So Many Great Records, Part 1

Here we are once again. At the end of the year, reflecting on all that we’ve been through. Scrolling through the longlist I’ve been keeping on Notepad in my iPod, 2011 has been an especially good year for new music – in fact, this is the longest longlist I’ve had since I started keeping track this way about 5 years ago.

Once again, my Top 20 (albums and songs) will be recapped on a countdown show on UMFM beginning at 4pm CST on December 31, 2011. Until then, I've got four posts of about twenty albums I'm going to list alphabetically, starting with A-D. Maybe you should fix and drink before you settle in...

A.M. Overcast - Shepherd Moon [Independent]

The best Pinback album Rob Crow had nothing to do with. Still hoping to get the band in for a live session at UMFM.

A.M. Overcast - Haystacks Northbound by A.M. Overcast

Acid House Kings - Music Sounds Better With You [Labrador]

Their last album was my #1 record of 2005. This was solid, just not as mind-blowing ear-worm packed as Sing Along With… You're going to see several past Top 20 artists amongst the longlisters as the 20-of-11 features a lot of the newness.


Akron/Family – Akron/Family II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey on Shinju TNT [Dead Oceans]

Sometimes albums are able to overcome the ludicrous nature of their title. This was one instance.


AM & Shawn Lee - Celestial Electric [ESL]

Shawn Lee is the friggin’ king of collab. After fantastic results working with Clutchy Hopkins and Bei Bei, he teams up with AM (no relation to A.M. Overcast) and drops another funk-bomb.
AM & Shawn Lee - City Boy by AMSOUNDS

Antlers - Burst Apart [Frenchkiss/Transgressive]

“Putting The Dog To Sleep” gives “Bear” a run for its money as the most heartbreaking song Antlers have recorded so far.


Arbouretum - The Gathering [Thrill Jockey]

This may be the first time a Thrill Jockey artist didn’t make my Top 20, but there are a few more from the label on the longlist. First up is this big, ballsy rock record.


Atlas Sound – Parallax [4AD]

Bradford Cox just got a “Gummy” as one of the Top 10 Indie Rock Crushes of 2011. I didn’t submit his name (*cough, cough Feist cough*), but maybe I should have. Though based on prior appearances by Atlas Sound and Deerhunter on my year-end lists, I should probably just name the award after him.
Atlas Sound - Parallax - 03 - Te Amo by Moonpixel

Balam Acab - Wander/Wonder [Tri Angle]

Maybe it’s because I’ve gotten older and expend energy keeping up with a toddler, but I just can’t keep up with all the micro-genre distinctions we seem to be making these days. Could I tell you what ‘witch house’ actually is? No. But apparently Balam Acab makes witch house and I know that Wander/Wonder is really good. So I guess I like witch house.
Oh, Why by BALAM ACAB


Baseball Project - Vol. 2 High and Inside [Yep Roc]

I play in a fantasy baseball league with a bunch of other folks involved in the music ‘business’ (I use that figure loosely since I’m including myself) so I can tell you that an album of indie-rock songs about baseball is most definitely target-marketed.
C'mon Prince (Stay In Milwaukee) by The Baseball Project

Battles - Gloss Drop [Warp]

While Mirrored ranked at #8 in 2007 Gloss Drop didn’t really blow me away like the debut. It’s solid, but it left me wondering what they were up to beside touring during those four years.
Ice Cream (Featuring Matias Aguayo) by BATTLES

Ben Westbeech - There's More To Life Than This [Strictly Rhythm]

Listening to this album is dangerous. End-up-with-a-baby-in-10-months dangerous.
ben westbeech - inflections (produced by henrik schwarz) by frau.hirsch

Black Keys - El Camino [Nonesuch]

It used to be you knew that December was a waste-land of Best Of compilations and Christmas albums so you didn’t have to worry about any last-minute entries on your list and could spend the month whittling it down. But the Black Keys had to go and make me question my Top 20.
The Black Keys: El Camino by -gaga

Bog River - Hands In The Ground [Independent]

I reviewed the record from this local roots trio for Airtimes, and I’d encourage you to give it a read.

"Before I Let You Go" can be heard here.

