather than cerebral outcome. Which is not the case with most experimental music.
Nu Metal was at its peak when I was a teenager. It was impossible to be in school in the 90s and not hear the acts Limp Bizkit, Pappa Roach and to a lesser extent Alien Ant Fram. Although the genre has a lot of negative connotations now. I have always appreciated the mix of influences found in Nu Metal when it was done well.
Alien Ant Frams second album Anthology has a lot of these moments. Moving between many genre whilst demonstrating influences from metal on most tracks and Attitude is my favourite on the album. It’s the furthest from Metal but the intricate guitar playing and sound design especially of the drums are iconic to both Nu Metal and the time period.
This week I got to see Public Service Broadcasting live at the Ritz in Manchester and have been listening to their most recent album ‘the race for space’ over the past two weeks so thought it was only right to add a track from it to my TOTW.
PSB accompany documentary audio and footage with music and their most recent album focuses on the space race. This Is their first full length to focus on one topic and it works really well, allowing several key points of the space program to play out with their music.
Both the tragedy and success stories are accompanied by evocative music to match. The most successful of which is The Other Side which manages to present the first human orbit of the moon. The matter of fact nature of the speech sample contradicts the impressiveness of this momentus event which PSB Convey with a crescendo of synth guitar and drums:
The Books music is made up mostly of a blend of traditional instrumentation and field recordings sampled and used in interesting ways.
I recently heard a breakdown of the track smells like content on the excellent podcast Song Exploder and was intrigued to find out how certain elements were made in the track especially the percussive pattern which was made by carving groves into the inside of a vinyl record which when looping creates the interesting rhythmic pattern.
Alligator the third studio album by The National is ten years old this week. To celebrate I thought I would make a track from it my TOTW.
Often considered the first “great” National album Alligator certainly shows an evolution of their sound and almost provides a bridge form the earlier work of a more traditional rock band to the sparse arrangements and cryptic poetic lyrics that has made them the success they are today.
City Middle is a perfect example of this development. The sound design found in this track feels like a precursor to their albums up to trouble will find me. Alligator is a fantastic work that shows the development of The National to who they are today and tracks like City Middle still stand out as great pieces ten years on:
Matt berry may be most well-known for his quirky eccentric comedy but he also makes quirky eccentric music.
The album Witchazel is heavily influenced by 70s prog rock and folk music with a sound that doesn’t take itself to seriously. What does standout is his skill as a song writer. Take my hand may be known most for it being the title music for Toast of London but its melody’s and chord structure have made it into my playlist outside the series.
When I first heard Hearts by I Break Horses I was instantly charmed and wanted to let other people know about it. That and several other tracks convinced me to start adding music I like and not just my own to this website. So in a way they are responsible for this Track of the Week segment.
Although a huge fan of their first album the second Chiarosuro was released at a weird time, early last year and never slipped into my music collection rather than being played regularly. However recently I’ve gone back to it and it’s got some great tracks.
Denial has a strong 80’s feel from that famous tom sound to the synth pad design blended with more modern production like side chain compression which as a whole creates that bitter-sweet sound that I enjoy most in electronic music:
It’s taken me a little while to go to The Nationals back catalogue since giving their most recent release Trouble Will Find Me the 2013 album of the year.
I really don’t know why its taken me over a year to go back and listen to their earlier works and now I have I feel guilty for not doing it sooner.
The National manage on every album to create these brooding works that are the epitome of what we talk about when we call tracks growers. The subtleties in most of their music allow Matt Berningers Baritone lyrics to drift into weird and poetic places that take several listens to decipher. But once those lyrics mixed with carefull instrumentation resonate with you they can latch on for good.
Some do it quicker than others and Start A War had me within the first thirty seconds. I would highly recommend all of their work especially The albums Boxer and Trouble will Find me as they have the strongest effect on me:
I have been listening Lost in the Dream by The War On Drugs allot this week. The album is a nostalgic take on the greater moments of 80s american rock with Bruce Springsteen and later Bob Dylan as clear influences.
The album starts strong, with a joyous energy found in the first two tracks Under Pressure Red Eyes which manage to be lively and demonstrate the sound design we hear throughout the whole work. large synth and organ pad sounds are punctuated by mellow guitars and vocals drenched in reverb.
A real joy to listen to Lost in the Dream continues to grow on me and is worth your attention.
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