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...

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...