Braids - Native Speaker [Flemish Eye]

I had the great pleasure of recording Raphaelle Standell-Preston at UMFM years ago in a late-night session after a show. I knew then that she (and her band) were bound for greatness. Native Speaker is that greatness.
BRAIDS - Native Speaker by BRAIDS

Charles Bradley - No Time For Dreaming [Dunham/Daptone]

The story behind Bradley and this album is almost as good as the music itself. Almost.
Charles Bradley by Dunham Records

Christine Fellows - Femme De Chez Nous [Six Shooter Records]

Fellows always releases sleepers. And by that I don’t mean albums that put you to sleep (although she does write some lovely lullabies). I mean the great albums that fly under the radar.


Cut Copy – Zonoscope [Modular]

This album nearly made it on the strength of one amazing song, but there’s some other really solid stuff if you can get past hitting repeat endlessly on the best Talking Heads song David Byrne didn’t write.
Cut Copy - Blink And You'll Miss A Revolution by modularpeople

Dawes - Nothing Is Wrong [ATO Records]

This seems to be one of those bands that are finding their way onto a lot of disparate year-end-lists. Folkies and roots rockers love it as much as the indie set. Not sure which camp I belong to though.


Deer Tick - Divine Providence [Partisan/Dine Alone]

One of those records that feels like it should have a layer of dust on it - like you found it in your cool uncle’s old collection. These are songs that have been lived in, and still have life in them.
Deer Tick - Chevy Express by flamgirlant

Devotchka - 100 Lovers [Epitaph]

This was the great leap forward for Devotchka. They eased off on the straight-up gypsy sounds and found their own, distinct sound that incorporated their past but pointed to an exciting future.
All the Sand In All the Sea by Mad Guru

Dominant Legs – Invitation [Lefse]

I wrote pretty glowingly about this record back in September, so it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to see it make the longlist…
8. Dominant Legs - Hoop Of Love by wepromised

Dive Into This Album

Yeah, I know. The title for this entry is a pretty awful pun. But if you can look beyond that, you should really and truly check out Tycho's second full-length, Dive. Five years on since Past Is Prologue (released on Merck), Scott Hansen has finally delivered the goods. Actually the greats. Tracks like opener "A Walk" and "Daydream" have some of the same whip-crack percussive pulses and atmospheric keys that Ulrich Schnauss has perfected - at once insistent and forward-moving while still ethereally light.

Check out "Hours" below (or visit Ghostly International's page where you can download the mp3 for free).


A vast majority of the tracks clock in at over five minutes in length, giving Hansen an opportunity to stretch out and build his sonic ideas slowly rather than forcing them at a rushed clip. Languidness isn’t usually a virtue, but he manages to make it so. The shorter tracks (“Melanie,” “Epigram”) come across as sketches in contrast to the longer works – half-formed ideas that hint at what they could become, given time. In a way they remind me of the difference between this and this.

Normally I associate music like this with sun-dappled summer days, but looking out the window and seeing the snow fall, Dive still seems like the perfect accompaniment.

Rocking the Blocks

Goddam.
This album came in the station's mail today, and like I always do when I get something from Blocks Recording Club, I gave it a spin.
And another spin.
And then another spin.
And then yet another spin.

Of course at only 17 minutes long, Close To The Bone, is easy to play over and over - it would fit snugly on one side of a 12-inch. But length isn't the reason I keep hitting repeat on this record - quality is. Carmen Elle and Andy Smith have crafted five electrifying, electrified rock songs with an insistence and a bravado that challenges listeners to face them head on. Elle's raw voice practically grabs you by the ears, looks you in the face and sings "listen to me."

So, you know, listen to them:


Great stuff, right?

From the looks of the video below, Army Girls live is no less electric an act. I can't wait to hear more from this duo, but for the time being I'm content to keep listening to what I've got.

ARMY GIRLS - THE POWER from untold city on Vimeo.

You can grab the album on their Bandcamp page, and for more info on Army Girls, check out their Tumblr.

Gem Club's Breakers Really Is A Jewel

I've already posted a blurb about Gem Club on my "other" blog, Reductive Reviews . But that one's just where I post quick hits (and that one didn't have the video for "Twins") - I save the commentary for here on Ear To The Sound, so it's time I tackled Breakers and posted a new entry here.

I can't get over how heart-breakingly beautiful Breakers is. On the surface, it seems so simple - haunting voices + strings + piano interweave on each of the album's nine songs. There is minimal (and subtle) percussion that serves to embellish without overwhelming (the bells on the title track, the plodding bass drum on "Lands") the piano and voice at the center of every song. The pace the group establish on opener "Twins" [below] isn't quite plodding, but deliberate and the rest of Breakers never attempts to run. Yet even with the heaviness of the pace, the music feels weightless; floating with only the strings and piano to tether it to earth.

