One of the Dirty Projectors, Not one of the Baldwin Brothers

Nat Baldwin is probably better known for his day job (if you can call it that) as double bassist and singer-songwriter for the high-flying lo-fi act Dirty Projectors. Taking a step away from that band's output, Baldwin has a wonderful - and wonderfully quirky - solo record out on Western Vinyl entitled People Changes.

It's not a complete departure from stuff you'd find on Bitte Orca (we're not talking about a grime record or death metal here) but thankfully it stands on its own. Baldwin's voice - literally and figuratively - is different than DP's main man Dave Longstreth, though he shares an affinity for peculiar phrasing that rises and falls in seeming opposition to where you think the tune is going (as evidenced on opener "A Little Lost").

Baldwin plays to his strengths on People Changes - he clearly knows his instrument inside and out and he wrings every possible sound out of it in service of the music. Consider "Real Fakes" where he works the bow down below the bridge to mirror the skronking horns at the four-minute mark after overdubbing ominous bowed notes with pizzicato strikes at the lower register until that point. The song begs to be listened to at least once paying attention only to Baldwin doubling down on his double-bass. It's outstanding stuff.

"Weights" is the first single from the album People Changes and is available as a free mp3. The video for "Weights" was, in true Brooklyn fashion, recorded live on a local basketball court. Lovely stuff.



Be sure to visit Baldwin's Facebook and Western Vinyl profile page.

Thanks for reading, now start listening...

Tension isn't always a bad thing

I had to double-check, but Western Vinyl is one of the labels I've mentioned most here on Ear To The Sound. I don't do it intentionally, but I sometimes play favourites with labels because - if they build their roster right - there's usually some sort of overlap or common appeal to the artists they release (which is not to say their roster is cookie-cutter identical). So it is with this Austin label - I've written about or mentioned Ola Podrida, Secret Cities (who also have a great new album out right now), Sleep Whale and Botany in the past and now, thanks to their deft decision-making, South Bronx duo Wires Under Tension have been added to their line-up and my playlists.

Like Russian Circles, Wires Under Tension are another one of those duos who manage to make way more music than two people should be capable of producing. And like Russian Circles, multi-instrumentalist Christopher Tignor and drummer Theo Metz convey a great deal of emotion and ideas in their lyric-less tunes. Metz is the muscle of the outfit - he pounds the hell out of the drums on "Position and Hold" and "A List of Things to Light on Fire." But that doesn't mean he's all brawn and no brains; the proof is in the intricacy and fluidity of his drumming on "Irreversible Machines" and "Mnemonics in Motion."

As you'd expect from a band with the moniker Tignor and Metz chose, listening to Light Science can feel like your heart is in a vise grip sometimes - there's an urgency to much of the material and it can be unrelenting. After it ends though, you're left with the same breathless exhilaration that accompanies an activity like bungee jumping or a riding a big roller coaster. Light Science is the best kind of intense.

This isn't an official video for "Electricity Turns Them On," but it's still my favourite track on the record:


If you like it, Western Vinyl has it available as a free download here, and if you want to see an actual video, check out "Mnemonics In Motion," which admittedly is also a great track.

Check out their website and Western Vinyl artist page.

Like the kids do...

Not sure if it's a trend or not, but the young 'uns these days appear to be making the most blissful pop music going. The man behind Baths, Will Wiesenfeld is only 21 years old and while the shroud of mystery surrounding Teen Daze means he might not actually be a teen, I'm pretty certain he's part of the youth movement.

Joining the fray (though NOT, as Drowned In Sound has it; "a little too late") is 22 year old Texan Spencer Stephenson and his debut on Western Vinyl (a great label that keeps surprising me), Feeling Today. Pieced together in part by incorporating found and recycled sounds (a la Bibio on Vignetting The Compost) into a soundscape that is well worth sinking into - this isn't the Texas vista you imagine when you watch Friday Night Lights, and it's more likely to be the soundtrack to The Farm than Riggin's acreage.



Take a listen to "Waterparker" courtesy of Western Vinyl and be sure to visit Botany's Myspace page and the bookmark the WV page as well since Feeling Today is only an appetizer for a main course promised for early 2011.

I'm going to try writing shorter entries more often for the next little while so we'll see how that goes.
Thanks for reading, now start listening...

Slow to post, two "Slow" bands to post...

Well, after a L-E-N-G-T-H-Y hiatus, Ear To The Sound is back. I had hoped to continue updating the blog on a semi-regular basis while I was on parental leave, but I gotta tell you - children are exhausting. Seriously, if you're a single parent I have nothing but respect for you. At the end of a day spent chasing a crawling baby, feeding, changing and entertaining said baby and housework I just couldn't find the energy to listen to much new music let alone blog about it.

BUT.

There were some albums I did manage to listen to while I was off and to get the ball rolling here on ETTS again I'm going to write about two that I've listened to repeatedly (yup, they've been out for a few months) and then we'll try to move on to more recent releases.

While the two bands in this post have little in common sonically, they do share one thing - both have names starting with 'SLOW' which seemed fitting considering how slow I've been to update this blog.

First off is UK male/female duo Slow Club. Their debut album Yeah So was released in England in 2009 but was re-released in North America earlier this year on Moshi Moshi Records. Balanced precariously between pop and folk the tightrope these two are on is twee with a capital T.
Take opener "When I Go" - wonderful harmonies, whistling(!), delicate acoustic guitar and lyrics so full of the promise of love. The tempo and the jangle-quotient pick up on "Giving Up On Love" which lyrically is a curious flip-flop from the hopefulness of the lead-off track.
Speaking of flip-flops, Charles Watson and Rebecca Taylor vacillate between upbeat and restrained numbers throughout Yeah So, reflective of the back-and-forth between hope and resignation evident in the lyrics

Our second 'Slow' band comes courtesy of Western Vinyl, a label I've grown increasingly enchanted with and whose roster I've mentioned previously. Slow Six are actually a quintet from New York City that melds sweeping instrumentals with computer-manipulated found sound and avant-garde elements. Tomorrow Becomes You is the band's third album and it finds the group returning to Western Vinyl after their 2007 sophomore album came out on classical label New Albion.

Things start off promisingly on the nine-minute "The Night You Left New York" which deftly employs the band's not-so-secret-weapon; violins. Composer Christopher Tignor along with Ben Lively both play the instrument and it lends a certain flavour to this 'post-rock' that other bands lack - when the upper registers of the instrument are reached around the 6:30 mark its a transcendent sound floating above the rhythm section. Picture a gull flitting about as waves crash into a rocky shore - that's the mental image I get as this song reaches its climax.
With the instrumental nature of Tomorrow Becomes You the listener is bound to come up with all sorts of images and ideas in their mind's eye. Alternatively, this is the perfect record to put on while taking a walk and allowing it to soundtrack your peregrination.

Close your eyes, take a listen to album closer "These Rivers Between Us" and see where the song takes you.

Thanks for reading, now start listening...