Not an album you'll want to put on to have a good time, but oddly enjoyable in its sadness and heartbreak.

Gem Club - Twins from Gem Club on Vimeo.

You can download the song for free after you've watched the video.

Check them out on Hardly Art and their own site, and maybe even "Like" them on Facebook.

Don't Understand The Name, But I Love The Music

Can't say I fully understand what 'dominant legs' are (is it supposed to be like a dominant hand?) but I know that Invitation, the latest record from San Francisco band Dominant Legs is a keeper.

Playing it in my car this past weekend, with the fall sun providing more warmth than usual it was the perfect soundtrack to holding onto summer. The guitar lines are shimmery, the synths are spiky and the boy/girl harmonies are note-perfect. Just listen to lead-off single "Hoop Of Love" below:



That song along should convince you to check out Invitation (and it won my discerning two-year-old over), but if you need further evidence this record is for you, listen to this as well.

Much as I love "Hoop Of Love," I think my personal favourite has to be "Lady Is Sleek and So Petite," a track that channels the new jack swing sound of New Edition but features Ryan Lynch's breathy, high-pitched lyrics instead of Ralph Tresvant's. It may be the only time I recommend a contemporary, white indie-rock band for their take on an historic, black r&b form. I'd also recommend the record to anyone who liked Chairlift's last record, Does You Inspire You.

Be sure to visit the Dominant Legs page on Lefse Records and their Facebook page.

This specter is pretty spectacular.

I've been a little behind on Ear To The Sound with a surprise trip to Toronto at the end of August to see some friends and baseball (courtesy of my wonderful wife), September long, and the craziness that is Orientation Week at the university had me running around and sweating my ass off. But the UMFM stage is in the history books for another year and I'm back at my desk listening to all sorts of new stuff and catching up.

The album I'm featuring with this post actually comes out September 27th so I'm even a little ahead...

My familiarity with Partisan Records has been centered around their roots and rock acts (i.e. Dolorean, Mountain Man, Deer Tick and Paleo) but damned if they haven't diversified with Narrows, the new album from Warm Ghost. The Brooklyn duo are a departure for the label and have crafted a strong synth-pop album that manages to evoke chillwave without the airiness and recalls the ominous tones of Depeche Mode without the angst.

Opener "G.W.T.S." has a plodding bass-line and a snare beat that falls somewhere between martial-crisp and broken-beat, and sets a brisk pace for the first four numbers. But at the midway point, "Ply 7" acts as a bit of a sonic sorbet, cleansing the palate for the more introspective, restrained material that ultimately leads to album highlight and closer "An Absolute Light," a song that seems to evaporate as it ends.

It's interesting to see where electronic music is being taken these days as acts like Neon Indian go dance/noise and M83 blends gauzy soundscapes with pop songs. Warm Ghost add to the list of possibilities and directions for the genre by opening things up with Narrows.

Check out Warm Ghost's website and download lead-off track "G.W.T.S." courtesy of Stereogum.

It's lots of things, but mostly Solla Solla is something else.

Most people are familiar with the idea of Bollywood, even if they've never seen an actually Bollywood film, but I doubt too many know about Kollywood. Apparently it's the epicenter of the Tamil language film industry located in the Kodambakkam neighborhood in the city of Chennai. I only learned about this alt-Bollywood while looking up the history of its most storihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifed composer, Ilaiyaraaja. And I was only researching him because of the fine http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giffolks at B-Music/Finders Keepers who sent the station a fantastic two volume collection of his compositions.

Wow.

This stuff puts the same-same nature of Bollywood soundtracks to shame. Ilaiyaraaja is too old to have been diagnosed as having ADHD as a child (he was born in 1943), but he clearly found the right outlet for his temperament as he traverses the sonic globe drawing influences from its farthest reaches and synthesizes them into something distinctly his own. Take a look at the "Impact and musical style" section on his Wikipedia page for the double-digit list of sounds he's drawn on. Of course when you've done 900+ film scores over a 34 year career, you're going to need a bigger palette to paint from than the James Newton Howard's of the world.

Or just check out this clip of "Solla Solla," the song from which this thttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifwo-volume compilation takes its title and hear how Ilaiyaraaja melds psych-guitar with tabla and funk inside of the first thirty seconds.



Then go check out the official pages for Solla Solla Volume 1 and Solla Solla Volume 2 and pick these records up (and check out some of the other amazing stuff those fine Finders are releasing).

Thanks for reading, now start listening...